The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: Winter

  • 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 – 2/19

    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?

     

  • What’s up Wednesday – 1/8

    It was a cold day on The Freckled Farm yesterday… as it was for most of the country. Monday and Tuesday night we closed the animals up in the barn and coop. Normally we leave the doors open to the pasture and run, but we wanted to prevent any wind from getting to the animals and to allow the deep bedding to do it’s job. The animals faired well through the cold weather, although there were points when I was working in the pasture that I could see the goats shivering. They ended up spending the entire day in the barn, only coming out when I was doing farm chores. We have one chicken though who decided that she wanted to molt late in the season and still hasn’t gotten all of her feathers back. I have worried about her quite a bit, but she seems to be doing fine.

    On Tuesday Kevin went out to feed the animals around 5:30am and the temperatures were in the negatives with the wind chill. He closed everyone back up after they were done eating and I went and let everyone out once the sun came up. I had to go out several times during the day to remove the ice from the water buckets. This is my least favorite winter chore. We thought about getting heated buckets, but the breeder of Tina and Hillary told us to avoid them because they lower the goat’s resistance to cold, and if the bucket should break or the electricity go out the cold water could end up hurting the goats. So I trek out the barn and coop every couple of hours to remove the layer of ice that has formed on the water and add warm water. Last year there were only a few days that we really had to fight ice in the water buckets. If we lived in an area that is as cold as what we are dealing with right now all the time I might have consider investing in something else to combat the problem!

    In other news, today is our first day at My Courthouse Market in Goochland, VA. This is an INDOOR farmers market located inside the YMCA in Goochland Courthouse. The market runs from 3pm-7pm. Come and visit us!