A few photos of our last storm...gearing up for another one Thurs-Fri!

 

 

 

I picked up the new bunnies Saturday! They seem to be settling in nicely :) Yesterday, Jamison helped me trim the goat's and sheep's hooves and I wormed everyone before the wicked storm we got...we got a foot of snow! After a cup of coffee and the baby goes down for a nap, I'm headed out to shovel! Jamison will snow blow the rest when he gets home from work. Enjoy the snow everyone! And I'll try to get some pics of the snow to post later :)

I picked out 2 new bunnies with pedigree today! I know I'll breed them for Easter bunnies, but not sure if I'll show them or not. I'll pick them up right after Christmas and I'm SO excited!!!
 

 Harlequin Mini Lop Buck

 Daphne (Mini Lop Doe)

Since my last post we've lost Charlie (alpine/nigerian dwarf) buck and Patrick (nigerian dwarf) buck :'( The vet believes it was due to too many parasites in their systems. We wormed them, but apparently with the worm/parasite problem this year we needed to double or triple the wormer dosage. A lesson learned the hard way :( We don't have any more bucks on Little Bit Farm and I'm thinking about keeping it that way for a while! We may try again next year, but for now we just have 4 adult does and a sheep.

Jamison worked hard the end of Nov-beginning of Dec to finish the barn so my horse could come home, only to find out we couldn't find anyone to trailer him home. So he and Sundance (my sister's paint) will stay at my grandparent's till next fall. We'll move to my grandparent's for 2 months, while they are in Florida to take care of them. Emma will enjoy seeing them everyday and helping take care of them!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! It's that time of year where we bundle up to go out and do chores, thaw water buckets and feed out lots of hay! No stall for Buddy yet, as my husband has been trying to get a deer. Today is the last day of hunting, so fingers crossed he gets a deer and starts my stall! I REALLY want Buddy home before snow is here for good!!!

If you are local and need a Christmas wreath or tree, visit my pal at Broken Oak Farm in Fayette! She's open every weekend till Christmas (I believe) with plenty of wreaths, swags, Christmas trees, hot cocoa and plenty of critters to visit!

Jamison was busy this weekend putting up gates and switching Rosie (pig) to a new pen, in preparation for Buddy (horse) coming home. We still have a lot of work to do before he can come home, but I'm anxious to be able to see him everyday, brush him, lunge him, ride him whenever I want!!! I miss spending time with my boy I'll post pics as he makes progress on Buddy's stall and the inside of my barn!

I'm am officially the worst blogger in the world!!! I can't believe I haven't posted since July!!! Anywho...I'll try to catch you up...

We sold all of Rosie's piglets, so she's on her own now (which she seems to enjoy). Jamison's planning on breeding her again VERY soon for Spring piglets.

We're down to 5 goats (4 does and 1 young buck) and a young wethered sheep. We lost 3 baby goats over the past few months to parasites :( I swore I was going to give up, but a couple of my goat pals (Meredith and Tammy) suggested that I try one more breeding season and go from there. So I will...I've had my buck in with the does since he was young and have never seen him overly interested, but you don't always see anything and the next thing you know your does are pregnant! So again this next Spring/Summer, I'll have NO idea who's bred and when they're due...it'll have to be a surprise!

Jamison did well showing all of his chickens and ducks at the fairs this year! He sold over 20 birds to cut back for winter. He still has a winter coop to finish!

And we found out my horse, Buddy, is coming home for the winter. He'll go back to my grandparents for Spring/Summer/Fall so he can graze and we don't have to feed hay. We don't have the pasture they do! We have a lot to get ready before winter...wish us luck :) I'll try to post more often!

We have piglets...10 of them!!!

Contact me to reserve yours...they're going fast!

First off, I'm SO sorry for not posting in ages! I have a lot to catch up on!!!

I sadly said goodbye to my little Pepperanne, a week ago last Thursday, to what a goat friend believes was an overload of worms/parasites :'( I had wormed them, but with all of the wet/humid weather we've been experiencing in Maine it wasn't enough! I encourage everyone to make sure you worm VERY regularly and make sure to give them extra vitamins and fresh water every day. I was giving fresh water, but wasn't scrubbing my buckets with bleach or offering electrolytes (which are important for any animal in that kind of weather)! I've learned a lot, but am VERY sad I had to learn the hard way!

On a happier note, Rosie (our pig) was due to have piglets on the 26th and still hasn't had them yet...anytime now! I'll be sure to post pics as soon as she does! We've raised pigs before, but never had our own piglets.

