Big Cats and Garden Experiments

 We have 4 cats. One of them is named Tom. 

He's probably the biggest and most gentle cat you've ever met.

He loves the camper! Heather likes to sit out in the camper where it's quiet. She can work without interruptions. Tom loves to hang out with her in the camper.

Last week Jupiter snuck into the camper, and no one noticed!

Thankfully Matt heard him calling through the camper window the next day and let him out. 

Jupiter is a silly cat!

This is Midnight, our barn cat. She doesn't like to come in the house with the other cats. Her favorite place is in the barn. She loves sleeping in the hay. She's also got a few cozy places inside the barn. Those are her favorite places in the winter when it's cold.

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Sometimes our family eats all the leftovers from our meals. But sometimes we forget about them, and they get shoved into the back of the fridge. 

The chickens love it when we forget to eat the leftovers! Leftover day is one of their favorite days because they think they are getting treats!

What kind of treats do you like to eat? Halloween is coming soon! I bet you have some favorite kinds of candy!

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We love experiments at our house! We have a house full of scientists that like to try new things.

The nicer looking plants were all given a special liquid to help them grow. It's not fertilizer like most people use.

You can tell that the plants on the left didn't get any special drink. They don't look very big, and they don't look very healthy.

The other plants either had some just in the dirt, or had the seeds soaked in the special liquid before they were planted.

Experiments are fun! We learn new things whenever we try them!

We did the same experiment with the beans in this raised bed.

Can you tell which ones had the special liquid, and which ones didn't?

We have some more experiments planned for next year's garden. 

We also have some experiments planned in the kitchen.

Did you know you can experiment with different recipes? 

You can experiment by trying different kinds of food that you aren't used to.

There are all sorts of things you can do to discover new things!

A Four-Horned Visitor

This little 4- horned ram is so cute! He's not very big because he was born earlier this year. He's still young. He'll be much bigger once he's full grown.

He'll be with us for a few days. He doesn't have a name. He's in a stall because he has 4 horns. If I put him with my goats or my other sheep, he may try to fight them. Horns are good for fighting! I don't want any animals to get hurt while they are here. 

He is getting adopted by a charter school in Pleasant Grove who wants to start their own little herd of Navajo Churro sheep. 

They adopted my two little lambs about a month ago. One is named Punkin, and the black one is named Kisba. 

The sheep will have a fence between them while they get to know each other. Then it will be safe to have the new sheep with horns in with the sheep that don't have horns.

The little chicks are growing! I'm still making sure they stay safe inside the barn. I really don't want the hawk to snatch one out of the pasture for a chicken nugget snack!

This hen looks a little sad. Her feathers are coming out. Chickens loose a lot of their feathers in the fall so that they can grow new feathers that will keep them warm all winter. 

Humans wear sweaters and coats. Chickens grow new feathers.

I make sure they have a different kind of food with more protein to help their feathers grow in a little faster. Can you see all the feathers on the ground behind her? 

You have probably heard a rooster crow before. I thought you might enjoy seeing what a rooster looks like when he crows. Do you see how he stretches out his neck and stands a little taller? 

Were you a little curious about Leia's small ears last week? She has ears, but they are so small! She can hear just like any other goat. It doesn't matter how big or how small a goat's ears are. Next week I'll show you a picture of a goat with floppy ears.

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Our garden grew well this year! I am harvesting some of the vegetables that grew.

All of these potatoes grew in one small garden bed. These are small potatoes. They will be delicious in potato salad.

There are still a few small potatoes buried in the dirt and on top of the dirt. They will grow new potato plants next year. 

Most of my plants grew very well this year! I was really excited to make tomato sauce and pickles and sauerkraut. 

I let the wild sunflowers grow in my garden so the bees would come visit. Bees help to make plants grow.

Its fun to watch the bees as they gather pollen to make honey. As they visit each plant to pick up more pollen, they leave a little pollen from the last plant. That's very helpful for plants and vegetable gardens to grow.

