Random Post

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?
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This morning I was on the computer (in the basement) and looked over and saw the male guinea watching me. Freaked me out a bit at first when I realized there was something in the window!


And here's the latest baby bunny picture! This was taken on Saturday. Those little buggers sure do grow fast!


I haven't forgotten about my Katie-Do list. It's hot as you-know-what out there. I'm doing inside stuff instead. The kitchen is very clean! And I think I'll sew some today. It's been a while since I've sewn anything.

Katie-Do

I have a list of things I've been putting off, and I'm really going to try to get most of that list done today if I can. I figured I'd blog about it so it might motivate me more. :)

Katie-Do List

-move teenage chicks into the big coop

The chicks are having a blast exploring! See my two bearded ladies? There's one in the center, and one at the bottom right (although her beard is less full). I really hope these two are definitely pullets.


-put up a new fence in the yard for the sheep and goats

-rake up old hay in pasture and put in garden aisles
-take off front panel of sheep shelter (now that it's warm out)
-put new bedding in sheep shelter


-paint roof and sides of sheep shelter


-replace flat tires on chicken tractor with new tires
-move turkeys into chicken tractor

-finish building nesting box so we can sell it
-finish shearing Darla (I'll show you pics later...it's funny)
-transplant the last of the flower seedlings


Ok. That's all I can think of for now. It's going to be hot today, so I may just give up. I hate the heat. Have I told you that? It makes for one very unhappy me.


Well, I made a pretty good dent in my list today. It was so hot I took several breaks between chores. Here are a couple more pics I thought I'd share with you.



This is one of the chicks I hatched in November. Isn't she pretty?


Now I'm going to go shower and relax in the air conditioning!

Meet Theo

This is Theo, my new buck. Theo is Mammoth's son. His mom is owned by the same girl who used to own June. Theo was born on the same day as June's kids. How about that? He's 12 weeks old and growing fast.



He'll have to be separated from the rest of the herd soon. He's already showing interest in June (both sexually AND trying to nurse from her) so I'll need to separate him soon. I plan on building a separate pen for him and the ram lamb so we don't get any accidental breedings.


He's a really sweet boy though. The other day my ram lamb was trying to play with him and poor Theo thought he was just getting chased.


He's not sure what to think of those sheep.

It's Chicken Time!

My first order of broilers for the season arrived last Friday. I ordered 35 but now have 30 of them. I had bad luck on this shipment. I ordered from Meyer Hatchery but they're giving me a credit for the ones I lost. I should have ordered more, and by the time I called to see if I could order more they were already out of chicks for this hatch. Darn! I'll just order more in a few weeks.

Most of this order will be reserved for my sister. She'll be visiting in August and will be helping out with the processing! The chickens will be slightly older than "normal" processing age, but that's ok, it just means more meat!

And if you notice, I'm using egg carton bottoms for feeders. I ran out of the long chicken feeders, so I used these in a pinch. They're working wonderfully, at least until the chicks get bigger! I'll definitely use them again. And you can compost them when they get too dirty. Bonus!


The turkeys are getting big. Here are a few of them roosting on the brooder pen. Oh, and a guinea. Those keets are pretty darn cute!

Water Dogs (and Kids)

I'm way late in posting this. Like almost a month late! Way back at the end of April we got a heat wave. It was HOT. We decided to take the kids and dogs down the road to the river.



Scooter loves the water. He always has. He runs right in and just loves to swim swim swim!


Turns out Elmer loves the water too!! He jumped right in after Scooter. Of course the competition of getting the toy helped his nerves. :-)


The kids had fun wading in. It was too chilly to swim though. After all, even though it was 90* outside, it was still April and the water was cold!


They loved racing to get the toy!!


Elmer was a really good swimmer.


But most of the time Scooter barked so Elmer would back off. He's bossy like that.


Bossy, and very focused.


The one drawback to Scooter swimming....after he comes out of the water he HAS to roll in sand.


Thanks, Scoot.

Do you see what I see?

What is that? Over there in the grass?


Want a closer look? Do you know what it is?


A nest of baby bunnies!


I mean brand new baby bunnies!


I didn't get a good count, but it looks like at least 4 or maybe 5 of them!


They're in the sheep pasture. I saw the nest on Friday and it wasn't finished being built yet. This evening when I fed the animals I saw Momma bunny near the nest. I wondered if she was having them. She ran off when she saw me, so I took a closer look. They are really new babies! There was even a piece of afterbirth at the front of the nest. I'm guessing no more than a day old, though I don't know that much about wild rabbits.

This is the second batch of baby bunnies I've found in the sheep pasture! I know wild rabbits can be a pain, but so far they haven't given me any trouble. I enjoy watching them. I'll keep taking pictures of these babies every few days so we can watch them grow!

Our First Anniversary

David and I got married one year ago today. Time flies. It was the most perfect day and I wish I could have a re-do because it was so much fun!! I can't wait for many more wonderful years together!

My Dad the "Player"

My dad has a fairly new hobby- acting! He has joined a local theater group and has been very involved in their plays. This fall he helped out backstage building sets and doing other things. Now he's starring in his first play. The play is titled "W;t (Wit)"

David and I drove down to see the play last night. Here's the cast board. My dad is the one all the way to the left.


