Mahaniam Farm 

Creating a future from the past...

As of 12-17-2021 we are once again opening the farm for business. We have developed a relatively good-sized herd of Katahdin Sheep. We still have chickens, guineas, ducks, and the recent gifting of replacement geese.  This places us in a position to not only feed ourselves, and neighbors but also to create a business that could fund other farm and home projects.

Our winter gardens seem to be doing well with the warmer temperatures that have blessed us so far with a mild winter. We will have beets, turnips and kale in abundance and it is our hope to be able to sell the extra at the town square market.

We wish you all Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Joyous Noel, a Merry Solstice, and a Happy Kwanza, as well as an amazing new year!

Shekhinah Mom at Mahanaim Farm

Sad News for our farm, our farm had self certified back in 2009, in June of 2013, we lost that certification.  Our local power company NEAC allow its contractors to spray a toxic mix of Rodeo (roundup by another name), Escort and Polaris on our nice organic soil. 

For weeks we tried to get them to understand what happened, they would not hear us.  

The contractors for NEAC came to our farm on June 12, 2013, below is the readers digest version of events. 

To all my friends, family and well-wishers, the events of last night have all been recorded, and as soon I get a free moment, they will be made available.

I can tell you much of what went on was just pure idiocy on their behalf.  They are utterly unaware of the damage they have caused, and because they cannot see it with their eyes, they balk at my words.  Soil tests will show their chemicals in my soil.  I am happy to send soil off.

They seemed to have felt it was not that big of a deal.  I think it is; I cannot sell my plants or wild forage as organic, and not sure I would like to sell them as non-organic / contaminated crops. 

What they said really amounts too, “your plants do not look dead enough.” Really, it is not about the dead plants as much as the now non-organic level I have acquired.  They think if you cannot see it; it is not real; I could write volumes where that went wrong.  So after trying to get me to agree to accepting $5000.00, plus $1000.00 for a fence, and failing, they continued to push.  They explained how many people were now out of work because of me.  I corrected them; it was due to their error, not mine.  They told me how awful it would be if we all had to go to court that they would pull my taxes, and I would have to pull paper work.  I also explained I was OK with that; I am a registered farm; I have my certification in writing, and that my husband keeps exceptionally detailed records as all organic farms are required to do. 

He was aware that our farm was organic; he understood that it would take us years to get recertified, but insisted it would all be ok.  He told us how it could drag out for a year; I have years now, so no problem.  He said, listen I can have this money to you by Friday, in cash.  I explained it does not matter about the money; it is so much more than that.  I told them about what the farm meant to us and others, and how we had to make sure that not only did they never return, but that no other organic farm would endure our fate.  He told me how they would make sure.  I paused and said, you said that about my trees.  He said this time was different.  I cannot tell you the number of times people in my life had used those exact words, perhaps it is a flaw in all people to tell you what they think you want to hear.  I am unsure, but I am sure that I said no.  I will lose $5000.00 per year on our small farm organic, for no less than three years, but closer to five or seven.

 I have the money saved to pay the entire certification for the plants; that would have allowed us to make as much money as we wanted.  Now, my dream of doing that is dead, but I will push forward to protect other farms, from this sort of RAPE.  I will teach others to stand up to these companies and get back what belongs to them.  I will not give up, and my friends and loved ones, I will not give in.  My cause is just.

Shekhinah

4-11-2010

Ok so I have not been on here for a while, but I have been very busy, it was very hard being a CNA, but I guess I get a break from that now and get to go back to being an artist/farmer...Very cool and I have so much to do.

We have a Milk cow now and who knew using four gallons of milk a day could be so  much work.

Here are some photos of Moo and her than new baby boy Israel (who we have just started weaning)

Ask me about about banding a calf...wow that was something to write home about...lol

The instructions that came with the bands and bander are far less than one needs.  It says simply place over testicals...lol

Oh yeah very helpful...no where does how high to place the band or hoe to get the bander tool off.  After a few minutes I figured it out, but even once you do it your not sure you did the right thing.

June 24,2009

Wow did Direct TV throw me for a loop, in with our new programming is a channel called JLTV (Jewish life television).

Here is a link jltv.tv

 Oh my...programming I can watch and enjoy! 

The kids are thrilled as living in the middle of no where has left us with very few others to hang out with...so seeing on Jews and hearing their stories is so wonderful....

