A Wednesday Rambling

Apache

Where does the time go?  I have such wonderful intentions.  Ever have those days where you have so much you want to do and when the day is over you look back and say "what did I actually do"?  It's been that way the last several weeks.

Frosty hiding in Pugly's "fur"

Sadly, 3 1/2 weeks ago, we had a horrible thing happen.  The short story - dogs got into my chicken coop at night and killed 35 of my chickens!  Two of them were treasured pets, Mumbo and Adonis (aka Addie Girl).  To say I was shocked and devastated would be understating the obvious.  Jacob called it "carnage".  He was spot on.  They not only got into my coop, they got into my neighbor's coop and tried to get into another neighbor's coop.  We found the owner of the dogs.  She accepted responsibility.  I would just about say, I've actually  made a friend. 

 7 chickens did survive.  Not really sure why but I believe it was because they were sleeping in the nest boxes instead of on their roosts (where they were actually supposed to have been). Among the survivors, 2 were injured.  Comet sustained a broken or dislocated wing and missing feathers.  She seems to have recovered.  Her wing does not seem to work correctly, but it doesn't slow here down.  Poof, my daughter's black silkie, sustained a leg/foot injury.  She has been in a dog crate on our porch since that day.  She gets better each day.

Otter Sharing a box with Pretty Lady

Frosty and Mr Chicken

 Now, she is itching to get back to the other chickens.  It is doubtful she'll ever be able to go back into the "big kids' pen", though.  She limps and is ungainly - then again, who knows.  At the end of this week, I'll put her in the tractor with the Australorps.  That way, she'll have company, grass and be able to move around more.  I've been putting her in the yard in front of the porch the last several days for an hour or so each evening after the sun moves behind the house.  She is loving the exercise and has taken to talking to us each time we go onto the porch.  Ultimately, I'll move Pugly into the tractor with her and they'll live there.  Who knows, maybe I'll get me a silkie rooster and breed them?  But don't tell Jacob yet.......

New Chickens

Because of what happened, I have had to replace chickens.  Some friends (K and A - since I don't list people's names without their permission first) gave me a starter flock - 6 hens and a rooster.  That was incredibly sweet!!  These two are wonderful people and this is just another small thing they do for those around them!

Pretty Lady "digging" in the water!

I purchased some Australorp hens and some Golden Comet hens.  As I've mentioned before, I ultimately want to go to Australorps, but I need egg layers now, so got the comets for the interim.  I now have 6 Australorp hens and a Rooster.  Two of the Australorp hens are turning out to be very friendly.  Is this God's way of helping me heal?  I like to look at it that way.  Mrs. D comes and sits on my lap and talks to me very similar to the way Mumbo did.  Thumbelina is more like Addie Girl - a bit shy, but once she gets in my lap, she loves it!! 

Mother's Day brought BOTH my children (Brandon and Rachel) out for a visit!  It was awesome!  Hard to coordinate schedules so when we're all together it makes for an even more special day!  I love my babies!!!!  We had a great visit.  Brandon and Ashley (his girlfriend) had come the night before and stayed over.  We had breakfast, then Rachel showed up.  I did not know Rachel was coming!  What a wonderful surprise.

Poof getting her exercise

The garden is coming along beautifully.  We've been eating beans, squash, onions, carrots, lettuces and greens for several weeks now.  I've been selling the "extra" at the market.  Unfortunately, the weeds are coming along beautifully too!!  Oh boy, the weeds...  I managed to let them get ahead of me and now they're taking full advantage.   I had left a couple of rows "blank" to allow for later planting - big mistake.  They're now completely covered in weeds.  Instead of killing myself digging them out, I decided to sweet talk Jacob into harrowing them again.  It wasn't a really hard thing to do, though, as he loves playing on his tractor.  Once they're ready, I'll be adding more okra, beans and tomatoes. 

"Pesticide" for my garden

The potato towers I experimented with did good.  Had I kept up with them better, they would have done better.  On Mother's day, my son's girlfriend, Ashley, and I harvested them.  We had a fully home-grown meal.  Brandon had killed a hog and brought some of the meat over which we smoked.  Our snack while waiting on the meat to finish (it smelled soooooo good and we got hungry just smelling it) was fresh picked carrots and squash with ranch dressing.  Brandon and Ashley were tickled.  It was the first "fully home-grown" meal they had ever had. 
Next time I do the potatoes in towers, I'll keep up with adding more compost as the plants grow.  That was my mistake this time.  That and watering.  I'll be planting more in August.  According to K, fall potatoes are better than spring potatoes. 

