Beautiful Spring Days and a Birthday

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful.  We were able to accomplish much around the property, as well as relax and have a bit of fun.
Before the weekend fun; I took the children to a local park to play, explore, and eat ice cream.  If you are in the area, check out Ye Olde Mill, home of the Velvet Ice Cream Company. We had a good time visiting with the ducks and feeding them bread.

 

Haven't you ever tried to catch fish with your bare hands, while luring them in with bread?

After eating ice cream, we took a walk along the river and explored all nature had to offer.   

 

 

 

 

Our weekend started with much excitement as Noah turned 13! He invited his buddies over for a backyard campout. I'm pretty certain that they didn't get much sleep. I heard boys laughing all through the night and early morning.

 

 

            

   

 

The next morning, we gathered all the children into our vehicles and headed to the Velvet Ice Cream
Festival parade. 

 

Lack of sleep, an early morning trip, and a country traffic jam made for an extremely tired child. I'm not sure sleeping with a lollipop in one's mouth is a good idea. 

 

Monday, we celebrated Noah's birthday here at home. Cheeseburgers on the grill, cake, and ice cream, as well as great company and hard work around the property and gardens made for a good finish to a fulfilled and exhausting long weekend.  

 

 

 

We have a future photographer on our hands. The last pictures are Noah's.

 

O'Broody Duck

I had a feeling that someone was missing. We have lots of chickens and one duck. It's hard to keep track of everyone. Walking around the property, doing chores, I realized Drizzle was missing. I also hadn't been able to find those pretty Americana eggs. Was I missing a chicken too? "That silly little chicken must be laying her eggs somewhere secret", I thought. That was until I stumbled upon this. 

Two things were realized. 1 the duck wasn't laying the big huge eggs...poor leghorn chicken. 2 those pretty olive eggs were not the americauna's. That explains why they were always so dirty. 

So much confusion....I know. Apparently, I thought Drizzle's eggs were chicken eggs and the chicken eggs were hers. I'm so glad she corrected me.

Now, we have a moody brooder without fertilized eggs.
I am happy to know for certain that we have duck eggs.....and I know which ones they are.

Poor Drizzle. Either she needs a husband, or wooden eggs. She is not thrilled to be kicked off the nest with eggs removed.

Meanwhile, Ginger has been sitting on eggs. We're keeping an eye on her. I'm not exactly sure when she first sat, but she should have chicks any day. She is a sweet hen who broods every year. Unfortunately, we haven't kept roosters around for her to hatch eggs. Now, we have two. I think she's thankful.

I hope we can share chick pictures within the next week or so.

What's happening around your home? Gardening? Babies? Adventures? I love to hear about it all!

Cooking with Kids: Cake

I encourage children to be included in the kitchen while cooking. They are messy, slow and often times, in my way. However, I wouldn't change having them next to me. Eventually, all the patience and hard work pays off.  The children are all able to create, cook, bake and share their concoctions. They are also good at cleaning their messes and putting everything in order; however, that still takes lots of motivation from Mom. In fact, I think each of them could manage the kitchen with a bit of practice.

This past weekend, the children participated in a fund raising event. Part of the fund raiser included a cake decorating contest. They searched through cook books, the recipe box, and internet until each found the cake they wanted to make.

Samuel chose a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. This is my absolute favorite lemon cake recipe. A dear friend made this cake when she hosted a baby shower for me. I really wanted to eat Samuel's cake. I'm sure it was delicious and perfect for Spring.

Eli chose a strawberry cake made with cake mix and 7up. His cake clung to the pan and fell apart as we removed it. We managed to "glue" it together with lots of frosting. Speaking of frosting, we usually make buttercream frosting for our cakes, but this was already a long day of cake baking. So, Ma was adding shortcuts. 

Hannah chose a chocolate cake with vanilla and chocolate frosting. She illustrated hers with a horse.

Noah decided to make a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. He had a creative vision and decorated his with the Minecraft theme.

Everyone stayed engaged and eager to finish. 

The kids did a good job. 
Eli's strawberry cake with a heart and eyes,


Noah's chocolate Minecraft cake,

Noah loves being silly when his picture is taken.  Look at that great cake!

Samuel's lemon bee cake,

and Hannah's chocolate horse cake.

We had a good time baking and decorating. The cakes turned out great.  Each cake they donated earned their club about $12.  Now, we need a cake to eat. I'm thinking lemon. 

Disbudding/Dehorning Kids

Having kids around is so much fun. Our kids are about two weeks old. Their little horns are starting to pop up, so we decided this would be a good time to disbud them. Why would we do this?! Well, those little horns grow to big horns and can cause trouble for them. I think goat horns are beautiful; however, on a family farm they can be hurtful instead of helpful. For one, they can get them stuck in holes, feeders, between fences, or someplace else undesirable. Also, they can harm each other or possibly the children. 

To be safe, we decided it would be best to remove them. (A couple of our Shetland sheep have horns. They have not been much of a problem, but I fear that they may get them stuck. We've sold some of our Shetlands in the past, and most people prefer them hornless or dehorned.)

Friends of ours allowed us to borrow their dehorner. This little tool gets extremely hot. I wore gloves after using it on the first kid. The hotter the better. 

I stuck it in a pot to keep it from accidently burning something besides horns.

I watched a couple YouTube videos to make sure I was prepared for this adventure. It was an easy process, but unnerving all the same. First in line, was our little buckling. 

Before using the iron, I tested it out on a piece of wood. 

The children held the little guy very still while I put the iron over the horns. I held it on the horn for 15 seconds turning back and forth to make sure the entire horn was burned. 

After I removed the iron, I picked off the burnt portion of the horn, then reapplied the iron for a few more seconds. That will keep the horn from growing back.



The two doelings were next.

Once finished, they got some milk and were returned to their mamas. After a few days, the bone and fur will grow over the patch and they will heal nicely. It was not a fun process.  It was hard for Hannah to hold the kids while we disbudded them. But, it was a needed learning process; and, I think we can handle doing it again. 



Work While you Work

Work
Work while  you work,
Play while you play;
This is the way
To be happy each day.
All that you do,
Do with all your might;
Things done by halves
Are never done right.
-Anonymous

 

This past weekend kept us busy with work. But, work is not a bad word. We had fun being together and accomplishing goals. It feels good to get stuff done. Since we were out of chopped wood, we got busy splitting and chopping. Sheep and goat hooves were trimmed, goat pens cleaned, and the milk stanchion started.  

Working around the house and farm requires proper tools. A cordless drill is a must have. This handy tool makes working in the barns easy, especially since we do not have electricity in all of them. The boys were excited when the delivery truck dropped this off. I got the privilege of using it first on the goat stanchion....still a work in progress.

Da showed us how to work the splitter. This was a lot of fun. I had a good time working with the boys. We managed to get a cord split and stacked pretty quickly.



Everyone helped and worked together to get the job done faster.

The little kids did not do much splitting. Instead, they got a tutorial from Da and a chance to work the splitter. It will be their turn soon enough. Noah did most of the splitting. Meanwhile......

we are patiently waiting for our girls to kid. -Actually, impatiently waiting. Any time now.

After working, we got to play and...

enjoy the Sunday snow.