(Mis)Adventures on Huckleberry Farm

Our New Website is Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:45:00 +0000

You are invited to our new website, Huckleberry Farm. All future posts will be made there!

If you're looking for Silkie, Ameraucana or French Marans hatching eggs, click here.

If you'd like to purchase day-old chicks or started chickens, please click here.

My lavender Silkies are growing up... slowly

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:51:00 +0000

Aren't they precious? I really hope one of the three is a boy! And a girl. I need at least one of each! Now to fast foward about 7 months and then I can start hatching eggs from these beauties!

Our last Spring Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:27:00 +0000

Bashful finally had her baby last night. So that makes 3 kids and 3 lambs for the spring season. The lambs are growing so much! Hard to believe they are almost a month old!

The new kid

Playing with her new friends

One of the lambs

Now that all the birthing is done (no thanks to me!) and the weather is starting to warm up, I'm thinking about the garden, flowers, and grass growing. I have almost 100 eggs in the incubator for my new breeding projects. We're getting 4 dozen eggs a day from the laying flock! I tool 16 dozen eggs yesterday to the Food Pantry. I can't sell them all and I love being able to give fresh eggs to a needy family. Plus I waltzed out of there with tons of bread that they can't use. The chickens were super happy about that!

Looking forward to a lovely, warm, sunny weekend. It was actually 76 degrees one day this week! Only 50 something today but it was nice while it lasted!

Something to brighten my flu-ridden life

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 21:55:00 +0000

What a couple of weeks! My son had the flu all of last week. Then my husband got it. And now I have it. And my daughter. And now my husband has escaped to California on a week-long business trip leaving me with a stuffed nose, cough and a fever-ridden 6-yr old. sniff sniff
On the plus side, all three lambs are growing and thriving. And we woke up this morning to a beautiful sight.... two new baby goats! Dopey, bless her big pregnant self, finally had her twins. The poor thing hadn't been able to walk comfortably for weeks. I gave her as many pep talks as I could (which was difficult when I didn't have a voice for two days), but she just wasn't ready. This morning, I went out to the pasture to check on her and there they were! A fat little white kid and a little tan one trying desperately to figure out how to use its legs.

Can't be a bad day after all!

Our new lambs!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Finally, finally got out to the farm. My husband has been doing farm duties while I've been taking care of my son... who still has a fever on day 6. Anyway.... one day I'll live out here full-time and won't miss a thing! We hope to start building in the next few months. I can't wait.

Introducing.... the new lambs!

I just love them! I even got to hold one today. They are just adorable and precious. So glad the coyotes have stayed away. Both of my goats spent the afternoon waddling around the pasture. Surely they will give birth anytime.

And just for laughs.... a picture of Toupee. Bless his little ram heart.

Sheepherding!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:22:00 +0000

At the end of our snowstorm in January came the time for our foster sheep to move onto greener pastures. I was kind of glad since feeding them was expensive and time-consuming! It took a lot of people and two extraordinary herding dogs to get the sheep into the trailer and it was fun to watch! We did it though!
We kept eight sheep: four rams and four ewes. And now have three babies. Yay!!

We had to catch Snowflake and put him on his trailer for the ride back to his house before letting the dogs loose. It took awhile but eventually we had him!

Dopey didn't really enjoy being penned up during all the action... as you can plainly see.

The dogs were doing a great job until.....

this happened. Uh oh. Escape!

Finally they are headed into the trailer with my handsome farmer now doing most of the herding.

And people call you a city boy. You're a farmer now, sweetie! Look at you go!

It was a really interesting and fun day. All the sheep made it safely to their new destination and we settled in nicely with our much reduced flock. Plus a new donkey with a new name.

Eggs come in all sizes!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:20:00 +0000

Two of the three dozen eggs I collected today. I'm not sure who laid this teeny, tiny egg (which is about the size of a grape), but I do appreciate the effort!

I just love my eggs! Thanks, Hens!

Three new babies... and the flu

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Oh, dear. It's been a very long four days. My little boy (well, he's 10 and not really so little... but you know how it is! He's my little boy!) came home from school Friday not feeling well. I don't know how it is where you live, but here in South Carolina, the flu is running wild. And it's not a little, bothersome flu. It's an out for 10 days, in the bed, horrible flu. And so he has it. Thankfully the rest of us are still well but I'm tired! If he can't sleep, I can't sleep so we spend much of the night awake and sad. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow.

