The Twenty-eight Eleven

New Addition on 8-16-11

2011-08-17T20:04:00.000-04:00

We had a beautiful little girl (heifer) born here on the farm on Tuesday morning,8-16-11. She was very unexpected. Based on when we had put the bull in with our girls we thought that we would have three calves born in the late winter/early spring. Well we waited and waited and finally we had one born in April. Then we waited and waited and waited some more but none to follow. We had to face the disappointment that two of our three cows did not "take" if you know what I mean.

With everything else going on this summer we just sort of put it on the back burner and said well that's farming for you?!? We had thought for a while that one of the other two cows looked like she might be in the family way but then nothing ever happened so we just wrote it off to eating a lot of grass. The funny part is the mamma of the new calf is not even the one that we thought looked pregnant! (Can you tell we're new at this? lol) To add to our excitement the third cow appears to really be pregnant now so we're thinking she might deliver in the next month or so. So much for planning when our cows will have calves!

Another exciting aspect to this is that it is in fact a female! We have had only males up until now. We had thought in the beginning that we would slowly grow our herd by adding any females born to the breeding stock (it's safe to do that for one generation) And then of course we had male after male after male until now and finally a girl! And she's a real cutie! The girls named her "Snow" because she looks like she's been walking in the snow and got it on her feet and ears and face of course.

White Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T15:18:00.007-05:00

We got a RARE snow on Christmas Day and the day after. 1963 was the last time we had a white Christmas. Snow is always a treat but to get it on Christmas is special indeed.

Some years we don't even get a snow; but to get enough to build a snowman is rare indeed.

It's Finished!

2010-12-17T14:24:00.002-05:00

Melissa has been working on a quilt and today it is finished! It looks great! Check it out!

Makin' Bacon!

2010-12-14T20:49:00.008-05:00

Last year we grew out a pig and had her processed but we chose to make our own bacon. We made up our rub from salt, brown sugar, and honey.

And then we rubbbbbed it in!

Then we bagged it up and refrigerated it for seven days; turning it each day. Then you take it out, rinse it off good and let it sit uncovered for 24 hours in the fridge and you got bacon! We cut it into one pound pieces and froze it. We got ~16 pounds of bacon from our pig.

Stud

2010-12-04T13:35:00.003-05:00

This is our Hereford Bull, Samson, or Obeast as the girls lovingly refer to him. He is a fine specimen and gets along good with our girls. We have the cows in the pasture closer to the house so we get to see them more. He was so posed for this picture I couldn't resist!

New Residents

2010-11-30T19:34:00.002-05:00

We picked up these two porkers on Sunday afternoon up in Pickens county. They are a cross between a Hampshire and a Yorkshire. The black and white one (Templeton) is a barrow (a fixed male) and the pink one (Buttermilk) is a female. They are VERY tame piglets. The kids are having a great time with them. They were born on October 1st so they should be ready for the freezer by March 1st or a little later. Our thinking is that we are going to grow them both out and sell one and see how much of the cost that covers for both of them. In a perfect scenario,
the profit from one would cover the feed and processing for the other and you end up with a free pig in the freezer. According to estimates, we would have to raise 7 pigs and sell 6 of them to have a totally free pig. We'll see how two goes for now.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T09:32:00.003-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Have a blessed day counting your blessings and enjoying your friends and family. I hope your house is smelling as good as ours does. We cooked one of the hams from the pig we raised last winter and it looks and smells great. Of course I had to break into the browning bag and do a little "quality control" and it tastes pretty good as well. Only a few hours now until the festivities begin. Friends, Family and food. A great trio for my favorite Holiday.

I went deer hunting for a few minutes this morning. I looked to the west as it got daylight and it looked cloudy-dark and then it started to gently rain so I decided to head on back to the house. Hopefully I'll get another deer or two before the season ends.

We hope to pick up another piglet this weekend. I've been talking to a guy who has some that should be ready to go. we'll get some pictures of that and some other stuff around here we need to catch up on and put them up this weekend hopefully.

Meat Chickens - Cut, Scald, Pluck, Clean

2010-09-27T19:45:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago it was time to process our meat chickens. This was our first ever attempt at growing chickens to eat. We have had layers for egg production for a few years now but this was totally different. Layers don't usually lay their first eggs until they are around 17 weeks old. These girls were ready to be processed at 7 weeks! So it's a fairly short deal start to finish.

