Scrappy and Bold

 This is Scrappy (named so because she is the smallest, yet most brazen of all our hens).  

 She is one our newest additions, just over 5 months old.  

Scrappy is half the size of our other hens that are the same age.  She is a tiny brown leghorn hen, light weight and quite flighty.  These physical characteristics, along with her boldness, allow her to escape the coop every morning.  She wanders freely around the yard while the other hens helplessly remain in their prison, waiting for us to let them out.

Scrappy waits for no-one.

 This week, Scrappy has decided she likes the view from the top of our wooden fence.  She mostly does this when we are outside, but not in the yard.  She has yet to actually fly over the fence to the outside, she just likes to perch on top and then fly back in to the yard when she is done surveying.

  Today, I was standing in the driveway talking to hubby.  A flutter and a chuckle and there was Scrappy, sitting on the fence eavesdropping on our conversation.  As scrappy as she is and seemingly wary of our presence (no hope of catching this girl!) she doesn't seem to want to miss out on any of the happenings around here.  

 

She is a sneaky little chick, always creeping up behind you when you least expect it...don't call me surprised when she starts perching on the window sill and peeking in the windows!  

Training tomatoes and teenagers

We are continuing to make great progress around here at the homestead and it feels great to get some major projects finished!  I am hoping to give an update soon on some of our progress.  For today...tomatoes and teenagers!

The garden is off to a great start this year.  Most years, after planting the garden, I forget about stuff for a few weeks while the seeds get started.  Then the weeds and the tomatoes get unruly!  So this year, I have convinced myself that I am going to be diligent about keeping the weeds under control.  I have also been working on training the tomatoes around stakes and in their cages.  Past crops have never been pruned or really managed, but we always got great yield, albeit unpredictable from year to year.  After some research, I have figured out how to prune both our indeterminate and determinate tomatoes to get the best yield and to keep the crazy plants out of control.  Training tomatoes...let's hope it works. 

Oh and we have teenagers...our chicks are not babies anymore!  They have been exploring the outdoor world in their run and it is quite amusing watching their curiosity bloom.  I still haven't given them all names yet, but we are getting there!  

 

 

I think I am going to call this one "Snoopy", she has her beak in everything!

 

 

This is "Scrappy" because from the get go she was the smallest, but the bravest!

Hubby made a seed growing frame for the chicken pen.  We have an Omega 3 greens seed blend and I planted it in the chick run.  Placing the frame over the seeds allows the seedlings to grow tall enough without allowing the chicks to mow it down!  It works great and the chicks love foraging on the top of the screen.  In a few days I will remove the frame and let them mow it down, then we will start over!  This gives the chicks some forage material while they continue to grow, until they are able to venture in to the yard!

Our other teenager, Gibson, is giving us quite the run around, keeping us busy and on our toes.  He is a joy to have around, but a lot of work.  Checking on the chickens is the favorite part of his day.  He does well with the adult chickens but is having a hard time adjusting to the chicks, they are so exciting!  He is learning to watch calmly and seems to understand the chicks are off limits but they are JUST SO FUN!

 

"Aw mom, can't I just play with one of them?"

 "oh, I am so bored with this...."

Next time: sheds, trees, jeeps and sandboxes!

Is it a sign?

I told ya'll 2014 was going to be the year of projects and I am happy to report we are off to a great start!  Is this a sign that we might get everything on our list accomplished?

First, we decided over the winter to expand the chicken pen and make it easier to raise chicks.  We have a brooder house, but we had no way to allow the little ones outside, protected, until they could join the rest of the flock.  Our pen also needed to be bigger.  The girls have to spend more time penned up these days.  This may or may not have to do with this guy....

Anyway, we decided since the garden was not being used this winter, and is conveniently fenced in, that it would make a good home for the girls while we changed their pen.  I say we, but really Hubby did all the work, I just did the supervisin'  

I am so happy with the final result.  So far it has worked beautifully and I think it will be so much easier to raise chicks this Spring!

 

Here is the entire pen, on the left the main pen and door, on the right the biddy pen and door.

The girls were actually out in the yard when I took this picture, but they always come to investigate...so they modeled the food/water/outdoor shelter station for me!

