Looking back over the previous year on the homestead is an excellent practice because it helps us see what worked, what didn’t, and helps us plan for the future. It is also always very encouraging to me because even when I feel like we didn’t have a very productive year, seeing it all written out shows me all that we accomplished. Our homestead has had to take a backseat to other parts of our life over the last few years due to our baby’s serious medical issues. This year more than ever. But despite that, we still are able to do some homesteading and it brings us stability and joy. I continue to hope to do better record-keeping, but as each year has been harder and harder with Mr. Smiles, each year has thus been harder and harder to do good record keeping. I am amazed I kept records at all this year! But here’s what we have.
To read previous Year-End Reviews Click the following links:
Statistics
Chickens:
- Started year with 28 hens, 1 chick, and 1 rooster
- Purchased 7 cockerel chicks and 3 pullet chicks, all 10 survived
- Did 1 incubation with 75 eggs. 65 were fertile, 35 chicks hatched and 34 survived
- 1 broody hen set and quit, we finished the incubation in the incubator. 10 set, 8 fertile, 7 hatched, and 7 survived
- At the height of the season we had 28 adult chickens and 52 chicks – 80 total – by far the most chickens we have ever had at one time before. Too many for our farm. Need to plan more carefully.
- 1 broody hen set 7 eggs with a total of 3 chicks surviving, then she set again with 8 eggs and 6 survived
- Butchered 28 birds
- Sold 2 silky hens, six 1-year-old hens, and 15 pullets
- 1 silky hen died from egg-bound, one chick died at week 5 for unknown reasons, 1 hen died from being bullied by the flock, 1 hen killed by a golden eagle
- Ended year with 21 hens, 3 pullets, 3 cockerels (almost ready for butcher), and 1 rooster. Plus 23 eggs in the incubator to hatch mid-January.
- Approximately 3,700 eggs laid
Farm Dogs:
- Anya, our 3.5-year-old Anatolian Shepherd, had her ups and downs. At times she was an excellent guard dog, but she struggled a little with her first year of lambs. When they were little, she left them alone because the mamas wouldn’t let her near them, but as they grew and the mamas weren’t so protective, she tried to wrestle and play with them and was too rambunctious. She also had a couple times getting too rambunctious with chickens, but didn’t kill any. So a few times she had to live in a separate pen from the flocks while we continued training with her.
Sheep:
- Started year with 2 ewes and 1 ram.
- Bred early in January
- 2 ram lambs and 1 ewe lamb born, all survived
- 3 Fleece shorn, for a total of 8.5 lbs raw, skirted wool
- 800 yds (1.5 lbs) 3-ply worsted yarn from Fiona, 1500 yds (3 lbs) 4-ply worsted yarn from Fergus, and didn’t finish processing Rose’s yarn yet
- Sold 1 ewe lamb, 2 ram lambs, and 1 ewe
- Purchased 1 dairy ewe, 3 dairy ewe lambs, and 1 dairy ram lamb
- Breeding season brought difficulties and aggression from our 2.5 year-old wool ram, ended up having to butcher him
- 22 lbs of ground meat, 4 lbs of roasts, soup bones, and some dog food
- Finished year with 1 wool ewe, 4 dairy ewes, and 1 dairy ram
- Bred them all in November/December. 4 ewes pregnant, due in April/May.
Goats:
- Started the year without any goats.
- Mid-March added a Nubian doe to the farm. We finally had fresh milk again!
- 43 gal of milk for our family use between March and October
- Dried her off (stopped milking) in November at breeding time for convenience and to give her a chance to regain her body condition.
- Pregnant and due to kid in April
Garden:
- The stresses of life this summer did not make it possible to weigh the produce this year. A very cold spring gave us less than average on some things, but others gave us more than average.
- We started building a second vegetable garden that will more than double our produce production.
Heritage Arts:
- I completed the 19 knit projects: 9 pairs of socks, a Hoodie for Mr. Smiles, a sock yarn scrap afghan, a lace shawl, a hat, a textured shawl, 4 dishcloths, and a cabled cardigan.
- I made a new bag for a standing knitting bag frame and 4 pairs of flannel PJ pants. Plus innumerable amounts of mending and patching of clothes.
- The girls did countless projects, each of them finishing more projects than I did.
Kitchen:
- Canned quite a bit of food, not as much as last year. Early fall stresses prevented me from keeping track of how many exactly of what we canned.