Emma and I picked our first 3 cucumbers from the patch yesterday and a quart of blueberries! We're bringing some blueberries to the bakery where we get pig food from in exchange for a blueberry pie...YUM!

I'll be posting more often and posting some recent pics of Little Bit Farm soon :) Thank you to those who follow our page!

The critters and I aren't liking the rain, exept the ducks of course...it's a great day to be a duck! Speaking of ducks...our broody chicken hatched 5 more ducklings!

 

We've decided Peachy wasn't really bred, so no more kids this spring :(  We're hoping Patrick and Charlie are old enough to breed our does this fall for spring babies for 2014! Our little lamb, Chevy is doing great and he's finally eating grain!!! When we got him he would only take milk...no grain, hay or water. Hope you all make the most of this rainy day :)

Look what our broody chicken hatched on Tuesday!

Emma and her lamb, Chevy <3

Sorry I haven't updated in a while...with summer we are always SO busy! We have been cutting down our goat herd...I'm trying to get down to about 8 (we had 14). We're almost there!

Jamison has since started our gardens with peas, corn, tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers. I can't wait to start eating/canning them!

And, lastly, today I start a new adventure raising a border cheviat/kerry hill lamb. I've never had sheep before, but there's a first time for everything! I've heard he's a meat breed and that the wool isn't as good quality as fiber sheep, but with a little help, I may try to sheer him someday and use his wool. Wish me luck! I'll post pics later :)

Our 1st time hand milking a goat!

Thank you for the help Tammy!

May Day Babies!!!
Helga started showing signs of labor at 5am and had these adorable twins at 1pm this afternoon :)

 Doe, going to Broken Oak Farm :)

Buck, available as a bottle baby or at 8 wks old. Contact me for more info :)

The Crew <3 Cont.

 Rosie

 Sausage

 Barred Rock Bantams & Frizzle Hen

 Brown Leghorn Rooster

Beatrice & her brother's and sister's

RM & Junior

The Crew <3

 Helga (due Saturday)

 Patrick

 Pan Dee & twins, Pepperanne & Little Girl

 Stella, Alva & Peachy

Turkey

I got a very exciting message from my sister, Brandi this afternoon! She wanted me to split an order of Americauna chicks with her!!! I've been looking for them everywhere since I lost Avery (Americauna hen I adopted from Broken Oak Farm) last year :( I love the colored eggs and am so excited to have them again soon! I'll be getting 10 of them! We're also adopting our blue swedish duckling's sister, Beatrice from Broken Oak Farm, as she lost her other siblings and is VERY lonely
 :( I'm sure Beatrice will be very happy at Little Bit Farm <3 I'll be sure to post pics of everyone later!

We went to our 1st Farm Swap of the year (and Amelia's 1st Farm Swap) at TSC in Wilton, brought a few cages and a few white leghorn chicks...didn't sell anything, but had a good time chatting with fellow farmers! If you're interested in following the FB page, go to Wilton TSC Farm Swap (Maine) page and JOIN :)

Jamison brought home these adorable assorted bantams from TSC yesterday! We think some are seabrights and we're not sure what the others are...guess we'll find out when they are older :)

We fired up the incubator this morning for the first time this year! We'll be putting in fawn and white indian runner duck eggs and barnyard chicken eggs...can't wait to see what we get!

Jamison picked up 200 chicks from the post office yesterday and 59 were dead :( I called the hatchery to have them replaced and they're shipping them out Sunday and they'll be here Monday, but it's still sad that all of those chicks died! The hatchery poked every hole out of the shipping box and they got too cold.

Meet the 2 new boys at Little Bit Farm!

 

Lady & RM's Blue Eyed Polled Buckling

 

My new Nigerian Dwarf buckling, Patrick <3

Runner Ducklings Coming Soon...

Jamison just crawled under my barn to get about a dozen and a half Runner Duck eggs this morning! We'll be putting them in the incubator to hatch little Runner Ducklings...I can't wait! I'm praying they are all fertile (fingers crossed)!

Still waiting for Peachy & Helga to have babies...they'll probably go at the same time with my luck, lol.

Two of our pigs are going to slaughter tonight :( On a happier note, we brought home a boar pig to breed Rosie...we should have piglets in about 4 months :)

I'm glad most of the snow is gone, but boy do we have a mess to clean up! Lots of old hay bedding, etc. Let the spring cleaning at Little Bit Farm begin!!!

