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July 2009
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It's a Boy - Introducing Mos (moose)
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Date: Friday July 10, 2009
Mos or Moz (still working on the correct spelling) is the Abenaqui word for Moose. The "o" has a line above it indicating the "oo" sound. Anyway, looks like the anglos used the simple word for Moose from the Abenaqui or Algonquins.
Mos is a little boy out of our July's April and the son of our stud male Focus. He has the most dense fleece we have ever seen on a cria. It was actually brought up by our vet. She puts her hands on a lot of cria, she says this is the most dense cria she has ever laid hands on.
Cannot write much today. Gotta run. Have lots of events planned this weekend. Will add those to this journal early next week!
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Old Fashioned Business
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Date: Wednesday July 08, 2009
For many of us the internet has become a way of life. A primary form of communication, it has become the way to run our businesses.
We are taken in by the power. Things seem to run smoothy most of the time. We are lulled into a false sense of security. However, the internet cannot be thought of as a reliable form of communication. As business folks we need to always have a back up plan. There are hundreds of thousands of ways and reasons our business sites can go down.
Recently our web server hosting company was attacked by malicious hackers. This required our website to be rebuilt. My webhosting company did a fantastic job at immediately notifying me of the problem, tried to find a solution, investigated ways to prevent the same thing from happening and ultimately rebuilding my website, and countless others.
So. I knew I was going to be down for a few days, maybe a week. What can they do? It is not the fault of my web hosting company. To try and put the blame on them, that would just be crazy. Having my website down was a good thing.
Having your main marketing and information resource go down gives you the BEST reason in the world to call your contacts and leads. Go through your rolodex, send them emails. Better yet, call them. Call them to let them know your site is down, and by the way - My Super stud male is settling females and Martha just had a gorgeous cria, maybe you would like to come by and see them.
Getting in touch with leads at a time like this seems like basic business sense to me. I was surprised by the number of business owners who feel crippled in a time like this. I say, make lemonade out of lemons.
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The List
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Date: Sunday July 05, 2009
I have been looking for the perfect notebook. I want something that is durable, rustic, preferably hand made paper of repurposed or recycled materials. This notebook that I seem to be constantly searching for will eventually house “The List”.
The List is the task list that keeps us motivated. This List contains the status of dream projects, long term plans, short term needs, upgrades, renovations, necessities...if you want it done, it gets put on the List. Right now our List is rather disorganized. These ideas may be on the back of an envelope, on a spiral notepad, on the fridge, on a card...ideas, tasks, and general list items are e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.
Often one working list on a single piece of paper, but many of these random pieces of paper end up holding the contents of our lives. If someone asks me what I did today, I can consult the List. The List reinforces why I am exhausted and sore yet emotionally and mentally totally satisfied that I did a good days work here on the farm.
The List keeps me motivated and gives me some achieveable goals. For all the things we do with each day full of work, Farmer Steve and I look around at our homestead and see there is still so much to do. There is ALWAYS something to do on the farm. I want to cherish those moments in a permanent, hand written journal.
Today the temperatures soared above 75 deg F for the first time in weeks. I cannot recall the last time we say actual clear skies. We have had an incredibly rainy June and July. Set records here in the northeast. This rain and lack of sun has been super difficult on many farmers in New England. For us, it has resulted in two separate running Lists. One List contains things that can be done in the rain, the other list is for sunny, less rainy days. The latter of the two has become quite long. Not much left to do that requires inside work.
Here was Sunday’s List (Some items never actually get on the list, but they are other things we end up doing):
~2 a.m. - Alpacas alarmed to intruder. Farmer Steve outside with 30/30, me following close behind with spotlight and .357. We had a dog attack last fall. We go out ‘guns a blazing’ if we hear a raucous in the paddock. So, if you come over late at night unexpected, ring the bell and holler real loud you ain’t here to go a rustling.
~215 a.m. identify perps. Raccoons looking for frogs in the vernal pools
~ 217 a.m. cleaning up water spilled from dog water bowl, tripped over during emergeny herd response
~221 a.m. back in bed.
~222 a.m. remember reading story about space station being the best viewing this very night. Get out of bed, go outside to gaze at start, see space station orbiting.
~243 a.m. in bed. snoring.
~ 4 a.m. Kate, Herd Relocation Engineer is ready for morning routine. Needs to go out...NOW. ~405 a.m. Farmer Steve and Kate back to bed, I glance out at the paddock in the dusky morning sun, trying to make out the girls in the barn. Counting heads. Yep still only 2 wee ones. Hey, no clouds.
