First Light Farmstead

First Light Farmstead We're slowly starting our homesteading journey and getting back into animal rescue!
(1)

Thank you so much for joining us on this journey and supporting us as we continue to build the life we could've only dreamed of until now.

Alright friends, let's have some fun! 🐾I asked ChatGPT to guess what Minion might look like fully grown based on his pu...
05/15/2026

Alright friends, let's have some fun! 🐾

I asked ChatGPT to guess what Minion might look like fully grown based on his puppy photos, what we know about his parents, his markings, and his weight gain.

Now I need your votes!

Which full-grown Minion prediction do you think will be closest and how much do you think he will weigh fully grown?

Option 1: Leaner mixed-breed build
Option 2: More Lab-like

For reference:
🐾Dad is a pure black Lab.
🐾Mom is a leaner build mixed breed.
🐾He was 6.4 lbs at 5 weeks and 12.7 lbs at 8 weeks.

Drop your vote and your weight guess

I want to see who gets the closest when Minion finally grows into those paws.

Happy International Family Day! Today seems like a perfect day to tell you about Mem’s Hydrangea 💚This little sprouting ...
05/15/2026

Happy International Family Day!

Today seems like a perfect day to tell you about Mem’s Hydrangea 💚

This little sprouting plant may not look like much yet, but it means so much to me.

This is a hydrangea — but not just any hydrangea. This plant has traveled with me from my childhood home, the home I sold in order to purchase our current home here at the farmstead.

Before it was at my childhood home, though, it was at Mem’s house.

Mem was my stepfather’s grandmother. She lived in the same town as us and would watch me after school when needed. When she passed, we took a clipping from her hydrangea and planted it in our garden. That tiny transplant grew into a large, full, beautiful hydrangea.

When we moved here, I took a small clipping with me. I’ll be honest — I was worried it hadn’t made it.

But I am so very happy to share that I was wrong. 💛

There it is, sprouting again.

Hydrangeas can be propagated from cuttings, layering, or divisions, which makes them one of those special plants that can be carried from place to place and generation to generation.

This one feels like a living little piece of where I came from, now putting down roots where we are building something new.

Grow, little hydrangea. I’m so glad you’re still here.

05/14/2026

I captured this sweet little moment while putting everyone to bed last night. 🥹

Pepper was clearly ready to call it a night, but Salt had other plans. Apparently, the bed was not fully made yet.

In the video, Salt is collecting little pieces of nesting material and bringing them back to the nest.

This is normal hen behavior. Before laying or settling into a nest, hens may scratch, rearrange bedding, tuck pieces around themselves, and fuss with the nest until it feels just right.

It helps create a more secure, cushioned space for eggs and is also part of their natural nesting instincts.

It’s a sweet tiny moment that is easy to miss if you are moving too fast — but it was so sweet watching Salt carefully “make the bed” while Pepper patiently waited for her to finish. 😂

Goodnight, girls. Sweet dreams and well-made nests. 💛

Somebody had his first vet visit, and it went great! 🖤Minion has doubled in weight since we got him, his heart and lungs...
05/14/2026

Somebody had his first vet visit, and it went great! 🖤

Minion has doubled in weight since we got him, his heart and lungs sound healthy, and he was officially confirmed to be the goodest boy.

The vet tech even had to take him out back to show the other staff, and honestly, I don’t blame her one bit.

He is far too cute not to share.

🥔Meet Potato 🥔Potato is our tiny but mighty Serama rooster!Potato came to us with Melody from good friends of ours, and ...
05/14/2026

🥔Meet Potato 🥔

Potato is our tiny but mighty Serama rooster!

Potato came to us with Melody from good friends of ours, and he is currently the only rooster in our Serama flock. That is very much on purpose.

Roosters in general can be protective, bossy, and sometimes a little too confident for their own good.

When there are too many roosters in one flock, they may compete over hens, which can lead to fighting, stress, and injuries.

With Seramas, that big rooster personality is packed into a very tiny body, so we have found it is best to keep one rooster with the girls rather than risk too much drama in a small flock.

Right now, our Serama flock has 6 hens and 1 rooster, which gives Potato a nice little group without overwhelming the hens.

Proper rooster-to-hen ratios matter because too few hens can lead to overbreeding, feather loss, stress, and injuries to the girls.

Too many roosters can also lead to fighting and flock tension.

So Potato may be small, but around here he has a very important job. His roles include but are not limited to: showing off, looking adorable, and reminding everyone that he is, in fact, the man of the tiny chicken house. 🐓

Welcome to the spotlight, Potato. Please try not to let it go to your head.

🎶🎶Meet Melody 🎶🎶Melody is one of our Serama hens, and she came to us from good friends of ours, which makes her extra sp...
05/13/2026

🎶🎶Meet Melody 🎶🎶

Melody is one of our Serama hens, and she came to us from good friends of ours, which makes her extra special.

In my opinion, Melody is one of the most beautiful Serama hens we have.

Her coloring is best described as blue exchequer, or blue mottled/exchequer.

She has this gorgeous mix of soft blue-gray, charcoal, cream, and white feathers that makes her look like someone painted her one feather at a time.

