As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been ready for Spring for over a month now.  We started some seeds, which are doing remakably well compared to previous attempts at seed-starting (don't get too excited, mostly just herbs, some hot peppers, and some tomatos to grow in the house).  The little snow we had was melting fast and I would say that half of our land was grass or spotty snow.  Just last week I saw the first of the spring flowers popping up through the ground.  I was getting excited for the girls who must be really looking forward to some nice fresh grass after all these months of hay and grain.

But, alas, we suffered a major set-back in this department yesterday when I awoke to a foot of wet snow on the ground and plenty more falling.  We donned our winter gear and headed out to see if we could get the snowblower going.  After ten minutes of frustration in the realization that the auger wouldn't be able to handle the heavy, wet snow, we gave in and I called in to work.

Though I wasn't exactly psyched to get such a significant snowfall, I have to admit, it was truly beautiful.  After giving up on the snowblower and its deafening noise as it choked through the snow back to its parking spot, we headed to the barn to feed everyone an early breakfast.  The sun hadn't yet come up and we enjoyed some quiet time before the world awoke. 

The girls happily munched away at their breakfast of grain and some nice second-cut hay that we found at Guys Farm and Yard over in Morrisville a few days ago.  The chickens scratched away at the ground, finding grain and bits of stuff we unearthed after cleaning out half of the old straw this past weekend.  The pigs, in their own shed, grunted and squeeked through their mix of grain and food scraps.

There is something just so pleasant about the sound of contently eating farm animals.  I think it is partially due to the frantic moments before everyone is fed, while everyone is demanding their breakfast, that we come to really appreciate the quiet afterwards.  We rush to feed the pigs before their squealing could bother the neighbors, and we quickly feed the goats before we're covered in hoof prints, then finally cast out grain for the chickens before they start trying to steal from the pigs and the goats.  Once its all said and done, and everyone has fresh, clean water, we can sit back and enjoy the peace.

Our life doesn't seem to lend itself to too many moments of peace.  There is always laundry to do, dishes to wash, dogs to exercise, animals to feed, pigs to move from the barn to their shed, water buckets to fill, eggs to collect, reading/studying to do, goats to check on, home renovations to tackle, not to mention our full-time jobs.  So, during these quiet moments before the sun comes up and the sense of urgency to get to work (in one sense or another)arises, we find a second to stand still, hold hands, and breathe deep.

Last Sunday, after our awesomely-fabulous trip to Lowes that only cost us the price of gas and a couple breakfast sandwiches, we stopped patting ourselves on the back and got to work on the guest bedroom.  My dear friend, Stefania, had been planning on coming up for New Years eve and I really wanted her to have a decent place to pass out after hours of fun.

Kyle got to work creating a new door frame for the closet door while I got to work cutting drywall for the closet.  Luckily, as we still had the old door frame in place I had my own entrance into the closet where I wouldn't be harrassing Kyle during his project.  As I worked my way around the little closet, drywalling, Kyle finished up the door frame and started wiring up the new and improved wall sconce we picked up earlier that morning.  No more bare bulbs for our lovely little closet-to-be, no sir.

It took some time to finish the drywall in the closet, with its little kneewall, outlet, switch, and light, there were alot of calculations to make to be sure everything fit correctly.  But we got it finished, and I think we can officially call it a closet now.  After a quick break for an early dinner and a couple glasses of wine (normally beer is our home-renovation requirement but you work with what you've got, right?) we headed back up to start on the rest of the walls.

On the section of ceiling above where the funky, narrow hallway used to be, we secured a piece of foamboard to help insulate.  I fastened it up with an unnecessary amount of drywall screws before moving on to attach a piece of sheetrock over it (also with a large quantity of drywall screws...this time it was necessary, though, as we were only going into plaster/lath so the more the merrier).

My arms seriously needed a break at this point.  Being just under 5'5" doesn't help reach those places way up high where drywall screws need to go.  So we headed downstairs to feed the impatient dogs before going out to the barn.  The girls were happy to see that their dinner was coming and they all ate happily as Kyle and I looked around for the eggs.  The chickens were getting wise to the fact that we're taking their eggs, and must not be appreciating it because we had to search extra-hard to find more than a few.  All in all we found a dozen eggs, all but four in these new hiding places.

It was a busy, arm-killing day, but were we done?  Heck no!  How do you think I could possible have a mirror for our bathroom and just leave it in its box?!  You know me better than that.  With a level, some screws, and some good eyeballing, it took literally five minutes to secure the new medicine cabinet over our sink.  And 'whoa nellie!' we had a mirror and more storage in our upstairs bathroom!  Not to mention the fact that I finally got a good look at myself and couldn't believe my husband could look at my bed-head without laughing his face off.  After all, the guys at Lowes don't care if I brush my hair on home-renovation day so why should I?

