I put our alpaca stud Peter in the girl's pasture today to spit test the girl's.  Within minutes he had our female, Eloise, cushed down and breeding.  I knew Eloise was open but it slipped my mind when I put Peter in there.  Since Eloise is Black and Peter is Medium Silver Grey I can hope for a grey or black cria next June!?

The game hen that hatched out the five ducklings was missing from the barn this morning.  Evan went on hunt into the woods and found her scratching in the leaves with all five ducklings.  I wanted to collect them all up and put them in the chicken coop to keep the ducklings safe.  As I said she is a very protective mother and did not want me or the kids near her babies.  She puffed herself up and attacked me numerous times while picking up the ducklings.  I managed to get all the little ones and put them into a pet carrier... mother hen was then easy to get as she wanted to be with her charges and she went right into the carrier after them.

My friend Heather traded me three pounds of zucchini and summer squash for two dozen eggs today.

She had come over so we could discuss what we were going to do with the Cloverbuds (kids age 5-8) at the horse 4-H meeting on Wednesday evening.  It is the first "formal" Cloverbud program in the group and we have lots of ideas to make it fun for them.

Out in the barn I discovered two more ducklings under the game hen... bringing the total to five now.

Days update.

Well, first off, our rabbit made it through the night! She is tucked in the far corner of the hutch but her ears are up and she seems alert. I will not consider her out of the woods until another day or two and I see her eating and drinking again. But, she looks good for what she went through yesterday!

Neil's Dad came by early this morning so he and Neil could get the last of the four concrete stabilizer footings poured on the garage. Yeah! Now that that is done they can continue work on the end walls and doors to button it up for the winter.

We have two alpacas that are due with crias at the end of this month. One of those is Eloise. While feeding the girls this morning I noticed a large lump by the tail head of Eloise, so large that it actually pushed her tail to one side. I went up and felt the lump and it was firm. I pressed on it and it retracted back! A few minutes later it reappeared... I pushed on it again and it retracted once more. This was the nose of the cria! So, Eloise is now on cria watch.

My birthing stall has had a gate broken on it for some time (the cows share one side and rubbed on it until the wall broke) and since my need for that stall my come sooner than I had thought... Neil removed the half wall that the gate is attached to, rebuilt the framing, covered it with pressboard for strength, reinstalled the wall and then hung the gate again. Now I am all set if I see any signs of impending birth. I will put the two girls in there in another week regardless so that they don't give birth without being separated from our LGDs who are so protective of babies that they keep the dams away too!

Sold the three little ducklings to a neighbor I sold some turkeys to this summer. She called yesterday to see if I had any ducks for sale and was pleased that I had little ones available. Funny how things work out sometimes.

I weighed our two new Nigerian Dwarf goat doelings again today to see if they are growing. They have been here two weeks now. Miss Olive, who weighed in at only 16.75lbs two weeks ago, was up 1.5lbs to 18.25lbs. Miss Cheddar on the other hand remained the same at 17.75lbs. I am sure this is due to the week long bought of diarrhea she went through when she first arrived. She has recovered fully and is doing well now. I will continue to weigh them over the next few weeks to keep my eye on their growth.

Finally, Neil set up the volleyball net for the kids in the side yard so they could play badminton with it. Evan played for a bit but then went off to set "snares" around the farm. McKayla and I played badminton for almost an hour. What a sight we were... playing badminton with a volleyball net and racket ball rackets... but we had a blast!

Pigs on the farm?

The kids and I headed out to our friend S.'s farm this afternoon to pick up some young Muscovy ducks from her. I met S. last year when she came by the farm to buy some Muscovies from me. Now, a year later I find myself needing some back. You see I have sold almost all of my young ducks that hatched out on the farm this spring. I only have a few males and 3-4 females left.

I had a gentlemen contact me wanting a drake and 4-5 females to start his flock. I told him it would take a few days to catch them up and I would call him when they were ready for pickup. After two days I could only get hold of a drake and a one female. The rest of the females free range almost 100% of the time and never come into the chicken coop to eat the pellet food in the mornings so there was no way I could get a hold of them.

