Tuesday, February 24, 2015

It's Getting Hot in Here

Tonight Cam and I placed 18 duck eggs in the cooler-bator.
My husband and my cousin made this fancy incubator last spring out of a cooler and some computer parts. It's surprisingly accurate and has since hatched several dozen chicks and ducklings. 


These are the last of Lou's eggs, so we are hoping for at least a 50% hatch rate. Ideally you should incubate eggs only seven days after they are laid. However, with Lou's sudden death and the constant threat of inclement weather, we wanted to make sure all the conditions were ideal before we put all our eggs in one basket. 

See what I did there?

This is the first time we have incubated eggs on our own without the help of my cousin, who is all the way in London giving directions and advice via text. I am hoping we will be successful, but only time will tell. In about ten days we will candle our eggs to check for growth. We are hoping to have several babies here soon! 

In other news, our female Oberhasli was born early Friday morning in Georgia on Maynard's Farm. We are so excited to have an official pair! 

This is her sweet mom, Little Bit. 


We cannot wait to have the goats join us on the farm!
Now to build the goat barn... 

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

New Year, New Beginnings

It has been roughly seven months since I have posted. 
A lot can happen in seven months! 
Let me catch you up to speed. 

In August I started my new career as a first grade teacher. Trying to keep up a blog and a classroom has been quite a feat, hence the lack of postings. I absolutely love my job and adore my class--they are the most precious group of kids! 

In October Cam and I finally got married. 


It was our six year anniversary; 
what better gift than to marry your other half?


We laughed, and cried, with our best friends all day. 
It was truly one of the funnest days of our young lives. 

Next came our honeymoon. 
We rented a cabin in the mountains and spent a week in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. 


We had a fabulous view to wake up to each day.


We got to enjoy each others company. 


Cam got caught up on the past six months of PBR. 


And we spent entirely too much money shopping. Especially on cowboy boots. 
Stages West became our new best friend. 
If there's one thing we learned in our first week of marriage, 
it's that we can do some damage in a boot store. 

On New Year's Eve we purchased our first home!


It's a four bedroom, two bathroom mobile home.
It needs a lot of work, but we're up for the challenge.


We've been working on it every day since we purchased it. 
Once it is completely gutted, we will be installing brand new everything
Which means we will have a brand new house at a fraction of the price. 
Which leaves us with more money for boots. I kid! Sort of

With the new year also came new plans for the farm. 
Cam and I have had all of our future livestock "picked out" for quite some time now. We would love to eventually raise heritage cattle, hogs, goats, and donkeys in addition to our chickens and ducks. But it would be almost impossible, and incredibly expensive, to add all of these animals at once. So in January we decided to make preparations for our first new animal on the farm, Oberhasli dairy goats. 

I sought out an Oberhasli breeder and ended up finding Isom Farm in Crossville, Alabama. Their does were bred to kid in February and actually kidded two days ago, on Monday. We initially planned to purchase doelings from them, but God had other plans. Their girls had four bucks. So we will be purchasing a buckling from them and then a doeling from a different breeder in Georgia. 


Introducing S*W-Williams Bjorn, also known as "Doc."
We are so excited for the great things coming to the farm this year! 
Thank you for sticking with us as we transition through this exciting time in our lives. 
Stay tuned for more updates and new babies!