My friend Sarah broke her thumb last week and has been having a heck of a time getting the morning chores done around her farm. I offered to come out and help her this morning, mostly because I wanted to make things a little easier for her but I will admit that I had selfish reasons too. The kids and I always have a great time when we are out at her farm, and one of the things she needed help with was milking her goats. Learning to milk just happens to be on my list of skills to master, so I jumped at the chance to cross it off the list.
Her farm is about 45 minutes from us, so we headed out early to get there in time for the 9am chores. First up was goat milking! We had 4 goats to milk, and its a good thing too....milking is a little difficult to get the hang of! I definitely struggled with the first two, trying to get the placement of my fingers just right, and trying to go fast enough that the goat didn't finish her food before I got done milking. Sarah was so patient and reached in to help a time or two and to give me pointers when I just wasn't getting it. The kids kept coming in and crowding around to watch, and I was definitely feeling the pressure! By the 3rd goat I was starting to get a little better feel for what I was doing, and by the 4th goat, Cleo (short for Cleopatra) I was a milking pro! Okay...maybe not quite that great, but I did get a rhythm down and had a much easier time filling my bucket. It also helped that Cleo was a complete sweetie, and very patient with me:
Giving the chickens some scratch was next up on the list, and the kids were happy to help with this one. Rowan carried the scoop down to the chicken area (a huge fenced off pasture but the chickens really roam wherever they please). The goats were pretty interested in what she had, and kept a close eye on her:
Look who it is! The two chickens on the right are our old chickens! They are actually how I met Sarah - when we had to find a new home for them I had placed an ad on a local chicken Yahoo group and Sarah was one of the people that offered them a home. I am so glad that she took them, they are so healthy and happy looking. Scrappy is the yellow chicken on the right, and Freckles is the speckled hen in the middle:
It was a little bittersweet seeing them as I am thrilled they have a great home, but I also really miss having our girls. Things are looking hopeful for chickens becoming legal in our city this year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will soon have another little flock to call our own.
The kids loved the chickens, and after feeding them they ran around catching all of them that they could:
We also got to see the piggies! Sarah got these guys from my friend Linda whose farm they were born on. I know they are a heritage breed as that's all that Linda raises...I think they are Duroc's or Duroc crosses. I am also pretty sure they are from the same litter as the pig we are getting this fall! They are super cute, if you are one of those people (I am) that thinks pigs are 'cute'.
After the pigs, we went around to see Sarah's bee hives. She has two hives that she got in the mail, and then a wild hive that her husband and her captured out of a tree stump. That hive swarmed, so they now have 4 hives! 3 of them are together in one area, and the kids and I sat down and watched the bees for a while:
They weren't as swarmy as I thought they would be - there was definitely a lot of activity, but it wasn't anything overwhelming or scary. The kids thought it was pretty cool, and we had a lot of fun watching them and learning about their behavior from Sarah. She had two other smaller hives, I think they were for making queens but I cant remember for sure. She let us peek into one:
It was so neat to see all those bee's hard at work. After a while the kids got bored and needed a snack, so we headed back up to the house to feed them. They sat in the grass next to the goat pen that had all the baby goats in it - and they and their mama's were certainly curious about what goodies we were eating!
While they ate I helped Sarah with a few other chores. When Killian was done eating he wanted to come in and hang out with the baby goats. He has such a soft spot for baby animals, and he is always so sweet and gentle with them. The babies certainly appreciated it and seemed to love him right back:
We had to leave around 1:00 to get to Sauvies Island to get more pickling cucumbers and to run some more errands on our side of town. No matter how long we visit Sarah's farm, it never seems like enough time. The kids and I just love it out there, and always have so much fun. Sarah is a gracious host, always happy to share what she knows and let us spend time with the animals. Her kids are a hoot, and play so well with mine that it makes for a really enjoyable day. I cant wait until we have a farm of our own, but until that happens it sure is nice to have friends who let us get our farm fix at their place!
Her farm is about 45 minutes from us, so we headed out early to get there in time for the 9am chores. First up was goat milking! We had 4 goats to milk, and its a good thing too....milking is a little difficult to get the hang of! I definitely struggled with the first two, trying to get the placement of my fingers just right, and trying to go fast enough that the goat didn't finish her food before I got done milking. Sarah was so patient and reached in to help a time or two and to give me pointers when I just wasn't getting it. The kids kept coming in and crowding around to watch, and I was definitely feeling the pressure! By the 3rd goat I was starting to get a little better feel for what I was doing, and by the 4th goat, Cleo (short for Cleopatra) I was a milking pro! Okay...maybe not quite that great, but I did get a rhythm down and had a much easier time filling my bucket. It also helped that Cleo was a complete sweetie, and very patient with me:
Giving the chickens some scratch was next up on the list, and the kids were happy to help with this one. Rowan carried the scoop down to the chicken area (a huge fenced off pasture but the chickens really roam wherever they please). The goats were pretty interested in what she had, and kept a close eye on her:
Look who it is! The two chickens on the right are our old chickens! They are actually how I met Sarah - when we had to find a new home for them I had placed an ad on a local chicken Yahoo group and Sarah was one of the people that offered them a home. I am so glad that she took them, they are so healthy and happy looking. Scrappy is the yellow chicken on the right, and Freckles is the speckled hen in the middle:
It was a little bittersweet seeing them as I am thrilled they have a great home, but I also really miss having our girls. Things are looking hopeful for chickens becoming legal in our city this year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will soon have another little flock to call our own.
The kids loved the chickens, and after feeding them they ran around catching all of them that they could:
We also got to see the piggies! Sarah got these guys from my friend Linda whose farm they were born on. I know they are a heritage breed as that's all that Linda raises...I think they are Duroc's or Duroc crosses. I am also pretty sure they are from the same litter as the pig we are getting this fall! They are super cute, if you are one of those people (I am) that thinks pigs are 'cute'.
After the pigs, we went around to see Sarah's bee hives. She has two hives that she got in the mail, and then a wild hive that her husband and her captured out of a tree stump. That hive swarmed, so they now have 4 hives! 3 of them are together in one area, and the kids and I sat down and watched the bees for a while:
They weren't as swarmy as I thought they would be - there was definitely a lot of activity, but it wasn't anything overwhelming or scary. The kids thought it was pretty cool, and we had a lot of fun watching them and learning about their behavior from Sarah. She had two other smaller hives, I think they were for making queens but I cant remember for sure. She let us peek into one:
It was so neat to see all those bee's hard at work. After a while the kids got bored and needed a snack, so we headed back up to the house to feed them. They sat in the grass next to the goat pen that had all the baby goats in it - and they and their mama's were certainly curious about what goodies we were eating!
While they ate I helped Sarah with a few other chores. When Killian was done eating he wanted to come in and hang out with the baby goats. He has such a soft spot for baby animals, and he is always so sweet and gentle with them. The babies certainly appreciated it and seemed to love him right back:
We had to leave around 1:00 to get to Sauvies Island to get more pickling cucumbers and to run some more errands on our side of town. No matter how long we visit Sarah's farm, it never seems like enough time. The kids and I just love it out there, and always have so much fun. Sarah is a gracious host, always happy to share what she knows and let us spend time with the animals. Her kids are a hoot, and play so well with mine that it makes for a really enjoyable day. I cant wait until we have a farm of our own, but until that happens it sure is nice to have friends who let us get our farm fix at their place!