The Cole Homestead

Chicken Update

A new goat on the farm

We have added another dairy goat to the herd recently.  We are going through so much milk there was a real need.  Our other dairy goat had two little ones in Feb and that really cut our milk down.  This new goat is the other goats mom.  She is still a little nervous around us but is starting to adjust quite well. 

My father in law also built us a new goat stand.  This is so much easier than milking on your hands and knees!  It has also been easier on my daughter.  In fact, she has recently found out that she can squirt the milk directly into her mouth.  I am always telling her that "The teat is not a water gun!' 

I am sharing the goat milk with a friend that is using it to help out her bottle baby that she is raising.  It was doing well on milk replacer but has really taking off after switching to real goat milk.  I give her milk and she gives me hay.  Great deal if you ask me.

Some slight wind damage today

Lat night the wind, thunder and rain were pretty intense.  By morning everything was pretty much a soggy mess.  Then came the wind.  Boy was it strong.  I was much worse on the goats though.  They hate the rain so everyone wanted to come in while I was milking.  Fun for all but at least all chores were accomplished.

After lunch we decided to head over to Grandma's for our weekly conversation/dessert.  A little tradition that we have that gives us all a chance to catch up with cousins, aunts, and uncles.  All was well there except the wind just keep getting stronger and did not seem to let up.  After we all said our goodbyes we started to trickle out.  As we were pulling out one of my uncles was on his way back.  He said that the road to his place was blocked by a down tree and was going to take the long way around.  So instead of a mile home he went 7.  Then picked up his chain saw and headed back to cut it up and get it off the road.

When we got home we realized we had problems of our our.  One of our small little storage sheds and flipped and tumbled across our property, went through the goat area fence, hit the chicken coop, hit the goat house and finally landed in a fence row,  I am sure that the goats were pretty scared and we felt very lucky none of them were hurt.  They are fainting goats.  I wood faint if I saw a 10x8 metal shed rolling towards me!

We also have a few shingles missing and it bent the stove pipe.  OF course I was not going to let my husband up there in this weather so we are making do tonight and we will call our insurance fella in the morning.  What a way to start the week.

Our first set of goat babies!

Thursday morning started just like every other morning.  Get up and get ready for the day while our daughter grabs some clothes and runs out the door.  She spends a good deal of time out playing with her goats.  Well, this morning she came running right back saying that "Wendy had her babies!". 

Wendy the Goat has been pregnant forever or so it seems.  Hubby decided to go along and take a look with her.  He came back and said "Get the camera, there are two little ones out there."  When he brought the camera back there were two of the cutest little bucks on there.  The odd part was they were not Wendy's.  They belong to a goat named Lilly and we had no clue she was in the family way.  She never showed. 

One is completely white and the other is a black and white mix.  They have blue eyes just like their mommy and daddy.  Both their folks are pure fainter's so I am wondering how soon they will faint?  These are first fainting babies so every step is a learning process.

Eggs

This spring I ordered a different breed of pullet for our chicken house. This year I tried the Leghorn.  As far as egg layers go, this is by far my favorite.  I also have a few lady buffs but these leghorns are great.  They are very small and wiry but they lay even when it gets cool out and each lay about an egg a day on very little feed.  Most times we let them fend for themselves during the day and lock them up at night.  Of course we have an egg hunt each morning but the children really enjoy it.  So far be have been getting about 12-18 per day from 18 hens.  Not bad if you ask me.  Now that the weather has began to cool (Frost every morning now with lows down to the teens) they have tapered off a bit.  Now only 6 to 10 per day.  They lay very large white eggs with good strong shells.  Some of the eggs have a hard time fitting in our egg cartons designed for large eggs.  I am amazed that such small chicken can lay such large eggs!

I have also recently learn a nifty trick to cleaning up a broken egg on the floor.  Just pour salt on top to coat it.  Let it stand for a minute or two and scoop up like kitty litter.  Works great!  No slimy mess to contend with. 

Our first milk goat

Our first milk goat has spent its first night here on the farm.  She seems to be adjusting  very well and has made friends with our five other fainting goats.  She is still a little skittish around my daughter.  Our little girl thinks she IS a goat.  I can't seem to convince her otherwise.  All six of the goats have about three acres to roam and seem to be pretty happy.

The only thing that would make this situation complete would be a milking stand.  I got about two quarts out of her this morning but it was difficult.  So far, my husband has been too busy to finish the goat house.  There is still no roof (they had shelter from the rain and sun else where) and there are no real doors on it either.  A milking stand in the shed would help keep the others away and help keep Wendy calm.  Any advice where I could order a decent priced one?

Adding a goat

Still working on my farm check list

I have a farm check list.  Everyday I look at this list and see what needs to be accomplished first, second and so on.  I work very hard everyday to accomplish the item on this list as well as my house list, school list, and so on.  When one project is accomplished I proudly cross that item off.  Then add a few more.  My lists never seem to get shorter. 

I have gotten the guineas outside.  Right now they are living in the chicken coop.  They seem to be pretty happy so far and now have so much more room to move around.  The chickens may have lost their house but now they have the whole yard.  (about 3 acres)  They seem to enjoy afternoons on the front porch and under one of the tractors.  They are doing a great job at keeping the weeds and bugs down.  I am hoping that the fellas will be ready for the butcher block here soon.

The goats are doing great also.  We have noticed that our Billy has gotten pretty "friendly" with two of our ladies.  We are hoping that they get ": in the family way" here soon then we can be goat parents around November.   We had a party Sat for our daughters 5th birthday and the goats were the main attraction.  Most of the children spent their time at the creek with the goats.  It was great to see so many children, ranging in age from 3 to 14 running and playing in the pasture.  Most of these kids are city dwellers and only chance to run free is at recess and at the park.  they seemed to have so much fun!  So did the goats!

