tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17077832345687508822024-03-05T01:08:50.331-07:00Frosty Valley FarmA glimpse into life on a hobby farm.Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-60221031234646807892012-01-03T12:59:00.003-07:002012-01-03T13:25:31.987-07:00Bathroom faceliftI'm glad I'm a farm girl and used to waiting for the 'house' things to get done when 'the important stuff' is done! I've found it to be true, even on our little farm here! The barn, greenhouse, fencing, chicken coops, garage, and even dogs have taken priority over getting our house renovations completed!
I was able to give the bathroom a fresher look this fall, finally! When we moved into Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-68894142341233668242012-01-02T22:57:00.002-07:002012-01-03T13:04:05.692-07:00The BountyIn the flurry of preparations for Christmas, I found myself perched on my cupboard, scrubbing the wall above my stove, because visitors actually do look behind pictures and in closets to see how clean your house really is! As I wiped cobwebs and dust, brightly colored splatters stubbornly refused to yield to my cloth and I was taken back, back to another busy season, known to gardeners and Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-4695271788621849522012-01-02T00:02:00.000-07:002012-01-02T00:02:34.416-07:00Potato multiplication
Insulating the foundation in our basement/cold storage area means it's not quite as cold anymore... meaning potato storage isn't quite as good as it used to be! This potato lasted until spring, then sprouted, and grew, and if I'd left it any longer, I could have gotten a winter's supply of new potatoes!
Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-44205301857352490352012-01-01T18:21:00.003-07:002012-01-01T23:28:34.007-07:00Gardening in 2011A winter with deep snow transitioned into a cold, late spring, and what followed was a challenging summer.
We got the garden planted around May long weekend, normal for this area. I moved the half-barrel planters in the greenhouse from the side to the center so I'd be able to control the weeds a bit better. We added about 6 inches of composted manure and soil to the greenhouse, Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-14347491005064301432011-08-24T16:45:00.000-06:002011-08-24T16:45:05.065-06:00An Affair to RememberThis chick, Cheep-Cheep, got her foot caught in the incubator fan, then got a bit squished, so she's taking some special care. She's recovering nicely but is quite lonely and would happily reside in my hand all day if I let her, so I tried putting another chick in with her for companionship. The other chick kept pecking at Cheep-Cheep's discolored foot and wouldn't leave it alone. Last night, Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-78619548545413583542011-08-19T17:07:00.002-06:002011-08-19T19:06:23.450-06:00Raspberries galore!
The kids and I were at my sister's picking peas today and could not resist the heavy laden branches of the raspberry bushes nearby. We took a break from the peas and picked a bucket of the largest, tastiest, most beautiful berries I've seen in a long time. I was in raspberry heaven, standing in one spot in the center of the patch and filling my bucket! I picked 6 gallons last week but Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-2825955463530127302011-08-07T18:35:00.003-06:002011-08-08T09:36:52.050-06:00Chicks the natural way!I love seeing animals function the way God designed them to. Today I witnessed our mama hen take her 2 day chicks out for a "nature walk" for the first time! It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen in my life.
Just under 4 weeks ago, this hen decided to accept the invitation of a bowl of eggs we had left for her to sit on. She is a year old Buff Brahma Bantam hen, and we had left Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-37273826427872860502011-03-17T22:31:00.001-06:002011-03-17T22:33:19.014-06:00Kids! Finally!
