I love buying new animals for the farm. It's an addiction. I probably should get help for it. But meanwhile...... This here is Pixie, a beautiful miniature mare. I`ve always wanted a cute little white pony. And this little lady is Dreamer. We`ve got our fingers crossed that both females are pregnant. We would so love to have foals in the spring! And lastly thought I`d share some puppy photos! Marnie`s puppies are growing so fast and are already 4 weeks old.
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Introducing Ozzie, a handsome registered sorrel quarter horse! The other horse we were suppose to get fell through but all is meant to be as Ozzie is perfect! Not sure about his name though, hopefully I can get use to it otherwise Ozzie is getting a name change.
I'm in talks about bringing this beauty home. She is a lesson horse currently being used as a therapeutic riding horse for people with disabilities. The riding facility that owns her have decided to retire her from their program as she suffered two bowed tendons back in the fall and even though she has healed and is sound for light riding, the workload at the facility is too demanding. Out of the huge load of interest in her, me and my little hobby farm was selected. I`m super excited to meet her and crossing my fingers for a good match and that if all goes well, she`ll be coming home in just a few short weeks.
The ugly side to livestock farming is this. Not only is it ugly but it is smelly, messy, and you can't seem to keep your dogs out of it. But if well maintained, it can create some of the best fertilizer for fields and gardens. Even if you don't have any fields you can spray it over your pastures, or there are plenty of farmers happy to take it off your hands. Manure is considered to be like gold. Especially horse manure. It can break down quickly and contains valuable nutrients. The key is proper maintenance. When starting up a farm, be it a hobby or working farm, you will need to decide what you want to do with your manure and then how you plan on managing it and eventually disposing of it. The first thing you will look at is the proper location for it. You will need to take into consideration the distance from the closest water source either above or below surface as well as any drains that empty into those water sources. Check your government regulations in your area for exact distance requirements. It's imperative that you follow these rules as the bacteria contained in the runoff in the feces and urine matter are toxic and can be very harmful if entered into the human digestive system. Next, make sure the ground beneath your manure pile is clay soil or even better, a concrete slab, and is easily accessible for any vehicles needing excess to it. You can leave your compost pile alone, however it will take longer to decompose. Stirring it often creates more oxygen, hence more heat, and breaks down matter quicker. That heat, however, can be a fire hazard as it contains high level of methane gas. Be sure to choose your storage location far from anything that can create a spark and ignite your pile. Needless to say, also refrain from lighting a match, smoking, or setting off bonfire's nearby. Because of their high levels of methane gas, they can also spontaneously com-bust particularly in high temperatures. Good ventilation is imperative. If you can, store your manure pile outside at a distance far from the barn or outbuildings or anything really that can catch fire and make an already bad manure fire worse. If you are unable or choose not to store your manure pile outside, make sure whatever storage building you choose to store it in is well ventilated. Keep a dry pile no higher than five to seven feet tall. The key word here is "dry". Since I have no covering for my manure pile, I ensure a dry pile by drying out my manure before it is piled. After I drag out my wheelbarrow of wet manure and straw, I lay the pile separately on the concrete to dry. You can see a ton of little piles scattered around the base of the manure pile in the photos above. After several days, it has dried out sufficiently and then can be added to the bigger pile. Then, just a few months later, you get this. Rich wonderful soil for your gardens or fields. And it didn't cost you a cent! Composting is a great way to manage your horse manure and return it to the earth.
