Filed under: Farm | Tags: Chicken, Chicken Coop, Consider Bardwell Farm, Interns, Internship, Pasture
It’s time for the chickens to move – they’ve fallen in love with our kidding barn. To our annoyance, they’re prone to loafing around and nesting in the hay of our kids’ pens. So we trucked the biddies down to a lower pasture in our first attempt at chicken diversion. But their new spot was too close to their original haunts – they returned to the kidding barn and were back to their old antics in no time. They even stayed past sundown and we were tasked with nighttime chicken catching to get them back into their coop. Our final solution: driving them to one of our farthest pastures right next to our pigs. Now that’s some good chicken trickin’.
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Cold, Consider Bardwell Farm, Feeding, Goats, Hay, Interns, Internship, Kidding, Oberhasli, Pasture
Our pregnant does on a very cold, wintery morning.
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Consider Bardwell Farm, Hereford Pig, Pasture, Pig House, Pigs, Snow, Vermont, West Pawlet
It’s been almost a month since we built the pig house, and with the exception of a couple wimpy little rains, we really haven’t felt the gratification of seeing the shelter shelter. But last night it finally happened! A full day of rain followed by several inches of snow last night. It took a lot of motivation to rouse the porks for a photoshoot. Grunty, groany, and indignant, they once again nailed me with one squinting eye.
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Consider Bardwell Farm, Grazing, Hereford Pig, Pasture, Pig House, Pigs, Vermont, West Pawlet
Alex built the Hereford pigs a chalet to hunker down in for the winter. They quickly christened it with a good scratch. Photos were taken within minutes of the chalet’s arrival in their pasture (note the muddy patches next to the door).
“The pig, like as not, will nail you with one squinting eye.” -Dirk Van Loon, Small Scale Pig Raising
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Consider Bardwell Farm, Farmall, Feeding, Goats, Grazing, Hay, Milk, Oberhasli, Pasture, Pigs, Vermont, West Pawlet
On the whiteboard in our milking parlor I have a list of things I want to blog about. The idea is that I will take some photos, go home after evening milking, and do a blog post. I am, however, very ineffective at achieving this! Enjoy some photos from blog posts never-to-be!
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Consider Bardwell Farm, Flooding, Hurricane, Pasture, Pond, Vermont
These pictures were taken with a camera phone by Alex’s mom visiting from Tuscon. Taken about an hour apart, the first three show the flood advancing on our goat pasture. The last photo shows the highly dramatic chicken coop evacuation–the old biddies hunkered down and held on tight inside while we towed them to higher ground.
NOTE: The winding creek in the first photo is usually high, dry pasture.
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Barn, Consider Bardwell Farm, Flooding, Goats, Hurricane, Pasture, Vermont
Filed under: Farm | Tags: Barn, Consider Bardwell Farm, Hay, Hay Wagon, Pasture, Vermont
After a long hiatus from blog posting filled with lots of kid rearing, goat milking, pasture management, and hay harvesting we are back. This picture was taken from the northeast corner of field 8 while Dan baled some nice second cutting below. So far this season we’ve mowed, tedded, raked, baled, and stacked 8,000 bales of hay in our mows with much more yet to come.
On a farm every season seems to feel busier than the last, and summer is a sweaty rush to put up all of the hay we will feed during the colder months when pastures are buried under snow and mud. The long days in the sun make for some enviable farmer tans!
