Photos from the Farm #30

Welcome back!

Do you want to see a few more photos of Harry?

We love him! He is such a sweet goat kid! He's so friendly and very soft. Often our goat kids are shy and we have to catch them to pet them. Not Harry! He comes right up to us.

He often sits on my lap while I'm milking Annie, his mom. I wish I could get a picture of that! I'm not very good at taking selfies while I'm milking.

Here's Harry! Did you notice he has a collar on now?
He is almost 4 weeks old.

Misty is on the left, Harry is in the middle, and Annie is on the right.

The mama goats don't mind letting Harry have a treat.

Goat kids love to climb and play, just like you!

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We had a visitor earlier this week. This is a turkey hen. I don't know who she belongs to.
We saw her on Sunday, by Monday afternoon she had gone home.

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I found one of the nests the ducks made! I found 3 eggs!
They decided that since I found their nest, they would hide their eggs again.
I found another nest in the garden under the raspberries.
They didn't lay under the raspberries very long.
It's like an Easter Egg hunt every day!

Last week I showed you a graph of how many eggs I collected over almost 6 weeks. I thought you might like to know how much all those eggs cost us.

We collected 348 eggs.

There are 12 eggs in each dozen.

348 ÷ 12 = 29 dozen eggs.

A 50 pound bag of food costs about $16. The chickens and ducks ate 2 1/2 bags of food during the 6 weeks I was counting eggs.

$16 x 2.5 = $40

To find out how much each dozen eggs cost I divided $40 by 29 dozen.

$40 ÷ 29 dozen = $1.38 for each dozen eggs.

I'm not sure how much eggs cost in the store since we haven't bought eggs from the store for a long time!

We like our chickens, and we like fresh eggs a lot! They taste much better than eggs from the store. We also like that the chickens eat all the bugs in the pasture. We don't usually have many grasshoppers during the summer.

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I thought you might like to see the flowers that are starting to bud in the front yard.
It's spring and everything is growing!

Here is the flower bed by the front door.

Do you see the tall, fluffy, white flowers?
That is a rhubarb plant.
This afternoon I'll cut the stalks and bottle them in jars so we can make pie with it. Rhubarb is sour so the pie has a lot of sugar and berries in it to make it sweeter.

That's all for today.  Make it a great week!

Mountain Monday * 27 April 2015

It was 46˚F and overcast. No breezes.

South of the barn.
26 April 2015

East over the barn.26 April 2015

North of the barn.26 April 2015

Photos from the Farm #29

Welcome back!

We have a chicken that is eating eggs! That can be a big problem. If she doesn't stop eating eggs we'll have to get rid of her.

We have already tried giving the chickens some minerals. That has helped. Now the chicken isn't eating the inside of the eggs, but she is still pecking through the shell. That means she has a bad habit that we need to try to break.

Here is one of the eggs I found on Thursday with a hole pecked through the shell. 

We are trying to break her bad habit by putting plastic eggs in each nesting area.

We hope that the chicken pecks the plastic eggs. If she does, the shell won't break.
We are hoping that she decides it isn't any fun to bang her beak against a hard, plastic egg.
I hope that breaks her bad habit so we can use those eggs!

Here is my egg count for this week:

• Friday, April 17 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Saturday, April 18 I collected 0 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Sunday, April 19 I collected 3 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Monday, April 20 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Tuesday, April 21 I collected 1 brown egg, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Wednesday, April 22 I collected 2 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Thursday, April 23 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Friday, April 24 I collected 4 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.

Here is my graph!
Does yours look the same or different?
I counted the eggs I collected each week, then entered the data into my graph.

Week 1 doesn't have as many eggs collected as the other weeks. I started counting eggs but I didn't start on a Saturday, I started on a Tuesday. Look under the graph and you will see the dates that are included in each week.

Look at Week 5. Fewer eggs were collected during Week 5, as well as Week 6. There are fewer eggs during Week 5 because that is the week we had bad storms. Chickens can get scared, that means that they don't lay as many eggs for the next week.

Week 6 has fewer eggs because we have a chicken who is eating eggs and I only count the eggs that we can eat, not the ones that are wasted.

