Spring Peepers!

The new chicks have just arrived this morning after their long journey from Hoover Hatchery in Iowa. Of course the weather went from mild to wintry just in time for their hatching so I fretted about how warm they'd be. And of course I'd hoped that they would get here in 1 day but that was a wee bit too optimistic, but got the call this morning at 7:30 that they were at the post. We had done the morning rounds so I was standing by the phone and rushed down. They came in quite a small box which did a good job retaining their heat since all were up and peeping. Now they are ensconced, in large boxes with heat lamps suspended, in the kitchen. The chicks on the left are 25 Black Australorps and those on the right are 25 Barred Rocks - hopefully all females or pullets! I have a dish filled with gravel and water and lids with the crumbles - which is what chick feed is called. Also have a pot of eggs simmering to feed to them. No doubt some may be thinking "Cannibalism!" but remember our eggs aren't viable, wouldn't become chicks and the proteins and yolk are very sustaining. It is the yolk that the chick absorbs right before hatching in fact that sustains her for the first 24-48 hours of life. So more yolk provides fats and the white, proteins. Feeding a mixture of commercial feeds and home foods is something we do alot here for everyone because I don't really know if I can rely on the commercial feeds 100%. When the chicks are a few more days old I'll start giving them greens, grated carrot, chopped fruit as a small part of their feed because that's what they would get if they had hatched here under a Hen. We've had a small clutch from Isabelle, our Banty Hen, every year so I've had a chance to watch her and the little ones forage around. It was quite astonishing how far they'd roam - the little ones scrambling to keep up with Mum. So I've got to be Mum to this group and make sure they know that there's lots of food options - not just one kind shaped in a pellet. The pattern of my life will be popping into the kitchen to top up food dishes, clean water and watching to see how the chicks are congregating under the heat lamps. This is only the second time we've ordered chicks so I'm a fussing Hen!

The chicks will spend the next 2 weeks in the Kitchen keeping warm, dry and out of harm's way; I had thought to keep them in the bathroom but Bob said he wasn't going to wash out of the kitchen sink for 2 weeks. Then we'll move them outside if the weather has moderated, to a wired area under cover - chicks don't survive wet. By the time they're in feather I hope to start selling some of them in small groups to recoup my costs. We'll keep 25 to help bolster our egg laying capacity next year since some of the Americaunas are now 4 years old and slowing down a bit, though the size of the eggs are huge and more than make up for quantity.

So more pictures and reports will be posted as the chicks grow. In the meantime Cheep, Cheep!

Email troubles and Shuttle solutions

Hi Everyone! Firstly, for anyone who has tried to get me through littlemeadowsfarm@yahoo.com and didn't get a reply - we had a problem which is now fixed! I'm terribly sorry if you have been accidentally ignored; please resend for a prompt response because normally I'm responding to my emails at 5:30 every morning and then throughout the day.

Now onto other fixes - namely shuttle bobbins. As you might know I am frugal to a fault so when I needed more bobbins I looked to using straws as a solution. But in using those straws I found that over the project they started to hang up at the back of the shuttle pin where it is flanged. Pawing through all the bits boxes I found this little rubber do-hickey that did just the trick so here's some pictures of my fix for a fix!


The black rubbery ring is a grommet of some kind and I cut it with the serrated bread knife to shorten it to the right length. I'd think you could come up with something similar from the hardware store. So if you're find that suddenly the bobbin/quill isn't feeding smoothly and freely look to see if it's hanging up at the back. Hope this saves someone frustration.

Catching Up on the Farm News

It's a cloudy but incredibly warm Monday morning - we awoke to 60*F at 5 am! But just last week we awoke to snow, the first real snow in the 3 years we've been in this area. So today my first thought were about the poor sheep in their full winter wear out there sweltering! This up and down weather can be tough on everyone's health so after the main feeding/watering I made up some loose minerals with tonic herbs added in. Not only will the herbs help boost their immunity but the salt in the mineral will keep them sucking down the water - good for them and hard for me since the water has to be carried out in containers. Oh, well if I'm smart I'll not fill them all the way and just make more trips ... we use recycled laundry detergent jugs that are sold now with the delivery spiggot and they hold about 4 gal. or 32lbs when full. That's a bit much for my aging shoulders. Farm work really reminds me that I'm not 30 any more but rather quickly approaching 50, a humbling realization.



Weaving is coming along on the rugs project. The fleece lock piece is done, I then did a piece with carded fleece - that's the blue & white up there on the left and this morning I just finished the last one which is done with handspun singles. These are all short rugs of about 22" long for the last one - ran out of yarn due to poor planning- to about 27" for the others. Now what to do for the last? Right this minute I haven't any ideas so will let it sit and perk. Certainly the housework needs doing far more desperately than weaving! And I have Ranger, the French Angora bunny in the bathroom awaiting his comb out. The hens are in his house cleaning up all the bunny food he spreads around - they'll have it picked clean by the time I get him back out there. Glad to see some cleaning going on without any effort on my part!

