Will water buffalo be soon coming to Sacred Wind Farm?

Yes its true, I want some water buffalo. Imagine that, only me. Well I have been researching them as well as yak and bison, but I believe the water buffalo would suit my needs better. I want a dairy bovine and have been looking for alternative live stock. I like them becouse they are not terribly large, give a good amount of milk, are soposed to be a very gentle animal and will do draft work with ease. Im goin to start with a pair of young heifers and when they get older will purchase a bull for them. This will give me time to just work with them on ground work. Hope to have them help me plow my garden spot and clear my driveway of snow in the winter and pull an ox cart in parades.

I am going to be geting rid of some of my goats, Only going to be keeping 3-5 nanny goats and a buck....who stays and who goes??? hmmm good question, decisions, decisions.

Life of a Milk Maid

Well it has been 11 days since I have picked up my milking goats, I have gone from just under 2.5 pints 1X a day to 4+ pints 2X a day. So I am up to about a gal a day! It has been a learning curve for me however, I started out feeding alfalfa pellets since there were no alfalfa in small bales to be found. However yesterday I was able to get some small alfalfa bales and wow what a difference in production and taste. The rest of the milk from the alfalfa pellets will be used to make soap. I will let you know how that goes, my yogurt was a flop but I will try that again soon. I am currently waiting ever so patiently for my order from Hoager supply to arrive today. It will have my milk pail with lid, a strainer, and all the stuff I need to make cheese as well as the udder care kit. I do have to stop at Bluestem today to get more half Gal jars and some more lids, I have milk coming out my ears!

Today when I took Annabell out to milk, I got her on the stand and started to milk, I heard a ruckus from Lacy in the stall and as I turned around she came bounding up to the milk stand, she managed to jump out! Of course this pisses Annabell off, she does not like to share her grain so I had a fight going on on the milk stand, I managed to grab the milk and save it then grabbed a rope and tied up Lacy till I was done with Annabelle. Wow that was exciting. I know what my next project will be, make the stall wall Higher! LOL

Goats, Goats, What to do with them??

Ok so now I am up to 12 goats and a really nice huge colored meat buck that will arive in June. Now where do I put them all? The 2 I am milking are kept in their own small pen and the others are mixed together in a bigger pen but still dryloted. I am tring to decide the best way to fence our pasture as well as our 3.5 acre lot. I think Ill use a mix of field fence, barbed wire around the top and a strand of hot wire around the inside middle. We can not however use our lot till July when the wheat gets harvested. But I think thats what we will fence for them first.

I am geting almost 2 quarts a day from my 2 dairy goats im milking, I have begune milking 2X a day in hopes to get back some of their milk production and its been working. I just orderd some supplies so I can make cheese and yogurt as well, cant wait for that to get here! I am going to atempt to make some yogurt later today from a store bought yogurt culture and I have a lot of frozen strawberrys that I froze severel months ago so Im hoping that will be good. Wish me luck!

Thats about all for today but Ill update with how the yogurt making goes.
I was looking today and it apears that one of my nubians is posibly just starting to get a bag, Ill look closer tomorrow storm was coming and I was tring to get chores done. Heres hoping for a baby!

First tast of raw goat milk!!! MMMM

Ok so its been a long weekend. Went to pick up the goats and drop off a horse. The had not been milked in a couple days so Of the 2 goats still milking I am getting about 1 quart a day. Not as much as I had hoped but I'm hoping they don't completely dry up. I had my first glass of raw goat milk this morning. last nights milking was cold and in the fridge when my FIL came by, I made him my guinea pig. He tasted it and said it was ok so I finally tried it...mmmm...was pretty good. Was thicker than store bought and had a slightly different taste than store bought cow milk but I totally expected that. can not wait to get a couple more does in milk, so I can make that cheese. Right now we will only be getting barely enough that we use for drinking and such.

Today we went to look at some myotonic goats, I like them allot but still up in the air if that's the kind of buck I want. If we were raising a pure bred breed I would say definatly say yes but since we will be breeding for the meat market I'm thinking a boer is in need here for fast growth and adding more meat to our dairy does. But money is tight right now and I can not afford either just yet. My husband that has never really understood my wanting to homestead ways is very into the goats so this is nice. He was even tyring to figure a way to buy the Boer mix that we really want to add muscle to our herd.

Here is some pics of the new goats enjoy....

