From our Goat Tour at the World Hunger Relief Farm on Thursday:




Our kids rode on the riding mower today (the blade wasn't engaged, of course):




Our neighbor came over today to plow our garden (again) with his tractor:


The garden will be ready for plants in a couple of weeks:

Now that the weather is just about perfect, it's a great day for a work day outside. We've already put in a couple of hours so far (it's noon right now). I've got to mow the entire lawn area (about .75 acres that I do on a riding mower; the rest of the land I'll get my neighbor to shred with his tractor at some point), clean out part of the barn, stack some wood, and do a few other odd jobs. Brandi plans on working in the garden, getting it ready for plants.

Here's a photo of the kiddos gathering hay this morning:

A few photos from the past few days ...

From Daniel and Abigail's shared birthday party last weekend:

Daniel's alligator cake (I'd like to add that my lovely and talented wife made the cakes)


Abigail's princess castle cake


Abigail, half a second before she blew out her candles


Nathan and Abby inspecting the cakes


A family dinner later that weekend


Daniel and Abby, "happily" eating at the bar (they really were happy, despite their droopy faces)


Our meat birds (we have 17 of them and we'll slaughter them in less than three weeks)


Our new-to-us chicken tractor! It's pretty big, roughly 50 square feet, and I plan to put four new laying hens in there this week (notice the cool nesting box on the right side for easy egg collection)

- We celebrated Daniel's 9th birthday and Abigail's 6th birthday concurrently with a big celebration on Saturday. We had a great time with a bounce house and something like 20 or 30 guests. I'll post some pics soon (hopefully).

- We're going to slaughter our current crop of meat birds on March 27. We've got 17 of them to butcher, and we're thinking that the current meat flock will get us through the summer. On a related note, I'm thinking about raising a few birds -- maybe a dozen or so -- to sell to friends who may want to buy farm-fresh chickens.

- Brandi's still slowly making progress on digging up the roots in our soon-to-be garden. I think we'll be happy this year if we can get by with some tomatoes, a few greens, and a little bit of experience under our belts.

- I rode my riding mower this past weekend for the first time in many months. I love being on that thing and watching grass and weeds just disappear as I ride over them.

Next to our barn, in front of our pasture:


In front of the barn, next to our soon-to-be garden:

Brandi and I really liked this one. It was taken in the morning hours, after it had snowed most of the night.

From a couple of days ago:

My kids are awesome. They never complain about having to do chores. I say, "Go unload the dishwasher," and they say, "Yes, daddy," and then they promptly do it. I say, "Go bring in firewood," and they say, "Yes, daddy," and they promptly bring in wood. I say, "Go do your chicken chores," and they practically run to do them. And they never complain! I'm amazed at how good they are.

Here's a shot from two evenings ago. I've got some better snow shots from yesterday morning (when the snow was thicker), but I haven't had time to process them yet (digitally, that is).

The buzz yesterday was about how Dallas (about an hour north of us) had gotten about four-to-six inches of snow, and that the snow was headed toward Waco. Thankfully, we got a nice little snowfall here yesterday evening, and we even had a decent accumulation overnight. Here's a pic from yesterday evening:

Brandi and the kids loosening soil and pulling up roots:


Yes, Nathan is wearing boots and shorts. :-)

After pulling up a bunch of roots, Brandi put a couple of chickens in our small tractor (cage) and put them on top of the soil she had just worked on. The idea is the chickens will scratch at the ground and loosen it up further, eat bugs, and fertilize it with their droppings.

Our cord of wood:


A duck hen:


Meat birds (these guys are on death row):

We visited the World Hunger Relief Farm for the first time today. We had heard of the place years ago, but never thought about going until recently. It's actually on our side of the county, not too far from our home. I think it took us about 15 minutes to drive there.

