To be a farmer is to be a student forever, for each day brings something new.
- John Connell, 'The Farmer's Son: Calving Season on a Family Farm', 2019

And they're off!

The guys barely got their laces tied when the gun went off and they had to bolt from the starting blocks.

The gun going off was a plethora of lambs being born. There were so many lambs within the first 36 hours that a couple of ewes with theirs had to stay in the bigger pen instead of having a comfy cubicle to themselves. Martin only caught a couple of hours sleep the first night. There are more details in the Down On the Farm section.

Added to all the lambs, 200 layer chicks arrived and were carefully placed under the wooden hen in their toasty shed. These little brown fluff balls settled in nicely. By next fall they should be complementing our egg production.

In the middle of all this, Cherry had a little black heifer calf.

"What are you going to name her?" I ask the guys.

"Well, if it was a boy, it was going to be 'Kerosene.'"

"Kerosene! What kind of name is that?"

"This year the identification letter for livestock is K. Kerosene starts with a K. Now, Cherry's calf is a girl, so it may be Katherine."

"How about Kerosena?"

"Wait, wait, you guys," Martin interjects. "It's a heifer that I may want to keep, so she needs to have a sensible name."

"Okay, Martin. We'll think about it some more."

The last I heard, they were calling the calf Kate…short and sweet.

It's helpful to have the names of the animals starting with the identification letter because you can easily determine how old they are.

Recently, we were in a local store talking with the manager about organic nuts and seeds. He said he didn't carry them because it's hard to keep them fresh on the shelf. Because nuts and seeds are high in unsaturated fatty acids/oils, they will go rancid if exposed to light and warm air.

However, we are able to maintain a large selection of organic nuts and seeds in our cooler section where they stay fresh and nutritious. You'll find the following there:

Nuts – Almonds, (whole, sliced), Brazil Nuts, Raw and Roasted Cashews, Hazelnuts, Raw Macadamias, Salted, Roasted Peanuts, Pecans, Pistachios, and Walnuts;

Seeds – Flax, Hemp Seeds, Poppy Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, and Chia Seeds.

These tasty treats make great snacks for work, school and busy days, or nutritious additions to your favorite recipes.

Fresh pasture every day, clean Granderized water on demand, and a peaceful environment make happy, healthy cattle that produce quality beef. Harvest Haven pasture-raised beef is tender, tasty, and satisfying.

Properly managed livestock is extremely nutritious and essential in maintaining sustainable ecosystems. This method of husbandry improves the pastures, provides habitat for wildlife, flowers for the bees, and produces wholesome meat.

Like Martin says, "It's Heaven on earth!"

Harvest Haven Pasture Raised Ground Beef – A farm favorite with so many ways to prepare it. Our ground beef has just the right amount of fat to make it tender and flavorful. And grass-fed beef fat supplies your Omega 3's!

La Preferida Organic Pickled Jalapeno Slices, 250 mL – A new product that we absolutely love. Organic jalapeno peppers in organic vinegar, water, and sea salt. No artificial colors, preservatives, or added sugar.

The mild variety has robust flavor without the heat. These peppers add a subtle tang to salads, nachos, burrito bowls, and dips. Kids will be able to handle these.

The potent peppers in the hot variety are perfect on nachos, omelets, pizza, and sandwiches.

La Preferida Organic Refried Beans, 398 mL – Rich and creamy real refried beans made with 3 simple ingredients: organic pinto beans, water, and salt. Heat and serve as a side dish for an authentic Mexican meal, spread in your favorite burrito, or mix with salsa and sour cream for a yummy dip.

Que Pasa Organic Corn Chips, 350 g – Unlike most other corn chips, which use highly processed corn flour, Que Pasa tortilla chips are crafted from organic whole kernel corn, which is ground using volcanic stones, the traditional way. Simple ingredients make crunchy, tasty chips.

Made with volcanic stone ground organic corn, organic sunflower and/or safflower oil, sea salt, and a trace of lime.

Organic Icing Sugar, 454 g – Wholesome Organic Fair Trade Powdered Confectioners' Sugar is an excellent one-for-one replacement for conventional powdered sugar. Perfect for frostings, fillings, dusting and baking, this truly wholesome powdered sugar captures a tiny bit of natural molasses in the extra-fine powder, making for a confectioners' sugar that's deliciously sweet and flavorful.

Made from organic sugarcane hand-harvested in South America, this Organic Fair Trade Powdered Confectioners' Sugar is sustainably grown and processed.

Organic Pecans, 180 g – This native of northern Mexico and the Southern United States is a nutrition powerhouse packed with vitamins and minerals. Their rich, buttery flavor and natural sweetness make a tasty snack and a delicious addition to your baking.

Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic.

Lambasted

One of the meanings of lambasted is "to assault violently: beat, whip." And that's how Martin felt after 36 hours of lambing this past week. He was lambasted.

Lambs weren't expected until the first week of March, but they couldn't wait. At 8:00 o'clock Tuesday morning (Feb 28th) Tony, our Hong Kong shepherd sent me a message, "It seems two ewes have given birth already."

The little guys were dry and up drinking on their moms by that time. A pleasant surprise to start the day.

At 9:44 in the evening, Pumpkin, Konstantijn's favorite ewe had triplets, all girls.

Jeannie sent me pictures of the newborns to which I commented, "A nice way to end the day."

"Yes, let's hope the day is over. But, lambing has started, so who knows? Looks like a few girls are close. Three down a day before we expected them is good by me!"

Touching base with Jeannie in the morning, I found out there were more lambs overnight.

"Good morning! How are you? Any more lambs?"

"Yes, triplets at midnight. And triplets at 3:30 AM. I'm fine. Martin's exhausted."

Another message from Jeannie at noon on Wednesday (March 1).

"Flower had triplets at 10 AM. And Martin just untangled quadruplets from Freckles. That was a tough job, but they are all fine."

Jeannie sends me more pictures of this lot of lambs.

Three hours later, a text message and another picture with Martin helping a ewe and three more babies.

"That's 22 lambs in a day and a half. I hope Martin can get some sleep tonight."

Thursday morning's messages start.

"Good morning. How's everyone and everything," I ask.

"Good morning. No more lambs, but Cherry had her calf. It's a girl.

"James picked up chicks.

"Martin has a bad headache and didn't sleep well."

Note: A chinook blew in overnight, which causes Martin some discomfort. But the bigger problem was that the dentist had just fitted him with an appliance to expand his lower jaw so it lines up properly with his expanded upper palate.

Expanding the upper palate was painful because the sutures had to break as the appliance put pressure on the teeth. As you'll notice, Martin's upper teeth have straightened significantly and his palate has broadened.

Now, work is being done on the lower jaw to match the upper. But, there are no sutures to break to accommodate movement. It's pure pressure on the teeth and jaw to force them to move and build new bone. The explanation for how this works is for another video at a different time.

I asked Martin if he'd still go through all this if he'd known how painful it would be. His answer was a firm, "Definitely! It's been more than worth it." END

Thankfully, by noon Martin had recovered and the rest of the day was quiet.
Friday morning, more pictures and messages from Jeannie.

"No babies overnight, but two ewes just had lambs. Two more triplets.

"Martin was able to get some sleep."

At the time of writing, another ewe had had twins, for a total of 30 lambs from 11 ewes. That's just over half our flock lambed out in 6 days. Walter, the ram was a busy boy, got the job done, and made more work for Martin.