Homestead Hill Farm: Sunday Walkabout 5-4

This week on the hill seemed to prove my last post about chicken. Our whole week was defined by chickens. More specifically, this week was defined by broilers.

We processed broilers.

Moved broiler chicks to pasture.

Received another shipment of day-old broiler chicks in the mail and tucked them into the brooder.

We even sold broilers. (However, since a frozen chicken isn’t particularly picturesque, so I’ll skip the photo of that one) We sold every bit of chicken that we took to the Market, causing more than one person to tell me “you need to raise more chickens!” Uh, yeah. (more on that one some other time)

Rain was also a big factor this week. We had DAYS of rain and overcast skies. We did need the moisture, so we really shouldn’t complain about the mud…or the filthy dogs.

Gus takes pride in his filth -TLWphoto

the ewes didn't seem to appreciate the rain and mud

We weaned the lambs this week, too. So, this is my annual blanket apology to the community. We're SORRY!

The mindless screaming only lasted two full days this year and the Boss and I came through with our sanity intact (well…we are talking relatively here) Things have settled done and all those of the ovine persuasion are grazing happily once more.

We de-wormed all the sheep and got weights on the lambs. They’re looking pretty good. Taking the “surprise” lambs out of the equation, our average weight at 100 days is 92.5#. (the bottle lambs lowered the average somewhat) They really should be bigger, but considering the winter weather and the fact that we’re really late getting out on grass, and this year we haven’t grained like we did last year, we’re satisfied. With another month to go before the first batch is processed, we are right on track for an excellent harvest of lamb chops (and other lamb-y goodness) for 2014.

With an eye to the future, the ewes are enjoying lush grazing as we work to get them back in condition to breed for the crop of ’15.

I did a little progress check around the gardens and was happy to find that despite the severe cold, the torrential rains and the ever-constant winds, there are real signs of growth out there. You can actually differentiate the varieties out in the brassica garden and it looks everything survived the cold! On the down-side, the strawberry crop is going to be fairly non-existent. (enough for us and that’s it)

dewy strawberry blossom

But, I found the first potato sprout…which, by the end of the day was joined by many more. Hooray!

My impatience won out and I dug up one of the bean seeds that the Boss planted last week. Look, it’s sprouting!

Good thing…a customer was looking for green beans at yesterday’s Market. (…on the first of May, in the Valley, at a producer-only Market---I do have my educational work cut out for me!)

Speaking of the Market…wow!

Despite a very slow start to the day, we did amazingly well.

When I post pics of our Market stand, I realize it doesn’t look like much and that may be what prompts the oft-repeated question “you make a living doing THIS?” but, there are bags and bags of greens, coolers of eggs and a freezer full of meat…we take a lot more than you might think. And, yesterday we sold all but two of the 176 bags of greens, all the other vegetables, every single egg and chicken…and a whole lot of lamb. ( …and we could have sold even more…)

the sign of a great Market day

Thank you, Staunton!

Oh, I nearly forgot. Last week’s walkabout left off with a cliff-hanger. Well, okay, that’s a little dramatic.

But, the Boss hadn’t yet attempted the roof repair and rain was coming. I had some serious misgivings when he informed me that we would back the farm truck up to back porch, put the extension ladder in it and then he would crawl up the roof. All I needed to do was be on “stand-by”. (I figured that was code for "have 911 ready on the speed-dial")