Our goats Geraldine and Josephine freshened within two days of each other. Geraldine was first; giving birth to a buckling followed by Josephine with a doeling. The baby girl arrived and left the same day – to a farm in Colorado Springs to comfort a doe who had lost her baby (altruistic from the start). But Geraldine’s boy…we actually got to spend two days with him! So we tromped through the park, gave him lots of pats, and named him Paco. The whole experience was a bit hectic – we weren’t present for the births so both kids nursed on their moms initially which made bottle feeding a bit of a challenge. Tony had to arrange himself on all fours and keep the nipple close to his wool sweater while Paco rooted around for it. I, however, failed at feeding in that manner – I blame my lack of hippie upbringing. But soon, it took less awkwardness and he gulped down that colostrum while wagging his tail at full speed. And when the bottle was emptied he’d start working on your legs trying to source a nipple. Our two days with Paco was a test in cuteness overload! The hopping, the cooing, Delaware’s jealousy.
Eventually, after many flaky craigslist responders, we found a great home up in Longmont for Paco to live; a petting zoo with, among other animals, two lambs, two baby Nigerian Dwarf goats about his size, and a dromedary – whose shadow greeted us as we pulled up to the farm. At least he won’t be lonely…and we, well, we’ll never forget our first born.

Tony used Colorado Pine Beetle-Kill wood for the siding and protected it with used motor oil taken from my brother in law’s work. I actually put in a little time and helped stretch the fence!

And here it is housing hens. Hooray!

Recycled Rest Area

As a disclaimer, this project may not be the best to recreate as it involves a few time consuming tasks that could be dealt with better by a more crafty pair of hands, but it does make use of those old throw pillows that plague thrift stores.

Fueled by annoyance of the hefty price tag on a new dog bed and the lack of large sized ones on craigslist, I decided to re-purpose items in my means to create a one of a kind plop down spot for Delaware. I scoured the bins of second hand pillows on 50% off day at my local thrift store for a pattern scheme that would mesh well with red dog hair and my old lady home decor. My original plan was to simply sew the pillows together but I realized the necessary task of washing would be impossible. So, I changed course post-purchase – disemboweling each and stitching their fabric together in a quilt like fashion. Then, I re-sized an old duvet and sewed the quilt of old pillow faces to it. (To modify, one could easily sew the quilt of cases to a sheet thus creating a duvet.) Taking the stuffing from the disembowelment, I filled 4 standard sized pillow cases, sewed them shut, and placed them into the duvet. Voila – a unique, recycled, washer-friendly doggie mattress. Now…getting Delaware to prefer it over our bed will be a different challenge in re-purposing.

Me + De'

Tony as Vanna

The chicken coop is near completion and I cannot wait ’til the chickens come home to roost. Wait, I think that means, well, nevermind… Still, it’ll be nice to stop paying $6 for local farm fresh eggs, walk outside and grab a few backyard farm fresh eggs for the morning scrambler. Tony and his dad worked to make the frame (mostly out of scrap wood), I scooped about a tablespoon of dirt for one of the posts and stretched some fencing (I’m busy, yo), and Delaware mainly barked at invisible intruders and fell asleep in the sun (he is not busy). Tony got some initial ideas of where to begin with building a coop by checking out a chicken coops building plans book from our local library. He is also following advice from the Storey’s Guide to Raising Poultry on how to raise ‘em. We have a stack of Storey’s books on a variety of animal rearing topics – a handy collection for any homesteader wannabe. Photos of the finished structure soon!

frame of the chicken coop

the front yard

So, on the most recent big snow day we decided to finally take advantage of the steep hill that is steps away from the here’s a hot chocolate warm up, take those wet socks off comforts of our home to go sledding. We invited the nephew ’round and, as long as you protected your face on the way down from the chasing leaps and bounds of our easily excitable puppy, it was a pretty exhilarating ride.