Our First Egg

We've been waiting for months, and at last the day has arrived.  Yesterday we got our first egg from our chickens!  The hens are approximately 7.5 - 8 months old now, so I guess that's right about on schedule.  I'm not sure if we should expect very many eggs in the near future, since it's mid-November and the days are just going to keep getting shorter.  But I've read that Orpingtons do sometimes keep laying through the winter, so I guess we'll see!

Our egg is on the right, with a store-bought size "Large" egg and a penny in the photo for size comparison.

I've read that a pullet's first eggs are often tiny and misshapen, but this egg is lovely and perfect.  It's a bit smaller than the store-bought egg, but it's still a respectable size.  It's lighter-colored than the store-bought egg too.  It's exactly the beautiful pale porcelain-pink flesh tone that you'd see on the face of an expensive porcelain doll.

Next came the taste test.  I hard boiled both the eggs, and we shared them for breakfast.

 As you can see, our egg (top) has a much richer color, presumably because our chickens have access to grass and bugs and occasional scraps of fruit, instead of just chicken feed.  Our egg also had slightly more flavor and a less dry and crumbly texture to the yolk.  It also had a noticeably stronger shell.

It's a Pig's Life

The sheep aren't the only ones worthy of a photo shoot.  The pigs deserve some camera time too!

As you can see, our Guinea hog boar Magick works very hard here on the farm, mainly at napping, eating, and being cute:

"Psst.  Hey Dad!  You asleep?"

According to the measuring tape method of weighing a pig, Magick weighs about 280 lbs.  That's pretty big for a Guinea hog!

Magick's mate Cerridwen is slim, fit, and active now at the very beginning of her pregnancy.  I suspect it might have been her bossy, highly opinionated attitude that encouraged poor, lazy Magick to seek out the company of other pigs yesterday.

 

About a month and a half away from giving birth and starting to get quite heavy, our other sow Circe luxuriates in a relaxing mud bath:

 

Let's not forget the piglets!  They're getting bigger and bigger.  There are only 4 left here, 3 of which are sold and one that will be going into our freezer in a few months.

It's interesting to me that we have both the slender long-nosed type and the chubby short-nosed type of Guinea hog in the very same litter:

After the Shearing

Since I already posted a series of photos of the sheep in full fleece, I figured I should give equal space to showing how they look now, after they have been sheared.  It took a long time and a lot of work for me to shear the whole flock by myself, so I ought to celebrate a task well done with a photo shoot!

Wish is beautiful with or without fleece:

Xcarlett and Xanadu rest among the fallen leaves:

Tansy sure looks different without her glorious golden fleece:

Pandora is one of the first sheep I ever bought.  She's middle aged now, but she always gives me wonderful, stout lambs:

Willow looks so much smaller with all her lush fleece removed:

As I was shearing, I started to realize I have a shortage of solid black sheep in my flock.  It makes me all the more grateful to have lovely Sapphire, who is one of my favorite ewes:

Tawny strikes a pose on a small rock:

Rowena rests in the shade:

Two photos of pretty Tsarina:

Urbana, Regina, and Paris:

Moriah is the oldest sheep in my flock, 8 years old and still going strong:

Shearing Utopia reveals her excellent, stout meat build that had been hidden beneath her wool:

Although she's a "teenager" now, Xolani has retained her irresistible "cute lamb" face:

Although she is one of my most regal looking sheep, it's hard to get good photos of Paris, because she is very independent and wants nothing to do with foolish human shenanigans:

Let's not forget the rams!  Here are 3 of this year's ram lambs:  Xavier, Xerxes, and Xenophon:

Here are Nicholai, Xaq, Scimitar, and Ukraine, all hanging out together:

Here's Nicholai, the gentle old King of the Flock:

Scimitar is looking stout and handsome:

We trimmed Ukraine's horn because it was growing too close to his face.  We still have to trim the other one:

It was hard to take pictures of Xaq because he kept following me around wanting to be petted.  So far he's doing a very good job of remembering that he has to approach me RESPECTFULLY.  Breeding season is no excuse; I don't allow disrespectful, overly assertive behavior from my rams:

Magick the Teleporting Pig

Our Guinea hog boar Magick, apparently intent on living up to his name, has learned to teleport.  One minute he's scavenging around the yard with his mate Cerridwen, cleaning up fallen pears and acorns that have dropped from the trees.  When I go out to get the mail an hour later, he has somehow reappeared in the front pasture WITH THE OTHER BOAR AND THAT BOAR'S MATE.

With any other pig, or at any other time, that might be a recipe for disaster.  But the other sow, Circe, is clearly already pregnant, so we don't have to worry about an unplanned pregnancy by the wrong boar.  And the two boars apparently had no interest in fighting with each other.  In fact, it seems that Magick didn't stop by to visit with either loving or fighting in mind.  He stopped by to use their bath!

When I discovered him, he was happily lounging in their wallow, with the other two pigs relaxing nearby.  No conflict, no hard feelings.  Just some contented pigs hanging out with their visitor.

