our white bantam

She's pretty cute, isn't she? When she was in the little coop, she always hid. Now that she is in the big barn, she is starting to get brave. I love to see her out running around.

As of yesterday, I am not letting the chickens run in the front yard, and am forcing them to play out back behind the barn where the new fencing will keep them safe. I have to say that I am a bit saddened by this. I loved going outside and seeing them everywhere. Now when I come in, it's all quiet out front and seems kind of lonely. But they are safer, and I guess that's a good thing. Yes, how great it would be do have this whole place fenced in so they can run wherever they feel like it.

A good reason for controlling their running room is that this way I will be able to find their eggs. I hope, anyway. Who knows where they are laying now? I have no clue. I only know that sometimes I am lucky if I get 8 eggs. And this from 25 laying hens. I'm going to have babies spring up everywhere. Cool! I hope so.

goat barn continued

I am really getting there on the goat barn. Boy, what a long drawn out process. I have to say that if I didn't have goats or I didn't care too much about them being able to graze, I would never complete this project. I've kind of forgotten how long it takes to do these kinds of things. Since the main part of the house was done, I could work on things little by little and it didn't take forever to see some real change. This seems to be taking a very long time. The good news is that Flower's pen is pretty much completed, although I still have some more stuff to do. She slept in there last night, at least. The problem is that it left poor Richard on his own, and he did a bit of crying over that. Flower cried a bit, too, but at least she could hear the other goats. I've been putting Isaac in with her during the day so they can graze together. We'll see how this system works. So far, I really like it. And Flower will be able to get outside in the winter, too, which she'll love. I don't think she minds the cold at all.

WOohoo! We are getting there. And since I'm not so afraid of electricity, it will be easier to put the fence up. Still not quite sure how to get around the gate. That's my hang up. But what usually happens is I just decide to do something and it ends up working fine. Even if it takes a few tries. Such is life.

Anyway, here's a picture of the right side almost done. I'll take another one today, hopefully, so you can see what it looks like with a door on it.



Where the electric fence will go for the girl goats:



Where the electric fence will go for Flower and Isaac:



Speaking of girl goats:



Junk from the barn I have to find a place for. Man!

we die right on time

It's now my new belief. For real. I could say it was a new religious belief, but what does religion have to do with it? Seems like we either think we die perfectly on time, or we don't. And I've always kind of said this, but I can see that I never was really quite sure about it. Until now.

See, I almost electrocuted myself this past weekend. I'm scared of electricity, and it's the one thing I've never done on my own. Not even have I attempted to put in a light fixture. Yep, I'm chicken about electricity. So I find it pretty ironic that I cut the main power cords to the house using bolt cutters. Yep, bolt cutters.

And I didn't die. But only because I'm going to die right on time, and this weekend wasn't right on time. I'm pretty happy about that, really.

It's not like I would have cared, as I'd be dead, but think of the boys! They would have to tell people that their mom died when they were 15 because she cut the power lines to the house with bolt cutters. How embarrassing.

When I had someone out here working on the house in the early days, we talked about those wires sticking up all over the place by the barn. Probably old wires, because if they were the new wires, they wouldn't be sticking out of the ground like that. Well, they weren't old and they had plenty of juice.

What's crazy about the whole thing is that I never felt a thing, and then proceeded to work the rest of the day on the barn--moving and dragging fencing and who knows what else all across those cut wires. See? Right on time.

The cool thing is that now I'm not so afraid of electricity, and I think I am not so afraid of dying. And it might even be easier to accept if someone I don't want to die does. Of course, I'm hoping I don't have to find that out. But I'm 41 and haven't really had to deal with that up close and in person, so it is bound to happen sooner or later.

Unless, of course, my time comes first. It probably won't be due to bolt cutters.

Here's the wires:



Here's the barn cleaned up--well, besides the mountain of manure:



Where I'm putting the Mr. Turkeys until I figure something else out. I think they were scaring the hens in the barn and creating chaos in general. I might have to talk to the boys about 40 lb tough turkey dinner. I'm not sure yet.





The little turkeys not quite so little:

on the new goat barn!

The horse barn is slowly and steadily being converted to the goat barn. I would like to have the whole thing finished already, but I reckon that these things take time and finish when they are ready to be finished. The girls have a new stall in there, as does Isaac. Isaac seems pretty happy in his, but the girls are totally freaking out. They truly are like 4 year old humans. As long as they can see me, they stop crying. The minute I go out of view, they start bawling again. All day long. It will take them a while to get used to their new home, and I know that once they do, they will be way happier there. Or maybe it's me that will be happier!

