Newness

I'm sorry it has been awhile since my last post.   Summer has been busy, A lot more busy then we had planned.

I know many of you follow this blog just to keep up with what is new for our family and farm, so lets do a quick recap of the last few months.

June

*  The boys and I finished up the nesting boxes for our chickens and got them installed into the coop.

*  Coyottes got into our birds, and we lost 4 of our ducks, our Guinea, and about 10 chickens :(

* Our littest kiddos were in my Sister-in-laws wedding, are they not the curtest!

*  Started gathering our FIRST EGGS!

 *Older four got to go to kids camp at our Church for a week

*Started gathering enough eggs to begin a regular delivery system.  Set up drop sites in town, and got eggs to some happy customers :)

* Had fun with the farm animals

* Made it to the park for play dates and fun!

JULY

Started July off with tuns of fun.  The kids and I spent the fourth at my parents house, playing in the hottub, sliding down the slip n slide, and setting off some fireworks.  It was a beautiful day.

Later that week, we got the shippment of  30 new chicks, and 8 more ducks that we had ordered to replace the ones that the coyotes had gotten.   When they came in, the kids and I were just as excited as we were last time.   They were so cute and adorable!  

We cleaned up and rearanged the other side of the barn, and got it ready for the new babies

Once the babies were settled, it was time to focus on our youngest.  He was turning 2!  Because of his love for Minions, we decided to go all out and do a minion party.  It was a lot of fun.  I can't believe he is already two!  Slow down little man!  In honor of his birthday, we all dressed up in minion shirts and went to see the new minion movie that actually came out on his birthday.  Always fun when you have that many kiddos LOL.

The rest of July was filled with Cheyenne Frontier days activities, animal chores (and house chores) , parades, BBQ's at friends, Playing in the creek, and the fun news that we have decided to add a bred Berkshire Pig to our farm.   Her name (as decided by the kiddos) is Pepper and she will be joining us in the middle of August, and should have a litter of adorable little piglets the middle of Nov!   

 














 





August 

August has also proven to continue to be full of surprises and fun.   Our second daughter Kristi turned 9 and got to have a roller skating party with her friends.

We took all the kiddos down to the fair in loveland to watch my father in law compete with his stock dog, hearding sheep (or goats) around the pen.   After that was done, we hit the bouncy castles, had a HUGE shaved ice, kettle corn, and then spent the rest of the day haging out with Jeff's parents at their house.  It was a lovely day.  

We also acuared a sweet little pot belly pig.  Her name is Petunia.  She came to us via a friends, and has really settled in here.   The kids all love her, and she has taken quite nicely to the goats.  She loves to be pet, and her little tail wags just like a dog's when she is happy.   

Other then that, the animals continue to grow, as do the children.  Michael lost his first top tooth, due to a collision with his sisters head, the kittens are becoming quite the little mousers, the ducks give us all laughs, and the girsl and I have had some great times in the kitchen both cooking and cleaning.  We really do love our life.   

Oh, and one last surprise before I go......

Yup, looks like we will be adding another one to our crew.    And before you ask...

No, we weren't planning on more

Yes, we do know how this happens

Yes, we are excited for the baby

No, I don't really want to be pregnant and fat again lol

Yes, we love having a big family, and 

 YES, we know God has a plan for this baby (just as he does with all our kids), and we are excited we get to be apart of teaching a training him/her up to serve Him.  

Blessings to you all

#allmanfamilyfarm

Sun and Fun!

The SUN was out today! 

 After all the crazy rain and clouds, it is almost too good to be true. 

To make it even better,  we were actually home to enjoy it!  What a beautiful day.  

And what a lot of work that needed some catching up on. 

Our list for the day. ..

1. Get the rest of the posts in around the garden

2. Get the fence up around the garden

3. Mow the jungle, I mean yard.

4. Play with the animals, this is a must!  

So,  do you think we got it all done?

We did!  

The fence was the biggest deal.  We need it up around the garden before my plants start to grow (or get transplanted) because I really don't want my beautiful chickens eating all my hard work. Don't get my wrong,  I love having free range chickens,  but there are just some things they need to stay out of in order to enjoy a long life.  My garden being top on the list.