While I've been playing nursemaid, my husband has been counting sheep! After losing three baby lambs to the cursed coyotes, we've had three more born this week and all are doing well! A friend of ours put out a few coyote traps. No coyotes have been trapped but something he did is obviously keeping them away. If my son feels up to it tomorrow, we'll spend the day at the farm and I can finally take some pictures!

I have several new ideas in the works for the farm. Can't wait to share them! But first I have to talk my husband into them. And that's taking some work!

Lambs today.... Gone tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Well, that didn't take long. I ran out to take pictures of the new lambs on Monday morning and couldn't find them anywhere. I saw the Momma hanging out with the other sheep, but no babies. Knew that wasn't a good sign. I searched everywhere in the pasture for any sign of them. Nothing. Thinking they might have somehow squeezed through the fence, I looked all around the pasture. They're gone. No bones or hide or anything. I can only assume coyotes came and took them. The mom must have taken them to the back part of the pasture which is where she gave birth. Being separated from the rest of the animals, including the four guardian donkeys which I'm not too happy with at the moment, must have put them at risk.
So no pictures of the lambs. I think two more of the ewes are pregnant and I need to figure out how to protect those babies. We don't have a barn yet. Hopefully the Barn Fairy will give us one soon! We do plan to build one this year thankfully.
I hate losing animals.

Goodbye Bully.... Hello Baby!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:15:00 +0000

Whew! It's been a busy few weeks at the farm. The ice and snow didn't melt for a whole week. One cold day after the other made for a lot of slipping and sliding. And when it finally did melt.... oh, the mud! What a mess! The chicken run and the pastures were so muddy that I actually lost my boot right off my foot. The good news is that everything has finally started to dry up... just in time for the next winter storm to come next week. I'm hoping it will just be rain!

Last Saturday we had an old-fashioned sheep round-up. It was time to say good bye to the sheep we've been fostering since summer. Two border collies came along to help round them up. How fascinating to watch! Those two dogs listened to their owner's voice inflections and commands and knew just what to do. I never heard her call either one by name but somehow they both knew where to go and what to do at all times. While that was going on, I was busy talking to Mr. Mann (the man whose donkeys we were also fostering) and trying to sweet talk him into letting us keep his donkey, Thirty Eight. It worked! He packed up Snowflake and all but 8 of the donkeys and headed home. We were able to choose eight of the sheep to keep so we picked out four males and four girls. Of course we had to keep the ram that my husband saved from drowning! Everyone is doing great and I definitely do not have to use as much feed which is great and much cheaper!

After a short family meeting, we decided to change Thirty Eight's name. It just didn't go along with the rest of them. So he is now Muffin. And that suits him just fine. He has a bigger muffin top than me.

This past week, our three billy goats suddenly decided to become aggressive. Ever since we lost our head goat Grumpy, those three boys have become increasingly obnoxious. She must have kept them in line. One in particular (Scrooge and trust me, his name was perfect for him) started being very food dominant and would lie in the food trough and throw his huge horns at anyone that tried to eat. Even the donkeys avoided him. This past Thursday, he made the horrible mistake of injuring me while I was feeding everyone. He came barrelling in and smashed my hand against his horn as hard as he could. I thought it was broken and boy, did it hurt! Luckily it just ended up being a painful, deep bruise but that was the last straw. I put him on CraigsList that night.

Here was my very honest ad:

One big white bully Billy Goat to someone who wants to come get him. Big horns. No specific type and age unknown. We acquired him when we bought our farm and he was fine until our main girl was killed. Now he's a bully and we don't know how to handle him. Good size for a goat and still growing as far as we can tell. Anyone want him? Available Saturday 1/22 only. He just about broke my hand and we have two small children. Wish I could keep him but he must go! FREE! Can also throw in another billy who is much nicer but not needed.

My husband laughed at me but I thought I needed to be truthful. Within the hour I had emails from almost 30 ~~fools~~ people who wanted him. Guess you really can get rid of anything on CraigsList. Our excited new goat owner arrived right on time Saturday and took all three of our male goats. I was so happy! I couldn't part with our two pregnant little girls, but we really do want to get a new breed of goat and this is our chance. We promised the children we will have new goats soon. Of course they want little Nigerian Dwarf goats. Or Fainting goats. We'll see. The farm is much more peaceful now that Snowflake and the bully goats are gone. Everyone is eating nicely and working together. Beautiful! And my hand is finally losing some of the swelling.And guess what else? We have two brand new baby lambs! Born today. One of the ewes that we kept had her babies this morning. We didn't even realize she was that close to giving birth! We have so much to learn. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but I'll definitely be there out there tomorrow snapping away!