I made a quick phone call to S. to ask if she had any females that she needed to sell. In fact she did and would love to help me fill my order. So, off to S.'s farm we went. It was fun looking around her farm seeing all her animals... goats, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, lots of different breeds of ducks, the Embden geese she got from us recently, pot-bellied pigs and Guinea pigs too. After the farm tour, we packed up three Muscovy females to bring home. Then S. offered the kids two Guinea pigs as well. She had several litters of young ones ready to go. The kids each picked one out (and a quick check to confirm they were both the same sex!) and we had two little piggies coming home with us too!


These will be the first "pets" the kid's have had. Obviously, at ages 7 and 5 I will still be the primary caretaker. But as I expect the guinea pigs to be around for several years at some point I hope they can take over the duties themselves.

Goodbye Chuck

We sold our Dexter bull, Charles Wallace, today. I was very sad to see him go as he was a very handsome and well behaved bull. Unfortunately, since we only keep two cows and his dam is one of them, we really needed to move him to another farm that could benefit from his great genetics and get a bull unrelated to our two cows. We would like to get a polled bull this time around so it might take awhile until we get a new bull.

Chuck did really well loading into the trailer with just a bale of hay and a little encouragement from behind. He is such a good boy!

The gentleman that purchased Chuck was here early this spring with his wife to purchase some of our ducks. While he was here today he purchased nine more ducks to add to their flock. I guess they are enjoying them!

Flown the coop...

Well, all is quiet in the house now.

Two thirds of my children (Evan, 7 and McKayla, soon to be 5) were picked up by their grandmother at 7:30am this morning. They are traveling to Vermont for a week to visit with family. This time every year there is a large balloon festival in Quechee, VT that they all go to. Evan got to go last year but this is McKayla's first time away from home for so long. Even though I know they will be having lots of fun I will miss them terribly.

So, for the next seven days it will be me and baby Taylor hanging out.

I have grand plans to get lots of stuff done... we will see how productive I really am.

Muscovy duck with FOURTEEN newly hatched ducklings!

I sold a pair of American Chinchilla rabbits yesterday and two of the juvenile goslings this afternoon!

Evening update: Got a new batch of goat's milk soap made up tonight. I made a cornmeal scrub soap scented with cedar and orange. It should be a refreshing soap to use after doing chores. It will be 5-6 weeks before the soap has cured enough to use. At that time I will be selling some on our Etsy site and also (hopefully) at a local farm store here in town as well.

This and That Today

Nothing major to report today just a few little things going on.

The fence on our goat buck pen has been needing some work for a while now as our buck had no qualms going through the five wire electric fence that made up one side of the square pen to get to the does. Somehow the fix for this problem kept getting moved down the list of priorities around the farm. Well, yesterday morning, Neil finally got a line of woven wire strung up about a foot inside the electric fence. I didn't have time to catch the buck yesterday but this morning I snapped a lead on him while he was munching on his breakfast. After a bit of a tug of war to get him away from the sweet feed/grain and the does he found himself back in the buck pen again. He went went right out to the pen and started nibbling on the tall grasses and weeds there. By 7pm tonight he was still in the pen... I wonder if he will still be there in the morning?

Our Nigerian Dwarf Goat buck, Enchanted Hill Gottaway

My pickling cucumbers finally peeked their heads out of the soil after a warm and rainy day here today. Still no sign of the carrots, lettuce and radishes I planted at the same time. Elsewhere in the garden the tomatoes are doing great! I love the smell of tomato plants as I brush against them while weeding... an old factory trigger for what is to come! The summer squashes, watermelon and peppers are looking good too.

Another duckling hatched out overnight. I had a flurry of them at the end of last week but hadn't had anymore hatch for a few days so I was a bit surprised to see it this morning. Ducklings, like puppies, are something I never want to grow up. They are so perfectly cute at this age.

Independence Day Update #4

Happy Memorial Day!

A couple from Danville, VA came and bought some ducks today. They were here in December and purchased three of our Muscovy ducks and an Embden goose. They recently lost their drake and came back to get another. They also ended up getting another mature duck and a month old duckling. They will all have a wonderful new home with this couple as pets on their pond.

Here is my weekly IDC update:

Plant something - Russet potatos, Glaskins Perpetual Rhubarb, Drunken Woman Lettuce, Iceburg Lettuce, Kuroda Long Carrots, Radishes, Bush Pickle Cucumber and Straight 8 Cucumber.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens. Plantain (the herb/weed) from our yard, wild mint.

