Counting Eggs and Graphing

Every year we spend a few weeks counting how many eggs we get every day. We figure out how many eggs we get from the chickens, and how much money we spend on food. It gives us a good idea of how much our eggs cost. I make a graph to see which color eggs we get the most of, too.

Here is my egg count for this week.

• Friday, March 23 I collected 10 brown eggs, 9 green eggs, and 1 duck eggs
• Saturday, March 24 I collected 6 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and 1 duck eggs.

The guys moved hay on Saturday and they found a nest on the hay trailer. It was full of turkey eggs and they were already rotten. Yuck! Smelly eggs!

• Sunday, March 25  I collected 7 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
•  Monday, March 26 I collected 7 brown egg, 8 green eggs, and 1 duck eggs.
• Tuesday, March 27 I collected 5 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 1 duck eggs.
• Wednesday, March 28 I collected 7 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 1 duck eggs.
• Thursday, March 29 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 1 duck eggs.

I collected 96 eggs this week. The chickens, ducks, and turkeys ate about 3/4 bag of food.

Food costs $17 for a bag, that means it cost us $12.75 to feed them.

96 eggs divided by 12 = 8 dozen eggs.

$12.75 divided by 8 dozen eggs = about $1.60 for each dozen eggs.

Other things that we spend money on to raise the chickens includes electricity to keep their water from freezing in the winter, shelter, clean bedding for their pen, and gas to drive the truck that picks up the food.

It's important for us to do some math to figure out how much the chickens cost us, and how much we should charge for eggs.

We spend less money on food in the summer because the chickens eat a lot of bugs in the summer and don't eat as much food. We spend more money on food in the winter because there aren't any bugs or grass to eat.

This is what my graph looks like this week:

I like looking at a graph to see how many eggs I've collected, and I can see how many of each color eggs I get.

Here's an interesting egg! One of our chickens laid an egg with no shell.

If you soak an egg in vinegar you can take the shell off the egg so it looks the same as Quin's egg.

See how squishy it is?

Your teacher has a whole bunch of eggs for you to look at! Have you seen a turkey egg before? Or a duck egg in real life?

Be careful! The eggs don't have anything inside them so they are very easy to break!

Do you have any questions for me? I love answering your questions!

Only one more week until River has her baby. I hope everything goes well for her. You'll see more about her babies when you come back. I hope you have a wonderful Spring Break! 

Chuck, the New Steer

We're getting excited around the farm this spring! River is due with her kids in 15 days. We don't really know how many kids she will have. Last year she had 2 kids so we are hoping that she will have 2 or 3 kids this year.

We are hoping for girl kids! Girl kids are called, 'doelings.' There is nothing wrong with boy kids (they are called bucklings). We like doelings because they get sold for more money than bucklings.

Kids are a lot of fun whether they are doelings or bucklings. We love to watch them jump and run and play, just like human kids!

We are also excited because we have a new steer on the farm! A steer is a boy cow.

Meet Chuck!
Chuck is a 5 month old steer that has come to live on our farm.

He is still scared of us, but he isn't scared of Echo at all. She loves him just as much as he loves her. They share their food, and Echo makes sure she always knows where Chuck is.


We love that Echo is so sweet. We love that she is so kind to Chuck.



Chuck always wants to know where Echo is, too.


Chuck wants to be wherever Echo is. He wants to be in the barn and explore when I'm milking.


We are frustrated because Echo loves Chuck so much that she lets him snack on her milk! He is old enough he doesn't need any milk. He drinks so much milk from Echo that we only got a gallon of milk yesterday so we had to separate Echo and Chuck.



Chuck gets to live in the stall for a week or so until he decides to stop drinking Echo's milk. He's pretty mad right now. Echo isn't very happy about it either.

They can see each other through the stall door. They can touch noses, and they can visit with each other. They aren't lonely because there is only a stall door between them. Chuck is out of the bad weather, and he has plenty of food and water. But he's pretty mad right now! Even his voice is hoarse from mooing so much!

You might think that we're being mean to Chuck, but we aren't. He doesn't need milk anymore, he still gets to see Echo and be by her, and he has a warm, dry place to stay with plenty of room to move around. Sometimes we have to do what is best for the animals even if they don't like it right now. Parents and teachers also have to do what's best even when children don't like it.