Walking on water!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:06:00 +0000

Well....no. Just a frozen pond and that NEVER happens here! These poor geese are wondering what happened with their supposed trip South! Not far enough apparently!

Where's my brush?

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:57:00 +0000

The sledding has been a bit rough on my daughter's hair. Yikes! At least she's having fun! We didn't have a sled so one of the feeding troughs kindly volunteered.

Snowy farm... day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:44:00 +0000

At least it's sunny today! Still freezing cold. Still inches and inches of snow with a layer of ice on top. But I did entice a few of the chickens to come out of the coops for a visit.

The little birds enjoyed a breakfast of chicken feed. Obviously finding food under all the snow was hard this morning!

The high temp today is forecast to be 32. But tomorrow it's 38 and 50 by Sunday. Guess the snow will be here for a few more days. I think I speak for a lot of Southerners when I say, "Melt already!".

Snow 2011.... farm version!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:02:00 +0000

We made it to the farm! What a mess. They do not de-ice or plow our roads down here so you travel at your own risk! We made it to Walmart where I found absolutely no milk or anything else I wanted. Shelves cleaned bare. I did manage to pick up a few items to take the farm so we can eat for the next day! The normally 20-minute trip took about 40 minutes. We got stuck spinning out heading into the farm but finally got a little traction and headed down our very, very long driveway (1/2 mile!). We have 6 inches of snow with a crust of ice on top. Not fun to walk on to be sure!All the animals were alive and okay. Thankfully. The sheep had escaped their pasture and either didn't know how to get back or didn't like walking on icy snow.

Thanks to Farmer Cole and my sweet baby girl, the sheep managed to head home for a bite to eat. I wish all children lined up as nicely as my sheep!

The farm was dressed in a beautiful coat of white. My chickens did not cooperate with the photo shoot though. Despite the yummies I tossed outside, they wanted nothing to do with the snow!

They may not like the snow, but they still laid eggs!

It's cold, crunchy, icy, and wet, but I don't care! I'm here and I can take of my little sweeties. The sun has just set and it's freezing out there. Black Ice warnings tonight. No school again tomorrow. At least I can go to bed not worrying about the animals!

I swore I wouldn't complain about the weather this winter after the horrible summer we had. So I'm not! It's pretty and it's cold but I can handle it. Stay warm and safe wherever you are!

Ice.... Brrrrrr

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:53:00 +0000

It dawned on me in the middle of the night why I couldn't upload pictures. I upgraded to IE9 the other day and have had nothing but problems since then! Good thing I also have Chrome.

To my mother-in-law: I know you're reading that wondering what I'm talking about, but don't fret. Just enjoy the pictures! It's computer stuff. :)

My sweet husband braved the roads and made it to the farm yesterday afternoon. With the freezing rain starting and forecast to continue overnight, we decided that driving on snow might be better. He said the roads were slippery and terrible and a normal 20-minute drive took significantly longer. But he made it and took care of my chickens (and the sheep and goats and donkeys and dog of course!). Besides a little snow in one of the coops, everyone weathered the storm just fine. He gathered what eggs he could see. I don't think he's as proficient at reaching under the chickens for eggs as I am! I paced the floor for a few hours until he made it home and was relieved when he walked in. Thanks, Honey!

The beautiful snow is now covered with a thick layer of ice which makes it pretty but dangerous. School is closed again today and we will spend another wonderful day in front of the fire playing games and eating too much. Usually snow in South Carolina melts by the next day. Our current forecast does not show temps much above freezing for several days, so this may be hanging around awhile!

They got it right this time!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Wow! Now this is SNOW! After several days of build up on the news and two days of packed grocery stores, it began snowing last night and it's still going this morning. We have at least 6-7 inches so far and it's really snowing. Unfortunately the freezing rain is about to start so my children are out trying to enjoy it. Not great packing snow though. Very powdery. For South Carolina, this is a MAJOR snow storm!
We went to the farm yesterday and did what we could to get the animals ready. I wish we lived there! I'm so worried about my chickens! I gave them extra food and put a few waterers in the coops in the hope that they wouldn't freeze. I think they'll be okay today but tomorrow they will need more food and water. If the weather forecast holds true, we will get freezing rain all day and into the night, making for very icy and nasty roads in the morning. Fingers crossed that we can travel tomorrow!
So since I can't take pictures of the farm (which I know is gorgeous this morning!), here are some from my house. Hope it's as beautiful where you are today!