I said, "Magick!  What are you doing in there?" and opened the gate.  He got up out of the bath, lumbered out through the gate, and I shut it behind him.  Simple as that.

Then I proceeded to walk the fenceline, looking for the place where he broke in.  The whole fence is very sturdy 2" x 4" woven mesh on thick wooden posts, so I knew it would be obvious where he had somehow shoved his way under.  Only it wasn't.

I walked the entire fenceline of that pasture, and there was NOWHERE he could have gotten in.  No gate unlatched, no fencing shoved up or burrowed under.  No loose wire.  No gaps.

So I can only conclude that one of two things happened:

1.  Magick has learned to teleport, and decided to use his new-found superpower to indulge in a good mud bath.

2. Or, for some unknown reason he went into our hay building (currently empty of hay), walked in the dark all the way to the other side of the building, and took a sudden whim to climb up on the window sill and fling himself out the open window onto the ground below, all for the sake of getting into a pasture that has less feed than the one he was already in.

Frankly, the image of this stout, lazy, slow-moving, mellow boar defenestrating himself for no apparent reason kind of makes the teleportation theory seem a little less farfetched.

Anyway, he's back where he belongs now (or was, last time I looked!), and no harm was done.  But I'm still perplexed by the "how" and "why" of it all.

Magick:  Pig of Mystery!  :-)

Giveaway Winners!

Drum roll please!  Here are the winners for our three big giveaways.

 1 bar of sheep's milk soap goes to:

• Brooke
• Natural Garden
• Susie
• Ackermari
• Daneen

The Icelandic fleece goes to:

• Sleepypinesaz

And last but not least, the hand spun, hand knitted scarf goes to:

• Zoe

Many thanks to all who participated!  Winners---please email me your contact info so I can send you your prizes!

Don't Forget to Enter our THREE Free Giveaways!

Time is running out to enter our three big giveaways!  To enter, all you have to do is go to the appropriate blog post for the prize you want to win and comment on that post.  Only one entry per giveaway, but you can enter all three giveaways if you want:

Free Sheep's Milk Soap Giveaway  <---Click on this link, then post a comment.
I said I'd give away free bars of sheep's milk soap to five people if my soap making project on Kickstarter met its funding goal.  The project met its goal in just over a week, so this giveaway is definitely happening.  I'll give everybody one more week to enter, then I'll announce the winners on November 1.

 

Free Icelandic Fleece Giveaway <---Click on this link, then post a comment.
I said I'd give away this lovely Icelandic sheep's fleece when my farm's Facebook page reached 1,000 fans.  We're at 990 fans now, so we only need 10 more to go before this giveaway happens.

Free Handspun Wool Scarf Giveaway  <---Click on this link, then post a comment.
I said I'd give away this hand spun, hand knitted scarf when my farm's Facebook page reached 1,000 fans.  We're at 990 fans now, so we only need 10 more to go before this giveaway happens.

Don't miss your chance to win.  Enter today!

Soap Making Equipment

I'm very pleased to announce that my Kickstarter project reached its funding goal in just over a week, so my soap making project WILL be going forward.  Hurray!  Many thanks to our generous backers!

I won't receive the actual funds for about another month (who knew we'd reach the funding goal so quickly?), but I want to get started on the project as soon as possible because I'm going to try to have all the backers' soap finished and cured in time to mail before the holidays.

Knowing that the project money will be coming in, I was able to advance myself some money from my hay-buying fund and spend the weekend shopping.  Saturday we went in to town and got most of the soap making equipment.  Sunday I went online and ordered the supplies.  I only have a few more minor items to pick up while I wait for the supplies to arrive.  Then I'll be ready to make my first soap!

Here's what I have so far:

• A large stainless steel pot to contain the soap ingredients while I blend them

• A stick blender for mixing the ingredients

• A digital food scale to precisely measure the ingredients

• Two digital thermometers to check the temperatures of the oil and the lye-water

• A heavy duty plastic pitcher to contain the lye-water and allow for safe, easy pouring

• A large Pyrex measuring cup to hold the dry lye

• Heavy duty silicone spoons and ladle for stirring and transferring the soap before it hardens

• Safety gear:  Apron, rubber gloves, goggles, and mask.  The goggles and mask are ones I already had for crafting, but I'll get new ones to be designated specifically for soap making.

• Wax paper, masking tape, and scissors for lining the soap mold.  The scissors and wax paper we already had.

• Wooden soap mold with cover and soap cutter.  I had already purchased this one online here.  Once I try it and determine that it works well for my needs, I'll probably buy a couple more.  This is the 6-lb. version, that makes 20 bars of soap at a time.

• Soap making books.  These books are ones I had already collected over the years, but I did order three more online:  one a good general soap making book, and two devoted specifically to making milk soaps, which are slightly trickier than non-milk soaps.

Also ordered online:  several gallons of olive oil, 10 lbs. of lye, and a quantity of the essential oils needed to make our exclusive essential oil blend.

I already have a good supply of sheep's milk waiting in the freezer, but I'll still have to buy some distilled water to complete the recipe.