Babies, Babies and more Babies!

We have been very busy here delivery all kinds of babies!

On April 20 Misty gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and handsome baby boy.

On April 28 Lilly gave birth to triplets. 2 girls and 1 boy! All babies and moms are doing great!

All earlier babies have gone on to their new homes. All are doing well. Have received pictures of Caleb and Cole climbing all over their new owners deck furniture. The boys looked very happy and their new owners just love them!

Have been hatching chicks out like crazy. Have been doing much better this year with non-shipped eggs. Certainly the way to go! We have hatched Cochins, Buff and Lavender Orphingtons, Amerucanas, Copper Marans and have a few guinea eggs hatching soon.

Not only do we have goat babies and chicks running around we also have baby pigs running around! I got two pot bellied piglets in early may. Max and Daisy May were born on May 1 and we got them when they were 7 days old to raise. The mamma pig crushed everyone in the litter and the owner was afraid they would get crushed too. They are doing great and are a lot of fun! (and sooooo cute!)

As you can see max is clearly the runt!

Falling behind!

Well I seem to not be able to keep up with things at work or things around the farm! Dottie, Ava and Stella are doing well and so are their babies. Lanie, Lacey, Cali and Jetta will be leaving the farm in the next few weeks!

In March Sadie and Daisy kidded for us! Daisy on 3/25 with 2 boys and Sadie on 3/26 with 1 boy. Moms and babies there are doing great as well!

Sadie's baby - Blake

Daisy's Baby - Black Jack

Daisy's Baby - Midnight

We have more goats expecting in April. Misty and Lilly are both first time moms that are due Easter week. My parents will be down that week and they are very excited to experience that with us.

We still have some goats available for sale, Caleb, Cole, Black Jack and Blake.

Chris and I have also been busy with planting! I supported the local 4H and purchased blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and asparagus from them. So far the blueberries are still alive and strawberries are showing signs of re-growth. Not sure yet about the asparagus and the blackberry and raspberry plants look like sticks in the ground! I have not given up on them yet.

I also planted an early crop if cabbage, brussels sprouts, romaine lettuce and tomatoes. Everything was doing great, but then the wind struck. The wind blew open my garden gate and one of my lovely goats wandered in and ate EVERYTHING! I will be on my way to the store to purchase replacements. I have since installed another latch as a backup incase wind strikes again!

The barn building is going great. We have one half of the bottom floor completed. Chris is working to get as much done on the second half as he can. My parents will help us with the barn as well and hopefully we can have the entire bottom story framed in by the time they leave.

The babies have arrived!

Well I have been a little slow in my blog update! We had 6 babies born recently. on 2/27 Dottie had two beautiful black babies. One boy, Cole and one girl, Jetta. Stella also had babies on the 27th. She had one boy Caleb and one girl, Cali. Cali and Caleb are both light carmel/grey in color.

Here is baby Cole and Jetta just after being born. Jetta is the one on the left with the white spot on her head.

Here is baby Caleb at 2 weeks of age.

Here is baby Cali at 2 weeks of age.

Then on 2/28 Ava decided that she ready to have her babies. Ava, choose a very rainy night to give birth. She had two baby girls, Lacey and Lanie. Lacey gets her name from being white and dainty. She has been the quietest baby we have ever had.

Lanie is on the left, she is an Ava mini me! Lacey is on the right.

All babies and moms are doing great. All babies have already been listed for sale. We are expecting two more mothers in the next few weeks. Daisy and Sadie are due anywhere from March 19-March 29. They were accidently bred to Bronx while we were on vacation in October. After that we have a few more does to kid.

Check back soon for updates on baby goats and baby chicks! The incubator is up and running!

End of Winter is near

Well there have been lots of things in the past few weeks that have been going on around the farm. I think it is time to take a moment and update everyone!

*We have been working on the barn every nice weekend we get. Since we are doing it the old fashioned way if Chris and I work together we are able to get 4 beams up in a weekend. I know that does not sound like much but remember we are chiseling the beams by hand.

*We will have some family down in March to help us get a huge push in competing the barn. It will be great to have the help and hopefully we can get the framing completed so all that is left is siding and flooring.

*Our youngest chickens have begun laying eggs! Chris collected the first egg yesterday! I was not expecting that until March so we are slightly ahead of schedule.

*We have some goats that are due to kid in February which is very exciting. Stella and Dottie are both due the last week. Other possible pregnancies include: Ava, Coco, Lilly, Misty and Sadie. So we will be busy with babies this spring and early summer!

*We have begun planning for our vegetable garden. We are thinking of making it slightly larger this year. We are still enjoying the many foods that we preserved from last summer!

*We have also began talking about the future orchard/fruit area that we would like to have. The things that we would like to include so far are fruit trees, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and grapes. It would be nice to get some of those now, but in time everything will fall into place.

The weather has been cold and either rainy or snowing. The ground here is completely mud which will be GREAT for planting grass after the last frost. No more mud pit for me!

Well I guess that is all for this update! Check back soon!

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!