The Blog of Graham Donahue

Like a Shepherd to His Sheep

2012-02-23T13:15:00.005-08:00

Here is a song I wrote last summer. I thought you might enjoy it. Last year I decided I would write one song each month. It went OK, though I have revised some of the songs since then. This was one of the ones I thought turned out good.

The story behind the writing of it is this is kind of interesting. I was sitting down trying to figure out what to write about for that month. Nothing I tried seemed to work. I sat back and thought, "What do I know about?". Then I realized that since I was a shepherd I ought to be able to be able to write a song based on the 23 Psalm. This is what I came up with. I hope you like it.

Please excuse the sound quality, as I did with very basic recording equipment (ie. microphone and computer).

What did you think. The bass part is a little off because I am just a beginner, and I figured out the bass part right as I sat down to record. Another thing about it is that it is an Acoustic-Electric bass guitar and doesn't put out much volume. If I had a cable that could plug into the computer I could play it like that, but I don't have one and therefore had to play it acoustic. So if it sounds kind of pushed, it is because I had to play the strings hard. Plus my voice isn't great, but hopefully it doesn't sound as miserable to you as it does to me!

The little riff/turnaround that I use on the guitar during the into and between verses kind of came by default. When I was writing the song I took a break (no pun intended) and was playing around on the guitar and I stumbled upon that little riff on the bass strings. I said, "Hey, that would fit this song perfectly!" What a coincidence. I did an overdub for the second "break" in the song where the riff was higher sounding. I guess a lot of you may not understand all this mumble jumble about riffs, and breaks, and turnarounds, so I guess I'd better stop.

I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think. If you like it let me know and I will try to put some more songs on here. You'll notice I put a poll up in the corner asking what kind of song you would like me to do. if you want to here more you can take the poll so I can get a good understanding of what you want to here.

Well that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Happy 11th Birthday Samuel!

2012-02-18T11:49:00.001-08:00

Happy Fourth Birthday Mary!

2012-02-15T16:48:00.000-08:00

2012-02-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I guess it's time for another post.

Jonathan Elijah's birthday was Friday, he would have been two years old. The people came over from Noah's Children and had dinner with us. We had a nice time.

Papa got a large load of compost (10 cubic yards) delivered this morning. It is dark black and looks like it will be good for the garden this summer. The chicks we hatched out are doing pretty good. One of them has a crooked beak (the top part is normal, but the bottom part sticks out to the side. Fortunately, this chick is still alive, and is doing just as good as the rest. You can see it in the picture below. It is the reddish one in the front right hand corner.

We read this article the other day. It is very good. It is Voddie Baucham writing about why he supports Ron Paul. Even if you don't like Ron Paul, he does a good job covering why he feels Ron Paul is the best candidate for President. I recommend it.

We went to a barn dance at our friends the Alexander's house on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. They had some good food (home grown all-natural pit smoked pork and side dishes). They had a greased pig catching contest before the dance. Here is a video (courtesy of the Wilsons). During my age group it was too easy because there were like twenty people, and only three pigs. Therefore there would be 6 or or more people going after the same pig.

After the pig catching, was the dancing. It was not square dancing. I am not sure exactly what it is called, but it was dances like the Virginia Reel, Harper's Ferry, and Spanish Waltz. It was a lot of fun. The dancing, especially ones like the Harper's Ferry or Snowball Reel, are also good exercise. Here are some pictures:

Papa and Mary doing the VA Reel.

This one shows how many people were there!

Mary, Annabelle, Gabrielle, and Noah.

After the dance, the band "Paid In Full" played. It was not exactly my style of music, but it is always nice to hear music live and to see family members/friends playing music together. Unfortunately we had to leave, so we only got to listen to a few songs (sorry Daniel and Matthew). Watching them play makes me want to have a band. Maybe someday....

Well I guess that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

A Late First Post of the Year.

2012-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Hello. Sorry It's been so long, but you know how it goes...

We had a great Christmas, how about you? We had a candle-light service at church Christmas eve, and that was nice. We had my grandparents, great- grandmother, and great-aunt and uncle over for lunch on Christmas, and my uncle and his family came up to my grandparents' house the day after. All together it was very nice.

Things on the farm are still pretty steady. The sheep are still in the barn, and the chickens are in the garden. The chickens have started to lay more eggs now that the days are getting a little longer (and they have finished molting). One of the highlights on the farm was that we hatched out some eggs. A friend

gave me his incubator a while back and a lady from our church gave us some eggs. It went well. We had a 72% hatch (23 chicks), which is a blessing since it was our first time, and these incubators aren't the highest quality.

We took three lambs to the butcher last week and we should be picking up/delivering them on Friday or Monday. I kept a half of one for ourselves, and I am looking forward to eating it.

I started guitar lessons back up a few weeks ago (I took a break in Dec.). They are going pretty well. I think a lot of what I need is just to be able to play with other people. I don't get that opportunity very often, but hopefully I can some more in future.

What do y'all think about the presidential race? Though I cannot vote, Papa and I watch the debates and I try to keep up with it. We strongly support Ron Paul. I have been reading his book Liberty Defined and it is very good. For those of you who question his stance on abortion, here is a little excerpt from the book:

" On one occasion in the 1960s when abortion was still illegal, I witnessed, while visiting a surgical suite as an OB/GYN resident, the abortion of a fetus that weighed approximately two pounds. It was placed in a bucket, crying and struggling to breathe, and the medical personnel pretended not to notice. Soon the crying stopped. This harrowing event forced me to think more seriously about this important issue." He goes on to say," That same day in the OB suite, an early delivery occurred and the infant born was only slightly larger than the one that was just aborted. But in this room everybody did everything conceivable to save this child's life. My conclusion that day was that we were overstepping the bounds of morality by picking and choosing who should live and who should die. These were human lives. There was no consistent moral basis to the value of life under these circumstances. "

I have heard some people say that since he is for making this a state issue, he is obviously in favor of abortion. Here is his response: " ... This is twisted logic. Demanding a national and only a national solution, as some do, gives credence to the very process that made abortions so prevalent. Ending nationally legalized abortions by federal court order is neither a practical answer to the problem nor a constitutionally sound argument." He explains,"Removing jurisdiction from the federal courts can be done with a majority vote in the Congress and the signature of the President. This is much simpler than waiting for the Supreme Court to repeal Roe vs. Wade or for a constitutional amendment."

This makes lots of sense to me and I just thought I'd share it. Since I really like Ron Paul but cannot vote, I figure the least I can do is to share information about him (maybe pick up some slack for the media).

Well I guess that is all I have for today. Hopefully I will not go so long before I post on here next time.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

Just a note to wish you a Merry CHRISTmas.

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isa. 9:6

- Graham

Winter's Season Is Comming

2011-12-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I guess I'd better get a post on here before Christmas. Can you believe it is almost Christmas? Before we know it, it will be 2012!

Things are winding down on the farm. I moved the sheep to the barn this afternoon. I plan on moving the calf in there in the next couple of days. I am taking the lambs to the processor on the 9th of Jan. I am just feeding the hay on the floor of the barn, until I can work out a good feeder. Sheep are rather wasteful with hay, so they will leave a lot of hay on the ground. This is part of my plan because I don't have any bedding in the barn right now. Everything should work out. We will be moving the chickens to a winter spot in the garden soon too.

We went to pick up a piano for Samuel yesterday. We had to rent a U-haul, and were barely able to lift it, but we got it all worked out. It is out out of tune, but someone is coming to tune it in January. The keyboard he was using is my grandmother's but some of the keys stopped working, so he wasn't able to practice very well. This new piano should be good.

While I'm on the subject of music, here is a little song I put together. It is The First Noel. I arranged this song by myself. I heard a girl playing it at church, and I really liked her version (it was on the piano though). It made me want to learn the song on the guitar so when we got home I sat down to figure it out. I looked on you-tube to see if I could find anything, but didn't see anything I liked. Most everything was "Easy Chords" or "Beginner" stuff (some of which was too easy in my opinion). There was also some fingerpicking solos, but I use flatpick. I am glad I did not find anything, because it allowed me to come up with my own version. I have been working a lot with crosspicking, so this is sort of based out of that style. I hope you like it.

We had our Christmas play on the 10th. It went well. I had been looking forward to it for a long time. When they first asked me if I wanted to do it I was hesitant. I guess it was the old fear of stage fright thing. Plus this was new for me, and like always, we don't like to do things that are new. I am very, very, glad that I agreed to do it. I had a lot of fun, and would love to be able to do it again. When they first asked me they said they wrote the plays themselves. I thought to myself, "Oh, this is probably some silly watered down cheesy play." She gave me the video from last year's play, and that got me convinced. They have some great actors, and the play was very well written.

This year's play was about a grouchy old widow. She used to be a real nice lady who was active in the church with her husband. However, once her husband died she stopped coming to church. She lived in a house along with her late husband's brother who came to help her out once her husband died. A young lady in the neighborhood is trying to get her to come back to church for the Christmas program. Me and another girl tag along with her on her trips to visit the old lady. She doesn't want to have anything to do with us making us leave every time we come. Her brother-in-law finally gets fed up with the way she is acting and barges out the door for a walk. As he leaves he tells her she should read the Bible saying that it would do her some good. She reads for a little while and realizes she hasn't been acting right, and that her husband would not have wanted her to act that way. She makes a radical change and brightens up by decorating the house, and deciding to go to the Christmas program at the church.

After that was a nativity scene. I was the angel that came before the shepherds and said, "Fear not for I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be the sign: you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." The nativity scene went well too. I was very thankful, because I had been real sick all week, and I still had a bad cough. I was afraid I would get to coughing during one of my lines. Thankfully I was able to hold off all the coughing (with the help of some cough drops) for when I was back-stage. One thing I found funny, and those of you who go to small country churches I know understand this, but I was the only one in the skit who did not have the last name of Wilmoth. Most everyone in the church is related so this is not surprising.Our whole family was in the nativity scene. Mama and Papa played Mary and Joseph, Samuel was a shepherd, Mary was an angel, and Abram and Timothy were town's people. All together it went well, and I hope I can have an opportunity like it again soon.

Well I guess I'd better go. I hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Hitler Reacts to Ron Paul's Rise in Polls

2011-12-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take a moment to list just a few of the many things I am thankful for.

The Lord. If it were not for His grace I would not be here right now, and even if I was, I would be miserable because of my sin. To just think that He chose me to be one of His children is amazing. I am not any better than anyone else, yet I was picked out of the world to be one of His! All I can do is fall before Him and give Him my praise.
My Family. I am so thankful for the family God has placed me in. One who's members care for me, and go out of their way to help me. I am thankful for parents that want to lead me and train me, instead of ones who want to give all of their responsibilities to someone else.
My Life. The Lord has blessed me with so many things and so many opportunities, and I can't even begin to name them all. It is such a blessing to know that every good gift comes from the Lord.

I must give God the credit for everything. It says in His word that every good thing comes from Him. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and hope that we all remember what this day is truly about.

Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.

Psalm 50:14

- Graham

A New Post

2011-11-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hello all you faithful blog readers. I figured I'd better do a post before I run out of time again. I just wanted to write about all the things we've done since the last post.

The Tim Hawkins concert was great! We always enjoy watching him on the internet, but like always, it was way better to see him in person. I brought my camera, but I didn't get any pictures. If you have never seen him before, you should check him up here. Here is a video of one of his new songs.

We had a great time with our friends that night for dinner. Some of their children are married and gone, but they were all able to be there, so it was nice to be able to see them. We got to do a little picking. It is funny how you know all these songs, but then you sit down to play, and you can't think of anything to play. They are good singers and I have been trying to learn to sing harmony, so they tried to show me how to sing baritone, but I didn't do so well. They said I hit the notes some, but I have the feeling I was off most of the time. They say it is the hardest part to sing. Maybe I can learn it in the future. I also tried bass, and they said I did much better on that. I am sure it just takes practice like anything else. It was a nice visit.

My guitar lessons were great! We went over the song Salt Creek. I have been working on it all week. I have my next lesson tomowrow. I'm looking forward to it.

We had play practice Sunday. It went well. At the first practice, they said the director lady would make a gazilion changes, and she did! The more we do it, the better it gets. She would like me to play a part in the nativity scene as well, so I might be in that part too.

We started a family Sunday School class at church. A friend of ours teaches it. It is going well.

A fellow delivered some hay earlier this evening, for $6 per bale delivered. He's a nice man, and you can't beat the price. I bought 40 bales, and stacked them in the lean-to next to the barn where the rabbit cages were (we moved them to the greenhouse). It is pretty good quality, so the sheep should eat it. They are pretty good about eating hay, but they don't much care for stalks, so nice green leafy hay is always good.

We read a verse during family devotions tonight that was very good.

For He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21

Isn't that a great verse? Since we sinned, Christ had to come and HE became sin so that WE could become righteous! Isn't it amazing that we have a God who sent His only begotten son to die on the cross for our sins? He took upon himself all of our sins, so that we could have righteousness! I am so thankful for this gift, and I pray that those of you who have not considered this to think about this gift God has for His people. If you have not accepted Christ as your personal Savior please take this to heart.

Well, that is all I have today.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Opportunities Galore!

2011-11-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! Sorry it's been a while, but a lot has happened since last time. I have been blessed with so many opportunities recently. Here is some of what has been going on.

Everything on the farm is going well. Some friends of ours who raise beef cattle, gave us a nice heifer calf. They had a cow that had twins, and the mother wouldn't accept this one. They didn't want to bottle feed it, so they gave it to us. The last two times this happened, the calves died. This time the calf is doing great, she'll be three weeks old Friday.We are not sure what we are going to do with her yet (eat her, breed her, sell her, milk her, etc.), but she has to be over a year old before we can do any of this so we have a while to make a decision.

We are processing our last batch of broilers Monday, along with some old laying hens. Everything else seems to be going well. We are planing on buying a quarter cow from someone we met at the farmers market. It should be good.

Our grandparents came to visit us last week. We had a good time with them.

We went hiking at Monticello one day while they were here. It was a nice, easy hiking, trail. Afterwards we ate at Michie Taverns. If you've never eaten there, than you should go. It is a neat little place. It is located in an old tavern where people would come to eat (and drink) and then stay the night back in the old days. They serve only a few things, but it was all really good. The menu was green beans, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes, cornbread, biscuits, fried chicken, backed chicken, and bar-b-qued pork. They also had the most delicious apple cider. When you first come in you go and dish up a plate, then go to sit down. Everything is all you can eat, so anything else you want they will bring to your table. It was very good. All the waitresses and waiters were wearing period clothing. The only problem was the same problem I have at any other all-you- can-eat restaurant, I over eat. It was still a great meal.

Church is going well. I am beginning to build a relationship with the people there, and we are finally getting to know everyone names. I was asked to be in the church Christmas play and I agreed. This is new for me, so it should be a neat experience. We were supposed to start practicing last Sunday, but the sister of the lady who's directing it was sick, so she had to cancel it. I'll have to miss it this week, but hopefully it will work out for the next one. If y'all want, and it gets video taped, I'll try to post it on here.

The reason we'll have to miss the play practice Sunday is that we are going to see Tim Hawkins in concert. Our grandparents sent money for us to go. We're looking forward to it. He is hilarious. After that we are going to have dinner with some friends of ours, the Yoders. I wanted to get together with their son Rusty to get some guitar playing tips. So they are getting the family together and we are having supper with them.

Lord willing, I will be starting guitar lessons on Tuesday, my grandparents offered to pay for three months of lessons for me for Christmas. I think it will be good. I am taking them at Buffalo Creek Guitar Company and Jay Kaczor will be my teacher. I am looking forward to it.

Well I have got to go.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Where To Start

2011-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Wow, it sure has been a while since I last posted on here. Or all least a lot has happened. I don't even know where to start. I guess I will start with an update on the farm. We managed to pick up some ducks from a lady. She had some, but they kept being killed so she couldn't handle losing them anymore. They are domesticated mallards. We brought them home and put them in the pond.
I lost a lamb a few months ago to worms, and had another one get worms just recently. I think I got it taken care of. Most people have an on going program of worming their sheep every month or two. I raise parasite tolerant breeds, so I don't worm them except in such a case as I just mentioned. I see things such as parasite infestations as a sign. You are either doing something wrong, or have a poor quality animal. I guess I need to have longer rest periods between grazings. I only have one batch of chickens left, and then I will be done for the season. The farmer's market ends the last Saturday of October. Everything is winding down, but it is always nice to have winter when you don't have as much to do.

We went to King's Dominion a few Sunday's ago. The hospice organization that worked with us during the loss of Jonathan (Noah's Children), sent us tickets to go. I went with mama to help in the little kid area with Mary and Timothy.

I am not much of an amusement park guy. "Thrill" rides or even "non-thrill" rides don't thrill me. I do enjoy watching everyone else have a blast on the rides though. We always appreciate them giving us the tickets.

