Sheep, Coyotes, and Losses

Those three words are pretty straight-forward. Before I was even able to get photos, which is sad to say because we've had them for several weeks - I lost all but one of our sheep.

So, three nights ago we had four beautiful, sweet, adorable Finn sheep. Then two nights ago - Three younger sheep were sent in a flight for their life, running around in circles up and down the hills and around the stumps, shrubs, and small trees that dot our pasture until finally, horrible ends happened, and the next morning - hardly anything was left. I took notice but hardly thought much of the fact that by early morning, many ravens had already taken a great interest in our pasture. Didn't think much of it, as they've been doing that from time to time whether it be because of the ducks laying eggs willy nilly for them to snack on, or some other food or good thing was laying around for them to find. Once the day advanced closer to noon, I noticed that our older and only remaining sheep, Baby, was constantly bleeting and never stepped a foot in the back of the pasture where she and her fellow sheep spent nearly all of their recent weeks at. I mentioned this observation to a family member as well as never seeing the younger ones all day, so we trekked down to their favorite sleeping spot (they didn't sleep in the barn as they were scared of our new goats) and to my worry, found large obvious drag-marks through the grass that were laded with poop and trace wads of fleece. Towards the bottom of the main hill was a large sheep stomach. After that, more drag marks winded around stumps and bushes until they hit the back fence, which was bent over and adorned with segments of intestine. Several feet out into the forest behind our yard were continued drag-marks in the grass that stopped dead. We searched through the forest, quite a large radius, and never found any more signs.

Need less to say, I've never had large livestock taken by predators before, so this of course was quite a new and horrible thing. Our sweet remaining girl Baby followed us everywhere and never left our sight, despite her obvious distress and fear when sniffing the sites we walked around. She herself, though always with the other sheep, didn't have a single scratch on her. My fear naturally is that she witnessed it, as even today, - All she ever does is pace the very front of the pasture where the gate is, and bleet at us. All day. We all swear, if we let her, she'd pretty much become a house pet. She's always been the sweetest livestock animal we've ever had, but since the sad loss of the others - she's even more desperate for our attention and quite lonely. We lock her and our goats in the barn every night now, and hopefully with the forced time with the goats, she'll develop a bond with them.

So, yeah, so sorry to tell you but it's pretty much the big news is the bad news, and I've got no photos to place memorium by for those sheep that were eaten. All I can say is - RIP to all three. They didn't get names yet, but we had the little black and white ram: He was just getting his testosterone and began ramming his head into random objects, but otherwise was still very sweet to us. He had an attraction for the other smaller black sheep of ours, and was getting increasingly independent at times. He was always the second friendliest right behind Baby, and quite handsome, though just a few months old. He was a beautiful black with splashy white around his muzzle, underside, and legs. Then we had the two young girls - A small black girl with a slight white marking on her forehead, a very deep voice, and at first the shiest but quickly became very friendly. And, last but certainly not least, a beautiful white girl just a month older and nearly Baby's size. She had elegant upright ears and a most graceful expression with the finest fleece I've ever seen. She was also pretty shy but stubborn, too. Especially when it came to treats.

The rest of the animals are all okay, and we finally invested in a live animal trap. (Been needing one for years) It might not solve the coyote issue, but it will solve other predatory issues. The coyotes can be solved in a different, more direct manner. The trap is set tonight, so, we'll just wait and see what our first "present" is. . .

One great big jump!

It's been far over a year since my last post here, but I promise, I really mean it this time, - You'll see a lot more activity from here on out. The farm has grown immensely now and there's just no way I can continue another day without posting something. Just these past few months, we've gotten so much new stuff going on. New livestock, pretty much a truckload of new plants, new landscaping done to much of the yard, a fixing to the greenhouse, more greenhouse plans, and some plants that started out so young and are now so heavily loaded with edible goodness.

So, first I start with the basic overview of what happened since last May. . .

