My dream for Chestnut Hill Farm

 

Steers & Turkeys raised for meat.

Chicken raised for eggs & meat.

Sheep raised for wool and meat.

Goats raised for dairy products.

Bees kept for honey, beeswax & pollination.

Harvest the maple tree sap for syrup.

Keep various fruit trees & bushes for fruit.

Herbs for health & beauty.

Garden, garden, garden for produce!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



These are a few of our 17 steers & heifers we have now.  In October, Dan took four steers in for our customers and December 18th, he took in eight additional head of cattle in.  Thankfully, one of those sides of beef will end up in our freezer.  I've been out of ground beef for a while and only have 2 roasts & one pound of stew meat left.  Sunday, we will be enjoying the rump roast!

 

Five of the 17 are older and may be ready early summer.  The other 12 are young...and cute! and won't be finished until late fall, probably.  They are doing pretty well, considering the big ones like to push them out of the way when getting to the hay.  Dan is putting out two big round bales of hay at a time so they really do have enough room to spread out.  Now that we got more snow again, it's really easy to find and count the black steers against the white snow.  A very pretty sight, indeed!

Yesterday, I picked all the pears I could reach from the bed of Dan's truck.  There are still a few more, but are way too high up in the tree.  On the Spring To Do List is the chore of pruning the two pear trees, for sure.

 

 

I took a total of 6 wheel barrow loads of turkey droppings & straw up to the garden and will spread that all out tomorrow.  I needed to get that area all cleaned out since that is where my meat chickens will go eventually.  Tomorrow, I will sanitize that area so it has time to dry out.  The 25 chicks are arriving on Thursday a.m.  They will start out in the old stock tank and move into the coop in a few weeks. 

 

The barn was all cluttered and out of sorts so I went ahead and cleaned & organized the barn.  It's feels good to get organized.

 

  

 

 

This photo was taken about a month ago,

 but still wanted to post because I love it! 

Violet helping Gramps with the cows. 

Mostly, just watching them eat hay.

 

 



Our neighbors have been kind enough to allow our 15 steers to graze in their empty pasture this week.  It's been a real blessing.  Since they haven't had any animals out there, there is still grass to be found and that saves us from adding hay to their diet.  Hopefully, we will get some rain from the hurricane remnant. 

This morning I grained the steers, filled their waterers then I started cleaning out the area where the turkeys were.  Next Thursday our 15 meat chicks will arrive and will need to be in that area.  I am using the wheelbarrow to take the turkey manure/straw mixture up to the garden area.  Dan will till it in the the beds this fall. 

I covered the big round bales with plastic sheeting to protect it from getting too soaked...if we get any rain.  I watered my potted plants outside and some of the stuggling plants in the ground, too.  I cut some oregano & thyme, bundled them up and hung them with a strip of homespun fabric from the old ladder I placed across the cabinets over the kitchen sink.  Looks great.

This picture was taken not too long ago.  But, sadly, long enough ago that the pastures don't look quite this green anymore.  Thankfully, we have plenty of pasture for them and the Lord has sent us a bit of rain lately.  The Angus are growing just fine.

Summer is finally here for me!

Our daughter has graduated from high school and we have celebrated with a terrific open house!  My family helped me with getting everything ready inside and out.  Landscaping looks great and even though I don't have to work on that type of thing, I have still decided to rest the garden this summer.  It's been six years of gardening, and this the seventh year I will rest the land (and myself!).   Since it's mid-June already and the garden is grown over I think I'll enjoy going to the farmer's markets and the food auction to collect my garden booty. 

Although it will cost me a more to purchase my tomatoes, beans, onions, and zucs, I will still be canning and freezing.  I'm excited to hit the Saturday markets and such.  I also have a friend who put in something like 50 tomato plants, so I figure we can buy bushels of toms from her.

The steers are looking good & growing well.  We just moved them into pasture three a few days ago and they will stay there for a few more days.  This dry spell isn't the best thing for us.  So far, the pasture is holding up, but rain would be very welcome here on Chestnut Hill Farm. 

My two hatched-on-the-farm chicks, Chelsea & Spot, are growing quick!  Dan said he'd add onto my chicken coop so we can increase our flock and sell eggs again.  Hopefully, we'll get to that soon so we can put Chelsea & Spot in there until they are big enough to go in with the other hens.  They are a bit too big for the cage they are in now.

The other day when I walked past the chick's tub & glanced in, as I do probably 8 times a day, I saw this dark blob in their water.....it was this little toad.  The tub I raise chicks in is an old stock tank for horses or cows.  The sides are 3 feet tall.  There he sat...happy as can be in their water.  Chelsea & Spot weren't very happy about being invaded.  Yes, Abigail and I think that they are both pullets (girls)...we looked at their primary wing feathers.  I'm supposed to do that when they are only a few days old, but they were with their mom then.  I feel confident they are both female.  Of course, there is a 50% chance I'm wrong....



