Hello everyone! My name is Emily, and I am 12 years old. The 2nd oldest of the Housman Family. First off, I would like to say that I would not trade my wonderful life on the farm away for any thing else. I am surrounded by three wonderful brothers-Brandon, Ben, and Jonny. As you all know, I am the proud owner of "Emily's Eggs", my egg business. My favorite animals are goats, cats, chickens, horses, and sheep. This post is going to be about my life on the farm, and about the things I enjoy doing. I hope you like it.
The things I enjoy doing the most on the farm would be taking care of animals, picking produce, planting, and (believe it or not) butchering days. In the following paragraphs I am going to write a little bit (or maybe a lot!) about each of those subjects, and hopefully give you a good idea about what life on the farm is like for me.
Taking care of the critters:
Of course, I take care of the chickens every day, which includes giving them water & feed, filling the nest boxes with straw, collecting the eggs, sweeping out the chicken coop, turning the straw, and babying any sick chickens.=) My favorite part about taking care of the chickens would be raising the chicks, and hatching my own chicks with broody hens. All of my chickens have first, middle, and last names. This may seem funny, but it certainly doesn't seem right for them to remain nameless, and I thoroughly enjoy naming them! Some examples of chicken names would be Fredrick Howard Polish, Ophelia Violet Partridge, Lucy, Polly Anne, Pearl, Solomon, Blondelle, and Flasher...to name a few. :) It is difficult to get all the names down, but after practice I have them down well. I also keep a list of all the names hanging in the coop with a description of the chicken, which helps me remember.=)
Another animal which I enjoy taking care of is the goats. Every morning me, Ben, Jonny, and Dad go out to take care of the sheep and goats, and my specialty is the goats. I especially like to brush down Millie Joy and give her her "treats" (a mix of grains and corn).f Belle also is fun to take care of. Me and my brothers like to teach her tricks, and take her out of her pen and run around and play with her. She is just like a puppy, as playful as one, and follows us around like one. :) Occasionally, I help out with the sheep, but that's pretty rare. The only time that I am helping with them full-time is in lambing season. Then I'm out about every few hours, checking on the Momma sheep that are due any moment, and looking for signs of lambs on the way. I am really excited for the lambs that will be popping out around April 15th this year! I had the privilege and joy of bottle feeding Paul John Vest last lambing season. :) Paul's Momma, Nancy Pearl Vest, had mastitis, and wasn't fit to be feeding a baby lamb. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed going out every hour to milk one of the other sheep, and bottle feeding little Paul. I can't wait to bottle feed the baby goats this spring, and maybe I'll get the privilege of bottle feeding a lamb again. They are known as "bum lambs", but to me they're a lot more fun than their title gives them credit for! =)
Pickin' Produce:
As I said before, I enjoy picking produce in the summer. It does get hot, but a rewarding swim always makes up for it. Mostly, I like to pick tomatoes and dig potatoes. But I don't like everything...I detest picking green beans! :)
Planting:
I love planting! ...anything, but especially potatoes. There's nothing as fun as planting potatoes! First, somebody goes down the rows and digs holes down each one. Next, I come along (usually with Ben and Jonny) with a basket of potatoes, or with a skirt-full, and we drop the potato in the hole and with our bare feet cover it up with cool, damp, rich, black dirt. Then we move to the next hole. What fun! :)
As for Butchering Days...
I won't get into the specifics...but it's fun running around catching the chickens or turkeys, whichever happens to be doomed for that day. :) ...and I think I'll just leave it at that. :)
As I said before, I'm so lucky to be able to live on a farm...there's simply nothin' like the sweet smelling country air, the gorgeous sunsets, the newborn lambs, the tiny chicks, and the soft feel of grass under bare feet....I love it all, and I'm so lucky to be a farm girl!!!!
The things I enjoy doing the most on the farm would be taking care of animals, picking produce, planting, and (believe it or not) butchering days. In the following paragraphs I am going to write a little bit (or maybe a lot!) about each of those subjects, and hopefully give you a good idea about what life on the farm is like for me.
Taking care of the critters:
Of course, I take care of the chickens every day, which includes giving them water & feed, filling the nest boxes with straw, collecting the eggs, sweeping out the chicken coop, turning the straw, and babying any sick chickens.=) My favorite part about taking care of the chickens would be raising the chicks, and hatching my own chicks with broody hens. All of my chickens have first, middle, and last names. This may seem funny, but it certainly doesn't seem right for them to remain nameless, and I thoroughly enjoy naming them! Some examples of chicken names would be Fredrick Howard Polish, Ophelia Violet Partridge, Lucy, Polly Anne, Pearl, Solomon, Blondelle, and Flasher...to name a few. :) It is difficult to get all the names down, but after practice I have them down well. I also keep a list of all the names hanging in the coop with a description of the chicken, which helps me remember.=)
Another animal which I enjoy taking care of is the goats. Every morning me, Ben, Jonny, and Dad go out to take care of the sheep and goats, and my specialty is the goats. I especially like to brush down Millie Joy and give her her "treats" (a mix of grains and corn).f Belle also is fun to take care of. Me and my brothers like to teach her tricks, and take her out of her pen and run around and play with her. She is just like a puppy, as playful as one, and follows us around like one. :) Occasionally, I help out with the sheep, but that's pretty rare. The only time that I am helping with them full-time is in lambing season. Then I'm out about every few hours, checking on the Momma sheep that are due any moment, and looking for signs of lambs on the way. I am really excited for the lambs that will be popping out around April 15th this year! I had the privilege and joy of bottle feeding Paul John Vest last lambing season. :) Paul's Momma, Nancy Pearl Vest, had mastitis, and wasn't fit to be feeding a baby lamb. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed going out every hour to milk one of the other sheep, and bottle feeding little Paul. I can't wait to bottle feed the baby goats this spring, and maybe I'll get the privilege of bottle feeding a lamb again. They are known as "bum lambs", but to me they're a lot more fun than their title gives them credit for! =)
Pickin' Produce:
As I said before, I enjoy picking produce in the summer. It does get hot, but a rewarding swim always makes up for it. Mostly, I like to pick tomatoes and dig potatoes. But I don't like everything...I detest picking green beans! :)
Planting:
I love planting! ...anything, but especially potatoes. There's nothing as fun as planting potatoes! First, somebody goes down the rows and digs holes down each one. Next, I come along (usually with Ben and Jonny) with a basket of potatoes, or with a skirt-full, and we drop the potato in the hole and with our bare feet cover it up with cool, damp, rich, black dirt. Then we move to the next hole. What fun! :)
As for Butchering Days...
I won't get into the specifics...but it's fun running around catching the chickens or turkeys, whichever happens to be doomed for that day. :) ...and I think I'll just leave it at that. :)
As I said before, I'm so lucky to be able to live on a farm...there's simply nothin' like the sweet smelling country air, the gorgeous sunsets, the newborn lambs, the tiny chicks, and the soft feel of grass under bare feet....I love it all, and I'm so lucky to be a farm girl!!!!
1 comment:
Emily! What a great blog post from such a cute farm girl! Your writing is excellent - you must have a REALLY good home school teacher :) Thanks for sharing such a big part of your life (of course we get regular, personal updates by snail mail, which we enjoy even more!).
Say hi to your family! Can't wait to see you soon!
xoxo Miss Jill
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