Merry Christmas from the Windsor Farm for 2021
It’s that time again to sit down with the calendar and the day timer and review what all we accomplished in the year. What an amazing year it has been, with the extreme weather, tons of births including grandmonster #2, finished projects, and more covid rules/restrictions, there didn’t seem to be any spare minutes in the day.
January – Mabel and Juniper, our beef cows, each had babies, Mabel had Stormy at breakfast (8am) and Juniper (Mabel’s daughter) had Foggy at supper (5pm). Calf names this year are weather as we seemed to be having a lot of it. We bought a new to us milking machine that is much more reliable than the little vacuum pump system we were using. The goats also kidded in January giving us 7 live out of 9 baby goats, it always surprises me how delicate they are compared to the lambs when they grow up to be so rough and tough. We used a star wars theme to name both the goats and lambs. Most importantly we got another grand baby – Morgan Cordelia Windsor was born January 30 to Michael and Emily. Everyone did great with an uneventful birth. Lastly Ginnie the pig had 13 piglets.
February – Hermoine the pig had 10 piglets and the rest of the gang left behind in the pig pen escaped to the top pasture. Apparently pressure treated posts only last 10 years now and the one side of the 4 acre pig pen was just swinging in the breeze and not attached to the ground. Once that side was fixed their freedom was once again gained by excavating the front line so we replaced all the posts there as well before they completely rototilled the 2 hay fields. Lambing was short and sweet with 14 live lambs out of 15. Two of the ewes prolapsed in January so they are now lawn mowers for their fleeces and retired from lambing.
March – Britty turned 25 and Michael 32!!! Darryl turned a small fifth wheel trailer into a seed propagating shed, which worked way better than our livingroom!!
April – Kayla’s 2013 Kia Sorrento caught on fire in the driveway. To anyone who owns a kia please make sure your recalls are all up to date. Without any warning, the car that she had just bought in October burst into flames when she parked at the gate after coming home from work. One thing I will say for BC Ferries is that they train their employees very well for emergencies. Kayla turned off the car, popped the hood and ran for a fire extinguisher, Britty and I ran for garden hoses and phones and we all managed to get the fire out just as the first fire truck showed up. To add to the excitement both sides of the driveway were filled with our wrapped hay bales, not a singe mark on any of the plastic, thankfully. On a less stressful note, the sheep were sheared and I started making cheese again.
May – The wool was all washed and bagged up and mailed off to Carstairs Alberta’s Custom Woolen Mill. My custom tanning sideline had a polar bear hide dropped off. Blanche the pig had 7 more piglets (surprise) pigs according to Dr. google aren’t supposed to go into heat until they are 90 kilos, apparently that is breed specific and as we have added Gloucester Old Spot to the genetics they are a little earlier, Taz the bottle lamb/sheep had a lamb (surprise!!) We started planting the garden row by row.
June – Martha the jersey cow had Cloudy and we didn’t want him to be lonely in the barn so we contacted Porters Dairy in Chemainus and picked up Chance (Holstien x speckled park) and Meatball (Holstien x Charollais) so then we had Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. (it’s a funny childrens movie). After attempting to get Pekin ducklings from 2 different hatcheries we bought 33 muscovy ducklings from down the road. Then we bought a plucker off amazon because there are no longer any abattoirs on Salt Spring or Vancouver Island that will process waterfowl. Bubblegum, the was going to be a milk cow but… had little Sunny our only little heifer this year. Hay season started quickly and then the heat dome settled in and we flew. Our friend from Nanaimo came down to help and we just kept going as the weather held. Whenever anyone complained about the heat I just replied 4 more hay fields, 3 more hay fields. All said and done we made 250 round bales and 2500 square bales from 18 different properties across the island. Market season was extremely successful as well, with no lack of water at the south end of the island our garden did amazing this year (except for the cabbage) our system of soaker hoses under lots of mulch hay worked amazing in the extreme heat. Our experiment with the potatos was interesting. We planted a seed potato under each cauliflower, cabbage and winter squash seedling. It worked under the cauliflower and squash, not so much for the cabbage as it grows too short and was completely drowned under the potato plants.
July – Miss Daisy our lead milk cow had another bull calf – Cyclone, and then milk fever, and then ketosis, poor girl was poked and prodded constantly for a few months until her metabolic system sorted itself out. I see retirement in her future but she’s such an amazing milk producer it will be hard to dry her off. In middle of hay season, my hay mower self destructed and Darryl broke down and bought our first piece of brand new hay equipment, a Kubota 7 disk mower which cuts a 10 foot swath instead of the taarup which cuts 4 and my hay bine that cut 7. Ginnie the pig had her second litter of piglets.
