Ticking Time Bomb

Here she is, my beautiful future cow Blackie.  Don't let this photo deceive you, she in only 41 inches tall so her back is level with the waist of my jeans.

She is due to calf any day now and is a Jersey so we expect incredible milk.  She is halter broken and can be hand or machine milked.  We expect between 2-4 gallons a day (depending on if we leave the calf on her or not). 

If she has a heifer calf it will come with her to our house, if it's a bull calf then she will sadly leave him behind.  When she arrives she should be bred back so we'll have a calf to look forward to next year.  

C'mon Blackie, let's get that baby out already!

(When she calves I'll post an update.  She is starting to bag up so it's coming!)

Another step

Great news, I found a rental with fields, a barn (complete with water and electricity) and .....wait for it.... a two car garage *gasp!  I honestly don't know what I'll do with myself.  It's not that I don't love the 800+ ft2 3 bdrm apartment with 5 kids and no yard (oh wait, I actually don't love it), I just can't imagine this space.

The poultry orders are placed.
15 chickens
9 ducks
1 goose
and 3 dozen extremely beautiful hatching eggs.

I still need to track down a turkey and a pig but other than that I'm getting VERY close to meeting my animal goals.

Woot!

On a roll

It's trailer time :o) and here she is.
After months of perusing craigslist and dozens of emails we found a great trailer in great condition at a great price.

We can now official transport our livestock although that pet carrier in the back of the minivan with 5 kids was appealing, this seemed like a teeny bit better idea.

It's strange but the kids LOVE playing in this thing.  The side doors, tack room, and back doors are all very exciting for little hands and it's almost like a fort on wheels.  Who knew?

A Good Week for Aspiring Farmers

This has been a very good week for homestead steps. 

Baby goat deposit is in! It's the year of "C" names for American Dairy Goat Association (AGDA) registration so I'm scouting for good femmy names that start with C.  This little girl will have to go outside of her comfort zone and be friends with a sheep.

The sheep registration doesn't have yearly letters so the sky is the limit on our sheep.

Homestead total: 1 sheep and 1 goat down.

Long Time Coming

Today I did something I've been wanting to do for over seven years. I bought a merino lamb.  She is the first official purchase for the homestead which begins in less than 4 months.  I've been searching the country and emailing breeders trying to find something that is available and affordable that also fits my requirements (ewe, white, show quality, <20 micron count fleece).

Here she is.  White merino ewe lamb 4 months old. 

Twin. 9 lbs at birth currently 70 lbs from two white parents.

I got my pick from 16 white ewe lambs.  I looked through the pics and info and this little girls stood out to me on the first pass.  After creating an XL spreadsheet comparing all info she actually ended up statistically being the best choice.  While I'd like to think I have a 'good eye' for something I know nothing about, it turns out that this is just the sheep for me :o) 

The plan is to use a black ram for her first breeding to eventually produce different colored kids to provide a nice variety of wool colors.  She will arrive in a little over a month.  My husband said I should buy a brown ram lamb at the same time (such an enabler) but I think I'd like to start small so it doesn't get overwhelming.  We are going tomorrow to see other animals so for now our sheep count will happily stay at 1.

*If you live in Pennsylvania it is a very good time to buy sheep since serious breeders from all over the country will be attending the Sheep & Wool fair in Maryland and come from near and far and will bring you animals for a small fee.