Hola muchachos

Chauntel, back again. Let's see - it's December in the North Country, prime season for the natives. This week the locals were able to peddle around in our shorts and tee-shirts, blow up a bridge, AND got thick powder snow, which, as you know, is the best kind of snow. Unless you're on snowshoes. Or cross-country skis. But that's besides the point.

Christmas was pretty fantastic. My friends dropped me texts about the sweet iPods and snowboarding paraphenalia and pearl necklaces their parents gave them. What did I get for Christmas? The 1,022-page tome Lameness: Recognizing and Treating the Horse's Most Common Ailment from Daddy (to add to my already voluminous collection of equine science manuals) and a semi-automatic rifle from Domina (to start my own personal arsenal of freedom). The sad thing is that I was actually overjoyed and delighted to recieve such presents. You can take the girl out of the North Country...you can finish that sentence, it's a little painful for me.

The cattle are missing their grass, but dutifully eat everything put in front of them. Twosday is cold and grumpy and lets me know it whenever I'm around. It's funny how much the cows love Dad. They love him more in the summer when they know it's about time to be rotated into the next pasture, but they're still pretty excited to see his tractor rolling down the hill with a big fat round bale on the back. Dad also has a trio of bulls on the hill - Pico, his black Highland son, and a robust red Angus. Whenever I'm riding my horse Isidor around them, he gets all snorty and tries to challenge them while I'm reining him back and praying the bulls won't take up the offer and charge (Isidor's a little guy, and Pico and son are horned). But they always just stand there, chew their cud, and give me a look like "Hey, lady, your donkey there is an idiot". Thanks, guys. So much for the "noble steed".

Chickens are cold and are holding back on the eggs. I'm sure we'll be back in full swing soon enough. Our three Shetland sheep - Newton, Veronica and Contessa - refuse to learn how to be pets like I was hoping. I just can't wait 'til we can shear them and I somehow find time to learn how to knit. They're due to have lambs, as well.

Hm. That's about all. Mom can give you the full scoop later. Paix!

Chauntel

Veteran's Day

We plan on taking this day to give thanks to our friends and neighbors who served their Country. We are blessed to know quite a few unsung heroes. We will celebrate the service and sacrifice of our veterans the Willsboro Methodist Church. This is a small town affair at its finest.
Shaun is in the process of weaning this year's calf crop. We try to plan this "event" when his Mom & Dad leave the farm for a few days. If you have never experienced this drama fest - try not to!
Here's how it goes. We wave bye-bye to Tommy & Cory, as they head on down to New York City. Then Shaun calls the mamas and their babies to the barn yard. The mamas are turned back out to pasture. And the calves remain in the barnyard. Presto, job done!
But wait there's more. After a couple of hours the calves realize that the cows are not coming back to them. And the cacophony begins. The noise they make is incredible and deafening. Of course they can be heard for literally miles.
Frantic and sleep deprived Neighbors call here at the farm and at the 4-H office. They are concerned that we have "gone on vacation" (huh! what's that!) or that we forgot to milk the cows (they are beef -we don't milk) or coyotes, wolves, or panthers are killing the cows. As a side note: Everyone here still remembers the Ice Storm 10 years ago when dairy farmers couldn't get to their cows to milk and it was a horrible disaster. Do you see everyone with in 5 miles is affected but its the in laws we worry about. They like a pastoral farm not the true nitty gritty farm.
Back to the story - Moms and babies can see each other but the babies can't nurse. This isn't such a big issue for the moms because at this point the babies can physically lift their moms off their feet when they try to suckle. Some cows are already dried off (no more milk) and their babies go to another cow to nurse. Its amazing to see three 600 pound calves fixed to some poor cow's udders. As you can imagine this is stressful for the few cows that have milk.
When the calves are born they weigh about 85 pounds but by fall they weigh between 400-800 pounds. The moms have bred back so they need their calorie intake to fatten themselves for the winter and provide nourishment for next Spring's baby. So the crying goes on for 3 days and then stops like someone turned a switch.
We have one baby left to wean. This is going to be the hardest for the dad. Yes, I have talked Shaun into letting His Baby join the other calves and learn to be a cow. "Twosday" have been in my front yard to greet all visitors since she was born. But it is time. This her opportunity to learn with the other youngsters and form bonds. There may be crying and not from Twosday.

October...Already!!

Tonight we will likely have a hard frost. Definitely the signal to shift out of Summer mode. Need to put up all the hay equipment, figure out the best strategy to graze off the remaining pastures and extend the grazing season, send steers to the Vermont Beef Producers sale (this weekend), get ready to provide our customers with delicious free range turkeys, butcher off a couple of hogs, and post the land against the hunters that don't bother to ask.
We are experiencing the empty nest farm this Fall. Chauntel comes home now and again to give riding lessons to her students. Quentin rarely gets out off campus from Norwich. Actually Linda and I are enjoying the new "nest" farm..... seems easier now. At least when a gate or door is left open we know who did it.

Porcine Plowboy: this hog and others like him are used around the farm to uncover metal or sharp objects that cattle may ingest or our horses decide to injure themselves on. The pigs will clear the areas that all others fear to tread, including farmers due to poison ivy, nettles, burdocks, et al.

September 2009 Hay there

Well, after an extremely wet and cool summer. The weather is providing some great hay weather. Of course the hay crew is whittled down to 2 or 4 depending how useful I am. The kids have "R- u- n -n- o -f -t" run off to college.

Thank the good Lord for Tommy & Tommy. They came over to help Shaun take down a huge chunk and knock the hay out over the labor Day weekend. We feel much more comfortable going into winter now. And thanks to Wayne for coming on over with the splitter and taking care of the fallen oak tree. Ben thought he would split it and stack it by hand. At 85, he's tough but come on now!

Now that was some excitement. A great big ole tree came down and pulled out the power to "my" barn". The chicks and the ducklings are in the house because no electricity equals no heat lamps . The chicks are extremely noisy. Its a wonder anyone comes through the front door.

The horses and ponies are back from their summer of work. We miss them when they are gone. But they seem to be very quiet. I don't think their heads have come up from the grass yet. We got a few more ponies - very small ponies than I was expecting. I may have to lower fences.

We have sold just about all the piglets. Two more leave next week - we will switch out 2 piglets for 2 college students. Its amazing what you can fit in a Subaru. Now if we can just fix a new tedder to the back of it.

Next week is Adirondack Harvest Farm Tours on Saturday the 12th. I think there will be riding lessons going on, the farrier will be here, and a guy is coming to set traps for raccoons. He has been tasked to catch, sedate, blood test, and (oh Joy) release them where he caught them. I guess the Rabies Bait Drop just ended just a tiny bit farther North. And the DEC/ Public Health/some agency is trying to track sick raccoons. Anyway I haven't even thought about planning a "fun" farm activity.

My garden tanked so I have just put up a few pickles. I have made a ton of jelly & jams. The farm fruits did great! I think Shaun joined http://www.eatwild.com/ and it looks like we are the farm this far north in directory.

Well, gotta make hay while the sun shines and butcher off a few chickens.

Summer 2009

So its July already. We had a farm visitor from Alaska who mentioned this blog and said I hadn't updated it since April. By golly, he was right. No one ever comments so its exciting to note that we have actual blog-stalkers out there that are reading this. I just feel bad, he had to travel all this way to tell me things were getting stale!

It has been so cool here that it is very hard to believe that summer is half way over - it doesn't even feel as if it started. We had a very busy calving season. It was a big heifer year, last year mostly bulls.

We did end up with a set of Angus heifer twins in June. The mama tried very hard to get her second baby up and going but it just wouldn't. Late in the afternoon, I carried her 85 lb. body from the field (popping over the electric wire was a little dicey), and the Garvey farm provided colostrum. She is big and strong and living by the house. She has attached herself to "Baby Girl". Her name is Twosday - get it second twin born on Tuesday. I guess she will be the "ambassador bovine" for the farm. Chauntel wants her to wear a bell like our milk cows.

Just when I was feeling smug. . . We are having predator problems. They were doing "the great circle of life" across the river but the coyotes are now pulling down poultry at 10 am in plain sight of people without a care. The foxes have been a tinch more subtle. The raccoons and skunks are just out at night. This can add up to serious losses in short order. So far this year, our cattle are safe but area farmers have not been so lucky.

On another farm the coyotes are pulling down cows (this is usually a gruesome discovery - when it has happened to us it was a few bits and pieces & a leg left) just a few miles down river from us. Trying to be neighborly, they informed the local folk on their plans to curb the predator problem. This has just turned into a public relations nightmare for the farmers. They have received lots of unasked for expert advice from everyone (stakeholders to bystander). These local experts are not burying what remains of their dead the livestock nor are they willing to make up for the loss of income these hardworking farmers have to suffer. I think all these helpful folks need to walk in the farmers boots.

We did have piglets born last week out in the pasture. This was after a thunderstorm - as soon as the barometric pressure dropped, it occurred to me to check her condition. Sure enough they were being delivered. Very cute. Mama Grettle is quite protective. If a wild thing looking for dinner, got near her babies - put your money on the hog!

My small patch of strawberries look nice even though I planted them late. The Extension Ladies were planting a variety call Seascape and I swore I wasn't going to plant any this year but I got caught up in the frenzy and there you have it.

My other vegetables are there. . . nothing to write about. Too cool, too wet, etc. I only planted some raised beds with basics. The weather has been great for peas, greens, and what not. Farmers Almanac said warm fall is predicted so I'm counting on it.

I've decided to concentrate on being the Protein Queen, you know beef, pork, chicken, eggs, honey and leave those vine ripened tomatoes and sweet corn to others who do such a fantastic job.

I have started the jam season. The first batch was currant followed by mulberry. Neighbor Mary picked and juiced the berries for me and braved the bears that are lingering about. Not to worry she had her guard dog, Lily, a West Highland White Terrier with her to serve and protect. The dog is a fashionista, lots of Rhinestones. I do believe she would blind a bear by her dazzle.

Calving Season has begun

With Easter only 4 days away - winter does not want to let go of its grip. Yes, we have a spitting snowstorm going on and 37 degree weather. I did see some rhubarb poking its way out of the ground before the snow covered it.
Chauntel was right about the straight run chicks. I think when I ordered them in November I was tossing around the idea of "cornish game hens". Now that the mistake has been made I am committed to it. You know - lemonade from lemons. Contrary to what you might think, these small chickens you purchase at the grocery are not cornish, game, or hens. It seems that the USDA description is any sex chicken harvested at 6 weeks of age that weigh under 2 pounds, so there goes all those young roosters.
Also it seems that I have decided to do an embryology/ incubation project for 4-H, several of the clubs and schools are joining in this crazy fun. And since I certainly don't need anymore chickens, we will try cortunix quail. I'll keep you posted on that venture. We are going to get the eggs from Cornell's poultry farm. I understand that this is the last year they will supply the eggs- due to program cut back.
Besides the little king Carlos, Yellow number 8 Angus had a heifer a couple of days ago. Mom and calf are doing well. It looks like #17 will go next. Our official start is April 9th for calving season but we forgot to tell the cows that important information. We have our yearlings separated and last weekend , we made the hard decision of who was staying and who was going to a new home.
All the Charolais are going except for the last steer. A neighboring beef rancher is "beefing" up his herd. I think a group of 10 angus are being brought to Vermont Beeef Producers sale on May 2nd. We try to attend or participate in at least one sale/ event across the lake each year. Our New York beef Producers have their functions to far south or west for us to travel. Of course, we do a lot of cattle trading with the Essex County Cattlemen's Club. This is an informal group at best and is very fluid in its membership (beer drinkers, I think).
I did find out some very exciting news. Chauntel will be in a book titled "Young Americans". Young Adirondack agriculturalists 18-21 years old are featured in photos by Ben Stechschulte that is to be released May 15, I imagine the book is something like those "A Day in the Life. . ." of Hawaii is an example. This book is filled with different segments of the youth of the U.S. from coast to coast like the future business or political leaders, sports, native fishermen, etc. I know the photos will spectacular! Ben spent several days on farm getting a feel for the crazy and hectic lifestyle we all lead up here.
Well I have a few more critters to check and feed before I wrap it up for the evening. I was waiting for Quentin to get home from school. I know it must be fairly slick and slippery on the mountain. He has his one foot out the door anticipating graduation from high school. We visited his college of choice on Saturday -Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. It was snowing there, too and their daffodils were blooming! One of the parents shared that their son left for school weighing 210 pounds and when he came home at Thanksgiving he weighed 170. Our Q is a mean lean fighting machine and he has absolutely no extra weight to discard. So I am imagining a skeleton. I think it will be a good fit. The class sizes are small so I don't think he will get lost in the crowd and the soldier students certainly seem to be kept busy.

Chauntel's on spring break...watch your backs.

Here is our first calf of the season, King Juan Carlos! (As you can tell, I named him.) His mama is Orange 4, who tends to have calves unusually early. She's also quite gentle - even with Reuben, our Aussie Cattledog, snapping at her heels and me practically crawling over King Juan Carlos, she was willing to flash her ginger locks and stately horns for the camera.

I'm home for my spring break, and the weather's really gone to my head so far. Dad and I went up on the hill and cut cedars for fence posts, which hopefully will materialize into my riding ring/holding pen for horses and cattle. Hold up - what I mean by "Dad and I" is "Dad cut the posts and loaded them into the truck while Jack and I wandered through the woods and took rather breathtaking photographs". And of course by "Jack and I" I mean "I" took pictures, which you can judge for yourself as to their breathtaking qualities.

Okay, okay. I'm nearly done with my blabbering. The horses and cows are pretty happy under the warm sun, and they've been busying themselves with catching up on some Z's. So far I've been working on cleaning up the horses after the long hard winter. I've worked on shedding out their coats, trimming their manes, applying hoof oil...only for them to turn around and roll in the mud.

We'v even got chicks! Except that Mom made a grave error in accidentally ordering straight-run chicks. That means it's 50-50 male-female, pulled straight from the hatchings and not sexed. So we have a hundred chicks, right? Probability means fifty roosters. You heard me. Fifty roosters. At least for now they're all just really cute.

So, in short, I've got a long and yet far too short week ahead. It's been a smidgen harder getting up than I expected, since now I'm expected to rise with the sun (fail) and my sleeping habits have become lax at school. (oh, look, it's 10 in the morning. I don't have class for another hour. Sleep? Win.) Tommorrow I'm giving baths, so the horses have yet another excuse to roll in the mud. And maybe, for the first time in a few months, I'll get to ride my own horses!

Chauntel

Spring Forward Sunday

Again I was reminded about this blog-o-roo. Well, it certainly seems like spring outside. Sunny, warm, 50 degrees. Horses are running about in the mud, cows are lounging in the sunshine, the chickens and ducks are like Visa cards- they are every where they wanna be ( and every where I don't)!
Checked the honey bees, everything seems good to go. Moved around some hives and put some stored honey to start with the spring build up. I am trying to scale back to 10 hives. I only ordered 2 replacement packages of bees with an Italian Queen because I thought I would try my hand at Nucs. I ordered to Carniolian Queens for those. Something different this year.
I'll do a hiving demonstration for the Essex County 4-H the end of April. And I think we will make beeswax lip balm as well, something for the kids to go home with. So it should be a fun afternoon. I have an ancient beekeeper's suit that I think would be fun to stuff with straw for a scarecrow. We will see how the time goes and how many families show up. I try to do a bee/honey craft, eat an early picnic supper at the pond or river and then hive the bees at sunset.
Jasmine the Jersey is due to freshen around the 24th of March. She is a "first calf" heifer and she is just perking along in the barn being pampered. She just like to be brushed and watch the commotion outside.
My old milk cow, Lily, is out with beef crowd. She has Shaun well trained when the other cows go to the hay feedings in the field- Lily slowly moves at a turtle's pace off in the opposite direction -to the barn. Where Shaun meets her with her special grain and her own hay and sometimes she lets a heifer or 2 join her. She moves very slowly so as not to attract attention of the big bossy beef cows. She is ancient for a Jersey milk cow, we figure she is somewhere around 18-20 years old. She comes when called, leads on a rope, freshens every year and will nurse any calf on her 3 quarters.
I have the first order of chicks arriving this week. I ordered 75 for the first go round. I ordered black stars, red stars, and ameracaunas. You can't beat those sex link hens for eggs. Leghorns are supposed to be the heaviest layers but they are just pains. They are not friendly, they try to never lay in a nest box, so its always a game of egg hide and seek. Its that old 80%-20% rule. I waste most of my time of birds that I don't like. I thought the white eggs would be nice to have with the brown, blue. and green. Next chicks to arrive will be meat birds.
Ducks are doing just great of course. These easy going creatures just want to make a joyful noise all day long. Pardon Me, the blue slate turkey, is still looking for a turkey friend. We have a huge wild flock that passes through but she doesn't seem interested in joining them.
The horse are just full of themselves. We almost had Solara put down. One morning she was in the field and couldn't walk. She was a 3 legged horse. It turned out to be a strep infection. The was going to require a hospital stay, surgery, trailer ride several hours away to get her there, etc. And of course no guarantee on the recovery.
Long Story short but we had her joint fluid removed, pumped her full of "fluid gold" antibiotic, prayed, repeated it , and prayed some more. Well, with the outcome not looking good, we brought Baby Girl home from college to say "goodbye" to the equine Barbie doll. Maybe Solara just missed Baby Girl but she perked up and has recovered. So it was good news at the farm.