So with Hubbies help, we got it all finished! *happy dance* 

Then,  because of course we could, we brought the goats over to the garden area and turned them  out to eat weeds. I figured they might as well save me a little work and do some weeding before my plants start to grow.    I don't think they got much weed eating done, however.  They were too busy being mugged by little munchkins who also enjoy the new area.  LOL

After the fence,  we tackled the lawn.   Now we don't really have more than a couple patches of "real" grass,  but thanks to the rain,  we have a bunch of green pasture grass and such everywhere.  And it is getting long.  Like halfway to my knees long.   Problem is,  we only have a push mower to do the job.  And when I say push,  that's exactly what I mean.  It has no automatic drive feature, so it only goes as fast as you can push it.   Because of our small yard the past few years, this was never a big deal. 

Let me tell you,  it is suddenly a VERY big deal when you have a large yard of field grass to cut.   I'm going to have back and arm muscles  to be proud of by the end of summer.  

Can I just say though that I truly love mowing. I  love the smell of fresh cut grass,  and i love the feeling of completing a task that won't need redone in the immediate minutes following, unlike house work.   Am I just crazy? Probably.

After the mowing was done,  that only left us with one more thing to do (ignoring the fact that the inside of the house looks like a tornado, or 6, has been running around in it) PLAY!   

So out come all the critters, and the camera too of course! Here are some of my favorites from the day. ..

So how about you?  Did you get to enjoy the sun today?  Did you have a to do list,  or just a chance to relax and enjoy? 

I would love to hear!

Blessings,

#allmanfamilyfarm 

Rain, Clouds and...Dirty Eggs

Remember that last post where we had been super productive and got a lot done....ya, nothing else has really gotten done since.

Not for lack of motivation, more because of this crazy Washington like weather.  I truly don't think we have had but a glimpse of the sun for the whole month of May, and I am not excited about it.   Don't get me wrong, i LOVE the rain, and I don't even mind the snow.  It is the lack of sunshine that makes me grumpy, and this week has been the worst.

Just look at my driveway!

 and my muddy dog!

We are all restless, even the dog!  Well, I guess I can't say all.  Our ducks are having the times of their lives.  They LOVE the weather.  As soon as a few drops of rain fall from the sky they come running out from wherever they were taking a rest, making a bunch of noise, and waiting for more rain to fall.  They are quite funny, and we find pleasure in watching the out the window.

Thinking about it now, I guess we have gotten a few things done, I think the clouds outside just make my thinking a bit foggy.


We were able to work more in the "garden".  The boys and i took the compost pile, (old cow poop!) and spread it out over the area that we planned on making the garden this year.   We had quite a good time doing that actually, and got really good at flinging poo over our heads and onto the surrounding ground.  It may not sound like the most desirable task, and it wasn't without its incidents, but we were laughing, brushing poop out of our hair, and having a marvelous time!

Then, thanks to my amazing inlaws who gave us their rototiller, My hubby turned that field into a much smoother and less grassy garden bed :)  It is starting to look so nice!  Just waiting for the weather to clear so we can get the fencing around it to keep my chickens out, and my tomatoes and such can be planted!  It is always such an accomplishment to see your plants in the ground. Can't wait!

 

 

Also, the older boys helped me put together the bottom part of the nesting boxes for the barn.  There will actually be three of these stacked together to give plenty of room for our ladies to lay their eggs.  We had to hurry up and finish, as the rain started up again just as the last screws were being put in, so it hasn't gotten painted yet,  but we went ahead and put it in the chicken coop so that the ladies could check it out and be comfortable with it.  Only a few more weeks until we start getting some eggs!  I am just a little bit excited!!  Ok, maybe even a lot excited.  I even put a countdown timer on our FB page so that I can know how long until we will have eggs to sell. Yup, just a little excited. 

Speaking of eggs, if you are going to be buying any from us, then you might as well know right now....

I DO NOT WASH MY EGGS!  

Yup, that right. If you are getting eggs from us, they might just look like this...

See those little brown specks, those are probably poop, shavings, or feathers.  I know, gross right! 

Let me explain.   God gave eggs a natural coating on the outside called the "bloom"  in order to seal the pours and keep potential baby chicks and their environment clean and safe.

Because of this coating, bacteria has a hard time getting into a dry egg. Pretty neat right?!   However, any washing removes the bloom and allows air and bacteria to be drawn inside the egg, shortening its "life"

Unwashed eggs will last at least two weeks (we have had ours last over 4 weeks!) unrefrigerated, and three months if refrigerated. On the other hand, washed eggs need to be refrigerated, and will last about 2 months, but still wont taste as fresh as an unwashed egg of the same age.

So, In order to keep our eggs as fresh as possible, we leave the washing to you :) I recommend that you simply wash them right before use. This will keep them fresh and delicious as long as possible, while ensuring little bits of "whatever" do not get into the yummy things you are making.

Does that mean that you are going to get eggs that look like this?

Absolutely not.  We work hard to keep our nesting boxes clean and dry so that the eggs come out as clean as possible. But, should we ever get one like this, I promise to remove the big chunks, because, well, that IS just gross! :)


Blessings on you this week!

  

www.facebook.com/allmanfamilyfarm      allmanfamilyfarm@gmail.com

Lovely day

People often ask me how I like living on the farm, and I tell them quite honestly that I LOVE it!.  I love the space, the freedom, the open sky, the views, the animals.... everything about it (except maybe the wind?)  But today was one of those days that make living out here even better.   The sky was clear, and the sun was warm.  There was as light breeze blowing. Just enough that it made you want to turn your face to the wind and just enjoy it as it swirled your hair away from your face.   Heavenly.  

It was also the type of day that made you want to get everything done at once.  This time of year, you never know what tomorrow, or even the next hour, is going to be like.  It can be sunny and nice in the morning, snow in the afternoon, and be 70 degrees all the rest of the day.  So when a nice day comes along, you learn to take advantage of it.  

On the bucket list for our day:

Pens cleaned out

Barn cleaned out and re-organized 

Chicken nests cleaned with new bedding

New outdoor enclosure for the goats

Fencing for the garden

Barn painted

House clean, laundry ( i know, not outdoor things, but they still have to get done)

Area around the house cleaned up

Lilac bushes planted

Snowball bush planted

Grass watered

Yard cleaned up of toys (and dead mice! Penny is an excelent mouser, but likes to bring them for you to see)

Pictures, picture, pictures!

I am sorry to say, not everything got finished.  But we did get a good portion of it done or at least started.

Pens got cleaned out

Goats got a new little hut

One side of the fencing for the garden got put up

 This was my weight training for the day.  I had to pound in 5 7 ft t-posts BY HAND!  No fancy post pounder.  Just me standing on a chair, hefting this hammer that weighs at least 5 pounds, up in the air, hammering away at the posts until i got each one over a foot into the ground.   I'll tell you what, by this summer I am going to have some fabulous arm muscles!  

Lilac bushes got planted

Yard was watered

Children Got watered :)

Snowball bush planted

A few more things stashed around the outside of the house found their proper homes.

and ONE SIDE OF THE BARN GOT PAINTED! WAHOO! 

Aren't my helpers just the cutest?!  I certainly think they are.

Yup, I'm feeling pretty acomplished right now.  And tired.  Ok, mostly tired, verrry tired.  It is a good thing I know someone who makes this wonderful muscle salve........

Oh, and pictures!  I did actually get a chance to snap a few while we were out today.  

 William helped us paint for a while (as evidenced by his shirt) but when he started to paint the dog, we stuck him in the pen with the goats instead.  Which he loved.

 Just starting to open their eyes

 Are they not just adorable?  I think we have 3 boys and one girl, but it is a little hard for me to tell at this age.  

 

Our handsome (and noisy) Guinea. Katie asked me who spilled paint on his head. LOL

Little goats sharing a meal 

Smiling Chicken 

Doesn't she just look happy?

Resting 

I also took a few video clips of the kittens.  The second one is my favorite. What a great mommy.  

which is your favorite?

Mamma decided I had had them out long enough! 

And now.. I am off to bed!  Blessings! 

Improvements

I am such a slacker when it comes to blogging! So many things have been going on, and the weather has been *mostly* getting nicer, that by the time a have a moment to write, I would rather sit and do nothing that requires thinking.



But, we have so many fun things happening right now.  

Where to start...  I think the first thing we finished up since the last post was our chicken coop.  Well, I wouldn't say it was finished, but it is getting better.   We took the chicken run from our big chickens, and drug it over to the side of the barn.  It didn't fair well during the move, and we ended up taking a lot of it apart, and kind of re-doing it, but we got it up. After it was up, the boys and I worked on cutting out a small hole for the chicks to use to get outside.  We made it so that when the door opens it becomes a ramp for them to walk down.

