Fall in the South

Fall in the South is a beautiful thing. The cooler temperatures are like a breath of fresh air and the trees get all dressed up for the big event before shutting down for Winter. The sunrise this morning was one of those Clemson sunrises with the purples and oranges. The kids have been begging for a fire in the fireplace but Mamma has put the quiesce on that so far. She wants it to be really cold before we get the fire going. Get outside during this beautiful time of the year. Jack frost will be here before you know it!

Honey Harvest Day!

Well, today was an exciting day here on the farm. This picture is of my son enjoying some fresh honey from our hives. We don't get honey from our bees every year, mostly due to my lackadaisical bee management style, but this year was a good one for us. We got two supers full of honey. The white box in the left of the photo is a super. The super holds nine frames and the bees build their honeycomb inside each frame and then fill them up. Sometimes. Some years there isn't enough rain or there is too much rain, or the bees swarm (their natural method of propagating the species) and for whatever reason they can only produce enough honey for the hive to survive the winter and none for the beekeeper. Usually you will get about two and a half gallons of honey from a super and true to form we got five gallons from our two. That sounds like a bunch of honey but when you have a family of six and you use it to cook with, on pancakes, and for the topping of choice for the cathead biscuits, it is about a years worth. And you only "take off" the honey once a year so this is it until next summer.

There was a time when you would take off honey twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall, but the fall honey was almost exclusively from cotton and there hasn't been much cotton grown around here in a while.

The man in the background is not me, it is my Daddy. He is wielding an electrically heated knife that cuts the wax capping off of each frame of honey so it can be extracted. After the cappings are removed, each frame is placed inside the extractor which spins around and the honey drains out the bottom where it is double filtered to remove big wax particles.

My Daddy is the one that got me into beekeeping. He's the kind of guy that thinks if he's doing something everybody should be doing it so when he started keeping bees, he thought we all should. And I enjoy beekeeping, but I just don't have the time to devote to it like I should, so my bees are "free range" bees you might say. They pretty much make it on their own, or not.

So it was a great day spending most of the day with my son and my Daddy in his "honey house" doing alot of "quality control" and replenishing the honey stores for the coming year. I also got to see my Mamma for a few minutes who sent me home with cases of canned goods! Double bonus!!! I should write a whole blog entry about her kitchen sometime! I think I'll remember today for a long time.

Farm visitor

I had an early morning encounter with a visitor over the weekend. I went outside about daylight to let the dogs out and there stood a large Coyote about 100 feet away right at the pear trees at the end of the garden. He (or she) looked at me...I looked at him(her) and it took off for the woods. We have heard them howling before but I have never seen one up this close before. I know that they know that we have chickens now... not a good thing. Our chickens are semi-free range in that they get out of the coop and wander around but only in a fenced area, so hopefully that will be sufficient to keep them safe.

The other concern is that when you have Coyotes you DO NOT have deer or turkey. And with Deer season rapidly approaching I hope the Coyotes will move on out of here.

Puppies hit the one month mark.

Koko's puppies are one month old and doing well. They all have their eyes open and are walking well. We even get a little bark now and then. They are definitely getting more energetic and playful as well. We are starting to wean them with some puppy food and milk "mush" that they love.

In other "farm news" the baby chicks are growing fine as well as are the three new steers. With the almost daily rain it has been hard to keep up with grass cutting and bush hogging but this weekend is supposed to be sunny so maybe we can get caught up a little.

And then there were three.

From the shyest cow comes the shyest calf. Petunia had her calf on Sunday the 17th and he is very shy. The other two were very friendly the first couple of days but not this one. He has been running from us since he was born. All three are boys and all three have been "steered" We had planned to put any females back into the herd but none of the three are female so at this point it looks like one will go in the freezer and the other two will go to the sale. I've got to do some research about when is the best time to do all that. All three had their calves without any trouble or assistance. They all get an A+ for birthing ease.

New Calf Number Two!

Our second calf was born early this morning. It's not often I get to "steer" a bull before going to the office, but that was the case this morning. It was the first one I had ever done by myself so I was a little nervous about doing it but it seemed to go well. So we now have two male calves and Petunia looks to be ready to have her calf at any time.

As a side note, a female is a heifer until she gives birth and then she is referred to as a cow. We now have two cows and one heifer...at least for another day or so. A male is a bull until he is castrated and then he is a steer. Both of our newborns are now steers.

One of our steers will eventually end up in the freezer and all others will go to the sale. First generation females will go back into the herd. I would like to have 10-12 cows at some point. That is about all our pasture will support. My brother was telling me over the weekend that Angus are know for birthing ease and that has sure been our experience so far. My plan is to stay with Angus for the cows and use our Hereford bull.

