Blind Hog and Acorn

Snow and below average temperatures are on the way, Blind Hog and Acorn have hay chores to get done today- will be the first time in a month the Mahindra has been asked to work!  Will the tractor remember how to start?  Ha! Blind Hog and Acorn are thinking about the garden, upcoming appointments.  Acorn has finally had enough of the "chronic coff-coff" and NP says is probably nothing mor...

Yes yes, Acorn lost track of the days (again) and remembered to make the podcast again a day late- so it goes...  Blind Hog has since cleaned out the ash from the woodstove and it is fired up, Acorn has baked the promised muffins. Pretty quiet week- livestock of all kinds are content.  Goat kids are growing fast, running with moms out o the field.  Only once did Acorn have to go out and find a sle...

Blind Hog and Acorn rang in the New Year as they usually do- sound asleep!  The past week has been full of farm chores and activities, even with sinus drainage... Goose pens completed, geese paired up and set in their new digs where they will stay, segregated from each other, until goslings are hatched. Goat kidding is now on hold for a month- 18 more nannies yet to pop. Weather has been tolerable...

Kidding continues with roller coaster weather.  Near record lows followed by record highs. Blind Hog and Acorn are muddling through, getting things done. Happy New Year, everyone!

Blind Hog and Acorn got prepared for the winter storm a few days early- no shame there!  After 48+ hrs incarcerated in the dairy barn, goats have begin kidding. Acorn is a tired midwife. Dairy barn has been staying 10+ degrees warmer than outside.  Might not sound like much but when it -8F outside, being near 0F in the barn is a good thing! Ring those bells and Believe!  Give angels their wings! ...

Ain't telling a goat what to do, that is for sure.  No kids yet! Blind Hog and Acorn are still making cold weather preparations.  Closed in the north gable end of the old goat barn- Acorn maintains she is NOT a hoarder, as that stack of old rusty sheet metal has come in handy for more than one project...  Hay has been covered, all arrangements ready.  Will the goats hold out till after the si...

Took some finesse but the calves thought they would be tricksie and came home with the goats last Sunday- Acorn quickly closed a gate behind them, got them separated into the round pen and cheered!  Let the weaning begin !  Calpurnia, Lulu and Pi shuffled on down and over the next day.  After 5 days with no ill effects, the buyers for SteelMeadow's Piper , the last heifer, was loaded into a t...

Wellllllll, FIFA World Cup has certainly taken the attention of the farmers, and when the mornings are brisk, it is far too easy to toss another log on the fire and delay chores for just a wee bit longer... Cranberries have been processed, geese waddle around and still no goat kids yet. Cows and two calves still need to come home from the east field- figuring it won't be too much ;onger and A...

The holiday week began with cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.  A bit of cooking too, but nothing crazy- was just Blind Hog, Acorn and Baby Badger.  Turkey was cooked a week before, and the few sides were easy peasy. Usual chores continue.  Wire horse panels purchased and cut for the goose pens and barn door openings. Blind Hog has his woodpile about finished. FIFA futbol has been entertaining....

Prepping of many kinds at SteelMeadow Farm...  Cooking, baking, cleaning .  Getting all the little fiddly bits done.  Fruitcakes...  Cinnamon rolls... Turkey... Blind Hog's firewood is no longer growing oyster mushrooms, those logs went into the woodstove.  Those logs were also very light, weight-wise, for their size. Guess the fungi have been taking care of that. Goats are happy enough, cows...

Busy enough week for Blind Hog and Acorn- cutting down dead trees for firewood, cleaning up the sewing room and culling through boxes and boxes of "stuffs..."  A carload of recycling and thrift store drop offs... Blind Hog had a great 81st birthday, even got some work in while the weather was in the upper 70's.  Now, it barely got above freezing for the high.  PLUS SNOW FLURRIES! Oy...

Not a very exciting week...  Garden chores, woodpile chores... Blah blah blah ...  Goats DID get vaccinated, with the help of the Badger. That was a might task that needed doing.  Tail hairs sent off on four doelings to get them registered as 50%'ers... Acorn got all excited about a new coffee grinder but after recording the podcast it was found the new unit won't even power on!  No!!!!!...

Apologies for any repeated material from week to week, but when everyday is the same, it is easy to get days mixed up! Blind Hog and Acorn have been busy with farm chores, food preparation, canning, woodsplitting. Today's pasture walk revealed the winter forecast via persimmon seeds (spoiler, it was a spoon = snow). Sam's paw is healed, no more protective boot. Yay!

