The goats are here!

The goats have arrived!  You might recall that once we moved to our present home (about 6 months ago) we began making plans for a large garden and some animals.  We got baby chicks immediately and had great success with them right from the start.  Our hens have been healthy, the girls have enjoyed taking care of them, and we now have more eggs than we can eat.  The chicken success made us brave and we decided to tackle a bigger, more complicated animal.  We researched goats and decided on Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats.  And - fortunately - we found a breeder relatively close to us.  We visited the baby goats once when they were a few weeks old.  And then, last Saturday, Mark and daughter #1 made the trek back to the goat farm to pick up our "kids".

Unloading the goats.  The girls could hardly wait to see them!

As you can imagine, choosing names for the goats was a hot topic around here.  In my opinion, I had lots of really cool ideas for names (Mark was in agreement on most of my suggestions) but the girls kept shooting me down... Finally, someone had the brilliant idea of naming them for 2 characters from one of our family-favorite classic television shows.

So, we're pleased to introduce "Lucy" and "Ethel".

Ethel is on the left, Lucy is on the right.

We borrowed a large dog crate from some friends and transported them home in the back of Mark's car.  Apparently, we have goats who are very tolerant of car trips - not a single incident on the way home :)

We may have gotten the names wrong... Ethel is the nutcase - always climbing on the girls and generally more mischievous than Lucy.  Isn't that backward?

Mark called when they were 10 minutes away, so I grabbed the camera and took the little girls down to the goat shed and waited for them to arrive.  Such excitement!

Exploring their new pen - they went straight for the feed!

Everything is going well so far.  Lucy and Ethel love to play and have human guests in their pen.  They really are cute and sweet (in a totally goat way).  I'm not a huge animal lover - we don't even have a dog - but I think that them being small really helps.  Smaller always seems to be cuter.

Though this is a cute picture, I was probably saying, "don't put your face on the goat!"

So, the whole point of the goats is milk, but they're not quite ready for that yet.  We've got several months to wait before they are ready for the next step on the road to becoming milk-producers.  For now, they'll be entertainment for the girls - and 2 more mouths to feed.

They love climbing around on these stumps Mark put in the pen.

A Sunday drive

We posted about our typical Sunday activity - hiking - a couple months ago.  Well, this Sunday we opted for a drive instead of a hike.  We thought it might be a good idea to visit our baby goats once before bringing them here.  As we said before, we are excited about the goats, but don't really know much about how to care for them.  
So, we went to early Mass, stopped at a favorite breakfast restaurant, loaded up on eggs, bacon, french toast, pancakes, and coffee and hit the road.
Our drive took us through an amazing 14 mile long canyon.  We all love this particular canyon, but had not been through it in the winter before.  There wasn't much snow, but it was very pretty.

Mark and I find the scenery gorgeous, but the best part for the girls is the 3 tunnels carved out of rock that we drive through.  There are also train tracks that run the length of the canyon on the opposite side of the river - and on this trip there was a train on the tracks, so we got to "race" the train through the canyon.
On the far end of the canyon, we stopped in a little town to stretch our legs and visit this really cool mineral hot springs fountain.  We're not big fans of hot springs in general.  If only the water could be hot without being smelly.  If you've visited hot springs, you know what I mean.  The main spring here flows 18,600,000 gallons every 24 hours at a temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit.  There were plenty of people in the pools, so some people can obviously get past the smell.  

So, back to the fountain... It was erected around 1907 when a hot water distribution line was being laid in the park.  The rangers noticed that there was heavy backpressure in the pipes. Consequently, a standpipe was built in a gulch and the park superintendent had a rock base built to support it.  As the hot mineral water exits the top and flows over, it cools and deposits travertine. The algae within the water colors the deposits.  

We couldn't get a picture of the water coming out of the top, but can you see the steam?

Now, I'm sure you're still marveling over the hot springs fountain, but wait - it gets better.  What did we happen upon next on our Sunday drive?  Buffalo!  OK, well, American Bison, to be perfectly correct.  Or you might even say "Tatonka" if you are a Dances with Wolves fan.

Forgive the picture: Mark just snapped it out the car window with his phone.  It was really neat though - there was a group of 5 just hanging out - there was even a baby with them, but he/she was behind some sage brush and didn't want to be photographed.  If you've never seen one of these dudes in person, you should.  They are H.U.G.E.  The heads, especially, are enormous.  We know people who keep a herd, so we've been up close and personal before (and bison is our favorite red meat), but it was great to see some "in the wild."

Next stop on our Sunday drive:  McDonald's.  For Shamrock shakes (sorry - no photo.)

And finally, the goat farm!  It's terrible, the goat farm was really the point of this whole adventure, but we took a whopping 1 photo while there.  

We were talking with the goat farmers and getting all our food, water, and fencing questions answered - and forgot about pictures.  But the good news is that the goats are friendly and let the girls pet and handle them without incident. We got confirmation that our goat shed will be a great home for them right from the start, and we don't have major fencing projects that will need to be finished within the next couple weeks.  It was also nice to see the mothers of our goats - to see that they have nice temperaments and that they really are "dwarf" goats.  

