NH Homesteader- turkeys!

NH homesteader

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Hi there, I have been here a month but haven't started a journal because I assumed I would bore everyone to tears. But I have been enjoying reading about everyone else so here goes nothing!

My husband and I have been married for almost 6 years (August 20th!) and have a nearly 4 year old daughter. He grew up on a horse farm and when he was a kid he raised angora rabbits for fiber, Flemish giants for meat, and chickens for eggs. He has always been a profit-minded farmer! I knew nothing about farming....

When I found out we were going to have a baby, my parents subdivided 5 acres of land for us, as we were renting a teeny tiny cabin! Then we got a few laying hens... And it began!

To skip ahead... (I have no internet so I type this all on my phone through a mediocre data connection so pardon my brevity)...

I was a special education teacher until last year, when I left to stay home with my daughter. A few too many viewings of Food, Inc later... We now raise nearly all of our own meat, and my next goal is dairy independence. I have a garden because I believe in producing one's own food but I despise weeding.... So it's not the most productive garden in the world!

We currently raise: Nigerian dwarf and mini-alpine goats for milk, pigs for meat, chickens for eggs and meat (primarily Dominique chickens and currently Cornish crosses for meat) and turkeys for meat. We also have 2 dogs that are pets. One is a chow mix (rescue) who will protect my daughter and myself to no end. The other is a Spanish Alano, who I (semi) affectionately call "the idiot". Good natured dog with zero impulse control.

This will be our first year breeding. This winter I hope to breed my Nigis and the sow we are keeping so we will be tackling kidding and... Pigging? At the same time. What do they call it when a sow has babies anyway? We have a friend who is a pig breeder and lives 5 mins down the road so not too worried about them!
 

Baymule

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We moved from town to 8 acres and no internet. Finally ended up with Hughes Net satellite internet. Sure beat using my phone! While it's not the greatest, it sure beats nothing. By the time I spent 7 months with no internet, I was estatic over Hughes Net.

It is a good thing to become more sufficient, raising your own food and dairy is wonderful. On the garden weeding thing....make your rows wide enough to mow.......:lol:
 

NH homesteader

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I have not had Internet in 4 years. Mostly because I'm cheap! We really don't have many options here but they all seem so expensive when we already pay for these darn smartphones!

Haha I asked my husband if he could just weed wack the garden the other day. He did not find it amusing! He's pretty particular about weeding but doesn't have time to do it. The other day he had a random weekday off and I wasn't home, and I came home to beautifully weeded beans! Maybe I need to leave him home alone more often...
 

Latestarter

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Having baby pigs is called farrowing I believe. Hard to understand why there are so many different names for "HAVING BABIES"! Jeeze.... I'm in the process of doing a life re-boot here and hope to be doing what you're doing by this time next year.
 

NH homesteader

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@Latestarter you're right, it is called farrowing. Our pig breeder friend always calls it pigging. Which is strange. Aren't pigs always pigging?

We have taken the long route to get here and are still figuring out what's worth the effort and where to focus our energy. We attempted to breed heritage turkeys but our Tom keeps producing babies with genetic issues so we are going to process them and try again in a while when we have time and money to get back into a proper turkey venture. We had ducks but my husband is allergic to their eggs so that didn't work out very well! All has been great with the pigs and goats and chickens so that's what we are focused on right now!

Next year I want to start with a couple meat goats. I'll have to do that in conjunction with a friend who has a Boer buck. I am not up for a full size buck yet! But the does will be fine.
 

NH homesteader

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I will get some pictures ASAP! Too hot today though! No one will feel like posing haha
 

NH homesteader

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OK here are some of the critters. my phone takes awful pictures and I ahem... "tested" the electric fence when I went to take pics of my buck (and then forgot why I was there amidst all the cursing).

Here goes...
20160812_185954.jpg

crazy clara
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lui my love!
20160812_185847.jpg

Mama (herd queen) Nigerian ADGA/AGS reg retired 4H goat.
 
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