Caving to Winter

I finally caved, or er Farm Girl did as she is doing mostly all the chores since I'm in a cast until the end of February.  What did we cave to?  The horses.  At present we are down to three, two minis and a full sized horse.  They have been staying out in the small pasture over winter but since our water pipe to the barn burst we have had to haul water to the barn for the sheep and all the way to the small pasture where it is further from the barn yet.  It always seemed a waste of time because if the horses didn't drink it right away, it would freeze over within fifteen minutes.  We are pretty certain they were getting their water intake from the snow which requires more metabolism to consume and burns more calories which in turn forces them to eat more hay which in turn costs me more money.  Or so we've concluded.   So we finally gave in and brought them inside.

Actually we just brought the minis inside.

There isn't a whole lot of stall space available but Farm Girl didn't want to bring Sierra inside, for whatever reason Sierra becomes very quiet and depressed indoors and prefers it outside.  So we moved her closer to the tiny little pasture not far from the barn.

There she will get her helping of hay all to herself and Farm Girl can monitor her fluid intake much better.  But she groomed her and did her feet before turning her back out.  We also did the lambs hooves.

And administered selenium shots to the younger lambs.  And we even had time to head for the hill and enjoy this rare winter day.

New

After 26 and a half years, I finally decided I have had enough and made the fateful decision to part ways.  No, I'm not referring to my husband but to my microwave which I have owned as long as I have been married. In fact, it was a wedding gift from my mother.  And has survived all these years, though it was definitely beginning to show it's age.

We splurged and bought ourselves a beautiful new one.

Yes, I am that thrilled at this purchase, I blogged about it. :)

Sticky Buns

I came across this blog entry at 1840 Farm and just had to order the book since I got two new cast iron pans for Christmas.

Since I've been in a cast for several weeks now due to a slip on a sheet of ice while carrying buckets of water to the barn, I've been out of commission. Farm Girl volunteered.  Like the blog author of 1840 Farm, she chose to start with these sticky buns. Minus the pecans.

They were fantastic and tasted so good nice and warm straight out of the oven.

Found

We experienced the combination of a miracle and a natural animal instinct to survive.  After spending all day and night in -20 degree Celsius weather, Max has returned home.  We got a phone call from a neighbour around the lunch hour today saying they found him lurking around their farm. It was a blizzard out there and I am without a vehicle but me and Farm Girl set out on foot to get him.

We had already returned to the woods pre-storm and scoured them looking for him.

We even left clothing pieces all over the woods leading back to our house in case he picked up our sent.

But as it turns out, Max's survival instincts kicked in and whatever he did, got him through one of the coldest days in January and nights.  And because of that instinct, Max is back home with us. Safe and sound.

Lost

We have a rule around my house.  Our handsome stud, Knightly cannot be allowed outside to mess or play with any of the other dogs other than Emma.  Emma is calm and quiet and Knightly is young and full of energy and unneutered.  His hormones drive his energy even higher if allowed.  So he is not allowed to play outside with any of the younger dogs as this triggers his energy drive and before you know it, he has left.  Like in gone. Nowhere to be seen.  And taken an accomplice with him.  This morning that accomplice was Max, our tiny one year old under 20 pound Jack Russell who was accidentally let outside before someone realized Knightly was already outside and Max should not have gone out until Knightly came back inside from doing his business.

We are very worried about him and have been out scouring the woods across the road looking for them as this is their favourite spot to go gallivanting.

After 2 hours Knightly came trotting out of the woods and met Farm Girl on the road.  His feet were encased in frozen snow balls as the temps are -17 degrees Celsius.  I took him into the bathroom and hosed his feet down with warm water.

As for Max there still has been no sign of him after five hours.  I'm fearing the worst and praying for the best.  Hubby drove over to the neighbours surrounding the woods in case Max ventured out in the wrong area.  But the woods run a 200 hectares across and there is no telling where he'll end up.  And being such a small guy, we really aren't anticipating a happy ending.

Goodbye Willow

One of the changes I have made on the farm is the livestock.  Mainly, I have decided to focus on sheep only.  So before winter struck I rehomed all my regular sized horses.  Farm Girl sold one of hers and held onto the other,  We downsized on the miniatures as well but as the long cold winter progressed and lambs started arriving over these snowy days, I made the decision to rehome all the horses.  Though I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to be completely rid of them so am keeping one behind, Pixie my favourite.

