Thursday, May 15, 2014

Rain Rain Go Away..... But Not Far Away

Wondering what we've been up to in all this rain? Well settle in because I'm going to tell you!

We now have a couple of additional seeds planted in the garden including:
  • Radishes
  • Snow Peas
  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Kale
  • Lettuce
  • Watermelon radishes
All of them we're planted a week (or more) ago and have already popped up, which is very exciting, given all the cold weather.

We also have been busy planting a large field into oats, planting corn and beans, and feeding all the animals around here.


Oh yeah and collecting eggs. Lots and LOTS of eggs.


Hope to see you at the markets this weekend!
"If you ate today, thank a farmer"

Friday, May 2, 2014

Let the Market Season Begin!

Here at the Rolling K Farm we are very excited that market season is finally here. Even though its still cold...... and there's still a threat of frost.

For goodness sakes Winter, just leave already!

For the first couple of weeks we'll only have eggs, but we do have radishes in the garden and they're growing like weeds which is a good thing, but it will still be a couple of weeks before they'll be market ready. It's been hard to get things into the garden with all this frozen ground and cold weather. but nonetheless we're on our way.

So here's the skinny on the markets:

Each Friday we will (hopefully) be at the Middleville market which is located right behind the town hall, from 8-1. We're still not sure about this market, but we'll give it a try.

However, each Saturday we will be at the Hastings market which is located on the court house lawn. You can find us there from 9-2.

So come down and see us for all your farm fresh egg needs, we've got you covered.

And, did you know that you can text, call or email you order each week. That's right we're making shopping for your produce and eggs easier than ever! All you have to do is text, call or email us with your;
  • Name
  • Pickup date
  • Order
And we'll have it waiting for you. That's it. Simple right! Our thoughts exactly. Make sure you follow us on Facebook so you know what products are in season and what we have going to the markets. We are so excited to be able to offer this to all our customer and anyone looking to simplify their shopping trips.


We hope to see you at the markets this week!
"If you ate today, thank a farmer"

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Well That Didn't Take Long!

I bet you can guess what this post is about!

And you'd be right, we had another lamb born on the farm this morning. Thankfully this time I didn't have to wait very long only 48 hours. This time I was all on my own, but once again the mom (Meredith) is a great mother and knew exactly what to do and was protecting the baby from the others. I moved her and baby into the makeshift pen I had set up for the other two (who are doing amazing, the baby has already grown some and is strong and rambunctious) and everybody is doing great! Everyone meet Patsy our lovely new ewe lamb!!

So here's our conundrum; Each of the three Ewes each only had one lamb, which is very rare. This is worrisome for a couple of different reasons. 1. One of the perks of sheep is that they let you expand your flock very quickly in that they usually have twins or even triplets. If these three don't give us multiples on their next lambing then they wont really be any use to us (I've already grown quite attached to them and really don't want this to happen). Reason 2. We certainty wont be making much money on lambs if they are only giving us two. And even if we are a farm our main concern always has to be with the bottom line.

We plan to breed the sheep again sometime in August or September, which means we should have lambs sometime in December or January. As with most things on a farm, time will tell.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

And Then There Were Two!

Good Morning Everyone!

I have a special treat for you this morning, one I think you'll really enjoy!

Remember back  when I mentioned that we had two more ewes that were pregnant which we found out from the surprise of Sunny's birth. Well after two long, and when I say long I really mean lllllloooooonnnnngggg months later we finally can say that we now have two lambs playing in our barn. Here's the story:

To say that I have been eagerly awaiting the births of the forthcoming lambs would be an understatement. After Sunny was born I read and reread and reread a third time all the information I could on sheep birthing and how to tell if your ewe is going into labor. Everyday I went up to the barn I could have sworn that that day was the day, that for sure they were going to lamb and Sunny would have some buddies to play with. But the next morning when I went up, still no lambs. Wiz kept telling me that I was crazy, and after about a month I began to think that maybe he was right. I was stressed, always thinking that when I went up there they'd have their babies and if I didn't make it up there in time then something bad was going to happen, and we'd lose one or something. After about six week Wiz started saying the unthinkable, that maybe they weren't pregnant. I vehemently disagreed with him, swearing up and down that they were, that I hadn't spent the last 6 plus weeks in stressed anticipation for nothing. After some calculations based on what our seller had told us we decided that they had until the beginning of May to lamb, if they hadn't by then well then obviously he'd be able to say that he was right, which is certainly not something I wanted to have to say.

