Quarantine

Here are some important numbers for you:

3=  Members of our family that have the flu (mama is still going strong)

2= Puking sessions in the last 24 hrs

3= Times we had to open the windows to air out the 'blue' room-- where all the sick ones were located for most of the day--

0=Times Pickle complained about being sick

15=Times Pickle said "Good" when we asked him how he felt (even minutes after he puked)

2=Bathrooms disinfected

12=Chickens accounted for despite the flu hitting the farm

1=Chick with "sticky butt" (when it rains, it pours)

1= Little boy not thrilled (at all) with his first spring break!

???=Hours the boys have watched Hulu and Netflix.  Poor Pick Pick and JJ have been so sick they could barely walk from room to room.  Really, all they could do was lay on the couch and go between napping, sipping fluids, and watching movies.  When Pickle thought he was going to puke, we had to pick him up and run him to the bathroom! 

0=Fights J and I have gotten into despite being surrounded by puking/pooping children for the last 2-3 days

We are skipping J's family Easter gathering tomorrow as we are just too contagious and nasty! I'm hoping tomorrow will bring some warm, spring weather, in case we need to air out the house some more!  I'm also praying that my boys start feeling better!

That Sweet Familiar Sound...

Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep!

For me, from now on, the sound of baby chick's peeping will always remind me of this farm and the month of April.  I didn't realized how much I missed that sound of baby chicks until I heard that lovely 'noise' once again!

Our flock has grown.  We now have six more "babies."  We just got back from picking up our chicks from a farm less than a mile from JJ's (rural) school.  We got 2 Ameraucanas, 2 Light Brahmas and 2 Golden Laced Wyandotes.  These are all new breeds to us and the farm. 

You need to know some vocabulary when you pick out baby chickens!

Pullet: a young hen, usually less than one year old

Straight Run:  1:1 ratio of males and females, or an equal chance of getting a boy or girl

We got all pullets. Given our, not so cheery historical experience with cockerels (young male chickens) and roosters (adult male chickens), we decided to get more egg laying hens.  None of these birds will be meat birds. 

At first, we weren't going to get any more hens.  But after losing Magnolia and Primrose (RIP), and expecting to lose one to two more this year (hopefully not but we will see), we thought we should expand the flock!  And... I just really wanted chicks again this spring.  Farmer J surprised me with finding baby chicks close to home and agreeing to get a few (o.k., half a dozen) more!

Here is what the chicks will look like when they are older!



This is an Ameraucana.  We already have Araucanas! The Ameraucana's, like the Araucana's, will lay pretty blue/green eggs!  They are sometimes called "Easter Eggers."  How fun that we got them
less than a week from Easter! These chickens are "American" in origin. 


This is a Gold Laced Wyandotte.  We had some Silver Laced Wyandotte roosters in the past but never Gold Laced hens!  Wyandotte's are known for being good egg layers and docile.  They also tolerate being "confined" (in a coop most of winter).  They lay large, brown eggs. The Wyandottes are also an American breed. 


Here is a Light Brahma.  These chickens have the feathers on their feet (like our "Baby Boots"). They typically get quite large.  These chickens originated in Asia.  They are reported a being very friendly and "excellent pets."  They are "good" egg layers and lay mediam, brown eggs. 

Better go.  My patient is calling me!  JJ and Pickle are down and out with the flu!  We are hoping to all be healthy for J's family easter this Sunday!

Spring Break

Today is Wednesday and it's the middle of JJ's first spring break...and he has the flu!  Poor guy! I anticipated that this would happen due to a recent flu virus that is being shared amongst friends, family and strangers alike.

The rest of us are healthy and we have been getting lots of things done around the farm and in the farmhouse.  Today, I did massive spring cleaning in the kitchen.  J has been working on getting the barn ready for the goats and kittens.  My dad helped Farmer J get the beehive up and ready as 3 lbs of bees will be mailed to us later this month.  Below are some pictures of the newly created hive!

 Here is the hive.  The window is made from plexi-glass so we can watch the bees at work! 

 Above is another view of the plexi-glass window. 

When you take off the top to the hive. There are wooden slats (see the six above) that the bees will attach their honeycomb (and therefore honey) to! 

