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!~

The Last 6

The last 6 steers for this year, eating their yummy corn breakfast.  We've had soooo much rain lately that EVERYTHING was muddy and mushy for a while.  Thankfully, it finally got cold enough for everything to freeze.  Cold it is.  Today's high is expected to be 31 degrees.  That means I need to be checking their water tanks to break the ice several times each day.  We do have one water heater, but hadn't put it in yet since it hasn't been freezing.  These boys & girls go to the processor on the 20th.  We will have a beef-less farm for about 11 days....then, we start over with a new group!

Cold Frame

Using a glass door left over from The Great Remodeling of 2009 and six straw bales that Dan picked up for me, I constructed my first cold frame.  I have hopes of setting out some containers planted with lettuce & spinach seeds tomorrow.  I also have some plants I started inside that already need to move to the cold frame.  I'm excited to see how it helps us get some things growing earlier this year, so that we eat even more  homegrown food.

Early January 2011

The new 15 making themselves at home.

The arrival of our 2011 steers & heifers!



15 head of cattle.  The highest number we have purchased at one time!
January 2011



Chestnut Hill Farm Blog

I'm changing my personal blog into our farm blog.  In the near future, I'll be posting information about our farm; why and how we do what we do.  Basically, our mission statement is to raise and provide healthy food for our family and help other families do the same by providing a local, sustainable source from which to purchase beef and chicken.  Yes, we are going to start selling chicken again!  Check back with us soon!

I'm the worst blogger ever.

one of the few UNrainy days

Seems like it rains almost everyday. This morning it was gray and yucky feeling. Dan had worked all night and hadn't gotten much sleep and Violet had thrown up yesterday in my car (yuck..poor baby) so, we decided to stay home from church today. Dan and Violet both napped in the a.m. and then Vi went home.

She was hysterically laughing when I sneezed - big kid belly laughs! Very cute. Then she'd laugh at me laughing at her. This was during her bath and it seemed like the best time she'd had all day (post-puking)

Dan, Abigail and I went to a grad party for a fireman's son. Then, we headed home for some late evening chores. The garden is growing, with lots of weeds, too. We've had so much rain that some of the seeds I planted have either rotted or been washed away. Tomorrow (if it doesn't rain) I will get some more seeds in the garden. I mowed some of the yard while Dan trimmed under the pasture fencing.

Beautiful Day

Today it was sunny and mid-80's. They say it was 10 degrees higher than the normal for today. I had stayed up late last night working on my garden plan and finished it up when I had Abby at piano lessons.

Anyway, I managed to get outside this morning before leaving at 10 and re-hoed row 4 and weeded the 3 heirloom lettuces and the peas. So far as I can tell, the Spinach didn't germinate at all. It was from last year or before, so I think I'll just pitch them and replant another variety.

Abby drove to piano and then to school (going through the drive-thru for the first time) and then later drove home and then home from 4-H this evening. She drove a total of 2 hours and 15 min. I think that gives her a total of 16.5 driving hours. Tomorrow is her second "in-cars" and I know she's still nervous about driving in a different car with the instructor.

I stopped up at the house up the road to get some Roma Tomatoes, but they didn't have any at all. He said Roma seeds were scarce this year. I did get a four pack of cherry tomato plants, banana peppers, red bell peppers, lots of marigolds, and 2 four packs of shade plants. Hopefully, I will get them in the ground tomorrow morning. And, get seeds in the ground. I really need to do that!

4 eggs today from my hens. Abby's turkeys are getting big. Dan mowed the barnyard pasture and pasture 6 to the woods, then he let the steers back in to clean up the cut grass.

Sunday, May 23

Today was a beautiful, sunny, Sunday. After all the rain we had, I was happy to have sun and even the heat. 80 some degrees today. Dan had to paint today. After church, Abigail hoed the entire garden for me and I mowed. I put six bags of grass clippings in the barn to dry for Seifer. Abigail planted her flower seeds in the bed that has the strawberry plants.

The strawberry plants loved all the rain. It looks like I have 22 plants! Before the days of rain, I thought only 12 were going to make it! Thanks, God.

I got the 4 heirloom tomato plantsand two hot pepper plants in the garden that I bought from Millie. I planted two areas with marigold seeds.

We cooked out burgers (CHB) and brats (Ursich hog)...yum. Ate at the picnic table under the oak tree.

Abby's hair still looked good from the Celtic Ball last night. She and Kolton had a good time.