American Chinchilla and Cinnamon Rabbits

We added a beautiful breeding pair of Cinnamon rabbits to our herd over the winter, they are the "spice" of the rabbit world and we are excited to have them join our rabbit family. Cinnamon's are a true American Heritage breed of rabbit, created in Montana in 1972. They're a  larger breed and grow to between 9 and 11 pounds.  With their unique coloring and wonderful temperament these rabbits are very attractive and useful as meat, fur, show, and pet.  The Cinnamon coloring is a gorgeous dusty tan with a bright orange undercolor, dark shaded tips to the guard hair, with the shading gradually increasing down the sides and extremities of the rabbit until the belly of the rabbit is a stormy gray with pearl undercolor.

The mother of the doe in the bottom left picture is the National Champion Best of Breed Cinnamon Rabbit and the buck above and below on the right comes from the same breeder.  I like to start with the best genetics I can find locally, and in this case we have a top breeder in the next town East towards the mountains. By the end of Summer when these rabbits are around 8 months old, they'll be ready for breeding.

A little history about the Cinnamon Rabbit breed.

  

During the Easter season of 1962 2 kids by the name of Belle and Fred Houseman of Missoula, Montana were given a young Chinchilla doe. Later they received a New Zealand buck. They crossbred these two for babies that their father, Ellis, believed should be used for meat, but young Belle begged her father to let her keep one of the crossbred bucks as a family pet. The children joined the 4-h group and used their crossbred meat rabbits as their project. They were then given an unwanted Checkered Giant and a crossed Californian doe which they mated with Belle’s pet buck and in this litter was a russet shaded 

rabbit. 

They again bred the Checkered to the same buck and another rusty colored rabbit appeared, then one day their doe produced two russet colored rabbits. Ellis Houseman told his kids that they needed to be keeping only purebred rabbits to show, but this time Fred, with tears in his eyes, begged his father to let him keep the pair of brownish rabbits from the last litter. Ellis agreed.They mated the pair together and 70 percent of the litter was this russet shaded color, which they began calling Cinnamon.

Dad then began taking notice of these unusual shaded colored rabbits, and also noticed the sheen in the coats. Ellis showed these experimental rabbits to J. Cyril Lowett, Oregon Judge and ARBA board member. He felt they had possibilities and said there was not another breed like them in the U.S.  In 1972 the breed was approved.  Cinnamon's are on the rare breeds rabbit list for the ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy).  

Pictured below is a portion of our rabbitry, with another 3 smaller hutches not visible, we have 8 holes currently and are adding another 7, we plan to stay at 15 holes.  Starting the season we have 5 American Chinchilla's for breeding, 3 does and 2 bucks, along with the Cinnamon breeding pair.  We have found that by having breeding stock of both bucks and does out of non related stock we can double our sales, and often sell 2 or 3 rabbits at a time, rather than just one at a time.

A young American Chinchilla doe I kept from a breeding last year out of Zelpha and Melvin, her name is Diamond and she was just bred to a young buck I kept from last year.  Serendipity below was my first American Chinchilla and is my foundation doe, she has been a wonderful rabbit, and her son Sterling is the mate for the doe Diamond above.

American Chinchilla's are an especially nice breed of rabbit to raise, they are one of the few breeds of rabbit that originated in the United States. Credit for developing this breed cannot be given to one breeder. Several American breeders wanted to produce a larger bodied rabbit than the Standard Chinchilla for larger pelts and more meat. Development began in the 1920’s and was originally known as the Heavyweight Chinchilla. In 1924 the breed was accepted by the ARBA and the name was changed to the American Chinchilla.

The American Chinchilla rabbits are large and hardy but  gentle. Mature bucks weigh 9 to 11 lbs and mature does weigh 10 to 12 lbs. the does are known for producing large litters, averaging 7 to 10 kits per litter. They are known for having good mothering instincts and the kits reach market weight quickly. When you first see this rabbit it appears salt and peppered colored, but when the fur is blown into 4 distinct bands of color appears. They attract a lot of attention at shows because of their large size and their fur is so soft and beautiful.

One reason I raise this breed, aside from the fact that they're beautiful and productive, is that by raising them we're helping bring back a heritage breed that is on the critical list with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and on the “Rare Breed Rabbits” list.  

