Elvis is on the farm!

Well after searching and trial and error I am fairly confident that I have the perfect new buck! He is similar in height to Donnie, of breeding age, has only 2 nipples and does not seem like a fence jumper! He is very shy at the moment with us so we will be working with him on that. Elvis got right into the pen and started establishing his place in the group. I am very content in saying that the search for the third buck is over! Let the breeding begin!

Everyone loves baby chicks!

And its a good thing too because beginning this week thru August the farm is going to be full of them! First hatch we have 4 silkie eggs, they belong to the Grigg's family. A tragedy struck their chicken house and they were able to save these four eggs. We were able to help them out by incubating them. The moved into the hatcher this morning and should begin hatching in about 3 days.

Next to hatch is some Bantam frizzle cochin eggs. Have 4 of them. Then 15 Standard Naked Necks and 2 of our Millie eggs. Getting ready to be delivered to the house and then set is 12 Standard Cochins and then 12 Standard Cochins/Frizzle Cochin eggs. So Every week in August we will be moving eggs into the hatcher and hatching! I am very eggcited! This is really the first time this year we are getting to hatch.

We also have plans to build a new cabinet incubator. We found an old mini fridge to convert. That will be an excited project as well!

No progress was made on the barn this weekend. It has rained and rained. Hopefully next weekend we can get moving again! I was able to install 2 new windows in Big Red's coop. It will help with the temperature and smell inside the coop. Being our first chicken coop it is lacking in some areas. Our second coop is much better and we are able to take our ideas from the second and modify the first in some ways!

Fingers crossed for happy hatching! Thanks again for checking in!

And the barn continues!

Well sadly, I do not have any pictures of the progress and it has been raining pretty constantly so none will be taken right now! We have officially finished setting the 12 posts! Chris was able to get the remaining 6 done in one day! It is hard to believe how large it will be compared to what the goats are in now! It is funny to see the scale of the barn when the goats are walking thru the posts eating the grass! We are both so excited! Can't wait to get started on the next step!

Itty Bitty hatched out two baby Silkies this morning. They are sweet little puff of fur! I hope that they are both hens, but only time will tell for sure. We picked up 6 new hens this past weekend. They are doing well adjusting to their new temporary home. They seem to be getting along thru the fence with Big Red's girls well. Hopefully in the next week they can move in with him. We have collected TWO eggs from the Millies! I am very excited that they have begun laying. I have one under a frizzle and one that will be set ASAP. I am hoping to get some more eggs in the next few days and hatch more Millies. The Frizzle eggs I ordered arrived last week and have been incubating well. So far temp and humidity have been very very stable. I have a box of Turken eggs hopefully arriving today to be set on Friday. The 4 Silkie eggs from Jennifer are developing well and should hatch in the next week and half.

Goats are doing well overall. Aimee and Aiden had a fun visit from their new owners this past weekend. They will be leaving next weekend. It will be sad to see them go, but they will have a wonderful home with lots of love. Aiden was banded last night, so far so good! Aubrey, Archie, Abbi and April are still available for new homes. I have had some nibbles, but nothing serious come thru. The right home will come for them, just need to be patient! Petunia has gotten sick, we are trying to pull her thru. She is on a strong worming regimen as well as Vitamin B12 and Iron. She is holding strong, eating well and mobile. So fingers crossed that she will show improvement in the next day or two!

The garden is doing WONDERFULLY! We have had quite an abundent crop of cherry tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, Okra and pickling cucumbers. All of my spare time has been spent blanching, freezing and pickling. We will have lots of wonderful foods to eat this winter.

Thank you for checking in!

Let the barn building begin!

Yeah! We have finally started our barn! It was a hot hot hot weekend to begin, but its begun! We are looking at a foot print of 24x36, Two story for hay storage. The interior will have a feed storage area, goat medical room, a large goat stall and a nursery. We were able to set 6 of the main posts this weekend. I know its not much, but this is the hardest part, the building needs to be aligned properly to make the rest easy as pie, oh and did I mention that it was HOTT! Here are some pictures of our progress, there will be many more to come!

This is our before picture. This is the area between the girls pen and the boys.

This is our progress after day one! We have a grid laid out and 2 posts set.

Progress after day 2, we have 6 posts set! 6 more to go!

Our goal is to have the barn live-able for the winter. it will probably not be completed which is fine, but live-able is important!

The work never ends

We spent this saturday tearing down an old horse pasture. It was a huge undertaking and took 2 days to complete. We are not stocked with fencing and ready for our next pasture to go up! We also picked up a bunch of animal supplies which will be a huge upgrade for our farm! (yeah for heated waterers in the winter!)

