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.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Winter In Colorado
We are in the middle of our beautiful Colorado winter. It has now been snowing all week long pretty much non-stop. It's a quiet time now for us as we only have the goats and chickens to take care of. The green house is now frozen and hopefully it will kill all the white flies that were in there right before Christmas.
Winter is a reflection time for us here, we spend the days reviewing just how blessed we were this last season. Taking the time to see what went right and what went wrong and on ways we can improve our little piece of Heaven on earth. It seems the seasons go and come for us so fast when you live by them. Before you know it I am getting ready to order seeds and we have already plotted out some of our planting areas. We decided this year we are going to add more raised beds outside the green house as these are easier for us to manage.
As the days now grow longer, I think my quiet time will soon come to an end. I am so fortunate in what I have been blessed with. The time to work hard and the ability to do it and then the time to take a rest and allow my soul to spend time in some quiet reflection. I firmly believe we really need this time and I am so thankful I have it. As winter has it's firm grip on my land I am happy to enjoy the thoughts and musings of spring.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Autumn
As the sun comes up this morning there is a chill in the air, it seems autumn is upon us. I am not quite sure I am ready for the change of seasons, but then again she waits for no one. It has not froze yet but it has been at least 39 a few mornings. The hot crops like cucumbers are starting to suffer the cool mornings. I am not sure how much longer they will make it, I might try and cover them but a lot of times it is not quite worth the effort. Aah better to yield at times to mother nature as she changes the season.
I am being entertained this morning as I watch from up my window upstairs. Sonny, the goose is brawling this morning with pearl the goat. I watch as Sonny chases Pearl around the pen biting and snapping with his wings spread out in the largest, fiercest way he can manage. It's very entertaining being Pearl is usually the bully and has control of the farm as she pushes her way through everyone. Not this morning though, Sonny has managed to disrupt everyone in the barnyard with his squawks and honks as he continues to bite, hiss, and chase Pearl through the yard.
I just love mornings, the peace and rhythm of daily life on a farm intertwined with outside influences that sometimes interfere with that. I think it is the rhythm I like the most the daily milking at 7 am and 7 pm, morning breakfast, aah morning coffee brewing as the day cycles through . I had the chance to travel to a monastery this year and spend the weekend. Yet now, at this time, it seems I am so far from that peaceful time of tranquility . I enjoyed so much the daily early morning bell for prayer and the closing of evening with compline.
It seems somehow as life crept in I lost my rhythm. Each day as the outside influences came in I lost my balance to the world. So as autumn closes in I am focusing on my own monastery and I am closing out the world's voice and working towards my own rhythm and cycle.
We have so much to do before winter closes in but we have to prioritize and get the things done as we can. The things I have on the list of chores are to finish out the new goat area with shelters for them and finish up the wood burning oven outside. I wanted to get in some new raised beds but I am not sure if I am going to get to that before winter comes in. So I guess I will have to add them into next years farm goals. I already have things on that agenda and one of the areas I need to do is get my new milking room finished. It seems things just never get finished and it is an on going labor of love.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Summer got away from me!
Wow, it has been months since my last post and I had not even realized it. Life on a farm takes its own time. It demands much of your time and things always need to be done. I looked up and realized it was getting close to fall the leaves are changing and the nights are getting cooler. Harvest is in full swing and the canning process is humming along with green beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, salsa and hopefully much more.
So far this summer we have moved our fencing several times and the electric fence idea never really worked for our pigs. We are getting ready to level and set fencing out for out dairy goats. I decided to move them from the area they are by the chicken coop out into there own pasture area and build a shelter and hopefully a milking room.
The goat milking is going full swing and I am milking twice daily. We are soon getting ready to breed our other two Saanens for spring kids. Hopefully I will be able to continue milking until early spring then maybe take a few weeks off in February and pick right back up in March. It's demanding of your time but I so love having fresh milk. I have learned to be very picky about what they eat can really control the taste of the milk. Our milk comes out smooth and creamy and you don't even notice that it is not cows milk.
Cheese making is going great and I am doing a lot of soft cheese and yogurt. I am getting ready to do a couple of hard cheeses this week. It has been a great season and as it continues on I am very happy about our outcome. We have made a lot of advances to our sustainable lifestyle and have progressed nicely to be able to provide quite a lot of our own food. It has been a journey and I have been dragging Paul along kicking and screaming.
Brianna has started homeschooling again for the year and is doing fantastic! She pretty much has taken all the responsibility on herself and is completely becoming a beautiful young adult.
We started new chicks this past week so that they can get a good start before winter and be ready to lay first of spring. I am hoping to get these through the winter without losing the whole lot as I did in early spring last year. I decided to go with a September start instead of November like last year. They should be pretty large when the early predators come out in spring and hopefully they will not mess with them. We have more rooster then we anticipated so we need to cull some of them before winter.
Well off to the kitchen so I can continue to can, make cheese, and render fat into lard.
So far this summer we have moved our fencing several times and the electric fence idea never really worked for our pigs. We are getting ready to level and set fencing out for out dairy goats. I decided to move them from the area they are by the chicken coop out into there own pasture area and build a shelter and hopefully a milking room.
The goat milking is going full swing and I am milking twice daily. We are soon getting ready to breed our other two Saanens for spring kids. Hopefully I will be able to continue milking until early spring then maybe take a few weeks off in February and pick right back up in March. It's demanding of your time but I so love having fresh milk. I have learned to be very picky about what they eat can really control the taste of the milk. Our milk comes out smooth and creamy and you don't even notice that it is not cows milk.
Cheese making is going great and I am doing a lot of soft cheese and yogurt. I am getting ready to do a couple of hard cheeses this week. It has been a great season and as it continues on I am very happy about our outcome. We have made a lot of advances to our sustainable lifestyle and have progressed nicely to be able to provide quite a lot of our own food. It has been a journey and I have been dragging Paul along kicking and screaming.
Brianna has started homeschooling again for the year and is doing fantastic! She pretty much has taken all the responsibility on herself and is completely becoming a beautiful young adult.
We started new chicks this past week so that they can get a good start before winter and be ready to lay first of spring. I am hoping to get these through the winter without losing the whole lot as I did in early spring last year. I decided to go with a September start instead of November like last year. They should be pretty large when the early predators come out in spring and hopefully they will not mess with them. We have more rooster then we anticipated so we need to cull some of them before winter.
Well off to the kitchen so I can continue to can, make cheese, and render fat into lard.
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