Highland Babies

Highland babies are being born almost on a daily basis on the farm and oh, they are the cutest things. Since our herd of Highlands are all different colors, we have a full array of shades of babies on the ground already. This is the perfect time for babies since the mamas are just starting to fresh grass which will help with their milk production. If they calve much later the babies grow too large and then we have big problems. We found that once the cows were allowed to act like cows, breeding when they are ready, eating what come natural - grass only - we haven't had any birthing problems. In 13 years we have only pulled 4 calves and all were twins. That is stress free farming! Stress free for the farmers and the cows.

Baby Calf News!

Well after waiting for 3 months longer than expected, Sweet Pea finally had her baby, a RED baby boy. So it turns out that she wasn't bred by a dairy bull but instead by our Devon. Oops! When Debbie gets her camera out of the shop she will send out baby pictures.

A Note About Spring Milk:

As the grass start to come in and the cows change their diet there will be some change in the taste of milk. Don't be alarmed, it will be a bit sweeter than usual. Also, with the higher beta carotene in the grass you will notice the color changing back to a yellower tint. Again, no need to be concerned, it's just higher levels of vitamins.

Dairy News

Well Dara had her baby. A wee baby boy that looks more like Daddy than Mommy. One major thing that separates us from the big dairy guys is that we keep babies and mommas together for as long as possible. If the baby isn't too rough on mommas udder he can stay as long as they want. Once they start to hurt the udder we keep them in a separate area but they still get momma's milk until they can get all they need from grass. This little boy is a cute but he's already keeping Brayden hopping. He escaped through the fence when only hours old and of course, Dara had to follow and since she can't quite fit under the fence, she goes through it!

Farm News: An update on the cows

We are purchasing some very expensive silage for the girls and they seem to be responding very well to the change in their diet. Silage bales are baled wet and wrapped in plastic to keep the moisture in and to allow for some fermentation of the grass. These bales usually weigh somewhere around 900lb and approximately 55% is water.

No babies from Sweet Pea yet but she is getting bigger and bigger so it shouldn't be long now!

Farm News: Sheep

A Visiting Ram

One of our most urgent jobs last week was the introduction of the new sire into the sheep flock. Due to our extensive losses from neighborhood dog attacks last year, we lost our precious rams. In keeping with the amazing camaraderie within the farming community a fellow farmer loaned us her beautiful Romney ram for the season. We are so excited about this new fellow. I think he will throw some beautiful babies and you can bet that plenty of lamb pictures will ensue five and a half months from now.

The Sheep Are Shorn

Another job for this month was the shearing of the girls for breeding. Don't worry, the girls are kept in the barn until the fleece grows back enough for warmth. We are thrilled with the fleeces this season and will have yarn and roving available as well as raw fleeces for the spinners among us.

News from the Cows

The girls are trying to work their way back up in production but this is bad time to try. With the winter coming on and the grass gone, everything in nature says to cut back. We have found some wonderful hay from a farmer in Kentucky (Brayden is so pleased with it that he drives to Franklin, KY once a week to pick it up) and the girls really seem to be doing well on it. The production has increased slightly but we have hopes for more as the babies start to come.

Spinning Yarns: Fiber Arts for the Fall

As the temperatures drop our sheep look more and more in their element. The winter is a happy, happy time for the sheep. They work all year to grow a great fleece and it comes in mighty handy as the temperatures dip. I am looking forward to a great fleece harvest next year as I spin up the final wraps of last year's fleeces. The cooler weather keeps me inside spinning and knitting; it just seems like the right natural rhythm.

When people learn that I spin and knit the wool from our own farm they seem shocked that spinning wheels are still available for purchase. Thankfully the art of spinning, weaving and knitting are on the upsurge. My theory is that as our societies grow more chaotic, our hearts and souls search for things that are timeless, repetitious and quiet. Fiber Arts certainly fit the bill. I can't count how many time my children fell asleep to the whirl of my wheel and no matter how ADD a child is, they stand almost breathless and completely amazed watching the wheel spin, and spin.

This winter we will have yarn from our own sheep as well as hand dyed yarns from several talented artists from Tennessee for sale at the Franklin Farmers Market. We have a wide range of fleece products available from raw fleeces for spinners to hand spun yarns for those who prefer knitting and crocheting.

Angel, our beautiful Great Pyrenees, is pregnant. She seems to be about 35-40 days into the pregnancy and we are so excited about the coming puppies. Many of the puppies are already spoken for and that helps us to plan for puppy sales. We will train several of the pups to guard chickens from an early age. Most likely Angel will whelp in the barn with the chickens so that the puppies will come to think of the chickens as litter mates. We’ll have some great picture ops once that takes place. We are guessing that she will have between 6 and 10 pups. For those of you who have been, or are pregnant through sweltering summer weather here is a picture you can appreciate!

If you're interested in one of Angel's puppies, please let us know!

Meet the Buckeye Chickens

After some heavy casualties from hawks, we are moving the chickens and the dogs to the farm by they shop. We are looking forward to having them here for visitors to see. We also have some wonderfully adorable baby chicks chirping and doing their best to be cute.

We are going to experiment with several different breeds this year. At the top of the list are Buckeyes. Famous for being the only breed in this country to be developed by a woman breeder, these birds have plenty to boast about. Bred in the mid 1800 they have beautiful deep red feathers and yellow legs. They lay large, dark brown eggs and they are wonderful foragers. Another reason we have looked into this breed is that they are the top of the American Livestock Conservancy Critical List. This means that they are on the verge of becoming extinct. Being placed on the Critical list means that there are fewer than 200 annual registrations in the United States and the estimated global population is less than 2,000. These birds are definitely worth saving and we are proud to participate in that effort.

