The Case of The Terrified Chooks - Part I

In Australia they call live chickens chooks. Once it hits the killing cone, however, it becomes chicken. For whatever reason, I enjoy referring to the chickens as chooks.

Thus, The Case of the Terrified Chooks, which all started one night when I failed to complete a critical chore on the farm. Closing the chicken coop door. You see, the chicken-brained chooks aren’t exactly quiet in their coop. Nor are they very cleanly. Both of which completely give them away to predators. Until now we haven’t had an issue with predators and the coop. I’ve forgotten to close the door on a few occasions (sorry chooks!), but luckily nothing happened.

Elvis and his lady, Sassafras. Winona dust bathing under the swing. She's the queen

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Hard Work and Long Hours


Little Willow coming along for a paddock shift. Goats are lucky Izzy's not around to witness them licking her food bowl!This is a follow-up to @shmeedie’s questions from Twitter a couple weeks ago. The question was this:

I would love to see a post about how you're adjusting to the long hours, hard work, and general transition to farm life.

The first post addressed Social Isolation on the farm. This post is about adjusting to the labor intensity and the long hours. Same as the last post, I can’t comment for Sweetbreads since we have our own roles and responsibilities on the farm.

The hard work is something I looked forward to, so it hasn’t been too much of a surprise for me. I got restless in the city. I continue to work a day-job, so yes the hours are tough sometimes. I do an hour or two’s worth of work in the morning and at least two hours at night. That means waking up around 5:30am, working til around 7am and then working again from 6pm til 8pm or later. I don’t know what will happen when it starts getting dark closer to 6pm, but we’ll figure it out.

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First Birth on the Farm - Janis' Calf (A Heifer, We Think)


As I was stringing up some new fencing for the cow's new paddock I peered into the trees and saw a little head poke out. I was pretty far away, so I thought it might just be Corrina's nose. Then I saw it stand up and do a gangly little walk out into the sunlight. What!? Is that a baby calf!? It was a bit surreal.

Sure enough Janis had her baby, just as expected, exactly 11 months after her last calf. That means she was bred about 45 days afterward. 

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