2021 Wrap Up

On November 10, 2021 By Tiffanie WrinkleIn farmingLeave a comment

Just like that, we blinked and are at the end of the year. There is not a whole lot new and exciting at the farm.

We have both been so busy. Our goals have changed a little bit, and unfortunately a couple of the projects we started and were so hopeful about had to take a back burner. For starters, we put our MushRoom on hold for now. We hope to come back to it at some point, but with both of us working full time and having so much other stuff going on, we did not have the time to devote to that project. There were a couple of issues that we hadn’t worked out yet, just small kinks in the hose. Due to our always going schedule, we just had to take a step back.

We have been in the seemingly never ending process of cleaning out and repurposing some of the outside building space. Some of that space has been devoted for our dogs. At the end of 2020, we welcomed our Golden Retrievers to their new home at the farm. We love our girls so much, and Mr. Link is such a good boy. We now have space for them to run and play, and also have repurposed some of the outdoor space to be welping pens for the girls. Right now we are also working on getting them a larger area to run and play and hope to have that completed shortly.

We also did take a step back from our cows to a degree. We welcomed a renter, who is also leasing the cows. I have talked before how a cow lease works, as we had previously leased some cows ourselves. We were also leasing some property for our cows through the end of 2020. When that expired we just decided it was time to welcome a renter of our own, and he leases the cows as well. It has been so nice having him there to take care of our animals when we had to take a step back from it. Having a renter also made it possible for us to go on vacation this year, as he was able to step in and take care of everything while we were gone.

We had big dreams this year for our garden and our MushRoom but it was not to be. I have a vision, however, of how I want to make the garden work for us going forward. I plan to spend the winter months getting everything ready that way in the spring we are ready to go.

We went last weekend to pick up a new stand for taxidermy. That is something we have been interested in for a while, and have even had Dermestid beetles in the past. We have now been in the process of repurposing a small shed for this. B is super bummed that he has been unable to trap this year, and we hope in the future that he can pick that back up.

Another big change that has happened for us is that B and a couple of friends have been working on the project of starting their own business together. That has been months in the making, and is now a reality. The business is officially off the ground and we are working to get the word out and build the business up. It has been stressful, as all of the partners also have full time jobs and a lot going on in their personal lives, so they have been working on this in their already stretched thin spare time.

I am hoping going forward to be able to write more here and have more exciting news to share regarding our updates. I have been the worst about not updating and neglecting my writing and social media.

As always, I hope everybody is doing well.

Farm Updates: December 2020

On December 9, 2020 By Tiffanie WrinkleIn farmingLeave a comment

As of today, the MushRoom is nearly ready to go. I have went through the process of getting our LLC registration, and we are excited to get some mushrooms growing out there. Taking on this project has been more taxing than we originally planned for it to be, but probably would have gone faster if we didn’t also both have full time jobs and a toddler. We have a couple of last minute kinks to work out, and then we will work on our test run. We have learned a lot in this process, and what we would do differently in the future when getting our second MushRoom up and running. Overall, we are very happy with how things have turned out.

In this process, we have tried to do every piece of it ourselves. It was both exciting and overwhelming starting with a blank canvas and working to what we have now.

May 2020, upon delivery of shipping container to our house.

Electrical wiring installed, countertops built: October 2020

Putting together the box for our filter and flow hood: October 2020

Installing the insulation for the grow room

Insulation complete and support beams installed in grow room.

Hopefully this weekend we will be doing our test run, and from there we should be on the ground. We are so thankful for the help and support we have had during this journey of getting things started. We could not have done this without help and support.

Greener Pastures

On October 12, 2020 By Tiffanie WrinkleIn Chickens, farmingLeave a comment

Unfortunately, I have neglected my duties in keeping up with this blog. Having a newborn is busy, and I did get caught up on that and left my blogging to fall to the wayside. This last year has been a tough time for us, as we have tried to decide what we could do to make our small farm more profitable. Should we focus more on custom hay? More or less cows? Should we keep the sheep? What are we going to do with our chickens?

We started this year with few conclusions to the questions above, but have slowly worked this year to do away with certain areas and start new projects. As we are wrapping this year up, we feel like we are finally in a place to update and move forward.

Last year, we were heavily focused on two new projects: hatching and raising chickens and raising a sheep herd. For many reasons, these two projects were not right for us. In regards to the sheep, we were unprepared for the different needs they had to cattle. While we did feel like we had done adequate research, it seemed like there was always something new going on with them. We had several get sick, and a neighboring dog who killed several of our babies. After a few months, we decided it was best to sell what sheep we still had and take a step back to clear our heads. As for the chickens, we got a little (a lot!) carried away. We are the type of family that goes in head first and again while we did do a lot of research, and felt prepared for this step, we were very unprepared for the amount of chicks we would end up with no outlet for them. After hatching our last batch of chicks we ultimately realized we did not have the outlet for the chicks at that time and decided to cut our losses. We sold our incubators and the last of our chicks, keeping only a few free rangers for our egg supply.

We sold our sheep very early in the year, and spent the summer only dealing with our cattle. B took a full time job in the spring, so our summer has remained busy with both of us working full time jobs and keeping up with the cattle we have. Mid summer we made the decision to let our leased cows go back to their owner. We have about 20 head of cattle, and were leasing another 20 head of cattle at that time. The lease cows are no longer on the farm. Instead, we have now turned around and leased our own cattle to another farmer in the area.

A cattle lease is pretty straight forward: one person owns, one leases the cattle. For ours, we provide the land and we are responsible for the vet bills on our animals. The other farmer is responsible for feeding the cows through winter, taking care of fences, helping them calve and providing a bull for breeding. When it comes time to sell calves, we will split that check 50/50 with the other farmer. It generally works out for both parties as the lessee is not financially responsible for the animals, and we both benefit from the profits.

