Free chickens

Our flock of free range chickens have really taken to being free. Here they are sunning themselves on the steps of one of our buildings. At our previous farm, we kept the chickens in an electrified net fence to keep them from wandering into the neighbors yards. Here, we only have to fence them out of our own gardens. This means they wander everywhere else on the farm looking for delicious morsels - even my back porch! It has been fun to see how our animals get along. You can see the cat at the top of the steps hanging out, too. The dog, Red, an Australian Shepherd, would rather herd the flock of chickens back to the barn and away from his bones.

Ida - our Ford Redbelly

Our first purchase after finding this farm was to buy a tractor, a Ford 8N Redbelly. We've put her to work pulling down trees, plowing, and discing so far. Here is Eric and Ida plowing some of the pasture up for garden space.

New Calf

We've added a Jersey calf to our assortment of animals. He is a great help, stripping out the last of Elsea's milk at the end of each milking. Elsea took to him right away as if he were her own.

Elsea our cow

Where does milk come from? Nora knows first hand after milking herself a glass the other night from our new Jersey cow Elsea. Her name from her previous owners was Sea so we lengthened it to Elsea. She was once a 4-H show cow so is very sweet, leads well, and gives wonderful creamy milk. We're making lots of butter, yogurt, and hopefully cheese soon.