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| Meet "Momma Cat" We inherited this barn cat with the farm. (RIP - momma cat was killed on the road in front of our house a couple weeks after we discovered the kittens. Very sad...she was such a friendly cat.) |
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| Soon after moving in Nathan found momma cat with her two little kitten babies while cleaning the old barn out. Momma cat was raising her little ones in a wood pile located in the old barn. We were so surprised...we were told by the previous owners that they thought she was pregnant but they had not seen any kittens so assumed none survived. We were very excited and helped to take care of them...we made sure to put out milk and food daily |
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Meet little Chloe...Momma Cat is in the background (Chloe was so friendly, Casey the other kitten is hiding as she was very unsure of us) |
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Chole and Nate |
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| Little Chloe the kittens father was a orange cat named "Tom Cat"...he came around now and then but was not a very good parent because he would try and steal the food we set out for the kittens. |
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| Chole and Casey growing strong and eating well |
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| Momma Cat again Meet our pregnant goat Matilda below (nicknameTilly)...She is a beautiful Saeen goat. This breed produces a lot of milk...I was able to get about 1 - 1 1/2 liters of milk off Tilly per milking. I milked twice a day (morning and evening)...sometimes I pasteurized the milk and would use it for baking or drinking but most of the time I fed it to the dogs...they loved it! Funny story!!!...Soon after finding out I was pregnant I became very nauseated...and the thought of milking Tilly made me want to vomit. I asked Nate if he would PLEASE (pretty please) help me with the milking...he defiantly was not happy about it but did it anyways because he loves me (what a good guy). Anyhow the day I showed him how to milk her his facial expressions made me fall to the ground laughing...I almost peed myself. It was sooooo funny. He was not thrilled about milking a goat or even toughing the udder. And if you have never milked a goat it is really hard at first. The funny thing is that after the initial shock wore off for Nathan we actually argued (in a nice way) about who was the better milker...we had a friendly competition to see who was the fastest...I can't remember who won though...maybe we tied. Wow looking back this is so hilarious...who would have thought? Oh and I forgot to mentioned but Tilly was pregnant with 2 kids (the proper lingo for goat talk is kids not babies)....however we moved just before she was due and I sold her so I didn't get to see her kids. |
The day after moving in we bought two 12 week old chickens from a farm in St Mary's for $8 each. We named our chickens Gladas (black one) and Daisy (red one). They were free range chickens and we got lots of laughs out of them. When the chickens were old enough to start laying eggs we anxiously waited but no sign of eggs. Then one day when Nathan was mowing the lawn he came across a nest filled with eggs (there were close to 20 eggs in the nest)...It was really cool. We searched around and found another nest full of eggs in the barn beside a hay bail. I did some researching and found out that we needed to build them a nest box in their coop...so we did. After that we made sure to collect the eggs daily. Farm fresh eggs are sooooo good! See some shots of our hens below!! 
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| Best way to keep a 3 year old busy...I can't believe she caught Daisy...these chickens are so quick! Nate and I often had to corner them to pick them up...it was so funny trying to catch them at night to put them in there coop...the good thing is that it kept us in shape. |
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| My niece Jessie with Daisy! |
RIP: Poor Gladas was killed by something, maybe a coyote (possibly even our dog Miles)...all we saw were the feather remains the next day. So sad...she was a good chicken and will be missed.
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| Nate taking Rae into the barn to feed for her supplement (the mask is to shield her eyes from the flies) |
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| Nate and Miles...behind him is Ruby, Tori, Rae and Dolly Shortly after moving in I got a call from a friend who bought 3 ducklings at the market to raise with her children. Now that the ducks were full grown she asked if I could let them live on my property as they were too big for her backyard in the City. I agreed because we had a nice size pond on our property that I thought would be a perfect habitat. It was fun having them around...they made funny noises and whenever we put feed out for the chickens they would try and steal it.     Meet Brownie, Oreo and Vanilla (They came to us with these names...we thought the names suited them).
 Winston and I...One of our barn cats in the background - We had about 4-5 barn cats   Good boy Winston   Going for a walk around our property...this is a soybean crop in the background.  We decided Winston needed a friend so we got another dog and named him Miles...This picture was taken as they met for the first time...Winston was so curious and kept smelling him. Miles sure looked up to Winston and would follow him everywhere...it was so cute...they were best buds (and still are).  I would like to note how brutal I am dressed in this picture (wow)...however I often dressed like a red neck on the farm because I didn't want to ruin any of my nice clothing. |
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