First Peep and The Big Cheese

Look who showed up!

Its our first peep - is he a cutie or what? White chickens usually start out as yellow...but this little guy has very little yellow but is already white and pale grey -- I think he's gonna be a stunner. And he has clean, not feathered, legs. He's vigorous and peepy. Yay peeps!

Our little duck PigPen aka Biana aka Lady Gaga aka Snowball, set a nest in the garage. We took up the duck eggs and gave her some chicken eggs to hatch. She did a great job and hatched out five. However, when I went to check we found that two didn't make it - we think that another hen may have tried to run her off the nest. Or the peeps wandered off. So we scooped up the remaining three and took them in the house.

But, the three little peeps were kind of lonely in the tub alone.... so of course I went to Tractor Supply and got... heaven help me. Meat chicks. Its true - the first wave of Creepy Meats is upon us. Will I never learn?

I have some record keeping to do so bear with me here...

Farm Notes:
* We are on the last day of unseasonably cold and this should break this week - followed by instability with storms, temperature swings, and all manner of ridiculousness.
* The trays of seeds I started outside are actually doing OK. There are sprouts so they are being kept warm enough in my hillbilly greenhouse.
* The trays I started inside did remarkably well. Today I transplanted the scarlet runner beans and sunflowers into bigger pots. One of the beans is almost 18 inches tall!
* The growing medium we made did really really well and I'm thrilled to have a cheap and easy, do it yourself potting mix. I got a wheelbarrow full for about $6.
* The gladiolas I started haven't done one thing but lay there miserably. F-
* I potted up some dahlias (from the store) today hopefully they will be ok. Some of the tubers already had little sprouts on them.
* I put Debbie in the "Day Spa" today by herself to give her a break from Dahlia and the Milk Stealers (dang - that would be a great band name!). She needs to eat more, I'm not sure Sunny is letting her have enough hay.
* Sunny continues to milk like a demon. But frankly she is getting a little pushy. She had to "meet the dog" the other day and realized it wasn't so funny to push me out of the way to get thru the gate. Dog#1 kept her in. Good dog, bad goat. Good thing she's an awesome milker.
* Nibbles is doing great. She didn't even notice that her babies were gone. She's milking well but getting a little fussy up on the stand.

Cheese Notes:
* Made another Big Cheese on Friday. It was epic. Its now brining. Monday it will need to move to the "drying" station which is really just a tray and a plate out of the reach of the Insane Cat Posse. Then it will move to the cheese fridge.
* The previous cheese (shown above on a drying mat) is just about dry - I need to remember to turn it over every day.
* The cheese in the fridge is ready to be waxed.
* My plan to release us from grip and our false dependence on store bought cheese is progressing on schedule. Moooahhhwwwaaahhhahahahahhaha

Happy Monday!