We've got Eggs

Don't forget; we've got Eggs! Place your order by calling me or emailing me. I can deliver to you most any day of the week. Our chickens are free range pastured raised. This makes for a delicious deep golden rich egg. If you haven't had home grown eggs before you are really missing out. Contact me if you want to try some. Our eggs are $4.00 a dozen. Eggs are hand picked each day by little miss E

With the extra supply on hand we are currently offering them at half price. This special will end on Wednesday so be sure to place your order today!

Meet our "Doggie"

Little Miss E took it upon herself to introduce our new "doggie" as she calls it to the farm. Here are some pics below of her showing him where to go.... or is he showing her where to go, LOL?

Our newest addition is an anatolian shepard. He is quite the dog. At 5 months old this guy is already large and incharge. He was bred to live and protect farm animals. And that is what he loves to do. Beware, he looks cute but he means business. If anything comes inside his fence where "his animals" are it won't get out alive. Toby knows what his job is and loves doing it. We are very happy to have him to protect our animals.

No laughing matter

This sheep was trying to get to our chickens food the other day and go her head stuff inside the top cone of it. We couldn't resist taking a picture and stopping our chores to laugh. It was quite a sight. We get many a good laughs from these farm animals. I'm sure this sheep was not laughing at the moment she discovered she was stuck inside a cone and unable to get herself out.

Proud of me :)

This past week well this past month I should say Farmer D has been extra busy. He always has things to do but it just seems that his list is getting bigger and bigger. So in an effort to help out I took it upon myself to make some of the CSA baskets this past week. Once I has completed them I have to say that I was quite proud of myself. I think this vegetable basket looks beautiful!

More Branch Farm Babies

There is never a dull moment around here it seems. Little Miss E and I ventured down to the farm today to collect chicken eggs and were excited to find some new baby chicks. They are too cute. Miss E had a fit over them and cried when I made her return them to their momma. We have a total of five that hatched out today. Our broody hen is still siting on two eggs that I believe will hatch tonight or some time in the morning. The new chicks are a cross-bred of our hens and our Dominque roosters.

          The joy from new babies never gets old around here it is always fun to see and be apart of. Momma hen is very proud and protective of her young this is great to see since the "broody" nature that hens usually are born with is being breed out of them due to the fact that most people use incubators to hatch eggs now days. We are hoping to produce more "broody" hens in the coming years it sure makes our job easier. Or at least I think so, these baby chick won't have to spend the first few weeks inside our laundry room like all the others did since they have a momma hen to keep them warm.

Our new Ewes

We are very excited to show you our new Ewes; sheep Ewes that is. These girls just got to the farm this past weekend and we are so glad they are here. Farmer D and I have wanted sheep for well over a year now but wanted to be careful about what breed we would get and where out starter herd would come from. About a week ago I began to pray about it and ask God to direct our path so that we would choose the sheep that He had for us and that the price would be what we had budgeted for. This was after several months of calling local listings and looking around on the internet for sheep. Each time nothing panned out and we were disappointed. When I finally thought about it and Farmer D and I agreed that God knew our desire and that it would be best to ask Him where to find them. So that is what I did. Within hours I was able to locate a very large number of sheep to look at and that were a lower price than we had seen in many online listings. I was so excited and called Farmer D right away with the news. Within hours of calling the farm Farmer D was in route to see the sheep. It just so happened that he was less than 30 minutes from the man who had them for sale when I called to him I had located some. This is quite a setup God had planned since normally it would have taken Farmer D about a week to get something like this to fit into his schedule. What a true blessing it was to get the call from him after he had viewed the sheep and decided we would purchase them. We both were so excited have finally found what we wanted and at a better price too! The power of prayer is amazing.

These sheep are Khatadian Dorper crosses. We choose this breed because they produce a hair like wool that does not have to be sheered they actually shed their coat. We have a total of 20 females and one ram (male sheep). They range in age from six months to four months old . The man we purchases them from said it would be safe to call them 2012 models. I thought that was funny.

Proper farm attire at the Farm

Some things on the farm are a learning curve with me but it didn't take long to learn what proper farm attire would be out here. I am always scrambling for a hat or some shades as well as boots when we are down at the farm. Little Miss E took note and she always find her accessories before hand. Many times she goes for mom or dad's stuff even though she has plenty of her own hats and shades. Here are a few pics of the farm attire that she chooses.

