The small sounds of Peeping.....

Our eggs Hatch Day came and went on April 3rd.....nothing.....not even a crack....not any little sign of promise.....ugh! I wasn't going to just give up! I decided that we would wait a couple extra days even if there were no good signs of progress. That night I was checking to be sure that there was water in the bottom for humidity in the incubator and stopped.....was that peeping I could hear? I called Rob out to listen to be sure that it wasn't just me. Sure enough he could hear it too!!!! I was so excited I could hardly stand it! We were up preparing for the Easter Bunny to visit and I was glued to the window of the incubator......peep.....peep......one egg can take 24 hours....oh my I was in for a long night! When we finally gave in to sleep there was a tiny chip in the shell......tiny.....

After we got up and enjoyed the joy of Easter baskets and egg hunts we decide to go to the den and check on the incubator. To our surprise we made it just in time. We watched......we waited and suddenly it all started to happen.....

It was amazing! And the goofballs that we are we were cheering for him......

He was hard at work



With one big push he was out! It was our first hatched egg and it was all I hoped. Rob, I and the boys all were lucky enough to see the whole thing.
What a great day to hatch!

Today our 24 hours had passed and some of the first hatched chicks have moved into a box as we wait for more to hatch.

Our head count is now 12 hatched and more with cracks, rocking and peeping! We had 38 eggs total and are hoping for about 1/2. We will keep you posted.


What a great Easter!

Our little Quackers!

Rob took the three big boys to our local TSC to pick up some Rabbit fencing for our new Easter Bunny's and come home with these! I had looked at them the day I was in search of the bunny's and I was temped....very temped. As much as I thought wow more babies I was totally excited! These are Rouen's. They are too cute for words. Very fun to watch and the kids just love them. We have a nice pond that will house them well. We will soon be able to let them try out swimming in shallow water! That will be very exciting! They are so much fun to watch playing in the water and lining up as they waddle off to see what the brooder holds!

They will look perfect on the pond as adults! Wonderful for us to enjoy and raise!

So much is happening here at the farm......

Spring has sure sprung here at the farm. The air is fresh and wonderful, birds are singing the flowers are popping out and baby animals are arriving! We have been tackling several project for the farm and house not to mention keeping up with busy kids lately! Wow we're so glad that the time has changed and there is more sun later in the day!





In this picture my sister in laws husband is prepping the ground for the placement of the new chicken coop that we bought. It arrived tonight and we are so excited to get it in place tomorrow! It is a wonderfully handmade coop that came from Yoders. They are located in Richfeild Springs NY. This coop is "pest proof" and we hope that will help to protect our flock.

This cute little one arrived a couple days before Easter with a sibling! So very cute! We decided that we would get the boys Bunnies for Easter. These are a Lion head/mix. Very soft and so darn cute!!!! They are very loved and are currently comfortable in the house in a rabbit cage. Rob and the boys will be working on building a hutch for them to stay in! The boys love to build with daddy. Not only are they making great memories with these projects they are learning so much in the process!

Our chicks are growing like crazy! This is one of our Heritage Delaware chicks with our oldest son! We spend a lot of time with our chicks from the beginning! They are well loved and hands are one them often! With our past flock our full grown chickens followed us everywhere. They loved people and were never really afraid of anyone. We are hoping that with this batch of chicks we have the same luck. This is however the first time that we have ever had straight run so I will find it interesting to see if there is a difference.

Our sap season has come to an end. It was a good season for us being new comers to the hobby. We weren't totally over run and unable to keep up. I do understand that those who rely on this as their lively hood are finding this hot flash we are having a big let down.....Now that we have tried our hand at this and have found out just how much work it is my heart goes out to them. We are already making plans for the building of our sugar shack this fall. We hope to have our new setup in place for next years sap run!

So much is in the works here at Baker's Acres that things are just humming! It's and exciting time of year for us all. We will keep you posted on all that is new and exciting!

Forest Management

Husqvarna!

a 16 footer!

The 52 Farmall Super A

Trying to do as little damage to the woods as possible!

Rob's doing a little forest management and cutting some mature Hemlock trees to make lumber for a shed and a future sugar shack for our maple syrup operation that we really want to work next year. Here are a few images of what's happening in the woods.