- Made several different soft cheeses with goat’s milk.
- Made a couple aged cheeses with store-bought cow’s milk to practice for next spring.
Year Summary
January rotated between warm sunny days in the 40sF, where we would get outside as much as possible, to bitterly cold snowy days below 0F that kept us by the fires and working to keep the livestock cared for and warm. We spent a lot of time dealing with our son’s medical issues, with many doctor’s appointments. We got our Livestock Record Book updated and ready for the new year, and got our school curriculum planning done as well as starting on our garden planning. The sheep bred, giving us hopes for lambs in May/June. The girls and I knit, crocheted, and worked on the hexagon quilt. And we did several small fix-up projects around the farm and home, including building a new hay rack in the sheep stall and improving the gravity feeder in the lower chicken coop. At the end of the month we collected eggs for a big incubation.
February started with us getting 75 eggs into the incubators for a hatch. We struggled with illnesses and another hospitalization for Mr. Smiles. We did a lot of knitting, cross stitching, and crochet by the warm fire while the bitter cold and wind settled in outside. 34 of our incubator eggs hatched and survived, and then we bought a few more chicks to add to the brooder so that we would have some new genetics for next year’s breeding program. We also extended the hay loft in the barn to give us more hay storage space.
March was cold and wet. We got a lot of snow and dealt with trying to keep animals dry and warm. We finished remodeling our basement, which had been torn out after the massive floods of 2013 damaged it. We added a new member to the farm – a Nubian milk doe named Pansy. She was fresh and we were excited to have raw milk right from our own homestead again. We had a hen decide to set eggs and then quit at 2 weeks, we put the eggs in the incubator and were surprised that they hatched, despite having been chilled from her abandonment. We ended the month by finishing our dining room remodel project and I finished the scrap sock yarn afghan I had been working on for a year.
In April we started with shearing the sheep. We also built up another section of the garden beds to be deeper for better growth of the plants and we hauled a bunch of compost from the barnyard and filled all the garden boxes with it. Our 3-year-old had his 10th surgery and was pronounced healed from his very-rare bile duct/liver disorder that just a year ago we had been told would be fatal. The weather continued to be cold and wet, setting our garden back more and more. As we hit the 6-week out from lambing mark, we noticed that Rose seemed to be showing symptoms early and wondered if she was potentially due before we thought. We changed the ewes’ diets in preparation for lambing.
In May things continued to be cold and wet. We tried to work on the garden and get things going, but the weather continued to hamper our efforts. We had several big snow storms. Our 3-year-old has his first eye surgery, 11th surgery overall, and it was unsuccessful. Eve hatched out 3 chicks, and the juggling of pens for all the many different chicks and chickens began to get complicated as they all grew. We separated the ewes from the ram, goat, and Anya (the LGD) since it was Anya’s first lambing season and we didn’t want her to accidentally kill a newborn lamb. Mtn Man finished spinning up the yarn from Fergus and Fiona’s 2019 fleece, and I tried my hand at dyeing Fiona’s yarn for the first time ever. My parents moved in, with my Dad in his last few months of life. My sister and I helped my mom care for him. We ended the month with Fiona giving birth to her ram lamb on the 31st.
June started with Rose giving birth to huge twin lambs on June 1st. It was a complicated delivery that I had to help with because both lambs were mal-positioned, and then their first week of life was touch and go because the ram lamb got pneumonia and Rose’s milk didn’t come in very quickly so we were supplementing them with bottles. By three weeks of age both the ewe lamb and the ram lamb were thriving and doing well. We continued to have cold weather, including two frosts over night that ended up killing some of our vegetable garden. Anya integrated herself in with the lambs by breaking through the fence because she was so interested in being with the mamas and lambs. She did great and was very safe with the lambs. We did a lot more shuffling around of chickens, sold some pullets & hens, and butchered a lot of cockerels. We realized the goat was copper deficient and we bolused her with a slow release copper capsule. We found out, unfortunately, that our son’s rare bile duct/liver disorder had not been fixed back in April as we had been told and it reared it’s ugly head again, landing us back with tests, doctor appointments, and hospitals.
