Hectic Days

I'm hoping to get on here in a day or two.  It's been crazy around here.

I'm headed in to get the dishes washed and the kitchen floor mopped.  Oh and don't forget the rest of the laundry washed, dried and put away.  And I should probably do some packing since we are leaving for vacation tomorrow!  Yippeeee.  Seven of us flying down to Florida and then driving home.  I'm so ready for warmth and if I'm honest...a break from all the animals.  Which reminds me, I need to get the goat stall cleaned out and the little chicken coop, for babies, cleaned out and my 6 longhorn chicks off my dining room table and outside!  I'll give them a heating pad in case they need some heat while we are gone. 

Our little indoor bottle fed goat, Patches, is doing well.  He's a handful though!  His nickname is Sir Pees a lot!  lol  He's napping right now. Ahhhhhh. 

Oh, and on top of all this...my husband, myself and my granddaughter all have colds.  UGH.  They aren't awful but just enough to drag us down when we need lots of energy getting ready. 

                                     VISITING HIS COUSINS AT THE BARN.  PLAY TIME. 

                             WHO ATE THE HOMEWORK?  THE DOG OR THE GOAT???

        HE'S WORSE THAN THE DOGS WITH GETTING IN YOUR PERSONAL BUBBLE!!!

                   Hoping I'll find some time to post while on vacation.  Have lots to share.  Till  then....

Babies are here!!

Momma #1, Hope, had 4 babies.  3 girls and one boy.  Momma #2, Penny, had one little boy.

It has been a long day. 
My husband and granddaughter left for the barn to feed around 7:50 and then headed to the bus around 8:00.  No babies at that time.
I looked out the window around 8:15 and one  of my bucks was out.  Off to the barn to catch him and put him in.
When I got to the barn, I checked in on the girls and Hope was just starting to push!  I quickly got Shaggy into the pen and made it back in time to watch all 4 babies being born.  I helped clear away the faces but left everything else up to the moms.  Penny was a great help to Hope, cleaning and drying the babies.  They were a great team! 

Shortly after Hope was all done, Penny started showing signs of labor.  A little after 12:00 she started pushing.  It was a bigger baby, ended up being tall and lanky.  I had to help pull him out some.  So far she has only had the one baby.  She was so big, we were sure she would have multiple.  We'll see come morning.

My granddaughter has claimed one of the little girls, the black and brown one.  She has named her Caramel.  That name could change 10 times tomorrow though.   Not that I wanted to keep that one or anything...wink wink.  😉😉

Well, I am exhausted.  I spent about 10 hours down there today.  It was a little cool so I'm chilled to the bones and have just started to thaw out.  Thankfully, the next few days are supposed to be in the 50s and 60s. 

I'm sure I'll have lots more photos to come.  Thankful to God for delivering 5 healthy babies for me. 

IMPATIENT

Look at this awesome thrift store find I found yesterday!  I paid only 2.75 for this 3 tube bird feeder.  I was very excited! I still have to fill it and put it outside.  Tomorrow hopefully.

This tree is in my yard in front of where I park my car.  I had never seen anything like this before.  The tree has this big icicle hanging off of it.  It's a little bit of frozen sap from a maple tree coming out of this knotty hole.  A sign of spring?  Sure do hope so!

Anyone else play around with Snapchat?  haahaa.  I was playing around the other day with it.  Some times my granddaughter and I have fun with it.  Besides, have to do something while I'm impatiently waiting for these baby goats to be born!

I took this just about an hour ago.  Hope is getting so close.  How many do you think she'll have?  I think maybe triplets.  If it's twins, they are going to be huge.

Both Hope and Penny went for another walk today and checked out the chickens and turkeys.  I went in the house for my jacket and I could hear Penny scratching at the door to come in.  lol  Nope, I didn't let her in tonight.  I had a hard time getting her back to the barn.  She didn't want to go back to the stall.  She was blatting and blatting away.  I had to go get the grain scoop and of course then she came back.

Daisy, on the left, finally has started to like being patted.  Today she let me rub her neck.  That is a big step for us.  I think having Bo and Luke in there with them is really helping.  The girls see how much the boys love getting attention so they are starting to warm up to us.  Lou Lou, on the right, actually jumped up on me as I was walking in with the grain tonight to feed them.  These are big steps for us and I am so hopeful that I can get them to trust people and actually enjoy being loved.

These are my stow away hens that sleep down at the barn.  The other 50+ birds sleep up in the chicken coop where they belong!  lol  They have been down there all winter long.  Some of the other chickens come down every day to visit, including one rooster.  They spend the whole day down there and then they go back up to the coop.  These girls eat with the goats or I'll drop down some goat feed for them in the barn.  Guess they don't like drama so they stay to themselves.

Today I stepped in a mud puddle while wearing my boots.  I realized my foot was getting wet.  When I got back to the house I showed my son.  He said "ah, mom, those boots have to be pushing 15 years old"!  LOL  I guess I've done pretty good with them then.  Hubby will get some boot gunk and fix them back up for me though.  There's still way too much wear left in them to get rid of them yet.

