5 Things - post holiday

Yes, I know... another Tuesday posting.  But yesterday was a holiday... so it doesn't count, right?

1) The horse show on Saturday went wonderfully... despite the fact that it was in the upper 90s!  Holy moly it was hot!!  Spot did fantastic!!  We ended up doing a second warm up round and then dropped down to the Future Hunter division instead of the Baby Hunters.  6" isn't much and he was spooking more at the flower boxes and such and not the fences.  Besides.. it meant being done faster and in the case of that heat, faster was better.  Was wiggly and had issues with our canter leads, but I couldn't be happier with his performance.  Hopefully I can get some pictures to post soon.  He took 3rd in the flat class, and 3rd in both the jumping classes... and was division Reserve Champion!  I'm definitely planning on showing him at the Stillwater Pony Club Hunter show in a couple weeks.  Need to make a decision about the Backyard Horse Trials though.

2) The Labor Day Shindig went well.  Smallish crowd but it was fun to hang out and talk to folks.  Halloween is the next big shindig... and then hopefully one to celebrate buying more land.  At least that's the plan.

3) The turkeys are being really good about staying in their run so they have been let out all day the last several days, including when I was not home on Saturday.  They have figured out where the shady spots were to try and stay cool on Saturday... and I suppose stayed out of the rain on Sunday (more or less).  Still not the brightest animals on the planet, but they're doing really well.

4) Egg production from the hens is still down.  Now that it's cooled down, I'm going to try an experiment where I keep them in their room all day.  Trying to determine if production is down overall... or if several of them are sneeking off somewhere and laying eggs in secret.  I'm hoping for the latter so I can get back to offering more eggs for sale than a dozen here and there.

5) What an amazing difference in temperature!!  I daresay it was a tad chilly yesterday.  But I guess a 30 degree difference in 48 hours is a lot to adjust too.  Didn't get a whole lot accomplished as it was a recovery day from the Shindig the night before, but puttered a little.  Hoping to get a few projects underway shortly and have decided that I do want to enclose the backside of the workbench area for a new tack room.  Fed the horse tack addiction on Saturday and purchased a few things that would look lovely in a nice, finished tack room.  Not a major priority, but one that wouldn't take much time or money to complete since the area is already lit and has studs to attach plywood walls to.  Hopefully the lovely fall temps stick around for a while as it's much nicer to work in.

End of Summer?

Not with the heat that just came back!  Thankfully it's only supposed to last a few days.  Of course Saturday is supposed to be a bit on the warm side.  We'll be at Greenstone Stables for the DLSC Hunter Show.  I'm showing a 6yo appaloosa gelding named Spot.  Spot is owned by Jennifer Shimp of iTolt Training Center and has been in training with Jen and Anita Mays.  He's a LOT of fun.  With any luck, we'll have a good outting (the Baby Hunter Division) this time... then we'll think about the Stillwater Pony Club DLSC Hunter show on the 17th and possibly the Backyard Horse Trials at Rocky Point Farm in Springfield on the 25th.  Will post pictures when I get them.

Amongst all the horse shows, we'll be at the Great Miami River Days festival in Hamilton, Ohio on Sunday, September 11th.  This spring I was in a play called "A Piece of My Heart".  The show is about 6 women in Vietnam.  This special performance reunites 6 of the 7 original cast members from this spring.  We're performing at approximately 4pm and our backdrop is the Travelling Wall (talk about intense!!).  Just a side-note brag -- the show won 14 DayTony awards this year.  It's a great show, if I do say so myself.  Did I mention it's free? :)  Hope you can make it if you haven't seen the show.  It's intense but amazing.

One last note... This morning was a bit rough... an almost escapee cow and 4 escapee turkeys after waking up late!  At least the turkey escapees were fairly easy to catch.  Catching them though made me realize how big they're getting!  And makes me wonder how big they're going to end up.  Don't forget to reserve your own farm raised holiday turkey ASAP before they're all spoken for!