The bees helped us grow some big Crenshaw melons!

And some yummy string beans!

Here's a photo of Stormy waiting for her lunch. I better go feed her before she gets too hungry!

Make it a great week!

Echo and Stormy

 Our mama cow, Echo, had a calf on August 20. Tim named her Stormy because the day was a bit stormy.

Cooler weather is always nicer for calves. Sometimes they overheat and get sick when they are born in the middle of summer. It can be hard to keep a new born calf warm in the cold, dark winter.

Fall and Spring are my favorite times to have calves.

Echo and Stormy did well for a few days, but then Echo got very sick.

The vet said that sometimes things happen when the mama cow is having a calf. The vet can't always tell what happens, he or she can just see that they are sick and help the cow try to recover.

We took care of Echo for 12 days, and then she passed away. We had lots of help from many neighbors and friends as we tried to save her life. Friends brought watermelon and corn for her to eat. Other friends built special equipment so that we could lift her up to see if she could build strength in her legs. Other friends brought fly traps so she wouldn't have so many flies sitting on her. We built a tent to keep her out of the hot sun. We gave her all the right medicines at all the right times. We were all very sad when she died. We cried a lot!

Stormy is doing very well. She gets a bottle twice a day. She loves her adopted mama, Sadie.

Sadie never had her own calf, but she loves being a mama cow.

In the spring she fed a lamb! That's very unusual! Cows don't usually adopt lambs!

Sadie adopted Stormy, too. Sadie doesn't have enough milk to feed Stormy all the time, so we make sure Stormy has bottles every day.

Stormy loves humans!

Stormy and Sadie hang out together on the farm. Sadie thinks she is Stormy's mama. That works for us! Last night Sadie was yelling because she couldn't find Stormy. Stormy had fallen asleep by the fence out in the pasture. It was dark, and Sadie couldn't find her. 

Stormy is a fun, easy going calf. The neighbors love to come visit her. If you come to Cider Day in a few weeks, you'll be able to see her out in the pasture.

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We decided to get another goat to help feed Stormy. She drinks between one gallon and 1 1/2 gallons of milk every day. That's a lot of milk!

This is Leia. I call her Princess Leia because I thinks she is very pretty. It looks like she has no ears. She does have ears, but they are tiny! Leia is a LaMancha dairy goat.

Princess Leia loves getting milked! She's waiting her turn. Sometimes she waits patiently. Sometimes she gets excited and jumps up on the stall gate to see if I'm ready for her.

There are lots of different kinds of goats, just like there are lots of different breeds of dogs. 

This is River, our other dairy goat. River is a Saanen dairy goat. She gives about 3/4 of a gallon of milk every day. Leia gives 3/4 gallon of milk every day, too. 

We have plenty of milk for Stormy because of our two sweet goats.

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We've had some new chicks born on the farm this fall! It seems unusual to have chicks in the fall. It's a good time because it's not very hot. It's not snowy and cold yet, so the hen can keep the chicks warm without any trouble.

This hen hatched 2 chicks from all those eggs. I decided to put her and her chicks in an old water trough so that they would be safe from the other chickens, and predators like hawks.

A different hen hatched out four chicks, but only one survived because of the predators that seem to be circling our fields so often.

I hope you have a wonderful week! I hope that you will learn to read so you can read all about the things that are interesting and fun for you! 

Cows in the Yard

 The grass in the backyard got really long over the last few weeks. The cows love coming in the back yard and grazing for an hour before the lawn gets mowed.

It's fun to see the cows right in the back yard.

Sometimes it's funny to see the cows in the backyard
because they peek in the glass door!

We haven't turned on the sprinklers yet. Many people have been watering already. We've had rain, and we also use a soil conditioner 3 times a year. 

We don't need as much water or as much lawn fertilizer as most people do. We like that! So do the cows and the sheep! Our grass grows so well so they have lots of snacks!

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Sadie is tied between the two fences so that 
the tech can check her.

