I got a lot of things from her. Nanny was a worrier. She took her concerns and watered them, helping ’em grow into something she couldn’t bear to look away from. And somehow, she passed this green thumb of the worst kind right on to me. I’ve found in this life that if I can find simple ways to help me avoid the worries, it does my soul good and maybe will help some of ya’ll too.

That said, these goats are going to be the death of me!!! I worry about kids getting stuck, and mamas needing help and babies suffocating in their sacks. Of course in my mind, this is bound to happen middle of the night, likely during a cold snap or while I’m in a meeting at work. To help squash the worry I needed a way to check in on our expecting girls while at the office and throughout the night as we approach their due dates. What we came up with is an easy and affordable option for those of us without good wifi range out in the sticks.

If your wifi signal is strong and reaches your barn, this camera (image pictured) is excellent and costs all of $25. I love that it has record, screenshot and playback options as well as an alarm and the ability to speak over the built-in microphone. The picture is clear and based on the morning song of our roosters Stan and Charlie, the lag time is only about 3 seconds behind real-time. It’s tiny and makes rigging it in a corner very easy. Instructions were clear and setup was simple. It has night vision and can even flip the image if you have to hang the camera upside down.

Unfortunately, I discovered our wifi doesn’t reach very far at all. After attempting to get our budget camera linked unsuccessfully, I had resigned myself to having to purchase a wireless system with a data plan (a minimum of $250 ish plus the cost of the data plan) and in chatting with a friend was introduced to the perfect solution. This magic little thing-a-ma-jig extends wifi well beyond its normal range!! We opted for the AV1300 option and had I bought a camera with an Ethernet port, it would have worked just plug-and-go running through the wire ports of each linked HomePlug. Seeing that our little camera doesn’t have one of those ports, the option above “with wifi” extends the network wirelessly for around $119. Depending on the distance to your barn and internet speed you may be able to go with the AV1000 for around $80 total 🙂

Show us some of your barn camera set-ups!!