Preserve something - Froze fresh mint leaves, dried plantain leaves.

Reduce Waste - Did our usual recycling efforts. Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. The kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin. Got a Little Tike basketball hoop off of Freecycle for the kids.

Preparation and Storage - Not much on this front this week.

Eat the Food -

Plantain - Weed or Herb?

Plantain (Plantago major) is considered a common weed by some and a miracle plant by others. You can find it all over our farm along with another Plantain, Pantago lanceolata, which has long narrow leaves. Plantago major is edible. The young, tender leaves can be harvested for use in a salad, or steamed and used as a spinach substitute. Plantain is very high in beta carotene (A) and calcium. It also provides ascorbic acid (C), and vitamin K.

One of plantain's most common medicinal uses is as a poultice for stings, bites, scrapes and rashes. The simplest way to harness plantain's healing powers is to crush a few fresh leaves, and apply directly to the affected area. Replace fresh leaves as necessary. The fresh plantain "juice" takes the pain away and seems to work wonders at staunching blood flow and closing wound edges. It's also wonderfully refreshing and soothing to sunburns.

Since I have so much of this growing around the farm I thought I would harvest some today and dry it to use for infusions when needed. I have also read that it makes a great diaper rash cream so I think I will do a bit more research on that and make up a batch soon for Taylor.

Other happenings on the farm include two more ducklings that hatched out overnight. They are now in the brooder. Chamomile, one of our Am Chin rabbit does, had a date with the buck, Sarsaparilla, for the day. She is still with her 9 kits born April 9th but I wanted to rebreed her for a late June kindling. The date seemed to go well. I finally got the 4x8 raised bed planted that I cleaned out last week. Into it went Iceberg Lettuce, Drunken Woman Lettuce, Straight 8 and Bush Pickling Cucumbers, and Carrots. I also moved more of the tires that, in past years, I have been growing my potatoes in to a new place in the garden. I filled four tire beds (each stacked two high) with aged bedding from the barn. Into one tire I planted Rhubarb the other three will be getting Russet Potatoes... hopefully tomorrow.

Evan and McKayla are thoroughly enjoying the pool. They have been in it at least once a day since Friday. McKayla especially loves to swim and is constantly asking if she can go swimming. Which I still find amazing as it is ice cold and they come out blue with their teeth chattering... but they love it! Tonight is was a mere 60F outside and the two of them swam until I had dinner ready. Crazy!

Independence Day Update #3

Between yesterday and today there are three new ducklings and two more turkey poults in the brooder. I expect a flush of ducklings in the new few days. Also, yesterday one of the oldest turkey poults that I had left with its mother found its way into the pasture and became a dog toy for our LGDs. When I found it in the barn I wasn't sure if it was still alive or not. It was missing feathers and wet from dog mouth. After I determined it was still breathing I put it with the young birds under the heat lamp in the brooder. In the afternoon it was dry and sitting up a bit. By this morning it was eating, drinking and looking BAR (bright, alert and responsive). It did not want to get up on its feet though... I wonder if it has a broken leg? They are not floppy at all so I have hope it will fully recover with a bit more rest but its days of free ranging with mom are over.

I spent some time in the garden this afternoon. Took the weed whacker around the outside of the raised beds. It looks so much tidier now. I haven't been able to plant in the 4x8 box that I cleaned out earlier this week as I hadn't figured out how to chicken proof it until today. I cut a 16 foot cattle panel in half to give me a 4x8 metal grid to lay on top of the box. Over the grid I will place a bird net for fruit trees. This should keep the birds from scratching up the bed and eating the seeds and disrupting any tender starts. I hope to get some lettuce, radishes, carrots and cukes planted in that box in the next few days.

Here is my update for the IDC this week.

Plant something - Mr. Stripy tomato, sweet yellow pepper, sweet orange pepper, sweet banana pepper, sweet potato.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens.

Preserve something - Does feeding my sourdough count as something I am preserving? If so, it is something I do at least every other day to keep it alive.

Reduce Waste - Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. Knitted up a reusable produce bag. No more plastic produce bags for me... YEAH! You can read about it here. Kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin.

