Showing posts with label Farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farm. Show all posts

June 18, 2011

Pictures from the Farm

 I know I have been MIA lately....  So I am giving you a few pictures from the last week.  We have been so busy (despite the chillier temps) with weeding garden, strawberries, we even sheered ONE of our sheep...

We are busy, but I am enjoying it.  It is rewarding!  Having those berries in the freezer, knowing that the garden is producing when the grocery bill is tight.  And the harvest, Mmmm mmmm mmmm!!!  Delicious! 

On to the pictures!

Our beef cattle

Our ducks by the pond

Some of our goat babies

Our Jacob Sheep Mommy, Lindsay

Lindsay's daughter, Charlotte

Puck- Before Haircut

Puck- After Haircut

My Jacob Sheep Girls
 Two of our ducks hatched their own babies...  And they are super cute.  So are the boys in these pictures... :)

Boys and Baby Ducks

Koen & Baby Duck

Caden & Baby Duck
Hope you enjoyed these for now...  I WILL be back soon.  I want to hear how the Clothesline Challenge has gone for each of you!  That will come up in the next few days...  Get your electric (or gas) bills out and be ready to share on Monday!  Also, how is your garden doing???  I can't wait to hear AND to show you ours also...

More later!

May 26, 2011

Rain, Rain Go Away...

....come again in July....

OK, so it doesn't rhyme, BUT, the rain SERIOUSLY needs to go.  I hafta go swimmin' if I want to hang anything on my clotheslines!

Boat needed to hang clothes on line!  ;)


We have hardly gotten much of a break around here.  Besides that, people all across the country can do without the devastation that many of these storms and rain are causing...  WE ARE PRAYING FOR THOSE PEOPLE.  And I can complain about some rain (well, a LOT of rain), but our hearts are really sad for those who have lost loved ones or even property due to this mess of stormy weather...


And we are DEFINITELY earning our name "Muddy Boots Farm"...  Why didn't we name it 'Sunny and warm boots farm', or 'sunny with a pleasant breeze on a beach farm'....???  Live and learn, I suppose...

April 27, 2011

Chickens, Bees, Gardens and Spring

Deklyn and his baby girl Leia
 
Oh!  I can't even believe it has been almost 2 weeks since I posted last....  I usually enjoy more time in front of the computer (down time!).  But my computer needs worked on in a BAD way.... it needs a total cleaning.  Like everything needs to be wiped off of the hard drive then things need to be reinstalled....  When I type, it's extremely difficult because it won't move for several seconds and then everything you typed will just appear on the screen....  So there are so many mistakes and to go back and correct them takes forever too...  But enough of my crazy computer, just a note though....  I will HOPEFULLY have a friend work on that his week...  But that means I will be without a computer for a day or two...

We got rid of a few chickens last week.  I put an ad on Craig's List and we sold some of our Rhode Island Reds and some of the Golden Comets that we bought last year.  We kept about 10 RIR and got rid of all of our Golden Comets.  We also have some of our 2-3 year old Buff's and Americaunas.  We also have a few mutt chickens that we hatched last year, plus our banty chickens.  So, we are down to about 30 or less chickens.  Corn prices have just been getting so high, we can't do as many chickens!  We were getting about 20 eggs a day with the 80+ chickens, and now we got rid of all of the chickens BUT our NEW layers started laying this week too and we are still getting about the same amount with 30!  Good news!  :)


We also got our new bees yesterday!  Last years bees, we had got 2 hives.  One hive swarmed (up and left us!) and the other seemed a little weak.  So we left them with all of their honey.  And we didn't expect them to make it through the winter.  But to our surprise, we found them alive and thriving a few weeks ago!  We had already ordered 2 new batches of bees, so we actually had to buy a new set of brooders and other things.  But hopefully, we will have the one hive making honey like crazy since they are seasoned veterans and then we will have another 2 hives with a little less...  I am hoping to have some honey this year then!  Maybe enough to last me all year long.  I would probably use about 8+ gallons of honey a year, maybe more if I had it around instead of sugar!  I am excited to have those going.

It has literally been raining like CRAZY here.  Our pond is flooded and everything is SO muddy.  We finally have our tiller up and running, and it is SO wet, that hubby couldn't even get the garden all tilled.  So for me to plant anything is not possible!  I have seed potatoes (red and Kennebec) ready to go into the ground any day.  I also have all of the cold weather things to go into the ground yet too...  I HAVE to get this stuff in the ground soon, grocery prices are already going NUTS and I have to be able to feed 4 boys with crazy appetites! 

