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!

pretty, happy, funny, real

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

capturing the context of everyday life ~ most Thursdays, here at Aspen Springs

{pretty}
Our very own fresh eggs!  Yay!  Hurrah!  Our hens began laying this week!  We have some blue/green egg layers in the flock as well, but those particular birds must be a little behind schedule.

putting all our eggs in one basket :)

{happy}
If you've read more than a couple posts on this blog, you know that we live in the country.  Mark travels a lot for work, so he gets the benefit of being out and about, but coming home to peace.  (Believe me, I realize that business travel is not all fun and games - but it is true that he gets a change of scenery pretty often.)  On the other hand, I am at home a lot.  I'm a home schooling Mom; in order for our kids to get an education, I need to stay home!  But last week I had a getaway and met up with Mark in a large city that is *somewhat* close to us.  It was a great couple of days.  Mark was working, so I had time to myself during the day, but got to spend evenings with him.  This was one of my destinations...

An old favorite haunt of mine that I happily strolled through without any interruptions!  I also got to meet my FAVORITE aunt and cousin (are you both reading this?) for lunch, which was a great treat.  I'm sure the entire restaurant heard us laughing.


{funny}
Our youngest child noticed the deer crossing signs near our home this week.  According to her, the sign means:
"Attention!  If you are traveling on this road at night, deer will be jumping over your car."

Ahhh, yes, if only they would just jump over the car...


{real}
We moved into this house the first week of September - right at the start of the school year. There's so much to do after a move that - honestly - the school room was not high on the priority list.  We got our books on a shelf and the computers set up, but that was about it for a couple months.  I still haven't "decorated" in the school room - and we could use a few key pieces of furniture to help the flow of the day - but I did at least get some maps on the wall this week.

Our main book shelf in the school room.  Each of the girls has a shelf for her books.

So, there it is: a little bit of everyday life from the last week.  Remember to visit Like Mother Like Daughter for more {pretty, happy, funny, real}.

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)!