The title says it all.
Life isn't really conducive to a blog,
neither is farming, gardening, parenting,
equine rescue or homesteading in general. . .
And yet,
In this age, it seems very important.
I cannot count the emails I get, though my follower list
is small, of non-followers and followers alike that read
this blog and find it helpful, humorous or even inspiring.
So that is why I am so disheartened that I have
taken so very long to write a new blog.
I finished up my Bachelor's Degree from
Marshall University this month, and it
was seven years in the making, so between
many horse rescues, farm disasters,
motherhood and life, I had not a second of
blog time to find.
So here we are now. . .
Let the blogging begin anew. . .
Two weeks ago, we lost my Arabian mare, KD Lady Ann.
Her passing was tragic and unexpected.
The details I will not share, but a lot of unanswered questions
remain. She was a breathtakingly beautiful mare, and she was the
epitome of what I'd set out to purchase.
When my three siblings died in 2007, I decided to buy the
horse of my dreams in remembrance of them - something amazing
and alive that they would have understood as a symbol of life
and them.
She is now gone.
On the same day, before we knew anything about this tragedy,
and following on the heels of another event where we set up a booth,
took goats out and had a farm table at the 2011 Huntington, WVa
Dogwood Festival,
we attended the Tractor Supply Company's Out There with Your Animals event.
We had a table, brought farm and rescue information, and we had a great day!
We gave pony rides on Acorn, sold poultry and had goats on display.
We talked to so many people, and we were so glad so many people
already knew who we were from visiting this blog or the website.
(as you can see, OUR FARM shirts are in)
We have been very busy with rescue work, and a few days
after I lost my lovely mare, we went to Bruceton Mills to help
a kind woman who was going through a bitter divorce and very
afraid for the welfare of her well bred Arabian filly and mares.
I knew I had to help, and we made the very long drive up and
brought 3 of the 4 horses back down. One stayed behind with a friend
of mine in a foster situation.
As soon as I saw M.S. Dior, I was like, "WOW!" She was so much
like Lady Ann. Larger, of course, as the photos show, but she
looks so much like her. I was shocked. Here I'd come to do a good
deed, and I felt like it was I that was being helped. I did not know
until coming home that there was a legitimate reason Dior struck
me as she did. Her breeding is strikingly similar to Lady Ann's.
They both trace back to Varian horses and Bey Shah! I felt like though
the Lord closed one door, he opened another. We quickly decided to
make these mares our own, and only place two of the four we rescued.
That rescue was of well cared for horses only in danger
because of a vindictive ex husband, but the previous
week, we rescued three that had been seriously abused
and starved. This is a large breeder within the state of
WV.
A wonderful farm locally in Milton fostered and paid the
cost to save two of these lovely Arabs, Mia and Oryan.
They are still located there until fulled rehabbed, and I
will place them up for adoption when the time is right.
The other mare was in the poorest condition, and she is
also close to foaling. The photos below speak
for themselves, I think - BTW - Heart of Phoenix is
simply our rescue name. Those 13 days were spent with us.
I made the decision to let her go to a previous adopter with
far more experience in foaling that I'll ever have, and last
week, she made the trip to Indiana where she will continue
being rehabbed and foal.
Only a few days after letting Eclipz go with her new adopter,
we discovered the slaughter mare is in foal, and this
forces us to make some hard decisions. She would have came to us
in foal from the auction.
 |
| Kate - the slaughter rescue |
This means she
will not be able to be placed anytime soon unless
a hard to come by experienced foaling home comes along.
This means we need to be prepared for foaling her out here
and keeping her for some time. In order to keep a spot open
for a rescue, we will likely need to place our Quarter Horse
mare, Liz. We'd hoped to give her a forever home, but she is
too nice a mare to sit here idle and we simply do not have the
space to house so many horses indefinitely. Hard choices, but
I want to be able to accept a dire situation, if need be, and while
we've placed the rescue colt that had been here for a 3 months
the first part of May, with the loss of Lady Ann, the incoming of
Dior and Niteza, the adoption of Eclipz and the realization Kate is
in foal, I know one of our personal horses will need placed if I
am to keep an open rescue spot here. This is when I wish I had
20 more acres and a lot more spare income.
 |
Liz - our QH mare
Moving on . . .
This has been a hard spring on the goat herd. The never ending rain has made coccidia a never ending up hill battle. as had the fact that until yesterday, our electric fence had not worked in months, and this required keeping the does and kids in closer quarters, MUCH closer, than I would ever have wanted to keep them.
Yesterday, I'd had all I could take. My Floridian Farmer (aka. My Husband) has sworn he'd checked it over a hundred times and that there was nothing wrong in the hook up. I thought he likely knew far better than I. Finally though, the old Adage of "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself" rang too loud in my ears, and I went out to find out what is amiss.
Why did I wait so long? Well, what did I know of electric fences?
