June- 2011 Our first month in New Hampshire

Our adventure begins last December with hubby getting offered a promotion and being moved to the plant in Massachusetts.  Hubby is a huge hunter and wanted to live in New Hampshire where it is more hunter friendly.  We were looking for a home that would house not only us but our 20 year old grown sons who have autism.  We started house hunting immediately online and searched through tons of real estate sites.  It took us almost four months to find our home.  

Our New Home

Our new home is just over the Massachusetts border (second house inside NH). 

We arrived in New Hampshire the last week of May.  The first week was dealing with movers, new furniture deliveries and unpacking.

Garden and Goat and Sheep Pen being built.

From June 2nd to June 4th  we started turning our property into a farm.  We began digging and planting our garden and building our goat and sheep pen. We planted tomatoes, peppers, peas, green beans, lima beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, lettuce, carrots, onions, potatoes, sunflowers, corn, watermelon, pumpkins, cantaloupe, cucumbers, zucchini, crock neck squash, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower and both red and green cabbage.  

Jack

Spotty

On June 4th we went to Milford to the Chicken Swap and got the boys bunnies and our first set of chickens.  The boys got lionhead bunnies which they named Jack and Spotty.  They were suppose to be outside bunnies but the cool night temps brought them inside quickly and they took up residence in the boys rooms.

I also purchased 21 3 week old variety of chicks.  They were mostly Golden Comets but there were also 2 Buff Orphingtons, 2 Black Silkies and a Barred Plymouth Rock Hen.  We had 3 chicks die and ended up with 2 Roosters (1 Golden Comet and 1 Buff Orphington), 1 Buff Orphington Hen, 2 Silkies (not sure of sexes), and 13 Golden Comet Hens.  The chicks started out on the deck but soon made their way to the basement because of cool temps.  We housed them in a Brooder Coop at the beginning.

After 2 weeks they were ready to make their way outside to a big coop and pen.  Joe and I built the pen ourselves but bought the coop off of craigslist from a student who had built it in shop. This coop worked well but was a little small for our flock so we began to look for a larger coop.

While we were building the pen we were also having a water crisis on the property.  For some reason our well wasn't pumping water and the well company thought that our well had gone dry.  After a month long battle of trying to get the water problems fixed we now have two working wells but are $25,000 poorer.  (There goes our tractor money)

Blue Swede and Rouen Ducks

In the middle of the month of June, my husbands friend and co worker asked him if he would like some baby ducks for free.  We had an overgrown  pond on the property with no wildlife in it and my hubby loves ducks.  So of course, he says yes.  The ducks were Rouens and Blue Swedes.  They were about 6 week old when we got them.  There were 13 of them but we did lose one.  

New Large Chicken Coop

That next week was spent cutting down the overgrown vegetation around the pond and buying a larger chicken coop, in order to give the ducks the smaller coop.  (Someone should of told us that ducks don't like using coops. lol)  The chickens got a new home and we now have an extra coop that we will put to use soon.   

That ends our first month in New Hampshire.  We got tons of stuff done and had a lot of heartache over our water situation.  Bring on July.