Sunday at the farm was a very productive day.
We started tearing down the old greenhouse that had fallen in the "Blizzard of '08".
We found a bunch of chicken raising supplies from when my grandparents were raising a flock.
The major find was a big brooder. We just need to rewire it with a safer set up.
We also found a bunch of the original doors and windows off the house (c. 1876!). The doors were in really good shape.
There was a giant pickle crock that was cracked but repairable. I am sure the glaze is lead so we would not use it even if it were not cracked.
We took a peek into the old smokehouse and saw so many treasures that we want to go after. We are very patient though, knowing how unsafe that building might be.
At the entry way of the old chicken coop we uncovered a giant flagstone that was placed there to keep the mud down. My dad thinks he may have placed it there years ago.
This mama was all coy and shy about having her picture done.
This mama muscled her way in when I was taking pictures and shoved her mug right up into the camera to make sure I took her picture. She is a big ham but she is my favorite goat...don't tell the others. You can see her baby belly. I am guessing she will go another 4 weeks or so before we meet her little ones.
We have lots more to do in the coming months, stay tuned for updates.
Garden update: Yesterday we started 90 tomato plants, 48 cucumbers and 21 zuchinni plants!
Over on my Sugar Mountain Farm blog on the 800 lbs of Butter post you asked about pig diets.
ReplyDeleteYou can do very well without soy. I have raised three different batches of pigs that were fed entirely pasture. Pasture is low on calories so they are lean and they grow slower (8 months or so to market weight) due to the pasture protein limits on lysine. Adding dairy gives the pigs lysine and with some types of dairy will give them calories too.
Pasture/hay make up over 90% of our pigs' diet. Dairy makes up about 7% more. The last 3% is a mix of vegetables we grow like turnips, beets, pumpkins, sunflowers and such as well as apple pomace, peanut butter, bread and other good things as available. A variety of other foods is god if you have them to expand their diet.
See this list of articles for more on feeding.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
so i just realized you had a blog, sweet. now i can have some more farm envy.
ReplyDeletei love the goat pics, they are my very favorite. too sweet.