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Unconventional (for our times anyway) Lawn Mowing

Even though the weather has been dry my lawn has been growing at an astounding rate and of course, my Craftsman lawnmower is on the blink. Well, when that happens on a farm all you need is a little thought and a few well positioned fences and you can have your lawn mowed for free. No gas, no fuss. Well, O.K. just a little fuss.

Let me introduce you to my new lawn mowers, Domino is slacking in the back, Suzie is up front with Cordelia Grey and Peanut in the back. Elvira II and her two boys are lounging. For the past two weeks they have been more than happy to keep our lawn looking good, one small spot at a time. Our girls here at the farmhouse are Icelandic sheep and although they have horns they are surely enough girls.

Even as I sit here in the comfort of my living room with the windows slung open and the lace curtains flapping in the breeze I can hear chomping, wonderful grass removing chomping. In a section of fencing 150’ long it will take the girls and their babies two days to get the lawn looking good and evenly mowed.

Unfortunately there are always some slackers in the bunch. Elvira and her two babies decide to let the others mow while they rest.
Elvira’s one boy thinks he is getting away with it by hiding behind a basket of tools while the other one couldn’t care less if I see him laying down on the job.

If you'd like to read more stories of life on The Farm and get updates about products available in the shop, be sure to sign up for the email newsletter by clicking the "email us" button in the top left sidebar of the blog.

Posted by Catherine on behalf of The Farm, written and photographed by Debbie

A Shear Surprise

Last Tuesday a surprise call at 6:00 am changed my plans for the rest of the week. A shepherdess friend was on the other end of the line with an unusual question, "How would you like your sheep sheared today?" Her shearer had made the trek down from Missouri but her sheep were wet from rain and snow so the shearer was sitting around with nothing to do (waiting for wet sheep to get dry is like watching paint dry!). A quick glance outside assured me that the precipitation had not yet reached my sheep so all I needed was a truck, a trailer, some hired help, a barn to shear in and some co-operative sheep! Most days those things don't align at once, but on Tuesday they did!

Thanks to Brayden, Rhayna, Sam, Dennis, Alfred, Jose and Molly (our sheep herding border collie) everything fell into place.

The girls waited patiently in line for a new 'do. We sheared 39 sheep for almost 6 hours, but the results were well worth the hard work. Despite the burrs in some fleeces from dog attacks and neighborhood roaming, we were able to save 20 of the fleeces and have great hopes for even better numbers in the fall.
Don't laugh! They will look beautiful again in a week!
Since they don't have mirrors, the sheep just know they can scratch their backs again!
Now the real work begins. We will go through each fleece to pick out burrs and other unpleasant things, then wash the fleeces. Once they are sparkling clean we will card and spin the fleeces to make them available for sale as roving (wool for spinning), yarn, and knitted garments. Each skein has a picture attached of the sheep responsible for the wool so you can put a face with a fleece!

Over all the years of farming, I have learned that I am merely the helper. Just as I help my chickens get their eggs in the cartons and my cows get their milk in the jugs, I help my sheep get their wool to you, their friends and fans!

A New Baby at Windy Acres Farm

Sunday morning we awoke to a wonderful surprise, a brand new perfect little calf. Although we are always happy to have a new baby on the farm, the thought of more milk is really what we all had in mind as we cheered the good news.

Thankfully Mom was able to have her during a very beautiful weekend when the temperatures were nice and mild.

For all you patient soon-to-be cowshare owners, we will milk Beauty while her calf is still nursing, thereby sharing the milk for about 10-12 days. Once the colostrum period is over we will contact you to come in and start getting your milk from your cow.

Spring is Coming and so are the Lambs

This past week, in temperatures in the teens, we had several new arrivals to The Farm. Our Katahdin ewes have begun to lamb.

Katahdin sheep are best know for their mild flavored, delectable meat and we can certainly attest to that attribution. One characteristic that surprises many of our customers when they drive out to visit the sheep is that they seem to have little or no wool. Even more concerning is that they can sometimes look like something the cat dragged in, dishevelled looking with clumps of hair hanging by a thread.

Katahdins are referred to as hair sheep and throughout the spring and summer, all that hair is continually falling out. We will find clumps of hair strewn around the farm wherever the sheep have ventured. It can actually give away a slip under the fence and trot around the farm when no one was looking.

So on your next trip to the farm take a look at the new babies and don't be dismayed by the dangling locks of hair, that's just a Katahdin.

Baby Arrabella is Here

Saturday afternoon with no fuss or pomp Arrabella was born to proud mother, Jill. Arrabella is an exact clone (not in the true scary sense) of her beautiful mother. She has a perfect belt and two white socks. We are so thankful to the Dad, Mr. Bigstuff, for his contribution to making Arrabella a reality. In the above photo she is heavy with Arrabella and not in the greatest of moods.

Here is a photo of Arrabella standing for the first time . Mom licks her and cleans her up to be presented to the onlookers Sweet Pea and Dara.

Dutch Belted cattle were brought to the United States by P.T. Barnum as an attraction for his circus. Outside of their unusual markings this breed has the smallest fat globule of all breeds which makes it a wonderful choice if anyone in the family has lactose intolerance. They are gentle, great mothers and produce gallons of delicious milk without the use of grains.