Merry Christmas from the Windsor zoo, I hope this note finds you and yours happy and healthy.
We have had an extremely busy and thoroughly exhausting year. 2013 just didn’t end so we didn’t get any down time from the farm and just kept plowing through into the new year.
This year began with lambing in February, most years February is t-shirt weather but not this year. Our first lambs appeared on the day Fulford harbor froze over (yes the ocean!!!) and we finished in 2 feet of snow. It seemed only fair to name all the lambs after ice cream because of the temperatures. I know all you back east are saying 2 feet whoop-de-doo but we don’t get the light fluffy powdery snow that blows into big wind drifts, we get this wet slushy, frozen gross stuff and we live on an island of hills. Enough whining. Anyways half way through lambing we got “the” phone call. The OPP (Ontario police) had been called to Darryl’s dads because one of the neighbors found him passed away. After many phone calls back east to contact relatives Darryl was on a plane to begin the first month of hell as being an executor of a will. The job might have been a little easier if Bill hadn’t been in middle of changing his will but such is life. Micheal was flown out to Ontario to continue on in Darryl’s place as there was sooooo much to deal with and Darryl had to return to work on the ferries.
We weren’t the only farm lambing at this time so the bottle lambs were pouring through the door. Our ewes made 14 lambs – 3 of which were bottle lambs and then another 10 bottle lambs (that lived) came from other farms. Britty and I had our hands full with all the bottle feeding.
About a week before Darryl came home Daisy our Jersey Dairy cow started to bag up (her udder filling with milk) signaling she was due to calf. That was the final straw on the camels back. With 2 feet of snow, no Darryl, no power, incubators hatching, a milking machine company that was in Louisianna, Gwen the border collie bitch going into heat, bottle lambs screaming in the house. Throw in a tanning workshop. It was a busy month. But alls well that ends well, Darryl came home the same day the milking machine showed up, the snow melted, the power came back on, Gwen was sent to Saanich to Collie Acres Farm to be bred and Daisy took her sweet time (a month) to calf. With our old cows, they give you a weeks notice that they are going to calf which is why I panicked. Apparently with a first time mom (heifer) they give you a months notice (thank god!!)
On March 22nd, Micheal’s birthday, Daisy, on a nice sunny day, decided to give birth to Milky Way (Britty named her) our first jersey x angus calf in middle of a grassy field. Milky Way got a barn buddy Cosmos from Moonstruck Cheese. The milking machine was installed and we began our experiment with milking and making cheese. In the beginning we got off easy, milk the cow and pour the milk into the baby bottles and feed the calves and lambs. Daisy broke us in easy with 3 gallons a day to start but once she warmed up she averaged between 5 -6 gallons a day!!!! I can fit 4 gallons in a pot at a time and the cheese making has begun. We make butter, yogurt, labneh (yogurt cheese) sour cream, cottage cheese, feta, all the cheddars, parmesan, gouda, Havarti, frozen yogurt and ice cream. This winter I’ve started to make soap out of Daisy’s milk. We’ll see how that experiment goes in 4 – 6 weeks of curing time.
During March we also started the gardens, it was nice and dry so Darryl was able to get the tractor into the garden early, we had 4 hatches of laying hens through the incubator, 3 batches of 100 meat birds, 2 batches of turkeys (Thanksgiving and Xmas), 6 piglets from Hope Hill Farm, 4 goslings that were from Gander Hatch Farm and incubated by Pat Donnelly from Elderberry Yarns.
April brought puppies!!! Gwen finally (almost) went into labour on April 29th. But keeping with the 2014 can’t be easy theme, she only had 3 contractions and then proceeded to leak green goo all over the house. 2 trips to the vet later and an emergency c-section at midnight and we had 6 little border collie puppies – 4 boys and 2 girls. The littliest one “Cork” had been stuck in the birth canal too long so he only lasted 2 days. Gwen did an excellent job raising her puppies with help from Grandpa Buttons, who would steal a puppy to the other end of the house and give it a bath.
