Furlind Farm

July 29th, 2009

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Sure has been hot. It makes you not want

to do anything.   We are cooler here, then those

on the west coast.   This is just our normal heat.  Every

season has its good and bad.  I would rather have the heat like

this, then for it to be colder then normal.

It will pass, then we will have the

cooler days of Autumn.

And with God's mercy, not another bad winter.

It should be easier this winter, then it was

last year, just because this is our second winter here.

After living in town for 12 years, you can

forget how hard it can be, to live in the country.

Living here can never be as hard as the

life we lived in the mountains of the Okanogan

River, northwest of here.   Our family had 200 acres,

but no power.   We had two drilled wells, and

used generators for water and lights in the evening.   There

were two houses on the property.

In its own way, it was very beautiful there.

Sometimes in the winter, we had to walk 3 miles

out to the gravel road, hoping to catch a ride the 7 miles

to town.   It is not the kind of life I

would want to do again.

Yellow Jackets will soon be out in number.

They are nasty mean.   We put out Apple juice in

quart jars, that have quarter inch holes in the metal lids.

You can get rid of hundreds of them, without using

poisons.   It works great.   Fill the jars half way with juice.

Let them sit outside, away from children.

The Yellow Jackets can not resist the smell of

ripening Apple Juice.

Hummingbirds are fighting over the

four feeders we have put out for them.

They spend most of their time, chasing each other.

Yesterday morning, we put the Brahma chicks outside at

the chicken coop.  They are only 3 weeks old, but they kept

getting out of their pens.   I don't want one of my Poms

getting one of the chicks.   They want to run and try

their wings.   The boxes are too small for that.

We run a risk of losing some, but I feel it is worth it.

We are building the run for the chickens (the fence

area around their building).   It has been hot

here, making it hard to work outside.

The chicks love being outside.

At night we close them in the chicken coop.

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July 12th, 2009

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There is a lot of work to do on a small farm.

We were able to double the amount of pasture we use

for our sheep.   This spring we bought a new Ram.

We raise Blackbelly Sheep, and we are very happy with them.

Hope to Register our new Ram this fall when we

join the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Asso. International (BBSAI).

Should be able to Register one of our three ewes,

we bought a year ago.

We no sooner finished the fencing,

and our new chicks arrive.

We will be raising Light Brahmas.

They are a large chicken, that has a good

temperament.   And the best part, is that they are

quieter then most chickens.   This part was very important,

Justin does not like chickens crowing.   Last year we had a rooster

that crowed in the middle of the night.    We soon found him a

new home.   We still have three banty hens and one rooster,

that made it through our rough winter.   Two of the hens

have given us some nice chicks, 12 of the chicks have

been sold.   Sara and I need to catch the other

hens chicks, so we can sell them too.

Two of the hens are setting on new

sets of eggs.   The chicks should hatch around

July 23rd.   From this hatching of chicks, we will keep

out some hens, to add to our bug catchers, the rest we will sell.

This coming week, we need to work on our chicken coop.

We have about one month to finish the work, before

we move the Brahma chicks out of their brooder box into their pen.

The Brahmas will be range chickens, giving us some very

fine eggs.   They should start laying some time in

February next year.   It will be nice to have good eggs again.

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April 3rd, 2009

We have been having the worst luck the last two weeks. First Thumper was due with bunnies on the 26th of March. She had them fine and everything looked normal but after I went back out to check on them all 9 of her bunnies had died. They were all in perfect condition and the nest looked normal so I am not sure what happened this was her second litter.

Then we had a seminar on Saturday that we had to go to and when we got home that evening Baby had decided to have her kids outside in the bad whether. We lost both baby goats.

On Sunday I spent 6 hours in the small goat building with Nana while she was in labor. She had a little buckling but he came wrong and he didn't make it either.

Ivy is due with babies any day and I am hoping things turn around for us.