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?

~

They're going to take my farm license away......

I can raise baby goats, sometimes, that turn out pretty good, grow up into beautiful young lady goats and then turn out to be good mother goats.

(Ellie Mae, my yearling, is pregnant!)
I really have high hopes for Miss Daisy!
I am still in love with all those spots and those long ears never grow old!

She is quite the bully on top of the mountain.

"What you doing in there Mr Big?

You rascally rooster!"

"Whaaaaat?
You say whaaaaat??

You like my curly ears?

I know everyone does."

Duke is a studdly little fella and I have high hopes for him being a herd sire for another farm next year! His face is just beautiful!!!!

Daisy wins again!

These are my very best, sweetest babies that have ever been dropped here on the farm.

(I like Thunder's offspring)

They are so quiet and docile!

I think that means they are happy!

They haven't caught wind of what a bad farmer I am yet.

They don't know how hard it is for me to raise chickens.

If they knew what "I" did to my baby chicks they would head for the mountains.

I will tell you and you will not mutter a word to anyone. OK?

Do I have your word? OK then, here goes........

I

drowned

2

baby

chicks

in

a

water

bucket

.

.

.

I

said

you

can't

tell

anyone

or

the

officials

will

come

and

take

my

license.

s

h

h

h

h

h

!

I don't ever want it to brought up in conversation ever again.

My guilt is overwhelming enough.......

Need I say more?

ps. the picture above is Mr Big as he prepared to leave his coop
this morning to go to work protecting Sunny Morning Farm!

Now if he would just be able to warn me of the safety hazards spotted...........

Life is just "Plum" good....

I made a nice little batch of Plum Jam today.

I used the Damson Preserves recipe in my Ball canning book.

I have no idea what kind of plums these were but Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!!!!!!

It is good stuff!!!

My Dad used to like Damson Preserves better than anything he could ever get a hold of.

My Great Grandma Ella used to always make them for him and I thought it was nasty as a child.

I am not sure why I didn't like them but I thought Damsons were something along the line of Morels or something yucky like that!

I wonder if I would like Damson preserves now??? hmmmm????

If these are Damsons, I am converted!!

This is by far my new favorite jam now.

Look how thick!

You almost need a knife to cut thru them.

I am so proud of my 9 little bitty 4 ounce jars!!!

I will be on the lookout for some more plums to make more of this delicacy this season.

On to the other itty bitty's......

Momma and all her chilluns are tucked safely in bed tonight with their father watching vigil over them!! It just involved a flashlight, a cordless drill, the removal of a few boards, Danny. Leslie, Emma and I in the dark on a chicken hunt!!

I just love how chilled out a crazy spastic banty hen and all 10 of her babies are after dark!! No wonder they fall prey to so many critters......it's like

"Oh just take me and do anything you want to me, just don't wake me!"

You chicken folks will know what I am talking about here!!!!

We did go buy us a live critter trap today and we have it set behind the coop tonight.

I am pretty certain there will be a big old barn cat in there tomorrow morning :-)))

So life for me is "Plum good" right now!!!

Banty update!

They are alive!! They are still all under the chicken coop and I can't seem to coax her out but as of right now they are all alive!!! I went down there this morning and I could still hear chirping. I went to a very small hole in the back of the old building and I placed my eyeball right up there in that hole knowing perfectly well that there were creepy crawlies on the other side of that hole. I spot a black blob about the side of the hen but couldn't see movement and I was afraid it was her dead body. I ran back to the house and got my flashlight went back to the hole and threw my eyeball back up in there and came eyeball to beak with a live chicken!!!!! She seriously could have pecked my eye out too!!!!!!! I started talking to her and she started talking back and she hopped up and a bunch of itty bitty babies run out from under her!!!! Thank You Lord!!


I moved all the goats out of that field and I have the rooster out there to try and coax her out and back up inside today! Wish me luck on that one. Poor Mr Big is just beside himself too. Probably feels like his whole family is stuck in a mining tunnel or the likes. If she keeps them under the building they may very well be consumed by a predator at night. WE WILL BE BUYING AND SETTING A LIVE TRAP TONIGHT!!!!!!! That's another good excuse for me to go back to Red Hill general Store!!!! Thanks for the well wishes girls!!

In a pickle.......

I feel like a pickle!!

I have been in so much vinegar this week that I should be pickled myself!

I made this gallon jar of refrigerator dill pickles today. They are supposed to ready to eat in a week, just in time for our family reunion!!

