Vaughnshire Farm

For those of you who did not win our popular Apron Giveaway!  Lorrie and Amelia over at Amelia’s Aprons have put together some apron patterns that are unique, simple, and fun—great for those beginner sewers out there or a creative gift for someone who likes to sew. 

Lorrie has designed an Amish style apron pattern so that you can make your own aprons just like the Amish wear in the Amish / Mennonite communities around in our area. 

She has these for sale on her website for $8.95. 

She also has a very cute pattern called Ruffles and Curves which is also a popular best seller.  These patterns include sizes for mother, child and doll! 

So check go check out the Amelia’s Aprons Patterns— (and the aprons)  She is in the process of adding more patterns so you may check with her to see what she has available. 

Like we said before, Amelia’s Aprons is a single mom run cottage business and we are so excited to see them take off after a lot of hard work! 

Congratulations to gnipgnat and lgreene who are the winners of the Apron Give Away sponsored by Amelia’s Aprons!   You will be contacted by private email to arrange shipping.

I believe it is an interesting and providential event that this give away was held while we were discussing so many aspects of feminism.  Not only are the aprons a beautiful reminder of feminine women, but the owner of Amelia’s Aprons happens to be a single mom with two children who is supporting her family by working at home. 

Not only does she work at home making these fine aprons.  But she also started a cleaning business where she is working in other people’s homes a few days a week with her mother and her daughter.  She did not start off where she is now, when she found herself to be a single mother.  It was a process and a journey that included counsel and help from her family and her church.  It has been a difficult path at times that required the courage to make changes.  But the point here is that it is possible for a single mother, to find income that does not require the separation from her children every day of the week.  It is possible for her to both earn a living and home educate her children as she walks along beside them as they grow in the Lord together.

Congratulations again to the winners of the contest and thank you for everyone who entered!  If you could use an apron, consider supporting the work of a single mom and her daughter, Amelia, by shopping at Amelia’s Aprons.

We haven’t posted any pictures lately of our growing leghorns.  They are getting so big!  We were just talking the other day about the differences in the different breeds of chickens we have and different characteristics they exhibit.  We found a chart a while back that details these differences — temperament, size, egg laying abilities, personality etc.  The chart said that the leghorn breed was flighty—We have found that to be true! 

This would be my nice mixing bowl in the yard……

One of the girls stops to pose for a picture.  I am not sure how many leghorns we have…somewhere around 90 birds as we have lost a few.  AND…we ended up with a rooster…two roosters actually out of the bunch.  These hens will have the job of supplying eggs to a couple of local restaurants in town.  They will be laying big white eggs…which, we have found, is what restaurants ask for. 

Our 12 year old loves taking pictures of the farm.  He captured this picture one full moon night of a bunch of his leghorns camping out on the hog panel fence. 

The next big project will be building some sort of egg mobile for these hens.  Right now they are in smaller chicken tractors and running around the compost/garden area. 

We have an appointment this week to go look at a few hoop houses and green houses from a nursery that is closing down.  They boys can’t wait for that field trip as they are thinking they might be able to make a grand chicken home out of these.

…for a young entrepreneur

Having fresh milk has been one of the most rewarding farm experiences over this last year.  We started last year with milking our cow, Bonnie.   We also have several dairy goats.  One of the business ideas my daughter is pursuing is raising milk goats and selling them to other families who would like to have their own supply of fresh milk.  So far, she is just starting her hand at it, but is loving working with these milk goats. 

With baby goats, comes milking mommas.   Our 9 year old daughter has plunged into milking duties and is loving it.  She and Mally (one of our alpine mommas) are great friends.  In fact, Mally can’t stand to be away from the children when she sees them outside.  She makes all kinds of noise and tries to open the gate so she can come be near them. 

Except for a few bumps in the road – kicked over milk pails, stepping and putting her hind feet in the milk bucket, escaping and sitting down when trying to lead her back to the pasture –She has been a wonderful goat for a 9 year old to learn how to handle and milk.  We have been very pleased as she is providing some very rich and delicious milk that we have been enjoying very much.  We never would have imagined goat milk could be so good!

The only problem is that when Mally does get out of the pasture and makes her way to the house, returning her to the pasture can be quite a chore! 

One of the highlights of our farm experiences came yesterday in the form of watching one of our sheep give birth to her first baby lamb.  Our 10 year old son is very interested in larger animals (as opposed to poultry) so he had decided to start an entrepreneurial venture around cows and sheep. 

We took a trip this week to visit a man who had a herd of sheep and came home with two pregnant ewes and one lamb.  We were told that the ewes were very close to lambing, within the next couple of weeks.  However, the next morning our son came running into the house saying that one of the ewes had something wrong with it.  We ran out to see what was going on, only to find out that she had definitely started the labor progress. 

Within a few hours we noticed that her labor was progressing as she started to turn around in circles, paw at the ground, sit down and stand up often and stay within a certain area.  She soon started having very strong contractions and we could see something appearing— a water bag, then two little feet and eventually she delivered a healthy, very adorable, baby ram.  Our 10 year old was able to watch her progress throughout the day and was the one who actually saw her drop the baby on the ground.  We took turns watching her labor from a short distance. 

