The Circle of Life

Lots of babies are being born this spring including chickens and goats!
When I got here there were 16 eggs in the incubator in the dining/game room, kept at a balmy 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (one of my favorite words!). It takes 21 days for chickens to hatch and 28 days for turkeys. We were a little delayed in candling the eggs (shining a light through the shells to see if a baby chick is inside) so we couldn't see much of anything other than darkness covering the bottom 90% of the egg. We were able to see some veins in the placenta (if that's indeed what it's called) and some floaty movements. Promisingly enough, 11 of the 16 eggs contained chicks! They were conveniently scheduled to hatch during our open house or Family Farm Day, however just four chicks hatched a day later. The temperature in the incubator fluctuated quite a bit which may have caused the low birth rate.

 The first two chicks within an hour of hatching

Approximately a day old

Farm Day was a momentous event that we spent all week preparing for by making posters, food, and coming up with activities. I made morning glory muffins and showed people how to make simple friendship bracelets using the Chinese Staircase technique. I was intrigued by the different color combinations everyone chose and was surprised that some kids picked it up faster than some adults. The kids have since gotten really into it, making the chevron and candy stripe styles for themselves and their friends. They even had the creative idea of making them into bookmarks.

There was lots of good food including lemon rosemary cupcakes, double chocolate chip cookies, applesauce bars, whoopie pies, maple pecan shortbread, and homemade bread with roasted vegetable spread. There was a scavenger hunt, guess how many chicks to win a dozen eggs (the answer was 167 which one of Laura's friend guessed exactly right), seed planting, and face painting. There was even a super cool observation bee hive frame along with all kinds of neat facts and books about the animals. All said and done, over 115 people showed up to enjoy Ironbound Farm!

I finally milked my first full gallon bucket! It only took 3 weeks... Unfortunately, I have been unable to replicate the feat. Apparently there is a sweet spot where the cow will let down a lot of milk and you have to be fast enough to milk it all before she starts to save it for the baby. It doesn't help that Smidge picks up on the fact that I'm a newbie: she seems to think that the milking station is a good place to go to the bathroom. So I'm off milking duty for the rest of the week to deter her from getting into bad habits.

The teenage chicks are still growing like crazy and go through food like no tomorrow. We recently picked up a full pallet which equals 2 tons! Jason built an automatic waterer using a large plastic barrel for Mother's Day which was a huge help since we had to refill the previous containers 3x per day. We had our first red-tailed hawk attack when the fence was off, of course. He did, however, get stuck in the netting and had to be coaxed out by a brave Nancy who was more worried about hurting him than getting scratched or bitten herself.

Smidge and Billy

We've done a bit more gardening including planting cilantro, basil, rosemary, parsley, and tomatoes. I visited Julietta again to do some weeding, transplanting, and staking. Aside from my vegan leanings, I've decided it's far easier and less time-consuming to garden than have animals. One of the things I'm most looking forward to about being settled is being able to plan and tend my own garden.

We also got to do some beekeeping last week. Bees apparently prefer light-colored clothing and hate the smell of bananas since it is similar to their alert that something is attacking the hive. I unknowingly ate a banana for breakfast the first day we thought about doing it and thus had to postpone the activity for a day. Overall, it wasn't as scary as I imagined it would be. I tucked my pant legs into my muck boots, over shirt into my jeans, and sleeves into thick rubber gloves. I also wore a hat with mesh over my face and netting that covered my chest and neck. The bees were quite gentle and didn't bother us much aside from a few curious workers who wanted to "check us out." I did have to retreat into the chicken coop once when we weren't returning the frames to the hive fast enough for their satisfaction. I mostly just stood there and took pictures of the frames to analyze back inside but next time I'll be doing more hands on work!

I haven't done as much hiking lately but did get back out to Wonder Lake with my friend Melissa and her two dogs. We're going to Breakneck on Saturday and doing a 5k obstacle course on June 9th. Time to start training! As soon as this is published, I'm going to head over to the bike trail in Mahopac to test my endurance. Go team Mudder Funkers!

Over the weekend I went up to the Beacon waterfront for lunch and some "urban" exploration around Denning's Point.

Private picnic area after walking a quarter mile and climbing over driftwood

The water was warmer than expected

A bridge that I was too scared to cross since the gaps between the ties were as wide as my body!

The grand finale is... baby goats! After checking Cali's tendons on Sunday night, we knew her kid(s) would be born within 24 hours. There are two pencil thin tendons near the doe's tail that seem to disappear within 12-24 hours of the birth. To prepare, we put Cali into the birthing stall and set up a baby monitor so we could watch and listen to what was going on from the house. Around 8 AM on Monday, we heard really intense bleating over the monitor. I felt horrible because it sounded like violent screams of pain, but luckily the labor was fairly quick, about 5 minutes of contractions before the first kid was born. We didn't have to assist much aside from wiping the fluid from her nose and mouth and lightly drying her with a towel.

Birth video

Nancy used a technique called bouncing to feel the uterus and see if there is another kid to be delivered. To our surprise there was! After a 15 minute break, another few minutes of contractions, baby #2 was born. They are almost identical twin girls! We have yet to decide on names but some in the running are: Zoe and Chloe and Midnight and Twilight. Any ideas?

They don't like to sit still even when they're laying down!