June 18, 2009

USDA-certification for organic scary stuff -about hatching eggs  

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Death of our beloved Roy.... Current mood: grateful   Well today we found Roy sitting up with his ladies, he had passed away in his sleep.  I wonder if he ever knew that it was his act of breeding all our girls and some of our friends goats that he would live on forever.  It is because of him that our once tiny herd has increased to over 20 girls and a few fellas.  He even bred one of my sheep..lol  We stated out with baby our most beloved Nubian milk goat.  She was our first milk goat and cost me a small fortune to acquire.  She was in milk when we bought her and gave us milk for over a year before we realized we needed to freshen her. When we bought her I was told she was only three years old, well it was closer to 8 or 9 and shortly after kidding she died, the birth was just to much on her.  We stayed pretty much by her side and did all we could spending more caring for her, than she had cost us in the first place.  No price is to high for that of a loving and loyal friend and we gladly would have given more if it would have saved her.  Before she died she had her three beautiful little does.  . We bottle feed all of them .Only one survived even with our best efforts and she is the most lovely little goat. My husband Michael had named our little ladies.  Death, who died first, Famine who died next in my arms after only two weeks of life and than Pestilence.  Our joke is death will always die, famine is short lived but pestilence lives on.  Pestilence is a wonderful little goat with supper long ears who will make beautiful little babies at some point.  We were truly blessed in having them both in our lives and we will bury Roy next to his first Wife Baby and we thank HaShem for the time they both spent in our lives... Be Blessed and Be Wonderful...Shekhinah

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Sassafras and other herbs and plants that grow here... Current mood: cheerful   Ok so today while at our friend's house I asked about Sassafras because I know.  I could not find any thing that looked the photos in my book.  I found out there is a different sort of sub variety here in Arkansas and Missouri .  So I now have leaves and know where it is on my property. Always find some old timer to help you find the plant you are looking for, that's my advice. To my great surprise he told me that people buy this stuff.   As strange as it seems people will buy leaves, wood, bark and roots of this tree and pay top dollar.  Some one on Ebay is getting $12.00 per pound for the leaves and another is getting almost ten bucks for a flat rate priority box full, plus the buyer is paying the shipping. I know it weird right!  I use the roots for tea and have a sort of paddle I use to stir the soap, but have never given it a thought that it had a market value to anyone else….So I guess we are planning to offer it up for sale, like our soap and other products.  You never know the value of the stuff you have laying around. I guess I will hang out with a few old timers and find out what wild indigo looks like, and goldenseal as well as ginseng.  They all grow wild here…I am really excited about finding wild indigo so I can use it in the fall to dye our cotton and our wool.  Golden seal is good for healing and a bit pricey, so I will enjoy not having to buy it again and ginseng we do use but right now it is being bought here for $275.  Per pound so I think I would have to it and by Koran ginseng instead…lol Be Blessed and Be Wonderful

August 1-2007

Off to go a trading.....
Current mood: working

So off we go to trim and shoe a few horses, trade for some replacement handles and soap. 

Trade and barter is a large part of our lives.  We very much enjoy the interaction with others and sharing their special work with our family.

So if your out there and you haven't tried to barter with a neighbor, give it a shot...You meet new people and maybe even learn a few new things.

Be Blessed and Be Wonderful

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Quails everywhere.......   Wow we had a great hatch over 70 new baby quails born yesterday.  Out of 80 eggs we had 78 hatch, 2 near hatches. One did nothing...poor little thing.  So we have gone from worrying about having enough quail to lay eggs to having a whole bunch.  Our first babies have long since been laying and they are all doing great. We even sell eggs on the net and on Ebay...Funny how it all works out... Our a sadder note more poor old billy is about to die any day....It's so sad he can barely walk and has to be brought food and water now. Michael is going to build a little lean to for him to keep him out of the weather and such...We move him and clean under him since I can no longer get him to stand.   He has been a great breeder..and has left us many daughter and a few sons.  Other wise we are making soap...and just sort of hanging out here on our little mountain. Be Blessed and Be Wonderful

July 30-2007 Dealth of dear fiends...Bottom of the hudson-Band Current mood: sad   Dear Friends, Let us together morn this great loss of musical talent.  I have many of their cds and met them and befreinded them a long while back.  Never would I have thought I would have writing this letter today.  But I ask that anyone out there that reads this, does all they can to help the familys of these good men. Please read on and Be Blessed and Be Wonderful... Philadelphia/Brooklyn band Bottom of the Hudson suffered a serious van wreck on Sunday, July 29th, while returning home after the final date of a short East Coast tour to promote their new album, Fantastic Hawk, released just two weeks ago on July 17.  While on I-40 near Clinton, NC, a tire blew out sending the van out of control and flipping it multiple times.  Bassist Trevor Butler was killed in the accident and drummer Greg Lytle is currently in ICU in Chapel Hill, NC.  The other members of the band, Eli Simon, Michael Prince and William Chesterton Chambers, suffered minor injuries and were released from the hospital. We didn't have an opportunity to get to know Trevor Butler as well as we would have liked, but he was a great guy and a great musician.  He was instrumental in the evolution of the band's sound over the years.  In addition to playing in Bottom of the Hudson for the last several years, Trevor also was a founding member in fellow-Philadelphia group Coyote.   He was utterly devoted to music and helped many, many bands set-up shows in Philadelphia.  We are devastated by his loss and he will be greatly missed.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the band and their families. Services will be held for Trevor Butler on Thursday in his hometown of Myrtle Beach, SC.  Thanks to everyone who has sent condolences and well-wishes. We are currently accepting donations via Paypal  (the address is both@absolutelykosher.com) on behalf of Trevor's family and for Greg's medical bills resulting from the accident.  A benefit show is being discussed, but we're all still reeling from this tragedy.  We will update our home page (www.absolutelykosher.com, which also has a donation link) as news of Greg's condition and progress on further fundraisers comes in. Your generosity in this difficult time is appreciated. best, Cory Brown and everyone at Absolutely Kosher RecordsC www.absolutelykosher.com

