Just when we thought winter was gone, we woke up to a bit of snow on the ground and no sunshine.

We sure do enjoy having animals.  Our neighbor told Jim when he took care of our animals last that our milk cow is like a pet, totally different than his beef cattle.  Lazer loves being scratched on her lower neck.  In fact, she will nudge Jim if he stops so he'll scratch her neck more.  The new calf is tagged #23 which is what we call her, she is adjusting well and Lazer has accepted her as her calf.  The quad, which consists of Lucy our Jersey calf, Rose who is our Milking Shorthorn/Devon cross beef calf that we'll be keeping and #24 and #25 all heifers, have been very curious about the new kid on the block.

I'm not sure what is going on with Typepad, but some of my photos will not show up on a post, and I somehow lost my banner, I put another one up, so we'll see if that disappears as well.

When these photos were taken, we had snow, but it has since melted just before the Thanksgiving holiday.  The top photo is of Rose Red, she will be one we will breed for meat on our homestead.  Rose is a Milking Shorthorn and Devon cross.  Our black calf #25 is one we will be butchering next year for meat.  The middle photo is Lucy who is a Jersey heifer that was born here on our homestead this past August.  We are not sure our plans for her quite yet, right now she is being weaned from her momma and a new calf has taken her place, one that we purchased from a local dairy farm.  We name the ones that we are keeping.

I have tried to find time to post on the blog, and read blogs, but life has been just so busy for us here.  Thanksgiving was wonderful here spent with family.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Where do I even begin.  Our cow Tilly is no longer with us.  We had to bring her to the sale barn for slaughter as she wasn't well enough to be a milk cow for our homestead or for that matter any farm or homestead.  Bringing in our vet who took some blood, the results of the test he took on her we found out that she had Johne's Disease.   Hearing that was a very disappointing blow to us, we were getting very attached to her already and had even gotten a new calf from a neighboring dairy farm because our other calf was actually purchased for some friends.  The calf is with our friends who have a dairy cow that took our calf until she can be weaned.

So, we had to do some cleaning up in the corral area and pastures where Tilly had been before we could even think about bringing another milk cow onto our farm.  We cannot pasture any new milk cow where Tilly pastured for at least a year.  Our beef cow is okay and will be fine.  After we got everything all ready which was not an easy task, we were ready for a new milk cow, and I'm happy to say we found one and her name is Lazer, she's a registered Jersey and is a first-time heifer and will freshen in about 12 days.  We are so excited to have a birth on our farm other than the kittens that were born a few weeks back.

We also got pigs again this year, but we got them a bit later than we did last year.  These guys are quite small, but we plan to fatten them up pretty good.

Our two barn cats had a total of nine kittens.  I just had to show you two of my favorite ones.  The top one is a male and is by far the biggest of all the kittens, our grandsons named him Tom.  The second one is such a pretty girl, but my photos just don't do either of the kitten's justice.

Seeing the volunteer sunflowers growing in amongst the oats was such a pretty sight and having new life on the homestead makes up for everything.

Wow, I think it's time for an update on what's been happening on the homestead.  There is so much going on here.   We are the owners of 2 more cows, a Jersey milk cow and a Fleckvieh calf.  The Jersey and calf are actually at our Amish friends until our milk barn is finished which we are planning to have it done this week.  It's been hard around here to find a Jersey, and when we do find one it's gone and from what we have heard from the sellers they could sell the cows 5 times over.  Our friends milk cow hasn't freshened yet, so they are out of milk and for both of us it's a win-win situation, they house our Jersey and calf and milk her and they get the milk and we take some as well.  Our Jersey actually freshened early before the auction and didn't make it, so we were wanting to have her take an orphan calf and she has accepted the new calf as hers and has turned into a very good protective momma as well as gives some pretty good milk. 

The fencing is almost 100% done, but it's done enough that we can let the animals in the pasture.   The steer is out on pasture and with all the rain we've had he's not been able to keep up with it, so all is good.

