torn

We're a little up in the air about tomorrow.
There is an auction of Exotic Birds and livestock close by, and I really want to go.
But with no trailer or truck buying something will be nearly impossible unless we can get it delivered.
We are also expecting the "old owners" to show up some time tomorrow (probably around the time the auction starts) to pick up the rest of their junk...I mean stuff. And we kind of want to be here for that- since they wandered off with 2 of the pasture gates last time they were here. The promised they are bringing other gates and will hang them this weekend so we can't be to upset (I guess they were actually using panels off their horse trailer as gates) but I think we want to be here to ensure that everything happens as it suppose to be.
But I'm still torn between wanting to be here to supervise and the "fun" of going to an auction. We've only been to one ever, and they are pretty exciting to me...plus I have a soft spot for them since that's were we collected Miss Maggie from.

A new animal obsession

We've been discussing SHEEP -for quite sometime. Other than I think the pastures need some work and we don't actually have a trailer or a trailer hitch for that matter, to start transporting animals yet.
But then I was on Kijiji this morning looking for another dog, and came across these guys...

Aren't they the cutest?

2 young male alpacas-best part? FREE
so I did some quick research
apparently ALPACAS are raised for their hair- which contains no lanolin- so is hypoallergenic.
They also only cost about the equivalent of a dog to feed.
They do well when mixed with sheep or goats, and you can comfortable have between 5 to 10 per acre- making them a perfect acreage pet/animal.
but the awesome news for us, is that they are supposedly really easy to transport....

"They are stress resistant, load and travel calmly and can be transported in the family mini van, station wagon, utility vehicle, or horse trailer. Some breeders have been known to transport their alpacas in small planes. Once enroute, the alpaca lies down and enjoys the ride."

COOL- another use for a Minivan!

anyways, I guess the owner already has someone coming out to look on Sunday, so we we're asked to call back Sunday and see if they'd been "adopted" or not. So we probably won't end up with these cuties, but the research was worth the time and kind of interesting anyways

chicken coop

I'd set aside about a thousand dollars to build a chicken coop here,

So I was absolutely thrilled, when I finally got into the back of one of the outbuildings and found this...

It's a little ragged and for sure needs some repairs and some cleaning, but has everything from laying boxes, and perches

It's even equipped with a heat lamp already. So minor repairs, Kicks butt on having to start from scratch (was that a pun? chicken scratch???)

The outside run area of the coop


Nathan and I exploring the outside parts

...and Nathan demonstrating how the chicken can move from inside to outside!

note

any post may be few and far between for a bit since we do not have internet out there yet...

keep your fingers crossed that'll we'll have access again within a week instead of over a month like our last move!!!

and so it begins

WOW- I don't even know where to start.
We took possession of the acreage yesterday at noon. And it's been an event filled time ever since.

Nathan and Maggie are in absolute heaven running around checking out everything. They'd be thrilled to spend all day every Day out there playing and exploring and climbing and carrying on. which is great except that we need an extra pair of eyes. Because the moving van still needs to be unloaded, and it's hard to carry boxes and watch what those two are in to.- but we're getting there. We're back to take the last of the stuff from the condo today...and then everything should be in...not unpacked mind you, but at least in.

Our night was chaotic last night.

Nathan loves running around outside, but wasn't to thrilled about the house...or sleeping in the house. In fact he was down right temper tantrum. It took us 5 hours to get him to go to bed, only to have him wake up 2 hours later screaming again.
I think we didn't bring enough of his toys in our first trip, so he wanted to go "home" to his toys, and his stuff. He kept asking me all night..."boots" "coat" "car ride". Not to mention its pitch black at night...so we ended up leaving his light on all night just to calm him down.

and then on top of Nathan, freaking out, Chris goes outside at about 1 am. and there is coyotes howling in the next field...and there's our city dog fast asleep.
She came in and slept in the mudroom after that.
but were having some serious problems figuring out what to do with her.
If she's not chained up, or being watched she wanders off to go "exploring" but if she is chained especially outside at night...she's pretty much coyote bait...especially since she can obviously hear them but doesn't seem to think it might be a problem in the least.
I'm thinking we may have to find a dog that has already lived on an acreage or farm and adopt it to give Maggie some boot camp training fast!!!

Although the highlights of last night for me,
was hearing 2 owls in the trees across the road,
being able to see stars again
and finding out the back of one of the out buildings is already set up for chickens...complete with nesting boxes, heat lamps and perrches...I was absolutley in heaven with this little discovery (it was too snowy, and unaccesiblle every other time we've been there to see this little hen house) This means I won't have to put ou a big outlay of cash to build anything...it looks like with a good clean out and a few minor repairs to the chicken wire we could be up and running with come chicks right away...so happy!!!

Puppy!!!