All of the other animals are doing good.  Baby goats and sheep are getting bigger and enjoying being outside.  I love watching them frolic and play in the pasture.  It's so funny!  :)  But we are finally done with baby season.  Our last Jacob sheep had a baby last week and we weren't around all day... It ended up dying.  He was just so big, my hubby thinks she probably had some difficulty...  I gues life on the farm brings those sad things sometimes though. 

So much going on right now!  How about you?  I need to get around and visit some of your blogs also!  I miss spending my down time on the computer and getting some reading in! 

April 14, 2011

Population Explosion

 We have had SO many things happening the last few days, it's been hard to keep up!  We have went from 5 goats to 11 goats, and from 3 female sheep, to 6 female sheep!

First, on Friday night we had a new baby goat!  Padme, my son's goat, is the mother.  We weren't even sure she was really pregnant.  But she surprised us all when we saw some little hooves sticking out her back side!  She had a little trouble, but when I helped pull as she was pushing, her new little addition came out and was fine!  She had a little girl!  YAY! 

Here she is.  My son named her Leia.  If you are a Star Wars fan, you will understand...


Padme is a very attentive mother, however she has YET to produce any milk....  Have been trying to figure out what to do, but don't know anything yet.... So she is another bottle fed baby!

 Then on Monday night, we were surprised to find Myst, our Jacob, had a baby also!  She was out in the pasture and my hubby came home from Boyscouts and found Myst and baby running around in the pasture! 

She ALSO had a girl!  And she is a tiny little thing!  SO cute!  She doesn't have a name yet....  I haven't had time to THINK about it yet!  Plus, with all of the babies, I might be out of names!!  Ha!


Here is one of our other babies, Daisy (Iris's baby).  The babies are now 5 weeks old! 


 For the last week or more, Lindsay has been trying to get out of her pen in the barn to get out and be in the pasture again.  Well, today I finally let her.  She ran into the pasture and was very protective for her little ones against all of the other animals.  Including her baby from last year, Charlotte.  Charlotte came up to her mother all happy to see her, but Lindsay pushed her away thinking she was going to hurt the babies.  So right now Charlotte is a little sad at this situation.  BUT, hopefully Charlotte will be our last momma on the farm to have some babies.  And I think she has only a few weeks left!  So hopefully she will soon have a family of her own. 

Charlotte top left, Lindsay and babies
On Saturday, we FINALLY got the horns burnt (disbudded) on our goats.  They might have scurs, but hopefully it's not too bad.  We waited too long... The boys (the only 2 boys we have so far out of all of the babies!) were also banded.  Because they will be taken to 4H.  Along with some shots!

I also started Padme on some shots to hopefully get milk going for her, so we can at least MILK her and bottle feed her baby...  We will see!

I hope this gives you SOME ideas of what has been happening around here!  Hope you are having some fun with all of your new babies also!  :)

**Sorry if these photos aren't the best, they were all taken with my cell phone...

April 5, 2011

Pictures From Our Goat Pens

 So we've been having a good time with all of our goat babies...  As you remember Sophie had 4 and Iris had 1.  And the babies are now 3 weeks old!  They are getting so big!

So I thought I would share some pics from these precious little guys (and girls!).

Koen and I are getting ready to go down and feed Charlie.  You might remember Charlie was the little fella that we had in our house because he couldn't walk for almost a week after he was born. 


 Little Charlie LOVES his bottle!  Here Koen and I are feeding him...  He's even got milk all over his face! 


Iris's little girl is getting big, and she's super sweet...  Her name is Daisy.  She loves to lay her head up against you when you scratch that special spot under her jaw... 


Here are all of Sophie's babies!  She hasn't bonded with poor Charlie, but we keep him in the pen so he can learn things from the other goats.  Top right side is baby number one, you remember him with the heart???  His name is Buddy.   The little brown and white is Grace, she is a cutie.  Then the black and white is Sunny.  She is calm and loving, probably the most loving of all of this "batch".  Then the one to the left (brown) is Charlie...

This is little Grace.  She is sweet and active.  She loves attention....  Just look at that little face!