July 29-2007

Ok so as most people in the world know I am working on having our little farm become more and more self sufficient.  So far Michael and I  make and use our own soap, dish soap, laundry soap and such.  We raise a lot of our own meat; sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese and pigeons and of course our quail.  Our Goats and sheep also provide us milk which we make into yogurt, cheese, cream cheese and of course the above mentioned soap.  We shear and spin the wool from our sheep and have future plans of weaving some and crocheting and knitting as well.  We also hunt deer in season.  We do tan our hides, just incase you wondered… Very little goes to waste here...

We can what we grow, tomatoes, peppers…and a whole bunch of other stuff.   We make our own jams, jelly and the like.  The herbs and such we raise we dry and use all year round. We have learned to cook a lot of food from scratch and not to buy any where near as much prepared food.

We log our wood with our own horses; we use it to heat with and sometimes cook. 

In the fall we plan to fire up the forge and make some new tools and maybe make a kiln so I can have some new dishes…lol

But in the mean time I am learning new tricks to make life a little better for us.  Because we have chosen to live in the middle of no where thinks like soy milk and tofu and such are hard to come by and a bit pricey.  However soybeans are cheap…around $9.00 for 50lbs/22.680 Kilograms….that is a lot of soybeans.  It takes only a little less than one third of a pound or 125 g of soy beans to make a little over a quart or one litter.  That mean you could make over 150 quarts or litters of soy milk for the $9.00.  We buy soy milk by the half gallon now at a cost of around $3.00 or so; cost $222.00 not including tax.  Yikes!  So I will save at least $213.00 plus I am making it myself.  It has a by product as well.   The insoluble material which remains is called okara, and can be used as an ingredient for bread making in other form of cooking or as feed for chickens, sheep, goats and alike.  So there is not waste.  Anyone who wants to try and make soy mik just drop me an email and I will tell you how to make it.

No on to my other favorite food of soy…Tofu…Yummy white creamy stuff you can also make yourself for just pennies really.  You need to make soy milk and than you need to heat it a bit just like making cheese.  You a little calcium sulphate-food grade of course or magnesium chloride and it sort of jelles up .  Next pour into a cheese cloth lined mold and wait. 

Yogurt from soy just as easy…need any help just email me.

I plan to use soy milk to make soap as well….I will let you all know how it works out. 

 Ok guys got tons of stuff to do and learn...

Be Blessed and Be Wonderful....

Michael and Shekhinah and all the kids and critters here on Mahanaim Farm....

Friday, July 27, 2007

July 27 2007 Chickens- geese Current mood: cheerful           Had a great day to day on the farm, sold a few chickens, a pair of geese.  Less to feed I say...lol  Had a baby goose born and had a goose who just the other day hatched out four of the little loves.  Incase you did not know geese are like crazy protective over there little ones.  So I am keeping my distance. I have got a blooming ton of quail it seems and more are due to hatch in the morning...guess I will be busy, worst things to do I suppose. Still making and selling soap and plan to sell to all the National park real soon, so wish me well. Big hugs for now, got to keep it short it's almost dark....

7-15-07

Making soap has become almost a full time job on Mahanaim Farm.

Who would have thought old world skills could generate a profit.  Making homemade soap how ever profitable is a time consuming job.  Just heating the oil can take well over an hour and must be watched the whole time.   It is hot sweaty work. 

Some words of advice to anyone thinking of making lye soap:  Use frozen milk or almost frozen other wise the lye make the milk heat up to quick and it turns brown.  It sort of burns…or even worse curdles the milk causing the soap to weep for days after it has been made.  The milk and lye should turn orange when you are stirring it, and you can stir it for about an hour. It is going to get super hot and you than have to wait for it to come down to the temp of the oil before you can go any further.  Some people use a hand blender to mix the oil into the lye and milk mixture. That cuts the time down to about 10 to 15 minutes.  If you use a mixer beware that you will have to pour your soap quicker than if you hand stirred it.  It is only really important if you are pouring mold or adding scent or herbs. 