Today wasn't the greatest day to visit anything outdoors, though. It was cold, windy, and rainy. We did manage to learn a bit about raising goats (Brandi's convinced she wants a goat asap) and we got to buy some fresh, organic produce (see the photos below). I think the WHRF is going to be a good resource for us; if nothing else it's a good place to buy fresh produce and goat sausage. Yes, we bought a pound of goat sausage and it was delicious! We have been contemplating getting a meat goat but were uncertain as to whether or not we were going to like goat meat. If the sausage we ate today was any indication, I don't think we're going to have any problem enjoying goat meat.

So, without further ado, here are some photos of Brandi shopping for veggies at the WHRF and a shot of the goat sausage cooking on our stove:

We had a cord of wood delivered yesterday and I rushed home to try and get a shot of the wood stacked neatly near our chimney. By the time I got got home it was too dark, but I decided to take a photo anyway ...

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We're dying to get a calf. Our plan is to fence off 1.25 acres and to let it munch on our luscious pasture grass. After about 4 to 6 months, we'd kill the fatted calf and (hopefully) have meat for a year, and then we'd repeat the process.

I've gotten rough estimates for the fence, and it looks like it's going to cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000. That's not chump change, but we might be able to get it done this spring or early summer. In the meantime one of the patriarchs of our community -- a nice older man who lives down the road -- has offered to possibly let us raise a calf in one of his fields. The beauty of the scenario is the field is right next to ours, so we'd be practically raising the calf in our back yard. If this plan pans out we might be able to get a calf within the next couple of months. Awesome!

We're currently incubating 12 eggs. I think the eggs have been in the incubator for a week, and it takes three weeks for them to hatch, so we have a couple of weeks to go. Based on our research we think we should be able to get 5 to 8 chicks when it's all said and done. The chicks are from our laying flock, so they'll all be Delaware chickens. The females will be integrated into our laying flock, and the males will be fattened up and eaten! Delawares -- a rare breed -- are dual-purpose birds so they do well with both laying and meat production. They're not ridiculous on the meat side, like the fat boy Cornish Cross chickens that we're currently raising for a February slaughter, but they do supposedly provide quite a bit of meat. Both Brandi and I area really looking forward to eating one at some point in the future.

And now for a completely non-related photo I shot just a few minutes ago:

And it's going to get colder. It's supposed to be around 23 degrees tonight 17 degrees tomorrow night. Thankfully I scored some free oak firewood that'll last us through the cold spell, but I'm going to have to break down and buy a cord of wood next week. It's not a big deal, really, because a cord (8' x 4' x 4') ought to last us a very long time -- I'm hoping for two months at least. Also, supposedly, using a wood-burning stove to heat your home is more economical than gas or electric.

I just love the feel of burning wood. Our wood-burner is like a giant candle in our living room -- it's that relaxing. I also love knowing that, up to this point, I haven't had to pay a dime for wood, but that's all going to change soon.

Back to the point of my post, it's cold and getting colder. I think our animals will be fine. The laying hens and our rooster are in their coop that's located in our barn, and it opens to the south so it safely blocks the north wind. The meat birds are tucked away in their tractor (cage) with a blanket on top, and the ducks are pretty much impervious to cold weather. Our cat will sleep inside.

Goodnight. Bundle up.

One of our duck hens out ranging:


Our rooster and a hen inspecting the newcomers:

We acquired our meat birds today. We decided to get six of them for the first time around and in about five weeks they'll be ready to harvest. At that point I'll take them over to the fellow's house who sold them to me and he'll show me how to butcher them. There's something very satisfying about this whole process. Assuming all goes well I plan to have a constant rotation of meat chickens, so hopefully we'll be harvesting meat every five to six weeks.

Here's a shot of their home, a little chicken tractor that I rescued from a dumpster and promptly refurbished (those birds outside the tractor are some of our curious laying hens):


And here they are. One of them will be fried within six weeks, and the others will be frozen for future consumption:

Here's a video clip from the now-famous Christmas Eve Blizzard in Waco last week. There actually wasn't much snow, but the wind was blowing like crazy.

Untitled from Eric Guel on Vimeo.