Busyness

We have had a very full week! But a good one. Last weekend we had new little heifer calf born,


Raspberry:

On Sunday afternoon, Dad and Mom drove up to Winchester, Virginia, and the next day they bought a cow from Hegdebrook Farm. We are back up in milk production again! That is a tremendous blessing to us!

On Tuesday we got our first beef of the season back from the butcher! We went nearly all summer without beef because we had to wait for the animals to get larger.

The day after we sorted the beef, we had hamburgers on the grill! Yum!

On Wednesday we packaged the beefshares, did catching up of business emails, moved the thanksgiving turkeys out to pasture and other farm work.

On Thursday, customers came out to pick-up their beefshares and we did other farm work.

On Friday, the Wright boys came over for a work day, we did farm clean-up, moved the hens, calves and goats, packaged orders for the following day, which was an on-farm pick-up day as well as the usual Saturday market.

On Saturday, Mom and Hannah left early for the Virginia Beach Market, and then the rest of us at home did the morning farm chores and set up for the Pick-up day which was to start at 10am. Shortly before 10am, Dad needed to run a quick errand, so I was by myself when the first customer arrived, (the rest were completing various chores.) As I was coming out of the sales barn with their order, I looked up and in the short time I had been in the store a line of people had formed in front of the sales tent! And that's how it stayed the rest of the day! The weather was beautiful for visiting the farm too, we had lots of folks who just decided to stop by. At one point when the line was especially long, Dad remarked for all to hear, "It looks like Walmart here!" everybody laughed. We sold a great deal of the beef we had just gotten back from the butcher, and a lot of our other meats as well. Our young pullets have started laying now so we have more eggs available! It was nice to be able to sell eggs to the folks that hadn't even pre-ordered! We did eventually run out, but it was so nice to actually have enough to fill the orders! We have had a very busy, but successful week!

-Morgan

Young Adult Gathering at the Wilson Farm

This past Thursday we had a great time of fellowship with a bunch of our friends, We played volleyball for over three hours straight! These pictures are not in any particular order and are a mixture of funny and impressive moves.......

Joanna hitting the ball

Katie hitting the ball.

Elliott hitting the ball.

Aaron hitting the ball.

Justin hit the ball up and then tripped.

Maddie caught it up again...

and Justin jumped up just in time to hit it again.

Alaina hitting the ball.

Maddie, Tim and Matthew going for it at the same time.

Didn't know I could jump that high! :)

Whoops, wrong direction!

Elliott spiking the ball.

Mrs. Thompson fussing at him afterwards.

Matthew hitting the ball.

-Morgan

Another Predator

This morning we had another predator of a different species. We opened up the pullet brooder and found a black snack curled up in one of the waters, a bulge is his long slender body told that one of the poor chicks had been his breakfast! What excitement! Will ran for the machete, we dumped the snake out in a large area of dirt and wielded the long knife over his head waiting for a good aim. The snake curled up, though keeping his head erect, turning and following us as we tried to get behind him. Finally, Maddie held him down with a board while I chopped off his head. Then Maddie cut open his stomach and sure enough there was a chick inside! It made a very interesting science "project" anyways:)

-Morgan

Yesterday we fought against the terrible heat, 101 (heat index 110!!!!) In this type of weather we start losing animals, immediate steps must be taken to cool them down, we spent most of the day outside tending to the them. Water and shade are two of the biggest factors in keeping the animals cool enough, they don't eat as much in the hot weather, but constant water is a must! For the broilers and layers we set up a sprinkler system which is suspended from the roof of the pen and sprays a low steady spray of water around their shelter.





For the turkey poults and pullet chicks we set up fan in front of their doors, they like to gather in front of the fan to cool off.







The cows got a sprinkler too!





Today was not so hot, though we still turned on the sprinklers, if the birds are panting, we turn the sprinklers on. We processed some broilers and we also integrated the older pullets in with the layers, clipped wings and banded their legs with color coded bands so we can tell the ages of the different ones, (as they're all the same color!) As I mentioned in earlier posts, we've had fox trouble so Dad counted the pullets as he put them in with the layers, we started out originally with 200, we are now down to 135! This means war with Mr. Fox!!! We're thinking up different ways to get them, as hunting and trapping have as yet, been unsuccessful. We might try a fox caller........ Any suggestions?:)

-Morgan

Around The Farm

As Katie and I (Morgan) did the animal rounds one hot morning last week, we brought the camera with us and took some shots around the farm.

Millie.

Blueberry.

That's a little too close Gertie!

Katie with the hens.

Our Thanksgiving Turkey poults.

We give our chicks and turkey poults raw milk for the first week to boost their immune system.

Our new pullets.

-Morgan