It is March 1st and we are just 2 weeks shy of being on the farm for 1 year. We’ve survived our first winter here and are definitely excited for spring and the days getting longer. We had about 2 bad weeks of winter weather that made our chores more like chores! Frozen water in the chicken coop, hauling hay and feed through snow and sub-zero temps, and a little bit of worrying about our animals enduring the cold made me wonder how my friends and family in ND do it for months! It also made me wonder how my grandparents did it 80 years ago without so many modern conveniences! Our stock tank heater, heated rabbit waterers, and heated bowl for the cats were certainly nice to have and cut down immensely on ice chipping and water hauling!
Roll Call
Our cow family has grown with Thelma & Louise–a cow/calf pair we brought home in January. Thelma is a great Mama cow and she will calf again this summer–very exciting to be looking forward to our own baby calf being born here at Blessed Mayhem! We enjoy feeding the cows apples and squash for treats and will hopefully make our new addition a bucket calf for one of the twins in 4-H next year.
Our flock continues to grow and we are currently at 14 hens & 2 roosters. Mr. Tweety is our main roo but we also have a banty roo that goes by HeyHey who is crazy and keeps us all laughing. I’m also excited to be adding 18 new ladies that will arrive in April. We’ve added easter and olive eggers so we have colorful eggs and a diverse flock. The cats enjoy hanging in the coop and keep the mice population down. We’ve lost 3 cats to John Brown Road-Diesel, Bella, and Cotton Fluffers. Living right on black top is nice and certainly keeps our predator load down, but this is the sad drawback. We are adding some fencing this spring but I know in my heart we have probably not lost our last animal to the traffic. I also added reflective collars to our cats (Rocky, Biscuit, and Lucky) and I think they have almost forgiven me for it!
Aahliya has 2 rabbits-Alfalfa and Tiny. She will be showing them for 4-H this year-if Covid and some rogue rabbit virus allows. Covid continues to put a huge damper on things.
Our camelids are doing well and pretty fun to have around. We did a nail trim in January and it went surprisingly well. Aahliya is really good with all the animals and steps up to take the lead when we encourage her.
Our newest addition is our little LGD puppy-Lucy. She is 1/2 stag hound, 1/4 Great Pyrenees, 1/4 Anatolian Shepard. Training a puppy to be an LGD is something I’ve been bracing myself for. It is going well, but it’s a big responsibility. She will be 80-100 pounds and will be a part of our big farm family–so training her to understand what she can and cannot do is imperative. With free range chickens, cats, rabbits, cows, alpacas, and a sassy llama there is a lot going on at Blessed Mayhem and Lucy is learning what to respect. The task of training her (& our family) will continue for a few years.
With springtime coming the gardener in me is getting antsy. We put a greenhouse in our basement and I already have 6 types of tomatoes, hot peppers, broccolini, cauliflower, cabbage, loofahs, and celery started. Last fall I tilled up a new spot for a berry patch and soon will put in Heritage raspberries and strawberries. I’m ready to prune our fruit trees (pear & apple) in hopes of a good harvest this year. I will also add elderberries and till up a whole new garden space where we plan to build a high tunnel next spring. A high tunnel will allow me to grown fresh produce nearly year round here.
Despite Covid Max started wrestling this year. He only got to compete in 1 event, but really enjoyed going to practice every week. Anything that allows him to climb, wrestle, rough house, and generally horse around with other little high-energy humans is a big hit. Aahliya starts track today–if she decides to give it her all, she has great potential. Her grades are nearly all As and Bs–what a tremendous school system we are blessed to be in. All the littles continue to enjoy school immensely–and I can’t believe Riley will be in Kindergarten next year!