I lost my pure Tolbunt Polish, including my third gen pullet shown from the last post, all lost to predators. Their children, siblings, and grandchildren as well as great grandchildren are still around though. No one looks like an outright Tolbunt Polish except the chicks who are pretty young, but everyone's carrying most of the genes to have Tolbunt kids. I lost most of my Shamos but for two hens. I used to have a pair, lost 'em but for their crossbred offspring, then lost all but one of the crossbred, then got a trio of purebred, then lost the stag. So, I've got two purebred hens and a crossbred hen. My overall chicken flock is tiny compared to what it used to be honestly, and the oldest live chicken are two of my Araucanas at 3 years old. Originally I had one last silver laced Polish hen at 4+ years but she randomly died last winter. I've got ducks, lots of 'em, and they're all adults. Over a dozen Indian Runners of various recognized and non-recognized colors from Holderreads, and two Saxony gals. I've also now got Turkeys too - Just over a dozen various fun and unrecognized colors from Porters Turkeys. They're still little poults right now.

Poultry aside I've had no goats for a while til recently, no yak anymore, but I do have two American Guinea Hog pigs (one boy, soon to be food, and one girl) two Gloucester Oldspot pigs, (boy and girl, will be kept for breeding) and some brand new milking / dairy sheep. They're a breed known as Finn Sheep. One adult gal, white in color with a few black spots, named "Baby." One white lamb, one black lamb, and one young black ram with splashy white markings over his face, underside, and legs. Sorry no photos yet! The adult, "Baby," is currently being milked twice a day and gives richer, sweeter, creamier milk than any goat or cow could! Plus it has no goat-like flavor. (Though yes, some goat breeds also have no goat-ey-ness) Baby is, aside from an excellent provider of dairy and wool, a very sweet, talkative, and social ewe. We also have some new goats, haven't had any in a while. We got ourselves Kinder goats again since they truly are a favorite and for good reason. We have a trio now, - a beautifully splashy and very loudly moon spotted buckling, a gorgeous red roan doeling, and a pretty black doeling with scattered and very miniscule moon spots. More on them later.

So that's pretty much our livestock other than if you could count some random new stray cats that showed up, the rest of the changes involve plants. Last year, in the beginning, I had a large unheated greenhouse, a couple very small orchards, and a couple very small vegetable gardens which have been around for some time. It was a bit typical for anyone who lives in the country - A few established apple, pear, plum, etc trees, some delicious veggies, and though not normal for most, a large greenhouse which each summer transforms into a literal jungle of food (almost) paradise. One could walk in there and almost get lost among the various heirloom tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, melons, litchi tomatoes, corn, tomatillos, and other assorted goodness as well as a fig tree and some young banana plants. Yes bananas!

This year, - Things are different. And we'll get more on that later as time goes and I post more, too. But in a nutshell - We've expanded the foodplants. A lot.

So, our little farm is just a max 5 acres large. It used to be a forest like most of the surrounding land, about 70 years minimum in age. We cut it a few years back, and nature is taking over, but we certainly didn't mind. Part of the clearcut became a small orchard, part of it became a natural type pasture for poultry and four-legged animals, and most of it was pretty wild for a few years. Just this winter, we decided to finally dig much of it up and turn it into a Forest Garden, also known as a Food Forest. What is a food forest? Well, perhaps in another post very soon I'll talk all about it, - But for now I'll put it in a nutshell and say that it is like growing a well-planned forest with shrubs, trees, vines, etc - But all edible and each purposefully planted with a use. The most efficient form of gardening/farming, honestly.

Anyway, right now I don't know how to explain Forest Gardening better right now, so I'll jump to it - We dug up at least 1 acre worth of land and turned it into what neighbors and passer by's think are enormous ditches, but really, is a maze of raised beds (minus the lumber) that stand about 3-4 feet tall, and wind around the northeast corner of our plot of land, the sunniest spot for the most sun-dependent plants. (Because we live in the rainiest, cloudiest, coolest climate in America)