And the 2 milking girls, a saanen and a Lamancha mix...

We also had some jumbo cotornix quail start hatching....

More Dairy goats coming soon!

Well I will be going back down to trade a mare for 5 dairy goats and 2 baby weathers this weekend. Now I ll be looking for a big meaty buck to cross on them to start my meat heard. 3 of the new does will be in milk so Ill get to start milking, making cheese and soaps and all sorts of good stuff. Will be looking for recipes soon. Will updating with pics as soon as they come home.

I do have a dilemma however. What kind of buck to get? I like the Tennessee Meat Goats but I also like the Boer crosses and I have my eye on a couple. But I do have awhile, I cant afford one right now anyway but I am drooling at various sites. Will update soon!

New Dairy Goats and some Giant Rabbits have arrived!

Well In this day of little extra money to spend more folks are going the bartering rout. I don't think that's such a bad thing, folks have been bartering since the beginning of time. I have just recently been a party in a bartering deal. I have traded my Arabian gelding and received a pair of Checkered Giant rabbits, palamino doe rabbit, and a pair of dairy goats. The Dairy doe is a Oberhasli yearling and the buck is an Alpine. And it appears there will be another trade soon, a mare for a few more dairy goats. Its a good way to get something you want and can use and get rid of something that you don't, its a win win situation.

I bred the checkered Giants today and it went well so cross your fingers in about 30 days Ill have little bouncing baby buns! My English angora is due April 19th so I'm crossing my fingers for that litter. New pics of the goats will be up soon!

My husband and my FIL finished my goat pen today and we let them out, that's one more job down and only about a billion more to go.

Will more people garden? Will they be able to?

So the Obamas now have a garden. Kudos for them. Although I did not vote for him nor do I like anything he has done yet I do think its great that Michelle is putting in a garden. Even if staff will tend to it I think it will wake people up to the fact that having a garden is not "hick". I personally think this country really needs to wake up and people need to take more responsibility for their own food. Anyone can have a couple tomato or pepper plants on the balcony and a few rabbits or quail in the garage. I also think more towns and cities need to allow small livestock I mean seriously a small milk goat or 2, or a flock of 5 hens would be less a nuisance than most peoples dogs. And not as smelly normally.

I have been reading up on the new bill HR 875 this sounds kinda scary to me. You can read the bill for yourself here http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875
The way I'm reading is that even a couple tomato plants in the back yard or your 2 pet chickens would be affected by this. I cant believe they are really trying to pass this and think it would be "good" for the US. People need to be able to grow their own foods, we should not have to rely on GM foods or big Ag business to ruin our health. There is nothing better than tasting the chicken that you have grown naturally on your own farm that met its demise in a quick human way. The cow you bought to butcher that has spent its whole life on grass in a big pasture. Or biting into that huge juicy tomato you just picked from your garden 5 minutes ago. The bill is way to broad and can be construed so many ways that's its not even funny. Please contact your senators and tell them respectfully how bad this would be for the US.

I did get 2, 50ft rows of potatoes and 3, 30 ft rows of peas planted today. I will be able to till up the rest of the garden and plant some snow peas, spinach, kale and cabbage and broccoli tomorrow.

Is She Pregnant???

So today was the first day of spring and I started tilling the garden. I need to get my potatos and peas planted however I ran out of gas in the tiller. Will have to finish tomorrow, oh well hubby will be home and I can make him help, Im still shaking from the darn tiller..lol.

I did get my English Angora a hair cut today, wow thats a whole lotta wool. I was thinking about tring to sell or trade her off for a couple meat rabbit does so I could get my meat rabbits going but then decided I would just breed her to my Silver Fox buck and butcher the babys, they wount be as big im sure but we can start geting some meat on the table and I get to keep my angora. The buck has never bred before and Bonnie is a maiden doe so It did not go as planned. Im not sure if he got her or not. I get off work early in the morning and will put her with him again and then just wait the 30 days and see. I am still keeping my eyes open for a breeding age doe of any meat type breed but hopefully cross your fingers Ill at least get some from this cross soon.

My Menagerie

Went down near Witchita last weekend and picked up another Black Silver fox doe and a trio of Blanc de Hotots. The Hotots are very pretty, not as nice as the Silver fox but with a bit more handling they will be fine. They are all adjusting well and every one is eating and drinking well. I am planing on breeding my Blue Silver Fox pair first part of May, cant wait to get some baby buns around here.