On May 7th, we were hurrying through our chores to go get 2 feeder calves from Phonetics farm and Thelma our head cow decided it was a fine time to have her calf, Comet (keeping with our galaxy theme) is a gorgeous black and white Angus heifer.
June brought the first of Darryl’s inheritance , we got our 47 Oldsmobile 2 door coupe back. Bill had been out a few years ago and Darryl had just finished getting “Miss Prissy” running and all shined up. He bought her and drove her back to Onterrible. Then the 40 foot c-can was bought and Micheal spent over a month filling it up full of tools and machinery. “Industrial hoarder” is a term that seems to fit all too well. Micheal made an inventory as he was filling the c-can; 780 screwdrivers, 90 socket sets, and the list was over 2 pages, then he let the air out of the tires on the 100 hp, 4x4 universal tractor and slide it into the end of the c-can. 2 cranes and a train ride later and the last of Darryl’s inheritance arrived here on the farm.
The gardens did extremely well this year. Unlike last year when we harvested something and replanted, with everything that was going on this year we just plowed the row and kept going. We had a great market season and made lots of new friends and customers. Hay season was hit and miss. Apparently all little liars grow up to be weathermen, (Darryl’s new favorite phrase), hauling hay bales in the rain is not my favorite thing to do. With a lot of extra tedding and spacing out all the hay bales in fancy stacks, we managed to get 1500 bales into all the barns. We have new herb bags with fancy stickers for the 2015 season, they stand up and are resealable, very professional.
We have new neighbors and they are all getting farm status now after a lot of refencing so our little 20 acre farm has expanded to 94 acres which is great for over wintering 12 cows, 11 sheep and our 9 little (bad) Nubian x goats. The tanning workshop I attended in February during the snow storm was extremely informative and this year my hides have all turned out. They just need to be brushed and off to Elderberry yarns they go.
Micheal – turned 25 this year. He spent 7 months in Ontario dealing with Bill’s estate and also held down a job as a solar panel installer. They would take a 10 acre parcel and cover the whole thing with solar panels. He is very glad to be home and enjoying company of his new girlfriend Ashley.
Kayla – turned 20 this September. On August 23 after a couple false starts and a horrible pregnancy, Kayla made us grandparents!!! Melissa Sylvia Windsor Sjebjerg was born 10:37 am, 7 lbs 11 oz. She will be an only child as Kayla had gestational diabetes and if she gets pregnant again she runs the chance of becoming permanently diabetic. Kayla like Gwen didn’t go into labour either and had to be induced. At one time I think there were 12 lines running into her. Whoever invented the epidural was a god sent. When you are induced, your labour is twice as hard as normal labour. After they gave Kayla the epidural at 3am she fell asleep and woke up at 10:15 am to let us know the baby dropped and she wanted to push. 7 pushes later and voila, we had a beautiful (albeit slimy) little girl. Kayla and Matt live in our house on Rainbow Road, Matt also turned 20 this year and is now working full time at Slegg lumber as yard service.
Brittany turned 18 this spring and graduated from grade 12 with a completion certificate this summer. She is busy working on the farm all year long especially during lambing/calving season. Britty did farm school, where we kept track of all the work she did on the farm and exchanged it for school credits she completed grade 8 – 12 in 2 ½ years. Science is an easy course to accumulate hours in on a farm during lambing season especially with 13 bottle lambs and 2 bottle calves to take care of. Britty spent all summer working the Tuesday market with me and is now capable of running the stall by herself for short periods of time.
I’m still working at Slegg lumber as your friendly neighborhood stocker, Sleggs just sold to Titan – a drywall distributor, so there will be big changes in the new year. I have been busy with the farm and learning how to make cheese, infused oils and extracts for the soaps I hope to make in the near future. I am trying to grow many different types of ancients grains for all the gluten intolerant people (including Darryl) and many new types of herbs.