Oh, and one other update in the form of a photo...

beautiful eggs, courtesy of the hens at Aspen Springs

Our hens are crazy laying machines!  We're getting roughly a dozen eggs per day and the assortment of colors is so pretty.  Some of the eggs are still a little on the small side, but for the most part, the hens are laying full-size eggs these days.  At breakfast, the girls request their eggs by color :)

baby goats!

Now that we've had success with our chickens (all our hens are laying eggs!) we are planning to add a new animal to the mix here at Aspen Springs: a goat. Well, 2 goats, actually.
Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats!

When most people hear this they ask one of 3 questions:

"Have you ever kept goats before?"

"Do you like goat's milk?"

"Who will milk them?"

No, we've never kept goats before. Apparently some people have had bad experiences with goats. And we've even been lead to believe that not everyone is a fan of goats in general.  Well, we're trying to stay positive.  The goats are going to be another fun family adventure.  And, honestly, look how cute they are...

One of our "to be named" goats!  The breeder sent this photo a few days after this one was born.

On to the 2nd question... Nope - we've never tried goat's milk. Now that we've paid for our goats (we don't have them yet - they're hanging out with mom a big longer), we figure we'll just wait until the goats are giving milk and get used to it then.  If a love of goat's milk doesn't come naturally, we'll make it an act of the will :)
We really want to have fresh milk for drinking, maybe cheese and/or yogurt making, etc. and the thought of taking on a dairy cow seemed a bit much. The Nigerian dwarf goats are WAY smaller animals than dairy cows, and the amount of milk will be more in line with our needs as a 5 person family.

goat #2.  We really only wanted 1 - or so we thought - but they are happier with a friend, so 2 goats it is.

And, finally: Who will milk the goats?  The children, of course.  We're smart home schooling parents; this is all part of their education.

So, do we know anything about goats? Not a lot yet. We've done a fair bit of reading, of course, but we won't gain any hands-on knowledge until the goats are here with us.

the goat shed
(full disclosure - this photo was taken in October.  It's a lot more snowy and generally less green out there now)

A few months ago we found a breeder fairly close to us and reserved 2 goats. They were born last week and will stay where they are for another 7 weeks or so.  In the meantime, we have some more reading to do, a list of possible names to make (daughter #1 is already lobbying for "Florecita"), and a few sturdy fences to build.  Our property came with a structure that we've been referring to as "the goat shed" since we moved here in September.  It is a great place for them, so a lot of the work is already done.

Stay tuned for more goat news in the Spring!

We have an egg!

After nearly 21 weeks of chicken ownership, we have an egg!  Just one at the moment, but there should be more in the near future.  This is so exciting we can hardly stand it.  To those who don't keep chickens - or can't imagine ever doing so - this level of excitement might seem odd.  But we really are thrilled.  We'd been thinking about raising chickens - for eggs - for a while before we actually took the plunge, so this one little egg has been a long time coming.  The chickens have also been a whole family project, so to reap the benefits of our collective work is satisfying.  This one lone egg also confirms that we have been doing a good job with our chickens.  Many hens stop laying in the winter, but we have made a serious effort to keep their living conditions and food/water supply just what they need them to be - and it's paid off!  And perhaps best of all, I can very soon STOP buying eggs at the grocery store.

We don't know which of the hens is responsible for this first egg.  It is brown.  And 11 of our hens are brown egg layers, so that part is a bit of a mystery.  Hopefully, she'll be encouraging her coop-mates to follow her lead very soon.

An update from the hen house...

Our hens are 20 weeks old today.  It does feel strange to count their age in weeks -- like one would do for a baby... Rest assured we have not lost our marbles and gotten all strange about our chickens.  In the near future we will stop keeping careful track of their age.  But, up until now it's been important for a few reasons:

• In the early weeks - up to 9, I think - we had to be sure they stayed warm enough...
• Up to a certain age, they needed special feed...
• And, finally, the reason the hens are here to begin with - they begin laying around 20-22 weeks!

Though we find the chickens entertaining and have even given them names (maybe not a good idea?) we fully realize and remember that the chickens are not pets.  They are egg producers.

This is "Pat".
Pat is the mystery chick that the hatchery sent us as a bonus.  We named  her Pat because, in the beginning, there was no way (for us) to tell if she was male or female.  We're glad Pat isn't a rooster.  We've also had to figure out Pat's breed; the thinking this week is that she's an Ameraucana, which means she'll lay colored (blue/green) eggs!

So, a few days ago, Mark and our "chicken girl" - aka, oldest daughter - spent some time in the coop getting it ready for the hens to start laying: snazzy nest boxes and more room to roost.

Coop Interior.
Nest boxes (where they lay eggs) on the right wall, Roosting bars (where they sleep)on the left - only one is visible in the photo, but there is another bar above that one, and food & water hanging from the ceiling in the middle.

We've learned a lot about chickens in the last 20+ weeks... things like roosting, molting, nesting, pecking order, etc.

