Fair Days

   My good intentions of blogging once a week have once again taken a backseat to the chores needing to be done around the farm. I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post.  Soon the gardens will be done for this season and that will free up lots of time for indoor pleasures such as writing. The gardens were quite successful this year with such perfect summer weather. My flower gardens all did beautifully and I was able to enter a lot of flowers in the Tunbridge Fair this year in the cut flower category. My entries included sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and celosias. I had sold so many bouquets of cut flowers in the past few weeks that I was really in a panic trying to find enough blooms for the arrangements for the fair entries. Luckily the flowers were in top condition and all received blue ribbons! My greatest honor was receiving the "Best of Show" rosette for a potted geranium I entered. This plant was bestowed with the "Libby Dodge Award" and was such a huge surprise and honor for me. It felt like Christmas when I was a kid!
   The animals are all doing well and the young chickens are finally laying eggs every day now. Unfortunately discovering that we have two roosters in the mix has left us without two laying chickens that we had counted on. I must say that the roosters are truly beautiful to look at though and delightful to hear crowing "Good Morning" each and every day. It's also nice that the chickens, ducks, sheep, and calf are all in the barn and chicken house earlier and earlier each night with the shorter days. That means my day has been ending earlier as well.
   I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely early fall weather.

Cosmos entered at the fair

Sunflower entry

Celosias entered at fair

Zinnias

"Best of Show"

 

The Ups and Downs of a Farm

   Last week was a stressful week for me. When I went out to the barn last Tuesday morning for morning chores I was greeted by one of our silver laced Wyandotte chickens savagely killed. Feathers were all over the ground and her head was totally gone. This is nothing anyone wants to see at 6 a.m. to start their day. She was one of our young chickens who was being kept in a large dog crate with her little flock at night, because they haven't yet learned to go into the chicken coop with the older chickens at sunset. Whatever got her tried to pull her through the spaces of the wire cage, pretty successfully. The rest of these little chickens are now living in the chicken coop with the big chickens at night courtesy of me chasing them and personally putting them in the coop each night. What a workout! I hope they get the idea of going in on their own soon.
   To further add to my stress Annabelle, our then 2 week old calf, needed to be dehorned. A job I hate. All dairy calves should be dehorned so as not to injure themselves by getting their horns caught on something, injuring other animals on the farm, and especially their handlers. Although a simple process if done at a very early age ( it involves shaving a spot where you can feel the horn buds coming in and then applying a caustic paste to the area the size of a quarter) it does really burn the poor calf for about an hour after applying the paste. After that they forget about it and the result is no horns. Annabelle was a wonderful patient with hardly any complaints. She held up better than I did. I actually didn't sleep well the night before, anticipating the deed. How silly!
   This week seems to be going much better, all the animals are happy and healthy. The gardens are doing beautifully with sunny days and weekly rain showers. We have even enjoyed our first beets and are still picking strawberries. The cut flowers are abundant, with different varieties coming on each week. Homegrown rewards for all the hard work of gardening!

At 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Annabelle drinks one 1/2 gallon bottle of raw milk from a local farm

And oh how she loves that bottle of milk

She also loves grass and clover

Our new barn star

A Calf for the Farm

   Already we are at the end of June. After a slow start to the growing season in the vegetable and flower gardens everything has suddenly taken off at once, especially the weeds. So it's weed, weed, weed every early morning and every evening. I have even been able to harvest some lavender in the new lavender garden and there is much more to come. My only regrets this year gardenwise is not having planted more lavender and strawberry plants. Oh well, there is always next year.
   I avoided a regret I knew I would have and brought home a one week old Jersey calf to the farm on Monday. She is just adorable, and we have named her Annabelle. Of course all of the sheep are terrified of this tiny calf, since sheep are pretty much scared of anything, but they are getting used to her ever so slowly.
   All of our little "birds" are growing up way to quickly. Our Wyandotte chicks are now pullets, the next step before becoming laying hens, and our little duckling, Beatrix, is almost full sized. How does this happen so fast? So I am staying put on the farm this summer and enjoying all my lovely farm animals and especially our little Annabelle while she spends her first summer as a little calf.

Annabelle taking a rest after her first bottle at her new home.

She really does look like a baby deer!

Beatrix getting bigger everyday.