{Ducklings}

Last September, we welcomed three ducklings to our homestead. Once they reached maturity and we could distinguish their gender, we actually had two drakes (boys) and one hen (girl). So we sold one of the drakes on Craigslist. We were left with a pair (Goliath and Charlotte) and Charlotte started laying eggs. The eggs are oh so tasty! But, we decided to let our hen give mothering a try and so we started leaving the eggs when she laid them. We were hoping maternity would suit her and she might raise a little family. After she laid 16! eggs she finally started sitting on them. Then we waited. And waited.
Then Thursday morning I saw our little mama shuffling around in her nest. I ran out to see what was going on and saw the first two little ducklings peek out at me. For three whole hours I sat and watched the rest of the flock hatch from the eggs. The mama would help them out of the shell and she and the drake would eat the shells.

The next day they went out for their first stroll together as a family and there were 15 ducklings!

 

 Over the course of the weekend we found four of the ducklings dead, 

but there are still 11 happy and healthy ducklings 

 that follow their mama all around the homestead.

HOME Sweet Homestead

Boy, oh boy, do we have a lot going on at our sweet, little homestead! 

It is definitely Spring around here! 

We've been busy planting and still have more to do, but we've also been harvesting, too.

 Flowers are popping up all around in some unexpected places.

 

Our Muscovy duck is sitting on 16 eggs! We will have ducklings very soon.

 

In the last month, Bryan built our laying hens a new eggmobile. Our chickens could already move around in the pastures, but not very easily in the very heavy coop that we had from the city. Now we can move the chickens so much easier and it can hold so many more chickens.

 We used metal that we found in the barn to cover the sides and a trailer for the base. 

We still have a few finishing touches to do, but it is now in use.

 Our first batch of 25 Rainbow Rangers came last week. These meat chickens will only live for about 11 weeks and then they will be processed and added to our freezer. We are hoping to raise another batch of 25 this summer. We are raising our own protein!

 We pick up our bees (2 hives) this coming Saturday. So we've been painting bee boxes!

 Mabel has been moved in with the sheep in electric fencing, and they get moved to a new section of grass every other day. She is a year old and slowly, but surely, she is growing into adulthood (thank goodness). She is now a Livestock Guardian Dog!

  

And....

today our first lamb was born!!! 

Her mother, Harley, gave birth to her shortly after 5 a.m. 

She is healthy and strong and her name is Victory.

Kittens!

Yesterday, the boys and I went to an Amish greenhouse. A conversation, at that greenhouse, led us to an Amish farm down the road. Then after a bit of a search for some barn kittens, we came home with two of our very own.

Meet Sparkle...

 and 

Silver

Today they have enjoyed taking naps in a watering can and 

have followed little boys all around the homestead.

2015 {Turkeys}

 

 Saturday, we added six turkeys to our little homestead. We have three Narragansett, two Sweetgrass, and one Blue Slate/Tiger Bronze cross. We loved raising our own Thanksgiving turkey last year and turkeys are just so neat. These turkey poults are young so there's a chance that they won't survive the first few weeks, but so far they all seem to be thriving.

Sheep!!!

Meet Harley, Ruby, and Margot, our very own sheep!

Monday evening we bought three Cotswold ewes (female sheep). They also happen to be bred (pregnant). So in about a month we should get the opportunity to experience lambing for the first time. I am both giddy with excitement and terrified!

{Our New Laying Flock}

Our new laying flock was born two weeks ago. They arrived in BG in a box at our local post office.  We went to pick them up as soon as the post office called. There are few things that can make a LONG line of grumpy people waiting at the post office break into smiles. A box of peeping chicks sure can.

 We took our 15 chicks home and got them all settled into their brooder. 

 We have six Buff Orpington chicks, six Golden Laced Wyandotte, and 3 Blue Andalusian chicks. 

 They are all happy and healthy and growing so fast!

Gobble, Our Thanksgiving Turkey

I made a couple of secret resolutions at the beginning of the year. I kept them to myself because I wasn't sure if they were even possible to fulfill. I wanted to move to a homestead in the country and I wanted to raise a turkey for our Thanksgiving meal. As you know, we made the move to the country. We also bought a few week-old turkeys at the beginning of the summer. All of our turkeys had names. We nurtured, enjoyed, and loved them until the day before Thanksgiving. Gobble, a bourbon red, was the turkey we chose for our Thanksgiving meal.

We did the harvesting and processing ourselves. It was cold. It was messy. The whole process took a while. Taking the life of an animal will always feel uncomfortable and it should be.

For the past few years we have known where our Thanksgiving turkey was coming from, but this year, that place was just outside our back door.

