Spring projects and plans

Photos:  Work getting accomplished on the new chicken coop.  

On to spring-y type topics on this blustery 60 degree day:

The daffodils are starting to poke through the matted leaves in the garden, now that the snow is gone.

Michael cut down a spruce tree that was getting quite large and looking really nice....except that it was right where the next raised bed for veggies needs to be installed.  (See the Christmas tree story for photos)

The manure piles are smelling f-r-a-g-r-a-n-t, and not in such a great way...but much less of a "sharp" smell than when they first thawed.  Maybe when flowers start to bloom, that lovely scent will cover up the composting-manure scent.  Wishful thinking.....

The composted manure from last year is rich, black, and crumbly, perfect for gardens and for rejuvenating tired lawn soil.  So there IS hope for all those rotting piles that are smelling up the air......  The real problem is that I couldn't move the manure and bedding far enough away from the barn this past winter, so the blustering wind is whipping right over the piles, around the sides of the barn, and into our driveway and yard.

  

The snow is finally off the driveway, leaving behind mud and the squashed remains of the few pumpkins that didn't get fed to the animals before that first big snow.  We should probably get a truckload of crushed gravel to re-cover the driveway this summer.....but that's not exactly at the top of the to-do list right now.

The piles of dog stuff all over the yard are slowly disintegrating, which means we won't be gathering them out of the yard before they become fertilizer.  We'll have a nicely polka-dotted lawn, assuming any grass grows back out there at all!

The new chicken coop has a floor and one wall built, all on top of an abandoned but still usable foundation that matches the existing chicken coop dimensions.  

A dozen turkey poults will/should arrive in early April.  I ordered White Holland turkeys this year, a heritage breed which was very popular before the broad-breasted white turkeys took over the grocery-store scene.  We only want/need to raise up half that many, so.....does anyone want a few baby turkeys to raise?

New Barnevelder chicks will be arriving before the end of May.  A shipment of hatching eggs (Barnevelder) should be arriving sometime in April.  The Barnevelder flock will be recreated, and housed in the brand new chicken coop where there is no trace of the deadly chicken virus.  A new chicken yard will be fenced off, keeping the few remaining infected chickens in the barn far, far away from the new flock.

With the snow gone, we can see where deer came into the yard, bedded down under bushes, and trimmed many black raspberry canes and other bushes, trees, landscaping.  Thank-you, deer.....I think!  I had been wondering why the bushes looked a bit more tidy than usual.

Buddy the guinea hog "feeder" will be one year old in June.  A new piglet (KuneKune/guinea hog cross) will take his place as the resident "feeder", as Buddy heads off to be......someone's dinner.  That won't be a fun day, as I've grown to like the noisy and boisterous hog.

A breeding-quality guinea hog male is reserved for us from the same Wisconsin breeders where our Miss Bea (guinea hog female) came from.  The male hasn't been born yet, but could be ready to come here by the end of July....hopefully we will have our own guinea hog litter by late spring 2015.

A black breeding-quality Olde English Babydoll ram lamb is reserved for us at Hillbunker farm, where our ewes Iris and April are from.  If you read the story of the sheep getting stuck in the snow, the black ram (he looks chocolate colored) is the new lamb's daddy.  (You can see a photo of the baby ram-lamb on my Facebook page)

We are hoping for lambs from Iris and April next month, but aren't sure if they are pregnant or just covered in very thick wool!  (Iris was in the photo of the sheep in the snowdrift, the dirty-wooled white one).  I wrestled with both of the ewes to get the wool trimmed away from their eyes.  They had so much of it bunched up on their faces that they could NOT see a thing, and bumped into my knees, the wall, the partition, each other.....as they tried to avoid me before I caught them.  Now they gaze at me warily, but at least they can see again.

Prince Charming, the steer calf that we brought here in late May of 2013, should be heading to greener pastures to graze all summer at a friend's place.  Target date?  Mid-May of this year to leave our farm, so that he can fill out for 6 more months before.....um....becoming white-paper-wrapped packages of beef to fill our freezer and the freezer of our friend....  Sad, but true.

Hmmm.....not much else to report.  The manure management is certainly going better than last year, although there is more of it to deal with.  I have sections of the barn cleaned and scraped already, and, with fewer chickens out there this year, it should stay much cleaner and much less dusty.  Spring cleaning!

Time to rig  the electric wire around the cow's area, so that I can contain them before seeding the pasture.  Charming and Caspian have gotten used to walking right through the wires that were electrified last year, and Charming even munches on them when he's bored.  It will be a rude awakening when the "zap" is restored.....

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/