August – Hermoine had her second litter of piglets and we inherited Galaxy – a purebred Nubian buck who is black with white spots and has wonderful manners, next years babies should be gorgeous. Munchie aka Melissa aka toofless turned 7 and started grade 2, she has lost so many front teeth, the tooth fairy has almost had to declare bankruptcy.
September I bought our new ram Prince Charles, a purebred Charollais, he will rotate between our farm, Dave Astill’s and Christi Salyn’s and spend the rest of the year chilling at Dave’s. Kayla turned 27 and is enjoying her new to her 2014 Ford escape after all the insurance settlements were sorted out. The first of the beef went to the butcher and we ended the month with a mink attack in our meat bird coop, loosing 14 birds silently.
October Darryl gained another year and I entered my weaving into the guild’s weaving sale at Artspring, We dried off Tasha (milk cow) and sent the meat birds, thanksgiving turkeys and lambs off to the butcher.
November – Darryl escaped to refit and then mother nature let loose with the atmospheric rivers that collapsed most of lower British Columbia. I have never seen that amount of rain in such a short span of time. All our ditches (3 feet deep) were full and the culverts (30 inches) managing, until the rock slide 2 properties above us, then there was 8 rivers running across the top field that washed out the road, causing a slide in the first ravine that filled both culverts. It was amazing, the whole island suffered with washouts and mud slides. Matt turned 27 also and my wool came back from the mill. With so much water outside it was a good time to empty the freezers and start jamming, so far we have raspberry, strawberry, strawberry rhubarb and nectarine (syrup) cause jelly is hard to set when the power keeps going off!
December – the last of the beef, the goats, the last batch of meat birds and the Christmas turkeys all go to the abattoir, I also gain a year (lol). Then Mabel my most prolific beef cow had another beef calf – River (atmospheric River is just too long a name) with her daughter Juniper looking like she won’t be too far behind.
I hope this note finds you healthy and happy, that Covid finally goes away and that you have a wonderful year in 2022. All the best Darryl, Sheila and Britty – Windsor farm (zoo)
It’s that time again to sit down with the calendar and the day timer and review what all we accomplished in the year. What an amazing year it has been, with the extreme weather, tons of births including grandmonster #2, finished projects, and more covid rules/restrictions, there didn’t seem to be any spare minutes in the day.
January – Mabel and Juniper, our beef cows, each had babies, Mabel had Stormy at breakfast (8am) and Juniper (Mabel’s daughter) had Foggy at supper (5pm). Calf names this year are weather as we seemed to be having a lot of it. We bought a new to us milking machine that is much more reliable than the little vacuum pump system we were using. The goats also kidded in January giving us 7 live out of 9 baby goats, it always surprises me how delicate they are compared to the lambs when they grow up to be so rough and tough. We used a star wars theme to name both the goats and lambs. Most importantly we got another grand baby – Morgan Cordelia Windsor was born January 30 to Michael and Emily. Everyone did great with an uneventful birth. Lastly Ginnie the pig had 13 piglets.
February – Hermoine the pig had 10 piglets and the rest of the gang left behind in the pig pen escaped to the top pasture. Apparently pressure treated posts only last 10 years now and the one side of the 4 acre pig pen was just swinging in the breeze and not attached to the ground. Once that side was fixed their freedom was once again gained by excavating the front line so we replaced all the posts there as well before they completely rototilled the 2 hay fields. Lambing was short and sweet with 14 live lambs out of 15. Two of the ewes prolapsed in January so they are now lawn mowers for their fleeces and retired from lambing.
March – Britty turned 25 and Michael 32!!! Darryl turned a small fifth wheel trailer into a seed propagating shed, which worked way better than our livingroom!!
April – Kayla’s 2013 Kia Sorrento caught on fire in the driveway. To anyone who owns a kia please make sure your recalls are all up to date. Without any warning, the car that she had just bought in October burst into flames when she parked at the gate after coming home from work. One thing I will say for BC Ferries is that they train their employees very well for emergencies. Kayla turned off the car, popped the hood and ran for a fire extinguisher, Britty and I ran for garden hoses and phones and we all managed to get the fire out just as the first fire truck showed up. To add to the excitement both sides of the driveway were filled with our wrapped hay bales, not a singe mark on any of the plastic, thankfully. On a less stressful note, the sheep were sheared and I started making cheese again.
