The Grading has Begun

Here are some pictures of our land. The first three are "before" pictures. We have purchased the land, but essentially done nothing to it other than tying some little flags around.

These next two are post-grading. The bulldozer came in, and now there is a nice flat spot where our little trailer home can be moved in. Also we can have a driveway, and some porches, and maybe even garden/chicken space. Yay!!

Meet Echo - our new kitty!!!

Hi everybody - a little break here from all of the land stuff. Instead, here are pictures of our cute new kitty Echo. We rescued her from an owner who seemed to be neglecting her to the point that we feared she may die of flea bites. Also, she is overwhelmingly cute and we just couldn't resist. So without further ado, here are kitty pictures (look away if you think you can't stand the cuteness)

Interior pictures of our new mobile home

Hi All,
Just thought now that we have some more interior pictures of our new home that we would share them. We close on all of the land purchases on Wednesday. We started the permitting process today, which seems like (thanks to the economic downturn and reduction in new construction) may move pretty quickly.

The above was probably originally intended as a dinette type area - but we are thinking it will be a mudroom for us - and we will put our dining area in part of the living room type area.

This is the master bathroom. Seems pretty good.

A view of the whole kitchen, lots of good counter space.

This shows a bit of the living room, and its fireplace.

So there are some previews - for more you'll have to come visit once we are moved in.

Jeff

Phase 2

So, phase 2 has officially begun (insert evil laugh here).

I mean, things are going well with our general acquisitiveness.

We now have in hand a signed contract for the 5 acres across the road from what will be our permanent spot.

We also made an offer on a repossessed trailer earlier today (what's the only thing worse than a possessed trailer? a reposessed one hahahaha). Verbally that offer was agreed to over the phone, and the trailer is not available for viewing online anymore - so it sounds like we have it - but there is a catch. Carroll County has an ordinance (or law or something - a rule in any case) that you can only move trailers into the county if they are less than 7 years old. The trailer we have an offer in on is a 1995. So what we can do is bury it underground so that nobody knows about it (maybe another evil laugh here?). Not really (of course) we can submit pictures of it and the surrounding homes (all shabbier looking trailers - fortunately?) to a Compatibility committee and if they tell us it is okay then we can move it in.

The trailer we have gotten is a 28x60 (1680 sq ft) 3 bed, 2 bath pleasure palace. Unfortunately the only photos I have currently are of the outside, and of some of the trouble spots (we had good pictures of the inside online, but as previously noted it is no longer listed online). So I will post a couple of photos - the front door, and maybe one of the kitchen - but remember the interior shot here is intentionally not it's best side.

So, from top to bottom.

1. The outside - which looks quite nice (as trailers go).
2. Under the kitchen sink - which has a leak in one of the drains, but the damage seems to be minimal, and leak seems reparable.
3. The bath tub in the master bath (which is a bit large for my tastes, but what can you do).

I only put the kitchen one in there, because it gives some of the feel of the kitchen, which was one of the big draws about this trailer. It has a nice large kitchen with plenty of cabinet space, and counter space. It is a little bit odd to me that the sink is on an island in the middle, but even that novelty - for the time being seems cool. Sorry I don't have better interior pictures, but the ones online were fine - and I didn't know they would vanish so soon.

Hope you're all well,

Jeff

Buying Land

So,

As some of you may have heard, Annie and I have been looking for a small piece of Carroll County to call our very own. After several months of casual looking (ie internet searches and paying attention to the posted ads at our local feed stores and builder supplies) we have settled on a patch of ground to call our own. What makes this particular patch of ground so very special is that it is only about 1/2 mile down the road from our friends Paul and Terra. Aside from that, the only thing that really made it special was that it was cheap. Here are some photos of that bit of land

I guess I could post more, but that might just get redundant. Essentially it is a few tall trees with lots of scrub and briars. We fought our way through it right after we got the contract on it, and did confirm that there is a creek just off the property line at the back of the property.

Anywhoo, it will be 9.6something acres, and Annie and I will hopefully build our own little house on it and start creating our little patch of agricultural paradise. Interesting recent discovery - our real estate agent was talking to someone else who was looking for land, who apparently knew the land we just bought and suggested it would be a great place to install a pond/lake. He thought it could make a nice 3-4 acre lake, because a large part of the property is already somewhat bowl shaped.

The only pre-condition we put on buying the land in our contract was that it could pass a soil test for a septic tank - which it did. We already know that there is a water source there, because the houses on both sides of our land have city water (Mt. Zion city water).

