# Moose Knoll Farm



## monty (Feb 15, 2010)

Well, friends, it has been a long time coming and eagerly anticipated. I would like to introduce to you Moe, son of Ruby and G-Man. He is the first lamb born on our farm. He arrived Sunday 02-07-10.

Yesterday, Valentine's Day, we greeted twin lambs from Abby and G-Man. The ram and ewe lambs are named Curly and Valentina. Pix will follow.






Cheers!


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## mballi3011 (Feb 15, 2010)

Now thats a cutie there now. Congrats the the farmer and the dell too. I'm really glad everything worked out well.


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## rbranstner (Feb 15, 2010)

MMMMMM looks tasty. I mean looks cute. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






 Congrats


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## travcoman45 (Feb 15, 2010)

Moe is a fine lookin feller there Monty!  Should be fun watchin em grow up.


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## monty (Feb 15, 2010)

We're looking forward to increasing our flock at this time. Ewes will go to work and rams will either be traded or sold for breeding with any not sold or traded going to freezer camp. (Do I smell smoke?)

The Tunis sheep has a great value for both fleece and meat.  This is sort of our retirement gig. We really enjoy working with these gentle critters and look forward to a peaceful and fulfilling effort with them.

We also have a flock of Light Brahma chickens and plan on starting a self sustaining flock of Narragansett Turkeys in the spring. (Man! The smoke is getting thickerer!)

Gotta have fun at what you're doing or it just ain't worth it!

Cheers, all!


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## bmudd14474 (Feb 15, 2010)

Congrats on the new addition.


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## pineywoods (Feb 16, 2010)

Sounds like your having fun congrats on the first of what I hope are many


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## monty (Feb 18, 2010)

Hey, friends!

Here are Curley in the foreground and Valentina looking for a sip. They were born on Valentine's day and are doing well. The little ones are about a day old in this pic.



We are expecting several more soon!
Cheers, All!


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## travcoman45 (Feb 19, 2010)

Monty, yer gonna have yer hands full fer sure!  Lots a cute little ones!


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## csmith2884 (Feb 19, 2010)

Awesome, you have a great circle of life thing going on there. Would love to know what has been done to all the meat we eat here. Raising it yourself is a great way to do that. Post again about the turkeys and how hard they are to deal with, please.


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## monty (Feb 19, 2010)

Raising Narragansett turkeys will be a first for us. I have raised many  "feeder flocks" of domestic white turkeys. Get the chicks in the spring and have'em ready for Thanksgiving.

The Narragansett will reproduce naturally and as such we are hoping to raise a large flock. 

Our farm is established in the spirit of a conservancy farm. Any critters we raise or will raise in the future will be on the American Livestock Breed Conservancy endangered list

Now, if you are in the woods of upstate New York you are not all that far from here. We am in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont about twenty miles south of the Canadian border.

Thank you for your interest in our operation. There will be many updates in this thread.

Cheers!


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## pineywoods (Feb 19, 2010)

Looks and sounds like ya'll are having lots of fun Monty I look forward to the updates


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## csmith2884 (Feb 19, 2010)

Well my upstate woods is a bit further west I'm in the void between Rochester and Buffalo. Still in the woods, just not those woods. 

When I post New York on other forums everyone assumes it's new york city and that's 6-7 hours from me. 

I will look for updates about your farm, it's a cool way to live.


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## triplebq (Feb 19, 2010)

It's great to be a farmer / rancher today . A true dieing breed . Hat's off to ya ! 

Buddy


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## q dawg (Feb 19, 2010)

Got to love those "Baby" pics....keep em comin  !!!

                      Q Dawg


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## monty (Feb 20, 2010)

Thanks for all the great comments, my friends!

We're still on new arrival watch.

We started this project as a sort of retirement thingy. The idea has grown from there. When I do finally retire (again!) it will be to do as I really want and that is to work our farm.

Cheers!


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## monty (Feb 21, 2010)

Hey, Folks!