 

A breeding trio I sold over the winter, 2 does and one buck, they're all so beautiful, aren't they?  Below is Zelpha and one of her albino daughters.  The first kindling Zelpha ever had last year I went out to peek in the nest box and was shocked to find an all pink kit, I was just thrilled, and ran inside to tell everyone what I found in the nest box! After researching it some more I realized that in the American Chinchilla breed if both the buck and doe that breed have the c- gene they will throw albino kits.  Now, this is not ideal for some, but for me I was excited to know we could consistently get some white rabbits for their fur. She had one albino kit her first litter, 3 the second, and 4 albino kits the 3rd kindling.  I have a buck now with the c+ gene and the two of them will not throw albino kits.  For Spring and Summer kits that I want to sell, I'll breed those two and for the Fall and Winter kits that we  mostly raise for meat and fur I'll breed her with Melvin for a few white ones.

American Chinchilla doe, Zelpha pictured above and below.

My husband is building a new set of hutches for me, now with the addition of the Cinnamon's we need more room.  We're doing an entirely different design, rather than wood that is difficult to clean and sanitize, we're building it out of galvanized metal and wire with a strong roof and removable wood panels for siding.  This is so we can pressure wash and clean thoroughly several times per year.  We're also planning to fence the entire rabbitry to keep the dogs out, and allow the rabbits a nice big exercise paddock. 

Melvin our senior buck above is a total sweetheart and loves attention, he will always give a good greeting and is a pleasure to tend to everyday, well, actually all of my rabbits bring me enjoyment, some are just more personable than others.  If you're wondering what happened to our Champagne d' Argent rabbits, I sold them all to one lady last Summer.  I decided I only needed one breed of silver and gray rabbit, rather than two breeds of the same color. The rabbits have truly been one of my favorite parts of homesteading, they're the perfect small scale permaculture farm animal.  They've provided our family with a fun hobby, along with delicious meat, luxurious furs to make things with, and the best compost for our garden.

The Goat Herd

The grass  is beginning to grow again, the robins are singing, and Spring kids are just around the corner!  Jersey our Nubian, Zolena our Lamancha, and Snowdrop our little white Nigerian Dwarf are all pregnant and due to kid in 2-3 weeks.  I milked up until the first of January and since then the goats and I have taken a nice break.  We sure do miss the fresh milk though, and will be happy to start milking again in several weeks.  We have an all girl herd now since we sold our buck Cowboy back in January.  He went to be a herdsire at another farm with some nice Nigerian Dwarf does.  We also sold Joon last Summer to a nice family who were just getting into goats for their family milk supply.   The two young cute little Nigerian Dwarf does are from Snowdrop and Cowboy last year, their names are Destiny on the front right and Dahlia behind her.   

Making a Rabbit Fur Hat

My first attempt at making a rabbit fur hat turned out pretty good, but there was a lot of trial and error that went into making it.  We raise American Chinchilla rabbits and last year I was excited to learn how to tan the exquisite furs. I used two furs to make the hat above, and I learned a few things along the way that will help me revise the next hat and make it better.  Finding a good pattern online was difficult as there's not much out there with clear cut directions, patterns and pictures.  There are several different patterns that seem to work just fine depending on what kind of hat you want to make.  I wanted a Russian Ushanka type hat with ear flaps that could be pulled down when it's real cold and tied on top when not too cold.  I'm planning to test out a couple of different patterns to see what I like best.   This is the pattern I used below, I found it on a you tube video I watched and this is the basic design they used.  Taking head measurements of circumference and height is important to get the fit just right, along with seam allowance of a quarter inch.

You need to cut out two of the head pieces and four of the ear flap side pieces, 2 of each side, plus two of the front pieces.  On my next hat it will have longer ear flaps than this pattern.  My first attempt to make a hat was made out of an old wool sweater that was accidentally shrunk in the wash, after cutting out the pattern and sewing it all up, the pieces worked and the hat fit.  I also used the same wool sweater and cut a strip about the same size as the ear flap strip and sewed it inside the lining of the hat as a head band, it helps hold the shape of the hat and is comfortable on the head,  you can also use any kind of batting for the head band. 