Holy Sheep!

I had my first lesson in sheep shearing and let me tell you I got a work out. The sheep were great not to bad to catch, didn't put up a fuss we just happened to pick an extremely cold day to do it! I think that I'm still recovering! There truly is nothing like squatting in odd positions on cold, hard, dirty concrete for hours......

This is a shot of Rob with Oreo. Being only a year old this spring she was new at this just like I was. Not as relaxed and her mama but she did fine and her fleece was great! Sadly Kizzy's wasn't so hot since she was not sheared this past fall.....I hope to get a nice cut from her later this year. They are Finn sheep and they are known for a nice fleece. The amount of Lanolin that I found I was covered in was unreal!

The whole family took part in the lesson with different jobs for everyone and the majority of these pictures were taken by the boys! They did really well with helping to keep the sheep calm and learning along side of me. This is a picture of Bryce collecting Oreos good fleece!

Elizabeth, my best friends (Sue is her name and she also joined us to lend a hand! Not only did she do a great job at holding the sheep she was wonderful comic relief) niece is originally from this area and was home from SUNY Morrisville on Spring break. She is by far the hardest working young women I know, and maybe have ever known. She loves the farm life and all that goes with it. She is outstanding with animals and it's very clear to the animals as well as anyone around her that she not has a strong skill but also passion for the things that she does. Her calm in control manner set the sheep and myself at ease. When it was my turn to try my hand at shearing she was great with instructing me and very positive, I was scared to death that at any given moment one was going to want to bolt and that not only could I hurt the sheep I would also hurt those around me. The shears were massive and very sharp! But all and all I did OK and most of all I had a great time doing it. I really think that in time with practice I could get good at this!

Kizzy and Oreo are now looking very slim and brighter. I'm hoping to that in time we will have enough fiber to take to a mill and have changed into yarn.....some day I hope to spin my own but I think that probably with four growing boys and many other Bakers Acres project that spinning may have to wait.....just a little while!

Signs of Spring

A wonderful sign of sping was a nice bright green slips, a great beginning of our garlic feild! In the fall Rob and the boys planted 2000 garlic seeds (which is a bulb of garlic split into cloves- then planted one clove at a time). We choose to go with Hard Stem Gralic because it does very well in this area and because of it's demand. We planted to types of this style, White Music and Rocamboly. Both are full of flavor but I think are rather different from eachother. If all goes well and our rainny spring isn't to overly wet they will continue to grow like they are now and we will have a wonderful crop. We love garlic and hope that we will help others to love it too! Our hope to find a good local market for this garlic. This is just one of the many things that Bakers Acres is working on for the up and coming future!

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of......

When Rob called and said that he was on his way home with something for the boys and I there was nothing that I could think of that it could be......then he told me that he hoped "they" didn't get out the the boxes......that was when I really got interested!

Anyone that knows my husband knows that he can't keep a secret! He loves to try but just can't do it because he loves to let it all out too! He told me that when he went to look at a new mower for one of the tractors that the very nice gentleman had tons of one of my favorite birds, Guinea Hens! They are just so different looking and sounding how could you not be attracted to them?

Rob told me that the man had so many to choose from it was hard to pick. He brought home a mix of male, female and colors! I was so excited! They were very nervous but we got them settled in for the night and they seemed cozy and relaxed. They are currently comfortable in a horse stall until we have another out door coop ready for them! The boys were thrilled with them. We had bought chick early fall last year and raised them. Sadly when we lost our chickens to some rotten animal that snuck in during the night and robbed us of all but two of our wonderful birds. These are about 6months old and so pretty. I always thought that the traditional image in my head of this bird was my favorite one.....I'm thinking now that I just love the pale almost silvery colored!

With a little luck we maybe lucky enough to raise some in the spring from their eggs! That would be wonderful too! They are wonderfully helpful birds that will clean out fleas and ticks, not to mention many other bugs in a heart beat! They are much more of a timid bird as to where our chickens in the past were very much "Pets". And the sound! Wow wee the hills are alive with the sounds of....hum....racket! And I love it!