Our first calf ever!

Our first calf ever to be born here on the 2811 was born early this morning. Sweet Pea is the momma and both seem to be doing fine. I just had a conversation yesterday with a friend who raises cattle and he said how much trouble heifers can be with their first calf so it is truly a blessing to just wake up and see a beautiful baby calf standing there next to its Mother. It is a boy so now I have to figure out this "steering" procedure!

The Puppies Are Here!! (All 12 of them)

Yes, you read that right...all twelve of them. Wow! Koko is doing a great job as a first time Mom cleaning and feeding her brood. We had no idea that she would have this many. We are first timers at this as well. We have never had a dog that had puppies before so we read alot, but nothing compares to the real thing! And just to complicate matters a little we are going out of town tomorrow. Melissa's parents are coming in to house sit/puppy-sit while we're gone. Right now we are contemplating whether it will be better to go ahead and have their tails docked tomorrow, wait until we get back, or try to get the inlaws to take them to the vet while we are gone?!? On another note, the insurance company FINALLY contacted us about storm damage. Looks like the wait will be worth it. No major arguments about their assessment. I am looking forward to this Florida trip but it couldn't have come at a worse time. I guess the icing on the cake will be if at least one of the heifers gives birth while we are gone LOL!

The week of waiting

This week we have been waiting. Waiting for our dog, Koko to have her puppies. Waiting for our three heifers to calve. Waiting for the insurance adjuster to call. Luckily the bees have kept our minds off of all the waiting by swarming.

When bees get crowded inside a hive, they make a new queen by feeding one egg a special diet. The old queen gets the hint and takes about half the bees and leaves. They don't go far at first and if you catch them before they move on you can get another hive of bees out of the deal. That is what happened today. My daughter Savannah saw the bees forming their swarm cloud and we watched them until they settled on a tree and then I cut off the limb and put them in another hive. They are very docile when swarming (not like in the "killer bee" movies). They are full of honey for the trip and stinging is the last thing on their mind. I was able to cut that limb and carry them to their new home without even disturbing them.

The downside is that the new hive will not in all likelihood make and surplus honey for us this year, but they will be in great shape to make honey next year.

Post Tornado Clean-up

There's nothing quite like the diesel power of a Caterpillar! My good friend Jim let me borrow this machine for a couple of days and we have moved the world with it. It will pick up a whole tree and never flinch. It will even finish breaking off half broken trees for you.

Planting day

I know this post is out of sequence but it just happened that way. We actually planted our garden early good Friday morning because they were calling for rain and we thought this would work our perfect?!? We did indeed get it planted...but little did we know that a big part of it would get washed away later that night! We were so excited because not long after we finished planting a little shower came...just enough to soak the ground good. We thought we were set. Needless to say there will be some replanting to be done later this week. And then it will be on to the chainsaw work.

Tornado 2009

We had a tornado (I don't care what the National Weather Service calls it!) come through The 2811 Friday night. We were on our way home from a good Friday church service when we came into the worst hail storm I have ever been in! Then it eventually subsided and we got into Abbeville to see what looked like a war zone! Debris everywhere...houses without roofs... signs blown out. And then we finally got home and I say finally because the first several routes we tried were either blocked because of downed trees or downed power lines and we found some damage here at the farm but not near as bad as it could have been. We are thankful that our house is OK and no one was hurt.

Countdown to Puppies

Today is April 7th and Koko has 16-20 days left until the puppies come. Some sources say that it is 63 days and some say it's 67 days so we'll just have to see when they actually are born. One big variable with dogs is how many will they have and how will we know when she is done? We are considering x-raying her so we can get a head count before the action starts. I have an X-ray machine at my office and a friend of mine (thanks Heidi) who works at an animal hospital is getting me the correct factors to use to x-ray a pregnant dog for the count. The father-to-be has already sired two other liters that were 11 puppies each! Koko's whelping box is in the house (she has been an outside dog all her life) so she has been spending more and more time inside as she gets bigger and more lethargic. The idea is to get her very comfortable there so she will have her puppies in it and not under the bed or behind a bush or something. She has not had any trouble at all adapting to a more inside life. The trouble will come when she has to transition back outside! Surely the weather will be nice and warm by then and she will want to be outside. We'll see.

The Pond is Full Again!!

After getting three and a half inches of rain/snow a few weeks ago and another inch and a half this weekend, our pond behind our house is finally full again for the first time in several years.

When we moved here in 1991 the pond was full and since it is a spring fed (as opposed to just run-off) it always stayed full within just a few inches. That was until the drought hit! In the past several years it has been several feet low at times. We had wondered if it would ever be full again, but God has sent the rains and it is full once again.