The LUCKY winners are (it was a tie):

Meredith Pepper & Holly York...CONGRATS LADIES!!! I will deliver goodies soon :)

Sorry I'm so late announcing the winner...I've been busy with a newborn :)

Sorry I haven't posted much! For those that don't know...I had my baby, Amelia Rachel Ann Turner on Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 10:59pm! We are so blessed to have another healthy, happy baby girl <3

There isn't much happening around the farm, except for melting snow and mischevious goats :) We're still waiting on Peachy to kid, it's just a question of when she'll have them.

Today is the last day of the contest, so start following my blog if you aren't already and post away :)

Yesterday was a day full of barn chores and more barn chores! My chores, Gram's chores, wormed goats, trimmed goats hooves, cleaned my barn, and cleaned the bunny cage! Let's just say I may have over done it and I can't wait to be able to do these things myself and not have to have Jamison's help! I appreciate the help, but there are some things you'd rather do yourself ;) Oh, and I can't wait for my barn to finally be done. We just have a few boards to put on the hay loft, 2 broken windows to fix and stalls to build and it's DONE!

Who will be the LUCKY winner?
My goal with this contest is to get more followers for my Little Bit Farm Blog! The contest will start March 1st and end March 17th (St. Patrick's Day). Here are the ways to enter:

1. Become a new member! (2pts)
2. Get someone you know to become a member! (4pts) *Make sure you let me know who referred you, so they get their points.
3. Post a comment! (1pt per comment)
4. Guess Peachy's due date and how many kids she'll have and if they'll be bucks or does :) (The person who comes the closest to being right will get a surprise)!

 Who will be the LUCKY winner?

 

We have decided on a name for our new buckling (formerly Boots)...Sparky! He's gotten a lot more friendly and has become friends with my 2 doelings, Pepperanne and Little Girl <3

I learned the hard way that heat lamps are great for keeping baby goats warm, but they are SO dangerous! I almost burned my house down yesterday, after a heat lamp fell on a pile of hay and started smoldering. It was very scary, but I quickly got it out. I'm SO thankful I found it before I left for my Dr's appointment!!!

It's SO cold and windy in Maine today! We got a new little buckling over the weekend from This Olde Farm in Livermore, who I've yet to get pictures of because it's been SO cold and he's still a little shy. He's very handsome and will make a great stud on our farm! We also visited Lady and her 2 bucklings...super cute! I believe they are both polled and 1 has blue eyes. We also visited Old Homestead Farm in Hiram to start our Lowline Angus adventure (my husband's hobby, I do goats). It's been a busy weekend with lots of farm adventures! I'll post pics as soon as my computer allows me (gotta love technology).

I finally made it over to see Lady's boys today! Here they are :)

Blizzard Nemo 2013
I was too chicken to go out and snap pics, so here are a few from my window :)

 A view of my back yard covered in white.

 Prego Peachy and Pan Dee braving the blizzard. And, yes, that's a sled covering the roof of their little house :)

RM, also braving the blizzard...can you see him?

Lady finally had her kids, 3 bucklings (1 didn't make it). They appear to be our stud, RM's, so they have cute little waddles. I'm going to see them tomorrow, so I'll post pics when we get home :)

Pepperanne and Little Girl are doing well! They are SO cute in their little sweaters ♥ Everyone has a warm house and plenty of hay with this nor'easter we're getting. We're still waiting on Peachy to kid...with our luck, she'll probably decide to have them in this storm.

And, I may just have found my new nigerian dwarf buck...we'll go look at him tomorrow and decide for sure :) He's black with white markings (almost like a belty cow) and frosted ears. He's just turning 8 weeks old. He has to be disbudded this week and then we can bring him home!

Meet Pepperanne & Larry's Little Girl <3

 

Pan Dee's Twin Does <3

These two beautiful girls arrived Tuesday, January 29th! I had been watching my doe, Pan Dee, all morning as she had been acting like she may kid soon. I had finally gone to lay down with my daughter at nap time and my husband got home from work a couple of hours early...he yells down the hall "Cait, go check your goats!" I ran to the window and saw she had dropped two kids in the snow. I called my pals Meredith & Tammy in a panic and ran outside to wrap them up in towels. Jamison helped me get them in their house with their heat lamp and before we knew it, they were getting their first drink :)

All I have to say is...thank goodness I finally got 2 does, considering 2012 brought me a total of 6 bucklings!

