A Field Trip
On Saturday I took myself for a field trip to visit a friend of mine who has a wee farm up on the ridge a few miles from here. Look who lives out the back of her house. 
Because of the slight elevation and the snow the images seem to sparkle.
Her neighbours farm.
The light has been soft like this all weekend. And warm. Today was very warm.
After our farm tour we all went inside for a glass of wine.
Yesterday I begun the process of incubating eggs. This is very new for me and pretty exciting. But it will save us quite a bit of money in the long run. When I am away next week John will turn the eggs three times a day for me- (or four if he is up in the night).
The hatch date is March 1st. Ring that date on your Sheila calendar.
I will candle them on Saturday before I leave for my flight. Speaking of which I am collecting a few guest posts from members of The Fellowship for when I am away this time, (I am away for a week so Jake will be back in charge) we will see a few farms and wee life style blocks from five different countries.(If all goes according to plan!) right here on the farmy blog. And then I can spend my rest time out in California commenting in our own Lounge of Comments and visiting you at your blogs. I have gotton very behind on my visiting.
Much love to you all. Have a lovely day.
Your old friend on the farmy
celi
78 Comments on “A Field Trip”
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Oh Miss C, that huggable dog on the sofa! And what characters those goats are. Can’t wait to see the wee chicks pop out of their shells.
Gorgeous goats. I’m looking forward to the guest posts – I’ve been dipping into some of the farmy fellowship’s blogs, and enjoying the results, specially finding new friends.
Love,
ViV xxx
Aren’t The Fellowship a disarmingly wonderful collection of people.. we are very lucky.. c
Did you see the Boo and Marcel wordle poem yesterday?
Viv, my husband and I were recently to Normandy on a Viking cruise up the Seine. And so now I am especially enjoying your memoir of the War.
I’m glad you like it. Normandy was better off than we were for food!
absolutely Fabulous…goats, scenery, sky and the post….I have marked my Sheila calendar ready for hatched eggs…whooppee this will be fun!
I have really missed out on loads, I didn’t even know you were going away again.
Have a happy day C.
🙂 Mandy xo
Only for a week, The joys of not milking.. and then in March i am speaking at a conference in Orgegon, pity you can’t come!.. c
Oh C, how I would love to come and hear you speak! Maybe one day… xo
Nice goats and landscape. I was reading somewhere recently, that goats are being used as eco weed control in the Southern States – they have been very successful at clearing kudzu and other creeping plants, previously removed using pesticides 🙂
Goats will even eat blackberry if they are hungry enough.. very useful fellas.. c
Apparently they’ve been recycling the green parts of Christmas trees this year, but they can be problematic on wash days 😉
I just read that somewhere in the southwest where they did weapons testing the area is polluted with plutonium. They are planning on using a herd of goats to clear the area to reduce the fire danger. Apparently the plutonium residues won’t harm the goats.
The mind boggles..
Sadly I find that hard to believe.
I do love goats, they have such huge personality and are very economical to keep. But you need to have very good fences – they’re such talented escape artists! These goats are rather handsome too, with their curly horns…
Best to stick with an odd number of turns for the eggs as it prevents the eggs laying on the same side for lengthy periods.
Christine
Thank you Christine.. that is good advice.. c
Now miss celi, I hope you didn’t sneak home a couple of those goats in your pocket! Right now you have plenty of work on your plate. 1st March is etched in my brain as I join The Byrds and sing Turn! Turn! Turn!. http://youtu.be/W4ga_M5Zdn4
No goats until the sheep have gone and if we do have goats they will be milking goats but not for a while, mlking cows AND goats might be a bit ambitious.. c
Goats and dogs –my favorites! Along with pigs and cows and sheep and chickens…..what a great idea to feature some of your other farmy friends while you are away living it up! That will be fabulous!
Incubating your own eggs is wonderful Celi! We did get the incubator that moves the eggs around though. We have hatched several clutches of chickens and also lots guinea chicks! It’s definitely the way to go! xo
So much cheaper than buying them, there is talk of hatching a turkey or two .. but where I would find those eggs i don’t know yet.. c
Difficult indeed! Maybe a turkey farm? We will also try hatching duck eggs in the spring when our girls start laying again!
Hatchlings! I can wait to see them. When I was a kid we hatched chicks and ducks hatched their own ducklings. We would run home from school straight to the incubator to check and there was a lot of excitement to see that first little cracked in the egg. Then we kept the new chicks in a box it the bathroom next to a heater, the door always had to be closed to keep them safe from the cat. She knew they were in there and hung out on the other side of the door. We played with those chicks. Then they grew up and gave us eggs. I have to stop rambling.