I'll leave you with some more pictures of our baby goats and maybe one of our future barn kittens!  These pictures are from JJ and my first trip to see them and Pickle and J's second time!

 Mama milk!

 Just born kitten!  Eyes not even open yet! I love that baby kitten 'meow'.

 Shake your boom boom! That is for Miss Carly!

 Here is Ciaran! "Little dark one"

 Here is me and Ciaran.  He was giving me love!  

Here is Farmer J and Patrick! 

This Old (Farm) House

Here are some pictures from inside the house.  I often show pictures from outside but I thought you all might like to see some indoor shots as well! 

Here are our fresh eggs. This ceramic egg carton fits nicely above our kitchen sink on the window ledge.  Now that the weather is getting nicer, we have been able to let the chickens out of the coop!  It's nice to be able to see my 'girls' out of my kitchen window once again!

This little door is on the landing of the staircase.  We really don't know what it's original purpose was or how old it is.  It is a good spot for hide and go seek.   The paint on the stairwell is not as pink as this picture makes it look. 

If you go up the stairs (one to two steps) and look up, this is what you see.  It's a nice secret hiding place for me and J, as the children cannot reach it.  The last thing I hid in here was some amazing peanut brittle from Gma Dawn! I again wonder how it was originally used! 

Here is another picture of the staircase.  The open door at the top goes out to the original "upstairs" of the 1860's log cabin.  It' is a tiny, unfinished room.  It looks a lot like the girls room from "Little House on the Prairie."  When the wood stove is going, this room is as toasty warm as a sauna.  Hot air definitely rises!  Inside the room, there is another open door that opens up to the fireplace room (see below.)  J put up a wooden gate to make sure no little ones could fall!  Often, the children play in here.  A little boy's imagination can go wild here!

 

This is the light fixture in the guest bedroom/office.  I love all the little details of this house that make it so unique. 

 



This is the back of the door in the guest room.  When we first moved in, my dad said, "I found the closet" and pointed to the knobs on the back of the door!  None of the rooms upstairs have any closets.  We turned the smallest of the upstairs rooms (directly off our bedroom) into a walk-in closet.

 

J's mom (Mima) made us this beautiful quilt and gave it to us as a housewarming gift when we moved to the farm.  It is called "Apple Crisp."  This quilt is not only lovely but has helped keep us warm during all these cold winter nights!  Thank you Mima!

 



Here is a great picture of the red wood burning stove. The heat from the stove was drying out JJ's winter boots!

 

Here is another view.  In the corner, you can see the piece of furniture my parents got us for storing firewood.  It works really well and fits in nicely in the corner of the room. 

This picture was taken from the fireplace room, looking up to the loft (again, think of the upstairs from "Little House on the Prairie").  You can see J's carpentry handywork to keep the children out of danger. 



This is the door between the mudroom and the fireplace room. You can see a little notch of the wood is missing.  See a closer up picture below.

 

This notch works perfectly for taking off your winter boots! I wonder how many people before me have used this notch to help take off their wet, snowy winter boots!

 

This is the door latch on the door that leads to the basement! You don't see many latches in new construction homes!

 

 

That is it for now for the indoor tour!  I hope to post more pictures soon.  J, JJ, Pickle and J's parents went out to see the goats again today (3rd trip to date).  I think the goat farmers are getting the idea that we are really excited about our baby goats! 

 

The latest on their names:  Ciaran (means "the little dark one" in Gaelic) for the little black goat and Rory for the other one.  We are thinking of giving them Irish names as they were born very close to St. Patrick's Day (and I'm obsessed with everything Gaelic/Irish).  (Too funny- Mumford & Sons just came on Pandora... I know the band is English but hey, close enough to be ironic!) 

March Madness

We have a pair of turkeys that keep coming back to our farm. They love to eat the bird seed that falls

on the ground.  They are quite huge and fun to watch. 



This is a barn cat from the same farm we will be getting our goats from.  Doesn't she look a little thick around the waist???? We are getting two baby kittens the same weekend as our "kids."



This picture is hard to figure out.   This is a shot of a dead mouse.  His final resting place was the back of our fridge.  We knew it was there as the smell of death was in the air.

Who would think that such a small creature could create such a stench? And who would think it was ok to remove the dead mouse with one of our forks?

