New Finds on the Farm

We've been busy this spring, and particularly the last couple weeks.  Here are some new things you will find on the farm...

A new group of piglets arrived in early May

 Guinea keets arrived four days ago

Katza, a friend's mare that is hanging out with us.  Oliver, my 20-year old bachelor gelding, doesn't quite know what to make of this new pasture-mate. 

 Shameless plug for the Farmers' Market.  It's a new sign!  Wednesdays, 3-6p.m!  www.flycreekfarmersmarket.com or like us on Facebook.

Our new roof that was put on last week! I'm truly excited about the flashing around the dormer and the chimney.  Really...

A new basic-model lawnmower we bought earlier in the spring.  Yes, we do not own a ride-on mower even though we live on a farm.  It's even self-propelled (yes, this is a treat for me). 

 Oh look, a new toilet was put in last month!  My mother will be particularly pleased since there is now a toilet upstairs that flushes! 

You can't see it really well, but there is actually baseboard and ceiling trim in the kitchen.  Plus, the color is a flat, very pale blue and not shiny-shiny white (which I couldn't stand).  My darling husband worked his tail off doing this kitchen make-over and it looks fabulous! While it will always be a country kitchen, the trim adds such definition to the room. 

Heat Wave

Apparently, the area got a drenching a couple of weekends ago when we were in Philadelphia, but since then there has not been a drop of rain and the temperatures have been warm. This may mean that I actually can take a whole week off from mowing the lawn! Yay! Sometimes I feel the only things I do on the farm are feed the animals, fill water buckets, pick and then pickle cucumbers and...mow the lawn! Oh, and weeding. When in doubt, there is always weeding to do.

The chickens I think are feeling the heat. And they're going through a huge molting as well. Which means we are really not getting any eggs--maybe 2 a day if we're lucky. For most households, this is not necessarily a problem but the 8 year old loves, loves, LOVES french toast which requires eggs, zucchini bread uses eggs, blueberry muffins require eggs, and mayonnaise requires eggs. My darling husband is ready to dispatch the hens (this is their second year) but I'm hoping they start picking up the pace and make it through until next fall. Obviously, we will be getting a new batch of chicks in the spring to replace these current non-laying layers (keep your mind out of the gutter).

The pigs are eating us out of house and home. Each pig eats about 50lbs of grain per week in addition to any and all garden scrap, restaurant scrap, weed scrap that we have around. We also use a 50 gallon water tank for them which they prefer to stick half their bodies in when they drink, thus getting it dirty pretty quickly. I totally understand the advent of the "pig waterer" but we obviously haven't moved in that direction. So we will continue spending 20 minutes a day cleaning out and filling the water tank as well as spraying the pigs with water (which a couple of them love) and making mud pits for them to wallow in (which all of them love). I'm hoping that in the next month or so they will put on those final 75 pounds so we can ship them off.