Preparation and Storage - I scored a few more great items on the discount table at the local grocery store to have in the pantry. I am continuing to clean out garden beds when I have time and still keep up with the weeds in the boxes I already have planted. I am using newspaper with aged barn floor straw over it as mulch to keep the weeds at bay and the soil moist.

Our two oldest children have life insurance policies through Modern Woodmen of America. One of the many benefits that MWA offers to their policy holders is a free tree every year. This week I remembered to log onto their website and order our two free trees for this year. I don't expect them to come until the Fall for planting but it is something I got done this week! Oh, I ordered a Sugar Maple and a Redbud. The maple for Fall color and the redbud for Spring color!

Eat the Food - Made a Shrimp Scampi from shrimp from the freezer, pasta out of the pantry and served it with a loaf of sourdough bread, also out of the freezer. Brought a pan of Chicken Enchiladas, made with home grown chicken out of the freezer, over to the In-Laws for dinner Saturday night. Made more homemade granola and bagels this weekend for breakfasts.

Farm Photos

Six month old Murdoc... who we discovered was a Rose Grey only after shearing.

Last nights rain clings in the flower garden.

One of last year's hatch of Chocolate Muscovy Ducks.

One of Nigerian Dwarf goat doelings, Elizabeth, from this spring... she is for sale!

The Embden geese with their seven goslings.

The rose bush in front of the house is in full bloom.

Our Entlebucher Mountain Dog, Tate, taking a short break in the shade.

Finally, Daddy and 4 1/2 month old Taylor taking a stroll around the farm together.

It's pool time again!

The kids have been looking forward to today all Spring! Today Daddy set up the pool again!

The past two years here at the farm we have had an 18' pool (the kind with the inflatable rim). It was great to have for the kids to cool off with in the hot summer months. Unfortunately, last summer we had to chase and patch leaks constantly and by the end of the season it was determined it just wasn't going to make it through another year. So, this week Neil picked up a new 15' pool and this morning he set it up and started filling it before we had to head into town to do some errands.

When we returned home around 1:30pm the skies turned grey, the thunder boomed and the rain came down. About an hour later the storm moved off and the kids begged to go into the pool.

The post rain sky as seen from the deck.

Now the pool was being filled by the garden hose with water from our deep well... read that as ice cold water. I said "sure" thinking that they would put their toes in and quickly change their minds.

The new pool still filling up with water.

McKayla was the first to "go all in".

Evan took a bit longer to get in but then was all about swimming.

Never underestimate the power of the pool! Brrrr......

Out in the chicken coop I found a turkey poult under one of my broody chickens. The turkey hen that had been setting down in the unused pig house left 8 eggs in the nest when the other nine hatched out last week. When I discovered the eggs they were cold but I gathered them up and put them in a nest box in the coop next to one of the broody hens. I didn't expect anything to come of it but I figured it couldn't hurt. After a week had gone by and no more poults had hatched out I reached in a gave the eggs a gentle shake. Three of them sloshed when shaken so I removed them... for a moment I thought of just removing them all thinking they must all be spoiled by now but I left them in the end. And today there was a poult under the hen! There are still four more eggs so I will wait and see.

Oh, and I also discovered a tiny chicken chick under one of the ducks in the coop as well. Funny, it was marked just like the turkey poults... it must be an Americana chicken cross. Both the chick and the poult got moved into the box under the heat lamp in the brooder.

Duckling sales

Had a very nice family come to the farm today to see our Muscovy ducklings. They ended up taking 8 of them home.

That leaves us with 8 in the brooder... two of which the kids have requested we keep (the two largest yellow ducklings). We don't really need to add more ducks to the current number of breeders I keep but I think the one McKayla has asked to keep is going to be a drake and I would like to have a non-black drake so if that is the case he can stay here on the farm, and not for the table.

I hope to have plenty more ducklings in the next few weeks as well. I have two ducks on nests in the coop, two chickens on duck eggs in the coop, four ducks on eggs in the barn, one chicken on duck eggs in the barn, and just today I found a hidden duck nest in the goat buck barn as well.

Oh, and yesterday I found the turkey that was nesting in the old pig house out and about with 9 poults scurrying after her. I managed to catch 6 of them and get them in the brooder in the coop. That brings our turkey poult number to 16 in the brooder!

