Sometimes life throws us curve balls

It's been a while since I have been able to update, but unfortunately I have good reason as to why.

On January 30 my mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. Mom was a fighter and went on her own steam until there was no steam left. She wanted to stay home and have her family take care of her. My brothers, sister, and I pulled together to make this happen for her. Losing mom is very hard on me. Mom was my best friend, we talked everyday. She knew everything about my life and she was also my biggest encouragement to this farm. The days are still hard, but life will go on and it seems that everything I do now, is for mom.

On February 10th our Randall Cows arrived from New Hampshire. We are so excited to welcome them to our farm! April, Marissa, and Milly are all pregnant and due in March and April. They have settled in nicely, come when we call them, and love to be pet and scratched.

The Randall Cattle Breed is a critically rare endangered breed. There are less than 500 of these cows in existence. The Randall Cattle are the only surviving genetically pure land race breed left in the United States. These cows are what our ancestors brought to this country when America was first being settled. You can read more about the Randall Cattle at http://www.randallcattleregistry.org/ We were extremely lucky to be able to purchase these 3 girls. When we contacted the registry about getting on the 3 year waiting list for bottle calves, we were contacted by the woman who actually saved the breed in the 1980s. She knew of someone who had to sell her girls and wanted to know if we were interested. Of course we were, and the girls are now here. We really believe that there was a higher power at work for us to receive these wonderful girls.

Our chickens are finally starting to increase their egg production. We have eggs available again for you to purchase. Since we moved, the poultry has not been free-ranging all the time. Only when we are home. This is for several reasons, mainly for their protection. We are still learning what our predators are here and don't want to put our birds safety at risk. The Guinea Fowl are also a big reason to why they have not been let out of the covered pen all the time. Adult Guinea Fowl are very hard to move. Guineas are very structured animals that thrive on routine. When we moved and put them in a new location, they pretty much freaked out in their OCD guinea fashion. They had to be contained or we would have lost every single one of them. They would have wandered off, not being able to return home because they didn't know where home was. They probably would have attempted to return to the old house. The guineas have now settled in nicely and have been roaming nicely when they are let out. They haven't ventured too farm from the house and barns yet, but they will. I'm please with their progress and have no doubt that within a few weeks they will be able to roam all the time again.

I will be adding some posts soon about what we plan to do this year. I also plan to add some information about why we made the choices we did on what we will raise and how we will raise it.

See you soon!

And they are free...

So the wind blew open the pen door to the chicken/guinea pen today. This pen is temporary while the guineas (mainly) adjust to their new home. Before I knew it, everyone screamed freedom and ran. They didn't run into the fields in all the grass, they didn't run to the barn to escape the winds. They ran to the house. Our house. This is a problem since we hoped with all this new space they would stay away from the house. In any direction they have to go over at least one fence to get the house. Why must they congregate at our house!

I'll try to get a picture, but the wind is so dreadful that they aren't holding still for long.

We really really were hoping for poop free porches. If anyone has any ideas to keep them away, please let us know!

What's in a name?

We have had a few people ask us about the name we chose for the farm. What does it mean?

The Phoenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians. It is a colorful bird said to live 500 to 1000 years. When ready for the next life a Phoenix is said to build to a nest of twigs and burst into flames, a young Phoenix will emerge from the ashes. A Phoenix symbolizes rebirth, immortal life, starting over, rising again, and more.

We feel that our lives together have been a rebirth. That we started again from the ashes of our lives. We have been through a lot in our lives and we hope this farm is the start of our new lives together. A new road to travel. New ideas to explore. There is so much to learn together.

So Rising Phoenix Farm was born. Out of family love to support and nurture each other. May this land prosper as our family love does and will.

Cold weather finally sets in...

We can handle cold weather. We know what needs to be done. We have a setup for every animal to keep them warm, water from freezing, protection from the elements.

At least at the old house we did.

Here is a whole other story. We weren't ready for cold. Yesterday morning everyone's water was frozen. The horses were mad because we didn't have any hay here. It was still at the other house. They have 88 acres of grass so it wasn't a concern for us. Then the wind started, then the snow. The temperature plummeted and everything went wrong.

Yesterday morning I was late for work. I have no system here yet. What used to take me 5 minutes now takes me an hour. Getting everyone fresh warm water was a priority. Since we have all the outside water shut off that means filling buckets in the house. Which should not be a big deal. But since the basement door here can not be opened from the outside I have to come inside and go out the basement to get buckets and fill them and then take them back outside. It doesn't help that I shut the door behind me and had to go back through the house again to open the basement door.

Getting a basement door that I can open from the outside is a priority. This is going to old FAST.

Last night after work we went to the old house and got all the heated buckets and lots of extension cords. The only building that doesn't have electric is the one that the dogs are in. So we had to run cords from the chicken house to the quantum hutch for the dogs. The horse's water is plugged in at the house.

It's a whole new world for us here! I can't wait until everything is set up and in its place!

A New start...a new home..a new farm..a new life

That's a lot of new! We are in the midst of a huge change. A totally new way of life. We went from a very small hobby farm to 88 acres. That's a lot! We have a lot of plans for our new way of life. There are so many ideas floating around in our heads about what can do. Acreage wise, we can do anything we want. We just have to narrow down what we want to do first!

We are mostly moved in. That's good. We haven't even been here a week and it feels like home. It's comfortable, warm - this whole place gives us a nice warm fuzzy feeling. I've never felt this way when I moved to a new place. It always seemed like it took a while for it to feel like home. I believe that this is a sign to us that this was meant to be. This is home forever, this is our life.

We are taking things day by day and not making any rush decisions. Everything we are doing is thought out. The options are weighed - what's the good, the bad, the benefits, the drawbacks. We know we are going to make mistakes, but we want to do things right. This is a whole new world for us. We have a long way to go.

We are doing this blog to keep a record of what we are doing and where we are going. We have a lot of plans. We want everyone's input. We hope to have homegrown healthy products to sell you. Maybe some homemade cheese, yogurt, produce, chickens, and of course we can already offer you eggs!

Eggs are $3/dozen that come from our true free-range chickens. Our chickens are not fenced in. They have access to all 88 acres. They are free to pick and choose what to eat and where to go. I really hope though that I can keep them off my porches here!!!


Join us on our new adventure.