We're Still Here!

I had so many posts planned for summer and now summer is almost gone. Hopefully, as it goes it will take this heat with it. This post will be mostly to play catch up from the last couple of months, and hopefully I'll do better on the updates.

In poultry news, the biggest upset this summer was the loss of ALL our turkeys. We were growing out 5 Blue Slate for Thanksgiving and still had our pet Royal Palm tom. Because of the heat, which in itself is hard on turkeys, plus it causes rampant bacterial growth that their immune systems are not well equipped to deal with, we lost them all within a 1 week period around mid-July. I was feeding antibiotics and vitamins through their feed and water, plus syringe feeding them as they got worse but I couldn't save them. I am so very sad to lose my Royal Palm- he was getting very friendly and would always great me with a gobble. Lesson learned- we are now sticking to hardier fowl (at least until I convince Chuck to air condition the coops).

So that leaves the question was "What are we eating for Thanksgiving?" Well, since our chickens are heritage breeds and free range it would take at least 5 to feed our family, so we decided to go with duck. I have 10 white Peking ducks on order from McMurray Hatchery that will hit processing age the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. The other ducks are doing great thanks to their fabulous immune systems.

Happy ducks.

The chickens are doing well, also. We lost 2 of the Barred Rock to predators, but I fortified the coop and haven't had any recurrences. The Delawares and Araucanas are adding to the egg stash now and helping fill the egg orders. We have another broody black hen that is setting 4 eggs that were left under her while we were out of town. I'm not sure if they're viable, but time will tell. The Barred Rocks will be fulfilling their destiny in a few more weeks.

Rainbow eggs

Moving on, the does have slowly been decreasing their milk yield. As the days get shorter and cooler we will start to dry them off and get them bred to Roscoe. He is eagerly awaiting this, since Merry seems to have gone through a heat cycle recently and he definitely noticed.

Dinkey Donkey is doing great! He gets to come out and graze down the yard and field most days, offering up a bray when you walk outside or drive up. I still LOVE that sound!

Whatcha got?

The rabbits are well. We have put Foxy with Isaac to try to get her bred- hopefully it took as we already have someone interested in buying some of the babies. We'll be putting Cleopatra with him soon, as well.

The crops were, for the most part, a bust. We did get 1 pumpkin, a handful of beans, a couple of meals with corn on the cob and we're still getting a few tomatoes. On our to do list is getting the soil tested and then if we can keep the goat out of the garden we should do much better with our fall crops and next years.

My summer, other than wrangling the children and basic animal care has been spent getting ready for Christmas at the gallery (check out their link to the right!). I have completed 25 stockings, and about 75 ornaments to sell there. Fingers crossed because that's going toward our Disney vacation in January! I still have some special order stockings to complete and of course gifts for family but that should be a breeze after all that other knitting!

New Ornaments this year! The tall ones hold Hershey miniatures and will also hold a gift card nicely, and the ones on their belly will hold small jewelry or a Hershey kiss.

The Christmas tree design is new also

The standard ornaments

Whew, It's hot!

Farm life now occupies only morning and evening with the rest of the day spent staying cool or refilling water buckets. The critters are all doing well. We're still having some broody hen issues that we're trying to work through. Our egg production has gone down due to broodiness and also the broodies don't let the other chickens lay near them so we're constantly playing egg hunt with the other girls. However, the broody chickens have successfully hatched some guinea eggs, so maybe everybody will go back to their normal schedule. The guinea eggs were a test to see how the girls did (since they were determined to set anyway) through the whole process. The 6 keets hatched Thursday and are doing great. A black giant and a buff orpington are the adoptive moms and seem to share responsibility for all the keets.

Brand new, peeking out from under momma chicken

Momma chickens showing them how to eat.

Today the black chicken had them all outside the coop showing them how to forage. It's really interesting to see how they all interact. She is constantly making a soft clucking noise to them and sort of fusses and they all come running back to her. Maybe next year we'll be hatching our own instead of using a hatchery!

On to the next group of fowl. These guys are almost 4 weeks old now. They have been moved out of the barn and into the coop, but they're still in the brooder box, except for the ducks that have moved into the duck pen. Most of the chickens and turkeys have all they're feathers so it won't be long before they get newer accommodations as well.

Barred rock roo and blue slate turkey

Ancona ducklings

Here are a few of the chickens that made the cut and did not get put in the freezer. These two are the Araucanas (they'll lay blue or green eggs). We call them the Cheekies, because of their puffy face feathers. We also still have Zombie Chick, she is the runt that had the gaping hole in her head. She has fully recovered and will rejoin the general population soon. She still has weak legs and is stunted, but is quite the fighter so we're giving her a chance and a cool name.

