So awesome blogger can't contain the BBB any more!

http://www.boothboysbarn.ca/blog

Also known as... I ran out of space on picasa for all the pictures :#

So, I've had to move the blog. I really apologize to anyone who has to update links, bookmarks, RSS feeds, I hope you stay with us!

I've gone straight over to the dark side and into wordpress since that's what my website server supports.

I'd also like to apologize for the messy & sudden switch over, I was trying to upload some more pictures today and we're just right out of room!

The blogger to wordpress import isn't perfect so please let me know if you notice any coding problems on the new blog. I had to copy all the blogs one at a time & may well have missed one.

On the upside, I was able to import over my old Nes' Garden blogs so you can go back in the records of the new blog and see my first venture into gardening & blogging.

More new posts tomorrow! It's been a busy week, I cleaned out the bull pen & hubs fixed the barn door, plus I forgot to blog about my purple potatoes!
-Vanessa

http://www.boothboysbarn.ca/blog

Blog Notes

Finally got around to labeling my posts. I know, 'bout time! I have over 300 posts to go through so it's going to take awhile before they all get done. You'll notice them at the bottom of every post from now on, and when you click on one you'll be able to see all my posts with lots of photos in them, or all the ones about the goats, or whatever you're interested in.

Also, as we've officially "launched" the business on Jan 1st, I'm starting a new section of posts (like KSCC, or Cook) on our business. I'll talk about our marketing strategies, most about the finances around raising chickens and such, and what sort of software I'm using, that kinda fun geeky stuff I love. Starting today with a post on our new business cards.

On that note I'd like to offer this 

quote from The Omnivores Dilemma 

"There's money to be made in food, 
unless you're trying to grow it"

I'd also like to welcome any comments or questions about anything we're doing on the farm. Most of the time I am flying by the seat of my pants, but it sure is a lot of fun!

The goats got into the wires...

Slight technical delay, will be back to posting after tomorrow :).

Little New Years Fun

In celebration of the new year I'd like to offer a few of the strangest things ever searched for on google that gave people links to my blog:

"whoops down it goes"
"goat with one horn" or "one horned goat" also "goat with 1 horn"
(Harry is very popular, although his grew out)
"thoroughbred here's lenny"
"feel+good+on+the+tongue."
"heating greenhouse with chickens"
"it's uncomfortably warm in here"

and my favourite
"is it good to leave boots out in the rain?"

Most of those were not people who actually stayed to read the blog, so I hope y'all found what you were looking for! Happy New Year! 

Jan 1st, take 2

The plan was to start blogging again Jan 1st, but I was side-lined with the plague all day, so my New Years resolutions will have to be a day late.

The farm is running really well right now, so except the hundreds of little projects we have in mind for next year, I've been trying all week to come up with some real resolutions for the coming year.

1. I will take more time out to ride the horses. Now that we've got things settled down I will take an afternoon off every now & again to go out and ride!
2. I will try at least one really adventurous dish this year (more on that later)
3. I will grow a kick-ass garden this year. I missed it SO badly last year when we were moving mid-season, we did grow a little something, but I am so excited for the upcoming year. The kids are really excited too, the living-room is littered with seed catalogs & the boys are helping me pick out some veggies & flower. 

I'd like to add that we're going to try to make some money this next year, but we're not expecting any profit for at least our 2nd full year. Starting a farm is a very expensive undertaking! 

Looking for a Horse for Christmas?

While the decision to add a new horse to your farm should never be taken lightly (they are big, expensive, though beautiful & amazing creatures). If you're already in the market please check out:

Need You Now Equine on Facebook

Tracey Thompson-Hoogeveen is purchasing horses from a local feedlot in hopes they can have one more chance and finding a great home. The horses come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from youngsters not even halter broke, to ex camp horses dumped off, to well broken oldies.

There is an endless stream of horses from across North America going to slaughter for as many reasons as there are different horses. From inconsiderate breeders to premarin farms to families who struggle & try there best but just can't afford to keep their beloved animal any longer.

A member of the group recently reported her trip to the Ottawa Livetsock Exchange she saw everything from mini-ponies to yearlings to trained horses go for cents on the pound. 

Tracey re-sells for the same price the feedlot wants, so you can find a new riding partner for around $500. If you're in the market for a new horse, have the experience or help to give one a second chance check out Need You Now Equine. 

And while you're on facebook, it'd be much appreciated if you can give us a 'like' as well
Booth Boys Barn

Happy Hanukkah!

Can't stop talking about eggs!

First of all, we have duck eggs!!

I hope the gif is dancing
He's supposed to be dancing

Duck egg!

I've been waiting for them to start laying because they are under the lights with the chickens. Winter isn't really the best time for little ducklings to be born, but the coop is quite warm at night with all the chickens in there so I think we can do it. I hope we can.

