Monday, September 4, 2006 - Great News! |
It didn't take as long as I thought it might to find our miniature
jersey cow. We bought one and just got "Ruby" home Saturday evening.
She is 7 months old, and is a little bit larger than we had
anticipated. We think that she will be more of a "mid-sized miniature"
than a true miniature. This is our first cow ever, and we are excited
to have her. The trip to pick up Ruby will definitely go down in the
annals of family history (200 miles each way in a 37-year-old truck). I
won't go into details here, but I'll just say that we are glad to be
home. This picture was taken by Ruby's original owner just a few days
after she was born. Aren't newborn jerseys the most beautiful animals?
Check out these eyelashes.
School starts tomorrow, and oh boy am I not ready. Time to sort out books and clear off the big desk and the tables!
Blessings!
Amey
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - Our Muscovys Are Here |
Our hatchery informed us last month that due to a problem with their
incubators, they would not be able to sell us any muscovy ducklings as
we had hoped. This was very disappointing news because muscovy ducks
eat mosquitos. Or so we have been told.
Today my husband picked up our recently "processed" meat chickens from
an Amish family in the community (yay! I sure am tired of beef! We had
run out of chicken). Their boys had a sign out front: Ducks For Sale.
Not only were they muscovy ducklings (about 6 weeks old), but we got
them for a good price. All 13 of them. They are out in our back yard
now along with our Pekins and a few guineas.
I'm dreaming of a tick-free (thank you, guineas) and mosquito-free
(thank you, muscovys) back yard. Will my dream become reality? I'll
keep you updated...
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Thursday, April 27, 2006 - Small Farmer Legal Defense Association? |
| I found a great link on Sharra's blog (Country Living) yesterday to an interview with Sally Fallon in Acres USA
about raw milk. In the article, Sally (dare I be so familiar as to use
her first name?) puts forth this brilliant idea - that people
interested in preserving small farms, their products, and freedom for
growing your own food, should join together to form a defense
association much like HSLDA that we homeschoolers have for our defense.
She said that freedom for homeschoolers is now something that is not
encroached upon by the government (relatively speaking, anyway) because
now homeschoolers have a great HSLDA lawyer on their side immediately
if a legal issue ever comes up. Now that freedom for small farmers is
becoming such an issue, wouldn't there be enough people to pay 100
bucks a year for legal protection? Wouldn't this be a great way to
advance the cause of freedom to grow/raise your own food? We just need
a talented young farm-raised lawyer to get things started for us!
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Friday, March 31, 2006 - We're Taking the Plunge |
My husband and I have decided to splurge on a livestock trailer. We
found a good used one this week, and we'll be picking it up tomorrow.
The question is: will that almost 40-year-old beat-up truck of my
husband's be able to pull it? And if it can, will it stop when the
brakes are applied? Details, details...
We've also been talking about buying a just-weaned lamb this spring to
frolic around with the kids. The goal of this lamb being lamb chops for
next fall/winter. How in the world will we be able to look that cute
little lamb in the eyes, all the while knowing its final destination?!?
It's easy with chickens. But a lamb? Will it break my heart?
In other animal news, I now have a fully functioning goat-milking
stand. It is so very handy, and my knees are grateful that I do not
have to squat down anymore. I've been using it now for almost a week,
and I don't know how I ever milked without it.
Did you see the new Meatrix yet? Disgusting, yet amusing. Just gross. I bet the people that made that little cartoon had fun doing it. 
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Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - Howdy, Strangers! |
Whew! I made it! Every time I come here to update my blog, it seems
like I get distracted by the other blogs. I read through a bunch of
them, and by the time I'm done, I don't have time to blog myself! But
today...here I am! It's a miracle! This morning I found Jenette at Tender Mercies.
She recently got a hand grain mill. I always wondered how much work it
was to grind by hand. Now I know! Sounds like a lot! 
I've also been spending my usual blog time by looking for airline
tickets and rental cars for our family to visit my in-laws out west. We
haven't visited since our older son was nine months old (he'll be 7 in
May). We're all excited to be going, but it will be a lot of work to
get ready. We think we have found a goat baby-sitter for while we are
gone - an Amish farmer who can milk our Daisy. We still have to find
someone to feed the rest of our animals, but that shouldn't be as hard
to do. That is the thing about homesteading. It can be tricky to find
the right time to travel when you have animals. Hopefully this will
turn out to be a good time - right before the baby chicks, and also
right before starting our (admittedly small) garden.