The first step was to put them upside down into the cone and slit their Carotid arteries so they just slowly pass out and die as opposed to chopping their head off and then they, yes they really do run around like a chicken with it's head cut off! Next after they have peacefully slipped off into never never land they go into some 140 degree water for 60 seconds to loosen the feathers. Then they go to the plucking table where the feathers are removed.

Next the head and feet are cut off and the evisceration(removing the innards) begins. The livers and gizzards are put into a separate bag and the chicken is ready for the freezer or frying pan.

We were painfully slow as this was the first time but we got faster as we went along. Next spring we will get more broilers and hopefully be even faster yet.

Eating chicken that you grow yourself; that you feed healthy food; that you don't feed antibiotics and hormones is a very rewarding and delicious experience.

Savannah's big Catfish

2010-09-13T08:54:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a big day for us even for a Sunday. Beside church, small group, a birthday slip and a slide party, Savannah and a friend of hers managed to land the biggest fish ever caught in our pond! It was a huge catfish and they had to fight hard and as a team to get him in. Savannah hooked him but quickly saw that a net would be needed to get him in so she sent her friend to get the net. And they persevered and got it in and soon it will be dinner. There are several things I need to get on this blog but none as exciting as this big giant. Great job girls!

Blackberries!

2010-07-12T20:18:00.004-04:00

My Mom called Saturday and said that their blackberry crop was flowing like milk and honey! She invited me to come up and get some so Savannah and I rode up there and picked up a few gallons. My Dad had rooted me some blackberry plants and we have 6 planted but they are still pretty small this year. Next year we should be "in the berries" ourselves. These are those huge berries like you see in the stores and another bonus is these plants don't have any thorns!

Well Melissa didn't waste any time getting them cooking and made several jars of blackberry jelly, blackberry jam, and blackberry cobbler filling. We will be enjoying these berries for a long time to come. As well as I can understand, this is the essence of sustainable farming. Harvesting whatever is in season and then preserving enough to make it until the next harvest. Blackberry jelly year round sounds good to me. (In moderation, of course!)

2010-07-07T13:37:00.002-04:00

That's right! The Durham clan headed out for a little hiking for the 4th. We headed up into the mountains above Lake Jocassee. It was beautiful and much cooler than here! One funny thing was since our cell phones didn't work there no one had a watch so we didn't know what time it was for two days! But then we didn't need to know what time it was...that was the cool part. Savannah did finally figure out that the camera would show the time on a certain setting. Thanks Meredith for taking the picture.

The games of summer

2010-06-22T20:23:00.005-04:00

With yesterday being the first day of summer I guess it should come as no surprise that we would have the first watermellon seed-spitting contest of the year. The watermellon had been chilling in the fridge for a couple of days so it was great. Then came the challenge!

"Do ya'll want to have a watermellon seed spitting contest?"

Let the games begin!

Not a bad mornings work

2010-06-19T09:13:00.003-04:00

Last night Savannah asked if we could go fishing this morning before they had to go for their CPR/First Aid training. I told her we would have to go at 6AM and she said OK so we got up and went and the fish cooperated! She caught 6 and I caught 1 :-( It was a great time and we got enough for a great meal for our family It doesn't get any better than that. My Fathers Day weekend is starting off pretty sweet.

We were in the boat and the dogs were following us around the bank as we fished and then I saw one of them up on the deck so I thought they had given up. Then to our surprise here comes Cabella swimming up to the boat! We let her in and made sure to keep her away from the hooks and the fish. She seemed very happy to be in the boat with us so next time we will try just taking her from the start. Koko would follow us around but she was not going to swim out to us. She will get in the water but she has to have a little coaxing.

Well the early-morning fog has burned off and the sun is out so it's on to checking chickens, cows, bees and the garden. Have a great Fathers Day everyone.

Hot Pepper

2010-06-12T19:15:00.002-04:00

One plant that must be grown here on the 2811 is hot pepper. Melissa loves it and now she has some of the kids eating it as well. It's a little too hot for me but they love it so we plant a few of them. This one is a Cayenne but we also usually plant Jalapeno and this year we planted one called a cow horn which has been a hit as well. You would think that these fireballs would be bad for your stomach but research actually shows that they are good for it. It kills some of the bad guys that cause trouble.

2010-06-12T18:19:00.011-04:00

This is our garden so far this year. Everything is going very well with the exception of the attack of the squash beetle/borer worm whatever it is killing our squash plants! We think we have it under control now with a combination of "pick and drown" and diatomatious earth but we'll see. Diligent hoeing has kept the weeds under control this year as opposed to most years the weeds are getting ahead of us by now.

