Time to build!

We picked up all this prime building wood Saturday, for free! A local trailer dealership needed to get rid of their packing... Mostly 2x8 and 2x12 pine lumber. All I'm prime shape except for a few nails to remove.

Combined with the free pallets, we can now build some animal shelters for the winter!

posted from Bloggeroid

All pallet animal shelter

Today we built the first shelter for the coming winter, and totally out of pallets! It was a lot of fun to design.

We picked up over a hundred free pallets from a local business and put them to use as portable animal shelters. This is the first design. Worked out pretty well!



It measures about 10 x 14 by 4 feet tall. The materials are 20 pallets, a little scrap wood, and 2 lbs of torx screws. That's it! Total cost about 5$.

It has a slanted roof and 4 doors, one in each corner. The floor is a set of close rung pallets. There are no supports in the center.

And fortunately it works to move this on our little tractor! With a chain to hold it on the forks, the while unit picks up for easy relocating.

For rain protection we will cover the roofs with canvas, old tarps, whatever we can scrape together.

We plan on building 5 more before the next rain.

posted from Bloggeroid

Early Access Available to the Newest Little Sprouts Offering! Life Abundant! Village

We are pleased to announce the availability of early access to the newest offering from the Little Sprouts. It is called:

LifeAbundant! Village

Life Abundant! Village is an online village, a community of like minded people all seeking health. Inside the village there is information, support, advice, friends who help each other along this journey to rediscover health as our creator intended.  

This isn't just another "health" site... it is truly something unique. 

We have learned that this is an incredibly complex journey to health. It seems every year we discover new insights, now areas where previously accepted knowledge is tweaked or just plain wrong. It is a constant learning adventure! But, we tend to do this alone, everyone relying on their own small circle of experts and friends and THAT makes this journey almost insurmountable for newcomers. 

Where can you get the big picture? How can we fit all these individual parts and pieces together into an overall understanding and plan? There are so many details, so many approaches. Who can you trust? 

That's the purpose of Life Abundant! Village. 

We are looking for the first few to move in, those interested early adopters who will support us in feedback to perfect the offering. At this point we have the framework set up, and are building the content. It will take some time to get enough content entered to be fully valuable to first timers. A village isnt built overnight! So we are looking for a few interested members to kick this off and help us finish building it before official release. 

Is that you?

If so, please email us info@littlesproutsfarm.com and we will send you the link.

These are exciting days! together we can change the world into a healthier place, bringing this wealth if information to those who are hurting most. 

Major setback - Tragedy Strikes

Last week was, well... in a word... tragic. Things had finally begun to settle down, and we are getting close to announcing the new path for the farm, and then something totally unexpected. It left us reeling for a few days to regain our footing.

We found our three largest, healthiest, best genetic, pregnant  breeding sows dead.

No warning, no sign of struggle, sickness, or problem of any type. They were found laying peacefully in their favorite mud puddle as if they all three dies in their sleep. Absolutely NO indication of why. The other dozen pigs are perfectly healthy with no signs of any trouble. It occurred within the space of a few hours, literally one nap!

This is devastating on two levels. Not only did we loose a large source of planned income and investment, but without any conclusive cause of death there is no way to prevent more! That is a scary thought. Until we can come up with a way to prevent further occurrence of whatever happened, the entire pig operation is at serious risk. If whatever it was, happened that quickly to the healthiest pigs, it could take out the entire herd.

For several days we searched for an answer. Even exploring the notion of foul play. Nothing made sense! There just was no evidence of anything unusual.  Now that is a scary thought for a farmer, animals dropping dead in batches with no cause of death. Yes, it was a stressful week scrambling for some sort of answer and path forward.

After long consideration, we have come up with one and only one plausible answer.  Mushrooms. The timeline goes something like this:

Rain had just started on a regular basis, mostly from the storms in the gulf. That rain was suddenly keeping the surface of the ground moist full time, especially in the trees.  The heat also calmed a bit, although not a lot. Perfect mushroom growing conditions. We had noticed a few days prior to this event that in fact lots of interesting mushrooms had sprouts all over the forest.