The recipe did not call for carrots but I just couldn't help myself when I saw a bag of petite carrots calling my name today.

These are Dill Spears from the same recipe that I made the dills this week.

These cukes were a little large for slices so I speared them and soaked them in lime and I am sure hoping they will be crisp.....fingers crossed!!

It really is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

I am in such a habit of cranking that rim down on those jars as tight as I can get them. I am having difficulty getting it thru my thick skull that Miss Kim at Ball doesn't want me to do that any longer!! I backed these off and they did not pucker after processing them!!!

I had to make a run to Red Hill General Store today....which I am fortunate to live about 15 miles from.......to buy canning jars that they had on sale. While I was there I just had to buy this pickle book too!

Maybe I will learn something about making pickles ;-)))

I just wish I had enough time to read it.

My kitchen table is covered with October beans drying off that were picked tonight. They will be canned tomorrow along with the batch that Danny hulled tonight.

I have 10 pounds of beautiful sweet plums in a basket to make jam with tomorrow.

I have a huge watermelon that the nice gentleman at the farmers market gave me today to use for watermelon rind pickles. It had a small brown hole that looked as if a stick had poked it in the patch and he said they couldn't sell it so he gave it to me. I am hoping that we can enjoy the melon and have a good rind for the pickles too.

I would also like to try some watermelon rind preserves this year.

This is the year for me to pickle or preserve it seems!!

Most years I am so busy putting up the big stuff...bushels of beans and tomatoes at a time and no time is left for small batch canning.

Well 11 quarts of pickles at a time shouldn't be considered small batch I guess!!

NOW........

Remember Miss Carrie my banty with 10 of the cutest babies ever?

Well Miss smart*** here decided that she should be turned out yesterday to get some exercise and allow her babies to frolic in the grass.

Frolic they did too. The babies hopped around in the grass like bugs or little black grasshoppers and my heart just fluttered!!!

In about 30 minutes she took them under the chicken coop and they have not been spotted since.

Danny got down on the ground with a flashlight tonight before dark and he said he could see all the way thru and there were no chickens, only a lot of black feathers. SOBBING SOB SOB SOB.........oh be still my heart
I have been so sad all evening thinking about what I did to all my babies.

After dark tonight I remembered that I did not lock my other chickens up so I went down there and I could hear what sounded like 10 babies under the building!!!! They were just a chirping!!

I sure hope their mother is OK and she brings them out soon before some other critter gets all of them.

I made a trade with my Dad this week.

He gets a pair of banties, I have a pair that came from the incubator batch, and I get 8 Rhode Island Red laying hens!!! Good trade huh? He thinks so too. He thinks his hens are too old at age 2!! They are young in my book. My hens are at least 5 years old and I get an egg almost everyday from them!! He is getting the same but he is afraid they will stop soon and he has too many anyway. They will carry me over til my Buckeyes start laying this fall and then I can get rid of some of my old hens. I have all my eggs sold that I can spare now!!! woooowoooo!!! that has been a long time coming too. I also have 5 gallons of goat milk sold each week!!!

Finally this farm is going to hold it's own!!

hahahahah
Do you believe that one??????

Happy canning!!

Mr Big is handing out cigars, it's sextuplets!!!!

Standing watch over his new family!!
Carrie is a teeny tiny little thing but she has a big wide wing span and I am sure that I might see those wings spread a lot in the coming days because of her protecting her little uns!!

Danny raised her up this evening and found 6 babies all tucked up under her wings drying off!!

(and I mean really tucked under there!)

YAY!!!! YAY!!!!!

I have never had a hen to set on a clutch of eggs and actually hatch them!!

I am so tickled!!

There are 7 more eggs so there may be some more!

Best I remember this is day 21.

However, you know that I don't know much about that counting how many days it takes a chicken to hatch ;-))))

They are sooooo tiny and soooo darned cute!

I can't wait to see her running about the barn yard and the babies running along behind her!! Then Roxy running along behind them.....and there goes Carrie spreading those wings........

I am not sure who is more excited Danny or me???

Here is Mr Morangreggor in his cucumber and melon patch.

We have only 3 cukes and they have produced sooooooooo many, I have already made a big patch of lime pickles and will be making dill pickles tomorrow.

We have one Sugar Baby watermelon plant that came up but it is loaded with watermelons!!!

Drum roll please......

this is our first watermelons that we have ever grew!!!

