Mid-Summer at Iron Oak Farm

The summer weeks are flying by. Over the weekend we cleaned the barn, moved stuff around to make room for more hay, and tore down/re-built some of the goat pen fencing. We had a make-shift feed room constructed out of pallets where we store the grain cans, supplements and supplies. It's nice to have that stuff tucked away, because the goats have a way of getting into the open part of the barn, despite our best efforts. A galvanized garbage can lid is no match for a grain-crazed goat. They know just how to get their snout under that lid and bury their head in the can full of grain. So that is also in the process of being moved and re-built. It feels nice to get things organized and I feel like every year it gets a little easier.

So far (knock on wood) the hay equipment and the tractor have been running smoothly. We brought in 102 bales last Sunday and would like to triple that this season. I think we will do it so long as we can orchestrate the weather and the equipment. 

We missed a good haying window these past few days because the forecast said rain, so we held off...but looking back we would have been fine. Hoping to cut again tomorrow or Wednesday. 

The garden is doing great! Things are starting to make their way into the kitchen. I'm blanching and freezing 4 large broccoli heads today. The zucchini is picking size and we enjoy a handful of raspberries or two each evening after dinner.

Our pickles are starting to form baby pickles and I only hope that the dill will hold out.

I might have to freeze some to make sure.  

Swiss chard

Playing around with color settings and some old rakes on the garden fence.

Mamma hen and her brood of 9 chicks enjoying some crumbles.

Ichabod the escape-goat clearing some weeds for us.

  My Egyptian Walking Onions are forming their off shoot bulbets and I picked them off and planted them in the onion bed. I'm fascinated with these onions! I might never have to buy onion sets again!

This pesky, brightly colored bug is giving me asparagus nightmares! It's the Common Asparagus Beetle and it's stripping our first year asparagus of all it's green outer skin. I've been combating it with a solution of Dawn dish soap and water. It seems to be helping even after one application. It's supposed to rain today and after it stops, I'm going to go out and give the plants another coat.

Moon and Stars Watermelon: I grew this variety last year and was really happy with the watermelon flavor. I love the yellow spots that both the fruit and the foliage bear.

Oliver taking advantage of the cool tiles on the front porch.

To see more of what we're doing at Iron Oak Farm I invite you to visit and "like" our Facebook Page where I share even more photos and updates.  

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Solway Maxi Cup Watering System GIVEAWAY!!!

I'm excited to share with you the new way we are providing water to our Turkeys! We just installed the new Maxi Cup side mounted waterer in our coop, and the process couldn't have been easier!

This design works wonderful for poultry with larger anatomical features. Our turkeys have larger beaks and larger heads than our chickens and they really enjoy this system. It would also work perfectly for ducks who drink in a scooping motion with their bills.

Materials Needed
-Maxi Cup waterer (Available for purchase soon from Solway)
-Plastic bucket with lid, we're using a 5 gallon
-drill
-7/16" drill bit

Simply drill a hole 2 1/4" from the bottom of the bucket. Remove the filter and the nut from the threaded post.

Install the Maxi Cup.

Tighten the nut on the inside,

and install the filter.

Fill with water and place the bucket lid on top to keep things extra clean.

The compact cup design minimizes debris from entering the water. As the birds drink, clean water is replaced from the bucket. So 5 gallons of drinking water is always available to your birds, with minimal exposure to dirt.


The great thing is that one of you is also going to win one of these fabulous waterers!!! This is an exclusive opportunity as this design is not even available for purchase yet! To enter, leave a comment below with your name, e-mail and a bit about how this waterer would help make watering easier with your flock. I'll choose a lucky winner on Tuesday, May 20th, 2014. If you enter, be sure to check back after the contest to see if you won, if the prize is not claimed by May 27th, another winner will be chosen.

Can't wait to win? The Maxi Cup is available for purchase in the US click here Maxi Cup. Check out all the great Solway products available for purchase at their website  http://www.solwayfeeders.com/. Solway is currently in the process of getting their US website up and running. Products purchased from the United States will be mailed from their Florida location. If you have any questions feel free to contact their US Representative, J.Richard Sabonjohn at rich386@windstream.net.

I was not paid to write this article. I only write reviews for products that I believe in and this is seriously a cool product! 

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Solway Nipple System Chicken Waterer and a GIVEAWAY!

I'm really excited to share with you a new way that we're providing water to our chicks this spring. We received these wonderful Side Mounted Nipples from Solway Feeders, now located in the US! They completely solve the problem of keeping our chick's water clean while in the brooder box!

This is what our old vacuum type waterer looked like only an hour after cleaning and refilling it with fresh water. It's clogged with bedding and not very healthy looking. We have chicks at different ages in our brooder so I can't raise it up too high or the little ones can't reach. With all the scratching and fluffing our chicks do with the wood chip bedding, the water is constantly needing to be cleaned out. I'm forever running my fingers around the rim to scoop out soggy wood chips. And if you don't get every last one, they clog the drain in the sink where I refill.

But this new nipple system has changed all that.

