Last Week at The Magpie Farm : About the farm.

This last month has brought a few changes, some stress and lots of excitement. The Kitchen Magpie Farm has started its own website to keep all of its animal adventures, farm life, homestead recipes and fun experiences all in one spot. So I thought I would expand on the “about me” portion and the Magpie Farm.

So a little bit about this farm girl and my busy little lifestyle and day-to-day goings on. I have a son in school that loves all animals and adores listening to music. I work a full-time, 8 hours a day job and I am away from home 11 hours a day. I live in 2 houses. I have a city house that I adore, and I am lucky enough to manage my parents farm and stay there when I want, and need to. The majority of the summer I am at the farm to get chores and big projects completed and help out as there is always something to repair.

I have 2 tame cows that I rescued from a feedlot when they were 3 days old. Doctored them up for a few months and bottle fed them for 5 months as they grew up. The cows now are 3 years old and this is the first year we have a bull in with them and hoping for babies In March. Last year we tried artificial insemination and sadly they did not take, but we are trying again this summer. Updates will be coming as I am pretty sure we have some babies on the way next spring! I currently have 11 hens with one rooster and a group of 7 silkie, polish mix chicks about 4 months old. Not sure on any roosters yet in this motley crew.

Our winters here in Alberta can vary year to year but are generally quite cold with a lot of snow. So wintertime is prepared for on our farm by doing maintenance on the auto heated waterers, buying hay in large round bales, and fixing fence. I try to make chores and general work as easy as possible for myself in winter. I’m the type of person that likes to hunker down and hibernate when winter hits and make sure my animals are happy. Preparing as much in advance as I can to make winter animal care as easy as possible during winter is easiest for me. By buying bags of feed and filling the shed with them by the coop, moving hay to convenient locations etc. makes wintertime chores a bit more tolerable.

We have a huge 8 stall barn with power and water that is ½ used for storage and I have reclaimed the other half. But one day I’m hoping it may have babies and other animal shenanigans in there. Using it for storage is boring, right? Our small farm is 11 acres of many divided pastures which is fantastic for different animal groups and rotational grazing. We border open farmland and the prairie view and sunsets are beautiful here in Alberta.

Last year I started a small perennial garden with Saskatoon bushes, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb. This garden has a 10 foot high fence as we have a herd of about 20 mule deer that like to visit weekly. They would decimate this in an hour and I would have nothing left. I don’t have a green thumb, but it’s something I am working on and learning as much as I can. Next spring I have a new garden planned, but it is not fruit or vegetables! I am so excited and sad because I should have started it this year but it’s just too late. keep an eye out for springtime and I’ll be posting all about it!

And that is The Kitchen Magpie Farm in a nutshell. I am a busy working mom who is always willing to learn something new, loves her family, adores animals and enjoys hard work outside in the fresh prairie air. Oh yeah, and I cook sometimes too.

Love The Kitchen Magpie Farm,

Karami.