Two and a half weeks old

The chicks are between 2 and 2.5 weeks old now so I decided to get some updated pictures.  I can usually tell who the first born chick was because he/she is bigger than the rest.  I know who the rotten egg chick is since she's brown and the rest are black.  But otherwise, I can't tell them apart at all anymore.

Rotten Egg Chick

I know I got a picture of each chick because we put them in a tub as we got each picture taken.

Then we got to move them all back and I talk to them.

They talk back.  I think they hate us. :)

Some grow and some die

I think some of the planning websites that I used were wrong.  

The tomato plants are all going strong.

The lettuce has ALL died.

The cauliflower, calendula flowers, and scallions look like they're doing well

The broccoli is still surviving

And the herbs are looking okay

I'm suppose to start a few more things but I'm not sure about doing them so soon considering my luck.  I'm also not sure if when they say I can sow the onions and garlic indoors now if they mean the bulbs or seeds.  I have bulbs, but putting them in the indoor containers seems odd for some reason.

She's just a little lap dog

Faith missed us while we were gone.  She proved this by climbing up on to the chair with me once I got home.

She doesn't seem to understand that her 100 pounds does not fit into the 5 inches between me and the arm rest.

Time to sell some goats

Today I caught the baby boys eating solid food with mom and I realized that's the sign that they could be weaned and sold.  So I put together pictures of the goats to sell them and added some information here so that anyone that's interested in buying them can get additional information.

All of the goats will come (running) when grain is shaken in a scoop or food dish.

Jenny is a few years old.  We are not sure how old but two vets told me between 3 and 5 years old.  She's given birth twice in the last 18 months.   Both times she had two adorable babies.  She is skitish around people, but has never been aggressive.  I do trim her hooves and she has had all of the typical shots.  I KNOW I would like to sell Jenny.

The rest of the goats I am unsure of.  I KNOW that I want to sell three goats because downsizing to two goats would be a great idea considering we never planned on having goats and this wasn't in our plan.  I am simply torn about keeping Carrie and Kelly or keeping Carrie and a baby....

Carrie was born January 26th, 2012 so she's just over a year old.  She was bottle fed and slept in the house for the first 6 weeks of her life.  She likes to be pet and easily comes up to people.  I will admit that she has started trying to earn her place in the pecking order in our family and has turned her head to horn people - other than me.  My youngest son flipped her and pinned her down twice and she stopped going after him, I've read that's all it takes for them to learn who dominates.  She would be tougher to get rid of since I bottle fed her, I'm slightly attached. :)  She's had the typical shots.

 Kelly is the twin sister to Carrie, born January 26th, 2012.  She was skittish around people but has gotten pretty good lately.  She doesn't run when I reach out to pat her and she comes running when you have food in a cup or dish for her.  She LOVES to climb and jump.  She's had all of the typical shots.

Rucker was born March 6th, 2013.  He is the cutest freaking thing ever.  He loves to climb and jump.  His brother, Cash, was obviously born the same day and is also ridiculously cute (pictured below.)  Both boys can/will be wethered/neutered soon.  They will also receive shots soon.

All goats MUST go to homes where they will be pets and may not be used for meat.

We are located in Bristow and do not have a way to transport them other than inside our SUV (for the two babies.)  They do not have to be sold together, but I do not want any of them to be the only goat on a farm/property as goats are social and I would hate for them to be lonely.

They've all been around chickens and they've all been around a large dog - but mom does not like them.  NONE of them have shown aggression, bit, attacked, ect. (Other than Carrie and her recent dominance stuff.)

They all have horns.

The Land Plans

I had to do some editing, but here are the most recent plans that were sent to me.  My house is that polygon shape in the middle of the page (above the purple circle.)

The dotted line that comes out of the left of the house and down to the bottom of the page is my driveway, or was the driveway before it was paved and widened.

The red arrow points to the temporary construction zone that we will have on our property.  The orange arrow in the middle of the page points to the "easement" that they are planning.

The blue arrow along the bottom of the image is where the current road is.  

