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.