The Braewick Project

30/09/2024

It turns out, summer is pretty busy!
We are still developing so there was lots of building. I fenced the garden, a big area for the girls, a midsize area for the boys and a small breeding pen. I built a shack and run for one pheasant group and put the other pheasant group in the "A" frame. The quail were moved to the small rabbit run in the back yard.
It was a summer for reflection and hard choices too. I sold almost all the rabbits, keeping only a couple of pets. Rabbit meat is delicious but it takes a lot more work than chicken. I don't love the kitchen so I decided to let them go. If I ever decide I want them again, it will be super easy. I have the facilities and the knowledge to run a rabbitry exactly the way I want.
I also sold the kunekunes. That was a tough one. I love them so much, and will always love them. We decided that keeping breeders is not for us, at least not now. We are picking up some bacon seeds later this week. They are going to live in the garden for a few months and root it up. I'm going to rest the garden and start again in a year or two. It needs to spend some time in repair. I'll support my local farmers market in the meantime. Raising up pigs short term fits our lifestyle and needs for now. I'm looking forward to picking up the rascals! I really love pigs but goats are the animals we want to be our main focus. The dairy products are such a high value item to us!
Nigerian Dwarf goat milk is AMAZING! We learned so much this year and look forward to a more knowledgeable experience next year. We will breed 5 does in November/December and hope for loads of milk!
Coming next spring: soap, cheese, butter, cream...so many dairy products
By far the best part of this summer was the birth of our first darling grandchild! 🥰

28/06/2024

Cornish chicks have arrived!

24/06/2024

24/06/2024

I haven't posted for a while so I thought it was time. Things have been very busy on the farm but we are settling down to a routine. The crops are seeded, the garden is in and fenced and we have some new animals on the farm. We recently added jumbo coturnix quail, red golden pheasants and a new Kunekune boar. I hope to breed Candy Bacon to Abra-ham in the fall for spring piglets. 💗
The pheasants, Alexander the Great and Roxana are happily getting ready to raise a family. Roxana lays an egg a day now, so, when she feels there are a sufficient number, she'll start to set. Maybe we will get to have a luxurious pheasant Christmas dinner! We will add 30 meat chicks to the farm this week so I'm currently busy planning a new pen for them. I hope to do two batches of meat birds before winter.
The young goats went to my friend's place for summer camp 😆
She has a couple of pens with grass and weeds to clean up so they went to give her a hand. My does in milk are now getting milked twice a day. Sunday was the first day. All I can say is, it was a rodeo. I'm not sure if they were upset because the kids are gone or what, but we had a frank exchange of ideas. Lol, things are improving but this morning I just went ahead and ordered a milking machine. I can't wait until it gets here. Maybe one day I'll try to put Sunday's adventure into words. I just have to get over the trauma first! 😆

21/04/2024

The newest additions! Meet my new motley crew. They come from green, blue, brown and dark brown eggs. My goal is to develop birds that lay multi coloured eggs but have feathered shanks and rose combs.

04/04/2024

Well, life on a farm is never dull. Kids did, indeed, arrive on Monday, but there was no April Fool's joking. The first was a girl, still born and a bit under developed. The second was a very lovely cream girl. Sadly, she only lived a couple of hours. I don't know what went wrong. She seemed ok, but was never strong and just seemed to fade. I did everything I could. It was a very hard loss, I was so hoping for a cream doeling. The third kid was a very robust, beautiful red boy with blue eyes. He's such a doll! I will have all my bucklings evaluated by my mentor before I decide, but he will likely be staying here for breeding.
In light of the events, my plans for milking were advanced by a month and a half or so. I was planning on easing into milking with one session a day when the kids were about 4-6 weeks. Now I have to milk twice a day. The baby only nurses one side so I have to make sure both sides get emptied or she'll dry up on the side he's neglecting. So I have spent the last three days building and tweaking our milking stand and learning how to milk.
It's not as easy as it looks...
Yesterday morning was nothing short of a rodeo, last night we contained enough to please the dog, but technique was improved. This morning we might have had almost a full pail of Collette hadn't dumped it twice. Tonight, I'm pretty confident that we will be able to collect enough to have our first glasses of our own milk. 😆
This experience has been very sad, a little frustrating at times but, all in all, an adventure and I wouldn't trade it.
Homesteading is hard, but it's a good life.

01/04/2024

Collette's big day is here! Kids coming soon...

25/03/2024

Next week is going to be exciting! Collette is due to kid and we will be tapping the box elders for the first time! Home made syrup coming soon!

14/03/2024

They're HERE!
Sassy had three babes this morning, of course, when I went in for breakfast. I arrived back in the barn in time to dry everyone off, she must have rapid fire delivered them! There is a buckskin buckling, a chocolate buckskin buckling and a buckskin doeling. I can't believe how tiny they are.
I'm so in love!

02/02/2024

Garden seeds are ordered! I went with Eco Seed bank this year. 23 vegetable varieties and 11 herbs. I’ll be starting a lot of seeds indoors this year so this will be another new adventure. I’m adding some raised herb beds, ground cherries, asparagus and celery, as well as a big patch of sugar beets in the back garden. I’m exploring options for growing my own sugar, as well as tapping some maple trees. I’m so thankful for all the beautiful things we can grow, even though our season is short. I’m hoping and praying for a great harvest this year and definitely working hard to keep the chickens and dog out! Last year the dog pulled up the seed potatoes and the chickens ate almost everything else! Today I brought home nearly four full cords of mill slabs. There are some sturdy fences going up this spring!

10/01/2024

The temperature is -21 Celsius (-5.8 Fahrenheit) but feels like -31 C (-23.8 F)
It’s cold.
Probably a couple of months late, but winter is finally here. Thank you January, you seldom fail in delivering the bitter cold!
Temperatures are forecast to feel like -40 by Saturday night so everyone needed deep bedding to stay warm. That means someone has to deliver the straw, buckets and buckets of straw. That’s me, farm girl with a tractor, freezing her nose and toes, forking hay from the bales to the tractor and the tractor to the stalls. I still love my animals and am happy to work hard for their comfort, they’ll pay me back with affection, delicious food, soap and fertilizer.
The next time someone tells you farmers don’t love their animals, remember this image and know that, regardless of circumstances, the animals needs are taken care of.
Yeah, we love them. We even do stupid stuff to keep them safe.

09/01/2024

I’ve been remiss! I forgot to post about the Guinea fowl development…they are laying now! Every two or three days we get two teenie eggs. They have shells that practically have to be sawn open and taste exactly like chicken eggs. 😋