Enjoying the Farm

Things have been very busy here at the Farm. We have had a swing in the weather that has kept us in for a couple of day due to the rain which was much needed. We had quite a stretch without any rain to refresh our little farm. Now we have had a soaking and things are greener, and growing wonderfully! I love seeing the garden and just how much it has grown. I've always found it exciting to see the earth come to life!

We are very busy getting the grounds ready for our big and exciting event known to many as "The Birthday Bash" please check it at, http://www.bakersacresofchenango.org/ and join in the fun! We have a day that is open to the public and would love to see you all there! This will be a fun filled event that has been created to celebrate the joys of camping, travel, memories both past and those in the making! Its focus is on that of Airstream's and those that enjoy them.

Our sheep are all doing well and have been growing like weeds and loving life here at Bakers Acres! I'm still in search of a Finn Ram that I can use this fall....this is proving to be harder then I ever thought that it would be. Seems that there aren't to many Finn Breeders that are in NY so finding and unrelated Ram is currently a thorn in my side so to speak! I do have high hopes the still locate one before fall.

Our chickens are really turning into beautiful birds. Our first batch are very lively! Soon they will hitting 15 weeks which means that soon eggs will be arriving! We have however found that we have at least 4 Roosters! UGH! These will have to be thinned out. They are all very pretty and we enjoy watching them but two are rather aggressive toward the hens and I would like to relocate them.....I would like to keep one or two of the Marans for breeding. The chicks that we hatched are growing like crazy! They are trying to patiently wait for their new coop to arrive and the 20 other chicks that we have are now out of the brooder and soon will be ready for a coop as well. They are all hens and will be wonderful egg layers.

Our garlic is beautiful! I will be cutting Scape's tomorrow and plan on putting them to good use. The smell is wonderful and I'm really looking forward to cooking with them. Next year when we have our farm stand is up and running we will be able to share them with you!

All and all we have been loving life here on the Farm. Watching our children grow, our farm grow and our lives grow! It can't get much better then this!

Baa Baa Black Sheep....

Baa Baa Black Sheep......tell me she isn't cute! Welcome to our new addition! We have yet to name her but hope that we will have a great name for her tomorrow. She arrived this morning and fit right in with the other lambs! The twins ran right over to her as if to say "it's you!".

She has a perfect little Babydoll face with a wonderful smile and a great personality. The kids have totally enjoyed playing with her and she comes right up to them. All of our babies are so very freindly. This has been such a great experience for our kids and us. I would encourage anyone with children and the desire to raise an animal with them. It's not only totally rewarding for them but it is for you as well as you watch your child grow.

A great little helper

This amazing little thing majorly helped me out with the "Bottle Babies". These are called Pritcherd Nipples and they are smaller then the normal sheep bottle topper. I was introduced to it by one of the owners of the Border Cheviot's. She told me how wonderful they were and was kind enough to pass a couple of them on to me. After seeing just how great they were I headed to the store to invest in some more. I also transitioned the Daisy and Maisy (the Babydolls) over to them. The first feeding they weren't sure but by the second it worked great for them and the transition proved to be very simple.

One of the great things about this bottle top is just that it fit on some "people" drink containers like soda, and bottled water. This is very helpful since that allows you to have the right sized bottle to hold all of the milk that the sheep require which saved a lot of time for me and them. They all were able to drink from them at a nice speed as well and they were easy to clean. As far as I'm concerned they were a great find and I was grateful for being passed down some! I would recommend them to anyone with baby sheep!

Quack, Qauck Waddle Waddle

Quack Quack

Our ducks are grown into their beautiful water feathers. They now have a real "Quack" about them as well. Sadly they can't head to the pond. While Rob was down fishing with the boys the other day he spotted a very large (12inches around) Snapper. Knowing the damage that they can do to young water foul we have decided that until he is removed the ducks will have to enjoy a kiddy pool. We were really looking forward to introducing them to the pond but for now we will have to wait for now.

Beginnings of a Raspberry Patch

We have been working on getting a Raspberry Patch, Blueberry Patch and and Apple Orchard started. We will have to use some TLC to be sure that everything really gets settled in and takes hold but so far we are seeing progress and we are looking forward in the years to come enjoying all of the wonderful gifts they will all give us.

Who Said That It Was To Early To Plant?

I find it interesting.....people even if they don't garden seem to keep wanting us to start our garden only around Memorial Day. No sooner several people have said. Hum.....We started ours weeks ago! We did some reading on Cold weather planting and what are good early spring plants to get in the ground that can handle the frost that is still to come. I'm happy to share some of the photos of what we have peeping out so far!

Beets

They must be tasty since we are have three rabbits that visit them every morning and every evening.....we will need to come up with a fencing system .

Onions

Rob is just having wonderful luck with the onions that he planted! He planted both Red and White . They are growing wonderfully! A dear friend of mine was telling me that she was heading out to get onion sets and hoped that she would get them in the ground in two weeks.....I didn't have the heart to tell her that our we grown wonderfully and coming along very ahead of schedule.
Peas

Now these the rabbits love!!!!! They seem to hop up and down the row all the time.....so I'm very impressed that they are looking as great as they do! Rob may say that his favorite color is red but he sure has a green thumb!

I think that with the right planning on good cold weather plants you are fine to start early. We are having good luck so far and when there are frost warnings we will take them to heart and be sure to cover. As for now we are enjoying watching everything in the garden come to life!

Made for pictures

Now look at this oh so cute face! That is a face made for pictures! This cute little addition will be joining us once she is able to leave her mother. She is so very cute. I just can't wait to get her here! She is also a Babydoll that is coming from the same home that the Twins, Daisy and Maisy came from. She is going to make a perfect addition here.

This picture was taken this evening as the babies were still enjoying the wonderful green spring grass. They all seem to be getting along really well together. All of the babies seem to be a nice tight group and they are enjoying the same field right now that the two big girls have. As soon as they spotted me they all came running. They seem to love all of the hands on. The Twins aren't even getting bottles anymore but love to pet and fussed with and let me tell you attention they surely get!

Our flock is really growing. I'm already looking to the furture when the little ones are all big enought to be mama's and papa's.

All Welcome......

A friend and I were talking the other day and she started to chuckled, "Zoe'" she said "you need to hang out a shingle that says 'All wayward animals welcome'" I laughed at this at the time....I'm starting to think that she was right!

This is Cordelia.

Our four new Bottle Babies have settled in nicely and seem to be loving it here. I think that the Twins have almost tripled in size! They are doing so good and are just so very cute. We have one more lamb yet to come who is also a Babydoll. We are really looking forward to adding her to the mix. She is a nice dark color and I have to admit that I just love the sheep with nice rich colors! In fact until I saw the 6 little while lambs that we have now I'm not to sure that I would have planed on while lambs but these six once I laid my eyes on them there was no turning back!

Feeding time!

The boys have had a blast helping with the animals and they have play such an important roll. They have learned how to make bottles, how to change the amounts when needed, amounts of other foods such as hay, grain and water that is needed. They have been reading tons on raising and showing lambs as well. This is all new and exciting to them! This is something special that I can do with them. Not only are we making memories every day but they are are growing and becoming such well rounded young men. They are learning life lessons that they wouldn't learn any other way.