This is Spaulding. He is the rooster that we kept to hopefully hatch our own Delawares next year. The plan is to avoid rooster drama, but if we have any he'll be penned with a few select delaware hens for breeding. This group is about 17 weeks old and should be laying their tiny pullet eggs by 20 weeks. Fingers crossed they put them in the coop where I can find them.

Next, we have Cheese and Quackers. Cheese may lay a few eggs this year, but won't go into full production until next spring. They have all their big duck feathers and are so pretty in the sunlight. They are going to be used as breeders instead of dinner.

The does are still producing about a gallon of delicious goat milk a day. We have been running the cream separator occasionally for skim milk and cream. We use the cream to make our own ice cream. Yummy! Even with making cream, ice cream, cheese and drinking our fill we still have plenty to share with the animals.

Got milk?

Right before running the separator and making cheese

Sharing with the animals, the cats are waiting under the porch for their turn.

Here is Rupert watching all the action from his hammock. He's such a sweet dog and is learning about life on the farm. He really enjoys playing with the kids dog, Conan. He REALLY wants to chase the cat- Pearl is quite the instigator.

Crops: well- the corn is coming in nicely, the potatoes are looking good, the tomatoes had blossom end rot but we fixed that. We have 2 beets growing, 2 carrots, and 4 lettuce plants. The cucumbers and pumpkins seem to be hanging on after a good dosing of fertilizer and the bean plants have all been eaten to the ground by Scarlet, who escaped her paddock one day. It's OK, taking it in stride, we're learning still and all that. This afternoon we're heading to Lowes for more seeds for a late planting. Have to buy more since Rupert got into our seed packets and chewed/ate what we had left over. Good thing I bought the non-treated varieties! Puppies!!

We think our first rounds of seeds we planted too deep and we also seem to have a nitrogen deficiency since a lot of the things have perked up with fertilizer. There may be a trip to the Agricultural Extension office for some soil testing if the next round doesn't do better. Dad's blueberries and blackberries are getting ready to come in strong. I'm looking forward to cobblers and such!

In random news, my (city boy ;-) ) brother bought himself an antique John Deere tractor and brought it out here. It certainly dwarfs the Kubota. He was giving all the kids rides on it today.

Doesn't he look proud?

Chicken Processing Day

Today was the big day- 15 chickens have been processed and frozen. I'm glad that's over for several reasons- we had entirely too many roosters and the drama was beginning, we had too many chickens period, we now have lots of yummy healthy chicken in our freezer that were always humanely treated (and sometimes pampered) , and mostly- I did it! I have been apprehensive about being a part of the processing, and until we had 15 to do Chuck has taken care of it all. It really wasn't bad- the worst part since we were not doing the whole group was I was one that decided who lived or didn't. So of the Delawares, we're left with 1 rooster, hereafter known as "Spaulding" and 6 hens. We still have the mystery chick and the Araucanas from this order.

We are VERY appreciative of our helpers- Chuck's parents and his karate instructor. We had a good system going and it only took us a couple hours- excellent for our experience level. Chuck dispatched, Keith skinned and Sue and Crendell gutted. I wrangled, delivered and held birds through all stages. Madison barricaded herself in the house, but Willow came out towards the end and looked at all the internal organs (she's been fascinated with how our body's work recently).

Afterwards, we all had a yummy vegetarian lunch!

For the future, due to the temperature and humidity both being about 90, we're going to schedule large processing days for cooler weather. Blech. All in all though, a really good day.

Chicks, Ducklings, and Poults- Oh My!

They're here! We got the call about 8:30 so of course the whole morning schedule was compromised. Oh well, we're back on track now.

All the peeps were alive and kicking upon arrival, woo-hoo. We got them home in the brooder. They sent an extra turkey and an extra chicken so our numbers are 13 barred rock chicks, 6 blue slate turkeys and 5 ancona ducks. As an added treat, I put some warm goats milk in the brooder and they dig it!

Here are the pics-

Blue Slate Turkeys

Ancona Duck

Barred Rock Chicken on the left, Ancona Duck on the right

They really like the milk!

From Puppies to Crawfish and Spider gets a Win

Rupert

Yup, another pup. Rupert is a lucky boy pulled from the Forsyth County Animal Shelter. Chuck has been talking about having a dedicated farm dog- the Danes make great mascots but they really are lazy- so I started looking at the local shelter pages on the internet. I fell in love with Rupert's sweet face (who wouldn't) and we went to meet him. The rest is just details. He is a 5 month old rough collie mix according to his paper work.

He's done really well today adjusting to the farm. No signs of chasing chickens, seemed fine with the goats, etc. Of course, he's on light duty from his neutering so all his interactions have been brief and at the end of a leash. He is such a sweetheart.

