Coffee With Liam

We had a wedding last weekend (another post about that to follow), so Drew and Meagan came early to help.  Liam made a beeline for Uncle Drew every morning and this particular morning they sat at the dining room table having their coffee and working on their iPads (Meagan lets Liam use hers).

"Um, let's have copy, Uncle Dew."

"Would you like some cream?"

"I'll pour my own, mank you."

  (Liam says "manks" or "mank you" for "thanks" or "thank you")

**glub, glub, glub** "Um, yummy copies."

"OK, back to work."

I know it's a part of growing up, but it makes me sad when Liam learns to pronounce words correctly and discards his cute baby talk.  "Copy" and "manks" will soon be words only in the baby book.

Digger Dog, Scratcher Chickens No More!

Since I put the flower beds in around the house, I've been complaining that the chickens scratch everything up.  And they do...every day of every year.  Of course, Ginger has joined the digging brigade.  Except, she digs big holes, just like Harry used to do.  Harry kind of grew out of it and prefers to lay on the garage concrete floor.  But Ginger is just getting started on her reign of destruction.  She likes to dig where the sprinkler lines run and she digs down until the pipe is exposed, then she lays on it.

This is one of her favorite places - right next to the house, digging to expose the pipe and the azalea bush's roots.

So, I think I have a solution.

This is a 100 foot roll of 1" by 1" welded wire mesh.  We had to drive an hour to the hardware store that carries it.

We rolled it out and cut it in pieces to fit along the front of the house in the flowerbeds.

And this little side area where Ginger especially likes to dig.  Placing tiles there didn't stop her.

I cut out small sections to fit around the existing plants.  The copper sprinkler poles fit through the wire nicely and help hold it in place.

My pot of Rosemary helps hold it down here.  If this works like I think it will, I should be able to plant seeds, whereas, before I had to either start the seeds in a pot indoors or I had to buy plants already started because the chickens would scratch up the seeds.  And, if by chance a seed survived and sprouted, they scratched up the seedlings.

The mesh itself should keep the dogs and chickens from digging, but if it doesn't, or if I want to keep them from even walking on an area, this is my plan - cut the wires and bend them up so that they make sharp little barbs.  I expect that they won't want to walk on those.  And, yes, I have already stepped on it and it hurt like the dickens (what is a dickens?).

New Milkers

Since I'm going to retire Hyacinth from breeding, I decided it's time to get some new milk goats and was very excited to find these.  I bought these girls from a dairy farm certified to sell raw goat milk.  They were shutting down their dairy and selling about fifty goats.

One has moon spots, which seem to be very popular among Nubian goat enthusiasts.  I don't think the spots are particularly attractive, but since other breeders like them, if she has spotted kids, they should sell well.  The other doe is an interesting taupe color.

They are very social.

I'll breed them this fall and if all goes well, will be milking three does in 2014.  I'm going to need help with the milking because I don't think my thumbs are going to be able to take it.  They are sore all the time just milking one.

Twilight

Today is the kind of day I love.  Got my yard work done this morning; left around noon to do non-farm stuff; arrived home to find a few of the young chickens had escaped from the pen, but were still alive and not eaten by an eager puppy; tested the new "Pocket Hose", which worked like a charm; did my garden work in the cool of the evening.

A very productive day and proof of successful gardening and dog training (keeping fingers crossed) and I'm enjoying the beauty at twilight.

I still have a lot of area to fill, but here's a part of my front flower bed that is finally filling in.  

And more on the other side of the walk.

The bean trellises that Jordan built so I could walk under them.  They're proving to be successful and I'm picking the beans already.  Also, looks lovely.

Cornrows with marigolds.

The surprise sunflowers are blooming nicely.

Ginger attacks an unconcerned Harry.

Update to Butternut Squash

One of my followers posted that the plants are sunflowers and I think she's right.

Here's a post with a picture of the sunflowers I grew in 2010 and the plants look exactly alike.  I don't know why I didn't recognize them...except that I had it in my head it was a squash plant, until it didn't look like a squash plant anymore.

http://tilemosaics.blogspot.com/2010/06/sunflowers.html

I have no idea how those flowers got planted in that spot.  The 2010 flowers were at the opposite end of the garden, so I don't think there's any way those are seeded from the ones I planted.

Oh!  It just occurred to me!  I've been feeding the goats black oil sunflower seeds and that is where I had Tom dump the load of bedding and goat manure that we shoveled out of the stalls.

Mystery solved!

Thanks to Maree Clarkson ( http://www.blogger.com/profile/16274329795088706720  )for identifying the plant.

Now I have no butternut squash.  What a pity, but I will enjoy the accidental beauty in the garden.

Butternut Squash, or No?

What in the world is this?