Melody has gone broody in the past, but she has never quite stayed broody long enough to hatch any babies of her own.

Maybe someday she’ll decide she’s ready to commit to motherhood, but for now she seems perfectly content just being her stunning self.

We try to share not just pretty pictures — but useful knowledge too.🦆Feed mixes.🐓Poultry care.🌱Soil practices.✨What work...
05/13/2026

We try to share not just pretty pictures — but useful knowledge too.

🦆Feed mixes.
🐓Poultry care.
🌱Soil practices.
✨What works (and what doesn’t).

If you’ve found value here, consider sharing our page with someone you know who would also enjoy our posts.

Thank you for being part of this learning journey.

I love finding beauty in the tiny things I discover while I’m working outside.This little bright yellow patch was the on...
05/13/2026

I love finding beauty in the tiny things I discover while I’m working outside.

This little bright yellow patch was the only thing growing on this massive rock, and it stood out so beautifully against all that gray.

At first glance, I thought it might be a fungus, but it’s more likely a lichen — which is even cooler.

Lichens are not just one organism. They are a partnership between a fungus and algae or cyanobacteria, working together as one living structure.

🍄Fun Fact 🍄
Some bright yellow lichens grow directly on rocks and are considered “crustose” lichens, meaning they grow almost like a crust attached tightly to the surface.

So this tiny little splash of color is basically a living collaboration, tucked into the stone and quietly thriving.

Sometimes the prettiest things on the farmstead are the ones you almost walk right past.

Meet Iris. 🦆Iris is one of the ducklings we hatched last year, and she has grown into the sweetest, friendliest little d...
05/12/2026

Meet Iris. 🦆

Iris is one of the ducklings we hatched last year, and she has grown into the sweetest, friendliest little duck. Whenever I’m outside, she comes right over to see what I’m doing — which is adorable until she is so underfoot that I nearly trip over her while trying to make my way around the farmstead.

With all the rain we’ve been having, this temporary pond has stayed extra full. Usually it dries up by summer and doesn’t have much depth, but right now it is practically overflowing… and Iris is absolutely here for it.

She loves splashing around and sifting through the muck at the bottom. Even when the other ducks have had enough and wandered off, Iris will stay a little longer, happily enjoying the whole space to herself.

🦆Fun Fact🦆
Ducks have comb-like structures inside their bills called **lamellae** that help them sift through water and mud for tiny bits of food like seeds, plants, and invertebrates.

So when Iris looks like she is just happily playing in the muck, she is also doing very important duck work.

Time to talk gosling genetics!That adorable gosling we posted about yesterday, here is our best guess on what her parent...
05/12/2026

Time to talk gosling genetics!

That adorable gosling we posted about yesterday, here is our best guess on what her parentage likely looks like.

Based on her yellow down, smoky gray saddle, darker head and back markings, and pinkish-orange bill, our best guess is that her mother is a Pilgrim Goose.

Our current best parentage guess is:
Pilgrim hen × Buff American gander: about 55–60% likely

The next most likely option would be:
Pilgrim hen × Toulouse gander: about 25–30% likely

The reason we are leaning Pilgrim is because Pilgrim geese carry sex-linked color traits. In pure Pilgrims, males are usually lighter yellow/silver as goslings, while females are usually darker gray or olive-toned.

Since our flock is mixed, this does not prove whether this gosling is male or female, but her lighter coloring gives us a fun clue to track as she grows.

Her smoky gray saddle also tells us she likely carries some gray or wild-type patterning, which could come from the Pilgrim side or possibly our Toulouse gander.

Fun fact: Pilgrim geese are considered auto-sexing, which means males and females can often be told apart by color. Mixed-flock genetics can blur those clues, though, so for now we are doing what any reasonable farmstead would do…

Making our best guess and obsessively watching feathers grow in.

Let’s talk about allelomimetic behavior.What is allelomimetic behavior, you ask?It’s when animals copy or match the beha...
05/11/2026

Let’s talk about allelomimetic behavior.

What is allelomimetic behavior, you ask?

It’s when animals copy or match the behavior of others in their social group.

In plain English: Minion is learning how to dog by watching the big dogs.

Puppies learn a lot by watching the dogs and people around them.

A 2018 study found that puppies as young as 8 weeks old were able to learn by observing both other dogs and humans.

So when Minion curls up with Odin and acts like a tiny version of him, he isn’t just being clingy — he’s learning.

He watches where the big dogs sleep, how they interact, what they react to, and what they ignore. Then he does his best tiny-puppy version of the same thing.

This is also why safe early exposure matters so much.

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior emphasizes that the first three months of a puppy’s life are a key window for socialization with people, animals, environments, and everyday experiences.

While Minion gets a lot of built-in socialization here thanks to the number of animals we have, we are also intentionally introducing him to new people, pets that aren’t ours, car rides, different sounds, and a variety of environments.

The goal is to help him grow into a well-rounded dog with as few fears as possible.

For now though, he is mostly focused on copying the big kids, stealing socks, and being absolutely adorable while doing it.

Address

Freedom, ME
04941

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when First Light Farmstead posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category