Has been a week of home electronic installation as Blind Hog and Acorn received and installed the new cell phone booster kit and yes, the big test of improved signal reception is apparent- the podcast episode loaded up before this first paragraph was completed!  BOOM!  Just like that! Besides putting up a new 6' mast for the omnidirectional antenna, mounted on the old Hughes Net dish frame, t...

Busy week on the farm- both goats barns cleaned out and dusted with lime and diatomaceous earth, dead trees cut and brought down from the upper 40 for firewood, walnuts a-plenty in the yard for picking up, goji berries in the dehydrator.  PHEW! Blind Hog and Acorn will take Sunday afternoon off at least, football game at 3:30pm.  Good excuse to have a sit-down! Everything else is going along well...

Acorn left for a fun weekend trip to Houston, only to be diverted on her way home to Fort Myers. Talk about a mess down there!  Thankfully, the house in the Trust was pretty much unscathed and the closing of the sale, scheduled on the 29th, was NOT cancelled but only postponed a week.  Buyers so happy that they could not wait. Blind Hog met Acorn at 10pm and back to the farm they skedaddled.  Rout...

Blind Hog and Acorn are slogging along, one better than the other.  Farm chores wait for no one and things just chug along. Happily, there is light at the end of the Covid Tunnel and both have been taking walks again in the morning, not like they are totally laid out flat... Canning up the last of the tomatoes and okra, green beans about done.  Weather remains dry, garden has about had it. Before...

No- seriously, the week in the rockies as FABULOUS!  Blind Hog and Acorn both lost like 5-6 lbs, crazy good hiking days and wonderful lodgings.  Airports were "interesting" to say the least.  Missed one connecting flight by minutes, but truly that only set the holiday back by 4 hours- big whoop.  At least the luggage did not get lost~ Three nights on the Icefields Parkway, three nights a...

10,000+ steps on Acorn's Fitbit and she has not really left the house- all that spinning around in circles!  Blind Hog did the pasture walks, refilled mineral feeders, moved the goats, tended the laying hens. Chores winding down for the day- beans to snap and then jar up for the canner, okra to blanch and can as well.  Farmsitters will arrive in the morning, plenty of time for relaxed coffee...

What a wonderful time with The Goat Man and Brian!  Always fun to goof off and have fun with company. Frank got to look over the goats, see how the Savanna Goat Breed-up Plan was coming along, visited with some other goaty friends, and had a lovely time.  Well, Blind Hog and Acorn had a great time... The farmers will have a week to get things ready for their week-long absence in September...  Just...

This week the farm brought in 4 adult Spanish nannies, one who was born on the farm 5 years ago. These were the last four goats of folks who started with SteelMeadow goats and got their herd up to 40, but they have decided to focus on cattle and making hay. The goats are calm, healthy, and will make great additions. To end the week, Acorn sold the two Flappy sisters who were not suited as commerci...

The good news is that the farm received rain, bad news is that there are still a couple leaky spots on the roof but hopefully Blind Hog and Acorn are getting them figured out. A few more forays onto the sheet metal might be needed, but they will see how the next rain is handled. Call received from folks who got goats from SteelMeadow YEARS ago, have a few they would like to sell back to the farm. ...

Yay!  Blind Hog got several things done this week- attic fan installed in one day, cows moved from west to east fields,  seventeen doelings sold to a single buyer, laying hen peeps purchased.  AND Acorn is most excited about the livestock ultrasound device she can use to check goats for pregnancy.   No more guessing, waiting around. Drought continues.  Fields had a bit of reprieve but 1/2 of rain...

Acorn spent a few days at the Florida house repainting a couple rooms, fixing a few things, and being a general-all-around-handyman. Back at the farm, she and Blind Hog are back in the attic preparing to install a louvered gable vent and attic fan.  So exciting! Was unusually cool today (upper 60's) at the farm but the farmers did not complain. Being up in the attic was quite bearable!  Finge...

Our favorite farmers turned into roof repair techs this past week- hard to turn down an opportunity to save cash.  $1,400 repair estimate from one company, but when Blind Hog and Acorn could score the materials for $300?  Of course!  They did it themselves!  Good news is that the roof ridge has been replaced and should be (knock wood) waterproofed and leak proofed. The bull Fintan, cow Sorcha and...