Here he is showing us around back stage. That is the prop table on the left. There are spots drawn in for every prop. A place for every thing and everything in its place!


This is the seating area. This building used to be the old library. I remember going there many times as a kid.


And here's the stage. It's pretty neat. I don't know if you can tell, but the stage rotates. You can see the circle on the floor. They just turn the stage to change scenes.


The play was about a professor who was diagnosed with cancer, and shows a little bit about her journey through an experimental treatment. She tells you at the beginning of the play that she has 2 hours to live (the length of the play). The main actor was great. She shaved her head so she could really get into the roll. The play was intense, and definitely a tear jerker.

Dad played several parts, the father of the main character, and a medical person or tech in the hospital. It was neat seeing him up there on stage! I would have liked to take pictures during the play, but I was really afraid of disrupting everyone.

Bravo, Dad!

Animals Everywhere

The March chicks are full feathered now, they've just got bits of down clinging to their heads and necks. It was time for them to go outside!

This is the chicken tractor I found on Craigslist for $20. I didn't quite realize how rotten the wood was, but I stabilized it for now. I had to put wire mesh on three sides because there was just window screening. I was afraid some mean little creature would bust right through it trying to get to the chicks.


There are some really cute ones in the group! Do you see the reddish one just in front of the white one? There are two like her. Their heads start off reddish and then fade to white on the tail! I hope they stay like that.


The sheep and June have been doing really well with grazing in small paddocks. The ram lamb keeps escaping, but he usually hangs out in the area so it's not a big deal.


Wanda is being a fairly good mom to her chick. Sometimes at feeding time she'll forget she has a baby when she runs over to eat. Then he'll PEEP PEEP PEEP for her, and she'll take off across the yard, wings outstretched, as if she's thinking to herself, "OH no! I forgot the baby!" It's pretty funny to watch.


The weather has been great these past two days...sunny and mid-70s! The sheep enjoy the shade and cool grass. Darla's midsection has been growing, and she frequently lays down and grazes.


Purl looks so pretty laying in the grass.


June is as nosy as ever. I just love this little goat. She's a good girl. She knows the routine now. I let her out of the gate when it's feeding time. I'll go in and feed the sheep and she'll wait until I come out, then we both walk to the barn for milking. She usually lags behind just a bit, but she always comes in. Then she hops right up on the milk stand like she's supposed to do.


I hatched these three chicks about a week (or two?) ago. I can't remember. It was a very poor hatch. I set 36 eggs and only 3 hatched. Ugh. I blame it on not having a fan in the incubator. That will be remedied soon. I will be setting more eggs in the next day or two. I did manage to get a green egg to hatch though! That one should be pure Americana.


And look what else I got!!!! Looks to be a frizzle to me! My little frizzle rooster is doing his job after all!


The turkeys are really getting big. They're eating a ton. Can you see the two guinea keets? The one is gray and at the top of the pile, and the other one is brown and at the bottom. They love the turkeys.


David took the dogs out to play fetch for a while today. Elmer loves to run.


And Scooter loves to fuss at Elmer and fight over sticks.


"Why do you keep calling for me Mom? Don't you know I'm chasing sticks?"


"What? You have a stick too?!!"


He's the cutest dog in the world. He'll be 14 next week! My sweet old man.

Hope you all had a good weekend!!

Mother's Day....Late!

I haven't blogged about Mother's Day yet because Blogger was giving me issues with uploading pics. I already hate uploading pictures, and when you get error messages and have to try three and four times, it takes the fun out of blogging!

The kids were at their mom's on Mother's Day, so David and I started out the day doing some yard work. It was a nice day and it was supposed to rain the next day so I really wanted to get some more garden work done. I worked for while but found myself getting really stressed out about the work. I went inside to get a drink and David grabbed his keys and said, "Let's go!"

I had no idea where we were going, but I followed long because I was happy to leave the garden. We drove into town and stopped by McDonald's for a caramel frappe (oh my gosh, they're so good!) and then we drove to the historic center of down. We just drove around and explored a little.

There are so many gorgeous houses downtown. Old houses.


David saw this old truck and I think he drooled a bit.


Here's one huge old house I thought was really pretty.


And here's the other half of it!


Here's a big old house that was right on the water.


I just love everything about this part of town. I didn't take enough pictures though. I'll have to post more another day. There were lovely gardens blooming so I was too busy looking around to take pictures. Plus, I didn't think David would want to stop every 3.4 feet.


I love this house. It's actually owned by the college that's across the street from it. See that Weeping Cedar (is that right?) to the right? You have to walk under it to get to the door! I want one of those.


And this is a field not far from our house. I think it'd be great to have a house tucked way back against the woods.


We drove around for a good while and it was a lot of fun. Just us. I felt so much better when I got home. I ended up getting a lot of work done in the garden...and I actually enjoyed it! Sometimes it's the little things in life that really make you happy. :) And thank goodness for wonderful husbands that know when you need a break from the garden.