Some Visitors and Some Cheese

Welcome back!

Do you know what happens when you live on a farm and get sick?

You still have to do the chores! Even if you feel like you can't get out of bed!

That's what happened to Matt and I this week. I was sick one day and he helped so much with all the chores so I could rest. I still was out in the barn but I wasn't strong enough to get everything done that I usually do. Tim helped by doing some of the inside chores that needed to get done. Matt got sick the next day so I did all the chores that he usually does.

The next time your mom or dad gets sick I hope that you help out with the chores at your house. I am so grateful when I get help!

It has been cold and rainy lately.
Stumpy found a nice place to sit in the barn so he can stay warm and dry.
It's so fun to come out in the morning and see this cute calf!

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We had a neighborhood preschool visit us this week! The children and the parents were very well behaved. They listened closely, asked good questions, and were kind to the animals.

Echo loves the attention from the visitors.

Visiting the bucks (boy goats).

Feeding Clover.

This is my favorite picture of the visitors!
Echo loved them because they were all so kind!

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This week I made cheese, too. Echo gives us a lot of milk! Thank you so much for saving your containers for me! 

I made cottage cheese.

I also made some Gouda. 

Gouda starts as curds, like cottage cheese.

Then it gets pressed into a round mold.
A mold is something that makes a shape,
it's not the green stuff that grows on old bread.

After it is pressed it has to sit in salty water called brine for about 12 hours.

The next step is for it to dry in a special refrigerator.

Then we have to wait for almost 4 months before we can eat it!

We won't be eating this cheese until 24 July, Pioneer Day in Utah.

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I've been trying to get a good photo or video of Echo, Stumpy, and the goat kids.
It's pretty hard to have the camera ready when they are ready!
The goat kids love Echo, and they love to play with Stumpy.
You can see in the photo that Echo doesn't mind the little kids at all. 
We love this cow!
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This is the friendliest chicken on the farm.
She doesn't have a name, but if you can think of a good one, I'll name her.

People can pet her or pick her up and she doesn't mind at all. That's unusual for a chicken that is handicapped. They are usually scared of people!

She is handicapped because she is blind in one eye.
Something happened to this eye, we don't know what it was.
Her eye got an infection, then it went blind.
She still lays eggs, and I like her because she's so friendly.

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I'm sorry to say that the turkey eggs didn't hatch. Maybe she will lay another clutch of eggs and try again.

This little hen is sitting on eggs!
She started on Wednesday, 27 April.
Chicken eggs hatch out in about 21 days.
We're hoping they hatch!

 

One of our friends had a 'broody hen' and she asked for eggs.

Her hen sat on the eggs and she was able to get a short video of one of the eggs hatching! I am so happy that she let me share it with you.

And here is another short video she got!

I'm lucky to have such nice friends!

Here are the two new chicks with their mama hen.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

A New Calf!

Welcome back!

We are so excited to show you our new calf!

This is Stumpy!

He was born Friday, March 22 2016

How old is he today?
Did he come sooner than we expected?
How many days early did he come?

This is how a calf drinks milk from his mother.
Echo is a wonderful mother!

Quin came to see Stumpy on the day he was born.
Quin is 3 years old.

My friend's cow had a calf the next day.
She watched it be born.
This is what a calf looks like right after she's born.

When they are born their hooves are covered with a soft covering called eponychium.

It covers with the hoofs to protect the mother while the calf is being born.
It dries quickly so their hooves get hard and they can stand on them.

This is what the calf looks like all dried off, but only a few hours old.

One of the first things we do after a calf is dried off is to measure them and weigh them. Nurses do the measured you when you were born, too!

We measure a calf's cannon bone.
That's the bone that goes from their ankle to their knee.
When Stumpy was born his was 6.5" long.
On Thursday (in the picture) his cannon bone was 7.5" long.
He grew 1" in a week!

We also weighed him the day he was born. He was 60.3 pounds. Most first graders weighs about 50 pounds. Stumpy weighed more than most of you the day he was born!

We also measure the height of his pin bone. He was 27.5" tall at his pin bone. Most 6 year olds are 42" tall, so you are taller than Stumpy.

A cow's pin bone is the top part of the hip on her back leg.

Echo measures 48" at her pin bone.
Would your head be taller than Echo's pin bone measurement?

I'll have more measurements and counting for you next week!

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Here are the egg counts for this week:

• On Friday I collected 5 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• On Saturday I collected 6 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• On Sunday I collected 14 brown eggs, 8 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• On Monday I collected 7 brown eggs, 7 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• On Tuesday I collected 17 brown eggs, 11 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, and 1 little egg.
• On Wednesday I collected 8 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, and 1 little egg.
• On Thursday I collected 10 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, and 2 little eggs.

We have two small, gray chickens. They lay small eggs. They started laying this week! 

Do you remember this friendly chicken who comes to say hi to me each morning?
She lays little eggs!

Next week I'll post more pictures about how we measure cows and goats. I'll also post more pictures of Stumpy and Echo. We're getting milk from Echo so in the next few weeks I'll show you how we milk her.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Friday Photos from the Farm #9

Happy Halloween!

I hope you are all having a great day. I bet it's one of your favorite days in school.

I'm going to keep today's message short because I'm sure your teacher has many fun things planned.

Here is this week's photo of the old chicks. Look how big they are getting! They all have the same father, but they have different mothers. That's why they aren't all the same color. Next week I'll send some photos of the hens that laid the eggs that hatched into chicks. You can match the hen to the chick! Even though the black mother hen hatched the eggs, she isn't the one who laid them all.

Do you see the little chick?

Where did it go? Look closely and you will see some tiny orange legs.

I put some chicken food out for the new mother hen. It's chilly this morning! Watch what her chicks do to stay warm!

How many chicks did you see? Did you count four chicks? Last week there were only three chicks. One more egg hatched the day after Farm Friday so now we have four new chicks.

It was so cold this morning that the water had ice floating on top of the buckets. Now you know why the little chicks were hiding under their mother. They were chilly, too!

All the animals have grown a winter coat of fur. It keeps them warm in the winter. I'm sure you wear your coat outside to recess when it's cold. The little chicks listen to their mother. They snuggle under her when it's cold because they don't want to get sick. I hope you listen to your mother and your teacher and wear your coat outside when it's cold. I don't want you to get sick!

Do you see the big bottle Quin is carrying? The bottle is a clue for the new animal that came to Welcome Home Farm last week.

Can you guess what animal drinks from a bottle that big?



After you make a good guess your teacher can scroll down to see if you are right.

It's a new calf! His name is Remington Steele because he was a beautiful grey color when he was born. His nick-name is Remi.
Do you have a nick-name?

I thought you might like to see Remi drink from a bottle, so we took a video of him.

He's a messy eater!
He always has milk dripping off his chin when he's done eating.

He is a sweet calf and we are so glad he came to live with us on the farm.

That's all for today!

Next week I'll post some pictures of the old chicks and some hens. You can guess which hens laid the eggs that hatched out each chick.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Gidget Has a Calf

Gidget belongs to Sheepy. Gidget had bucklings this year and Sheepy sold them so that she could have the milk for calves and cheese.

Look who gets the milk now!

Gidget, the goat, feeding her adopted calf.

Way to go Sheepy and Gidget!