Next, it was time to move the pig pen. The easiest way to move the pigs is to let them loose to forage while we move the fence panels. We have done this dozens of times previously. The pigs would lounge in the forest consuming old nuts, plants, whatever they could find for a couple hours. It is a great way to supplement their diet with natural feeds.

It was two days later that we found the three dead.

At first the timing seemed impossible. How could a pig consume toxic mushrooms, then be perfectly healthy for 2 days and suddenly all drop dead during a single nap?  Seems implausible at face value, but research has brought to light a few mushrooms that do exactly that, and grow wild in central texas.  These mushrooms create an initial illness that only lasts for a short time, minutes to a few hours. We could easily have missed this being gone most of that particular day. Then a day or two passes as the toxins invisible destroy the liver  and other organs irreparably, and the animals literally drop dead. The timeline matches.  The symptoms match.

In addition, there was a few patches of new mushrooms sighted in the forest which are now totally gone. We took pictures of what types were left to check on toxicity, but that in itself is inconclusive since the ones eaten are obviously gone now. So, we must conclude that they pigs found and consumed a patch of toxic mushrooms while the pen was being rebuilt, and then died silently in their sleep a couple days later with no symptoms.

That accounts for a loss of about $30,000 of income since they were pregnant.  Not insignificant!

The plan forward? The rest of the herd seems ok. So, we moved them again (while keeping close guard on them) and beefed up security. Now the pen is hard panels with electric on the inside to keep them from digging or laying on the panels. That should provide that extra bit of security to prevent accidental escape. When the pen needs to move, it will require some measure of temporary containment. It is not a guarantee of safety, but an extra level of protection. Mushrooms do grow out in the pasture but much less prolifically. That means we will not be able to move the pigs into the shade during mushroom season.  That means more shelters need to be built.

Bottom line? Tragic and devastating. We have to dramatically alter the pig management procedures and while recovering from the loss of investment and income, we must invest in more infrastructure.

A tough week indeed.  But, with God's help, we will survive.

Portable Washing Station

Here is a quick look at a project in process. We decided to utilize the stainless steel 3 compartment sink from the milking room as a portable washing station, complete with hot and cold running water. The whole setup is mounted on a extra large pallet so that it can be moved easily with the tractor.

this can be used with the chicken processing, near the milking, or even for veggie cleaning as required by simply picking it up on the tractor and going!All it needs is an electrical cord (for the water heater control) and a water connection. The electric power will become a battery to eliminate the

need for extension cord in remote locations.

Chicken Processing Station is almost ready!

We are FINALLY getting our chicken processing equipment set up. This is a bit of a new design with a fun twist... it is totally portable!

The whole setup is installed  (permanently bolted down) to a extra large sized pallet. There is enough space on this pallet for scalder, plucker, and processing table for 4 people. The only down side is that the 2 people on the plucker side of the table will be in the "splash zone" of the plucker, but they could always step aside for a couple minutes :)

This setup allows the whole arrangement to move around the farm as necessary with a single tractor load. All it needs is an electrical extension cord and water hose hookup to be complete.  The kill cones will be seperate.

All that is left to do is replumb the processing table for hand held sprayers. the old plumbing didnt make the move, so I get to rebuild it and try a new approach. The spray connections will come of the ends of the table instead of the long side, keeping them more out of the way and giving a better flow of the pipes. 

A plan is emerging - a path forward

To be honest, we have been struggling. Struggling to find a suitable path forward for the farm, given our current situation post-move. I could do a whole post on that topic itself... but right now I prefer to concentrate on the future instead of the past. Where do we do from here?

The farm day event was a nice success! The combination of family fun and talks with people was quite productive. The personal touch was inspiring. But the format, well, the format was a bit challenging with the summer heat. To be a regular event, the weather must be removed as a deciding factor.  But how?

Blogs, articles, posts on facebook, all of those are great as a way to reach and inspire people. Many more hurting families can be reached with help for them through social media, but it lacks the personal touch. It is difficult to manage personal relationships through social media, which largely becomes one sided.  There must be a way of maintaining the personal touch while expanding the reach through modern technology. But how?

