A busy day at the store!

We are cleaning up and moving around items to prepare for the new building, John will be preparing the outside tomorrow!  This is really exciting and we've gotten some great new products to share!

We also got an egg incubator today to start attempting to hatch Harriet's eggs :)  I haven't been able to master the temp and humidity yet but I'm hoping to have it down by Friday when she gives me another egg.  Usually at 9:30am on the dot!

The goats were still in a fuss this morning but settled down by this evening.  This is VERY good because they were making all the birds go wild with their yelling and beating the fence!  We are thinking maybe Cricket will wait another year to be a momma, she just isn't interested at all.  We do have a good mate for her if she changes her mind.  We will have to wait and see.

Stay warm and be well!

Babies due April 28th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These 2 angels were hooting and holloring this morning for some goat love (I guess Lamancha did not get pregnant the first trip!) so we packed them in and headed to the farm.  Lamancha (Buttercup) was bread with a black and white Lamancha and the sannen/alpine (Cupcake) was bread with a colorful alpine buck yearling.  The due date give or take a week is April 28th.  We are very excited for our grand'kids'.  I'm thinking a baby shower around April Fools would be perfect!

Yeah! We have our cookstove set up!

John and I waited a year to save up the money to buy this and change the chimney to accept a woodstove!  We are so thrilled!  Now we just have to wait for it to get cold again.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We are thankful for all of our friends and family, we are truly blessed!  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Be well!

The week before Thanksgiving

We had a very busy day today cleaning up the yard, moving the turkey pen, tucking in the garden for a long winters nap....  Cleaning up the turkey pen and moving the flight cage was the hardest.  I really enjoyed raising those boys, they were a pleasure.  I've had more than a few people comment about what we do here, raising and slaughtering our own meats.  Many people don't understand that we do this to ensure that we are raising the animals kindly, with care and respect.  We slaughter them quickly and as efficiently as we can.  Tad even played soothing classical music during the day.  We care about these animals and we thank them for feeding us, for fertilizing our lawns, for composting our left-overs.  I cried the morning of the slaughter because even though I know we are doing the best thing we can, it is hard and it will always be a sad day.  We make the decision to raise our own meats or buy from small farms to ensure we are supporting what we feel is right.  That was me on a soap box.  Be well.

We have been decorating wreaths for 2 days now!

Here are just a few we decorated tonight while watching Star Wars from Kaylah's collection!

New and old chicks!

The guineas are starting to get their distinctive looks with the blue/white/red faces that look like a clowns and the beautiful feathering.  We have 2white, 2lavender, and 2pearl.  The whites and the one pearl are females and I think the others are males.  The only way to really tell for sure is the sound they make so its hard.  They are moving into the turkey flight cage today to live for the winter.  We will set them free in the spring and we hope they will do ALOT of bug eating, particularly our large tick and mosquito populations!

These are my 4 new fancy chicken additions!  2 white silkies, 1 black cochin, and 1 blue cochin.  I hope to get better pictures with my dad's camera.  The whites may have colored fertilized eggs, which would mean I would trade them out when the coloreds get old enough - or trade out ozzy if I get a male.  Ozzy is even crazier with all these hens!