It is so fun to watch them the first time you introduce them to the outdoors.  They are completely afraid of it.  A few of the braver ones peek their heads out, but it took a couple hours before they even ventured out onto the ramp.   Even the slightest noise will send them right back in again.  It has now been over a week, and they are just now starting to go our farther then a few feet from the barn.

Because we are not yet sure how we want the final layout of everything, we didn't make the run permanent, in that we didn't put the corner posts into the ground, but just have the whole thing sitting there so it is easily mobile. This is good, because even now we have decided to change it around a bit, but doesn't leave it looking very impressive. lol  That's ok.  We are more about functional right now then decorative.

I guess i don't have many pictures of the chicken run, but if you look to the right of the barn, you can tell it is there :) and on the roof is Katie, helping her dad out with the shingles. I love watching my kids help there daddy!

Another Improvement we have been working on is there to the left of the barn in the picture above.  

We fenced in that area and along behind the barn in preparation for this little guy. Meet Chocolate Chip, or as Heidi calls him, Chip:

 Aren't they both so cute!

Only one problem. Chip can jump over the fence!  Yup! But thats not even the whole story.  

The first day we brought him home he slipped though one of the holes.  We spent over 30 min chasing him around our otherwise unfenced property trying to get him back in.  If you have never chased a goat, you have no idea how quick and nimble they can be, especially at this age.  He would dart past us and take off toward whichever direction we were not. We tried standing still and calling to him, we tried food bribery, we tried waving our arms around and making loud noises to scare him in the direction we wanted him to go.Nothing was working very well.  We would just about get him back to through the gate, and he would take off again.   He was determined to figure out where we were hiding his mommy, and was non to sure about these new people of his.   After dashing back and forth and finally recruiting the help of every kid available (even william) we were able to herd him back to where he belonged.  That night, because we were afraid he would get out again, and until he became familiar with us, he spent the evening in the barn in our big dog kennel.  The next day, we went to work on the fence again.  We put up more panels staggering the wholes to cut their size in half.  We also wrapped chicken wire around on the inside to make it harder for him to squeeze through.  We thought we had it. He was more friendly with us now, so we brought him out to the pen, and watched as he ran around a little, and then settled down to munch on his food.  YEAH!  Or not.  He is fine in the fence, as long as a human in in there with him.  As soon as you walk out the gate, he starts crying like he is dying, backs up a bit, and takes a running jump right over the fence.  Oh well. at least he is friendly with us now and doesn't try to run away anymore!  So he spends his evening in the dog crate in the barn, and during the day gets to run around with the kids.  I am hoping once we pick up these cuties next week, he will be happier to stay in his pen.  

If anyone wants to bottle feed a baby... these will be bottle babies for a few weeks.

One more addition to our farm family has been made, much to Kristi's absolute delight.  Meet Checkers.

She is going to be our barn kitty.  We picked her up from my parents, and the really fun part is that she should be having kittens any day!  She is an absolute sweet heart.  She already is friendly with the goat, and doesn't mind Penny much at all.  She leaves our chickens alone, and just sat and watched the ducks today when we put them out.  LOVE HER!  Kristi has waited years for a cat, so she is extra special to her.  This morning she went out early and hadn't returned by breakfast.  I sent Matthew out to find her, and he came back saying she was fine, and that Checkers had fallen asleep on her lap, and she didn't want to wake her up, so was just sitting out there petting her.  

It is the moments like that that make me love farm life so much.

Oh, speaking of ducks, since that nice new pen isn't being used by the goat, we decided to move our ducks out there and put in the swimming pool for them.  They weren't too sure about coming out of the barn at first, but after we caught them and put them in the pool, they had a blast!  It is so fun to watch them as they play and dive and splash in the water.

Oh, and I almost forgot to introduce you to our newest chicken friends. Meet Gizmo, Stripe, and Mohawk.  

(sorry, my picture wont load right now. I will update it soon. but i promise they are cute!) 

I think that is about all the farm excitement lately. On another note, if you could pray for my father-in-law that would be great! He ended up in the hospital for the last month due to a fall. He suffered a spine injury and nerve damage. He is improving and should be coming home on Thursday, but it will still be a long healing process. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time... blessings to you!