Chicama Run Family Farm

Wow.....what a difference a little help makes.

So here was my morning:

Woke up 6:30 and had coffee and went through emails.
7:30 started washing eggs for deliveries today
8:30 still washing eggs and needed to get started feeding birds etc plus hooking up the trailer to load animals
8:45 help showed up and went and fed all the birds, gathered eggs (pretty much my morning chores)
9:30 everything is done and loaded..... time to go load up the 2 sheep for the butcher
10:15 DONE LOADING ANIMALS AND EVERYTHING!!
10:16 relief at stuff being done and it all went well

Seriously..... just having a set of extra hands made my morning much less stressful. Washing the eggs for delivery today took extra time and I needed it done. Getting the sheep in the trailer wasn't easy (ok the ram was easy enough) but it was worth having an extra hand here that could help.

Now off to take the kids to their lessons and deliver eggs.

It's time to breathe a little. I know that sounds a little strange... but we have decided what we want to focus on. CHICKEN/POULTRY.

We will start getting rid of our sheep (so anticipate having large amounts of mutton soon - I may even do sausage just because we will have so much to work from). I know a lot of people love our lamb - but they are a lot of work and we do need to focus.

Don't worry - we will still be running the hogs and the steers for beef and pork :) Plus we are keeping the goats.

The big deal? It means that over the winter we will have goats and laying hens - that's it. No pigs.... nothing like that. They are hard to keep over the winter (freezing water etc)....

We will still keep the llamas as they can hang with the goats and the ducks. But no more of the stress of 12+ sheep giving birth over the winter. I don't think my heart could take many more losses of the ones that we work so hard to keep.

Do I like sheep? Yep.... the kids will buy their 4-H lambs next year to show so we will have some on our farm. Of course they are super yummy too ;)

This plan will give us more of the winter off though where we can take a deep breath and focus on our family and the house.

So we have a friend's son coming in and helping a few days per week with some odd jobs here and there and it feels odd. Why?

Because for 4 years, it has just been us doing all the work - no help or anything. But now we are trying to go away here and there on short trips. We purchased a travel trailer almost to force us to go away. We need the break as living where you work can get tough - there is ALWAYS something to do, even if you WANT to relax - chores are staring you in the face.

So I sit.....I walked him through the morning chores..... I didn't do the chores - had him do it for me (total wierd feeling)......but it's making me laugh.

Can you say control freak family?? Yep - that's us I think. We need to close our eyes and remember that help is a good thing and can make a family work a little better.

It's hot. Plain and simple - no one wants to move in the heat. No, it's not August heat...... yet.... but this humidity - well my hair is an instant barometer and the frizz factor says "ICK"

We've had a long week already as one of Alexis's show lambs died. Luckily she had one more - but of course it was the one that looked the best. Then 2 of the other lambs died. When rain hits like this - worms come out to play havoc on the animals.

Chickens don't lay as many eggs during the heat either which is a pain as we need eggs!!! No matter how many chickens I have - it's never enough. We've been losing some to foxes and a few hawk attacks.... but the Great Pyrs have been doing at least some work keeping them at bay.

Joe has everything in the garden - and now needs to get the pumpkin patch ready which I think he's doing this week since the house is quiet.

Off to do household chores - apparently laundry would be a good thing to do :)

So this picture was taken by Alexis the other day. The coop is for the kid's 4-H birds (a bunch of bantams) and Pug decided he needed to check it out.