Getting Grain

This is a repost from January 2016. We're still getting grain from Leland Mills. If you're new, this is fun to watch!

I thought you might like to see where we get our grain, and a little bit about how we pick it up.

We drive down to Leland Mills in Spanish Fork.
That's not our truck, there are many farmers who buy their grain here.

This is opposite of the store.
These are grain elevators.
This is where all the grain is stored.

This is what a grain elevator looks like on the inside.

Diagram found here

When we get to the mills we need to weigh our empty truck. The scales don't look like your bathroom scales, do they. This scale is very long. The worker reads the scale inside the office and marks it down on a piece of paper.

After they write down the weight of our truck we drive around to the truck that has the chicken feed in it. 

The arm of the truck pours the grain into the barrels while they are in the back of the truck.
It doesn't take long to fill them.

Next we drive around to the scales so they can weigh the truck again. They make a note of how much more the truck weighs so they know how much chicken feed we got.

We need grain for the goats, too.
The barrels have to be unloaded from the truck and taken into the big grain barn.
We can't drive the truck into the big barn, it's not allowed.

The grain barn is huge! There are piles of grain in different areas.
Each area has a different kind of grain.

The grain piles have walls between them so they don't mix too much.

The workers who are inside the barn need to wear a mask because
breathing grain dust is not good for you.


The grain comes out of the shoot so fast that it fills up the big barrel in about 5 seconds.
That is so fast that I almost didn't get a video of it!
I wasn't allowed to get very close because I don't work here.

The barrels with grain for the goats needs to be loaded onto our truck.

Those barrels are heavy!

They weigh the truck again. The new weight tells them how much
grain we got for the goats.

The scale is read in the office while we are in the truck.

The last thing we do is pay for the grain. It's just like paying for groceries.

We drive our truck home full of grain, unload the big barrels with our tractor, and put the barrels in the barn.

We only have to go to Leland Mills every 2 months because those barrels hold quite a bit of grain.

This time we got 5 barrels of grain. We got three barrels of grain for the goats. How many barrels did we get for the chickens?

I hope you enjoyed our visit to Leland Mills!

Winter Is Coming

It got cold fast this week! There is ice on the water buckets every morning when I go out. I left the water in the hose on just a little bit so that the water wouldn't freeze in the hose last night. If the water in the hose freezes, I can't fill the barrels in the morning.

This weekend we'll put our heated hose in the barn, and we'll put some bucket heaters in the water barrels so they don't freeze solid.

A few hens are still hiding their eggs.

These eggs don't look like they are hidden.....

until you are outside of the hay barn.
Can you see the chickens on top of the hay stack?
Their nest was hidden way in the back of the hay barn, near the ceiling.

It's hard to see the hens on top of the stack because they are in the shadows.

I had to climb all the way up the stack of hay and squeeze myself along the top of the stack until I got to the back of the stack where I found the eggs hidden in the corner by the rafters.

I had to be very careful with the eggs while I was getting down. I didn't want to break any fresh eggs in my coat pocket. Can you imagine the mess? Yuck!

Crazy chickens! I think they were looking for a warm place to lay their eggs.

Look who else likes to get up on the hay in the barn.
What a funny puppy!

She can jump and climb almost as well as the cats! Sometimes she gets up on my sewing table!

The mama hen and her chicks are doing well! She's keeping them warm and safe. These chicks spend a lot more time underneath her than chicks born earlier in the year. She's such a good mother hen!

I bet you can guess what's underneath the hen.

Chicks!
I've never seen a chick hide on the back of a hen,
but this little yellow chick was hiding underneath some of the hens wing feathers.

This is the first time we've had chicks this late in the fall. The chicks seem to follow their mama hen and I think they will adapt to the cold weather with her help. They seem eager to stay close to her, and don't wander very far.

The last few nights the animals have been eating a lot, even before it got cold. I think they could sense winter coming quickly and were eager to get their body ready for it.

It's gotten cold so I opened the stall so Echo would have a dry place to sleep at night.

She's getting ready for winter and getting ready to have her calf so we spoil her by letting her into the stall. She loves it! It's a little more work for me because I have to clean the stall every day. Cows don't know how to use a bathroom, so she goes to the bathroom any place she is standing.

I think this winter will be colder than last winter. That's normal. The climate in the desert is often cold in the winter and hot in the summer. The climate changes from year to year, too. Some years are wetter and colder, some are dryer and not as cold.

When my children were little there were a lot of Halloween's that they wore their winter coats when they went trick or treating. The last few years most children have been fine walking around in their costume. I have a feeling that this year children will be wearing their winter coats! What do you think, will you have to wear a winter coat and dress warmly for Trick or Treating this year?

