Here We Go!

It's official.

Our first farm animals moved in last night.

The Martin Farm is underway.

Even before we bought this old farm house, we had dreamed of farm animals.  Wouldn't it be fun to have the kids grow up with a horse?  Or a couple of chickens?  We had a short list of animals we were interested in owning, but when we actually bought a farm, that list started to grow.  Maybe two horses...and a goat.  And why would we only have two chickens when we have all this land?  And if we have a barn, we need barn cats, right?  And a little potbellied pig would be fun.  And, oh man, we could raise our own cow for beef!  And a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner!!  And then pretty soon I'll be homeschooling the kids, and sewing all of our clothes, and baking homemade bread on which we can slather our own churned butter, and drinking milk straight from our cows, and collecting various vegetables from our expansive garden to make the best dinner salad ever, and planting the fields with hay for the horses, and digging a pond to stock with fish for the Friday night fish fry, and baking apple pies for the neighbors with the apples from our tree.

Okay, so maybe I got a little carried away, but a girl can dream, right?  For now, in addition to our sweet little bunny who joined our family in January, we have five new baby chicks to take care of.  The little puffballs will live inside for a few weeks until they are fully feathered and the temperature here is a bit warmer.  Then they'll head outside to check out their new digs.

We took the kids to the local farm store last night and everyone picked their own pullet.  In four or five months, we hope all of these girls will provide us with tasty eggs for eating and baking!

And now for the introductions...

Owen chose a White Leghorn, (think Foghorn Leghorn) who will produce white eggs.  He considered naming her "Big Pecker" which he giggled endlessly about, but settled on the name Mable.

Emerson chose a Buff Orpington.  She will be orangish in color and will lay brown eggs.  Here is Cecilia.

Greyson chose an Amber Link who will be peachish-orange in color and will lay brown eggs.  He was very insistent that her name be Jackie.  Hiiiiiiiiii, Jackie!

Alayna chose a Black Jersey Giant, who will be black with a little bit of a white breast and a red comb and waddle. This girl will be the largest of all of the chickens and will lay brown eggs.  This is Lizzy.

Nash, with the encouragement of Mom, chose an Ameraucana.  These chickens are also called "easter-eggers" as they lay eggs various shades of blue.  Her name is Rosie, although he really wanted to name her "Chicken Butt."

The first night had its ups and downs.  All of the chicks received lots of snuggles from their caretakers, and Owen's Mable was particularly relaxed in his warm hands.  Cecilia was quite riled up and nervous and was pecking the other chicks relentlessly, so she earned her own little place in solitary confinement for the night.  This morning, she was reintroduced to the others and has behaved perfectly all day.

At this point, all of us have been pooped on by our little chickies, but the reward of having one curl up in the bend of your elbow and fall asleep far outweighs that minor poop annoyance!

I've heard that chickens are the gateway animal to MORE farm animals, so we will see how things go with these five little creatures and take it slowly from there!