Your Daily Life - The Little Holistic Farm

13/5/26

We want to increase biodiversity on our grass meadow. Johnny regularly sows grass and herb seeds with our Faunamaster seeder. Since the grass carpet is already quite dense, the young sprouts often can't survive the competition with the established plants. However, white clover and red clover have gradually established themselves well on our large grass meadow. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find most of the herbs from our seeds in the meadow.

This year you have therefore sown flower seeds in our tree circles in the field. Our goal is for the flowers there to eventually spread to the surrounding meadow.

First, I turned the grass sods.

I've dug one section of the beds two spadefuls deep, while I've only dug the other section one spadeful deep. Underneath, I've loosened the soil with a wide pitchfork. That way I can see how well the seeds take root and how quickly the new plants are crowded out by the surrounding grasses.

Before sowing, I soaked the seeds in a mixture of molasses (or honey/sugar) and water (1:9) along with some store-bought mycorrhiza fungi. Then I mixed the mixture with some dry soil so the seeds could be more easily distributed. In some spots, I lightly harrowed the seeds in. In other spots, I scattered the seeds and covered them with a little soil. In some circles, I simply scattered them without covering them. In the last circles, I also harrowed in some of our Johnson-Su compost, which we opened for the first time before sowing.

Now I can see which method has worked best.

In the three circular beds, Johnny broke up the turf with the rototiller, and I then cleared away the loose grass with a rake. There I simply scattered the rest of the flower seeds and hope that some of them will sprout and grow.

4/5/26

Almost another month has already gone by. A lot has happened on the farm and in my personal life…

Fortunately, Mikro has finally started to nurse from her mother. At first, only when we held her still to milk her. In the last two weeks he has now been drinking all by himself. He is still a very trusting lamb and isn't afraid of us. The other lambs run away when we approach them. Meanwhile, we have 19 lambs and 8 kids playing together joyfully.

One of our youngest lambs still has trouble keeping up with the others. Its front legs bend backward at the hock joint, so its hooves point upward.

We have tried in vain to find a veterinarian nearby (our previous veterinarian is no longer in practice). The nearest practice that also treats livestock is an hour's drive away. Our research into various causes of the malformation showed that the lamb may have a selenium deficiency or shortened tendons, or that it was positioned too closely in the mother's womb. There was also a twin, which unfortunately was stillborn.
Since selenium was only available as a dietary supplement at the pharmacy in the short term, we bought it and crushed half a tablet (50 µg of selenium) with a mortar and pestle, then gave it along with some powdered milk in a bottle. Additionally, we applied sugar-based ointment to both front legs all the way down to the hock joint, wrapped a compress and a bandage around each leg, and secured them with tape on top.

It seems that the little lamb is collapsing less now. At any rate, it's getting around and is lively.

10/4/26

We were actually going to write something nice about our 5-year anniversary, but it turned out differently. When we arrived at the pasture on Easter Saturday, there lay a stillborn lamb and another lamb that barely showed any sign of life. We had just opened the fence to the new pasture, and the animals had immediately run out onto the fresh grass when we discovered the two.

The ewe had also left the living lamb behind. She had apparently already given up on it. The animal was so weak that it could barely move its head. We held it up to the ewe's nose, and she recognized it. Then we built a small mother-and-lamb pen with a fence. The mother followed the little lamb that we carried inside.

But even though the mother was now doing her best to lick the lamb and get it to nurse, the lamb was far too weak. We tried to create some warmth with straw and also dried the lamb with straw. Suddenly the birth began again. Unfortunately, the third of the triplets was also stillborn. Since the living lamb couldn't stand up, we pumped milk from the mother sheep and tried to feed the lamb with a bottle.

Although the ewe certainly did her best to lick the lamb dry and get it to die, it was too much for the little one. It already felt chilled. So we brought it inside the house and warmed it with a hair dryer while we continued drying it with old towels. Fortunately, we had received a probe as a gift from a former sheep farmer.

With this, you introduced the mother's milk—or colostrum—through the esophagus. From then on, things went up. The lamb could hold its head up better, the suckling reflex had kicked in, and its body temperature felt higher. The mother immediately accepted it again when we brought it back. By evening, it was even on its feet.