Look at our Halloween cats!
Tommy is the orange cat.
Liza is the black cat.

They are waiting for their treats. Tommy can do a trick for a treat. He knows how to fist bump.

Wonders Unit 2 Week 1

New Chicks!

Do you remember when I told you a black hen was made a warm nest and snuggled herself down to try to hatch some eggs?

I would check the nest every day to see how the eggs, and the mother hen were doing.

I checked on Tuesday and some of them hatched!

I love looking at new chicks!
They are so cute!

One chick is still a little bit wet because it just finished hatching!

After the chicks hatched, the mother hen stayed on the nest for 2 more days.
Wednesday morning she was out and about letting her chicks explore the stall.

The chicks were born on October 1st.

I wonder how many are roosters and how many are hens.

We won't be able to tell for a few weeks. I'll watch to see which chicks grow bigger tail feathers, and which ones grow bigger.

I don't have to keep a heat lamp in the barn because the mother hen has lots of fluffy feathers. She knows when to call her chicks to gather underneath her to keep warm. She knows it's her job to keep the chicks warm and safe.

There were six eggs in the nest, but only 3 hatched. That's not unusual. Our hens usually hatch out about half the eggs. Some just don't grow properly inside the egg, so they don't hatch.

Chores on days like this are so much fun!

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It was fun visiting your school on Friday. It was really fun to teach you some fun facts about apples. You learned a lot about the tools I use to make cider. I'll have more photos about cider pressing next week.

While I was walking Mishka I found a rose bush that had rose hips all over it! It looked just like little red apples covering the big, green bush.

The scientific name for roses is
Rosaceae

The scientific name for apples is
Aplicus Rosacea

Almost everything around us has a regular name and a scientific name. The scientific name helps scientists put things in categories, and that helps them learn more about what they are studying.

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Echo was born February 10, 2014

Her new calf will be born the same week as Thanksgiving. This will be her fourth calf. How old will she be when she has her calf? Her last calf was born August 13, 2018. How old was she when she had her last calf?

I'm all done milking Echo until after she has her calf this fall. I don't have to spend as much time on chores because milking takes about 45 minutes from setting up the milker, to cleaning up all the equipment.

I don't know what we'll name the calf.
I don't even know if it will be a boy or a girl.

Maybe you can think of some names and send them to me. I would love to have your ideas on a good name for the calf. You can put them in the comments for this post, or you can write them on paper and give them to your teacher. 

Did you know you can choose to think anything you want? 

Flood Zone

We don't really live in a flood zone, unless a pipe breaks.

I went out to the barn to do the chores last night. It was dark because I was heading out a little later than usual. There was a really big puddle in front of the barn door and my first thought was that I forgot to turn the hose off in the morning.

The hose was definitely not running.



Chuck and Teancum must have been playing around in the pasture and broken the pipe. I think the water must have been running for about 4 hours to fill the pasture with enough water that it started draining into the west side of the barn.

The water had soaked into the grassy parts of the pasture by this morning.

There are still a few muddy spots and puddles left where there is only dirt.

Good thing its autumn and it's not hot right now! A few days with no water on the pasture won't cause any trouble.

The pipe needs to be fixed, but we can do that on Saturday. There's no rush to get it done today.

It's still pretty muddy by the fence!
I don't care if it's muddy because I have cute boots for the barnyard this fall!

The cow shed and the hay barn are up on small hills so the animals had a dry place to sleep, and we didn't loose any hay. That would have been a little frustrating since we just unloaded 100 bales of hay in the dark on Monday night.

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I keep any eye out for things that are a little unusual in the barnyard. That's how I noticed the flood.

It's also how I figured out where the sneaky chickens are laying their eggs!

If you look really, really closely you can see some feathers poking out of the top of the hay stack.

Feathers belonging to some chickens....

who have been hiding their eggs in the little spot between bales!

I've been noticing fewer eggs for the last few days. I wasn't sure if it was because the chickens are molting (loosing their summer feathers) or because they found a new hiding spot for their eggs.

If you like Easter Egg hunts, then you might like living on a farm because it's like an Easter Egg Hunt almost every day! I was really excited to finally figure out where they were hiding them!

The chickens aren't really sneaky, they just want to find a safe spot to hide their eggs. That's really pretty smart.

Chickens roam and wander all over the barn yard and pasture to look for bugs. Sometimes they end up in the neighbor's pasture, too. But they usually lay their eggs in a protected spot like nesting boxes or hiding places in the hay stacks.

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It's almost time to press cider!

We're so excited!

The orchard we got to pick apples in is wild!

It hasn't been taken care of for a few years.

We don't care how wild it is!
We were allowed to pick the apples!