Last week we went to go see Courageous. It was amazing! I highly recommend it. It was a movie I was not afraid to cry in, yet it also had some very funny parts. It was well written, well made, and the story and message are excellent. It was done by the same people who did Fireproof, Facing the Giants, and Flywheel. It is about father's stepping up. The more people who go to see it, the more the theaters will show it and it will reach that many more people. Someone was telling us it was the top film in the box office. Go to see it.

I went to help our friends the Alexander's process chickens yesterday. It was not too bad. We were going though chickens like crazy. I was on the de-head, leg, and pin feather station, and our table was full the whole time. The eviscerating table was also full the entire time. I always enjoy going to help. Oliver, Elliott, and I got into a political talk. Sometimes you wonder why we even talk politics, you never really accomplish anything.

I added a new page on the header of my blog. It talks about my blog description (ie. Homeschooled, Libertarian, Christian, etc....). check it out. I'd like to hear what you think.

Well I guess that is all I have for today.

As always, thanks for reading.

- Graham

Happy Birthday Mama!

2011-09-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today is my Mama's birthday. I won't say her age as she probably would rather me not say. I am thankful for the blessing she is, and I hope she will be blessed with many, many more birthdays.

River Trip

2011-09-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Time for another post. A few Sundays ago we had homecoming at our church. Most Baptist (and I suppose some other denominations) in the area have homecoming once a year at the church. They use it as an opportunity to have people that were former members, family, and other folks come back to the church. They often have a guest speaker, and have a meal on the grounds afterward. The man who was supposed to come lived in SC. Unfortunately he became sick, and wasn't able to make it. What was even worse was that his wife called only the day before to tell Papa he was sick, which meant Papa had to find pastors to teach homecoming and the three nights of revival afterwards. Papa preached Sunday, a friend of ours preached Monday night revival, my grandfather on my mom's side preached Tuesday night, and the pastor of a church up the road from us that we are good friends with preached Wednesday night. Though many people were disappointed the pastor from SC was not able to make it, many also said that they were sure that it was the Lords plan to have the other folks preach.

The friend of ours who preached Wednesday, said it was a work of God's providence that he was able to come. He had asked another man in the church to teach Bible study that night, as he likes to give that opportunity to others on occasion. It turned out of course that we needed someone at our church that night, and he was able to come. It is amazing how the Lord works!

I still miss the home church, the fellowship with like minded believers was such a blessing. It is nice however, to not have an hour (or more) drive to church every Sunday.

This weekend we went to the river. My mother grew up in Chesterfield and up the road from them lived a family that they were great friends with. My mother babysat some of their grandchildren, and one of their children was my mom's teacher at one point. They own a house on the Rappahannock River. We have gone there the last several summers to stay the weekend. Mrs. L (I am not going to use her last name) is in her eighties, yet she has as much energy as anyone I've seen. A couple of her daughters came out, and one took us on the boat to go fishing, and Samuel and Abram went tubing.

We had a great time. Here are some pictures:

Here is a picture of a sunset from out on the boat.

Here is a picture of Samuel tubing.

Here is a picture of the beach behind their house.

This dog would watch the television, like a person. She would sit on the arm rest like she is in the picture, and would bark at the animals on the screen. Her owner said she could tell if it were animals on the TV, and if it is something she is not interested in, she doesn't watch it.

This is another sunset, this time from the house.

Here is a picture of Timothy with a fish.

This is the only good fish I got. I also caught a small stiffed back perch, crabs, and an eel.

Abram caught the biggest fish.

Here is a picture of the younger ones fishing (L-R: Samuel, Abram, Timothy, and Mary).

We bought a male Pygmy goat last week for a couple of reasons. For one we needed a companion animal for my ram who is separate from my ewes right now. Also Papa wanted something to eat some of the weeds in the fallow spots in the garden. We bought him and he did the first job fine. Unfortunately he did not seem to be to be too interested in the weeds. Instead he liked to escape the pen. We were not able to keep him in so we now have him tethered out in the pasture (he didn't like the weeds). While we were at the river Papa had to stay home and watch the farm as well as preach. The goat got out and raised a ruckus with the ewe flock, and somehow the sheep fence got knocked over, the sheep got out, and the goat took a nap in the sheep corral. Needless to say, Papa did not have a nice time while we were out relaxing on the boat fishing.

I have not had very good experiences with goats. No offense to the goat lovers out there, but I don't much like them. Perhaps it is because we have only had males. Male goats pee all over themselves to attract the females. Or maybe it is because we have raised the wrong kinds of goats (Nubians and Pygmy). Or maybe it is just because we haven't had the right fence for them. Or maybe it is just me. I don't know.
All I know is that there is good reason why the goats are considered the sinners in the Bible (i.e. Mat. 25:22-23 "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides [his] sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.). Anyway, now we have to figure out what to do with our goat. So is life on the farm.

Here is a note for all of you voters and politically interested folks. I believe Ron Paul is who we need to bring into office as president in 2012. Here is his website. Click on the "Issues" button and read about what he says. He is a Christian, and is a very strong supporter of homeschooling and the constitution, and strongly against abortion. But you can read it for yourself.

Here is a hilarious video about the airport scanners. Enjoy.

Well I guess that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

What We've Been Doing This Weekend

2011-08-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I believe fall is on it's way. It is starting to get cooler and breezy. I'm sure it will get hot again soon though. What did you all think about the earthquake? I had been in one or two previously but not this size. We're actually not too far from where it started (Louisa - about 60 miles away). We didn't have any damage, but supposedly they did have a little in Louisa. Thankfully it doesn't seem that it was too catastrophic.

We have been rather busy recently. Friday I went with the Alexanders to Amelia Family Campground to the Central Virginia Family Bluegrass Festival. It was great! My grandparents sent money for me to go. There were some great bands. We were a little late getting there, but everyone played twice so we were able to see everyone preform. It started at noon and went till past eleven. I didn't get home until 11:30. All of the bands were great, and we had great seats. Here are some pictures:

The Rye Holler Boys

Josh Williams Band

One of my favorites, the Snyder Family Band.

Code Blue

Constant Change

Rich In Tradition

We went hiking at Crabtree Falls on Monday that has a good hike I took a few pictures.

Afterwards we went to get apples and some nectarines at some orchards in that area. Here is a picture of one of the orchards.

My grandfather's band was supposed to come over to his house for a cook out and for some picking Sunday afternoon, and he said I could come, but they were not able to make it. So I still went over there and we had a hamburger and did some picking by ourselves.

Well that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Death of a Lamb, a Birthday, a Nest Box, and a Song

2011-08-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I guess it is about time for another post.

I lost a lamb the other day. I am almost positive it got worms. This is strange because I not only move my sheep every day or two, but I raise parasite tolerant breeds (Jacob and Gulf coast Native). It got stuck in the corral a few days ago when I was moving it, and I realized this was because it was too sick to move fast. From the way it was acting, I thought it was probably worms. We tried giving him some DE but he wouldn't eat it, so I had Papa pick up some de-wormer the next day. I gave him the wormer but by Saturday he was laying on his side unable to get up. Any of you who raise animals know this is not good. Somebody at the farmers market told us to get some gatorade and mix it with water and give that to him as a boost of electrolytes. It drank some but not much. By Sunday morning he was too far gone to make it so I had to put him out of his misery. Unfortunately this was the third of Deere's triplets to die. I think the mother may have mastitis. I going to give her one more year and see what happens.

I built a new nest box for the chickens the other day. We didn't have enough nest space so they were laying eggs all over the place. This has seemed to help here is a picture.

My Great Grandmother had her 90th birthday Sunday so she had a party at her church on Saturday. She had several people including Samuel and I perform. Here is a picture.

This is Samuel singing "All in All" and me acompining him on the guitar. I also acompanied him while he played piano on " What a Friend We Have In Jesus" and " Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee".

My mothers aunt and her grandchildren stayed at our house for the days they were here. It was nice to have them.

Here is a song that I wrote and recorded on GarageBand (an Apple app on our Mac). I cannot take the credit for writing this song. A few lines came into my head one day and I prayed God would give me the rest. Everything fell into place. My voice is nothing special, and I made a few mistakes here and there but here it is. Hope you like it.

Well that is all for now.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Troublesome Tamworths

2011-07-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Hello all my faithful readers. How do you like my new blog layout? I got tired of the last one so I switched it up.

We bought some pigs last week, because Papa heard about them sealing up ponds by rolling around and such. I spoke to a lady at the Farmer's Market about buying some weaner pigs and she said she could sell them to us for $50 a piece. We bought two. As soon as we put them in the pen (4 hog panels in a square) they lifted it up with their noses and got out. Thankfully they just went into the brush beside the house We caught them and put them in the pen and secured it down (or so we thought). The next evening our neighbor drove up and said she had two pigs in her backyard (we didn't even know they were out!). So we went back behind their house and looked for them and could not find them. The great thing was they came back the next evening. We got them back into their pen, and moved them down to the pond. They did seem to help seal up the pond a little bit. Anyway we got them down there and secured up the fence until we could train them to a hot wire. That night everybody had gone to a bible study, but I had to stay home to keep an eye on the pigs and Timothy who was sick. One of the pigs got out three times! It was going over the fence. That's right, OVER the fence! I never dreamed a pig would go over a fence, but it did! So I fixed it by driving a T-post on the side of it to keep it from sagging. I think this helped. They stayed in all the next day or two and papa picked up some electric fence. Saturday was market day so Papa set up the fence while Mama and I were at the market. When we got home Papa told us that both pigs had gotten out, and that he was barely able to catch one and that the other got away. It was during the hot spell we had so he said he almost didn't make it while running after them and dragging the one he caught back to the house. I am just glad he is alright. The one he dragged back died and the other one is nowhere to be found. He said he got the electric fence set up inside their pen, but he let them out into a larger area that was fenced with electric wire. He let them out because they were going crazy inside the tight area of their pen when it was fenced with a hot wire. They decided that the fence was not too dangerous a barrier though when they were released into the larger area, and they busted through the fence. Oh well. Someone was telling me that Tamworth pigs are escape artists and I'll have to say that I believe them! Here are a couple pictures of them before we moved them to the pond.

Not much has been going on otherwise. Papa has become the interim pastor at a local church so it has been a new step for us. Unfortunately there have been sick children in our house the last few Sundays so Mama hasn't been able to come. Hopefully we will all be there next week. You can see the website Papa set up for the church on the "Links" sidebar to the right of my blog.

Yesterday when we were in town I picked up an Acoustic Bass Guitar at
Buffalo Creek Guitars in Farmville. I have wanted one for a while now so I purchased one with birthday money. I really like it. It is a Dean EABC (cutaway). Here is a picture of it with my guitar.

Another thing that I bought was a DVD done by Homespun Tapes on bluegrass/old time country duet singing. The teachers are the famous Dailey and Vincent. It is excellent.

Here is a song I found a while ago about raw milk. I though you dairy farmers out there might like to hear it. Here is a link.

Well that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

What's Happened Since the Last Post I Did

2011-07-12T13:13:00.001-07:00

I am running out of titles! I hope this doesn't mean my blog is boring. Anyway here is what has been going on.

Two sundays ago (the third) we went into town after church to see the movie Cars 2. Our grandparents sent us money to go see it (thanks grandma and grandpa!). It was pretty good, but I think I like the first one better. They are very different. Like many Disney movies it had a little short film at the begining. This one was a cartoon based off of Toy Story 3, and was very funny. We had to go shopping while we were in town. I don't like shopping. As soon as I walk into the store my feet hurt. But it was a nice outing all the same.

We had a nice fourth of July, and I hope all of you did as well. A farm up the road from here has a big 4th of July picnic every year. It stormed really hard before hand, but it was not canceled. They always have an excellent fireworks display, however there was a dangerous mishap. They had made this box to light the fireworks in since the ground was wet. Well they put all of the fireworks under the box and unfortunately a hole burnt through it and all the fireworks were lit. There was a big "explosion". Thankfully no one was hurt. They always serve their homegorwn grass fed beef, and that is delicious.

My birthday was the fifth. We didn't do much, but my grandpa had to go into Richmond so I went with him and we ate at a little cafe called Steak and Cheese. It was delicous and we had a good time. It was a nice day.

Timothy's birthday was on the seventh and he had a great day.

One of the things I got for my birthday was a book by Greg Judy called Comeback Farms. It has been very good.

We processed chickens yesterday. A friend of ours came up to watch, and her son had a blast helping. Here is their blog.

My dad has been voted on at a near by church to be their interim pastor. Please pray for our family as we make this next step. We went back to visit our home church on Suday. It was so nice to see everyone and meet the families who started coming after we left. It made me miss the church and the people there so much more.

Well that is about all that I can think of right now that we've been doing.
I guess that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

What's Been Goin' On

2011-06-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. We have been running around a lot recently. I guess it is just that time of year.

I went window cleaning with Papa yesterday. We had a house to do. We got a late start on it because the post office called that morning to tell us that they had chicks for us. Therefore the morning was spent getting them. They all seem to be doing fine. Window cleaning went pretty well. The house we did had storm windows and the windows themselves were the kind that have the little bars going across. It makes for a long slow day (you have to clean each little pane individually, and have to take all the storm windows out and clean them). It helps make the time go by faster when you can listen to music or something while you're working. Here is a song I heard during the day. It is from the perspective of a mother on her son leaving to go off to war, and comparing it to God sending His Son to earth. Thuoght you might like it.

We processed chickens on Monday. It went well. We didn't have quite as many to do this time. Near the end a friend of ours came up so she could learn how to do it.

Sunday we went to some friends of ours for a cookout. Every third Sunday of the month they have volleyball and dinner. We hadn't gone before, so we enjoyed meeting everyone. Hopefully we can go again next time.

Sometime within the last few days, two of our rabbits had babies. Here is a picture.

A couple weeks ago we went to take back a borrowed ram and to get a new ram lamb for breeding this year. I changed my mind a decided to process him with the rest and use one of the lambs born on our farm as a breeder instead because he is bigger. I am only going to keep a couple ewe lambs this year so that I do not over do our farm.

The new hen house is working well. It is kind of a challenge to move them as we cannot close them in a house, but we're starting to get it figured out. Some of them stay near the house, then the rest papa herded up from behind with the truck. Hopefully they will start staying with the house when I move it.

The garden is in sort of a transition stage right now, but of course, there is always work to do. It is usually either too wet to do much, or it is so hot and dry that you can't get a tool in the ground. And of course there are always weeds and bugs to deal with. But I guess that is the way it goes when you have a garden.

Well I guess that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Happy Fathers' Day!

2011-06-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers' day Papa. I know this is a day late but I didn't get a chance yesterday. I am so thankful for my father. He is always willing to help me, even when his to do list is a mile long and growing, and it is the last thing he wants to do. He works hard every day to provide for us. He is a great example for me of what a Godly man looks like. I could never ask for a better father.

- Graham

P.S. I promise I will post on here soon.

Summer Heat, Memorial Day, and New Hen House

2011-06-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I don't know about you all but around here has been pretty hot. The last couple of days have been pretty nice though. I'm hopping we get some rain soon, as it is starting to dry up. It looks as if it going to be another dry summer.

Everything on the farm is going well. The animals seem to be handling the heat well. We did loose one laying hen and I think it was because of the heat, but other than that, no losses. The broilers don't seem to be growing very well. The heat has caused their feed consumption to go down, so I think that has kept them from growing so fast. But at least I'm not having to feed them as much.

We built a new hen house. It is modeled after Polyface Farm's Millennium Feathernet. Here are some pictures of it in use.

On Memorial Day we went to a shindig at some friends of ours, the Wilson's, farm in Suffolk (about three hours away from us). We had a good time. They had many different games. They had a stilt race, sack race, three legged race, lumberjack triathalon, dunking booth, volleyball, and tug-o-wars. The stilt race was obviously a race on stilts and everyone knows about sack races and three legged races. I think the girls dunked the boys in the dunking stand. The luberjack triathlon was really cool. Unfortunately I had never used an axe, so I did not participate, but it was fun to watch. First they had to cut a log ( I think it was about four inches for the younger boys and maybe 8 inches for the men) in half, then they had to split a piece into four different sections. I didn't play volleyball, but it looked like there were some good games. The tug-o-wars were a lot of fun. There were three rounds. They did boys vs. girls. First it was the younger kids, then it was the older kids. The girls won both times. Then there was a men and older boys competition, and our side won that time. Then I think the younger boys did one. It was nice to be able to see their farm . It was funny because they had a chicken house just like the one we were going to build so I was able to look at it. I knew that some of the young people there played guitar so I brought mine along, and it was fun being able to play some with them. I don't get the chance to play with others real often so it is always nice to have that opportunity. We came home with two kittens as they were giving them away. They are doing pretty well. It was a little hot, but otherwise it was a fun day, and it was nice to see some of you again. Here are some pictures:

Abram being dunked.

Men and boys tug-o war. Our side one this one.

This was the older kids boys vs. girls.

The younger boys trying really hard to beat the girls.

The sack race.

The kittens.

Well that is all I have for today. Hopefully it won't be so long before I post again.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Full Swing

2011-05-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. The farm is in full swing! The garden is growing (both plants and weeds), the sheep have finished lambing, the freezer is full of chicken, and hay is being cut.