Thank You Thank You!!!!!!

and looky here.....what do ya know??? It's a cantalope!!

another drum roll please......

you guessed it...first ever cantalopes!!!

There are several on the one vine that are bigger than a softball and there are many little ones and it's still blooming!! Yay Yay!!!!

Babies everywhere!!!!

A big drum roll please...........

Robin and Eric are expecting too!!!!!!

March 21st!!!!

Prayers needed please!!

Gotta get to bed now....we have 240 ears of corn to freeze tomorrow!!!

I went on a possum hunt.....

and I got him this time!!!!!

applause applause

applause

Now stop it.....I can't take ALL the credit!

Danny and Colton helped me out here........

This story goes way back to the winter when we had a possum on the porch, then under the chicken coop and then you remember this story about the possum hunt don't ya?

So this week we turned all the 17 baby buckeyes and banties, that I raised in the incubator, in with the hens. I lost one banty the first night and then a buckeye and a banty night before last. Danny and Colton worked on the run of the henhouse last evening hoping no critters could get in but I was still afraid......once you get a free chicken dinner you always want more, right?

I closed the chickens up in the building last night, as it was getting dark, so they would surely be secure, I could not stand the thought of losing any more of my babies.

So I got up this morning and lolly gagged around for a while like usual and then it hit me that I had to go open the door and let them out in the run. As I stepped out the back door I saw the possum running around and around in the run!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!

I ran inside and grabbed the gun, ran down there, with a haste,

I was not gonna let him get away this time!

Just as I got to the run I spotted something out of the corner of my eye moving around in the run.......................IT WAS ALL 14 OF MY BABIES!!!

I had locked all my babies out of the hen house instead of inside!!!

I am so stupid!!

All the babies were out side and the hens were all inside!

Don't blame me for being blind......Leslie took some scraps down there after I did and emptied them into the run and she didn't see the babies either!!!!

It is a shear wonder that he didn't have all of them for dinner last night.

I guess Danny and Coltons plan worked, it didn't keep him out but it sure kept him in long enough for me to get him!!!!!

The Buckeyes are here....

Remember my Buckeye incubation story?

I do! I sucked it up and gave it yet another try and it worked!!!!

I really had my doubts though. It took 22 and 23 days to hatch this crowd.

Of course you all know that it takes 21 days incubation for a chicken to hatch out,

wrong, it is up to 23!!!

I had 30 Buckeye eggs and 8 Black Rosecomb Banty eggs.

I hatch 14 Buckeye's and 5 banties.

Look at the difference in the size! The banties are itty bitty!!

The 2 Buckeye's you see in the box are the last 2 to hatch out and the other older chicks tried to pull their wings off, litterally dragging them around trying to pull them off.

I had to place them in the box under the light so they would survive.

When they get a little stronger they will be able to hold their own with the big kids!

I am very happy that I was finally able to contribute to conserving the breed of the Buckeye's. They are on the critical list for endangerment. I know why!

Because they are so dagone hard to get here!!!!!

Of course the parents were getting on up in age and that contributes to the poor hatch rate of the eggs. I now have a start and I will gather some young fertile eggs from them when they start laying and try this incubating again in about 6 months!! I will have forgot how much trouble it is turning the eggs and anticipating all sorts of babies popping out like they did with my batch of guineas last year. That was a great hatch and they all should be as good!!!!!

We have been having the craziest weather for the past several days.

This was the veiw outside about 30 minutes ago.

We have had terrible storms for 30 minutes and then HOT sunny skies for about 30 minutes.

It is so humid out there and this has been a hot rain.

I know that is nothing to complain about but I do anyway!

The rain is ruining all my blooms on my flowers :-(



My Dr Van Fleet rose is just spent!




My Love rose trying to make a show in this heat and humidity.





Ehhh, just so so in the rain....

My hollyhocks, however, are very durable and looking pretty good in the rain.

I can never get enough of these beauties!

He can't seem to get enough of them either.

There is no word on the missing girls.

Yes I said girls.

We heard this morning that there is another girl from my little town missing too.

Danielle lives on the other side of the county.

We do not know if the girls were friends or had any connections or not.

We have also heard that they arrested a man in another state that Danielle had been talking to online and brought him in for questioning but they let him go.

Apparently he had nothing to do with this area at the time.

I hope that is right.

Mama's please keep watch over your children!

