I am out of town this week-spending some time in North Carolina at a conference for work, so I am not home helping out or on the front lines of what’s going on. Sue is left to take care of everything and everyone, plus give me the lowdown on the happenings. This blog, today, is just the nitty gritty, no fluff, no photos, info for the hard core followers. I have a few minutes between sessions to take care of the post – using my iPhones, so I won’t have the egg report for Friday- I’m 3 hours ahead of Sue and it’s still 3 hours before she picks up this afternoon’s egg caches. This is the best that I can do. Continue reading →

Today is minimal day. Mostly because I have hit the sickness wall and really don’t have energy to think, or type. We are both still dealing with virus complications. It’s bad when everyone in the household has it because we’re just tired and cranky and don’t want to really do anything.   Here’s what’s happened the last couple of days- minimally.   Continue reading →

So, I have to be honest and say that both Sue and I have the crud. It has taken hold and settled in for a spell.  I’m a few days behind Sue, but she’s having a hard time knocking it. Suffice it to say that not a whole lot of special is going on here. We’re doing good keeping up with day to day stuff. I have zero brain, which is interfering with my writing – more than normally. I just re-read Monday’s post and had to go back in and make corrections, I swear I already did that, but that brain was not working even then. So, today we’ll just do a quick midweek update and then hope for more fun on Friday. Continue reading →

Oh my heck! It has been so incredibly windy the last 3 days. It’s been amazing. I should have taken a photo of our weather station, because we had a 40 mph gust at around 10:30 Saturday night that shook the whole dang house. Was honestly reminiscent of some earthquakes I’ve sat through. I thought that maybe a good way to show you how fast the gusts are was to take a video of our wind meter (anemometer) going like crazy! The wind speed it measured just then was 36 mph. This type of wind that goes on for days, is exactly why they are building the Romni Chicken Wagon so solidly.  Continue reading →

So far, we’ve had a rather mild winter.  Only one really hard freeze and last night was the first horrid windstorm. All along, we’ve been trying to make sure the chickens stay wind shielded, warm and dry in their various little coops and shelters.  Sue has been adding to the hay bale wind breaks as much as possible – plus they love pecking and scratching at it.  She also added another layer of hay to the inside of the coops, keep up on that deep litter method, which helps to keep the temperature warm inside the coops. We’re kinda hoping that, if we keep them happy, we’ll still continue to get some eggs through the winter – enough to keep our regular customers supplied. As part of that, Sue gave the newer nesting boxes, on the biggies’ side, an addition. They were consistently using the box at the far right end, because they can easily get in there from the ladder, but the other boxes were getting used less and less. So, Sue decided to add a little roosting bar to them, so that they could more easily access the others. It’s a great addition… and the chickens have enjoyed having it there; however, still just finding an egg in the end box. Must be someone’s favorite! Continue reading →

This was the question of the day. How do you tell if the ducks are too fat? Sue mentioned that she wondered if they were because they were having difficulty getting over the curb, but as I watched them this afternoon, I thought that it might be more that the dirt inside the coop area has become quite compacted lately. Still – how do you tell if the ducks are fat? I have no idea… so I did a little bit of research online. There’s not a great deal of information out there about how to tell if your duck is too fat or not. If you pick them up a lot, you’re supposed to be able to feel for their “keel” and if you can’t feel it, then they are too fat. We don’t pick up our ducks a whole lot, only if they are injured, it makes them a bit stressed out when we try. How else can you tell? Continue reading →