When I'm working on a project it usually comes up in conversation with friends, one friend while talking with my husband heard I was working on rabbit fur hats and said he and his wife had bought an old Bonis fur machine several years back and had yet to use it.  We went and picked it up and luckily there was an owners manual to study.  After many hours of cleaning, oiling, reading instructions, and breaking several needles we mostly got it figured out.  It is amazing how it works and the furs are sewn together with a very small seam.  The hardest part of the machine was the thread that it requires to use kept breaking (it may be as old as the machine and is brittle) if we put in regular thread it bent the needle.  It works perfect for several minutes and then the thread breaks, we are in the process of ordering more thread and needles from the company.   I spent many hours working on piecing together the fur and figuring out my lining.  In the end I pulled out my good old Bernina sewing machine to stitch everything together, and am still in the process of the final hand stitching.  The front head piece had to be sewn on by hand, and I'm still looking for some nice dark thin leather strap material for my ear flap tie ups.  On my second hat I'm working on I sewed the leather strap right into the ear flap while assembling.

In the basic pattern for the head piece above I will shorten the height just a little for my next hat, there was a little extra head room, and the ear flaps below need to be longer for the next one. Make sure you give yourself a quarter inch seam allowance if using a sewing machine.  Fur is an amazing medium to work with, each piece you cut out needs to be looked at on the fur side to make sure it's running the right direction so it will look good. The middle of the fur is the most durable with the edges being more delicate which is problematic when sewing because it will tear easily.  The furs should be prime, meaning the rabbit was around 6 months old (I have found 4 1/2 -5 months old is still good), and then I like to harvest in cold weather so the fur is extra plush.  Raising kits to 6 months old is a real stretch for me and my hutch space, usually they go into a movable grow out rabbit tractor.

The lining is what finishes the inside of the hat and hides all the seams, it also makes wearing the hat comfortable.  The liner is made with the same pattern for the top head piece.  For the liner I used a piece of nice quality nylon that would last a long time and not absorb moisture.  I thought about the liner and different fabrics I could use, on another hat I'm making I plan to use a nice soft cotton corduroy, you'll want to think about matching the color to the hat, for mine I went with black.  Using pins to pin everything together before you sew is the best way to make sure it all works.  Although fur as a lining against the head would be comfortable it might be too bulky, you will feel the fur around the face and the warmth of the fur is still there. 

In the photo below you can see the muskrat fur I'm working on for my next hat, it's a gorgeous warm golden color which looks better on my husband than the cooler colors of silver in the American chinchilla fur. This leads me to my next post about the rabbits we raise in our rabbitry.  We are now also raising Cinnamon rabbits so we have some warm tones in our beautiful furs.    

Winter Update ~ We're Still Here Farming and Gardening!

You have no idea how much I've missed writing here to all of you readers and friends, a big thank you to those of you who checked back in regularly and sent nice comments, that means a lot to me.  I did take time off writing, but all the same farming and gardening rhythms of each season have continued.  I have so many stories and pictures to share over the next few weeks as I bring this blog up to date.  I took pictures along the way as we went through a fruitful Summer, a harvesting Fall and now a mild Winter.  I'm ready to write and feel inspired, because... The biggest news lately is... We now have high speed Internet!!!  Yes, that's right after months of waiting the happy day arrived a couple weeks ago!

Throughout the Fall workers dug the ditch up our long hill, then layed the cable down and buried it, 2 months later and many phone calls we finally got it all set up.  A year ago we never thought we'd even get high speed Internet unless we had a satellite installed.  We just made do with dial up like so many others that live in the country.  Over the last 2 weeks I've spent time each day playing on the computer, catching up on blogs that I hadn't read in ages, discovering pod casts, you tube, and all the other things I can now do.  With dial up we could never watch a you tube video, much less upload one onto my blog.  So, get ready I now have all the technology to go forward with this blog, were planning to create some you tube video's to share right here.

I hope everyone of you is well and having fun this Winter, if you're like me you're ready for Spring. We have three goats that are pregnant, Zolena, Jersey, and Snowdrop, they're all growing by the day with kids due in mid March.  The rabbitry has been a big area of focus this winter with the addition of a new breed, new hutches are being built and a fenced area surrounding the hutches to run and play is in the planning stages. More to come with articles about the goats, rabbits, chickens, gardens, honeybees, the orchard, the Goldens and what's been happening around the Farm.

A Rainy Day

I have to wait until my ricotta curd is done draining before I can go to bed, which is about 20 more minutes, so, I thought I'd jot down a few notes about my day.  I don't normally stay up past 10:30, but, for cheese making I will stay up late and have on many occasions. 