Please keep on praying for these families too!

ps~ I just noticed the new picture in my header. This is what came into my mind!!

It looks like an engagement picture.

The bride and the groom to be and the flowers will be roses!!

I'm just saying!!!

hahahaha

I am so sad!!!!!

I unplugged the incubator last night but Danny wanted to open the eggs and see if there was anything resembling a chicken in there. He just took them all down the hill and opened them and all but 6 eggs had a baby chick in them. One of them was very much alive and moving around. A lot of the others were moving around a little. Why did they not open????? This just breaks my heart!

Heritage Chickens, New Butter Dish and A New Dairy Goat!!!

wooooowwwwooooooooooowwooooooooooo

I am sooooooo excited!!

When I bought my Nubian Buck, Thunder last fall, I saw that the nice lady that I got him from raises Buckeye chickens. I fell in love with them and inquired about purchasing some fertile eggs for hatching some of them for myself. I picked up those 40 eggs today! I have the incubator warming up and hope to get those started tomorrow!!!

~~~

This super duper nice lady also has many beautiful Registered Nubians.

She has in the past milked as many as 25 goats a year but family obligations have caused her to scale down immensely. She bred 6 does this year all due in about 2 weeks. One of the does dropped her baby this morning, early. I was telling her how Saphira lost her baby at around 2 months gestation and is apparently bred again, getting a belly and making a bag. The belly is not a good indicator for her because she had triplets one year and didn't hardly look pregnant. I am not 100% sure that she is even pregnant now but she is making a bag so I would say yep!!

Anyway, as I was telling her my story she asked if I was excited about the milk and that she could help me out if I was that passionate about having the fresh milk!!

She offered to sell me one of her yearling does that are due to freshen in 2 weeks!!

I jus about peed my pants girls!!

Do you guys know how hard it is to find a newly freshened registered Nubian doe yearling in these here parts? Well let me tell you it is just about impossible! We hang on to those babies and do not share them!!!

She made me an offer that Danny couldn't even refuse....well he was muttering some words that I could barely make out about "yada yada yada you will have to find a job if you don't stop spending my money........"

hahaha he wouldn't do that to me when chances are he would have to do at least one milking a day if I worked. I have the possibility of as many as 4 does in milk at a time too.

I don't think he will want me to not be here!!

So girls there is some serious action getting ready to take place down on the farm!!

Between turning eggs, getting the barn and kidding pen ready, dusting off the old milking stand, trying to repair the cream separator, weeding the garden, planting the rest of the garden, mowing the yard/yards....etc etc etc etc........

I don't think there is enough time in the week for me to go back to nursing!

Instead I plan to stay at home and milk my goats, separate the cream and make lots of butter to fill up my new butter dish that Robin and Morgan gave me from Anthropology for an early Mother's Day gift. (remember I dropped a lot of hints for this one) They did good.....now bring on the milk!!!

Guess what girls??!!!

Do you remember my scare with my banties this week?

Do you understand why I was so scared that they were hurt?

Well that Carrie was hurt?

They were fine.

They have just started the love thing a couple weeks ago

and they have really bonded since then.

Well guess what!!!!

Carrie laid and egg today!!!!!

Of course she was very proud of it and laid it on my porch!!!!

Right beside the sliding glass door for me to be sure to see it!

I am just upset that I was gone and missed the show.I am sure she struted her stuff for a while after that one.

As far as I know this is her first egg, but I hope for many more.

I don't care if they are laid on the porch, I will gather them and when I get enough I will incubate them myself.

After that I may be able to break her from my porch.

I want some itty bitty black babies running around here!!!!

he just wants a hug ~ Part 2

All is well in the coop this morning!!!!

Thanks for all the concern in this trying time!

It took me forever to fall asleep last night so

I ended up sleeping in a little this morning.

The first thing I heard upon waking was Mr Big

crowing and it was coming from the barn!

So I knew at least he made it thru the night.

I can look out my bedroom window and see a

little bit of the inside of the barn

and I spotted Becky.

She is the white guinea,

the boss of the farm,

as shown in my header!

She is a fraidy cat too so I am sure

she was hiding somewhere and that was the only time that she was quiet too!!

I had no choice but to garb up and brave the wild winter winds and knee deep snow

and take that treacherous hike down the hill to the barn to see if Carrie was alive.

This is no exaggeration either.

The barn is close enough for me to throw a rock from my house and hit the backside of the barn.

It is straight downhill though.

That hill can be deadly!

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have fell going down that hill