Bob spent the weekend digging post holes - about 15 or so and getting the area right in front of the house ready to move the sheep. He'll be taking a day off from work so we can stretch the field fencing; a gate will need to be built but I can do that on my own. But with luck we'll have them off the west field before they damage the clover seedlings emerging in this warm weather. These fencing projects are never finished and this can get a little discouraging until I remind myself that we've only been here 2 years. I'm sure everyone has projects like this so I won't whine but rather encourage you to look at what you have accomplished, not what is still waiting to be done. And I'll try to practice what I preach as Mum always said.

Upcoming news to look forward to: I ordered 50 chicks (I've lost my mind!) that come in 2 weeks and will be ensconced in the bathroom for the first week of their lives, we start shearing in March and in May - if I survive the chicks and shearing- we are putting together a Farm Fiber Day. So please come back to see what's happening here at Little Meadows!

A New Weaving Project - Fleece Rugs

This is my Leclerc warping board that we mounted on the kitchen wall. Having up at eye level really has made it comfortable to use. The warp is 115 ends, 6 yds long of 8/2 poly/cotton rug warp - the spool sat in in an container at my feet as I wound the warp on.
On this project I'm warping B2F ala Chandler. I was quite unhappy with my warp tension in my last project so decided to work on this method for awhile. Here in this picture is threading the heddles. Found that a bit awkward since on this LeClerc Artisat I can't take off the front beam, whereas the back beam folds and let's you get closer when threading from the back.
Here we are all tied on. The rug design calls for a 5 dent reed so I sleyed my 10 dent every other. Also left the warp sitting overnight to see if it would loosen up - didn't find any noticeable difference this morning. So after getting the bread and cheese making started sat down and got things going. This picture shows a couple of rows of the fleece locks in place, after each fleece row, I'm weaving 8 pics of the 8/4 cotton. The fleece I'm working from is over there on the bench, it's from one of our Dorset girls Faye. If all goes well I should be able to get 4 small rugs out of the 6 yd warp. After finishing this piece, I'm going to try laying hand carded sections in to see how that looks and works as a rug. Don't have firm plans yet for rugs 3 & 4, am hoping that as I sit weaving inspiration will come to me! Meanwhile whilst working on this rug I'm listening to a program called Sound and Spirit, she did a program about weaving as metaphor last August, you can find the archive program here: http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/2007index.html.

Plans for the weekend

It's Friday already and the day to look at the weekend "to-do" list for any materials that we might need from town. It rained last night and a wee bit this morning so a good time to go in for groceries and bits. First on the list is to carefully, oh very carefully cut Frank's right horn tip back. The poor guy, his horn is growing right up against his face. I have to find something extremely thin but hard to slide between the horn and his eye to protect him and then we'll try using the dremel with a cutting disc. When we get that done I'll be ready for a strong cup of tea! Then on to much less stressful activities. I have put in the T-posts for the new bunny pad, so now with Bob's muscle power we can roll out and tension the welded wire to enclose a 15'x50' area. This area will then be divided in half because unfortunately most boy bunnies fight each other and certainly Ranger and Mr. Bunny are no exception! So each guy will have 15x25' of romping around space. But before they go in there I also will have to set in edging material to keep them from digging out - no matter the space this is what they'll do, especially Ranger. Ranger's current home will become the chick condo for the batch of chicks I'm ordering this month.
We won't be done fencing yet tho, the garden area still needs it's final and last side done and then a centre section so that the chickens will be in one area and those tempting veggies protected in the other. Normally we let the hens wander at will but occasionally I need an area that confines them so I can do seeding of the pastures. Clover seed would be awfully expensive chicken food at almost $2 a pound! To say nothing of the work discing and spreading it. So in this 40x50' area they'll have to stay for a couple of weeks until the clover comes up.
And more fencing! We also need to move the sheep over from their current field so that this clover can be spread, this means fencing in the front area. Last year we were able to use the electro netting but unfortunately Mr. Darcy and his sister Emma have discovered you don't get shocked if you go under the very bottom. It is amazing how narrow a spot these fat, woolly yearlings can wiggle under & thru. So it will be driving in more T-posts and setting up field fencing. Oh, yes building a gate too. I should do a piece on gate building since I've got it done to almost a science now. Well all of this sounds like a couple of weekends work but we'll plug along and see come Sunday evening how far we got. Certainly Bob is always happy to go back to work on Monday so he can rest! Here's hoping you have a productive and fun weekend too!