They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
Earlier this year we put plant protectors around a bunch of our orchard shrubs and pasture trees. This was in order to facilitate letting the sheep and cows pulse through the orchard to mow the grass down for us, without letting them browse all the leaves off the figs, mulberries and currants (I'm looking at… Continue reading Protecting the Orchard Plants… more.
Monday was one of those days. We hustled hard first thing to get to the farm early, because it is Michaelmas and we wanted to get Iris back out on pasture. Why on Michaelmas? Because it's fun to say, and because it's memorable. It's a fixed feast at the end of September that I can… Continue reading Not much gets done some days.
The last sheep were so easy to raise, and so tasty, that we decided to get some more sheep. This time, we want to get ewes so we can breed our own sheep instead of buying feeder rams every year. The initial expense is greater, but over the next 2 years they should pay for… Continue reading New Sheepies!
We had a good pile of bones from the lamb after all the butchering last week. We froze them temporarily, just to keep them from spoiling until we got around to dealing with them. Last Monday, the 6th, we roasted them in the oven, and then put them in the roaster. This has become our… Continue reading Lamb Stock
Tuesday, December 31, we cut up the sheep. This is our first attempt at butchering an animal larger than poultry, so we don't know what we are doing. We have a book. The sheep were chilled in a <40 degree shop overnight, wrapped in cheesecloth to slow water loss. First step, remove the neck. Next… Continue reading Butcher and Packing the Sheep
Monday, Dec 30 the stars aligned. The weather was forecast to be 40 degrees during the day, and almost freezing overnight, and below 40 into Tuesday as well. Not only that but Ryan and Adam both had the day off. The time was right. The sheep must die. To recap, They were a pair of… Continue reading Slaughter day: Sheep.
Quick project just to make watering the sheep and cows easier. And by easier, I mean automatic, nine months out of the year.
Apparently the sheep like fig leaves. My poor little survivor I was so pleased about! Might have known. Shouldn’t be an issue once they get establish and are pruned higher than sheep can reach, but they have to survive long enough to get there.
Early this year, in January, I think, we had two big willow trees on the farm cut down from some 30-40 feet tall to about 6 feet tall. There were several reasons for this. Both were in inconvenient locations. One was shading the garden and slowing the soil warming in the spring. The other was… Continue reading Tree Hay
Little Farm in the Big City 