Topics are great, to dive deeply into. There are so many! Health is a very broad aspect of life, covering so many things. There is so much "wrong" in our world and understanding that it is difficult to achieve a total view across everything. Write a book? sure.. working on that.. but slow and unresponsive to individual needs. Seminars? yes, but so hard to cover a dozen topics and hold people's hands through the necessary complex steps tailored for them to achieve health. It is just such a complex landscape that there needs to be both a map, and handholding or at least support. But How?

And honestly, most of the people we have worked with that saw no health improvement, can be accounted to one thing, too little too late. They either were not motivated or not capable of covering enough bases to achieve the goal in time to preserve the motivation. they needed more support, more encouragement, a friend to hold their hand in the weak moments, to lend an ear or speak a word in the moment. But How?

We have finally arrived at an idea, a path forward, a vehicle to accomplish all of this and more!

What we truly need is a community! We need to change the way we think about health from an event to a state of being. We need a way to join forces, in a two way relationship to walk together through this myriad of steps, following the map together, supporting and encouraging each other.Not an "event" like a seminar, a workshop, or even a book, but a true community or caring individuals all on the same path, working together with and for each other to reach a common goal, health for our families.

Little Sprouts Farm is launching such a community! Utilizing modern technology combined with good old fashioned workshops and live hands on experience, this community will be that friend you need to succeed. Here are the goals:

• encouragement
• enlightenment
• experience
• real time support
• global reach with local touch
• individual attention
• real testimony
• recipes
• resources
• skill development

These goals are achievable through this community with a combination of online, in person, virtual in person, and print materials. What we are talking about is a total solution! Not just a piece of the picture, but the whole painting! Everything you need to be successful in one place. 

Over the next short while we will be introducing various aspects of this community, and looking for feedback.  We plan to start with the basics and grow from there, to get the framework implemented ASAP to start serving some families quickly. So many come to use and ask "how can we do what you di?", and now we have a collectively individual answer!

Stay tuned and spread the word... we are building a community to take you through everything you individually need to achieve true health, a life not dependent on pharmaceuticals and treatments, a life of addressing root causes not treating symptoms, a life free from side effects, a life of  deep healing and recovery. a life of sharing and encouragement. 

We don't have all the answers, not even close. But we do have a heart to walk with you to find the answers for you!

Join us! stay tuned and share the word. Let's build a community of health seeking families!

Wild harvest texas grape pies!

Just in time for your 4th of july bbq!



We have a batch of wild harvested texas grape pies! Not green grape, but ripe! These pies are bursting with simple goodness, in our own recipe of quality ingredients. They are tart, slightly sweet, and oh so good!

The entire grape is in there... Skins, pulp, juice, even seeds, all ground to a soft filling

much like berry pies. All the health benefit of grape seed in a yummy treat!

We love these pies topped with real organic whipped cream or cream cheese. Maybe a side of organic high fat ice cream!

The fun part is.... Every pie us hand made and unique! The top crust is an individual work of art. Pick out your favorite!










To get a pie while they last, call or email for delivery today, or come by pleasant grove baptist church in rosebud tx to choice yours! Price is 12$ with a commercial, or 15$ with a hand made crust from scratch.

posted from Bloggeroid

Weeee'ere bbbaaaaaaaccccckkkkk

We are back!!!!!!

Little sprouts farm is officially back in business ! Our sign is out, you are welcome to come visit!

The removal of the sprouts sign was perhaps the saddest moment of this move. 10 years of years and joy was represented in that sign, and taking it down was truly the end of an era.

But we are back!

The new era is beginning! The sign is up just in time for our first family farm day.

We leave the next chapter of this saga in our Creator's hands, and ask Him that we be granted to opportunity to serve the Central Texas community even more fully than the southern Oregon community where we started.

Here we go!

posted from Bloggeroid

Progress Thursday!

Time is getting close! Just one more day to the big event!

Here is an update of what we accomplished up to now:

The shooting range is set up! Cans filled with water (for the fun explosive effect) at three different ranges. The gun selection is a light bb rifle, a medium bb rifle and a high powered pellet rifle, plus a semiautomatic CO2 powered sig pellet pistol.

The completed activity area! Lots to keep the kids busy during or between talks!

The petting / feeding zoo is finished. Nestled among the trees for shade, there are 3 pens with a "picture" area. We plan to have lambs, baby goats, ducks, chickens, and a baby pig. 