 This is the brooder house side.  At the moment it is totally closed off, but we are putting in a chicken door between the two runs, so after the biddies are integrated in to the flock, they will have the entire run!

Brooder house door and pen.

My favorite part!  I have been wanting to spruce up our yard and garden with non-vegetative things.  I thought the girls could use a little humor in their lives.   

I did paint this myself, but I did not come up with this saying, I saw it on Pinterest!

This chick says..."you better believe the sign lady!"

I am so excited to have the chicken coop completed.   Along with building the new space, we also lined the bottom of the pen with crushed granite we had leftover from another project.  This is so much easier to clean and the girls feet stay healthier.  We also have some suet feeders and ropes for hanging heads of cabbage (chicken tether ball anyone?) to keep the girls occupied when they have to be penned up.  I still want to work around the outside, doing some landscaping and making paths, but that will have to come a little later.  Oh, and I would show you the inside of the chicken house itself, we did a little rearranging, but the ladies were not prepared for company...so maybe next time!  

Another weird thing

There are often times when Hubby and I wonder why our lives are not what most would consider "normal".  We wonder why weird things always happen to us and why our stories seem to be so different than the stories shared by our peers.  I chalk it up to our lifestyle.  When you live the way we do, you are bound to have stories of crazy animal antics and oddly placed bee stings.  We don't even have that much land, or that many animals, but for some reason, weird things always happen in our back yard and what happened a few weeks ago was no exception....

It was a Sunday morning, at 6:00 am....yes folks...while you were snug in your beds at 6:00am on a Sunday morning, Hubby and I were awoken by horrible screams.  Screams that were not quite discernible, as in "is that a person or an animal?" kind of scream.  So we rolled out of bed and in our pj's we stumbled on to the back deck.  The screams were louder and very close...whatever was making that noise was in our backyard, in the woods.  We put on our boots and went down to edge of the woods.

Through the dark shadows we could see that something big, black and furry was moving around the edge of the fence.  Brian and I were both unsure of what this creature was...until it hit us...oh yeah...our dog is big, black and furry.  (On a side note, Waylon, our dog, is a big wimp.  We have a shed with a doggie door and he spends most of his days and nights in the safety of his lair, unless we are out there with him.  He is much happier to be in the garage or on the deck.  He doesn't like to walk on the grass.  He is afraid of our chickens and does not come out if the chickens are in the yard, unless there is something promised, like food or a walk.  We have watched him start to chase a deer until he got close enough to realize how big it was, only to turn around and head back up the yard.  So, we assumed he was still in the shed, really...I know he is a dog, but the last thing I expected was to see him investigating loud screams from some kind of animal.) 

When we got close enough to survey the situation and call off the hound, we realized the screams were coming from a baby deer that was stuck in our fence.  We have no idea how it got in the yard.  In an attempt to escape, it was obvious that the little gal couldn't find a way out.  When she got stuck, she started screaming, triggering the dog, which made things worse.  Her little foot was stuck in the wires of the fence and by this time she was lying on her side, completely exhausted. 

We approached with caution, because a deer, even a tiny one has some serious kick.  Brian cut the wires loose but she didn't get up, so we held down her legs and checked for breathing, but her poor little body couldn't handle the stress and within minutes she had stopped breathing.  We were too late.  She only had one injury, a scratch, from the fence wire.  The dog had not harmed her, but I am sure he contributed to the fear.  So Hubby picked up the little body and we hauled her up the woods to the yard.  He put her in the back of the truck and took her up to the right-of-way with power lines near our house (can I tell you that we really felt like we were doing something wrong, I mean, early morning, disposing of a dead body, it just seemed weird).  The grass is tall there, and all number of varmints and vultures patrol the area.  And, so is the circle of life.

When I walked back on the porch, my heart wrenched.  In the neighbor's yard, I could hear a doe calling, a specific call, from a doe to her fawn, one that fell on the silence that had returned to this early Sunday morning.  We walked back in the house, the clocked blinked 7:00am...too early to be up on a Sunday.  We ate breakfast and went on about our day as usual, nothing different here...just another story to add to the log list of weird things that happen in our backyard.  

Because we have fancy chickens...

we get eggs that look like this....

with built in decorations and fancy swirls on the end....

