Huge thanks to Tom Silliman for sharing his time and vast knowledge with us and our friends at the Yard to Skillet workshop!! Although I have to admit I don't think I'll ever consider killing the chickens to be enjoyable, I find it incredibly satisfying and empowering to truly know my food sources. I love knowing that our chickens led happy, healthy lives. They were able to enjoy fresh air, sun, good food, and clean grass every day of their happy little chicken lives. I now have an even bigger appreciation for the food I choose to put into my body and gratitude to the animals who's lives provide my food. Yesterday we joined our friends Aaron and Heather, who also attended Tom's workshop, for a BBQ. They were clearly proud to serve up their delicious Sweet Peeps chickens they processed themselves. Heather claims "I will never buy conventional or cut-up chicken again". We couldn't agree more!!
If you missed Tom's workshop this weekend don't worry, we'll have more in the future!
The pond, lovingly named Chocolake actually has fish in it! On Saturday Josh and his boys went fishing in our pond and proceeded to pull out bass hand over fist. They didn't keep any to eat but had a blast! Bryce and John also went for a pleasant afternoon swim and reported "it's deep!". They may or may not have been referring to the mud at the bottom.
We're stronger than we thought. Marissa and I are happy to announce we really are pretty darn strong!
The tractor works...IF it's rolling down hill and being pushed by John, Marissa, and I.
John is an amateur carpenter. He (along with the help of Leo) built some really awesome chicken coops for our broilers. It feels so good to go to bed at night and not have to worry about predators getting our chickens. Bonus, they also look really nice!
Nature is out of control!! We find ourselves constantly battling ants, flies, gnats, stink bugs, ticks, rats, mice, roaches, wasps, weeds, poison ivy, thorns and seriously stinky smells.
Secret swimming hole. We have finally started to do some trail maintenance of our sweet nature trails. Along the way we discovered a magical spot in the creek, cleaned it up, and declared it our new swimming hole. Some of us are still refusing to swim in Chocolake. There has been mention of a Choc-ness-monster.
We have lots of medicinal herbal plants around the property...we don't actually know what they are yet but would LOVE to have a naturalist come out and teach us.
Apparently we have 26 layers. It was pretty cool when we were in the coop the other night counting the chickens and counted two more than we thought we had. I think they must really be enjoying their new and improved "ladies only" coop with Christmas lights.
Spring really is the season of love. Horse love, dog love, goat love, inter-species love. What better place than a farm to learn about love? Forget the birds and bees...we're talking mammals!
This movie is accompanied by this week's theme song. If you want to experience what it's like to be at Sweet Peeps just play this song about 25 times a day and dance around and sing along. For the full experience cover yourself in sweat, dirt, and straw, and be sure to have chicken poop somewhere on your body. Enjoy!!
Lets talk chickens (because that's mostly what we do around here).
First chicken topic: Chasing the chickens (of course). When we first came to the farm we were determined to get the chickens to sleep in their coop to protect them from predators at night. We had all good intentions as we chased them around the farm and caught most of them. The next day we got a tad bit wiser and tried to corral them and coerce them with treats. It didn't seem to work too well but we were pleasantly surprised and incredibly proud of ourselves as new farmers when the next couple of nights Daddy Roo led his harem (most of them) home on his own. Since then a few of the wild chickens tend to wander and not head home on their own. We still have to be here every night at dusk to lead the chickens home. We were recently reinspired to keep working with the chickens when the rooster started crowing at 3am roosting in the tree right outside of John's window. Since that night John has really taken it upon himself to be doubly sure ALL the chickens are tucked in inside the coop.
Next chicken topic: our chickeny plans. The farmers of Sweet Peeps had a power meeting a few days ago to come up with a plan. Of course we all had on our power suits! Imagine all of us in our filthy jeans, having just finished shoveling compost, dirt under our nails, work gloves in our back pockets, sitting around a table in Starbucks next to the table of very clean men in business suits. As John picked up his coffee I caught site of his finger nails and thought how dirty and gross he was but when I glanced back down at my own hands they looked just at bad. Terrible! Anyway, the plan is we will get a delivery of 60 peeps every three weeks and we will process 20 chickens every week. It seems like a really good plan but I think we won't really know until we're doing it. One tidbit I find incredibly amusing is that for the first month our peeps will be delivered every Wednesday. The next month however, they will come every Tuesday. John and Marissa claim that there is some secret plan behind this but I'm pretty sure it just happened by accident as John was marking in the calender and turned the page.
