Adding roosts to eggmobile

This afternoon we spent in the beautiful winter weather building in the roosts for the Eggmobile.  The birds, now about half grown, need more space to roost and start stretching their wings.  These roosts will offer them a safe, warm, dry space inside the eggmobile itself to rest.

Everett mans the RTV to hand out supplies and tools. 

Need a piece of wood?

Levi, Hunter, and myself work inside to build the roosts. 

Everett takes a break to explore the new pasture.

Levi in charge of nails, Hunter in charge of measuring.

Everett explores UNDER the eggmobile. 

Need a screw Dad?

Uh oh.. These little ladies managed to escape under the fence!

Dont worry, I'll get them!

Levi decides to try his hand at using the electric drill

Here's the eggmobile at a distance. You can see the enclosed pen where the birds can come out and play in the sunshiune.

More screws Dad?

I'll take one!

Here you go Dad

Farming how-to ebooks

We have decided to use the slower winter time productively.  We will be producing a series of single topic farming ebooks! It is time to share what we have learned over the last  4 years .
Our ebooks will be short,  direct,  and inexpensize.  They will cover info on single  topics like:
How to keep egg production through the winter
How to create great compost.
How to eliminate pig pen smells.
How to process turkeys.
How to incubate and raise poultry.
How to choose proper size farm equipment.
How to winterize  a farm.
How to make children enjoy farm chores.
Heritage Turkey roost.
Moveable chicken pens.
Collecting free organic animal feed.
Improving farm drainage, decreasing mud.
Maintaining a gravel or dirt driveway.
Backup farm generator choosing and installation.
Choosing a farm trailer.
Installing field fencing.
There are so many topics,  so many things we learned the hard way because there is so little information out there. It seems that most of the art of farming has been lost,  especially small scale sustainable farming.
So if your looking for pointers, direction,  advice,  on the thousands of questions arising daily on the farm,  stay tuned!  We will be building a library of knowledge for your  benefit  right here in the website.
Please email on your ebook  suggestions!

Chicken eggs arrive!

Well, first came the chicken. .. or was it the egg?  Either way..  both have arrived at little sprouts !

Over the weekend we picked up about 150 laying golden sexlink hens and a home built moveable coop.  The birds are busy exploring a new pasture now and laying dozens of nutritious soy free eggs.

Our first full day yielded 84 eggs total.  Their production is down for the winter and the stress of two recent long distance moves.  We are putting the birds on a soy  free high protein feed to help them recover. We also switched them to daylight type stronger light to extend their day.

As the birds improve and thereby the egg quality improved,  we will be offering these eggs for sale. Sign up now to give them a try!  I guarantee that you wont be disappointed!

First taste of little sprouts lamb

We finally had put first taste of our heritage lamb.  In a word.. . WOW! The meat was amazingly tender, mildly flavored,  and just plain delicious!
The most amazing thing is ease of use.  Instead of an elaborate lamb recipe with all the preparation. .. it was so easy.  Brenda took the leg of lamb from the freezer in the morning, placed it frozen into a Dutch oven with some water,  sprinkled a little salt, pepper,  and thyme - baked it for the day in the oven. 
It tastes much like grass fed beef. In fact I had to think about it to tell the difference. It was  more tender than beef though.
So we are pleased with our lamb.  It is totally grass fed,  organically raised, heritage Jacob sheep. Healthy,  nutritious,  and delicious.
If you would like to sample some lamb this year,  just contact us.  You can also reserve yours for next year now!

The farm on autopilot

Since Thanksgiving the farm had been running on autopilot.  I got hit with a rather tough bout of food poisoning that has left me unable to do anything for almost 2 weeks.  (Don't worry, the cause was sourced to off farm food! )
This does demonstrate a risk of farming.  With any business of small size,  every employee is critical.  Any absence is felt by all.  The smaller the company,  the greater the impact.  Family farming puts the vast majority of responsibility on 2 people!
I applaud Brenda for keeping thing going during this difficult time.  Not only is she a true saint to put family,  but she managed to ensure that everything critical was done.  Friends and family volunteered to help out with chores under her direction,  and she was seen numerous times hauling Feed sacks.  All the whole caring for our 4 little sprouts and taking care of me.  She is truly the strength of this place.