Chicama Run Farm Blog

Well today we went to church.  It’s been awhile and I really think it’s needed.  So I did my research to try and find a church that can combine my thoughts/views with some of Joe’s (he was raised Catholic and I was raised Methodist) so I was looking for a traditional service + (very important) a good kids program.  I wanted something established that wasn’t going anywhere.  I found on the internet a church that seemed to match what we are looking for.  It listed Sunday service at 10am – hey we can make that!!  Because Joe works until some unknown hour on Saturday nights I wanted one a little later, plus we do have chores to do in the morning.

So here’s our adventure…… we get to the church about 10 minute before the service is supposed to start….. the place had a TON of cars yet it looked like a small church.  There is NO noise!!  I mean dead quiet out there.  It was a little freaky to say the least.  1st building…. no one there…. 2nd one (actual church) it’s very very quiet so I open the door and it’s THE END of the service or at least close to it!  The pastor stops the service so we can find seating…. 10 minutes later…. fellowship time!!

 Ok – it was just a special weekend where they combine the early and later service together and it happens only about 4 times per year.  The people where extremely friendly and I’m sure we made quite a 1st impression!  We promise to get there on time next week.  I am hopeful about this church as we felt welcome and it was a good mix of people - young and old.  Fingers crossed!

On to other stuff – the kids finished their school year!  They tested and apparently I did not ruin them as they tested in the dead middle.  So we are gearing up to start their next year of schooling since we do this year round.  I plan on taking a different approach to it this year as I honestly felt it was a “warm-up” year and get used to mom being the teacher.  It’s still a learning process for both myself and the kids but I think we are trudging along pretty well – though I must admit we have our moments!

Farm life is taking off – and of course it is since it’s Spring!  We are now getting 220 eggs PER DAY and had 300 more laying hens delivered and they haven’t even started laying yet!  Soon we will be getting about 350 eggs PER DAY – WHEW!  Joe installed a dis washer in the garage so I can wash eggs out there.   I know what you are thinking “Dish Washer???” Well on the rinse cycle – no detergent – in 6 minutes it can rinse off about 7 dozen eggs in warm water!  That totally saves my hands and now since it is seperate from the inside one – I can wash dishes more often without having to worry about needing to wash eggs.

We are now supplying Tuscorora Mill & South Street Bakery with 15 dozen eggs each per week which is exciting to have our product in stores.  Then Whole Foods contacted us this past week making it even more exciting – THEN a little specialty grocer is interested also!  Things are looking up for us which is great.  

I will be at the Leesburg Market and Lovettsville Market this year – and Jacob will be helping me in Leesburg on Saturday mornings.  It should be fun and busy!!  It will be nice having help – and he’s learning the cash register so I don’t have to be the only one knowing how to operate it on the Spring Farm Tour as well!

Time to wash and package up eggs to deliver tomorrow!

What an incredible day outside.  Why am I stuck inside no matter what I try to do?  Besides working on the website, getting stuff ready to sell at the market, and so much more – I just can’t seem to get organized enough to get outside and stay there!

Joe is out doing fencing – the pigs broke out the other evening and luckily we caught them and got everyone (including our big sheep and the llama) back in the field for the night.  That was fun (not).

Kids are playing down by the creek – so at least they are outside.  No computers on days like today!  We are even planning on cooking out and having burgers.  YUM.

This is the time of year stress starts kicking in because we can get so busy.  It’s why we need a break in the winter time, yet we don’t seem to be getting one at anytime.  I tried to take a weekend off and it didn’t happen – we needed the money to pay for stuff that had to be ordered so I needed to get to the market.  It’s funny, most people don’t realize how expensive it is to farm. 

Want to know why your eggs are $4/dozen instead of $2/dozen which is what I was charging 2 years ago?  Feed went up from $7 per 50 lb bag to about $11 a bag – and that’s only if you get it a ton at a time!  Need fencing?  I don’t even want to get into that pricing!  Chickens themselves start out at $1.25 each including shipping.  Heck and to stay natural without all the chemicals including fertilizers – it’s a $5 per bag difference.

Is it worth it?  Some days yes – some days I would really rather be out on a cruise ship sitting by the pool being waited on by some cute pool guy   But on the whole, I wouldn’t trade it in.  It’s fun, it’s active, and it’s actually something that is fun to watch grow no matter how much work goes into it.   But honestly, if you were to ask me today if I would have done the same thing if I were to do it over – I’m not sure what my answer would be.  I wouldn’t trade the land in for anything – I love all the space we have.  Would I have my little ark of animals?  I’m not sure if I would have expanded it this much.  I think now I would love to stream-line it but not sure where I would do that. 

