Well as usual we are getting things done in the midst of chaos.  Having a toddle to help on the farm is not always super helpful believe it or not!  Our yard is littered with dog toys, kid toys (sometimes I can’t tell which is which), kiddie pools (which of course the border collie uses also) and various other items to trip over.  We are trying to get as much fence put up as possible before winter which means Henley and I are putting fence insulators on while her daddy pounds in posts.  My barn is set up so that I can enclose Henley behind the gate to the feed room keeping her put of the way of horses being shuffled from outside to their stalls.  This works well until she found out how to get the lid off the grain and taste tested most of the animal grain (sheep apparently is her favorite).  Adjusting to farming with kids is much different but the joy my kiddo experiences on this farm is worth the extra time it take me to do everything!

We have been busy here getting ready for all the animals to come home. The barn is mostly done and is ready for the horses to come home along with a batch of baby chickens. My incubator eggs are two weeks from hatching. We candled the eggs and about 9 of them out of 14 that shipped are developing well. Fence is being put up and Jeff is going to pick up hay today. On Friday night we will be having the farm edition of date night by picking up the llama together. I am so happy that soon everyone will be home!

You might be thinking that doesn’t sound good at all but you would be oh so wrong. For a year now Jeff and I have been on a roller coaster journey of changing jobs and moving. We had our farm for sale for about 6 months before it finally sold. The new buyers then sold there house adding an additional few months of waiting. It was at this point in February we had a mad scramble to finish packing and moving all the farm (while still covered in snow).

We have been living with my mother in-law since the beginning of March with our two dogs and two cats. The farm animals are all staying with friends. About two weeks into our stay we found the perfect little farm in the perfect location!

Then it’s been a waiting game to close… and waiting… and waiting! I am not a patient person nor have I ever been but having the end of the be over has seemed like it is taking forever. Jeff and I look at pictures of our new house and barn and already have so many plans and dreams! Most of all I cannot wait to get my animals home I miss them terribly and I know my daughter Henley has missed our midway farm checks of all the animals!

This coming year has so many exciting things in our future. We have added a ram to our flock and will be having lambs in the spring. We have a new rabbit to add to the farm so we will once again be raising meat rabbits. I am also excited to say that this year I think I will finally get a garden planted!

The baby had gone down for bed, I had settled in to watch tv for the night with Jeff just as the transformer across the street blew up which plunged our home into darkness. Well of course Henley slept through the ensuing chaos like the champ that she is! Jeff calmly got up and proceeded to start setting up the generator since it was below freezing and we had a sleeping baby in the house. I settled in to watch tv on the iPad by candlelight while Jeff (being wonderful as he is) took care of making sure we wouldn’t freeze to death! Well he ended up having a friend of the family come over to help him.

I’m going to back up a bit… I asked for a rabbit for my birthday which my wonderful husband arranged. I found Calamity Jane (the rabbit) on a local farm group I am a part of. This rabbit is a Flemish Giant who is destined to be Pistol Pete’s (our giant chinchilla) new wife, and they will make beautiful babies! Well, we are still about a week and a half away from moving into our new farm so we are still living with my mother in-law. Now I’m sure any of you who know me can imagine the conversation about where are we going to put Jane at my mom’s house that I had with Jeff. In the end I convinced Jeff Jane would just have to live in the basement for two weeks until we get to the farm.

Back to the power outage… I’m all settled on the couch when I hear from the basement a very calm cool and collected “Well that’s not good…” this was followed by lots of crashing and banging. Turns out Gus was bored waiting for the lights to come back on and He wanted to go and stare at the bunny for awhile. Well as Gus was staring at Jane he must have got his collar stuck on the grate that was keeping Jane from jumping out. Upon realizing that he was now attached to the rabbit cage Gus proceeded to not so calmly freak out. The ensuing chaos resulted in the cage being knocked over and Jane escaping. Gus was torn between chasing Jane or dying of stress by being chased himself by her enclosure.

I made my way downstairs and made sure Gus was freed and told him to lie down so he wouldn’t make JAne panic. I have spent some considerable time bonding with JAne so when she saw me she hopped right up to me and let me pick her up. Much to Gus’s disappointment I calmly put Jane away in her cage with out his help and ushered the completely unhelpful border collie upstairs. In all this chaos I remembered that we are just a few days away from moving into our new farm (which will bring its own chaos) and that Hen and I would once again be farmers.

This time next month I will be setting up the incubator for baby chicks!! I plan to have it all ready so that when we get back from Florida I can pick up my eggs. A friend is giving me some of her hen’s fertilized eggs to hatch. They are going to be a mixed batch of wyandottes and ameracaunas which will give us both brown and green/blue eggs!