May – The wool was all washed and bagged up and mailed off to Carstairs Alberta’s Custom Woolen Mill. My custom tanning sideline had a polar bear hide dropped off. Blanche the pig had 7 more piglets (surprise) pigs according to Dr. google aren’t supposed to go into heat until they are 90 kilos, apparently that is breed specific and as we have added Gloucester Old Spot to the genetics they are a little earlier, Taz the bottle lamb/sheep had a lamb (surprise!!) We started planting the garden row by row.
June – Martha the jersey cow had Cloudy and we didn’t want him to be lonely in the barn so we contacted Porters Dairy in Chemainus and picked up Chance (Holstien x speckled park) and Meatball (Holstien x Charollais) so then we had Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. (it’s a funny childrens movie). After attempting to get Pekin ducklings from 2 different hatcheries we bought 33 muscovy ducklings from down the road. Then we bought a plucker off amazon because there are no longer any abattoirs on Salt Spring or Vancouver Island that will process waterfowl. Bubblegum, the was going to be a milk cow but… had little Sunny our only little heifer this year. Hay season started quickly and then the heat dome settled in and we flew. Our friend from Nanaimo came down to help and we just kept going as the weather held. Whenever anyone complained about the heat I just replied 4 more hay fields, 3 more hay fields. All said and done we made 250 round bales and 2500 square bales from 18 different properties across the island. Market season was extremely successful as well, with no lack of water at the south end of the island our garden did amazing this year (except for the cabbage) our system of soaker hoses under lots of mulch hay worked amazing in the extreme heat. Our experiment with the potatos was interesting. We planted a seed potato under each cauliflower, cabbage and winter squash seedling. It worked under the cauliflower and squash, not so much for the cabbage as it grows too short and was completely drowned under the potato plants.
July – Miss Daisy our lead milk cow had another bull calf – Cyclone, and then milk fever, and then ketosis, poor girl was poked and prodded constantly for a few months until her metabolic system sorted itself out. I see retirement in her future but she’s such an amazing milk producer it will be hard to dry her off. In middle of hay season, my hay mower self destructed and Darryl broke down and bought our first piece of brand new hay equipment, a Kubota 7 disk mower which cuts a 10 foot swath instead of the taarup which cuts 4 and my hay bine that cut 7. Ginnie the pig had her second litter of piglets.
August – Hermoine had her second litter of piglets and we inherited Galaxy – a purebred Nubian buck who is black with white spots and has wonderful manners, next years babies should be gorgeous. Munchie aka Melissa aka toofless turned 7 and started grade 2, she has lost so many front teeth, the tooth fairy has almost had to declare bankruptcy.
September I bought our new ram Prince Charles, a purebred Charollais, he will rotate between our farm, Dave Astill’s and Christi Salyn’s and spend the rest of the year chilling at Dave’s. Kayla turned 27 and is enjoying her new to her 2014 Ford escape after all the insurance settlements were sorted out. The first of the beef went to the butcher and we ended the month with a mink attack in our meat bird coop, loosing 14 birds silently.
October Darryl gained another year and I entered my weaving into the guild’s weaving sale at Artspring, We dried off Tasha (milk cow) and sent the meat birds, thanksgiving turkeys and lambs off to the butcher.
November – Darryl escaped to refit and then mother nature let loose with the atmospheric rivers that collapsed most of lower British Columbia. I have never seen that amount of rain in such a short span of time. All our ditches (3 feet deep) were full and the culverts (30 inches) managing, until the rock slide 2 properties above us, then there was 8 rivers running across the top field that washed out the road, causing a slide in the first ravine that filled both culverts. It was amazing, the whole island suffered with washouts and mud slides. Matt turned 27 also and my wool came back from the mill. With so much water outside it was a good time to empty the freezers and start jamming, so far we have raspberry, strawberry, strawberry rhubarb and nectarine (syrup) cause jelly is hard to set when the power keeps going off!
December – the last of the beef, the goats, the last batch of meat birds and the Christmas turkeys all go to the abattoir, I also gain a year (lol). Then Mabel my most prolific beef cow had another beef calf – River (atmospheric River is just too long a name) with her daughter Juniper looking like she won’t be too far behind.
I hope this note finds you healthy and happy, that Covid finally goes away and that you have a wonderful year in 2022. All the best Darryl, Sheila and Britty – Windsor farm (zoo)