Livestock 2006
Moving our entire homestead last August was quite a chore. Drone & my cousin camped out at the new homestead before the move and spent weeks building fences, hoop houses, and fixing up barns & places for the livestock to have shelter before the actual move. Moving the livestock was one of the biggest chores we faced. We did manage to get it done, in several loads with the pickup trucks, the trailer, and with the help of family & a few neighbors. We ended up selling our turkeys, geese, and ducks to the neighbors before we moved. They were delighted with the opportunity to get the adult birds. We were sorry to have to sell them, but we did it because there just was not enough time to build all of what we needed for housing all the poultry we had. The fencing project by itself was a massive project, as he built electric fencing to encompass about 8 acres of pasture. In the meantime, he also built a row of hoop houses for our different breeds of chickens. These should give our poultry some protection from the bird flu, if that manages to make its spread into the U.S.
In addition to all the electric fencing for the pasture, he supervised the bulldozer for a new road to be built, plus constructed a whole new kennel area, bigger & better than what we had at the old place. We also gained the shop building, which is divided into 2 sections, a garage/storage area and an office area, where we have been setting up our new kennel office and whelping area.
We recently found more American Bronze turkey poults, so we do have a start on raising those again. We have dearly missed our turkeys, geese, and ducks. I predict, though, that we will find geese & ducks again eventually, to replace what we had to sell before our move.
We have started a big new project this year - getting a start on our own herd of Irish Dexter cattle. I'll be adding photos of our projects for the new homestead.
Sugar Mountain's Irish Dexter Cattle
American Bronze Turkeys (coming soon)
4/11/06