Final chicken topic: the peep show. This is actually a chicken/turkey/duck topic. Sweet Peeps recently had our first set of hatchlings We had so much fun candeling them and watching them grow. We had one egg we could see the heart beating in and as they get older you can hear them peep from inside the egg. We started off with four duck eggs, two turkey eggs, and a heap of chicken eggs. We were so excited when the first chickens started hatching. They seemed to be doing so well! We noticed though as the day went on that they seemed to be having a hard time getting out and realized that it wasn't humid enough in the incubator. Marissa and I helped a couple of the chicks out after they got stuck. We got lucky because we learned AFTER the fact the right way to do an eggceriansection. The good news is, we'll know for next time. Sadly, only one of our ducks even tried to peck out and none of them survived. Even worse than that, was our sweet little poult (baby turkey). It hatched with only a little help from Marissa and looked so so strong. It was in a safe, warm place overnight and we thought for sure that it would be our friendly farm turkey. This morning though the report on the poult was "it got even cuter overnight but also died". So in the end, of our many eggs, we have 11 peeps, no ducks, and no turkeys. Now we truly understand the meaning of "don't count your chickens before they hatch". On a happier note, at the same time as the incubated eggs were hatching our wild momma hen hatched six eggs of her own. Those little guys are doing so well!! Apparently natural really is better. Surprised? I'm not.
Farm Vocab Words
Poult: Young turkey
Keet: Young guinea fowl
Brooder: Relates to baby birds, generally refers to the place you keep baby birds
Broody: How a momma bird acts when she's working on hatching eggs. Usually means she's sitting on her nest and probably pretty feisty if you get too close!! Marissa learned this the hard way as momma did a sneak dinosaur attack because Marissa looked at her the wrong way.
Sweet Dog Farm has become Sweet Peeps Farm for sure! We have done tons of work, completing lots of things on our incredibly long list of things-to-do and even more things that didn't even make the list. Lets see...what stands out?
We have cleaned the house from top to bottom and painted the entire inside. We have also really gone to work on getting the farm cleaned up. We set up a great little house for the goats and a sweet spot in the edge of the woods for the piggies. The boys have done some awesome electric fence work!! I'm proud to say the pigs are trained to the electric fence, although none of the other animals can figure it out. They continue to take turns shocking themselves and are clearly surprised and appear to have injured their pride EVERY single time. The boys pressure washed the outside of the house (only a few puddles formed inside), and John and I hung the clothes line (our clothes only touch the grass sometimes). We processed our first chickens, with the help of a good friend who has been happy to share his wealth of knowledge with us, and Monday we will make our first sale to Virginia Cooperative Extension where our product will be tasted along with other products offered in Greene county. My personal favorite addition to the farm is our beautiful garden which we started planting yesterday and the long spot we tilled along the horizon, already dubbed "Gaga's Garden", where we will plant the wildflower seeds Gaga gave us.
One last thought on keeping it sweet. A couple of days ago I overheard the little girls chatting about "Sweet Deeps Farm". They explained to me that it was "Sweet Dog" and "Sweet Peeps" put together. I just loved that and thought it was a story worth sharing. Kids really have it figured out!
I do promise to post before and after photos of the farm in the future. Until then check out our logo thanks to my amazing friend, Morgan!
I know everyone is waiting to hear how the closing went. It went well!! We officially own Sweet Peeps Farm as of yesterday at 1600. Yay!! When we walked up to the farm it looked so great! Tom and Kelly (the previous owners) had really done a ton of work in a serious time crunch. We popped a couple of beers and started on our list of things-to-do. We also had some really great help from our awesome friends Aaron and Heather who not only rolled up their sleeves but also provided music, dinner, and great company.
Here is the schedule Bryce provided us if we want to move in on Friday. As of last night at 10:30 (when we left the farm) we were already a little behind. This list by no means encompasses ALL that we have to do, this is just to get us in the house.
Mon:
Morning- 0800 J B walk-through, 0800 M S Lowes for stuff, 1100 C B morning magic, 1030 B M Close,
Afternoon- 1300 all start cleaning downstairs all rooms (start with living, kithc, hall, kidsroom, sunroom, mudroom)
Evening- 1800 Clean upstairs, 1730 Blue soccer
Night- Sleep if we have time
Tues:
Morn- 0800 Paint downstair ceilings, prime downstairs
After- Paint upstair ceiling, prime upstairs
Even- Color pickout at lowes, Cat BBall 1800
Wed:
Morn- Paint downstairs
After- Paint upstairs, Kids camp 1-4
Even- Start thinking about fencing and animal security
Thur:
Morn- Pack up 295 Powell, start move to Peep
After- Start unpack and moving
Even- sleep
Fri:
Morn- Pack, wait for fridge
After- Prep for Fri getdown
Even- Fri Getdown
Hope this gives you a taste of what we're up to here in the happy life. We're off to the farm for more fun!!