                       Well, here's to hoping there are some baby goats in the morning!
                            🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐

Spring Tics

 First tic of the season.  They are early this year. 
I pulled this one off one of the dog's ears.  Unfortunately, it's the first of what I am sure will be many.

This is our do it yourself poultry barrel.  It has a fire box on the bottom and then the barrel is full of boiling water to dunk the bird into.
We had to cull one of our turkeys today.  She had a bad leg and for 3 days she just sat on the coop floor and couldn't walk around.  So we culled her and had a tasty dinner tonight.  Because she was from last spring, the meat was a little bit chewy.  I'll try to make some soup and chicken salad tomorrow.
We didn't weigh her but she was not as much as the one we had for Thanksgiving which was 38 pounds.  She was probably high 20s.  She actually fit in my pan!  lol

STILL on baby watch.  Good grief, these mommas gotta pop here soon! 

I am so far behind on my garden seeds this year.  I have yet to start any seeds yet.  I am hoping to get to it this week.  I've got to get things growing or I'll have to go buy plants again.  Hoping to get the greenhouse up this spring too.  We purchased a 14x40 greenhouse. 
We still have some snow on the ground but it's leaving quickly.  Tomorrow is in the 50*s with rain so that will also help it all along.

Off to bed...dreaming of baby goats bouncing in the barn.  🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐

I stink!!!

Just went out and locked up the chickens for the night.  UGH, there must be a skunk under or in the coop.  I must have scared it because I now stink!  I searched for it but couldn't find it.  It found me though.  It sprayed and I was in it's line some how. 
Yes, I've taken a shower.  Haha.  Good think there is no scratch and sniff on here! 

Still no babies yet.  I'm not very good at this waiting patiently bit.  Penny and Hope came out today and went for a little walk up to the house from the barn.  Now, you may think that isn't much BUT when your stomach is just about dragging on the ground and you can barley lift your feet to walk...it's a big deal.  lol  The girls also received some much needed messages.  We are hoping that the exercise and the messages will get things moving.
While at the house they enjoyed some graham crackers, pop corn and some chips.  This was all stale food someone was throwing out to the chickens.  They LOVED the crackers!  I had to keep pushing them off my lap!  They can barely move but when it comes to food, they got those front feet off the ground and on my lap.  Haha

I took a couple pictures today at the barn.  Bo and Luke getting into mischief as usual.  One was chewing on my hair, up in a bun, and the other attacking my zipper on my jacket. I couldn't sit for long because they were all over me!

                                                 Bo                                  Luke

                                        Well, here's to hoping for morning babies.  Night.

No Easter Babies.

Still no babies.  At least there weren't any when I fed them their dinner this evening.  Maybe in the morning. Hope was due Friday and Penny is due Tuesday the 3rd. 

It's midnight here in New Hampshire.  26*F but it had been a beautiful day.  Kind of on the windy side though.
My son just texted me, from his bedroom, telling me not to let the dogs out because he could hear the coyotes howling in the field above us.  I of course grabbed the flashlight and my jacket and headed outside to scare them off if needed.
Fortunately, I did not run across any while out there but I did find 4 of my ducks outside of the pen.  Not sure how that happened.  I was pretty sure I had locked everyone up tonight.  So it took me a few minutes to get everyone corralled back in and safe.  I do have a few birds that are starting to sleep outside now that the weather is warmer.  I can't reach them, they are up on top of their coop, so they spend their nights outside. 

I did add a few more birds to my flock last week.  I purchased 6 Brown Leghorn chicks.  I have the White Leghorns and they are great layers so I was curious on if they lay as well as the whites. 

They of course live on my dining room table until the weather is warmer outside and they are a little bigger.  Never know what will be in our home!  Hoping there aren't many roosters in there.  I already have about 9 roosters outside. 

We will be having a big turkey dinner Tuesday night.  We have to put down my female turkey.  She must have broken her leg.  She hasn't moved but a few feet for 3 days now.  I am sure to make sure she has food and water with in her reach but that just is no life for any animal.  The last turkey we had, at Thanksgiving, was 38 pounds.  I don't believe she is quite that large though. 
That will leave me with 2 Tom turkeys.  I think we'll invite my son and his family over for dinner! 

                                                   Some turkey tracks frozen in the mud.

Most of our snow is gone.  There are still many areas that have a good 6 inches or so.  This time of year we get so excited with the sun shining, the snow melting, mud everywhere, animals shedding and then....we get a snow storm.  Yep, they are predicting more snow this week.  No amounts are given yet, hopefully not much.  Ugh.

Spring also brings the birds back to town.  Do any of you watch the birds in your yard?  I love watching and taking photos.  I used to keep track but haven't for a while. At least nothing written down but I take the photos and share in my N.H. Backyard Bird Watching group on Facebook.

My book is falling apart and has seen better days.  Just about time for a new one.
I have a couple bird houses I want to get hung up, just need some help from one of the guys.  I don't do ladders.  :-) 

Part of me really wants to run down to the barn to see if there are any babies but then there's the part of me that says, "it's 1 AM, GO TO BED".  I think that part of me is winning.
                                           Night.
                                                        Hope you all had a great Easter!