Some other neat things you may want to know, soap when cured in most cases will turn white, if you have done everything right. 

Never take soap out of a mold before 24 hours have elapsed it can make a real mess. 

Leave your self a good two weeks before you need to do anything will the soap, to cure it leave it in a well vented area and turn at least once a day. 

As far as supplies, I use Kosher Vegetable shortening and a blend of other  Kosher oils.  The oils change depending on what type of soap I am making.  What Oil do I always add, Olive oil of course, it gives the soap a creamy consistency that I like.  Keep in Mind I only use kosher ingredients in my soap, I recommend you do the same, as they are finer quality most of the time.  When buying thinks to make soap with as well as food to eat always look for the Orthodox Union seal, a plain K could lead you to an inferior product such as Dannon Yogurt ( email me at: raziel133@yahoo.com  to find out why I do not buy their brand and why it’s Kosher by Name only!) 

Making your own soap is a gat way to be eco kind and show you family that you love them in a whole new way, so go and make soap already…What you don’t have a recipe…Well I guesses I can give you one, heck I will even give you one to make laundry soap and save not only tons of money but again be eco friendly.  So here goes.

First get everything together from the list, you don’t want to be wondering around you kitchen for hours.

3 pints of near frozen milk-I use goats milk

12 oz of Red Devil lye-You will need a glass measuring cup for this one as the can has 16 ozs in it.  Do not use lye with aluminum in it is toxic to every on and every thing and can not be used in soap making.  Make sure you can says: 100% lye on it.  Also make sure to shake it in the can as you do not want clumps in it.

5 and one half pounds of Kosher Vegetable shortening-This is just under two really big cans.

2 oz of Kosher glycerin-That means it plant based, believe me you wouldn’t want the other stuff.

2 tablespoon of Natural Borax-yes they still sell this in the grocery store-Wal-mart has it for sure.

A third cup of honey, any Kosher kind will do, I even have a deal with a local store to buy the crystallized honey at a cut rate.  Yes it is fine to use and eat, just reheat it in the microwave or the stove top.  Save you bunches there.

This is a basic recipe so I am going to tell you how to color it up a bit, you do this after is had taced.

A teaspoon to pound of soap is a good starting place when it comes to adding powdered herb or such. Cocoa Powder for brown, cayenne pepper for pinkish peach, turmeric for yellow and paprika for pink.  I use paprika in my strawberry field’s soap.  Do not use food colors or cake decorating colors as you will not get the colors you want and just end up with a huge mess.

To scent my soaps I use extracts and candy maker oils.  A small amount goes along way.

Ok back to making soap…

I heat up the Vegetable shortening first; it needs to come up to 90 degrees.  It will be hard and you will end up heating it a bit more than that, so just take it off the burner and go to the next step while it cools….

Well done you come this far!  Let’s continue…

Get out a stainless steel or unchipped enamel pot; put your almost frozen milk in.  Next ever so slowly add you lye, stir, stir, stir and keep stirring.  You want this to come down to around 85 degrees or so.  Than you can slowly ad the 90 degree oil to it.  Stir, stir, stir until you see it tracing.  Tracing means to thicken kind of like a loose pudding…when you can stir it and it sort of leaves a make across the surface… email me if you need to see a photo. 

At this point you can add your color and scents, and either pour into soap molds or a wet towel lined cardboard box, you don’t want the soap to be thicker than about 4 or 5 inches for best results. 

Now leave it alone fro 24 hours at least…I mean it, I know you want to go poking your finger in it but don’t!  I promise your messing with it will not make it dry any faster…lol

Ok so know you have bar soap, so what can I do other than take a bath or wash up, well you could make the greatest eco friendly laundry soap the world has ever know and hey it’s easy.

Ingredients:

Well or Rain Water-

A third of a bar of your newly made soap

½ cup washing soda-not baking soda, they are very different.

½ cup borax powder

A five gallon recyled bucket-please do not go out and buy one, ask you friends if they have one, go on Freecycle or ask a painter or drywaller…They throw them away all the time.

A quart of hot water

If your bars of soap are about regular soap size you can grate down about a third of the bar.

You are going to need to use the stainless steel or unchipped enamel pot again…

Ok so into the pot you are going to place around 3 pints of water, if you don’t have a well like us, use gathered rain water for this soap.  It will act as a fabric softener as well if you do that.