Good morning Miss C and friends. Now I must get ready to go to the office. Not as much fun as the farm there.
Sounds delightful .. I will be just as excited to see them hatching.. hopefully with photographs, this is why i bought an incubator you can see into.. c
Oh exciting, exciting! I so enjoyed guest posts last (was it last?) year. Your friend’s farm is lovely and I love that boofy dog on the sofa. That’s a brilliant photo of him. If he had a thought bubble above his head it would say, “Life. Don’t talk to me about life.” Love the goats as well. The other day I (accidentally) saw an episode of a terrifically embarrassing reality show called Beekman Boys. The goats were super cute though, and I never imagined all the products which can be made of goats milk! Goats seem like a treasure on a farmy. Are you considering goats? Hope you’re not considering that Beekman reality show, although I’d watch a farmy reality show any day! 😀
I have gone to using only goat milk soap. It’s wonderful. I get them from swissfraufarmproductsllc.com, she makes a marvelous shampoo bar too.
my skin is so much better using my soap too.. I would never go back to store bought now.. c
I’ve tried goat’s milk soap too Sherry. No idea who made it but I bought it at Whole Foods. It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Oh, I’ve made chevre before with goat’s milk and rennet. It was actually very easy. Goats are great! 😀
chevre is the only reason why I would keep goats.. I love fresh cheeses and that one is divine.. and easy? excellent. c
Oh my gosh, super easy. And I made it with store bought…but organic…goat’s milk and mushroom rennet, and it worked out beautifully. I used to make it all the time. No idea why I stopped.
Nice looking goats! My grandmother had goats. They’d eat anything that their mouths could reach. Those goats look more intelligent than my grandmother’s goats. xxx
Love the sky pictures and the goats are cute too.
The rest of this missive refers to the Cadet post a couple of days ago. The tracks you saw with the hairless tail could have been a muskrat. Minks like to kill (and eat) muskrats and take over their burrows in creek banks. Muskrats aren’t a danger to other animals but they can be destructive little critters. They cause a lot of the same damage as a groundhog. Also I don’t know if people realize it but 4-H is not just geared towards animals/farming. There are 4-H projects in electronics, photography, small animals, arts and crafts, sewing , cooking, videography, woodworking, bug collecting, gardening and more. No matter your project interest the basic teachings are the same; you learn public speaking, how to give presentations, a lot about your project area(s). basic bookkeeping (at least with the livestock projects I can’t remember for sure about the craft projects), time management, how to run a meeting, volunteering and more. Of course a club is only as good as its leaders , much like Scouts they provide the oversight and direction and the kids run the club meetings. When I was in some clubs kind of leaned towards a certain area, like livestock or home economics, but you could still work any project you wished. Being rural my club had a lot of kids with animal projects, dairy cows, horses, sheep, beef cattle, crops but we also had sewing, crafts, small animals (rabbits, cats & dogs), woodworking, small engines and more. There was even a couple of the kids that teamed up for the class where you made a wool garment and lead a sheep in a modeling class. It had a cute name but I can’t remember it right now.
and we do have muskrats in the creek too.. you might be right.. 4H for our Cadet, an excellent idea – it would be a good thing for her, thank you, i will mention it to her grandmother..
The eggs should hatch on my birthday. Don’t goats have comical faces?
How cute to have chicks with the same birthday.. fingers crossed we get some!.. c
How fun to grow some chicks! Hopefully your next little vacation will be missing certain disagreeable family members so you can really relax. 😉 xo
Yes, i am visiting my. son and his family. no disagreeable members in that wee family. And no ice on the ground. to be able to walk with confidence is something we forget about. c
So true. I hope you have a lovely, lovely, time. 🙂
Love the dog image especially, how the dog mimics the sofa. Or the sofa mimics the dog.
I would so love to have a wine with you!
Goats are so entertaining – lively and full of personality! I find them very photogenic. The image of the hound dog is nice – curious how that one paw rests on the arm of the chair. Much more interesting than the usual head-between-the-paws photo. Good luck with the egg incubating!
Goats! I eagerly await the day Miss C declares goats are needed on her farm as well.
One day.. first I need a home for these bloody sheep.. c
Those are big goats , they remind me of wild goats I’ve seen high up in the mountains.
