Friday, January 29, 2016

Trimming Hooves and Treats

Welcome back!

I hope you had a good week. We had a busy week so I forgot to post the Mountain Monday photo. I'll remember to take the photos this week. Do you get busy sometimes and forget to do things, too?

Do you like treats?

Animals like treats, too!

Misty is asking for a treat this morning.
She knows I have fruit snacks on the shelf.


All the goats love fruit snacks. This morning Misty was very excited for them!

When food gets too old for people, it is still good for the animals. We have friends who know that we can use the food for our animals so instead of throwing the food away, they give it to us. The fruit snacks that Misty is eating are about 3 years old. Those are too old and too hard for kids to eat, but the goats love them!

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The dogs love to go out to the barn. They love the animals, and they love to run and play outside. Children love recess, going out to the barn is just like recess for the dogs.


If you come to our house and say, "Ready!" the dogs would come running just like this!

Scout thinks it's his job to keep an eye on the cat when he's out in the barn.
He also likes to keep an eye on the chickens when they are inside the barn.

Do you have jobs to do at home? Do you have jobs to do in the classroom? 

We work together on the farm just like you work together in your classroom and in your family. Sometimes our jobs are hard work, sometimes our jobs are easy. Jobs are important because they teach us to be responsible and help one another.

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Last week I promised that I would show you how we trim the goat's hooves. Goats need their hooves trimmed just like you need your fingernails trimmed.

Are you thinking, "Ewwww! Yuck!"
I think that, too. It's a yucky job because of all the dirt on their hooves.
I make sure I wash my hands when I'm done.


Misty's hooves are all trimmed.
It's easier for her to walk when her hooves are trimmed correctly.
Misty is getting chubby! That's because she is going to have a baby soon!
Do you see how fuzzy she looks? That's her winter coat.

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This chicken always jumps up on the coop to say hello to me in the morning.
I think she's very pretty!

Every once in a while we see a chicken taking a ride on the back of a goat.
We wonder if she is warming her cold feet.
The goats don't mind.
Do you ever get piggy-back rides from someone bigger than you?
Is it fun?

I thought you might like to see the three cows this morning.
I love looking at the animals in the morning.
It's a lot of work to take care of them, but being around them every day is so enjoyable!
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I hope you have a wonderful week! Your job this week is to learn as much as you can at school!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Getting Grain

Welcome back!

Last week I told you I would show you how we trim hooves, but we needed grain for the animals this week.

I thought you might like to see where we get our grain, and a little bit about how we pick it up.

We drive down to Leland Mills in Spanish Fork.
That's not our truck, there are many farmers who buy their grain here.

This is opposite of the store.
These are grain elevators.
This is where all the grain is stored.
Grain Elevator Diagram
This is what a grain elevator looks like on the inside.
Diagram found here

When we get to the mills we need to weigh our empty truck. The scales don't look like your bathroom scales, do they. This scale is very long. The worker reads the scale inside the office and marks it down on a piece of paper.

After they write down the weight of our truck we drive around to the truck that has the chicken feed in it. 
The arm of the truck pours the grain into the barrels while they are in the back of the truck.
It doesn't take long to fill them.

Next we drive around to the scales so they can weigh the truck again. They make a note of how much more the truck weighs so they know how much chicken feed we got.

We need grain for the goats, too.
The barrels have to be unloaded from the truck and taken into the big grain barn.
We can't drive the truck into the big barn, it's not allowed.

The grain barn is huge! There are piles of grain in different areas.
Each area has a different kind of grain.

The grain piles have walls between them so they don't mix too much.

The workers who are inside the barn need to wear a mask because
breathing grain dust is not good for you.


The grain comes out of the shoot so fast that it fills up the big barrel in about 5 seconds.
That is so fast that I almost didn't get a video of it!
I wasn't allowed to get very close because I don't work here.


The barrels with grain for the goats needs to be loaded onto our truck.

Those barrels are heavy!
They weigh the truck again. The new weight tells them how much
grain we got for the goats.

The scale is read in the office while we are in the truck.

The last thing we do is pay for the grain. It's just like paying for groceries.

We drive our truck home full of grain, unload the big barrels with our tractor, and put the barrels in the barn.

We only have to go to Leland Mills every 2 months because those barrels hold quite a bit of grain.

This time we got 5 barrels of grain. We got three barrels of grain for the goats. How many barrels did we get for the chickens?

I hope you enjoyed our visit to Leland Mills!

Next week I'll show you how we trim the goat's hooves. I hope we can show you how we trim the cat claws, too. 

Have a great week!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Mountain Sunday * 17 January 2016



I forgot to take the photos earlier in the day, so this is what it looks like today in the early evening.

South of the barn.
17 January 2016

East over the barn.
17 January 2016

North of the barn.
17 January 2016

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Animals Grow, Too!

Welcome back!

Your teacher told me that you learned about bullies last Friday. I'm so glad!

People can learn to be kind to each other, but there are times when animals can't. When that happens at our farm we have to send the animal away to another farm.

We had a rooster named Charlie who got very mean. We had to send him away so he wouldn't hurt anyone any more.

Charlie was a beautiful rooster, but when he got mean we had to send him away.
I hope you all learn how to be kind to one another, and to talk to each other if you are having problems.

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Here are some photos of Remi and Echo that I took last year, and some photos of them from this year.

Here is Matt with Remi on the right side of the photo,
and Echo on the left side of the photo.
This was taken last year.

Echo wasn't supposed to grow any bigger, but she did! She is 2 years old.
If you look very closely at Echo's head you will see a white horn.
That's the spot where her horn fell off!
You got to see and hold her horn a few weeks ago.

Remi was supposed to grow, and he did! Remi is 1 1/2 years old.

This is Shorty. She isn't staying with us very long. She is a very nice cow.
She will have a calf (baby cow) near 18 October 2016.
That's when you will be in 2nd Grade.
Echo is going to have a calf, too! Her baby will be born near 25 March 2016.

Whose calf will be born first?

Shorty isn't staying with us very long because she is for sale. We hope someone will buy her and take her to a new farm, soon. We hope the new family will be kind to her!

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I took some photos of the turkeys. The baby turkeys are almost the same size as their mother!

The turkey on the left is the mother, the two on the right are her babies.
They were born 1 September 2015, right after you started First Grade.


This is Chuck, the baby turkey's father.

Look at the turkey babies and their parents.
What parts of the baby turkeys look like their mother?
What looks different from their mother?
Both turkeys had the same mother and father. Do the baby turkeys look like their father?
Do the turkey babies look like each other?
What is the same, and what is different?



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Here are two of the chicks that have grown up.
This is their favorite place to sleep at night.
They don't like to sleep with the other chickens.
We have some silly chickens on our farm!

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I thought you would like to see a picture of the cuddliest dog in the world.
We love him!
One thing I don't like about having dogs is all the hair in the house!

Do you have a pet? Does it live in the house, or in the backyard, or in the barnyard?

What do you like best about having a pet? What is your least favorite thing about having a pet?

If you could choose a pet, what pet would you choose to have?

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Next week I'll show you how we trim goat hooves. Do you trim your fingernails? We have to trim goat hooves and cat claws. Trimming fingernails is a much easier job.








Sunday, January 10, 2016

Mountain Sunday * 10 January 2016



South of the barn.
10 January 2016

East over the barn.
10 January 2016

North of the barn.
10 January 2016