Canning pears!

I was given about 25 pounds of pears.  I canned them in a light sauce with vanilla.  I also made a caramelized pear sauce to put on ice cream.  I'm looking forward to trying the recipe and to enjoying home canned goods instead of store bought preservatives.  I really enjoy canning and am so glad I learned.

Healthy...

So far it looks like our last two remaining calves are doing better and dare I say it, healthy.  The 6 week old chicks are getting to take field trips around the pastures and scratch for bugs.  They loved it today.  Looks like we have more roosters than we need so we will be selling or culling heavily in another couple weeks.  The broilers will be here in about 2 weeks so that will be yet another adventure on the farm.  Never fear there will be pictures when they get here and as they grow and again as we butcher.  There are three different types coming so they will all get butchered at different times.  The Turkeys are ready for processing but we need some supplies.  I better get on that this weekend or next week.  Things are looking up for us, healthy animals, extra money coming in and kids doing good in school.

Chickens

The baby chicks are about 6 weeks old now, and growing big.  Feathers are coming in beautifully and we are even able to tell if some of them are roosters or hens.  Sadly many of the full size chicks are looking to be roosters so they will either find new homes or be dinner.  In the spring with the Blue Laced Red Wyndottes start hatching we will place another order for pullets only instead of straight run so we won't have to worry about as many roosters popping up.  The picture is one of our bantam chicks.  She is a partridge cochin bantam.  Very pretty feather pattern.  Cochin means that she will have feathers on her feet and bantam means half size for those unaware of what all that meant.  Looks like all three blue cochin bantams are roosters so hubby said I could order some full size blue cochins in the spring.  I really love the blue coloring on chickens.  Hubby said the sky in this pictures looks fake, but it isn't, it's just beautiful Texas sky.

Another loss on the farm

About 5 days after we lost Little Girl we lost Johnny.  Things are not looking good for the calves but I am not giving up.  We are doing everything we can to save them.  Sadly the dairy bottle calves are not known for their survive ability.  I am however getting a great lesson in animal care and how to doctor calves.  Which will pay off exponentially in the future.  We have purchased some medicated milk to help with scours and possible pneumonia infection.  We are holding out hope that it will be just what the last two calves need to make it and turn the right corner.  The last two are older than Little Girl and Johnny and stronger.  Both lost their umbilical cords in the last 24 hours.  We are suspecting they are about 4 weeks old which increases our chances of saving them.  And if for some reason we lose them too, we will know that we did everything we could to save them.  And we will try again.  Once Pretty Boy and Patches are on feed we will move them to the "bigger" pasture area and try to bring in a couple more bottle babies before the end of the year.  We also lost one of our 6 week old chicks yesterday which was sad for my oldest.  She was a white polish hen that my oldest had named Blossom.  We also found that out of 10 hopeful laying hens, 6 appear to be roosters.... That isn't great odds but we will get a few more pullets (15) in the spring.  Chicken math at work.

First major farm loss

We lost our first big farm animal last week.  Sadly it was our little heifer calf that we were planning to keep and breed next spring/fall 2016.  We aren't sure what happened.  She was seemingly fine at breakfast and by night feed she was on the ground and died about 90 mins after I found her.  It was for sure hard, hubby was out of town, so I was at home with the kids trying to figure out what to do.  I proved to myself that I am able to handle this farm life we chose.  I was able to pull myself together, dispose of her and still get up the next morning and take care of the other animals.  Had to put my big girl panties on, life and death are all part of being a farmer.  Not every animal we bring on the farm is going to stay and not every animal is going to survive.  It is sadly the way of farm life and one that we are having to learn quickly.  I have proven to myself that I can do it, and while it is hard and unpleasant, I have mustered through it.  We are already planning to get a nurse cow in the Spring (unless we manage to do it sooner) and possibly a couple more calves after these are weaned and on solid food. 

Cute picture

Really just wanted to post this adorable picture of our heifer Little Girl.  We are thinking of naming her Belle since Little Girl will only last so long :).  Soon she won't be little at all.  She is adorable and I am glad she is staying with us for the long term.  She had pink eye when we got her but she is getting better each day.  I can't wait until they start putting on some weight so they don't seem so sad and skinny.

