BUGS

My grandson Owen has a great dislike of insects and his powerful child's eyesight can spot the tiniest of them. His normal response is to holler out "BUG" which is the signal for us grandparents to search it out with our failing aged eyesight. When we can't spot it, we say "where I don't see a bug"  to which he replies, "There it is.!!!"

Fern ate it !!!

Clean-up on isle 9.  "Gramma Fern needs a wipe" !!!!



Shhhh.....They can't see us in here...FERN leave my hat alone!!!

Peaches and the back 40.

The girls new pen. Made from mostly recycled materials including a very large doghouse and some fencing from my son's old dog pen. 

........Fern sees a bug....

,,,,,,it's Owen.!!  Checking out the lavish space inside the dog er... GOAT house.  Plenty of room for both girls to sleep in.

Bugs.  That was Owen's response to his first introduction to newborn quail. And the name has stuck, Wifey and I now commonly refer to them as "the bugs" to quickly identify the difference from the other chicks we are brooding on the back porch.  We have not lost a single "bug" since my last post and the cats have had to resort to eating only cat food.

Silkies.

A mixed batch of chicks from our hen's eggs.  Ten of which have already found a new home when I sold them to a neighbor.  Life on the farm is good.  Lots of fun....especially with Owen's BUG games.

THE END



The Hen Crippler

Just how big do chicken eggs get???

This egg topped the scales at 4 ounces !!!!

We were working in the yard and heard a BIG commotion in the chicken coop,  later when we went in to gather eggs we found out why !!!

If that poor hen never laid another egg I would understand why.  We also had a mini-egg layed the same day that was 5/8 of an ounce. So the following photos...

 

Yup it was a double yolker (one broke), the mini-egg at top of picture had no yolk and was runny so I flipped it, the dark coloring is from the sausage I cooked first. And yes it was delicious! 

Well It's Been A LONG Winter

Harley NOSE you are still there!!! 
It has been a long time since my last post and all I can blame it on is getting addicted to Facebook games.
It has been my downfall. 
So I will try to briefly update the situation around here.

We used up all of our firewood last month and had to buy 2 face cords so far.


I contracted the sale of some Easter bunnies at a local pet store and set about breeding 2 of my female rabbits to time the bunnies sale age with the time for delivery,  and had fantastic results.
Each doe had 9 bunnies.

These little ones were born Feb. 10

All survived our harsh winter temps.

and are ready for delivery.

It was hard parting with all of these cute little guys. They were all sold yesterday, 12 to the pet store and 6 to a local farm supply store.

We went from this...

to this in a couple of weeks.  The chickens were very happy to get out of the coop and free range. All except for two......

Here are 2 hens sitting on some eggs and last sunday this is what we found.

only the one hen's eggs hatched 3 chicks and the rest were discarded after 48 hours.
I had to help the yellow one out of it's shell. Mom had almost half of the shell picked off, but the tough white membrane was beyond both her and the chick.  All it had was a very tiny hole through it with just the tip of its beak out.  Even I had a tough time tearing it and freeing the poor little exhausted chick.  I didn't think it was going to survive, but it did, and seems just as healthy as the other two.

We re-set the other hen with eleven fresh eggs, hopefully we will have more chicks.

Here is Dutchy, my 1 year old pet mini-dutch rabbit.  I found his walking vest and took him out for a stroll in the nice warm sun.

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Two of our rooosters came to investigate...

 

Dutchy wasn't afraid of them but decided to check in with me anyway, at least until they went away.

After his walk I removed the vest so he could clean up before returning him to his pen.

My grandson Owen loves his walker and the freedom he has in it.

And here he shows me one of his toys before he plays one of his favorite games,
"Make Grandpa Pick It Up".

My wife decided to give Owen a ride on her bike, he fits nicely in the basket and really enjoyed himself.

I followed them with my electric cart to make sure he didn't put his hads close to the moving parts or try to climb out.

And here is my other two Grandchildren, Ethan and Aden.

Grandma spent a lot of time trying to get this picture...

about 2 dozen others look more like this......

Yesterday we also ordered 100 Vantress Cross meat chickens.

After the success with the 25 we raised last year she was determined to raise more.

The day old chicks will arrive April 27th. and reside in the "Pallet Palace".

We will have to move the rabbits outside and make the place safe for the chicks by covering the inside walls with chicken wire.

My son Eric came over last weekend and cut down some trees for firewood next year. So we have to get busy and remove a couple off the old garden spot.  And start cutting up firewood....again!!!

Wifey also plans on having a large garden this year in a new spot that we have been covering with manure all winter.  She has just begun to start seeds indoors. 

I plan on trying to plant a hay and straw patch behind the orchard. 

Wifey is still talking about getting a couple of goats this summer, so we don't plan on mowing the orchard this year.

"We", are also hoping to have a roof on the barn before fall, build a goat shed in the orchard, finish the "Pallet Palace", put a roof on the front porch, and an addition to the back porch.  Where "the Wife" plans to come up with the time and money is beyond me, but we will see...........

Firewood

Have you ever tried to get anything done around free ranging chickens?

While attempting to pick up some wood that was stacked to dry, my hens followed me to see if they could find some treats.  As soon as I started loading it on the truck they dove in.  While some attacked the wood pile, Goldie jumped on the tailgate, to be closest to me, and made a nuisance of herself.

Of course she wasn't alone.

When I finally got to the bottom of the pile the feasting really began.

On our days off from babysitting, and sometimes after babysitting, we have been kept busy cutting firewood for the winter.

My son built this trailer for me. A friend of his entered a demolition derby where they had boats on trailers towed behind their cars and my son got what was left of the boat trailer. He cut down the frame and added a different axle and tires, then built the box on it. As an added bonus it was an old tip trailer, so the box will dump.  This has come in very handy especially when it is loaded with manure.  As you can see in the photo, we loaded the trailer with wood and the truck with brush.

And he made this hydraulic log splitter for his tractor.  It has been a real back saver and makes short work of a stack of wood. And since he doesn't heat with wood, I guess you could say he built it for our use.  Thank you son.

He bought the hydralic cylinder and attached it to an I-beam from an old mobile home frame.

He fabricated the splitting wedge, slide and stop.

We temporarily set it up on blocks but he has plans of making it a tow behind assembly.

This is some of the downed trees we have yet to cut up.

And here is part of my ever growing brush pile.

This photo shows how late we normally work cutting, splitting and stacking wood. This was our last load of the day to be stacked.  Then it was on to feeding the animals, and finally ourselves.

I know you can't see much in the photo, so I lightened it up for better viewing.

These photos were taken about 2 weeks ago, The following were taken today after 2 days of thawing weather following our first major snow of the winter with near 0 temps and high winds.

Most of our dwindling wood supply.  We have been burning it for a couple of months already.

The chickens were very happy to get out of the coop again.

Goldie and friend, staying close and finding the large bare spot to forage.

Some venturing further away but under protection.

And finally of course, our grandson Owen.

Now that winter is here hopefully I will find more time for blogging.