Speaking of chicks, we are finally starting to get a few eggs from our
laying hens! Yee-haw! What an egg-less winter this was! Right now we
only have four hens that are of laying age, and three more that should
start laying sometime this spring. I'm going to try talking my husband
into getting a dozen pullet chicks this spring. I think he'll go for
it. He loves the eggs as much as I do. Too bad it's such a long wait
from chicks to eggs.
One more thing. Can I just say: H U R R A Y F O R M A R C H!
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Thursday, January 19, 2006 - Well, She's Here! |
Our goat arrived this morning around 8:00! She's lovely...and large! I
wish I had a picture of her to post! Maybe soon...We're all just
getting used to each other right now, and we think that maybe when she
feels a little more settled and familiar with the new digs, she'll have
those babies. She doesn't have any "papers", but she has a
reputation as a good milker. I think we have the supplies we'll need
when the babies come, but from what we've read, we probably won't need
much. I'm really really excited about this, and so glad to be able to
share my excitement here where you people understand what I am feeling.
Most people seem to think it's just plain weird. 
Amey
p.s. when I say "you people", that is a term of endearment. haha. Thanks for "listening"!
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Friday, January 13, 2006 - Goats 'R Us? |
My husband is asking around our rural community to see who around us
has dairy goats. He found an Amish family just around the corner
from us that milks goats, so he is going to ask them if they might know
how we might possibly maybe (hopefully) please oh please acquire a
dairy goat.
Dalyn suggested that I research cow's vs. goat's milk, and so my husband and I have done that. We found out that goat's milk is better than cow's milk in many ways. This web site
was very helpful. From what we have read, cow's milk is higher in a few
vitamins and minerals, but goat's milk is higher than cow's milk in
other vitamins and minerals and is also better in other ways
(digestability, fatty acids, immune system support, etc.).
Our biggest concern about getting into caring for dairy animals is how
to care for them when we're away. It would be a big change in our
lifestyle if we needed to be home to milk our animal(s) every 12 hours.
Another issue is what to do with the babies. Obviously, if we want our
goat(s) to give milk, they will have to have babies. What do we do with
them? I don't think there's a market in our area for goat meat. Is the
meat any good? I read a little about it in the Encyclopedia of Country Living, but that's all.
Feel free to give me any advice you may have as the Spirit leads. 
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Thursday, January 5, 2006 - We Will Be Getting Fresh Milk |
Hello, friends! My husband and I have started scheming as to which milk
animal we want to start out with. Over the period of the last year it
has become not a question of 'if' we will ever keep an animal for milk,
but 'when' and 'what kind'. The 'when' depends on the availability of
our chosen animal, and the ability of my husband to at least
oversee the fencing and shelter arrangements. Over the last few days we
have been discussing what kind of animal to get. I have been wanting a
miniature jersey milk cow for a while now, but my husband seems to
think that we could acquire a milk goat earlier than we could get a
cow. We also read in Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living, that you can milk a sheep. It's trickier, but sheep's milk is supposed to be very good!
I never realized the value of fresh milk until just the last few
months. I knew that I didn't want my children drinking the store stuff
with hormones and antibiotics in it, but now I can understand why
pasteurization and (un-natural) homogenization can be a problem as well
(goat and sheep milk is naturally homogenized, according to Carla
Emery).
Here are the two books I have read that have convinced me about the value of fresh milk:
Nourishing Traditions was written by Sally Fallon, and The Untold Story of Milk was written by Ron Schmid.
This is probably not new to most of you homestead people, but the more
I read about nutrition, the more I realize the need for real milk. Not
the messed up stuff from the factory farms. Unfortunately, it is
illegal for farmers to sell the real thing here in my state. 
Amey
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About Me
I'm a midwestern gal, living my dream life on 7 acres in the country. I love Jesus, my husband, three children, Daisy the Wonder Goat, and our chickens. I'd still love to someday have a miniature jersey milk cow.
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