Saturday, May 13, 2017

Spring on the Farm

We have had a very busy, yet very fun Spring here at Pyyk Pastures! Mikko and Kai have been playing soccer and have filled our evenings and weekends with practices and games. Also, we have lots of new farm babies!

We started incubating some duck eggs in March and counted down the days until "hatch day" which was April 10th. About a week before our ducklings hatched we got 6 chicks.




Hatch day was a very exciting day at our house!!!




Ducklings grow quickly! For the few weeks they lived in our kitchen, they greeted me every morning with loud chirping and were so excited for fresh food and water. I really enjoyed them in the kitchen, except that they STINK!!! Ugh they stink. They had to go outside after a few weeks. Our two ducklings have brought us much joy.






This whole thing is definitely a learning processing, and well, in the process I completely ruined another batch of incubating duck eggs. I had the humidity too high and essentially drowned the ducklings in their shells. That was a very sad realization after 28 long days of anticipation. We plan to incubate more in the future, as we really enjoy duck eggs and plan to raise them to eat as well. 

Mid-April we got our first sheep! This was a very exciting day for our family. We now have 3 Tunis Ewes. Raising sheep was something Nate really wanted to do, but after having them for a month now, I am so happy we have them. I really enjoy them. 



Shortly after getting the three ewes I also got a "bottle baby". She was a one week old orphaned Tunis-Clun Forest cross. Her name is Georgia and she lived in our kitchen for 2 weeks in a dog kennel. After two weeks of the house smelling like a barn, the weather finally warmed up enough that I felt comfortable putting her in the sheep shed/pasture. She won't stay in the fence, even though it is electrified so she has to be in a pen when someone isn't outside. She wants to be with us or the dogs at all times. She is my baby! 



She enjoys hanging out with the boys...



... And the ducks!



And the ducks enjoy following Matias wherever he goes!



So the animal round up is:

2 dogs, 3 Tunis Ewes, 1 lamb, 2 Ducks, 5 Chicks (yes, we lost one), 4 Hens (should start laying any day now), 1 rabbit, and we are still growing! We plan to add a few more hens and ducks, and of course sheep!

We are enjoying the longer days, and finally warmer days. There is so much work still to do be done on the house and the "farm" itself, and between our "real jobs" and raising the boys life is a bit crazy, but we are blessed and starting to feel at home in our new home. I so enjoy the early mornings walks down to the barn to give Georgia her bottle. Hearing the birds chirp, marveling in the beauty of the early  morning sky, as well as other wildlife on our property. The other morning a pheasant and I almost collided as I rounded the corner of the house! We were both surprised!

Now if I can be so cheerful about early morning chores when it is below zero with 2 ft of snow on the ground remains to be seen!


💗

~Jessica