Ok, so back to the laundry soap.  Into the water add the grated soap to the water stir over medium heat until dissolved.  Now stir in the washing soda and borax.  This will make a bit of a slurry and that’s fine, it’s what we want.  Now pour this into a five gallon bucket and add the hot water…Give it a good stir.  Now if you want it to have a scent you can add it now about a teaspoon of extract or essential oil is plenty. Now cover the bucket with a loose fitting piece of used, clean aluminum foil.  Leave it over night and in the morning you can bottle it up and use it.  You can use plastic milk bottles or old laundry soap containers.  I really like one gallon vinegar bottles, they are just easy to store and handle at least for me. 

Well there you have it, give a try already!  The only thing you have to lose is the store bought soap.

People ask me what I most like about my soap, other than the low cost.  I tell them I like being able to make any scent I like and knowing exactly what is on my soap.

If you would rather not make your soap and you want soap just let me know I sell our soap for $3.00 a bar and make many flavors that I know you would like.

Be Blessed and Be Wonderful

Shekhinah

7-12-07

Lately my email has been full of people wanting to know more about how to start being an eco happy homesteader….so I thought I would tell you al little about what we have done. 

So here we go…

1. We decided to see what we could live with out. 

We decided we could live with out eating out more than once a month; this saves gas as we live 15 miles from anywhere.

     We could live with out brand new cars…

     Mine will at least run on ethanol. 

     We own a lot of classic vehicles.  -A 1978 Jeep Wagener that was my dream car.

     A custom 1988 Cadillac, a 1989 Buick Le saber custom (We are selling this at the car show this September in   Mammoth Springs as it has fuel injection.)

     A wonderful 1987 ford retired gas powered U-hal Truck.

     With out brand new furniture…If we want it will build it, buy it used or post for it on FreeCycle or trade or barter for it.

      Trips to the salon, no store bought hair cuts.

      Along with that no store bought makeup or lotion or chap stick….We make most of these our selves.

      Pet treats-We make these our selves and even sell and trade with others.

      Contract Cell phones….Gosh the money you can save here is amazing. 

      We have four cell phones and went from paying $152.00 a months to a scant $60.00.   

       Credit Cards-buy it with cash or don’t buy it…

      Mortgage, home owners insurance and the like (yes I have car insurance). 

      Car insurance, the cheapest source I could find that did not base you insurance on credit-The Hartford.  $92 per month full coverage on them.

      If you want to know about the insurance on you home and how it is a scam email and I will be happy to tell you all about it.  

      Mail order coffee, I will live with what I find at the grocery store…

      Paper magazines-I can read most magazines online for free and save the trees and money. 

      Incandescent lights- We chose to replace all the nasty energy consuming incandescent lights with thrifty florescent ones. 

      Cost of 22 florescent light bulbs= around $100.00 with tax in Arkansas …

      Savings about $15.00 per month in electric-over all each bulb has a life span of at least three years

      This means they will not only last about a hundred times longer than the old bulbs, but will pay for them selves very quickly.

      Washing our clothes in warm and hot water….we only wash in cold water now.

      Zip lock bags-buy a Seal-a-meal, for the money you will get more and it is more eco friendly…plus you can use it to reseal all kinds of bags.  You can even reseal chip bags.

      Some other changes we have made in our lives are:

      We reuse almost ever container we bring home at least twice. 

     We make our own eco friendly soap, (this saves fuel and the eco system).

     We also make our own laundry soap…

      Feel free to ask for the recipe…

     We make one trip to shop instead of many:

     We try hard t o buy locally grown meat, if beef only Angus, it’s grown cleaner and is local.

     We also raise and eat our own old world sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, quail, ducks and pigeons.

     We milk our goats and sheep to make soap, cheese and of course just for milk as well.

      We eat our eggs from our free range chickens and ducks.

     When ever possible we buy local produce or raise our own from heritage or heirloom seeds. 

     Our potatoes this year will be blue, red and Yukon gold.

     We can our produce and also make our own jams, jelly’s and wines when ever possible.

     We have our own apple tree, pear tree, prisimon tree and a small mulberry tree as well as a tom of wild Black Raspberries.

     Currently we have our own Bay leaf tree and many herb plants.  Sage grows very well here as does basil and mint.

     To heat our home we burn good old fashioned wood…we try hard to gather wood that would otherwise be wasted, plus it’s free….

     We have logging horses that help us and we love them and our glad that they have chosen to share their lives with us.

     We joined Freecycle to give away things we don't need that might otherwise go into the land fill.

     If we are looking for a part or an item we need we ask on Freecycle first.

     We also compost all our food waste that the animals don't eat and use only organic fertilizers on our land. 

     We raise cute little bunnies who help us with this…

     Well anyway this is some of what we do…I am sure it gives you an idea or two of your own….