So, there you have it folks.  Over the course of two days we were able to get our washer and dryer hooked up, drywall up in the guest bedroom (all but two small sections), install a light in the closet and a medicine cabinet in our bathroom.  And I was finally able to get some clean clothes, not too soon, too, as we all know what Monday means.

Sunday started off at our usual time- typically I like to try to sleep in a little on the weekends just because I can- but not this time.  Kyle and I hit the sack around 8-8:30 the night before after an exhausting day of working on what will be our new laundry room so it was pretty easy getting up around 5:30-6 am.  I wasn't disappointed, though.  Feeling well-rested is all I ask for, and there is nothing like a busy day of physical labor to help with that.

We decided to start work on the bathroom/laundry room right off.  Kyle started wiring the 220 plug for the dryer and the plug for the washer and I installed the new drywall under the windows where we had ripped into the wall the day before to make a little more room for the appliances.  I made a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs (eight of our lovely home-grown ones thankyouverymuch).  Before we knew it the time was 11:00 and we decided it would probably be best to wait to hook up the water pipes on a day where we had more time to deal with disaster- just in case.  So, with a few hours to kill before heading to Plainfield for May's 'date' with a handsome buck we decided it was time to tackle some house cleaning.

I mentioned before that when I arrived home from work on Friday our house was in shambles.  Well, this wasn't entirely due to the work that Guy (my father-in-law) and Kyle did that day.  To be perfectly honest we had about 10 contractor bags of crap that needed to leave the hallway from when we demo'd the guest bedroom.  Also, there was about two or three weeks worth of demolition dust/dirt that had accumulated all over the floor upstairs.  Finally, because of our kitchen plumbing problems (and a little bit of sheer laziness) we hadn't done dishes in a couple days so the kitchen was already a little disasterous.  Kyle and his Dad really only contributed to the mess in the dining room, living room, and kitchen.

But, enough of the inventory of messy-ness.  I just wanted to convey to you exactly what kind of 'mess' we were dealing with when I tell you that it took a good two hours to get the house cleaned up again.  (And we didn't even touch the kitchen.)

Right around 2 pm my Mom arrived to accompany us to Plainfield where we were going to have May bred.  My Mom absolutely loves going to the breeder's farm- although this is probably the first time she's left there without buying a new goat.  So, we piled up into her Jeep (three people and two goats would be a little crammed in my little Scion) and headed out.  Although it was a scheduled breeding for May we decided to bring Chutney along because you never want to leave a goat by itself- they are too social to really go solo. 

The whole way down May stood in the back, calmly looking out the windows.  Chutney on the otherhand was completely bizarre!  As soon as we got her in the Jeep she was shaking and bleating.  I was a little worried about her, she usually handles car rides better than our dogs do, so this was unusual for her.  After a few minutes the shaking stopped, but she continued to cry.  For over an hour our little girl made the funniest noises I have ever heard- she literally 'buzzed'.

We arrived at the breeders and we brought the girls out of the car- I decided to bring Chutney out just so she wouldn't stress out being by herself in the Jeep.  May was walked on a leash over to where the buck, Rosasharns Ukko (who's dam is Rosasharns Uni- wellknown for her milk production in the NDG world), was waiting impatiently with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth like he was trying to attract her with his sense of humor.  Almost immediately it was clear that May wanted nothing to do with him.  Her tail was glued down to her rear-end and she wouldn't even think about getting friendly with the handsome buck who was wooing her.

As I stood by holding on to Chutney it was becoming increasingly obvious that she was acting a heck of a lot more receptive than May.  I practically had to hold the little thing back as we waited for May to change her mind.  The breeder confirmed our suspicions- Chutney was certainly in heat.  She was eight months old and Sharon, our breeder, let us know that she had grown enough to be bred- so we decided to let nature take its course.  The buck was more than happy to switch does- and it was over in a few scant seconds.  After servicing our little doe twice, Ukko was walked back to his pen with the other boys and we brought our girls back to the Jeep.

We paid Sharon for Ukko's services, admired Chutney's Mom (who is still milking by the way) and some new babies that were being dropped off from another customer to be sold, and then we were off.

Today Chutney was still smelling of the buck she visited yesterday- although I have to admit that it isn't nearly as offensive as many people claim it to be (perhaps the cold weather is helping to tone it down)- and May is still not looking like she is in heat.  Hopefully we can catch her in heat soon as I'd really like to have her bred no later than mid-January, even that is really pushing my preferred kidding date.