I cannot begin to name all the plants we have growing. Some are doing better than others, but it all seems to be going well. Papa built this trellis thing with an old chicken pen, some little tree trunks and some cattle panels. It is interesting.

The sheep are all shorn, and lambing season is over. Total I had, 9 lambs born. However, two of the triplets died. One died after it was just a couple of days old, and the other this past week. It was really runty, so we are not sure if it just died because it was week, or whether it got sick, or what. The night before it died, we had some heavy rain and wind. It could be that it just couldn't handle it. It's a shame, but I am thankful that I have gotten all that I have. I only have two male lambs. I think I am going to keep all of this year's ewe lambs, and then start selling all the lambs next year. I would like to get to about 15 ewes, and keeping the ones born this year would give me 14. That would leave me with only two lambs to sell, but I think it will be OK. One of them is nice and big. It would be nice to be able to get him closer to 80 pounds instead of only 70-75 pound like I normally do. We'll see. We have not named the most recent lamb yet, so I thought maybe y'all could come up with some names. Here is a picture of her and her mom:

My grazing system is going well. I really need more sheep, or a smaller area so as to get better animal impact. They are leaving a lot of stalks standing instead of trampling them down. But in general it is working well. I decided to try the same thing with the broilers, and that is working fabulous. Since they don't eat a lot of grass, and there is a high density within the pens (50 birds in an 8'x8' pen), they are doing a good job. We have so much grass, I cannot keep up with it all, so I decided to cut hay off some of it. When my grandparent's were here (we had a great visit with them by the way) grandpa and I got my scythe sharpened, and it has been working great. At first I was having trouble coming at the grass from the right angle, but I am starting to get the hang of it.

The baby rabbits are growing. Here is a picture.

When my grandparents were here, we built a dam so that a pond could form there. My grandfather used to build ponds and ditches for a living. We borrowed the neighbor's tractor. Here are some pictures:

We processed chickens Monday. It went well. Papa built a watering system that worked great. The scalder (a turkey fryer) was a pain at first, but I was able to keep it at the right temperature. The plucker worked great. We used these special bags to package the chickens. You poke a hole in the bag, after you put the chicken in it. Then you tie the bag with these special clamps (I can't remember what they are called though). Then you dip them in 170-200 degree water, and the bags instantly seal up. Than you place the label over top of the bag. It makes the chickens look more presentable. We are very thankful that the Lord helped us through the day.

I thought you all might like to hear a recording I did of a little old tune called Wildwood Flower. Let me know if you like it.

Well that is all for today.
Thanks for reading.
- Graham

Happy Mothers' Day!

2011-05-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I just wanted to mention that I have the best mother in the world. She goes out of her way to care for us (cook, clean, help with school, etc.). She is always willing to help me with my business, taking me to farmers markets, processing chickens, driving me to the feed store when I am in desperate need of chicken feed, keeping track of all of our inventory, and many other things. I am so thankful to have her as my mother.

- Graham

p.s. I will write some more soon. I just don't have the time right now.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Happy Easter! How have y'all been? Spring is in full swing. The animals are having babies, the grass is growing tall, the broilers are eating and eating, and the garden is getting going. Everything's happy.

As I said before, the sheep have been popping out babies. All but one ewe has lambed. I didn't think this one was pregnant, but i checked her again, and she is. So far we have had one set of twins, three single births, and one set of triplets. Deere had the triplets, two boys and a girl. Unfortunately, the girl (who was the largest), died a day or two after she was born. It is kind of odd, because there is a little runt of the three, who is really scrawny, but he seems to be fine. I am not sure how the one died. I guess since there was three, they just weren't all able to get enough milk. It sure is strange how the largest one died though. Anyway the rest are doing well. There have been 5 girls (including the one that died), and three boys. Dot, my first ewe had a girl. Normally she has boys, so it was a surprise to see her with a ewe. I am trying to get my sheep shearers sharpened. I have 4 left to do, and the shearers are extremely dull.

The first batch of broilers should be ready to process soon. So we will see how that goes. The first farmer's market will be opening soon. It starts the 14th of May. I'm kinda looking forward to it.

I am really going through chicken feed. With just the broilers I'm using almost fifty pounds a day. I know that's funny to those of you who do hundreds (thousands) of birds, but it is new for me.

One of the rabbits had babies. They are getting pretty big.

We had a nice Easter. My parents were in the choir (they have a fantastic choir at Hatcher Baptist) so I had to wrestle the little ones. Anyway, it was a nice service.

Not much has been going on recently other than that. My grandfather got me a microphone for our computer so I could do some guitar/vocal recordings. It works great, but I kept making mistakes. I'll have to work on it some more. If I get something worth listening to I might post on here.

My grandparents from Oregon are coming for a visit. They are supposed to get here Tuesday night. Pray that they will have a safe trip.

Well, that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Sheep

2011-04-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hello. I kept wanting to write on here but kept running out of time. Then I would say I'll do it tommorrow. Then tomorrow would come and I would run out of time. The post will mainly be about what is going on with my sheep operation, but first I will write about what has been going on with everything else.

Since the last post we have gotten some more rabbits. A friend of ours sold us three does (they are possibly pregnant) and a buck. They seem to be doing well.

We were able to go back to our home church for a visit. It was very nice to see everyone, and we enjoyed everyone's fellowship.

Yesterday our friends the Adamsons came over. They have nine children. The last time we saw them was when we lived in Louisville I was only 6 or so. They have adopted three special needs children from the Ukraine. They just recently moved to Virginia, and we have been trying to schedule a date to visit with them. It was very nice to see them again.

Ok. Alot has been going on with the sheep recently. A few weeks ago I got a roll of electric netting from Premier. It has been great. At first I was giving them a "square" paddock, but I found that if I made a strip, it would obviously be a smaller area. Therefore the sheep will clean it up better. I am still planning on doing the grazing system I heard about at the confrence, but I put the sheep out earlier than Mr. Judy suggested, because I couldn't afford to keep feeding them hay. But, since we've got more pasture than we need, I think, that I will be able to pull it off.

The day we went back to our home church my ewe Heidi had twin ewe lambs. We named them Brownie (she has brown ears), and fudge (last years were Maple, Sugar, and Sweety, so I guess we're raising some sugary sheep :) ). Anyway, that was a nice suprise. I knew she was pregnant, but it always is a suprise when they are born. One of her previous ewe lambs, Snow White, lambed on Thursday. I did not know if she was pregnant, so I was really suprised to see her lambing. She had a little ram.

I have been shearing the sheep as I have been able to. It is the time of year when it rains every couple of days. Since you don't want to shear them when they are wet, I have had to work around the rain. So far I have done three.

Well here are some pictures.

Well that is all for now.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Rabbits

2011-03-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. It's begining to look like spring! The grass is finally growing. The sheep should be out on pasture in a few days. I am planning to start shearing them tomorrow. They are tired of being in the barn, and I am tired of feeding them hay. I am pretty sure at least two of them are pregnant. The other ones are likely to be, but I don't see any signs of it yet. You can never really tell with sheep. Their wool is deceiving, but they do tend to get pretty wide come a few weeks prior to the lambing. Their udders also expand wich is the telltale sign.

Anyway, the broilers should be going out pretty soon. The next batch will be here next week. We fixed the doors to their pens earlier today, so the pens are all set.

The laying hens are doing well. As I now have about 74 chickens together I am working on my feeding/watering systems to make it more efficient for the larger group.

The garden is comming along. I am not sure about everything we have planted, but I think we have potatoes, carrots, turnips, radishes, and some lettuce and stuff. In the green house we have even more.

We also got a couple of rabbits the other day. Last year the rabbits all died (mostly from the sun), so we got them while it is cool. Webuilt a pen Saturday so we haven't had much experience with it yet. but I think it will work. It will be retrofitted as our needs change and we have the money, but this is it. Here are some pictures:

This one to the left shows the rabbits, and the slats along the ground to keed them from digging out. Then the next one shows the roof design. This is only temporary, but it works. The frame is a concrete mesh panel.

These ones are of the whole pen, and some other shots I took.

The white one is a female and the brownish gray one is male. They are separated so that they don't breed.

Well I don't have much more to say. But here are a few more pictures.

Well that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Pictures, Report, and Update

2011-03-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. How is everyone? We are doing well...now. We were dealing with the flu. It was pretty bad. People were sick for six days in a row. Mary and Abaram had strep throut, mama had a sinus infection, and I had an ear infection (though when the doctor told me I was shocked as I was feeling no pain). Needless to say it was tough, but we made it through.

We had the flu when my grandpa was visiting, but we still had a pretty good time. We went geocaching one day. In case your not familiar with geocaching it is where you, with a GPS, look for the satellite marked boxes. Around here they are found around things like historic markers, or in the state forest in trees or something like that. It is a lot of fun. Samuel for his 10th birthday went to DC with my grandpa. When I turned ten I got to go with him to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton. When I think of a nice trip, DC is not the place that usually comes to my mind, but Samuel had fun. They did laser tag, bowling, and went to an NBA basketball game (Wizards and Pacers). Thankfully grandpa did not get sick when he was here. His doctor had made him take a flu shot before he came so maybe that is what kept him from getting it.

Last week I went to town with papa and had a guitar lesson with someone from our home church. Ihad a good time, and he was able to teach me some new things.

Anyway, the farming season is starting to pick back up again. The grass is greening up, the garden is beginning to be planted, and everything is anxiously awaiting spring. We got our first batch of chicks this morning. I think it may be a little early, but I think it will work. The chickens will be processed about the time the farmer's markets start so that should be good.

I have been blessed to be able to sell my lamb really well. Mostly over Fall Line Farms and Local Roots (they are the same thing, just different hubs). We also had a customer from the farmer's market buy a bunch of lamb. We had some the other night. It was delicious. Unfortunately, since my sheep are smaller, the chops were bite sized. The customers like it, so if I am fine with it and they are fine with it (not to mention the government being fine with it), then all is well.

I am getting excited about the upcomming growing season. I will be trying a new method of grazing I learned about during some talks by Greg Judy at the VABF confrence called High-Density grazing or mob-stocking. It is not too different from regular managed grazing except that you let the grass reach its full maturity before grazing it. The animals tromple much of the grass building a layer of carbon across the ground, which, along with the manure, makes a "compost pile" right out in the pasture. I am excited to see how it works.

Here are some pictures I took the past couple of days.

The compost pile.

The nest box cover.

The new and improved greenhouse.

Potatoes planted in old tires.

Chickens in the garden.

Sheep awaiting the day they can go back on pasture.

"What do you mean I am a mess?"

The chicks.

Ok. Finally I had to do a study on chickens sleeping habits for school. Papa told me to post it here. Your comments would be appreciated.

A Report On the

Sleeping Patterns Between Chicken Breeds

by Graham P. Donahue

I was asked to do a report on the behavioral patterns between different breeds of chickens. The goal of the study was to research and find out whether or not chickens display different behavior patterns between breeds. The study was done over a weeks time, and 39 chickens were used in the study. I concluded during the study, that chickens do seem to show different behavioral patterns between breeds in some ways, but appear to vary more between the individual bird.

The following is a list of the chickens used in the study:

7 Rhode Island Red hens, 9 Red Sex-Link hens, 8 Barred Rock hens and 1 rooster, 2 White Rock hens, and 15 white hens (including Amberlinks, Leghorns and an unknown breed) and a Leghorn rooster.

The chickens were observed at the close up period of the day. The chickens rested on the floor of the house, on top of the nest box inside of the house, inside of the nest box, and on the side of the boxes where there are boards sticking out. The average percent of birds each night were averaged to come up with the following information.

Over all, the Sex-Link chickens rested on the floor of the house. Sixty-seven percent of the Sex-Link chickens were observed on the floor each night. The next most common place they were observed was in the nest boxes. There was 31% of the Sex-Link in the nest boxes. Only 3% of the Sex-Link chickens were observed roosting along the side of the nest boxes each night. There were no Sex-Link chickens on top of the nest box at close up time.

The overwhelming average of Barred Rocks were observed on the floor. Ninety-three percent of the Barred Rocks were found there. There were 14% of the Barred Rocks in the nest boxes, and 2% along the side.

The Rhode Island Reds appeared to favor the nest boxes. Forty-one percent of them rested in the nest boxes, and 23% slept on top of the box. Twenty-seven percent laid on the floor. Only 4% of them roosted along the side of the nest boxes.

There was not a big difference in percentages when it came to the White Rocks. Thirty-six percent slept in the nest boxes and 29% slept on the ground. Only 6% slept along side of the nests, and none slept on top.

The group of chickens referred to as white appeared to choose to sleep on the top of the nest boxes. There were 68% on top, 11% inside of them, and only 6% along the side. Thirteen percent of the Whites slept on the ground.

There are a few things that need to be noted about these sleeping positions. One is that the pecking order is bound to have something to do with it. The Rhodes Island Reds were the first breed on the farm. Then came the Red Sex-Links, Barred Rocks, and then the White Rocks. The white breeds were the last to come onto the farm.

The one thing about this that is strange though, is that though the Rhodes Island Reds were the first on the farm, and seem to be at the top of the pecking order, they did not choose the places that to me seemed to be the best spot. I would think that the best spot would be along side of the nest boxes, but the majority of them slept in the nest boxes. This may go to show that they are more of a nesting breed than the others. If this is the case, the whites would prefer not to sleep in the nests and would rather be higher up off of the ground (68% chose to be on top of the nest boxes). However, I still feel that the pecking order has a lot to do with their positions.

This study was limited in a couple of ways. First, a note about the whites. The reason they are lumped together is for sake of accuracy. The Leghorns and Amberlinks are indistinguishable by me. The breed that is unknown looked different, but as it was white but by itself, I chose to lump it with the rest. The White rocks also look very much like the other whites. It is possible, though I tried hard to distinguish them from the rest, I may have on occasion gotten them mixed up. Since they are lumped together, it is possible, for instance, that the Amberlinks were the only whites that slept in the nest boxes, or the leghorns were the only ones to sleep on top of them. This means the data is not as perfect as I would have liked, but when dealing with chickens you have got to do the best you can. Second, the information gathered is as consistent as possible, however, it is possible that a couple of the days the numbers were a little off. Trying to get the correct number of chickens in each part was not easy. Again, I tried the best I could to gather accurate information in doing this study.

Sorry for the length of this post, but as you know it has been a while, and I had to write a lot.

I hope you all enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

VABF Conference

2011-02-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

Hello all! How are you all doing? We had a real pretty day today, though it was very windy. We had to take down the green house because the wind messed it up. Oh well, I guess that's the way farming goes.

The VABF conference was great. Worth every penny. I really appreciated the Alexanders taking me along. Here is a overview of what all that we did:

On Friday morning at 6:30 my Papa and I met the Alexanders at Dollar General. We drove all the way into NC to a farm tour that was part of the conference. Then we headed to the conference center in Danville. It was time for the potluck lunch. While Elliot, Oliver and I did that, Mr. Alexander went to pick up the key for the house we were staying in. The parents of one of the women that helped us with the death of Jonathan Elijah let us stay in their house. We were very thankful for their hospitality.

After the lunch was the first session. It was done by Greg Judy, and was on healing land with high density grazing. Then there was a little break before the next session started. During the next session there were 4 choices, and I went to one done by Tim and Liz Young of Natures Harmony Farm. I heard about the Conference on their Podcast.

During the next break I talked with Mr. Judy about some of the questions I had. It is actually quite funny. At Samuel and Abram's basketball games Mama noticed someone who she had seen at the farmer's market. She talked with her, and she said her farming brother went around speaking about sustainable farming. She said that he was speaking on the 11th and 12th in Danville. Well, when I found out about this Conference, Mama mentioned what she had said. When Mama looked at the speakers so as to remember who he was, she said it was Greg Judy! When I told him that story, he told me she told him about me already. But it was still quite an interesting coincidence.

After the dinner, they had some announcements, and a lady got up and sang a couple of songs. Then Elliot Coleman spoke. After that we watched a movie about bees. It was really weird. Only a couple of the people spoke perfect English. The rest spoke broken English, or an entirely different language. I think most of the people worshiped bees. One interesting things I did learn was that thousands of bee hives from over the country are shipped to California during pollination time for the thousands of acres of monoculture almonds. They cannot raise bees there because, since there are so many almond trees, there is nothing to sustain them. It was definitely interesting. There was also a jam session going on at that time, but we didn't have room for the guitar, so I was not able to bring it.

The house we stayed in that night was very nice.

On Saturday, after breakfast we went back to the conference center. I went to hear Greg Judy again that morning. It was the best one of the whole conference. Then Elliot, Oliver, and I went to a session on Nieman Ranch pork. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Last we went to one on marketing goat meat. I thought it might be helpful for marketing lamb. Neither one of the last two were great, but I was able to learn a few things, and got to try goat meat.

Over all, I learned a lot about some other methods and came back with some good ideas.

My grandfather is on his way to our house and should be hear in a couple hours. We look forward to seeing him.

