Catching up!

I've not posted much on here lately so I think I'll pinch a bunch of posts from Facebook to make up for it! I'm doing this mostly because I just made a recipe booklet that'll go out to the folks (you know who you are) who bought our lamb and included the blog address in the contact info.

Poster advertising our lamb. I posted this on Facebook and at work. We were able to sell 7 out of 9  lambs (we're keeping two) very quickly which makes me believe the local food movement is alive and well.

Tried to enlist Esther's help for mail delivery during the holiday parcel madness. Didn't work.

Pre-Christmas stars and decorations. It's been an exceptionally cold winter here but with sunny skies in the day and clear nights like this one its difficult to complain.

Raising kids on a sheep/llama/alpaca farm makes me think we may need to have a 'talk' about glosettes and bridge mix.

Our up to date version of "Making Boreal Birch Syrup". The old version has about 16,000 views so I'm hoping this one garners as much attention over the years! This newer version shows how we use reverse osmosis now as well as different tapping, collection and filtration methods.

Here's how we clean blueberries now. It's so much easier than picking all the garbage out bit by bit!

Shelter

This summer I decided to build a shelter for the livestock that would draw them away from the barnyard and provide summer shade and a place to eat hay. The reason for this is that I don't want the animals in the barn, making a mess during summer which I later have to clean up.
To build the shelter on the cheap I decided I'd try my hand at timber-framing (very roughly) with wood cut just metres from where the shelter was to be built. I had some left over bit of steel roofing from the deck project as well as two building projects at the sugarbush so the dimensions were dictated by materials on hand. To cover the feeders which are now attached to each side of the shelter I used an old painted-steel shower that was all in bits in our loft. They actually work okay and keep the rain and snow off the hay. My father-in-law Jake made a funny video of the start of the building process and I added a few photos at the end of his video that show some of the rest of the process and the (nearly) finished product. I have yet to put a backside on the shelter but will do so soon - once some materials come my way!

Summer/Fall/Winter

 A bunch of out-of-order photos spanning many months!

The barnyard in early winter.

 Inside the "creep", an area that is for lambs only. The ewes are blocked at the entrance and thus the lambs get exclusive grain privileges. I converted the chicken tractor into a permanent chicken house for the summer by blocking it up on 6"x6"'s and attached a laying box on the side that is accessible from the outside (not shown). The chicken shelter converts to a creep for the winter by simply pulling out the chickens' roosting poles and removing the door. I continue to use the long, wheeled feeder for the lambs as it's an easy way to get the grain inside without crawling in myself.

Ella and I planted three rows of garlic in an 18" wide bed the entire length of the garden. We're hoping for garlic independence next year as, if it all grows well, we've got enough for eating in 2014/15 and seeding the 2015 crop. This was done around Hallowe'en, hence the cat hat.

When feeding the livestock I often place Ella in the feeder as a safe spot away from bounding animals and without risk of sitting in turds. She's pictured here with her best-lamb Jerry. He actually came up to her to touch noses when she called his name.

Ella helping me spread a fresh layer of straw in the newly converted chicken house/creep.

You can see the laying boxes for the hens on the left side of the hen house here. This simple structure works really well year-round.

Having fun with Julio. A friend from work posted a photo of his dog wearing a postie hat so I did the same.

Lambs waiting impatiently for their grain.

I read somewhere that you could use a tire as an entrance for a lamb creep so I thought I'd try it. It didn't really work. You can see that Juno got in just fine but Jasmine was stuck. It was much like a Winnie-the-Pooh story here for a bit.

We let the chickens onto the garden at the end of season. They enjoyed scratching about for greens and critters.

Visiting with Julio one Saturday morning in the summer when friends were over.

Picking apples off the ground with Ella. These are mostly rotting apples and get composted. We pick them off the ground to prevent wasps and bears from coming around. One day we'll have pigs to feed them to!

Hauling some cedar posts this fall in order to build a fenced in area around the new summer shelter.

Babysitting here means work-party! Here's Ella and her best friend Kikue working hard at securing a new fence post.

The new shelter before getting the second feeder attached. We love to watch the livestock eat.