So.  It was an exciting day.  Now we're keeping an eye on Chutney to be sure she doesn't go back in to heat, just in case the breeding didn't take.  But hopefully all went well and we'll be seeing our first official Senesac babies here on the farm.  I guess I'd better start getting my kidding and milking supplies in order!  Yippy!!

On a completely seperate note: we are up to 165 eggs collected this month.  We've sold three dozen, given away about four or five dozen, and will be selling another two dozen later this week.

I wasn't too awfully optimistic this morning about what we might be able to get accomplished.  My honey was sounding a little less than ambitious and mentioned fixing the window (we had missed the spacers on the second window that we installed in the guest bedroom so it was a solid two inches deeper into the sill compared to he first one) but he didn't think he'd really want to do much else.  Kyle is definitely not a lazy guy, but with his final for his class coming up this Tuesday night he's been studying during his free time to be sure all goes well.

After enjoying some morning tea (or coffee in Kyle's case) and crocheting my new basket for collecting eggs (more on that later) we started work on the window.  It wasn't terribly warm out today- nineteen degrees without the windchill- but in the front of the house we were blessed with some bold sunshine which helped keep things warmer.  Kyle cut the wood for the spacers and then we unscrewed and removed the window.  After ten minutes or so we had all the wood spacers in and were ready to re-install the window.  Putting in a window has never been so easy, and it really feels good knowing that after a bit of experience we are confident and fairly adept at getting it done.

Right as I was filling around the window with canned spray foam my Mom showed up to take Kyle and I out to lunch.  We loaded into the Jeep and headed into the neighboring town of Morrsville to The Bee's Knees- an awesome restaurant that serves food made from local, organic dairy, meat and produce- where we got some food and some great local beer (Switchback is our favorite microbrew here in Vermont).  The Bee's Knees is one of my favorite restaurants around here- anyone who supports the local community is A-OK in my book.  Not to mention that they have live music, great food, WiFi, and a huge picture window you can sit in front of on a chilly day here in Northern Vermont.  You can go there and order a beer, tea, or coffee and just sit and enjoy the local atmosphere- absolutely wonderful.  It just happens to be my Mom's favorite place to eat here as well- so it works out.

When we got back home we headed out to the barn.  I wanted to shut the barn door as the wind was really blowing and since the girls weren't taking advantage of the sun I might as well shut the door to the barn to keep them a little warmer.  We caught eleven eggs today, so gladly handed off a dozen each to my dear Mom and our neighbor's daughter, Jennifer.  We have consistently been getting around 10-12 eggs a day so we were more than happy to unload some on some willing folks. 

We'll be heading into Jeffersonville shortly to hit The Tavern for some drinks and darts with some friends so you can be sure we'll be handing off another couple cartons of eggs before the night is through.  So, as its time to head out, I guess I'll wait until tomorrow to write about our demolition that we undertook this afternoon.

Wow, well yesterday Kyle found six eggs in the barn!!  I was so excited yet a little jealous that I wasn't able to hit the mother-load myself!  That got our numbers up to a dozen exactly.  I wasn't expecting much today, as we've been averaging just a few a day.  I hit the grocery store as soon as I got out of work to pick up some stuff for next week's dinners.  I was walking through the dairy section and it felt so strange as I walked past the eggs- we almost always have to buy eggs whenever we go to the grocery store.  But no more.  We should have eggs coming out of our ears pretty soon.

I arrived home, hastily unloaded my car, let out the kids and threw on my muck boots.  It was amazingly mild outside for a rainy December day in Northern Vermont.  In fact, I walked to the barn with just a light long-sleeved shirt on, my jacket taking up residence on a chair in the dining room.  Much to my excitement, I was able to find another six eggs.  Only one was in a nesting box, one more was in the manger, and the other four were sandwiched between layers of straw on top of our nice stack of hay that we had tried to cover to keep them from laying there. 

So, with eighteen farm-fresh eggs in one carton, and eight store-bought eggs in another, we decided it was time to have 'breakfast for dinner'.  I started up some hollondaise sauce and a pot of water to make eggs benedict while I set the eight store-bought eggs in another pot to boil to make hard-boiled eggs for lunch tomorrow.  Dinner was delicious but not quite as filling as our eggs aren't exactly "jumbo" sized.  Kyle had to make himself two more eggs after we finished eating.  But, I guess this is the end of store-bought eggs for us!  Hooray for home-grown food!

For the past five days we've been consistently getting about one egg a day.  So we felt confident in saying that only one of our gals had started laying eggs.  Today Kyle called me at work, he stopped by the house during his lunch break to check on everyone (the dogs, cats, goats, and chickens).  He told me that he saw one chicken sitting over a freshly-laid egg in the usual spot where we find the eggs; on top of the platform that we made for the goats to play on- not the best place to lay a fragile egg.  Also, there was one chicken in one of the eight nest boxes- this was encouraging as we had yet to see any of the girls even think about checking them out.