The garden is doing great also.   Believe it or not we could use some rain.  Most folks in Central Illinois would most likely disagree but we are up on the high lands.  My mother in law lives down by the Illinois River and while the flooding there is not as bad as '93 it is still pretty high.  Her whole area is just one giant dried up lake.  It is all sand and the water is only a few feet down.  The up side is that the watermelon ans muskmelon are doing great.

I have also been making soap.  The shampoo bars are working great and I have been experimenting with other oils.  I have made a pure olive oil bar and regular old fashioned lye soap.  Both of these have turned out great. 

I am still working on dresses and hope to be done here soon.  Then I can start on wipes, pads, and diapers. 

We made our Pork N Beans cake yesterday and it was a big hit!  Tastes like the best spice cake.  So light and fluffy but also so moist!  And no you do not taste any beans.  Just really great cake!

It been so long

It's been so long that I have written and it seems that all of a sudden I have much to say.  I think it is all tied to the weather.  For so long there was little to do since the weather had been cool and wet.  Well, in a matter of a week that all changed.  We are now having 90 degree days and there is so much to do.

Lets start with everything outdoors.  First the garden.  This year we are planting our biggest garden yet.  Most of our plants are in and most are doing great.  We planted a large area of green beans this year and they seem to be doing great.  I was worried for awhile.  We watered and waited and watered and waited.  My Gram said not to give up till we got some rain.  I did not understand this because I had been watering them quite a bit.  Well not too long later we got a good soaking rain.  A few days later here they came!  Amazing! 

We also planted peas, corn, strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, dewberries.  I haven't put the tomatoes and peppers in yet.  To wet so far.  No worries though.  Its not like there is not other thing to do. 

All of our grapes, and cherry bushes are doing great.  this is the first year I have cherries on the bushes and we are really looking forward to making a few pies but that is a ways away.  We are working on a few chicken tractors for the guineas and chicken to go down the row between the grapes to keep the weeds down.

We are also letting the chickens out in the evening then putting them back when night falls.  This is keeping the weeds down and giving them extra room to roam.    I ordered 25 leghorn ladies and 50 buff fellas.  So far there are 2 male leghorns and about 6 lady Buff's.  Now to decided who goes on the plate and who gets to rule the roost.  So many decisions.

The guineas will be moving to there new home as soon as we build it.  I say we but it is really my hubby who does all of the building around here.  He did a great job with the goat house though that is not finished yet.

We still need to paint the goat house, install the doors and put the roof up.  He is so crafty.  He came up with a great idea to use the side of an old pool to make a roof.  He did a great job with the fence too.   The goats seem to adjusting well thought hey still pick on the male.  I am sure that will change soon enough. 

Well, that is all I need to update on outside.  I post an update later of all the going ons on the inside.  I also want to post about the pantry soon.  the Intentional Peasant has really got me motivated to really stock up and be prepared.  I am finding that more important now that oil hit 139.00 today.  I also found it interesting that at the end of the article about oil being so high, the Dow being down and unemployment being up was an article about homegrown veggie being more popular.  Who would of thought?

New members of the family

We had five new members introduced to our family today.  Their names are Lilly, Lolly, patches, Zoe and Jay.  They are all fainting goats. 

We have been talking for a year or two now about how we would love to get a few goats to chump the weeds and be playmates for our children.  I thought maybe two since I know they need company but I recently saw a deal for 5 fainting goats.  One male and 4 gals to keep him company.  I am not sure if we are taking too much on but so far it has been great! (We will see if I fell that way in a few days or maybe even hours.)

The trip home was very easy.  It took us about an hour and a half and the all road quite well.  Four of them in the back of our Explorer and one four month old named Patches riding in my four year old lap.  She just laid there and watched the traffic.  So cute!

They are playing in the yard now and seem to be adjusting very well.  They are playing in the children's play yard and eating the mulberry tree we have been trying to kill for 3 years.  I they keep on it!  I will try to post a few "fainting on Wednesday.

Are wild strawberries a weed?

The chicks are here!

Well, I got my phone call this morning.  They delivered to the wrong post office so I had to drive 20 minute here and there rather than just 2 but I am not complaining.  The chicks are all doing fine and eating and drinking well.  Of course the kids are thrilled.  I take that back, the 4 year old is thrilled and the 2 year old could really care less about those loud little things.  This year I ordered 25 leghorn pullets and 50 Buff' O's that are males.  It seems that every year I try different combinations or just different a whole lot of one breed.  These seems to work best for us.  The Buff's get very big and meaty and the the leghorns are great egg layers.  We plan to butcher the fellas in 8 to 10 weeks and keep the gals for layers.  Me hope to keep one male back for a stud.  Around that time the guineas should be in.  This is going to be interesting!

A few questions about Guineas

Winters frist snow and I am thinking of Spring!

I know that there is so much that needs to be around here this winter but I just seem to want to focus on Spring. 

There is still wood to be cut not to mention the wood cook stove to install.  Leaves to clean up and toys put away before the snow settles.  Not to mention Christmas around the corner.  So many presents to make and cookies to bake. 

Well, I am looking forward to Chocolate Sunday.  We have a lady in our nearest town that has what she calls Chocolate Sunday once a year.  The first Sunday in December she has a big sale on all of her cake pans, cake decorations and best of all her stash of chocolate.  You can buy mint, colored mint, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, molds, and even different cream centers for your chocolates. 

After all of that has been completed I am ready for Spring!  I have already picked out the chickens that I am going to order and even planned the garden.  I love being able to wiggle my toes in freshly turned soil.  I guess I will just have to be patient and wait.  Winters has its joys also but it can't hurt to look to the future!