and slid feet first into the door!!

Most of the time I got my start up next to the house and slid all the way in!!!

However, this morning the trip was for a good cause.

I needed to check on my precious Carrie.

Maybe it was just a lovers quarrel!!

There were a lot of black feathers in the floor

so I feel there was some sort of commotion in the barn last night

that woke him up from his roost and ran him outside.

I have a feeling we will be having possum stew this weekend!!

(jus kiddin on the stew part, we won't eat him .............)

Thanks again for worrying right along with me!!!

he just wants a hug ~ Part 1.......

I was just sitting on the sofa minding my business tonight watching American Idol.

Around 9:30 PM I heard a funny but familiar noise outside. Funny because it was 9:30 PM and familiar because it was a sound that I hear from daylight til about an hour before dark each day.

It was Mr Big the banty rooster. He came running up on the front porch and up in the window behind the sofa. He was chattering like there was no tomorrow. He was trembling.
He acted like he had seen a bear.

I act like that when I see a bear.

It was so sad to watch him.

I went to the front door and he was trying to get inside.

I didn't think Danny would see the humor in waking up to a new alarm clock perched on the head of the bed in the morning so I didn't let him in.

He finally ended up going around to the side porch

and is roosting out there.

So sad to see him trying to tell me something with all the chattering and twisting his head while he was talking to me.

I cried for him.

With that said.......

Danny was already in the bed and I am a big huge wus...

I was not about to go to the henhouse to see what was going on down there that got him in such a tizzy.

We have had a possum around here eating cat food almost every night......Danny has had plenty of chances to get rid of him but hasn't done that yet.

Tonight I spotted him going under the chicken coop. I am sure that is where he is staying at night. The coop is pretty secure and I don't think any critters could get in with the hens.

The guineas and the banty pair run loose and they roost in the other side of the building. The door is always left open and they go and come as they please.

The banties roost up in the rafters.

I have this very erie felling that something got the Carrie his mate tonight.

I sure hope I am wrong.

I did get up enough nerve to stick my head out the back door and listen for a commotion

and heard nothing but quiet and calmness.

The guineas should have been tore up if there was a critter in the barn

but the possum has beeen around so long that they probably think we have adopted him.

Wish me luck.

I am praying that Carrie is still safe

and she and Mr Big just had a lovers quarrel and he ran home to mama's house!

I am sure hoping for some babies from this pair this spring!

Speaking of Spring....

we got about 5 inches of snow today....they were calling for less than 1" hahaha

so my painting class is cancelled for tomorrow.

But the weather man just told me that we have 2 more cold days and then it is to be in the upper 50's this weekend and in the 60's next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That sure does my heart good!

Goodnight to all!

around the farm house

My dear friend Terri sent me this gorgeous designer artisan goats milk soap a while back with thoughts of cheering me up from the doldrums of winter weather! It worked!! Terri, I just had to display this little heart bar in my little enamelware soap dish in my bathroom. It was the only soap dish I had that was worthy of such a nice bar of soap! Do you have an enamelware soap dish like this? Terri has all these great enamelware coffee pots and tea kettles and such in her sunroom. (she likes to show them off and rub it in too)She does not have an enamelware milk pail like I have though!! We are in a little competition it seems here ;-))))

Seriously Terri, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! All four bars of soap are just fabulous!! I feel so special when I wash with it. I can't wait to be able to wash the garden dirt from my hands with this lovely soap!! Kuddos to a job well done! I am sure if you guys would like to purchase some of Terri's artisan soap she will be happy to take care of your orders! Right Terri?

This little egg tray is from Joanne Fabrics! Can you believe they have almost the exact same tray that they have at Anthropologie for a fraction of the cost! I have already asked for this and this for Mother's Day from my children. Is it wrong to ask for a Mother's day gift? Nah I didn't think so either!! So Thanks ahead of time girls and grandpunks!! hint hint!! I will only need the one item now unless you can find it in your hearts to reward me for being such a great mother to you guys. I mean hey, I was only 14 when you were born (first child) so I think I did pretty good with you. Oh that's right it was all those great "morals and standards" that I passed on to you that I learned from my parents! I am sorry but I keep forgetting about that. (inside joke around here) hehehe

Those 9 eggs were gifts from my other girls yesterday! My girls who hang out in Le Poulet Hous. They have not been the best producers for some reason since their moult in the fall. I had to whisper in their ear some sweet nothings a while back and that got the eggs a rolling!