Friday will be spent putting together the meeting area for the talks, the main event itself. We have facilities donated by the local church to support our mission! There will be real chairs in the shade, tables for the picnic lunch, and activity areas for more projects.

Today's progress towards the family farm day this saturday

Today was a very busy day.. the heat and humidity is certainly hefty, but we managed to get a lot done!

Levi learned to make balloon animals! When you very Saturday, he would love to make you a few!



Hunter built most of the petting zoo area. We just need to add some interior partitions to keep animals separate and it's ready!



The goat here finished clearing the meeting spot... In 3 days the ate everything to the ground, clearing away thorns Vines and limbs. Now just a little cutting and it's ready.


I made a simple map of the farm, so that you can find your way around.



We also finished the treasure hunt! Here is the "map" that will lead you to the hidden treasure!



And last but not by any means least... Kaelyn set up the trailer ride, using sturdy plastic buckets on our flatbed. This will be the means to do the farm tour and talk.



Still lots to do... But progress everyday. Looking forward to meeting you this Saturday, June 2!

posted from Bloggeroid

Progress for the family farm day!

Memorial day for us was quite the work day! Lots to do in the remaining 4 days. But we managed to knock out a lot of the Todo list today. Here's a bit of a preview of what has been accomplished.

We worked mostly on the fun activities today. The family fun day is intended to be just that.. fun. Lots to keep busy on between the talks and presentations.


Levi created a ring toss area


Katelyn created a bean bag toss


Then we have the mountain and moat


"The web"


The balance beam with teeter totter


And of course a tire race for teams


In the background, we started cleaning off the flatbed for the trailer rides, and cleared away all the "stuff" that was collecting out front. Hunter managed to move the goats, who are anxiously clearing the ground where the picnic and meeting area will be.

All in all a productive day, in addition to the regular farm chores. And at sundown, the little sprouts all had great fun trying out the new obstacle course and games!

More to come tomorrow!

posted from Bloggeroid

New pig fencing

One of the most challenging aspects of standing up or new farm here in Texas, has been fencing. Back in Oregon we relief heavily on electric fencing to contain everyone in their space. We even developed a new setup for electric pig and sheep fencing that worked quite well... There. Here in Texas, not so much.

The problem we face here is sand. Lots of sand. Dry sand is not a good enough conductor of electricity to work. The pigs have figured that out!

The first couple months, all was ok. Well.. with the pigs. But lately they realized that the electric wires that scare them so much don't actually hurt that bad. In fact, freedom is with the light pain to get there.

As a last straw, this resulted in almost losing our entire potato crop! We ran town on a few errands and when we came back, discovered that the pigs had escaped! Apparently they hung out in the back garden and snack on a few new potatoes! When we find them, pretty much every plant was pulled out, and the roots scavaged for small tender potatoes. We scrambled to get the plants back in the ground and water heavily, but still we lost maybe half.

We have tried most everything on pig fencing. From 3 to 5 stands, from rope to plain wire, replaced the charger battery, added hot and ground alternating, etc. Even tried using hard panels and they still busted out. So. . Time for a new idea.

Here it is


This is a new type of electrical fence setup. Electric panels. Each panel is built as a self contained unit 16 feet long. It has 7 wires alternating hour and ground. Wires are about 2 inches apart. Post are step in.

Being separate panels means they are ready to stand up, pull down, and move. Much like a netting fence, but only 16ft long.

More to come in this fencing type. For now, waiting to see how well it works.

posted from Bloggeroid

Do You Guys Give Medical Advice?

An unequivocal and resounding NOOOOO! We do NOT give medical advice in any shape or form.



What we do, in addition to producing good healthy food that people need to find true health, what we do is share our own experience. What worked for us.

In our history, we have faced a large number of health problems. a LARGE number! It seemed like a constant stream of problems, some irritating, some life threatening. It seemed that the more we relied on conventional wisdom and treatments, the worse things got. Finally, through divine inspiration, we realized two things:

Man was designed to be healthy, and live a long productive life.
Covering Symptoms is NOT treating the problem.

Out of those, we started seeking our own path. Through nutrition, herbs, and natural treatments we found  actual remedies that resolved the root problems and brought a relief from symptoms without covering them up. The symptoms stop when you treat the underlying condition instead of the symptom.

