2018 Milk Production - By the Numbers

In the final installment of "By the Numbers" for 2018, we'll discuss milk.  During the year of 2018, we milked 3 of our cows, Rosie, Luna, and Clarabelle.  We didn't have all three of them in milk at the same time for very long.  It is hard to milk 3 cows twice a day and have any semblance of a life.  Tricia often says it would be so nice to have a milk maid.

As with rainfall and egg production, we chart milk production.  Here are figures for 2018:

July was the big month and December was the smallest month, but you can't really glean anything from the times as the primary factor is how many cows you are milking.  It also needs to be noted that we aren't going into this shooting for big production figures.  If that were so we'd have Holsteins instead of Jerseys.  Holsteins produce the largest volume, while Jerseys produce milk with a high butterfat percentage.  Furthermore, our cows are primarily grass-fed, so we aren't feeding them a high protein diet to boost their milk production.  One additional thing to keep in mind is the fact that until the calves are weaned, we share the milk with the calves.  This means for half of the day, the cows produce milk for their calf.  We then separate the momma from the calf and the milk made on that half of the day is for us.  The milk the calves drink is (obviously) not measured.

Nevertheless, the volume produced in our little dairy from our little farm sitting on 3 acres is pretty good, for us:

In total the girls produced 780 gallons of milk that was measured.  Milk weighs 8.6 pounds per gallon.  Over the course of the year, we lugged 6,709 pounds of milk from the barn into our home.  Put another way, Tricia and I carried 3.35 tons of milk into the house.

"You move 3.35 tons, and what do you get?  Another day older and deeper in debt.  St. Peter don't you call me, cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store..."  (Maybe the song didn't go exactly like that.)

2018 Egg Production - By the Numbers

In installment two of our 2018 "By the Numbers," we'll look today at the tally of egg production over the past year.  One of Benjamin's chores is to collect eggs, clean the ones that require tidying up, packaging them into cartons, counting them and notating the number of egg production each day on a spreadsheet we have posted on the refrigerator.  We record daily production, subtotaled by month and summed by year.  The summary of egg production for 2018 is listed below:

In 2018 we picked up 11,573 eggs and that equates to 964.42 dozen.  That's a lot of omelets!  We have roughly 100 hens.  I say roughly because, those girls don't stay still long enough to count.  Two years ago we fed them in the barn and trapped them in there.  One by one we let them out and counted them.  There were a few more that 100, and we've lost some since then.

On average a bird lays 116 eggs per year.  We picked up on average 31 eggs per day, meaning that a hen lays an egg about every 3 days. Below is a 5 year historical trend on monthly egg production:

The first thing that stands out is egg production is WAY up.  With fewer hens in 2018, we picked up 1,823 more eggs than in 2017.  What do we attribute that to?  Nutrition.  During the springtime, the hens find nutrition out in the pasture.  A change we made in 2018 was to begin supplementing the rough and milled rice we feed them with a little bit of laying pellets to add some protein to their diet.
The results were startling.  You'll notice that in 6 of the 12 months of the year, production was up month over month.  Most of the gains in production took place in January and February.  Overall April is the biggest month of production.  Spring grass and nutrition is at its peak and the weather is perfect without any stresses on the birds.  January is the lowest production month of the year due to short days and little nutrition on the pasture.

What do we do with all those eggs, you might be wondering?  Well, we eat a bunch of them.  Of those we don't eat, we give away about half of them and sell the remainder. 

Happy New Year To You From Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

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Well, 2018 is in the books, wrapped up with a bow and all done.  In the upcoming days, we'll look back at some of the numbers like we always do - looking at rainfall, egg production, milk production, animal production, etc.

For now we'll look ahead to 2019 with a few resolutions and/or goals.  I've come to dislike resolutions simply because they are so doggone hard to keep.  I always start with such good intentions, only to fall short of following through.  And the salt in the wound is that it doesn't take me very long to get off-track on my lofty goals.

This year, I'm going to try to keep things simple, and I've asked my family to hold me accountable.  Here goes:  I like to make goals in three areas: Spiritual, Physical, and Mental.

Spiritual Goal for 2019: Read 3 Chapters a day in the Bible.  Doing this will enable me to read through the Bible in a year.  I like to read beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation.  I know many people will read a couple chapters in the Old Testament and 1 chapter in the New Testament each day.  I like to read the Bible through, though.  It is just more orderly and I can follow the timeline of what is going on from a historical perspective that way.

Physical Goal for 2019:  Do at least 50 push ups and 50 sit ups each day.  I am not real big on working out.  I would much rather work hard in meaningful work that accomplishes an outcome, but especially during the short days of winter, there's not a lot to do outside.  I'm 52 now and as the metabolism slows, but my appetite for good food grows, there's a weighty problem ahead (no pun intended) if I don't burn some calories.

Mental Goal for 2019:  Read a book a month. 

I have a few homestead to do's, but these are more to do list items than resolutions.  I'll list them here and will check them in a year to see how much we got done:

1. Put in sidewalks to help with trudging through the mud,
2. Add lighting to the barn.  Adding the lean-to's on either side of the barn made it darker in the barn,
3. Add lights to the cattle trailer.  Maybe we can be legal for Benjamin's last year of showing:),
4. Build a roof that spans between the barn and goat barn,
5. Bring in more fill dirt to fill in low areas around the barn,
6. Improve drainage around the barn,
7. Make homemade soap

So there we have it.  We have been blessed in 2018 despite some difficult bumps in the road.  May God bless you and your family in 2019!

