Milkshake's baby goat

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. :)

It's official!!

We have officially opened a chapter of Ladies Homestead Gathering for Maine. Our chapter will be called Penobscot County Ladies Homestead Gathering.
Our next meeting will be April 22nd in Springfield. Topic will be Beekeeping. I have reached out to Penobscot County Beekeeping Association and am hoping someone will be available to come speak to us about the beginning basics of how to do beekeeping.
By the next meeting in May we should have some flyers available to post in local farm stores and for people to hand out.
Board Members will be posted in May once everything is officially set up.
We appreciate your patience and interest of this group starting in Maine!!

Signs of Spring

Today my middle son and I started mucking out the chicken coop. We got about 1/4 of it done and will wait until it warms up a little more this week. The chickens and ducks were so happy to be outside for awhile. My son was a little

grossed out I was mucking it out in sandals instead of my boots. I did not want to take the time to go switch shoes after dropping my teens off at the mall.
I will be sure to post a pic of a freshly clean barn once i get it done. I need to completely clean the perches and duck area as well. I need to figure out something better for their water as the ducks love muddying it up.
Here are some pics of the memory garden. My crocus are blossomed already. Now I just need to rake out the beds this week when it warms up.

I love the flowers coming up. It's a true sign of winter going away!! 

I also filled some of my 🐦 feeders today. I have 2 more out back to fill. Then next week I plan on changing the corn on the squirrel feeder.

I need to get back to watching Battle of the Badges in Hampden. 

Have a good evening.

Homemade Broccoli & Cheese Soup

Tonight for supper I made my grandmother's Soup. It is pretty simple to make and very delicious!! Next time I make it though I just need to sift the flour so it mixes easier. 

I am happy to say by moving our heat lamp I have not lost any more chicks!!! It's been 2 days in a row they have been going strong so Im hoping we will not lose anymore. Out of 21 I lost 7 birds!!!

Mr. Krabs died this week too so this week I give myself an F as a homesteader!

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!!

Adding to the Farm

Here are some new additions to the Farm:
3 Barred Rock, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 White Leghorn, 3 Araucana, 3 Buff Orpington.

We are raising 6 meat birds for the first time too. If it is successful this year than next year I will plan on raising more!

This year we went to Tractor Supply and bought some chicken wire on sale to improve what we use as a brooder. The last 2 years we have put them in an XL dog kennel. But the holes in the cage are large enough for the cat to get his arm through so we put chicken wire all the way around the kennel. I am even using the same heat bulb that I have the past couple of years!

This weekend I was able to get 8 free Ball canning jars from an ad on Craigslist. They look like jam jars which is an impressive score for me!

Here are all the chicks in our homemade brooder.♡

Jordan doesn't know what to think of the peeping.

Here is our fat cat Sylvester eating and keeping an eye on the chicks.

The timer on the oven is going off the Shepherd's Pie is done for the family.