Well that is all I have for now.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Lamb Processing, VABF Conference, and Answers

2011-02-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all. It has been, once again, a long time since I have posted. But now I am here to do a new post!

Anyway, the lamb processing went pretty well. My grandfather took me up to pick it up. When we got home we opened up the boxes and two of the lambs were not labeled correctly (instead of the USDA label they just had a sticker that said what it was). It was kind of funny actually. The people who wrote on the stickers spelled the names all sorts of ways. When they referred to chops, they sometimes spelled it chops but also spelled it "chaps", and even "shoups"! So we went back Monday to have them re-labeled. Everything went fine. We got to drop by our friends the Girottis for lunch. It was nice to see them.

Tomorrow and Saturday I am going with our friends the Alexanders to the Virginia Biological Farmer's Association (VABF) Conference. I am looking forward to it. Greg Judy and Elliot Coleman are just a couple of the speakers who will be there. It looks like ther will be some good talks there. There will also be a display room with exibits. We have over two hours of driving to get there (it is in Danville), so we would appreciate your prayers for safety.

And finally here are the answers to the questions I got:

What breeds of chickens do you have?

We have Rhodes Island Red, White Rock, White Leghorn, Black Austrolorp, Americauna, Barred Rock, Amberlinks, and Red Sex-Links. When we do the broilers we do the Cornish X.

What is your favorite?

I don't think I could say a favorite. I like having a variety.

Do you do anything with music? If so what? If not what are some of you favorite songs?

Yes, I play acoustic guitar. Bluegrass is my specialty, but also play some other styles as well.

Thank you to you both for your questions.

Well I guess that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

Many Topics

2011-01-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I know, I know... I said I would have a post in a few days a week ago, but I am sure you know how time slips away. Anyhow here it is.

Not a whole lot has been going on around here. The last couple of days Papa has has been planning his garden and ordering seeds. Saturday we worked on fixing his greenhouse. The storms this summer kept destroying it so he has made some upgrades to it. We put plywood on the ends, as that is stronger than the plastic by itself. When it is all finished I will try to post some pictures.

Monday of last week, we took my lambs all the way to Harrisonburg to be processed in a USDA inspected slaughtering facility. We have a local butcher about 15 minutes away, but supposedly because of "food safety" we cannot use him. I trust him and I am sure my customers would trust him, but that does not make any difference to the government. So anyway to sell lamb (or pork or beef) by the cut, we have to use a USDA inspected facility. It was a long drive. My grandfather is taking me back up to pick up the meat on Friday. I guess one neat thing is that this processing facility is owned in part by Joel Salatin, the famous guru in pasture farming. I have nothing against this facility, and have been very pleased. I just wish it was closer.

Our chickens had been sleeping in their nest boxes which was a problem because they would get all filled with manure which would then get all over the eggs. So yesterday we put up a board to cover them up at night. So far it works great. I will try to get a picture of it.

We also would appreciate your prayers. We have curently stopped attending our home church. It is not that we have something against the church. It is just getting to a point where the families are all spread out all over (Amelia, Chesterfield, Hopewell, Providence Forge, and us, Cumberland). We are about an hour from Chesterfield, and that is the closest place we have church. As gas prices rise and my father's income drops it gets more expensive to travel. Plus, we feel that being so far spread out makes it hard to be a church community. There is church right around the corner that we like. It is a very healthy church. The pastor is a solid, scriptural teaching preacher. There is a good diversity of ages in the church (elderly, middle aged, young adult, children, and many infants). We have gone there from time to time when we could not make it to our church, and Samuel and Abram have sung in some of their programs. They are somewhat family integrated (they don't have any children's church and they don't do a whole lot of youth segregated events). We have gained friendships with many of the people in the church, and are very much considering attending it. Your prayers for direction would be appreciated.

We had this church's pastor and his family for lunch after church Sunday. It was very nice to have them over.

Finally, I have descided to do a Q and A on my blog. I know that some of you remember these, but for those of you who don't know what it is, here you go. On this post, in the comment section, you can ask questions about me. They could be about my thought on certain subjects, or about my farm, or whatever. Then, once I have gotten a good amount of questions I will answer them. I thought this would be neat to do, and I figure it would help you all to know me better.

Well that is all for today.

Thanks for reading and God bless.

- Graham

Happy Birthday Papa!!

2011-01-15T06:31:00.000-08:00

It in my papa's birthday today. I'm am blessed to have a father who care so much for us. He works really hard to provide for, and train his family. Thank you Papa!

- Graham

ps: I will try to do a normal post in a couple days.

Happy 8th Birthday Abram

2011-01-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

2011

2011-01-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is already 2011. It seems like just yesterday it was 2010 ;). It kind of caught me by surprise. I was trying to find the date and then realized it was the 31!

Anyway, this time of year is a time where we reflect back at the year before, and then look ahead at the year to come.

Here are some of the things that happened last year:

We had our two hogs butchered in (I think) January
Jonathan Elijah was born
We had 500 broilers shipped to us over the summer, grew them out, and processed them
We sold at two farmer's markets consistently
By the grace of God, we were able to make the farm and garden make it through an extremely hot and dry summer
I really improved on the guitar
I purchased a feather plucker
I regularly worked for a man that we know, on his farm
I got to visit Polyface on my birthday
And many, many, other things

I also feel that I have grown a lot spiritually over the last year, and I am excited about all that I will learn this year.

Next year on the farm, I plan to improve on my grazing system with the animals. I hope to come up with a system that is more organized a follows a more strict pattern. I also hope to add pigs again, and possibly turkeys. I am also planning on improving my record keeping in order to make better business decisions the following year.

As we look at the year ahead of us we should remember our most important and overall goal. That is to serve the Lord and bring glory to his name.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that this has been an encouraging post, and that we will willingly serve and honor the Lord this year.

-Graham

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. -Rom. 12:1

Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. -Psalm 100:2

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day. Samuel woke up at 3:30 this morning and was ready to open presents. Mama and Papa made him wait till 6. Once we were up we looked through our stockings. Then we did presents. It was fun to see the different reactions my siblings had when opening their gifts. Timothy would open something and be like, "Wow! Awesome!"and Mary would be like, "Awwww!".

I got Samuel a $10 gift card to Wal-Mart. I gave Mary some hair bands, and Timothy a game. Abram and I got each other the same thing! We didn't really give each other any hints either. They were those knives that fold out into pliers. I received many other great gifts. My parent's got me a really nice CD. It is a gospel CD by Randy Travis. They also got me a guitar tuner. It works well. I need to get the hang of using it though. The hospice group that helped us when we lost Jonathan (Noah's Children), had a company that donated gifts to us. They gave me some clothes, a nice pair of binoculars, $20, a gift card to Barnes and Nobel, and a couple other things. Our aunt and uncle gave us gift cards to Target. My grandparent's that live in Oregon gave me some clothes, and a guitar book. They sent a capo with it. The instructions for it were all in Chinese! Thankfully I already know how to use one. They also gave me $50, and some other things. My other grandparent's, who live two doors down, gave me a guitar. The guitar I had was an old classical guitar. It was nice for learning on, but was not of very high quality, and it was not designed to be played the way I played it. So for Christmas they gave me a really nice one. It is a Mitchell md-100 for anyone who wants to know. They couldn't figure out how to wrap it, so my parent's did a little scavenger hunt for me to find it. That was very different.

Often during this time of year we get so wrapped up (no pun intended) in gifts, trees, lights, decorations, snow, etc., but forget about the greatest gift of all.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
-John 3:19

We should never, ever, forget this.

This afternoon we are going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the theater. Tomorrow my uncle, aunt, and cousin are coming and we will have Christmas dinner with them and my grandparent's.

Well that is all I have to say this time. And I again wish everyone a wonderful CHRISTmas.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."

-Luke 2:8-15

Thanksgiving, a Wedding, and an Update

2010-12-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Here I am late at the keyboard again. Maybe I will start being more regular here soon. Well, anyway, here goes this post.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. My grandparents went to my aunt and uncle's new house in Chesapeake. We normally have Thanksgiving with all of them, but it was just too long of a drive so we had our friends the Pruiett's over. They didn't have any family to celebrate with so we had Thanksgiving together. It was very nice to be able to have them visit. After the meal we went for a walk down to the creek. They had never been down there so it was fun to take them.

It is a good walk. It is down hill the whole way there, and uphill the whole way back. It makes for a good exercise.

We also had another calf experience. Some friends of ours called and asked if we wanted this calf. It's mother was not giving enough milk, and they didn't want to bottle feed it (I don't blame them). I, not the kind of person to turn down free livestock, took them up on it. The calf was pretty healthy so I didn't think we would have a problem. That was Wednesday evening. On Saturday afternoon I went out to feed it and it did not act hungry. I felt that something was wrong, but figured it had just eaten a lot of grass as we had just moved it out on pasture that morning. Sunday it was almost dead. We think it got pneumonia. When we got back from church that afternoon, it was dead. Our former experience with a calf can be read here. I feel that through these experiences God was trying to tell us we were not ready for cows yet.

It was quite humorous when we put the calf out on pasture. We put it in with my ewe lambs. Ever since I separated them from their mothers, they have been total scaredy cats. Well, they did not think this big black animal (the calf) was a friend. They ran back and forth on the other side of the pen from her for a long time, and never did go near her. The calf didn't even pay attention to them. If you have been around sheep a lot I'm sure you know what I mean. It gave us a good laugh.

We had our last chicken processing a couple weeks ago. A friend of ours came to help. We really appreciated it. It was very cold, but we finished it before the snow started. I don't think I will go this late into the year next year. But hey, that's how we learn.

Saturday we went to our friend Meredith Alexander's (now Hammer) wedding. It was a great blessing to see. To read about their meeting and courtship click here.

The wedding was very formal. It was in a big church in downtown Richmond (Second Presbyterian). It was very pretty. It was very large, the church was almost full. There was probably around 400 people. One neat thing they did in the wedding was have little bell ringer girls. Right before Mr. Alexander and Meredith came down 28 little girls that are friends of the Alexanders came down the aisle ringing bells. Mary, my sister, was one of them. Other than that, the rest of the wedding was traditional.

There was a great organ player. The organ itself was huge.

Afterwards they had the reception at the Alexander's farm. It was much more informal. Once everyone had arrived they cut the cake and the Best Man (Stephen's brother) gave a speech. Then they had the food. The Alexander's cooked up one of their pigs. It was delicious. Then they had some real nice music while people ate. Afterwards, they had a small barn dance. That was a lot of fun. There was a lot of little children who thought it was fun when it was their turn to do an arch, to make the taller kids like us duck down real low to go through. Then Meredith and Stephen got in their car and left. Then it was time for us to leave.

I had an interesting experience when I was there. While we were waiting for Stephen and Meredith to arrive at the reception, a lady walked up and introduced herself. I don't remember her first name, so I will just use Mrs. (I don't typically use adult's first names anyway). So she walked up and said, "Hi I'm Mrs. Heffington." "Graham Donahue," I introduced myself. She began to look puzzled. "Graham Donahue. That name sounds familiar. Where do I know that name?" she said. "Well of course," she said," The Blog of Graham Donahue!" "O.K." My mother said, "Who are you?" "I'm The Gentleman From Virginia's mom," she said. Her husband was right there and he said, "And I'm his dad." Anyway she said she feels weird introducing herself as The Gentleman From Virginia's mom. She also made a good point that sometimes there are people that you know over blogs and such that you consider friends, though you have never met them.

Here are some photos:

So over all it was a great wedding (esp. for the bride and groom).

We had company coming that evening. Our friends the Bairds from Michigan came to stay the night. They had an RV so that was nice, seeing as how they have 8 children. It was so nice to see them again. It had been almost 8 years. The next day church was at our house so they stayed for that. They adopted all of their children so they were able to share some information on orphans and such.

Well that is about all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Poultry Processing, Chicks, a Trip to the Zoo, and a Word on Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all. I really do need to get better about posting on here. Anyway I hope you all have not given up on my poor little blog.

I got to use my new plucker! It worked great. It took a while for me to figure out the scalding using the turkey fryer, but I eventually got it figured out. I think if I had a better scalding system it would do better. But regardless I was very pleased.

We got some chicks in the mail the other day. We ordered them from Meyers Hatchery . We got 16 of the Rhode Island Reds, 16 of the Black Austolorpes, and 5 of the Americaunas. We lost one of the RIRs but the rest are doing great.

A couple weeks ago we went to the D.C. zoo. My papa's brother and his wife and children live in Potomac Maryland. Just a few minutes away. So we were able to meet them there. We had not seen them in three years. It was very nice.

The trip there wasn't to bad. Driving in the city is tough. In the country, if you get on the wrong road you might get out of the way, but at least you will eventually get where you need to be. In the city all the roads form a grid and it is real easy to get lost by taking a single wrong turn. We had to call my uncle and aunt several times to figure out where to go to get on the right track when we missed a road. Maybe I'm just biased to the country. Thankfully we were able to miss a lot of traffic.

Here are some pictures:

We didn't get didn't get many pictures of the animals. But here is one of a panda for those who would like to see it:

Finally, since Thanksgiving is in just a couple days, I thought I would list some of the many things the Lord has blessed me with.

Jesus Christ who died for me (and everyone else).
Salvation. Without God's gift of salvation we would have nothing to live for.
God's word that He uses as a means to communicate to us.
My family. I am blessed beyond compare with my family who loves me, supports me, and does what is best for me.
The life God has given me. I am blessed to be able to live the life I do.
All the wonderful things the Lord has given me stewardship over.
All the wonderful opportunities he has given me.
All the people in my life that have been a blessing to me.
A wonderful home and farm.
Everything else the Lord has blessed me with.

Psalm 26:7 That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all Your wondrous works.

I processed turkeys with the Alexanders on Thursday last week. It went pretty well. They had I believe 1o people working and 30 turkeys to do. I think we finished at 11:30. It was very nice to have the experience of doing the turkeys. We spent the rest of the day working on cleaning up and getting the place touched up for their farm day.

Well that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

What I 've Been Doin' the Last Month

2010-11-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry again for my lack of posting. As you know it takes a lot of effort to sit down and write out a post. Therefore I hope you don't take my absence too seriously.

We had a great visit with my grandparent's. We were all exhausted afterwards because there was not a day they were here that we did not do something. Let me try to list everything (I hope I can remember everything):

Friday: Grandma and Grandpa arrived about dinner time.

Saturday: We went to Kings Dominion. The hospice group that worked with us when we lost Jonathan (Noah's Children) gave us tickets to go. We had a fun time. I am such an odd ball though. Amusement park rides and such don't really thrill me. I rode a few rides (Ferris Wheel, Carousel, a water ride, and a small roller coaster called the Ricochet). I had never been on a actual roller coaster before, so I went ahead and gave it a shot. It did not thrill me. I just don't enjoy going up and down and around and getting all dizzy and stuff. However, don't get me wrong, I had a great time just watching the others having fun on the rides.

Sunday: Papa preached at my grandparent's (who live two doors down) church. That evening the younger ones sang at the church up the road where we had Jonathan's memorial (Hatcher Baptist) for a fund raiser. There is a lady in our area who has cancer and they were raising money to help to pay her bills.

Monday: We processed chickens. It went well.

Tuesday: We had a farmer's market.

Wednesday: We went to Dickie Brother's orchard to get apples

and pumpkins.

Thursday: The younger ones wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheeses so we went. I do not like Chuck E. Cheeses. I used to when I was little. I guess we all go through that stage. Mama got to go window cleaning with Papa for the first time that day.

Friday: We went geocaching. Geocaching is where you go out and look for these satellite marked boxes. They can be as small as a film canister or as big as an ammo box. You find the general area with a GPS and then look around the area to find it. We then went camping that afternoon at Bear Creek Lake. It was Grandpa, me, Papa, Abram, Samuel, Timothy, Samuel's friend Angelo, and his dad.

Saturday: Grandpa and I ran back to the house so I could do my chores and help Mama load up the van to go to the market. After that we headed back to the campsite and did some fishing and some more geochaching. Sometimes you find them, sometimes you don't. We found two of the 5 or so that we looked for both days. That evening Mama and Papa went to a fundraiser that Noah's Children had. We had donated a farm basket for them to put up for auction, but nobody has contacted us to pick it up.

Sunday: Grandma and Grandpa left. We had a great time with them while they were here. Below are some pictures we took during their visit.

We have been attending a seminar hosted by our friends the Alexanders. It is Bill Gothard's Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar. It has been very good.

The farm is slowly winding down. We had our last market Saturday. I only have two more batches of chickens to go until they are finished for the year. We are going to do some winter drop-offs for chickens while supplies last. I'm interested to see how it works. If it goes well I might try doing some drop-offs next growing season along with the markets.

I am happy to announce that I am now the proud owner of a Featherman Pro chicken plucker. It came in the mail today. I can't wait to see how it works. I have been very pleased with their service as well, and in the future also hope to buy a scalder/dunker from them.

Well that about sums up the recent activities for us.

Hopefully I will write again soon.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Multiple Subjects

2010-10-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I hope all of you are well. Sorry for the lack of posting but as usual, we are busy. I figured I would write right now before we get to busy this week and next.