I had these plants spring up in the section of the garden where the butternut squash grew last year.  Since some of the squash was left on the vine last year and the seedlings looked like squash plants, I assumed that it had reseeded itself and I just let it grow.

Now, I'm not at all sure that this is a squash plant.  It's too big, too upright and still doesn't have any blossoms on it.  As you can see in the picture, it is bigger than nearly three-year-old Liam.

And this is how big the leaves are.

And I keep thinking these things on the top are blossoms, but they just keep growing leaves.

Some of them stand straight up and some of them lean over kind of like a vine.

I haven't seen another plant on our place that looks like this, but if it's some weed, this won't be the first time I've let a plant grow, thinking it was something else and it turned out to be just a monster weed.

I guess I'll find out eventually if this is a squash plant when it does or does not actually grow a squash.  But I sure hate wasting all this growing time if it's not.

Finches Growing Up

I've taken pictures of the finches in their nest every couple of days and they've made quick progress.  I haven't checked in a couple of days, but they've been very quiet so I'm wondering if they've flown away already.

 Four little peering eyes.  Still have their baby fuzz.

 Looking wild and crazy haired.

 Little old man stage.

Almost all the fuzz is gone and they can barely fit in the nest anymore.

Time to fly.

Later...Yep, I checked.  They're gone.  Wow, that barely took two weeks for those birds to grow up.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

From my sweet children for Mother's Day...

A gorgeous flower arrangement, designed and arranged by Meagan.

And a resin bangle bracelet that has real flowers and leaves suspended in clear resin.

Love.

Fern Resident 2013

This year's resident of the front porch ferns is a family of house finches.  I originally thought they were cardinals, but too small and not red enough, so...young cardinals?  No, that wasn't right, so I googled and came up with house finch.

They're very pretty little birds.

I didn't think to get a picture of them before they hatched, so don't know the size or color of their eggs, but these little fellas are tiny.  And they're crammed into that nest like moldy sardines.

If you click on the picture and make it bigger, you can see that birds have little tiny ears.  Who knew?

Here's the daddy protesting my picture taking.

It's Hard to Be a Cool Chick

Some of our new little chicks have had a hard time since their move to our farm.

First off, a couple of days after I brought them home and put them in the apartment, I went down to the barn and they were sitting outside in their cage.  Even though Tom rarely takes it upon himself to do anything with the livestock, I assumed that he had put them out there for some air, or...something.  They do make the room that they're in stinky even though I clean the cage regularly.

Anyway, I saw one of them lying on the bottom of the cage with other chicks standing on it and I thought it might be dead.  Then I noted that they were sitting out there in the full sun and it was hot.  I picked up the little chick and it was still alive, so I put it's beak in the water and it took a drink.  After it was sufficiently revived to stand on it's own, I took them inside and went to ask Tom, "what's the deal?"  Yes, he thought they needed some fresh air.  "But, why in the full sun and how long had they been out there?" I asked.  "Only a couple of hours and I was out there with them most of the time." was the answer.  About half an hour later, I went to check on them again.  The distressed chick was still standing there drinking water.  It did fully recover.

So, this morning I noticed that one of the chicks looked smaller and lethargic.  But, sometimes they are just sleepy and while all the others are running around eating and cheeping, the sleepy one will huddle by itself.  I had to leave and made a mental note to check that chick later.

I moved the chicks in their cage into the chicken pen (we've been keeping the chickens penned up until the garden is established so they won't scratch up my tender veggies) so they could be with the big chickens, but still be safe and Harry couldn't chase the big chickens away.  (Yes, I put them in the shade).

When I got home and went to move them back inside, the little chick looked worse.  It was huddled down, wings splayed out, mouth hanging open...actually, it looked like a stroke victim and had what appeared to be a little piece of food at the tip of it's beak, which I thought was pretty weird.  What? Is it trying to eat and just doesn't have the strength to swallow?

I took it out of the cage to inspect and here's the deal.  It's mouth was glued open with chicken poop.  I mean, really, how uncool is it to have your mouth glued open with poop?

My working theory is that it was sleeping under the little perch and another chick above it pooped on it.   I'm not sure how it happened with the mouth open unless it was actually trying to get the poop off.  Or, maybe it's an open mouth sleeper.  I don't know.  Anyway, the poop dried and actually glued the bottom part of the beak to the breast feathers.  With the mouth glued open, the chick could neither eat nor drink.  After I pried the beak loose and the chick could move freely, it started eating immediately.

Now I have to wait and see if I caught it in time.  It's amazing how quickly those chicks can go downhill.

Chicken Nuggets

Harry loves the new little chicks.  I've been keeping them in this rabbit cage in the apartment for the time being.  I bring them out and set them in the grass while I clean the cage.

