Avalon1984-Chicken, horses, pigs, oh my!

[Avalon1984]

So after some thinking back and forth I decided to start my own journal. I believe that with all of our various backgrounds, we have a great group here and we can all learn from each other. My husband and I own a small horse breeding operation in West Michigan where we own a 14acre farm that used to be an old dairy. We try and keep everything in its original form as much as possible. The old milk house currently serves as chicken house and the troughs for the cows are my storage areas for tack. The property has seen much livestock over the years and I am exited to maximize the land as best as possible. During the week I am on my own, husband travels for a living. I have had many moments of frustration and had to rely on myself to make things work. It is hard but it can be very rewarding. I try to be as efficient as possible with my chores because whatever time I save on chores, I can utilize to do something else. When thinking about what I do/make myself or what I would buy/contract out, I stick with my economic principles of opportunity cost. What is my time worth? Could I do something that would create more value in the same time it would take me to dig a trench? I always try to evaluate where time is best spent on. People think I am OCD but I have to do this to avoid 16-18hr days on the farm. Plus, my horses love the consistency of my work.

 

[snapshot]

Glad you are starting a journal!!! I also utilize the idea of comparing the worth of my time with the cost. And I have never heard of someone doing crop surgery on their chicken but it sounds like something worth learning about!!!

 

[Avalon1984]

Glad you are starting a journal!!! I also utilize the idea of comparing the worth of my time with the cost. And I have never heard of someone doing crop surgery on their chicken but it sounds like something worth learning about!!!

I wish I would have taken pictures now but we were rushed at the time and I spent the 2hrs of surgery saying "please let this be the right thing to do, please let this be the right thing to do". I did bumblefoot surgery yesterday for the first time, that was interesting too. I am just grateful the chicken survived and she lays beautiful round bround eggs for me every week

 

[snapshot]

I gotta google both of those techniques!

 

[Avalon1984]

I gotta google both of those techniques!

Don't eat before you do

 

[snapshot]

 

[Avalon1984]

Yeah. My point 2x

 

[Denim Deb]

I noticed in high school biology, that no matter what we dissected for lab, whatever the cafeteria served for lunch looked like what I had just cut up. It really made me wonder.

 

[Avalon1984]

I noticed in high school biology, that no matter what we dissected for lab, whatever the cafeteria served for lunch looked like what I had just cut up. It really made me wonder.

Eeewwwwww

 

[Avalon1984]

Whewwhat a weekend. I hope everybody got to enjoy the nice sunshine! Had to drive 3 mares to their respective breeding partners in hopes of getting some beautiful March 2013 foals. After today, when I bring the last one home, I will have trailered 800+mi this past weekend. We will know in 15 days whether or not we will be expecting, or if we get to do it again. I helped with the live cover breeding of two of the mares. Quite interesting procedure. In the end, my mares loved every bit of it and should be ovulating as I type. I also had the chance to attend a free driving clinic in Ionia over the weekend. 4 very knowledgeable trainers where there showing us the various harness parts, how to harness and I got to practice driving single and double. I cant wait to get my ladies trained and get a harness fitted. I have always found that driving is a lot of fun, just like riding, without the sore thighs the next day. I will upload some pictures as my week slows down.