5 Things

Yep... late again.  I do promise one day I'll have the 5 Things for the week published when I should have it done (aka Monday).  In the meantime... nothing I can do but keep going forward, right?

1) The cooler temps have been FANTASTIC!!  I actually needed to put a jacket on this morning when I went to feed and the last 2 mornings driving in to work on the scooter have been downright nippy ("so say my nips").  Of course, we're supposed to be back to hot/humid for this weekend's horse show.  But the glimpse of fall was nice, especially for the end of August.

2) Yes, I'm showing again!  Had a wonderful ride last week (and hopefully again tonight) on Jen Shimp's Spot and I'm going to be showing him this weekend at the DLSC hunter show at Greenstone Stables.  If you're in the neigh-borhood (pun intended) stop by.  No guaranteed ride time as it's a hunter show but probably afternoon.

3) Managed to get some work done on the patio this weekend.  Finished the 2nd raised bed, cleaned up the grass (aka weeds) around it, put down the paving stones, and cleaned up the flower pots and planted a couple new plants.  Now if the grass (weeds) coming up between the patio stones would go away it would look nice.

4) Went to the Little Art Theater in Yellow Springs on Friday and saw the movie "Buck".  VERY well done and I recommend it to anyone.  Really doesn't matter if you're really into horses and horse training.  Buck Brannaman has some quality life nuggets he shares.  Interesting guy and a great outlook on life.  It's running at Little Art through Thursday, September 1st.

5) Still have half the turkeys not spoken for.  If you want a farm-raised turkey for the holidays (will be butchered for you), speak up!

Turkeys lounging in the afternoon under the shade of the pine tree inside their run.

5 Things

I’m stealing this idea from a friend of mine. He’s been writing “5 Things I think” on Mondays in his blog, http://dangerousleanings.blogspot.com/ , for a while now. I like the idea, although I think a generic “5 Things” is enough. No sense in putting pressure on anyone to actually think on a Monday. Plus it will help me remember to post at least weekly, even when things are busy on the farm. Thank you Dangerboy for the great idea. Hope you don’t mind me stealing it.

And yes, I know this first installment is a day late.

5 Things for Monday, August 22, 2011

1. Untreated, cheapo plywood drinks paint like it was an alcoholic at an open bar. Trying to finish painting all the wood surfaces on the new Turkey tractor has been a chore and taken over 2 gallons of paint! The exterior of the door and half of the back panel still need painted.
2. The turkey tractor, like most “home improvement” projects, is costing more in terms of time and money than originally predicted. It seems projects have a way of doing that. I hope it’s not just me – that wouldn’t help specifically, but certainly make me feel better.
3. One more thought about the turkeys – half of them are spoken for! I’m thrilled with this development. I have 6 definite email yes’s and one deposit paid (as well as one or 2 “I think so”s). It’s been an interesting year with them and I’m looking forward to how they finish out as they’ll soon be out on grass during the day (still need to get the fencing installed for their run). I definitely think I’ll be doing turkeys again next year, hopefully at least some heritage breeds like Bourbon Reds or Royal Palms. It will be interesting to see the differences.
4. On days like today I could definitely picture myself doing farming full time, in one capacity or another. It’s downright gorgeous outside and I’ve been way too busy inside (at work)!
5. And finally… something I do think: I think this really is going to be a good and fun way to update the farm blog.

Talkin' Turkey!

The new coop is almost ready for its first residents - 13 almost 8-week old turkeys!  I can't believe how much they're growing.  I was in Michigan announcing at Hunter's Run Horse Trials this past weekend and came home and I swear they grew!  Hopefully by the weekend they'll be in the new coop and the run will be up so they can get their first taste of grass... and bugs... and scratching in the dirt... and sunlight... and all the good things that turkeys should get to experience.