I am also beginning to think about what fruit trees Id like to put out on the farm, I'm thinking apple, peach and pears. Would also like to start some raspberries and blue berries this spring but I'm not sure I will start those till we move out there. Our plans are to be out living on the farm by next summer. Seems so far off but I hope it will be here before I know it and in the mean time there is plenty of work to be done, more pens to fence, trees to plant, trees to clear out, and lots of stuff to burn. Will also start building some movable chicken coops to start housing the separate breeds of chickens in. I have decided that most of the breeds I'm getting from the hatcheries will be put into my mixed flock, anything I want to breed and hatch will be from breeders with quality stock. I will however raise some RIR and Barred Rocks for hatching and selling to local folks for meaties and layers. I will have a nice pen of Blue/ black Orps, Salmon Favorells, Buckeyes, Speckled Sussex, will work on Lavender silkies and Lavender Orpingtons.



I should get in the mail tomorrow my doz of Midget white turkey eggs and Jumbo quail eggs so Ill be adding them to my list of Breeds to raise. Yes I'm getting quite the poultry menagerie. But they are all use full animals with a purpose on my little homestead.



Here Is my new Hotot Buck
Pretty Little guy isn't he? The Hotots are all only 10 weeks right now but will be breeding them in the Fall.

I've got embryos!

I candled some of my eggs tonight and out of the 2 doz I checked all where growing right on schedual. Looks Like I will have lots of peeps before to long. I also placed an order with Ideal hatchery for some black astrolorps and buff brahmas. I have also added some OEGB eggs to my incubator in the colors Self blue and Spangled. Wow those are tiny eggs. I will begin working on some coops here in the next couple of weeks. I am planing on having individual pens for selling hatching eggs of the variouse breeds and also have plenty to hatch out myself.

My worms are growing like weeds and Im hoping the Africans will be big and fat for fishing soon. My plants are growing like weeds, we will have TONS of tomatoes this year. Im ready to plant outside. The weather keeps teasing me though.

I will be planting some fruit trees and berry plants on our 3.5 acre lot in the fall and get them started. This lot will be used only for growing food. We have decided just to wait anouther year and build our house out on our 15 acres.

Hatching eggs, im geting spring fever!

Update I just added a doz blue turkens (naked Necks) to hatch with whats already on its way. So I should have if all goes well blue turkens and marans for my 2 pens of purebreds. and then of course Ill have my mixed flock, not sure yet if I will keep a pen of RIR and bared rocks also or put them in my mixed flock. Just depends how much time and funds I have to make new pens.

So I wanted to hatch some eggs and get ready for spring, I was only going to pull out one of my Little Giant incubators but you know how that goes, I had to pull them both out. I use the basic LG modle no fan and no tuner so its all by hand but I have pretty good hatch rates in them. So I am geting a doz B/B/S marans eggs, a doz Cuckoo marans eggs, 18 barred rocks, 12 RIR, and 2 Dz heavy breed mixed eggs. Im going to be buisy here. They should all be ariving in the next couple of days so I hope to have them all set by Mon. The count down is on! Over 6 doz eggs I should end up a 3-4 doz chicks with in the next month. Also I decided I want some Buff dewlap Toulouse geese eggs so when they become available around March or so I will be tring my hand at hatching goose eggs.

I also got my order placed with Cackle Hatchery so Ill be geting some Naked Necks, Easter Eggers, Blue sweedish ducks, toulouse geese and Narragansett tukeys. They will be here in April so I have plently of time to work on my waterfowl pen and get a big kiddy pool for them. I will also make a sepret pen for the turkeys. Any extra males will go in the freezer so It looks like Goose and Turkey for christmas.

Trip to sutherlands

Today I went to sutherlands to spend my gift card, only ended up spanding part of it, still got $35 left for when they get in more planters. I did get gobs of seeds, even got a bunch of flowers this time to spruce up my yard. Seeds were.05 cents a pack and I think I got almost $5 worth. Also got some gardening knee pads and about 150 jiffy pots. Got 2 more shoplights and some growlite bulbs and some chain to hang them with, that is this weekends project. Going to clear out the spare room!! OhMy what have I got myself into!

I did get some broccli, spinich, and cabage started, cant wait to plant outside.