The good news from the weekend is that Aiden and Aimee have found a new home. They will be leaving our farm in August and traveling to the Adam's house. These two will be great pets for their children! They have already picked out the names Mickey and Minnie for them!

Other than that we are preparing for company on thursday and a great long weekend with a BBQ!

hot hot hot!

Well this weekend was a pretty hot one. It was hard to stay motivated to work outside when as soon as you opened the door you began sweating! None the less we got some small things done around the house and farm.

Chris helped me get the last section of garden tilled up so I can plant the last of the seeds this week. I also planted all of my herbs and weeded the entire garden. I must say weeding is not my favorite task! I also planted some pretty, brightly colored flowers to attract bees to come over and do some awesome pollinating for me. Since I was up close and personal with the plants this weekend I am expecting a large harvest of zucchini this week. I also have plenty of green tomatoes, both large and small, if only they would turn red! I am getting lots of flowers on my beans and my cucumbers. The winter squash is growing nicely down the hill, making its way to the fence. I also noticed some nice flowers on that this morning. My peppers seem stuck in the small stage of growth. I am hoping they will pick up, I would really like some fresh peppers. Finally the okra is also beginning to flower. I am hoping that the zucchini plants don't smother the okra, but its possible! Yet again, we have the largest zucchini plants that I have ever seen! One plant would easily fill a children's plastic swimming pool!

Goats are doing great. All the babies have names finally, Ava's kids are Aiden and Aimee, and Coco's are Archie and Aubrey. They are getting so big! George's banding is still progressing well, I can't wait for that to be over! Finally Reggie is adapting well to the new boys and life on the farm. He is just a little mush!

Chickens and Chicks doing great as well. Our egg counts have finally started to increase again! Lets hope this is an ongoing trend. I have one hen that is showing signs of being interested in sitting again so we need to make arrangements for her in the coop. The 8 chicks that we have are doing great. They are beginning to get their big chicken feathers in. We have 4 of them that are beginning to show that they have frizzled feathers! I will have to get a picture of one chick and his dad! Itty has left him to be on his own so our frizzle rooster has taken over his care. It is so sweet to walk in the coop and see this tough guy sitting over the little chick!

well hopefully we will have a productive week ahead! Thanks for checking in!

Babies, babies and more babies!

We have been busy around the farm getting ready for the new barn! We have been doing lots of planning so we can get into the ground breaking part!

Our garden is finished and growing strong. We have quite a variety of plants this year. I still need to get my planter boxes filled with dirt and seeds. This year I have a few types of tomatoes, green peppers and jalapenos, 4 types of winter squash, pickling cucumbers, salad cucumbers, beans, peas, zucchini and okra. I have also planted cabbage, brussels spouts and eggplants, still waiting for them to sprout. In my planter boxes I have plants for spinach, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes and lots and lots of herbs!

Besides lots of planing and gardening we have been delivering babies. Coco had her babies on May 30. She had a chocolate doe and a black and white buck. The doe is named Aubrey and the buck is Archie.

Then Ava had her babies June 7. She had a black and white doe and black buck. These two have not yet been named.

All babies are doing well and enjoying exploring the world.

The garden is in!

Well this past week has been very busy for is around the farm! We were able to get the garden planted. We set up a permanent fence this year so things will go faster next year. I got my started seeds transplanted and planted new seeds in the ground. Chris purchased a new irrigation system for this year so I have been working on setting it up as well. Need to order some more parts before i can finish it.

Stella's babies are doing well, we have named them April and Abbi. They will be listed for sale soon. They are getting so big! They are very sweet, little bouncing girls! We are on baby watch for Coco! She is getting very large and very uncomfortable, I do feel bad for her, but it will be over soon! I look forward to meeting them when they are born.

We do have some sad news. Earlier this week we lost one of our goats. I came home from work on tuesday and could not find her. We found no signs of her when we looked, so we are not sure what happened to her. She will be missed around the farm! We have also lost another chicken. We saw some large hawks flying over the farm yesterday and last night we were down a bird. This has not been a great year for chickens! Although we do continue to have plenty of eggs! We also have 8 hens that have gone broody on us so we are slowly replenishing our stock! We should have some more peeps this coming week!

Yeah for Stella!

On wednesday around 8:30pm Stella had her babies! She had two beautiful little girls! We are still working on their names. This year we are planning on naming all of our babies with "A" names!

One is a darker grey than the other and they both have waddles. I think one will end up looking just like mom and the other will end up looking like grandma Sadie! They are very cute and cuddly and like all baby goats fun to watch!

These past few weeks we have learned that we need a better fence than they electric! The girls have decided that they do not like being out of our backyard and would rather be in the neighbors field! It is crazy! I am not sure how we can fix this for now. In the future, once the barn is built and we establish the perimeter fence line we will use good horse fence to keep everyone in all the time (I hope! Misty is tricky!)