Rolling they did too. Yesterday when I went to gather the eggs.......they were all laid in the top of the three nests and of course they are the roll away nest boxes so all 9 were at the back of box in the egg shoot. Well 8 were there and one was up on the wall hanging on 2 nails. I did not take my new camera on the trek thru the snow, slush and ice for risk of breaking it....or guarding it if I fell and hurt myself worse in the process.........but it was really a Nikon moment!!! Good thing those 2 nails were there or I would have had scrambled eggs on the floor.

Other than snowing outside...IMAGINE THAT!!!! That is about it for life around sunny morning farm today. I better go check the egg shoots now before they roll out cause they may not be able to hit the target today! Maybe they need another whisper in their ears about how to share those 3 nest boxes!

What's good for the goose......

is not always good for the gander.

Or what's good for the banty

is not always good for the guinea.

I am sorry but these little boogers are too cute to run off of my front porch!

I think they look like country decor!!
and they don't poop as much as the guineas do on my porch.
All seven guineas get on my covered porch, beside the sliding door
that is next to the kitchen table, every morning.
They yell and chatter and peck on the door for me to come out and play. They continue until I finally run them off with a dish detergent bottle of water.
Of course they poop way to much on that porch.
They will then go around to the front porch but they only stay there for a couple minutes.

I can't find it in my heart to run the banty's off though.
They are way too cute!!
I could just watch them all day long.
Remember I like fowl?

When we were getting our guineas incubated, we did a lot of research (well maybe not enough)
and it was funny to read that they were a bird of such a strict routine. Meaning you could set your watch by where they are at on your place at what time of day cause it would be at the same time each day.
Sure enough. They are on my side porch at 8:30 EVERY morning and then again at 6:30 in the evening. You know what? Come to think of it, I am at that dining room table at those times myself. Do you think they know that? LOL!!!

There's a new guy down on the farm......

and his name is Thunder. He is a reg Nubian buck to replace our dear Durango. We lost Durango, his son Tango, and Tango's mother Violet all this year.

We had a bout with coccidia and it got both mother and son before we knew what was going on. Durango was lost in the horrible accident on the hillside right after we found out Violet was sick.
It was a tough year and I couldn't hardly bring myself to talk about it.
Saphira was really excited at first to see that we bought her a new teenage boyfriend. Now I think she could send him back to his previous home. He is loud and noisy, he stinks and he pees on his head. She didn't want any part of the pictures today!!


As I was getting this shot below the barn, he was above the barn and she had went out of his eyeshot but definately not earshot. He was hollering so loud, as Nubians are famous for, and she gave me a look as if to say "Can you shut him up? Puulleezzee. " Sorta like Danny does with the guineas!

That's Opal, our hateful old fainting doe in her new little pen all by herself. Well she is so mean to anyone else unless she spit them out of her womb. She tries to kill everyone else over food. This field is meant to be a buck pen and Danny and I built this little shed over the fence so we could have 2 new stalls for weather protection on either side of the fence. Aren't we smart? It was really my idea. Now he likes it too. He laughs that there is a fence running thru the barn!!!

You can never get enough places to stash a goat!

Horrible picture of a lovely goat. This is Ellie Mae. Saphira's and Durango's baby doe from July. I have high hopes for her next year....oh yeah .....her and Thunder!!

Got cookies? I love her stripes. She looks like a Gremlin!

It was naptime and they are still groggy. See the little stubby horn scurs on the little brown goat? I was watching and couldn't stand the thought's of Danny hurting him while dehorning him and made Danny stop too soon. The next one he did while I was gone! Smart man!

How many roosters do you count? I count too darn many! We have to have a chicken pluckin'

I love this view of the babies napping! All curled up together.

As promised ....the newest version of the rollaway nest boxes. This is what I see when I come into the coop. Actually on the outside wall of the coop. The eggs are to be layed in the box and then they are supposed to roll out into the PVC pipe and roll down to the end of the pipe where no longneck chicken can get to them and eat them.

Triple decker. A smaller perch that they don't roost on. YES!!!!

and what do you know? They work!!!!! Look at that pullet egg!!

Other than paying some bills, some office work, computer time, a little house work and getting out in the cold today for a few quick pictures thru the fence.........this is what I have been up to. It involves pinwheels my new sewing machine and a lot of Halloween candy!