Just thought you might like to get a look at our first line of defense against coyotes, bears and two legged critters that should know better!

These dogs are Maremmas. The Maremma was develped long ago in Italy for sheep duty in the Italian Alps. They are not a pet dog and are truly an instinctive guardian. They need no training, not that they would listen anyway, and learn from each other. They even have us trained!

The dogs have a number of specialized barks; one for danger about, one to send the sheep into the barn and one to let us know we should respond armed.


We have three maremmas; Timida (shygirl) 7 years old, Finn 11 months old (already 115 lbs!), and Luna, 4 months old.









They keep us busy to say the least but we trust them and their instincts to protect our stock!

Cheers!


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## werdwolf (Feb 21, 2010)

Great look'in dogs.


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## monty (Feb 21, 2010)

Just in case anyone is wondering where I am going with this thread I am taking this farming thingy full circle. 

We will produce our own food; meat, veggies etc and produce enough to sell to make our own pockets breath easier.

Right now our chickens are supporting themselves. Our Light Brahma chickens have been exemplary in laying though the winter and I sell the eggs through a local market for a neat enough profit to pay their grain and upkeep. In March I will suspend sales for a bit to incubate eggs for hatching our second generation. Since this is a pure breed strain of bird I also have customers for chicks. Those that I keep will have a purpose; girls will go to work and boys will go to freezer camp.

Then there is the smoker. We also plan on a few feeder pigs as well as providing our own lamb. This is the most fun thing we have ever done and we want to share the whole experience here. So, hang in there! And many pics will follow!

 Cheers!


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## cowgirl (Feb 25, 2010)

Monty thanks for sharing this!  I'm so glad everything is coming together as planned for you two. You deserve the best!
Your critters are beautiful.


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## monty (Feb 26, 2010)

Thanks, Jeannie!

As you are well aware this effort began a long time ago while there was still literally 10K miles between us.

Right now we are still waiting on two ewes to lamb and two more will lamb about May. During that time we will be getting feeder pigs and our Narragansett Turkeys. Wish we could have started this project a long time ago.

In August Christine and I are going to our fortieth year high school reunion. WOW! And won't we have a tale to tell!

Then of course there is another barn to build, the chicken coop will be expanded and several new acres of grazing to prepare. Hope it never stops!

Stay tuned!

Hope all is well with you!

Cheers!


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## monty (Mar 3, 2010)

Well, Folks, things are really poppin' (out) here! Last night Lucy delivered two healthy lambs for us. Again a ram and a ewe. 

Lucy is named after our favorite redheaded comedienne, Lucille Ball. This ewe has the reddest face and legs so we felt it natural to go that way.

The little ones are nameless at this point (but you can only guess the direction we are going in 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






). Their number tags are already assigned.

I will add a few more pics as I get them processed and uploaded to photobucket. Still struggling with an inferior dial up thingy here. I guess that's a small price to pay for the priviledge of living in this beautiful place.

Cheers!


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## athabaskar (Mar 3, 2010)

You my friend are living the life that my dear wife and I can only dream about at this point. We are working hard to make the dream come true, but there are so many outside forces which make it get further away. You have my best wishes for your continued success.

And give those three furry hired hands a pat for me. They are awesome.


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## Dutch (Mar 3, 2010)

Hey Sir Monty!!! Glad to hear that things are going well with the farm. I'd much rather do the lambing thing in a somewhat warm barn with lights. I've done the calving thing in the snow and cold and in the dark! The one thing that I've always asked was "Why do cows calve during the night? Can't they what until daylight so you can see what the heck you're doing?" Oh well, that was another lifetime from long ago.

You and Christine are excellent Stewards for God's land and creatures and may you both long enjoy His blessings.

BTW-Love the new avatar!

God Bless~


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## monty (Mar 3, 2010)

Thanks for the nice words and good wishes, guys. 

Athabaskar. We did not get this going till we were both 57 and have had a birthday since. Left a really hectic world almost twelve years ago and started the project only to be terribly interrupted with a seriously bad divorce.