Not all of us roosted in the barn rafters with binoculars

I had the children take a break for lunch….they ate in shifts as to not miss the lamb being born.  When it was the 10 year olds turn to eat, he quickly ate his lunch without saying a word, didn’t even ask for seconds or take a drink out of his cup.  He ate and then ran out of the house saying, “I’ve never seen anything be born before!”  Minutes later, one of the other children ran in the house announcing that she had the lamb. 

It was a very exciting, thrilling day for new shepherds here on the farm and we are in awe of the miracle of birth once again.  Now we await our second lambing here on the farm….which should be very soon!

My husband regularly discusses entrepreneurship, business, income and work with our sons.  They are being encouraged to dream up business ideas, work out figures and numbers and jump at opportunities that come along–now while they are young.  One of our sons has been churning over getting an egg business up and going.  With owners of restaurants already talking to him about his eggs, that has been pure motivation for him to really kick his business plan into high gear. 

Last week he spent a lot of time building…building a chicken tractor for his Rhode Island Red chicks that he bought last month.  We have gone from a having a few chickens, to having almost 70 chickens and he is wanting to buy more. 

He is currently thinking up egg-mobile ideas for when these chicks are laying.  He keeps his eyes out for potential egg-mobiles….things like old wagons or old trailer beds….you know—junk—that he can turn into a mobile chicken laying house to “beautify” our field with. 

Two of our boys are in the “chicken business”  — egg production business, I should say.  Our 12 year old has been diligently writing business plans, calculating costs, reading about chickens, researching breeds and buying options and talking non-stop about his business ideas.  This has been brewing for a while, but was actually jump-started about a month ago when a local restaurant owner told him as soon as he could supply 15 dozen eggs every week, he would buy from him.  That was all it took to get those little entrepreneur wheels kicked into high gear. 

The seven year old has been handed down the operation of being in charge of supplying our family with eggs.  He is working on getting his own flock of chickens that he buys and raises.  He has one buff hen laying currently.  This hen he bought with his own money back in the summer and successfully raised a nice looking laying producer of which he is very proud of. 

Then, of course, there are the 2 super buff chicks that are now safely in the chicken tractor and he tells me they will be laying in June.  So he has a ways to go to raise his production levels to meet the egg usage demands of our large family, but is highly confident that he can do the job. 

Both of these boys awoke early this morning and eagerly went to town with dad to buy some more chicks.  The 12 year old bought 31 chicks to add to his business and our 7 year old bought 5 more buff chicks to add to his collection. 

We were also informed today by the 12 year old that one of his pullets is definitely broody.  She has been successfully sitting on her nest of 10 eggs and has pulled feathers.  This was a very exciting discovery because he was the one who suspected she was ready to sit last week.  Since then, he has been researching and reading about what to watch for and has been diligently checking in on her to make sure she was doing what she was supposed to be doing.  Next week, he will candle the eggs. 

After supper the boys get in a little light reading by the fire on a very blistery cold winter’s night….

These Salatin books win hands down in the minds of these farm boys:  Salad Bar Beef and Pastured Poultry Profits. Tonight, we heard Salatin wisdom in the form of  two boys excited about the books they were reading……The constant “Did you know..” followed by some piece of sustainable farming insight or some funny story or some great idea they are going to pursue became very entertaining. 

Technically, these books aren’t written for 10 year old boys, however, these boys have used the Salatin books as well as the knowledge they have gained through growing practical experience here on the farm, listening to sustainable farming cd’s, reading farming magazines and other books and attending conferences to grow their knowledge and maturity well beyond their age—Well, they are ready to make a go at it!

They both are in the process of starting up business here on the farm.  One with raising beef, one with poultry. 

Tonight, I paid my debt on 5 dozen chicken eggs to the 12 year old after he asked the question over supper, “Do I get to charge a late fee to someone that doesn’t pay their bills?”  I got the hint.  Remember he submitted me a bill for his chicken eggs 2 days ago! 

For his 7th birthday, our son asked for chickens. 

He and his dad sat down several weeks ago and ordered 20 buff orpington chicks and 8 ducks. 

Several days later, another son for his 12th birthday asked for 100 chickens and a couple of cherry trees.  Strange request I thought at first, but then realized he has a plan and it is a plan to make money.  Not so strange….just smarter than I was when I was 12.  We didn’t order 100 more chickens, not until he can build himself another chicken tractor and organize a chicken pasture area.  We aren’t ready for that addition yet and after thinking about it for several days, he decided he had better start with a smaller amount and work up. 

A farm boy’s mind works faster than mine.  They don’t mind the work.  They thrive on the challenge and they can’t wait to start 10 projects at one time all the while dreaming up a 100 more. 

There has been much talk and planning about all the grand things they are going to do in way of projects and building farm businesses.  We also talked about what exactly we are going to do with new baby chicks and ducklings being delivered to our farm during a very wintry, cold January. 

Our 7 year old solved the problem by concocting his brilliant idea of parking our 15 passenger van right by the front door, putting the chickens and ducklings in a box in the van, hanging a warmer light from the ceiling and running the extension cord right to the house plug.  They stay warm, out of the weather, close to the house. 

I told him that was about the most hillbilly idea I have heard yet…