We have more babies...

Don't worry! They are baby chicks. We thought it would be nice for the kids to experience birth with the chickens. So when we discovered one of our Buff Orpingtons was broody, we let her sit on some eggs. Some are hers and some belong to the other girls. We started with 8 eggs but she broke one. She was terribly upset, but quickly got rid of the stinky yoke buy eating it. A week after sitting on the eggs we added 3 more (marking them). SO...out of 10 eggs....

5 babies were born 3 weeks later. Three weeks of sitting and sitting. I think I would rather have 9 months of moving around. :) She only gets off to relieve herself, maybe once every 2 days. She eats very little so her body can handle it. Though her comb started to get a little pale so we gave her scrambled eggs and sausages. 

As soon as those babies were born, her comb color started to come back. You can see her watchful eye on me. I was trying to put food in her crate and she peaked at my hand. The feathers on the back of her neck are up too. This is only her first time being a mom, as she is only about 15 months old. She is a good one, though.

Barn Build begins...

What a busy day at The Funny Farm. We had lots of activity with someone digging for our barn foundation and someone coming to harvest our hay.

I need to practice with this camera more often.

This is me playing with my photography skills.

and cut our hay!

and cut....

where he cut....

the local dairy farmer sends his son to our house...

So we are happily digging for our new barn, then...

Um? Where is all this dirt going to go? John...where are the kids?

and moved a LOT of dirt!

and dug...

and dug...

Then a digger showed up...

Once Upon A Time, there was a small farm house sitting on 19 acres

Can you tell he is a happy guy?

A toy showed up one day...OK it is a tool!

Some personal pictures from our new life at the farm

As construction starts to come to an end, until we sell the old house, build the barn (and John's shop), and then he starts working on cabinets, we will have more pictures of us living at our new place and some fun stuff we are trying as "farmers".

What could we be doing with all this hay?

Getting ready for some hunting!!

Matt has done well. One day when he can pull enough pounds, those deer will be filling my freezer!

He wanted you to see how many times he hit the SMALL pumpkin!

Mark is preparing for the Fall Fowl Festival with the 4H Poultry Club President, Tommy.

He is using one of our Americanas to do Showmanship.

He is showing our new Cochin Hen. She did OK.

RIP to our Cochin Rooster. He died in November. We had him examined by a vet for the 4H Poultry kids and found out he had lots of birth defects. The one that likely caused his death was an over-sized heart. He was a sweetie after all! :(

Mark is doing Showmanship. This is where he tells a judge everything he knows about chickens and this breed in particular. He got 80 our of 100, which everyone feels was a great job for the first time. He is looking forward to trying again.

Some of our 4H Poultry kids after placing for showmanship.

A double rainbow for the first time at our new home.

What am I going to do with all these feed bags. I will post soon.

Lots of catching up to do

We have moved into the house, and life is moving fast. I have not been able to take as many pictures as I wanted but I have a few. I will take some more today and post them of our first Christmas at our new home. There is still a lot of work to be done, but like our sign says "Welcome to the Funny Farm. We might not have it all together, but together we have it all". Welcome to our new world. Welcome to our blessing!

Our Portico columns are going up. Each column took about 20 bags of cement each. 

There goes the roof!

We are trying to figure out, does it look bigger with the portico or without.

Our first fire in the new fireplace. The big screen TV will be there but you need to see the Christmas pictures. 

The last thing to be done on the portico is the stone up the column. John says that needs to be the spring or summer so it can set quicker in warmer temperatures. 

Carpet and floors

Floors are almost done. We just have issue with knots. They were filled in but for some reason the filler was absorbed. The floor company is making another attempt.

The more I think about it, the more I think we need a stone mailbox stand. It would hold up to any snow bank or teenager with a bat. 

I love this school room. The thoughts of shelves along the walls, just gets me gitty!

I am so glad I don't have to worry about the kids now that the railing is up. It looks great!!

The Master Bedroom with carpet.

I am not sure what our daughter is doing but she loves her room.

Bedroom without girl :)

Our boys had to vacuum the little carpet piece out. This is a Zamboni technique.

The new granite.

Our commercial size refrigerator and freezer. This should hold a few deer, cows and chickens.