Spring on Anchored Farms

 Eilidh (left) and McKenzie (right) enjoying some green grass.

 Eilidh and Mckenzie, our two Scottish Highland heifers enjoying some fresh greens.

 Many of our Nigerian Dwarf goats.

 Scarlett nursing her litter that was born 5-9-2020.

 Scarlett nursing her piglets.  She gave birth to 14, had one stillborn.  One week after birth, 13 are still living.

 Some of our young pullets.

Some of our replacement hens, they are still young pullets.

Chickens Are Awesome

We have about 21 hens that are currently laying.  all of our birds get locked up at night, but "free range during the day.  We have 16 Guinea hens as well. Living in Missouri and the country, ticks are a "dime a dozen", so the guineas come in quite handy.   We call the rooster, Big Red, and there are a few hens that stay close to him.

**SOLD**

Poker: Multi-colored wether with horns was born 5 Mar 2019

Roscoe: White wether was born 18 May 2019

Bonnie: light brown doeling was born 18 May 2019

Late Fall Update

Well, I didn't realize it had been over six months since I last updated this blog.  Anchored Farms continues to grow with animals and peoples.  Here are some pics with explanations.

 Anchored Farms sunrise on 17 August 2019.

Charlene's birthday present. A hybrid Peach/Plum fruit tree.  At the time of purchase, it had one peach on it.  That peach survived, but was not harvested in time for a human to eat it.   

Darci Jensen, was asked by her niece, Eloise, to watch, comfort, and burp Eloise's doll, while Darci's real baby takes a nap.

 Jared loves playing with his daughter, Edrie,

Edrie is nothing but love, happiness, and SMILES! 

 Josiah and Ona enjoy the roller coaster during the Walnut Festival in Stockton, MO during late September 2019.

Josiah, (far right) enjoys walking the river while several scouts from BSA Troop 78 head to the swimming hole. 

 Josiah Beach enjoying some caving during a BSA Troop 78 camp out.

 Ona Beach enjoys helping with chores and interacting with some of Anchored Farms' Nigerian Dwarf Goats.

 Big Red, takes time to chew his food while the Guinea Hens continue to eat grain from the feed dish.

 Charlene watches as Scarlett nurses her new litter of piglets.  She gave birth to 14 and thankfully, 11 survived to 8-weeks of age, when they were sold.

 Scarlett with her 11 piglets enjoy some sunshine.

 Our two Scottish Highland heifers, several of our goats, and some chickens enjoying some hay and feed.

 Our two Scottish Highland heifers (Eidihl, pronounced "Ay-lee) is the lighter colored heifer and McKenzie is the darker heifer.

Snowflake gives birth to twins. One doeling and one buckling.  We name them Bonnie and Roscoe since Ross' parents had just recently moved into the Lodge. Roscoe is the white kid laying under his mother, and Bonnie is standing.

Activity Update #3

Updates on this blog just don't happen very often.  We've had many updates to the farm since the last update.  Here are some pictures:

Pic 1: Our gilt Scarlett, she has since had a litter of 10 piglets since this pic was taken.

Pic 2: Jacob fishing at Caplinger Mills over the Christmas holidays

Pic 3: The view from the bridge at Caplinger Mills, looking down stream

Pic 4: Fun

Pic 5: Feeder rabbits, will eventually become dinner

Pic 6: Our Mini-Rex doe, "Autumn"

Pic 7: "Copper" our Red Wattle boar

Pic 8: "Pumpkin"

Pic 9: "Coconut"

Pic 10: "Crimson"

Video 1: Nigerian Dwarf goats feeding

Activity Update "Take Two"

Good Afternoon,

    We continue to grow and develop our farm and enjoy the direction Anchored Farms is going.  Since our last blog entry, we've had four nannies give birth to multiple kids.  Coconut, Pumpkin, and Snowflake gave birth to triplets, and Peach gave birth to twins.  Unfortunately, Snowflake's kids did not survive.  We don't know why, but we believe she experienced a significant complication, since she gave birth three weeks early.  The remaining eight kids have survived and are doing well.  This year's birthing cycle produced five doelings and three billies.  As for milk production, we have a lot of goat milk and we recently invested in a automatic pulsating milker.  Chris was able to get it set up, just a couple of days ago, and he, and the rest of us, are loving the fact that we no longer have to milk by hand.  We did sell the remaining three billies, from last year's birthing cycle through the El Dorado Springs Livestock Auction, and we had a positive experience through that process.  Pictures will be forthcoming.
    Starlight, our rabbit doe, gave birth to seven kits and six of them have survived.  We believe one of the kits suffered a broken back, probably from his mom stepping on him, because he had no use of his hind legs.  He was put down to end his suffering.  These baby rabbits are actually old enough to butcher, since they are pushing 10 1/2 weeks old as of this post.  We look to carryout this process in the near future.
    We also purchased 17 additional Guinea keets, 13 of which have survived and are actually developing feathers now.  They have a few more weeks before they can be released to run with our seven adult Guineas.  It is interesting, that we tend to lose one or two of the small animals after birth, and this appears to be normal, based on our discussion with others in the agriculture business.  It would be nice to figure out how to prevent the loss, but sometimes it's not possible, so we keep pushing forward.
    On the hog production side of the house, we purchased a boar and two gilts in an effort to start producing piglets.  The boar should become "capable" in August.  Our plan is to breed them in September, for December farrowing.  All three are 100% Red Wattle.  We bought our boar from Marilyn Judd, and our gilts from a family in Elkton, MO. We have a barrow as well, the boar's brother, which will be processed for the freezer in the next few weeks.  The boars were born on 2 January 2018 and the gilts were born in December 2017.
    Our garden is coming along, and Chris has done a lot of work to get our plants to producing vegetables.  We enjoy the produce on a regular basis.  We also discovered that we have multiple Mulberry trees growing around the property, and we've enjoyed that fruit.  Our blackberries are coming in strong as well.

    Well, I believe that's about it, and brings us to our current activities.  If you would like additional information or have questions about our animals, please leave a comment.  If there is something you'd like to purchase, we can have that discussions as well.

Activity Update

This past summer and fall have been busy and rewarding.  We processed five hogs in early summer, sold two of them and butchered the other three, which now take up space in two freezers.  We love our home-raised pork.  We still have three of our Nigerian Dwarf bucklings, which are ready for rehoming immediately.  3 of the 6 bucklings that were born in April have been sold (one as a wether).  We purchased 5 additional feeder pigs in July, and all five have been sold, and will be processed in mid-December.  We are getting ready for winter, as we've had to light up the "dragon", our outside wood-burning furnace, to keep the house warm.  Alisa & Chris, and the rest of the household, welcomed a precious baby girl into the family on 14 November, Eloise Linda Beach, is named after her Great Great Grandma Eloise Bass and her Grandma Linda Beach.
So that's the update, pictures will follow in a little bit.