Last year, we looked at how to prune grapes, brambles, and some ornamentals. Now we are going to continue our way through our orchard and take a look at how to prune kiwi vines. It is essential to prune your kiwis every year. They are a massive vine that can quickly get out of control…
Slashing Your Feed Bill With Locally Sourced Feed
I’m sure you probably already know that feeding livestock can get expensive. This is particularly true if you are feeding high production animals that cannot perform off hay or pasture alone. A small flock of sheep eating 1-2lb/head a day of grain will burn through a 50 lb bag of feed in no time. What…
Designing A Garden Like A Professional
Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a garden that really pops and one that is hum drum? One that looks professionally designed vs decidedly amateur? Today we are going to take a look at how to take a landscape from boring to the talk of the neighborhood. So if you are interested…
5 Minute Sheep Milk Hot Cocoa
If you’re like us, you grew up drinking hot cocoa out of a packet, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’ve never made hot cocoa from scratch using something as rich and creamy as sheep milk, you’re missing out! Homemade hot cocoa only requires a few basic ingredients, and takes a only a…
Winter Is The Perfect Time To Do Garden Planning
Perhaps you’re new to gardening and want to plant your first garden. Or maybe you were disappointed about how things worked out last season. Regardless, taking the time to plan your garden is important to achieving your goals. We like to do our garden planning during the winter. We find that evaluating what did and…
What To Look For When Selecting A Dairy Katahdin
A question we see posed fairly frequently on various forums and Facebook groups we are members of is about milking Katahdins. People often ask if they can milk Katahdins. Of course the answer is yes. However, Katahdins are meat sheep. Saying you can milk them doesn’t tell you much about how to find one suitable…
How To Prune Brambles–Your Blackberries and Raspberries
Berries are one of the easiest (and tastiest!) perennial crops you can grow in your garden. Once established they typically require very little care throughout the season, and they are not often bothered by pests and diseases. Even in our hot humid climate, they are one of our most reliable fruit producers. If you have…
How To Use EBV’s To Improve Your Flock’s Performance
If you’ve been hanging around our website for a while or have been in the process of researching Katahdin sheep to purchase, then you’ve probably run across acronyms like NSIP, or EBV’s. NSIP stands for the National Sheep Improvement Program. EBV’s are estimated breeding values. We have alluded to them being valuable tools for selecting…
How To Build A Trellis For Your Grapevines
Last winter we posted an article on how to build a T- trellis which would be suitable for growing large heavy vines like kiwis. Today we are going to show you how to build a trellis for your grapevines. This type of trellis works well for grapes or other smaller vines. It’s good for small…
Terminal Sires Can Maximize Production and Profit
Recently our blog posts have been focused on topics surrounding adding new breeding stock to your flock. So today we thought we’d touch on the related subject of terminal sires. Terminal sires can be very useful depending on what your breeding goals are. However, they are something that a lot of people may not be…