I know, I am embarrassingly behind on the A to Z challenge. It all began to go south at U. But I have a good excuse, really. Things at the farm have been very, very exciting. And this excitement has eaten up a lot of my time.
On Monday (U day) we had our first successful kidding at Five Maples Farm. The kids and I are enamored with our new babies. I say successful because kidding time the past two years has been a sad time for us.
Comments Off on V. Kidding Victory
Posted in Blogging A to Z Challenge, Life on the farm
While GMO crops have the potential to combat food shortages, add nutrition to food, produce pharmaceuticals such as insulin, generate biofuels and produce vaccines, the first widely distributed GMO crop introduced herbicide resistance into plants.
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Posted in Blogging A to Z Challenge, Educational, Science
I’ve had turkeys on my mind a lot lately. About a week ago, I picked up our turkey poults from the post office. After the success of last year, we decided to increase the number of turkeys we raise and got 15.
We bought 10 bronze breasted bronze turkeys, which are the same kind we raised last year. Broad breasted bronze turkeys were specifically bred to grow very large quickly. We waited a little too long to process them last year – several of our toms were >40 pounds dressed! Because of their size, bronze turkeys reproduce poorly. In fact, hatcheries have to use artificial insemination to maintain the line. Now that’s a dirty job!
Comments Off on T. Thinking About Turkeys
Posted in Blogging A to Z Challenge, Life on the farm, Science
Just over a year ago we went solar. SolarCity came and installed our system for free. Now that we have had panels for a year, I think it’s time for an update. I compared our electric costs for the past two years (one year without solar, one year with), and amazingly, we have already saved at least $1200.
A good deal, right?
Comments Off on S. Saving With Solar
Posted in Blogging A to Z Challenge, Tidbits
I’m back, Rebecca’s friend Marianne! Perhaps you saw the blog Rebecca so graciously posted on Q – Quilts of Valor. Well somehow I tricked her (can you imagine) into allowing me to blog again!
There’s a theme with me and it centers around – wait for it – SEWING! This time I’d like to tell a little about Ryan’s Case for Smiles (formerly known as ConKerr Cancer).
Comments Off on R. Ryan’s Case for Smiles
Posted in Blogging A to Z Challenge, Tidbits