I also noticed that another of the turkey hens has started setting on a nest in the hostas on the front side of the house! I hopefully will have enough turkeys for the holiday orders this year. Last year was a bad year for the turkeys and I did not have enough to satisfy all my customers, which was terrible... I hope all goes well with these as they grow out.

Goslings are here!

When I was out feeding the poultry and rabbits this morning I noticed our gander was being very aggressive. I had a hunch what might be up, that his lady goose hatched out a gosling or two. The ground nest box that she sets in is in the poultry pen but behind the coop so I don't always walk back there every day to check on things... especially with all the rain we have had this week turning the ground to deep mud.

I braved the mud and was happy to see several yellow balls of fluff in the box with the goose. I happened to bring my camera down this morning so I snapped a few shots. Momma goose was not too happy that I was anywhere near and she kept hissing at me.

I was thrilled to see seven little goslings! Last year (which was her first year laying) she sat on six eggs, hatched only two and she crushed one in the nest. The single gosling that survived was doted on by her very protective parents. The seven in the nest this morning look vigorous and strong so I hope that they all make it.

Now, to find some folks that want some Embden geese.

When headed back up to the house I had babies on the brain I guess because I made a detour over to the tree stump that one of our Muscovy ducks has been setting in for weeks now. I moved the tires I had in front of the hole (to keep our dog out but still allow the duck to come and go) and could see that the duck was setting off to the side of where her nest had been. Four year old McKayla was with me and since she is smaller then me I asked her to reach into the opening in the stump and under the duck to see if any ducklings were there. To McKayla's delight she pulled out a little duckling! After she removed three more I told her to leave any more there with the mom (again I hate to take all the babies away from the moms that work so hard to hatch them for me). The four ducklings were taken back down to the coop to join the others in the brooder pen. That brings our duckling count to 16 in the brooder.

Poultry update

Just a quick note to report on the poultry.

Found six more ducklings in the barn this morning. That brings the duckling count up to eleven. Then when I was out getting the tractor so I could move some hay up to the barn I noticed a turkey hen on the tree line behind the goat barn. I walked back to get a closer look and it was the mother turkey from Monday and she still had the two little poults under her! Yeah!

Quick update...

Two more ducklings hatched out in the barn today... a smokey grey one and one marked like a mallard duckling (those markings don't stay when the adult feathers come in). They have joined the turkeys and yesterday's duckling in the brooder. I will have to set up the third brooder soon as with the onslaught of ducklings to come the second brooder is going to get crowded soon.

I have looked around the farm, unsuccessfully, the past two days to see if I could locate the turkey hen that I left the 2-3 biddies with. I don't know where she is hiding... I guess she didn't like that I took her babies away from her. But, what I did discover was my fourth turkey hen is setting on a nest of about 20 eggs down in the woods inside one of the old corrugated steel pig shelters from the previous owners. It seems like a nice dry safe nest so I let her be. I will keep checking on her every few days though.

I got my Homestead tomatoes planted in the garden today. Which means that the kids and I had to first remove all the crab grass from that raised bed, fluff up the soil, give it a good heavy drink of water and then plant the tomato starts, install the supports, cover the rest of the bed with wet newspapers and top it all off with old straw/chicken manure raked up from the barn floor. It wouldn't have been that bad of a task, as it was a comfortable 83F outside today, but little 4 month old Taylor, who was sitting in the stroller the whole time ran out patience after I only planting the 3rd tomato plant. Still she was happy watching all the action up to that point so I really can't complain. The kids pushed her around the garden in the stroller while I finished up as quick as I could.

Taylor's debut photo on the blog.

I have three alpacas that I am expecting crias from anytime between May 1st and June 1st: GeeGee, Celtie and Joy. They were all living with our stud Novio out in the second pasture last spring/summer so I am not exactly sure of the breed dates. Celtie and Joy both have noticeably swollen bellies and I can see the cria moving in Celtie's abdomen quite often now. It will be the first crias for both of these females so I am a bit nervous about it... and Celtie happens to be my favorite as well. I will report in when the time comes!

First duckling of the season

McKayla holding the 1st duckling of the season.