My daughter is loving her agricultural program but she is eager to come home every weekend. Mainly so that she can visit with all her barn friends but mostly so that she can jump on the back of her horse and head out on the trails. Happy trails, everyone!
ps. Farm Girl is almost done school for the year and I will finally be having some time to myself so that I can do one of my favourite past-times of blog surfing. One of the things I hate most about winter, the horses come in from pasture and we are back to mucking out stalls. This winter, however, we will only have the one stall to muck out as we have said goodbye to Cowboy and recently Duke as well. It was harder to sell Duke as we had him since he was 6 months old, but he is older now and it was time for him to move on and leave the room for more goats and sheep. Yes, sheep, we are going to try our hands in sheep farming. But back to the horse stall. Horse stalls need to be mucked out daily if in use. Other than the obvious...they leave one heck of a mess...manure can build up in their hooves and if not cleaned properly or enough, can cause thrush. What is thrush? Thrush is a black and white build up on your horses hooves that smells and can cause serious health issues such as lameness. So be vigilant on cleaning your horses hooves! (Thrush can also be caused by the build up of mud, so if you keep your horses out in pasture 24/7 you also have to keep up on the maintenance of their hooves.) The other main concern about not cleaning a stall properly is the build up of ammonia. Ammonia is created in the breakdown of organic matter in the horses urine and manure...and is very hazardous to a horses respitory system. To avoid this you need to do a complete thorough cleaning of their stall daily. Some barns will even clean their stalls twice a day. This is our routine. First you will need a good pair of cute little mucking boots. A wheelbarrow...I like this one because it is huge and holds all the contents of manure and straw from one stall. Our stalls measure 10x12. A manure fork and that scraping tooly thing in her left hand. Not sure of it's proper name. (If you notice we also like a manure fork with a bucket like scoop as it picks up more and doesn't drop as much.) You will also need a broom and a shovel. Empty all the old straw and manure from the stall. Farm Girl is skimpy and doesn't like to throw out unused straw, whereas I prefer a fresh clean stall. If you choose to go Farm Girl's route, then clear a spot somewhere in the stall and pile the fresh stuff there until ready to spread out. Once all the straw has been removed grab your broom and scrapping tooly thing and start sweeping and scraping until you have a clear floor. (p.s. rubber stall mats would eleminate the need for the scrapping tooly thing). Crack open a window to ventilate. Ventilation is a very important part of horsekeeping and every barn should be well ventilated. Ours, however, is not. So even in the dead of winter, we need to open windows to air the barn out. Next, scare the chicken resting on your straw bale away. Then fill the stall with straw. We like to use a deep bedding method because well, horses have big bladders...nuff said. And there you have it. A clean stall. Don't forget to empty your wheelbarrow outside into the manure pile so as to remove the smell of ammonia from the barn completely. In another post, I'll discuss maintaining a manure pile. How exciting!!
We sold our pony, Cowboy. It was sad to see him go but with the plans to make our a hobby farm a working hobby farm, we needed the stall space. Cowboy was a very friendly little guy but he was green broke so the only person who could ride him was Farm Girl. And since she already has a horse of her own that she can barely find time to ride as it, he had no purpose on our farm other than taking up stall space and keeping Chase company in the pasture. So he has gone to a new farm where he will be thoroughly loved and given lots of attention.
I've been busy this past week. Firstly, me and the kids spent a couple days in Toronto for some city shopping and a visit to the Royal Winter Fair. The last time I was at the Royal was when I was a teenager so I was looking forward to it and hoping to learn lots. Sadly, it was a huge disappointment. The Royal is geared more towards showing livestock as well as their huge horse show, rather than educational. At least it wasn't in the area I was interested in. I was hoping to take in seminars or workshops but found none. You see we've had discussions around the household lately about increasing our farming operation. We looked into chickens as they are my favourite farm animal but learned quickly that it is a difficult if not impossible industry to break into. They have a saying that you either inherit it or marry into it. Since neither of those options is available to us, we vetoed that plan and looked at our second favourite critter. The goats. The goat industry is slowing starting to make progress and with more awareness there is promise of it really taking off. It is just as healthy as cow's milk but is easier to digest and better for those with low tolerance to cow's milk or allergies. My oldest daughter has suffered from an allergy to cow's milk ever since she was little. After I switched from breast