Christine and I grew up in the same town in Maine many years ago and went our separate ways. Only by accident and with the help of this computer did we come together again about four or five years ago and at that point she was in New Zealand! Life is good! 

We now have five little ones poking around. Three rams and two ewes. One of the ram lambs is living in our bathroom as we nurse him a bit. Had a bad start and we're still not too sure of the prognosis. But he has the will and we have the meds and the knowledge. Two more are due any minute and we'll see how that goes.

Dutch, thanks for your blessing! I know you have sort of followed this project with me from the start. I am happy to share good results. And as for the avatar it is the official logo for Moose Knoll Farm. We have it on return address labels and stationery as well.

Again, thanks for the nice words and good wishes.

Cheers!


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## monty (Mar 7, 2010)

As promised here is a picture of Lucy with her twins, Ricki and Desiree. Both are doing very well and as you can see they are a handfull for mom already!



But the big news today comes from Ziva...she delivered triplets to us. This, while rare, does happen in the Tunis line. The unfortunate part is that the ram, which was first born, had some very serious issues and had to be put down immediately. That's farming. Tough business, tough choices, tough duties.

The two surviving lambs are gorgeous little ewes. Names and pics will follow soon.

Cheers!

So that's seven lambs from four ewes and we have two ewes due to deliver in May.


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## pineywoods (Mar 7, 2010)

Wow ya'll are building up the herd in a hurry with all these births. Sorry to hear about the ram but as you said thats part of it sometimes. Will be looking to more updates as you post them


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## monty (Mar 13, 2010)

I bring good news and bad news.

I addition to the ram triplet with issues one of the ewe lambs also succumbed from the rough delivery leaving only a very healthy ewe lamb we have named Rosie.

And, our bottle baby, Curley, is doing well. He has the will and attitude as pictured below, to make it great!



So, our next immediate step is to get chicken eggs into the incubators, build a special brooder for our turkeys, and get started on another barn. WOW!

Cheers!


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## olecrosseyes (Mar 14, 2010)

Now there's a cute one! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





 awwwwh!


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## beer-b-q (Mar 14, 2010)

He is sure Cute...


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## monty (Jun 1, 2010)

Here's  an update on the Moose Knoll Farm.

First, I will introduce the last of the current round of lambings:







I present Sophie and Guido at eight days of age. Guido has the white spot on his head. These are the last two lambs we will name. From herein they will be named by their farm number and will be for sale for either breeding stock or meat. We will occasionally keep a ewe for our breeding program and she will receive a name. The rams we have now will be for companions and fleece with the exception of Ricky. We left him intact to trade for another unrelated ram.

We will have one more lambing this year in mid fall. We are hoping for a couple more quality ewes for our program and as I said, the rest will be for sale.

Our Light Brahma chickens are regular laying machines and are paying their own way and then some. A local "mom and pop" sells all the eggs I can get to them. And the roosters are doing their job as well. We just this weekend had our second hatch of Light Brahma chicks and we are getting about a seventy per cent hatch rate. This hatch is sold and we will continue the hatching program throughout the good weather assuring a constant supply of eggs and chicks in the future.

We decided to forego turkeys this year in favor of starting an apiary. There is a severe lack of honeybees in this part of Vermont and we are hoping to help with that situation. The first bees will arrive about the eighth of June and we'll see how it all works. If it all seems to be beneficial and we can keep up with the program I would like to add more hives in the near future.

This year's gardens are all in and we are planning on the bees to help us do better than last year. We had almost no natural polination and that can be a bummer for a seed saving guy.

Our guardian Maremmas are doing a fine job of keeping the coyotes and bears at bay. A few coyotes have ventured in a bit too close and will never make that mistake again. The dogs ratted them out.  My bark has quite a lethal sting to it 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





.

