Winter 2021 Farm Update

 On the Farm

Spring is here!  Hoping everyone made it through the "springing" ahead last weekend.  It seemed to really hit us hard for some reason.  I guess we are starting to get busier and was needing the rest.  It is okay...we are powering through!  Here is a little update about what has been going on on the farm...

If you follow our farm, you probably know most of what has happened the past few months but it has been such a busy winter that I am going to recap everything here...I have been posting so much more on the Facebook so I am not sure I will be continuing with these quarterly updates...we will see...

I had over 1400 pics on my phone.  What a mess!  I finally got around to deleting them!  I am getting better at organizing them when I take them off my phone.  Yeah for small victories!  Also, I updated the ReMARKable Farms website in December.  Winter is a great time to work on these "computer" projects.

One good thing is that the future duck coop was built in the fall and we got some ducklings and "replacement" chicks and put them into the coop.   

Denise in front of coop in December

Yesterday, the contractor came out and started working on the run for the duck coop.  The bottom is secured and I am going to let the chicks and ducklings out into the run for a little bit this afternoon to get some fresh air.  

Pic of duck coop on March 20

The replacement chicks were to help cover some of the 7 chickens that the raccoon got in November.  The last time we have seen the raccoon was on December 11th when it got caught in a dog proof trap for about an hour and a half but then somehow managed to escape.  Fingers crossed that it does not come back...

New ducklings!

New chicks!

We had to put our Great Pyrenees, Cooper, down because he had some nerve damage in his back.  Benjamin came to the farm in December.  He likes to chase the cats and eat eggs but we love him a lot!

Benjamin is good with helping with the putting the girls in for the night.  They really start moving toward the door when they see him coming.  LOL!

We got the fodder system up and producing fresh greens each day for the girls.  We were battling with some egg eating issues.  I started taking the fodder out early in the morning to try and distract the girls from the egg eating.  It worked for a while but they seem to be back to the egg eating...ugh...

Now, we are anxiously waiting for the run to be completed on the duck coop and then we will be moving all the chicks into the barn with the chickens.  We will take all the ducks out of the barn and put them into the duck coop with the ducklings.  Hopefully, this will be happening the end of the month or in early April.  I am already anxious about "moving day" but also excited that this may put an end to the egg eating!

As you may guess, we have started some seedlings for the garden!  

The only new update is that we got another cold frame!  The "new" cold frame is on the left in this pic.  It has an arm that automatically opens the middle panel when the temperature increases over the day.  I am going to try and actually plant lettuce/arugula/spinach into the new cold frame for an early greens harvest.  I have a cold frame that I put together last year (on the right in pic) and I used it to harden off the seedlings before I put them into the garden.  I will use that "older" cold frame for that purpose again.  When I am done hardening things off, I am going to plant sweet potatoes into that cold frame.  Maybe I will plant some melons into the other cold frame...probably watermelon...

Here is a pic of the new cold frame during the middle of the day where the arm of the middle panel is opened because it is warm inside the frame.

Also, I have started a little "experiment" and you will learn more about that in my next blog post...hopefully...if the experiment works!  Fingers crossed!

Have an eggcellent day!

~Denise