I've started sending out notices to those who have mentioned it in the past... but it's time to start solidifying buyers for the turkeys.  I'm asking for a $20 deposit per turkey.  The deposit will be applied towards the final cost of your bird.  Yes, unless otherwise arranged individually, all turkeys will be prepared for pick up (butchered, defeathered, cleaned, etc.).  Final cost will depend on weight at $3 per pound.

Keep in mind these are the commercial Broad Breasted White variety turkeys (next year I hope to have at least some heritage breed turkeys like the Bourbon Reds or Royal Palms).  It's also my first year raising them.  This variety of turkey has been specifically bred to thrive on being in cages with large quantities of commercial feed to grow to a large size.  I'm a firm believer that any animal raised for food should be raised so that they get to BE whatever they are.  For the turkeys that means allowing them to BE turkeys -- eating grass and bugs out in the sunshine!  That said, they will be given commercial feeds as well.  As much as I believe they need to be natural, this variety in particular has been bred to have the higher proteins in the commercial feeds and I find it just as irresponsible to NOT allow them that as well as the grass and bugs.  With all that in mind, the probability exists that these turkeys will not reach their "full potential size" simply because I'm raising them differently.

If you are interested in buying a turkey for the holidays, please let me know as soon as possible.  We can arrange the receipt of the deposit at that time.  Your name will go on the buyers list for a turkey.  If something should happen to "your" turkey, where no substitute is available, you will receive a full refund of your deposit.  Any cancellation by you of your turkey order, prior to November 10th, you will receive 50% of the deposit in refund.  Cancellation after November 10th, results in forfeiting the entire deposit.

If you have any questions, please ask.

Summer pictures

Just a few recent pictures (taken with my icky camera phone - my apologies for the quality).

Turkey peepers wondering where their dinner is.

Moonlight... after the "big escape" sitting under an apple tree near the pasture.

Stewie staring at me.  Evidently I interrupted him using the tree as a scratching post.

Hot and Happy Summer

The heat has been oppressive here at the farm.  Quite honestly, the heat has been an excuse not to get some things worked on.  Silly perhaps, but it's true.  After a days work, coming home and sitting in the comfort of the semi-air conditioned house is a whole lot more appealing than working outside and sweating.

The animals seem to be coping well.  Stewie (the beef cow) has been spending a lot of time in the barn, either in his area laying on the dirt or in with the chickens on their deep bedding.  I think the only thing that really bugs him is... well... the bugs.  The horseflies have been awful this year.  Doesn't stop him from grazing the pasture when he feels like it though. 

Charlie and Moon have a literal jungle in their kennel.  The grass has grown up to 3' in some places and I think they love the shade.  They're also digging.  I'm sure it's cooler underground so I've been a little lax in filling in all their holes.  That is until I walked out of the house the other day and found Moon in the driveway.  She'd dug her way out of the kennel... and when I walked towards her she slowly scurried back into the tunnel and back into her kennel.  That hole got filled in.

Moved the peepers into the attached garage.  The brooder house has a very low ceiling and even taking out one of the windows (covered with wire) and runnign 2 fans it was getting way too warm in there.  The attached garage area is smaller, but it has a higher ceiling and while warm isn't as hot.

Decided that the turkey peeps need their own coop so I'm in the process of building that now.  Designed it based on an online friend's coop that was featured in the video attached to this story about her and her heritage breed turkeys -- Pick Your Poults Way Before Thanksgiving Day.  Hopefully I'll have a full set of pictures on how it comes.  Trying to get a new camera to work has been "interesting" so far.  The peepers are a month old now and just about ready to be turned out in the world... so I've been trying to get this setup done.  May end up doing PVC and a tarp for the roof instead of making it a permanent roof this year.  We'll see.

Egg production has finally dipped due to the prolonged heat.  Yesterday was the slowest day yet -- only 9 eggs -- but collection has been down to a dozen/day for about a week now.  Hopefully the heat will stop soon!

Have started to contact banks in anticipation of picking up a few more acres.  Also still have a list of projects that need to be completed.  Nothing is ever static on the farm -- even when all you want to do is sit in the air conditioning.