Here is an apple pie that I made! If you have ever struggled with your pie crust, try Julia Child's recipe! The crust rolled out beautifully!



Here is the finished product.  The pie was gone in less than 24 hours!

Mittens, hats... I hope we won't need these soon! Today feels like spring!



The mudroom! Ugggggg. Can't wait to put away the snow boots!



Baby goats

JJ is in Tai Kwon Do.  Another "Little Dragon" in his class lives on a hobby farm as well.  So class after class, our family got to know their family. We have chickens, they have chickens.  They have goats...

I'm sure you can see where this is going. The Little Dragon's mom let us know that the farm where they got their goats last year had baby goats again this year again.  

I was at work when I listened to my voice mail.  I heard a tiny but excited voice (Pickle) telling me all about how he and Dada were going to go see some goats.  Later I got an email titled the "4-1-1 on Goats" with some amazing pictures (see below.)  

A few days later, JJ and I got to see the baby goats as well.  We fell in love with them quite instantly.  I really loved the smokey/grey colored baby goat.  He nuzzled up to my face and let me snuggle him-- until he got too fidgety and wanted down. The goat farmer told me that baby goats get to know their human "parents" by the human "mama" blowing air gently in their face.  Kinda weird but I did it! The funniest thing I saw that day...  the baby goats jump on their mama's back.  They are definitely climbers.  The goats were in and out of the water trough (luckily empty) and up and down off their mama's back as well as on and off some wooden blocks within their pen.  The outside goats (not the mamas or newborn babies) were enjoying climbing up and down the picnic table (a goat 'must have' per the goat farmer.)  

We can pick up our two boy "kids" the first weekend of May.  Until then, they will stay with their goat mama and get big and strong off 'mama milk'. Farmer J and JJ's spring break will be busily spent preparing the barn for our two new arrivals.  We are very excited.  

We have yet to come up with names for the little guys.  Some options:  Duncan and Declan, Smokey and Bandit, Phineas and Ferb, Thor and Loki or Frodo and Samwise.  There were also many Star Wars themed names as well as other Superheros.  

 The white/black "smokey" little boy is ours!! 

This little white/brown guy is our other baby goat! 

The last day of winter...

Tomorrow is spring. ...according to the calendar hung up in our kitchen.   Earlier this month,  I wrote "spring", boldly in blue Magic Marker, with a line underneath it, followed by numerous exclamation points (obviously in some attempt to wish it true) on the 20th of March,.  Today, I see that my wish was not granted,  as I  look out the kitchen window and clearly see that winter is still going strong.   A week ago, after a few warmer days, I could see some of the bricks from the patio peeking through the snow. Snowfalls earlier this week have covered up those bricks, and my hopes of springs arrival, in another blanket of cold and white.  There are other outdoor signs that spring is not just around the bend.  I have yet to hear any robins.  Our "babies" (hens) are still 'cooped' up as they so dislike walking on snow and ice.  And I was wondering if Mr. Chuck would be by to plow out our driveway as the recent, here and there, small snowfalls were starting to add up.  

Inside the farmhouse, there are more signs of cold season weather.  The down comforters are still on the beds, the wet snowpants, mittens, hats and boots are still drying in the mudroom, the bean pack is still being warmed up in the microwave to keep my toes toasty warm upon first getting into a cold bed and the fireplace shows signs of recent use. 

J assures me that spring is coming and tells me that one day..."pop", it will be spring.  When he says that, I reminded of a Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) book.  A caterpillar "pops" into a beautiful butterfly.  Soon, my winter blues will "pop" away with springs long anticipated arrival.

And there are some obvious signs that spring is coming.  The seed catalogs continue to come in the mail, there is potting soil in the mudroom, I found a bag from Farm and Fleet full of seed packets, and I'm finding lots of other misc. garden supplies throughout the house.  J is starting some garden plants from seed so the kitchen has a few trays full of soil and seeds.  JJ is most excited about the "snake" gourd seeds that he picked out!

My favorite sign that spring is coming happened 10 days ago.  On March 10th, 2013, a mama gave birth to her "kids".  Our farm family continues to grow with two more "kids" arriving in eight weeks... and guess what, they are both boys!!!!!  J and pickle got to meet them today.  I'll share the pictures tommorow....when it's spring!