Updates...

Well the chicken hatchery is going along nicely. I have gotten a couple of new to me cabinet incubators. They a called Dickey incubators and turn the eggs every 2 1/2 hours. This should help with how many eggs hatch.....I really love these new ones. I have cleaned up and put away the small ones. I am all sold out until more babies are hatched and I have a waiting list of sorts. This is a good thing.

I started working the Farmers markets this past week. I am doing the local market just like last year and this year I am doing the Flagstaff market in the middle of the week. This past week was the first week and the Flagstaff one was great and the other one not so much,. We will see what happens next week.

I have taken over answer my husband phone, this sounds a little strange but......he is already getting more work done during work hours and that is what we both wanted.

Well.........this are the updates for now, TA TA

Updating this...

Been really busy...taking new pictures of everything and I am going to post a bunch of new stuff.

School is almost out and summer is here.

Soren is doing great, he loves Karate and just did the Spring fest performance. He had lots of fun with his friends. He is also doing great at school, we are getting the reading down and at math he is great.

Emily is finishing up 8th grade....need I say more, LOL She had a string band concert last week and played the Bass. She has only been playing the bass since the beginning of the 4th quarter.She is getting big....

More to come

New incubator and handturning eggs

Well...I have a new incubator in the making. I got an incubator at NAU surplus store it is the size of a 12 cu ft fridge. We are making turning racks for the eggs. It is going to hold over 500 is what we are thinking.......that is a lot of eggs. I can't wait until this is done.

Hand turning eggs...

Well I have been working on hand turning goose eggs for over a month. The first batch I hatched out 7 out of 9. The Second batch I hatched out 7 out of 10. The third batch is hatching out right now. I know that I already have 5 babies in there as of about 30 minutes ago. Geese are so big when they hatch, but I am sure that is because the eggs are huge!!!

I will update the egg adventure more later....

Wind, wind and More wind

Well spring is here and with it we get wind....all of my outside animals are ok so far,but the wind is getting really bad today. We are under a wind advisory....YUCK

After a long week..........

All I want to do is nothing, but living on a farm that doesn't get to happen...I was able to stay in bed this morning until 6:45....very nice...I get to milk the cow which is going well and do the chicken chores. It is fun to see how they are growing.

This past week we moved a friend....that made a couple of days really long but it all went well.

I am starting to sell every animal that I have extra, that is a nice thing. I have all the incubators as full as I can get them...time to get the other ones going.

This was just a quick update....now time for your regular programming

A Meal Plan....

We are eating way to late.....I hate it.

So I am going to make a plan for the next few days, need to start doing this because this summer I am going to be to busy. If I start this now, it will be easier to do later.....

So for the rest of the week this is the plan...

Wednesday----Pizza and Salad

Thursday---Moving a friend so will be on the road....I will pack snacks

Friday ---Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Veggies, Roll (need to get the turkey out now!!!)

Sat---Something with Turkey

Looking at this, it should be easy to get to Sunday....and it really only took about 5 minutes to do
I will work on lunches later

Cows and Chickens.....

Well...here we have been working on milking the cow for the past two weeks or so, we built a milking stand for the cow.....you might have heard about ones for goats but this one is for cows. It gets them up higher so they are easier to milk.Also, it holds in my momma cow, once she is in it, she like to be milked but before that...you can't get near her.

Today we cleaned up the cow pens, when we needed to do the other side I moved Bella into the first side with the stand in it. She went right in to the stand and just stood there like she knew what she was doing. So I gave her a treat and locked her in, she really didn't have much trouble, which is really great. I hope to get her used to if before I try to milk her, unlike the other way around this time.

Update on the chickens...my batch of chickens to make eggs to hatch for meat birds is coming along nicely, they are 5 weeks old. Everyone that is old enough is laying like crazy, the incubators are full and babies are hatching. When I write it all down it makes me happy that so much of it is going on. Just last week, I got a huge incubator, it isn't up and running with eggs yet,but holds temp. I need to get a turning system for the eggs and a place to put it, it is the size of a 12 cu ft fridge. I wonder how many eggs it will hold. Here is a picture of some of the newest babies...

The new Baby GIRL cow is here

Here she is, she arrived at 10:30 pm February 26, 2009. She weights about 25 pounds and is doing great.

Here is how it finally happened. I have been waiting for about three weeks for this. I am very good at noticing the changes that the cow was going through. I just didn't know how many changes were going to happen. So I was getting to the point that I was thinking that she was never going to have this baby. I had been checking and checking on momma cow for weeks....

So last night about 8 pm I disided to start a fire in the fireplace. Well, we didn't have much wood in the house so I needed to go and get some. The woodpile is very close to the cow house so I disided that I would just go check one more time because I was outside......well when I looked in the house I notice that it was wet in there. That was her broken water all over the house. So I looked for momma cow and she was about 50 feet from the house having contractions.

I called my husband and told him (he is out of town) He said get off this phone and call my friend to come over. I am so glad that I did....we watched and watched as the contractions got closer together. My friend is as cow happy as I am.

At about 10 pm we thought that she was going to have this baby, but she wouldn't lay down anywhere. So we got very quiet and just watched....she went and layed down all the way across the pen from where we were. I was very quiet and walked over there are got to see it all happen.

When the baby was coming out, she was being push under the fence panel. I got it pick up this slimy baby and put her back in the pen. She is so pretty and I was a mess. As she was being born, she blinked her eyelids at me and that is when I knew that I was in love.

The pictures are from today.....the ones from last night in the cold and dark aren't as good.

The Brown cow is Val's first baby she will be 1 yr old on March 7....

The big fat cow

Well, here she is, the big fat cow that still hasn't had her baby yet. I have been watching and waiting and waiting. She is changing shape and I know that her body is getting ready but I just wish that she would have this baby already.

When I got her I was told that she was due in February...well we are getting toward the end of the month and......well I guess, a watched pot doesn't boil and a watched cow doesn't give birth.

Time sure files....

I am in the middle of what seems like 500 things here. We are having great weather, so I am doing lots outside.

We have a new chicken condo for the little ones that aren't big enough to go outside, it has six compartments, electric and easy to clean. The chickens are doing really well in it and it got most of them out of the house.

Speaking of chickens, I have babies hatching all the time, I still like hatching them out. It is what is taking up my time. It takes lots of time to feed all of these little ones. I also bought some eggs for my birthday and they are looking like at least some are going to hatch....update on this next week.

Also....I am hoping that the cow will have her baby soon, it is looking like she is getting ready, but I know that it will happen when it happens.

I am still homeschooling the youngest he is doing pretty good. We are getting him to read which has been the hardest thing to do. I have to keep telling myself one day at a time.

These are just a few updates, no wonder why I have been so tired. Off to the never ending laundry. Reminder to self...post more pictures

Passing the inspection

Well after about 14 months the county is off of our case for the condition of our yard. We still have many projects to do, but they are happy with what we have done. We worked and worked many hours to clean up the mess that we made. I am so happy that it is done and really our yard looks very nice and Very Different from when we started.

So now we can get on with the chickens, many posts about chickens to come.

Its the New Year...

Well it is already 12 days into the New Year.

Where has it gone???

We have had some really nice weather, so we have been outside a lot. The building projects around here are getting planned and even started. It is so much work to keep up with the projects, kids, eating, etc. That we are falling into bed at night, just to get up the next day to do it all again. I know that I need to be thankful for having all of these things to do.....

Also, this past Saturday the 10th, was the littlest 8th birthday. He is getting so big. We had a huge family play day with movies, games and pizza with wings. This was spread out over the whole day.

So not much going on....