                                                            Be Blessed

                           Shekhinah, Michael and all the kids and critters here on Mahanaim Farm

                                                   www.goldendovegallery.org  

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5-07-07

What a week...We raise ducks but bartered for more in hopes of turning over some quick cash. So now we technically have most of the endangered farm ducks out there. Sadly our van broke down the day of the swap and we never made it.  Hoping next week will go better I am preparing to make animal treats and Lye soap to take with me. 

The jeep may be back up and running, we have not tried to drive it yet.  We have dumped a lot into it, but I think in the end it will work out for the best. Classic cars require work, so what you gonna do? 

I found a newer jeep for $800.00 and have considered buying it.  I could trade the Cadillac for it maybe or even the Buick, it's hard to decide.

Money as always is tight and we make the best of it all, trying to make things last as long as we can.

We acquired quail a couple of weeks ago and they seem to be doing very well.  They are Cortinex Quail and lay about 300 eggs a year or so...not to shabby there, plus they go from hatch to laying in 7 or 8 weeks.  They are tiny but fast and easy to raise, I give them a thumbs up.  You may be asking your self what in the world are these little quail good for, well I will tell you.   You can hunt them as they get flight feathers faster than bob whites.  You can eat them yourself or sell them to restaurants or even sell them to a game farm...they go for around $2.00 each at hatch.  You can sell their eggs for .15 each fertile or not (some people eat them.  I saw fresh quail eggs on line for $9.00 for 6 eggs.  I know crazy but true. They require very little food compared to a chicken and their eggs hatch at about 17 days.  They do not set eggs well.  So it is best to take their eggs away a few times a day. The biggest problem I can see is that they are like the size of a bumble bee when born and can drown them selves in nearly non existent water.  Other than that they are great.

We have a big sportsman incubator and I am guessing you could do thousands of these eggs at a time if you had them.  I have a small flock at the moment only 4 hens and two cock.  I ordered another 4 hens and two more cocks but it will be a while on them.  I get between two and three eggs a day from the ones I have (about 18 eggs a week) but it’s a good start.  I figure I will keep a third of each hatch for breading stock.  So with the 12 birds I should get 36 eggs a week.  I plan to buy 6 birds from the breeder ever 2 weeks until I hit 100.  With that I figure I should get 80 eggs a day or better and be fairly well set.  560 eggs a week would give me eggs to pickle for our use as well as sell and barter goods.  I would have plenty to hatch and plenty to eat.  In theory you could make un- believable money with them if you did it right.  One of our friends in trying to talk us into raising them for slaughter, but in truth I think that is a lot of work for the return.  I can get $2.00 each at the swap for the little guys with no effort, why would I want to have to clean them to make a quarter more per bird.  You know…

I have about given up on hatching chickens for sale, yes there is some money to be made but people are fickle and the cost of feed high.  I do better with ducks, geese, turkeys and the quail.  I still want to buy Peacocks and hope to have some soon…ducks you can get $5.00 a chick all day long, geese I get $7.00 each and turkey’s $7.00 and than of course the $2.00 for the quail.  I plan to get $25.00 for baby peacocks.  We have talked about getting swans in the future.  You can get an incredible $200.00 for each chick or $800.00 per full grown pair.  For now we need to create new and better pens for our bird and get ourselves a bit better established.

Anyway have to go and make soap so I can afford to become bird rich, lol…

Hey take a look at our buck money...lol

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4-23-07

I have Toulouse and African grays both are laying in full mode and I have breeding pairs available of the Toulouse for sale.  I bought more Turkey Hens and swapped a tom since mine were being, well Turkeys , but not in the nice way.  I have changed my Turkeys feed as well to make sure they have enough protein and such and have started giving them chicken and duck eggs shells to help with calcium and the like.  I have been at it for a few days now and hope to have eggs soon.  I think part of the reason that they and the peacocks are not laying maybe the weather.  They need a lot of light to trigger their laying response, so I am going to keep up on the feed, keep them penned for now and hope that it will work it’s self out.

I bought a Blue Slate hen, a Royal Palm hen and a Bourbon Red Tom.  This week I am picking up a huge Bronze tom.  So I should have a good pool of birds to breed from.  I also ordered some Blue Slate chicks form a friend and a few Royal Palm chicks for next years run.  

The Blue Slates are neat because they have been in Mexico for almost 3000 years as a pure breed.

I was gifted six turkey eggs, which are currently in the incubator now.  They are a Bronze and Royal Palm Cross, my fingers are crossed as to weather they hatch or not since she did not know you have to have the pointy side on the egg down, so they may be dead. Anyway I should know in a few days. 

We have to leave the farm for a least a little while today as our eating chicks are in.  We ordered Jumbo Cornish X Rocks.   At 6 to 8 weeks these guys are ready to be dressed out.  I think I ordered 50..I guess I will know in a bit..lol  

For this upcoming Saturday I have to pick up our new pairs of Cortex Quails .  These quails go from hatch to laying in just six weeks and seem easy to dress out.  we hope to pick up a little side line money and trade with them.  

