We Are Slacking Off

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We Are Slacking Off!

Well, only in the email department. Our Summer was so busy that I never got around to sending any updates. And then when I finally took the time to write an email in the fall, our email provider gave us grief. I'll spare you the details, but we finally got a new email provider set up and hopefully sending emails will be simpler now.

So here is the email you should have gotten, back in September. Enjoy

Catching you up on our Summer!

What a busy summer it has been! Hence the lack of newsletters over the last few months. So to get you all up to speed, here are a few highlights from this growing season:

-This spring we expanded our laying hen flock to 300, the most we have ever had!

- Also this spring we built a new brooder house for our chicks and then used it to brood almost 300 broiler chicks, also the most we have had so far! This insulated and heated shed has made a huge difference in how well the birds grow and has reduced the mortality rate significantly.
After the brooder those chickens spent the rest of their life on pasture in our portable pens and ended up in many of your freezers!

-In August we hosted 2 farm tours. One was for a group of young adults, visiting from Germany (see picture above) and the other was through Alberta Open Farm Days.

- As part of Alberta Open Farm Days, Evergreen Park hosted a local food event where we, as well as several other local farms, got to showcase one of our products (see picture below). For us it was eggs, and their chef made a delicious dish with eggs (not ours due to health regulations) that the public could sample.

-A first for us this year was renting a 40 acre crop field from our neighbour. We had another neighbour seed oats in that field for us and we made oat green feed bales in late summer which we where able to sell. Additionally we were able to rent an extra 110 acres of hay land and ended up with a surplus of hay. Some of that we will keep for next year in case it's a dry summer again and some we are selling to help pay for equipment and land rent costs. Without this extra land becoming available to us we would have been short on hay for our cows, since it was so dry again this summer.

The picture above is of Ruth and our girls raking hay with our truck, and me following behind with tractor and round baler. Raking with the truck is nice because you have air conditioning, radio and a sealed cab to keep dust out. Luxuries that both our tractors do not have.

-Pasture for the cows (picture below) also did not grow well and we are close to running out for the season.

-September has been very busy, with animals getting butchered every week, ending with thanksgiving turkeys in three weeks. Then we will only have cows and laying hens left for winter and, hopefully, things will slow down a bit and we can take a break. Of course we will still be working on several fall projects right up until the snow flies.

Lastly I want to say a big Thank You to all of our customers for your support. We really appreciate all of you 💚

~Norwin~

So there you have it. That was our summer in a nutshell.

This fall, with some help from family, we were able to purchase 112 acres of land, with a house on it, which borders my (Norwin’s) Parents property to the west. This marks us becoming land owners for the first time in our lives! (For those of you who don’t know, the property where we live belongs to my parents and we are renting their land to live and farm on. My parents also live on the same property, and if you’ve been to our place you’ll have driven past their house to get to ours.) We are currently looking for someone to rent the house on our new property to help offset the mortgage payments, and we will use the remaining farm land for pasture and hay for our cows.

Since winter has settled in we have been trying to take things a bit easier and spend more time with friends and family. This month we also got to take a trip to BC. First to a wedding in the lower mainland and then to visit my older brother and his family in Kelowna. It was a much welcomed break since we have not had a proper vacation since 2021.

~Norwin~

P.S. We will be opening up orders for Beef, Pork, Chicken and Turkey in about two weeks. So keep an eye out for another email letting you know how you can order.

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