The Hay Shelter Is Up!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful week and learned a lot of new things.

We've been busy getting ready for winter on the farm. That means we need to get a lot of hay! We needed a new place to keep the hay dry.

The frame has been up since last fall, but we haven't had time to get the rest of it finished.

We used clips to hold the back of the shelter on.

Matt is finishing the 'earth anchors.'
Earth anchors are a way to hold the metal frame from blowing away.
The white tarp at the bottom of the photo is the roof and sides of the shelter.

We got the tarp on. It took all four of us to pull it over the top of the frame.
After we got the tarp over we clipped both ends
and used straps to hold the sides to the frame.

Here comes the hay!
We use a tractor to lift those big bales and put them where we store them.

We have four big bales inside the barn.

Two bales are in. You can see how long the shelter is.

There are 14 bales of hay in the shelter.
We covered the end with a tarp so they hay stays dry.

How many bales of hay did we get for the animals?

•     •     •     •     •     •     •     •     

We made cheese this week, too!

Quin is cutting the curd for me. It's one of his favorite jobs.

We made Squeaky Cheese!
Yummy!

•     •     •     •     •     •     •     •     

We have turkeys on our farm, too!
The big, brown one on the left is a Tom Turkey.
A Tom is a boy turkey.
The two turkeys on the right are hens.
Girl turkeys are called hens, just like girl chickens.

Do you see the chicken in the photo?
That chicken thinks she's a turkey because one of the hen turkeys 

sat on some chicken eggs.

That chicken is the one that hatched! 

Do you see the small chickens on the left?
They were hatched out of their eggs on August 11. They are about 5 weeks old.

The chicks still sleep with their mother hens to stay safe and warm at night.

Sometimes the chicks are hard to see when the mother hen is keeping them warm!

This his our crazy hen. She likes people.
She came to visit me while I was sitting on the patio.

We also have one duck.
She lays a lot of eggs in the spring.
Chickens lay eggs almost all year.
Most ducks only lay eggs in the spring.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful week!

If you have any questions, please write me a note or leave your question in the comments below.

Hay Delivery

Welcome back!

I hope you have enjoyed the nice weather we have been having. We've been getting some things done around the farm because it's so nice outside.

I thought today would be a good day to answer some of the questions you've sent me.

No, we don't have a daddy cow. A daddy cow is called a bull.
Bulls are not very nice, they are hard to handle and we don't
like to keep animals on the farm that might hurt children who visit.

We have a steer, named Remi. He's not a daddy cow because he can't have babies.

He gets very excited every time he hears the tractor!

We have a mommy cow named Echo.
She's not a mommy, yet!
Her calf is due on March 25th.
How many more days before she has a calf?

No, we don't have pigs.
We aren't allowed to have pigs in our town,
that's the law.

This is a good question!
We have flat head shovels, spades (shovels with a round end), pick axes,
manure forks, rakes, pitch forks, garden forks

We also have a tractor!

Bryon, Matt, and Tim shovel the manure and mess from the stall to the tractor.

Our tractor helps move the manure and yuck from the stalls to the mulch pile.

That is a lot of manure!
We use it on our garden and we share it with anyone who wants it for their garden.

Our tractor can unload hay from the truck.

This is a good question!
How much hay do you have?

This is what the barn looks like when it's ready for more hay.

How many bales of hay can you count?
How long do you think this hay will last?