Changes come to Torhaveen this Spring 2015

Spring signifies birth, change and new beginnings. And so, this spring of 2015 is especially significant as many big changes have come to our lives on Torhaveen Farms.

For those close to us, it was not a surprise, but to our many extended friends in the agricultural and homesteading movement, customers included, the news of the dissolution of my marriage was shocking. Many factors played into this decision, and in time it will undoubtedly prove to be the best decision for all involved.

As the farm itself is not owned by my former husband and I, but by one of his parents, and I have been the only partner involved in farming for over a year now, the future of my practice of raising grassfed livestock for private sale is questionable at best. I will be in touch with my customers soon with news of other sources of beef, pork and lamb that are raised similarly in our area. If invited to stay on, I may work with another partnership and look at doing seasonal meat such as pork and chicken only, and free-range eggs.

I have had to reduce the horses down by 2 so far, with likely other sales or trades forthcoming. Quarter Horse mare Tyree went to be a competition gymkhana horse and broodmare locally and Belgian mare Tess went to work in the woods and compete in next year's IPM with our former team of Dan & Colleen out near Kingston. All of these former Torhaveen equines have wonderful new homes and are being used up to their potential - finally.

Livestock protection dog Sawyer, returned to the working sheep farm of his birth to join his genetic pack and run freely in fields where fencing required so tires to drag or being tied. He is much happier to be sure!

Rescue cat Maple joined her forever home today, with a long time friend and colleague here at the university.

My three lovely nanna goats Cassie, Sam & Beth moved locally and joined our former ewe Rosie and ram Woody and have loving momma Sabrina to care for them. We are hopeful that Sabrina and her wonderful family may take a few barn cats too.

Alas, the hardest day fell recently when the cattle left the farm. The older cattle and those unready for slaughter were auctioned before the holidays, the best of my breeding stock were sold to a good professional farmer on the other side of Ottawa where they will calve inside, be fed generously and have a good life on pasture. I am pleased, as they wintered hard this year with the cold despite having warm water, shelter and lots of hay.

I am busy with lambing currently. The sheep too are for sale, and I am finding it hard to wrap my head around this being the last spring with lambs to cuddle - at least for awhile. If you are interested, or know someone who could be, please text or call me 514-546-7843

I will keep the blog going, but shift it more towards parenting and country life. My kids will always be 'farm' kids, even if that means a few chickens in the yard and a pony for now!

Some photos from our goodbyes and recent moments with the pony and saddle horses that are helping us through this period of transition. Letting the ewes and lambs go soon will be difficult for us, as you can see the children love the sheep.