Well, while I have only been home for the Thanksgiving weekend
since my last blog entry there is still a lot to write about this month! Over the Thanksgiving weekend we had a little
bit of a warm snap bringing the temps up to the low 40’s, just high enough for
the Bees to show me that I was worried for nothing. When it gets warm enough Bees will break
their ball they use to keep warm and take a “cleansing” flight, in order words,
go and use the bath room! Basically,
when I went to check on the hives for Thanksgiving, they bees were out and
about! Made me pretty happy to see that
they made it through that first cold snap.
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| The bees going out for a cleansing flight over Thanksgiving |
It has not all been good news however since the last
postings, we have been having an issue with predators, we lost one guinea to
what we think was a coyote in broad day light, but our biggest losses have been
from another night time predator, a great horned owl. One night the guinea fowl decided they would
rather roost in a tree rather than their protected house/coop. Since it was dark by the time Terri got back
from work, and they roosted high in the tree she was not able to get them down. They did this for a couple days and each day
we seemed to find less and less guinea but with Terri at work all the day time
hours and myself in DC not much we could do
Then one night when she got back,
she went to check on the birds and she saw eyes shining at her, at first she thought it
was one of the guinea but when she turned her light towards them, she was just
in time to see the owl ripping the head off a guinea. The next day being the weekend, Terri was able
to get the remaining guinea back into their coop and run, where they have remained
since then. In total we lost about ½ of
our guinea fowl, 6 of 12 ☹. They will
remain penned up for the rest of the winter.
That said it has been cold enough over the past week they have not even
ventured out into their run, preferring to stay inside out of the weather.
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| All that was left of one of the guinea after a predator got it, we think it was a coyote |
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| The front poarch rail has turned into one of the favorite locations for the guinea to perch during the day |
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| Picture from the kitchen window with Soju going for a walk |
The losses have highlighted the need to get a guard dog next
spring. I will be looking for a great Pyrenees
as they tend to do well in a homestead environment and do excellent work
guarding livestock, especially during the night. Of course, I am not looking forward to having
to feed a 110 to 120 lbs dog however they do come very well recommended. I will be looking for one from one of the
numerous homesteaders or ranchers/farmers I know as part of my Facebook groups
as those puppies will already be being raised in the same environment with the
same type of animals as I will be raising and they will already have been
watching and learning from their parents.
This spring myself and Jared, my brother in law, will also
work at doing some predator control by hunting in an effort to reduce the coyote
population near the farm property (the 40 acers) before I put livestock over
there. We did have at least one instance
during deer hunting this year where a pack of coyotes spooked three deer that Jared
was approaching so we know they are out there in force. If you have ever heard a pack of coyotes
howling while on the hunt, it is really a sound to hear.
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| Picture stolen from the internet of a Great Pyr (the kind of livestock guard dog we are going to get) |
We just got the venison back from the butcher, and if you
read last months blog you will remember I mentioned that the sausage making
would probably at least double the cost over all cost of the processing, well I
was wrong, it tripled it! I am most definitely
going to give it a try myself next year!
Well, we also made one large step towards getting our farm
going next year. I placed a deposit on
two young Galloway heifer calves. Storm and Ms Kitty will be ready for me to pick
up in late April from S & F Crossroads Ranch (
https://www.facebook.com/SFCrossRoadsRanch)
in Hastings Michigan. Storm and Ms. Kitty are pure breed belted Galloways also
known as belties, or as my sister in law Valarie calls them Oreo cows (they do
kind of look like an Oreo!). They are
just a variation of the Galloway cattle I have spoken about on the blog before
and Ms Kitty and Storm will be great foundation females to build our herd upon. At the time of the pictures below Storm was about 4 months old with Ms Kitty was one month.
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| This is a picture of storm at S & F Crossroads Ranch in Michigan during the snows last week |
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| This is a picture of storm at S & F Crossroads Ranch in Michigan |
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| This is a picture of Ms Kitty at S & F Crossroads Ranch in Michigan |
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| This is a picture of Ms Kitty at S & F Crossroads Ranch in Michigan |
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| This is a picture of Ms Kitty at S & F Crossroads Ranch in Michigan |
As the farm (the 40 acres) is nowhere close to being ready
for livestock, we will be putting them over at the homestead for much of the
first year. Of course, this means I will
be spending the first part of April doing fencing repairs and prepping for their
arrival at the homestead. With so few cattle it is not really worth the
cost of a bull, so the plan will be to use AI in order to breed Ms Kitty and
Storm around September or October for an early summer 2019 calving. We will still be keeping out eyes open for
the possibility of picking up a cow calf pair next spring of either straight Galloways
or belties however. Like anything else
with farming, we will have to be flexible.
That pretty much locks in our livestock plans and sources for this first
year.
I am getting more and more excited to get back to MN and
start this in earnest with every month that passes. Right now, I am just over 100 days away, not
that I am counting or anything! But I feel it is important to point out not all the wildlife I run into is in Mn, this what waiting for me outside my appartment at Fort Meade Maryland when I came home last week. The picture is not great but it was taken quickly out the windshield of a car!
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| A night time visitor to me at Fort Meade, Md |
I started off the blog about talking about how I made it
back home for Thanksgiving, this was really the first time we have been able to
host a full-blown holiday with a lot of family for as long as I can remember. I think the final count was 22 people. You really do not realize how much you miss
that kind of thing when you are away from home as much as you do until you experience
it again. That is just one more reason
for setting up the homestead and leaving the rat race. As always I look forward to any comments or questions! Please feel free to share the blog with those who maybe interested or thinking of this lifestyle!
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