Meet Honey

Meet our second goat, Honey. We were only planning on having one goat, but as you may know, goats are herd animals. Unless you want to be out there with them all the time you need at least two. Sweetie was moaning really loud every time we left here alone, so we thought it would be a good idea to invest in another. We got her from the same guy we bought our meat and Sweetie from. Here's the kicker about Honey: she's young, only about 1, and she's pregnant. She's due to have babies in March. We thought it might be a good idea to have her pregnant, so when it's time for Sweetie to be freshened, we can still have her milk. Win win. I've never had any animals deliver before, so I think it will be an interesting adventure.

We really like Honey. She has the cutest little bleat and she is a pretty little thing. She's very gentle and submissive to Sweetie. In fact, after we got Honey, Craig said that Sweetie was an ugly old hag. I think he was mostly mad at her because she kept moving around while we were trying to milk her. Anyhow, we like her and are excited to have little baby goats this spring!

Also, on a funny side note, the other day, Roxy, our dog, was hassling Honey and she she charged her right in the buns! It was hilarious! Roxy whimpered off and hasn't given her any trouble since.

The rock situation

We got a handle on the rock situation!! With spring coming, I was getting anxious to get rid of these rocks so I could plant a garden in that spot. A friend of mine gave me the great idea to post an ad on Craig's list. So I did. It said, "Free Decorative Rock. You come and haul away." Amazingly, we got several responses right away. One lady came with her sons and took a truckload and it hardly made a dent. I was discouraged after that. But we listed the ad one more time and another lady came and took the rest over the course of 3 days! They took their last load this afternoon. The area now looks like this:

It was amazing because we didn't have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to hire some one to haul them away and we helped a lady landscape her yard. It doesn't get any better than that! Now this weekend we are hoping to pull up all that plastic and start tilling some manure into that spot so it will be ready by planting time. I'm in awe that we were actually able to do this so quickly. I figured we wouldn't have a big garden for a while, but I guess where there's a will there's a way.

The story of Sweetie and our awesome fence

Many of you know that we've been toying with the idea of getting a goat for a while. We weren't expecting to get one this fast but it just worked out for us. Craig likes to look online for alpacas, because he wants some and he thinks they are awesome. He came across this ad on Craig's List for dairy goats, cows, and alpacas, so of course, he looked into it. He emailed the guy and we were going to come look at some. He didn't email us back right away, but we found his website and saw on there that they had grass-fed beef for sale! Now this is something I've been looking for for a long time. Most grass-fed beef runs about $8/lb and that's a little out of my price range. But here, I could buy a whole cow and split it with 3 other people and get the meat for $4/lb! So I found 3 friends who wanted to do it and we bought it! We'll get the meat at the end of the week. In emails back and forth to this guy I asked if he sold raw milk. He replied by saying he had a great dairy goat for sale and we should come look at it. We were curious, so we went and looked at it this past Saturday. She was so sweet and good with the kids and totally used to being around people. We were able to milk her there and taste some of the milk, and couldn't believe how good it tasted. If we didn't like it, it would have been a deal breaker for us, since neither of us had tried goats milk before. It was so creamy and delicious that we went for it. She just jumped right into the back of our van like it was her home.

It was an interesting ride home, to say the least. First off, when we started moving, she started bleating and sticking her head between the car seats. I wish I would have gotten a video of this because it was hilarious! All 3 kids started crying because there was a huge goat head right next to their faces with big eyes, bleating loudly. Hilarious!

So we were totally unprepared to be taking livestock home. She pooped and peed several times in the van, so that was unpleasant. As soon as we got her home, she started following us everywhere. Roxy, our big dog, was not a fan. She still just barks at her, which is too bad. We were hoping she could keep her company. Samson, our Boston Terrier went right up to her and got head butted. Also hilarious.

So we knew we needed to keep her fenced up, since we have some trees and plants that are toxic to her, and we don't want her to eat all our fruit and bushes. We constructed this fence as soon as we got home. I'm pretty proud of it since we used things we found in the barn and around the yard.

There were 2 huge chain link fence pieces and also some rolled up chain link in the barn. We also had wooden 4x4's laying on the ground being used as borders. We pulled those up, dug post holes, put them in, and tied the fence to it with some rope. It's a pretty sturdy fence and Sweetie hasn't escaped yet. She lives in the west bay of the barn now and can play outside with the chickens. There's nothing back there for her to destroy so we feel good about it. Plus, it's as far away from the house as she can possibly get. And that, my friends, is how we got Sweetie, our dairy goat.

We lost one

Today was a little bit of a sad day for us on the homestead. Our Buff Orpington hen passed away. I always felt bad for her because of her life history. She was originally owned by Craig's grandma as part of a small backyard flock of 2 hens. The other hen passed and she was given to Craig's uncle, who already had 4 hens. She was lucky to have survived that transition. Then she was given to us with the other 4 hens and moved with us to our new house. I think she enjoyed having the room to roam and could easily escape from the other hens if need be.

Yesterday she seemed a bit off. She spent a lot of the day by our sliding glass door looking in. I just figured she wanted to be where it was warm. This morning we found her sitting by the front door. When the kids went to pet her, she didn't even try to move, which is highly unusual. She just laid there and eventually shifted to her side. I sprinkled some food by her, hoping she would eat something, but she just laid there. I found the other 4 hens eating her food and practically standing on her! Chickens are so mean to each other. She passed before it was time to pick up my daughter from school.