We said good bye to an old friend last month. Jacko, our Corgi, had developed lymphoma and as expected the drugs soon were not allowing him a quality existence. He traveled 10K miles to get here and was a great little guy for Christine and his shepherd friend Mischa. He started his time in New Zealand as a show dog ten plus years ago.  He rests next to my old friend Molly, also a shepherd of great distinction.

With the round of lambing done, the gardens in and the chickens going great guns there is still no time to rest and reflect. I will soon start clearing more land for pasture. The firewood will certainly come in handy!

That's all there is for the moment!

Cheers!


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## pineywoods (Jun 1, 2010)

Glad to hear its going well Monty. I'm sure its all keeping time consuming but worth it in the end. I'll look forward to the next update


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## Dutch (Jun 1, 2010)

Hey Monty, glad to hear about the apiary, now things will really get buzzing! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





   I'll take a quart of honey when it's ready for market!!


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## monty (Jun 1, 2010)

Thanks for the good words, guys! And yes, Jerry, it takes a lot of time. Some days I feel my paying job gets terribly in the way. Cannot wait till the place gets on a break even point. That's when I'll pull my plug from the mainstream "work for pay" habit.

Dutch, with any luck we will have some honey for early fall. Keep an eye on your mailbox. Got to build up the hive first and then get a few other things in place. Really looking forward to the adventure. I began studying the art of beekeeping about ten years ago and just never got to it. Well now I am into it with both feet and most of the rest of me.

Just in case anyone is curious, to start with one complete hive and all the attendant equipment for maintaining the bees' health and happiness as well as for processing honey the initial investment is about $600. After that it is about $200 to add each additional hive. Then, every state has an inspection program. But they do pay for themselves in short order. I do not even have the hive going yet and I can already sell all the honey I can produce. There is a large market for locally produced honey as well as eggs. Life in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont is good! Let's hope it all continues to come together.

Cheers!


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## travcoman45 (Jun 1, 2010)

Looks like it's a comin long real fine Monty!  Gettin quite a herd goin there!

Sorry ta hear bout the pooch, they become one a the family an really hurts when yall loose one.  The memories er what ease the pain a bit, but will never remove the pain all tagether.

Keep up the good work on the farm!


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## monty (Sep 15, 2010)

Here's a small update from Moose Knoll Farm.

First the bad news...Curly did not make it and we had to put him down last month. He developed a problem which we could not handle and we did the humane thing.

 Now some better news. We attended the fortieth anniversary gathering of our graduation from Stephens High School in Rumford, Maine. Two positive things there! First we are doing well in comparison to our classmates in life and condition. And, most of all, got to visit with family, though only briefly. My cousin Jeremy, Daffster13, has been brought in to the SMF Family as he loves to smoke with firm encouragement from his wife and mother in law.

All the rest is good. Most of the ewes are pregnant again. (Big grin on G-Man!)  He is working on the one that are not. The little ones are not so little any more. Depending on what happens we will have one, possibly two, ram lambs for the freezer next month. All are healthy and happy.

The chickens are going great guns. Fifteen roosters have gone to "freezer camp" and about ten more will follow before snow falls. The hens are well and still laying like crazy. The first wave of "new girls" has started dropping pullet size eggs and will be at extra large in no time. About every three weeks another group will come in to lay. We have over a hundred birds now.

The apiary is healthy and happy. They were not pushed for production this season and next year they will pay their own way. Will start a second hive in the spring.

Our "hired guns", Timida, Finn and Luna are happy and healthy. Timida is still teaching the younger dogs about their jobs. All are performing well and are most satisfying to watch at work. Finn has topped out at about 135 lbs and Luna has reached 90 lbs.

I am kicking myself hard for not taking pics of the gardens which produced extremely well this year after a very disappointing 2009 season. Of course we were able to "enrich" the soil naturally with our own byproducts.

We are currently processing about 250 lbs of tomatoes. And there are dill pickles, pickled beets, and tons of put up squashes, carrots, and beans both blue lake string and lima and peas galore.  We have sugar pumpkins, some very large ornamental pumpkins and watermelons and cantaloups.