All the best in the New Year from Windsor Farms, Darryl, Sheila, Micheal, Kayla, Matt and Britty
We have had an extremely busy and thoroughly exhausting year. 2013 just didn’t end so we didn’t get any down time from the farm and just kept plowing through into the new year.
This year began with lambing in February, most years February is t-shirt weather but not this year. Our first lambs appeared on the day Fulford harbor froze over (yes the ocean!!!) and we finished in 2 feet of snow. It seemed only fair to name all the lambs after ice cream because of the temperatures. I know all you back east are saying 2 feet whoop-de-doo but we don’t get the light fluffy powdery snow that blows into big wind drifts, we get this wet slushy, frozen gross stuff and we live on an island of hills. Enough whining. Anyways half way through lambing we got “the” phone call. The OPP (Ontario police) had been called to Darryl’s dads because one of the neighbors found him passed away. After many phone calls back east to contact relatives Darryl was on a plane to begin the first month of hell as being an executor of a will. The job might have been a little easier if Bill hadn’t been in middle of changing his will but such is life. Micheal was flown out to Ontario to continue on in Darryl’s place as there was sooooo much to deal with and Darryl had to return to work on the ferries.
We weren’t the only farm lambing at this time so the bottle lambs were pouring through the door. Our ewes made 14 lambs – 3 of which were bottle lambs and then another 10 bottle lambs (that lived) came from other farms. Britty and I had our hands full with all the bottle feeding.
About a week before Darryl came home Daisy our Jersey Dairy cow started to bag up (her udder filling with milk) signaling she was due to calf. That was the final straw on the camels back. With 2 feet of snow, no Darryl, no power, incubators hatching, a milking machine company that was in Louisianna, Gwen the border collie bitch going into heat, bottle lambs screaming in the house. Throw in a tanning workshop. It was a busy month. But alls well that ends well, Darryl came home the same day the milking machine showed up, the snow melted, the power came back on, Gwen was sent to Saanich to Collie Acres Farm to be bred and Daisy took her sweet time (a month) to calf. With our old cows, they give you a weeks notice that they are going to calf which is why I panicked. Apparently with a first time mom (heifer) they give you a months notice (thank god!!)
On March 22nd, Micheal’s birthday, Daisy, on a nice sunny day, decided to give birth to Milky Way (Britty named her) our first jersey x angus calf in middle of a grassy field. Milky Way got a barn buddy Cosmos from Moonstruck Cheese. The milking machine was installed and we began our experiment with milking and making cheese. In the beginning we got off easy, milk the cow and pour the milk into the baby bottles and feed the calves and lambs. Daisy broke us in easy with 3 gallons a day to start but once she warmed up she averaged between 5 -6 gallons a day!!!! I can fit 4 gallons in a pot at a time and the cheese making has begun. We make butter, yogurt, labneh (yogurt cheese) sour cream, cottage cheese, feta, all the cheddars, parmesan, gouda, Havarti, frozen yogurt and ice cream. This winter I’ve started to make soap out of Daisy’s milk. We’ll see how that experiment goes in 4 – 6 weeks of curing time.
During March we also started the gardens, it was nice and dry so Darryl was able to get the tractor into the garden early, we had 4 hatches of laying hens through the incubator, 3 batches of 100 meat birds, 2 batches of turkeys (Thanksgiving and Xmas), 6 piglets from Hope Hill Farm, 4 goslings that were from Gander Hatch Farm and incubated by Pat Donnelly from Elderberry Yarns.
April brought puppies!!! Gwen finally (almost) went into labour on April 29th. But keeping with the 2014 can’t be easy theme, she only had 3 contractions and then proceeded to leak green goo all over the house. 2 trips to the vet later and an emergency c-section at midnight and we had 6 little border collie puppies – 4 boys and 2 girls. The littliest one “Cork” had been stuck in the birth canal too long so he only lasted 2 days. Gwen did an excellent job raising her puppies with help from Grandpa Buttons, who would steal a puppy to the other end of the house and give it a bath.
