02 Sunday May 2021
Posted in Fun Stuff
It’s an odd looking word, “firsts”. One little vowel there among a fricative, and a plosive sandwiched between two sibilants. I always feel for people trying to learn English when I come across words like this; so simple to us, but difficult to get your tongue around. This, of course, has nothing to do with the post today. It is just something that ran through my head as I was looking for a title photo. Ha!
Continue reading29 Thursday Apr 2021
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Yep! we have more as of today! 21 new Cornish meat birds. They are always so cute when they are babies. The first batch that came before Easter are growing up a bit. They may not be ready for processing in 6 weeks, maybe around 7 or 8 weeks. They are a bit smaller than the Cornish Cross from last year.
Continue reading24 Saturday Apr 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
I mentioned that I enjoy Saturdays, right? Always a great day no matter what we’re doing. This Saturday was a bit different because we were celebrating a couple of friends’ birthdays. So, while it wasn’t exactly a lazy day, it was a day of celebration that we don’t really enjoy often. Sue did get a projected completed this morning, so I thought I’d show what she did while I did what I did, then what we both did. 🙂
Continue reading22 Thursday Apr 2021
Posted in Fun Stuff
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This logo is for a company that promotes teaching babies to swim, so that they do not drown if they fall into a pool or body of water. I’m using it because I’m talking about ducks and geese that arrived today! They are all the cutest little water babies.
Sue purchased 8 ducks, Peking and Khaki Campbells, four of each, along with two more Tufted Roman geese. Unfortunately, they were all shipped together and – we think- the geese trampled some of the ducks. We lost 3 Pekins and 1 Khaki Campbell. It is always so sad when they don’t make it through the journey here. Here is a photo from Sue showing two of the survivors. You’ll need to search for the yellow one a bit… the light turned him red and he blends in with his surroundings.
Sue wanted to try out the Pekings for butchering, but since only one little one survived, we’ll see if it is a little girl and keep her, or if it’s a nice little boy we could also keep him. The last of his kind from this little flock. The Khaki’s she wanted to try because they are on the Livestock Conservancy’s status as “watch” for heritage birds. That means they are not yet an endangered breed, but close. They are supposed to be prodigious layers and also one of the most quiet of the domestic duck breeds. Not that we really worry too much about quiet around here. Below are two photos of the adult birds. Left is the Peking and right is the Khaki Campbell. Nice looking, aren’t they?!
We hope the four we have remaining make it over the next few days. We will endeavor to take some adorable photos of our water babies and share them so you can say “awwwww”. Just like we did. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading.
21 Wednesday Apr 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
We did a thing. Yesterday morning we worked on revamping the coop/tractor for Flattop, Nudie booty, and the ducks. This time I remembered to take photos, even though I didn’t remember my own phone.
Continue reading18 Sunday Apr 2021
Posted in Projects, Uncategorized
I love the weekend! I enjoy being home on the farm. I look forward to working on something each weekend – we never really know what Saturday will hold, but we know that there will be something to do. We make tentative plans, but sometimes the chickens laugh and say “nope!” and we do something else.
This weekend we got a few pending things done and made planes to complete others through out the week. The first little task we were able to complete was moving our one gimpy hen out of the bottom brooder and into the little green house. She is getting better, but it’s a little early to let her out into gen-pop,
That taken care of, we moved over to the goat boy’s coop and put the finishing touches on the feeder and waterer stations in preparation for moving some of the Buff Orpingtons over there with Mr. Red. We did move everyone last night and they are settling in to their new digs. They should be ready to explore outside by tomorrow morning. This is a random self portrait with the final chicken to be moved over. She was a good girl, but didn’t hold still enough to stay in focus. Yes – I am wearing a mask out side; the pollen count is dangerously high and the mask keeps me from having immediate asthma attacks. Anyway – We’ve ten chickens total over there and they seem to be doing just fine.
