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We have an old 3 room farm house on our property that the previous owners had purchased at an action and moved here, the women is a potter and was going to use it as her studio but never ended up doing anything to it. Here is a picture of it. Everyday I went down to fed them and I would sit in there and talk to them, telling them lovingly to hurry up and lay an egg LOL. I tried hard to get them to warm up to me and the 2 red ones would let me pet them for a few seconds but the blacks still will not to this day let me touch them if at all possible. It was about 3 months later that one finally layed an egg, then about 3 days later a different one layed an egg also. From that day on we have not bought an eggs. In March of this years I decided that we should raise some chicks, that way I could pick the breed I wanted (Delawares) and they would be more people friendly. So I went to our local feed store and had them order the 5 of the ones I wanted and waited patiently until their arrival. Everyone was excited for them to come...we went back to the feed store to pick them up and they had not arrived yet, it would be another week! That would mean that they would be home the same week as my sons 11th birthday party. The brooder I had set up was in the kitchen and I was worried that it might be a bit to stressful for the little chicks but everything went fine and the chicks were a big hit with everyone. Gosh were they cute and they were of course handled a lot and we luckily did not have any die on us. Of that batch of 5, 3 of them demand to be pet as soon as I go into the coop, 1 will kind of allow you to pet her and 1 does not want to be pet at all. But all of them are right there under foot every time I am in there. So not I am not so sure which I like best the first four mixed breeds that keep their distance or the five Delawares who are pretty much in your face LOL. All of them are laying now and we get 5-7 eggs a day. Chickens definitely have a permanent place on our homestead! |
My husband and his father are responsible for turning this into our barn. In August 2006 they turned one of rooms into the chicken coop and attached an outdoor chicken run. That way the chicken could go in and out the window as they please (I would love to let chickens roam free but our neighbors dogs have a taste for chicken already, let alone the coyotes we hear every other night!
Once the coop was ready I began the search for some chickens. There was an ad on our local craigslist for 4-month-old pullets for $10 each and they were only about 2 miles from our house. So my MIL and I headed out to go look and more than likely come home with 2 chickens. Well we came home with 4 LOL. All were of mixed breeds, 2 were red in color and the other 2 were black and gold. |
Well we wanted animals and boy oh boy do we have them! The end of Oct/2006 Zack got back from the local feed store (he was picking some sunflower seeds for the wild birds) with an ad from the bulletin board. It was for Nigerian Dwarf goat kids, now I had previously read all about these being the perfect small homestead animal, they are miniture dairy and or meat goats and could produce between 1 and 2 quarts of milk a day. Yet they eat 1/3 as much as there larger counterparts. They were even chosen for the Biosphere 2 experiment in which 8 people spent 2 years along with 3500 plant and animal species without any outside supplies or support other than electricity. It was designed as a space colony model, though ecological research became its primary, scientific goal. When Zack had mentioned (before our homestead purchase) that he would like goats I told him about Nigerians and he said no way, they would be to small to eat down any brush and that was why he wanted goats. Anyhow he came home with this ad and was excited and of course I said well call cause those are the breed I want. So he did and him and his father went to"look" at them that afternoon, he came home with the cutest, smallest goat I had ever seen. Who we now know as Speckles and Annabelle.
Now that is a regular sized coffee cup and small dish pan. These two sweet goats were just a beginning to a new life for this SAHM, but more on that later! |
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Really it is hard to remember what that is! We have only been here (the homestead) for 16 month and yet it feels like years. I can barely find time to shower let alone write in my blog
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Of course many, many things have happened since I wrote my first entry and I am now making it a priority to find some "me time" everyday and write at least twice a week. Even if it is only a short one, like todays. Just thought I would post a updated picture of Dakota. He has turned out to be such a wonderful dog, I could'nt imagine life on the farm without him.