When I got home from work I jogged to the house- pulling my hat down over my ears in response to the wind and snow that finally graced us.  I let the kids out (Ollie and Shyla), threw on my warmer, Carhartt barn jacket and my muck boots, and headed out to the barn to collect a couple eggs!  Yippy!  My excitement grew with every step- I would have run had I not worried about colliding with Ollie who is always adamant about trotting right in front of me.

As soon as I stepped inside the barn I could immediately tell a difference in the temperature since we covered the windier sides in plastic wrap.  In the past, even with the doors closed, we would have a breeze coming through the barn on the really windy days.  This past weekend we finally patched all the larger holes and the plastic wrap will take care of the multitude of smaller gaps and cracks.  The barn is nowhere near air-tight, which is just fine because you need some ventilation to keep it from getting really offensive in there.  But at least we can keep the girls a little more comfortable now.

So, I entered the barn to the sound of chickens clucking away and goats calling to me.  It was a little too early for dinner, not that they really knew that, so I went about my task.  First thing first, was to grab the exposed egg off the platform.  I looked, looked some more...but no egg.  What the heck?  I scanned the floor around the structure just in case, the goats demanding my attention, still nothing.  I moved over to the nest boxes and did a quick scan through those, looking for an egg.  No chicken sits in a nest box just for the heck of it....but no egg.

I trudged back to the house and called Kyle up at work to ask if he had decided to grab them before he left this afternoon- nope, they had to still be in the barn somewhere.  So I grabbed a flashlight (not that it is dark in the barn now that we have lights out there, but every little bit helps) and once again headed out into the damp and windy weather.

Ok, I got my game face on, this time I was on an honest-to-God egg hunt.  After giving the girls their dinner to keep them occupied while I went about my task, I checked around the platform again.  This time I dug through the dirtied hay a little more than I really wanted to sans-gloves, but this is the life of a homesteader; you get really dirty, and its never just dirt.  Nothing.  Back to the nest boxes.  I looked extra-carefully in each little cubby and 'hello!' there was a little brown egg, hiding in a nice little nest of hay.  Ok, cool, so we've found one of the two eggs we knew were laid today.  As I turned to do a general survey of the barn I saw a suspiciously flattened area of hay in the manger; it was definitely chicken-sized.

This past weekend we took a few small steps to try to prohibit the chickens from going into the manger.  We just bought some really nice second-cut hay (read: extra tasty and nutritious) that the goats were going crazy over and we didn't want to waste any by letting the chickens hang out on it.  But apparently our efforts were in vain- to a small degree.  Today, after the hay had been eaten down enough, some little chicky decided she wanted in, so in she went.  Luckily for all those involved, when a chicken goes to lay an egg it prevents her from defecating.  Its kind of like the esophagus/tracea set up we have in our necks; when one process is working, the other one is stopped- same for chickens and their egg-laying.  So, not only is our hay in fine condition, but we had another egg!

So, we had officially collected two eggs today, but nowhere could we find the one that Kyle had discovered earlier.  My only thought is that perhaps a goat crushed it and then the chickens found it and ate it- leaving no trace.  But now we can be sure that three out of our twelve hens are laying, three out of the four Dominiques.  I am really looking forward to the eggs from our Easter-Eggers, with their naturally-colored eggs, that will be a novelty.  I can't wait to see what we'll collect tomorrow!!  Nothing like hunting eggs and finding a few treasures to really brighten up your day.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!  We had a small gathering at our place with my mom, my brother and his wife.  It was potluck style so I only really had to worry about cooking the turkey and the hors d'oeuvres which was really nice.  We had a little fire on our stove the day before (never leave a plastic cutting board on a burner) so we got all our bad-luck out of the way ahead of time.

After some snacking and socializing we headed out to visit our girls (the chickens and the goats)- a day just isn't complete without a visit out to the barnyard.  We snapped some photos, gave the chickens some kitchen scraps and headed to the barn to show off the new platform that Kyle made for the goats to play on inside.  Well, there sitting on the top of the platform, in a huge nest of hay we left there for the goats to eat, was an egg!

Our first egg!  We were ecstatic!  We paraded it back to the house to place it in one of the many egg cartons that had been gifted to us from various friends and family members.  Granted, it is so small that it swims in one of the spaces, but it is ours- a healthy, grass-fed egg!  This is just the beginning!  We've got three eggs so far, our little Dominique will lay two eggs every three days or so.  Hopefully soon the other ladies will follow suit and start laying eggs as well.

Happy holidays!!!