40 Days

Hi again! I know, two posts in the same month, even the same week! Amazing! We have decided to dedicate the next 40 days to prayer for the creamery. We are going to run very hard at doing all we can that we feel we should to make sure this is right for us. We are going to be praying for wisdom and direction. We are going to be selling all these "extras" we've collected over the past few years. We are going to brainstorm and fundraise and work hard, focusing our time, talents and treaures on this new business venture. We feel strongly that if we run hard for 40 days, God will reveal to us if we should do this, how we should do this and all the other little details. Will you join us during this 40 days? We would love to rally together. We will need time, talent and treasures.

 

TIME-pray for us!! The more prayers, the better!

TALENTS-We will be remodeling our garage into a grade-A creamery and if anyone has time to help, let us know! Any knowledge of creamery, laws, fundraising ideas etc are all appreciated!

TREASURES-This endeavor requires us to purchase creamery equipment. This can be expensive. We are looking into all ways to get the costs down to an affordable place. We know that there is a complete creamery set-up for sale for about $85,000. We are seriously looking into it but also other avenues to maybe do this cheaper. Any contributions are greatly appreciated! www.gofundme.com/DerbyCreamery

We are excited to see what the next 40 days will bring!

Creamery!

Well we are surviving all of this very cold weather! Luckily it snowed before all of this so we think our newly seeded hay field will survive just fine. We are using this winter to try and figure out the future of our farm. We are going to produce maple syrup this year for the first time. Our friends are joining in and we are going to do a community effort, which is so helpful because we have never done this before. We will let you know how it goes! The sap should be flowing in the next several weeks so we are ready!

The other big item on our plate is the option of opening our own creamery! A few of John's siblings used to work for a grass-fed organic creamery and we have greatly enjoyed their products. They have sold their cows and their farm and they are selling all their creamery equipment. We know that this would launch us into full-time farming, which is our end goal but it is a little scarey. John's siblings would help us run it and the market is still wide open from the previous owners. We have a place to put it down the road from us but we are trying to figure out financing. Having capital is by far the hardest part of farming! We could do so much if only we had some extra money! We have started a fund for anyone that would like to help us pay for this equipment. Go to http://www.gofundme.com/DerbyCreamery to support us. Thanks!!! Maybe you'll see OUR milk  in stores near you! We plan to do deliveries around the state. :)

www.gofundme.com/DerbyCreamery

We are still alive!

I'm sorry we have not been posting lately! We have had such a busy schedule lately! We have raised 250 broilers (meat chickens), 30 hens, 4 piglets, 3 steers and 25 turkeys, many of which are still on our grounds! We were blessed to take a weekend and visit Polyface Farms in Virginia. Joel Salatin is the chief farmer there and has written several books on farming that we have read and follow. He was also featured in the movie, "Food Inc." It was a great time of learning and we have already learned how to make our farm better and more efficient. I'll try and update again later with more about what we are doing here on the farm but until then, I'll give you a few pictures!

Joel Salatin in the cowboy hat

Fun at the county fair!

There were over 1700 people in attendance at the farm day at Polyface Farms

John helping out a neighbor put up their hay

Noah is now 8 months!! Such a sweet boy!

One load of our hay

Paul loves the chickens! (Not sure they love him though!)

John cutting our first round of hay. (This is borrowed equipment from our neighbor)

Downsizing

What a cold, hard winter we have had and it is only the first part of January. Luckily, before the winter hit, we decided to downsize. We've tried out different animals and if they didn't work out for us, we passed them on to someone better. So far we have had to move out our first dog ever, Max. We got him for Grace on her birthday. Unfortunately, he liked the taste of chicken and killed at least 6 of my laying hens. This was unacceptable and he found a better farm without any chickens. Our turkeys met their fate in November. They were actually fun to raise and we look forward to getting more next year. We decided to sell our goats. They were just too much trouble, always getting out and being naughty. The hardest one for me was that we recently sold our laying hens (or John might call them our non-laying hens). They were becoming a waste of money as they were eating expensive organic grain and not producing any eggs. They were getting old too and their laying was slowing down. Now we are left with 3 growing calves and two dogs. The farm is feeling a bit empty but we have learned so much from all of the animals that we've had and we are making many plans for the spring. John keeps dreaming about a milk cow so we shall see! We are busy making many changes to how we are functioning with the farm so we are excited to finally start moving forward with products we will have to offer people. Stay warm!