Bottle calves

My dreams really came true this week when we purchased 4 bottle calves. One is a heifer so that is amazing. They are all healthy and eating good. We are blessed that our neighbor is a retired veterinarian and he came and checked them all out.  Our Little Girl has pink eye but it's already getting better this morning.  Doc gave us some ointment to put in this morning and we gave her a shot of antibiotics.  Expect many more pictures of the babies growing up :).  There are three Holsteins and one Jersey calf. I think we have broken all the rules when it comes to meat animals.  We name all of them and love on them LOL.  Little Girl is the heifer, she is the one eating in this picture.  Next to her with a more white/bald face is Patches.  Then there is Johnny (thanks to my oldest) and Pretty Boy is the Jersey.  He is actually a friend of ours that she bought, so that what she started calling him last night.  I've wanted cows for so long I can't even remember when I didn't want them.  That and horses, but we need a barn so it will be a couple more years before horses.

46 chickens Oh My!

Yep we are up to 46 chickens on the farm. We have 2 laying hens, 2 year old roosters, 14 juvenile hen's, 1 juvenile rooster, 4 week old chicks, and 23 chicks that are about 5 weeks old. Plenty of eggs once they start laying. Lots of bantams, some silkies, Polish and many other rare or unique girls to decorate the yard. This is our newest rooster, Mr. Fluffy (so named by the 3 year old).  He is cool looking and will be great for the bantam ladies.

Farm name change?

So my friend said we should name this the Pretty Farm since all our animals are so pretty :).  At the time she was making reference to our plethora of colorful chickens, but we also have beautiful Turkeys, and colorful cows.  So perhaps that is a better name...  The Poffenbarger Pretty Farm.  Hey, it could work, it's for sure growing on me.

Feeder pigs arrived Mid July

We got feeder pigs for the farm.  We got them in the middle of July so they are about 3 months old now.  We have about three months more until we butcher them for bacon.  We love bacon and ham.  It amazes me how much personality they have.  I never knew how fun they were to watch.  Will that make it hard to butcher?  Most likely, however none of the big animals are being butchered by us.  They will all go to the local butcher and be killed/butchered there.  I know I am giving them a good life and giving my kids better food.

Zucchini Relish and Canning

In July I made zucchini relish and it has been a big hit around here. It's not the only thing we canned though. We were blessed with cucumbers and while the sweet pickles didn't turn out good the bread and butter pickles are great. My apple butter has been a huge hit among everyone who has tried it. The strawberry syrup is my favorite for waffles. And the white chocolate raspberry jam is Linda's favorite lunch snack. It's been a great first year of growing and canning. Hubby loves the salsa I've been making and canning. 12 jars gone in just 6 weeks lol. Granted all half pints but still he is the only one eating them. We have tomatoes in the freezer that I hope to can later this fall and more cucumbers to make more bread and butter pickles with.  And thankfully the time is coming for a fall garden to be planted.

Clothesline

Hubby put up a clothesline for me this weekend. Scratch another project off the ever growing list lol. But I'm thrilled to have it. It will save on energy costs. Both in keeping the house cool and running the dryer. We are making good forward progress. 

Garden love

I am loving our garden.  I've killed alot of it :) but I've had some success too.  I'm thrilled with our zucchini plant that is doing well.  I've learned I can plant more so I will be doing that tonight when I go out.  I already cleaned out the bed that was killed by grasshoppers.  The picture with this post is my zucchini.  I joined a facebook group for Texas small farms and homesteads and I have learned a bunch.  So glad I looked around.  The cucumber seems to be trying to start producing so I look forward to that.  Oh and the pumpkin patch has taken off.  So yeah I won't get enough to can this year but I am hopeful that in years to come my little garden will provide nummy food for the family.  For now we will enjoy fresh zucchini bread a couple times a week.

Moving forward, Turkeys!