~ 509 a.m. Farmer Steve and I wrestle with unconsciousness. Both of us want to sleep in. Only to find our minds busy making lists. Each of taking turns with consciousness and half awake discussions, about our lists. The fact that it seems sunny.
~630 a.m. through 7 p.m. Farmer Steve, Collen, Kate, and I awake. Too tired of fighting it
Ready for Gym.
Prep ingredients for beer brewing.
Make list for groceries
Feed critters
Watch cria nurse
Gym/groceries
Put away groceries
Start milling grains
Boiling mash
Come up with a name for Clover's cria born Tuesday July 2
Continue to Mill grains
cut, split, chop, stack wood
Bleach and clean water buckets
Rake paddock
Mow lawn
Give clippings to girls
Watch cria nap
While taking picture of cria notice I need to add siding of house to The List.
clean paddock
Watch cria itch
make Lunch
clear rocks out of new pasture
Set up pig boxes
cut and clear brush for pigs first pen area.
re-grade log landing
finish beer brewing, pitch yeast, rack
shower
go to neighbors for free dinner/cookout. Whew, I didn't have to cook. Drink homebrew, socialize for a few hours, and relax while listening to the likes of Herbie Hancock and Morphine. Go home once homebrew is gone.
Capture Anglo, give shots and cream skin condition.
Do evening chores
catch Ollalie and push her hernia back in.
shower
spend time with doggies take some allieve set upon couch, next to window, listen to birds singing. Write a journal entry. Job well done.
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Sunny Saturday
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Date: Saturday July 04, 2009
A fantastic fourth of July is coming and end. This is the first sunny Saturday that Farmer Steve and I have been home together for a while. Our 2 cria are on the ground, we have 2 left to go. We needed to stay close to home and took full advantage of this day.
Farmer Steve finished the second pig box. The Pig Box was another invention of necessity. As we raised our first pigs last summer we learned a lot about what does and does not work. Don't think that last statement meant that we are done learnin.
Last year our mobile pen was cumbersome and took many hours moving it. Not only was the pen cumbersome, but we had no way to contain the pigs while trying to tear down and move this pen to a new spot for clearing.
Last summer, Steve came up with the Pig Box. Farmer Steve repurposed a number of materials we had stockpiled or saved for such a special project. He utilized the panels we built for our barn foundation to build a box with a roof and a 5 gallon bucket cut and twisted into a funnel. Basically this pig box serves as the shelter and the feeding trough for the pigs. They loved it last year. We would come up to move the box. I would always come up with some tasty morsels. Drop them into the trough of the pig box. Those critters would get in the box, eat and fall fast asleep in a pig pile.
Thinking ahead Farmer Steve built the pig boxes so they can be picked up with the forks of the tractor. This allows us to successfully and safely move the pigs around.
While Farmer Steve was building a new pig box this year (we will have twice as many pigs), I trimmed some hedges, cleaned paddocks, and stacked some wood that we chopped yesterday in the rain.
Seems like I did a lot today, but I took my time, ain't in no hurry, just puttering. I took a lot of breaks to take peeks at the two cria. They have become fast friends.
Happy Independence Day. Give thanks to our soldiers and armed services fighting for independence and seeing what it is like without it, every day.
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Cria #2 - FINALLY!
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Date: Wednesday July 01, 2009
Introducing Cria #2 for us this year. Clover has been cooking this one for a long, long time. She was born this morning after 369 days of gestation. I will wait to get a weight on her until tonight after Farmer Steve comes home. He enjoys being a part of getting to know the new babies as much as I do. So I usually get them clean and shiny, warm and nursing, so when he comes home from work he can help with the rest of the assessment.
She is a big girl, appears healthy and already nursing within an hour of birth. No name for her yet. We will work on that over the next few days.
She appears to be all white with the exception of this black spot on her nose, which is freaking cute and will make her stand out from the rest of the herd.
I tried to wipe it off several times then realised it was there to stay. I am pretty sure this feature will come into play as we try to find an Abenaqui Name for her.
Aside:
Farmer Steve and I were in the habit of looking up possible cria names before the babies were born. In our early days here on the farm we had a rash of bad births and sick or dead cria. When I say a "rash" I mean we had like 2 cria that died either at birth or just after, and one really sick cria that nearly died. We immediately stopped naming them ahead of time and decided not to count our chickens before they hatched.
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