Home on the Hill

At Savory Farm we treat your pork with special care. And it's not just the apples and eggs they get every morning! Hope you get your smooch today!

Day 10 of project sheep.  Or Sleepless in Endako.   Life with a couple of bummer lambs.  Strange term - just means they were rejected by their moms, for what ever reason, lack of milk etc. When we got them they were less than 12 hours old.  We made it past the every two hour feed for the first  frantic 24 hours and are now into the luxurious every 6 hour feed. It really wasn't too bad as I was up every four hours anyway to feed the fires during the -30 -40 week.  Thankfully that's passed. We have Babba and Louie residing in a large dog carrier filled with sweet hay, when there not out galavanting across the kitchen fields.  Well the carrier starts out that way.. Feed and pee.  Pee and feed.  Ah well, the kitchen floor is due for replacement anyway. They really are the cutest darn things. They are following Jo around like puppy dogs.  Xena and the Cats seem to get along with the curious bounders.  Cleo not so much. ...

And now, the animals and us can drink it! Just got the last run of  three frozen waterlines thawed out.  Five days of -35 to -40C will do that.  Especially if the maintenance department forgot to plug in the heat tapes.  Now we have water in the House, Green house, and Animal Shed.  No more packing water.  The tomatoes were looking a little parched.  Brother Tom has a great technique for thawing out frozen water line.  It involves breaking the line at a convenient spot, putting in a ball valve.  And threading a 1/4 inch line down the frozen pipe.  Its connected via an adapter to a high pressure paint sprayer.  Turn on the paint sprayer and keep pumping hot water down the line until it eats through the dam.  Works like magic.  The water that comes back out the line is caught in a bucket and can even be reused.  When the water breaks through the 1/4 inch line gets whipped out, the ball ...

 Which one of these things is different from the others: That egg is goose size, and we cant seem to find a goose in the hen house.  Today I am going to see if I can locate a hen that is being very careful how she moves! This is a very old wooden threshing machine that we donated to the local museum.  It was languishing  under a tin roof that was hung off an old rat crap infested shed.  It now has a lovely new home under a great roof.  The roof became the outside pen area for the chucks and the old rat crap infested shed became the shell for the all season green house . Now were looking at fixing up a hand hewn barn on the place that is in surprisingly good shape.  I was getting it ready for some goats but that didn't happen.  Now were thinking of trying some Sheep.  We need a couple of good lawn mowers, and I can use some new wool socks.. the back of the barn will get a door cut in it so the pigs can get out of...

It's the fourth of January.  I am at 54 ° North and its pouring rain.  During a let up I slipped out ( literally ) without my crampons to feed the fire in the green house.  The dogs were laughing at me.  They have built in ones - but they didn't look all that steady either.. The good news is that four arm loads of firewood in the upstairs heater will keep the house warm and cozy for a day.  Some one has been stealing our firewood lately because of the 16 stock piled cords at least three has disappeared.  We suspect some one has been burning it. Got a bajillion projects on the go - some of them weather dependent.  I.E.  I don't like to work outside in the rain wearing crampons unless I really have to. Hope your getting around OK.