And this is the crawfish. Crazy! We had 4 3/4 inches of rain yesterday, with a lot of it falling last night. I'm assuming this little guy(?) just got confused and thought water rushing by the chicken coop was a real creek. I found him this morning as I went to let the chickens out and gather eggs. Luckily , I had the egg basket, so I scooped him up, showed Willow, took pictures then put him in the woods by the actual creek and in he went.

Here he is making his getaway. He was pretty big as crawdads go. His body was at least as long as my index finger. I didn't measure closely. Scary claws. He's back in the creek where he belongs now. (Not in a pot, sorry honey.)

Now, this next picture I find fascinating. I was hanging out laundry (umbrella line on the porch) and heard a strange buzzing. I look around and on the railing see this spider that just caught himself a fly. He must have just been hanging out and blending in until dinner flew by. He was engrossed enough that my taking pictures didn't bother him.

Nature is cool.

So farming stuff... Chicks/Turkeys/Ducks should arrive tomorrow. Processing of the Delaware chickens is scheduled for June 5th. They're finally starting to look meaty. Dairy stuff is going well. FINALLY got the cream separator working. It's labor intensive and takes A LOT of milk to make any useable amount of cream so it's put away until we NEED it. For now, I can get local cream and be quite happy. The garden is giving us snowpeas! One of my favorites- I've been eating them right off the vine with a bit of dressing. Yum! The beets are not doing well, but most of the other stuff is coming in as predicted.

Hopefully there will be pictures of baby birds tomorrow...

Hooray for Polliwog!

The bright spot of the week has certainly been Polliwog going to his new home. I am so excited for him that he gets to go be a pet goat along with his half-brother, Niblet. The family said Niblet has adjusted well and he seems to be spoiled already. He gets rocked like a baby and plays soccer. Here are a few pictures of Polliwog before he left.

Polliwog

Kisses from Mom

Baby nom-nom-noms.

Roscoe checking on his does and son.

Daddy nom-nom-noms

"Head butt?"

Scarlet, Queen of the Table

It's life as usual for the rest of the livestock, everyone is doing well. The new order of chicks, poults and ducklings arrives next week. So cute and yummy.

Relaxing turkey

Cheeky Chicken- one of the Araucanas

Mystery Chick- I think she's a White Jersey Giant

"Whatcha got there?"

The crops are GROWING! There are tiny snow peas that will be ready very soon, and everything we planted last weekend has shot out of the ground. We're getting a few strawberries here and there and I'm looking forward to getting enough to do something with. If this hot weather keeps up my spinach is going to bolt before I can harvest it, but it's supposed to cool down again this weekend a little.

And lastly- milking is going well- we're getting at least a gallon a day. While we haven't tried the cream separator again, Chuck has made several batches of delicious cheese. Queso blanco, mozzarella, and ricotta so far. Mmmmm.

That's all for today!

May Begins

Farm life is good! Everything, well mostly everything, has been going well. In crops, we've harvested our very first strawberry! This little guy even beat out Dad's established bed of strawberries. It was very delicious, and there are more ripening! Success!!

We also planted the last of the seeds today- corn, cucumber, pumpkin and bush beans. I also added a tomato plant we found at Lowe's - an heirloom variety that grows HUGE fruits, and an eggplant plant. The other stuff is still coming up, some better than others. The snow peas have blooms so we should have some peas soon. I LOVE snow peas.

Our first strawberry!

All the animals are doing well. Dinkey the Donkey has adjusted quickly and he and Roscoe seem to enjoy each others company. Dinkey is getting used to walking with a halter and lead rope. He gets to come out of the paddock to munch on our lawn and get brushed. Roscoe gets to come out less often since I have to make sure he doesn't eat the ornamental plants. Goats- jeez! At least the new super hot fence is keeping him where he's supposed to be.

The does are giving us about a gallon of delicious milk each day. Polliwog is still with us- we never heard from the family that took Niblet and said they wanted P-wog, too, so we have some deciding to do on that front. He's doing well and is so cute with those blue eyes.

We're still not having any luck with the cream separator. Chuck has called the company to do some trouble shooting but it looks like he'll be calling them again. He has, however, figured out how to make cheese! He's made a couple of batches of simple cheese and tonight made fresh goats milk mozzarella. It was very yummy and is already gone. Luckily, more milk to come in the morning.

Cheese and Quackers have moved from the brooder to a small pen in Rascal's coop. They have most of their big duck feathers but still have that awkward teenager look. Pictures to come soon when they're all prettied up! Rascal continues to be a lot of fun. She makes a mess of the fish pond, but it makes her happy so Chuck just rinses the filter several times a day.

Here they are practicing their pirate routine.

And here are the chickens hoping for a treat.

We have 2 weeks until the delivery of our next poultry order, and tentatively 3 weeks until processing of about 15 chickens. The bunnies will be ready to breed soon, too.

That catches us up for now!