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
The Kitchen's Garden 
78 responses to “A Field Trip”
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