One More Week...

It seems like forever ago that I took Darla to the neighbor's house to visit with the ram. She is due to lamb next week, sometime around the 22nd. I'm impatiently waiting. Poor Darla, she's pretty uncomfortable since she's so big and it's been hot.



Check out her fuzzy belly. I had to shear her by hand (with hand shears) because I accidently broke my comb for the electric shears. And check out what's going on in the background! The darn ram lamb is STILL trying to nurse. Purl lets him. It's a good thing she doesn't have an udder. She's pretty much dry now, but I guess he still tries.


Poor Darla, you used to be so nice and trim. Now, well, let's just say, you're not so trim anymore!

I hope this week goes by quickly!

Garden Tour

I've been meaning to do a garden video and show y'all what's going on in my garden. I apologize for the weeds, they've been getting ignored lately. Also, sorry for any jerky camera work! It was really sunny out and I couldn't see the screen to actually see what I was filming. And, if you notice I stopped the first video rather suddenly. My neighbor was walking over and I didn't want him to think I was some lunatic talking to my vegetables!! :-)







And check out my tomato stakes! My coworker/friend's husband made them. He's a carpenter and used some leftover wood to make them, so they didn't cost anything to make. I'm trading them a few dozen eggs for a few dozen really nice, sturdy stakes! I love bartering!

New Chicks and New Bunny Pics

The eggs in the incubator are starting to hatch! So far it's going MUCH better than the last time (knock on wood). The fan I installed really helps keep the temperatures steady!

So far there are about 6-8 chicks hatched and more on the way!


See the chick's beak in the egg?

This poor chick is resting. It's hard work hatching!

I can't wait see how many are there when I get home!

And the latest pics of the baby bunnies.... This is probably the last time I'll show you, since we scared the 2 babies (I wonder what happened to the others?).

Just after I snapped this pic they darted out of the nest!

Devin grabbed one and I grabbed the other. His had 2 ticks in one ear so we pulled those off.

Then we quickly put them back in the nest, covered them up, and I held my hand over them so they'd calm down and not dart out again. As soon as they calmed down I lifted my hand and we walked away.

I cannot believe how fast they've grown!!! What are they, about 2 weeks old?!!

Grazing Gobblers

The turkeys have really been loving being out in the tractor. Today I had to move them to a new spot in the yard, so I asked David to record it.



They get so excited with new grass!

Harvesting Garlic

I planted garlic in October and patiently waited...and waited. Finally the tops started dying so it was time to harvest!

I dug the row up and was a little disappointed with the results. The heads are much smaller than I was hoping they'd be, but at least I got something.


This was the largest head. The rest of them were around the size of a golf ball. They're still edible though!


Next year I'll try again. I'll probably amend the soil a bit as well.

Oh yeah, and the garlic I planted game from the grocery store. Maybe this fall I'll buy some nice garlic instead of getting what was available at Foodlion. :-)

I need help.

Here is our house.



I love it, but it needs some pizazz. I want to make shutters, but I'm so indecisive when it comes to making decisions I thought I'd get your help in picking a color. I'd like to make cottage style shutters like these. Or at least something similar to that. I'd also like to paint the doors (front door and side door) some color in the red family.

So which of these colors (if any) do you like? Which do you hate? If you hate all of them, do you have any other suggestions for what might look nice?





I just grabbed these quickly at Lowe's the other day. I can certainly pick other ones if none of these look right!

In case you can't tell by the pics, the house is cream colored, not white. It's not exactly yellow, but *almost* a yellowish tinted cream. Clear as mud, right?

Stylish Hens

Some of my hens have been worn out by my roosters. I recently sold six extra roosters, so there were WAY too many around here. My poor hens' backs are proof of that. When the roosters mate with the hens, their feet and nails tend to pull out feathers. A couple of my poor hens' backs are now totally bald.

I recently saw something online called a hen saddle, and it's a protective cover for your hens so their feathers can grow back in and so the roosters can't damage their backs. I decided to make some, since we're on a tight budget and, well, because I can!

First I made a pattern. I went off the one I saw online for the basic shape (I changed it a tad) but I didn't have measurements so I used one of my hens to measure it.


I found a cute fat quarter my mom and sister gave me, and I had some left over baby flannel from a gift I made. I figured the flannel would be nice and soft against the hen's back. I decided to use a middle layer of flannel as well to give the saddle some thickness and to give the hen more protection.


I sewed the right sides of the top and bottom layer together, and put this middle layer on top. I sewed all around but left a gap so I could flip it right-side out. I also pinned the elastic in between the layers. That was probably the trickiest part.


Here's the finished top.

And here's the finished bottom! This will be the side against the hen.

I tried it on her this morning and it seems to fit pretty well. I might make the back a tad longer next time so it comes farther down to her tail. I also might tighten the elastic just a tad because it seemed slightly loose around her wings.

Sorry for the blurry pictures. It was early!

It doesn't seem to bother her! She turned around to look at it a few times, but went right to eating.

And most importantly it didn't hinder her ability to go through the little doorway into the sheep pasture.

I'll need to make a few more of these and tweak the pattern so they fit just right. Won't it be cute to have all these fashionable hens running around?!