I'm so excited!
I mentioned in my dog days of summer post that I really wanted a male dog. Chris and I have gone back and forth about a dog vs. a puppy. I've been scouring kijiji looking for both. We've missed 2 dogs by hours, and I'd sent off an e-mail to an ad about 6 puppies a few days ago, but hadn't heard anything so I afraid they were already gone...
but tonight I got an e-mail back from the owner. The puppies won't be ready to go until the end of April. she's excited that we'll be taking one to an acreage, she told me I could come out next week and take a look, have a cuddle and have my pick out of the litter.
I'm so excited!!!!

some excellent websites

so I was cruising around looking at sheep and Chicken stuff and found a few interesting and informative stuff.
I found Miller Hatcheries a hatchery with 2 Alberta locations
This was the first time I heard about beak trimming on Chickens.
I guess it...

It stops cannibalism, saving lives and annoyance
It stops fighting - the birds is literally disarmed
It stops feather pulling - preserving a good grade of bird
It stops feed wastage - birds can't pick so they receive a balanced diet
It stops egg loss - a major plus for the egg producer
It stops the nuisance problem of toe picking.
Beak trimmed birds tend to be quieter - fear of other birds is eliminated

I also checked out UFA the farm supply store, and found out they carry all the fencing supplies I think we might need for sheep. As well as the feed, and waterers and fed for chickens. They also had a link for miller hatcheries- which has got to be a good thing.

Another website I thought was a good resource for sheep was sheep 201 ~ a beginners guide to raising sheep
which has a ton of links to explain sheep fencing, handling, different breeds and more resources than I can even fathom right now.
and the website sheepandgoat.com which is affiliated with sheep 201.

More research

Although we've been running around like crazy lately, I did manage to find a pretty cool website/resource about chicken off a link from kijiji
Murray McMurray Hatchery
will actually ship out day old chicks (although they are in the states- so I may have to look for a closer to home source)
but they also have a great resource section with all these cool books- there is even a book on how to build your own chicken plucking machine.
Although I'm thinking baby steps right now this is the book that most interested me...

I like the fact that it sounds like it will be about farming on a small scale. Most of the books I've seen expect that your going to start out with entire herds of cattle or hundreds of chickens....

so the fact that its backyard- makes me think it will be talking smaller scale animal care.

I managed to reserve this (although I'm on a wait list) and about 12 other books from the library last night on line. I'm hoping to get some reading done about, animal fencing and needs before we get out there, since the idea of getting sheep to keep the grass under control this summer keeps coming up in our household. The problem is I know less about sheep than I do about chickens!?!?

Inspection

Chris has been off for 4 whole days and you would think that I'd have had more time to actually do some blogging or something....but we've been running around like crazy trying to get all the mortgage stuff lined up- blah- that's been a nightmare. And we we're back out on the property Thursday afternoon for the house inspection- that went well. Although they think the hot water tank is on it's last breath, and the back deck is "under built"

I think we're going to have a hard time convincing Nathan that the house doesn't come with all its current animals

this is what he spent his entire time doing during the inspection...

The little girl who current lives there, has had this cat since it was a kitten and has always put it in the doll stroller. So the cat loves this, and would sit waiting for another ride whenever Nathan stopped pushing.

waitin' on the DOG days of summer

Other than a bunch of organizing (I'm desperately trying to get all our "excess" stuff into the garbage to to the thrift store before we get out there) I didn't do a whole lot of Acreage-y things today. Being Sunday all the people (home inspector, lawyer etc) are closed.


The only Acreage relate conversation I really had was with my Dad, about dog or dogs.

I'm convinced that a Male dog will be a little more territorial, and more aggressive to strangers, so to feel safer I'd like to add a male dog to our family.
I've been told the younger you get them, the more likely they are to be territorial, and protective of the family.

However
I'm a little concerned about training another dog.

So far we have raised a total sucky, and I'll be anyones friend if they pet me dog.
She's gentle and sweet but I really don't see her being any "protection" or even intimidating for that matter.

I'm concerned about raising a second dog to be the same way.


Basically I would like a dog that will hang out around the house and be racing to meet any cars that come in the driveway while barking and carrying on, so people will think twice about getting out of their cars.
But I need to be able to call them off immediately
and ... I've met other Farm dogs that will stop such behavior as long as the person cruising in calls the dog by name...which would be excellent if I'm not there when someone we do know shows up!!!

~Any suggestions on how to get such behaviors out of a new dog?

My other concern is for Maggie (our dog already) as well as a new dog...I'm really not sure how to convince any dog to stay just on our land? I've noticed Dogs don't get a fence concept- if they can get through it, it's a minor inconvenience but not really a boundary...so there is another doggy concern


If anyone has any ideas of how to train (or re-train in maggies case) a farm dog, to do these types of things I'd be grateful for advice?!!?

thanks