Saving Money on Feed

If you are buying more than one bag of feed at a time one place to seriously consider that is horrible at advertising itself is a local feed mill. We found out from a new acquaintance about a place that sells un-medicated feed and when we got there we could not believe their prices. We have always considered TSC reasonable but this place was cheap. The layer crumbles and rolled oats were between 20-40% cheaper than TSC. As usual this place has no website and is listed on some other sites but these places really need to get into the 21st century. Maybe they figure that everyone that buys from them is enough but if they do not get on the ball they will be another place that closes down as the older farmers that are die hard customers are no longer alive.

This place is huge and in their prime days must have been an awesome sight to behold. We will try to get some pictures of the old feed building and such next time we are out buying feed but if you are north of Dallas I would recommend you give them a call.
Alan Ritchey Inc Farm

Busy with Animals

Things have been so buy with work and the animals updates have not been coming often so here is our current inventory.

Approx. 80 chickens: 40 or so we have had for over a year and the other 40 we have acquired in the last few months. Some were ordered from Cackle Hatchery and others we 'egg returns' from a class project a friend of a friend did at school. They high an extremely high hatch rate and the teacher kept 3 and returned the rest to us.


5 goats: 2 Alpine and 3 Nubians.


1 lamb


2 ducks: 1 was a 'gift' and we ordered 4 from Cackle Hatchery, 1 was DOA and two were lost when we had enough of their nasty ways and put them out on the pond.

5 turkeys: All ordered from Cackle Hatchery

The biggest comment is we definitely over committed to too many animals at one time. We had goats, more chickens, ducks and turkeys arrive within a couple weeks of each other and were not prepared. This would not have been so bad but we got almost non-stop record rain and without a covered, dry area to build could not complete the goat/sheep shelter and get everything done for the poultry. We are slowly catching up but we are developing a consideration checklist when contemplating adding more animals in the future. We have agreed as a family not to consider any more animals for a minimum of a year however I am not holding my breath on that one. The checklist will include things like necessary first aid items, shelter, fencing, etc. Since our property boundaries are not fenced we use the temporary, movable electric fencing which will be addressed in another post.



Good evening to you.

An Old Farmers Advice

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
*Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
*Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
* Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.
* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* You cannot unsay a cruel word.
* Every path has a few puddles.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.
* Don't judge folks by their relatives.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.
* Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none.
* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.
* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
* Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
* The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.
* Always drink upstream from the herd.
* Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
* Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

Farming in Romania

When doing some research on processing sheep I stumbled across this website. It is apparently a photographer that went to take pictures of the farmers of Romania while out and about doing their travels.
http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Romania/Farming/Farming.htm

Swine Flu Anyone? Bueller?

If this turns out to be true, whoa boy. You would hope at least 2 people would get a clue and start buying locally.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/