Merry Christmas from the all of us at Windsor Farm. This year has been another very busy and successful year.
January – I finally perfected the sheepskin tanning and a lot of hides were finished and sold through Elderberry Yarns. She generally sells them within a week of dropping them off. Bee, a purebred Jersey cow was dropped off in December for a visit with Demon. She caught within the month but the owners decided life was too busy with a newborn so we bought her instead. You know we can’t do things easy here on the farm why have 1 milk cow when you can have 2!!!
February – brought 13 bottle lambs plus our own flock lambed with a final total of 22 lambs, we went with a herbs and spices theme this year, dill, garlic, rosemary, etc. Mabel had her first calf a little heifer we named Saturn, after a rocky start, Mabel has become an excellent mother. Louise followed slowly after with Jupiter, a little bull.
March – This year we took in 6 bottle goats, little male Nubians from the local dairy herds. They are like little dogs that scream (literally) every time they see you. Darryl found a stock trailer in Enderby so we prepared for a road trip, all the neighbors were organized and Britty babysat the farm for a day and a half. Darling Thelma (our head cow) must have waited until our front tires rolled onto the ferry for her to give birth to Pluto another bull calf at 6am.
Britty turned 19 and is still home working on the farm. Micheal turned 26 and is working in Nanaimo for a tree falling company. He is presently in the Yukon.
April – Gardens were prepped and planted, incubators were filled and hatched 4 times. The first batch of meat birds arrived of which we grew 3 batches and 1 batch of Mistral Gris. We had our farmers institute interview which can be seen on our website. www.ssiwindsorfarms.weebly.com It was Britty’s first time being a cameraperson so the volume is a little up and down. Daisy had her calf Martian, another bull calf late in the month rounding out the planetary theme. She freshened with 9 gallons of milk a day. Apparently a Canadian gallon is bigger than a US gallon and the milk pail only holds 5 US gallons at a time, so we would get halfway through milking her and have to turn off the machine, empty the milk and hook her back up again.
May – In May we got piglets, first 4 Berkshire x from Saanich, then another 5 from Hopehill Farm across the street. Then 2 more and 2 large black sows that were supposed to be pregnant never farrowed.
June & July – was the beginning of the Tuesday Market and it was a wonderful year. Not only did we stay dry with our new tent but there wasn’t any rain to keep the customers away. We did record sales. Next year we are thinking about adding meat sales to the market, so we’ll have to figure out freezer/cooler options and get a VIHA permit.
Haying also started in June and with it complete chaos, between baby meat birds and turkeys, haying in between weather patterns, losing fields and gaining new fields, trying to weed and water the gardens it was a crazy busy few months.
August – our grandbaby turned 1 and she’s walking and babbling up a storm.
September – Bea surprised us with Neptune, another bull, 1 month early. First time mom’s are so fun. Bea had adopted Daisy’s calf as hers so when she gave birth the Neptune she abandoned him and went back to her “other” calf. Martian thought that was great because he was now getting lots of milk everyday but Bea was holding her milk when we brought her into the milking parlor. We had to use every trick in the book to get her to milk properly. We also rounded up all the bull calves (expect Neptune) loaded them in the trailer and took them down the road to Trish Lundy’s. I sincerely apologize to all the neighbors. The calves bawled for 3 days and the mom’s mooed for a week, while they dried up. September is also the start of the many trips to the butcher. Darryl rejuvenated the fields at the neighbors so their 6 sheep moved here. Borj, was the cheviot ram we rented, so all the sheep are due in February. Kayla and Matt both turned 20. Kayla is a stay at home mom for the time being and making furniture out of pallets. Matt is still working at Slegg lumber with me and is doing a great job with many compliments from the customers.
October – Darryl turned 48 and we made many more trips to the butcher and abattoir. Fergus our red angus/Hereford bull went to Moonstruck Cheese to visit with the ladies and we experimented with new recipes to sell at the market, quince and hot pepper jelly, pickled onion, ayvar and lots and lots of cheese. With Bea also milking we were getting 12 gallons of milk a day, a lot of which went out to the pigs when we were too busy to make cheese. Darryl’s new shop is coming along, the walls and the roof are up so he has a dry place out of the mud to work on vehicles now. We finish the market at the end of October, so everything harvested after that goes in the freezer or the root cellar.
November/December – we are going to try our hand at farrow to finish with the pigs this year. We kept “Molly’ a Berkshire x gilt and brought “Feira” here from Hopehill Farm. After the girls got settled in we brought home “Bismarck” the boar, he was also from Hopehill farm but has been at Scott Royal’s for the last few months.
Our future plans are to build an aviary and a farm store in the front yard. Many more fruit trees with turning the back, back, back yard into 4 acres of orchard.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year. Darryl, Sheila, Britty and zoo from Windsor Farm.
