up to date

so here is a succinct version of what transpired on three dog farm since last year...

in april, we got mail order chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery:

it always freaks people out that the chicks come in the mail. but, it is really okay. right before a chick hatches, it sucks the entire yolk in through its umbilicus and then doesn't eat or drink for at least 48hrs after it hatches. so, they are packed as soon as they hatch and are shipped overnight. the red blob in the left side of the box is a small sponge soaked with a vaccination against a particular strain of salmonella that infects poultry. that's lolly's nose on the right.

a few turkey hens hatched poults and we raised them for thanksgiving. here are three of them at a month old:



fox excavated a ton of trash and metal (see pile in foreground) from the site of the demolished barn so that we could have a garden. this was the part of the property that was in the worst shape when we bought it and i never imagined we would have a garden there in our first year:



but we ended up having a rather large garden and with all the manure and topsoil we added back things really grew well:


we had a lot of large pumpkins which i ended up feeding to the chickens and they went crazy for them:

in may we added three nigerian dwarf goats to help eat all the weeds and brush:




in august, we got parsnip. she was four months old and newly weaned from her mama when we got her. more on her later...

in september, much sooner than i had ever dreamed possible, i got my starter flock of icelandic sheep: