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| Swiss chard and Indian Blankets |
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| Onions and potatoes |
May
The hens were beginning to act a little broody. Two hens were apparently nesting together in a roll of old chainlink fence. Near the end of the month, two chicks hatched out. We had no idea, at the time, that they were the first of many! Also, Daisy was due on May 29th, and on May 30th, she gave birth to twins at 7:30am. Goats are so nice about giving birth within a day or so of their due date. The twins were both white and bucklings. Liam named them Fruit Punch and Snowflake. Almost twenty kittens rounded out the babies born in the last month at Hill Top Farm!
June
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| Sexlink chicks on their first outing |
A hen hatched out some chicks under the brush pile around June 10th. There were about seven baby peepers out there for a week and then, she decided to move them to a different spot. That night, I heard a chick peeping and I was afraid he had gotten separated from the group and was going to bring nine kinds of predators down upon the nest. So I grabbed a flashlight and went out to see what was going on out there. When I shined the light in the brush, I saw two little chicks out, the mama was freaking out and there was a snake curled up in the nest with a poor chick in his mouth. Grr!! I ran back in to get Jason and he took the snake off (nonvenomous) while I gathered up the hen and chicks and packed them into a box in my laundry room.
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| Daisy and her twin bucklings |
The next day, I set them up in a chicken tractor in the garage. In the next week or so, another snake came into the garage and snatched a chick or two. Snakes really like chicken. This nest was the only one to suffer from snakes this year here on the hill. One evening I did catch a huge snake heading into the yard and we quickly took him far away before he could enjoy a meal. However, Dad, down in the valley, ended up losing many chicks and he killed at least 10 snakes over the summer in his chicken house!
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| Potatoes, chard, peppers and tomatoes |
July
We were so excited to get two Yorkshire pigs on July 12, from a young man in Bridgeport. They weighed approximately 30lbs and were about eight weeks old when we bought them. I brought them home in pet carriers in the backseat of our car. These were commercial hogs and were destined to live a life on concrete. They were so happy when we put them in their little garden pen - the boys immediately put their snouts in the dirt and started rooting around. Our plan is for them to root up our garden and then, when they outgrow our garden, to send them down the hill and let them root up Dad's garden. We named the larger one Squeal, because he is never quiet (especially when we bring out some goat milk) and the smaller one Grunt. I was a little worried about my choice in Grunt because he's so quiet and I was afraid he might be sick or slow to grow compared to the more agrressive Squeal.
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| Grunt and Squeal sniffing the squash |
