Saturday, December 22, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Ridin' Randy
Randy had quite a workout on Saturday... 10 cousins took turns riding over the course of a few hours. He got a nice bath and an apple afterwards. 
The Incredible Edible Egg
We are getting more and more incredible edible eggs each day. We just found the first tiny egg from one of our baby pullets, which means all 24 of them will be laying soon (it was out in the yard for no telling how long, so I tossed it to the dog.)
I'm hoping friends and family will all come to us for their eggs (and pay a little to help cover the cost of feed.) If not, we'll put an ad in the MB and sell some of the laying hens.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
PECANS!
Here's the first bucket we have filled and there are plenty more pecans ready for gathering!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Dear Daughter had her 7th birthday, so this was our first time to host a birthday party on the farm. The girls played outside, had a bon-fire with smores, and spent the night. I even made a cake to resemble "Bob" the biggest rooster. I also tied the ribbon on the photo-frame favors, matted with paper left over from the invitations I made.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Farm Fresh Chicken
We finally did the deed. We culled the first half of the roosters yesterday. We managed to dress 14 and clean up in about 3 hours, which we thought was fairly good time considering it was our first attempt. After the first 2, we really got a rhythm going and by the time we finished, we felt like old pros. We now have a freezer full of farm-fresh chicken!
Add 24 Hens, Stir, and Wait...
Today we moved our 8 week old chicks out into the "free range" pen with the older broilers. They immediately took to rolling around in the dirt, obviously enjoying their first dust baths. "Bob" the largest broiler roo seemed a bit peeved, but managed not to peck any of the babies. The other broilers seemed interested at first, and then went back to scratching for bugs. Hopefully they will all 
make it through the night alive!
make it through the night alive!Monday, August 20, 2007
Crazy morning on the farm
Just when you thought YOUR Monday morning was bad...
1) Woke up to find two rats at the back door, courtesy of our great cat. I grabbed their tails w/ a paper towel and went to the back fence to sling them into the back field-when their tails snapped off and blood went everywhere.
2) Walked through a huge banana spider web on the way back.
3) Went to let the chickens out, and the wooden ramp fell on top of a hen's head. The other chickens trampled it, while its neck was stuck under the ramp. It looked like it broke its neck, but it was still awkwardly moving around a whole bunch, so I took it and swung it around by its neck to make sure it was really snapped. The second the flock realized that it wasn't walking around properly, they began to peck out its eyes. I shooed the flock away, grabbed it by its neck and carried all 14 lbs of it to the fire pit by the barn. On the way, it kept blinking and kicking and BREATHING. I could feel its heart beat, but I was strangling it at the same time. I loosened my grip and it fell on the ground, spinning around with its legs like a firework. Poor son witnessed the whole thing. It was really traumatic--partly b/c I just had to dump the moving body. I would have felt better if I was in a position to skin and clean it and actually feel like it died for a purpose or something.
4) While walking back from the fire pit, son spotted a turtle. He wanted me to pick it up, so I did. When I put it back on the ground, it ran away really fast and hid in some overgrowth. Son started having a screaming tantrum b/c I "scared it off."
5) Later, in the house, while playing on the floor w/ son in my lap, he reared back and head-butted me in the chin. I fell back and blacked out for a second. When I sat up, my chin and jaw were stiff, and I immediately got a headache. My eyebrows HURT, like when you look at the sun on a hot day. The headache just started to subside an hour ago. In other words, my 2 year old actually gave me a concussion. OhYeah.
1) Woke up to find two rats at the back door, courtesy of our great cat. I grabbed their tails w/ a paper towel and went to the back fence to sling them into the back field-when their tails snapped off and blood went everywhere.
2) Walked through a huge banana spider web on the way back.
3) Went to let the chickens out, and the wooden ramp fell on top of a hen's head. The other chickens trampled it, while its neck was stuck under the ramp. It looked like it broke its neck, but it was still awkwardly moving around a whole bunch, so I took it and swung it around by its neck to make sure it was really snapped. The second the flock realized that it wasn't walking around properly, they began to peck out its eyes. I shooed the flock away, grabbed it by its neck and carried all 14 lbs of it to the fire pit by the barn. On the way, it kept blinking and kicking and BREATHING. I could feel its heart beat, but I was strangling it at the same time. I loosened my grip and it fell on the ground, spinning around with its legs like a firework. Poor son witnessed the whole thing. It was really traumatic--partly b/c I just had to dump the moving body. I would have felt better if I was in a position to skin and clean it and actually feel like it died for a purpose or something.
4) While walking back from the fire pit, son spotted a turtle. He wanted me to pick it up, so I did. When I put it back on the ground, it ran away really fast and hid in some overgrowth. Son started having a screaming tantrum b/c I "scared it off."
5) Later, in the house, while playing on the floor w/ son in my lap, he reared back and head-butted me in the chin. I fell back and blacked out for a second. When I sat up, my chin and jaw were stiff, and I immediately got a headache. My eyebrows HURT, like when you look at the sun on a hot day. The headache just started to subside an hour ago. In other words, my 2 year old actually gave me a concussion. OhYeah.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
In the beginning
Hey daughter's mom-
I just got word from the man that delivered the chicks today. He laughed when I
asked what kind. He said that the eggs are donated by farmers and he had no clue
about the type of chick. Well I guess that daughter told you that they began
to hatch yesterday. As of right now we have 33 chicks. I only have one egg that
has not hatched. I will leave it in the incubator for 2 more days just to see if
it will come out. They are soooooo cute!!! The kids have had a blast listening
to them chirp all day. We sat in a circle this morning and held them for a
while. The kids did great. They were sad to put them back in the box. Would you
be ready to take them on Friday? I'm afraid that they may be ready to do a
little flying if I leave them over the weekend.
Let me know.
1st grade teacher
I just got word from the man that delivered the chicks today. He laughed when I
asked what kind. He said that the eggs are donated by farmers and he had no clue
about the type of chick. Well I guess that daughter told you that they began
to hatch yesterday. As of right now we have 33 chicks. I only have one egg that
has not hatched. I will leave it in the incubator for 2 more days just to see if
it will come out. They are soooooo cute!!! The kids have had a blast listening
to them chirp all day. We sat in a circle this morning and held them for a
while. The kids did great. They were sad to put them back in the box. Would you
be ready to take them on Friday? I'm afraid that they may be ready to do a
little flying if I leave them over the weekend.
Let me know.
1st grade teacher
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Wild Hog Weekend
Our neighbor killed a wild hog today. Hubby helped skin it and he'll take it to the meat processor to mix with a recently killed deer.
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