Let me take a quick minute to tell you a little something about Wiz and I's relationship, it will help with the story trust me. I have know Wiz for about 10 years now, when my mom started dating him. Almost right away we discovered that we had the same sense of humor. From there our relationship has progressed to where it is now, we're best buddies. We love to pull pranks on each other, and generally joke around(remind me sometime to tell you why I call him Wiz). So this whole time we were waiting for the lambs, when he came home from work every once in a while I'd tell him that one or the other had had their lambs. Most of the time he'd believe me (I have an excellent poker face!) but eventually he started saying "Yeah right, sure they did."

So yesterday morning I went up to the barn with a jug of water, resigned to once again find only 5 sheep in the pen.We had had a pretty loud thunderstorm the night before and I was anxious over how they would fair with all the noise, especially Sunny who had only been in the back of the barn for a couple of days now. Right away though I could tell something was different. usually when I clang the chain for the gate they all start bellering and baaing for me, to which I generally call out a "Keep the wool on your backs, I'm coming". This morning however, they were mostly silent. So as I'm unlatching the chain I glance through the gate and notice a little body following one of the ewes around. I immediately stopped what I was doing (dropping the water jug) and ran for my grandparents house. Our two houses a basically right next to each other, ours is set further back from the road than theirs is, the barn is closer to their house than ours. So I run as fast as my early morning, no cups of coffee, legs could handle for their back yard and up onto their deck. Thankfully they were having breakfast and saw me coming, so all I had to do was toe off my barn boots and slip through the already open slider. My grandma had a concerned look on her face, and asked "Did they have their lambs?" They'd listened to me lament more than once about the fact that I wished they would just hurry up and have their lambs already. A big smile on my face I told her yes in fact there was a lamb out there. I picked up the phone and called my mom, who thankfully was home that day. I was worried that I would need help if the mom, like MaMa would have a hard time getting used to nursing. When I got Mom on the phone I was still out of breath from my sprint and she immediately asked what was wrong, when I told her, she quickly hung up and headed for the barn. I rushed back out there to check out the situation. The baby was walking around behind the others as if it had been hanging out with them for days, instead of hours. I checked butts to try and figure out which one had had the baby. The lucky mommy was Annabeth, our freckly eared yearling. We made sure the baby was nursing, and in the process discovered that it was a boy. Mom stayed for a little while but had errands to run and since Annabeth took to nursing like a champ she headed off. I stayed to make sure everything was ok. The baby was surprisingly strong for being only a couple of hours old, but he was making the others a little anxious so I pulled some skids into the pen and set-up a little makeshift pen for mom and baby. I didn't need to worry at all about him, Anna turned out to be an excellent mother. The whole time I kept thinking about how I was finally going to get to tell Wiz that we had another baby. But I knew he'd never believe me, since I had been saying for weeks that they had, had their babies. So I hatched a plan.....

At four o'clock when Wiz came home I followed him around the house telling him that I thought Anna was going to have her baby and would he please, please, please come up and check her with me. He kept saying over and over that she was fine, she probably wasn't even going to have a baby, in fact he was 99% sure that neither one of them was going to have a baby. Nonetheless I pressed on, "please Wiz will you come up and check her with me I really think she's going to have her baby tonight." He looked me dead in the eye and told me that I had one more time for him to come up and check them, I needed to stop stressing and he wasn't going to keep doing this with me. "Do you want this to be that one time, because that's it?" Heck yes I did. So into the truck we go and up to the barn. I let him go through the gate first all the while knowing what he'd see when he got close to the sheep pen. I think he started to say something like, "Well she has a little one in there..." But I screamed out, "I TOLD YOU SO" I swear they probably heard me in the next county. We both had a good laugh over my joke and decided the baby looked pretty good, for being born in the middle of a thunderstorm.

And so dear friends that is the story of Thunders birth. We have some pretty good adventures on The Rolling K Farm don't you think!

  









Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Sunny Sundays.....


Let me tell you a little story……

                I love Saturdays on the farm, they are by far my favorite day. We (Wiz, my mom, and myself always find ourselves on an adventure. Sometimes it’s to the auction and other times it’s a bit more exciting like our trip to check out the sheep. This past Saturday was one of those exceptional adventure Saturdays.

                It started off just like most Saturdays do, with a trip to the auction. Normally we bring Hay over to sell but with all the snow we’ve had it was impossible to get to the round bales that we usually bring. So we just went over for the cookies (!). The Amish sure do know how to make their cookies. After checking out everything else that was for sale, mostly hay and wood. Wiz and I didn’t dally long since we had a big day ahead of us. See remember those sheep I was telling you about well we purchased them but the breeder was keeping them until the lambs were fully weaned. We were extremely grateful since the weather isn’t really conducive for hauling lambs that are only 3 months old. That was about 6 weeks ago.

                Anyways, we headed home to load up the crate and Wiz and I (Mom had to work so she stayed home) headed about an hour away to get my new pets. The day was beautiful lots of sunshine and zero wind, and we were super excited. Well I guess I should rephrase that I was super excited, the Wiz was calmly indulgent of my whimsy. We reached our destination around 1:55 pm a full 5 minutes early! The man and his son who had sold them to us already had ours penned off so all we had to do was lift them into the crate on the back of the truck, which took us about 5 minutes, piece of cake. After they were loaded we had to wait while the son got our receipt (this is sound business advice, no matter how small the transaction make sure you get a receipt), so we were asking questions and generally making sure we understood exactly how to care for these animals. No matter how many books you read or internet research you do, nothing beats firsthand experience, so always ask lots and lots of questions.

                In the process of our questioning we asked to see his rams. Three of the sheep we were getting were yearlings and we were hoping to breed them within the next month. We wanted to see how big the ram was so we could anticipate the size of animal we would need. So through the snow we tramped to see the rams. They were medium sized, so nothing we needed to be worried about. About 10 minutes later the son came back, we signed on the dotted line and were off. The day was so beautiful and the sheep seemed to be adjusting well to their mode of transportation that we decided to stop and get something to eat on the way home. We stopped at one of the Wiz’s favorite places and had hot dogs, we were there for about an hour. Then we hit the road again. A little over an hour later we made it back to the barn. Now, we have a lot of snow. And by a lot I mean so much so that we have exactly the width of the truck, which means no room to turn it around, no room to back it into the barn pen. So basically all we could do was back the truck as close to the gate as possible and hope for the best.

                We left them safe and sound in the crate so that we could finish readying their pen. Our cows are currently housed in a large pen we have behind our big barn, they have ample dry area, access to water and as much hay as they can fit in their little bellies. We had decided to put the sheep behind the cows, that way the cows would offer extra protection from the elements and all that straw and extra bodies would keep everybody warm. We put up a fence, added a feeder for hay, a bucket for water and laid down some straw for bedding. All set, release the sheep. Of course when we opened the door to the crate they didn’t want to get out. They were comfy in there, and they had no clue where they were now. Up I went into the crate to coax them out. One by one we got the little ones out. I shooed them to the back of the crate and wiz carried them into the pen. When Wiz was carrying the third one back to the pen and I was trying to keep the other girls in the crate I heard “Hey you better get down here and close that gate” Oh man we must have had and escape. I jumped off the truck bed, scurried through the gate, pulling and latching it closed behind me, and see Wiz trying to corral the two that had escaped. Together we were able to herd them back into the pen. Then it was time for the big girls. When we had put them in the crate Wiz had made a comment on how heavy they were. For Wiz to think something is heavy then you know its heavy, that should have been a red flag right there but we just thought that he was overfeeding them. So I pushed the big girls to the front of the crate and wiz tried to wrestle them down, they weren’t too excited about that. Finally we got the first one off the back of the truck and headed through the gate. Sheep are herd animals, so where one goes the others want to follow. Immediately the other two girls wanted to jump off the truck and follow her. We had a heck of a time getting them to follow directions and come down one at a time. Once we did, it was mostly clear sailing. Only one of them got loose and started running around with the cows, but once she saw where the others were, she skedaddled right in the pen. I hadn’t picked out names for any of them before but once we got them home I decided on Annabeth for one and Percy for the only boy in the lot. To say that Wiz and I were exhausted would be an understatement, it was now close to 6pm and we still had chores to do. When we finally hit the sack we were extremely grateful.
The three babies have mostly been named; The one closest is still unnamed, the middle one is Pickles and the third one is the boy who is named Percy.
 