Made a compost bin!

Its amazing just how much "homesteading" I can do on my city lot. I am doing so much right here I don't know what I'm going to do once we move over to the 3.5 acres we bought. I put up a dog pen around my back door today to let my 2 yorkies out to play. this way they can be outside even if we are not. I think they love it. We also got my compost pile started. I had about a 25 ft 6ft tall piece of wire mesh fence that I used to make 3 sides of it. the other side was left open to make it easier to turn and mix the pile. I added a bunch of dried dead leaves and rabbit droppings mixed with sawdust. I wet it down and stood back to admire my work, never thought Id be excited about a pile of leaves and manure.

My seedlings are starting to pop up, Think I planted way to many tomatoes for 2 people, I have about 50 big boy tomato plants started as well as several cherry and tiny tim tomato's. My blue lake bush beans and Kale is starting to pop up also.

I got a check in the mail for sutherlands for 86$ the other day to be used at sutherlands from our Friends reward card. Was a nice little surprise. I went in but they did not have their garden stuff in yet, said it would be in this weekend and they are having a big sale on it starting Tuesday so I know where Ill be Tuesday! Going to get a couple more grow lights also to transform my spare room into an indoor garden until spring arrives.

My worms will be sent out on Monday and I called and added a lb of African nightcrawlers. I know when we fished last year we paid 3-4$ for a doz bait worms so I thought it would be nice to grow our own and sell to local folks around here.

It had got up to 70 degrees today and I'm hopefull it stays nice enough tomorrow to get some more stuff done outside. More city homesteading to come tomorrow!

Geting my Worm bin ready and starting seeds

Well I ordered 1 lb of red wiggler (Eisenia Foetidas) worms. I got a rubbermaid tub, drilled some holes in the bottom and around the top. First I put a peice of cardboard in the bottom then added some compost from my horse manure pile and some leaves and shredded newspaper (only black and white, no color ink). I then wet it down to moisten and set it by my plants where it is awaiting its new arivals. I chose this worm becouse Im just interested in the vermiculture and not in fishing worms. Just eating machines.

I have also started some more seeds. Some of my seeds such as the bush cucumbers and Tigger melon are an experiment to see just how I can or if I can get them to grow well in containers. We will see.

I will be going to Sutherlands tomorrow and will be geting a couple more shop lights and grow bulbs to get my spare room set up and ready when the seeds start to sprout. I will also be geting a shorter long tub to seed with radishes and carrots and anouther for spinich and kale. I will be doing more research to find out what can be planted together in the same tubs. Once I do Ill post about what and why I planted what together. I will also be updating with pics as I go. Here is my table with my starts on it. I also have a heat lamp as well as grow lights on it. the room they are in is cold so thats the reason for the heat lamp. I am also going to find a longer chain so I can lower my growlights and raise them again later. The long tray in the back ground is wax beans, left them siting in a window with little light for too long. Finaly got my grow lights and they look much beter than they did, I still have hope for them.

As you can see I made mini greenhouses with 1 gallon baggies, Very cool Idea I got from pioneerliving on youtube. I marked what is in the seed trays as well as the date planted.

Where we are now.

Welll its been a few months since my first blog but nothing much has happend. We did change our plans a bit. We bought 3.5 acres right next to my inlaws and will be waiting patiently for the winter wheat to be harvested off it in June or July. I will be puting a bunny barn on it and fencing it for my goats and a couple sheep. Our plans are to put a trailer on it untile a time in the far distant future that we can build a log cabin on our 15 acres. This puts us to almost 19 acres of total acrage.

I have bred my first angora doe and am waiting not so paitently to see if she took, she would be due on the 19th of Feb. Im keeping my fingers crossed. I also just aquired a trio of blue Silver fox rabbits. The does are only 3 months so I still have awhile to breed them. But the buck is 6 months so Ill be looking for some kind of meat doe to start my meat breeding herd.

In waiting for spring to arive I have decided to start an indoor container garden. Found some very usefull youtubes to help me on my way. I have started severel herbs, bush beans, tiny tim, patio, and cherry tomatoes. I also started a couple of Tigger melon seeds and some bush cucumbers, these will be watched to see just how container gardening works for them. Other seeds I got for my garden are some unusual yard long beans and yard long cucumbers. I like the rare and unusual so we will see just how well they do, Come on Spring!