Another weekend behind us!

Chris and I both enjoyed a long weekend for Easter. We were both able to have Friday off and boy was it a HUGE help around the farm. Friday was the hottest day of the weekend reaching 87 degrees! On this really hot Good Friday we were out in the sun adding new gates and adjusting old fencing. Probably not the best day to do the task, but it needed to get done. Chris also began tilling the garden up for me. Everything was going so great until the tiller broke! At that point it was time to quit.

Saturday we got up early and got to work fixing the tiller at the shop. The bad news is that its still broken. The good news is that its fixable! Now we just need to get the parts and slap it all back together so we can get out there and finish tilling!

Sunday we sold 10 extra roosters! The house has gotten very quiet since then. I was sad to see some of them go. But we are now saving a bunch on our feed costs which is important, especially with the baby chicks that we have been hatching.

With the new pasture done and the goats locked out of the yard we now seem to have a problem more than ever with goats jumping the fence. It used to be just coco and misty romping around, but now its like 10 goats! I am guessing they are not liking the brushy pasture we set up and miss the fresh grass. I am not sure what we are going to do to rectify this problem, but we need to do something. I really do not like the goats outside the fence line. I would also really like to keep them out of my yard!

The pretty trees around the yard are now in bloom and i LOVE it! The dogwood starting flowering today and the pretty purple trees have been showing color for a few days now.

Well it sure is a pretty afternoon, I better get out and get some work done!

Welcome Spring!

We had a beautiful spring weekend, and took advantage of it! The new goat pasture is 100% complete! what a nice feeling. Now the goats can rotate OUT of my back yard! Chris also put the finishing touches on the boys fencing. He installed a large gate so we can get a tractor in to level the land and plant new grass. We moved Petunia and her girls, Anika and Annabelle out of the buck yard and in with the girls. They are not overly thrilled with the change but will get used to it eventually.

We lost a total of 2 chicks from our first hatch, one had leg problems and had a hard time getting around and the second just never grew. We called him peanut and he was like 1/4 the size of his siblings. He was one that I helped hatch, I feel like every time I help I get a runt who does not survive. I think I should just let the ones hatch that were meant to on their own! We have a total of 9 chicks and they are getting their adult feathers in nicely! I cannot wait until all their fuzz is gone! We also moved the youngest chickens outside in with the teenager chickens last night and will continue to do so until they get it on their own. The baby coop will be used for these new chicks when they are ready!

I transplanted all of my tomato seedlings into large containers. I have a total of 75 plants and 4 varieties. I am not planning on using all of the plants so will be selling the extras. I have also filled my tobacco flat with seeds. We have all kinds of good things planned for the garden this year. Now if I can only figure out where to put my corn this year.

We are beginning to sit down and discuss the location of the new barn and finalize plans for it. Hopefully construction will begin in a few weeks! This new barn will help make things so easy with more space for the animals and . . . STORAGE! Having on site hay storage will be wonderful and very convenient!

On a sad note, Chris needed to put down a doe last weekend. She was one of our rescues that was VERY sick. We did what we could to help her, but it was just too late for the little girl. Beth you will be missed, and I hope you enjoy your time on the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Hurray for Sunshine!

Had a busy weekend here on the farm! The sun was finally out and the temperature was great! So we grabbed our gloves and tools and got to work on another pasture for the goats. We were able to set posts, run fencing and hang the gates! There are some finishing touches that we need to take care of, but we should be open for grazing this week. Very exciting!

We discussed the plans for the new barn this weekend. Have two new ideas that we need to research and go over before we begin to break ground!

The chicks hatched this week, we ended up with 11 total, not a bad number. Boy are they little cuties! I have some more eggs setting now from a friend. They are buff orphingtons, and I look forward to them hatching.

Lela went to the vet this week and I was informed that at the age of 4.5 months she weighs in at 9 pounds and is healthy! The vet said that she will either be very small all her life (in which case, breeding would not be recommended) or she will take a long time to grow to her full size. I am relieved that there is nothing wrong with her and that she is just small!

The chickens are really getting on the ball with the eggs and we are slightly overwhelmed! We have experienced a great loss in chickens this winter so we are relieved that we are getting more than enough eggs for ourselves and our customers.

Oh, and I almost forgot . . . the gardening has begun! I planted 80 tomato seeds from 4 different types and have had most of them to sprout. I am very pleased with the results so far. I have also planted a bunch of strawberry seeds that have begun to sprout as well. I will soon be planting the remaining seeds so when the last frost happens I am ready to plant in the ground! I am planning on selling started plants this year since I cannot see wasting them.

