Oakshire Farm

Yesterday (sunday march 4th) it finally happened.  Diamond our Cali doe had her liter of bunnies.  She was due on the 1st to have them.  She is a first time mom and this is our first little as well.  So I had no idea what to watch for.... Last week she puller her hay pile into her nest box and made a tunnel in the hay.  I thought GREAT babies will be here soon....... well after 3 days and she had not pulled any fur, I was starting to wonder.  I picked her up on saturday to take a closer look at her, she had a HUGE belly, and her nipples looked full, her "girly bits" looked swollen.  So I though that all looked like a good sign!  Sunday we had a family day planned, spend the day in Victoria.  It was great!  Came home and Pat went to the barn to start doing chores, he came and found me and asked if Diamond's nest was full of fur that morning... I skipped out to the barn and sure enough, her next was full of white fur.  I gently pulled back the fur and there they were!  6 FAT little pink wigglers.  They all looked to have full bellies and were a healthy pink color. 

They sure are hard to take photos of at this point, but not to worry.  I will be posting lots more as they grow!

It seems like life gets busy and I have not been very good at keeping up on my little blog..... 

So what is new and exciting here at Oakshire Farm......

#1, I am expecting our 4th and final baby.  It is really bitter sweet, I really love being pregnant and having babies.  But 4 was the magic number and so here we stop.  So far I am feeling GREAT!  Like every other pregnancy..... I am throwing up. But I can still keep up with everything on top of throwing up just about every day.  It seems to be worst in the evenings.  I am still riding my horses, although not as much as I would like. But I still love to get out. 

#2, The Freaks!  hahaha one of my newest additions.  I call them "The Freaks" there is 4 of them, they are Partridge Silkie chickens.  There is 2 girls and 2 boys, Rusty is the main man, and the other little boy, that is not much of a boy at all.  He looks like a boy and that is where that ends!  He acts like a girl, he is a very confused little chicken.  They are free range in the yard, they go where ever they want and do what they want.  They are not at all bothered by my dogs. They spend most of the day at the back door of the house waiting to be fed, and follow where ever I go in the yard.  They always follow me where ever I go.

#3 Rabbits!  Trying to be as self sufficient as we can be on our little farm we have decided to start raising rabbits for meat!  I got in contact with a great lady that was going to help me out and get me started!  I got all my cages together and all set up and waiting for her to give me the call that she had my "trio" ready for me.  We had talked and decided on a group of 2 Californian does, and a New Zealand buck.  I got the call, and she delivered them to me last week.  She came and checked out all the cages, made sure every thing was just perfect for them!  She picked out a few older rabbits so we would be ready to go!  The girls are beautiful the one doe is out of her best doe, Cynthia picked out her name "Star" she is very calm and sweet.  Settled in right away.  The other does, which she bred before she brought her to us, we decided to call her "Diamond" she is a little more shy, but is calming down and is very sweet as well.  Then there is "Thumper" the buck, he was freaked out by his travels.  I told the kids that they had to stay out of the barn until the rabbits settled, I did not want to stress them out.  But sometime during the day friday Thumper managed to get spooked and somehow broke his back.  It was very upsetting, he was so nervous I just wanted him to be calm.  I called my rabbit guru and she said that yes, that can happen if they get spooked and it was best to put him down and he would be fine to eat.  So as sad as it was, Thumper is gone   But he did not go to waste. 

#4 The Garden.  Last year I had a pretty disappointing attempt at growing a garden, but this year I am determined to make a go at it!  We have a HUGE space!  But with the new baby on it's way and Patrick working (that will be #5)  I do not want to have to rely on him to help with weeding, so I was chatting with a friend in Naniamo, and she does a garden share.... she has a few Garden helpers that help her with her garden and they share the produce.  So I thought this is worth a try!  I put a add on a local site.  And I got a few responses, one guy that was just rude!  But I think I have found a perfect "helper" she just lives down the road and her landlord will not allow her to have garden space.  She has a 4 year old little girl.  So she is going to come up on the weekend and we are going to chat and see if we are going to make this work!  The first thing that needs to be done is putting up a fence!  that was mistake #1 from last year.  Once the fence is up, Patrick can spread out the manure that we put there last year, and then get to rototilling.   Then come the fun thing, picking what we want to grow!  I am sure we will go over all of that on the weekend.  I think this is going to work out great for both of us.  I am sure her 4 year old will have a blast running around playing with my girls as well.