So, bottom line, If you suffer from a health problem.... it is very likely that we have faced the same thing or similar, and we are open to sharing how we treated it. What you do with that information is totally up to you. We encourage you to research, pray, and think through your own life situation to arrive at a best path. All we can do is say what worked for us.

That said.. we have sorted through a LOT of treatments, remedies, herbs, foods, etc. We have spent over a decade seeking "what works" in the real world. THAT is int information we offer... what we learned about our own life. What worked for us.

Who's side are you on?

Life is a battle.



That is true in many ways, and one important aspect is... The battle to stay healthy. Yes, a battle. There are enemy forces all around us ever day, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. The job of our immune system is simple but complex... Detect, deter, defend.

But... Battles are painful. It requires work and suffering. It requires action, effort, and often wounds. The battle for our health is no different. Yet... Who's side are you on?

Today we seem to be so focused on comfort at all costs, that we forget the battle itself. We confuse the battle itself with the enemy. We so do not want to endure the battle that often we hinder our own armies from succeeding.

For instance...

We get a fever, and reach immediately for a fever reducer. But wait... The fever is not the enemy, the fever is a tool that our own immune system uses to fight the enemy. Fevers both activates the immune system and hinders the Invaders. It's a wonderful tool, but it hurts. So... We choose to kill the fever with artificial means. Where is the wisdom in that? The enemy is the invader that the fever is fighting, and we attack the fever?

Inflammation.. bad right? Well... Not so fast! Inflammation is a tool of the immune system. Inflamed tissues have increased blood flow, which supports our own fighting of some invader. It is a natural, good, healthy response... If it is temporary! Constant inflammation is a sign of either an immune system gone ary or a constant need for repair of tissues. The question is... What is causing the inflammation, that is the enemy! The inflammation itself is our response... it is the good guys fighting.

Pick most any health condition and ask the question, what is causing the symptom? Is there an enemy hiding behind that symptom that the immune system is addressing with the symptom? If so... Fighting the symptom is fighting on the wrong side!

What to do? Ask questions. Dig. Explore. Find out why something is happening and make sure the root cause is being addressed. Be sure your treatment is fighting the enemy itself, not just the symptoms of the battle.

When we learned this valuable truth, life became much easier. Instead of living on pharmaceuticals to hide symptoms of the battle, we learned how to address the Root cause and the battles subside! For good! So many conditions that we thought were"normal" or a part of "aging" actually disappeared while we were solving other Root problems. That's because a single room cause can often trigger multiple seemingly unrelated symptoms. Address the root, and all calms. Health.

True health is the lack of the need for constant healthcare.

posted from Bloggeroid

The immune system is like everything else...

Most people would agree with this quote.. Strength does come through the struggle, work and effort makes one strong, overcoming challenges builds up, Adversity produces success.  So many ways to say it, but all the same. Yet there is an irony... When it comes to our own immune system, we go exactly the opposite direction! We tend to embrace weakness!

It's true, hear me out!

Every part of our bodies must be used to remain healthy, must be exercised to become strong. That includes.. the immune system. If it is not exercised, utilized, trained.. it remains weak and ineffective. Why would we expect anything else?

What am I referring to? The american notion of "health care".

We get a fever.. oh no! bring it down with pharmaceuticals!

We feel a cold coming on... on no! Get an antiobiotic from the doctor!

We get our hands dirty... on no! Grab the antibacterial soap!

It seems that every thing we do is to eliminate the need for our bodies to fight it. We eliminate the struggle from our immune system. but then, how will it ever strengthen? How can we strengthen a muscle without challenging it?

But the reality is even worse... everything we do IS in fact training our immune system. It is learning, adapting, to the environment and challenges we face. It's not just the type of bacteria or virus, but the intensity, exposure method, and even the battle itself.

For instance.. consider this...

Every time we get an infection, we reach for an antibiotic. What is that doing to the immune system? Lay aside for moment the direct damage caused in the digestive track. Yes, I know.. that damage is significant and real, and sometimes barely recoverable, sometimes fatal. But for the sake of this concept of training, lay the direct damage aside. Consider how we have TRAINED our own immune system!