In July we were busy with visitors and medical appointments. We headed in for yet another emergency surgery for Mr. Smiles, which was his 12th surgery overall and his 4th this year – but who’s counting? The homestead brought us comfort through the hard times though, and sitting out enjoying the livestock and working in the garden is always good emotional therapy. We still managed to be productive around the farm, butchering some more chickens, getting the chickens sorted into new pens and organized for future breeding plans, making goat cheese, braiding a wool rug, and getting out my spinning wheel for the first time in 4 years. We saw results from the goat copper bolus, as Pansy began to gain weight and her coat condition improved immensely. The garden continued to progress, though still behind about 3 weeks from usual due to the cold spring weather. As the lambs grew and their moms were less protective, Anya struggled with being too rambunctious with them in play and had to be moved to the back pen with the ram.
August brought the start of school and the start of harvest. We sold 4 sheep and purchased our first dairy sheep. We sold our large floor loom and purchased a smaller one that fit nicely in our living room. Mr. Smiles had his 13th surgery, the most major surgery he has had to date at 7.5 hours long, and my father, who was living with us, passed away that same day. The surgery was an immense success and the recovery was much better than anyone had expected. It looks like his bile duct/liver issue is now fixed (as of December 31), and though he might have more complications farther down the road, for the meantime he should be stable.
September was hard. We were busy with Mr. Smiles’ recovery, grieving my father’s death, and planning, preparing, and hosting his funeral. We were also trying to continue with our homestead plans and projects. We added 4 more dairy sheep to the flock, and our best broody hen, Eve, set another clutch and hatched out 6 adorable chicks.
October was full of “normal” fall homestead work for us, which was so wonderful after such an “abnormal” and difficult summer season. We built about 2/3 of the raised bed boxes for our second veggie garden. We moved the kids playhouse out of the back yard and turned it into a gardening shed, and then built a retaining wall in the area where the playhouse used to be that will be Mr. Smiles new safe, flat, outdoor play area next summer. We hauled and chopped a lot of firewood, and canned quite a bit of produce from our own property, and some purchased as well. I began the adventure of learning how to weave, and also finished several knitting projects. We got our first snow of 6 inches and a huge drop in temperatures. Our old barn cat, Jerry, retired in the house and became our indoor kitty. We found out that the eye surgery that was done in conjunction with Mr. Smiles’ bile duct/liver surgery back in August was not successful and decided to wait until spring to do another eye surgery because our family desperately needed a break from surgery and hospitalization, as did Mr. Smiles. The bile duct/liver part of the surgery was still looking very good and successful.
In November we took our milk goat, Pansy, to the breeder and left her there to get bred. We also started our first-ever sheep breeding season with two rams. We separated the ewes up with the two rams and were excited to see how it went. Unfortunately, our older ram, Fergus, had trouble with the new situation and also was coming into full maturity and thus started having aggressive behavior with humans and the ewes. We struggled into December trying to keep everyone safe, get the ewes bred, and decide what to do with Fergus. I continued to enjoy weaving and finished more weaving projects. Sunshine and I did a massive go-through and clean-out of the house. We did a lot more chopping and stacking firewood for the winter, and had quite a bit of snow and cold weather. The weather pushed us to indoor projects and we tore out the master bathroom shower.
December brought Christmas candy making, Advent, and more work, but also relaxation and fun family time together. We continued to struggle with the ram aggression issue and it all came to a head in one crazy dangerous interaction. We ended up butchering our wool ram, Fergus because of his aggression. It was hard, but the peacefulness of the barnyard afterwards re-affirmed our decision. We used our trap nests to figure out which hens were laying and which weren’t, and did our last chicken butchering of the year. Little Miss and I started trying our hand at learning the art of making aged cheeses and we used an old fridge to make a cheese cave. We made huge batches of ketchup and BBQ sauce and canned them for our family use. We continued to dig ourselves out of the snow that kept falling throughout the month. Lastly, we finished the remodel of the master bathroom shower.
Looking back on this year is kind of hard for us. Between Mr. Smiles having 5 surgeries this year, my father living with us for the last 3 months of his life and passing away, plus many other challenges that I didn’t share on the blog, it was by far the hardest year of our lives. But we can also see SO many blessings, gifts, and miracles laced through it all. God really carried us through, and leaning on Him was the only possible way I could handle it. The homestead continued to be one of the blessings as it brought us emotional therapy and kept us busy so we didn’t have too much time to sit and stew over all the stresses. And despite all the crazy life things we were going through separate from the homestead, we still had a pretty darn productive year providing food for our family. For that we are very grateful.
Willow Creek Farm 