Unfortunately, the mother was very ill for the next couple of days. She ate almost nothing and had severe diarrhea. Unfortunately, the lamb was not able to nurse directly from the mother. We pump two small bottles of milk from the mother every day and feed the little lamb. Even today, six days later, it is still much weaker than most other lambs are after one day. The mother's milk production seems to be slowly decreasing. We will probably have to supplement with milk replacer soon.

30/3/26

Lambing season has begun. The first lambs were born four days ago, goats were born two days ago, and yesterday, another lamb was born. It's good to know that both the breeding ram and the breeding buck were fertile. The first lambs have already arrived 145 days after we let the ram in with the ewes – that was fast.We're expecting about 30 more births. At first, there's always great joy when you see a live newborn animal. Then the worry begins about whether it's also nursing properly from its mother so that it gets its dose of colostrum.
Since you've previously had problems with both intervening too late and too early, it's hard to decide when we should step in.
The newborns had all already left the mother's womb when we saw them. The lambs were already on their feet. With the first two from our ewe Nelli, it looked as if they were nursing right away. You can tell this, among other things, from the jerky movements at the udder and the wagging tail. Sometimes the tail also wags, however, even when the lamb isn't latched on. If the lambs have full stomachs, and especially when they have orange droppings, these are also good signs. The mother sheep has taken very good care of the two, encouraging them to nurse and keeping others from the flock away. Meanwhile, the two run around the pasture so fast that we can no longer catch them.

Of the two kids from our doe Splitti, one had apparently been born just before our arrival; at least the afterbirth lay right beside them. The smaller of the two looked very weak, so we were a bit worried.

Gedemor Splitti was back on her feet in no time, even outside the enclosure, so it wasn't easy to see how well she was watching over her kids.

In the evening you laid the children down on a straw mattress in the cabin so they wouldn't get so cold.

The lamb that our ewe Rudolfine gave birth to yesterday morning didn't nurse until the afternoon. It seemed fairly mobile, though, so we didn't intervene until late in the evening.

Ideally, the lambs should drink colostrum within the first six hours. We built a small enclosure where we lured the ewe in with the help of the lamb. Then we checked with our bare hands to see if milk was coming from the udder. Since the lamb is quite large compared to its mother, it may not have been so easy to find the teat. We put the mother on her hindquarters and guided the lamb's snout directly to the udder, spraying milk on it. After that, we had the impression that it drank a little on its own. Whether the intervention was necessary is not certain. But since we have already lost a weakened lamb, we won't wait too long.

This morning all five are healthy and active. Now you can relax a bit until the next births, provided the newborns don't suddenly change their behavior and become apathetic.

24/3/26

 Over the weekend, we picked up compost from the recycling center, which I have spread out in the beds for the nutrient-hungry plants (zucchini, squash, cabbage) as well as in the greenhouse. Over the past five years we've picked up several trailers full of municipal compost. In the long run we'll primarily use our own compost, but so far we don't have much of it, and its quality is sometimes not good enough for the kitchen garden because it contains many weed seeds.

At the moment, you have four different ways to compost.
Your kitchen waste and small pieces of garden waste that don't contain many seeds go into a compost bin we inherited from our predecessors. We don't place much emphasis on proper filling here, because we usually don't use this material directly, but as a starter for the next stage.

Most of our garden waste ends up in self-built boxes made from pallets. Since we don't water them and the boxes are open at the top, it takes quite a while for the coarse material to break down. After that, though, the compost is wonderfully loose. We use this compost primarily around our planted fruit trees in the orchard to improve the soil a bit and suppress the growth of grass and the like under the compost layer.

To mix our seed soil, I use leaf compost. I sweep the leaves together in the fall and put them in one of the compost bins. They sit there for at least a year. Then the decomposed mass is moved into a small wire bin, freeing up the large bin again. In the wire mesh bin, the material sits for another year before it is sifted. In the post from 26/2/26 I will describe how the potting soil is mixed.

Last May you started a new form of composting based on the so-called "Johnson-Su" compost, albeit somewhat simplified. Air is introduced through pipes, and the material is watered daily. In this way, a large number of beneficial microorganisms are expected to develop over at least one year.

Johnson-Su will have yard waste, old hay and straw, as well as kitchen compost and compost from our pallets, which hasn't yet fully decomposed. In fact, almost any organic material can go in it.

18/3/26

Spring is slowly approaching. Two days ago the sheep and goats left the gravel pit altogether and arrived in an area where some fresh, green grass was growing. After the move the animals were completely calm and grazed, apparently very content.