The pond provides for us in several ways. It has fish (Bream, Catfish, and Bass) in it so we have the enjoyment of fishing. And we are catch and eat not catch and release so it puts food on the table occasionally as well. We also have a rope swing in one of the large trees next to the edge of the pond which provides many hours of entertainment during the hot summer months. And sometimes in the quiet of the evening it's nice just to slide around in our canoe and enjoy being on the water.

This is one of our daughters and our LBD (little brown dog). She is a registered Boykin Spaniel and she is due to have puppies on April 27th! We got her whelping box inside today and she will start to come in and get used to being in it so when her time comes she will be comfortable there. Dogs take about nine weeks compared to our nine months so in doggy time she is about at the end of her first trimester. All the stuff we've read say that it is 67 days from conception to puppies... not 66 or 68, 67! We'll see. We had her bred by artificial insemination last year and it didn't work. She went through a false pregnancy but no puppies. This time we did it the old fashioned way with a younger male and are hopeful for better results. This male (Beau) has already fathered two litters...both of which yeilded 11 puppies! Stay tuned.

Egg Production

Our Golden Comets have been faithful egg layers since they started back in August. They really caught us off guard because they started laying before we were expecting them to. (Turns out they are early layers) This is our chicken coop and run. We are getting more chicks next month so we will have to expand the coop and the run before then.



You need one laying box (about a foot square) for every 3 or so chickens so we have seven. Here is one of our girls laying an egg. Even though they have seven boxes to choose from they have their favorites. When we pick up the eggs, there will be some boxes that have six or seven eggs and some that have none.

Before...

We got the garden spot tilled up for the first time this year yesterday. The chickens are enjoying the fresh dirt to scratch around in for now. The kids also enjoyed running around in it. I love our rear-tine tiller attachment for the tractor...I can't imagine the old days of plowing up everything with a mule and a plow. We will try to till it up a couple more times before we lay off rows and plant our garden. Then I'll post some "after" pics once everything gets growing. We hope to can alot of vegetables this year so we're praying for a good garden year.

Angus Cows on Green Grass

We have been working hard recently rehabilitating the fence around this pasture and finally finished it this week. We moved our three heifers onto it two days ago and they are really enjoying it. We are half owner of a Hereford bull but he is at his other home right now visiting his other girls. These heifers are all pregnant and should have their calves next month (April) if all goes well.

The Honey Factory

This is our "bee yard" as it is called by beekeepers. It is 49 degrees today so they are staying in and keeping warm. Bees keep the inside of the hive a toasty 95 degrees no matter what the temperature outside by getting in a tight ball and buzzing. The Red Maple trees and several fruit trees are starting to bloom so they have been busy but today staying warm is job one!

Snow on the 2811!

Snow has become quite rare here on the farm in recent years, but this year we actually got a few inches. Enough to take a half day off work and for the kids to play in it and build a small snowman. I know many people who grew up in the north who could care less about seeing snow, but for us southerners snow is a big event. We raid the grocery stores and watch for the school/business closings. Our snow came in March this year; a little late but welcome none the less.

Farm Fresh Eggs

Fresh out of the chicken coop eggs! Nothing like them. They are so different than the store-bought ones. I love how not-uniform they are..different sizes, different colors, a few "freckles" here and there. The shells are stronger than the ones in the store. The yellows are almost orange they are so full of good Omega 3 fatty acids. They smell better than other eggs when they are cooking, but most importantly, THEY TASTE BETTER! The picture is about what we normally get per day here on the farm. We now have 24 chickens and we get 22 eggs on average each day. And with four children and a few regular customers, none of them go to waste. It's hard to believe, but it is once again time to sign up for the 4H pullet chain project that started this whole chicken adventure last April. We have some interested participants but I'm not sure I want to enlarge the coop and the run to accomidate more chickens. And then there is the question shold we do the day-old chicks again or just buy year old layers. Buy chicks and do the 4H project or just buy chicks from a supplier? Questions we'll have to answer pretty soon as the days get longer and Spring is on the way.

The death of Shimmers

Well we lost our first chicken last week. We hadn't lost a one in the nine months that we had been raising them from chicks. It appears to be a victim on Coccydiosis. Everyone else seems to be fine and egg production (~22 usually) hasn't changes so we assume that she hasn't been laying for some time. She went rather fast. Just as we noticed that she was not moving around as much as the others and figured out what the problem was she expired before we could start any treatment. It was a good "farm lesson" for the kids. Death is a part of life on the farm. That doesn't stop them from crying when it happens though.

We are now letting our chickens out of their run during the day to have free rain of the whole farm. They don't go very far but they love being out and about. They all usually start heading back to the coop around and hour before dark and go back in without too much coaxing. I had heard that once they get used to roosting in one place they would return there at night and it's true!