While the livestock were being loaded into the trailer, I had to take a photo of all the horses lined up tied to the fence along with all the buggies parked.

The way this spring weather has been I wondered if we were ever going to get anything in the ground, but yay, we finally were able to work the ground and get some onions planted.  It's supposed to be nice and warm this week so what can be planted now will be.

For me it's been a long winter and the warm weather we are having is so nice to enjoy.

So much has been happening here on the homestead.  We are putting up fence and we got a new puppy, an Australian shepherd who we named Suuvi which means, child of the summer.  So far, she's been a good puppy, but as you well know if you have ever owned a puppy, they are a lot of work.  But she's been a joy to have, the cats can't seem to figure her out yet and have been chased up the fence posts a time or two.

It has been very windy here on the ridge lately, and it has not been very warm either.  Seeds are started and I don't usually grow sweet potatoes, but I had bought some from an Amish stand last fall, I was about to throw the last few out and found that they were sprouting leaves.  So, I started some sweet potato slips.  We'll see how they do for me and how they grow, we have never grown sweet potato before, this is our first time trying.

Syrup season started off very slow, and boiling the sap was so different from years past.  We did end up with enough syrup which I use in cooking and baking in place of sugar.

That pretty much says all what we have been up to in 2022, it doesn't sound like much but with that and other things we have definitely been keeping busy.  Winter for me just has been very long, especially when the temps are just staying cooler than I would like and it's almost May and what's the old saying...April showers bring May flowers.  Let's hope that holds true :)

Outside doing chores the other night the sky just looked so neat above the Farmall M that Jim has.  I absolutely love this tractor. 

Friday night we had no plans to do anything but hang around the homestead doing things that have been neglected some.  Am I complaining? Nope, it's all good.  Making meatballs and a broccoli cheese casserole for supper, yum!  I especially love leftovers the next day for lunch.  I've finally learned how to make meals and not have enough to feed an army

The pigs are only with us a few more days and then we'll be butchering them.  It seems like we've had them forever.  I will say it'll be sad not to see them around the homestead here anymore.

I've been trying to do some knitting and that has been going so slowly and heading to the sewing room has not been happening lately either.  I chalk it up to the short days we have now.  How about you, does the shorter days bother you too?

Another month has passed and so much has been happening here on the homestead.  We lost one of the 3 pigs we are raising for meat, she developed pneumonia and we had to put her down.  We could have tried giving her shots but there was no guarantee that she would survive, plus we would not have been able to butcher her for a minimum of 30 days.  We got 3 on the chance of losing one, and even though she was going to be butchered it was still hard to put her down.  I will admit that I cried, she was a sick girl and it was hard to see her so sick like that, so I cried and when I was all done I pulled myself up and told myself it was okay to cry because as we don't want to lose any livestock like that I realize they are here to be butchered and fill our freezer.  So no attachment girlfriend.

When our Amish friends mentioned that they have this Devon/Jersey calf that was a bull but is now a steer and that they really don't want to sell him but just don't have the room to raise him until he's ready to be butchered as they had twins born this past spring, and would we be willing to raise him on our land and split the beef.  We of course said yes, so the day after thanksgiving Jim went and picked him up.  Once our fencing is done around the pasture he’ll be able to roam a bit more, right now he’s kept in a smaller area to help him feel more secure while getting used to his new surroundings.

We definitely did not plan on getting any sort of cow, milk or beef at this time.  Our plans were to get a milk cow this spring and raise a calf with it but the opportunity came for us to jump right in we just couldn’t pass it up.  He’s such a good guy and so far things are going well with him. 

I don't think I will be able to update you on all that's been happening here without having photo overload, so I'll just do the best I can.  Since sugaring we have been so busy here on our homestead.  We got pigs this spring and friends came out to help us put up the fence before they arrived which was a HUGE help and we appreciated it so much.  The pigs are definitely getting big since the day we got them.

Had to get a photo by Jim's old ford tractor which has been such a work horse here for him.