We had a car incident recently. Papa's truck was having trouble, because it would keep stalling on him. He was able to get it to a certain auto shop in Cumberland. They took a look at it and told him that the carburetter needed to be replaced ($1,300 part). They said they wouldn't be able to get the part or replace it. So he took it to the car place we really like in Powhatan. They looked it over tightened up a few bolts and it was running as good as new. The Lord was faithful to provide for us.

We had church at our house Sunday. We were missing some people, but our friends the Girottis came. It was nice to have them.

Tonight some friends from when we lived in Kentucky (about 8 or 9 years ago) are staying the night. The are traveling down from where they live in Michigan to Newport News to visit a friend. So it will be nice to see them. Tomorrow we have a market in Powhatan. This is the first time for us. They are just doing it monthly this year but next year they are doing weekly. The first one was last month. The newspaper said that 600 people came! People in Powhatan are the perfect customers for sustainable farmers. We are excited about it. Friday, late, my grandparent's from Oregon are getting here. It will be great to see them. Then Saturday we are taking a trip to Kings Dominion. Sunday Papa is preaching at my grandparent's church, and Samuel and Abram are singing at the church where we had Johnathan's funeral with some of the other kids there.

I also have two prayer requests. One is that my grandparents will have a safe ride down here. The other is for Papa. We are struggling financially and he is stumped at what do to make some more money. All the prayer would be appreciated.

Everything is going well. I almost have enough money for a Featherman Pro chicken plucker. It will be nice to have the flexibility and efficiency it will bring.

Finally, I have a project in my writing program for school that I need some help from. I have to do a poll with three homeschooling questions. Here they are:

Do you think that homeschooling is beneficial over other educational systems? Yes/No
Do you feel that homeschoolers miss out on socialization and extracurricular activities? Yes/No
Would you recommend homeschooling to other people? Yes/No

There you are. If you are a homeschooler, were homeschooled, or are homeschooled I would greatly appreciate it if you would answer these questions in the comment section. I just ask that you would be honest in your answers. Also if you were previously were in another educational system (public, private, etc.) please include that. I really appreciate it.

Well I'd better go.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

River Trip

2010-09-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Last weekend we went to our friends house on the Rappahanok River. We had a lot of fun. We left on Friday morning and came back Sunday evening. The lady who has the house is in her 80's but has lots of energy. Her daughter came up Saturday with their boat and we went out fishing. Here are some pictures:

The lady who owns the house did all the cooking and it was very good. Samuel and Abram had fun tubing. Here are some pictures:

Everyone had such a great time. We brought home several fish that we are going to cook up when my grandparent's come in October. Well I don't have much else right now. So as always, thanks for reading.

- Graham

As I Write At Last

2010-09-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hello anyone who still ventures over to my poor old un-kept blog. I hope I have not lost any of my readers. I'm sure you all know how much work it is to sit down and write a post. Still, I should have been more diligent in writing here. My deepest apologizes to any and all of my readers.

OK, well since it has been so long I will try to do a over all what has happened post. I will try to update it more in the future.

We had our best sales day for the farm Yesterday. We did better than we have ever done. We were at the Scottsville Farmer's Market. I sold 12 chickens (I know to those of you who do this large scale, that that is not a lot, but we usually only sell about five per market). Papa sold all his tomatoes, all his lettuce (yes he has lettuce right now- he has worked hard to get it to grow in this heat), he sold all his beet greens, and all his butter beans and green beans, and some of his peppers. Mama only sold a couple packs of rolls, but she was fine with that. The Lord has provided for us in our farm sales a lot recently.

We were all greened up, but it stopped raining again. So now it is all brown. Thankfully all the grass grew back so I have plenty to graze. The broiler business has really done well this year and I hope I can do just as well next year. A lot of people have been asking about buying parts so we might start cutting up some chickens to sell. I can tell that fall is approaching because the temperature keeps going up and down. We'll be buried in snow before we know it.

Last Sunday Abram was baptized. We did it in the creek behind our house. Here are some pictures:

We rode down there in Mr. Joneses big pickup, Papa's truck, my grandparent's truck, and the Browder's Jeep. The above photo is from the Field where the creek is, heading back to the house.

Here is Abram and papa in the water.

Afterward we had lunch as normal and my grandparent's joined us.

I cannot think of anything else "big" that has happened recently.

Again I hope I haven't scared everyone away! I hope I can do better at posting from now on.

Thanks for reading (to anyone that has not given up on my poor little blog).

- Graham

What I Have Been Doing

2010-08-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I hope I have not deterred everyone away since I have not posted in forever. The fact is we have done a lot and I have not felt like posting. I will try to write down everything that has gone on. It is in no particular order and I may not get everything but I will try.

Last Monday a guy came out to help us process chickens. We saw an ad he put on Craigslist about renting out poultry processing equipment. We contacted him to ask if we could rent just the plucker. He was so excited to hear about a 14 year old who was wanting to farm that he said he would bring out his equipment and come out to help us for a discounted price! He brought his son and nephew with him. We were so thankful for his help. We did 83-84 broilers. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures. He had a nice stainless steel table, automatic scalder, and tub plucker. We built a killing cone set up out of caution cones. It has 4 cones. Our friends the Woods came out and they were a big help.

Saturday we tried out the Scottsville Farmer's market. We did very well for our first time. I sold 11 of the 14 chickens that I took. They have a nice pavilion set up for the market. There were several ceiling fans which made it nice and cool. It beats sitting under a tent in the sun all afternoon!

Everything else on the farm is going well. I have been very pleased with my broiler pens. We have finally gotten some decent rain. We were very dry but now it is greening up.

Mama and Papa went on an anniversary trip about two weeks ago to Crab Tree Falls. They saw several orchards while they were gone and bought a bunch of apples and peaches. They got some great deals. Mama has been canning tomatoes and making applesauce, as well as doing all the other things she needs to do. She is amazing!

The garden is doing pretty good. We are getting lots of tomatoes, and the butter beans will be ready in a couple of days. We picked a few the other day.

Yesterday Papa preached at a church in Buckingham.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Fluvanna County Farmer's Market.

Well that is all for now.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

What We've Been Up To

2010-07-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all. How is everyone? We have been pretty busy. I don't know where to start. We have done so much I might as well not try to list all of them. Today papa had to preach at my grandparents' church. He taught on multigenerational teaching of children the scriptures. My grandparents' church is on the radio so people all over the Buckingham area got to hear it (hopefully). The Alexander's came, then we had them over for lunch afterwards. Samuel and Abram got to sing at a church up the road where they went for VBS. Though we don't do VBS in our church, we have friends at this church so they enjoy going to things like that there. Friday we (Papa and I) went to pick up a ram from Meadow Farm Museum in Glen Allen. I helped

him clean windows then we went there. To the right is a picture of him (the one in the back). I also processed chickens with the Alexander's on Thursday. It went well. We had 10 people working and started around 9 and finished (bagging and everything) all 110 buy like 12:11. Afterwards we just sat in the shade and for a little while we showed each other how we were doing on the guitar and banjo. Then a calf got out, but buy the time I got over there, Oliver had the calf back in. Papa bought a rear tine tiller for the garden. Due to lack of rain and good soil, our ground is harder than bricks, so he got the tiller to work the ground up better than the old front tine one. It woks great. Tuesday we had the farmer's market. We have been very pleased with the one in Fluvanna. I am not sure whether or not we will continue the Brandermill market. The customer base, and the amount of sales just aren't worth the time.

Well that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Independence Day, Fireworks, Chicken Pen Dolly, and a trip to Polyface

2010-07-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello folks. How is everyone doing? Boy the last few days have been busy and the week ahead will be too. I will start with Sunday.

Sunday morning we had church at the Trent's house. Then that evening we went to Aha The Farm (a grass fed/all natural beef farm up the road) for a 4th-of July picnic. Everyone brought either a desert or side dish, and they served their beef. It was delicious. At about 9 they did a fireworks display. For a backyard private display theirs is fantastic. It is just about as good as the "big" ones they do locally. To top it off you get delicious food and there is no traffic.

OK. Then yesterday (as the previous post said) was my birthday and me and papa went to Polyface Farm . I had a good time. Here are some pictures:

A broiler pen including turkeys.

Lazy pigs.

The cows.

"Eggmobiles".

We followed this logging trail way back, went around a corner, and found these pigs.

A view from way in the back.

"Pigaerators".

Pigs love mud.

"The Millennium Feathernet"

A turkey shelter.

Fruit trees.

The brooder house.

Papa bought a rabbit while we were there to use to breed the one we have now. It is very pretty. While we were paying for it inside their nice new store building we saw Mr. Salatin greeting some people so we went over and introduced ourselves.

Here is our chicken pen dolly set-up like I promised to post:

Well that is all I have for today.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Happy 14th Birthday Graham!!

2010-07-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! This is Graham's mom sneaking in on his blog to let all of his readers know that today is his 14th birthday. He is on his way to Joel Salatin's farm (Polyface Farm) with is father to take a look around. He took his camera so I am sure he will share about his day soon.

Of Recent Happenings

2010-06-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hello all. We have been rather busy recently. The garden has been producing, as have the other animals. We have sold all the chickens from our first processing, and should be doing some more on Monday. We had the farmer's market yesterday. We did pretty good seeing that the temperature was over a hundred degrees! I sold out of chicken and eggs. Papa sold quite a bit of garden produce. Unfortunately mama did not sell much bread or cookies.

Saturday we went out to visit some different farmer's markets. Papa, Samuel, and I went to the one in Farmville, and everyone else went to the one in Scottsville. The Farmville one was not very good. Mama says the the one in Scottsville was pretty good. One of the vendors there told her about one in Fluvanna. We visited that one on Tuesday (mama and I). I was helping Mr. Bryant (the man I have been working for recently) and mama picked me up and went to the farmer's market from there. We are planning on taking our chickens we process Monday there.

When we were in Farmville I had to get feed. The Southern States was right there next to the market so we went to get some there. It was the biggest feed store I've been in. They had a conveyor belt to bring the feed from up stairs to the lower level. We also had to stop at TSC to get some stuff to build some new chicken pens (see below). There was a poultry swap going on while we were there so we ended up leaving with two rabbits. Papa got them for Samuel and Abram and when they got home they built the cages. Samuel's rabbit died because he left it out in the hot sun.

We built a new chicken pen. It is Salatin style, only 8x8 vs. 10x12. I have been pleased so far. I will try to get a picture of the dolly my papa rigged up. Here is the pen:

We are in desperate need of rain. We are bone dry. We got a swallow yesterday, but not enough to do any good. But at least we got some.

Well I guess that is all for today.

Thanks for reading.

-GPD

An Update Post

2010-06-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hello. I am sorry it has been so long (again) since I last posted, but you know how busy it can get! I don't even know where to start. Well the last few Fridays I have been helping the man who I helped before doing various things (mainly garden work). Monday we processed chickens with the help of Oliver and Elliot Alexander and their feather plucker, along with a boy from church Eric Trent and his mother (thanks everyone). It went smoothly.

Here are some pictures (courtesy of Mrs. Trent):

Me eviscerating.

The feather plucker.

Hand plucking missed feathers.

Eric scalding.

Eric eviscerating.

Oliver operating the feather plucker.

Elliot teaching Samuel how to pull out missed feathers.

The finished product.

I mainly did eviscerating. Abram was slitting throats until he cut his finger and Samuel helped catch chickens. Papa and Elliot helped where needed. Oliver did feather plucking and Eric did the scalding. Mrs. Trent took pictures and made lunch and mama did QC (quality control). We processed 17 (I think) and they averaged 4.5 pounds. We haven't been able to sell many. We sold six at the farmer's market and kept three for our selves. We put the rest on Fall Line Farms but haven't sold any.

Speaking of farmer's markets Thursday was farmer's market day. We did better this time than last time but still not great. It was not as hot either.

Friday I went to help the man with some garden work, but buy about lunch time was feeling very feverish. So after we had lunch I checked my temperature and sure enough I had a fever so I had to come home and rest. My mother and I were going to go to the HEAV (Homeschool Educators Association of Virginia) Convention together on Saturday, but I had a fever of one hundred and two point something. So unfortunately I wasn't able to go. Mama ordered the MP-3's for it so I can still here the talks at least.

This morning I had a fever so I wasn't able to go to church. I checked my temperature later and I didn't have a fever so that's a good thing.

We had another bad wind storm yesterday. Papa's greenhouse is destroyed and the chicken house almost flipped over. In fact we lost a chicken, probably because the house came over on top of it.

We have also been having a fox coming around recently. It has been coming up close to the chickens but our dog Maisy keeps it away.

Well that is all for this post.

Thanks for reading.

-GPD

Of Farmer's Markets, Scythes, Lawn Tractors, and Farm Work

2010-05-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Let me see, where shall I start. OK, well the Friday before last a man who we know had me come over and help him on his farm. We unloaded some square bales off his trailer and truck and put them in the barn. Then we went to pick up some cows and a calf from another pasture down the road, then we unloaded them. His brother had come to help so he started cleaning out the piles of manure in the barn yard. Then we ate lunch and I cut grass. After that we took this tiny old train car up to the rail road for an event they had going on the next day (he also owns a small railroad in this area). Then Saturday I went and helped him in the garden. We planted some corn where the crows had eaten it, and picked up rocks. Then it started raining so we went to work on a calf crate he was building. Then yesterday I helped him pick up some cows and take them to the Madison Livestock Exchange. Then we came back and I picked up some rocks and then cut grass again. I made a total of $100 between the three days working for him. So that plus the experience, and joy of being a help made the work worth while.

We also got a new batch of chicks in. These were Cornish X. We switched the order to them instead of continuing the red broilers because they are growing to slow.

I bought a scythe to cut down some of the tall grass we had here, but I could not get it sharpened (If any of you have some suggestions let me know). Since that didn't work I fired up the lawn tractor to cut it down. After cutting some of it, it started smoking and my father came running out telling me to turn it off and get off. He said he saw flames. We think the belt was burning. But anyway, one of the front tires needed fixing, the blades need sharpening, and we need to replace the belt, so we took the tire and the mower deck to Southworth.

Thursday we had the farmer's market. We had garden produce available this time.It was VERY slow. It was also VERY hot and we were all sweaty.

Well I think that is about all for today.

Thanks for reading!

Of Chicken Processing, Wind, and Various Other Topics

2010-05-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hello, I hope I have not steered everyone away by not posting regularly. We have been kind of busy lately so let me cover the main happenings that I can remember.

Chicken processing. As I am sure most of you know, we were planning on processing chickens a few weeks ago. The scalding was much better because we had the turkey cooker this time. Our feather plucker didn't do so well. We had to use our drill mounted one because the one we were trying to build didn't work as I think I forgot to mention before. The only problem was that it kept spinning out of the drill. So we tried hooking it up to the homemade (not by us) grinder tool, but that made it spin too fast. So we ended up having to hand pluck the two chickens we processed. The reason we only did two was because they were too small. But we haven't lost anymore from the heat though thankfully.

I also went to help the Alexander family process chickens last Thursday. There were a couple ladies who came to help them and when I was showing one of them how to cut off the feet, I cut too far and into my finger. Thankfully it did not make too big a cut, but it did take me a while to stop the bleeding. After the chicken processing, we had lunch. Then Elliot, Oliver, their grandfather, and I went up to the top of the barn. They played ping-pong while I watched, but then I had to learn how to play. Unfortunately I have horrible hand-eye coordination.

Wednesday, I guess it was, we got a huge storm. We were closing the windows when I noticed that the top to the brooder box was tilted a little so that the rain could get in. I ran out to go fix it and was drenched as soon as I reached the thing. Then as I went to fix it the wind started blowing. The top to our brooder box just rests on top of the box and is not hooked on. The wind was very strong and blew the top right off. Then I was trying to put the top on, but the top made a perfect thing for the wind to blow against and therefore it would blow back in my face. Needless to say, I needed help and ran to the house to tell mama to come out and help. With her help I was able to get the top on. She held it down while I got some cinder blocks to hold the top down. Then it started to hail golf ball sized hail. I wasn't hurt but mama had a piece hit her on the back, but she is was o.k. too. This whole time the water was spraying in our face and I could barely breath. When papa got home and the storm stopped, we went out to see the damage. His green house was damaged, and the chicken house flipped over. Thankfully we were able to tip it back over again by pulling it over with papa's truck. A few trees were messed up (not the fruit trees thankfully), some of papa's garden was messed up, and we lost two chickens between then and the next morning.

Also we got baby Jonathan's memorial garden planted, or more appropriately, the Alexander family got it planted for us (thanks Alexanders!!). We helped some, but they did most of the work.

We went and got a few more chickens the other day. 13 White Leghorns from a neighbor, and 5 Amberlinks from a poultry swap.

Saturday we did a different farmer's market. There was a lot of competition there and we didn't sell much but mama's cookies (there was no one there who sold cookies). I don't know if we will go back again or not.

We hosted church Sunday. That was nice.