And tonight's breaking news is that along with Paul and Terra we have (or are about to have?) a contract on the 5 acre plot of land across the street. They need a place to live semi-permanently while they build on their place down the road, and we need a place to live semi-permanently while we build on our place across the road. So we also hope to have a contract on a repossessed trailer - hopefully tomorrow. Then we can begin the process of getting a section of the land graded, making a foundation for the trailer, pulling the trailer on to it, getting utilities and putting in a septic tank.

It is all a good deal of running around, but hopefully we are going to have a pretty sweet trailer for the mean time, and then all end up with decent houses. And then since the trailer is not on the land we want to live on, we can either sell it or perhaps start renting it out and getting some rental income.

Big things are afoot.

Jeff

DragonCon 09

So, it's a little known or publicized fact that the reason this blog is at the address "Freaky Farms" and how that name came about at all is because the blog originated right after last year's dragoncon. The intent was to do a post with a lot of our pictures from that, and then, well we just never did. So here are some pictures from this year's con. Enjoy.

This is Annie with some fellow Battlestar Galactica Folks

An Alien I believe

The Serenity Crew from the show Firefly

Here I am with a girl dressed up as Jane's Hat (Jane is a character from firefly, you can see people wearing the hat in the above picture)

Really scarey guy from Lord of the Rings - I'm thinking his name is Sauron, but I get confused. In any case, I want to run away just looking at this picture, what a brave hobbit Frodo was.

There are lots of non sci-fi related costumes at the Con as well. This is the Swedish Chef, from The Muppet Show.

One of the Members of Sargent Pepper's band. Not sure which one really.

I think this is probably in the spirit of the upcoming movie. Alice in Wonderland.

Walter from the Big Lebowski.

"Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules!"

So there is a little DragonCon flavor for you all.

Jeff

ps. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Annie made another post to put in the pictures she especially wants - so keep watching.

The Flood

Well, we are still recovering from it, but I guess we're ready to blog about it now. On Monday, September 21, we woke up to the sound of our goats crying and then discovered about 6 feet of water in our barnyard. This presented quite a dilemma as to what to do. Eventually, Jeff swam into the flood waters and pulled out 4 of the 5 goats - luckily, there was no current in the water. Lily had somehow gotten over the fence and was tangled up in some privet, and Arthur somehow got into a rabbit cage. Hoppy and her kid, French Fry, were still in the barn, keeping their heads above water by standing with their front legs on the wire fence divider in the barn. Puck was eventually found dead in the rabbit cage next to where Arthur had been, once the flood waters receded. The 2 guineas managed to float inside their rabbit cage on a piece of wood. Jeff freed them from the cage and then set them on the roof of the chicken house. Inside the chicken house, the water level was just above the height of the roosts. Jeff constructed a little raft with which he brought out a few chickens at a time. All but 3 of the adult chickens had been able to make it to the higher places in the chicken house. Unfortunately, all the 1-2 month old Welsummer chicks drowned. So sad!! Nell, the surrogate mom to 7 of the chicks, went down with her babies. She was such a good mom! It was a very traumatic day. After saving the animals that were still alive, we found alternate housing for the survivors. Ironically, French Fry had been scheduled for the slaughter house that day. So he survived the flood only to go to the slaughter house, but at least we didn't have to worry about where to put him. The next day, we buried the dead, and now we are still working on the clean up. One section of fence needs fixing, and there is some mold in the goat barn. Jeff sprayed the floors and walls of 3 structures in the barn yard with a bleach solution already. The smelly job of removing the bedding from the structures was completed with the big help of some friends (thanks Scott and Sara). Hopefully, we can get the chickens back to their home this weekend. One thing is for sure, though: Jeff and I will never house animals in a flood plane again.

It's Cheese Grommit!!!!

Well, after many less than fully satisfactory attempts I have finally made something that Annie believes tastes like Chevre.

It turns out that perhaps the recipe I had been using was not the ideal one to use for Chevre - despite being titled "chevre recipe" in our cheese making book. My suspicion is that the recipe right next to it for "soft goat cheese" is actually better - especially since we didn't have exactly the right ingredients perhaps to follow the chevre recipe. Our little packet of Chevre culture said it could be used for direct set, but it seems to not contain rennet. Our recipe seems to believe that direct set always has rennet in it.

