Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[lorihadams]

Tuesday

MY HUSBAND WANTS GOATS!!!!!!

We stopped by AussieSharon's house on a whim yesterday evening (she lives about 10 minutes from us and we had never met) and took a peek at her yard full of animals and 2 little baby goats and a little lamb walked up to him and went MAAAAAAA. He melted, that was all it took. My evil plan is working!!!! I couldn't believe that my husband would just pull into someone's driveway and go up to the front door and say "Hey, can we see your chicken coop?" Someday that man is going to be met with a shotgun in the face. He will go up to anyone's house and ask them if he can hunt their property. Scares me to death but everyone likes him.

Sharon was very helpful and let us see all her animals except the 300 chicks and quail in the basement

He also called me today and said that he scored some free plywood from work in addition to the pallets and that he would bring it home to stock up for a new (BIGGER) chicken coop.

He also wants ducks!!! Can I just say how much Sharon has made my life easier! Woo Hoo!!!

He wants incubators too, and he's considering guineas and quail!!!!

Can you see me smiling through the screen???

Today has been lazy, somewhat, I am caught up on the housework and got plenty of bread in the cupboard so I decided to put on my bathing suit (ugh) and pull weeds in the driveway. Figured I may as well work on my tan before I go to the beach in a few weeks so I don't blind everyone.

I just want to say that I am truly grateful that I found this site and have started to change this family's way of life. My husband told Sharon yesterday that "we just want to be more self sufficient" and I thought I would fall over. Thank you to everyone on here that has been supportive and given ideas to me and offered up help. I don't know where I would be if we hadn't decided to change our ways.

 

[Beekissed]

OH, Lori! What wonderful news!!!! That's like winning the SS lottery...to have a partner hook up and start pulling in the traces along with you is invaluable!

Good day, huh?

And goats?

 

[Aidenbaby]

Congratulations!!! Maybe your DH can talk to my DH about how much fun ca be had doing that whole SS thing. DH is still stuck on the it's a whole lot of work part. I think he forgets to stop and smell the roses sometimes.

What kind of goats are ya getting?

 

[Blackbird]

Charbee is too cute in a toady type of way!

Yay for you and your husband! Glad he sees the light - and thats awesome about the goats!
Get some Nubians =]

 

[lorihadams]

We are still discussing the goat issue, I want dairy and he wants meat. He also wants a myotonic for the sheer entertainment value

I was looking into nigerian dwarfs because of the size issue, my kids are 4 and 2 so I don't know if I want a HUGE goat running around. We have a neighbor down the road that raises boers so if we really wanted the meat we can buy from him. I like nubians but they are so big. I think we might need to start small.

I want to get some more Japanese bantams. I have the one roo now and I think he needs some ladies his own size, although he doesn't seem to have too much trouble with my full sized hens as I am getting fertile eggs all the time, especially my EE. I also think I want to try some other breed for egg laying. I have red sex links and barred rocks and 1 EE now. I was thinking about Black Australorps but I don't know yet. Any opinions are welcomed!!!

Went to the library this morning and a woman left me some egg cartons behind the desk, score!!! Got some really cute books for the kids and Raising Turkeys Ducks Geese Pigeons and Guineas by Cynthia Haynes.

Gonna do boyscout suppers for dinner and clean up the baby pool for Tyler. He wants to go swimming and it is supposed to be in the mid 80s tomorrow so I think if I let the water warm up tomorrow morning it will be just right by tomorrow afternoon. Gonna do laundry tomorrow too since the weather will be nice. Got my electric bill and last month's was $85 and this month's was $86! How's that for consistent?

Tyler is enjoying his fire bellied toads, as are we, we got some good earthworms for them to eat yesterday while I was pulling weeds (figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone) They were chirping so loud last night that we muted Deadliest Catch to listen to them!

Anyway, off to clean and maybe get some sewing done. I got some cute pink John Deere fabric to make a dress for Maddie and some cute frog fabric to make Tyler some novelty pillowcases. He likes to sleep on a special pillow, right now he has a scooby doo pillowcase but I need a backup when that one is in the wash, so frogs reading books it is!

 

[Aidenbaby]

Lori - I have 6 girls. 2 EE's, 1 Dominique, 1 salmon Faverolle, 1 Delaware and 1 Andalusian. The least shy of the group is my Delaware. She is very friendly even with minimal handling. The most skittish is my Andy. She hauls donkey every time she even suspects I'm coming to hold her. The Faverolle is somewhat of a loner and seems to care less if we hold her or ignore her. The Dominique likes to hang out with the big girls and pick on the little ones. Because I have younger kids, I purposely picked breeds that are suited for cold weather (well, except for the Faverolle), docile and friendly (except for my andy). I used mypetchicken.com's breed selector tool. To sum up my favorite girls are one of my EE's and my Delaware. It's hard not to like a bird that approaches you.

 

[modern_pioneer]

Your welcome, I think you will find the book useful. It's a good book, I just couldn't get my head in it. I think it just wasn't my style because there is a ton of useful stuff in there.

I hope you and the clan enjoy the spaghetti sauce, it is 100% organic, everything but the salt/pepper came from my garden.

Chad did a great job on the hoops.... If I were to guess, he used electrical conduit and pvc pipe?

 

[punkin]

Think your DH could talk to my DH about the goats? Just kiddin'. If I really, really pushed, I think he would get them.

My vote would be for the Dwarf Nigerians

 

[lorihadams]

I like the nigerian dwarves too, I like the nubians but the last time I went to see some one bit me! Probably my own stupid fault.....I was letting him suck on my finger

I just like the smaller breeds, we drink milk like crazy, though so we'll have to see about the amount of milk we get. We have an acre+ of woods behind the house so there is lots of stuff for them to forage for. It would be nice to get rid of some of the poison ivy and brush, honeysuckle, weeds. We have some hardwoods mixed in too with cedars and a few pines. I have heard that goats don't do well with oak trees, though. We have a side yard where we wanted to put another chicken coop/run but we may move that and use the side yard for a goat pen. It has 6 or 7 cedars and pines and lots of grass. Don't know yet...still in the planning stages. Maybe next year's tax refund can go towards fencing and baby goaties!!! Hurry up and wait.....

Today I am doing more laundry....did 4 loads yesterday and filled up the line. I also made 5 bags/purses yesterday. Let Tyler break in the baby pool yesterday, man did he sleep good last night!

 

[lorihadams]

Thought I would share a few pics I took of Tyler yesterday in the pool.

Here's his tent that we made yesterday while playing