The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: Farm

  • What’s up Wednesday – 4/23

    Another busy, productive week on the farm! This past weekend we finally found time to build the buck house. Bad weather and incredibly busy schedules had forced us to put off that project a lot longer than we had originally planned. It came together nicely and will make a good home for our boys. Now we just need to paint it, put up the boys’ bed, hang the hay feeder, and fence. We should be picking up our buck in the next few weeks, so hopefully it will come together before then.

    We had a pretty unpleasant experience this weekend… While doing farm chores on Saturday we found a snake in the hay. At this point we don’t know if it was a baby black snake or baby copperhead. Our instincts said copperhead so we killed it and threw it far away in the woods. I would have never killed a black snake, but any copperhead needs to be eliminated! The babies are especially scary. After the fact we were looking at pictures of both baby black snakes and baby copperheads and they look quite similar. Either way a snake is a sign of mice and you do NOT want mice in your hay. So our “we think we might need to get a barn cat soon” turned to “we need to get a barn cat now!” We went to our friend Donna’s farm (Money Pitt Acres) to pick out one of the cats she was trying to rehome. We brought him home, set him up in a kennel on the porch and fed him. We were instructed to leave him in a kennel for a few days so he was able to learn that this was his new home. Unfortunately, yesterday, when Kevin was cleaning out the kennel the cat got out and ran away and we haven’t seen him since. We are all very upset about it and have tuna sitting on the porch hoping he will come back… which I sure will attract more than just our cat, but it’s worth the risk.

    We are still working on the new scrubs and bath teas! We are hoping to debut them at the opening of My Manakin Market on May 3rd. We have gotten the thumbs up from our testers and now it just requires us to get labels together. We are so excited about offering these awesome new products! We are also only a week away from debuting our May goat milk soap! Check back to see what it is.

  • The Freckled Farm’s First Friday Book Club – The Dirty Life

    Better late than never I guess!! As many of you know the last few weeks have been a little crazy on The Freckled Farm. Between the babies being born, everyday farm chores, shows, farmer markets, the photography business, and raising two little ones of our own, our heads are spinning… and I’m not sure it’s going to slow down anytime soon (nor do I want it too). I’m now playing catch up and just getting around to writing this months book club post. I will also get back on track with our “What’s up Wednesday” post this week as well.

    Our April First Friday Book Club book is The Dirty Life: A memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball!

    The Dirty Life

    The Dirty Life is another one of those stories where a city girl drops everything to move to a farm and live off of the land. In this particular book Kristin comes to this life change after meeting her future husband, Mark, when she was sent to interview him about his farm and CSA. They quickly fall in love and begin a journey to live off the land and leave the smallest footprint possible. The book is honestly written, covering the hardships as well as the triumphs. It shows the affects of this transition on their relationship and mental state. It’s not an easy road, but one that is most definitely worth taking. It’s a truly inspiring novel.

    Have you read this book? Let me know what you think!

  • What’s up Wednesday – 3/19

    The post is coming a little late today. We had a crazy day to top off a very eventful week. Tina kidded early this morning. One kid was born before we got outside to her at 5am and the other came shortly after. The second kid came out in a bad position, making it a very complicated birth. I am extremely grateful that we got to her in time for that one. I will write a separate post where I go into more detail about her labor later. Tina was the last goat to kid. Hillary kidded Sunday, so all of our 2014 kids are here!

    While you wait for the post about Hillary and Tina’s kidding I thought I would go ahead and share a little sneak peek picture of all of the cuteness to come… This is Chelsea

    The Freckled Farm Soap Company - Chelsea

    Tomorrow is the first day of spring!! And to celebrate we are introducing our new “Spring” Goat Milk Soap and running a giveaway where one lucky winner will win two bars of our spring soap along with one additional bar of their choice. Check back tomorrow to enter the giveaway!!