Well - anwhoo, long story short. By tomorrow morning it should be ready to stop draining and be put in our refrigerator (and mouthes).

Perhaps I should not we took a taste this morning before it has finished draining and that is how we are aware of the taste. Perhaps the taste will be a bit stronger even by tomorrow. Annie wants a bit stronger flavor she says (though I think the addition of salt will take care of most of what seems different between what I just made and what we can buy at the Farmer's Market, which is tastey and comes recommended if we have any Carrollton or Atlanta readers).

Well I think i've written a bit haphazardly today, hopefully this makes some sense.

Jeff

Updated Chick Count

Well, not only was I mistaken about the number of eggs that we had incubated but I also miscounted the number of chicks that hatched in the incubator. There were 16 eggs total incubated and 12 of them hatched. Three of Wynona's chicks are still alive and well, and ALL SIX of the eggs we put under Nell, an Australorp/Silkie mix, hatched the other day. So, that makes a total of 21 baby Wellsummers! Unfortunately, one of the mama Wellsummers died last week. It was probably Marek's Disease again. :-( She was the Wellsummer pullet that layed really pretty dark brown eggs. The other pullet lays lighter brown eggs with dark speckles. We shall see what their offspring produce.


Today, while making the afternoon rounds in the barnyard, I noticed that one of Wynona's chicks had gotten out of the rabbit cage and was running around in distress underneath. So, Wynona and the rest of her brood were released as well. Wynona was very happy about getting to take a nice dirt bath. It will be interesting to see if she is able to get her chicks up the 3 steps into the chicken house tonight or if they'll stay the night somewhere else.
Jeff and I bought materials to build more chicken tractors for our growing flock today. We've got lots of work to do!

-Annie

Buying Land

Jeff and I are making an offer today for some land here in Carrollton! The property has 8 acres (it's about half wooded and half cleared), a modular home built in 2006, a horse barn, and a carport with attached workshop and pole barn. There's also a creek that runs along the back of the property. We're excited about it, so keep your fingers crossed for us!






























Chick update: 11 of the 14 eggs in the incubator hatched despite the temperature fluctuations in the incubator. However, one of the chicks had difficulty hatching, and I decided to intervene, even though most info resources advise you not to do so. The chick had pecked a largish hole around his head, but he was sticky for some reason and got stuck to the inside of the shell and its membranes. I just couldn't ignore his distress calls, so I picked away the shell and soaked him in warm water to remove the shell membranes that had become glued to him. I'm not sure how well I did. Of course, his head was difficult to work on without drowning him. He's fluffing up a bit better now, but he still looks a little funky. The fuzzy butts that had already hatched kept picking on him and the last chick to hatch, so we gave them their own little brooder box in the nursery.
I love hanging with my peeps. :-)
-Annie

More chicks!!!

Alright, there are now 8 chicks fully out of their shells, and at least two more who are pecking at their shells (for which the technical term is "pipping").

This is far and away our most successful run of hatching eggs, either in the incubator or under a hen. Probably because the Mama and Papa chickens were young virile love machines.

Yay!!!

Jeff

New Chicks!!!

Well,

As of bedtime tonight there are 7 new Wellsummer chicks in various stages of drying and curiosity existing inside our incubator.

Wait for an update in the morning!!!

Jeff

Something brief

Hello all,

Just a brief update. We were dismayed this past Saturday morning to discover that two of Winona's 5 chicks had died. It is uncertain what caused it (did she crush them, did they not find the water, one of them might have gotten its foot stuck in the screen that is under them). In any case, we are down to 3 chicks there. Kind of a bummer.

Also Saturday Annie and I went looking for land. We saw some things we liked, and some things we didn't. We are hoping to buy a place buy the end of the year to take advantage of some of the tax breaks/low interest rates etc, but time will tell.

On Sunday we pickled, a lot. We pickled 40 pints of pickles - some sour and some bread 'n' butter. There is also a crock pot of some that are pickling in a brine.

Also had our most successful foray with making chevre (goat cheese) to date. It has close to the right texture. Each batch keeps getting a little better, so hopefully soon we'll have this something like perfected. Probably right when it is time to stop milking the girls :).

Hope all are well.