At this time I'm milking three does, and we're getting about 2 gallons per day of the most delicious milk, and that's with separating the older kids at night and turning them loose with their mom's after the morning milking.  Starting tomorrow Joon's kids along with Jersey's son Dublin are all getting weaned. You can imagine after two or three days when I have 5 or 6  gallons of milk, that I'm making dairy products, well, I surely am.  Tonight I made mozzarella, and the last two times I've been learning to make feta, then I rotate in cottage cheese.  I'm also making chevre, buttermilk, and yogurt regularly.   My feta is curing for several weeks in a salty brine, and I have been having fun learning to use chevre.  Soon I want to make my first chevre cheesecake.

We finally ordered the long awaited cream separator a couple days ago so we can make butter, ice cream, sour cream, whipped cream, triple cream, and whatever else we can think of to make with cream.  It's the Manual Milky Cream Separator from Hoegger goat supply.  I plan on doing a review of how it works and how I like it when it arrives.

Today it rained, then it misted, then it was simply overcast.  I had fun peaking in on the rabbits as they were kindling.  Serendipity had 8 kits this morning and Star (a new Champagne d' Argent doe) had 3kits.  I fostered two onto her from Serendipity's since that will even up the numbers a little more, with Star raising 5 rather than just three, and Serendipity raising 6.  The Champagnes are black at birth and the American Chinchilla's are silver, so I can tell the differnce in kits. We just separated the 8 week old kits into a large hutch, and now they're for sale.  I have someone coming tomorrow to pick up a doeling.  Our nest boxes are full, Zelpha kindled with 8 kits a couple weeks ago, and now we are rapidly trying to sell before the next batch needs to be put in the larger grow out hutch.  I've been making sure that all the rabbits have plenty of fresh greens twice a day, it doesn't take long to pick a big armful or dandelion, clover, and grass for them,  I also feed them rabbit pellets and grass hay.   I've also been picking huge armloads of salmonberry bush leaves to take to the goats, this is their favorite treat when they see me coming.

We've been cooking with rabbit meat regularly, mostly the same way I use chicken, this afternoon I made a rabbit salad, just like I make chicken salad.  I baked and cooled the rabbit meat, then deboned it, and diced the meat.  I used the bones to make a stock and added carrots, onions, and celery.  The rabbit salad is made with celery, onions, dill, parsley, and mayonnaise.  It's wonderfully simple and tasty to eat by itself or in a sandwich.

Out in the hen house the girls are laying and hatching out eggs.  Henrietta hatched out 3 hardy chicks that she's running around with, and another hen, a Black Alstrolorp has also hatched out 3 chicks.  Much to my amazement in the last two days I now have 3 more hens who have gone broody and want to be mother's.  I will let them, and this year we won't need to order any meat chickens.  In the Fall, we'll pick a dozen hens and one rooster that we'll keep, and then with the extras we'll fill our freezer.  I don't want to go through this winter with more than a dozen hens.  I learned my lesson last winter with 28,  I don't mind swelling in the Spring and Summer but come Fall I want to be down to the bare minimum to feed through the winter!

Normally, on dry or sunny days I'm outside working in the garden, and on these kind of rainy days I clean house, make yummy things in the kitchen, and enjoy creating things.  This afternoon I made a chocolate bundt cake to have after dinner for dessert, I also made a salad and boiled eggs for snacking on, and worked on the first stage of the soup we'll have tomorrow, by making the stock today.  I made lot's of dishes and washed lot's of dishes today. 

This evening I made mozzarella and now with the whey I'm making ricotta.  Lately on rainy days I've been studying cheese making through library books and on various web sites.  I've been looking at cheese cave ideas, and what I need to be able to age the cheeses properly.  I've been making my lists of what we need to do, and will be adding links to my favorite sites on the side bar soon.  We were going to buy a cheese press, but have now decided to make one and are we're reviewing various plans.   Once I can press and age cheeses, there will be lots of fun making the hard aged cheeses, along with the brie's and camembert's. 

With all the rain we've been having, I've been making sure the honeybees have sugar syrup to feed on, they ran out yesterday, so this morning I made them some more.  I peeked inside each hive and see I need to add a few more frames to fill the deep hive boxes.  I only have 7 frames, rather than the normal 9 or 10, that  I will have on. 

