Farm Happenings

It feels like winter outside and frozen water tubs prove it. This is the time of year that farming and keeping livestock sucks. You have to make sure everyone handles the freezing temps and that they have access to fresh water all day. Not a lot of fun trying to handle cold water with numb fingers. This is when we fantasize about Spring and pray that it shows up quickly. I know that since we are in Arkansas we don't have to deal with extreme snow falls and blizzards. I thank God for that and pray for those that do, I honestly can't imagine raising livestock and dealing with that type of harsh environment.
Out of the animals here on the farm, most handle it without any issues, in fact our Chows and LGDs love the cooler temps. Our youngest daughter has a small three pound chihuahua and when I set her outside the other morning she immediately turned around and said to heck with this. I think that is the fastest she has ever done her business. She doesn't even mind the sweaters our youngest places on her so I guess she knows they help.
We having been working on our bull pasture and extending a couple of pig pens, got a lot done yesterday and a lot closer to finishing. Now we are prepping for the arrival of lambs over the next couple of months. Praying for a great lamb crop as last year's wasn't so great. That is the part of raising livestock that no one likes. Losses..... Last year we had issues with aborting and even lost a couple of older ewes to unknown reasons. We have done our best this year getting our ewes prepped for lambing including vaccination to help prevent abortions.
Time will tell.

Hope everyone is surviving the winter and looking forward to Spring and the babies it brings.

The Odd Sock

 Growing up in the country and always being drawn to critters has left me with some very amusing stories.
I plan to share a few on here...

The Odd Sock

My mother wasn't one that cared for odd critters like snakes, mice, spiders, opossum, raccoons etc and would get hysterical over them. My stepdad had an older cousin that was always visiting and staying over a lot. He knew I was animal crazy, so when he found a baby opossum he placed it in a box and brought to me. This opossum was however old enough to survive on it's own. Let me tell you, when they snarl and hiss at you with all those teeth showing then they are intimidating. Anyway, he had it in the box and my mother told him he was not to leave it there. He just laughed and ended up staying the night.
The next morning when we awoke, he was gone and so was the opossum. We questioned why he had left the box behind but then figured he turned it loose in the yard. It was about a week later before he showed back up and something was said about the opossum. He swore he left it in the box, so my mother wasn't sure if he was joking with her since he knew her fear or if he was serious.

Fast forward about a month...
I was laying in bed one morning when mom screamed my name. I was known for having to be dragged out of bed in the mornings. I hated getting up early for school. Mom was standing in my room at my dresser where she was getting clothes out of it and screaming at me. It took me a little bit because I was disoriented and in my sleep haze still. Finally it dawned on me that mom was almost hysterical and it had nothing to do with me not wanting to get out of bed.
Apparently, when she reached in drawer to grab a sock, she noticed an odd colored sock. This odd sock turned and snarled and showed its mouth full of sharp tiny teeth. By now you know it wasn't an odd sock but that opossum. To this day, I am shocked that mom didn't have heart failure. I had to come to the rescue and do a catch and release on the little guy.
To this day, we are not sure how he managed to survive in our house that long, with five people and no one ever saw him.

Moral of story ... Watch out for those odd socks!!

 

Picture credit goes to http://wildlifeanimalz.blogspot.com/2013/04/Opossum-Fact-New-Photos.html.

Winter Blues

Most places this time of year are cold and nasty. Not a good time of year to be taking care of livestock. Busting water, worrying about newborns in the cold, and just plain freezing!
It's this time of year that we get the winter blues. What do you do about it? I like to pour over websites and catalogs and plan for the upcoming months. For example, what type of chickens I want to add and then of course all the different possibilities of vegetable I can plant.
That's when I get excited about the upcoming months and look forward to them. I hope you and yours are staying warm where ever you may be during the winter months.

What are some of your favorite places to find poultry and seeds? 

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