Yesterday was the first of the remaining horses to leave.  We found Willow a home with other miniatures and hobby animals as she was accustomed to that environment here.  It's always sad to say goodbye but also a weight off my shoulder as that is one less mouth to feed. It's responsible farming when you look at the bottom dollar at the end of the day rather than having something just because you want it.  Yes horses are beautiful to look at in the field or pasture but those animals don't pay back their keep and since I do this now for income rather than hobby I must look at all livestock coming onto the farm in that way.

Creep Feeder - Done

With this round of lambs being born over winter, I wanted their diets supplemented with lamb creep.  I haven't been a shepherd long enough to really know what difference putting them on lamb creep will make.  My fall lambs grew very well on pasture only and will be ready for the Easter market.  I am finishing them on lamb feed to fatten them up just in case.  My two lambs born over Christmas are growing remarkably fast and they are on mom and hay only.  However, I worry that the lack of good nutritious pasture may stunt their growth so have decided to supplement it with grain.  I'm also hoping it helps fatten them up quicker as well and may be able to let them join the fall lambs for the Easter market. So I screwed two pallets together and placed them in one corner of the maternity pen.

The door laying on it's side to the left of the pen is the birthing jug.  I've been caught unprepared for far too many births and finding myself scrambling around trying to find a private spot for mom and babe that I finally rigged up something for that as well.  I cut a little entrance into the pallets aka creep feeder for the lambs and waited for them to go exploring.  It didn't happen.  So Farm Girl came up with the idea to bring Celine over from the lamb pen.  Celine is our smallest lamb.  I think her growth was stunted because her mother was not producing enough milk and when I finally noticed and started supplementing her diet with a bottle, it was too late.  Though I have my suspicions that bottle fed lambs do not grow nearly as quick or as big as naturally raised lambs. This theory is based on my one and only experience raising a bottle lamb (Stilts) compared to his siblings who were on mothers milk.  As a note, Celine has also been on creep feed along with her siblings and remains small.  Adding it to her diet has not affected her size or help improve it.  She just looks bloated.  Anyway, we are trying the creep feed while the lambs are still on mother and will see if this will make a difference.

Since Celine is familiar and loves her grain, we thought she would be a good role model to introduce the lambs to feed.  And entering and exiting the creep feeder.

Well it worked.  Little back ram lamb was first to see what fascinated Celine on the other side of that pen.

It took a couple more curious looks.

Until....

In he went!

Since he's the leader of the younger set, I'm sure it won't be long before they follow.  And eating grain.

Around the Farm

Firewood!

Winter and the cold came early this year and wood orders went up making it impossible until today for our order of firewood to come in.  They have been that back logged (pardon the pun).

My Little Pony

Enjoying the snow.

Holding Steady

Well we made it through the night.  Though when I got up twice during the night to refuel the fires, the outside thermometer held steady at -20 degrees all night long.

And the daytime hours haven't altered from that either. Hopefully by evening, the chill will finally give way to warmer temps as per the Weather Network's prediction.

Deep Freeze

This morning we woke to the farm blanketed in hip deep snow.

And tonight the area is going to be hit with below zero degrees weather like it's never seen before.

Environment Canada has sent out warnings, advised us to raise the temperatures overnight and to keep a tap running so pipes don't freeze.

So we prepared today for this unusual deep freeze occurrence.

We chopped lots of wood and stacked enough for both fireplaces for a couple days. My horses are usually outdoors 24/7 year round however with the -35 forecasted, we decided it would be safer to bring them inside.  This meant we had to do some rearranging.  One of our horse stalls was housing all of our straw so we moved it out and across the aisle instead.

This left the stalls open for the horses.  Sierra is our only full-size horse left on the farm which meant that we could double up in stalls.

This did mean however that the goats were booted from their stall and forced to move in with the sheep.

Which in turn meant Dodge, the ram, had to leave the sheep pen and shack up with Caesar, the billy goat.  Ya, that's going well.

They\ll get over it so I'm not overly concerned.  However, this leaves no empty stalls for my maternity pen.  And I have a ewe who is due any day or week.  I've put her in the nursing pen with the newborns and their mothers and have my fingers crossed she won't deliver until we build something for her.

Back outside, we called in the Calvary, or er the neighbours, as the snow was far too deep for our usual snow plow truck driver.

The fireplaces have been burning all day log and getting the house nice and warm in preparation for tonight's deep freeze.  I'd like to think I'm ready, but time will only tell.