Jeff

The Cycles of LIfe

Well, today is primarily a sad day here at Deerfield. Whitepaw, the oldest of the cats around has not been feeling well lately. She hasn't been able to eat, but she's really been wanting to. She went to the vet last week and he gave her some shots and stuff, and she ate for a day or so, but since then has only seemed to get worse. I took her back to the vet today, and he found a tumor on her jaw that has grown into the joint, essentially freezing her jaw shut. He said he could give her some steroids, and that might give her some temporary relief, but that he thought the best thing for her would be to put her to sleep. I called David, and he gave his consent, and so sometime between two and three this afternoon Whitepaw left this world. We had a burial for her. It was very sad, even for me who was probably the least attached to Whitepaw of the Deerfield human residents.

The other happier news, is that Winona has hatched at least two of the eggs under her, and we are hoping for more. As soon as she is no longer sitting on them (which she is still doing last we saw) we will get some pictures of the new mama with her brood. That is also exciting as it is the first time we've used a hen to hatch eggs, so we will get to watch her raise them.

Also we completed our second chicken tractor today, so we can finally get the vastly overcrowded birds out of the brooder that they have been in for entirely too long. We still need to build a couple more for when they are full grown, but this will be a definite improvement.


And so the cycles keep on going. . .

Jeff

Comings and Goings

First, let me backtrack a bit to Jeff's and my honeymoon in Charleston, SC in late May. Jeff and I had a wonderful time in Charleston during the big annual Spoleto Festival. We saw a stage play, an opera, a contemporary ballet, the symphony orchestra, and "The One Man Star Wars Trilogy". The Star Wars thing was a lot of fun, but the ballet was our favorite show. We walked around beautiful Charleston until our legs gave up, and then we utilized the bicycle cabs. We also enjoyed some fine dining, including taking a cooking class, in which I discovered a new appreciation for fried chicken and pound cake. We stayed at a very charming B&B downtown, whose owners took great care of us. We enjoyed relaxing on the porch reading on cool mornings and sipping wine during the evening social hour.





















The newest arrivals at Deerfield are two baby guineas, which are a wedding gift from friends, who are local farmers. Unfortunately, Jeff and I have a bad track record as guinea parents so far. Our first four guineas disappeared shortly after we let them out of the small chicken tractor, that we had used to help teach them where home is. The big piles of feathers that they left behind indicates that a predator probably got them. So we're trying again, but this time we're putting them in a more secure location, hopefully. However, it would help if we made the tractor a little more escape proof for sneaky little guineas. One baby vanished from the tractor within hours of being placed there. It has not been seen or heard from since. Sniff! However, the Garrys gave us one more guinea so that our remaining one wouldn't be lonely. They are currently in a rabbit cage until we fix the tractor...or something.









Keep your fingers crossed for the arrival of more baby chicks next week! Wynona has been sitting on some Welsummer eggs for almost three weeks. Hatching day should be Tuesday the 21st. Wynona started out with a dozen eggs, but early last week she kicked out of the nest one of the eggs, which we found broken open beside her. There had been a chick developing in the egg, but maybe something went wrong with it, so Wynona kicked it out, or maybe she just accidentally broke it somehow. We also put about 15 eggs in the incubator, which might hatch on the 31st. We don't really have high hopes for those eggs, though, because the thermostat on the incubator has been pretty erratic, letting the temp go up to 104 one day, which can kill the developing chicks. Our other hope for Welsummer chicks is a Silkie/Australorp hen, who finally went broody again this week. She has 6 eggs under her. We released the Welsummer cockerel and one of the girls from the "Love Shack" after we discovered that the other girl was not well one day. It appears that she has come down with that evil Marek's Disease that killed a number of our chickens over the winter, which, I suppose, doesn't bode well for the vitality her offspring. Ack! Oh, well. We shall see.

This morning we said goodbye to Lily's daughter, 3-month old Pease Blossom. Sob! She is going to a nice new home, though, where she will have another young Nubian-mix doeling as a companion. Her new owner is a newbie goatherd, like Jeff and I were just over a year ago. She's been studying up, though, and Jeff and I shared with her some useful tips, based on our own experiences as novices in the goat world.

Here are some pictures of the first chicken tractor, that Jeff and I built. It houses the Partridge Rock and New Hampshire Red youngins that arrived here back in mid-April.










The garden is growing pretty well. The corn is getting tall. We have a thick wall of cucumber vines across from the tomato beds, and lots of cool stuff has sprouted in the new bed that Jeff dug near the raised beds. We were kind of late planting some stuff (and the lack of rain didn't help), but hopefully we'll get some gourds, melons, and squash before the end of the season.









Cheers,
Annie