One Penny

Noah Andrew Derby has arrived!

We have been blessed with another boy! He was three days early too! His labor was very easy with only a few contractions! God spoiled me this time! We are excited to get to know this little guy. Noah means "Child of Peace" as he was a very peaceful baby in the womb. Andrew is John's middle name and means "Strong One." Here are some pictures of our newest addition!

NOAH ANDREW DERBY 11-17-2013  9LB 6OZ  20.5 IN

Noah at 5 days

Hope loves her brother.

The girls love holding him.

Paul has done very well with being gentle with Noah.

Proud daddy.
 

Well our lives are FINALLY slowing down with the arrival of little Noah. All of our meat chickens have been butchered and are in the freezer. Our goats are penned up for the winter! This is huge as they don't get out everyday anymore! Our laying hens have been moved into the barn and aren't laying well (this is normal for the winter).  We have three calves and they are weaned off milk and just wander out to pasture and eat. We have 5 turkeys but they are on the chopping block for Thursday. I must say, even though it is cold, I am really enjoying the down time! God has blessed us with lots of family lately, so it has been fun. Enjoy the holiday season!

John, Kristin, Hope, Grace, Paul and Noah

ROLL CALL!

Well we have been busy (sorry for the lack of posts!)!  We have been adding to our farm and we are surely growing! Of course with the onset of Spring/Summer comes farm babies (which I am surrounded by!) Being a mother to so many is challenging, especially when I have my own kids! I am managing for now :) Here is a roll call of our latest members.

Zoe and her two kids Annabelle and Felix joined us at the end of May. John milks her every morning but we are still preparing everything to be able to utilize the milk.

These are our laying hens that survived the winter. We currently have 20 hens and 1 rooster (he is the white one). We usually average about a dozen eggs a day from them.  I have been fighting an infestation of chicken mites which made the chickens stop laying eggs but I think I have finally rid the birds of them and our egg count is back up. 

Max came to us on Grace's 3rd birthday. He is a redbone coonhound/Austrailian shepherd mix. He is fairly wild and likes to jump (this also may be the puppy in him) He is 5 months old and I have been learning from Cesar Milan on how to manage this pup. He's been much better so I guess he can stay :)

Clifford is a 3 month old purebred Australian Shepherd. He is a very sweet dog and has been a good sidekick to Max. He came to us about the end of May.

These are our meat chicks and turkeys.  We have 7 turkeys that we are raising as well that will be ready for butcher around Thanksgiving. We started with 62 meat birds, half of which were from a local grower.

This is our second batch of chicks about 2 weeks behind the other chicks. We will be butchering the end of July and the beginning of August-the coolest times of the year...not really!  Hopefully it won't be too hot! We do have some birds still available if anyone wants one call or email me! They will be about $8-$10 per bird.  Once I get a good idea of how much cost has gone into each, we will set an exact price. They are being fed all organic grain grown right in Rosebush!  I must say that they are significantly more tasty than conventional birds. I really only noticed when I tried to eat conventional chicken and could taste the chemicals in it (I've never been able to do that before!) We are working on becoming MDA(Mich Dept of Ag) approved for our butchering and once that happens, we will be able to sell birds more freely.  Being MDA approved doesn't mean our birds are any more clean but that we meet all of the butchering guidelines with walls, ceilings, water going to the "right" places, etc. Gotta love government regulations! Always so practical.

Our first fruits of our hay field! We are currently farming about 12 acres and are in the process of having our first cutting taken off. It should be a pretty good harvest as long as the rain can hold off a little!

 So now you are caught up on our farm happenings. We are working towards getting cattle on the property and so we are almost there.  We need more fencing which we are on the lookout for at auctions and such.  We are hoping by next spring to get some cattle to start building our herd for clean, grass-fed beef.  It will probably be at least 2 years until we can offer it ourselves but we know that it is better to build slow and grow into your farm.  Each step or animal is fairly stressful at first as we are trying to learn the best way to care for it or them and deal with the bad traits. Once we get the hang of it, it gets much easier and we are ready for another new thing. It certainly hasn't been an easy road we have walked.  It has required a LOT of patience, especially from me, but God is teaching me to relax and enjoy it and to not get caught up in the negatives. We are enjoying our summer season and we hope that you are too!

John & Kristin, Hope, Grace, Paul and baby