Apple Day Photos

It was fun to visit you a few weeks ago. I was so glad that someone took some photos. I hope you can see yourself or you friend in the photos below! It was a beautiful day. It wasn't hot at all which kept the flies and the yellow jackets from coming around very much. They like apple cider, too!

I think almost everyone liked the fresh apple cider. That makes me happy because we spend a lot of time picking all the apples, loading the truck to drive to school, setting up the press, and pressing the apples for you to taste the apple cider.

I thought you would like a video of the grinder at work so we took one the next day when we were helping our friends and neighbors make cider.

This is what the inside of the grinder looks like.

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Do you see all the feathers?

The chickens are loosing some of their feathers. You can't really tell by looking at them. They are molting. Chickens usually molt in the late summer or early fall as they get ready for winter. Their new feathers grow in within 2-3 months. Molting is normal, all chickens and birds molt. They loose their old, broken, or worn out feathers and grow new ones. Feathers help a bird to keep itself warm in cold weather so it's really important for them to molt.

Chickens don't lay very many eggs when they are molting. We used to get between 12-18 eggs a day. Now we are only collecting 6-8 eggs a day.

Here is a fun slow motion video of a mother hen and her chick drinking some old goat milk. Old milk is a favorite treat for our chickens. It also provides some extra protein for chickens to grow new feathers.

The black chick is almost as big as the mama hen!

You can click this link to find out more about chickens molting.


I thought you would like to see the Tom turkeys strutting around the yard. They puff out their feathers so they look bigger. The black turkeys are the ones that were born this spring. One of them likes to roost up in the tree at night. The tan turkey is their father.

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Do you have a cold? A lot of people get a cold in the fall when the weather changes. Loki caught a cold, too. He doesn't have a runny nose, he has runny eyes instead.

Ewwww, yuck! Eye boogers!

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Some of you liked the video of Xander last time. My neighbor made a video of Quin the next day.


I liked the part where Quin was climbing on top of the log pile!

I hope you have a great Fall Break next week!

Good-bye Clover

It was fun to come to your school and visit last week! We'll have some photos of Johnny Appleseed Day for you next week.

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This week was sad for us. Our oldest goat died. She was one of the first goats in Matt's herd when he started with goats in 5th grade. Clover was about 4 or 5 when we got her, and we've had her for 12 years.

How old is Clover?

 She loved people! She loved letting children and visitors pet her. She was so friendly with everyone. She was very kind to the baby goats, too. We called her our Grandma Goat. When she was younger we would take her to visit the school because she loved being around people so much.

Last weekend she was so old that she couldn't stand up anymore.

Do you see the red light in the picture? That is a heat lamp to keep her warm. Even though she has her special coat on she couldn't stay warm because she was so old and sore. We made sure she had food and water close by so she could eat and drink without having to get up.

We are so sad to say good-bye to our sweet Clover! We loved her so much! We will miss her.

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Chickens and goats can be funny.
The chickens seem to like Misty a lot!
This week I saw the little mama hen and
her  black chick sitting on top of Misty.
Their chicken feet hold on well enough that they don't slip off her back.
Misty doesn't seem to mind too much!
If she minded she would jump up and flip the chickens off her back!

Another day I left the back door open so I could load the heavy milking equipment into the wagon.
Look who came the back door!
She was a good chicken and did not poo in the house!

Sometimes chickens can get a bit crazy and we have to clip their wings. That means we have to make their wing feathers shorter so they can't fly over fences. We think chickens are funny, but the neighbors don't think it's funny that they get into yards and scratch in the flower beds.

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Last week someone asked me how the turkey with the missing tail feathers was doing. She is doing well! Can you see her tail feathers growing back? She learned her lesson and has stayed on our side of the fence ever since she lost her tail. I am sure does not want a dog to pull her tail feathers out again!

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Quin and Xander are here for a few days.
The geese are getting big! They still cheep instead of sounding like adult geese.
They are still pretty friendly, too.
I don't know how long it will be before they are full grown. We've never had geese before.

If you listen closely you can hear them cheeping as they drink some water.

Who else can you hear?

Quin and Xander are having a lot of fun while they are here. One of the neighbor girls came over and made a movie with Xander yesterday.

Did you like it? I thought it was fun to watch!

It's hard work being on a farm!
We work and play so much that we don't get time to sit and rest.
At the end of the day all we want to do is snuggle under the covers and go to sleep.

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Remember to 

Do something kind 

for someone else

every day!

Link to Wonders 1st Grade, Unit 1 Week 3
Also look here