IMG_1937A quick Monday update for ya’ll. Weekend seemed to go rather quickly.  We sold all the eggs at the Farmers Market on Saturday. That was good. Also, this Saturday we pushed the camper trailer into working position. It’s under the car port by the back door, so that it’s protected from Sun and rain and mostly sheltered from the prevailing winds. Sue has started demolition and took all the old rotted canvas out today. What she found is that there was a leak in the roof so most of the interior wood in the roof has rotted as well. I’ll try to take some better photos as we try to remove the heavy plywood that made up the sleeping side of the tent, tomorrow. Sue said there is a lot that can probably be salvaged. We’ll see as we go along. You can check out the initial idea from the post on March 8 called “Upcoming Projects“.   I think this one will be going on for a bit, so there will be plenty of photo opportunities.

chicken_doctor_people_soup_1172985Currently we have 3 chickens in differing states of illness/injury. One of the teenage Cochin’s has some issue with its leg. We’re not sure what is going on, nothing seems to be broken, and I can’t feel that it’s out of joint. We’ve had it in isolation for about a week – not completely alone, we did give him/her a friend – but it hasn’t gotten any better at all, so tonight we’ll put them both back with the others and see if he/she just doesn’t get better over time. We have one of the beautiful grey Speckled Sussex hens and a counter part rooster that have fallen ill quite suddenly. They are in isolation separately until we can tell if they will get over what ever is ailing them or not. We really hate it when we have sick chickens, because – other than making sure they have food and whatever it is they will eat, there’s not too much we can do for them. We try to keep them comfortable, and we will add Vet Rx to their water, which does tend to perk them up a bit, but we’re not sure if it completely aids in their recovery. We just feel helpless. Overall, it is a waiting game and a part of the process that neither of us like at all.

IMG_1904I think I mentioned, awhile back, that we’d update you on the goat boys. Well… I guess the biggest news is that they both have outgrown their collars. Is that a good or a bad thing? It means they are happy and eating really well! But it also means that they’ve gained a bit of weight since they came to live here on the farm. Our neighbor Tom will ask us, “Are you fattening them boys up to butcher?” No – we just want to make sure they’re getting enough to eat. The farrier says the boys are about 30 lbs overweight. Have you ever tried to put goats on a diet? Not fun, but we have cut back on some of their additive foods and I think they’re looking pretty good at the moment. They say, “Hi”.

chestnut treesTonight, Sue has signed up for a free webinar entitled “Three Ways to Kill Kill Fruit Trees“. Sounds like a fun topic! It’ll be interesting to hear what they have to say. Especially in light of the fact that we’ll be getting chestnut trees in the spring. We’ll be planting those as bare root trees, so before then, we’ll be creating the orchard area. Sue marked off where the trees will be going.  I need to look at the black line and see how it’s doing. We’re still in contact with James and the Chestnut Proliferation Project and he’s counseling us on prepping the site. They grow into such beautiful trees, I’m looking forward to see how well we do with these guys. I guess that’s it for the time being. We will be keeping you up to date on all of these projects, co-workers, etc. Remember, you can always catch up with what’s happened here by visiting the archives. We will try to be interesting sometimes. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

Today’s Weather: Odd.  It’s been warm, cold, cloudy, sunny, windy, calm. Not sure what’s going on, but it’s messing with our heads! The high today was 74°. Currently, at 5:07 p.m., it is 69°. Low is supposed to be 46°.  I think it’s getting to be cool enough to plant our winter veggies! Something to work on.

Egg Report: I keep talking about egg production going down, and this weekend it really did. Today I picked up 7 chicken eggs- 7! We had the new normal of 2 duck eggs this morning. When we go to put the chickens in tonight, I’ll do a quick check of the nesting boxes because they’ve been laying later in the afternoon sometimes. I’m hoping that we’ll continue getting enough through the winter to supply our now ‘regular’ customers.