February Farm News

Zelda

Ivy

Last week we went to the vet for Zelda, Ivy and Hugo to get spayed and neutered. After their surgery, we got a phone call from the vet saying that Zelda was actually a boy, not a girl like we thought!!! We are still keeping his name Zelda though, because apparently Zelda can be a boy name. Today we did some vet work with Ivy taking out her stitches. 

Hugo

 

Fergie in the nesting box

Our chickens have been slacking off on laying eggs. Their egg production has been almost cut in half! We think that they might need a little bit more sleep. Don't we all? We are going to reset their timer to go off half an hour later. Elliot needs his daily double egg breakfast wrap.

Energy

We have been studying alternative energy and made a video that we thought you might like...

Quilting

We have been studying quilting lately. We traveled down Highway 1 to Kalona's quilt shops. They were amazing! On the sidewalks of Kalona they have created quilts out of different colored bricks.

We also went to our Great-Grandma Margie's house to see some of the quilts she has made. She gave us tons of quilting magazines and scraps of fabric. She showed us some of her very hi-tech sewing machines.

We have made a video about quilts, based on the hit series Reading Rainbow! :)

Sewing 101

Things have been a bit slow at The Golden Egg so we decided to get out the sewing machine from 1973. When we first turned it on a few parts fell off so we spent a while fixing that. Thank goodness Grandma saved the instruction booklet! We FINALLY figured it out, then we threaded it. When we started sewing all of the thread got bunched up and the fabric wouldn't move. After pushing lots of buttons, lifting lots of levers and turning knobs the last knob we turned WORKED! We were finally able to sew. Here is Natalie's project.

Whoops! SEAM RIPPER TIME!!!!! 

Holiday Happenings!

On Thanksgiving we went on a walk around the pasture with our grandparents. When we came back to visit the chickens, we were surprised to see an egg laying in the chicken's run! Caroline went in to get the egg, when we noticed that an overturned bin was moving! We thought the wind was blowing it, but when we flipped it over there was a chicken laying under there!!! We don't know how long she was trapped, but she was SUPER happy to get out! Since then we put her on a leg strengthening program, so if she gets under that bin again she will be able to BURST out! :)

We are part of a group called M.O.E. (Money Offering Effort) that has fundraisers to earn money for organizations and people. We donated four dozen eggs to the sale at our church this past weekend. The eggs contributed $32 to the total of $279. This year we are donating the proceeds to the Haitian Education and Literacy Program and to the family of Sgt. Collin Raaz, a City High Alumnus, who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan.

Bale Rolling

This past weekend a family friend flew in from North Carolina. When we were in our pasture we invented a new sport, bale rolling. It was very fun. Here is a video:

Saturday Adventure

On Saturday, we went to the the Golden Delight Bakery near Kalona to get some half-moon pies to take to our Grandma and Grandpa's house.  On our way we passed an Amish horse and buggy and parked next to one that was hitched.

Hugo

 After our visit to the Golden Delight, we went to our Grandparent's house. They had three orphaned  kittens but they have a working farm and the kittens are too tame for that. They would be in danger with all of the equipment driving around. Now we have three kittens!

Zelda

  

Ivy