Friday, November 12, 2010

Funny Farm stories......

Remember my baby banties that were hatched out here on the farm?
Well they are purebred Black Rosecomb Bantams.
Mom and Dad are the dark black ones with the greenish tent on their feathers but for some super strange reason a few of the babies ended up with brown feathers on them.
Now how in the world did that happen?
The Mom and Dad were together in seclusion for ever, he was my only rooster on the place and she was the only banty hen that I had at the time therefor the only banty eggs were definitely hers. It had to be something familial that brought out the brown/red feathers in these. I have to say that I really like them though. A little bonus color!
However I have way too many banties now.
7 roosters and 3 hens.
Meet George and Martha!
These are my latest banties that
my dad's banty hen hatched out a little while after mine were hatched here.
This was his first year for having any raise themselves too.
Make that count ~ 8 roosters and 4 hens.

This is a horrible picture of my Buckeye rooster.
These Buckeyes are just amazing to have around.
Can I stress BIG chickens, no I mean HUGE chickens?
Gianormous chickens!
They are so friendly and have such funny demeanor's though!
But don't all my animals have funny ways?
Only one rooster and the rest hens.
I think 11 hens....hard to count them due to the overcrowded status of my henhouse!
These babies take up a lot of room.



Buckeye hen.
She stands almost 3 feet tall with her neck stretched out like that.
Look at those drumsticks!
And that cleavage???
My oh my what a good pot of dumplings they would make!




They are beautiful. Such a fiery dark red.





This big girl is "Old Crooked Beak"...how original?
She has a crooked beak but she is the same size as the rest of the flock so I would say she is able to consume her ration just as well as the rest of them!
It is such a beautiful Fall day out there today and I could not bear one more day with them cooped up. They were out everyday for a while after the garden was spent and they were so happy foraging around the yard and garden but then they found Danny's collard greens and decided that they liked them too.........hence why they were penned back up!
I talked him into allowing them to be out today!!
Woot woot woot they are happy today!!
It was so enjoyable to open that door to their run this morning and set them free! Like the last day of school for the summer!!
The buckeyes are the very funniest at that time....they do this barely above the ground levitation that is so comical. They look like like a big red buzzard that has swooped down onto some roadkill right in front of your car and they hoover there for a bit until you think you are going to run into them. LOL I was really glad that I could make these babies so happy that they would levitate for me this morning!
They are 5 months old now and should start laying most any day now, I have to make sure that they are happy so I can get my egg basket full!!








While wandering around outside this morning, I found this bucket with a rose in it that needed to be planted about a month ago.
I propagated this one myself from a clipping of my beautiful Autumn Dream, apricot colored climber! My first propagation of roses ever!!
Pat on my own back!
I think I will name this one "Becky" because I started her from a clipping on my birthday,
June 10th!!
As you can see the other 3 didn't quite make it. I am pretty sure that it was the heat of the summer that did them in. I had them all in the shade but it was still so hot that they cooked. Now I am afraid that it will be too late to plant this one and expect it to survive. Maybe I will call our local greenhouse and ask their opinion.
Danny loves this rose and said that he will build me a new pergola if I had those roses on either end of it. I guess if this one dies I can try to propagate them again next year. Since I do know how it's done now!
Any advise on November 12th Zone 6A rose planting?

~











Thursday, November 11, 2010

And the winners are.........

You know that there is something great going on down on this farm when I use this ever so cute picture as my post header, right?
Yes the time has come......after my daughter gave me a weeks worth of speeches about how I have broken every rule in blog etiquette, how I should have no followers after my shenanigans, I should have no bloggy friends.........I am wiping tears right now......I am hoping that I will at least have 2 friends after all this delay and breaking of rules.
The 2 winners may still be my friends, we'll have to see!
~
But first.....
I have to tell you a bit more about what's been going on with me.....
this is another delay tactic..teehee
I feel that I have almost whipped the nasty old shingle virus.
I was totally pain free for the past 3 days and then I was awakened by the pain this morning.
Insert really really bad curse words here.......I am now off of work for 4 days, I thought they were going to be painfree-not sick with the flu-have a ton of energy to get the things done that I need to and the things done that I want to that are bottled up in my head kinda days!!
So far the pain seems to be subsiding and there for I am on the right track!
Woot woot!
I was lucky enough, even though I was lectured at each day about my blog neglect, to have my daughter in from Atlanta for a few days. We all had to go to work or school and leave her here by herself (See I even neglect my company, I am a bad person)
So she got really really bored or felt really sorry for me, or was really afraid that my house would be condemned by the health department, and she cleaned my house, did all my laundry and cooked two really great meals for us! She even took my truck and went to the feed store for me!! She also went to another county and did my banking!!!
Talk about an angel appearing in your life when you are at just about your lowest point!
THANK YOU ROBIN!!
We both really appreciate all that you did for us!!!!
~
Since my beautiful and very pregnant..hehehe...daughter did all my work that was bottle necked, I can actually get back to my blog friends now.
I finally drew two names out of a hat this morning!!
Drum rolllllllll...........
The winner of the Quilted French General Table Runner is....
Terri from Our Crazy Farm!!