I discovered the first Muscovy duckling of the season in the barn this morning. It was hatched out by our game hen that adopted us the Fall of 2007 after a neighbor moved. She is the best (aka meanest) mother hen we have. She is fiercely protective of her nest and her hatchlings. I was suspicious that one of the duck eggs she was sitting on had hatched after seeing some shell fragments outside the nest. She was not happy to be lifted and I have several red spots on my arm to remind me not to do it again. But, under her was a little yellow duckling. She was even more unhappy when I took it away from her! I have found that I loose a lot of young birds if I let them be raised by the hens... there are just too many dangers out there.

So, our duckling is now happily living with the 7 turkey keets in the brooder pen... which, I was happy to find, did just fine overnight.

The game hen setting on about 10 Muscovy duck eggs and 1 Americana chicken egg.

I grabbed my camera this morning...

This and That

I was happy to see this morning that all sixteen chicks survived the night out in the chicken coop. They were all piled up on each other when I opened the coop door and popped up at the sound.

I found another turkey egg on the floor of the coop and slide it under one of my broody Buff Orpington hens that is sitting on two other turkey eggs for me. So now she has three and seems quite happy with her post... pecking at my hand when I check for any chicken eggs under her.

One of our Muscovy ducks has laid her eggs in the hollow tree stump out by my raised beds. She is sitting on about twenty eggs. I also have two nests of duck eggs in the barn and one in the chicken coop. If they all hatch out I will have plenty of ducklings this season!

I managed to get my hands on our rabbit buck at feeding time today and removed him from the does. He has been with them for about three weeks now. I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to catch him before now. You see he is wise to my presence when he is with the girls and will stay out of reach in their pen. This morning though he made the mistake of eating with his back to me. A swift move on my part and I scooped him up and returned him to his adjoining pen. All went well until he jumped into his pen and ripped three holes in my shirt with his back feet. It was a nice t-shirt too!

This afternoon, Neil and I took the kid's out to lunch at a restaurant and then visited with friends (classmates of Neil's from HS) in Durham, NC. One of Neil's friends was here visiting from "up North" and it was great for Neil to see her and for me to meet her for the first time. We had a wonderful visit and the kids played while we had some adult time. What a relaxing afternoon!

More of little brown dog...

Well... little brown dog was here all night again!

I called animal control right away and, after a reporting our history with brown dog, was told an officer could come out this afternoon to pick him up. So, it would be another day of brown dog on the farm.

I normally have the doorway to the barn blocked by a section of goat paneling (to keep out not only stray dogs but our own beloved house dog, Tate, as well. Tate likes to find eggs in the barn and eat them... a practice that is neither good for Tate's waist line or the gathering of eggs for sale.

Little brown dog was quite interested in the barn door so I had a thought. I took the tractor out to the goat barn and retrieved the large wire dog kennel that I often use to house goat kids overnight so I can milk their dams. I reassembled the kennel outside the barn but near the door. I then continued on with my morning chores but left the door unblocked. Sure enough curiosity got the best of him and he came into the barn to check out Emmie and Berk as they eat their breakfast. As soon as I felt he was far enough into the barn I quickly blocked the door again so he couldn't leave. Then from the outside I pushed the kennel up against the doorway, removed the goat panel and opened the kennel door. When little brown dog tried to leave the barn again I swung the door shut and he was caught! He did not like being caught one bit and barked and barked in his cell. I dragged the kennel away from the barn door so finally the alpacas could relax, come into the barn, eat and get dry.

Just as I was getting brown dog settled away from the barn, some folks I was expecting arrived to purchased some of our Muscovy ducks. They were a wonderful family and stayed and visited far longer then they had intended too I think. After much discussion they took home four of our female ducks, three chocolate and one black. Just as they were leaving our two Irish Dexter bulls decided to make themselves a nuisance and broke the wire clips that hold a woven wire fence to its T-posts, slipped under the fence and were head wresting with each other in the alpaca pasture! These fine folk (who also raise cows) helped me round up the rouge boys and return them to the cow pasture where they belong. A big thank you to the Adkins' family!

Later this afternoon, the animal control officer arrived and was so thrilled that brown dog was locked up in the kennel. It made transferring him the dog box on the truck so easy. She asked a few more questions about him and then they were gone! Yeah! No more little brown dog!