Our Increasing Herd

At the beginning of March our herd of four goats (2 does, 1 buck, & 1 wether) increased by 5. 

 

Hickory our Nigerian Dwarf goat gave birth to triplets boys out in our field.  Unfortunately about 2 weeks later one of them died, which was really sad because that was the one that Liesel picked to be her's.

Hickory had just given birth her 2nd kid

Here's two of the 3 boys only a couple days old

About a week later, Patches, our 1/2 Boar & 1/2 Nubian, gave birth to twins.  This is the 2nd time Patches has given birth since we got her 4 years ago.  She had twins the last time but one of them didn't make it.  This time both of them made it!

Patches brand-new kids. A boy and a girl

The white one is the boy and the brown is the girl

So I really have enjoyed having little goats (especially the Nigerian Dwarf) and so we decided we'd sell all of our 3 baby boys and get a few more does.  Well we found a really good deal and end up with 3 more does (plus one for our cousins.)

 

Our newest does...

 

Our 1 year old Nigerian Dwarf, Miss Betsy. She got her head stuck in a bucket.

 

 

The 3 new doeling kids-Foxglove, Jasmine, & our cousins little goat who we named Jemima.

 

We now have 6 does (Patches' girl we're going to sell but we still have her at the moment), 1 buck, & 1 wether.  Bring us to a total of 8 goats. So what's the plan with these goats? :) Well for one thing these goats are wonderful brush and weed eaters and have done a great job keeping the blackberry bushes down etc.  We also plan on breeding the does later on this year so we can have a few more kids next year.  We've had no problem selling the little dwarfs as people seem to want them for pets etc plus I love having them around. Who knows maybe one day we will milk them and make cheese and soap etc but for now we're just enjoying all our goats.

 

Yes this city raised girl has sure gone country and is loving it.!  Who would have thought! :)

 

Oh and did I mention one of our hens just hatched 14 chicks this week and another hen is setting right now, but I'll save that for another post! :)

 

 

( I have more pictures but haven't download them yet.  All these pictures were taken with my camera phone since my camera died the day before the goats were born.)

New Additions to the Farm

Yes, our little farm continues to grow.  As it stands we have 5 goats, 4 hens, 1 rooster, 11 chicks, 1 donkey, our sister-in-law's horse Domino and our latest addition....

Yes, that's right we got two horses. 

Meet Country and Rielly

They originally were trail horses on a Dude Ranch and when that closed down another family bought them.  They had Country and Rielly for 5+years but as their family's life has gotten busier they didn't have as much time to ride so they were looking for a new home for the horses.  Well, last Saturday we went to see them and both my DH and I fell in love with them! 

Country is a 25 year old quarter horse

Rielly is a 23 year old quarter horse mix

These two are just sweethearts!  Every morning Liesel and I go out and feed them some hay and talk and pet them.  Country and Reilly are sweeties and love/want to be with you! When you walk into the pasture they come right up to you. They're no problem to catch and will stand to be loved on and groomed without halter or lead rope.  Even Liesel rode double with me in our small pasture.  This horses are as even keel as can be which is perfect for us.

Yesterday my DH and I went for a ride on the fields behind our house for the 1st time with the horses.  My DH rode Country, who likes to be in front of the group and I rode Rielly.  We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again!  I admit as a beginner I'm a little more on the nervous side but Rielly did great with me.  We're look forward to many more rides with our sweet horses! 

Thank you dear hubby for getting the horses! Now you don't have to worry about Christmas or my birthday! :)

Our (not so little) Piggies

Our piggies our getting bigger and bigger and bigger.  Right now the 7 of them eat about one bag of pig food a day!  They really do live up to there name! :)  About a month ago we moved them to a bigger area which they love.  I can now watch them run (and yes pigs can run) around, root under the apple tree, take a bath in a mud puddle and snort and squeal to their hearts content.  They are funny animals and I do get a kick out of them.  Strangely enough they're rather entertaining!  Liesel loves watching the piggies and I know she's going to miss them when they go to their "new home" at the beginning of next month. Liesel will especially miss Lulu who is the runt of the bunch and the only pig with a name.

Callie and Liesel checking on the pigs

"Here piggy, piggy" eat a flower

More Boarders!

