Homestead Critter Update

Well-- I almost posted this post with out a picture of the DOG!! How could I? Well because she is much more "FAMILY" than Dog now.... :)
She has even made her way inside the home-- and is loved very much!

Our NEWEST BIGGEST addition to the homestead is- BESSY!! yes-- we have a year old female cow (I know there should be a technical term for that but I don't remember).

She is doing great. She came Saturday 2/24/12 and was a bit skitsh...but it is now 3 days later and she is doing GREAT....she loves to lick us and be petted. I know we need to treat her like a cow--- and not a goat-- but its hard for us goat farmers to switch gears sometimes..... ;)

Right now she is tied in the barn... till tomorrow then we will let her out to pasture!!! We just wanted her to get used to US-- and LIKE us--- before we let her loose and who knows what would've happened.

She had never been in a barn before-- so she wasn't thrilled to see ours-- it was a lot of muscle to get her in!!

Here she is making her walk to the barn..... not quite sure why she was here. We kept all the children in the house until she was in the barn and calm-- as to not really scare her....

This year I will not be due to have a baby in Septmber so we are really going to give the garden a good try-- here is the first bed I got done...with lettuce and collard greens (for jucing)
We put TONS well not TONS but a lot of HAY with GOOD stuff mixed in over top-- and the ground was SOOOO MOIST and nice-- and had TONS of worms in this bed..... it was NICE!!

So I really wanted everyone to have crocks for this spring/summer and it was an ordeal finding them for everyone-- but we did-- and lo and behold the first week-- we have POISION on some FEET!! Not from our yard but Jason was trimming the fence row down and the kids were "helping".... wont make that mistake again..... it was the LITTLE kids-- and actually they hardly scratch it at all.... so that is NICE.

Here are my garden helpers...... Rachel got a little ride in the wheel barrow as I couldn't carry her and push that.... lol

PS: doesn't this picture look like it was taken in June/July? Nope, March!!

What a cutie... he was HOT working in the garden with mom

Our next new addition are our broilers... this year we got some Kosher Kings... 77 to be exact..... they are doing great-- a VERY hearty bird..... we lost 1 and it was due to heat-- on one of the hot days we had-- with the heat lamp I think it just got TOO hot.

The little ones LOVED when daddy brought the chicks home...

Here they are in their box...

Our rabbits are still here-- we have 2 males (hanging here) and 1 female nesting in the chicken house (in a large cage--the size of both of these together)....

We are now up to 44 laying hens-- we have electric fence around them-- not for them-- i would prefer they would free range-- but PATCHES (the dog) is a herding dog--- and does NOT like them free ranging-- she will NOT leave them alone--- and keeps them in their house....so this fence is for the DOG-- not the chickens... we will rotate it as needed...

Our egg-put-awayer--- :) She loves this job. Stephen brings them in from the chicken house and Rebekah helps put them away.

Jason and I are NOT at ALL cat people-- but this little girl has really taken a place in our hearts...she is outside ONLY-- and she is a great mouser (so we think-- we have seen NONE in the house) or anywhere else actually... :)

This was our new goat addition-- we thought we were going to have 5-6 goats in milk this year so we invested in a Milker--- right now only 2 are in milk but we have been using it anyway.. not quite sure it is at ALLa time saver-- I could hand milk just as fast as it takes to milk, clean and put this away correctly. But as we speak there are goat getting ready to kid-- and I think once we add out new mothers (first time ) to the line up this will be INVALUEABLE... it is VERY hard to milk first time mothers.

I do also think this has boosted supply a LOT-- we are getting a gallon +1 qt each milking!! So 2 and 1/2 gallons a day. I have learned to make cheese and want to learn some more.... a friend of mine has made goat milk soap and says it is easy and fun-- so I'm sure we'll put the milk to good use.

It is good and bad-- on the baby goat front-- we do not need any more females right now-- we will have 4 good milkers this year and that is enough for any family -- and here our dairy goats have given us 5 BILLY goats!! So they will either be sold or eaten... :0

However our Boer female gave us 2 girls and 1 boy (we already gave away the boy-- he was a "runt" and very small-- needed lots of care and NOT to be beat up on by other goats)...so now we ahve 4 female boer goats-- I am very excited about that-- if we ever learn how to keep BUCKS where they belong in the fall-- I'd like to get a boer buck and really get that up and running-- but I CANNOT have a boer buck breed my diary goats-- I did that 1x and they mamma died-- because the baby was too big (boned)....

Our kids love these goats!!! The little ones (under 9) really don't even mind when we do butcher or sell them-- the older 2 struggle more-- because they have poured tears and sweat into them.

Here is our boer with her 2 girls. The billy was all brown...

SO that is our Homestead update for March 2012