Stuck inside on a rainy day? Why not start your first business?! That's exactly what we did. By the end of a very rainy day we had completed a pretty impressive list of things-to-do including getting our tax number, filing for a fictitious name, opening a small business bank account, signing our partnership and co-owner agreements, buying a new fridge (it's so pretty that we have all agreed that instead of putting it in the little hole it's meant to fit in, we'll put it in the center of our living room so we can all love on it appropriately), publishing our website, and last but certainly not least buying the boys new gum boots. My favorite part by far was the signing of papers and such. I'm not gonna lie, it sorta felt like we were all getting married...to what I'm not sure. Maybe to our unique family or to a beautiful idea. Or maybe it was because Marissa and I held the pen together. Who knows. What I do know is that I have never had a rainy day when so much got done!
Take the chicks out to their little play pen. Water and feed the chicks. Feed the goats (this is done out of bottles during which time they bow down and wag their cute little tails like crazy, clearly enjoying themselves). Chase the chicks around because they've managed to escape. Giggle a lot. Learn how to trim baby goat hooves. Snuggle the baby goats and let them suck your fingers. Shave half of the dog (yes, I do plan on finishing the job...maybe tomorrow) while Cat tells him the sweetest stories to keep him company. Run around the yard with the dogs and goats and kids. Laugh a lot at how cute all of the above are. Work out while trying not to hit any curious animals. Do a burpee in something wet, most likely fresh goat pee. Find this pretty darn funny. Eat breakfast of fresh farm eggs...literally laid yesterday by our happy chickens. Work on our awesome Sweet Peeps logo (Marissa is so creative!!). Go to Sweet Peeps Farm and make fun little houses for the chicks and of course, feed and water them. Chase the chicks around. Rearrange all the chicks houses. Visit our friends at their farm and get all kinds of great ideas from them, along with an incubator and some turkey and duck eggs. Go back to Sweet Peeps Farm and realize that our new chick houses aren't so great for cold, stormy nights and re-rearrange all the chicks houses. Chase the chicks around. Giggle a lot. Come home to a bunch of rouge chickies and you guessed it, chase them around for a while too. Eat a delicious home-made dinner by Gaga (Grandma Lynne). Sit on the porch, catching up, making plans, watching the animals do silly animal things, and just enjoying good company. What a great day!!!
There was one point today when Marissa and I, each with our entire upper bodies squeezed through the chicken door in the coop, surrounded by chicken poop and tiny peeping chicks, still sticky from our workout and probably covered in a fair amount of chicken poop ourselves, looked at each other and cracking up decided we could officially call ourselves farmers.
Today's Vocab Words (a.k.a. I, as a new farmer pretty much just figured these out...seriously!)
Clutch: a bunch of eggs in a nest. These are the ones that might hatch.
Flake of Hay: a slice of a bale of hay.
Hay: dried grasses that include the grains and seeds. Food for animals. (OK, I knew what hay was but did not know what it was in relation to straw)
Straw: hay minus the grains and seeds. The stuff for animals to snuggle into.
Peep: baby chicks, newly hatched (and super cute). Not just the yummy Easter candies...who knew!?
Pullet: a young domestic hen, usually less than a year old.
Broiler: type of chicken raised for meat (the ones you probably don't want to name).
Layer: type of chicken raised for laying eggs (the pretty ones you get to name).
Huge thanks to Tom Silliman for sharing his time and vast knowledge with us and our friends at the Yard to Skillet workshop!! Although I have to admit I don't think I'll ever consider killing the chickens to be enjoyable, I find it incredibly satisfying and empowering to truly know my food sources. I love knowing that our chickens led happy, healthy lives. They were able to enjoy fresh air, sun, good food, and clean grass every day of their happy little chicken lives. I now have an even bigger appreciation for the food I choose to put into my body and gratitude to the animals who's lives provide my food. Yesterday we joined our friends Aaron and Heather, who also attended Tom's workshop, for a BBQ. They were clearly proud to serve up their delicious Sweet Peeps chickens they processed themselves. Heather claims "I will never buy conventional or cut-up chicken again". We couldn't agree more!!