We added two more boarders to our "farm!" :)

Meet Margaret & Louise

A mother, daughter pair

They are miniature donkeys.  Margaret is the mother and Louise is the daughter.  Our friends are in the process of moving to a place with more property but the sellers are taking longer to  move then expected so we're boarding M & L until our friends can get moved in.  It's fun to have these two around.  Liesel keeps calling them "Monk" after our donkey who is over at our in-law's keeping my sister-in-laws horse company.  Who knows what we'll add next to our "farm!"

Our New Boarders

7 piglets

One of my DH's co-workers wanted to raise some pigs but didn't have the space to do it so my DH said we'd be happy to board them at our place. (My husband really enjoyed raising pigs last time so all he need was an excuse.)  In exchange for boarding their pigs we get two of them.  They are 6 weeks old and really are cute little things.  The spotted one and black one are ours.

Farm Trip

Here's a Smilebox of our trip to the farm with some friends.  It is the neatest place.  They have a farm store (which includes a bakery & gift shop) that is open year-round along with the petting zoo.  During the spring it is a full blown nursery but during the fall they convert the greenhouses it into a fun fall "playground."   They have corn & hay mazes, slides, forts, wagon rides, pumpkin & corn patches, zip lines, bounce houses, cider and apple tastings etc.  We spent most of our time in the petting zoo and playground.  The kids loved every minute of it.  We had 5 kiddos, 4 kids under the age of 2, and 3 mommies.  We managed to all pack into one vehicle so we were a sight to behold.  I felt like Mary Poppins' bottomless bag as we kept unloading people out of the car!

Free photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

A Puppy, Twins, and 10 Months Old

A Puppy
My DH and I have been talking and decided that JB was ready to get a puppy so we surprised him a week and a half ago with a little 8 week old black lab.

Little Gunner is a sweetheart and Callie and him get along great.  Since the pup isn't potty-trained at the moment he is only allow on the tile floor.  JB is responsible for all the messes that Gunner makes and I have to say he has been doing a good job, cleaning up that is!

Twins
We've been suspicious for awhile and on Friday it was confirmed.  Patches our goat gave birth to twin boys!  It was so amazing to watch her give birth and what is even more amazing was we were all home to watch!  You would laugh to know I watched several "live" goat birth videos just so I knew what to expect.  Yes, I know that sounds weird but if my DH was at work when this all happened and something was right I needed to have some clue.

The little guys are so cute but sadly the all white one didn't make it.  He was weaker then the other one and didn't want to nurse so on Saturday my DH and JB were milking Patches and feeding the little one.  When my DH went out Sunday morning to check on the little guy he had died.  It's was sad but at least we have the other one.

10 months
Yes, my baby is 10 months.  She now has 3 teeth (plus a 4th pushing through) on the top and 2 on the bottom.  A week ago Friday she started to crawl, thanks to my dear brother-in-law who tempted her and feed her a bite of his cinnamon roll. (We all predicted he would be the first to feed her sugar.)  She now is all over the place and is starting to pull herself up on things.  I found her the other morning standing in her crib just chatting away to herself.  On the same day she crawled she also said her first word.  No it wasn't mommy or daddy (though she says it but doesn't quite directed it to us) it was "ed-eddy."  Yes, it the name of my in-laws little dog!  She saw him and said "Ed. Ed-dee."  It won't be long before she's talking up a storm!  We sure are having a lot of fun with her!

Our Pigs

Yes, we have pigs and we've had them since the end of November.  I've been terrible about blogging so hence the fact that it has taken almost 3 months before I mention them! :)

Here's what they looked like when we first
got them at the end of November

December

February

They're getting quite big!

Our plan is to have them butcher in April.

Check Out Our Chicks

Two weeks ago we got 3 Barred Rock chicks. My DH use to have a one legged Barred Rock hen named Charlie. He use to carry it around all the time. It was his special hen so we decided to get a few Barred Rocks for sentimental reasons. Meet Charlie, Joe, and Henny. (Some of the hens have ended up with boy names! I figure there just nicknames for Charlotte and Josephine! :)


Callie has found them absolutely fascinating. She will stand there looking through the hole staring at them or with her head over the top of the box. She doesn't seem to want to hurt them but can't stand to let any peeping go unattended.

On Friday we got 6 more chicks. This time they are Black Sex Links. The Barred Rock seem to get along just fine. See they're all sleeping. Isn't it amazing how much the Barred Rocks have grown in just two weeks!