I am in heaven

Please let me introduce my new babies. My very first critters on the farm.

Niko


Kip

Do you happen to recognize those sweet little goat babies? You may know them as Boy and Zipper. You see, I got these 2 little boys from a blogger friend. Her name is goatgirl.

Do you read Life beyond the sidewalks? Well, you should. She raises a great family of beautiful goats (as well as some pigs, chickens, rabbits, ducks, cats, and a llama) and I was so incredibly lucky to be able to get my first 2 goats from her.

It all began with a trip.

It was kind of a long trip.

What? It WAS for goats after all.

And once we left the desert of the Tri Cities behind, it did this for the entire trip.

A few days before we left, G had requested that while we were on our trip that he would like to try some crab legs.

Who am I to turn that request down?

He also had an octopus.

Peppered octopus to be exact.

He really enjoyed it. So much so that he had 3 of them in total. I just sat there in awe. And refrained from saying how unappealing this entree was to me.

When we made it to goatgirls farm it was so sweet to see the mama goats with their babies by their side. ( and a pig, too!)

And goatgirl is so very friendly and the perfect hostess.

S made friends with the llama, Koo.

J was very attractive to Cora Belle.

K was a big hit when the rustle of plastic was heard. This means carrots, of course. Altho, not all of her goats fancied the carrots, but the ones that did were right there when they appeared.

And G, well, he had a great time exploring in addition to meeting all the animals.

When it was time to go home, goatgirl gave us some hay to bring along. To help the goat babies transition to the hay they would be eating at my place. She also sent us a bucket of grain...which G was in charge of initially. BUT, when the mama goats got wind of that bucket being carried around that close to ground level...well, they thought that was great news. Needless to say, I traded G the hay bag for the grain bucket.

We all said our goodbyes and thanked goatgirl for a wonderful time and for the very sweet goat babies. And I told her how bittersweet it was for me. Very, very sweet to take the babies home finally, but bitter to think that they would be separated from their mamas and siblings.

The babies are all loaded up and ready to go.

It was a long drive back home and we stopped a couple times to check on the goats. They were fine, of course.

When we got home we took their crate right into the goat house.

And after I poured them some fresh water and put some hay into the feeder we let them out into their new home.

As you can see.....they handled the trip just fine. They ate some hay and drank some water and well, now I have 2 goats in my barn. In. My. Barn.


With goat number 3 to arrive soon.

And I am SO very happy.

Thank you goatgirl for the absolutely wonderful time. And for the amazing opportunity to be able to raise these 2 gorgeous goat babies.

Farm smells

When we moved to the farm it was on the cusp of springtime. Things were just beginning to green up.

Since then we have had the pleasure of seeing all the things the farm has been growing for many years.

Roses are plentiful around here.

And while I have never really been a "rose girl", I do have to say that they sure are pretty. Some of the colors are so vibrant.


And if you really enjoy extremely floral smells then Id say roses are for you.

But as much as I enjoy a good smelling flower...I must tell you, I also really enjoy the smell of this.

Do you remember when I mentioned that we got the hay storage area all cleaned out?

Well, it was in preparation for a ton of lovely grass hay.

And that fine young man you saw in the previous picture is stacking it all up for me right here.

What do I need hay for you ask? Well for my goats, of course!! I will be getting 3 sweet little goats in total. The first critters to call my farm home. Besides Darby, of course.

This weekend my family and I are going to take a little road trip to get 2 of them.

The third one will follow a couple days later.

3 sweet, furry, little nigerian dwarf goats. On my farm. In my barn. They will have a wonderful farm smell.

I can not wait.

It takes everyone

Its a very pretty Sunday.

And while we will find ourselves doing outside chores later today...

Right now, everyone is doing their part inside.

Likey and no likey

The little guy and I set out to plant some seeds. Proper gear makes working so much more efficient.

To decide who got to dig the rows and who got to place the seeds we played rock, paper, scissors. I was paper. He was rock. I made the rows and he put the seeds in.

Upon entry into the garden we noticed these huge onions.

At the time, I didnt know that the flowers on top meant that I should have already harvested them. From what I have read, it says that once a flower develops on the top of the stalk, the stalk will have already emerged thorough the center of the onion. This causes the center of the onion to contain a green sprout like portion making long term storage of the onion near impossible. It can also make the onion taste bitter.

So yeah, totally missed the ideal harvest time on this batch. Once I figured that out I went out and pulled them up.

And washed them really well.

Those were some pretty big onions. G really wanted to save this one for his good friend, Mr Jim, but I convinced him that Mr Jim would actually enjoy some tasty raspberries instead. Youre welcome, Mr Jim.

I am happy to report tho, that there wasnt a green sprout in the center, nor did the onion have a bitter taste.

I also harvested some of this. Can you guess what it is?

Yep. Yummy cilantro. It went perfectly on our tacos.

While some of this was going on however, S was busy working on the "always ongoing saga" of the sprinkler system. But suddenly I heard him call out to me.

I go over to him to see this.

Do you know what kind of spider that is?

That red hourglass you see on her abdomen is a very clear sign that shes a black widow.

Its also very clear that she is on extreme guard duty when it comes to those egg sacs.

This was our first meeting with a black widow spider. We called the kids over to show them what she looked like. Seeings how they are poisonous and all we felt it a good idea to point them out to the kids....and to give them permission to remove G from the company of such a spider should he entertain the idea of becoming friendly with one.

Shortly after this meeting, S came across black widow number 2.

One is plenty for me. I dont think I need to meet anymore.