Another great picture of my students' chicks

My students are chick farmers

Two of my former students told me they wanted to hatch eggs for their 6th grade Science Fair Project.  I tried to help them get eggs donated, and then I decided to just buy some eggs.  I didn't have any to part from out of my own flock because they weren't laying very many for awhile.  

The girls also asked me if I could take the chicks after they were hatched because they can't have them in their city.  

So I bought 18 eggs from another local mom who has chickens and passed them on.

Friday will be day 21, the day the chicks should start hatching.  The girls have been candeling them and they saw signs of life in 17 out of the 18 eggs!  That's amazing.

And then this morning I got an email telling me that the eggs were chirping and wobbling!

Only a little while later I got this in an email!

And then a couple hours later they said NINE had hatched!

I think I am just as excited about their eggs hatching as they are!

And then they sent me more pictures.  :)  I'm so happy for them and there should be more coming.  

Lazy Sunday

Carrie keeps putting her head through the fence like she did when she was younger

And then she gets stuck.  She always manages to get herself out though.

The building of a shed - alone

Today I was determined to start making progress with the shed/chicken coop.  I got these pieces to my yard two months ago and they haven't moved since because the person who said he would help me, has disappeared.

It took two people and a child to move some of these pieces the first time and we had been talking about using three people to rebuild the shed, but I figured I could get everything done except for the roof by myself if I took things apart so they weren't as heavy and hard to handle.  It wouldn't be ideal, but at least I could make progress.

Besides, I'm hard headed and stubborn.

The pile that's been sitting in my yard for two months

The first step was getting the beams for the base of the structure out from under the foundation of the shed.  And then I knew I was going to need to lay them out in the goat pen, raising one end, and making sure everything was level and stable.

I had to pry the plywood off from the base, saving the nails as I went.  I carried all of the 2x4s and 4x4s into the goat pen, found bricks behind the house and hauled those around, and then moved this final piece, to the gate with a little help.

Thank God for this cart, it's been a lifesaver

Once I had it in the pen, I pushed and pulled it standing upright back to where the coop is going to be.

Getting the foundation put back together

Foundation done!

I started working on this project at about 10AM and finished the base around 2PM.  I did stop for 30 minutes or so to go inside, but otherwise I was working the entire time.

My goal for the day was only to get the foundation set up, but once I got close to finishing that task, I knew I wanted to get more done.  So I started taking apart the longest wall of the shed.

The paneled siding from the wall

I did get it taken apart but I will either need to take some of the 2x4s off, or I will have to cave and ask for help to move the wall.  

I still have 3 other walls to work on taking apart, although I know they can be moved as they are if I would just pick up the phone and call a friend to come help.

I'm thinking the roof may have too much damage from the rain and snow to salvage since it's been sitting on the grass for so long.  The good news is, the 2x4s looked good so I'm hoping at the most I will only need to buy a pack of shingles (an extra pack came with the shed but that wouldn't cover the entire roof) and some particle board/sheathing.

I may cave and ask for help next weekend, especially since I think I am hosting a BBQ for the youngest son's classmates on Saturday afternoon and I feel like I could get this done next weekend IF I had an extra person.

My back is a little sore.  I think I will be hurting tomorrow morning.

I never realized how jealous she is

The goats were in the far back of the goat pen so I snuck out there hiding behind the hill trying to get some pictures.

Unfortunately, Kelly saw me and yelled, which made Carrie come running.

So I decided to sit down and pet the babies for awhile.  But I didn't realize that Carrie was so possessive of me and jealous of them.

She is head butting Darius away from me

And then going after Cash

And then after Kelly

 Once she had them cleared away she decided to eat me.

She is a good goat, usually.

They lost their manhood

I met a lady that lives nearby that breeds goats a few months ago and today she came over to give the goats shots for me and to castrate the boys.  

To castrate them, they place a band around the extra manhood, and over time the circulation will cut off and they will just fall off.  They say it's only uncomfortable the first day and then the boys won't feel anything at all.

Rucker's eyes clearly tell us what he was thinking :(

I feel horrible, but I also know that they need to be fixed so that they don't make more little goats.

It's almost Spring

It was a beautiful day outside today so everyone deserved some time outside.

 Even the chicks experienced their first day outside of the house.

I even found some flowers blooming around the edges of the yard.

A different way to color Easter eggs

Came across this idea to use kool aid to color the eggs this year and we decided to try it.

We didn't leave any eggs in the bowls very long AND the child seems to think that you should dip an egg in every color so none of his were really any color at all besides a mix of all of them.  The five eggs that are half colors (to the left side of the carton) were done by me, and the rest were his mixes.

It completed the job of coloring eggs, but I think next time I'd use less water to make them darker colors and leave the eggs in longer.

I will say that none of the eggs inside had any coloring to them, which we normally saw with traditional egg coloring kits.

Babies on Easter

Rucker is definitely more people friendly and an escape artist, he already got out of the pen this morning

Both boys have already started growing horns

Food Fights

Jenny has become very food-aggressive to the other goats ever since the last month of her pregnancy.  I put the food in three bowls and separate them, but as soon as she is finished inhaling her food she will hurry over and shove someone off their bowl of food.

I've started putting Kelly and Carrie's food in higher locations that Jenny can't get to because she's too big/old/fat.

Jenny's started putting her front feet up on the lower house and can tip the bowl over while Kelly or Carrie will back up and just watch.  Darn goats.

The babies can get up there too.