Thursday, April 10, 2008

Spring Madness on the Farm…

Spring time has arrived here at Apothecary Farm, and with it a further multitude of tasks to accomplish as soon as possible!

We are very pleased to announce the addition of a gorgeous herd sire into our group: “Goliath.” Goliath comes to us from Pholia Farm in Rogue River, and we are eager to see how his genetics can improve our nigerian dwarf goat herd!

We will continue to increase our ND numbers by adding a second herd sire, Piddlin Acres BZ Suede Boots, and two more does (Pholia Farm RA Chanel & a doe kid from Piddlin Acres), in May & June. Our second phase of the kidding season will kick off with Chanel’s freshening in early August. Chanel has beautiful conformation and fabulous genetics. We are very excited to see how her udder improves with this second freshening! Two of our other does, Cheerio & Breeze, are scheduled to be bred this fall for spring 2009 kiddings. Please see our website for more details and the full kidding schedule.

Spring is the time for trimming hooves, shearing, and administering wormers and vaccinations. We will soon have more mohair and llama fiber available!! The female llamas are being moved into their larger pasture next weekend, and we know that they will be much happier with all of the extra running space. Punkin is going to be moved into the nigerian dwarf doe pasture to act as our new guard llama.

The chickens are laying eggs, and we can now offer farm fresh eggs for sale! We have more chicks due to arrive next week, as well as some goslings and turkeys. We will have (frozen) farm fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving this year, as well as a (frozen) goose or two! Inquire for availability.

The house remodeling continues (slowly). We are almost finished painting the downstairs, and are now focusing our attention on the upstairs: painting, replacing old light fixtures and toilets, etc. We have finished a great deal of landscaping to the grounds surrounding the house. We now have a small native plant and antique rose garden in place. As soon as we have some of the large (dead) pine trees removed from the front of the house later this month, we will begin landscaping that area. We have plans to put a picnic area out there so that people can watch the donkeys at play.

We have our heirloom seeds, and are very excited to begin planting our garden in the coming weeks. It will be a small garden this year, but we hope to expand in the years to come as time and money allows. The orchard trees are in bloom, and soon we will have fresh fruit. We have also planted some wild grapes around the property, and look forward to harvesting their fruit in the future. Each step we take is a step toward being self-reliant!