We got so much rain in the month of May our pastures are amazing.  The goats and chickens are doing great.  We have come to the conclusion that the goats and chickens need separate eating areas.  And that is ok.  We are learning and growing out little farm and we are going to make mistakes and need course corrections.  That is part of the fun of having our own farm is making our own mistakes.  No one is perfect their first go round.  I have to say I wasn't expecting to enjoy the turkeys as much as I do.  They are so friendly and silly.  I hope next year to get a breeding pair to have around all year instead of just until the holidays :).  The kids have named the white turkey Pancake.  Very fitting IMO.  So we are going to build another pasture for the goats and move them out of the chicken area and remove the fencing from the chickens.  They will have free range of the whole yard instead of just the enclosed area that we have initially given them.  I think it will prove to be better in the long run.  However, things are always bound to change.

New farm animals

For mother's day and my birthday this year the hubby bought me some meat goats to get our little farm going.  We hope to grow the herd and sell the babies we don't want to keep.  These are little pygmy goats.  Well and speckles is in the background photo bombing :).  New meat goats for the farm. Gracie, Gigi and George. So excited for our little farm to grow. 

Power!

They put up the power pole today including a new meter and a new transformer.  We are so thrilled.  We weren't expecting it to be put in until next week.  Which was fine since we won't move the house until next week sometime.  So looking forward to the house being moved and being done moving.  OR mostly done.

The garden

Things are really moving along now.  We put in most of the new garden including a 6ft fence and gate.  We have moved 5 chickens out there.  We took all four bantams and one full size laying hen, the barred rock speckles.  We may get more this year or wait until next year depending on money.  Everything takes time and money on a farm :).  In case you didn't know.  All 5 fruit trees are doing good, blooming and thriving.  The house should be moved next week and we even fixed up the driveway a bit.  We are so close to the starting line.  We plan to get a few pygmy goats for my birthday so that should be exciting.  I made a cute sign for the garden which you can see in the picture.  Now entering the Seedy part of town.  Cute right.  After I get home from Houston I hope to post more pictures.

New Trees

I'm so super excited.  We planted three apple trees, one granny smith for my pies, one gala and one fuji tree.  We also planted two Dynamite Crepe Myrtle trees in honor of our angels.  When the other colors start coming in we will plant those for the other kids.  We have two peach trees ready to be planted but since the temps were going to drop this week we put them in the house and will plant when the chance of a freeze is lessened.  They were already blooming and we didn't want to kill them.  The trees were container trees so I think they were 2-3 years old already.  I can't wait to start eating my own apples and peaches :).  I've added a picture from the internet of a crepe myrtle for those that have never seen them.  We also started the planter boxes for my garden.  Originally it was going to be two small and one big box.  Hubby got really excited and now it has grown.  But I will post more on that in another post.  I had alot of fun designing my gardens and I will have even more fun planting them.  I will post more pictures.  Hubby is also going to build a fence and gate for the garden to keep it safe.

It finally happened!

We finally closed on our dream property to start our little family hobby farm.  We were able to submit a second offer on the 40 acres we tried to purchase last fall.  We closed in less than 30 days this time with the Veteran Land Board.  We are thrilled.  And it turns out the house isn't in that bad of shape so we are working on gutting and then going to renovate the house.  One room at a time.  This weekend we are going to plant two Dynamic Crepe Myrtle trees in honor of our angel babies whom we lost this time of year in 2009 and 2010.  We will plant Crepe Myrtles for the other three kids as well, but they want different colors so we have to wait for them to come in.  We found the house has pine hardwood floors through about 3/4 of it.  So that saves on cost for flooring in the bedrooms and the soon to be fireplace room.  The goal is to be in a position in the fall to get some cows and apply for our ag exemption.  We will have to see since we don't have a truck.  If we didn't have to move the manufactured house then we could probably afford to get a truck but sadly we have to move it.  I am going to try to be better about updating with pictures and everything here.  I stepped away for a while since it was hard when we lost the original loan.  It worked out better in the end.  Lower payments all around.  The kids love it!