These are the three yearling females. The one closest is Annabeth. the middle one isn't named yet and the far one (whose butt is the only thing you can see) is MaMa.
                You might think that’s where the story ends, but oh no dear friends, it gets better much better…..

                When we had picked up the sheep the breeder had told us that he was graining them twice a day, once at 5 in the morning. Now I am all for taking care of the sheep but there was no way I was getting up at 5 to feed them. 7:30 yes, 5 am NO. I get up at 7:30 on most days to fill the furnace so I figured that would have to work for them. But this Sunday morning of course, given all the excitement of the previous day I overslept my alarm and rolled out of bed around 8. I was in no hurry to fill the furnace and make my way up to the big barn. But eventually I slipped my barn boots on, under my Pajama pants, and threw a jacket on, over my tank top. Not really winter wear but hey I was just going to throw some wood in the furnace and some grain in with the sheep, I’d be back in 10 minutes…. Tops. I hopped on the quad and headed to the barn with a gallon of water and visions of lamb babies dancing in my head. I undid the gate and toted my water jug into the pen, giving a shout of good morning to the cows.

                What happened next still is confusing to me. When I approached the sheep pen I was still thinking about all the babies we were going to have this summer, so when I saw a small animal in the sheep pen I thought I was hallucinating. I proceeded to fill the water bucket all the while thinking nothing of the small shape. Once the bucket was full I headed over to where we keep the grain. I kept an eye on the sheep. As I walked in front of the pen the little shape let out a surprisingly loud BAHHHH. I (and this is no exaggeration, excuse the profanity but I want to give an accurate account of what happened) jumped back away from the pen and yelled “Hot Damn” that little shape was a real baby sheep. One of the three yearlings had given birth. I turned and ran for the gate. Wait, I thought maybe I really was imagining things. I walked back to the pen and did a headcount. 1-2-3-4-5-6…. Holy cow there were 7 sheep in the pen. OMG there was a real baby in there. Now I was frantic, I needed to get back to the house and get Wiz. I jumped over the gate, not even bothering to unlatch and open it. The driveways were slippery and I was driving like I was on Mario Kart, skidding and sliding all over the place.  Thankfully I made it back in one piece. I jumped off the quad before it even came to a stop and ran into the house, yelling and screaming all the while. As soon as I was in the dogs, sensing my excitement and anxiety, began barking their heads off. My mom who had been sitting on the couch jumped up and tried to understand just what it was I was babbling about.