Because our chickens don't just lay eggs...they lay fancy eggs.

You know what this means...it means our chickens just "one-upped" all of those other chickens out there that only lay "normal" eggs. 

...or it means there is something seriously wrong with this chicken...

Wordless Wednesday: Liquid Gold

 

A few words on this one, after removing the honey, Hubby put the frames back outside so the bees could collect the remaining honey from the frames.

D(ee)r Chickens,

To my dearest fluffy, squawking, spoiled feathered friends,

I was quite surprised at the sight to which I awoke this morning.  While rubbing my sleepy eyes and staring out the window, I was sure I was still sleeping.  A doe a deer a female deer....wait this is not a musical...a deer was standing outside your chicken coop watching you very closely.  You gals were having quite a staring contest with her, nose to beak with nothing but chicken wire in between.  Am I wrong?  Were my sleepy eyes deceiving me?  If only I had my camera handy.  I assume she must have come across your lair while she was grazing and was caught by quite a surprise to see all of you ladies, squawking away at this unknown intruder...a quiet and stealth beast...one you haven't seen up close before.  I can only imagine your surprise and fear and possibly hers, at that.  I watched as she investigated you closely and then moved on to something more interesting.

As I encouraged Waylon, our supposed guard pup, to chase the deer off, I was met by a blank stare and feeling that if he could roll his eyes, he would.  I have come to realize that Waylon is really good for no such things as being a watch dog or a normal dog at that.  I apologize dear chickens that his lack of prey drive has left you to your own devices when it comes to encounters of the animal kind.  But, fear not ladies, unless you are green and leafy, this deer wont bother you if she returns.  Of course, it worries your human momma, because she has a garden to tend.  But alas, this is no worry of yours.  You can go about your day scratching and pecking and being somewhat of a general nuisance.

In the meantime, you may find that the blueberry plants have been covered with bird netting.  Yes, I have seen seen you eying those ripening berries.  I know you think you are sneaky, but we did finally figure out that you gals were the ones eating the pole bean seedlings a few weeks ago and we solved that problem.  Don't blame me for the week of grounding to your pen.  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I don't get fresh blueberries.  So now that the berries are turning full shades of luscious blue, I would like to keep them to myself  If you would like to keep your freedom, you will steer clear.

That is all my feathered friends, thank you for the delicious eggs and please refrain from pecking my newly painted toenails when I am in the yard. 

Sincerely,
Your human momma

Garden Limbo

I've been a horrible blogger lately.  I know you have all been holding your breath in anticipation for my next post......right?.....

Alas, I have not fallen off the face of the planet...I've been a horrible blogger lately.  I know you have all been holding your breath in anticipation for my next post......right?.....I have just been a little bored and I wanted to spare you the pain of reading about my boring life at the moment.  We are in that downtime of late winter/early spring around here.  Late enough in winter to start thinking about the Spring but not warm enough to start really planting and preparing for the Spring growing season any more than we already have.  There is a little work to do (late winter garden, preparing the soil, etc) but not enough to keep me busy!  So I continue to float along in garden limbo for a few more weeks!

In other exciting news, I am working on my 3rd growth chart.  This is my first one for a little boy and I am so excited to get it completed.  I think it will be just darling and boyish all at the same time. 

This weekend hubby and I are getting into the bee hive and doing our Spring maintenance in preparation for the nectar flow.  I am hoping to get some pictures and video of the process . So keep your eyes peeled for that next week!  

In the meantime, here is a picture of one of my crazy chickens drinking out of the dog's water bucket and generally making themselves at home, anywhere they please! 

The Old Homeplace

When I was a child I always looked forward to visiting my grandparents at the homeplace.  The homeplace was a once, working farm in Nash County, where my dad and his siblings spent their childhood. 

When I was young, my grandparents no longer worked the land, but the farm still produced crops mostly maintained by other family members.   The homeplace was littered with memories of a working farm, buildings and barns and old farm equipment, but the barns no longer echoed the sounds of livestock. 

I have vivid memories of playing in hay lofts and exploring the many corners of the delapitated buildings.  My imagination would take me back to a time when those old barns were filled with animals of the cute and cuddly kind.  As a young girl who's image of a perfect world involved horses of every breed, I especially enjoyed stories of my dad's good old black stallion, Black Beauty. 