So, we dug it up, I'm always weeding it still (the soil is extremely fertile, and nature from the old forest and developing meadow is always trying to come back) and we bought a LOT of plants for the "backbone" design of the garden. A forest garden requires a lot of plant purchases and plant growing, so, the easiest way when you're growing a large enough plot is to first start out with the backbone and annuals to fill the rest up for now. A backbone is pretty much your biggest trees, the trees that grow the slowest, and any shrubs or trees that fertilize the ground via nitrogen fixation. (getting these in soon allows them to really feed the ground before putting in other plants later) Well, long story short, we bought more than a backbone. We got lucky, found a nursery who offers the same awesome plants we were eyeing but at much cheaper prices and apparently bigger, and went overboard. In just a couple months our list of food we grew went from a supermarket's diversity to, well, I'm not sure what to compare it to now. There truly are a lot of things growing here that most people had never heard of, yet, I can't wait to introduce people to!

So anyway, everything's still young, but, we're growing a LOT of food this year. Our greenhouse I mentioned last year was waiting to get fixed after a little snowstorm damage, and there were a lot of plants indoors waiting to go in it, so it currently is behind in growth but finally now fixed and getting well stocked with plants. Outside all that slow and also fast progress, the yard all in all is getting changes left and right. We live right across from a neighbor's stand of tall conifers that block out a lot of light to the front of our yard, which isn't the best for trying to grow things, but, we've helped a little by cutting down several trees in our own yard that were blocking plenty light. Didn't solve the line of trees outside the property of course, but, let a lot of light in for just felling a couple trees. Now that they're down, we've got so many plans to beautify the place, including adding another greenhouse to the collection of buildings here as well as throwing in more showy ornamentals, such as climbing roses and plenty more perennial flowers to the main front yard. Most of our edibles are towards the back, but, one always wants a showy and most impressive front yard. It's fun seeing the passer by's give the place a second look. And especially even since a couple trees got cut, some of our really old Rhododendrons are unmistakable to the passing driver.

So, if you read all this, I'm sorry for such a long post without photos, but thank you and congratulations for hanging in there! I promise lots of photos, lots of inspiration and education, and lots of entertainment for the future! Some things you'll see as time progresses are -

A new post each week on a plant from my wish list, and a plant I'm already growing. Because I literally grow more than 200 species of edible veggies, fruits, nuts, and tubers - That's a lot to cover, so even one a week goes for quite some time! With that, I'll be talking about one of the many many plants I still want to try. Always remember - I don't live in the tropics or even subtropics, I'm not rich, but a lot of the plants on my list are tropical. Doesn't matter to me though - I want to be able to get things as crazy sounding as Cinnamon, Sugar, and Vanilla from my own backyard despite the climate I am in or the supplies I have, and I want you to know how to do it too!

A new post each week, naturally, on how the farm life and farm progress is doing. There's always new things going on, whether it be a new fruit season, new flowers opening, new chicks hatching, new animals being born, or just something cool to show - There's something new each week.

A new recipe each week. That's right, we're going culinary here! Because with all the things we grow, both food and animal (sorry vegans) there's a whole world to try of food, and I always like trying new things and sharing them, so, I will do so with of course some photographs of how to do it and how mine turned out. Don't worry, there won't be weird stuff. Just delicious stuff. But be warned - Much of it will involve at least one ingredient you won't easily find at the supermarket, but that's the point. I am to get people inspired to try something new, something diverse, and grow it themselves!

(If you aren't excited, here's a little taste - I successfully grow my own Thai "kaffir" limes*, and like incorporating the incredible yet very distinct flavor and aroma of both their leaves and fruit to dishes. My latest, thanks to a recipe found online, were Kaffir Lime Tartlets. They're like no other "lime" tart, and even among all the people I dished out some out to, not one person didn't like them!)
- *Kaffir Limes and Kaffir Lime leaves are not common, though the leaves can be found at specialty markets in dried or fresh form due to their popularity with Thai cuisine. My aim is to inspire, so, if you want to try this one out - Growing a tree yourself is incredibly easy, even if you don't live in the tropics or have a backyard! Stick around to find out how, and find out what really is the unique aroma and flavor of this special species of Lime?

I promise, photos will come . . .