                “GET WIZ THERE”S A BABY. WAKE HIM UP. SHE HAD A BABY.” She was so confused and all the racket certainly wasn’t helping. “Who had a baby” “The sheep” her eyes widened and she scurried over to their bedroom. During this conversation I was fighting to get my boots off. I followed her over to the door, and stood over her shoulder yelling at Wiz to get up. He acknowledged us groggily (he claims to have heard me drive up and bound up the stairs and into the house. He thought one of them had died and he was going to have to deal with a distraught first-time farmer). When mom closed the door and turned back to me she said, “Oh my gosh we have a baby” I promptly burst into tears.  This was too much, I had just become a sheep farmer and now I had to deal with a baby. I had no clue what I was doing. Looked like I was going to have to jump in feet first. I headed back up to the barn. Sure enough the baby was still there. It looked like it was trying to nurse but the mom wouldn’t stand still long enough for it to latch on. When Wiz and mom came up to the barn we set about trying to get her to latch on and get some milk. The first couple of hours of any animal’s life are the most critical, if they don’t get enough milk they won’t get enough bacteria into their systems to fight off infection. It took a while for us to  accomplish this. The whole time mom is standing over the sheep’s neck trying to keep her still so we can try to save the baby. It was really cold, and the baby needed milk and warmth, every minute, every second counted. While we were doing this Wiz noticed that she was a girl (!). We finally got her to latch on and thought she had gotten quite a bit so we decided to move them into the barn. I carried the baby and Wiz maneuvered the mama (which is what I decided to call her since she was one that I hadn’t had a name for yet). We got them into a pen in the barn and got a heat lamp on them. Once they were settled, I climbed in (and put a lawn chair in the corner so I could keep an eye on things, make sure she was getting enough milk and what not). I stayed up there for 2 hours but she never seemed to warm up so Wiz came back and got us and we brought her down to the house, wrapped her in a towel and put her on the register in the laundry room to get warm. I ate breakfast while she warmed up. Wiz and I talked about a plan that we hoped would give her a chance at surviving.
 

                “You know” he said to me during a lull in the conversation, “Those other two look like they might be bred too, they were pretty wide” Oh jeez what if they all went into labor, we didn’t have the room for all of them, we really weren’t prepared for this. But nonetheless we had to get prepared. When I took the baby back up to the barn her MaMa was more than happy to see her. I named the baby Sunny since she was born on a Sunday and she was a little ray of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy day. So that’s the story of Sunny friends. The Sunday surprise we didn’t see coming.
 
The baby taking a nap with her MaMa

Getting some love from Grandma
 

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Winter Weather Brings Winter Projects


                Welcome to the New Year! 2014 it’s hard to believe we’re here already.

Here at Rolling K Farm we are hard at work on lots of winter projects. You might think that winter on a farm is the slow part of the year, but it’s actually one of our busiest. Finally, with the land covered in a layer (Sometimes an extra thick layer) of puffy white snow we are able to complete projects that we can’t during the busy growing and cultivating seasons of Spring and Summer and the hay season of Fall. The Rolling K is no exception to this farming trend. During the winter we work on things like cleaning out barns, raising new flocks, and building development. Here in West Michigan it has been exceedingly cold which makes many of these projects difficult, and yet they must get done. And done they get, eventually!

Right now we are working on growing a large flock of chickens. We had 250 chicks hatch in late October and they are growing beautifully, each week developing new feathers and growing bigger and stronger, think of all those farm fresh eggs!! We also have a pair of calves that were born early this past summer who continue to get bigger and bigger each day. They are currently being kept in their own corral (our Calf Condos as we refer to them as) but will soon be taking a trip up to the big barn where they will join their more mature older siblings. There are also two pigs residing down by the calves. They are loving being able to rut and dig through all this fresh snow we have.

                We have also spent the past couple of week constructing a new chicken barn that will house all 250 of our chickens, not only protecting them from the environment and predators but also give them the best laying conditions as possible. With all the ice we have had over the past couple of weeks though this project has been put on hold for the time being, it’s kind of hard to drive nails through a haft inch layer of ice and then the wood. But rest assured the Chickens will have an excellent new place to call home come spring when its time for them to start laying.

                Next up- SHEEP. We have never had sheep here on the farm before so we are very excited about this upcoming venture. This Saturday we are heading out to look at some Ewes (pronounced YOU’s) and plan to have them lambing before summer so that we can offer lambs to those who are looking for organic meat lambs. We have been doing lots of research and are very excited about this new adventure.

                Stay up to date on all the exciting happening around the farm by following our blog and liking us on facebook!
ROLKING K FARM

Producers of farm fresh produce, livestock and Hay!

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