I know it sounda like pouting and a little regret.  But somedays it’s like that, most days it’s not.  I think about it more as I do the taxes for last year and SEE where all the money went.  It’s scary!  No wonder not many people want to strive to be farmers.

Oh well – off to be back outside and help Joe do something.   Then it’s on to the next thing

Unbelievable – Joe has allowed me to get more goats!  Ok - it was a great deal and he even said so. 

I am hoping to start milking later this week as the new girls settle in and we get the milking machine put together. 

So what happened?  Friday – dreary day I was goofing off waiting for stuff to download on my computer (gotta love the library to load up my MP3 player with books!)….so I decided to browse Craigslist just to see if there was any equipment available.  Looked up “goats” and found an ad.  After talking to the person on the phone – he decided that he didn’t want to sell all the goats…. back and forth on Saturday morning (while I froze at the Farmer’s Market!) we came to the final number and an agreeable price…. 10 does with 14 kids at their side.  They were all born in December and January so they were set and ready to go.

Saturday afternoon – set out to go and pick up the goats!  5pm Saturday – unloaded the goats and took a deep breath.

We spent Sunday taking pictures and looking/watching them – making sure everything was ok – and matching numbers up to records.  They are GREAT looking animals!  And even Joe had to admit that to me

So here are some pictures for you all to look at…. we are excited and the 1st picture our now 11 year old son took.

So we will have goat meat (another exciting this – it is yummy!) and we will have Goat’s Milk – hopefully by this weekend if everything goes as planned!!

Yes – I did it… traveled 6 hours round trip to pick up 3 goats.   So here’s the story (cause there is one)

Start out the day and get ready to go.  Trailer hooked up, dinner in the crock pot (yes I was THAT prepared), and Joe working with the kids.  Set off around 9 instead of 8:30 like I hoped to…. but shouldn’t be a problem.  2 hours out I get pulled over.  Apparently my trailer needed an inspection. So that’s $90 we had to spend that I didn’t expect to.   Get there and it’s great – so many goats to chose from and so little money to spend (isn’t that the way it always is?).  Well I chose 3 and I promise to get some pictures as soon as this week slows down.  I spent an hour and a half down there figuring out and picking out the goats I wanted.  See, the babies (kids) are going to be for meat – plus they are for Jacob & Alexis to show at the 4-H fair this year so I was a little picky about what I wanted.  BUT on top of that I wanted a dairy mix variety.  Now I have 1 – 2nd generation boer/nubian/sannen mix (more dairy than meat) and 2 3rd generation which I think are a little more meat looking but I expect they will provide some good milk as well.

Since they are bred, we now wait it out until they kid (have the babies).  Then my plan is to let the babies stay with the mom’s at all times for 2 weeks.  This will let them start out strong.  Then I will start milking 1x per day.  At least that’s the plan at the moment

On top of this, the kids got some Nigerian Dwarf goats for showing in the dairy class at the 4-H fair!  2 are registered (which are the ones they bought) and 2 are not which I plan to just have here to hang out.  They aren’t bred so the kids will probably be in the market for a buck so that they will provide milk as well as more lil ones.  What’s exciting is that our kids are seeing these as “theirs” completely.  It works out because the smaller goats are super easy to handle making it fun for them to go out and feed and water and even play with on a daily basis.  Guess it’s not as much of a chore when you own it.  Yes, they pay for the goats – they will buy them using the money they earn at the 4-H fair and 4-H auction (so ask me how you can help support them!).

Joe being as cool as he can sometimes be, has made 2 new picnic tables which will really help out with the farm tours and birthday parties this year!  I’m personally impressed that he built them.  Not that I don’t think he can build stuff (I mean he DID build the chicken coop!), but that without any plans and just copying the one we had he just whipped them together.  Alexis has decided she is going to marry someone like him – and I tell her that she dang well should and not to marry some lazy guy who doesn’t know how to do this stuff!

Well with lambing season here – we are once again learning about just about everything.  One year we will get it right and not have as many deaths.  Partly our fault, partly nature.  This evening I had 1 in the house with me warming up.  Got home from the market and he was freezing.  Gave him a bath and then put him in a basket in our bathroom with the room heater on him.  He did really well after about 3 hours and so is now officially back out with mom.  I was able to sit and watch him for awhile out there tonight… but I’m tired.  He was the only 1 out of that set of triplets that was born alive (the other 2 were frozen right away).  So we debate once again how we will handle next season.  I love the lambs, but at the same time, the deaths take their toll on me.  But there are 9 little ones out there now running around so that’s ok for the moment.