Our 2 little males will be 4H goats.  Our little females will be for milking.  Their mother's were already good milkers and their fathers are from "Star Milker" lines....  I'm still new to MILKING goats so I know Star Milker is a good thing, but that's it. 

We probably wont keep all of the females, but maybe sell them as milkers this Fall or maybe next year. 

Coming soon, we will be putting the babies out to pasture for the first time!  I always love this time....  The babies are a little timid, BUT LOVE it after they spend a few minutes out. 

Have a beautiful day!!!

March 31, 2011

This Year's FIRST Jacob Babies!

It finally happened!  We have our first Jacob babies of 2011!  Lindsay gave birth to 2 baby girls yesterday afternoon, and we discovered them about 20-30 minutes later! 


This was pretty exciting because this is the first time we actually PAIRED the male, Puck, and Lindsay together last Fall.  This is the first time we have ever been involved in the whole process.

We were "rewarded" with 2 precious little baby girls!  YAY!

Check out some of the photos of our sweet little girls!!!





They are SUPER cute and are already running.  Lindsay is being a good mother as usual, being very attentive to them.  What do you think about the names Faith and Hope?   Now, how to tell them apart.... hmmm...

I also have some pictures of our little goats who are now 3 weeks old!  They will be coming soon!

Have a beautiful day!

March 28, 2011

MO Milk!


Well, it's milk time again!  We have been collecting milk for our little guy, Charlie, that we had in the house.  But a little over a week after they were born, we had more milk than Charlie needed to drink.  So now we have milk for US!   

There hasn't been a LOT of milk, but it is starting to increase now.  I think it is because right now we are just milking Iris (black) and her little baby is eating more hay and grain.  OR it could be the herbs that I am giving her that I got from Molly's Herbals, one for general health and one to help produce more milk!

We will soon be separating the babies out at night and milking BOTH females in the morning, then rejoining their babies with them during the day.  Hopefully at that point, we will be getting even MORE milk!

Soon (I hope) we will get to the point of NOT having to buy milk from the store.  We currently spend about $24 in milk a week!  And that is with buying Almond Milk (for us lactose intolerant people!) and also regular milk.  When we have lots of goat milk, we will no longer need to spend that on  milk!  :)  I look forward to that! 

Goat's milk is illegal to sell it here in Indiana, BUT we DO drink our own...  We trust our own cleanliness and procedures!  So we drink it raw, only filtering it first. 

Do any of YOU drink goat's milk?  Do you produce your own milk on your farm? 

March 17, 2011

So Much Happening at Once!!!

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted last, I WILL become better! 

So much has been happening since then!  Last Friday we added another baby goat  to our family!  Iris, our black Nubian, had her baby!  She only had one, which surprised me, because in the past she has had triplets.  But we were good with it because we just had the 4 from Sophie!  Iris had a little girl!  I named her Daisy.  She's a sweetheart...

Proud Mom, Black Iris and baby Daisy, 2 days old
 Because Daisy was a single baby, I wanted to try to make sure she stayed warm.  So I tool one of my hubby's old socks that was developing a hole in it and I made her a little sweater!  I cut it in the house, so when I got it on her, I realized it SHOULD have been bigger but, it kept her warmer...  But when I put that thing on her, she acted like she could hardly walk.  She kept falling over and eventually hung her head so low, as though she were thoroughly ashamed. 

Daisy does NOT like her Sock Sweater!
 BUT, after a while, she got used to it and wandered around again with the big goats...

Isn't she cute?

Close-up of baby Daisy, 2 days old
 Sophie's babies have been doing really well.  Up until yesterday, we still had the one little guy in our home.  But I was afraid he wouldn't get to learn much of what he needed to from other goats.  I mean, he pretty much thought he was one of the HUMAN family!  Plus his little legs FINALLY healed up and were doing what they were supposed to!

We re-joined him with his mother and siblings, and SO far everything is going well... He has now learned to play fight bumping heads....  Big fun!

Here are some pics from a few days ago of some of Sophie's 3 that weren't in the house...

Sophie's babies- Grace (left) and Buddy

Sophie's babies all tuckered out from playing!
The little black and white female on the bottom of the last pic is Sunny. 

They are all doing so great and I have been loving the experience of having babies on the farm again!!!  I have been milking a little bit on Iris, because she doesn't have enough babies to relieve the milk supply.  On the weekend, we will probably be separating the babies from the mom's and bottle feeding all of them...  It took me an hour to do chores this morning, only having to bottle feed ONE.  It may be taking a bit more time in the future!!! 