 Harry is very...watchful.

  He gazes at them lovingly.

The other day, I put them out where the adult chickens were hanging out, thinking that if I let them all get used to each other gradually, there would be less bloodshed when it's time for them to integrate.

Note there are no chickens in the picture.  When they came to investigate, Harry ferociously chased them away.  See Ginger laying over there all forlorn?  Harry wouldn't let her near them either.

We don't know if Harry is protecting them or is hoping to be able to eat them.  And Harry does not share food.

I stole the title of this post from my very clever niece, Terra.

New Chicks

Our hens are getting old and it's time for some new blood.  Up until now we've only Rhode Island Reds and we've been very happy with them.  But, I couldn't find the chicken man that I bought our first batch from at the flea market.  I decided to go the craigslist route and found a local woman that had several different kinds of chicks.  She only had two RRRs left, so I got those and two other breeds.

I got some Ameracaunas, which lay blue eggs, so that should be fun.  I also got some Black Astralorp.  I think they lay brown eggs that look pretty much like the RRRs.  The seller also had some Black Copper Marans.  She said the way you tell the difference between those and the Astralorps was that the Marans had feathers on their legs.  So, I don't know enough about chickens to know the difference, but some of the chicks have feathers on their legs.  Either she made a mistake and gave me some Marans, or she was wrong about the leg feathers.  I guess I'll have to wait til they grow up to see what they actually are.  Marans lay deep chocolate colored eggs, but really, some of my RRR eggs are a chocolate color, so I'm not sure I'd know the difference.  

I'm hoping that most of them are females, but that is also something that I won't know until they grow up.

Convincing an Evil Goat

I got fed up with Evil Goat.  She was getting more and more aggressive and was actually coming after me with her horned head.  Tom had this great idea...

and it worked like a charm.

This is a fly swatter that is electrified.  To use it, you depress a button on the side and when a bug is swatted, it is instantly zapped.

It kills the bug, but it doesn't kill a goat.

The first time I took it out there with me, Evil kept coming at me and I kept the button depressed and the swatter between me and her.  She finally made contact with it, touching the tip of her nose to it and I heard the "pop".  I wish I had a video camera with me, but it's nearly impossible to hold the bucket of feed and scoop the feed into the feed troughs while avoiding scrambling goats trying to be the first to get a mouthful of feed and avoiding the horns of an evil goat aimed at me and trying to keep the swatter between me and that goat.  I didn't have any hands left for a camera.

Anyway, when she got her nose zapped, she jumped straight up into the air and leapt over all the surrounding goats.  Now she minds her own business and leaves me alone.  I still take the swatter just in case, but maybe that one zap was enough to convince her that goring me with her horns is not something she wants to do.

And the Winner Is...

GINGER

Travel Trailer Repairs

The trailer had a leak and the whole back wall rotted out.  Jordan has been repairing it.

He had to tear out the whole back end of it.  This is what it looked like on Sunday evening.  We were hoping for no rain.

Tom is helping with the rewiring.

Look!  Up in the sky!  It's a bird...

"Are we going on 'oliday?" (Chicken Run reference)

This is what it looks like on the inside.  I guess I'll paint it.  Or, maybe some cool wallpaper.  Meagan, any ideas?  I'm probably going to take out the carpeting, too, and replace it with linoleum.  If I have the time and energy, I'll take down the window treatments, replace the shades, and recover the cushions on the couch and dinette.

Kid Tattoos

It's that time of year again.  I wrote about this once before

 ( http://tilemosaics.blogspot.com/2010/04/task-that-lies-ahead.html )

but it becomes more ridiculous and onerous every year.

The tattooing of the kids to be registered.

Maybe it makes sense to serious breeders, but it still makes no sense to me.  Although, I'm pretty sure that in just a matter of months, the tattoos will not be visible, I do it so that I can truthfully say that it was done and I can put their tattoo on the registration papers.

I use two pliers, one with our herd name for the right ear and the other with the ADGA preferred letter and the birth order of the goat in the left ear, using black ink on a dark grey ear.  I tried white ink one year, but I don't think it showed up any better.

The piercers.

The tattooing went smoother last year and this year because Nephew Jordan was here to help.  Tom held the kid, while Jordan and I each took an ear.

Even though it goes pretty smoothly (Jordan and I say, "ready, go!" and squeeze our pliers at the same time so it's all over with at the same time), my hands still shake from the stress of inflicting that pain.

We try to make it as quick and easy for the kids as possible, but they yell and thrash anyway.  I don't blame them.

Song from My Childhood

 Up in the sky...

 Ever so high...

 Swinging so free in the air.

 Up in the sky...

Ever so high...

Without a worry or care.