Farmher

So I am so proud to say I have accomplished quite a few things myself at the farm. I was able to bring my baby chicks from the basement of our house to their new house outside. I even fixed their outside growing coop by MYSELF.

See my very happy little chicks?♡ The green wire is the new part I fixed on our growing coop.
I made a dust bath for my chickens out of DE. My youngest son helped me.

Also the HUGE manure pile on my garden is officially spread out and will be tilled in the soil next month.

We had our first broody hen today. She built a nest inside the dog house we have that we used for the ducks when they were smaller.
I ended up switching out her egg for a fake egg when she walked out and another chicken actually laid an egg in there.

My biggest gain today is my ducks laid their first egg today. Excuse the dirty eggs. My duck and hens like to hide them in a dirty part of the barn I can't reach.

Here is my beautiful duck egg cleaned up.

It's so nice getting eggs again. The kids get as excited as I do looking for them. :)

Ladies Homestead Gathering &Illness

We had our informational meeting of Ladies Homestead Gathering. There were 4 of us that gathered here at the farm. We made a list of subjects we would like to further our knowledge on and also discussed Back To Eden Gardening.
We have decided while our group is small we will rotate meeting locations so we can see how different women run their farms. Our next meeting we are going to a farm that is offgrid.
We are waiting for our official membership to be approved for our chapter. Then we will start advertising and putting flyers out.
Out of our 21 chicks we have lost 4. I have 1 barred rock left. Our meat birds are growing so fast!! They are so nuch bigger than the laying birds it makes me laugh when I see them. I will end up seperating them soon.  Next year I'm hoping to have a separate section in the barn for meat birds and possibly get a few more than 6.
I did find out we need to get our male goat disbudded again. I'm on the search for someone who can do that. Poor guy. I cant imagine that will be pleasant!
I'm off to bring my daughter to her appointment. We have had influenza A hit through our children and chest cold. I will be glad to get rid of the bugs and santize this house for the last time!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This morning the youngest 2 boys and I went out to feed the chickens, goats and ducks  and they were a little chilly. The goats and ducks were shivering so off we went to tractor Supply to get some more shavings and some clearance coats for the goats. Then we went to blue Seal to buy a couple of bales of hay.
After that, we spent the afternoon decorating for Christmas and even decorated the barn.

Oreo is wearing brown and Milkshake is wearing blue.

Here is part of our village on the buffet. I need to put the other half of it out tomorrow.

What do you do when you drop socks behind the dryer?? You have one of the youngest 2 boys become Spider Man.

Introducing Our Newest Additions♡♡

Meet Oreo and Milkshake our Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We will be able to breed them later and have goats milk. I'm so incredibly happy to have another addition to my farm. Both are very shy and jumpy, but with time I know they will be happy. ♡♡

This week in Pictures

We will end up having a dozen eggs this week. Both girls have started laying 2 eggs a day.

My herbs are doing pretty well. I am so happy seeing them grow.

Our babies are growing so fast. I can't believe how big the ducks bills and feet are getting. They are so cute!! I have 2 ducklings that run over as soon as they hear my voice and some of the chics come.

Tomorrow we may be getting a guinea pig. Her name is Pandora. One of my cousin's is giving her to us.

We still haven't planted the trees yet but hopefully this weekend we will. Although the weather is forecasting significant snow this weekend. 😢😢😢
We have been battling the intestinal bug here. 4 kids have had it 2 more to go. I'm praying it skips over me.
Have a good evening everyone ♡♡

Herb photo update

I finally took pics of my herbs today. My anise and Summer Savory have poked through. They all are stretching towards the light today.

Seeing how many pods have sprouted every day brings a smile to my face.  :)

Sickness begins

I have a kiddo that isn't feeling well whatsoever. He is home sick from school. He is bundled up on the couch. Our daschund is under there with him sleeping.

I need to clean the house and wait for the oil man to come. Next week we are having our furnace serviced as it has been running rough. We are thinking of adding a pellet stove in here eventually. I would love to have some wood heat instead of just oil.
Income taxes are filed.
Hubby found a rototiller we will be buying in a month. I'm so excited to have our own!!! We will expand the garden this year doubling it and I plan on having an herb garden this year!!! Also some other exciting news hubby is on board with us getting ducks!! He will build them their own little swimming hole :)
I looked at seeds at tractor supply yesterday but for veggies they did not have quite what I wanted. I think I will be ordering them through a catalog this year.  The boys are so excited to garden with us. I did find a shepherd hook for my grandmother's bird feeder. In the spring we will get that as I love watching the birds.
Have a great day!!! Time to get that housework going. 😀

More house Pics

Hubby has started the mudding in the room on the ceiling an the entryway. It has some progress!!! Maybe next month we will get some sheet rock to put up.

I am getting very excited to see our entryway coming together and having a nice organized mud room. Next year we will start replacing windows!!

Fall Decorating

Today I put up our Halloween Decorations. I have not taken any pictures of it yet but will soon.
I am going to post a pic of our front door decorated with Corn stalks from our garden.

The wind keeps blowing them but I do love having them add a little touch of country. 

We are getting ready to build our 5th bedroom and to build our mudroom/entryway. We will have hooks for shoes and coats but also we will be building 5 "lockers" for the kids to put their school shoes, backpacks, sports items, etc on them. I will try to find the pic of what idea from pinterest we are using. 

*****All photo credit are attributed to the original pines on pinterest *****

Here is the basic plan:

So where the shoes are on the bottom we will be making 2 shelves. One open for shoes and one shelf containing a basket.

On the top of the original picture instead of cupboard doors. I have convinced Huby to put shutters like these instead:

A pretty neat combined idea!! I will be sure to post finished pictures whenever we finish that. Our first priority will be to get the bedroom done.

The boys need me so I will close for this evening.

(My girls still have not laid any eggs yet)

Summer storms

 Crazy girls!!

Pics around homestead

Visitors/Nice Day

Here are a few pics of my 2 visitors today.
Also a summer pic