Well the monkey bread is ready and I am hungry . . . off to dessert!

Eggs are incubating!

On wednesday a box containing 39 hatching eggs arrived! 1 was cracked, but the other 38 were in perfect condition! I set 5 under Itty Bitty, since she has gotten bit by the broody bug . . . again. I put the remainder eggs in the incubator where they are happily automatically turning in perfect temperature and humidity conditions! They are expected to hatch at or around March 3! I am very anxiously awaiting that day, and know that the next 21 days will go by slowly. Fingers are crossed on a great first hatch! I will be sure to keep you posted about the progress of the eggs as they are candled and hatch.

As far as goats, Lela is growing slowly but surely. At 4 months of age she weighs in at 8 pounds. She is about 1/3 of the size she should be at this stage in her life. (as perspective, I have two month old babies that already outweigh her!) Chris says she must be a slow grower, after all her mom is very petite. As long as she continues to gain weight and be an active baby I will remain hopeful for her to reach a normal size.

Pregnancy update:

Stella is getting rather large! It is due to my being unorganized that I cannot recall her breeding date. I have turned the house upside down and backwards looking for where I recorded the information. I am going to guess and say that she was bred in November 09, which would mean I should hopefully see babies around April. It would fit with the way she is getting wider and wider over the past week, and a teeny tiny udder seems to be poking out.

Coco is getting round, not sure if that is a sure fire sign that her breeding has led to a pregnancy or not. I am fairly confident that it has, she has also gotten more needy with me and demands constant attention when we are outside. Hoping for July babies.

Ava I do not see a change in at the moment. She is larger than Coco, so seeing changes in her body will take a little longer. I suspect that by the end of the month we should be able to see some growing in her tummy! Also hoping for July babies from her.

We are working on picking the next two does to breed in February. I hope that Donovan is ready for the task since I plan to breed one to him and one to george every month here on out. I am attempting to get breeding pairs to see this spring, since I have had plenty of people ask me about it in the past.

Hoping to get another pasture set up tomorrow since we have company this weekend. It is always nice to do daunting tasks with friends and family, ya know, let them truly share in the farming experience. I had better get myself to bed so I can get up early to make a hearty breakfast for the day of work!

oh, and PS . . . we just got back from Avatar, so good! Such a beautiful and moving movie.

Movin' on up!

Well this weekend we installed lights in the barn. It is so amazing to be able to see what you are doing! They are powered by a solar cell, which charges an old car battery! Very exciting!

We have dusted off the incubator and fired it up! I discovered that the egg turner I have does not seem to be functioning right now :( very frustrating. I have eggs on the way! I ordered 24 Mille Fleur D'Uccle! We are very excited about them, here is what they look like.

Hope we have a great first hatch! And that our birds are as beautiful as this one!

we have been doing some goat breeding, Stella, Coco and Ava are all pregnant. More will follow soon!

All the best to the babies!

We get to say goodbye to our Charlotte and Jackson today! It is always a bittersweet time for us. We know that these babies will have a wonderful time with the Orr family and their children!

I know that Sadie is sad to see them go. After they left the farm she kind of laid in the hay and pouted! I don't think I have ever seen her so sad over her babies leaving before. Poor lady! I will have to spend some quality time with her and give her some yummy treats tomorrow.

New year means new goats!

Well we trading Buster and Dexter for a new buck today! We would like to introduce everyone to our new boy George! He is very handsome and stands at 18" tall!

George did not come alone, he brought with him a nanny named Petunia and two four day old doelings.

The little girls still need names, they are both gray colors, one is much darker then the other. We have decided that as of 2010 we will be working our way thru the alphabet when it comes to naming babies. So 2010 is A year, all babies born here will have their name start with A.

Both Petunia and George seem not socialized, so it will take much work to get them to be friendly pets. But I think we can handle that.

Well now that we have two unrelated bucks let the breeding begin! Lots of babies to be had this year!

I am also expecting Charlotte and Jackson to be going to a new home next weekend. The family was supposed to come today, but something came up.

Farewell 09, hello 2010!

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New year! Hope ya'll had fun and safe nights last night!

It has sure been a busy year for us here on the farm and I would like to recap with the events that have occurred.

-Total eggs collected - 2,770 (way to go ladies, lets double that for 2010)

-Total baby goats born - 12 (8 does and 4 bucks - good job girls, lets hope 2010 brings more babies and lots of girls!)

Some improvements that have been made in 2009 include -

-increasing to 3 chicken coops

-completing 1 buck barn

-fencing in 1 more pasture

Our new years resolutions are:

-Build the new barn with nursery and a hay loft

-fence in at least 1 more pasture

It should be an upcoming busy year for us, so please check back in regularly to see our progress!

Happy New Year all!