I would listen in awe as my dad told me how this horse was just like the one in the book, wild and crazy and all his.  I remember wishing I had my own Black Beauty.  Alas, I was left to my imagination, standing in the old barn, peering into the stall once housing a magnificant animal.  Running my fingers over the wood and dreaming of what it was like to brush the long mane of an animal I only knew from my father's stories.

The barn held memories that were not my own but those of generations of farmers.  As a young girl I dreamed of furry animals and fresh hay, horses and cute little pigs.  How different would I imagine that barn now?

Although I no longer think much about horses, I do imagine a barn filled with animals.  Working animals.  Mooing, oinking food.  Animals who serve the same purpose as those who lived in that barn long ago.  No longer does my imagination take me to the barn of my childhood, it takes me to the place I want to build my life and provide for my family.  A place of hard work and satisfaction. 

Imagining myself standing now in my grandparent's old barn, the scene is quite different than what I dreamed of long ago.  An old and crumbling barn, years of dust settled into the cracks, still breathing with the wind.  Memories of hard work and sweat are etched into the wood. 

The stall, once holding that magnificent horse would still be there, but would no longer remind me of the horse I always wanted.  It would be a reminder of a time when farming was a necessity and hard work was commonplace. 

A time when sustainability was a way of life.  A place where rewards were in the form of satisfaction in a hard day's work.  Where the simple joys in life where all that mattered.  A place where after a long day's work, a young image of my father would trod into the barn and jump on the back of his wild and crazy horse and take off down the long dirt road.

Not for Vegetarians

Hubby and I are avid meat eaters, but we like to be conscious of where our meat comes from and are always looking for fresh and local sources of meat.  Some folks don't eat meat for various reasons and we respect those opinions.  Of course, we feel that animals raised for meat who have been well taken care of are the best sources and we look forward to the day we can raise our own meat.

We are both agriculture geeks at heart, so when we heard that Hubby's uncle was slaughtering a few pigs on the same weekend we were visiting, Hubby was excited to see the process!  We made the trek to GA to visit Hubby's grandparents this past weekend and Hubby and Pop decided to hop in over to Uncle D's to watch them slaughter their pigs they had raised.   I stayed at home with Nanny but asked hubby to get some good pictures of the process. I have never seen a pig slaughtered and was actually anxious to see the event!

Pop and Hubby got to the farm right about the time they were finishing up one pig and starting on the next.  Aunt J was cooking up sausage as it was coming off the pig and canning it for later use.  Hubby was lucky enough to try a piece of this fresh sausage from a pig that had been walking around not more that 3 hours before.  Hubby says, "It doesn't get much fresher than that, unless you take a bite out of the pig's butt while it's walking around." 

Warning...pictures not for the faint of heart or those who do not want to see the process.

Removing the hair

 

 The "in-ards" Aunt J is using the liver for liver mush

 Ribs

Sausage making

Wordless Wednesday

Current Bloodsugar: 144

I know it's "wordless Wednesday" but it is just too hard for me to be wordless.  Here is a variation of a post I did a while ago that I have adjusted for life with diabetes.

Lessons about living with diabetes from the residents of a backyard farm....

We all need something (or someone) to lean on every now and then...

  

Diabetes management is stressful...take time to relax and feel the sand between your toes...

 

Diabetes is like a pile of rocks.  Uncomfortable, heavy, unstable and always in the way.  But there are bright sides to every situation, you can always find a good use for a pile of rocks (like a favorite napping spot!)

 

 Friends and family are priceless and are an important part of diabetes management...

keep them close by....

 Exercise is very important....

 

Life with diabetes often presents situations that are big and scary.  Face these things head on and you may may find they are not as scary as they seem.

  Find the resources available to help you manage your health.  Use them wisely, make the most of them and turn them into something awesome!

It always helps to have some who can help look out for you, emotionally and physically...

It's great to have an outlet for your frustrations about diabetes...

Entertainment is sometimes the best medicine....

A good night's sleep is important for maintaining your health.  

Get plenty of rest....

 any chance you get....

Keep looking up..

 

 

and smiling....

and keep your eyes wide open...

you never know what the future will bring...