Anyway, yesterday I bought the fixings for the electric fence I want to put up, and started working on it a bit. I am going to divide the pasture into 2 sections, one for the girls and their babies (if they ever have them, that is!) and the other for Flower and Isaac, until Isaac starts getting horny and then I'll have to move him farther away from the girls. Richard, in the meantime, will have his own little section in the barn, and will pasture to the side where he won't actually be too close to the girls, yet will be able to see them. So many people isolate the bucks from the rest of the herd and they just die of loneliness. I'm not willing for that to happen. Flower and Isaac will be in the pen next to him, so they'll have contact with each other. Isaac is less of a butt than Richard, and hopefully he won't like the taste of wool. I think it gets a little old for Flower to have Richard tasting her whenever he gets bored or hungry! What a nuthead.

Once the fencing is finished, I'll start working on the chicken house that the girls have totally destroyed. What a mess that place is! I think I'll open most of it up and build a lot of nests for the hens that want to set. The new girls will be laying soon, so we'll have plenty of eggs for selling.

I'm going to get rid of the fencing in the front of the barn, and put in some new deer fencing in the back. They can forage in the trees without us having to worry about the fox and coyotes getting them. It will make things SO MUCH nicer. It's very exciting to think about!

The turkey hens will go in the now chicken coop, and I'll build nests for them to set as well. The male turkeys will stay where they are for the moment, as they are going to be Thanksgiving dinners. (Not looking forward to that!)

Then, once that is all done, I'll be able to reconvert Flower and Richard's house to the wood shed, and start working on the wood supply. Ok, now I'm freaking myself out with all the work that needs to be done. And this isn't even counting my dissertation work that I haven't been doing! AHhhhhhhh!

It's so great to know that everything gets done when it needs to get done. And anything that does get done makes life around here that much sweeter!

Here are some other pictures that Benj took:

Station:



Isaac chilling:



Ted:



Which reminds me, the ducks have a new nest that I can't find. All those eggs sitting there, infertile, that could be in my frying pan. Bummer! They are SO sneaky!

flower...

finally got her haircut! It was pretty amazing to see. A woman by the name of Colleen came to shear her, and Colleen is not a big woman. By sticking her fingers in Flower's mouth and turning her head toward her rump, Colleen got Flower on her back and starting snipping away. It took a good hour. Flower, at one point, looked like she was taking a nap, but then started to get uncomfortable. Flower is the biggest sheep that Colleen has ever sheared, and said that she should really be bred as she is a fine looking animal and would make for a great mama.Colleen estimates that she weighs over 200#. That makes sense, as I can barely stop Flower when she decides she wants to go anywhere. She throws me around a bit, and I'm pretty strong! I hadn't really thought about getting into the sheep business, but who knows? I do, really. I can't imagine having to butcher sheep.

Next year, I'll be able to do this myself, now that I've seen it done.

Here are some shots that Benj took. Benj and Rio just cracked up the first time they saw her. "She's so skinny!" was the statement of the day.



Oh, and Richard was a total butt. He kept stealing the wool out of the bag and eating it (gross!!!), and then he would nibble at Colleen as she was working on Flower, and then he would bite Flower's head as she was laying on the ground. He just wanted attention, and wouldn't take no for an answer. It really is a shame he didn't get handled as a youngster. He has a great personality and would make a great friend. It's so awesome that we've got the chance to work with Isaac. They certainly have come from great stock!

mama chick

I had forgotten to mention that shortly after I came back from Miami, I found out one of our chickens had been hiding some eggs and had a few of them hatch! I would never have known about it except that I followed the sounds of her screeching and came across a showdown between her and Shady. Of course Shady promptly showed me his belly as if that would make me forget I had heard anything, (how could anyone that darn cute be so bad?), and to my surprise, a little chick took the reprieve to run out of his hiding place to the mama chick. Turns out there were 3 of them. I'm really hoping that there were only 3 of them and that Shady didn't get one of them. There was a really small one that didn't make it. We aren't sure if he/she got attacked by a rooster or what. The boys buried her in the flower garden.

The other 2 are doing well, and are cute as hell. I love watching them in the yard. It was amazing to see how she taught them to eat and drink, and what a great protector she has been. They are living in the sauna at the moment because it is the only place I can think of where they can be protected from predators AND the other hens and roosters that harass them. I would love a whole yard of hens and chicks running around. As of yesterday, there are 4 more hens nesting, with about a dozen total eggs. In a couple of weeks, we should have more babies! Very exciting.

Here is how they sleep at night! When it's warmer out, I guess the back serves as a fine roost!

on butchering chickens

So I'm not going to do it anymore. I don't think. It's hard to take the life of an animal, any animal, and it becomes more so when it is done for a profit. I LOVE the idea of providing the opportunity for people to be connected to their food source, and it goes along with my belief that if we eat meat, we should be the ones to kill it.

