Welcome Flash!

February is about over and today certainly felt like spring. What a beautiful day at Lazy Danes and productive, too!

This morning we got an early start and got Chipper and Sage disbudded. For those not familiar with this, you take a giant soldering iron and burn off the nubs of the kids horns that are beginning to emerge. It sucks for the kids and for us and it stinks! As with many things in life though, it's for their own good. They shook off their trauma quickly, luckily, and are no worse for the wear.

Sage is on the left, Chipper is getting a darker mask around his eyes

Next, I was off to pick up our new herdsire, Flash. He's not much on the sire part yet, but he'll be ready in the fall. Flash came from Buffalo Creek Farm in Germanton (same place we got Rosie and Petunia). He's a little unsure about the newness, but hopefully he and Chipper will be bounding around together soon. I'm going to have to do some creative separating over the next few weeks so tomorrow's goal is to obtain a Gallagher smart fence. Here's hoping Clemmon's Mill has them in stock and they're as easy to operated as the videos show. Chuck and I also built a little loafing shed for the little goats. Not sure where it will be permanently but for now it's in the main pen. The back pen has been walked and I'm picking up another fence charger for it tomorrow, also.

Flash- I love the little white band on his nose.

We also got some general farm maintenance done - pens cleaned, ponds filled, etc. Then it was time to plant! Chuck and Madison planted beets, peas (snap and snow) and lettuce, while Willow and I started feeding and bringing animals in.

Coming up, we're still awaiting Scarlet's kids- she is beginning to make her udder, so any time now... Our newest chicks will arrive the week of March 7th. Foxy has been bread to Isaac for bunnies late in March. And, hopefully, this week I will start milking Rosie once a day for our delicious goats milk! Yum!

A couple of our roosters...

Peck- head honcho

(Partridge Cochin)

Spaulding - number 2

(Delaware)

Time to Plan

Now is planning time on the farm- big plans, small plans, long plans and short plans.

Last weekend was beautiful and we spent some time prepping the raised beds. Manure was added to increase the nitrogen and more will follow. Seeds are ordered and waiting for the right time. The first to go in, snow peas, will be planted in a couple weeks, followed closely by lettuce and beets. The plan is to have a more productive garden this year and actually can some of our own food. Fingers crossed!

The goats are all doing very well. Rosemary's two are beginning to bound and climb things. The plan for the Nigerian's is to keep Rosemary's doeling- we named her Sage. The buckling is getting a wonderful home with our neighbor- he will be wethered and kept as a pet. His name, as given by our neighbor, is Spotty. For a longer term plan, we have purchased an unrelated buckling that will join us when old enough, and he will be the herdsire for purebred Nigerian's. Chuck played a big part in naming him Flash. Roscoe stays to service the Nubians- he's very sweet and smaller than a purebred Nubian buck. I'm just not ready to wrestle a 300 pound stinky head-butter. Scarlet should be due in about 3 weeks, her kids will be sold- hopefully as pets or milking does. Madison and Willow will be responsible for milking the Nigerians next year, and we should have lots of milk left over to make soap. We're planning to increase the goat browse area before all the spring buds, too. That will help clear out brush, especially around the creek, and give them nom noms.

Chickens- ugh! Well, they're laying a little again. We lost a total of 5 over the winter. A dog got one, a fox (we think) got 2, and 2 are mysteries. After the fox, which was the most recent loss, I sucked it up and ordered more. The plan as of last spring had been to raise our own Delawares to process, however, 2 losses were Delewares so I'm rethinking our meat birds. I ordered Dark Cornish to be our meat birds this time around. They are heavier than the others we've butchered so far and grow faster. They are neat looking, too! I ordered 15 total, 10 males and 5 females. The females will be breeders and all but 1 male will be dinner. The others that I ordered are 4 Partridge Cochin hens for Peck- these also make great mothers if any of the ducks or other chickens don't want to raise their own. For a laugh, and, I really love having chickens, I ordered 6 White Hat Black Polish. These crazy looking birds are black bodied with a big poof of feathers on their head. These will lay eggs, but are mainly for pets. Hoping the rooster is nice since they are obviously more adorned than the hens. All the newbies will arrive March 8th or 9th so hopefully it will warm up a bit by then.

The ducks have been keeping us in eggs over the winter- they have not been bothered by snow, rain, cold or short days. This spring, we'll let some hatch- either by the ducks or by a chicken. The Pekin will be dinner and the others offered as pets or dinner. I'll need to get each breed separated so we know what's what, but there's plenty of time.

The rabbits have a date today. I'll be putting the does in with Isaac. This should be an easy way to keep up with due date- 28 days. If temps are still low I'll put in heat lamps this time.

Well, that's the skinny on what's coming up for Lazy Danes! I'll leave you with adorableness...

Sage on the left, she's noticeably larger, nuzzling Spotty

Spotty

Sage

Spotty getting nom noms.

New buckling, Flash. Scheduled to arrive around March 1st.