Each nipple has a metal release that allows water to flow when the chick moves it with it's beak. The small cup directly below captures any extra water and holds a small pocket of water where the chick can drink from. 

It took us minutes to assemble and here's how.

What you'll need:
Solway Side Mounted Nipples
A sturdy plastic pail
pail lid
Drill
3/8" drill bit
tape measure
pen or marker

I started by measuring around the outside of the pail. Our pail was approximately 26 1/2 inches and I wanted the nipples spaced at even intervals so I divided by 5 nipples and made a mark every 5 1/4 inches.

The nipples should be placed at eye level to the smallest chick. So for our babies, that was about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom. I made an X where these two measurements met. The bucket can be hung or set on blocks as the chicks grow.

Then we simply drilled our five holes, twisted in the nipples and filled it with water.

The nipples have a unique thread so there's no need for sealant, and there's no need to bottom out the nipples, simply tighten till it's good and snug. The nipples can be used in a PVC pipe system or in any container from 2 to 55 gallons. One nipple will service 6 to 8 birds.

I can't believe how nice this is working for our chicks. Chicks are naturally curious, and they decided to investigate this new contraption in their brooder home. Within 5 minutes they had figured out the system and were happily drinking from the nipples.






GIVEAWAY PART!!!

The really cool part is that thanks to Solway, one of you will also receive a set of Side Mounted Nipples to use in your own brooder! Just leave a comment below with your name, email and why you love raising chicks and I'll select a winner on Tuesday, April 15th, 2014!
 

Here's a short video I made of our chicks right after we placed the bucket in the brooder.



I was not paid to write this article. I only write reviews for products that I believe in and this is seriously a cool product!

Spring Creeping

Spring is creeping in around our farm. We had a nice, productive weekend, but for once, didn't feel rushed to get things done. Saturday I made a grass fed beef roast, carrots and potatoes, homemade bread, roasted corn and German red cabbage.

I let dinner stew in the crock pots, wafting the delicious smells of garlic and onions, baking bread, and the tangy sweet-sour smell of the cabbage throughout the house.

Outside, we had a glowing fire going under our first boil of maple sap.

When we finally capped the last jar, we had a little under 3/4 gallon of sweet earthy syrup.

Oliver spent the day attacking a most ferocious stick.

You can never be too sure about sticks.

They'll come at you when your not looking, so it's better to keep the upper hand...

...we think the stick won. 

After dinner, we decided to experiment a little further in our maple syrup project, and we successfully made maple sugar candy. (I'll have a how-to post up soon.) Man! Is it SWEEET!!!

Sunday, we went to mass and then stopped by the feed store for a few supplies. When we got home we trimmed all the goat's hooves, dewormed everyone and trimmed the turkey's flight wings so they don't jump the fence and go in the road.

In other news, the chicks are getting big. I forget how fast they feather in. 

I thought it being Monday, that the farming experiences would lull back into the weekday routine, but I got an exciting e-mail from a new farming friend and neighbor that we met last week.

Like us, they have a growing farm and lots of fun new experiences to try. Last week I helped her shear (her and my first) sheep. I can't believe how complacent the sheep are. She sat the sheep up on its hind quarters and the docile sheep simply let me shear it. No fidgeting, fighting or whining like we get with the goats. The beautiful wool came off in one large sheet, and the skin on the sheep was nice and tight which made it far easier to glide the shears across.

Tonight I'm trying my hand at helping to milk her cow. We're both new to this, as this is their first cow as well, but it's fun to learn new skills together.

You never know what your day will hold. Especially if you live in a farming community.     

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Farm Theme Coloring Book

I'm excited to announce that Iron Oak Farm is almost ready to release it's first Farm Themed Coloring Book! It will be available in our Etsy Shop. If you've been following us on Facebook, you've probably seen the various images I've been sharing with our readers. Last night I finished the last of the 40 images that will appear in the coloring book. Subjects include chicken keeping, goats, pigs, cows, bunnies, turkeys, ducks, shearing sheep, spinning yarn, bee keeping, milking, maple syrup collection, gardening, vegetables, apple picking, canning, plowing with tractors, and much more. There's a bunch of baby animal images too!  

When I was a child, coloring was my favorite past-time. I would go through coloring books and crayons at a pace so fast that my mom would limit the number of pages I was allowed to color in a day. When I got a little older, I remember being frustrated with coloring books at the store. I still enjoyed coloring, but most of the coloring books were themed around cartoons that I was no longer interested in. If your child likes farming, gardening, or being around animals, then this coloring book is perfect!

I see the joy that children experience around farms, animals and gardening, and it's my hope that this coloring book can bring a bit of that to them. Especially in the winter months when not much is happening on the farm or outside. I tried to use realistic images and real experience to create a book that is not only fun to color, but educational as well.

The finished book should be available by the end of this week. (That's my hope anyway, I'm still working on printing issues.) But in the meantime, I welcome you to print off this free Chicken Yard image for your children to enjoy and color. (Click the link for a printable version, or visit the Coloring Book page above.) I'd love for you to share your child's coloring work on the Iron Oak Farm Facebook Page!  

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