The Farm

News from Urukundo Kids Farm

It may not look like much but I am pretty proud of the pen for our five pigs.
Food troughs designed by Benjimin the builder. Bricks covered with a thin layer of cement.
Papa Pig.
Prospective mamas - we expect to breed and sell the piglets. A new venture.

Baby pigs.
I should write a story about the 5 pigs. Naw, that was done long ago and it is called
"THE THREE LITTLE PIGS."  Yes there is also one played on the toes : "THIS LITTLE PIGGY "

From the Farm

The roof is going on. Soon the cows will come. Thanks to you who helped get it the materials for the barn. It will be such an asset for our farm and providing milk for the kids is the objective. 
The barn nears completion.
Our kids and Cyakabiri school learn about feeding animals. These baby lambs lost their mother when they were born and the farmer has kept them alive by bottle feeding. The idea is to show the children different ways to provide food for babies.  The milk is cow milk and the children felt the container to know the milk is heated before it is given to the babies. The lambs follow the farm boy everywhere. They think he is their mother. He is the source of their food.
Update on Daisy the milk cow : after eye surgery Daisy has no more pain and doing well. She is expecting a new baby we hope. Vet will verify next week.
, ,

Surgery on our Farm

, ,
Not your typical operating room, nor the normal procedure, but it works in Urukundo Village. The combined expertise of a vet from Rwanda and two vets from Austria has made a difference in our lives at Urukundo Home for Children and for our favorite and only milk cow DAISY.
Daisy is our source of milk for all 43 children and she had a problem that threatened milk production.  When Daisy was very young a cow herder hit her in the eye with a stick. She lost vision in that eye and it petrified. For some reason recently the eye began to water and enlarge, protruding more and more and causing Daisy pain.
Sam, our farm manager, was our driving force. When he heard that our visitor was a surgeon for animals he set things in motion to get Daisy the help she needed. Anesthesia was the critical need. Drs. Otto and Tina joined our on site vet in performing surgery.
A happy team after the successful operation.
Otto and Tina also spent time with the babies. Here they are with (l-r) David, Mama and Kenny, Rebekah.

At the Farm

Building with mud bricks

Building with mud bricks

Progress is slow but the animals don’t seem to mind.

Cows

Cows and Sheep roam the hills together

Baby Turkeys

Our first baby turkeys
Cute and little. I am told they grow fast.
I thank John for caring for our animals on his farm.

It is good to have a caretaker and pasture for our cows and Turkeys without taking play area from our kids in the village. Urukundo does supply a supplement to John's grass land for food and care of our animals.
Animals need more than just pasture. They need salt and mash etc.
We have one milk producing cow at the village. The milk from this cow (Dolly) takes care of the babies and those who require milk in their diet for health reasons.
Counting Dolly we have we have 4 cows. At the farm we have a 7 month pregnant cow named Pansy. Her baby will make number 5. We are hoping for a girl calf. We have a one year old calf, and a one 5 month old calf, all females. We hope soon to have enough fresh milk and butter for all the kids and some to sell.
I am learning a lot about the care and feeding of livestock.
In the long run it benefits our kids.
We now have our own milk, eggs, and limited meat.