Chicks

We got chicks last week!  These are Rhode Island reds.  

There are also older chicks, we keep them separate so that they don't pick on the younger ones, but will put them together when they are all bigger.  Buff Orpington and Araucana, which will lay blue-green eggs, similar in color to my Amazonite stone bracelet.  

$2 for a dozen eggs!  $6 for a gallon of raw milk!

After church Sunday, a monk named Father Theodore, who is from Scotland, gave us this prosphora, bread that is used in the altar.

The Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown.  We had a nice visit.  Sheep are quite loud!  The boys enjoyed using the old hand crank machine to get the dried corn off the husk.  They require people to wear face masks indoors, so we were outside most of the time.  I had asthma pretty badly as a child and am scared of not being able to breathe well.  

Mom has been here since Saturday.  We had friends over and ate apple crisp with vanilla ice cream to celebrate Paul's 6th birthday.  Yesterday, 20 tons of gravel was delivered.  It was fun for the boys to watch.  Then, we went to visit Dad's grave and planted chrysanthemums.  We ate lunch at the monastery down the hill afterwards.  I bought a few jars of their honey.  The monk who cares for the bees is Father Paisios.  He kindly offered to help us get set up with a hive on our land.  We have a bit more than we originally thought, as an Amish neighbor rode his bicycle over and gave Rob the land survey.  The neighbor, named Jonathan, had hoped to buy this place, but there were problems with the previous owner having more debts, so Jonathan found a place not too far.  We went there and met his 8 puppies.  They are Austrailian shepherds, born Sept. 9th.  I think of Hannah's pup, Remy, who she gave to a horse farm.  If I'd known a year ago that we would be living here, and have room for him to run around I would have liked to keep him, but it's all in God's hands. 

We hope to get our fence up soon and move the shorthorn cross heifer that we bought here.  She is on a farm just a few miles away. She's currently giving milk, but will have another calf in March, so the farmer said we will need to stop milking her in January.  Her name is "Pansie" but I want to rename her.  She is mostly black with white spots, looks like a Holstein, because of her papa.  Her mother is a dark brown.  I will have to take photos of her soon to share.  I'm hoping to learn to make cheese with the extra milk.