Did you notice that there are fewer duck eggs towards the end of the chart? I'm sure there are duck eggs, but the ducks have decided to move their nest and I haven't found it yet. It usually only takes me a day or two to find their new spot. But I still haven't found it!

If I find a big nest of eggs I'll take a picture and post it for you to see.

I thought you might like to see what my tracking paper looks like.
This is how I collected the data and kept track of it each day.
The graph above looks much nicer!

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Would you like to see some pictures of Harry, the kid goat?

This is Harry the day after he was born.

Here are Harry and Quin. Harry is 2 weeks old. 

Did you notice the marks on the top of Harry's head? Baby goats often have their horns removed. Their horns can be dangerous to themselves, to other goats in the herd, and to people. Would your mother let you run around with a knife in each hand while you play? Probably not. Horns are a little bit like knives, they can be dangerous even when the goats are playing.

Here is Harry and his mother, Annie. Harry is almost 3 weeks old.
He was born on April 5, 2015.
Look on your calendar and see how many days old Harry is.

Baby goats are called kids. They stay with their mom for 6-8 weeks. After they are 8 weeks old we send them to their new home if we have sold them. If we are keeping them, we separate them from their mother. They are old enough that they don't need their mother's milk anymore.

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Do you have any plans for the week?

We do! It's time to clean the barn yard! We try to clean the barn yard each spring. We clean up all the trash that has blown in through the winter. We clear out the branches that have fallen down. We put away all the water heaters. We sweep out the barn. We clean out the stalls. There is always work to be done on the farm!

Have a great week!

Mountain Monday * 20 April 2015

Today is sunny and 59˚ F (16˚C) with a gentle breeze (about 3mph) from south south west.

South of the barn.
19 April 2015

East over the barn.
19 April 2015

North over the barn.
19 April 2015

Photos from the Farm #29

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break!

We have a new animal on the farm!

I knew you would be excited.

I'll let you know about the new animal in a minute.

First I want to show you what the mountains look like! They look different than they did on Monday because of the big storm we had.

We had snow! It was so cold that the animal's water froze. It was so windy that we have a few repairs to make to the barn. We are very lucky, none of our trees were blown down. Our neighbors had some very big trees come down! Many friends and neighbors have to repair their roofs because shingles blew off in the storm. Other people have to repair and rebuild fences because of the wind. 

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When we have extra goat milk I bring it out to the chickens in the morning.
It's one of their favorite treats.

As soon as the other chickens realize that there is a treat, they all come running!

Milk is good for chickens. It has calcium and protein. Both of those things help chickens make eggs.

I spy with my little eye.....
a duck egg on the barn road!
Silly ducks! Sometimes they lay their eggs in strange places.

I spy with my little eye.....
a nest with duck eggs!
Can you see it?

This is a better place for a nest of eggs!
It's protected and not out in the open like on the barn road.

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And now for the new animal!

We have a new baby goat!
His name is Harry.

Annie had three kids on Easter Sunday.
We were very sad that two died.
All three were so big that they were tangled up inside Annie.
But Harry lived! He's so cute! And he's so sweet and friendly!
He will live here for about 8 weeks and then go to his new home.
His new owners have been waiting for a buck just like Harry for a long time!

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Are you working on your graph?

I have more egg counts for you!

• Friday, April 3 I collected 4 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and 3 duck eggs.
• Saturday, April 4 I collected 4 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Sunday, April 5 I collected 6 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Monday, April 6 I collected 5 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Tuesday, April 7 I collected 3 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Wednesday, April 8 I collected 7 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Thursday, April 9 I collected 2 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Friday, April 10 I collected 4 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Saturday, April 11 I collected 2 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Sunday, April 12 I collected 5 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Monday, April 13 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Tuesday, April 14 I collected 1 brown egg, 6 green eggs, and 1 duck egg. (This was the day of the wind storm.
• Wednesday, April 15 I collected 8 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg. (This was the day of the big snow storm.
• Thursday, April 16 I collected 1 brown egg, 0 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

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Do you know there are only a few more "Farm Fridays" left before the end of school! 

I'll post during the summer so if you can check in and see how the garden is growing and how the animals are doing.

