They are named!

 

Introducing……….

Gypsy Bell’s Meadow Jewel. 
We needed a “fancy” name for her registration papers.

We will call her Meadow.

Figaro.  Also known as “Figgy”.  I love coming down the hill singing “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro”  and Maggie is loving singing “Gettin’ Figgy wit it.”  The name fits him to a “t”.

We are enjoying Figgy and Meadow and their mama Gypsy more than we could have imagined!

Meet Gypsy and her family!

They arrived at our house this morning about 10:00.  I was so excited I couldn’t hardly sit still while waiting for them.  I kept looking out the window, pacing back and forth,  they weren’t getting here fast enough.  I woke up at 2am, again at 4 and then was finally up and out of bed at 7.  It was a long morning!  lol

They are Nigerian Dwarf goats.

Mama is 2 years old.  Babies will be 3 months in a few days.  They are gorgeous and sweet!  Mama is barely taller than my knee caps!  We are in absolute love.  Gypsy is so relaxed and gentle, and has a major cookie habit!

Little piggies babies and their mama!

Baby Girl.  She was named Jewels by her previous owner.  And is a strong possibility that she will keep it.  But other possible names we like are Meadow, Willow and Autumn.  We are just waiting a few days to see “who” she is before committing.

Baby Boy.  Oh boy!  This guy is a spitfire!  We are trying to find something that really captures his personality.  His name now is Romeo, but I had a family member I wasn’t too keen on by that name, so it has to go.  No idea yet what it will be.  Has to be something that screams “personality” though.  Chris’ suggestion was King Jack of Assville.  Which is very, very fitting, but then that would make our farm “Assville” and I’m not sure I want that!  lol

Big Mama—Gypsy.  She is already snuggling up to me.  I have found her sweet spot on her neck.  That made me A-OK in her book!

Playing on top of their new house

Who would think goats could bring so much pleasure!

And Pam, the woman we bought them from is an amazing woman.  Our family has so much in common with her.  I am glad that this has brought us a new, amazing friend!  We are looking forward to getting to know her better!

I have wanted Nigerian Dwarf goats for.ever!  So today feels like Christmas, Birthday and every other holiday rolled into one!

Today was a good day!

Goaties = T-r-o-u-b-l-e!

The goaties got in their first real trouble yesterday.  Chris had gone down late afternoon to check on everyone and found Bluebelle and Clover on the other side of their pen eating figs.  They had that “busted” look about them and knew they were in trouble.  So we had some work to do.  A little rearranging, hopefully they don’t escape again.

 

   

                    We really like Bluebelle and Clover, but we are contemplating on not keeping them.  Kind of breaks my heart because I am already attached, and I know Maggie will be heartbroken.  But we are noticing they are very skittish, not very welcoming (not mean, just offish) and our intentions are to milk them.  We can’t even just walk up to pet them, how on earth are we going to milk them?  So, we have some heavy thinking to do.  I think we would prefer to get babies and raise them ourselves so they know us and trust us.  Right now I don’t let Maggie in the pen with them.  Which is a problem.  She needs to go in and help.  But I am not comfortable with it.     I think for an experienced person, they would be great.  But for noobs like us, it’s not a win-win.  And I want these girls to have a good life!   We are still thinking it out.   Not an easy decision.  <sigh>                                                   

This week around the garden.......

This has been such a strange gardening season.  We are finally getting summer (meaning hot sun!) which is really helping the garden out.  Things are finally starting to grow and finally producing fruit and veggies.

Here are a few of the tons of pears we are getting.  There are a couple of trees and they are loaded!  We have to walk under one of the trees to get to the goat pen and every time I walk under it I conk my head with a couple of low hanging pears.  It makes me happy!  :)

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Our Roo (the white bird) and some of his women.  I may be partial, but I think he is shaping up to be a mighty fine looking bird!  He is sweet too!  You can cradle him like a baby and rub his belly and he doesn't seem to care!

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Oh, lovely little red buds!  I can not wait for you to turn into pomegranates!  We have never grown them before, so this is a new, exciting adventure.  We pruned the tree before we moved in here and are hoping we did it justice!

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Zucchini and squash!  We harvested some Goldbar Squash last week to eat with dinner.

It was FANTASTIC!  Looking forward to a lot more!  And by the looks of our bushes, we

will be eating it for awhile!

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Bluebelle and Clover are settling in very nicely!  They love being next to the fig trees!

Bluebelle (the white one) has a mad crush on Chris.  Which is really funny because this 

happens often with Chris.  We have had several female animals that crush on him.  I keep telling him

he has "animal magnetism".  Yes, I crack myself up sometimes!

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Some hidden yard gems.........

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And Maggie standing next to the "quail bush".  We call it the quail bush because

there are a bunch of newborn Quail in it.  The mama and papa have been feasting

on my strawberries, and I have let them.  Now we get to enjoy watching their sweet little babies 

walking around.  They are so itty-bitty!

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We have already harvested potatoes, onions, squash, lettuce, kale, peas and lots of different herbs.  I am eagerly waiting for our tomatoes and cucumbers.  The cukes have lots of flowers (that I see our honeybees on all the time!) and the tomatoes either have lots of flowers or fruit that is finally turning red.  Our garden has been such a rewarding experience.  I am so thankful for the ability to do this!

It was goat day on the farm!