We finished butchering all the roosters but 3 this week, and 2 of those were intentionally saved. One was hiding and didn't come out until we were done. If he doesn't turn mean or aggressive, we'll keep him. If he does, then I won't have a problem taking care of him.

So the idea now is that if people want me to raise chickens for them, I will, but they have to take care of all the butchering that needs to be done themselves. We'll see what happens.

Another thought that came was holding some kind of workshop for people who really wanted to be a part of their food source. This goes against my previous statement of not wanting to butcher for a profit, which is interesting, but the idea was that I could provide the opportunity for people to learn how to butcher and process a chicken. They would get to take their dressed chicken home. In this way, they can experience what it feels like and how we treat the animals here. WHo knows, maybe some of them would become vegetarians.

So I don't know about that. What I do know is that I don't want to raise a mess of roosters with the purpose of butchering them all for a profit.

flower

is getting sheared again this Monday by someone who actually knows what she's doing. I'm looking forward to that, as the poor girl is still really suffering from the heat. What took me an hour to do will probably only take this woman 15 minutes or so. I guess she even flips Flower over to get her belly. It will be good to see how she manages that, since I can barely get Flower to move!

I love the feel of a sheared sheep!

and again...

The sauna with the garden starting to grow a bit:



Another visitor in the house. Not sure who this fellow is....



I'm starting to convert the horse barn into the new goat barn. I've got one side cleaned out here, and have built 3 stalls since. I still have 2 doors to build, and need to finish cleaning out the other side. Not sure what to do with all the stuff in there, though. Yikes. So much moving around. I think it means I'm also going to have to do some more cleaning in the road house to make room for some of this stuff. I don't want it sitting out and getting ruined! We'll see what we come up with. Haven't had much energy this week for working on the barn, but hopefully this coming week will find me with a bit more. It would be really great to get this finished this week. My goal, at least! This will free up so many other projects, like moving all the chickens to where the goats are now, and getting Lizzy and the other turkey hens into the little chicken coop. It also means being able to move Flower and Richard, which will mean the wood shed will become the wood shed again. I need to start making wood for next year or we'll find ourselves a bit on the cold side this winter! We'll just have see what I can get done. I'm thinking cleaning up my diet will really help me out in this regard. You know, it's all pretty interesting!

more randomness

We lost one of the ducks to coyotes the other night. She was sitting on her nest, and although we put a fence around her, I'm betting she got a bit freaked about all the coyotes in the yard and tried to run. Chances are she left the fence area and got taken. It was such a bummer. Now that they got a taste of fresh meat, the coyotes have been continually making their rounds here. They come right in the yard and howl. I put some xmas lights around the barn, and have been leaving the porch light on. No visitors for the last couple of nights. I know there are a lot of hens on nests behind the barn, though, and I'm not too happy thinking they can be taken just like that. I just ordered some special dog fencing that I plan on putting up on the backside of the barn, hoping that it will keep the coyotes away. We'll see. Poor Duck, as Rio called her.



The plant stand outside:



Matt and Marika gave me some cedar posts from Judy's old horse corral she had up, so I built a fence and gate in front of the barn. I'm hoping it will work to keep the chickens away from the garden areas as we start to develop them a bit. We'll see....

some random pix

Here are a few random pix.

This was taken by Doug. Anyone know what it is?



Cecil, the goat shui farm toad:



Benj and Issac:

going away party for amalia

It seems like a life time ago, but Amalia had a going away for the summer party at the farm. It was fun, as always. Met some new people and kept the neighbors up, I'm sure. Dale says he might be moving next year. Oh boy, we might be too loud over here. It's a shame the house is built so close to the property line. If he does move, I'll be putting up a fence immediately, for sure.

Anyway, here's some pix!

Dan:



Amalia:



Joe, Amalia, Dan:



Aaron playing the guitar:



And, of course, wonderful Doug:

new garden area

Here's the gate to the new garden area, although I'll probably change it. I'm thinking a gate with some space between the boards will look better. I'm feeling low energy at the moment, though, and am not feeling too motivated to work on it. Maybe this weekend....

been ages!

I have a camera again, and lots of pictures and info to put on here. Boy, it seems hard to catch up when one is behind! Guess I'll start and see how far I actually get.

My trip to Miami was absolutely amazing. The School of the Work of Byron Katie was life-changing, to say the least. I'm still feeling the affects, and probably will for a very long time.

Anyway, here are a couple of pix that I took before I left for the school. Elise and Kevin came out and helped a bit. I put in a new garden area and Kevin worked to get that ready. They also helped me get the table moved, although I still don't like where it is and will probably move it again. Not sure where to, but it will be ok wherever it ends up.





Can't even remember taking this one: