Connections

I'm sorry I've been so M.I.A the past week!  I've been working like crazy on a paper I'm writing for school.  "Which stage of development do you think you're in a why." Yeah, it's really lovely analyzing and critiquing my life.  Because I don't do it on a regular basis already.

Work has been pretty tough the past couple weeks too.  We have gotten some pretty rough residents who are not in a good place.  So much energy is devoted to them.  I'm trying to be patient, but I don't know how long I can last to be honest.  Am I really cut out for this type of work?

When I can't connect with residents, I connect with who I can - animals.  This little girl is named Dotty (for obvious reasons).  I haven't felt this way about a pig since the beautiful pigs we had in NY (specifically Diana).  She loves to be pet.  It one picture she is just flopped on my feet and I spent 10 minutes rubbing her belly!  I don't really want to send her away for bacon.  Maybe she'll be the start of our breeding program!  It's crazy to think that when we got these pigs in June they were so frightened of people.  Now they can't get enough of the love!


 

Fall is Here...the Vet!

Fall brings a whole new list of things that have to get done on the farm.  This week the vet came for vaccinations, castrations, and pregnancy checks.  All 9 cows are pregnant (2 of those being first calf heifers), all the boys were castrated, one little girl had to get de-horned, and fortunately and unfortunately, the mommas were separated from their babies in order to take better care of their pregnancies.  I know, it's hard to watch, hear, and believe me, do.  And there's debate on whether or not it's for the best.  But right now it's done.  And according to our vet, our calves are definitely on the chubbier side of the scale.

Here are our calves on their own with the yearlings:

 

And here are the momma cows - at the lower barn and totally annoyed.  They are starting to mellow out some, but unfortunately they'll be a little sad for about a week. 

Little Chicks

The time has come for some new chicks on the farm.  It's a little late in the year, but it'll be perfect timing for some egg production when the days start to get longer in April/May.  They are Barred Rocks, who will eventually look like this when they are full grown:

 

In the mean time, they look like this! 

 

 
So cute right!? I don't know what that little white one in the picture below is all about, but we'll see in a few months when her (hopefully, we did order a straight run) adult feathers start to come in.

Fall is Still Here...Manure!

Fall is still here.  And I've spent the last week doing this:

Spreading manure! Yum!

After roughly 24 loads, it's done, spreading it on about 3 acres.  It was a little tough because I had to drive fairly far from the barn to the field.  And breathing in diesel exhaust isn't terrible fun either.  But it's done, and the barn is half way completed for the cows to hang out over the winter.  Tomorrow will be spreading the last little bit I couldn't pick up with the bucket of the tractor, and then spreading bedding.  The vet comes next Tuesday for vaccinations, the dreaded castrations, and weaning the calves. 

It's been so absolutely gorgeous this Fall!  I can't believe the colors!  Here's the weekly foliage shot:

 
My foliage shots are really not helping you show the colors here.  Seriously.  Reds and oranges, it's amazing.  Maybe I'll break out my fancier camera and take a picture.  

I hope everyone is enjoying their Fall, and finding beauty in the surrounds, even if it's corn being mowed down ;) 

Cidering! Fall is here

Geesh, I've been trying to upload these pictures since Monday and finally got them to upload.  Will I always have computer issues!?

Here's the weekly foliage shot.  I promise you, it is getting more colorful out there!

Tuesday Farm Crew was a little different.  We made cider!  It was my first time making cider, and I really liked it!  It reminds me of pasteurizing milk (I know, I know.  It's all about cows with me...)

Step 1 was dumping the apples into the cider crusher (very technical name).  When the apples got dumped in, someone hand cranked the machine and crushed the apples into a mash, which fell into a little basket.

After the apples were crushed, the basket was pushed forward and a wooded disk was placed on top.  Someone turned the black piece you see in the picture, so it pressed the apples and all the juice came out.

 

Once we had enough cider, we put it in a sap finisher, brought it up to 170 degrees to pasteurize it, and then shut the heat off.

Then, we bottled!  We made 16 gallons.  Woo woo!  

Fall is really here uh?  I'm loving Fall in Vermont.  

Monday Monday...I mean Tuesday!

I spent all day thinking it was Monday.  It's actually Tuesday, but my Monday because I had a three day weekend.  Woo!

Here's my weekly foliage shot: 
 

Some changes...it's looking a little more brown I suppose...

Today was a festive day at The Ranch.  Our annual Harvest Festival.  It's to celebrate the work of the ranch - the cider that was pressed, the meat that was raised, the veggies grown.  We spent this cool fall (though it's still technically summer) day setting up for the dinner, where past and present Ranchers came to celebrate.  It's a fairly big celebration, and very sweet.  It starts with everyone standing together in a circle, and words of appreciate are said about the the work that the community does all year.  Then we eat!  Everything we ate was from The Ranch which is really, really cool. Yay for eating local!  It may sound funny, but I like knowing exactly the cow that I'm eating (well, not exactly, but I have a 50/50 chance of guessing which cow it was).  I know that sounds weird to many people, but for me it makes me feel better.  I knew exactly what went into that animal.  It's reassuring.

Oh, here's my beautiful flower arrangement for one of the tables!  Very proud of my work.

Long Time No See!

I apologize for not being around as much as I use too!  Things are a little busy for me now playing rugby and taking a class, and obviously still farming.  Here are some highlights from the past week or so!

We finally got our pigs outside.  They were scared at first, but they love it now.  It's so great to see them out there - pigs are meant to be outside!  I feel like they have even grown since taking this picture!
 

We also "tried" to let our turkeys outside to get some grass.  Fail.  We watched them for a good 15 minutes while they explored their new surroundings.  The minute we walked away, they flew up and over the fence (and it is a fence that's even taller than the one showed in this pictures.  These little turkeys are just that - to little to go outside yet.  Kind of bummed about that, but I don't feel like chasing turkeys...

We have also power washed our barn - yay! Hopefully this week we'll be starting to paint.  And hopefully I'll be spreading manure if I can figure out what is wrong with the manure spreader!  That's my mission for the next week.  (hhmm, there are a lot of hopes in those last couple of statements.) 

I don't know if you remembered last year when I tried to take a weekly picture of the foliage change?  I don't think I ever finished that little project, so I'm trying again.  Here's a view of some gorgeous VT hills, and you can very faintly see the beginnings of change.  Fall is coming, and winter will soon be here.  Not sure how I feel about that.