Well, seems I knew a tad more than the Floridian Farmer.
My dear husband had hooked the ceramic donuts up backwards.  He just ran the wire through them and around the wooden post and grounded it out onto the 3 acres field fence in the front of our property, which would have connected to about 100 T posts, as well. Not even our fine 100 mi, 6 joule charger could overpower that.
No wonder horses and goats walked right through it.
Well, no more early morning chase downs of Champagne or Liz.
No more lock up for the dairy does.
The Vegetarian Homesteader saved the day.
However, she failed to succeed on starting vegatable plants.
You might recall the blog where we planted all these organic seeds in the little paper pots inside, labeled each set and set them under a window. . . .
Waiting. . .
Waiting . . .
For sprouts that never came. . .
So we went to Southern States and the local grocery store with a nursery, and we pulled an easy way out. . .
We bought started plants.
We will now have Sweet Peas, String Beans, several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash . . . All things we will really eat.
No cantaloupe, No egg plant.
Photos of the garden in progress coming soon -
If ever this darn rain would cease to fall. . .
You also might remember the miracle chicks that hatched after 12 hours without power in the incubator?
After getting to 6-8 weeks old, we lost 6 all of a sudden. Likely coccidia - even the plague of this spring.
Only a few remain of the original 22. I sold three BLWS out of the group because I wasn't happy with the color. I owed a friend half of the Ameraucanas, and when most of those died, I had only two to give her. I have a few Marans from the original number.
I did manage to hatch over 20 Bantams another friend gave us, and they have grown really well.
Chick hatching is winding down. Our kitchen has been a veritable chicken nursery. I still have a bator full of Orpingtons in blue, lavender, splash and black in a bator that ALSO lost power for 4-6 hours. Who knows how those will hatch, but either way, I'm through for awhile.
If the Orps hatch, we should get some adults like these:
The next endeavor and perhaps the last new endeavor for a long while is to be . . .
Peafowl
Or
Peacocks. . .whatever you'd like to call them. . .
The above are young peacock chicks in some of the amazing colors they come in. I've found a breeder in Portsmouth, Ohio, and I'm planning to buy some chicks soon! They sell for a great price and are simply too beautiful to not include here at the farm.
I expect visitors will LOVE them, as we will!
As a side note, we have a terrible mouse problem in the barn. Though I am opposed to poison and traps, I am all for cats in need of a home finding their way up there to catch said mice.
We found this friendly guy living in the barn, but we took him down the road and released him as it seemed he was not doing much to help the mouse problem.
A feral mother cat moved in and had kittens, though only one was born alive. We found two more kittens in need of a home, and we hope this is a start of a wonderful mouse catching colony.
We have finally sold one Miniature Nubian doeling to a family in Ohio, and we've made a deal to trade the Nubian buckling and other Miniature doeling and another kid for 2 nice Nigerian Dwarf does and a doeling in Georgia. We will be meeting the breeder on Monday to exchange.
I found the 1st generation Minis do not sell well here, and this was such a buck year in this area, selling the nice Nubian buckling was hard, too.
The Nigerians sell better here, are hardy and gosh! They are cute. These are the new incoming does.
Also, we pick up the new breed we are adding to the farm this week! Saanens! Finally found a good breeder in the area with quality Saanens!
These guys are Little Tots in breeding and quality girls! This bloodline isn't common up here, so we are very happy to be getting these gals. Thanks to Cannon Farms!
Our new Saanen doelings are in the group pic above
I'll miss these guys - but they are getting or have gotten great new homes! Another hard part of breeding livestock! Selling!
|
and the others leaving, sorry. . .guys - you've failed to
take cute photos lately. . .
We still have one Mini wether in need of a home, but the
poor guy has gotten into some trouble, and he has a swollen back leg
we are treating!
Once all the babies leave on Monday, we will be milking full time our 4 does, twice a
day and wishing West Virginia did not think she had the right to tell
locals they cannot purchase milk from us or even buy a share in our herd
to have access to local, kindly milked MILK!
It is always something here on the homestead.
For now, we've been able to construct a huge new chicken pen
with 10 10x10 kennel panels that allows the flock roaming access.
We wish we could let the layers and roos free range again, but a fox
and hawk have other ideas, so since our Great Pyrs are also being kept
up in the goat pen because they have decided the main highway is a
good place to play and the poultry flock has no protection, they are
going to have to stay up for now!
Tons of new photos will be in the upcoming blogs!
Stay tuned! I will do my best to better stay on top of this and
make subjects more cohesive and more to the point!
Pray the life here on the homestead allows for this!
To end this blog on a sour note, I've heard another much
smaller farm locally felt we weren't a real farm, more
a backyard type breeder/farm. . .
Folks who read this and see what we do. . .you make the call.
I imagine you'll be tired just reading this blog about our
last month, and I imagine you will agree. . . if we aren't homesteading,
almost no one really is.