  • What’s up Wednesday – 3/12

    The chicks came yesterday afternoon!! I don’t have any good pictures yet. Only a few taken with my phone and I’m not sure they are even in sharp focus. The chicks arrived happy and healthy! We did have one little problem… one of our chicks was wrong. We ordered 4 female easter eggers and 1 male and that is what we got (as far as we know… it is still possible the chicks were sexed wrong). We also ordered 3 male buff orpingtons as filler to make our order reach the required minimum. We received these chickens and they will be used as meat bird.  The issue came with our black copper marans. We ordered 7 females and 1 male and we only got 7 total marans. In it’s place was an additional buff orpington. We are hoping that the missing maran was not our rooster. If he is missing we will not be able to breed more pure bred marans as we had planned. We don’t plan to do it as a business, just for ourselves and friends who might show interest in this rare breed. So, it won’t be a huge hit if we don’t end up with a rooster, just a disappointment. I called the hatchery and they refunded me for the mistake and were very helpful.

    This doesn’t compare to the drama that was involved with our last chicken order almost two years ago. Breckin was two and a half and Bryce was about a month old. I went to pick them up from the post office and was told that there was problem with my birds… that the box really stunk. So I put the box in the back of the SUV, put the kids in their car seats, rolled all of the windows down, and drove home trying to figure out how to handle this situations. I knew I had at least one dead bird. The only thing that could account for that smell was death. When I got home I put the chick box on the porch, gave Breckin a snack and put him in front of the TV, and tried to get Bryce comfortable in her chair. I brought the box into the dinning room where I had the brooder set up and opened it up. At the bottom of the box was a poor dead chick that had been squished (I will spare you the details) and another that was injured. I started to pull the live birds out of the box, dipping their beaks in water to encourage them to drink, and then putting them into the brooder. That is when I encountered our next issue. I had made the brooder out of an old dog kennel. It seemed like a good size, would be easy to clean, and would protect the baby chicks… if it could keep them from escaping. Come to find out that the spaces between the bars were too wide. I would put the chicks in and they would just squeeze right out. So here I was with a dead chick, an injured chick, healthy chicks that I couldn’t leave in the box with the other two, a brooder that the chicks could easily escape, a 2.5 year old, and a one month old. What was I going to do? Well, I called my amazing friend Ginni who happened to be off that day and begged her to come help me. She was at the house within minutes. We wrapped the outside of the lower half of the kennel with chicken wire, got the healthy chicks comfortable, and then started to tend to the injured chick. It wouldn’t move it’s legs. Ginni wasn’t sure the chick was going to make it, but showed me what I could do to help her and answered dozens of questions over the next 24 hours as I tried to nurse it back to health. The injured chick past away after a day. Our other girls grew up to be healthy beautiful chickens, but it wasn’t the best way to start off. I will take getting a wrong chick over that mess any day!

    Hillary is now 6 days away from her due date and Tina is exactly a week. Hillary has been close to labor for days now. Her ligaments are almost gone and she has spent the last two days moaning none stop. She seems so incredibly uncomfortable. We put the intercom up in the barn so I could constantly monitor her. I think she will go into labor in the next few days!

    Hopefully next week’s “What’s up Wednesday” includes pictures and stories about our new goat kids! It’s all so exciting! I love this time of year!

  • The Freckled Farm First Friday Book Club – Sheepish

    This month on The Freckled Farm First Friday Book Club I am recommending the wonderful book Sheepish by Catherine Friend

    Sheepish

    Just so you don’t think that I am completely bias towards goats I have decided to go ahead and throw in this delightful book that predominately features sheep! One of the things that I love about this book is that it talks about the “middle.” In fact, it is the theme of the book. There are a ton of farming memoirs out there that talk about the start of a farm. Most likely because it is the most interesting time for a farm and it’s farmers, but for once it would be nice to read about what comes next. What happens after the farm is established? Farms constantly change and grow, how do you keep going from year to year? How do you deal the heartache?

    In Sheepish Catherine is in that place in her farming career… the middle. Catherine struggles to find her true place on the farm. She feels like it comes so naturally to her partner Melissa, while she questions if this is what she really wants to be doing. She occasionally contemplates selling the farm and touring the country in an RV, but knows that this will destroy Melissa. The book follows her as she searches for, and discovers, a part of the farm that she feels like she can call her own, something she can be passionate about. Ms. Friend has a wonderful sense of humor and the book is beautifully written. By the end of the book you will be considering an all wool wardrobe… no kidding.