I hope you have a great week!

Mountain Monday * 13 April 2015

South of the barn
13 April 2015

East over the barn.13 April 2015

North of the barn.13 April 2015

Photos from the Farm #28

Welcome back!

It was chilly yesterday, wasn't it! Matt put Clover's coat back on. She was shivering because she was so cold. I wore my winter coat to the barn because it was so cold!

This week we've had fun cooking outside.  I've had fun with my new sewing machine. What have you done? Have you learned anything new? Have you played a new game, learned a new song,  learned some new math, or read a new book?

I sewed some beanbags on my new sewing machine! They aren't filled with beans, they are filled with rice. Quin loves them!

We baked bread on our new smoker grill! It was delicious! Did you know you can bake bread on a barbeque grill?

We even decorated with eggs for Easter! Quin is holding our ostrich egg.
We don't have any ostriches. My friend gave it to me and we get it out every year when Easter is close. I thought you might like to see how big an ostrich egg is.

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We've been working on our building project, too.

Bryon used the post hole digger on the back of the tractor to dig the first hole. It is much faster to use a post hole digger than it is to dig a hole with a shovel. Do you see the post hole digger jumping around a little bit? We have a lot of rocks in the soil! Watch closely and you will see some rocks coming out with the dirt.

The hole is about 24" deep. If you have a ruler you can measure the size of the tiles on the floor of your classroom. Then you can see how deep 24" is.

Bryon put a yellow post form into the hole. Then he, Tim, and Matt mixed up some cement to shovel into the form. A form is like a mold. Ice cube trays are molds for water.

Next he put a post into the cement.

He used a level to make sure the post is perfectly straight. If it isn't perfectly straight then the what he's building won't be straight and won't last very long.

Ask your parents if they have a level you can look at. It's an interesting tool! I always had fun playing with my dad's level when I was little.

Do you have any more guesses about what we are building? It isn't a hay barn. It isn't a train track.

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Matt found a nest of eggs under the wagon! Silly chickens! In the spring we have an Easter Egg hunt almost every day. The chickens hide their eggs in different places and sometimes they hide them very well!

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 I took some videos for you this week, too.

We're sorry to tell you that Charlie, the rooster, has gotten very mean. We had to send him to a new farm last week. He was attacking people! We don't keep mean animals on the farm. We like visitors! If you watch the video you'll see another rooster in the back. I think I'll name him Peety. He's just starting to crow. He is orange and white.

Quin can tell the difference between roosters and hens by looking at their 'hat'. That's what he calls the comb (red part) on the chicken's head. Quin says, "Charlie has a big hat, mama hens have a little hat."


Do you remember the chicks that were born during Fall Break? Petty is one of those chicks. We've been trying to teach him good manners. Charlie didn't learn good manners even though we tried. I hope Peety does!


I was so excited to get a little video of Echo mooing! She doesn't usually make any sound if she can see us. She only makes noise when she can't see us and wants her breakfast. Can you hear the other animals? What other animals can you hear on the video?

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I thought it would be fun to start a graph of our chicken eggs. I'll write down how many green, brown, and duck eggs we get each day. You can make a graph, and I will make a graph. In a few weeks I'll post my graph and you can see if our graphs look the same.

Friday, March 27 I collected 6 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

Saturday, March 28 I collected 4 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

Sunday, March 29 I collected 9 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

Monday, March 30 I collected 5 brown eggs, 1 green egg, and 2 duck eggs.

Tuesday, March 31 I collected 4 brown eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

Wednesday, April 1 I collected 4 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

Thursday, April 2 I collected 5 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.

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I hope you enjoyed the post today!

Next time I have some videos to share about the ducks! I also have a video of the goats for you.

Have you watched the snow on the mountains? It's melting. The days are getting longer. Spring is here. It's not quite time to plant much in the garden, but it's time to get the seeds started indoors.

I hope you have a wonderful Spring Break! We'll be building, and cleaning more of the barn, and planting some seeds indoors. I'll send some little plants to your classroom so you can watch them grow, too!

Mountain Monday * 30 March 2015

29 March 2015
South of the barn.

29 March 2015
East over the barn.

29 March 2015
North of the barn.