It seems a life time ago I worried about that morning morning rush to get dressed, ready and out the door for my Monday morning comute. I would spend countless hours getting to and from work and my whole day would be wrapped up in this one pursuit. Everything would evolve around the driving, preparing, and returning from my one and only goal work. Wow, have things changed since then, I no longer spend all my time getting ready and driving to work. Oh don't get me wrong I still spend a lot of time working but its no longer the commute.
It is a simpler lifestyle, time goes by with the seasons as this is my clock. I love being able to be home with my daughter and enjoying the time I spend with her. She is the last one in my house and is growing up so soon. I love being able to sit and drink my coffee without rushing to get dressed so I can be out the door to get on the freeway. I love being able to sit down and take some time out for a little prayer anytime I want too. I think most of all I just love being out of all the day in day out cycle of work drama. The highlight of my drama on the farm is when a new baby goat is born or when being a toddler their head gets stuck in the fence. It's pretty simple here but what a blessing. After being in both worlds I would not trade mine for anything. I no longer need to worry about matching bags, shoes ect not that I really ever did but the goats really don't care if I am in my pajama's to milk them. The only thing I worry about now is keeping warm in the winter and that can be a job in itself, especially since it started snowing again.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
02/21/2010
Sunday Morning and the snow has not stopped coming down and quite frankly I am beginning to wonder if we shall every see the ground. The branches on the trees are heavy with the white blanket covering them. They seem to be almost lying down as they bend to the weight of the snow. This week it started on Friday and has been coming down every since and looks like it will continue on until Monday. The house is cold today I am not burning wood because we have to cut more and have not had the time. The wood I have I am trying to keep for the evenings only, that way it will last a little bit and we don’t have to stress
Time off is almost over now as we work through the third week of February, yes snow is still on the ground but it’s marketing and seeding time. Funny, how it seems like I have not had any time off at all or at least not enough. I have been working on marketing all week long. Website is finally up and running yeah! www.dragonflyfamilyfarm.com. I have been working on it now for a few weeks and I am pretty happy so far. It was not to difficult so I am completely happy that it is almost finished.
It has been cold these past few days I think temps dropped down to single digit again. Its hard to think of planting when it is that cold but I don’t have a lot of time I really need to get on that. It’s so cold the chickens are laying so slow and I keep saying they better pick up or we are going to have chicken for dinner.
The last of my ladies are being bread now. Charlotte is visiting her boyfriend as we speak so she should kid in July as I have staggered most of my ladies to come in at different times. This will insure a lot longer milking cycle and a steady supply even in late winter when I have to milk in the cold. I am really going to try and get a milk barn done this year; I really need to focus on that.
Sunday Morning and the snow has not stopped coming down and quite frankly I am beginning to wonder if we shall every see the ground. The branches on the trees are heavy with the white blanket covering them. They seem to be almost lying down as they bend to the weight of the snow. This week it started on Friday and has been coming down every since and looks like it will continue on until Monday. The house is cold today I am not burning wood because we have to cut more and have not had the time. The wood I have I am trying to keep for the evenings only, that way it will last a little bit and we don’t have to stress
Time off is almost over now as we work through the third week of February, yes snow is still on the ground but it’s marketing and seeding time. Funny, how it seems like I have not had any time off at all or at least not enough. I have been working on marketing all week long. Website is finally up and running yeah! www.dragonflyfamilyfarm.com. I have been working on it now for a few weeks and I am pretty happy so far. It was not to difficult so I am completely happy that it is almost finished.
It has been cold these past few days I think temps dropped down to single digit again. Its hard to think of planting when it is that cold but I don’t have a lot of time I really need to get on that. It’s so cold the chickens are laying so slow and I keep saying they better pick up or we are going to have chicken for dinner.
The last of my ladies are being bread now. Charlotte is visiting her boyfriend as we speak so she should kid in July as I have staggered most of my ladies to come in at different times. This will insure a lot longer milking cycle and a steady supply even in late winter when I have to milk in the cold. I am really going to try and get a milk barn done this year; I really need to focus on that.
Monday, February 15, 2010
2nd Week of February
Valentines Day
Its quiet this morning no one is awake yet, I love the stillness of everything as the sun breaks over the ridge. The only noises to be heard are outside, as I hear the rooster’s crow as they announce that morning is upon us to the farm. The house itself is quiet and a little cold, not even an ember is left of the evening’s fire. As I put on the mornings coffee I contemplate what the day has for me and take some time out to give thanks to my Lord for the great day that awaits me. It is a beautiful day today with the sun shining and bringing warmth to a cold Colorado, it is only about 21 degrees and this is not too bad for a February winter day in Colorado. It appears we will be blessed with sun for the rest of the week that means we should be able to start planting the greenhouse. I should be able to get in lettuce, greens, carrots, and maybe some Brussels sprouts this week, even with it still freezing those should be fine. I just line the beds with the heating cables for the soil and it raises the temperature a little. That is all the little seedlings need to get started and I cover them with a little agribon and they are good to go. I will uncover them in about a 3-4 weeks and then be presented with the miracles of growing undercover as I raise the covers in March to peek inside.
The chickens, these ladies are still slow in laying they are taking their sweet time to gear back up costing more and more money. What this means is when they usually take 4-6 months of feeding to lay one egg and then you add another 2-3 months in winter of no eggs your profit margin starts to look real thin. We shall see if we even break even this year between the cost of pullets, feed, cartons, and lighting I will be lucky if I do.