I planted an elderberry bush when we moved in.  It now stands about 6 - 7 feet tall and has blooms!  It will be a very small harvest this year, but I'll use some of the seeds to start new ones for next year.  I have a place I can harvest them this year that isn't sprayed, so I will have jelly in a few weeks.  Have you ever had elderberry jelly?  It's a flavor that I can't exactly explain, but I love it.  It's tart and sweet at the same time.  Not to mention, I can make a healthy tincture for us as well.  I do so love dual purpose plants. 

  The blackberries are setting fruit now.  Red berries everywhere!  Now, the trick will be to harvest them before the birds get to them.  Rachel is eagerly awaiting the first batch of blackberry jelly.  I used to make jam with them, but the seeds are a royal pain, so now I make jelly.  The blackberries are another plant that have multiple purposes.  They are great for goats' health AND they like them - a lot. 

Shhh - I"m sleeping

Rest Time for Toots

Poor Toots!  She has a boo-boo.  Weekend before last, my son found that she had cut her ankle.  Upon further inspection, we found it to be more than a mere boo-boo.  Apparently, she managed to get her foot caught up in the barbed wire.  :-(  Up until now, she's never had a problem with the barbed wire.  We had it at the last place we lived and she never got into it.  Unfortunately, for a couple of years now, her vision has been decreasing.  This seems to be a genetic issue with Appaloosas.  We are now looking for a retirement home for her.  Either a place that will take her for life, or someone who wants a companion for another horse.  We would keep her if we were able to re-fence her pasture, but that is low on the list of to-dos.  I wish it was otherwise.  She is a super sweet girl!  If something comes up and we win the lottery sometime soon, we'll re-fence and keep her, but......

Mommy!  Tom's eating my food again.....

 Milking is still going great.  Orla is now has a routine.  She's such a good girl.  We went from "no way jose", to "oh boy - hurry up and open the gate".  It's great.  The morning milking is when I get the most milk.  Since the kids are still on her during the day, I only get enough to mess up a jar in the evenings.  However, we will be putting up a fence next week to separate the babies, so I should now get 2x the milk each day!  Currently, I make lots of yogurt and cheese from what I do get - not to mention we drink it straight.  I am looking forward to having the extra milk to play with. 

Winnie says she's going to be a Mountain Goat when she grows up

 Hope and Tom are doing very well.  They are growing like weeds.  It is amazing how fast they're growing.  Tom is already taller than Winnie and Peanut.  Hope had a little set back a couple of weeks ago.  I believe she had worms.  I talked with A and K and they suggested going ahead and worming the whole herd.  Since we don't use chemicals or antibiotics unless we have no other choice, we opted to use copper.  They each got their dose, with not a lot of entertainment!!  We disguised the copper in a fig newton.  Orla and Peanut were greedy!  They loved the fig newton.  Winnie and Tom took it, but it took some convincing.  Hope, though, decided there was no way we were getting her to eat that nasty stuff - nuh-uh, no way.  Jacob ended up holding her, putting it in her mouth then holding her mouth closed to get her to eat it.  Not fun, but if you've ever seen a goat try to spit out something that's stuck on the roof of their mouth - - well, it's tons better than tv. 
We have advertised Tom in several places, but had no takers.  I never figured it would be so hard to sell a goat.  We would keep him except for the fact that he's related to ALL the rest of the girls!  I cannot breed him.  Keeping him as a pet is not really an option.  First, we'd have to wether him, which could lead to health issues.  It isn't guaranteed it would cause problems, but it's kind of a 50/50 thing and that's not something I'm willing to put him (or us) through; second, this is a working farm, so any future pets (pre-existing pets do not count) are going to be at a very minimum.  Preferably, any future pets should be dual purpose - - such as a pet chicken (love AND eggs). 

LAZY Bullseye

I've gone on and on and you're probably bored to tears, so I'll leave you with this last photo.  My Kitty Baby - - Bullseye, doing one of her best tricks - playing dead. 

Happy Wednesday and have a super wonderful week!