I think she must have gotten sick, although she didn't have a whole lot of symptoms. She was just lethargic and had some watery poop. It's really too bad, because she had recovered so well from Roxy, our large dog, gnawing on her leg. You couldn't even tell the dog had touched her. Fortunately, the other 4 hens are acting normal, so it seems to be an isolated incident.

My two boys and I had the task of burying her in the yard earlier today. It was sad, but the kids seem to be fine with it. I have tried to help them understand the circle of life and that things live and things die, and I think that's helped. It also doesn't hurt that we have 25 other hens in the garage.

RIP Shirley.

Where my eggs at?

Since we've moved to our new house, we've gotten around 4 eggs from our chickens. That's 4 eggs in the last six weeks. I wasn't too concerned because it is winter and hens tend to stop laying in the winter. I've been reluctantly buying normal eggs from the store to satisfy our egg needs.

Our 5 hens have been wandering aimlessly around our property, taking care of all the bugs and weeds. When we first started watering all the fruit trees, a bunch of grass started popping up around the trunks. Those chickens took care of it in no time. They gobbled up the grass, pooped all around the trees and then scratched all dirt around them and worked the "fertilizer" right into the soil. It's the greatest thing ever to let the chickens take care of weed control.

So yesterday, Craig was working out in the yard and discovered 2 eggs under some roof tins by the barn. I knew they were laying somewhere in the yard, that was not in their nesting boxes! We took them inside and I was silently praying they were not rotten. Who knows how long they had been sitting out there. Fortunately, it's been pretty cold, and the eggs have a nice, protective coating on them when the chickens lay them, to help them last longer. So I took those eggs inside, washed them off and stuck them in the fridge.

Sunday mornings are waffle mornings for us. We make a bunch of waffles and feast. As I was making the batter, I went to get 2 eggs and saw the ones we found yesterday. I thought it would be a good idea to use them. I'm not going to lie. My hands were shaking as I went to crack them. In my head I was thinking, "Please don't erupt in an explosion of rottenness!" To my delight and surprise, they were the best looking eggs I've seen in a while. The yolks were dark orange and thick and the whites were super thick too. When I beat them, they were so thick. I was in heaven and was thinking that these were going to be the best waffles ever! And they were.

It was a total bonus for us. Not only are the chickens acting as our pest and weed control, they are laying superior eggs because of it. Healthy chickens lay healthy eggs. They look way better than the ones they even laid at our old house. Needless to say, I am loving life here at the new homestead. I can't wait to set loose our new batch of chicks in the yard and let them have at it!

Baby Chicks

 Our baby chicks came about 2 1/2 weeks ago and I'm dying for them to turn into big egg-laying chickens. This is what they looked like at 2 weeks. Isn't it amazing how fast they grow? I've got so many different breeds that I can't even keep track of them all! They are a bit high maintenance though. I have to change their newspaper lining daily and I'm constantly having to refill their food and water. They eat and drink A LOT. It will all be worth it in the end when we have eggs coming out of our eyeballs.

We ordered from Murry MacMurry hatchery and got the rainbow egg layers. This means that we have a variety of breeds that produce several different egg colors, including brown, white, green, and blue. I'm excited to have a basketful of colorful eggs. The little day old chicks came in that tiny little box.
For reference, you can see my daughter holding the box. It's small. I got a call at 5:45 am on a Friday from the post office letting me know that my chicks had arrived. I woke the kids up and we headed out in our jammies and got to go in the back entrance of the post office and pick them up. We heard a lot of peeping coming out of that little box.

 We came home and immediately unloaded them into their cage we had set up for them. They were so cute and fuzzy.

Look at those cute little guys. There were 26 sent to us but one didn't make it, so now we have 25. We also still have the 5 we brought over from our old house. The plan is to "harvest" them. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it. I'd like to do it at least once, just so I know how to do it and know how to cook them so they're palatable. These little chicks are growing so fast that I think the time to harvest will come quicker than I expect. Eeeeeeeeek!

Canned Turkey

I've been pretty busy this week with school and house stuff. I've finally gotten some motivation to do some deep cleaning. Aside from that, we canned one of the turkeys we bought. Craig and I make a good team - he de-bones and I can. If you decide to try this sometime, make sure you follow the directions exactly as they come in your canning booklet that comes with the canner. You definitely do not want to mess around with meat. We have a 16 quart pressure canner/cooker which is great for this kind of thing. After Craig de-boned the turkey, I cut it up into canning size portions and cooked in our small pressure cooker for about 5 minutes. It was just barely done with a little pink still in the meat. I then stuffed the meat into quart size jars and filled with boiling water and then processed for an hour and 15 minutes.

We love having the canned turkey. We use it in the place of canned chicken and every time it has been very tasty. I think I  might like the flavor better too. I was able to get 7 quarts out of this turkey and have one more turkey that still needs to be done.

I've also been canning the broth I make from the turkey carcasses. I've done broth for 2 so far by boiling all the insides and bones for several hours. Then I let it cool, skim off the fat, heat it to boiling and pour into hot quart jars. Then I pressure can them for about 25 minutes.

The turkey haul up to this point has been:

20 lbs ground turkey

7 quarts canned turkey

9 quarts turkey broth

I still have one more turkey to can and 2 carcasses left to make broth. I think that's quite a haul for 4 turkeys that we bought for around $40. This should last us until next Thanksgiving when we can do it all over again!