Yesterday papa and Samuel went to help a man in our church work on building a shed and work on siding. Another man from church was there too. It sounds like they got a lot done.

Here are some pictures:

Well that is all for today.

Thanks for reading!

-Graham P. Donahue

Of Several Things

2010-05-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

I have again, lacked posting. That is probably how it will be for a while as we are in our busy season on the farm.

Well to start let me tell you about the broilers. Today we got another batch of chicks in. We have been losing several broilers to some predator, but when we keep our dog out there with them, she keeps them at bay. Today we lost 9 broilers due to strokes, heart attacks, or the like. It was rather hot today, and the tarp that was giving them shade had torn all up, so I had to take that off. I was also not here to water them often, so my brothers had to do it. I don't know wether they did a good enough job or not. I suppose they must have had heat strokes. So anyway, we are going to process them tomorrow before they are all dead!

The farmer's market went well. Mama did really well, and I sold most of the eggs, I brought. There was not a lot of traffic, but hopefully the next ones will have more.

I went window cleaning with papa today. We did a house, a Subway (the fast food restaurant), and a pharmacy.

Sunday papa preached at my grandparent's church. He was a little nervous this time because their church is on the radio. So lots of people got to here him (hopefully).

Well that is about all that has been going on other than garden work. The garden has been coming along very nicely. We have gotten some strawberries, radishes, lettuce, and probably some other things as well.

Well that's all this time!

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Again.....

2010-04-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

....I have slacked on posting. My apologies to all my readers. My lack of posting has not been because of slothfulness, we have just been busy. The other day the last ewe due to lamb gave birth to two big ram lambs! Here is a picture:

Thursday we went to visit Ault's Family Farm in Pamplin. It was very good. Our friends from church, Eric Trent and his mother came with us. Saturday we met a man at the feed store who has 11 children. We invited them to church which was at our house. His wife and 7 of their children came, but the dad had some obligations at their church and took their other children with them. Then after church my mother noticed some smoke coming out of the brooder box. I ran outside to find the brooder on fire, or at least smoking. All but two of the 49 (or so) chicks died. I put the other two in a box in papa's greenhouse. One of them died. Then yesterday our friends the Pruietts came over. Tomorrow we are going to the farmers market in Brandermill. Though they take up a lot of time, I enjoy going to the farmer's markets.

Today I spent a good portion of the day on the lawn tractor. I mowed the lawn, then cut some of the pasture for hay. When I do that I have to go slow. The broilers drink a lot of water, so I have to keep filling up the waterers. The lamb also has to be fed. Therefore I spent all before and after and between mowing doing that, plus school this morning.

So needless to say we have been pretty busy.

I will try to write about the farmer's market sometime after tomorrow.

Well I'd better go.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Lambing Season in Full Swing!

2010-04-15T16:27:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. Well, what a busy past couple of days. Yesterday, Deere (and yes that is how it is spelled-no I did not name her) gave birth to triplets. I was very surprised. Twins are common, but triplets are not quite so common. My grandfather, who had sheep growing up, said that probably one out of five ewes has triplets. Anyway, at first I thought she may only have one because after the first one (a male) was born she didn't act like she was going to have any more. And she didn't for a while, but then another one came. This time a female. Then soon after that she had the third (also a male). This one was rather runty and was having trouble getting up. I tried to help him up but he couldn't. He acted like his leg was broken, so we brought him inside. My father had, a little while before, gone up the road to get some colostrum from some friends (I used up all I had on that calf). It is so nice to have neighbors who are willing to help you. So, back to the story. We gave him some colostrum and he perked up a little, and therefore we thought that we should try giving him back to his mother. This is where we made the mistake. We should have fed it outside and limited how much we touched it so as not to change its smell and she may have taken it. But instead we had dried it off with towels and that had obviously worn away its smell. So now we have a bottle lamb. Mama and I took turns staying up with him to feed him. I slept a good portion of the time, but sleeping on the floor is no fun. Today we put him out in the pen with the others. The only bad part is that since he is a male he will end up on somebodies dinner plate and most of my family has gotten attached to it. But I guess that is just the way it goes.

I just about spent all my money on supplies today. My grandfather suggested I give the sheep some alfalfa pellets to give them a little extra "umph" while nursing. That was a good idea so I had papa pick up some up at Tractor Supply. I also had him get some more bedding for the brooder box because we are getting 50 more chicks tomorrow. This will be our third batch and we still have not processed the first batch yet! Needless to say we are going to be busy with broilers this summer. So to get back on track I also had to get some milk replacer for the lamb. Papa stopped at Hertzlar's Farm and Feed to pick that up. While he was there he also got a lamb nipple and some guineas. He put the box with the 5 guineas in the greenhouse but they did not seem to want to get out off the box so I took them out and they all ran under some tall grass that is growing in papa's greenhouse. As far as I know they have not come out. Then I had papa stop at Cumberland Farm Equipment to get some broiler and layer feed.

So there you have it. I will try to keep you updated on the lambing. But until then....

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Lambs!

2010-04-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hello. This morning I went out to check eggs and look what I found!

Heidi had two ewe lambs. They are very cute. The creamy colored one we are naming Maple (because she looks syrupy colored). Any ideas on a name for the other one? The other ewes should be lambing any day now. Last year most of my lambs were born in the snow so I purposely planned the breeding so that the lambs would be born now, and I am glad I did because it is a BEAUTIFUL day.

Here are some more pictures:

Well I'd better go.

Thanks for reading!

-Graham

What We Have Been Doin'

2010-04-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hello ya'll. Well we have be pretty busy recently. Saturday a man from up the road came to see if we wanted this calf. Her mother was not able to nurse her because she had mastitis. He did not have the time to give her the care she needed. He thought we might so he said he would give her two us. We went with him to go pick her up. He had not trained her to go on a bottle, so he was tubing her. He showed us how you tube it and then we brought her back. We were never able to get her to suck, but we were able to squirt milk into the back of her throat to get her to swallow. Sunday we went to pick up some Electrolytes (I don't know if I spelled that right) from a friend. That helped, and we actually thought she could make it. But then Monday night she was really bad. she was very sick. She was breathing, and that was it. She couldn't even lift up her head. We didn't think she would make it till the morning. She did but she was not any better. So we went ahead and put her out of her misery. I figured that she would be dead soon anyway, so might as well make it quick. But anyway it was a good experience any way you look at it.

Sunday, since we had the calf, and church was in Hopewell I was not able to go. The rest of my family was going to go but we decide just to go up to a local church that hosted Jonathan's funeral. Since they were not far I was able to go. It was nice. They had an Easter service. Monday we had a huge storm. The winds supposedly got up to 60-70 miles per hour. We also had hail.

I cleaned the bedding out of part of the barn yesterday. It was pretty deep. Last night Samuel and Abram had baseball practice. The had them at different parks so mama spend her time going back and forth between places. I had to stay with Abram. I read my sheep! magazine while he practiced.

Well that is what has been happening.

Thanks for reading.

- Graham

P.s. Be sure to chesk out the "Old Farmer's Wisdom" on the sidebar ;).

Window Cleaning

2010-04-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Again I have failed to post anything on here. We have not been to busy. Today I went window cleaning with Papa. Window cleaning can be interesting. Like today for instance... We started out by doing a house. The lady there was trying to get rid of this really nice sewing table. Papa told her that Mama likes to sew, and the lady gave it to us to bring home to her. I think she likes it. Then when we went to do another place (this time only a business) one of the ladies came out and said to Papa, "Are you a minister" "Yes," Papa replied. "Do you merry people?" she asked. "Yes," Papa answered feeling kind of odd, "Are you getting married?" "Oh, no," she replied, "I am already married, but my friend is wanting to get married but needs to find someone to do the wedding. Do you have a card or something with your number on it so that I could give it to my friend?" "Sure," Papa said and handed her his card for his other business. Papa said he is going to use this as a opportunity to share the Gospel. Anyway... So after that we went to do the farm deliveries. After that was done we went to see our friends the Jones's new miniature donkey and pick up a bicycle for Mary to use when she is big enough. Then we went to clean some more windows. We also stopped at Tractor Supply so I could check the prices on some things.

Well that is about all that I did today, but Mama and the other children when to an Easter egg hunt that our friends the Zeah's hosted. I think they had fun.

Well that is all for now. Hopefully there won't be so long a gap between posts next time.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

What I Have Been Up To

2010-03-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! My deepest apologies to all my readers for my lack of posting recently. We have been pretty busy. I don't know where to start.... I guess I will just go through the past week and write about what we've been doing.

We have all been battling the stomach flu the past few weeks. Thankfully we are all well....... right now. So anyway, two Sundays ago Papa and I went to church, while everyone else had to stay home because there were some that were sick.

I do not think much happened Monday.

It was either Tuesday or Wednesday that I decided that I should start shearing the sheep. I went to get started but couldn't figure out how (the wool wasn't cutting the way I expected). But when Papa got home we went and figured out that I just wasn't doing it right. Go figure! So we worked on her but then it got dark and we could not finish her. After that we went inside and I told Mama that she should call the mother of a young man in our church and ask if he could come and help the next day. She called and she said he could.

Then the next day (Thursday) me and Papa were sick. Forget the sheep shearing! Mama called Eric's mom and told her not to bring him. Then mama had do do my chores for me. Abram went to help her but the sheep, who were all in the barn at the time, had no hay left to eat, so we came to the conclusion that they needed to go out to pasture. So Mama got Papa up and they went out to move them out to pasture. Papa was feeling just as bad (if not worse) than I. I am so blessed to have parents who care enough about me to go out and take care of my livestock when I am sick, even if they are feeling worse than I.

Everything went well (except for being sick of course), until later when my mother called out, "The sheep are out!" Sure enough the yearlings and ram had broken out. I was feeling a lot better so Mama and I went out (Papa came to, even though I told him I didn't need his help). Mama was able to lure all but the ram into the pen with some alfalfa pellets. The ram took a little more work to get in, but we finally got him in.

Friday I felt a LOT better. Papa did too. He went back to work. I worked on finishing up the sheep we started, and did another one.

Saturday I was hoping Eric would be able to come, but they already had plans. So I worked on another one by myself and then Papa came and helped finish it.

Sunday we were all able to make it to church. That was nice. We were able to have it outside in the nice weather. We had hot dogs.

Monday Eric was going to come, but they were sick. So Papa and I did the three adult ewes. All I have left is the ram. I am pretty sure two of the ewes are pregnent. I am not sure about the other one. I have the ram in with the younger ones now.

Not much else has gone on this week except that Monday-Thursday Samuel and Abram have baseball practice during the evenings.

This week we have done some garden work, and I moved the broilers out to pasture.

Well that's all I have for now.

Thanks for reading!

-GPD

Finally.......

2010-03-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is here!!! Or at least the grass is growing. The chicks are growing rapidly (and to answer Matthew's question we bought Moyer's K-22 red broilers). The sheep are doing well too. I am planning on moving them back out to pasture by the end of the week. We had to re-build our chicken house. When we went to move it out on to the pasture we broke the hitch off. We needed to replace the floor anyway, so we went ahead and replaced it. Here it is before we fixed it:

And here it is after we fixed it up:

We got rid of the solid floor because I did not want to have to put bedding in it, and to lighten it up a bit.

We did a lot of gardening Saturday I dug 61 holes in the wet dirt using a post hole digger. Then I put potatoes in each
hole. Then I covered them over. I see a lot of potential on the farm this year. Hopefully everything will go well. But knowing farming........

Here are some other pictures I took the other day:

We planted an orchard (see the pictures below). We planted two apples, one peach, one plum, one fig, and one cherry. I think the "orchard" looks neat.

Well that's all for now.

Thanks for reading.

-The Homeschooled, Libertarian, Christian, Confederate, Agrarian, Farmer, country boy :)

I'm Lovin' the Weather!!!

2010-03-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hello. I don't know about everyone else but I am loving this spring weather! It has been in the 60s and sunny with little wind. Not to mention clear and sunny skies. But anyway I really like spring. It is (or at least should be) when all the lambs, calves, and such are born. It is when the grass starts to grow. It is when you plant the garden. All around it is a good time of year.

Well speaking of gardens, Saturday and Monday we did a lot of gardening. We got some seeds planted in our green house, made some beds in the garden, and planted some potatoes and peas. I will try to get some pictures of the plants once they have started growing.

Here are some pictures of the greenhouse:

The chicks are doing pretty good. The past few days we were losing lots (we have lost a total of six, not including the one that died in the shipping). I am not quite sure why. I think it was because they were smothered while trying to keep warm. I lowered the heat lamps and that seemed to solve the problem. They are a week old today, and they seem to be growing pretty fast. Here are some pictures of them that I took today (notice the variety of colors they are when they are all the same breed):

Here are some pictures I took of the farm the other day:

Well that is all I have for now.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Real Quick......

2010-03-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that we got our chicks today. So far they seem to be very active, more active than any of the other chicks we have had. Here are some pictures:

Well that is all I have!

Thanks for reading!

-Graham

Tag and Chickens

2010-03-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

Part I
Well, I was chosen buy Sarah Heffington to do the following "Tag". Here it goes.

Books/stories I would like to live in for two weeks:

1. The Book of Matthew

2. The Chronicles of Narnia

3. Sherlock Holmes

4. Farmer Boy

5. The Book of Genesis (or at least the Creation, not the flood [unless of course I was part of Noah's family])

6. Mountain Born

7. The Hardy Boys

8. The Sugar Creek Gang

...... Boy, that was hard. I have lots of favorite books, but they are not ones that I could live in.

Here is the next part:

Blogger's I Tag

Oliver
Morgan
Oldest of Many
Katie
The Gentleman From Virginia
Rachel
Micah
Abigail

Man Sarah, you chose almost all of my followers! I had to tag some people who were already tagged because I could not think of anyone else. My deep apologies to all I tagged, but I had to choose eight people.

Part II

Ok, well I am being driven to the dickens with chickens! When we went to order the broiler chickens they said they were all out of the Cornish cross until April! So I called up Elliott A. and he said keeping roosters together shouldn't be a problem, so we ordered 500 K-22 cockerels (they don't sell a straight run). We should be getting the first batch (50) tomorrow or Friday. I'm just praying that we will be able to sell all of these chickens...... I have been wanting to get some ready-to-lay pullets. I need more layers in order to meet my goals for this year, but I don't want to feed chicks all the way up to laying age. Papa went to Hetzlar's Farm and Feed yesterday to pick up some, but all of their beaks were clipped.... so I just told papa to not get them. Polyface Farm claims they are the only ones in VA who sell them without their beaks clipped. I think he is right. We called them to ask about the price, but we had to leave a message. One of these days it will all work out.

Well that's all for now.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

What's Been Happening

2010-02-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I hope y'all are all well. We have been busy the last couple days. Yesterday our friends the Pruietts took us out to eat and to go ice skating. I had never ice skated before so it was a new experience. I only fell twice. I don't know why my falling rate was so low. I can't imagine it being because I was clinging to the wall the whole time : ). Anyway we had a great time (thank you Pruietts!). By the end of the day Samuel and Abram were out skating around with out help (not professionally of course), but I was out cling to the wall like an amature. I suppose that is because I am an amature :p. We got home at like 11:45 p.m. and I didn't get to bed before 12:00! So I slept in today. This morning we went to Abram's basketball game, signed them up for baseball, and came home. My mother stayed at the gym with Samuel and Abram for Samuel's game. Papa and me came home with the little ones because we had to work on building the green house. We forgot some of the wood, but nobody in town had any. The only place that did was closed. So we practically wasted a whole trip (except for going to the dump). We were unable to get any more done on the green house because we did not have the wood. So Papa tried to burn the brush pile. It did not start up. I guess it is just one of those days.

As far as the chick orders go, it did not turn out how I expected. They did not sell a strait run of the K-22s, so I ended up deciding to just order the Cornish X, but she was messed up on the pricing (she does not usually handle orders) so she said to call again on Monday when someone else was there. Maybe I will get these chicks ordered one of these days!

O.k. , well I started a political/religion blog. I thought it would be a neat idea to do one where people can post their thoughts on politics/religion. You can see it here: . If you would like to be an author of it you can find the information on how to do so there.

Well I'd better go.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham P. Donahue

Several Things

2010-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Hello my loyal readers. I hope everyone is doing well. It seems like I have been pretty busy. Sunday my father preached at a nearby church. He has taught there a couple of times before because they are without a pastor. Then yesterday my mother had a doctor's appointment so my father was home with us all day. We went to the dump and picked up some starter fluid to fire up (literally) our brush pile. Then that evening we went to Abram's basketball game. They did real well. Yesterday I started working on a 5 Year Farm Plan. I'm planing big picture stuff for this year and the next four years to come. I've got stuff like how much I am wanting to net each year, and what I am going to have to produce to get there. Hopefully my mother and I will be able to order the broiler chicks for this year tonight. I think I am going to order 500 and have them delivered every two weeks. I am going to order 250 Cornish X and 250 of the K-22 red broilers (both from Moyer's Chicks). I was able to buy the turkey fryer for the scalder. Now I just have to build a chicken plucker...... . Anyway this evening my mother and siblings are going to Samuel's basketball game. I was going to go, but when my mother said they would go to McDonald's before hand I changed my mind. It is hypocritical to try to market all natural food and then eat at McDonald's. Besides last time I ate at McDonald's my stomach didn't feel right afterwards.