Those fluffly lines show where the brush and trees are.  Notice that the road is coming all the way to and into  the trees, and the construction lines will completely cut them down.... They don't come as close to the house as the picture shows.  The fluffy lines around the driveway were trees that were cut down before I bought the property.

Vacations are strange now

We went on vacation for Spring Break.  Just five days at a condo in Massanutten, Va.  It snowed.  Since when does it snow 6 inches on Spring Break?

The entire trip was strange.

I was eating a salad for dinner and I wanted to take the scraps out to the chickens.  But there are no chickens on vacation.  So I wanted to put it in a compost container.  But there was no compost container.

So I finally decided to just put it in a grocery bag and we will bring it home for the compost bin.  Who does that?!?!

I went to throw away some paper, but there was no recycle bin.

I went to throw away the box from a toy for the kids.  There was no recycle bin.

I seriously wanted to bring everything back with us so I could sort it properly.  I hate to think of everything just going to the dump.

Apparently all of my conservation habits are so embedded in my routine that I have a hard time just being "normal" for a few days on vacation.

The update on the property

I just received a phone call from the appraiser.  She wanted to make an appointment to come appraise the property and to show me what the changes are.  After we made the appointment I asked her if I could find out about the changes now, instead of waiting a week.

She said they aren't going to have an access road anymore.  WIN!

And then she tells me that she's still waiting on final confirmation that they will be doing an easement and not a right of way.

WAIT.

They are going to be TAKING my land.

They are going to be building a ROAD ON MY LAND.

But now they are going to call it an easement instead of a right of way.

WAIT.

Let me explain this.

Right of way = they take it, it is their land, it is no longer my land, and they pay me for the land they take.

Easement = they take the land, they build on the land, but they say it is "my" land so they don't pay me for it.

So they are putting the road on my land.  Cars will be driving down this road on MY land.  And I won't receive any financial compensation.

I told her that if it is MY land then "I'm going to put up No Trespassing signs and I will stand out there with a shot gun."  (Okay so I don't own a shotgun, but she doesn't know that.)

It makes no sense that I would be okay with them taking my land, putting a road on it (so I can't use it/enjoy it), and yet not compensating me for taking my land.

This makes sense to them though.

I'm waiting for the plans to be emailed to me and for the meeting on Monday.  I will not allow them to take my land without compensating me.  It is that simple.

Stinky Chickie

Mama hen was going after the little chick that had been soaked in the rotten egg after it hatched.  I didn't know why so I snatched the poor thing up and brought it up stairs with me.

And we took a nap together

The widdle itty bitty chickie fell asleep

I was surprised that I was able to sleep for two hours with the chick on me.  I was so worried about the dog jumping up to lick it or about me rolling over and smoothing it.  I did have to adjust my arms and legs a few times and she'd wake up chirping, but I kept her warm and she'd fall back asleep with me.

I realized that she still smelled like rotten egg and I wondered if this was why the hen was attacking her.  The only solution was to give her another bath to try to get the smell off.

I really don't think Faith likes more "babies" in the house

So after a few minutes of eating.  It was bath time.

I don't think she was very happy

Under the heat lamp, the hen pecked once but it wasn't hard.

I moved a stuffed animal in with her since the hen wasn't interested in keeping her company

See her to the left next to the stuffed animal

She did fluff back up after a few minutes.

She smells better but still faintly like the rotten egg when she's up close to your nose

The hen seemed to be fine but an hour later when I went back down to get something, I saw her chasing the poor chick and pecking it.  I snatched her up to safety, grabbed one of those little fuzz balls that you can see sleeping next to the stuffed animal, and brought the two of them upstairs into a box of their own.

Chirp Chirp Chirp

I could only find eight chicks, until I looked under her wing...

Someone is trying to escape

Shh!  They're sleeping!

Who knew a Bandaid box would be so comfortable

I think it is official....

Perhaps I shouldn't correct people when they say I live on a farm anymore...

farm  

/färm/

Noun An area of land and its buildings used for growing crops and rearing animals, typically under the control of one owner or manager. crop   /kräp/ Noun A cultivated plant that is grown as food: "the main crops were oats and barley".