Ban children from farm chores?

Fortunately this was killed before it saw life,  but the very fact that it was even proposed is concerning.  This act would have banned children honest work on farms,  even their own family farm!

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/25/rural-kids-parents-angry-about-labor-dept-rule-banning-farm-chores/

It is totally ludicrous to prevent children from working.  What our next generation needs is a good work ethic,  desire to support themselves , and an appreciation for God's creation.  Making all that illegal would be a horrible legacy to pass on to our children. 

This gives serious doubt to the sanity of those in charge of our nation.

Portable brooder for ducks

With the ducks arriving today,  we need a place to put them.  The barn brooder is full of baby turkeys so where do you put 150 ducklings?  We chose to convert one portable pen to a portable brooder.

2 sheets of plywood on a 4x4 runner  with a couple 2x4 support runners and we have a solid wood floor. Add a heating system and there's a completely safe portable brooder. 

I had plenty of help placing nails and screws so it took a little longer than expected,  but finished in just a few hours.

Power outage, but we are prepared

We are in the first major power outage of 2012. Fortunately,  no one is suffering.  Thanks to the great deal last year on a new diesel generator,  we are able to power everything necessary.  The baby turkeys are snug under their low wattage brooder heaters safe and warm.

These heaters,  from brisnea, are great.  They pull so little electricity that it is easy to provide backup power.  I am convinced that they are better for the birds too.

Update:

We didn't loose a single baby turkey this time,  which is amazing since power was not restored until about 4 am. We actually had a fun time with the kids teaching them about oil lamps and exploring the life of those who created America.

Presentation at Table Rock Kiwanis

Little Sprouts had the honor of presenting at the weekly meeting of the Table Rock Kiwanis yesterday.
for those not familiar with the Kiwanis, I encourage you to learn about this group. They are a nice group of individuals coming together to support the community in a variety of ways.  We appreciate their efforts.

The presentation went well, with a good amount of questions and answer at the end, even involving the older children. Its always great when the children have an opportunity to share about your life and our farm at events like these. These are the moments that cement the value of what we are doing in their young minds and hearts.

If you have a group that would like to learn about sustainable farming at a family scale, please dont hesitate to ask. We are available to spread the word about what, how, and why we are doing this.

Here is a nice thank you we received from the group (reprinted with permission of course):

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Thanks so much for sharing with us at Table Rock Kiwanis.  I had so many people thank me for inviting you to the meeting.  It was obvious that the message you brought was something everyone wanted to hear.

Thank all of your lovely family for joining us.  They are delightful and it is obvious that you are all bringing great joy to the world!

Sincerely,

Linda McClellan

First turkeys of the season hatch!

Right on time, the first turkeys of the 2012 season popped out of their shells yesterday! It;s always amazing how nature works... all 24 turkeys hatched out within hours of each other after 28 days incubating. The consistency is truly amazing.

There will be a steady stream of hatchings now for the next month, ranging everywhere from 1 to 60 every other day (60 in one day will be quite interesting indeed!)

A surprise was the appearance of a yellow turkey poult in the bunch. Thats right, pure yellow. Narragansett poults are always white, grey, black with a yellow underside but this little fellow is pure yellow all over. We thought he was a chicken at first, but no all the eggs hatched from are turkey eggs. IT will be fun to see what he turns into as he matures.

Feel free to stop by and visit the little birds anytime. It is quite a sight to see!