The Accidental Farmer (Retired): Down on the farm

So many things to report!

My new knee - I am forgetting about it, it is so good. They kicked me out of physical therapy early. I not only met the one month goals at three weeks, but I also met the three MONTH goals, in terms of flexibility, strength and stability. All of this farm work has got to be good for something, and apparently that is quick healing after getting a new knee!

My chicks - for the first time, every chick is still alive after two weeks, including Peep II. She is malformed, very small body, weak legs, and I found her lying on the floor with the other chicks running roughshod over her. I brought her in and she has been living out what I thought were her last few days in a box in my closet. She could not walk, but rather crawled and used her over-sized wings to propel herself. She liked to sleep in her food dish, so I put another in there, one for her to sleep in, one to eat from. But she has given up sleeping in the dish, and this morning I found her standing! On those little, weak legs, she was standing! This I did not expect. I just thought I was making her comfortable for her last days. She seems happy. I will have to get her a mirror so she has a chicken friend. The only thing that upsets her is when I turn the lights off. But that may change as well.

Peep II in her sleeping bowl

Yes, she is standing! Yay!!

My mood tends to ebb and flow with the supply of milk for the shareholders. Let's just say I am very happy! In fact, some of the shareholders are yelling, "Enough, already!" I am selling shares to the people who were on the waiting list. After last season's debacle with some bad hay, we just dried up the herd and quit selling shares, so there is a bit of pent up demand. But it takes a while to get a new person on board, and so the existing shareholders are swimming in milk. Two more calves over the weekend. I think I have already posted Lucy with her calf Lacey, and Quattro with her calf Quill. Here are pics of Smarty Pants and Essie Mae with their offspring, both little bulls. I am thinking that we should probably keep one of them for breeding stock.

Smarty Pants & bull calf 3/31/12


Essie Mae & bull calf 4/1/12

Here are the two proud moms with their new offspring.

And let's not forget the greenhouse. I have a new helper in the greenhouse, and he is working out very well. We worked on getting seedlings potted up into 2" pots. My peppers did not germinate very well - they were planted in the weeks before my knee surgery, and I didn't give them proper care. So today Kyle will finish potting up those that did germinate, and I planted five seedling trays (220 seeds per tray) with pepper seeds. They are VERY late, but we will hope that they germinate well and get big enough to sell by mid-May.