Padme, our other little female that is possibly bred, looks as though she COULD have a baby or so, but we will have to see.  She could have a baby any day, but it may also be another few weeks.  We don't have the exact date from the lady where we had them bred.  So we will just have to keep and eye out!

I will be bringing you MORE pics really soon!

March 11, 2011

We Have the Season's FIRST Babies!

Babies asleep


Last night, I had prepared dinner and was getting ready to go to an important leadership meeting for our church's Women's Ministry, which I was running.  My husband comes in from the barn, and he tells us that we were probably going to have babies tonight.  He said Sophie had some wet stuff on her bottom (one of the things I told him to watch for).  So I scarfed my dinner and went down to the barn, within probably 5 minutes.  When I got down there, she had two "bubbles" from the sac coming out already!

I RAN up to the house, because the boys REALLY wanted to see the babies being born.  I ran in and told them the babies were coming NOW!  And I ran back down (and you KNOW this was important, cuz I DON'T RUN...), and found she was pushing.  The boys got down there in time.

They were in time to see the little front hooves of that fist little baby sticking out.  I was there ready to remove the sack off the babies faces.  The boys were excited but slightly scared for the situation, so I was able to explain about what was happening, and what would happen next.

We ended up on the THIRD baby, yes third, having a little scare.  His head came through and she kept pushing, but just couldn't get him out.  She stopped him while his head was out but his body was still in.  I got worried pretty quickly that this might cause some damage.  So I grabbed him and gently started to pull when she contracted.  The big boy slowly started to come out so I stopped pulling.  He stopped at his back legs.  And she wasn't pushing anymore, so I pulled him the rest of the way out.  He ended up being big!

As I was taking care if THAT big guy, she was cleaning him up, and I saw what I believed to be the placenta coming out.  I didn't pay much attention to it, because I was focused on her NOT stepping on her babies.  Then my son said, "MOM!  It's another baby!"  In shock, I looked back and sure enough there layed baby number 4!!!

As soon as I gave some instruction to my husband who wasn't prepared for all of this, I ran to the house and changed my clothes.  Then left for my meeting, smelling like a goat.  And still in shock that our Sophie had 4 babies!

Charlie and Koen

Right now, all of the babies are doing well.  The one little "big" guy that had gotten stuck, he doesn't have his land legs yet.  I think it is from being stuck for a little while.  So we brought him in the house, and are bottle feeding him his mommy's milk.  He is a little sweetheart.  Boys have already named him Charlie.

We ended up having 2 boys and 2 girls.  The first boy paved the way for the rest of them.  Check out his markings:


Sophie decided to have her babies on the coldest, windiest night of the week.  So we woke several times in the night, and hubby even mad them a little "nest" so they could stay warmer.  That was about 3:30 in the morning. 

This morning the babies in the barn, all seem to be happy. I got in the pen and pet them, and they didn't get all upset like they wanted to eat or anything.  Little Charlie that is in the house was starving at 6:30 am when my boys started waking up.  So I went down and collected some milk from mommy, and brought it up, giving it all to that hungry little fella.

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks bottle feeding all of these babies, but it makes you smile to see those little tails flicking back and forth when they are happy...

March 4, 2011

No Babies Yet...

I didn't realize I had been gone so long!  More days than I would like!  I have been busy planning new things with our Women's Ministry at our church and a few days helping out at our church, so I guess I lost track of days!  I will get the names for our seed drawing up soon. 


But, in all my busyness, I guess it's good we haven't had any babies yet!  Though, the one mommy (Sophie) is looking pretty ready, she was acting pretty strange when I went down this morning also.  So we will see if we have babies soon or not!  She is quite a bit bigger than the other female who is due in another week...


Our sheep are needing some attention before they have their babies at the end of the month too...  I need to shave around their bottoms and their utter. It makes it a lot easier for birthing and for babies then to find mommy's milk! 


 So much to do, but looking forward to those babies!!!  Do you have any babies yet???

February 17, 2011

Close to Baby TIme...

Well, my illness is much improved and just dealing with a cough and a little stuffiness.  Which is TOTALLY do-able compared to what I was working with!  Giving me more motivation and a little bit sunnier side to things is the warmer weather we have been experiencing! 

