30 Mar
Macie, our doeling, doing her best impression of a helicopter:
A bit faster, and she might get enough lift to take off!
As the snow melted in this glorious sunny day, she and her brothers ventured out of the barn to frolic. More pictures are on our facebook page.
They’re 11 days old today and growing quickly – the largest buck is 17.4 lbs, while the smallest is 14.8.
19 Mar
This is just a quick post (you can check out our Facebook page for more photos) to announce that in the middle of this huge snowstorm, we took a break from other subjects for a biology lesson. We now have four brand new baby Boer Goats – 3 bucklings and a doeling.
We’re busy making sure they are all settled for a cold night, and will post more later!
Blessings to all,
The Flying T
24 Feb
The snow doesn’t slow down the kids or the horses too much. This is in the middle of our snowstorm today – probably 6-8″ at the time of the walk, and now we’re approaching one foot. Now it’s time to go sledding!
8 Feb
Winter storm Nemo is just starting to arrive. The ducks don’t seem to mind.
Like Snow off a Duck’s Back
Well, one of them might mind a little bit…
Captions are welcome in the comments section below.
1 Dec
We don’t have cable, dish, or satellite. The previous owner left a huge arial in the attic, but we haven’t connected it to anything.
But on cold snowy nights like tonight, we still have multimedia entertainment, complete with picture, sound, and warmth. To change the channel, we simply add another log.
(Photo taken by our middle daughter)
1 Dec
They weren’t the first snowflakes we’ve seen this year, but the first real snow arrived today. It’s been falling gently since this morning and we’re at about 3/4″ so far. I know it won’t last through the week, but it’s peaceful and beautiful right now. Here are a few pics from around the farm.
Not quite enough to cover the ground yet.
Boer goats aren’t especially fond of snow.
The ducks don’t seem to mind, however.
Zip is warm in his blanket – he’s hard to keep weight on.
Jasper, on the other hand, has a thick fleece of his own.
16 Nov
It’s been a long time since we posted, simply because this Fall has been pretty overwhelmingly busy! To give you an idea of some of the things going on these past couple months at the Flying T…
Fall was spectacular this year, and though we got a light dusting, we didn’t have a repeat of the Halloween snowstorm of 2011. Here’s a pic of the Flying T in late fall from the air.
The beginning of Fall also brought some new additions to the Flying T. One is “Rocky,” our new black labrador puppy.
He’s growing fast, and has made friends with just about everybody except the house cat.
Fall is a wonderful time of year in New Hampshire – the temperatures are perfect for us, and get us out and moving even more than in summer. Here’s our son showing off some moves on his bike and a makeshift ramp he put together.
Our younger daughter had a “coming of age” milestone – reaching the age we have determined is the minimum to be allowed to operate the tractor solo. She’s been very proud of her newfound freedom and ability to pitch in to some of the heavier-duty chores.
The ducks hatched their last clutches of the season. They were much smaller than earlier in the year. We believe this is due of the loss of our prime drake to a predator a bit before they started setting.
With the new arrivals, we also had a few departures. Another duck to a predator, and a hen to a mishap. And then another departure due to sheer meanness. One of the roosters, “Big Daddy Rooster,” attacked the kids one too many times, so he is now at freezer camp.
Of course, the big news for the region was Hurricane Sandy. We escaped most of its wrath, though we did lose power for long enough for us to get the PTO-driven generator running. Our biggest need for power is to run the well – the horses alone go through about 30-40 gallons a day.
We found by running it only a few hours a day, we could replenish water supplies, get the family through the showers, and run a load of laundry. Thanks to all the linesmen and emergency workers who got power back up and running so quickly!
The power company also did us a huge favor this summer by cutting down some of the trees that had been threatening the lines (and thus our road and driveway also), so we had little cleanup to do post-Hurricane. However, since I was told to stay home from work, the chainsaw still got some work as we got back to clearing more of the back pasture.
I also ended up flying a few Hurricane response missions for FEMA with Civil Air Patrol. You can take a look at some of the 175,000 damage assessment photos we took at this link:
http://fema.apps.esri.com/checkyourhome/ (Zoom in about 3 clicks until you start seeing green dots around the NYC area. Each of those is a photo).
And so, as the fall winds up and the winter starts to move our way, we’re finishing up our preparations… just like this snapping turtle who two of our ducks escorted off the premises on her way to hibernation.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can post again! Blessings to all of you as we approach this season of Thanksgiving (though every day ought to be a time to be thankful)!
1 Mar
It’s been pretty crazy-busy here at the Flying T (and at our other activities, including the professions that support them), and looking back I can see it’s been nearly three weeks since our last post. It’s not that we didn’t have anything about which to write – we actually have a ton of material, especially after the superb New Hampshire Grazing Conference last weekend! We simply haven’t had time to write.
Today, God gave us some time, in the form of a snowstorm that so far has dumped about 9″ on us and is still going strong!
The snow kept me from going to work, and meant that even though the snow provided some additional chores (plowing and shoveling), it also provided lots of time to do other things: Chores we’ve been putting off, completing our 2011 taxes, and of course… writing! So, I thought about which of the multitude of topics I might write about, and then I saw this out my window:
I said to myself, “Self, this is not a day to spend writing about serious things.” So, my wife and I put our winter chore clothes back on and headed out to play with the kids. We even got some sledding runs in.
So, no “important” writing in the post today. Instead, I’ll finish with some pics of the snowmen the girls put together for the goats and horses to snack on.
Early in the day, a small snowman for the Goats - hay hair, carrot face, alfalfa pellets in the ears.
Jasper's Snowman
Zip's Snowman
Jasper was VERY curious about what was going on in the pasture, and was eager to run out to see.
Zip was next down the chute
Wherever you are, I hope you also have some time to play with your kids!
1 Jan
We are blessed, really. Even though we intentionally had a down-sized bounty under the tree this year, we were overwhelmed with the generosity of friends and family. I don’t want to disparage any of the amazing and thoughtful gifts we received this Christmas, but I would like to highlight some of the creative homemade ones.
Caveat: I just thought about the theme for this post today, and so many of the edible homemade gifts are no longer available for me to take photos!
Our kids were very active and crafty this year. For me, they found a toy John Deere tractor at the dollar store, then decorated it with “Sculpey” clay. It features Jessie the Boer Goat, Doc the Duck, and Chuck the Chicken Duck.
Our tractor, complete with farm animals
For my wife, one daughter used Sculpey, a reclaimed salsa jar, and imagination to build a snow globe.
Winter Wonderland
One of the big hits was something my dad made for our youngest… an old-fashioned slingshot.
Davey Crockett and his trusty slingshot (aiming at trees, not chickens)
And as always, our friends and relatives knocked us over with an amazing variety of homemade treats. These allowed us to keep plenty of snacks and sweets available, as our house was blessedly full-to-the-brim with visitors from before Christmas to yesterday afternoon. On display here: the few remaining cookies, buckeyes, toffee, and homemade apple cider wine!
It still amazes me that we are down to just this!
Of course, we made a lot of the gifts we sent out ourselves as well, mostly canned goods from this summer. However, we also gave some store-bought gifts (including a trio of $5 disc sleds for the kids that were an absolute hoot on Christmas day). A friend told us she’s thinking of doing a 100% handmade Christmas next year. We’re wondering if we’re up to the challenge!
A Joyful Birth
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