Our awesome tech came out to check on Sadie because she still hasn't had her calf.

Unfortunately she isn't pregnant. She had some positive pregnancy tests, and she had milk in her udder. We were all a little confused because that usually means the cow will have a baby.

Our tech will come back on Monday and breed her again. We're really, really  hoping that she gets pregnant this time! She's such a good cow that we think she would make a good mama cow. Echo, her mom, has great milk so we think Sadie's milk will be delicious, too!

It was evening when I took this photo of Gracie 
so it's a bit dark

Do you remember a few weeks ago that Gracie hatched out a duckling? I think a mouse or snake snuck into the nest and grabbed the day old duckling. When I went out the next morning it was missing. I looked around but couldn't find it anywhere. 

So, no baby cow and no baby duckling this spring.

I still have two baby lambs!
Bunny loves morning snuggles!

Usually lamb tails hang down. 
When Bunny gets snuggles, her tail goes up.
Sometimes she wags her tail when she's snuggling.
Little wagging lamb tails make me smile!

Do you see all the hoof prints in the garden bed?
Bunny follows me everywhere.
She was in the garden with me while I was planting onions.
She traipsed right through the bed where I planted.
 

Bunny will probably be going to her new home in about 3 weeks. I'll miss her. The farm where she was born is so excited for when she's old enough to come back! They are looking forward to a snuggly little lamb that comes when she's called.

Do you see the row of little plants at the bottom of the fence?
Those are peas! I planted peas more than a month ago.
I didn't think they were going to come up at all.
They were just waiting for the weather to be good enough for them to sprout.

I have to keep Bunny out of the garden now. She'll nibble all the pea plants down, and we won't get any peas for our family. 

The weather is nice enough that the new little apple trees 
are sprouting leaves and blossoms.
It's hard to see the little pink blossoms. 
I won't let any apples grow this year because I want the tree to spend
all it's energy growing branches and roots.
It's really fun to see the little blossoms, even though
 I'll need to pick the little apples that will grow there.

We're so happy for Springtime! It brings lambs and blossoms and a new garden and lots of chicken eggs!

I hope you have a wonderful week full of life and learning!

Farm Day Fun

 We had so much fun on Farm Day this Monday that we forgot to take pictures!

I have some videos of past Farm Days. Some of the videos and pictures you see will be from a few years ago. I'm so sorry about forgetting to take photos!

The sheep shearer was here to shear 6 sheep. He sheared 3 white sheep, one brown sheep, and 2 black sheep.

This is a sheep we sheared 2 years ago. Have you seen a sheep getting sheared?

This sheep looks floppy, doesn't he! Sheep shearers put the sheep on their tail. When the sheep sits on it's tail, it almost falls asleep. It's easier for the shearer, and it's much easier on the sheep. 

This is Cocoa with all his fleece.

Our brown and black sheep have lots of fleece! People who spin wool and weave love their fleece because the 'hair' is so long.

Do you see Cocoa between the two white sheep?
His horns look the same, but his body looks very different.
He's not skinny, but he doesn't look as big and fat as he did when he had his wool coat on.

This is what Toby looks like without his wool coat. He's still cute!

All the sheep are so much happier now that their winter coats are gone. They were getting so hot! 

This is what one of the white sheep's fleece looked like.

The white sheep don't have very nice wool. There are different breeds (kinds) of sheep, just like there are different dog breeds. This wool gets used in the garden around the plants to help keep the weeds down, and to help keep the soil cool and moist. Plants love it!

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My friend was here with her spinning wheel. She really enjoyed meeting all of you who stopped to watch and talk with her. She had some very good questions, and liked being able to answer questions.

This is a video of me spinning wool. It's a few years old, but spinning wool hasn't changed. People have been spinning wool like this for hundreds of year. My friend has the same kind of spinning wheel. She was spinning outside, and letting everyone get close enough to see just what she was doing.

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We had a station where children could felt soap. I really wish I had a photo of what the finished soaps looked like. I hope yours turned out great! 