Our final morning project was to hand the last set of dutch doors on the chicken coop. Sue had remade them with the aid of the Easy Gate braces earlier on Friday and they just needed to be hung up – well and painted eventually. I’m generally the gopher type assistant in these tasks. So I held the door while Sue screwed in the hinges. Below you can see the braces I’m talking about. They make the door/gate absolutely square and very stable. We didn’t get both of them up as the top one was just a smidge too tall. Sue will shorten it and then we’ll get it up. In the end, it’ll look the the one on the opposite side, which I’m showing below on the right.
The project that we didn’t get to was beginning to dig the trench that we’ll eventually use to get water up to the swales in the upper field where we will eventually plant the olive trees. I really feel they’ll do great up there if we can ensure regular watering until they are established. Sue had sprayed a line on the ground where she wanted to dig, but the wind over the past few weeks obliterated it. So, I think Monday she will repaint and get everything ready and Tuesday morning we work on it. I’m the spotter as she runs the back how, just to make sure she doesn’t accidentally dig up water or electric line :). We’re just worried about the first couple hundred feet or so, then she should be in the clear and won’t need me any more. I’ll try to remember to take some photos so I can share it with you. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!
15 Thursday Apr 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
We do try. I think I’ve mentioned this before. We are making attempts and reusing as much as we can, throwing out as little as possible. Finding different uses for things that might end up in our trash. Granted… we do not do as much as we probably could with containers and the like. But we give it a go. We’re pretty good about using food scraps for the chickens and the dogs. We definitely are amazing at using the yogurt and cottage cheese containers until they disintegrate. We use our wire scrapes as much as possible and other bits that we accumulate. We’d love to get more experience using building cast-offs. Thought I’d talk about a couple of projects reusing, and then one that didn’t.
Continue reading11 Sunday Apr 2021
Posted in Fun Stuff
I could never be a bee. Look at this hard working girl here. Covered in pollen and figuring out ways to hold more. It is definitely allergy season here. The oak trees are working over time this year! Laden with their little catkins and sending pollen out on the winds. Also, the apple trees, the apricot trees, the flowers, the grasses, and on and on.
Continue reading03 Saturday Apr 2021
Posted in Fun Stuff
Since tomorrow is EASTER I thought we’d just take a moment to wish you many Blessings and hope you are able to spend some time with family and friends – even if it is remotely. We are enjoying a visit from my folks for a long weekend and it has been nice just relaxing with them.
Continue reading28 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
I have a few bits and pieces to share, well – maybe only bits. The pieces might not come until later. But we did do some bits of our projects this weekend.
Yesterday we were able to work on the Goat Boys’ enclosure so that we can move the Red Wanderer, the Brown Wanderer, and the new Buff Orpingtons over to the Goat’s coop. We put poultry netting (Like this photo to the right) around the goats’ fence so that the chickens wouldn’t be able to get out and become tempting tidbits for the coyotes. It had started to become windy, so it was easier for us to work together. Took a couple of hours to get it to a point of security that we both thought would work. We’re hoping to move them soon. We need to get some of the chickens out of the main coop because it is getting a bit crowded in there. Plus, these guys are just wreaking havoc in my flower beds and garden. I’m hoping that they are finding all sorts of bugs and good things. AND I hope they continue their inquisitive nature when they’re making pals with the Goat boys.
After that, and a break for water and to blow our noses, we spent some time with the little ones taking care of pasty butt. I won’t bore you with photos of that, we’ve shared them in the past. We had about 6 out of 24 chicks with pasty butt. We took good care of them, and they are still doing well today! Right as we finished, our neighbors and friends, Elise and Lance, brought the birds some broccoli plants from their winter garden that were done producing. Everyone pounced on them. We only found one stalk that remained from the bag full of plants that she brought. Nice! They were very happy. Not sure what this week holds, my folks are coming out on Wednesday to spend Easter with us, so I’m sure we’ll have some fun things to report! Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!
