Monthly Archives: March 2021

bits

28 Sunday Mar 2021

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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!

nesting

25 Thursday Mar 2021

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We have little ones coming. Well – we have little ones. Chicks that is. Sue has been spending time, nesting – so to speak.

Over the last week or so, Sue has cleaned out both sides of the coop and the top brooder. Well, she also added new straw to the RCW, but they are not getting new chicks. I suppose it could still be considered nesting. The chickens LOVE it when they get new straw. The only bad thing is that they get sooo excited and a good deal ends up outside the doors. You know, from all the scratching and romping around. The brooder gets new wood chips before the chicks come; they’d get lost in straw! Plus, sometimes they try to eat it and can choke.

Here is their set-up. For the first week or so, they get a pee pad on top of the chips where the water and food are, it helps contain the mess and gives them a little bit more stability underfoot. Aren’t they so cute and fluffy? They are our first batch of meat birds for the season. There are a few more than the four you can see here. We’re doing four batches this year instead of three. All have been sold already. Amazing. We’re still experiencing very cold nights and not so warm days, so these little guys have three lights on them right now. We’re hoping that will keep them nice and warm.

Next week, I believe, we will be getting some ducks and some geese. They are going to be simply adorable! We’ll share photos with you when they get here – whenever they arrive. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

odds

16 Tuesday Mar 2021

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If you follow our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WAAP2), then you may have seen this photo when it was uploaded this morning. The post said something about having a great day when your breakfast smiles at you. So, unfortunately this little portend showed its “face” this morning after we had already started a difficult day. Maybe the eggs were telling us, “don’t worry, things’ll get better.” Is it kind of like reading tea leaves? I break four eggs in a bowl in the morning and I can see where the day is going? Hmmmm what are the odds? Let’s review the day.

Day starts at midnight, right? Well, at midnight we were experiencing 70 mph wind gusts. Do you see the 3 at 80 or over between 10 and 11? That was the night last night. I never really sleep well on these nights. About 1am it slacked down to around 35 mph and stayed under 40 for the rest of the morning. Until…

…things started picking up again at 7am. See that spike up to 50 mph right before 7am? Then look at where it went around 7:30 – over 70 mph! At that very moment, Sue was on a ladder trying to screw down the roofing on the new coop porch. Don’t worry – I was holding the ladder! But the wind was, not only a periodic gale, but also bitingly cold. Not at all how we thought the day would begin. Unfortunately, our handyman, Trent – whom we love in general – elected to NOT use the roofing screws Sue purchased, but simple screws that were extra long. He doesn’t understand the wind that we have here in our little patch. So the corrugated roofing panels just lifted right off over the top of those screws. We took about a half hour just adding screws to the panels so nothing would fly off in the horrid winds. Geesh. Whatevs.

You know how else you can tell it has been an exceedingly windy day, I mean if you don’t have access to sophisticated graphs from your own personal weather station (snark)? You will know when you look out the kitchen window and see the geese down the driveway by the front gate. When you see that, you know that the fence has blown down. This is the first time, in our history here, that Roma and Octave have been out wandering. They are so funny to watch as they walk around all stately and proud. Their sojourn didn’t last very long and soon they put themselves back in. Guess it was too far way from their beloved pools.

The real drag with the wind (see what I did there?) is that it forces a down day. There is nothing we can get done outside at all. Not in wind like that – it’s so very hard to get just the regular chores completed. This morning I picked up several waterers to fill and lost one to the wind before I could anything in it. Luckily Sue found it later, caught in a fence. The wind just makes things too difficult. We are hoping that, now the rain has left San Diego, our winds will be calm for a time. Really have stuff that needs to get done and it’s all outside!!! We’ll keep you informed on the situation as it blows along. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

tough stuff

11 Thursday Mar 2021

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We have a few projects… I know what you’re thinking. “You always say that!” That isn’t an untruth. But this time I want to talk about projects that Sue tackled by herself while I was gone. We all know that she’s made of tough stuff, so this really isn’t very surprising, but I was impressed because I had helped her some with the biggest one and it was tough with two, then she goes and does the lion’s share by herself (maybe that means I wasn’t really helping in the first place?).

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signs

06 Saturday Mar 2021

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No. Not crop circles. We don’t get those types of signs here 🙂 If you’re an M. Night Shyamalan fan – you’ll get the reference. The signs I’m talking about are of spring. Yes, we live in Arizona. Yes, there is desert. Yes, we have cactus – they bloom too! But also, we are in the high desert (where I am sitting at the moment, we are at 4946.88′. Pretty high up there – only 333.12′ shy of a mile). Point being, we do get signs of spring in our back yard. All be it, they are mostly from plants we have added. Most of our native plants show their signs of life during monsoon season. Unless we’ve had a wet winter, which we have not.

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