EDITED TO ADD: I can't get the pictures to upload. Will keep trying!

My first delivery!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:12:00 +0000

This morning I took my first delivery of eggs to Corley's Market here in Greenwood. My first commercial account! I told them I'd be back with my camera to take pictures of my sweet eggs in the grocery case once they get them set up. They looked so pretty in their clear carton and cute label. I hope whoever buys them appreciates them!
And guess what? We're expecting a "Major Winter Storm". I admit that I'm a bit of a weather junkie (nerd) so the threat of any kind of winter precipitation gets me excited! The storm is due to arrive tomorrow night and continue through Monday. Up to 6-12 inches of snow and then ice. If we don't lose power, I'll be able to sit in front of a fire enjoying it all.
Today was so windy that my chickens were all hunkered down in the coops. I threw some scratch out for them and the brave babies that came out were blowing all over the place! Bless their hearts.
My hatch is done and I ended up with two chicks. Not great but better than my last hatch which ended up with none. We have a new kitten who is extremely interested in the chicks so I can't raise them on the dining room table like I used to do. Right now they are in our half bath enjoying the beautiful granite countertops, vessel sink and silk curtains!
I started to drift over to some of the hatchery sites to look at chicks but I managed to stop myself! I finally sat down and counted up my chickens. I *think* I have 143 right now. As far as I'm concerned, there's always room for a few more! Right?

Welcome, 2011!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Happy New Year! Doesn't 2011 sound like something from a crazy, futuristic movie? Hard to believe it's the year we're now in.... but it is and I plan to enjoy it!

I've had a wonderful two week break from my computer. My children were home from school. My husband was home from traveling. We spent two unhurried, unplanned, unscheduled weeks just enjoying being together. Christmas was wonderful and New Year's uneventful. So perfect!

We did end up getting some snow on Christmas Day. By some, I mean an inch and by Christmas Day, I mean 11pm at night. But snow is snow in the South and it was exciting nonetheless!

We started the new year with a lot of rain. Today, the second day of the new year, is sunny and 70 degrees! Woo hoo! Feels fantastic out even though I know it won't last.

I just put six Araucauna eggs in lockdown in my incubator. Thought I'd try a new breed. Can't wait to see how they look as chicks!

Tonight we are back to reality. My husband just left for the week on a business trip. The kids have school in the morning. The animals need to be fed and I don't have my husband to sweet talk into it. Who am I kidding? It's wonderful!

Hope you all had an amazing holiday season and are ready for a great 2011!

White Christmas?

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:54:00 +0000

Could it be? Well, maybe... but probably not. According to the local weatherpeople, we haven't had a white Christmas here in our part of South Carolina since 1963. So the fact that they are predicting snow for sometime Christmas Day must be listened to but not necessarily believed. I think it's more likely that we won't have bread or milk on the shelves than have snow on the ground. But I'm an optimist!

My children, of course, are beyond excited about the possibility of a few inches of snow. The fact that it might happen on Christmas means little to them. Snow is snow and that means fun!

I'll keep you posted! I'm predicting rain. Hopefully not ice. Snow would be perfect!

Merry Christmas to everyone! May the blessings of the Lord Jesus be upon you this day and every day.

Ugh..... this weather!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:45:00 +0000

The last two weeks..... Brrrrr! The temperature struggles every morning to get out of the teens. All the animals have frozen water and frozen feet. Tonight we're expecting ice and freezing rain. How fun! Yesterday I found two of my little Columbian Rock chicks dead in the chicken run. I couldn't tell if they had died from the cold weather or from being trampled. I have a coop right there open for business with a nice heat lamp for them. But no one is ever in there! I moved my remaining five Columbian Rocks into the locked coop with the real baby chicks.

I'm ready for temperatures above freezing. Just a little above. I'm not greedy!

Polar bear!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:02:00 +0000

Back in the fall, I posted the pictures of my friend Beth's cute chickens made out of hay bales. She's done it again! Check out her new creation for Winter... Mr. Polar Bear! I'm eaten up with jealousy.

