Yeah, we have been here a full five months already, but we Havenites decided that we had finally gotten things to a good enough place to host a house warming. So we invited our local friends to come check out our house and farming operations. The event was not well attended in numbers, since we did not advertise well and many people were out of town, but it was amazingly attended by those who were able to make it. With our eggs, produce, and preserves, we prepared potato salad and devilled eggs for the occasion - yum! I failed to take pictures of the event, but I'm posting pics I just took of the 3 rooms that have been painted and decorated thus far. Further painting has been put on hold until there is not so much to be done outdoors. Working with colors has been an interesting process. The colors never exactly match the sample chip, so you never quite know what you're going to get. The kitchen color was supposed to be a bluish gray, but a whole lot of lavender snuck into it, which makes for a nice lively color, but not really what I was going for. However, it definately beats the floral wallpaper that we covered up.
The living room and bedroom colors are more reflective of my tendency to favor earth tones. We went with a golden yellow color for the living room, and Jeff and I chose a smokey green color for our bedroom.
Our large dining room table was a lucky find at an estate sale. It's a great table for only $8. Behind the table, you can see the french doors to the master bedroom, which are now covered with curtains that Terra made to give Jeff and I more privacy (no peeking! :). The "Flying Ship" painting above our bed and the bird painting in the living room are the creations of a local artist named Seth Fitts, with whom we barter eggs for art. We love bartering!!
We have been busy outside too. In the space
where the first chicken tractor used to be, Jeff and I have started an herb garden. The chickens poop and scratch around in their bedding, creating great compost. After laying fallow for a few months, the ground is ready for planting. We have planted basil, oregano, and orange mint so far. Once the other half of the bed is prepared, we will plant chamomile and other herbs yet to be determined. Inbetween the back of the house and the parking lot, we have planted 3 rose bushes and a Japanese Maple tree. (BTW, the rose bush photo imported side ways for some reason.)
We just finished fencing out a second pasture for the goats. They now have more greens to eat, after gobbling them all up in the first pasture already. Currently, the goats at The Haven include all of the adult goats and Remus and Romulus, the Nubian bucklings. All of the other kids have been moved to a fresh pasture at a friend's farm, where they are happily eating the cover crop, while fertilizing their field. Later today we plan to move a second chicken tractor into the new pasture at The Haven so that the rest of our chickens can be pastured. The third tractor will be reserved for breeding purposes. Right now, a Partridge Rock hen is sitting on a collection of PR and New Hampshire Red eggs, and they are due to hatch out on Thursday. The hen will have private quarters to hatch out the chicks.
In front of the house, 4 garden beds have been made as well as 2 small luffa beds and an arbor for trellising the luffa. Paul just harvested potatoes from one bed, and he has beans growing in another bed and tomatoes in the other 2. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen, which is very exciting. Behind the arbor in the photo, you can see the new milking station that Paul built at The Haven. Inside the pasture, just behind the milking station, you can see the end of the first chicken tractor, which was moved to pasture 1 a month or so ago. We are still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our yard, which is still just dirt. Right now, we are apparently growing lots of weeds.
Last, but not least, is our new barn-in-progress. We have most of the posts in place, and the floor joists are up too. We are eager to complete our barn so that we will have a more permanent situation for the goats in terms of feeding them hay and milking as well as for storage for all of the tools and animal-related items, which are now taking up space in the house.
So, there is much work still to do, but lots of progress has been made. Jeff and I were asked by someone at the house warming if we felt like we were living our dream. In short, we responded that on most days, yes, it feels like we are living the dream. :-)
-Annie
On Jeff's birthday last week, The Haven's first baby chicks were born. Two New Hampshire Red chicks hatched out that day, and one Partridge Rock hatched the next day. We started out with 7 NHR hatching eggs, but the first hen we put them under broke 4 of them on the second day. So, I fired her and put the eggs under the other hen who was acting broody. She sat on the eggs really well, but the third hen, in the tractor with them, kept laying eggs on top of the sitting hen. That's how some PR eggs were added to the nest, and I think that is how 
another NHR egg got broken. A few days before hatching, we moved another tractor to the second pasture, and the 2 NHR hens and rooster were placed in it with the other PR hens. We waited to move the PR rooster until we could put a door on the tractor, which would give the roosters more space to work out their pecking order issues. However, the big NHR rooster was dead by the next morning. (sniff!) We're not sure why he died, but perhaps the heat and the stress of the move got to him - ? Luckily, the NHR chick that hatched out at Full Life Farm is a male. He's 6 or so weeks old now, and he's growing big and fast. Yay! Unfortunately, one of the NHR Haven chicks didn't make it. It looked like the mama hen might have smothered it some time during the second night. The other 2 chicks are doing well, and we'll have to wait and see what sex they turn out to be. 
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