The winner of the second prize that I added in so you guys could all feel the love that I really do have for all of you, that I have not mentioned what it would be as of yet is........

WandaM

Most of you don't know WandaM but Wanda is really my sister-in-law. I can only wish that each and everyone of you guys out there in blog land have a "Wanda" in your life! I could never say enough good about this lady!! She is truly one in a million! She is married to my brother...for that she deserves a big award ;-))) She will do anything for anyone at anytime no matter what! Period! I Thank God for her daily! My girls are so very fortunate to have her in their lives too!

We all love Wanda! Now after drawing her name, I am afraid that my measly little second prize will not be sufficient!!

I will finish up the loose ends on her gift today and get some pictures up then.

I am so happy to be able to gift these two incredibly lovely ladies who are so special to me!! Terri is very very special in her own way. I really wish we lived closer and could visit each others farms, have coffee, share meals cooked straight from our farms in our really cool farmhouse kitchens, have sewing/quilting visits, go to church together and so on and so forth......

I have another surprise under my hat......

I AM GOING TO VISIT TERRI!!!

Yes, Terri in Wisconsin!!

My wonderful hubby's idea this time too!

I've played around with the idea for almost two years now. She has shown me pics of her great little pump house guest cottage that she was preparing for me. I just seemed to never be able to find the time to get away from this farm for a trip that far away and could only dream about it.

Then one day a couple weeks ago my dearest coon hunting husband said he was going to raise some pups out of his special coon dog and that we would just load up a puppy and take it up to Wisconsin to Terri's boys!! What a great man I have, right!! I cried and cried!

This little trip will be sometime in the late Spring when all the snow has melted cause I am not a big fan of winter and minus twelve degree weather!! The deed has been done and we are expecting pups in a few short months but we won't be traveling til fair weather is here!

"Trent, I promise we will take good care of your pup and get him to you before he is grown! I can't wait that long to meet your mother in person either!"

So after drawing the names of these two very very special ladies in my life, I can say.....

IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT DAY!!

Thanks so much for all your entries, for your patience with me and for always being here for me when I need a little laughter or inspiration or motivation or a shoulder to cry on. You guys are the best!!!

I will get these items in the mail asap and on their way. Hey it just hit me, I will be able to see the table runner on Terri's table in person when we visit her and I will be able to see Wanda's item in use at Christmas!! Yay! I hope these girls are as excited as I am!

Now I am off to finish this project and get back to my decorating of my living room....well my whole house is actually going to get a transformation, one room at a time. This is going to be a great holiday season. I have wanted the painted floors to match for 9 1/2 years now. I finally feel as if I can decorate for Christmas like I have always wanted to do!

{{{SMILE}}}

Get ready there will be lots of pictures to come!


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Another dose of "Man plans, God laughs"......

so here we go again.......Whilst in the midst of trying to recover from my extreme shingles, I was trying to get up the energy to paint, I/we mostly he, did get the paint slapped on those floors as you saw in the previous post. However the decorating came to a screech and halt when I came down with another bug......THE FLU!!!! Well that is my self diagnosis. It has knocked me to my butt since Monday night. I attempted to work yesterday but was sent home cause the fellow co-workers didn't want to catch it.....funny how another employee had it a few weeks ago and worked??????

So the decorating has stopped since Sunday. I did get several little things done on Sunday that I will show later, when I feel as if I can hold that big old camera without dropping it! My window shades came yesterday. Remember that I told you that Danny would be just jumping for joy when he was able to hang them for me? Ha, the joke was on me cause he really didn't mind. He hung the ones in the living room and foyer tonight. I really think I will like them, when I can actually see them thru clear eyes!! One of the front window shades did not come in but I called about it and it is "in route" so it should be here tomorrow.

I am really loving the white floors, I just wish I could enjoy them properly! At least I get to see them between naps on the couch! Please pray for my healing so I can keep this job. It's starting off pretty rocky so far, we will just have to see how this pans out!