I've been growing herbs and trying to dry them out but it's been so hot and humid lately it may take a bit longer than I would like.  I'm also making some infused herb oils that I will be making into salves when they are ready.

I started incubating eggs from our hens on July 1st and we candled them last night and it looks like all 22 eggs may have something happening.  I'm crossing my fingers that we will have chicks by the 21st or 22nd of July.  Our rooster Rudy is such a good boy and really takes care of this girls.  He has 23 hens to look after and does a tremendous job.

I know some may think that is too many hens for one rooster and we did try out another rooster to see how it would work and maybe have two flocks going but Rudy would  have none of it, so this guy had to go, and he was such a beautiful guy too.

So Rudy in the man around the coop.

This is the first time we have hatched eggs on our own, we have always gotten chicks from the feed store in town.  We'll see how many hens vs roosters we hatch out.  I'm hoping to get some roo's so I can process them in the pressure canner instead of freezing them. 

The gardens are doing great now that we finally have gotten rain.

What's a homestead without barn cats or kittens :)  Meet Smoky and Noki.  Noki is a Finnish word for soot.  Jim started calling the top one Smoky and I thought the black one looked like soot so I looked up the Finnish word for soot and it was Noki (pronounced No-Kee).  They are both girls and just so cute.

There is nothing like taking a break with some coffee, haymakers punch also known as switchel and wild berries that are growing in the back yard.  I add lemon juice and maple syrup in place of the molasses and brown sugar.  I use either Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar or my homemade ACV, just depends on my mood at the time.   Believe it or not the haymakers punch really does refresh you on a hot day, especially when you have been working outside in the hot weather.

My flower garden is blooming so nicely.  I look at this lily and always think of my blogging friend Ann who sent it to me after my dad passed away.  When it blooms I think of them both.

I think I have covered most of the stuff I wanted to share with you, like I said there is just so much that has been happening here I'm not sure I could cover it all in a blog post so I just gave you some highlights.

I hope your days are going good where you live, take care.

Our chicks arrived and also 5 adult chickens we adopted from a neighbor who was getting rid of them, 4 hens and 1 rooster.  They are a Cochin breed and are not the greatest layers but we average 1-2 eggs a day, which is really nice to have at least that since the chicks won't be laying eggs for many months yet.

Jim had to scramble to make a "temporary" chicken coop for them.  The farm where we got the chickens from had a lot of chickens and these girls were getting pretty hammered from the other roosters and they don't move that fast, so I made some shields for the girls backs where their feathers were gone.  When the girls start molting the feathers should grow back just fine and I will remove the shields from their backs. 

Here they are waiting to get back into the coop.  I had to go run and get something as I was cleaning the coop out and had to close the door because they kept wanting to go back in there.  They are really adjusting well considering all their friends are over on the next ridge. The rooster has been a great guy up until today when he started to show some dominance with us, flogging like he wanted to fight us.  We'll see if he keeps it up because we're not putting up with a flogging rooster.

Our chick breeds are from left to right...Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red and Barred Rock, for a total of 18 chicks, 12 hens and 6 roosters.  Not sure what we'll do with all those roosters, we'll probably keep 1 out of the bunch, the others will be raised for meat.  We went from zero to 23 birds on our little farm here in less than a week...whew!

The main chicken coop Jim started today and that is exciting for us.  I am breathing a sigh of relief having chickens again on our farm, especially with the way things are at with everything that's been going on lately. 

I just love this time of year when the calves are born.

Still busy making syrup, we've made just over 15 gallons of syrup so far this year and lots more sap to boil yet.

Company here again this past weekend to help with the sugaring.

The temps are finally getting warmer here and the snow is almost 100% gone.

It felt so good to be outside today with the temps in the 60's.

I've not been in the sewing room for some time and I'm really missing it, I have a few ideas of things I want to make.

Looking forward to gardening this year.

No big projects like last year, just small ones around the farm.

I planted some wildflower seeds last fall I hope that they have taken.

It's been a long winter here and I am finally ready for spring.