Random Farmness

Ugh! It's been a hot sticky couple of days here. The girls and I are are currently piled up on the couch watching Transformers Beast Wars in the dark trying to stay cool.  Ahhh, cheesy old cartoons- fun! Joining us today is Babbity Rabbity. She's the lucky keeper from Foxy's last liter. Last Sunday, a farmer from Lincolnton bought the rest of the liter for breeding to her current stock. Since Madison worked so hard to make them all friendly we let her keep one as a pet. Babbity is a blue Silver fox, and her silver is starting to come in- very pretty.  Now we just need a visit from someone experienced at trimming bunny nail. Brenda?

Babbity Rabbity

Yes, she has a bald spot- Chuck trimmed some fur so we would know which one to keep. 

 On the way to the lake last weekend we were delayed by this little guy- a baby praying mantis. He was hanging out on Chuck's car and we wanted him to stay on the farm.  He bravely launched himself at Chuck's giant paw, trying to defend his territory, but was soon scooped up on a leaf and deposited on a tomato plant.

Baby Mantis

Coming up, and I must admit I'm ridiculously excited about it, is the new Disney/Pixar movie Brave. We're going on Saturday and to add to the fun I made the girls custom Brave outfits. I love that embroidery machine. 

Brave skirt and shirt

Let's see what we can find to do today to keep the kid's from fighting and everyone cool.

Grow, Grow! GROW!

The rains came this week and boy has it made a difference in the landscape. All the corn fields on our driving route are noticeably taller every time we pass them. Here at Lazy Danes, our little raised beds have taken off, too. This first picture was taken June 6th, of the tomatoes and okra, and the second tonight. Mmmmmm....fresh tomatoes soon!



Our corn is looking a little rough. It's not the weather, or insects or disease- the culprit?

Silver.

See that guilty face? I ran her out of the corn bed again. It's the only one without hot wire around it and she's determined that it's hers. Next years plan calls for the electric mesh around the garden area. The stalks that we have left are doing well, and hopefully they're rooted and strong enough to withstand Silver's attacks.

The ducklings are continuing to grow. Mama duck is herding them off. She's so fun to watch.


The bucklings are doing well, too. The disbudding took better on Forrest and Bubba, but Rio and Mushu are going to have stout little scurs. Hopefully, wethering will help. That's coming up soon, as well as weaning. It's gonna be loud around here.

Rio

Forrest and Bubba

And while Spaulding has already reached his mature size, his spurs continue to grow. Can you see them there? Lucky for him, he's not very aggressive. I've booted him once (love my Muckboots Chore steel toe boots) and that seems to have cured him for now. He'll forget in a few weeks and get stupid again I'm sure.

Spaulding - Delaware Rooster

Lastly, we had a visitor last week. Our friendly black snake is back, or at least one of his relatives. He's hanging at the swingset in this picture and slithered off under some bushes when the chickens took notice of him. I'm glad he's around, Mimi and BeepBeep found a copperhead on the way up to their house one evening. He was near the creek, sunning on the drive. Hopefully, with all chickens, the black snake and activity here, they'll stay away.

The girls are officially out of school for the summer and it's time to start planning some activities for them. It takes so little time for the bickering to begin. *sigh*. So far, I have a trip to the new herpetarium in Charlotte scheduled, and some sleepovers with the grandparents. We're really looking forward to the new Disney Movie Brave opening next weekend.   

I've done a little sewing- I had a couple more shirt orders from the school and then made this outfit for a birthday present. I ordered the T from jiffy shirts, the skirt I got from a consignment store, then added the embroidery. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Play date tomorrow- better get rested up...

Another Day in the Life

There are some things around the farm that words themselves don't do justice to. These are my current favorites.

Here we have Mama Duck. She very carefully set and hatched her 5 little ducklings and is a super mom. I love to listen to her call orders to them constantly- and they listen! There are alarm quacks for they need to stay close, follow me quacks, eat this quacks and of course her quacked warning to all that wander near- "i'm gonna kick your ...!" Today I happened to get between her and her brood in the coop. Now remember, I'm in there a lot- food, water, clean up ,etc and I have never hurt her or her ducklings. This happens frequently... 

Next up, bottle fed baby goats. They're beginning to eat grain along with the hay they've been munching so they're down to 2 bottles a day. Hooray! This is what bottle time looks like.

We did have a bit of a scare Tuesday. Bubba didn't want to get up, and wouldn't take his bottle, had a low fever (barely above normal) and his sides were distended. I got him comfortable and planned to call the vet as soon as I got back form the girls school where I was volunteering for a couple of hours. Luckily, by the time I got home it had passed and Bubba was hollering for his bottle. According to the internet he had bloated and managed to pass the gas on his own. A little vegetable oil would have done the trick if he hadn't gotten it worked out himself. He's 100% now, yay!

Now if I could figure out how to blog the smell of my magnolia tree.