 Don't mind me.  I'm just hanging out, chewing my cud (with my mouth open) and molting.

 Everyone lined up nicely for this photo.  Well, actually this is only 6 of the 15.

Tomorrow is Poultry Moving Day

I hope to post pics tomorrow after moving everyone around.  Abigail's fair turkeys have been in our starter tub since she received them on March 15th.  They are getting pretty big & tall now and really need to move to larger quarters, so today Dan finished putting the turkey coop back together.  Tomorrow, the four of them move in.

I will clean out the starter tub and then move Rockie and her two chicks into that for awhile.  Chester & Spot are less than a week old, but when they are about 2 weeks old, I'll probably take Rockie back to the coop for two reasons.  Number 1) I hope that she will hatch another clutch of eggs & 2) I hope to have more chicks to put in with them.  Will see about ordering them tomorrow!

Dan is going to expand my chicken coop and I may keep as many as 3 dozen laying hens.  I am very excited about progressing with the eggs business so I need to get moving on it!  Dan will help me fence in a very much larger space outside the barn for the hens to roam....I call it "Controlled Free-Ranging".  The last time I let my hens truly roamed anywhere they wanted, I loved it.   So did the neighbor's dog, who killed one before I knew he was the culprit, and then outed himself by walking away with one of my chickens in his mouth...right in front of me.  So much for truly free-ranging my birds.  I think they will really like their big new pen, though.

Can you see the little one peeking out from under her momma's feathers?

Rockie's First Baby

After 6 years of keeping laying hens, we finally got a broody hen!  When I finally figured out that she was trying to hatch a clutch of eggs, I stopped taking them from beneath her.  A few days before Easter, I made moved Rockie and her 10 eggs to a cage, still inside the chicken coop, with her own food and water.  I knew from talking with my friends who've been through this, that I would need to protect the chicks from the other hens.  I put wind protection around the cage & made it a little dark and cozy for her, just the way they supposedly like it.

When I returned home today, Abigail ran up to me saying, "You know you have a baby chick hatched, don't you"?  Well, no, I didn't ~ and am so happy about it!  We have raised a lot of chicks from one day old, but none of them were born on this farm.  If there would be any way I could tell this first one apart from the ones to come, I would name him "Chester"  or name her "Chilly".

Welcome to Chestnut Hill Farm, little one!  (Please be a "Chilly" and not a "Chester....)

We may only use the tractor tiller once or twice a year, but it it worth every penny we paid. 
Dan gave the garden rows a tilling today, Yea!  There were so many weeds already. 
Whenever Dan had the time to do it in the last month, it was too wet or raining.
I will plant some lettuce in one row, and Dan will probably till the other rows again for me in another two weeks.

This is a blank slate to a gardener and this gardener is ready to get creative!

Abby & Dan just after they were able to remove a neck rope from one of the calves neck.  We did not put it there!  We thought is was out of their reach, but apparently not!  Somehow the curious steer #13 had gotten his head through the loop and I happened to notice it when Violet and I were out visiting Wilbert. 

Since these steers are not tame, D & A had to contruct a small pen with panel gates and get 13 seperated from the others and into the pen.  Slowly, they moved the panels in until Dan could reach through and slip it off his neck. 

Well Done!

Spring is coming.  It feels like it's been coming all winter!  What a mild Ohio winter. The "pro" to that is that I only shoveled the drive one time, and only half of the drive at that.  The "con" to that is the mosquitoes are going to be unbearable this summer.  It didn't get cold enough and stay cold enough to kill anything off.

Current farm status:  Dan has 10 calves right now and I think all 10 are sold already.  We will be getting another 9, I think, so we still have more available to our customers.   I have 9 layers now and still have Higgie-Baby the rooster.  I would like to get another dozen layer chicks end of May so I can get back into selling eggs.  There is nothing like a farm fresh egg to get a small taste of nature. 

I hiked the pastures this morning.  It was great!  The sun is out and the birds are all chirping and calling to one another.  Or calling me to refill the bird feeder, maybe.

My sis and I ordered seeds with some of her friends from Bountiful Harvest and Seed Savers Exchange.  Open pollinated, heirloom, non-gmo seeds.  She said last night that some of them came already and I can't wait to get a hold of them.  The planning is fun. I've got to figure out when I want the plants to be ready for harvest, then back trac the growing time and figure out the planting plan. The growing times are all different, but for pasta sauce I want the tomatoes, green peppers, and onions finishing at the same time.....SO much fun!~