Rooster Antics

January 26, 2010 by Breeze Hill Farm

You all remember Beau-cocks the stray rooster? Well let me share some of his award winning antics with you this morning. He has developed quite a little personality since he moved on to the farm.

We still haven’t gotten him any girls yet, so he still thinks that he is a sheep unless a human is around..more specifically my husband. These two “men” have developed a very strong and steadfast relationship with each other. Apparently when hubby goes to the barn Beau helps him with all of the barn chores including running interference when the border collies are given a command..he thinks because noise came out of hubby that means he has to do what he says too. As hubby said, “I’m really worried that one of the border collies might eventually notice him and that could end badly”. All I see from the kitchen window is this little “rooster man” following hubby everywhere he goes and when hubby thinks no one is looking or listening, he has little talks with Beau. They make quite a team!

He has now taken to “dog aggravation” every morning along with standing under each window of the house when he sees hubby moving around and crowing. With the “dog aggravation” he simply stands in front of the pens, flaps his wings, crows and flies up on top of the runs, tapping and pecking and then flies down and does it all over again. The dogs run in circles, bark and run in their houses and peek out. Guess you have to be there.

Yesterday, I tossed a buck of water out the kitchen window (that’s another story for another day) and before I could get the screen down, Beau was standing in the window. Needless to say, my spoiled rotten cats freaked and took off running. Poor things don’t know what dinner looks like on the claw!

As soon as the weather becomes more predictable we are going to build a small coop and get 10 or so hens. That should finally give this little guy his own place in the barnyard. Until then I will continue to enjoy hubby and Beau making the trek to the barn together each morning. I have to say, there is nothing as cute as a running chicken from behind!

Sorry I’ve Been Gone For Awhile

January 25, 2010 by Breeze Hill Farm

I’m sorry I keep sharing with everyone about my Mother. I know that it can become depressing after a while but she had taken a turn for the worst over the last couple of weeks and I’ve spent a lot of time with her and not much here at the farm. It is my pleasure to share with you that she is doing better. She has finally found a doctor that is very capable of reading her, reading test results and making diagnosis that are apparently correct. She seems to be on the fast track to recovery!

As you know, before this last bout with Mom’s illness, I had opened an Etsy Store. I am still very excited about that even though I have not experienced the joy of a first sale. Getting this Etsy thing right seems to be a full time job in itself but I think I’m getting there. Please, when you get a chance stop by and see what we have available. The plan, once I have everything moved over, is to eliminate our ProStores shopping cart and have our new website devoted solely to the Farm and our Etsy store devoted to all product sales. Here I thought farming was going to be about tending the livestock and gardens..ha!

Things here at the Farm have been fairly quiet. Everyone is enjoying this little heat wave (it’s suppose to be in the 60’s here today) and the sheep have made it their mission to seek out every new blade of grass and devourer it. We got a new round bale last week, so every time I look out the window there is a goat dancing around on top of it. Those girls are showing signs of being good and pregnant now..they’re not due to kid until the end of March, so my best guess is we are looking at a lot of twins (good work Antonio!). We didn’t breed the sheep this year, so their fleeces are to “dye” (hehe) for. Spring will bring a nice bounty. Even Kosmo’s fleece is much nicer than in past years. I can’t wait to have mounds of fluff to work with. We have a new processor in Virginia now and I’m definitely going to give them a try this year. The samples I’ve received have been first class.

Well it’s off to soap making! Got to get those Valentine orders out there on the shelves.

Until next time be safe.

…and so ends 2009!

December 31, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

What a year! I can’t say that I’m glad it’s almost over because that would be wishing my life away and at my age, that’s not a good plan. I can’t believe how fast this year flew by. With Mother’s illness the first 3 months of the year and finishing out the last 2 months with illness again, most of the year has been a blurr.

Just trying to think..we’ve done some farm improvements, a few home improvements, added a couple of sheep and Beau-Cocks the rooster, birthed goat babies in the Spring, added on to our garden this past Summer, sheared sheep and goats in the Spring, took a couple of local trips to the mountains, and other wise it has been a fairly calm year..just the way we like it at the Farm. With the exception of Mom, it’s really been an OK year.