It is a high of 58 today, so snow is starting to melt!  The mud is a little less than desirable, but I can definitely deal with it.  It's just nice to get out from underneath all of that snow!


We are about 2-3 weeks out from experiencing our first babies on the farm this year!  Our goats are getting bigger, and it was ESPECIALLY noticeable when we were able to bring them outside today into the pasture! 


The white goat (Sophie, my first milker!) and the black (Iris, 3 year old that I just bought in the Fall) are looking pretty huge.  The little brown one (Padme, my son's little female that he bought as an investment with his 4H money from last year) doesn't look as big. BUT, she was a few weeks behind the other 2 and this would be her first baby.  So IF she is pregnant, I am only expecting one from her, but these will be the first GOAT babies born on my farm, so I can't really make any accurate predictions, seein' that I have NO IDEA!  :)

I am going to be giving the girls their CD &T shots this weekend, so they and their babies are all ready.  We also need to clean out their pens badly.  These three have figured out how to unlatch a pretty tough gate latch for their pen, and open it all the time.  Bad thing about this is that they have FREQUENTLY gotten into the food, and gotten the squirts...  :(  SO, the pens need a good cleaning, though it is pretty large pen and they waist a lot of their hay, it still looks pretty clean...

I will definitely keep you up to date on the progress of these mommys!  DO you have any baby goats coming on YOUR farm?

January 21, 2011

Hibernation


With highs in the teens and lows in the single digits, I could SO easily hibernate!Animals on our farm all snuggle down in their beds.  The chickens don't leave the "warmth" of their coop or barn.  Everyone else stays in their "homes" and don't leave unless they hear me coming.  Then they come out and make their noises, so I feed them faster...

Then after they chow down most of what I brought them, they head back to their little warm areas.  I won't see them wandering in the pasture.  Sometimes you will see the sheep, but my hubby figured out that they don't like WIND.  So, if there is wind, you WON'T see the sheep either!

So, right now I need to work myself up and BUNDLE myself up to go outside.  Once I am out there, I am usually fine, with the exception of my freezing fingers.  All those buckets of water back and forth get those gloves WET and not too enjoyable when it is so cold out!  Then I LOVE coming back in to stand in front of the fire.  Ahh!  SO warm! 

Hope you are all staying warm! 

January 18, 2011

Country Gal, Big City

As I sit in front of my computer this morning, my boys are enjoying another 2 hour delay (NOW CANCELED!  Ugh!).  It is a little warmer out this morning, but we had some freezing rain last night....  Oh I can't wait for the Spring, the green grass, plowing my garden, picking those first strawberries...


But until then, my family has been planning our trip to Florida.  I have been planning a trip for about 2 years, and this last Spring, my husband's family decided they were able to go also.

So, now here I am, dreaming of warmer weather....  And it is actually within my reach!  So, how does a country gal leave the country for a week and enjoy time in a "big city"?  Well, luckily I actually LOVE to VISIT bigger cities.  My hubby, uh, not so much...  You have to "mentally prepare" him for months in advance to be able to make the trip.  He doesn't like crowds and when you have crowds and are toting 4 kids, it CAN be a little nerve racking!

We have some good friends from our church who are going to be lovin' on our farm babies, while we are away.  They themselves are a 4H family and if they had more land, I think they would have many more animals also.  Right now they have chickens, rabbits and dogs!  I appreciate their willingness to drive to our home 2 times each day to care for our babies.  Thanks Carrie & family!!!  <3


As of today, we have 9 days until we leave to DRIVE to Florida.  Approximate drive time = 17 hours.  And we are driving straight through!  We will be leaving when my sons get out from school and driving straight through to get there about 8 AM!  Can we do it?  YEAH we can!

From about age 12 to college age, my family of 7 would drive yearly to Florida in a small minivan.  Every seat was filled, under the seats, and no roof carriers!  We even took a lot of our own food to save money!  How did my mom do it?  Well, planning, planning, planning...  And a lot of smart packing!



So, we've washed the poo off of our sandals and packed them away in our suitcases... (hehehehe!)   We are ready to take a trip to the big city for some warmth and definitely some fun with family.  Next Friday, you will start to see my posts HERE, at I See Kissimmee.  Daily I will have posts on there telling what our family did, where we ate, and how much fun we had!  Along with lots of pics! 

Until then, you will still see posts from me here...  So keep coming back to watch our farm life...  :)

January 11, 2011

New Year's Resolutions?

