Willow Way Farm

05/23/2026

Excited to have gotten a heifer calf yesterday. The herd is expanding again.

05/17/2026

Our 100 broiler chicks and 15 turkey chicks arrived last week. I was able to pick up the broilers a day early from the Duluth post office. Maybe due to this, there were no DOAs and only one turkey chick has died, so they are doing really well. Over the next 12 weeks for the broilers and around 24 for turkeys, they are going to consume 1.5 tons of transitional organic feed.

We also had a broody hen hatch out some chicks in the barn.

And Lusa and I sheared the sheep yesterday.

05/03/2026

04/28/2026

It’s been raining all night and day. I think even the beavers are getting tired of it. Caught this one on Old Military by the Mach Farm. I don’t think I have ever been that close to a beaver before.

04/26/2026

“Brown Horns,” our second oldest ewe at 11 years old, had a spotted boy and a black girl this morning. Other members of the flerd came to greet them too.

04/23/2026

A little machinery update:

1. the mower is a new addition that I’ll use primarily for mowing the fence line. I have been using an old push mower and w**d whacker, but that is slow, back breaking work and when the reed canary grass gets too tall, almost impossible. It’d be best if the animals would do this for me, but the grass gets away from us and I need to do it on the outside of the fence too. This self propelled, big engined, offset bladed beast should help a lot.
2. bought a bale spear and converted to quick-attach. Much more effective than forks
3. reconfigured forks are now adjustable, so they will fit a pallet, be narrowed down for digging rocks, and widened for long loads. Other than the forks themselves, entirely homemade.
4. an imagine of the quick attach for those interested.
5. This is the frame and engine from an old Dixon zero turn mower. I was going to try to turn this into a fence line mower. Fortunately, the aforementioned mower showed up on an online auction and saved me. If someone out there could make good use of this, they could have it. Not for scrap or cutting up to repurpose, as I can do that, but for a real use as is.

04/22/2026

The most regal of visitors. Turn on sound for full effect.

04/19/2026

And, it’s gone. Tractors and hydraulics are beautiful things. As are sheep, cows and horses on a cold and windy, but sunny day.

04/18/2026

This weekend’s project: dismantle the unsightly, decrepit and no longer very effective pen/paddock. Next few weeks’ project: reconfigure and reinstall to make a more efficacious system. Hopefully it looks better too.

04/17/2026

These little fellas were born yesterday afternoon.