Chicama Run Farm Blog

Just a quick post as quite a few people were asking about lambs.

I work up today and looked at 7:30am at the video screen and sure enough lambs! So I run out to the barn (still in PJ’s mind you!) and find 2 little ones freezing cold and no mom around.

Grab them up – bring them to the garage and start to get some stuff in them to “jump start” them. One did not make it – but the other one is fine so far, but he looks to be a bottle baby as mom would make a great Aunt (fun to play with the kids but they can go home and she doesn’t have the responsibility) but a terrible mom. She did this to me last year and I thought it was my inexperience, but apparently not.

Send Joe out to find out who mom is and I told him on the screen I swear I saw white legs (the inside ones are definitely Suffolk – black-faces and legs). Sure enough he comes back and says there are 2 more little ones out walking around with their mom and the mom of the 2 in the garage.

Turns out the 2 little “brockle-faced” (think freckles – it’s a mix between a white face and a black face sheep) ones are girls. Which is kinds cool – let’s me know that some sheep do give birth to females!! They are both doing fine without assistance from us. Hopefully they will continue to grow strong.

Off to cook the human kids dinner and to feed the little boy too. At least he’s cute – he does have THAT going for him…

People often wonder why the drug companies keep going and it’s amazing that there are all these “new” viruses and personally I don’t know how they CAN’T see it.

This will be quick because I think I can get my point across easily.

I received an email today from someone treating a bird. They told me they were on the 3rd day of treating the bird for a certain condition with a medication with no improvement so they were ADDING another anti-biotic thinking it might be another condition.

First, the person is not a vet and had not taken the bird to one. So they are treating by what others said the bird MIGHT have not what anyone had said it actually IS.

There are so many options out there that do not require the use of these harsh medications. Also, I have not found ANY safe medication out there that states that you can use in ANY bird that lays eggs that you will EVER eat.

So the fact remains that some of the medication MAY still be in the bird or even the egg and now you might be eating it.

So once again – do you know what you are eating?

Believe it or not, talking to people about our farm is an actual joy at the farmer’s market. It’s amazing to me how many people do not always understand what is going on on the big farms and why my eggs taste so much better.

Have you ever actual wondered WHY that chicken was 59¢ per pound? And yes – I had one in the rotisserie last night priced like that and I cannot wait a couple more weeks until that will be a distant memory. But think about it for a minute and you may understand. Did you know that places like Costco sell approximately 30,000 of their pre-rotisseried chickens PER WEEK? Can you imagine how much LAND that would take up? So how are they raised? In a building loaded with chickens on top of chickens plain and simple. Cage-free – sure not a problem. That doesn’t mean that the chickens are raised in a healthy cage-free environment. Organic – sure! Doesn’t mean they ever see day light or grass.

No when I started, I didn’t know any of this either. I thought the pretty pictures on the boxes made sense (you know the ones – red barn, green grass, rooster on top of the fence) and that’s where the chickens came from. Being able to educate people that this is not what is happening is a wonderful feeling. To see the light turn on in their eyes is fun to watch. And nope I’m not full of it! I actually have proof and articles to back it up, pictures too if I dig far enough.

So if you visit me at the markets or on my farm and start asking questions, I promise to talk. I enjoy it and I love to learn as I teach.

Well today – everything was frozen when I went out this morning – yep everything. The ground – even some feed left over in the feeders! So I knew I couldn’t wait any longer and I had to hook up extension cords for the water buckets and do some creative moving of buckets.

No – we don’t have any new lambs today… I was hoping at least 1 ewe would be early – some look about read to pop! But we have 3 days until the 1st actual due date. So this is a good reason to make sure water is always there and not just a big ice cube.

Of course, nothing ever goes as smoothly as planned. The chickens – all 200 of them broke out of the coop. I was planning on leaving them in there through the weekend – but the front door blew open and out came the chickens. Fingers crossed they all get their butts back inside tonight when I go to close up!

Next the extension cords are too short. Only by about 10 ft so I just had to move the buckets. Water (ice water mind you) all over my shoes and in my socks. All this time – Brusselsprout (our pet wether suffolk x) decides he wants to play and sits there trying to eat my hair. Ever had that happen? It hurts! And it’s always fun explaining what actually happened to the hairdresser.

Now the people come to pick up the turkeys (I’m selling most of them off as they are just a little much for me right now). Chasing turkeys with cold feet isn’t always fun. But we got all 6 birds in her car (THANK YOU!) So at least that got done!

Now it’s time to sit – 1pm finally have something to eat today (besides the M&M’s I had for breakfast) then on to straighten up the house for the Girl Scout meeting today……. and dinner (I have to think about that one still!)…… and the day moves on…..

That is my theme I think for the year. I have decided that it really needs to be and it’s a dang good thing Joe can laugh at my idiotic ways sometimes.

Lets start with some exciting farm news. Joe finished the new chicken coop and it looks awesome. We moved the chickens in it last week and let them outside for the 1st time yesterday. And to move the story along – their butts are back inside today.

The idea of having the chicken coop further away from the house was because the chickens were eating our house. No, you read right, they would find bugs on our wood sided house and eat it and keep pecking because “LOOK there’s a new color under here!” So they had to move at least a little bit away.

Last night, about 50 of the chickens didn’t go back to the new coop. They decided to try and sleep outside the OLD coop. I can understand that, it’s a security thing. But I really need them up in the new coop. So me being the brilliant person I so often claim to be, decided to drive my pick up (a Ford F350 dually, crew cab – so a big truck) to the old coop, throw the chickens in the back bed, and get them up to the new coop! Sounds simple right? Never – not if I am doing it!

Within 10 minutes my truck was stuck in the mud! Now it’s dark, kids are eating their dinner inside, and I’m stuck out by the chicken coop. 5 minutes later, I give up because I’ll I am doing is making a pond (which wouldn’t be too bad if Joe would allow me to have ducks)…

I walk in the house, upset with myself at this point because I had been having a decent day up until then! Well Joe’s “Dana did something stupid” sense must have gone off because I sit down and the phone rings and I have to tell him that I got the truck stuck down by the coop. Some days I just give up.

So today, at least he could laugh (while whispering that I’m an “iiiiiidiiiioooot“) and say that life is never boring with me around. Which after 11 years, I think that’s a darn good accomplishment.

However, today I think I’ll sit still until the kids come home so I don’t break anything else – Joe can only handle so much excitement……