Reboot

Ok--so lots of money being spent around here lately, but it's never wasted, and all planning for the future.

I had a delivery of 60 bales of beautiful grassy hay delivered on Friday.  It was from our hay guy that brought us the beautiful clover hay I've been feeding the sheep, Winston, and treating Oakley with. The clover was all sold, but this grassy hay looks good and all the beasts like it.  It was $6 a bale delivered, which is pretty good this time of year.  Plus I get the benefit of chatting with hay guy, and the old farmer who always comes along.  It's a great opportunity to ask questions about land, equipment, and honestly to get lessons at how to best stack hay!  I'm glad to have finally found a reliable hay guy.  Isn't that what we all need? Reliable friends, partners and hay guys? At least in my world, that's the case. At least I have the partner thing down for sure. 

We weren't out of hay, but since G got his work bonus I thought what the heck.  It gives us extra insurance, that extra hay in the barn.  You never know what the season will be like.  Will we have monsoons this spring that flood the fields and keep us from grazing or getting a first cut of hay until end of summer? 

We are planning on redoing the horse paddock--making it strong enough and tall enough for the big bear  (any fence you hitch a horse to is supposed to be as tall as their withers). Not to mention if we treat wood, we won't have to paint it.  I'd rather be riding than painting fences every year.  So we are trying to find a local mill for the wood--but so far the two guys we've contacted have the communication skills of  ten year olds before texting, so we don't have our wood sourced yet.

We need another load of sand for the paddock. That will be about $700.  

G wants to do chicken tractors out in the fields this summer so we are looking for trailers on Craigslist.

He's planning on buying me the stainless steel commercial sinks I want for the basement for a Valentines Day gift!  Can't wait!  With all the animal dishes etc. it will be fantastic.  Just trying to find the best deal on used equipment. 

I have chatted with a local artist and we are going to set up some lessons for the near future.

I think I'll contact the riding instructor again, and hope to start riding on Mondays.  Her availability doesn't mesh so well with my farm duties and volunteering, but now that the sun sets after 5 I can maybe squeeze in a lesson and still get home to do evening lockup.  I'll try her out a few more times. I know she knows her stuff--but she might be more critical that I can handle right now. (she was sort of rude when I bridled the horse like I do Oakley, who actually picks up the bit with his lips! Not my fault the lesson horse throws his head when being bridled. I'm short--I have to do it the way I do it!) We'll see if I can put that aside. I hope I can, because she's willing to come out and train Oakley once the snow clears in the spring, and that's been a very hard thing to find here. 

I'm hoping our driving coach hasn't written us off after Oakley's sky high fit the day we did the stoneboating. He'd been doing so well, and now we are set back quite a bit.  It's hard for me to manage by myself, so right now I'm back to bridling without having him pin his ears!! It's crazy that he'd associate his work bridle with badness, but apparently he does.  Yesterday we made it really positive, starting with targeting on it, then putting it on three times in a row, with big jackpots of treats when he'd relax with his head down. He does love praise, that bear.

We ordered two 3 pound packs of bees, and they will arrive in late April.  Still deciding on what type of hive we will use.

G bought himself a treat--a keg system for his home brew. Bottling just takes so much time and he's had some sterility issues despite all his care.

We did indeed adopt seven new hens!  Craigslist is a dangerous thing.  I came across an ad that showed 5 hens eating in the snow under a collapsed tarp, offering them for free.  I thought we'd better see if they were in dire circumstances, at least if we couldn't keep them, I might be able to rehome them.  That person didn't contact me back, but while I was waiting to hear, I came across another ad for heritage breed hens, some from the place where G has been hoping to get some for the past few years. (he thinks the genetics are superior).  

So on the Saturday we arranged to visit the farm.  We had a lot in common, and will probably stay in touch with them and share permaculture info and experiences.  If only some of their goats could have come back with us...I do love Alpine goats.  

We adopted seven hens--an americauna mix, a Dorking (an ancient breed of Roman descent, has five toes, good mothers, good foragers) two hens who were supposed to be a type of sussex, that I now think are partridge rocks, a small Russian orloff cross, a cuckoo maran, and a crazy little bearded Old English who looks rather like a ruffed grouse.  They are in the small stall in the barn for their month of quarantine.  Oakley won't come all the way into the barn now.  I still haven't run fecals on them, but will do that this week to make sure we treat them for anything before integrating them into the palace flock.  We are expecting another night of -20C tonight, so I'm looking forward to getting them tucked in to the warm coop if they all check out fine.

Vintage engraving of Dorkings:

In a future post, I will talk about my strong feelings about strict organic farm practices, and the inhumane treatment that sometimes includes.  The hen I really wanted from that farm was one who had what appeared to be a joint infection in her hock.  The owners claimed they wanted to keep her for her genetics.  I tried to stress that she needed real medical intervention and pain control.  The were probably going to treat her with spices. Cruel, and inhumane.  Ok---that's enough for now.