Sunday I have to pick up our new Bronze Tom.  Can't wait to see him.  

Aside from all this it's a sort of rainy day and I hope to get some of the planting don a little latter today....and maybe make some soap....

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4-22-07

Wow, so on Sunday we drove an hour and a half away to go to an animals swap up in Birch tree, Missouri .  We normally go to the closer one in West Plains , Missouri on Saturday but the weather was not cooperating, on Saturday it was cold and wet.  This makes it hard especially since our youngest 2 boys go everywhere with us (up we even take them to work, no daycare for us…).

We had a good time though and if you ever get a chance stop and visit Birch Tree, its such a nice friendly quite little country town. The swap is in their downtown park and it free to set up and free to visit and yes there are restrooms with running water near by..lol

We did very well selling our less loveable Muscovy Ducks, a few pair of hens and roosters, some geese and a few pigeons. Some other odd stuff sold as well so we did ok.  It was really fun to hand out with other homesteaders and farmers in such a nice laid back setting.  The park there is quite lovely and our Rachael and Elijah had a great time playing there while we worked.  All and all we met some very nice people, got a lead on some new registered Jacob Ewes that are for sale and may have even found some one to shear my sheep.  The nice lady who should be calling here at anytime is also a member of the spinner’s guild which I have been invited to join.  I will join I think, but I will have no time to make the meeting sadly, but it is so important to support groups like the spinners guild because of all the people they reach out to.  They are the teachers of tomorrow. 

Our sheep and our new little lamb...

Please help us welcome our little little love Shabbat our newest Jacob Lamb...

Born in the early hours of the morning...isn't she the cutest little thing..

                This is the happy mom  Lamb of G-d , we call her LOG                               This is Moses the happy dad...

We have other Jacobs that should be born soon so check back for more photos.  

Each one born here helps save these precious animals from extinction...

We are in the process of acquiring a few new ewes this year form the registered national herd, they are a bit pricey so we will be working very hard.  So if my posts slow that will be why...

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April 08-2007

New baby Goats and a little lamb

Oh my so many new babies...

These our Chava's babies... 2 sweet little bucks-both are for sale.

Dam Chava-full blood La Mamcha/Sire Roy-Full blood Nubian

Buffalo (a buck) -Dam-Jubilee Nubian-Alpine Mix/Sire-Roy-Full Nubian March-2007

Billy (a buck)-Dam-Jubilee Nubian-Alpine Mix/Sire-Roy-Full Nubian March-2007

Miracle( a doe) -Dam-Jubilee Nubian-Alpine Mix/Sire-Roy-Full Nubian March-2007

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Jan 05-2007

Sheep, Goats and CL

Some things I just learned about Sheep and Goats.

As most of the members already know I raise Jacob Sheep and Dairy Goats.

Where I live here in Arkansas where an illness known as Caseous Lymphadenitis is running ramped among most of the herds out here.  The test to check you’re herd can be costly if even available and most of the time requires there to be abscesses all ready on the body of your sheep or goat.  

In my humble opinion by the time you see these abscesses it’s already to late as this can be one of the two forms of this disease.  One being internal abscesses and on visible on the out side of the animal.

I decided a while back to vaccinate the all of my herds against this disease as it has no known cure at this time and the most vet prescribed way of treating it is culling the animal maybe even the whole herd.

Well after waiting weeks and weeks for the vaccine to get here it finally came.  The Vaccine in made by Colorado Veterinary Products.  It of course says for Sheep…only aghhh.  So I ask the feed store person about this and he says it should be ok.  I roll my eyes go home and of course call the company.  I do find out that there are coming out with a goat vaccine latter this year and they say it is ok although off label to use this vaccine on goats.

 I also found out that if your animal be it goat or sheep has this disease in hiding it will bring it up to the top so to speak.   You will know he said within the first two weeks but for sure by eight weeks if an animal has it.  A cheap fool proof test. 

The cost where I live for the Corynebacterium Pseudotuberculosis Bacternin-Toxoid is $8.95 for 10 doses.  He told me there would be no missing the sign of external lesions on infected animals and because it is a dead vaccine there is no risk of the animal getting it from the shot. 

In the future as I buy new sheep and goats I will use this and quarantine for a period of two months to help prevent adding potentially sick animals to my herd.

I do separate and treat sick animals and maybe close to a break though cure for this disease…time will tell and I will help anyone who has this in their herd if I can.

Shekhinah

Mahanaim/Golden Dove Gallery

www.goldendovegallery.org

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Dec 13-2006

Some photos of our goats and sheep...

These are some photos of Chava our sweet little La Mancha milk goat... due to kid very soon G-d willing...

to learn a little more about La Machas click here...