milk to cow's milk, she became increasingly constipated. It improved some when we brought her down to lower fat content, but her allergies remained all of her life. She was unable to enjoy ice cream, yogurt, or a glass of chocolate milk. I heard about goat's milk recently and brought some home. She had and enjoyed her first glass of chocolate milk without any side effects for the first time ever. Obviously, both she and I are sold. I've heard it also helps with those who suffer from eczima. This same daughter has struggled with eczima since she was a toddler (perhaps another side effects of cow's milk), so we are experimenting and putting her on a goat's milk diet to see if there is any results. Will keep you posted. So, anyway, we spent some time in the goat's barn at the Royal and even took in a show. The only "demonstration" we found was this guy under a stairwell milking his goat between shows. We werent' the only ones curious about what he was doing, there was a whole crowd surrounding his enclosure watching him. I think he was surprised. My boy did get a lesson on cow milking though! No matter it wasn't a real cow. And these chicks made me want white silkies just so I could colour their coats to match the season! But the highlight of the entire fair had nothing to do with agricultural at all. The President's Choice Superdogs by far stole the show and had the biggest turnout. Sorry about the bad quality but they were too fast for my pathetic little camera. Here's one of the stars of the show. Meanwhile, back on the farm, we've been busy getting ready for winter. First up was winterizing the rooster's coop. It originally belonged to the rabbits and it might very well revert back to them in the spring, but for now it houses all of our five roosters. We brought the horses in and did their feet, combed out all the birs from the field and gave them their winter deworming dose. Then the girls were next. The goats that is. They got a pedicure and also were dewormed. We are still working on rearranging housing conditions inside the horse barn as the horses will be coming in within the next month or so and at the moment one of the stalls is being occupied by Lizzie, the pig. We had built her her own pen, but she ended up chewing it nearly right through so we moved her out and put the female rabbits in it instead. I had made the executive decision to colonize all the females instead of making them each individual hutches. It's working out for us and they all get along nicely. And finally, this morning I was greeted with a raccoon hanging out near the dog runs. I set our german shepherd on him but she has grown into an old sad dog who lacks speed but grown fear. The damn critter turned and started chasing Dakota, oye! So I went inside and brought out three more of our dogs (Emma was kept inside because we're crossing our fingers she may be pregnant), and the only thing those three were good at was chasing the coon up a tree. So two hours later and with the raccoon showing no signs of leaving our property, I took matters into my own hands. My chickens wanted out to range. And my boy wanted out to play. How many people can say they've killed a raccoon? I can. Now. Living in the country isn't always pleasant.
For never having seen a horse before, Dodge fell in love with Chase at first sight and attached himself to his heel like a suckerfish to a shark. Farm Girl couldn't even ditch the pup when she went off riding. Oh well, it's a good thing they both enjoy the company of dogs.
This has got to be one of my least favourite jobs on the farm. Hubby's too as he complained enough that I decided to do it myself instead of wait until he eventually got in the mood to do it. Thankfully, though, it is not a job that is needed to be done often. But, sadly, is done completely by hand as we do not have a tractor or auger. I had decided to move the gate to the pasture closer to the barn as it is a fair distance away in it's present location, and hence is a pain during winter. So luckily there was only the one hole to dig. Though we are hoping to put up a dry lot before winter in which case we will be digging a lot more of these holes. It went fairly smoothly until I reached two feet. I don't know why but it seems whenever I dig holes I hit something---needless of the fact I am a gazillion miles from the house and even further from the road in the middle of no-man's land, so what should be out there I have no idea! But I do and I did. Thankfully I didn't puncture anything though. It was some kind of ribbed rubber tubing thingamabob which was obviously protecting something. So I left the digging there and dropped my pole into the hole. Of course it stands about a foot taller than the rest of the poles, but I think it's in deep enough and once the hole is filled will be nice and secure. Not sure how I'm going to cut the top foot off though. I'm a wizard with a meter saw and I can handle a reciprocating saw like it's nobody's business but I'm thinking that post may be too thick for either of those favourite tools. I asked hubby if he would take the chainsaw to it and he complained enough that I figure I'm going to have to learn to swing a chainsaw as well and add it to my arsenal of heavy duty tools.
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