We have 6 different breeds in our little flock.  All the breeds are represented in this "group photo".  

Like so many "hobbies", chicken-keeping is actually very interesting once you get involved. We are still very new at this, but it's been enjoyable thus far (and we haven't even gotten the first egg) so we can imagine chickens being a part of the family routine from here on out.  The thought of keeping hens for eggs had NEVER occurred to us before we moved here and met people who consider it "normal".  Just another benefit, we think, of making a life change that put us out of our zone of familiarity - in many ways.

The chickens are used to her - she brings them food and water.

Stay tuned for news of the first egg(s)!

Oh, deer!

How do you feel about deer in your yard?  Right now, I am enjoying the abundance of deer on our property.  It's neat.  Not that I hadn't seen a deer before, but never so many, so close - and on a daily basis.

Our little town just might possibly have a higher deer population than people population, so they do tend to be everywhere.  But our old house had a tiny yard - and a very big fence around most of what yard there was - so we just didn't see them each and every day.  Now?  Well, the deer are pretty much always here.  Most of the time if I look out the window and start counting I get to double digits before I start really looking.  They blend in to their surroundings very well, so I'm sure that most of the time there are more in the yard than I realize.

Sometimes we still get a little surprised when one gets really close.  Our basement is a walk-out and the windows down there are right at ground level, if that makes sense.  So if a deer comes close to a basement window when someone is down there, it can be a face-to-face event.  This happened recently when the girls had some friends over.  There was a lot of squealing, let me tell you.  I think that when they come so close to the house, I'm mostly startled by how large they are. Normally they sit 20 or 30 feet from the house and seem the size of a large dog, but when a full-grown buck walks up to the kitchen window while I'm doing dishes, I get to see just how huge he is.

The girls have grown accustomed to the deer.  One of them may take notice when there is a large group right outside her bedroom window, but mostly, the excitement is over.  When we first moved in, however, the two little girls were out daily trying to catch one so they could ride it.  It was a great game for them.  And we were never terribly concerned about them actually catching one.

Mark doesn't find the deer as sweet as I do.  He's probably wise.  Right now, in the dead of Winter, they aren't harming anything.  But I won't be so charmed by them in the Spring and Summer if they show up to eat my flowers and vegetables.  Good thing they generally head back up into the mountains when Spring arrives.

The Chickens

Our desire to raise chickens began long before we actually moved to Aspen Springs. Backyard poultry raising is a growing trend. We love eggs - fresh eggs, like we recently had in Ireland. Firm yolks, great color, and marvelous flavor:

Fixing ourselves breakfast in Ireland this summer

So we were really excited when we discovered a "chicken palace" of sorts was part of our new home. We decided to buy baby chicks prior to our move so we could get eggs quicker (hens don’t begin laying until they are 20 weeks old.) So in usual fashion, I scoured the internet, read several books, watched a dozen YouTube videos and declared ourselves ready to become chicken farmers. (We also have several friends here who have chickens so we were really prepared...sort of.)

Our baby chicks came from Murray McMurray Hatchery in Iowa (cool video tour here). The minimum order was 25 chicks and we chose a variety of laying breeds including Barred Rock, Australorp, Rhode Island Red, Red Star, and Araucana. I received a call from the local Postmaster one morning at 6:00am telling me our chicks had arrived and that I needed to come pick them up. Of course, our girls were giddy with excitement when they discovered the chicks really did come in a box and were as fluffy as the photos they had seen.

One day old chicks...in a box

The temporary coop

With every 25 chicks, McMurray throws in a freebie, of unknown breed or gender. Our Mystery Chick is a white something, whom we have named Pat to be on the safe side. We lost one little gal who never quite survived the journey from Iowa in a small box (go figure). We decided 25 chickens might be a bit much to start with, so we sold 10 to some good friends.

Our brood grew quickly in their temporary garage quarters until we moved to Aspen Springs. I spent several long days prepping the coop.

The messy coop BEFORE

It had not been used for several years, but it is a great set up. I painted the walls and floor, added an adjustable air vent, and a light on a timer. The hens have a night room with roosting bars and nest boxes (eventually).

AFTER remodel

Their day run is fully enclosed but has lots of light and a dirt floor for scratching and dust baths. I will build an outdoor run next Spring. My favorite addition to the coop is a custom waterer I made from a 5 gallon bucket and chicken nipples (see below, hanging in the background). Chickens are insanely messy and this contraption provides clean water for them without the mess.

Breakfast time

 Grace, Pat, Laya, Rainbow, Martha, and the rest of our hens have quickly become part of our family and are a surprising amount of fun.

The girls love to hand-feed the hens feed, grasshoppers, worms or fresh grass.  The hens are curious about everything, especially if offered from a human. We are slowly learning their personalities and sounds. Our oldest daughter has really taken great leadership in their care.

#1 Daughter with Pat

We can’t wait for that first egg (which will indeed be the most expensive egg I’ve ever eaten). And it will be fun when we can let the hens out into the yard this Spring. But for now, we’re having great fun with the latest addition to Aspen Springs.