I have been been kinda sorta taking guitar lessons from a man in our church. He will give me the stuff I need to use to learn different things, and I will practice them at home. Then if I have a question I can ask him at church. Anyway, I had learned how to strum all the Major chords and therefore needed to learn the rest (minors and sevenths). He Emailed me the rest of the hand positions and strumming information. Then I started to practice them. I had never done any bar chords before and I felt like I would brake my fingers trying to hold things like an F7 or G minor. I guess with a little practice they won't be so hard.

Well I guess I'd better go!

Thanks for reading!

-The homeschooled, Libertarian, Christian, Confederate, Agrarian, farmer, country boy.

Happy Birthday Samuel!!!

2010-02-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

Today was Samuel's ninth birthday. He seems to have had a very good birthday. He has always been a fan of video games, and my Grandparents finally bought him a DS (gameboy). My parents have told him that his time on it will be very limited (only an hour a day). Papa bought another game to go with it today. He seems to really enjoy it. My parents let him play on it most of the day to day as it is his birthday. I have yet to understand the point in video games. Samuel got nine dollars in a birthday card and he was strutting around saying, "I'm rich!..... I'm rich!". Then I told him I had over $300 and his jaw dropped. He said, "Man you could buy a Wii and several controllers with that!". I said, " Yes, but why would I? I am going to invest it into money making things like chicken processing stuff." My point is, why spend $300 dollars on something that just keeps sucking up more money, when you could invest in something that would bring you money like rabbits or chickens? It just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it is because I just don't like video games. Anyway here is a picture of him opening the DS:

My grandfather took us out to eat (Burger King) and go bowling for Samuel's birthday. The bowling went very well. I got three strikes. The first one was bad because the next score was two gutterballs. After the next Abram thought it was his turn so he went in my place. That was probably good because knowing how well I do I probably would have done bad. Anyway... the last one was o.k., but I didn't do as well as I wished. But we had fun and that is all that matters. Here are some pictures:

I had to pick up some feed on the way home. Then later on a man we know from up the road came and got some bread. We had a nice chit chat with him. Then we had cake and ice cream. I did a math test between all these events too!!! I hope I don't flunk it!!

Well, I'd better go.

Thanks for reading!

-Graham

Endevors and Ideas for 2010

2010-02-15T14:36:00.000-08:00

Hello. I decided to do a separate post for this. Be sure to read the post below about Mary's birthday.

These are some things I am going to try to do this year.

Commercial Broilers

Last year we tried our hand at broilers for our own use. It worked rather well so I am going to try doing 30 or so every two weeks to sell at the farmer's market. I am going to buy a Turkey Fryer to use as a scalder. I still have not decided on what to do for plucking. I think I may buy the book "Anyone Can build a Tub Style Mechanical Chicken Plucker" and build one. We'll see how this works.

My Big Marketing Idea

I have a new (and fun) marketing idea. It came to me in the other night in the shower. My father was talking awhile back about doing a farm tour video now that we have movie editing software. I got thinking and we also have the ability to make DVDs out of our videos. If we could make a farm tour video and put it onto DVDs and give them away with each chicken bought or something. I think this would be neat to do. It would probably work as a good marketing tool too.

Well I'd better go.

-Graham

Happy Birthday Mary!!

2010-02-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

Hello. Today was Mary's 2 birthday! My mother bought her a little high chair for her baby doll. She took the baby and put it into the high chair so it would be ready for her this morning. Mary woke up and we heard her saying "Baby???". She was wondering where her baby was. Then she walked out to the living room and saw her baby in the high chair and said, "High Chair....! Baby...!". It was cute watching her. She also got a little riding tricycle and helmet. She seems to like everything.

We went to the Powhatan YMCA to swim. I know that is ridiculous but it was not my idea. But I believe everyone had fun.

When we got home Papa and I went into town to do some things. We had to go to the dump but when we got there we remembered that it was President's Day so we had to skip that. We had to stop at the feed store to ask the owner if he had made some phone calls for us, but he was on the phone. We then went to the other feed store to pick up some alfalfa pellets for the sheep. Then we went to the lumber/hardware store to check the price of the supplies to build our hoop house, but they did not have everything, and what they did have was over budget! So the trip was pretty uneventful.

Well that is all for this post.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

About a Couple Things

2010-02-11T05:26:00.000-08:00

Hello ya'll. I hope everyone is doing well. All right. Let me start with what has happened the last few days. The funeral Sunday went well. Mr. Jones, and Mr. Pruiett did a great job. There was a slide show with some pictures and some words of encouragement from different friends from all around the United States, even some missionary friends in another country. We have been blessed with friends all over the U.S praying for us in this difficult time period. Anyway, I would like to thank the Alexanders for all the encouragement and support they have given us through this struggle.

Monday my brothers Samuel, Abram, and I went with my grandparents out for Samuel's birthday (it isn't until the 18th, but we wanted to be able to go when my grandparents were here). We went into Midlothian to the mall to play Lunar Golf. It was just like regular putt-putt golf, except it was under neon type lights so everything glowed (especially white things), and it was somewhat dark. It was fun, though I didn't win any of the games. I did get a whole in one though.

It snowed some more Tuesday. I am ready for spring. I like spring because that is when everything on the farm happens (the sheep lamb, the chickens egg production increases, the garden is planted, the grass begins to grow back, etc.), and I start to see the potential for the year. Speaking of egg production the chickens, even though it is winter, are laying lots of eggs. We are getting over a dozen eggs and we only have 29 hens! I think it was because we had a late starting batch of pullets. Since they didn't start until fall I think they just kept laying through the winter.

Ok, let me get back on track... . This morning my grandparents are headed to the Dullas (is that spelled right?) airport to fly to San-Francisco this evening. Unfortunately they may not be able to fly out because of the three feet of snow they got up there! Please pray they have a safe trip.

Tomorrow some of the ladies from church are going to come clean the house for mama. I think she will appreciate it.

Well I'd better go.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow.........

2010-02-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Snoooooooowwwwww!!! What we had on the ground was just starting to melt and then it snowed again. We are supposed to get more on Tuesday as well. Well I guess it isn't overly horrible. If this keeps up, the chicken house will need to be cleaned out. They spend most of their time in there. Anyway I don't know if any of you from south-eastern Virginia still have any snow or got more. A man from up the road came and and cleared my grandparents, great-grandmother's, and ours' driveways with his big John Deere. We have a gravel driveway, so I think he mainly just dug up rocks and dirt. My grandmother cooked up some of my lamb this evening. It is almost all sold, so I wanted to eat some before it was gone. They were just some shoulder stakes, but they were delicious. She fried them on the skillet with some orange slices to add flavor. She also added a little water here and there to keep it from drying out. I appreciate her making it for me (thanks grandma :o) ) Tomorrow (Lord willing) is Jonathan's funeral. Please pray that everything will go smoothly. A nearby church (as a matter of fact it is really right behind us as a crow flies) is letting us use their facility for the service. It seems to be a very healthy church. My Father says that is because there is a diverse age group (children to elderly folks). They really have some great people. The pastor's family homeschools their children. As a matter of fact, the father (pastor) was homeschooled. We have been so blessed through this whole time (thank you so much for the kind words in the last post by the way). Well I'd better go and get ready for bed.

Thanks for reading.

-Graham

Baby Johnathan Update

2010-02-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Thank you all for your prayers on Johnathan's arrival. Yesterday morning, really early in the morning my parents went into the hospital. My mother was induced yesterday, but the baby didn't come. Later in the afternoon they did an ultra-sound and discovered that sometime between 4-7 Johnathan passed away in the womb. Everyone took it very hard as we were looking forward to being able to meet and hold Johnathan before he passed away. The Lord knows what is best for us and definitely did this for our benefit. Though we may not know why, God does everything for our benefit and for his glory. He was born at 4:50 this morning (1 lb, 14 0z) . My parents are planning on coming home this afternoon. Please continue to pray for our family as we struggle with this loss (my mother especially). Thank you again for all your prayers.

-Graham

P.s. My Grandfather says "Hi"!

Another Video Post

2010-02-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

Hello. We got the pig loaded up very well today. My grandpa and I built a long ramp so that the pig did not feel like it was going up. We took the same cattle panel corral setup and took the hog (through the snow-or my father and grandpa did anyway) and moved it up the ramp and the pig walked right into the bed of the truck. She did not want to get off at the butcher though. The butcher and papa had to push and pull and shove to get her off. It was much simpler and pleasent this time (thank the Lord!).I know this is the second video post recently, but my mother suggested I post this one here. I hope you like it.

Snow

2010-01-31T11:13:00.001-08:00

Hello ya'll. I hope everyone is having fun in the snow. I will tell you this, snow covered ground is beautiful. We got about 10-15 inches. The snow is very powdery this time. We tried going sledding, but the snow was too soft. Maybe it will be better if the snow freezes a bit. Church was canceled today so this morning my papa and I shoveled snow. We cleared the berm that the snow plow made in front of our driveway, and cleared my great grandmother's walks. The animals don't seem to be minding the cold too much. We moved the pig to the barn the other night so everything has shelter. The chickens have not come out of their house much, but a couple of them did come out for a very quick check. My grandparents who live in OR are coming for a visit. They are on their way from my uncle, aunt, and cousins' house in Baltimore now. They should be here in the next couple hours. My mother is going in to be induced on Tuesday. Please pray for her and the rest of our family as we struggle through this difficult time. Mrs. Alexander wrote about my mother on their blog . We really appreciate what she said (thank you Mrs. Alexander). Well there is not much else for me to say so I guess I better go.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

P.s. Be sure to take the political test on the sidebar!

My First "Edited" Video

2010-01-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

Hello! I was finally able to make the professional type video using iMovie on our Mac. It is of Samuel and Abram riding the goats that we used to have. Let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions on changes let me know. Enjoy.

A Post on Various Topics

2010-01-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Ok, let me start out with last night. I went outside to close up the chickens into their house. Only a few were in there, the rest were in the corner of the pen area. They had been doing this a lot recently so I just assumed all was normal. I figured I would check inside their house just to be safe. And there it was, eating eggs from the buckets that I have in there for them to lay in (it was an opossum by the way). So I ran to the house and told Papa to get my shotgun. While he got the weapon I got the ammo. Then we headed back out to the chicken house. He held the flashlight for me. The opossum looked right at us. I nervously pulled the trigger and shot at him. He fell down dead. Thankfully I had a shotgun so as close as I was to him I was bound to hit him. It was my first kill, and I got him first shot! Well I guess I should stop bragging and move on. Today my mother went out with a friend. Her children came over while they went out. It made the house very noisy. Anyway they got back and my mother rode in with them to town so she could pick up my papa's truck from the auto repair place (it was actually the van that had problems, my father just dropped off the truck and drove the van home). The lady who visited and her friend both bought pork shares so she picked up both of theirs today. Then this afternoon we had a man deliver 20 bales of hay. He gave us two extra free! He is very kind. He sells the hay for $4 a bale and charges another $1 per bale for delivery. So after we unloaded his truck I had to take all the bales to the barn (I didn't want him driving across the yard with his big truck to get to the barn). So now my hands are sore from the baling twine (why didn't I wear gloves?). Well that sums up the past couple days.

I decided I would answer Rachel's Smithfield question here since it would be way to long for a comment. First of all they are very in-humane with the pigs. Don't get me wrong I do not think we should treat animals like humans, but we should treat them like animals (or as the legendary Joel Salatin would say, "Let them express their 'Pigness'"). Putting them on concrete and slatted floors their whole life and not let them dig and tromp and roll in mud like they enjoy is not very respectful to the pigs. I think we should respect all of God's creation. Also I think that Smithfield plant's are very unsanitary (just ask Oliver). An operation slaughtering 1000s of hogs a day using illegal aliens who don't wash their hands cannot possibly be sanitary. And finally I think they have the wrong focus. So what if Virginia hams are all around the world? If the pork is unhealthy why does it matter? It is also very inefficient to take all the hogs from all over the South east and processing them in a centrally located spot to then redistribute it all over the world. I think it makes more since to buy, raise, and sell everything locally. But I will end on a bright note. I am proud to be in a state that is known around the world for its hams. I also think that Smithfield is better at maintaining cleanliness in their "houses" then Tyson for instance. That is why I said that I think I would rather eat a Smithfield ham then something from Tyson. Also we do end up buying Smithfield pork because that is all we can afford. If I had it my way I would buy it from somebody locally, but I am not the one who pays the grocery bill. And finally, though I do not support Smithfield or other large companies like them, I do support all the farmers that grow for them or anyone else. They live a hard life and deserve more credit then they get.

Well I better go.

Thanks for reading.

GPD

Of Basketball, Sickness, and Backstrap

2010-01-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Today we went to my brothers' upwards basketball games. Abram's was at nine o-clock. My father coaches his team. They did not keep score so I don't know who one. We came home for a little while then went to Samuel's game that started at 12. They beat the other team bad. The score was 60 to 16! They both really enjoy playing. On our way home we had to pick up some pork from the butcher. We have all been sick recently and on the way home my brother got sick. So when we got home my father had to clean that up. My mother was in bed because she has been sick today. I had to put the meat inside then go and chase the pig around. While we were chasing the pig and my father was cleaning the car, the customers came to pick up their pork share. After we got the pig in, I loaded up their pork. It was the worst day for them to come. It is winter time so everything is a mess, and we just had a bunch of rain. Those of you who have farms know what I mean. I hope they don't go spreading the word that our farm was a mucky mess. On a bright note we had a good dinner. Our friends gave us some deer meat. It was the backstrap. My father put bacon on it (Gwaltney bacon, a subsiderary of Smithfield :( ). It was so good. We also had some baked potatoes. Well that is all I have for today.

Graham

p.s. I hope you like the new background ;)

How Many People Does It Take to Load Up a Hog?

2010-01-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Whew! Hello ya'll. What a day! Let me start from the beginning. This morning my father and I went out to get the pig loaded up. A couple days ago we got his truck ready. We took two concrete panels (7' x 4') and connected them to the ladder rack on his truck. We tied a pallet to the front of the bed to protect the back window from being crushed by the pig. We took another rope and tied another pallet to the back as a gate. Anyway, we took a cattle panel (I love those things) and corralled the pig and moved him over to the truck. Easy. Then we moved the panel up to the ramp and tryed to get the pig to go up it. That was not so easy. Once she even got away and we had to catch her again. We tried poking her with a pole to get her to go up the ramp. Didn't work. My mother joined us and we tried enticing it up the ramp with table scraps and feed. It would get on the ramp, but not far enough to get into the truck. So we tried making the corralled section of the cattle panel smaller to force it up. Still no success. Just a lot of squealing. So we started calling around. First we called a man up the road we know who raises pigs. All we got was an answering machine. Then we tried Mr. Alexander. Still no success. Then we tryed a man I know who knows a lot about pigs as he has three thousand of them. We reached his mother but she said that he was out rabbit hunting down in southern Virginia. She gave us his cell, but my father and him got disconnected. My father's phone has been acting up recently so he went inside to call from the home phone. The phone did not work (we eventually found that it was unplugged). What would we do! We had two voice mails. One was the first man we called. He said he was eating breakfast, but would be there in 45 minutes. The other was the mother of the man we know saying that they would be up in ten minutes. She came with their farm hand, and some other lady. They showed us how we needed to put boards around the "corral" so she could not see out. We tried that, but it did not work. So we tried putting a lasso around it and pulling it up into the truck. My father and the other man pulled her up onto the tailgate then we lifted her up the rest of the way. We closed the gate behind her having successfully got her up into the truck. Just then the man from up the road came. He brought a couple of ropes and those helped us tie everything up. We thanked everyone for their help and sent them home with some left over electric wire from building our house and they left. I am so thankful that we live in the country where people are willing to help each other. We went inside to eat a quick breakfast then left for the butcher. When we arrived he told us how easy it is to get a pig into a truck by putting a 5 gallon bucket over its head and backing it up onto it. Oh well. So we unloaded the pig and then discussed the cutting instructions. After that we came home. When we got home I cleaned up all the stuff we used to get the pig in the truck. Then I did a few other things. Then Abram and I sorted out the junky and good hay from the round bale I was given. It was stored outside so it was mostly bad hay. I took some of the bad hay and put it in the chicken pen for them to scratch in, and to help keep it from getting muddy. We put the good hay in the barn and the rest of the bad hay we put in a pile. After that I collected the eggs, and came inside for lunch. It was about 2 o-clock. Then I worked on some school and then started writing this. So that was our day. I better go now.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Happy Birthday Papa!!