So I was planning on taking Febraury off – and now…. well that is just SOOOO not going to happen.  The more money I spend – the more I need to at least head out there each week.  I plan on taking 1 weekend off which I think will be the 3rd Saturday.

More stuff to come – I’ll keep you posted!

It’s fun when the chickens are actually laying eggs.  I know – sounds odd, but going out to the chicken coop and finding 10 eggs when you have 400+ chickens stinks.  Yesterday we gathered 112 eggs!  That’s awesome.  Makes life a lot easier too when you think about it.  We do the farmer’s market, we deliver an excellent product and sell out quickly.  We do our best to bring as many eggs as we possibly can to the market.  This week – 46 dozen eggs.  Sold out in 1 hour!  Unbelievable – and people get upset about it – but the chickens and us are doing our best to bring enough eggs for everyone.

The 3 lil piggies go to the butcher shop December 5th.  They’ll be smaller than I would like them to be for butchering – but it’s time as we want our break.  Funny thing is at the same time all this is happening we are already discussing what we need to get and what we need to do for next year.  We are talking about pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, chickens & even turkeys!   I love doing the research for what I want to get for the farm and what is worth it for me to get and how much I sold/could spend and if we have the money for any of it (no – but we still work on it).

Off to do some research on pigs.  I need to figure out the difference in taste of certain breeds and what I CAN get for a reasonable price vs what I would LIKE to get.  It doesn’t always work the way that I would want it to unless I drive a distance and not sure what I will do.  Maybe work on waiting until January some when we go up to the PA Farm show and “play” around up there for awhile with the kids.

So here it is the “end of the season” and we are busy working to get ready for the Loudoun County Fall Color tour this weekend.  It’s funny as it is a lot of fun – but can be a lot of stress also.

One thing – chickens aren’t laying really well and of course we have egg gathering scheduled for this weekend.  I’m bummed because I want the eggs available for the kids to gather and at least some to sell – but I might have to limit the number of kids I take.

On top of trying to cheer the chickens on – I’ve been baking cookies and need to get some other things done.

 Then -  regular farm stuff is still going on!  We are due to start lambing soon which I am very excited about.  We were hoping for 1 before the farm tour but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

So I’m off to make some coffee and get going for the day.

I swear some days that’s all we do.  One day I promise myself that the calander will be clear at least for awhile.

Of course we are getting ready for the big Loudoun County Fall Farm Tour in October and trying to make it fun for the kids to come and see the animals and visit the farm.  Joe picked up a great hay wagon this past Tuesday which will make the fall tour a lot of fun.  Next season (see already planning ahead) I think we will gear up the fall farm tours to run the hay wagon on certain days. 

I’m looking for a couple of goats – for some reason kids love goats.  Haven’t figured that one out yet – but I’m looking for a couple who are just about ready to be processed (yes that means butchered) so we don’t have to keep them for a long time.  We still have the little pigs which I think will be a hit as pigs = farm also.  At least for the tour we will still have the cows.  No lambs will be here, I was hoping that someone might give birth but it doesn’t look like it will happen.  I ordered some baby chicks <sigh>  But at least they are broilers and we will only have them for a couple of months.

Today Joe opened up the garden for the chickens.  That means they can go in and eat whatever they want.  Sad and exciting all at the same time.  Exciting because it means the season is officially over and sad because the season is officially over.  I know I know – I am tired of picking and doing all that work, but I have already canned as much as I was going to and I think I am just finished with it for the season.

I am enjoying going to the market and selling the pumpkins and meats right now!  It’s not a lot of extra work and I like to see the kids faces with the pumpkins. 

I’m picking up straw tomorrow so we can decorate with it and after the tour we can take it down and use it in the barn for bedding for the sheep.  I’m also picking up new ewe (female sheep) feed from a local farm.  I really wish the guy would do chicken feed because if he could and be cheaper than what I’m paying now, it would be nice.  But I guess chickens want cracked corn – and I need to verify that because if I can do it with ground corn and whole corn I’ll see what he can do for me.  It’d be nice to stick local and know everything about the feed.

The kids are doing alright now.  Learning and frustrating me at time – but that’s to be expected.  Alexis’s birthday is tomorrow and we’ll be heading to Chuck E Cheese on Tuesday to help celebrate.  Funny thing is that as much as I hate CEC, I am looking forward to going so that the kids can run and play and I don’t have to clean up after them!  I know – selfish, but true.

Oh well – off to collect eggs…..