    Have you read Sheepish? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

     

  • What’s up Wednesday – 3/5

    The girls are so close to having their babies! We are still two weeks from their due dates, but Hillary’s ligaments are disappearing, which is a sign that labor is on it’s way. Although, it doesn’t necessarily mean she won’t reach or exceed her due date. It just lets you know that their bodies are in preparation mode. Tina’s ligaments are still very tight. Monday night the temperatures were in the low single digits and I was convinced with our luck that Hillary would go into labor at the coldest possible time, and we would have baby goats living in our house! Luckily that didn’t happen, but I’m keeping a close eye on her. Hopefully this week’s snow storm is the last, so we don’t have to worry about having babies in the snow anymore. I am really hoping they wait until after this weekend, since we will be at the Augusta show Saturday and Sunday.

    The chicks will be on their way Monday! We are hoping they will get here by Tuesday, but it will more than likely be Wednesday. Since I write these posts on Tuesday night you probably won’t hear anything about the chicks until later in the week or the week after. I promise to include pictures! Breckin is so excited. He is old enough to handle and help with the chicks this time around. Last time he was two and was really only old enough to hold them for a second, and I was so worried that he would put his hands in his mouth before washing them that I made myself a nervous wreck. I’ve lightened up a bit.

    This past weekend wasn’t as productive as the weekend before, but we still got a fair amount done. The chicken coop went up in the pasture, and just as expected the goats spent a good amount of time chewing on the corners. We started working on the solar, but had some questions about the installation, so that project was stalled. Kevin built the new raised beds in the garden, and he finished the walls of the birthing pin. I cleaned up an area in the shed for the chicks and cleaned up the kennel that will be their brooder. At some point this week, when I can get out of the driveway, I need to go pick up the chick food and electrolytes.

    You may have noticed that I missed the Makeover Monday this past Monday. It’s been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to test out the recipe that I did this month. I am working on it now so the post will be going up next Monday! Sorry for the delay.

    So, another productive week down! Here’s hoping for another… and maybe some nice weather with it.

  • What’s up Wednesday 2/25

    Holly molly have we had a busy week. The amazing weather this weekend gave us the perfect opportunity to start getting projects done around the farm.

    We started by constructing the chicken coop we ordered a few weeks back. It didn’t take very long to put together and we are both quite pleased with the design. I will do a post highlighting it soon. We sealed the wood once it was together in hopes that it will last longer. We put it together outside of the pasture because I didn’t want the goats getting ahold of the packaging or messing with us (incessantly) while we were working. I wanted to put it in the pasture on Sunday, but with the second coating of sealant going on that morning I decided that we should wait until next weekend and give the seal a chance to really dry as the goats will likely chew on it for a while when it first goes in.

    Last year we built a kid pen out of pallets and spare wood. Ruth and Sonia lived in it last spring until they were big enough to move in with the big girls and llamas. It worked well for them, but the calk we used to seal the roof didn’t hold up and I was beginning to worry about the cracks between the slats and wind getting through, which would be a problem if we got another snow storm. So, we reinforced the sides with plywood and plan to use the roofing we are buying for the buck’s pen to seal the roof off once and for all. Finally we painted it kid barn red. The same red we plan to paint the buck pen.

    This weekend we also put up the temporary birth pin in the barn. The walls and door are made out of pallets. It ain’t pretty… but it does the job. Good thing it’s not staying up. We may decide to do something more permanent next year, but for now this will do.

    Finally, we got the intercom for the barn. We got this so we could hear what is going on inside the barn at night. We are hoping it will allow us to hear if the girls go into labor at night… so we don’t have to check on them every 10 minutes… although I am sure I still will. Unfortunately, we put it in Monday night and realized that it was messing with Bryce’s baby monitor. We need to do a little research, but at the moment it looks like we are going to have to return it for something that is on a different frequency.

    It’s about 3 weeks until the girls’ due dates. They were so uncomfortable in the warm weather this weekend. While the other animals were laying the sun, enjoying the beautiful weather, they laid in the barn and moaned all weekend. I could have sworn that they were somehow going into labor early, but they were fine once it cooled off again. I am so glad they won’t be going through pregnancy in any sort of real heat.