Lets not forget the boots, bike helmet, and bathing suit that are now essential to the farm wardobe. At first glance this may seem silly but it actually works pretty well. Especially the days we have to fill the water jugs for the animals. Little Miss E loves to play in the water so the bathing suit makes for easy clean up when we are done. And the bike helmet helps when we are collecting eggs it keeps Ella's head from hitting the top of the nest box now.

Expecting...

After taking animal inventory today when we got back in town from a recent trip away I realized that we will quickly be expanding around here. And I realized that means we need to get busy building more fences... ah fences again!

We are expecting some new baby animals very soon. Our Dexter cow (Mona Lisa) is bred and due on my birthday in January of next year. Our Ossabaw Island pig (Momma) is expecting and due Christmas day. Our Boer nanny goat (Lucy Lue) is due. And one of our Cookoo Maran chickens is currently sitting on 8 eggs that we expect to hatch in one week. It's very excited anticipating all the new little animals that we will be getting. I just pray that we will be at the farm to see all the action when it's time! 

Summer 2012 CSA Baskets

 Here are some updated pictures of our Summer CSA baskets. This past week they were especially beautiful with all the different shades of green we harvested. Please email us if you are interested in joining our Fall CSA group that is scheduled to start soon.

These baskets included tomatoes, green peppers, free range pastured eggs, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, green beans, butter beans, jalapenos, okra, and corn.

Raw... and loving it!

Little Miss E is likes her veggies raw. By the time we have gone out to the garden and picked what we need for dinner she is nearly full from sampling everything before we come back in. Corn is her favorite. If you haven't ever tried corn raw you should give it a shot. It's actually quite good!

Miss Independent!

I had to share! 

Little Miss E took her first ride alone on the four-wheeler trailer yesterday. It was all her idea and she loved every minute of it. I got this picture in a text from Farmer D when he was keeper her for the afternoon. I quickly responded back with "hello that is not safe!" 

As I am sure all the other mom's would agree. But after going down to the farm and watching them in action I could tell she was having a blast and wouldn't dare soil the fun! 

Pretty brave for an 18 month old to want to ride in a trailer all by herself.

Branch Farm at the Woodyard

Branch Farm is located at our house and also around the corner from our house. Our home sits on 4 acres. This is where we grow the majority of our vegetables for ourselves and our CSA. We also have 46 acres that is not directly connected to our house but is within sight. (we are working on fixing that, meaning we are saving the money to purchase land so that everything we own touches each other). The land down from the house used to be called the "woodyard" this is where the railroad ran and stopped to load rail car and such. Since my husband has owned it he has always referred to it as the woodyard, this gets confusing for people who don't know what is once was. I am one for simplicity so I have always referred to it as the barn... Well since we have a barn there that's what I thought it should be called. However, since starting Branch farm in our hearts and minds we decided that a name must be agreed upon.... So Branch Farm at the Woodyard it is!  :)

Here are some recent pictures of the Farm and what we have been working on. What you see above is cleared areas for new fences to go. It took all last week to get the trees down and land graded out. Farmer D did a great job getting the land ready for some fall crops and new fences. After we plant some clover on this dirt then we are planning to add some sheep to our family. I am super excited about what going on around here. You need to come out for a visit to get the real feel of what's going on, it is Wonderful!

Some for everyone.

We the extra corn and vegetables this season we are having a wonderful time sharing the harvest with all the animals. Little Miss E is feeding Lucy Lue some fresh picked corn stalk for dinner tonight. All the animals get very excited when they see us pull up to the fence with a trailer loaded down from the garden. We have been blessed with a great harvest for all kinds of vegetables this year any leftovers not used by us or not quite up to Farmer D's standard to sell (which is as close to perfect as you can get) at the farm stand get passed along to the furry children at our farm. While some animals may have a hard time getting through the summer drought season out animals are standing at a buffet line each day. It is so nice to know what we are feeding to our animals and where it came from.

Double yokes...

Have you ever seen a double yoke egg?

After boiling a dozen eggs this weekend to make deviled eggs I ran across this double yoke one. It was quite interesting to see. I have never had this happen before. So of course when something new occurs around here that we don't know anything about can you guess what we do???

Google it!

Do any of you do this as well? Just curious we may be the only "google it" family around but I wanted ask and see.

Babydoll goes to the Farm!

I couldn't help but share these too cute pictures. Little Miss E and I were heading to the farm to check on all the animals when she insisted that the "baby" aka her naked baby doll must go with us. As soon as she was unbuckled from her seat and on the ground she heading straight for the billy goat. Saying "See, see, see" the whole way there to her "baby".  It was quite a funny moment for me but she was serious as she could be showing her baby doll around the farm.