 

 

My new goat house (chicken coop) Jamison picked up fo me :) I'll add a heat lamp and some hay and it'll be all ready for the first doe to kid!

 

 

I'll put this house in my back yard, so I can keep a closer eye on my does 24hrs a day. I can see it from my house, so I don't have to walk out to the barn at night to check on the does in the cold :) It's getting harder being only 6 weeks away from my due date! Keep your fingers crossed they go before I do, so I don't have to worry about does kidding while I'm in the hospital.

No baby goats from Lady or my pal's does yet! What are they waiting for? (hopefully a warmer day)! I got a message from Morgan that Lady looks like she's going to pop, she's laying down a lot, talking a lot, and has discharge. I hope she goes soon...she can't be very comfortable. I'll see if I can get  a pic of Lady from her to post on here.

I  can't seem to get any good pics of my critters, but here are a few that I did get...

Helga, Pan Dee, Peachy, Alva and Stella

Turkey

RM

I've been feeling anxious with my other 2 goat pal's girls getting ready to kid and I have about a month to wait for mine :( I got a message from my cousin that Lady, (chocolate nigerian dwarf with blue eyes) is showing all of the signs of labor! This is exciting because I'm trading Lady for one of her doelings, so keep your fingers crossed she has at least 1 :) Morgan says she looks like she should be having triplets...I'll keep you posted and of course post pics when they're born!

We're still only getting 1 egg a day from the hens...hoping it's because of moving them all into one coop and they start laying more soon, otherwise, they're being sold and we'll start fresh with chicks in the spring. It's so crazy to feed 18 hens and only get 1 egg! We got a little more done on the barn yesterday. I'm hoping to have it all done very soon, but I've been saying that since July! It WILL be done before my 3 does kid or they're coming in the house...jk, but I'll do what I need to do to keep baby goaties warm! It's supposed to be VERY cold this week my friends, so stay warm :)

I got an update on Junior...apparently he head butted a 5 month old wether to death :( I don't mean to judge, but when you introduce a new goat to a herd you shouldn't leave them alone. They should be watched for several things, but especially to see if they all get along. If they don't, they should be seperated so these things don't happen. I don't understand why he would do this considering he was the quietest goat on our farm and never head butted or was aggressive. I feel badly that this happened...I hope the owners keep a better eye on the goats and seperate them if there are any more problems in the future!

The day after Junior left, his brother Jetti also went to his new home with an older gentlemen in Bethel, who wanted a companion for his pygmy wether goat. I goat a picture message of him the next day and he said he was doing well.

It's pretty quiet around Little Bit Farm...we're just waiting for the does to kid :)

We brought Junior to his new family yesterday morning :( I haven't heard from them, so hopefully all is going well with him. I got a call this morning on his brother, Jetti. He may be going to a farm in Bethel to be another goat's pasture mate. I guess selling goats is part of the breeding thing, huh? I'm not sure I'm cut out for this...I get attached and it's so hard to part with them when someone is actually interested in buying them! It's what's best though...we'll have 5 does and 1 buck and I'm sure 3 of the does are bred, due to kid Feb-May. Selling all of the bucks and wethers just made room for the kids coming!

Jamison is bringing the kids and I to the Maine Agricultural Show today...I'm hoping we're not too bored!

It's another cold, windy day...but my husband has the day off (which doesn't happen very often), so I'm going to con him into helping me work on the goat barn. I'll post pics as soon as it's done!

We have a lady buying Junior on Monday :( I hate selling goaties that we're already attached to, but we can't keep them all and we have to make room for the 4 doe's kids coming Feb-May!

It's very chilly here, but I suppose winter had to come eventually! We were pretty lucky this year having warm weather as long as we did. Tuesday night Jamison FINALLY caught all of our chickens and put them in their winter coop...thank goodness! We had lost a couple of chickens over the past month from the cold and we hadn't gotten any eggs for a couple of months due to free range chickens hiding them and the dog stealing them. I hate putting so much money in to grain for "laying" hens and not getting any eggs, but I'm happy to say after putting them in the coop we got 1 egg last night! Hopefully now that they are confined and warmer we'll start to get a lot more eggs.

Now...if I could get him to finish my barn or at least get the barn door on, I could shut my does in the barn at night with a heat lamp. Two of them are ready to kid in the next 4 weeks and I really don't want to lose any of them because they kid out in the cold! You can bet if I wasn't pregnant I'd be up on a ladder with a hammer finishing the barn myself!