I guess there’s nothing more to say than…..

… be safe and all the best in 2010!!

Thought I Would Share Pictures….

December 6, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

I thought that today I would share all of the beautiful photos of our first snowfall in Powhatan, VA…well there aren’t any!! This was the puniest little snow I’ve seen in a while. Instead of pretty, we have more mud, ice and cold. I will say that the oat fields on either side of us are absolutely gorgeous from all of this rain but all that serves to do with us, is closely monitor our sheep and goats to make sure they are staying in the fence. The weather station is promising us more mud on Tuesday and Wednesday! I am doing an outdoor event on Tuesday evening, so that could be rained out like my event yesterday. Wow, I don’t sound like I’m in a very good mood do I?

If anyone goes out to Gather today for their Holiday Open House, I will not be there. Again, an outdoor event and where I would be set up is quite muddy, so we are going to try again for next Saturday (for me only..the Open House is still happening) and see what happens. Keep a watch on the Blog, facebook and Twitter to see how those plans hold out!

So, today will be a football and soap making day here at the farm. Hubby is cutting up more wood for the woodstove so it’ll be toasty, I’ve made bread and have a pot of soup on the stove. It’s sunny, beautiful and cold..a good day to re-energize!

New Kid On The Farm

November 30, 2009 by Breeze Hill Farm

You met this guy on Wordless Wednesday a few weeks ago..today I want to share his story.

While out running the Border Collies, Monday morning, several weeks ago, we heard a Rooster crowing. Around here we have sheep, goats, cows, horses, dogs and cats..no chickens. That’s just not something anyone close by raises and after the fox killed our last hens, we had been chicken free for 4 years – which brings me back to the crowing Rooster. I started following the crow. Imagine my surprise when I found 2 beautiful Roosters pecking around in the cemetery at the church across the road from us.

These guys seemed very tame. Catching the first one was easy. The second one got very upset and confused. He took off into the woods and we couldn’t find him. Hubby had to go to work and I had early deliveries, so we brought Rooster #1 over to our place and said that we could get the other one when we got home. Also, as much noise as Rooster#1 was making, we felt confident that he would encourage Rooster #2 to come to him. Well that didn’t happen.

When we got home that night, we discovered Rooster #1 running around and crowing. Apparently, these guys had been pets..they didn’t even know how to roost. We went to the church to find the other boy but had no luck. At midnight, when we let the dogs out for the last time, we heard Rooster #2 crowing. We got the dogs in and headed for the church. By the time we got there all was quiet. We hung out for almost an hour and decided this Rooster quest would be easier in daylight. We never heard him again! Rooster #1 was just sad the next day perpetually crowing and running around but there was no response. I spent hours at the church and in the cemetery listening and looking for Rooster #2, but he was no where to be found. The following day, I found him dead in the cemetery. He had been slaughtered by what we assume was a weasel.

Thankfully, by day three Rooster #1 had acclimated to his new home and had stopped calling his brother. So now we have a new Rooster! He’s quite the cool little guy. He thinks his job is to tend the sheep. Where they go..he goes. We’ve worked with him a lot and now he knows how to roost, where to find his food (sheep and goats eat anything that hits the ground, so we had to put his food up) and that bugs are a good dietary supplement. He’s a good boy. We are now considering adding a few hens so he won’t be without his kind and hope that the fox families have moved on for now. We didn’t realize how much we missed having chickens in the barnyard.

This Blogger/farmers rant – With so many avenues to find homes for unwanted animals a story like this should never have happened. We live in the country, there are 3 feed stores within a 15 mile radius of us, they have bulletin boards. There, of course, is Craig’s List, a local paper and word of mouth. We would have gladly taken these two Rooster’s if the person who dropped them had simply turned up our driveway and asked. There is just no excuse for one of these beautiful animals being slaughtered! All of this being said, we are very happy to have our new Rooster..there is a new peaceful calamity on the farm now and he’s good for the soul…guess things really do happen for a reason.