We did get a very late start this year. Usually we try to get most things planted on Good Friday but this year it was May 1st before we got it planted. It was tractor issues and then it was just too dry when we thought about planting so we waited and it seems to be paying off.

We tried a new thing this year of growing cucumbers upright on a tomato cage and it is working great (Thanks Lazy B for that idea). They take up a fraction of the space and don't lay on the ground where they tend to get discolored and eaten by bugs.

Our latest garden ever!!

2010-06-04T15:14:00.013-04:00

We usually get our garden planted on Good Friday but not this year! It was May 1st before we got it going this year but it is going well so far. We have kept the weeds under control better than usual and God is providing plenty of rain. We got our first cucumber last week and squash and zucchini are starting to come in as well. Our corn is only about knee high so it will be a while yet on that. The okra looks good but no blooms yet. We planted several varieties of Tomatoes this year and we have several green tomatoes but no ripe ones yet. We got 5 inches of rain in the past week!!! That definitely caused some washing but we have got some dirt moved around now so it is mostly back to normal.

This is our rain gauge full of water! We haven't had this much rain in a coon's age. It is rare indeed when we have to dump out our gauge because it is full, but that is exactly what happened Monday. I would have really liked to have had this rain over several days or even weeks but hey, we take it when we can get it!

The bees seem to be having a good year so far. I have two "supers" on most of the hives and each one could potentially have 2.5 gallons of honey. Of course they will not all be full but some years we have not had ANY surplus honey so it looks like we will at least get some this year. Also we have not "seen" and swarms. That is not to say that we haven't had any but I try to check them pretty often. Hopefully they have been too busy making honey to think about packing up and leaving!

Polyphemus

2010-04-06T18:51:00.003-04:00

Noah and I were hiking through the woods last fall when we came across a khaki colored cocoon like thing about the size of the end of my thumb. We picked it up and decided to take it home and see if it would hatch out. Well today was the day. We had put it in a cricket bucket with some leaves (we found it in the leaves) and put a tin foil lid on it. Melissa was the first one to see it hanging from the top. When they crawl out of their cocoon they have to hang upside down so the fluid will fill out their wings and they will be able to fly. We took the top off and set him out on the deck and by the time we checked after supper he was gone. He was a beautiful specimen and I'm sure he is off in search of a female as he will only live for a couple of weeks.

Turkey Hunt

2010-04-02T10:44:00.003-04:00

God blessed me and Noah with being able to harvest a mature gobbler this morning. Good Friday sure is starting off good! I would just like to take a moment to thank my good friend Tommy Hite for introducing me to Turkey hunting. He put up with my terrible calling and rookie mistakes for years which now has allowed me to begin to pass on this great outdoor activity to my son. So thanks Tommy...this one's for you.

To Organic or not to Organic

2010-03-05T19:03:00.002-05:00

We are researching what it would take to make our farm "Certified Organic." I met with a guy from the Soil and Water Conservation Office today who gave me some paperwork to look over and so that is where we are right now. I really don't think we are that far off from Organic but I know there would have to be some changes and I'm not sure I want the government deciding how I run my farm. I guess it will boil down to how much it will cost (over $500 just for the initial certification) and would it ever work out to be a "budget neutral" item on our small farm. Would we be better off just staying "all natural" and not going the extra mile to Organic city? We'll see!

Snow on the 2811!!!

2010-02-12T18:52:00.002-05:00

In a rare appearance ......we have snow! Or as a friend of mine put it, "a precipitation accumulation sensation!" The kids, of course, had to get out and play in it but I was content to sit by the fire and eat home made oatmeal raisin cookies. It is now 7:00pm and it is still coming down pretty good. The low for tonight is 26 so maybe we'll have some more play time in the morning.

Blackberries

2010-02-09T13:16:00.003-05:00

Here is the beginning of our thornless blackberry trellis. It is 30 feet long and a little over 7 feet tall. So far all we have are the main posts up, but I thought it would be good to document the building of it in stages. When you can't farm full time you have to do things in stages as time, funds, and the weather allow. I got these posts up this morning before the rain came (again). As you can see the chickens were looking on with their usual curiosity.

Winter

2010-01-08T16:49:00.004-05:00

Winter is definitely here! The pond froze completely over this week which has not happened in years. The high for today is 34!