The thing that has been in the back of our heads all summer though, is what can we do to potentially be more profitable? As it stood at the beginning of the year, we were losing money on the farm, as the expenses from last year were not completely covered by the money we made from custom hay and selling calves, and that does not include wages. We weren’t even making enough money to cover the fuel, netwrap, vehicle maintenance, vet bills, and the long list of expenses that goes along with running a farm. By the end of hay season, we had decided that making custom hay is not something we wanted to pursue as well. It is a very time consuming task, and it is something we hate doing. Therefore we decided we did not wish to continue with that.

All of this brought us full circle to a small project we looked at last fall/winter. Last fall, B had looked into growing mushrooms as a hobby. There are many different varieties of mushrooms, and we have at this time successfully grown two types: pink and blue oysters. We had purchased a shipping container in the spring, and we are now in the grueling process of turning it into a MushRoom. The grow room will be at the back of the container, and we will have lab at the front to prepare our mushroom spores and liquid cultures for growth. It has been a long process for us, as we are both working full time now with a toddler. Slowly but surely we are making progress in this venture. We are really looking forward to sharing more of this journey with everyone, and we do have some ideas up our sleeves.

While I am sad to see so many changes in the farm over such a short period of time, it has been good to see changes. Change promotes growth. We couldn’t grow with the way we were doing things. We have goals in mind for our farm, and if there is not growth on the farm we are stagnant. This does not mean that we wont one day have sheep or chickens again. However, we will take a hard look at why we failed before. We will take time to improve our methods and learn from our failures. We appreciate everyone who has followed our journey so far, and who has been supportive or offered advice. We could not have done it without everyone’s support.

Until next time,

Lion’s Mane Mushroom Stir Fry – Gluten-Free and Vegan

On October 12, 2020 By Tiffanie WrinkleIn farmingLeave a comment

We can’t wait to try this!

Of Goats and Greens

About 3-4 weeks ago, I ran into something named Lion’s Mane mushroom at the Litchfield CT farmer’s market. The taste is supposed to resemble crab meat.

YAY WOW, something NEW I’ve never tried before! Sussed isn’t quite the word!

recipe, lion's mane mushroom, stir fry, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, bok choy, soy

I bought some, and attempted to make the “crabmeat” salad recipe they handed me at that time from it. That recipe was not a success, at least in my hands.

recipe, lion's mane mushroom, stir fry, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, bok choy, soy

Last weekend, I managed to pick up some more of this mushroom, and decided to do my own thing with it. I like this variant! (A new YAY WOW, and I want more…)

Yes, there is a mild sea-foody-crabish taste to this mushroom, and I do like that.

recipe, lion's mane mushroom, stir fry, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, bok choy, soy

I hope you can find this (the vendors grow this rather than wild-hunt it) and if you do, that you enjoy!

Apparently, there are a lot of good health benefits from…

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Twin Calves

On August 28, 2019 By Tiffanie WrinkleIn farming2 Comments

This time of year is so busy for us. It’s calf season! We have a fine bunch of mamas this year. Anyone who has cows knows a couple of things about mama cows. One, they like to hide their babies from us. Two, they are extremely protective of their babies with some mamas becoming outright homicidal when you get too close to their babies. This time of year can be stressful, as we try hard to keep track of who has had their babies and get them tagged while also trying to get eyes on the calves every day.

Seeing the calves every day can sometimes be easier said than done. We do our best, but we currently have the cows in a wooded field. Mamas who like to play hide and seek with their babies will pull their babies off into the wooded area to hide them from us. So far, we have been able to put eyes on each calf at least once per day, and we are checking them twice daily.

Yesterday morning, B went to check cows and found that one of our mamas had twins! She was missing when we checked cows the night before, and he found her yesterday morning with her two babies. Immediately he knew that she was not producing enough milk to support both babies. With the help of a friend, he was able to catch one of the calves and brought her to the house to bottle feed. The mama will produce enough milk for the other calf. We don’t have twins on the farm often. Here are some interesting twin facts for you:

In beef breeds, twins occur about 1% of the time. There is a higher rate of twins in dairy breeds.

In other farm animals (sheep and goats) it is extremely common to have twins. In cows, however, having twins can be a bad thing. Having twins is hard on the body, and a cows body is only made to have one baby at a time. Having twins means a higher rate of abortions (miscarriages in cows are called abortions) both in early pregnancy and in late term pregnancy.

Cows that are carrying twins have problems during delivery more commonly than single calf pregnancies. These mamas will generally need help during delivery. Cows that are carrying twins will more frequently go in to preterm labor, and the calves aren’t mature enough to survive.

It is pretty rare to have identical twin calves. In twin calves, you are 25% likely to have two bull calves, 25% likely to have two heifer calves, and 50% likely to have one bull and one heifer. 90% of the cases where you have one bull and one heifer calf, the heifer is infertile.

An infertile female twin is called a Freemartin. When a female and male calf share a uterus, the male hormones will cross through the blood supply to the female calf and that will cause abnormalities in her reproductive organs, making it nearly impossible for her to have babies. There are ways to check if she will be infertile, including a blood test. Typically a Freemartin cow would be raised for beef.

Twins are genetic. Twin heifers are more likely to have twins.

When we have twins on the farm, we always pull one calf off of the mama in order to ensure that each calf gets his best chance. In twins, it is common for one calf to be a lot stronger. This will mean that the stronger calf will get all the mama’s milk, and the weaker calf will likely starve to death. The alternative is that each calf will get half the milk produced by mama, but it will not be enough for them. Mamas to twins rarely produce enough milk to support two babies.

We look forward to seeing our babies grown this fall and winter. Calf season is tough, and can be stressful, but it is worth it.