The bacteria invades.
The immune system identifies the intruder and mounts a defense based on best knowledge of the past.
Inflammation, fever, swelling, all the symptoms of the battle are produced becasue our system is beginning to fight
Then
We take an antibiotic.
Bacteria die off, not because of the immune system's actions, but becasue of the chemicals.
but how does the immune system know?
IT doesn't!
The immune system thinks that what it did totally killed off the intruder.
We just trained our immune system to fight poorly, to assume success with flawed methods
Next time we get an infection, it will try to do what worked last time...
and over and over.

So think about a person after a lifetime of taking medicines to cure minor infections. How will their immune system ever learn? The answer is, sadly, it DID learn... it learned to do the wrong thing and expect the invader to just die off.  In other words, the person has become totally dependent on the antibiotic! Without it, their immune system is powerless, weak, and wrong. 

Don't believe me?  Consider this.. Do you use vaccines? IF so (we should talk!) but you used the vaccine to train the immune system to battle the real thing. All vaccines are based on this premise, that the immune system is trained, adapts to what it encounters that works. In fact, they purposefully put toxins into the vaccine specifically to increase the level of reaction of the immune system. They need a severe reaction to teach it to fight hard. Without that, the vaccine is ineffective.

So think it through... relying on external resources to kill an infection is actually training the immune system to fail to kill the infection! And every time we do this, it gets worse! The faulty memory, improper training, gets stronger and harder to unlearn. Wonder why elderly today tend to be weaker, more susceptible to disease?

We personally experienced this. For years we "did the right thing" Every runny nose, every ear infection, every cold, every scratch, everything got an antibiotic or antiseptic. And our family got sicker and sicker. the frequency increased, the intensity increased. Once we caught the flu.. it was absolutely devastating! 3 weeks of pure misery. Until we started to actually train our immune system to fight, to succeed on its own. We used herbal assistance, but nothing stronger unless it is life threatening. And now, only a few years later... we rarely get sick, and when we do, rarely does everyone (a big deal in a family of 9!) and both intensity and duration is lighter.

Sure, we did a LOT of stuff to increase health, but it all adds together and builds up. Understanding that the immune system MUST be exercised and not fooled, is a major key to achieving true health.  Are we "anti antibiotics"? OF COURSE NOT... we recognize the need for proper judicial use. When something is needed, it is needed. But using an antibiotic when unnecessary, when not life threatening, can be devastating.

Suffering is not fun. No one like to feel sick. But just as the pain of exercise, or working out to produce a desired goal, going naturally through a sickness is a necessary part of proper immune system training.

True health means freedom from need for healthcare.
Freedom from need for healthcare comes from a strong immune system.
 - therefore -
Fooling the immune system, or constantly being easy on it,
creates a higher need for health care.

Meet us in person and enjoy a 20% discount

We are looking forward to meeting you! We will be at in Bryan, tx off and on over the next two weeks talking to people, and offering a discount on advance ticket purchases to the Farm day event.

Have any questions? Bring them! Check us out! We are just normal people like you, with a story to share. We suffer, struggle, and sometimes triumph sometimes fail. We are human. But through our walk we have learned a few things that worked and brought us to a new level of health never before imagined! We had just accepted the usual signs of ageing as a necessary party of growing older. But then we learned that health is truly attainable at any age! It's not normal to need health Care!

True health is freedom from health Care!

We will be at Brazos Natural Foods in Bryan, tx ready to meet, chat, and offer a full 20% discount on tickets to the Family Fun and Learning Farm Day Event.

http://brazosnaturalfoods.com



Call the farm or the store to find out when we will be there!

posted from Bloggeroid

First Family Farm Day! - Come see how we found true health and enjoy the farm!

It's HERE! June 2! Come to the Farm!

We are hosting our first ever Family Farm Day for Fun and Learning!

This will be a day filled with alternating fun events and talks sharing how we found true health!

Check out the attached flyer, and get your tickets early for the 20% off discount!

Advance Tickets can be purchased at 20% off here:

Family  - $35 - 20% =  $28

Couples - $25 - 20% = $20

Individual - $20 - 20% = $16

First fermenting class was a success!

