Spring 2012!

Well yet again I have let the blogging slip my mind as we get into the swing of spring!

We have been busy prepping and planting the garden (and even harvesting a little), raising baby goats, raising baby chicks, building the barn and starting the soap making.

Barn Update - The roofing material will be delivered on Monday! yeah! The roof frame is up and the nailers are in, all we need to figure out is how we get the metal sheets up there! Once the roof is on framing and siding will be begin. The barn is coming along nicely, we can't wait to get the goats in their new home.

Baby Chicks - We decided to purchase chicks for the first time this year. I found some blue, black and splash standard size cochin chicks for sale on Craigslist and for the price I could not resist. I purchased them from a wonderful young farmer. The babies are doing well, we have lost a few due to a pesky hawk, but think we have solved the problem of how he was sneaking into the baby pen.

Soap Making - I have decided that in part with the new barn, the goats will need to expand their function on our farm. With all of the babies that we have been having we have begun to milk some mammas as their babies leave the farm. Anika was our first milking victim! She did great considering it was her first time and ours. I have been freezing the milk and began experimenting with soap making. I am still in the trial phase. I have found a basic recipe that I really enjoy for the lather and the texture so now I have begun my experimentation with scents and add ins. A few weeks ago I made an Oatmeal Honey Bar that is great, and I will be keeping the recipe. Today I made a batch of Eucalyptus Mint with mint flakes, I will let you know how that one works out!

Garden - This year we have: Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Strawberries, Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Cucumbers, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Radishes and Lettuce. So far we have enjoyed the Broccoli, Cabbage, Strawberries, Radishes and Lettuce. We cannot wait for the rest of the vegetables to mature!

Baby Goats - We have had a great season so far for baby goats. At this point we have had a total of 8 babies and 7 of those have been girls!

Anika gave birth to Belle and Colt on March 29. 

Deva gave birth to Alexis on April 6.

Lilly gave birth to Aurora, Jasmine and Show White on April 23.

Misty gave birth to Jayden and Melanie on May 19 - pictures to come

Sadie gave birth to Sable on May 28 - picture to come

Sable will be retained as it is getting close to Sadie's retirement. 

Still expected to give birth:

SweetP

Dottie

Stella

Thank you all for taking the time to check in with us! 

Winter Update

Well it has been quite some time since I have updated! Things have been a whirl wind around here, let me see if I can get you all up to speed (I am sure I will leave some things out!)

We sold all of our baby goats from Spring/Summer 2011 - which means we sold 17 babies total! Our best year so far, hoping for one just a big and successful this year. Our waiting list for 2012 has already started.

Progress on the barn has been going well, we have the roof framed. We are waiting to purchase the tin for the roof and then move onto framing for the sides. I cannot wait for the barn to be completed and for the girls to move on in! I think they are anxious too since they keep spending time under the frame, I bet they are picking out the corners they want to sleep in!

The piglets, Max and Daisy May are doing GREAT! They are quite a pair. Max and Daisy do not like to be apart and follow each other around the yard. If I am out there with them they like to follow me around. Max and Daisy like to have their bellies scratched, sometimes they will walk right up to you and lay down when they feel they have not been getting enough attention. The pigs like to spend their time rooting through the yard to find the tasty roots below.

New addition to the farm - For Chris' birthday I got him 3 peafowl chicks. We think that we have two females and male. We are very excited to have these beautiful birds on our farm and look forward to collecting and hatching their eggs!

Our rescue efforts continue - a few weeks ago we rescued 12 chickens from a friend that was moving and could not take their beloved pets with them. They are all pure Dominique and are adjusting well to pasture life.

With every farm comes the chances for loss, sadly we have had our fair share this year.

-In September our beloved goat Pumpkin passed away. I had a necropsy done on her and the vet informed me that if if weren't for the fact that she was dead she would be perfectly healthy. So that was not very helpful information.

-In January, our valiant Gallahad passed away. He struggled a long fight with parasites and finally lost his battle. It was a very sad loss for us since he was so sick for so long and then showed such great improvement, only to come home and find that he had passed.

-Big Red, our first Rooster that was hatched here was attacked and killed by a neighbors dog while protecting his flock. That was another hard loss for us since he was our original Rooster.

-Krunk, Chris' favorite Silkie Rooster, with a foot deformity was pulled out of his chicken coop by a Racoon.

-Itty Bitty, Chris' favorite bantam cochin hen went missing from the farm without a trace. She did leave behind a sweet little hen to take her place.

It has been a rough start to the year, but we are persistent and cannot let these minor set backs discourage us from moving forward. This year we plan to finish the barn as well as add more pastures for the animals.

For chickens, we have decided to replace the coops we currently have with pure chickens of the same breed. This will be done over time as chickens come out of production or go missing. Coop 1, formally Red's Coop, will be the first coop to under go such a transformation. The Dominiques moved into coops 1 and I have found a local source for pure Dominique eggs that I will hatch this year and add to coop 1.

Well, thanks for checkin in ! I promise to update more timely this year!

Pumpkin has Triplets!

On May 31 Pumpkin had three beautiful babies! She did a great job delivering the babies and has been nothing but an amazing mom. She has 2 girls and 1 boy . . . they all need names at this point.

Coco is due to have kids any day now!

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!