I also thought about my Grandpa throughout the day today.  My family had his funeral down in California this morning, and I couldn't make it due to all the animal commitments.  I have many good memories of him with our family when we were little.  I remember his wonderful garden as a child and him picking watermelon's and cantaloupes for us to eat. He used to play dominoes with me, and at times I'd watch him work on his old clocks in his clock shop.  He taught my Dad how to work on old clocks too.  Last week he passed away at 88 years old.  On my birthday this year he called to wish me a happy birthday and we chatted about his younger years when his family farmed and gardened.  He talked about his life and so many of the good memories, the call was a gift to me that I will cherish.  He is the last of my grandparents to go and the end of an era with both him and my Grandma now gone.  He will be missed by our whole family.

I've gone on much longer than I intended and now realize I haven't even talked about the garden yet.  I'll have to write about it another time.  In short, it's growing right along with the weeds.  The cold frame is full and waiting for the next nice day to plant out the warm season starts.  I think sun is in the forecast for this weekend.

The Orchard and Honeybees in May

The bees arrived this year on May 1st, I went down to pick up the 2 packages I had ordered from Beez Neez Apiary the first thing in the morning, so I could install them by the early afternoon.  They arrived just as the cherry tree and plum trees started blooming, then over the next two weeks all of our fruit trees bloomed, the pear, apple, crab apple, asian pear, and quince.  The honeybees are the heartbeat of my vegetable garden and small orchard, we have about 30 adult fruit trees, 15 young fruit trees, and many small baby fruit trees.

 

My Spring walks about the orchard were filled with the delicious smell of fruit blossoms, it carried through the air for many glorious days.  The first couple weeks of May we had the most amazing weather, it was warm with temperatures more like the middle of summer, it was in the 70's and 80's with warm evenings.  My days were spent tending the animals, but the major focus was on amending the vegetable garden soil and planting seed.

Shiro plum tree in bloom, early May

 3lb package of bees

This is a picture right after I installed the 3lb. box of honeybees with a queen.  I waited until the next day to release the queen, and set them up initially with one deep hive box for 10 days, then when I checked them after 10 days it was time to install the second deep hive box.  Now that we're into the third week of May and it's cold and rainy, I'm making sure they have sugar syrup on at all times if it's not flying weather.  New hives without established food reserves can starve in the NW in late May and early June.  If you ever have any dead bees on the entrance you should suspect starvation and put sugar syrup on asap, or you could lose some or all of your new colony.  I know about this from first hand experience, so now I'm diligent about feeding them.  The other thing I made a commitment to do is to check the hives and frames once every week to ten days.  This is to catch them before they need more room, as well as to check for them making queen cells, which must be removed and more space given.  I also want to keep the frames clean, so I'm able to manipulate them.  I check for newly laid eggs to make sure the queen is still laying.  I look at the overall laying pattern and see the pollen reserves and honey reserves.  Being a successful beekeeper means you fuss over your bees faithfully, this will prevent swarms, and keep them alive so they can gather honey and pollen to feed and raise their young, that will in turn give you more workers who will gather more than enough honey for a bountiful harvest.

My first check of  the bees, they were doing a fantastic job on each frame, eggs, larvae, pollen and honey.  I didn't have to feed any sugar syrup the first couple of weeks because of the beautiful weather and abundance of blossoms. I could see them flying in with pollen sacs full and could tell there was a nectar flow going on just by watching the hives. 

 

During my first check I noticed they had formed some burr comb honey where they weren't suppose to, it was in a spot that I had to remove to be able to manipulate the frames properly.  I ran into the house and got a bowl to save it because they were capping  honey on the comb.  We have been enjoying a special early season honey treat made from dandelion, fruit, and maple blooms, the flavor is out of this world, and is one of the rich rewards of keeping honeybees.  Your own blossom and terroir in an edible form... honey!

Asian pear trees in bloom, early May

Snowdrop has Two Doelings

In a textbook delivery on Sunday, Snowdrop delivered two beautiful doelings.  I was able to be there with her through the whole thing and give her love and support.  It was warm and sunny outside and she had a fairly quick labor and delivery, which made it nice.  Snowdrop is a wonderful little mother, and her doelings are the most adorable tiny little girls.  That's Danny peeking in to greet them, he went to his new home yesterday.