Thanksgiving 2018

Psalm 100 King James Version (KJV)

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving and had and opportunity, like we did, to spend it with family, eating great food, enjoying fellowship with those you love, and making memories. 

Baked Turkey Before it was Devoured

We ate entirely too much and then sat around and had great conversation with one another, telling stories and laughing.  Amazingly, these conversations didn't involve cell phones or computers. 

We sat around a fire pit and enjoyed the beautiful weather and then ate again in the evening.  As I write this I am so thankful for a great family, for health, for spending time with people that I love.  I am thankful for salvation through Jesus Christ and for blessings that I do not deserve.

Although our lives are far from perfect, God is so good to us, and we are so thankful!

Father's Day 2018

Friday as I was driving home from work, the talk radio host was playing Father's Day themed songs.  One of the songs that was played was "Daddy's Hands," an older country music song that was written and sung by Holly Dunn and released in 1986.  She wrote it as a tribute to her dad.  Holly Dunn actually passed away in November 2016 from cancer, but her song lives on.

The song made me think about how my Dad always showed me love and provided a stable home and I'm very thankful to God for what a great Dad (and Mom) He's given me.  Farming wasn't an easy occupation and Dad worked hard to provide for us.

The song also made me laugh when it says, "Daddy's hands were hard as steel when I'd done wrong."  I can remember being bad in church one Sunday.  We were in children's choir and were in the choir loft singing the old hymn "Higher Ground."  There is a part in that song where it says, "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."  My friend and I were pretending to have shovels and "planting" each others' feet on higher ground.  We were cutting up and got carried away with laughter up in the choir loft for everyone to see. 

When we got home from church, I got a good whipping.  I experienced my Dad's hands being hard as steel!  But I learned my lesson and learned how to behave and conduct myself in a respectful manner in church.  Even when I was getting a whipping, there was love in Daddy's hands.  He wanted me to learn right from wrong.

You can click the arrow below to watch the video, and I've also posted the lyrics to the song below:

Happy Father's Day!!
   

Written & Sung by Holly Dunn

I remember daddy's hands folded silently in prayer

And reachin' out to hold me, when I had a nightmare

You could read quite a story in the callous' and lines

Years of work and worry had left their mark behind

I remember daddy's hands how they held my mama tight

And patted my back for something done right

There are things that I'd forgotten that I loved about the man

But I'll always remember the love in daddy's hands

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin'

Daddy's hands were hard as steel when I'd done wrong

Daddy's hands weren't always gentle but I've come to understand

There was always love in daddy's hands

I remember daddy's hands workin' 'til they bled

Sacrificed unselfishly just to keep us all fed

If I could do things over, I'd live my life again

And never take for granted the love in daddy's hands

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin'

Daddy's hands were hard as steel when I'd done wrong

Daddy's hands weren't always gentle but I've come to understand

There was always love in daddy's hands

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin'

Daddy's hands were hard as steel when I'd done wrong

Daddy's hands weren't always gentle but I've come to understand

There was always love in daddy's hands

A Stroll in the Garden in Early May (Part II)

As I walk a little farther in the garden, white blossoms covered with bees catch my eye.  It's the cilantro plant and the heat has made it bolt and go to seed.  I'll let the seeds fall and next year in this location, cilantro will spring up.  For now the bees are enjoying it.

In the side yard garden, the sweet corn is thick.  This variety is called "Gotta Have it" and I hope it lives up to its name.

The corn is tasseled out and that means before long we'll be able to see little ears of corn.

The pollen from the corn tassels falls to the silk above the corn cobs.  Each strand of silk, if fertilized, will create a kernel of corn.  In past years we had ears that weren't fully filled out.  This year I intentionally planted the corn closer together to ensure fertilization takes place.

On the far right of the sweet corn you will find several more varieties of beans.  First black beans.  These look really healthy and they are loaded up with pods.  I'll let them ripen on the plant and pick them when they are dried.

Next to them are Red Kidney Beans.  However, the germination on these wasn't as good as I'd hoped.  Some made it, but I think if we want to make red beans and rice, we'll have to buy he beans.

In the gaps where the red kidneys didn't come up, I planted some Dragon Tongue Beans.  They popped up quickly, bloomed and now had tiny pods.

On the other side of the corn patch is our muscadine vines.  They are trellising on a cattle panel.

You can already spot the tiny grapes on the vine.

Tomorrow there's one more thing to show you - the tomatoes. 

Happy New Year! 2018

Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

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As I was thinking about the New Year, I do look ahead and have goals set for the new year.  However, I admit I look back and have many regrets of goals not achieved, relationships not restored, desires not met, health issues not resolved, prayers not (yet) answered.  I wish I would have done many things differently.  Not that it was necessarily bad, but I wish 2017 would have been better.  Life is too short to waste time and energy dwelling on regrets.  I am reminded by the letter of the Apostle Paul the the church at Philippi that I should forget the past and look forward!  There is a much better goal or resolution - that is to press on, move forward for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and that is what I'll strive to do.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.    Philippians 3:12-14

Happy New Year!