If you have a picture of your felted soap, send it to your teacher and I'll put it here for everyone to see.

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I put a little sweater on the new little lamb when it got cold. Little One (the mama sheep) and the new baby stayed in a stall for a few days. That helps the mama keep track of the baby. Baby lambs sometimes get lost, and the mamas don't like that at all.

Lots of families liked visiting the two new lambs. Some people got to feed Bunny a bottle. They thought that was so much fun! Bunny is a very soft lamb, and she loves people. You got to see a video of Bunny eating last week. 

Bunny and the new lamb are getting along well. They are old enough that they like playing together. Little One (mama) doesn't mind Bunny at all. She won't feed Bunny, but she keeps an eye out for her, and lets her play with the black baby.

The new lamb doesn't have a name yet. I'd love to hear what your ideas are! You can leave them in the comments below, or write your ideas down and give them to your teacher. 

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We had a children's book exchange table. All the books that were left on the table were donated to a new teacher's classroom. We were so glad to be able to find a good home for all those books.

A lot of children had fun walking the chickens. 

My neighbor was at the station with the chickens, turkeys, and ducks. She did a great job over there! She had harnesses and leashes for two chickens. Have you ever walked a chicken?

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Guess what! Gracie, the turkey, was sitting on duck eggs.
She hatched out a duckling yesterday!
I'm not sure how she will do raising a duckling. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for coming to visit the farm!

Friday Surprise!

 Some days we have surprises on the farm.

We're still surprised that Sadie hasn't had her calf. We're wondering if the tests were wrong. We'll wait a few more days to see what happens. Maybe she really isn't pregnant!

Our Spring Break surprise was a little lamb. My friend had a lamb she needed to find a home for. The lamb will be raised here for a few months until she goes back to her farm.

We named the new lamb Bunny because when I first saw her in the little dog carrier, she looked just like a big bunny.

She was born on Monday, April 4th.
Her mom loved her very much, but couldn't feed her.
Bunny needs to be bottle fed so she could get the milk she needs to grow.

Yay for new lambs in the springtime! Bunny is so friendly, and she's so much fun to feed. Yay for dogs that like to help around the farm!

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Snow on April 12th was a big surprise, too! 
The wind was fierce the night before!

The doorknob to the barn was covered with snow and ice.
We're so grateful for the water that no one at our house complained one bit!

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Gracie is still sitting on her eggs.  That's not really a surprise.
I hope they will hatch next week. I've got everything ready to take care of baby turkeys.

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The biggest surprise of the week was what I found when I fed the sheep this morning.

I found a new lamb!

That was a BIG surprise.

Last year my friend gave me two bummer lambs like Bunny. Last years lambs were very small, and very sick. I wasn't sure I could keep them alive. 

She told me they were both boys. She didn't check them closely because she was so busy lambing on the farm, and with her regular job. She just wanted to get the sick lambs to a new home where someone could take care of them.

I didn't check, either!

Instead of having three rams (boy sheep) I have two rams and a ewe (girl sheep).

I checked closely this time.
The baby is a boy!

They can't stay out with the boy sheep. Boy sheep are not good dads. 

I moved Little One (the mama sheep) into the spot where we train Mishka.
She and the new lamb will be fine there for a while.
Do you see Bunny, the other lamb?

I wanted to see how Bunny would do with Little One, and the new lamb. Sometimes new mamas don't like other babies at all. Sometimes they chase them away and are very mean to them.

I'm hoping that the three will get along well. It would be very nice for Bunny to have another little lamb to play with.

No, I haven't named the new lamb yet. I think I'll wait a week and see what names everyone comes up with.

As soon as I let the cows out of their pen they came over to check out the new lamb.
Echo, the brown cow, is such a good mama.
She loves everyone's babies. Whenever we have a new lamb on the farm
Echo wants to give it a 'cow wash.'
She wants to lick it clean!
The lambs don't mind, and we think it's funny.

I hope you have a wonderful week!