2010-01-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

Today was my father's 40th birthday! He says that he is already starting to feel it! Since it is his birthday my mother and him are out seeing the movie Avatar and eating out at Ruby Tuesdays. I hope they have a good time. He got some garden beds from my grandparents for his birthday. They are black plastic pieces that you put together. It will be neat to see how they work. I went widow cleaning with him Wednesday. We cleaned a Honda House, then had lunch with a friend. After lunch we cleaned a beauty salon called Envy, went to get groceries at Wal-Mart, and went to the bank. We are taking one of the pigs to butcher. We almost have the other pig sold (that is we have almost enough people interested in buying a share). We are trying to figure out a way to haul them. If anyone has a suggestion, please tell me. My grandparents are up here keeping us while our parents are out. Other than that, not much has been going on. Well that is all I have for now.

Thanks for reading!

Graham

The Past Weekend

2010-01-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Yesterday we had church at the Jones's house in Chesterfield. We had some visitors which is always nice. For those of you who have not been to our church this is how it goes:

Everyone starts to get there at about 10:00. We will chat about this and that until everyone gets there, and the service usually starts at about 10:30. The head of the house we are meeting at will lead the service. We will usually start with a word of prayer, then we sing. After that we will usually have another prayer time. After that a man (usually my father or Mr. Jones who are the elders) will bring the word. After that we have communion. When all that is done we have a meal and fellowship time.

This is probably the way most home churches go (relatively anyway). Today the social workers~ who work with the hospice group that is helping our family with Jonathan's birth and death~came to see us (again). It went well, and one of the chaplain ladies may even buy a pork share! My father took my brothers to basketball practice. This week I will probably be going window cleaning with my father Wednesday. I go a lot with him in the summer, but when I am in school I can't go as much. We are thankful that he has a relatively good week ahead in terms of business. He has lost a lot of business recently do to the economy. We are thankful that the Lord has provided though. At least he is self-employed and does not have to worry about being laid off. Also please pray for my mother. She has been having a hard time emotionally. The past few days have been hard for her. Our family could all use your prayers.

Finally, I joined a farmer's forum for sustainable agriculture. You can find a link to it on the sidebar. It looks like it will be very helpfull.

Well, I better go for now!

Thanks for reading!

G.P.D.

Happy Birthday Abram!!!!

2010-01-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Today is Abram's 7th birthday! I am so happy to have had him as a brother for these years. He and Samuel went to Chuck. E. Cheese yesterday. Me, Timothy, and Mary got to stay at my grandma's house. Therefore I got to avoid Chuck. E. Cheese, and the shopping they did afterward [Hurray!]. Anyway this evening my grandparents are coming up for cake and ice cream the best part of birthdays :). My brother Samuel gets to spend the night at his friend Angelo's house. They enjoy playing together. Some hospice care people came to talk with my mom today about baby Jonathan. She and my father met with them and the doctors yesterday, and they are coming to talk to us Monday! The pigs got out of the fence twice the other day. That is one of the reasons I plan on not raising them again for awhile. Oh, by the way, we have sold one hogs worth of shares and are taking it to the butcher on the 18th. Anyway the lambs got out today. They are harer to get in than pigs, but they don't get out much (unlike goats and pigs). animals are hilarious. I didn't have any alfalfa pellets to lure them into the pen with so I used layer pellets. I didn't give them to them though. The old rattle-the-grain-in-front-of-them trick usually does work except for with pigs and sometimes sheep (especially if you use it to much). So except for the rest of my family I have not been to busy. Today was the last day of school for the week! I do not care for school at all, but I know it is important (most of it anyway). I am apsolutely loving Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal! If you have not read it I highly recommend it.

Well that is all I have for now. Thanks for reading.

Graham

Winter Pictures

2010-01-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hello. I hope you all are still reading. I haven't seen many comments lately. Anyway....... Sunday, church was at our house. We had a family we know visit. They live about 30 minutes away and could not join our church because most of our families live over a half an hour away the other direction. But they wanted to see what it was like. Yesterday my father and brother went to take our dog to get spayed. Then in the afternoon we went to get hay, and he got his taxes done. Each time he goes he gets more and more angry at the IRS (Intentional Robbery Service). Anyway while we went to get hay my mother and brother went to pick up our dog and my grandmother watched the rest of my siblings. We also started school yesterday. Today I took some pictures while doing chores. Here they are:

Heidi eating some hay.

The brush pile.

The chickens

The pigs.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Of 2009, Chicken Processing, and Cleaning the Barn

2010-01-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010! What happened to 2009? As everyone else I will list some things I was blessed with in 2009 (I will try to do them in order:

We got our first egg.

I had a great first lamb crop.

I was able to enjoy watching my brothers play basketball and baseball.

I was able to attend an Environmental Day Camp.

I learned how to process chickens.

A man in our church gave me a shotgun (thank you Mr. Jones).

We got to go to the State Fair.

I finally gave square dancing a whirl (after having two previous chances to try) and had a great time.

I got to experience hunting.

I got to experience farming in the snow.

All these things and more the Lord blessed me with. I hope that I will be blessed just as much this year.

Thursday I got to help the Alexanders process chickens. I got there about ten-0-clock, and we got started about 11. Right about the time we got a good pace going the cows got out. I stayed to keep processing but Elliot, Oliver, and Mr. Alexander went to put them in. When we were done we bagged and labeled them and then loaded up the freezer. When we were done with that we ate lunch. About the time I finished eating my father came to pick me up. They sent me away with a few things including some great yogurt (thank you).

Today I spent a good part of the day cleaning out the barn and preparing it for keeping the sheep in this winter. For the first time I ran out of BAD hay! I had to use good hay for bedding. After i finished I moved the sheep in. They haven't touched the hay I put in there for them but are readily consuming the bedding hay! We also moved the chickens into the garden for winter. Now everything is close to each other around the barn so chores will be easier.

As far as hunting, today was the last day of doe season. That is all we ever see here. The other day we saw 5 down below us and we went to go get them. Unfortunately I did not think and went through the back door and they ran off. Today we saw some and I went out the front door but the sound of the left over frozen snow crunching scared them off.

Tomarow church is at our house. A family we know is going to visit.

Well I better go! Thanks for reading.

Graham

What We Have Been Up To

2009-12-30T11:30:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. This past sunday we went to a nearby church for an ordination of a missionary. Him and his family will be going to southeast Asia in January, so they had a special ceremony after the sermon which was about God being with us all the time. Sunday our uncle and aunt came over and we played some games they got my brothers for Christmas. The pigs got out from the barn (we put them in there because of the snow). It was a bad mistake to put them in there because the turned the place into a mud hole. My brothers and cousins came out to help (I get mad when the pigs get out but people who have never experienced it have fun). I ran them in through the hole and found that it would be to difficult to fix as the pen was like sinking sand. So I started to put them back into their main pen but tripped and my hand got filthy muddy. They all thought that was gross but, hey what's water for? Anyway, I got them back in and moved them back to the garden (thankfully just a few pen spaces away). I am not sure I will raise pigs next year because they are a pain and they eat, and eat, and eat, etc., etc., etc. It seems like the only time I go anywhere is to church, or to get feed! Monday we had company. Some friends from a church my father used to pastor (the Butlers) came up. They live in Gordonsville located in Orange County. We also had some hospice people come to talk to my parents, so Mr. and Mrs. Butler kept us out of the way. I don't know why but it seem that being busy goes in stages. One week you won't be doing a thing, and the next you have something almost every day! It seems as though since like November we have been extra busy. Maybe I just don't remember the rest of the year. Anyway, can you believe that 2010 is just around the corner? It seems like yesterday was the begenning of the year! Well I better go.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Christmas

2009-12-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.And this [will be] the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.

-Luke 2:8-16

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful day. We had a great one. I am not exactly sure why but it is a family tradition to open one gift Christmas Eve evening. We also started a few years ago drawing names and buying a gift for one of our siblings. So we combined the traditions and opened the presents we bought each other Christmas eve. I wish I could afford to buy everyone a gift but the hogs and chickens demand their feed, and the feed dealer demands their money ;) . Anyway I drew my six year old brother Abram's name. My mother said that he wanted some coloring things so that is what I got him. My eight year old brother Samuel drew my name. He got me a gift card. I got several great gifts. My parents got me a book called More Sheep, More Grass, More Money , and a blaze orange cap for hunting. My Grandparents gave me a nice camouflage jacket, several snack type "foods" some binoculars, and some gloves and socks (I may have forgotten something). My other grandparents who live right down the road gave me a hat with our farm name on it, a c.d., some really nice gloves, an excellent flash light, and Joel Salatin's new book Everything I Want to Do is Illegal. My great grandmother gave us some Andy Griffith episodes, some Adventures in Odyssey c.d.s, and a game. We had a breakfast and lunch with them. My aunt and uncle in Dallas gave me (and my siblings) each a gift card to Target. My great aunt and uncle came over for lunch with everyone yesterday. They gave me a movie called The Ultimate Gift. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I highly recommend it. My uncle, aunt, and cousins from Chesapeake came today and we had a Christmas lunch with them at my grandparents' house. They got me a calculator (my uncle teaches high school math). Sooooo... I got a lot of excellent gifts. I look forward to the day when I can be on the giving end.

Today we had to go to town to pick up feed and go to the dump. After lunch we cleaned out the "chicken house". We had some rain today and yesterday so the snow is almost gone and what is left is slush. The pigs have ruined the ground around and inside the barn, and the dirt floor of the barn is now mud. Tommarow we are visiting a nearby church that we have several friends at. A missionary family that attends there is going back to southeast Asia in January. The father is being ordained and we are going to support him.

Well I better go. Merry Christmas.

Graham

Sledding

2009-12-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hello. I just wanted to post some pictures of sledding. My mother and I took my siblings yesterday, and we all took our friends this afternoon. I didn't sled but I did take some pictures. Here are some of the best

Abram (6) sledding.

Timothy (3) going down the hill.

Mary (1) grinning after a fun ride!

We went hunting today but all we saw were tracks. The bad part is that when we were inside two deer come bouncing out of the woods to the woods on the other side of the field! Well that is all I have for now. I will post more after Christmas. Merry CHRISTmas!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

2009-12-21T14:43:00.001-08:00

Hello. I cannot believe Christmas is right around the corner! It started snowing Friday afternoon and over the next few days accumulated to over a foot! Farther west got two feet. So I have had a "fun" time doing chores in the snow. I am using up all my hay, I may end up having to buy some this year. We moved the pigs to the barn because I heard that they do not like the cold. The chickens have stayed in their house for the last few days, but they came out today for a second. The sheep have wool and seem to be doing o.k. My brothers went sledding with my father Saturday and Sunday (church was canceled). We decorated our "fake" Christmas tree this morning. We were able to go out to eat and Christmas shop this afternoon. The main roads were cleared, but ours was still a little icy. Well here are some pictures.

This Week

2009-12-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

Hello. This week has not been to busy, but there is enough to write about. Monday we moved some of the tree limbs that our friend cut down and that was about it. Not much happened on Tuesday until the afternoon. There is a farmer who used to rent my greatgrandmothers property who still rents a farm next to us. He was up feeding his cows and I went to ask him if he would be interested in buying a hog share (he wasn't but he says he gets calls from people wanting them all the time). He let me ride around with him while he fed his cows and I opened and closed gates. Then after that he asked if I could ride with him over to Cumberland to help him push a bale of hay off his truck (I think he just wanted company because it basically slid off the tailgate). He must have appreciated my help because he gave us a bale of hay! It has been stored outside and is rotting but hey, It was free! I will pick through it when the hay I made by hand runs out. Yesterday my grandpa (Paw-Paw) took me into Dillwyn to get pig feed. I have been trying a mix they do their that consists of corn, soybean meal, molasses, and minerals. The hogs go wild over it (I guess because of the molasses), and it is only $14 dollars for a 100 pound bag. After I got the feed I worked on school. When I was done I moved some more tree limbs. We were originally moving them on a pallet with the lawn tractor, but it started messing up the yard so I moved them by hand. We have been piling them in the garden and are planing on burning them eventually. Last night in one of the fields down below us I saw 8 does! It must be several groups hanging out together because tyipically we only see about three together. I chickened out and didn't go down there after them. I am kicking myself for doing so but looking back on it is probably good I didn't. We really don't have good knives for butchering a deer and my father wasn't going to be home for a while (when he did it was too dark). I don't really think I could have hauled a deer up the hill all by myself (it is pretty steep). I don't no why I was so concerned, with my luck I would have scared them to Harrisonburg before I got there (ok maybe I am exsagerating a little bit ;). Anyway I also didn't feel comfortable trying to tag the deer all by myself either (I am horrible about calling strangers on the phone). So I missed my chance, but hey what's the harm? So not a lot has gone on though it took me a while to write it. This morning my father took some products to a couple drop off sights. We sold them through Fall Line Farms. This is our first week doing it and it has worked well. For more information you can visit their website at http://flf.luluslocalfood.com/.

Well that is all I have right now. I have to move some more limbs. Thanks for reading.

Graham

Broiler Processing

2009-12-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

First of all I want to thank everyone who has become followers for doing so. I would especially like to thank Elliot who gave my blog to Oliver, and Oliver who put my blog on his "Blogs I often read" sidebar. Also I would appreciate you all praying for us. A few weeks ago my mother went to have an ultrasound and found out that the baby (a boy) has not fully developed his brain and has no skull on the top of his head. He also only has two chambers in his heart. Though we know the Lord could heal him we do not expect it. Please pray for my mother as she is especially is having a hard time.

With all that said let me talk about the processing. This morning my father went out to take my brothers to try out for Upwards Basketball at a nearby church, and to pick up feed. We had some friends of my mothers over for lunch. He has a tree removal business so he brought his chainsaws to clear up a few things for us. After lunch he helped us process the chickens. He brought some nice knives. We were going to use my mom's slow cooker as a scalder but that did not heat up (we should have stated it up earlier). Since the scalder didn't work our drill mounted plucker didn't either, so we skinned them instead. I don't like the way they turn out but it was more efficient then trying to pull out non scalded feathers. We were not set up very well and we didn't have a very good system (we all did a little of every job), but thankfully we got it done. We get to have pancakes and bacon for dinner=)! We are all very tired but at least I won't have to buy any more broiler feed, and our freezer is full of chicken. Here are some pictures my mother took:

Thanks for reading.

Graham

The Last Couple Days

2009-12-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hello. The past few days have been cold. However it has been sunny and the snow has melted. Yesterday early in the morning my papa (father), brother, and I went hunting. We stayed out for 30 or 45 minutes and we were half frozen so we headed back. On our way we saw some turkeys running away from us so we went after them but the went across they property line so we couldn't get them. After that we moved the laying hens and I did the rest of the farm chores. I then got to go in and eat breakfast! We had oatmeal and eggs. Then we did school. When my brothers were finished they went out to help papa transplant trees. Then everyone came in for lunch. After we finished eating I went out to do some chores and do a few other things. Then we went to get some feed, go to the dump and pick up straw (I love pickups). When we got home we went hunting in the state forest. We didn't see a thing. When we got home we got ready to go to Farmville to eat out at Ruby Tuesdays. Some friends gave us some gift cards (we couldn't afford to eat there otherwise). We met my uncle and grandparents there. It was good food. I had the Bison Bacon Burger (they said it was range fed). After the meal we went grocery shopping. Today was a little less busy. This morning my uncle came to say goodbye as he left this afternoon. I put more straw in the portable chicken house and filled some holes in the garden. The pigs got out twice in a row this afternoon (it makes me so mad when they do that). Anyway the last few days have been busy.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Winter's Not So Warm Welcome

2009-12-06T11:11:00.001-08:00

Brrrrrrr............ it was a cold 22 degrees this morning! Thursday it was 60 and sunny and yesterday it snowed! Not much sticked and with this morning's frost it was just a light cover of ice on the grass. I decided to put out some hay for the sheep, but they didn't touch it for a long time (I think they were scared of the feeder as it was something new inside their pen). It is warmer now and most of the snow has melted. Here are some pictures I took while doing chores this morning.
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Graham

Farmers Market

2009-12-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

Hello. Today we went to the Brandermill Green Market. They did a special " Holiday Market" so vendors who didn't sell produce could come as well. It was rather slow because the people who could come after work couldn't make it in time as it closed at 6. We took lamb, eggs, bread, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, and sign up sheets for pork shares. I am so thankful that my mother has spent time on preparing the baked goods and chocolate covered pretzels the last few days. She stayed up till 1:00 Am making things! We only had one loaf of bread left after this. The cookies were a big hit too. We even had samples, a great marketing tool (we had to sample the treats to of course). The first picture is of Jennifer Strader the coordinater and after that are pictures of the stands, ours is the last one:

Welcome to My New Blog!

2009-12-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog! I wanted to start a different one and use blogger. I hope you enjoy it.

So to start let me introduce myself. I am Graham Donahue a Christian, homeschooled, farmer, boy. I live on five acres located on my great-grandmother's three hundred and sixty some acres in Virginia. I am slowly trying to start a small sustainable farm with a couple hogs, some chickens, and sheep. I want to be able to be a stewerd of Creation, and serve the Lord through agriculture. That is all I have now. Check back soon for more.

-Graham