Isn't it funny how well thought out plans totally change without much warning?  Chris and I have wanted goats for awhile now.  We were totally decided on Nigerian Dwarf's.  In fact, we only wanted Nigerian Dwarf's.  "We don't want no big goats" was a common statement (ok, may be we worded it a little different, it just typed out much more fun sounding this way!).  We talked about goats often, how they would fit in, what we would use them for, where we would put them, you know, all the things you talk about when making a big, educated decision.  Well, after much talk we decided that we would put off getting goats until next year.  Or so we planned.  Then came the phone call on Friday morning.  Our friend Vanessa called and said she had 2 milking goats, a mama/daughter team that they just don't have time for, do we want them?  And without much thought we quickly said YES!  So here it is, Monday and they came home today and we are in love! 

 Check out these faces!

Mama Bluebelle

And sweet Clover

They are as sweet as can be.  I am very happy with how well they are adjusting here.  And I especially love when they hear us coming down the hill they run over to the fence to greet us.  Gives me the warm fuzzies.  

So, some of you may be asking (especially the ones who know us) "what do you know about goats?"  Well, that's they funny thing.  We know absolutely NOTHING about goats!  But we are learning.  A crash course if there ever was one.  I have been doing tons of reading and learning from the good folks at Backyard Herds have been so helpful and kind.  I found Backyard Herds back when we joined Backyard Chickens a couple years ago.  Both of these sites are GREAT sources of information.  I feel really blessed to have them at my fingertips!

So the immediate plan is to get these girls eating well and used to their surroundings.  Then around August during a heat cycle we will send them off to a breeder.  Hopefully we will get some babies because besides having great pets, we are dying for some good down home milk!  

Now that we have goats we are officially feeling like a farm.  With the dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, bees, garden and goats, I think that does make us a farm.  We have been trying to think of a name.  Trying to name your farm is as hard as naming a baby!  We seem to like Whispering Creek Farm.  But not totally sure yet.  I liked the idea of calling it TICA Farm.  Which would stand for "Things I can't afford" which is funny, but sadly true!  lol  

If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to shoot them in a comment.  I would LOVE to hear them!  

It's been a long day on the homestead and I am tired.  Good night all!  I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July, for those of you in the USA!

So glad to be back!

I have missed my blog so much!  I am so glad to be back!!  What a wild, crazy ride we have been on for the last  8+ months.  As you may remember, we decided to move in August of last year.  Gave notice, packed our things and put them in storage and were so excited because in 1 month we were going to be moving on to a sweet little ranch.  We spent the next 30 days plotting our garden, building our chicken coop in our minds and fixing up the house.  The 30 days came and went like a blink of an eye and we found ourselves without a place to live!  YIKES!  We looked around and found nothing that would fit our lifestyle in our price range.  We didn't want to move just anywhere, putting Maggie and ourselves through the stresses of moving just to get in somewhere we wouldn't be happy in.  Seemed like everyone wanted us to sign a year lease whenever we looked at a place.  We stumbled on to a little cabin that seemed reasonable with only a 6 month lease.  FANTASTIC, right?  WRONG.  I will just say we have never been so miserable in all our lives!  I want so badly to forget that place that I am not even going to get into it!  lol  All that to say, along with patience comes good things!

                                                           (Creek behind our house---click to make larger)

We found a lovely little place that is just perfect for our family.  Small house, big yard.  Exactly what we were looking for!  When we talk about what would be our ideal spot, this place pretty much hits the mark!

                                                          (The new chicken coop--click to make larger)


This is the old well house that we are converting into a chicken coop.  It looks a bit different now if you were to see it.  We scraped off a lot of the paint and it is now it is a nice shade of white primer.  The front door is actually on the other side of the coop.  Where the lighter wall is there is now a window and the darker side has a little door with ramp for the chickens to come out in.  We currently have 4 chickens in there now (Gingersnap, Strawberry Shortcake, Violet and Ms. Rosa), they seem to be very happy.  We need to make nesting boxes still, but they are only 11 weeks old so we still have some time.
We also have 4 more chicks in the brooder and more coming next weekend!

                                                                (New potato plant--click to make larger)

The garden area is fabulous!  When we started out there was about 450 sq ft of space, we have made it a bit larger since we have been here, it's about 800 sq ft now. Fortunately that's just the garden space and we have a TON more room for flowers, medicinal herb space, etc.  We have a ton of stuff planted and lots more that's almost ready to be put in the ground.  Our hope is to have more than enough so we can put it away for Autumn and Winter.  I can't wait to see how we do!!

                                                            (Greenhouse in progress--click to make larger)

Besides dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens we will be adding to the menagerie of animals.  We are ordering some ducks next week.  We aren't sure yet which breed.  We are thinking either Khaki Campbell, Cayuga, Runners or Golden 300's.  So if anyone reading this has ducks let me know what you have.  We are looking for a good layer, not too broody and a good forager.  I am leaning towards the Khaki or the Goldens.   decisions, decisions!
We are also excited to be planning on adding a Nigerian Dwarf Goat.  For those of you who know me well you know how long I have wanted one of these.  I can not wait.  It will still be awhile before we add her into the family, but it's gonna happen!  I'm pinching myself now!

                                                                                    (play structure--click to make larger)

Maggie has just been in heaven.  Between the creek on hot days and the play structure she has been beyond busy!  Usually she putters around with me in the garden, but she hasn't been in that garden space for more than 5 minutes!
I am so incredibly thankful to our friends, Jennifer and Jason for trusting us with their home and letting us call it our own.  We couldn't be happier being here!