The Spring Goat Menagerie

Spring time goat kids are so much fun, I have a smile on my face everyday, whenever I'm out spending time with them during my three or four daily rounds, I always stop and take time to socialize with them.  This time of year we walk through the dandelions together, and I watch them all play just like little kids, they are sweet and funny, as they leap and twirl about, chasing each other and head butting their friends in mock fights, their all time favorite game to play is King of the mountain on the rocks or big stump. They will grow up unbelievable fast, all the more reason to take the time to simply enjoy being with them in the Spring.  I've been taking pictures and keeping daily records of what needs to be done on my schedule of disbudding, deworming, shots,  feet trimming, nutrition, and mineral needs. 

Zolena gave birth to twins, a doeling and a buckling on April 13th.  I was right in the middle of having family in town for a few days, and the time she chose to give birth was during a late afternoon when I was in the middle of  making dinner for 14 people.  My husband who was checking in on her told me she had just given birth to the second one when he peeked in on her.  I ran out along with everyone and we all got to greet our newest additions to the goat family.  We ate late, because I had to take the time to get my basket and tend to all of them and make sure Zolena delivered the placenta and both of them began nursing well.  She's a wonderful mother and our superstar milker is back to providing milk for our family, while at the same time producing plenty of milk for her kids.

We are keeping her! ... meet, Deegie

 Another "D" name, also from the Jean Auel Mother Earth Series,

 just like her mother's name Zolena is.

It's hard to believe that just 2 years ago we didn't have goats in our life.  They have become such an enjoyable hobby for us, and we have learned so much new information through studying books, magazines, websites and blogs.  Every trip to the library would bring home  new books on goats, and second hand bookstores are where I've bought most of my collection of books on goats.  Both my husband and myself have been captivated by their wonderful spirits, and now we can't imagine a life without them. 

It has taken us time to fence three areas, one is a paddock and stall for kidding, another is the main pasture and barn, and the third is a buck pasture.  These came in stages over the last couple of years, and we have continued to work on all the parts.  It simply takes time to get all the things you want for goats, the cream separator is still waiting, the milking supplies, disbudding iron, tattoo kit, fencing, gates, feed, dewormers, and minerals were at the highest priority.  The time, labor and money it takes to raise goats properly with good quality feed and attention to their needs must be taken into consideration. 

One thing I had been asking my husband for was a covered movable feeder.  We looked at several designs and then he combined some ideas and came up with his own design.  It was made with scrap materials we had on hand, some wood from salvaged pallets, some from trees we had milled, along with left over roofing, just enough to cover it.  I'm lucky to have a husband who is always gathering building materials, as well as one who knows how to build strong things that are able to with-stand goats climbing all over them.

Joon and her doeling named Darlington,

 the other doeling is Donegal, and the buckling is Dartmoor. 

All names from the Brittish Isles.

Several days ago I started separating Joon and Jersey's kids at night and milking them both in the morning along with Zolena.  Finally I have most of my does in milk, they are still milking kids as well.  Joon gives about a quart or a little less, Jersey a little less than half a gallon, and Zolena about three quarters of a gallon (she's not separated from her kids at night).  I tried separating Danny and Dublin, Jersey's kids at night when they were two weeks old, I did it for two days and felt they were too young, I then decided to wait until they were a month old.  I actually began when they were 5 weeks old and Joon's were 4 weeks old.  They have all adjusted and actually have fun playing together.  I give them their own alfalfa pellets and grain, and the big does don't gobble it all down,  they have a feeder filled with alfalfa and grass hay, and they can take their time to eat, play, and all go in to sleep together on their side of the barn.  The first night I separated them it was rather noisy until it got dark, then they all settled down and went in to sleep. 

 Now comes the fun part of having goats, I have milk to work with... finally!!  My plans are to make cheese every other day and I want to start by making chevre, mozzarella, feta, cottage cheese, and yogurt. 

 



Hurray for Spring kids

and healthy milking does!

Egg Selling Stand

Our simple egg selling stand is finally up and running as of today!  I put one cooler out for the eggs to be in, and will bring them in every night and put them back out in the morning, unless they're sold out.  Plus there is a cooler for returning egg cartons.  The money tube is on the fence post and is made out of rain proof pvc pipe, it's on the other side of the fence and has a small slit to put the money into, it's easy for us to access it and would be difficult to get into from the side where the eggs are.    A couple days ago Kaley and I went around to several of our neighbors and gave out free cartons of eggs for them to try and told them about our egg selling stand start-up.  We're planning to go around to more neighbors, the one's who don't have chickens and give more samples to drum up sales.  Once people try our eggs they love them!!  Chickens that are free range and stress free have eggs with yolks so yellow they're almost orange, and the taste is just delicious!

