Moving Day

Welcome to the new home of the Farm Update. This blog is entirely dedicated to communicating with you, our shareholders. 

There are a couple of cool things about doing the update this way. First of all, because it's web-based, I can update it from anywhere. I'm hoping this translates into several "mini-updates" every week. I also really like that you all can make comments directly on the update and others will be able to see them, but don't let that stop you from emailing me. I really enjoy getting emails from you with questions or comments, so keep 'em coming.

If you look over on the right side of the screen and scroll down a bit, you will find a super-cool list of shareholder's blogs, shops and websites. I found all of these in your ravelry profiles and thought some of you might want to get to know your fellow shareholders a bit. What a talented bunch of people you are! If I missed anyone's website or blog, shoot me an email and I'll add you to the list. Of course, if for any reason you don't want to be on the list, let me know and I'll take you off. 

But the best thing about this blog vs. the old emails is that everyone will be able to see the photographs. I am going to keep posting lots of pics to flickr but I am going to keep a few special ones out every week for the update and you'll find them here. This is the picture of the dogs from last week's update that about 1/3 of you didn't get to see. 

This week was a crazy-exciting, fully chaotic one on the farm. In addition to the birth of our very first kiddo of the season, today was the day we made our move from the Farm Institute to Felix Neck.  More on that later though.

Our little one is absolutely thriving! She is eating well, which is the biggest concern at this stage in her life. One of the things that goes wrong with new kids and lambs most frequently is that they can't find their mother's udder easily. I am particularly worried about this happening this year because we were unable to shear the nannies bellies before kidding began. This is called crutching, and we've never skipped it before, but the absence of an on-Island shearer made the decision for us. With Angora goats there is the very real possibility that the kid with latch on to one of the ringlets of hair and think they are nursing. Then they wear themselves out trying to get milk from it and lack the energy to find the teat later.

But this wasn't a problem for this kid. I worried about it (because I am a world-class worrier) until I saw her nurse a couple of times. Even if you don't see the kid nursing you can tell if they've been eating by picking them up. An empty kid and a full one feel totally different, but they in-betweens can be vexing.

I guess it's time to give our first little one a name. The winner of the "What should we name the kids?" primary is ....Herbs and Spices! There were lots of votes in the other categories but Herbs and Spices won by a pretty good margin. I am taking the liberty on naming this kid Thyme.

 

We moved some of our chickens into the hoop house with the 10 (now 9) pregnant nanny goats this week. The thinking behind this was that the chicken will help keep the parasite load in the hoop house down, which is important when you have goats in such an enclosed area for so long. The only problem is that our beautiful rooster, Dan Rather, has apparently gone insane!

Just after I discovered that Mary Poppins had kidded and was checking out the new baby, I heard flapping behind me and turned around just before Dan Rather attacked me. It sounds kind of funny- I mean he's like a foot tall- but he wasn't playing around! He kept coming at me, jumping in the air and ruffeling out his neck feathes while making a terrible screeching noise. I had to kick at him several times to get him to go away. The next time I came in to feed though, he did it again. I was holding the lid to the metal trash can we keep the feed in and I actually hit him with it in mid-air. It was like a cartoon; it made that hilarious thwong-ong-ong-ong noise. 

I moved Biscotti over to the kidding barn today and she seems to have cooled Dan Rather's jets although he now he is crowing constantly! Like ever minute constantly. Dan Rather is a beautiful rooster and I really want to enter him in the fair this year, but if he doesn't pull himself together he might wind up in a lovely coq au vin!

Today we finally made our big move to our new home, the Felix Neck Audabon Sanctuary. Felix Neck is one of the best kept secrets on the Vineyard. 

We were really excited about the move, and had twice had to reschedule due to bad weather, so we were determined to get it done today. Unfortunately, this was one of Patrick's long weekends in New York with his kids, so I was on my own. 

Well not completely on my own. We paid someone with a big trailer to move everyone at once and our good friend Mark Defeo and his brother Pete volunteered to help. 

I had been awake all night Saturday going through all of the things that could go wrong. What if the dogs got out at Felix Neck and ran around like maniacs? What is we couldn't get the flock in the trailer? What if the guy we hired didn't show up? What if the weather reports were right and we had a snow storm?

 

The move couldn't have gone any better. The sky was clear blue for most of the move  of the day, most of the  sheep and goats walked right on to the trailer when promised grain and we only had to chase one sheep, the trailer guy was only a little late. Everyone really behaved beautifully.

Felix Neck asked us to bring our flock there to help them reclaim some land from invasive species and Hannah got straight to work on the oriental bittersweet. This picture totally cracks me up. Her lips are just hilarious!

That's all for today. I am completely whipped! I will send out another alert if and when the next baby comes. In the meantime, check back here from time to time this week and I'll send out an email when I post the next big update next Sunday.

Susan