What an awesome family! Every year we've been able to find trees to pick some apples from to make cider.

Yes, Echo is Pregnant!

Yes! Echo is pregnant!

She also is disease free. We knew that, but sometimes it's nice to have the veterinarian check just to make sure that she is healthy.

Echo's calf is due November 26

Sometimes cows deliver their calf right on time, sometimes they are a day or two late. Echo is due right before Thanksgiving. We'll see if she has her calf right on time or if she has a calf on Thanksgiving! Cooking Thanksgiving dinner and taking care of a new calf would be a lot of work on one day!

I let her sleep in the stall last night because it was raining and wet. I didn't want her sleeping in the mud. Cows are fine if they sleep in the mud, but they get really dirty. I don't want to spend the extra time cleaning her off before I milk her, so I let her into the stall when the weather is bad.

She's a sweet, gentle cow and so I spoil her a little.


See how nicely she comes in when it's time to be milked!

Most of the animals on the farm are nice. We have lots of visitors who aren't used to being around farm animals. Sometimes people are scared of the goats and the cow so I make sure our animals are friendly and easy-going.

Every farm is different so make sure you check with the farmer to see if their animals are friendly before you visit.

One morning I walked in and saw.... 

None of the animals are afraid of coming into the barn. Once in a while I forget to latch the stall door. What a mess! In come the goats when I leave. When I come back they come running up to me because they are so happy to see me!

But I'm not really happy to see them inside the barn because that's a big mess to clean up! Food and poo everywhere! Buckets tipped over, and feed on the floor! One glance told me I was going to have extra work this morning!

I love the way Annie just stares at me from the stall door. She knows she's not supposed to be in the barn. Too bad she can't help me clean up the mess!

Sometimes the farm is messy because of the rain.

This puddle doesn't cause any trouble.
It's out of the way so I decided to leave it alone.

I have to walk through this puddle to feed Chuck so I decided to dig a ditch and drain some of the water. This little drainage stream will be a good way for the little pine tree to get water when it rains.

It took me extra time to dig the ditch this morning, but it will save me time later because I won't have to water the pine tree as much. It will also leave less mud in the pen where I feed Chuck, Side Kick, and Teancum.

Some mornings turn out a little different than I expect. Sometimes I have to clean a mess I don't expect to find, or fix something, or dig a drainage stream. I wouldn't trade the unexpected work for anything! I love being on the farm!



This is one thing that I've been working on lately. Scout and JJ are very good at waiting, but Mishka is just learning to wait.

Dogs need to learn how to behave properly or they won't be a good fit for a family or a farm. You're learning how to do the proper things at the right time, too!

If you have any questions you can write me a note, or leave a question in the comment box and I'll answer you!

Storytelling Festival Stay-cation

I hope you had a great week! We were at Timpanogos Storytelling Festival at Thanksgiving Point last week. 

The flowers were beautiful!

The stories were wonderful!
So many people were having fun just like us!

I had so much fun looking at the fish by the Monet Gardens.

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One of the fun things about the storytelling festival I don't need to find anyone to take care of the farm, and we get to sleep in our own beds instead of a hotel.

I still get to see Chuck's silly face when he's waiting for breakfast.

I get to see Side Kick every day.
I think he's a beautiful sheep.

Can you tell the difference between sheep and goats? Look at their ears.

Sheep have ears that point out to the side.

Goats have ears that hang down like a dog, OR they have ears that point up.

Lilly is being silly.
She loves to stand up on top of the dog-gloo to see who is in the barn.

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We have a black hen who really, really wants to hatch out some chicks!

She has been sitting on a nest in the corner for about a month. I take away the eggs every evening, but she keeps sitting on the nest.

I decided to leave some eggs for her to hatch out.

I have to mark every egg that she's sitting on because the other hens will still lay eggs on her nest. I want to know which ones to leave with mother hen and which eggs to take into the house each night.

These eggs should hatch in 21 days. Not all the eggs will hatch. I let her start sitting on the eggs on September 11. What day will it be 21 days from September 11?

Sometimes I'm really lucky and I can watch one of the eggs hatch out! I always take a video if I do. I know that you like watching those things, too.

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When we have our Storytelling Festival Stay-cation, we don't have to find someone to watch the dogs, either.

Mishka always has energy in the morning!
She loves to run and jump and play.

Someone still takes her for a walk at night because she has so much energy.

Mishka is tired after her 3 mile walk.

No worries! She'll be full of energy and 'zoomies' in the morning just like you!

I hope you tried to do something that you weren't sure you could do this week. I wasn't sure I was going to get all the chores done and get all my other work done because we had so much to do! I did my best and all the important things got done!