I finally have enough hens laying eggs to see if they can pay for their own feed, we're getting around 19-24 eggs per day, so they're really adding up.  I've been watching on craigslist to see what other people are asking for farm fresh eggs, and most are at $4/ dozen, so that's what I'm asking.  I have some friends who are regularly buying from us, but we still need to sell more.  

Over the last couple days I spent time working on painting the egg selling signs, they're made out of pallet wood that was salvaged, then I put a poly finish on them to protect from the rain and weather.  We hung one on our street directional hoping to get a few cars to venture up our driveway.   This year I am so thankful for the overflow of abundance from our productive hens and the chance to share with other's some of the richness we have in our life because of them!

Joon's Surprise!

Joon's due date was technically tomorrow, but we got a big surprise Sunday morning 5 days early when I went out to feed everyone and didn't see Joon come out for breakfast, which is not normal.  I called her name and still no Joon, so I went to look in the goat stall and was I ever surprised to see 3 of the cutest little tiny goat kids all dry and cleaned off nursing her.  She looked up at me as if to say, "Look Mom, I did it all by myself, see I have triplets"!  Was I ever proud of her at that moment, I went in to say hi and welcome our newest additions, 2 doelings and a buckling.  The mostly black one is the buckling and the two with more white on them are the doelings.  Joon had their umbilical cords nipped just right and had licked them clean, they were all strong and nursing well.  Amazing little goat that Joon is!  I ran to the house and came in breathless to tell the wonderful news, "We have triplets"! 

I got my supplies and went back out to tie off and dip their umbilical cords in iodine, I also sprayed their feet with iodine, and gave them a BoSe shot (we are in a selenium deficient area of the country), some vitamin E, and a small dose of Probios.  Then I gave some attention to Joon to help her get all cleaned up and gave her some grain, alfalfa, and water.  I told her what a good job she did and how proud of her I was, she listened intently the whole time and loved being fussed over.  I then moved Zolena and Snowdrop out of her paddock, as I still hadn't separated them from her since I wasn't expecting her to have them for a few more days.  I wish I could have seen the birth and been there for Joon, but she seemed to handle it just fine, maybe with some love and support from her room-mates Zolena and Snowdrop.  We have doubled our goats from 5 to 10 now, with Zolena next up in the middle of April, I'm going to be ready early for her just to be sure.

My daughter Christina brings our grandson Roman over on Mondays for us to watch while she goes to work. We love having him here every week, he is now 4 and a half months old.  As he grows up he is going to love to come over and see all the baby animals we have here on the farm in the Spring.  The kids are only one day old here and this is their first time outside.  I let them outside for a few minutes for her to see them,  they are kept inside their stall the first week and then they'll be ready to go outside and play in the small paddock, I let Joon out for recess breaks and to stretch her legs.  I'll let Joon's kids in with Jersey's when I separate the mom's at night when they're two weeks old.  These kids are super friendly and love to crawl all over me and play, I've been going out several times per day to play with them they're so much fun and so cute!  We're thinking of D names, Diamond, Dazzle, Dasher for the buckling, none are for sure yet, we'll just let the names come to us as we spend time with each of them.

Jersey's Kids ~ Danny and Dublin

Danny and Dublin

Jersey delivered her twins early Monday morning around 3am.  During my sleepy 2am check I could see that she was in hard labor and getting close.  I watched her for a minute and told her "Jersey you're getting ready to have you're babies I'll be right back"!  I ran as fast as I could and got some fresh hay to spread around her side of the goat barn, it was already clean but I wanted it to be extra fresh. Then I raced to the house to get Kaley up because I promised her I'd wake up to be there for the birth, she woke up and quickly got dressed, I grabbed my basket of supplies ready by the door and we ran back out through the snow and dark to the barn.  Jersey was 2 days over due at 152 days, and I had been watching her closely, this was my second night checking on her every 3 hours.  I'm so thankful we were there for her, Kaley was a huge help to me holding the first one (an adorable buckling) as Jersey labored for the second one, which took an additional hour or more,  he came out just fine, but was in a breech position.  Kaley named the first one she was holding Daniel ( her brother's middle name, as well as a beloved uncle that is no longer with us) We'll call him "Danny".  The letter this year for the ADGA is D, so we're using names that begin with a D for all of our goat kids.

