Some new babies here on the homestead

Wow, what a whirlwind of an evening. We got "the call"...that our chicks were in :-) The lady at the Tractor Supply Co. (TSC) thought they would be in this past Monday. But Monday came and went, leaving behind it four disappointed girls. Tuesday..ditto. Wednesday wasn't looking too promising as it was getting to be evening. Then the phone rang. The girls raced over to see that it was "the call". Of course it is always a good thing if none of the girls have left the van door opened......can anyone say, "Dead battery?" Get the extension cord, plug in our battery charger (I love that thing!!! This isn't the first time I've been in this position) wait a bit and THEN drive off. Before we picked them up we had to run to the library to pick up some books on hold. Then we ran by the TSC to pick up some goat milk formula. The lady who works at the TSC had the chicks waiting for us at her house. She was very nice to do this. She said that the store literally runs out of the chicks in under two hours! So she said she would set some aside for us. We picked up our five, very cute, Rhode Island Red chicks. Then off to the store to pick up something quick for dinner as I hadn't expected to be out this evening. We got home and had to accomplish the following (all at the same time :-), OK, that was impossible, but I did feel like I was in triage mode):

put chicks in box

set up lamp, which was set up, but we needed to bring in the extension cord that was used for the van (see above)

give chicks their food and water

hook up Jedidiah's feeding

preheat oven

put Jonah to bed

cook pizza (yes, this goes against our diet, but hey....I was in triage mode)

make formula for goats

feed goats

PHEW!

The above post was written a few days ago. I am happy to say that I got everything done on my list. Today we had a busy day. We went out on an unexpected trip today. We had to get some goat's milk (for Jed's formula), and we can only get that at the health food store. We had been telling the girls that we would take them to this certain park. And this park happens to be close to a health food store. So we packed everyone up and off we went. I have pictures of the new babies and of our park day. It is late and there are quite a few things still left to be done.

Five reds. They all have names. They all escape me right now. Each of the girls got to name three chickens each. I named three as well. Don't forget we are getting another ten chicks any day now. I'll have to ask each girl what names they picked. I know there is a Rosie, Banana, Buscuit.....hmmm....I'll have to get back to you. The girls each know which chick is theirs. Each one has some defining feature. The names of my chickens are (will be) Petunia, Beatrice and Julia. The initials are PB&J :-)

A close up of cuteness.




No chick's cuteness can match this cuteness! Here are the girls all very eager to go on the carousel. It was a bit chilly today, but after running around for a bit all their sweatshirts were put to the wayside.

Daddy and Jedidiah enjoying a ride. Jedidiah thoroughly enjoyed himself. So much so that he didn't want to leave. I do have to say that Jedidiah is finally acting more like a two year old. Normally he wouldn't care if we left somewhere or not. But today he was upset. That is a good thing :-)

Jedidiah was VERY excited to be riding in a boat. Our camera was running out of battery power, so I wasn't able to get a video of him on his ride. He thought it was amazing.

Saoirse, our camera ham, asked me to take a picture of her on the swing. She is learning to swing herself. That makes things a lot easier on me!

We were hanging out at the train when a lady saw me taking pictures of everyone else. She stopped and asked if we would like for her to take our picture. She said since we had so many in our family we probably didn't get too many pictures of all of us together. How sweet!! I am so thankful for her offer. This picture Jonah was looking away, but the other one she took had Jonah looking, but Jed looking away. Ya just can't win :-)

That ends are fun time at the park. Off we went to the kid hating store....er, I mean....Whole Foods. We got the goat's milk and were off to home.

For our wee homestead we are still working on a few things. Jeremiah is building the goat/chicken house. We are in touch with some people about buying some Guinea hens and a possible guard dog. Yes, we have two dogs already, and they may help to keep some of the predators away, but because they want to eat the goats themselves they are separated by fencing. So we are not sure how effective they will be if a predator comes buy to swipe a chicken or two. Plus we still have to dig up some more plots for a garden. Lots of work. But I have to say it has been wonderful! There is such a satisfaction in knowing we are trying to make a way for us to be more self sufficient. It is exciting and 'scary' all at the same time. Scary only in the sense that we don't know what we are doing and we would hate for any of our animals to suffer because of our lack of knowledge. We are so thankful that we know others who have gone before us and are willing to lend their knowledge when we need it.

Ok, off to finish up some work and then to bed. Have a blessed Lord's day!