From the auction Josh went to last Saturday, he came home with five new cows! Two cows that are being milked, one that is due to freshen (birth a calf) next week, and two bred heifers. Our original three cows spent the week on the yard and we gradually moved out the rest of the cows as they were trained to electric in the barn (we weren’t sure how familiar they were with electric fence). We also moved our young beef cow and heifer in with the dry cow, new heifers, and our four beef cows – all out onto the main pasture this week.
Just today the cows moved from the yard to their first piece of pasture. The yard is fairly well “mowed”.  We love seeing them on pasture because they clearly love being outside and grazing – even our new cows, who we don’t even know if or when they ever had fresh grass. It’s been a long winter and cows on the pasture are proof that it’s over!

We’re expecting our next batch of meat bird chicks to arrive next week and the brooder is ready and waiting. The first batch is well settled into their pasture home.

The pigs were also moved to fresh pasture this week. It took some convincing – their organic grain was not as tempting as the delicious grass we were asking them to walk through to get to their fenced in area of pasture. But after much negotiation, they are where we intended them to be, coincidentally next to our dairy cows. The two species are conversing occasionally but are mostly too busy chomping on the grass on their side of the fence. Hopefully the pigs will stay put – they’ve been notorious escapers on our farm!

We’re a month out from our annual SolstiCelebration – mark your calendars for June 21st. It’s a potluck with a bonfire and pig roast. Yum! We’re hoping for a dry day, but in the event of rain, as we learned last year, the (mostly) empty hayloft is a welcome dry spot if needed! All are welcome.

In the meantime, we’ll see you at the Plattsburgh Farmers and Crafters Market tomorrow from 9-2 with duck eggs, chicken eggs, artisan bread, blueberry muffins, pork chops, smoked hams, bacon, duck,  chicken, and more. See you there!