You’re really getting these pictures right….that dog has a wonderful quality ( although I meant the picture has a wonderful quality, so does the dog) The goats are amazing…
thank you roger.. the light that evening was perfect.. c
I was honored to have Celi here on Saturday. That’s my place and my Norwegian grandmother( who still exists in my mind and lineage) continues to push me on to those dairy goats soon. The dog is a sidebar. There are two here and they were rescued. No longer to hunt slaves, just comfort. They are really good at comfort.
It was lovely to see a little bit of your home “up on the ridge” Linnea……. do you have a blog, I’d love to see and hear more of your bog comfort dogs and your goats.
*big* not bog
These are just gorgeous photos today C. And having goats myself those were my favorite ones. Your friend mentioned they were dairy goats but they look exactly like Boer goats that are usually raised for meat, which I’ve read is the most widely eaten meat in the world!
That dog snoozing on the couch is just too funny!
They are not dairy goats, you are right they are meat goats, one day she would like to have dairy goats though.. c
Where are you speaking in Oregon? I live in Oregon and it would be a delight if it is open to the public and it’s not too far away!
Let me find you the link.. I will be in Portland .. wait there i will be back! c
http://presspublish.events/events/portland/#speakers .. HOPE you can make it, it will be a great day all round..
Oh it’s in Portland, only 2 1/2 hours away! Sadly, I can’t do the admission price. But I’m sure you’ll deliver an awesome speech and everyone will have a great time!
Hard tell tell where the dog ends and the sofa begins.
true.. i wonder which one came first!
Ah this has made me miss the Spanish goats, although these goats are much more attractive! Love the dog – he looks like Clement Freud (if you know who that is)!
I don’t.. will have to look that up.. a gap in my education!!.. c
He was a policitian, writer (a very good food writer actually), actor but he had a real hang dog expression and looked like one of these dogs!
ah.. now i understand.. thank you.. have a gorgeous day Tanya.. c
Gorgeous pics… I’m a sucker for goats, gorgeous dogs and pretty skies 🙂 A break in sunny California sounds wonderful, and it’s always wonderful to hear what’s happening in the world of The Fellowship.
Glorious photos Celi .. Enjoy your time in California 🙂
Being a Capricorn, I have an especially soft spot in my heart for goats. These are darling. That one looked like he (she) was posing for sure! Turn the head just so, said to himself. And the dog. OMG What a great face. I’ll have to look up Clement Freud too.
The other day I was showing my husband this year’s calendar and he was so impressed with the photos. (He was a wedding photographer.) He wanted to know what kind of camera you have.
I am using a Nikon D90.. or an old D60 that I bought on amazon for 80 dollars.. c
He was saying what a great eye you have and interesting composition.
that was very kind of him.. some of it is pretty hit and miss though! c
Goats are commonly grown in TX for meat – they do well n central TX were it’s hilly, rocky and less pasture grass. They have such faces. How many times have I hauled one around by the horns…some are docile and some are just con-goat-tankerous. But they do clear poison ivy so well!
poison ivy.. goodness.. c
At one of the Girl Scout camps, we staked goats out at the platform tents to clean out the poison ivy before the campers came…you had to move them daily or they would eat everything and leave it bare…as the tent sides rolled up, we preferred to leave a bit of “hedge” for privacy between tents. You do become very fond of the little goats after a while – they are always very busy and will get into mischief.
Thrilled about your trip to see the second grandchild in California – and DO looking forward to other ‘farmy stories’ you have lined up in the interim. So remember the wonderment I had doing my ‘fill-in’ some 16 months ago!! Do so hope for a positive outcome with incubating the eggs!!
I got your email but my email won’t let me reply or send emails atm – I will take some photos tomorrow and put together a post for you but not sure how to send it until I get my computer fixed. Argh!
Ok.. that is a weird problem..I will put your post to the end of the week in the hope that it is fixed, OR you can write the post to the Fellowship, link to me and i will reblog it? Would that work?
My Aunt and Uncle had a hatchery when I was a kid (Devil’s Glen Hatchery, Bettendorf, Iowa) and it was always interesting to visit. I was fortunate and got to spend a week with them, usually once a year. They also had a large yard just for chickens and there were lots of them. One year someone had requested quail and pheasant chicks and they were marvelous, small and very quick. As I got older, I’d get to ride along with my Uncle on deliveries, boxes of chicks in the back of the station wagon, driving the country roads from one farm to another. There was always a “tour” of each farm, fresh milk and home made cookies and introductions to the cows, pigs, chickens and other animals. One of the farms we delivered to was an Amish farm and the farmer was plowing with a team (I love horses). I treasure those memories, the kindness of the people, the interest from the animals and the rich land we live in.
I do miss making regular blog visits when on the road. I look forward to meeting your blog guest stars!