    The next few days should be as busy as the last week. We plan to put solar up in the barn (only one panel… enough to power a light and maybe a fan), put the chicken coop up in the pasture, and set up the brooder for the chickens coming in two weeks!

  • What’s up Wednesday – 2/19

    The countdown is on! Spring is a little over a month away, the girls only have 4 more weeks until their due dates, and we only have 3 more weeks until the baby chicks arrive in the mail. It wont be long before we have precious baby goats and chicks hopping around. I can’t wait!!

    We got around 10 inches of snow, sleet, and ice last week. There is still quite a bit of it on the ground, even after several days of mild temperatures. The bad weather has halted our construction projects, but I’m hoping to get the chicken coop started (and maybe finished… who knows) this weekend. The chicken coop is going in the pasture and I was hoping to have it done by this point in the girls’ pregnancies because I don’t want to cause them any sort of stress this close to their due dates… but there is only so much that you can do. We also apparently underestimated the amount of hay we needed when ordering last August and only have about a 2-3 week supply left. So, this weekend will also be spent searching out hay.

    Overall it’s been a pretty uneventful week. That’s what happens when you are trapped in your house for most of it!

    We will be at the My Courthouse Market today from 3-7pm! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.

  • What’s up Wednesday – 2/12

    Another snow storm is headed our way. In fact, it is supposed to hit us early evening, go until afternoon Thursday, and bring between 8-12 inches of snow. I’m hoping for a lot less though. I’m over doing farm chores in the snow and I have a wedding to photograph on Saturday. The snow is just a nusance at this point. I’m so ready for spring!

    Last friday I scheduled to have UPS deliver our new chicken coop. I got a call from the freight service asking if a tractor trailer would be able to make it up our driveway. Anyone who has been to our farm knows that the answer is no way! I had no idea what to say, and was trying to imagine how big these boxes had to be that they needed to be delivered on a tractor trailer. After I practically worked myself into a panic, worrying that it wasn’t going to be delivered at all, the man asked if we had a pick up truck that could just meet the delivery man at the bottom of our driveway. We do, so I scheduled the delivery for Monday and had Kevin drive my SUV to work so I could use the truck. When the time came to meet the delivery man I put the kids in the truck, Breckin brought his measuring tape just in case we needed it, and waited at the bottom of the driveway. Breckin bounced up and down in the seat every time a truck drove by. I tried to explain to him that it was going to be a BIG truck and his jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw the huge UPS 18 wheeler pull up. I desperately wanted take a picture as our boxes were loaded off this huge truck into the back of our little F150, but I thought the delivery man would think I was crazy. I did  snap a few pictures once we got  back to the house though… I still don’t understand why it had to be delivered by such a huge truck. I can’t wait to start assembling it!

    Coop Delivery

    Coop Delivered

    The girls have 5 more weeks to go in their pregnancies. Now is the time that we start preparing them. They will have their CDT shots and dewormer in the next week and we will start to set up their birthing area soon. They should also really start to show before too long. Both have a little bit of a tummy and waddle, but 75% of the growth happens in the last 4 weeks of the pregnancy, so they should really start to “fill out” over the coming weeks. I promise to post pictures as they really start to get big.

    On a final note, the My Courthouse Market has been canceled for tonight due to the weather…. did I mention that I’m over winter yet?

     

  • The Freckled Farm First Friday Book Club – The Year of the Goat

    Our second book in the 2014 First Friday Book Club is The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Mile and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese by Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz.

    yearofthegoat

    This book is all about following your passion. In The Year of the Goat Margaret Hathaway writes about the year that her, and her then boyfriend, Karl Schatz dropped everything, leaving their big city lives in order to travel around the country visiting all things goat related. They toured dairy and meat goat farms, auctions, barbecue competitions, cheese tasting, and much more. This is one of those books that you want to live in. There were times while I was reading it that I was fiercely jealous that it wasn’t me going on these amazing travels. It’s amazing to see all the different ways people are using goats. This book truly is an homage to small agriculture and goat farmers.

    Are you starting to see a pattern?… People leaving their city lives in search of greener pastures and a simpler life. This is what we did. Maybe that’s why I feel so connected to these books.

    Have you read The Year of the Goat? Leave your thoughts in the comments.