January – I finally perfected the sheepskin tanning and a lot of hides were finished and sold through Elderberry Yarns. She generally sells them within a week of dropping them off. Bee, a purebred Jersey cow was dropped off in December for a visit with Demon. She caught within the month but the owners decided life was too busy with a newborn so we bought her instead. You know we can’t do things easy here on the farm why have 1 milk cow when you can have 2!!!
February – brought 13 bottle lambs plus our own flock lambed with a final total of 22 lambs, we went with a herbs and spices theme this year, dill, garlic, rosemary, etc. Mabel had her first calf a little heifer we named Saturn, after a rocky start, Mabel has become an excellent mother. Louise followed slowly after with Jupiter, a little bull.
March – This year we took in 6 bottle goats, little male Nubians from the local dairy herds. They are like little dogs that scream (literally) every time they see you. Darryl found a stock trailer in Enderby so we prepared for a road trip, all the neighbors were organized and Britty babysat the farm for a day and a half. Darling Thelma (our head cow) must have waited until our front tires rolled onto the ferry for her to give birth to Pluto another bull calf at 6am.
Britty turned 19 and is still home working on the farm. Micheal turned 26 and is working in Nanaimo for a tree falling company. He is presently in the Yukon.
April – Gardens were prepped and planted, incubators were filled and hatched 4 times. The first batch of meat birds arrived of which we grew 3 batches and 1 batch of Mistral Gris. We had our farmers institute interview which can be seen on our website. www.ssiwindsorfarms.weebly.com It was Britty’s first time being a cameraperson so the volume is a little up and down. Daisy had her calf Martian, another bull calf late in the month rounding out the planetary theme. She freshened with 9 gallons of milk a day. Apparently a Canadian gallon is bigger than a US gallon and the milk pail only holds 5 US gallons at a time, so we would get halfway through milking her and have to turn off the machine, empty the milk and hook her back up again.
May – In May we got piglets, first 4 Berkshire x from Saanich, then another 5 from Hopehill Farm across the street. Then 2 more and 2 large black sows that were supposed to be pregnant never farrowed.
June & July – was the beginning of the Tuesday Market and it was a wonderful year. Not only did we stay dry with our new tent but there wasn’t any rain to keep the customers away. We did record sales. Next year we are thinking about adding meat sales to the market, so we’ll have to figure out freezer/cooler options and get a VIHA permit.
Haying also started in June and with it complete chaos, between baby meat birds and turkeys, haying in between weather patterns, losing fields and gaining new fields, trying to weed and water the gardens it was a crazy busy few months.
August – our grandbaby turned 1 and she’s walking and babbling up a storm.
September – Bea surprised us with Neptune, another bull, 1 month early. First time mom’s are so fun. Bea had adopted Daisy’s calf as hers so when she gave birth the Neptune she abandoned him and went back to her “other” calf. Martian thought that was great because he was now getting lots of milk everyday but Bea was holding her milk when we brought her into the milking parlor. We had to use every trick in the book to get her to milk properly. We also rounded up all the bull calves (expect Neptune) loaded them in the trailer and took them down the road to Trish Lundy’s. I sincerely apologize to all the neighbors. The calves bawled for 3 days and the mom’s mooed for a week, while they dried up. September is also the start of the many trips to the butcher. Darryl rejuvenated the fields at the neighbors so their 6 sheep moved here. Borj, was the cheviot ram we rented, so all the sheep are due in February. Kayla and Matt both turned 20. Kayla is a stay at home mom for the time being and making furniture out of pallets. Matt is still working at Slegg lumber with me and is doing a great job with many compliments from the customers.
October – Darryl turned 48 and we made many more trips to the butcher and abattoir. Fergus our red angus/Hereford bull went to Moonstruck Cheese to visit with the ladies and we experimented with new recipes to sell at the market, quince and hot pepper jelly, pickled onion, ayvar and lots and lots of cheese. With Bea also milking we were getting 12 gallons of milk a day, a lot of which went out to the pigs when we were too busy to make cheese. Darryl’s new shop is coming along, the walls and the roof are up so he has a dry place out of the mud to work on vehicles now. We finish the market at the end of October, so everything harvested after that goes in the freezer or the root cellar.
November/December – we are going to try our hand at farrow to finish with the pigs this year. We kept “Molly’ a Berkshire x gilt and brought “Feira” here from Hopehill Farm. After the girls got settled in we brought home “Bismarck” the boar, he was also from Hopehill farm but has been at Scott Royal’s for the last few months.
Our future plans are to build an aviary and a farm store in the front yard. Many more fruit trees with turning the back, back, back yard into 4 acres of orchard.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year. Darryl, Sheila, Britty and zoo from Windsor Farm.