Chase the Chickens and Laugh

Today went something like this:

Take the chicks out to their little play pen. Water and feed the chicks. Feed the goats (this is done out of bottles during which time they bow down and wag their cute little tails like crazy, clearly enjoying themselves). Chase the chicks around because they've managed to escape. Giggle a lot. Learn how to trim baby goat hooves. Snuggle the baby goats and let them suck your fingers. Shave half of the dog (yes, I do plan on finishing the job...maybe tomorrow) while Cat tells him the sweetest stories to keep him company. Run around the yard with the dogs and goats and kids. Laugh a lot at how cute all of the above are. Work out while trying not to hit any curious animals. Do a burpee in something wet, most likely fresh goat pee. Find this pretty darn funny. Eat breakfast of fresh farm eggs...literally laid yesterday by our happy chickens. Work on our awesome Sweet Peeps logo (Marissa is so creative!!). Go to Sweet Peeps Farm and make fun little houses for the chicks and of course, feed and water them. Chase the chicks around. Rearrange all the chicks houses. Visit our friends at their farm and get all kinds of great ideas from them, along with an incubator and some turkey and duck eggs. Go back to Sweet Peeps Farm and realize that our new chick houses aren't so great for cold, stormy nights and re-rearrange all the chicks houses. Chase the chicks around. Giggle a lot. Come home to a bunch of rouge chickies and you guessed it, chase them around for a while too. Eat a delicious home-made dinner by Gaga (Grandma Lynne). Sit on the porch, catching up, making plans, watching the animals do silly animal things, and just enjoying good company. What a great day!!!

There was one point today when Marissa and I, each with our entire upper bodies squeezed through the chicken door in the coop, surrounded by chicken poop and tiny peeping chicks, still sticky from our workout and probably covered in a fair amount of chicken poop ourselves, looked at each other and cracking up decided we could officially call ourselves farmers.

Today's Vocab Words (a.k.a. I, as a new farmer pretty much just figured these out...seriously!)

Clutch: a bunch of eggs in a nest. These are the ones that might hatch.

Flake of Hay: a slice of a bale of hay. 

Hay: dried grasses that include the grains and seeds. Food for animals. (OK, I knew what hay was but     did not know what it was in relation to straw)

Straw: hay minus the grains and seeds. The stuff for animals to snuggle into. 

Peep: baby chicks, newly hatched (and super cute). Not just the yummy Easter candies...who knew!?

Pullet: a young domestic hen, usually less than a year old. 

Broiler: type of chicken raised for meat (the ones you probably don't want to name).

Layer: type of chicken raised for laying eggs (the pretty ones you get to name).

Inventory Goddess

Recently, I was appointed as the tribe's Gett-er of all Things awesome. I have taken this new assignment very seriously and immediately set to work on building spring inventory for the farm. This might be an overwhelming responsibility but luckily, I have two in-house consultants who advise me on all important decisions. Typically, their recommendation goes something like this, "Definately!" and "Get more, Momma". Here's what we have as of this week.

1. Twenty five "layers" which are now 1 week old and doing great. They have gone from fluffy puffs 7 days ago to now about palm of your hand size sweeties. They arrived in a peeping box at the post office labled "Rainbow Pullets". There are 5 varieties (we think) based on the variation of colors. Rainbow speaks to the color of the eggshells that they will produce and not the color of their feathers. (Sorry, N. Blue. ) Anyways, hopefully we'll all be just as delighted when we're collecting the easter eggs in blue/green, light brown and chocolate brown by the dozens to share.

2. Fifteen "broilers" due to arrive Friday. Broilers means these guys will be dinner. Aka...No naming them Catalina and Stephie! This is a small order due to the fact that it'll be our first go at raising and "processing" this type of bird. Luckily, we have the best farming mentor this side of the route 33 helping us along the way. Tom, current/soon to be former owner of Sweet Dog Farm is doing an incredible job walking us through the whole process start to finish.

These birds will be ready for dinner in 8 weeks. Making them an excellent warm up for the whole tribe to learn about poultry and even better than that...A prospect for celebratory dinner after we close on the farm!

3. Thirty more broilers due on April 1st which will be ready for sale May 28th hopefully these will be our first dollar earned.

4. A slew of started herbs and veggies that will be ready to plant in the ground on May 1st at the farm. At this point, the plants are someplace between just germinated seed and 3 inches tall. Varieties include, Tendergreen burpless cucumber, red cherry tomato, german striped tomatos, red peppers, rosemary, parsley, basil, cilantro, sweet banana peppers, cayenne peppers and garden green beans.

So now, here we are, my house smells like fresh soil and there are 40 chickens in my basement. What's left to do? Oh ya, aquire 3 little piggies. Love!