Gathering free goat and sheep food

Through the magic of Craigslist... we have been blessed with batches of free excellent goat and sheep  feed in the form of tree trimmings. This time we got a call about a huge willow tree that was being trimmed back. Tree trimmings are great supplemental food for sheep and goats (as well as horses and hogs as a treat) as long as they have never been sprayed. Trees tend to be organic anyway, as most people have no reason to spray trees in their yards. Nevertheless, always best to make sure.

We loaded our trailer full of branches and leaves tonight At the end of the day we had loaded about 90% of the pile that was waiting for us. Tomorrow they finish trimming the tree and e can expect about that much again! 

We would like to say a heart felt thank you to everyone that is donating tree trimmings to the farm. We use the leaves for feed, and then the bark cleaned branches go into the chipper to become clean bedding. that way nothing goes to waste!

For the goats, we expect the constant diet  that includes tree trimmings will increase the milk supply without feeding grain. We prefer to not feed grain as a regular food, as it isnt what the goats would eat naturally in the wild. In cows the feed drastically changes the quality of the milk, and we expect the same from goats. Grass fed cow milk is completely different from grain fed cow milk, so leave and grass fed goat milk likely has the same benefit.  We are investigating the difference and the ability to produce milk without grain. so far the results are promising.

So.. for now.. we go out once a week or so and retrieve a load of fresh organic tree trimmings! ITs actually easier than loading bales of hay :)

Kaelyn collecting pine needles

the tree it all came from

The pile when we started

Loading branches.. what a workout!

Hunter sure enjoys farm work!

Levi prefers chasing bugs and collecting things

The pile shrinking slowly

Heave ho!

Kaelyn meticulously cleaning her pine needles

How much more is there?!?!

Finally her needles are ready to take home

What is this young fellow concentrating on?

Dont worry Dad, I can do this

Retiring the old horse trailer

There it sits... outside the tire shop in Grants Pass. After faithful service for a a couple of years the old horse trailer has reached the end of its days. Time to sell her for whatever she can bring.

The story? well.. we were on our way to pick up some additional goats for the farm, north of grants pass. Right when we pulled off the freeway the trailer started bouncing around like crazy. Pulling over we found what looked like a broken belt and a bulging tire.  So far from home, we decided to head on to our destination and see if there was a way to change the tire.

unfortunately  when we got there and looked the tire over, I discovered that it had those tiny lug nuts popular years ago.  I didnt have a lug wrench to fit. The people where we were getting the goats from were kind enough to look through the tool box, and we found a socket that would work, but no extension. It was hopeless.  Instead of picking up the goats we ended up hobbling along back to Grants pass at 10mph on the freeway, found a tire shop to leave it at, and headed home. (this was late on sunday night)

the next day didnt yield any happiness either. Turns out that the rims are 16.5 inches, a size not used anymore. There were no tired in town to fit, and special order would be really expensive.  Fitting new rims and then buying tires was also too much for the value of that trailer.  so at the end of it all, we decided to sell her for what we can get and let someone else find tires to fit.

So, she is gone... sold within a day. Now we are in the market for a larger stock trailer that would fit our needs better anyway. If you have one.. let us know!

Goat buck arrives!

We finally took delivery of our first make goat.he its a purebred nigerian dwarf buck now named "george ".

I will post pics as soon as possible.he is cute and somewhat reminds me of george burns!

George wasted no time getting down to business as soon as we put our two nonmilking does in the pasture with him. We decided to keep him in the pasture in hopes that he won't"taint"the milk with his strong hormones.

Late season bee swarm!

We got a surprise all today. Someone found a bee swarm! Seems late in the season for a swarm but we still need to fill one hive so it is worth checking out!

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This turned out to be a picture perfect swarm capture! It was a smaller swarm hanging onto a plum tree just a few feet from the ground. Clipping a few branches enabled me to drop them into the bucket easily. As usual I set the bucket down with the lid cracked open and let them alone for 10 or 20 minutes and sure enough, 100% of the bees climbed inside! It was amazing to watch them all calm down and one by one crawl inside the bucket. This is the first time we caught every single bee!

the only down side was that Hunter got stung! He was standing maybe 10 feet way but for some reason at the first light touch of the clipper the swarm rustled to life and a couple of bees shot out. One of those shot straight to Hunter and stung him under his chin! there was no delay, no thinking about it, the little fellow flew straight to him and stung within a half second of me touching the branch. That was a first! too. the rest of the bees seemed docile enough, it was just he single bee.

We met a really nice couple who ended up in the end letting the kids pick plums from the tree to take home. They happily picked a bag full of fresh juicy plums after the bees were gone.

Now the bees are adjusting to their new home, our 6th hive for the season. Hopefully they will make a happy long lived home of Little Sprouts Farm.

The swarm resting between the plum branches

Snipping some branches off around it 

time to snip the main branch off

and in the bucket

we finished the evening by picking plums!

Is this truly America?

I urge you to read through this news story. It details a comparison between the armed raid of a local food buying club and local farmers that have never had a single issue with illness or problems, to a multinational corporation that has dead victims from eating it's processed food products.  The contrast is amazing and points out the unfair harassment that small farmers are under in america today. It has gotten to the point that small farmers doing things in a supposedly legal manner are being shut down and actually jailed, and as the story points out, treated as worse criminals than rapist and thieves.

Here is the article, but a word of warning.. it is upsetting to read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/08/the-latest-raw-milk-raid-an-attack-on-food-freedom/243635/