#5 Patrick got a job!  The dump truck has been painfully slow over the last year, and he made the decision to sell it.  So he started looking for a "real" job.  He applied for a few operator jobs on line, and did not hear back.  Then I was picking up some bull calves at the dairy farm we get them from and was chatting with the farmer, I mentioned that Pat was looking for a job. Next thing I know the phone started ringing!  The farmer told the vet and word got around!  Patrick has been away from working on Dairy Farms for 8 years now, but apparently people remember him.  He got a call from one farm, he went and got the job!  He was not to sure about it, he said that is was a disorganized farm, but he was happy to have a job....... But at the same time he was helping the farmer that we get our calves off of build a barn.   So he was off for a few weeks helping with the barn, when he called the farm back to check in, they hired a different person.  So Pat was pretty pissed to say the least..... since he had a call from 2 other farms that he turned down.  So he was back helping on the barn and told that guy about what happened and he said you know what I have a friend that just got rid of a guy, they are looking for a farm hand!  Gave him a call, so with a quick phone call.  Pat ran out to go and meet them, and he started the next day!!!  It has turned out to be a perfect job for him!  He is doing all the things that he LOVES on a farm,  he has a GREAT shift he work 5am-2pm.  He is spending alot of time in the shop fixing and doing maintenance in the equipment, tinkering.  He does not have to do the milking shifts.  But still works closely with the milker and does all of the feeding of cows and calves.   The farmer is a very nice guy and they are getting along great!  It is really something easy to get used to, all these years of Pat not bringing home a steady pay cheque it is happening now!  It is a nice feeling to have more cash flow.  

I think that is all for now...... I am sure I will think of more.  I will get some pictures of the bunnies and make a Rabbit page on the website!  We hope to grow and start selling rabbit meat commercially! 

It has been another VERY long gap since my last post.......  But life is busy during the summer time and it is hard to get that few extra minutes to just sit down and wrote about my day.  But things are quieting down and getting back to normal.  All my cows are bred again!  And we have dried off Harriet and Annabelle, Juicy and Mabel are slowing down now too.  Had to go back to buying milk in the store (yuck) all the milk that we are getting right now is going back to feeding calves. 

I seem to have so much free time on my hands!  Cynthia is going to school full time again this year and Jayden is going to preschool monday, wednesday and friday and on those days when Jayden is at preschool my parents are taking Lily for the days.  They seem to pick all the kids up from school and that I am free all day!  Last week was the first day that this happened..... I went crazy scrubbing kennels and trying to get as much done as possible..... well I was sacked by 11am!  Today is day 2 of being kid free.  I had a busy morning, but I am going to pace my self a little better to get more done each day. 

Well I am off to get more accomplished.... I hope to get a chance to sit down and write more soon....

P.S. Mrs Beltsville wandered out of her hiding spot yesterday with 11 baby turkeys!!! 

We after a long time with not posting, and then not having a computer for 3 weeks..... I am back! 

So I think that 2011 will be known as the never ending hay season!  It has been going steady since June till now, we are just starting second cut and finished first cut last week!  Eeeekkkkkk, it would be so nice to just be able to enjoy our summer, but with the weather being so unpredictable we have not been able to cut all the fields the way we wanted.  Instead of cutting a 20 acre field, we have been dividing it up into 5 acre pieces and it take 4 times as long to get the field done.  The advantage..... the work is not as hard or as long.  Instead of having a hard day of trying to get 1000+ bales all put away it is only 400-500.  With the help of the bale wagon and the hay crue, I don't think I have lifted more than 50 bales this season

An update on the cows....... The girls are all doing GREAT!  everyone is enjoying the cool summer, the grass sure has stayed green alot longer this year than it has others.  Fire Crotch left at the end of July to go and spend the rest of the summer with 3 little Dexter cows.  He was a superstar getting in the trailer.  The people had said that they did not have a loading chute at their end, so we wanted to see if we could load him with out a chute here.  We backed the trailer up to the gate, opened the door.  He just about went in, but spooked and did not.  So I got the idea to go and get Annabelle, who had just finished a heat a few days earlier and he was going crazy staring at her over the fence.  So I went and got Annabelle and walked her into the trailer.  Fire Crotch jumped in with excitement to see her.  So we closed the door and Annabelle came for a truck ride to Metchosen.  It sure is great having easy going cows <3 After we dropped Fire Crotch off we went to visit Rosemary that went to her new home, but we had not dehorned her because our iron kicked the bucket.  She lives about 10 minutes down the road from where Fire Crotch is visiting.  Rosemary is BEAUTIFUL!  Ohhhh my goodness, these Jersey X Dexters that we are making are amazing!  She is a amazing red brindle color!  She is 5 moths old now and looking fantastic!  Here she is.