Very happy to relay that our first Texas fermenting class was an astounding success! The crowd was smallish, which is good. But everything went off without a hitch. Here are some of the results:



This was a sample of jalapeno fermento carrots with dill. Yum!

We will be repeating the class in a week or two after Easter, and maybe even setting up a monthly fermenting club to share recipes and try new things.

Onward!

posted from Bloggeroid

Tools set up finally

Where there is a will, there is a way!

No shelf units, no workshop, no storage at all... Nothing but a pile of random boxes from the move... Until today!



The old bug barn bug bins turned out to be a perfect tool organizer! It when rolls on 4 wheels for easy accessibility. In fact, all the tools we have left actually fit right in the bins. Workshop in a corner!


Here is the rest of the shop, better known as the front porch.

posted from Bloggeroid

Piglets!

Our first sets of healthy Texas piglets arrived! These two moms truly knew what to do! The first set had 4, two black and two spotted pink. The other mom... 12! And she kept all 12 healthy and strong.


Here is the 4, very cute!


And here are the twelve!


Both of these mom's did a fabulous job of separating from the herd and protecting the babies. Soon they will rejoin with babies in tow.

posted from Bloggeroid

Quick n easy pig shelters - stand up to Texas wind

The winds here in central Texas can be quite fierce! Back in Oregon, we simply used tarps for shelter roofs. Not so here! Normal duty tarps can barely stand one afternoon wind, much less an evening storm. So a new answer was called for.

There is a resource here that is golden... Oversized pallets! Several local companies give these jewels away periodically. They are about 10 feet long and 4 feet wide. Some are nearly solid in boards. Heavy, but what a great building resource!

I have toyed with a few designs using these pallets, the last being the easiest and portable!




Then, I threw one together especially for the small piglets. The pallet laid flat is a great hiding place in bad weather. Plus... Mom has a dry lean-to close by!




These were thrown together as the last storm's clouds were rolling in, so they aren't pretty, but solid.

As time goes, more improvement is in the works for these pallet structures.

posted from Bloggeroid

Welcome To Rosebud!

We are finally settled in... mostly. Beyond the piles of boxes yet taped shut, and the disarray of farm equipment littering the property, and the confused animals trying to figure out their new home, we are HERE.

Wow, what an adventure! The last several months have been a experience never to forget. Moving is always a hassle, but moving a large family is that much more... moving a long distance (2100 miles) is even more, moving an operating business is yet more, and on top of that.. moving a few hundred animals of various species? WOW. I will say at this point.. this was accomplished only by the grace of God. It was a miracle that we even held on to our sanity through it all!

But we are here.. and life is starting to come together again. Very soon we will have products for sale again (lamb sausage, honey and honeycomb, and even our famous pork bangers).

It has not all been good. Honestly, we faced a deep tragedy. One animal in particular suffered more than anyone. In fact he is no longer with us. Our beloved llama, one of our very first farm animals... that has been with us through the years of trial and error learning. He was just not up to the long journey and became weak during the transport. When he arrived, he could no longer stand. We tried our best to nurse him back to health, but in the end he was too old and frail to make it. A very sad ending indeed.

But, the tears come and go, then life goes on.

We also suffered a loss of most of our bee hives. They handled the transport just fine as far as packing and bumps. However, the night we spent in Albuquerque... that was a problem. The temperature dipped down that night into single digit area. Four of the hives could not handle the cold, and the bees literally froze in place. Most likely there was just too much open area in those particular hives and the bees could not quickly adjust to keep the temp up. Very sad indeed. But the ones that made it, are busy  making their new home in the woods behind the farm.

We are finally able to set up some semi permanent pens for the animals, some Texas weather worthy shelters, and a routine of care instead of constant emergencies. The farm is becoming stable again. Soon we can start milking the goats and offering our special extra creamy goat milk to the community!

The stories of our journey are many, and I will attempt to relay them here as time permits. The intention was to blog as we went, but sometimes in life we find that life moves faster than the documentation of life. That's what we discovered! As things calm... we have STORIES for you!

Stay tuned...

Waiting for the animals to arrive

Here we sit, almost midnight, waiting for the arrival of our final load of animals shipped from Oregon.

Horse
Llama
Chickens
Pigs
Sheep

When they arrive, our move will be complete! What an experience!

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