One of the other good things about Chuck being in the stall is that we can get close to him easily so he can get used to us more quickly. That will be really good for both Chuck and us especially since Spring is right around the corner and people will want to come visit the farm.

It's much more fun to visit a calf who likes to be around people!

I hope you are still finding something kind to do for someone else every day!

Kids Coming Soon!

I hope you are having a great week!

I'm really enjoying the snow and rain we've been having. It means we may have enough water for the pasture to grow in the spring.

Sometimes people hurry from one thing to the next and never stop to look
at how beautiful our world is.
I love the snow on the mountains!

The snow on the fence sparkles in the morning sunshine.

All this water means a lot of mud and muck especially by Echo's stall.
I don't mind, that's why I have muck boots!

My snow boots were thrown away a few weeks ago because the holes were so big. Spring is here and I've put on my muck boots. They aren't as warm as snow boots, but they keep my feet dry even if I'm sinking in the mud.

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Do you remember River?
She is almost 2 years old.
Her birthday is April 9, 2016

She is getting ready to have her own babies in a few weeks. She should have her kids on April 7th. Sometimes babies come a day or two early, or a day or two late.

How many days until River will have her kids?

You'll be on Spring Break when River kids. We often have goat kids born during Spring Break.

River had a rough time when she was born. When you go home you can have your parents click on this link to read more about what happened when she was born. River

This is River's back.

Which side is bigger, the left side or the right side?

You might think that the babies are on the left side, but they aren't. The babies are on the right side. The left side is bigger because that's how big a goat's stomach is! She has plenty of food and water right now to make sure her babies finish growing properly and are born healthy.

We aren't milking River anymore. She has a break from milking for 4-6 weeks before her kids are born. We want to make sure that what she eats keeps her and her babies healthy and strong.

Sometimes we have to feed baby goats a bottle. We had to bottle feed River when she was little.

Here's a video of Quin and Xander feeding her almost 2 years ago.



We still have a few things to do to get ready for River's new babies. We have to clean the stall out so there is clean bedding. We need to make sure there is a little dog house inside the stall so they have a warm place to snuggle. I need to make sure their sweaters are clean and mended so they are ready to put on.

We're counting down to Spring Break and River's new baby goats! It's so exciting!

Have a great week!

Scout and JJ

We love our dogs! I also teach guitar so when my students come in, Scout and JJ love to come in and say hi. The students love to see Scout and JJ, too!

This is my favorite picture of Scout.
We took him camping this year and he is such a good dog in the car, and while we're camping.
Not many dogs will wear sunglasses so we can take a photo!

Do you know that some dogs are so special that people remember their birthdays? We remember Scout's birthday. So does the woman who owned us before we did. She always sends a birthday text for him.

I sent her this video so she could see that he is happy at our house.

Scout loves to herd any of the animals on our farm. Sometimes he helps us get animals from one area of the farm to another area of the farm. Even though he loves herding the goats and the cow, he doesn't mind watching over the chickens one bit! Scout's favorite thing in the world is to be with the livestock!

This is JJ.
Can you tell the difference between JJ and Scout?
They look alike, but not exactly the same.
They aren't even brother and sister!
JJ sits here every morning waiting for her treat.
She and Scout share the first few squirts of milk from Echo.

JJ's favorite thing in the world is to eat! She loves to eat so much that she gobbles her food down and then eats Scout's food. This is how we slow her down. She has to work for her food.

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Echo is like a big dog. She is so friendly and loves attention. She loves getting pet, and she knows her name, just like the dogs. 

As I walk out to milk in the morning I call Echo and she comes out of the barn, or gets up if she's laying down. I can call her from the backyard when I'm weeding and she comes over to eat the weeds that I've pulled. I can even call her from window and she starts looking around to see who is calling her, and where they are.

When we're done milking Echo in the morning she loves to get a hug. She is a sweet cow!

She loves being scratched under her neck, on the sides of her neck,
and on top of her head.

Have a great week! I hope you are still doing something kind for someone else every day!