I know, people usually don't want to admit that they do this, but it IS kind of good to sometimes have a "check" of ourselves, and re-evaluate how things are going in our lives and even in our homes and farms.

So I thought I would share a few (until now) unwritten and unspoken things I would like to change on my farm and home this year! 

As being relatively new to the "farm" thing, I think it is good to always question how I can do things more efficiently and even more naturally. I plan on being more "deliberate" with my garden this year.  As in, I am planting things according to their "freezability or can-ability".  So less of the cuccumber/ mellon thing...  More of the rotational garden that can be "kept" thing...  I am keeping with NO chemicals on my garden.  I am soon going to be ordering my seeds, and I am BEYOND excited about the thought of Spring again!  This year our strawberries will be ready, and I am so excited about those also.  Especially with NO chemicals.  I pick from a local farm that is surrounded by farm ground that sprays their fields.  So you HAVE to know there are chemicals there.

In the barn, I hope to keep things pastured.  And feeds being natural feeds, when necessary.  We really don't have the option of organic around where I live, with out a HUGE price tag and shipping...  I am excited to be having our first baby goats!  I will be letting them nurse from their mother for a week or a little more, THEN I will be milking the mother and bottle feeding the babies their mother's milk.  Bottle feeding will help with the friendliness of the goat.  Which will be GREAT for 4H.  I hope to shear my sheep again this Spring, and take in all of the wool this time to have it processed,  I am excited for the potential of my own yarn!  What to make, what to make....

In my home, I hope to keep with making cleaners, and to learn how to make more.  I am planning on more organic in my cupboards too.  I have been gradually trying to do that, so as to not break the bank.  I want to continue to  make things more in the kitchen.  My family loves it, and I feel SO much better about knowing the ingredients.

Overall, SIMPLE.  SIMPLE!  I am a simple, mother and wife.  I live on a farm.  I get my feet and hands dirty.  I want my boys to be healthy and HAPPY.  I ADORE my husband.  I am a child of God.  Beyond that, there isn't much else.  Keep it simple.  Keep LIFE simple.

What are YOUR resolutions for the new year for your home and farm?  Please share!!!  Let's encourage each other in this process this year!

January 7, 2011

On the Farm

I hope all of you are having a great New Year! My #3 son was born on New Year's Eve, and he just turned 6!  Caden is my sweet little man that loves to be a big helper.  So a late Happy Birthday to him! 


On the farm, we got rid of all of the ice!  It all melted off and was only muddy for about a day.  Which is very do-able!  Then it froze up again, and was very nice!  The night before last night, it started to snow again.  And now we have a thin layer of snow on the ground. 

Our Farm, this morning

Temps have been in the teens at night and the 20's during the day.  I can deal with that as long as it isn't windy!  We had some windy days, and combined with the cold, it was NOT nice to work in!  In fact, it is hard to BREATHE in!  Ugg! 

All of the animals are doing good, and we have been getting more eggs!  Even though it has been so cold, and many people in our neck of the woods aren't getting many eggs right now.  Our feed seems to be working well, and I am going to keep mixing that up for them as long as it works!  Prices did just go up at the mill again, so there is a bit of a pinch, but hopefully with egg production UP, we can make up for some of that...

Our baby Layers

Our baby layers are still in a "brooder", but when I open the gate to it in the morning and evening, they LOVE to come roaming outside.  So while I do chores, they wonder around outside.  And DON'T want to come back in when I'm done!  We actually also have some meat chickens still!  They are almost 14 weeks old!  They are ready to be butchered in 8 weeks, and usually die when they get to a certain age, because things just start giving out.  Hopefully their life is a testament to how good of care they are getting!!  My hubby has been going out and butchering 4-6 at a time, but it is just SO cold, and some of them were a bit smaller, so we are letting them eat to get a bit bigger.  The ones we butchered last week, the one was so big that I couldn't fit it in a gallon baggie.  So we cooked it up for supper.  The meat was still very good!  There are 4 more, I think, to butcher.  And they are currently living with the baby layers.  Everyone seems to be getting along just fine!

Puck, our Jacob male, is getting HUGE!
 
Well, instead of just chatting about it, I need to get out and take care of them this morning!  Time to bundle up!  Brrrr!  It's a chilly, SNOWY 18 degrees out right now!  :)