We have had a very good and rewarding year on the farm. We have also learned a great deal about our land, our critters and ouselves. Looks like it will be a nice weather day and I will attempt to get some pics of the critters to post shortly. The gardens are just about down and we are preparing for snow season.

Cheers, all!

Monty & Christine


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## daffster13 (Sep 15, 2010)

Monty, I can't wait to visit ya'lls farm/ ranch. We could find billeting elsewhere in Vermont I'm sure, but most likely with my 6 days a week schedule I'm on this season, we may be only able to stay for a day. I'll be sure to bring some homemade pumpkin pie or a cake of your liking. Let me know, what ever cake you like, challenge me.

Take care and may God bless ya'll

Jeremy, April, Grant, and Mikki


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## pineywoods (Sep 15, 2010)

Glad all is going well and look forward to the pics


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## Dutch (Sep 15, 2010)

Well, Sir Monty-It sounds like you have had a very productive year! Glad to hear that you and Christine are doing well.  Now if you'd be so kind as to tell me how I can order up some nice leg o'lambs and some nice thick chops for my freezer???
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Cheers my friend!


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## monty (Sep 15, 2010)

Well, folks, I stayed home today to get things done outside. Have been working betwixt the raindrops and it looks like photo ops will be at a minimum. Really do not want to take pics of soaking wet critters. Another day soon.

Dutch, yellow pages........
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





I would if I could but I can't so I won't.

Now, if you are ever out East and can bring a tent with you we could talk..

Cheers, All!


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## monty (Nov 6, 2010)

Well, here it is November and I have already plowed snow. The next week or so will be hectic doing the final preparation for Ole Man Winter. Feeding the bees with a strong sugar water, got the chickens winterized and will soon have the sheep shed tightened up. The gardens are all tilled over and next year we will have more than double the dirt farming space we had this year.  Perhaps a roadside stand?  Dunno right now.

     
	

		
			
		

		
	








This photo was from a bit ago. Soon it will be all white.

Happy Winter everyone!

Cheers!


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## bmudd14474 (Nov 6, 2010)

Sounds fun Monty.


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## pineywoods (Nov 6, 2010)

Sounds like fun there. We got hit by a little cold this weekend but we don't see that white stuff very often thank goodness. Take some more pics when you get the time and show us what your doing around there I for one like getting new ideas. I've got a couple projects going here sure seems to be never ending doesn't it


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## monty (Nov 6, 2010)

Fun it is, Brian! And it never stops. Piney, there is a bit of advice that no amount of pictures can show. If I remember correctly you plan on livestock. Plan your living and animal spaces around your prevailing winds. One thing I do here that has proven invaluable is a good sized clear cut between the woods edge and the fenceline. Reduces predation attempts and gives me a bit more time to respond when the dogs tell me I am needed. We have very thickly wooded property and the potential for predation from coyotes, Canadian Lynx and now mountain lions, known locally as catamounts, is quite a factor. Were it not for the Maremmas and our German Shepherd alerting us to danger I am sure we would have lost a few head by now. And the clear cut helps out greatly.

Planning the location of buildings, pastures, gardens, etc no matter how much acreage you have is an essential tool for the convenience of your operation. We have set up travel lanes to and from various buildings and parts of the farm that must be accessable by vehicle. VERY inportant. You don't want to have to carry several hundred bales of hay for a half mile because there is not enough space to get betwixt a couple of buildings.

And over plan your critter space. Figure out what you need then add 20%. In addition to that add special spaces for quarantine of sick animals, birthing pens if needed, exam and maintenance areas, the list goes on.

We do not have the luxury of a great deal of land and learned in a hurry that if something has to go up permanently it must be well thought out. So in the meantine I will endeavor to present more photos if the darned sky ever clears. Rain and snow almost every day for two weeks. It is getting soggy! OOPS! That's another thingy. When clearing land you will most likely change the drainage characteristics of your land. The last thing you need is huge scars in the land.

So, till whenver!

Cheers!


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