My First Test

Tuesday of last week was the first day of Autumn. I had every intention of sharing photos of the newly, decorated porch, an autumn inspired dinner, and pumpkins. But that all changed when we came home from our Tuesday afternoon errands in town.
As I was driving down the driveway, I noticed one of the rams lying with his head down in the middle of our barn. That was odd, so I stopped the car and hopped out. I started yelling his name (George) and clapping. No movement. Then I started sprinting into the barn paddock. He was dead! This wasn't our first dead animal on the homestead, but the most substantial and he was just here visiting for a while. After feeling on the dead ram (lifting eyelids, etc.) to check for several things, I moved the rest of the sheep to a new pasture. It would still need to be secured with electric line, but that was going to have to wait until the next morning.  Our friends (and his owners) came after it was dark to salvage any wool and help me start a fire to burn him. (We didn't need coyotes to be attracted to the homestead. Mabel is still a little young to fend off coyotes.) The next day the fire would need to be stoked again and tended to so that all of the ram would burn. That night I couldn't sleep because of all the adrenaline and fear of predators, I guess, so I canned grape jelly.
Did I mention that Bryan had left for a work related training in Chicago!!! on Monday? He wasn't due to return until the end of the week. So I feel like this was my first true farmer test.
To make the new pasture secure, I had to trim around it with the trimmer and restring electric line around the bottom perimeter. I had only done this with Bryan three times. Now I had to do it alone and do it correctly. I broke the line on the trimmer seven times while trimming the pasture. Thankfully, I knew how to restring the trimmer and it is relatively easy. Then I had to restring the pasture. I was confident about everything except the corners. After I had the whole pasture strung, it was time to flip the switch. I'm not sure why I doubted myself so much but I just reached out and touched the line. It was the first time I had done that and yep, it was blazing, hot. After I danced around for a few seconds, all I could do was smile. It wasn't easy and it took me nearly 5 hours, but I did it all by myself. I had a quick cry, checked on all of the rest of the animals, and then the boys and I went inside to start our homeschooling day. Later that night (in the dark) our friends came over to de-worm the rest of the sheep. The ram had died of worms and there were two others that had worms and they needed to be treated.
That night I could finally sleep because I was exhausted!
Things are calmer this week, Bryan is back home, and I feel a bit more like a farmer. I have a long way to go, but I kind of love this whole farming thing. Good and bad.

Ducks!

This past weekend we welcomed three 3-week old Muscovy ducklings to the homestead. We're hoping we have two hens (females) and a drake (male) that will become our breeding stock. (It's a little too early to be certain.) So since Saturday, the boys and I have been busy holding and loving on these little ones. We're absolutely smitten with them!

Rams on Loan

On July 5, five rams came to live on the homestead temporarily. We have usable land and they needed to be kept away from the ewes (or ladies) for a little while at Peacefield Farm. These boys have been a joy to have around and are helping us prepare for our own ewes that we hope to get this fall. They have definitely taught us where our fences need to be strengthened. We have now implemented electric fencing in addition to our 5-strand barbed wire. We've enjoyed this trial run as shepherds and can't wait for our very own sheep soon. 

HOME Sweet Homestead

Two months in and our homestead is really starting to feel like home. We've accomplished a lot, but still have so much to do. We are trying to find a new rhythm with this new farming life and renovating a house. I admit there are moments when I think what in the world have we gotten ourselves into. Other times I look around and am in amazement for this new adventure. 

Here's a glimpse at what's happened in the last week...

We are putting the finishing touches to the master bedroom.

 It is our one room where we can sneak to if we need a little break from the rest of the house.

 The turkeys are outside and loving it!

 We've begun stocking our shelves with preserved summer goodness.

 The first layer of wallpaper is down in the school room. 

Deer decimated our garden one night this week. 

They ate all of the sweet potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers, and some of our cucumbers. It was sad. 

But as I was surveying the damage, I saw our beans growing up our corn stalks. That made me smile.

 We cleaned up some fallen trees in the pastures. 

We have a good start to the firewood that we will use this winter.

 

We also now have our swing hanging on our side porch. 

 

It's been a nice place to enjoy the beautiful weather lately!

3 Little Turkeys

We were told turkeys weren't easy to raise. We don't know many people that raise them. But, we I was dead set on raising one turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. (I know I'm weird, but I like knowing where my food comes from and now we have a homestead where we can raise our own.) We bought 5 baby turkeys a few weeks ago. I sat and watched them, checked on them often, and they were my babies. My heart was crushed when I saw the first dead turkey just three days into our turkey venture. Then I was devastated when the next one died two days later. But, then we crossed the 3 week old threshold (where turkeys are supposed to go from fragile to invincible). So now we have three happy, thriving, little turkeys that will have a new home outside very soon.

Turkeys! Turkeys! Turkeys!

After I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver for the first time several years ago, I wanted to raise turkeys. Well that day has finally arrived. We bought five young turkeys today, 4 Bourbon Reds and 1 Black Spanish at Tim and Susie's Henhouse Small Animal Swap Meet. In about 2-3 weeks these little ones will go outside. Until then they are under a brooder lamp in the basement. The boys love going down to admire them and so do I!

WE HAVE TURKEYS! I almost can't believe it!

Meet Mabel

Our sweet new Great Pyrenees puppy…