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