After 2 years of goat ownership, we finally have kids born on our farm! Lady gave birth this morning to 2 little boys, both seem to be doing well and sucking. Lady is of the Saanen breed, and she was bred to Monty, an Alpine/Nubian cross. It's too bad the kids are both male, they would have been good milkers. Lady is an excellent milker, and we plan to steal a bit of her delicious, Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-9043824463780670092010-11-15T22:10:00.002-07:002011-03-12T21:15:03.498-07:00Liquid GoldOur crazy trip to Calgary at the beginning of May saw us picking up 2 packages of bees at Beemaid on our way home. There's nothing like driving several hundred kilometers with a few thousand bees buzzing not-so-happily in the back of the vehicle! As you can see in the photo below, they are packaged in tubes, with vented caps securely attached to each end, with the queen housed in a Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-87089612813250761752010-06-06T22:38:00.009-06:002011-02-21T23:04:26.162-07:00Egg Layers!!While getting chicks that will eventually lay eggs is exciting, it's even more rewarding to get chickens that are already laying! We were offered a flock of 24 laying ISA Brown hens, complete with an 8x8' chicken coop, feeder and watering bucket! The coop was loaded onto a trailer, chickens and all, and moved 4 miles to our yard. They never skipped a beat, we continued to get Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-57483012728305054922010-05-31T14:41:00.002-06:002011-02-21T17:30:01.592-07:00Baby Chicks!Early spring brought huge change on our farm! We got baby chicks, hatched out more baby chicks, got a puppy, and picked up our cattle! In mid-May, our first set of chicks arrived. We ordered from Performance Poultry in Ontario together with some other people on the ACE forum. They arrived in good condition and thrived on arrival. I was expecting day-old chicks, but they were probably Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-27151768833130682272010-05-26T22:17:00.006-06:002011-02-23T00:30:55.347-07:00Hatching - a risky business!My husband picked up this incubator from his mom on the off-chance that we would need it. We initially weren't planning to use the incubator to hatch chicks this spring, but when we didn't receive the Partridge Chantecler chicks that we'd ordered, we began looking for hatching eggs and ordered a water bottle that was missing from the incubator. Our crazy trip to Calgary gave us the opportunity Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-48815189695686905202010-05-24T17:35:00.005-06:002011-03-09T18:19:37.099-07:00Greenhouse!!Finally! After a winter's worth of planning, the snow cleared and we began the construction of our greenhouse. We searched online for ideas of how to build an inexpensive, yet effective, greenhouse and found the Alberta Home Gardening blog, where he posts ideas for an inexpensive hoop-style greenhouse, and a year later posts an update with improvements and modifications to make it Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-13159323246605957352010-04-23T20:36:00.000-06:002011-02-21T22:12:31.808-07:00Our first DextersWe bought a Dexter cow, calf, and yearling steer in January, but we couldn't pick them up until the snow melted, and the time finally came!
The cow's registered name is Pioneer Jewel which is a bit of a mouthful, so we call her Julie.
Buttons the steer, Julie the cow, and Tria the calf (her tag number was 3A).
The first meeting between the goats and the cattle: Goats - curious, Cattle -Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-91711188330940584052010-03-21T22:59:00.001-06:002010-03-23T20:45:29.160-06:00Spring & snowThe dreaming phase of spring is nearly over as the temperatures creep higher and the snow recedes. Garden, chickens, cows, renovations... all around the corner, just out of sight, although I'm catching a glimpse of the hope of them now and then!
Plans for the garden are moving from the 'thinking' phase to the 'ordering' phase, and I need to finalize what I'm planning to grow this year.&Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-24119386765377767452010-03-02T18:09:00.000-07:002010-03-02T18:09:40.326-07:00Longing for SpringI've had this happen to me on several occasions. Store-bought tomatoes ripening in my fruit bowl that sprouted their seeds inside the tomato. They look fine from the outside, finally looking ripe, but totally sprouted from the inside! It leaves me wondering what has happened to this tomato to make it do this; I have never had this happen with any home-grown tomatoes! This Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-61891807051448785792010-02-23T13:31:00.002-07:002010-02-23T13:34:15.140-07:00Morning delightYesterday's frost resulted in some amazing hoar frost today!! I got a few photos before the sun came out and melted it away. It's so awesome to see the ultimate Artist at work!
Our yard fence
Icicle hanging outside the window
Birch TreeMilkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-58036437657660603442010-02-19T14:06:00.001-07:002010-02-19T14:10:12.008-07:00The Monolith
The recent warm weather is a welcome relief from winter. Our winter has been consistently cold, with no warm spells to shrink down the snow, and there is a lot of snow! Going into the barn these days is an adventure in dodging drips and moving things to a drier location as the snow on the roof melts and drips through.
This beautiful but neglected barn was likely moved onto it's Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1707783234568750882.post-80558877718325755872010-02-14T16:19:00.000-07:002010-02-14T16:19:13.097-07:00Gardening in 2009A lot of locals tried to encourage us by repeating that the summer of 2009 was exceptional and that things will be better next year. Time will tell, but I'm not very optomistic...
Our yard is an old farmstead, and while the yard had been maintained for the past 20 years or so, there was no garden and the only remnants of flowers were some peonies with root systems that go down a mile!&Milkmaidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16514547962416345032noreply@blogger.com1