The following weekend Pat and our friend Kurt were drag racing up in Port Alberni at the "Thunder in the Valley" I went up to watch the racing on sunday and we had sold Daisy a Angus X Holstein heifer that we had raised to a great family up there.  After receiving the horrible news on saturday that Kurt had crashed on his first run!!!!  All was OK, the speed was estimated at about 130MPH when the crash happened, thankfully for all the proper gear, the only injury that he received was skinning his pinky finger right down the bone (OUCH!!!) he had the get a skin graph to fix it but all things considered, he was so lucky!!  As I was getting ready to load up on sunday, I backed  the horse trailer up to the gate and put a bale of hay in for Daisy to eat on her long drive, as I was walking out of the trailer she passed me going in!!!  So I closed the door and that was her loaded up.  The family has also asked for a holstein steer to keep her company until she calves in April.  So I went down to the calf paddock and put a halter on a calf, he walked up to the barn very easy.  I opened the door to the trailer, gave the calf a tug and he jumped in the trailer.  So off we went, it was a nice drive up.  We got the Daisy's new home the people have a great place!  Lots of happy animals all living together.  I love that!  I hate seeing animals locked in small paddocks on there own, it is so much healthy mentally for the animals to live in a "herd" even if it a mixed species herd. 

Me and Cynthia have been getting out for lots of trail rides, which has been great!  She is sure a good little rider. 

Well that is my update for now.......

Lots of great things have been happening around here this week.  We have started cutting hay and looks like we will have a bumper crop!  That is great, So far we have confirmed orders for 2500 bales and more that have just not confirmed the number of bales that they are needing.  So I am trying to find more buyers for hay in the field. 

Tuesday evening or goats went to live on a different farm!  That is great news!  We have a miserable old neighbor that freaks out if the goats "visit" his hay fields.  So unfortunately that has left the goats being tethered for the past month   It was hard trying to find homes for 2 old goats, neither are breedable, they are to old to eat, and they both have horns, so there is not a huge line up of people looking for theses old girls.  They ended up next door to my parents place, so we can visit them.  They have lots of grass and bushed to keep trimmed.  The family that has them is trilled that they can take care of the landscaping around their place!  And I am thrilled that they are no longer here, living a unhappy life in solitary. 

The down side of this week, Patrick has been gone pretty much all day everyday.  Work has picked up for the dump truck, as it seems to every time he needs to work on other things.  So he leaves early to do the trucking, then goes straight to my parents place so he and my dad can get working on the haying.  So I have been holding down the fort pretty much on my own.  I enjoy getting up early and heading to the barn with a cup of tea and milking.  It is relaxing, just hanging out in the barn, cleaning stalls and talking to the cows, they seem to be the best listeners to dump all of life's stresses on........  Then I come back to the house, wake up the girls and get Cynthia ready for school and then get on with the day. 

Diesel gets his last dose of antibiotics this morning!  YAY He is putting weight back on and now it will just be a waiting game....... can he put the weight on and hold it? Will he choke again?  Will he be ridable?  He sure has spunk back, I feel sorry for the poor guy, he sees me coming and takes off.  It is hard to catch his to give him his shot.  I have been giving him all the shots in his neck.  He tried to kick me after the first one on his rump.  So I switched to the neck. mane side in the evening and bare side in the morning.  But he is sore.  I feel for the poor guy.  He has tried to bite at me and he swings his neck around.  I do not blame him for being a jerk, lol, it hurts him, he must be so bruised.   He just needs time to get better!  He is eating well right now.   My biggest concern with him is just making sure he has a good quality of life.  If he is unable to keep a good weight without the help of grain that is great!  He was a easy keeper before this all started, so I hope he can make a good recovery!  But it is baby steps, I am still thinking about putting him on a ulcer treatment, just because of the stress his system has gone through?  But I have to look more into what products are available and how I have to get them into him???  If they are a powder that I have to put on grain, I am not sure if I want the hassle?