We have a pig now. I made a great trade for her. I traded our horse for her. I figured trading an animal that does nothing but eat for one that we can eat was the best horse trade (pun intended) I have ever made. She is now big enough to process, so she won't be with us much longer. She has an appointment on the 19th. I really wanted to butcher her myself but in all my research it just appeared that I didn't have the proper set up for the scalding part to get the hair off and I also found out that skinning a pig is very difficult as well. Combine this with the fact that she weighs about 300 pounds and I just decided that I am not going to be able to process this one. We may "finish" another pig next fall and maybe I will be ready by then. I am going to cure the bacon and hams myself...that part looks pretty easy.

Fall in the South

2009-10-29T09:47:00.007-04:00

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!

2009-08-21T21:34:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-12T14:23:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-05-28T13:28:00.003-04:00

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.

2009-05-19T13:25:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-05-13T20:08:00.005-04:00

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!

2009-05-07T08:05:00.003-04:00

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)

2009-04-28T21:32:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-26T22:51:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-18T21:35:00.007-04:00

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

2009-04-12T23:39:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-12T23:30:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-07T21:40:00.003-04:00

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!!

2009-03-17T12:56:00.003-04:00

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.

2009-03-13T14:51:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-13T14:31:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-03-13T14:22:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-13T13:48:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-13T13:07:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-03-13T12:59:00.002-04:00

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

2009-01-27T16:37:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-21T14:59:00.000-05:00

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!

Thundering Falls

2008-12-11T21:59:00.000-05:00

We have gotten several (our rain gauge froze so I don't know exactly how many) inches of rain today and are proud of each and every drop. We are in the midst of a severe drought here in the Southeastern United States so the rain is very welcome. Our pond has been extremely low and it came up visibly today though not near full. On down the creek below the dam is a small waterfall that we call Thundering Falls. When I say a small waterfall I mean a small waterfall like less than two feet! It got it's grandeous name when the kids were real little and there was this show on TV about dinosaurs and they lived near a huge waterfall they called Thundering Falls so when we discovered our small waterfall it was called Thundering Falls and has been ever since. It's so funny when people come over for the first time and we say, not even thinking about it now because we have just always called it that, "let's go show them Thundering Falls!" I am quite sure people think we have fliped our lid when they see this two foot trickle that we call "Thundering Falls" :-)

What is an ox?

2008-12-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

I have a friend who is a medical doctor and he shared an interesting piece of information that was farm related (he's a part-time farmer like me) so I thought I would post it here for your viewing pleasure. We read about oxen in the bible but do you ever see an ox farm? I don't and now I know why. As it turns out, any animal that pulls a farm implement can be called an ox! So if you hook up a plow to old Buster, he is by definition an ox. I know there is a specific animal in some parts of the world that are called oxen, but they look suspiciously like a bull to me!

2008-12-09T14:51:00.000-05:00

Well those Golden Comet chicks we got back in April started laying in August (not september like projected which meant that I did not have the laying boxes finished in time!) and we have been collecting about two dozen eggs per day since Labor Day. We have enjoyed having "farm-fresh" eggs as well as selling a few dozen a week to friends and neighbors.

The 4H pullet chain project is also over. For this, one of our daughters had to keep a record of everyhing associated with the raising of the chickens and egg production. She received a perfect score on her record book and a blue ribbon for her "show chicken." She sold five chickens for $10 each. Wanna guess who bought them? Yea I bought my own chickens back. My wife sent me with strict orders that I had better come home with those chickens! I was glan ours went first too. By the end of the auction those chickens were going for upwards of $20 each!

Getting Ready for Spaghetti

2008-10-07T15:55:00.000-04:00

Our Small Group is sponsering a spaghetti dinner after church this Sunday to help out a needy family. It is great to see how when everyone pulls together that it's not too much work for anyone and it all gets done.

Happy Birthday Noah!

2008-10-07T10:34:00.000-04:00

Well today is my only begotten son's sixth birthday! We are officially out of the toddler stage of life. And we don't have a teenager yet so I say we are in the Golden Years. Life is good!

The chickens are laying two dozen eggs per day on a regular basis which is great. 24 eggs from 25 chickens figues out to be 96% production which is way on the high end. We have one that lays a "doublle yoker" most days.

The Twenty-eight eleven

2008-07-15T11:17:00.000-04:00

The Twenty-eight eleven is the name of our farm. It comes from Deutronomy 28:11 which reads: "The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you." We count on God's blessings for our life as we know it so we thought it appropriate to go ahead and give Him all the glory for anything good that we produce, be it crops, cows, or children. This blog will be a fun project for us to document what is going on at our farm and hopefully share some natural ways of farming along the way (as we learn too).