On May 7th, we were hurrying through our chores to go get 2 feeder calves from Phonetics farm and Thelma our head cow decided it was a fine time to have her calf, Comet (keeping with our galaxy theme) is a gorgeous black and white Angus heifer.
June brought the first of Darryl’s inheritance , we got our 47 Oldsmobile 2 door coupe back. Bill had been out a few years ago and Darryl had just finished getting “Miss Prissy” running and all shined up. He bought her and drove her back to Onterrible. Then the 40 foot c-can was bought and Micheal spent over a month filling it up full of tools and machinery. “Industrial hoarder” is a term that seems to fit all too well. Micheal made an inventory as he was filling the c-can; 780 screwdrivers, 90 socket sets, and the list was over 2 pages, then he let the air out of the tires on the 100 hp, 4x4 universal tractor and slide it into the end of the c-can. 2 cranes and a train ride later and the last of Darryl’s inheritance arrived here on the farm.
The gardens did extremely well this year. Unlike last year when we harvested something and replanted, with everything that was going on this year we just plowed the row and kept going. We had a great market season and made lots of new friends and customers. Hay season was hit and miss. Apparently all little liars grow up to be weathermen, (Darryl’s new favorite phrase), hauling hay bales in the rain is not my favorite thing to do. With a lot of extra tedding and spacing out all the hay bales in fancy stacks, we managed to get 1500 bales into all the barns. We have new herb bags with fancy stickers for the 2015 season, they stand up and are resealable, very professional.
We have new neighbors and they are all getting farm status now after a lot of refencing so our little 20 acre farm has expanded to 94 acres which is great for over wintering 12 cows, 11 sheep and our 9 little (bad) Nubian x goats. The tanning workshop I attended in February during the snow storm was extremely informative and this year my hides have all turned out. They just need to be brushed and off to Elderberry yarns they go.
Micheal – turned 25 this year. He spent 7 months in Ontario dealing with Bill’s estate and also held down a job as a solar panel installer. They would take a 10 acre parcel and cover the whole thing with solar panels. He is very glad to be home and enjoying company of his new girlfriend Ashley.
Kayla – turned 20 this September. On August 23 after a couple false starts and a horrible pregnancy, Kayla made us grandparents!!! Melissa Sylvia Windsor Sjebjerg was born 10:37 am, 7 lbs 11 oz. She will be an only child as Kayla had gestational diabetes and if she gets pregnant again she runs the chance of becoming permanently diabetic. Kayla like Gwen didn’t go into labour either and had to be induced. At one time I think there were 12 lines running into her. Whoever invented the epidural was a god sent. When you are induced, your labour is twice as hard as normal labour. After they gave Kayla the epidural at 3am she fell asleep and woke up at 10:15 am to let us know the baby dropped and she wanted to push. 7 pushes later and voila, we had a beautiful (albeit slimy) little girl. Kayla and Matt live in our house on Rainbow Road, Matt also turned 20 this year and is now working full time at Slegg lumber as yard service.
Brittany turned 18 this spring and graduated from grade 12 with a completion certificate this summer. She is busy working on the farm all year long especially during lambing/calving season. Britty did farm school, where we kept track of all the work she did on the farm and exchanged it for school credits she completed grade 8 – 12 in 2 ½ years. Science is an easy course to accumulate hours in on a farm during lambing season especially with 13 bottle lambs and 2 bottle calves to take care of. Britty spent all summer working the Tuesday market with me and is now capable of running the stall by herself for short periods of time.
I’m still working at Slegg lumber as your friendly neighborhood stocker, Sleggs just sold to Titan – a drywall distributor, so there will be big changes in the new year. I have been busy with the farm and learning how to make cheese, infused oils and extracts for the soaps I hope to make in the near future. I am trying to grow many different types of ancients grains for all the gluten intolerant people (including Darryl) and many new types of herbs.
All the best in the New Year from Windsor Farms, Darryl, Sheila, Micheal, Kayla, Matt and Britty