Jersey saying Hi to her new baby

Already wanting to play at one day old

As Jersey continued to labor, we were both getting cold, with temps around 30 degrees, snow on the ground, and it being the middle of the night, we felt the cold, plus there was wind which made it seem even colder.  My sweetheart of a husband came out just in time with a heater for the kids and a bigger lamp for us to see.  He put up plastic to cover the draft, and then it became toasty, Kaley also brought me a cup of hot tea, and my husband waited,  pretty soon out came the second cutest ever buckling "Dublin".  He's black with a white spot on the center of his head, white spotted ears, and brown accents on the belly, legs and face.  Danny looks alot like Jersey only with more white markings.  I was happy they both have floppy Nubian ears, being miniature Nubian's. 

Jersey as a new Mom was unsure of the first kid, we brought him around to her head for her to lick and clean him and hopefully bond with him.  We cleaned his nose and mouth right away, and then she ignored him for 10 minutes or so.  We wondered if she would have mothering skills, then instinct began to take over, she finally cleaned him, and we cut the umbilical cord, tied it off and applied iodine.  With the second buckling she knew right away what to do.  She has turned into a doting mother and after being skittish when they first tried to nurse, by the end of the first day she was an old pro.  It took awhile for the kids to get the hang of nursing, especially Dublin the little black one, he wasn't as strong in the beginning.  Now on the third day they're equally running and jumping around.  They are so adorable we all just love them, below is my son Jason and his girlfriend Taylor holding them.   Jason is holding his middle namesake "Danny", he liked him the best.  Well, we like them both equal. 

Jason holding Danny, Taylor holding Dublin

Today the kids were three days old and it was time to disbud them.  Pictured below is my husband Jarin holding Dublin as we're getting ready.  It was our first time disbudding, and at first when I was setting everything up, the brand new disbudding iron wouldn't work or heat up at all.  I was so frustrated that I called the company we bought it from to tell them about it and see if they could send me another one asap.  While I was on the phone, my husband came in and said he had it taken apart and was attempting to fix it.  In the end (an hour and a half later), he had it all back together and working.  I am so thankful for a husband who is always helping me solve problems and fix things.  The disbudder I own is the Rhinehart X50, which has removable tips, I have one for the Nigerian's and one for the regular full size goats.  I used the larger tip and it seemed to work fine.  As we got ready the goats hearts were pounding as much as our own we were so nervous. First I gave them a tetanus shot, second I trimmed the hair around their horn buds, and finally I had my husband hold them tight and I put the hot iron on to disbud.  Last year the two kids we had we didn't own a disbudder in time to do them in their first two weeks, which is the ideal time to disbud, actually the first week is ideal and around 3 or 4 days old is good.  I wanted to get it done and over with I was so anxious.   This weekend we'll do their ear tatoo's, I can only do so much in one day.  They seemed to calm down quickly and I took them to their Mom so they could nurse for comfort. 

Getting ready to disbud, Jarin telling Dublin that it will be ok.

Today I also milked Jersey for the first time, she got on the milk stand like an old pro, put her head in the feeder stanchion and I proceeded to calmly clean her, then milk her. I was thrilled she has turned into such a fine milk goat.  She  has a beautiful udder and was unbelievably good, no kicking or acting up, and she had perfect sized teats for milking.  After having her for a year and 8 months we're thrilled to finally be able to milk her.  I'm planning to separate the kids at night and milk her in the morning starting at 2 weeks old, then after the morning milking I'll let the kids run with her for the rest of the day to nurse when they want.  Right now I'm just milking her in the mid morning.  Goats are fine to start milking right away, it doesn't take away from the kids because goats make more than enough milk in the beginning of their lactation.

Little Danny

I'm a Gardener Who Loves The Month of May

In just a little over two months the garden will be growing again, the leaves will be new and lush, the honey bees will be buzzing again, and the flowers will be glowing... I can hardly wait for May and rhubarb pie!  Last year I took this picture around the middle of May, and a couple days ago I put in on my computer as the background photo to give my gardener's soul hope for Spring.  Today we woke up to a beautiful and sunny March 4th day, it's 32 degrees outside, and there is frost on the ground.  The animals though are all thrilled to be in the sun and are lounging and soaking it up as much as they can.  Which is exactly what I'm headed out to do, it's a great day to be working in the orchard, so I'm off to prune the apple and pear trees, and to plant the remaining young fruit trees.