Goats will not be kidding until April so that is when our babies are due to arrive on the scene. I went over to my friend Vicki’s at “Weehavano Ranch” and she has new babies, one of her does gave birth to a beautiful male who looks to be the next sire. This beautiful young man is quite the male specimen and his markings are incredible he is going to grow up to be a very handsome buck. I am hoping for mostly females myself but we shall see what we come out with. I am not too sure I am ready to keep a buck and boy do they sure smell to high heaven when they are older.
Well it’s been about 2 weeks now and the website is up and running, it still needs some tweaking and a little cleaning up but all in all it looks great. I am happy with the website company who makes it fairly easy to start it. I managed to get a PayPal cart on there and now people can order our teas and such when they are away, I also added my herd share fees and initial start up on it too. I am trying to make it as convenient for people as possible and also drive a little more traffic to us with a web listing. Right now it is a work in progress and will take me a few more weeks to get it completely finished and looking like I want it. I am trying to place everything from our CSA shares to our pre-orders for hogs on it with access to receive payments on everything. Hopefully this will make bookkeeping a little easier being that it will track all payments on a weekly basis.
Its quiet this morning no one is awake yet, I love the stillness of everything as the sun breaks over the ridge. The only noises to be heard are outside, as I hear the rooster’s crow as they announce that morning is upon us to the farm. The house itself is quiet and a little cold, not even an ember is left of the evening’s fire. As I put on the mornings coffee I contemplate what the day has for me and take some time out to give thanks to my Lord for the great day that awaits me. It is a beautiful day today with the sun shining and bringing warmth to a cold Colorado, it is only about 21 degrees and this is not too bad for a February winter day in Colorado. It appears we will be blessed with sun for the rest of the week that means we should be able to start planting the greenhouse. I should be able to get in lettuce, greens, carrots, and maybe some Brussels sprouts this week, even with it still freezing those should be fine. I just line the beds with the heating cables for the soil and it raises the temperature a little. That is all the little seedlings need to get started and I cover them with a little agribon and they are good to go. I will uncover them in about a 3-4 weeks and then be presented with the miracles of growing undercover as I raise the covers in March to peek inside.
The chickens, these ladies are still slow in laying they are taking their sweet time to gear back up costing more and more money. What this means is when they usually take 4-6 months of feeding to lay one egg and then you add another 2-3 months in winter of no eggs your profit margin starts to look real thin. We shall see if we even break even this year between the cost of pullets, feed, cartons, and lighting I will be lucky if I do.
Goats will not be kidding until April so that is when our babies are due to arrive on the scene. I went over to my friend Vicki’s at “Weehavano Ranch” and she has new babies, one of her does gave birth to a beautiful male who looks to be the next sire. This beautiful young man is quite the male specimen and his markings are incredible he is going to grow up to be a very handsome buck. I am hoping for mostly females myself but we shall see what we come out with. I am not too sure I am ready to keep a buck and boy do they sure smell to high heaven when they are older.
Well it’s been about 2 weeks now and the website is up and running, it still needs some tweaking and a little cleaning up but all in all it looks great. I am happy with the website company who makes it fairly easy to start it. I managed to get a PayPal cart on there and now people can order our teas and such when they are away, I also added my herd share fees and initial start up on it too. I am trying to make it as convenient for people as possible and also drive a little more traffic to us with a web listing. Right now it is a work in progress and will take me a few more weeks to get it completely finished and looking like I want it. I am trying to place everything from our CSA shares to our pre-orders for hogs on it with access to receive payments on everything. Hopefully this will make bookkeeping a little easier being that it will track all payments on a weekly basis.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
First week of February
February and winter still has a grip on southwest Colorado. It’s snowing this morning as it has almost every week these last few weeks. As I look out the window I can see the heavy wet flakes coming down almost like rain. It’s creating a nice white blanket that I am sure I won’t uncover until spring when the sun starts to heat up our winter white farm.
The goats are non to happy as they do not like to venture out into any inclimate weather. If a slight drop of rain hits the roof they are in the barn running for cover. We laugh and say how they are fair weather goats. This all changes of course when the food bowl is filled if this happens when there is a blizzard going they will be out in a second knocking each other out of the way to get to it.
The chickens I am struggling with this winter it seems I am lucky if a get a couple of eggs from them lately. It seems between the cold and the less light they have quit laying and now to boost them back up is a struggle. They are costing me a pretty penny especially after I feed them all year not to be laying.
Its way past time to sit down and get our planting organized and I need to do that this week. I have been occupied with facebook lately my new little winter game but I need to break this as spring is coming quick. We have some of our planting mapped out already and this week Brianna and I need to work in the greenhouse. We should get on turning those beds in there and hopefully we have eliminated the problems we had last year with white flies by freezing it out.
I am going to start seedlings this week for lettuce and such that can pretty much almost go into the greenhouse. Lettuce is a hardy crop that can grow during winter here in Colorado. One of our neighbor farmers usually can grow it all winter with maybe only a 2-4 week slow period. She has really got the 4 season winter greenhouse down to a science.
Now that it is February I have to start getting a routine going, so it off the facebook for me and we have started our hard cheeses, soaps, and teas so that we will be ready when market arrives. This year we should have quite alot going on and we need to make it as sustainable and as cost controlled as possible. We need a new milking barn but that will have to wait until mid summer so we have the funds for it. First thing we are going to start this spring is the new raised beds all along the greenhouse and that should eat up money relatively quickly. Lots of planning goes into a small working farm. You can very easily go broke without it.
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