For now I'm collecting the eggs and we've got a few people interested in purchasing them to eat. I haven't had one yet, but I hear they are richer then a chicken egg, and don't give you the egg burps. I have already heard people who are allergic to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs, but please don't take my word for that one!

The other thing I want to talk about is our Marran eggs. We still haven't really determined that our girls are real marrans, and if they are they are 'poor' quality ones because their eggs aren't dark enough. One BIG bonus I will say about them, over the black/red stars, is that their eggs shells are so smooth!

I don't know if this is a diet thing, or just a genetic thing, but the marran & polish eggs are incredibly easy to clean, the dirt just slides right off. With the black/red eggs, who have rough shells, I have to scrub away at the shells with sand paper to get the dirt off.

We don't wash our eggs for sale because doing that removed the 'bloom' from the outside of the egg. That is a thin layer on the outside of the egg that helps to keep is fresher longer.

Sandpaper marks

Mother Earth News did an egg study showing they could leave unwashed chicken eggs on the counter at room temperature for up to 6 months and they were still edible. Again, don't take my word for it, and please don't try it!

So I gently wipe off the eggs with a dry cloth, sand paper any stubborn dirt, candle, sort & store. I'll do a whole post about this to show my process soon.

Update

Why the blog post today is so late.

Some days...

Come Tweet with us!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/smallbusiness/story/2011/10/14/f-twitter-farmers-agriculture-social-media.html

I've used twitter before, and honestly didn't have much use for it. Now that I have something that I'm really passionate about, I've found it's an amazing way to connect to tons of people with the same passions.

It's really neat to read other farmers talking about the yields they got off their fields, or passing around the latest article from the globe. I'm still new to the twitter-verse but I'm hoping to find more & more local people I can bother with silly questions when I need help.

And as Robert A. Heinlein said "I never learned from a man who agreed with me"

#OntAg will get you started!

Versatile Blogger

Thanks Ashley!
Ashley does a great blog about her beautiful old farm house at firsthomedreams.blogspot.com as well as swampdogs.blogspot.com about her equally beautiful (although special) golden.

The versatile blogger award is for new blogs so we can share traffic and direct your readers to other blogs they might love.

New Site

I've launched our new site, and would like to introduce our new farm name: Booth Boys Barn.ca. With that we've released our price list, but I'd like to go into that in a little more depth here.

MEAT	AVERAGE WEIGHT	OUR PRICE	RECENT SUPERMARKET PRICE	EFAO AVERAGE PRICE
Chicken	3-5 Kg	$7.50/kg	$5.58/kg - not organic, not free range	7.99/kg - Dundas, organic
Eggs	Dozen	$4	$3 not organic, not free range	$6 doz - Dundas, organic
Beef	Variable	$10/Kg all cuts	Variable $4 for ground beef to $20++ for steak/roast  not organic	$16.12/Kg Eastern Ontario, organic

Recent supermarket prices are not on sale, at a very large international chain store known for it's low prices. Those are the actual prices of meat in our area from Oct 21st. The "EFAO prices" are from then EFAO website (go to "market prices"). They do a survey of local farms selling at farm gate and have an average for prices in the area.

These prices are just to start and we may be adjusting our prices over the years, as things change.

I thought I'd provide this list for people just starting up, or maybe some people with more experience that want to yell at me. We don't have anything available now, but in the spring we'll be opening up a farm-shop on site.

Everything is farm-pick-up-only as per Ontario law. 

We're also hoping to have turkey next year, and our goal is to get some pork in as well. Depends on how things go.

I really wanted to auction off Billy's first fleece as a fund-raiser to get him some ewes to play with (funny story... Billy is a rig, yeah we messed that one up good!!). Since wool is under a farm-gate only regulation I'm happy to keep it & knit something lovely. Or maybe I'll make a little sheep toy and we'll do something with that instead.

I'm a Twit now

Yes I joined the dark side.

---->

Nes' Farm now on twitter, you can follow us @NesFarm
I'll be posting pictures & little updates & links that really don't deserve their own blog posts. (Which also means less junking up your RSS streams! Yeah!).

Yeah, I'm not that excited either... have a great weekend!

Quote of the day

"I understand me, and that's all that really matters" - Mr. Howie Mandel.

To my fellow Canucks

Happy Canada Day!!

(Just remember fireworks can be terrifying for pets & farm animals. Prepare, be smart, and have fun.)

What's in a name?

The family is moving to a lovely old 4.8 acre farm just down the road, then right for awhile, then down another road... okay it's about 20 minutes away :).

We're all so excited, and I promise to share all our little misadventures in small-scale farming.

For now, I'm stuck on the name. Of course every little farm needs an official name! For now I'm going with 'Nes' Farm' but I promise to come up with something more creative. Hmmm...