In the meantime, the tender grass has been eaten up. The animals apparently took a liking to it, because today the sheep and goats broke out of their enclosure and ate it in the large field that was actually meant for later.

16/3/26

It is not always easy to decide whether to move the animals to a new area. On the one hand, we must remember that the plants need enough time to recover, and therefore we must not move the animals too quickly, or else we must significantly reduce the size of the fenced-off areas. Just when plant growth picks up again, they are sensitive to frequent grazing.

From the looks of the gravel pits, it still didn't seem like the growth phase had really gotten going again. That's why we would have liked to let the animals stay there a little longer. There were still small patches of grass on the large grassy area.

On the other hand, the animals had grazed almost everything on a large part of the area, and in some places there was plenty of manure. The animals avoid these areas. Since our hay supply is already severely depleted, we didn't want to feed whole hay bales, but only the bare minimum, so that under any circumstances there would be some roughage available at feeding time.

Moreover, the goats in particular had already damaged a large number of the trees, and their chances of survival grew smaller with each passing day. Therefore, we decided to move the animals to the next area.

10/3/26

The first signs that our sheep and goats are pregnant are slowly beginning to show. It's especially hard to see in the sheep. Many already look very round, but that could also be due to their thick fleece.

Last year Schnauzi, our oldest ewe from the previous year, had become very wide but didn't lamb.

Moreover, the animals are drinking significantly more, even though temperatures so far this year have not exceeded 14 °C. Today we even had frost again. While in the winter months they only drank 10–20 liters, they are currently using 60 liters.

Another sign that may indicate an impending birth is that the ewe isolates herself from the flock. However, this can also occur for other reasons.

Slack-off — Schlacksi takes a day off to rest.

At Splitti, in our two does that have been bred with a buck for the first time since reaching sexual maturity, you can now clearly see that their udders have grown larger. In this case, we are quite sure that they are pregnant.

There is also the option to determine pregnancy with an ultrasound scan. However, we've never had that done, and fortunately we've always had rams or bucks that did their job well. This year we weren't entirely sure everything would go smoothly again, because both of the males are quite small. But apparently it still succeeded.

Roar — The little white goat kid is named Rumle.

Sprinkle — The little white goat kid is named Rumle.

26/2/26

Although our main focus is on the animals, we try to grow some vegetables in our small greenhouse and in the kitchen garden. During the frost period in early February, I sowed bell peppers. Since both the topsoil and our sand mound were frozen, I only had our own composted leaf mold available as growing medium, which I had already coarsely sieved in December. Unfortunately, not a single pepper sprouted. Instead, various weeds emerged, and a thin layer of algae is slowly spreading.

I haven't baked the leaf compost because I was hoping that over the past two years many beneficial microbes would have formed in it.

Yesterday I made a new attempt with the paprika seeds. This time the top layer of soil had thawed, and I was able to mix the seed compost of one-third leaf compost, one-third topsoil, and one-third sand. The mixture was then put in the oven for just over an hour at over 100 °C, so everything living in it was probably killed.

The seedlings are then placed in small paper pots that I make myself with a "Paper Pot Maker.".

First, fill the pots to just below the top rim, then moisten the very dry soil almost completely with water from a watering bottle. The seeds are distributed over the lightly compacted soil, after which another layer of soil about 1 cm thick is added on top. This time I only moistened this layer with a spray bottle so the seeds wouldn't get completely wet and rot.

The Hele mini greenhouse is placed on a heating mat set between 22 °C and 25 °C and illuminated with a plant grow light. Every day the lid is removed for 1–2 hours so it doesn't become too humid. After airing, it is misted again.

21/2/26

Until recently, the world was still completely white. After being moved, the sheep eagerly devoured the few blades of grass. Some of them even used their hooves to scrape away a bit of the snow.

I was trudging through the deep snow when I came upon a couple of bramble shoots that were tempting.

Even the not-so-bold goats threw themselves onto the birch branches. Unfortunately, they later went back to gnawing on the bark again. The sheep also want some of the branches and try to take advantage of the goats' actions.

Last night the thaw began, and today the world looks completely different. On this stretch there are no trees to worry about, but the thaw has made the ground very wet, and there's a risk that grazing will cause greater trampling damage and weaken the vegetation. Therefore, we will move the animals faster than originally planned.