The chickens came a few weeks ago, the pigs are coming soon, and our hobby farm is really getting going! Although, the cold weather and the posibility of babies inside them, is stemming the goats milk flow a bit. At one point Daisy was giving two litres of milk a day, but now she is down to only one. Argoo is pretty much dry. We hope they are going to kid in September. I'm really excited!
We recently bought three electric netting fences, for rotating the animals around the property. The reason we do this is to improve the soil. Each animal spends a few weeks on the same spot, one after the other, doing their bit to turn up the soil, and also adding a layer of manure. We haven't seen it in action yet, because we couldn't complete the cycle without the pigs. They are crucial for this. They work the hardest at turning up the dirt.
As I said, we bought some chickens a few weeks ago, as day olds. They're ISA browns, and there are 20 of them. They spent a little over three weeks in the brooder box in the house, but now they're in a shed with a couple of roosters that won't be there much longer, they are for the pot. They don't seem to mind the chicks very much, just giving them a bit of a peck every now and then, to sort out pecking order. I've only named two of them, the only rooster among them is called Kurt, and a hen that is particularly small, is Midget. They're reasonably tame. There was one incident were Midget escaped (due to her tininess) into the other chook pen. They were chasing her around, and she was terrified. When I opened the door, she ran up to me and tried to hide under my legs! I must say, I felt very loved!
Our school work is going pretty well, I'm studying Peru at the moment, but I've stopped for the holidays. Did you know that the alpaca is native to Peru? And that Peruvians domesticated the guinea pig for meat purposes?
For quite a while, Buddy has been playing around with 'work'. Most mornings, he gets up, has brekky, does his usual morning jobs, and then packs his lunch and goes out to work. He does things like raking leaves, digging (usually unwanted) holes, and things like that. So I decided to give him some proper work. Every morning I have to fill two hay nets with hay, tie them in trees in the goats paddock, and take the goats from their stalls, out to the paddock. I asked Buddy if he wanted to help. So, most mornings, Buddy comes outside with me, well rugged up with scarves and beanies, helps me with all my jobs. He loves it!
So our farm is almost under way, but I find pigs a little frightening. I think I'll leave the pig keeping to mum!