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December 07-2006

Well we are up and running.

Our roof on the barn has been done for days.  It's solid and should last at least 7 years or so.  We used salvaged tin and will thrown some silver roof coat up as soon as the temp here crawls above 50 degrees for at least a day, (she says with crossed fingers). 

Using the recycled tin from many sources, including friends, the cost of the special screws (They are really long, have a hex bit are self sealing and cost us nearly $400.00 for enough to do the entire barn roof). 

 I have enclosed a photo f the box the screws came in , just incase anyone out there can benefit from it.  We bought these screws at Lowes, beware that in some places theses are special order and Lowes employees including the manager at the Lowes in Mountain Home, Arkansas can be very rude and do not like to special order anything.  On top of that they never call to tell you the order is there.  we where lucky and stopped in to Lowes out of the blue ( Lowes is an hour from where we live) and low and behold they were on the shelf...up our special ordered screws...So we grabbed them and asked where the rest where and were told by the front desk they had been picked up.  ( rolling my eyes, as this was news to me).  We finally did get the screws after almost an hour of dealing with Lowes and there insanity.

The cost of the silver roof sealer...another $60.00 bought at a Ozark Salvage Builders Savage Store in Kosh, Missouri ( one of my favorite stores).  We bought 2 five gallon buckets and should even have some left over for other projects. 

The rest of the cost was in time, which is always too high...lol

The new tin roof should give us  plenty of time to come up with enough wealth to pull it all back off and replace every piece of plywood, a truss or two and new 30 year shingles. Believe me when I tell you , your barn can never be too dry.

Our great plan is to  make bird houses.  They will be made from the scrape we saved from the roof, and the money from the sales will be set aside for a future roof.  I will list them on the main website and a few auction sites.   I and Michael hope to be able to start making these over the next month or so.

Now that the animals are nice and dry we have started working on the roof of the main house.  Because the roof is in really crummy shape and we are planning on building a new house over the next few years we have decided to go over the roof that is there and to replace the none working roof vents with new ones. 
Michael and I gave this a lot of thought  and for us the best way to go was rolled roofing.  Mind you this is not the cheapest way to go, but it should give is a few years to build the new house, so for us its fine.  Our cost per roll is $22.00 and so far we have used 10 rolls and are about have way done.  I have ordered 10 more rolls which should be here sometime Monday.  We had nails left over from doing the roof in Florida so we had that cost covered, but did have to buy a gallon of roof tar which cost $6.00, we bought the kind for wet or dry, it's the best way to go.  with any luck it should all be up this next week.  I look forward to not having to empty pot and pans every time it rains, lol.

Our next really big project will be moving the house trailer off of our pasture and to the back of the little house on the property here.  The back part of the frame is snapped so it will have to be welded back together before we can even think of moving it.  So this means finding some nice welder who wants to come out to the middle of no where and weld it cheap, so far this has not happened.  We did have some friends offer help...but so far it has not happened. We are on a dead line for moving it and have less than two months left to accomplish it. So I hope we actual can do it...

Other things we have done and our doing....

We have stocked up on hay and have decided for the most part the round bales which weigh about 500 pounds each are really the best way to go when dealing with feeding large amounts of sheep, goats and horses. These large bales are what they call orchard grass and can cost anywhere from $20.00 on up.  It's really just a mix of grasses and in general is good fodder.  I also  bought a bunch of square bales as well to add a little flavor to their lives. Some alfalfa which is one of the favorites of our loving loyal animals though it is very costly the second cut which has the best nutrition will run you at least $6.00 a bale, most of the time I pay closer to $8.00.  I only feed it as a supplement for that reason.  We also buy bermuda  grass and a really cool blue grass as well as clover in the small square bales.  Square bales weigh about 45 to 70 pounds depending about how tight they are packed and at a cost of between $2.50 to $6.00 per bale are reasonably priced for what you get. When using square bales I can go through a good three bales a day, plus the grain we feed.  Just to let you know my houses eat at least a bale of the small bales day and thus the reason for the bigger bales.  Each sheep or goat gets at least a flake of hay a day.  For anyone out there that does not know, when you break open a bale of hay it breaks up in to flakes almost on its own.  

We also have stocked up on gain which is really hard to do, since they can eat you out of house and home if you let them.  Our goats and sheep each eat about three pounds of grain a day even with the hay. The horses eat about twice that. We use a poultry grain with millo in it as well as mixing it with sweet grain... no pelts kind and a cup of either wild bird seed or sunflower seeds each day.  So on average we go threw about 50 to 75 pounds a day.  

Well it has been a long time since I have posted here...boy have so many things happened.

Our horse is now home.

pictures to follow soon.

Aside from that we have had goats born and sadly had goats die.