How was your 2013? ups/downs of farming

[Southern by choice]

I've learned a lot of lessons, found out a lot of problems and am working to fix them. Jumping head long into these things is a hard and earth shattering way to learn, but you buck up or get out quickly. I still consult books, love asking questions on and reading forums, and sharing my experience where I can. Next year will be better -- it just has to be.

Well said.
Through our experiences, good or bad, we learn. We can only try to do better, be better, and hope.

Truly sorry for all your loss.
It sure has been a tearful one for so many.
It is here where we can cry and share and stress and grieve... knowing others understand.
Thanks for sharing Sweetened! Your pics are beautiful hope you are "around" more often. What are your "project birds"?

 

[promiseacres]

Well said.
Through our experiences, good or bad, we learn. We can only try to do better, be better, and hope.

Truly sorry for all your loss.
It sure has been a tearful one for so many.
It is here where we can cry and share and stress and grieve... knowing others understand.
Thanks for sharing Sweetened! Your pics are beautiful hope you are "around" more often. What are your "project birds"?

X2 that is definatly a tough year!

 

[Sweetened]

Well said.
Through our experiences, good or bad, we learn. We can only try to do better, be better, and hope.

Truly sorry for all your loss.
It sure has been a tearful one for so many.
It is here where we can cry and share and stress and grieve... knowing others understand.
Thanks for sharing Sweetened! Your pics are beautiful hope you are "around" more often. What are your "project birds"?

Thanks Southern, and Promise. I would like to be around more I joined a while back and just lurked. Recently, though, I started taking some time where I could and I'm glad to be part of the community. I finally feel like I can contribute on occassion!

I have a breeding project going. Well, had... From the massacre it's a bit on hold for the next year, I have to pick up my breeds again and wait for them to come into the laying age and so on. This year I will focus on my Chanteclers and Easter Eggers and next year I'll really get back into my project. I'm trying to regear the Chantecler for my farm. I understand the differences will be enough that they won't stay true to type, so I'll run a Chant line and a project line and see how it goes.

 

[norseofcourse]

I'm so very sorry for all the sadness many of you have had this year. I cried through the sad parts, and I admire how folks just 'picked up the pieces' as it were, and carried on - I'm not sure I could have through some of that. But I was glad to see there were good times, too.

I've had horses for years, but it wasn't until this year (a few years after moving to my own small acreage), that I made the leap into something else - in March I got two purebred (but unregistered) Icelandic ewes. I found Backyard Herds as I dealt with some type of upper respiratory problem that required a couple vet visits to clear up; feed and feeding (making a hay feeder inspired by SheepGirl's posts); and late pregnancy and lambing (when? when? LOL).

In April I was fortunate enough to be present at the birth of my first lamb, and three weeks later I was also present at the birth of my second! Wonderfully normal presentations and births, exactly like a great series of photos posted by a BYH member who I can't recall at the moment.
I had the ram lamb disbudded by the vet, which required two procedures, with the second one having problems healing and flystrike developed, and I am very thankful to the BYH members here for helping me recognise it and successfully treat it.
Found a great deal on a spinning wheel on Craigslist and got it. Also found a great deal on a floor loom on Craigslist and got it - I won't need it for awhile, but it was too good a deal to pass up!

May - found a morel mushroom on my property, my first one ever! I don't eat mushrooms, but finding it was cool. Went to my first Sheep and Wool Festival.

In June I took my mini horse to his first driving horse show, and was very pleased with how well he did. I got this little guy free off of Craigslist due to behavior problems, so he's both my first rescue, and the first horse I've trained to drive myself from scratch. He behaved very well and I was so proud of him.
I also got my little boy lamb wetherized

July went to Ohio Sheep Day put on by the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association and the Ohio State University extension. Took classes on various sheep care topics, great place to meet lots of other sheep people too, from novices like me to very experienced and degree'd instructors.
Started learning to spin on my wheel. It's fun but a lot harder than it looks.

In August I got a beautiful moorit (brown) ram from a farm in Michigan. Because of all the trouble with disbudding my (now) wether, I decided I wanted a polled ram. He is also not registered, but I am considering registering him.

September My young ewe lamb had symptoms that, in hindsight, I should have picked up on (less energy, not growing as fast as the wether), till the day I felt a soft swelling under her chin. I thought she'd got stung by a yellowjacket. I had read about bottlejaw but I thought that appeared further back on their jaw. I checked her eyelids 'just in case', and they were white . I got wormer the next morning and wormed her, and spent an anxious few days feeding her extra and checking eyelids till I finally saw a faint pink. I continued the extra care several weeks as she improved and started to thrive again. I learned my lesson, I now check eyelids regularly.
I got hay in for the winter, all I could fit, hoping it'll be enough for the ponies and the sheep. Adopted an 8-year old Shiba Inu from a rescue, she had spent the first 7 years of her life as a breeder dog in an Amish puppy mill. Found a shearer who will do small flocks, had him come out and shear all 5 of mine.

October Went to a fiber fair (smaller than the sheep and wool festival, but similar) and took my wool to a mill that had a booth there, to get turned into roving.
Found a small custom meat processor not too far from me that does sheep/lambs. Considered taking the wether there, but his wool was so nice, I decided I couldn't. I'm having difficulty making the leap from 'pet' to 'livestock'...

November put the ram in with the rest of the sheep - lambs sometime after April 1

December Had my first lessons in how to knit. My older dog got diagnosed with Cushings, so he's on meds and will be retested next week to see if the meds are correct or need dosages adjusted.

Whew, what a year! I'd forgotten about some of this stuff.