Isn't it just too cute? He's so big in real life. I'm not sure how she does it. Maybe a little Christmas magic.

Buttermilk sky

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:19:00 +0000

My first thought this morning:

Wow! What a beautiful sunrise! My mother-in-law always calls it a "buttermilk sky." I'm not sure why that is except that maybe it looks like buttermik biscuits. It was truly bright pink and blue. Gorgeous!

My second thought this morning:

There's something wrong when 30 degrees feels warm to me. But it did!

I hope we're not gearing up for the same type of winter we had last year. Cold, wet, windy. Yuck.

Hope it was a lovely morning wherever you are!

Baby, it's cold outside!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:26:00 +0000

Early December in South Carolina is NOT supposed to be this cold! The temperature hovered around 13 degrees this morning. Yikes! I ran out to check on all the chickens (especially the baby chicks I brought out yesterday), and they seemed okay. Amazing how chickens just walk around in such freezing weather. The chicks are in a locked coop under a heat lamp so I hope they'll be okay. Looks like the cold weather is hanging around for awhile. BRRRRRRR!!!!!

I snapped this picture this morning of a little goose just swimming around the pond behind our house. She didn't seemed bothered at all by the temperature!

RIP, Grumpy.

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:19:00 +0000

Yesterday was a day I'd like to forget but probably never will. We arrived very early to the farm and found our three dogs (Bear, Lambchop and Toby) in the pasture with the goats and sheep. We haven't figured out yet how they managed to get in there. The fence all looked secure and we have barbed wire run at the top and bottom. But I guess a determined dog will find a way.

By the time we arrived, those dogs had killed five goats including beautiful Grumpy. :( They had ripped her two babies out of her and were eating them. They also killed four other pregnant girls. One was way in the back of the pasture so it's obvious they chased her back there. I'm not going to describe the horrifying scene. I wish I hadn't seen it at all.

We got the dogs out and took care of the goats. My poor babies! They had such great personalities, always anxious to say hello and get a little treat. I can't believe they are gone in such a senseless way. My two children took it particularly hard when we had to break the news to him. My 10-yr old son has a very tender heart toward animals and he just kept replaying what he imagined the goats felt and saw. He was sad that pregnant little Sneezy never had the chance to deliver her first baby. And Happy, who had her first baby killed a few days after birth last year, never had the chance to raise a baby. It went on and on. What can you say? I did the best I could to offer some comfort. He finally fell asleep, asking God to take his nightmares away. He just looked at me as I was walking out of his room and said, "I wish God would let us have this day over again so we could stop everything from happening." Me too, baby. Me too.

After an afternoon of discussion, my husband and I made the difficult decision to rehome the dogs. We have a lot of innocent animals and we didn't feel like we could securely protect them from the dogs at all times. The unfortunate thing is that the dogs are wonderful with kids and people. No aggression at all! I guess not all dogs are meant to be farm dogs. Chalk it up to another tough lesson learned by inexperienced farmers. We'll know better next time!

The only bright spot yesterday is that we now have a kitten! This precious little kitten showed up at my children's school a few weeks ago and had been living in the Kindergarten classroom where my daughter is. All the kids loved her and the teachers said she was the sweetest kitty. The entire school had been putting out flyers (it's a small, private school so going around the neighborhood and hanging Lost Kitten signs is okay!) and trying to find the owner. No one claimed her. They've been desperately trying to find her a home and kept asking us to take her. We thought about letting her live on the farm in our house but were afraid of what the dogs would do if she got out. After the dogs left yesterday, that was no longer an issue so I went up to the school and got her.

We named her Gabby and she's a little tortoise shell kitten. So cute! She spent the whole afternoon going from one lap to the other and purring away. What a sweetie.

So we have five less goats and three less dogs but gained a little kitten. I'm thinking a herd of goats would be a great Christmas gift for the kids! And me!

Grumpy!

noreply@blogger.com (Susanne) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:03:00 +0000

No, I'm not grumpy. My goat is Grumpy! Seven goats came with our farm so of course, we had to name them after the Seven Dwarfs. And someone had to be Grumpy. Little did we know at the time how great she is and how in charge! She's definitely the boss of that pasture. She even takes on the Big Horn Sheep.

Grumpy is very, very pregnant. Her sides are so big and her belly is practically dragging on the ground. Every day I expect to have new kids, but not yet! I just love Grumpy.

How can you not love this face?