Sounds of the Months

 

Here are some videos that I made this year.  I like to hear the different sounds of the months.  This first one is in February, when we played with the dogs in the ice. 

This video is from the last day of April, which was the little lamb named April's first day outside.  

Jamie catches a snake in this video from May.  

The little chicks have feathers now, and are ready to go to their new homes.  This video was from thier first days, in June. 

Also from June, our flock of ewes with bird song.  The deep rumble is the ram, calling to the girls from his adjacent pasture.  

Here's a video of my flock as they emerge from the coop. 

Enjoy my sounds! 

Strawberry Jam Cake, Cookies and Cream, and Peeps

 

I baked a cake!  A strawberry jam cake, with jam in the batter and between the layers.  Three layers!  We had more than one family birthday to celebrate, but we didn't have a big firefly party like memorial weekends of years past.  It was too cold for the pool, but the fireflies showed up to entertain us, and the strawberry cake disapeared.  

The farmer who sold us Pistol Pete, our ram, asked for some photos so he could see his progress.  I thought this photo makes him look strong.  He is strong.  He head-butted me in the backside when I crossed his pasture, and nearly knocked me down!   

I was very offended by this.  It's one thing to accidently get knocked around by a skittish animal, but this was intentional and pre-meditated!  Now I watch my back when I'm in his pasture.  

Brandon bought two new ewes from the sheep farmer.  One of them has pretty brown wool, and I named her Cookies.  The other is a pale creamy color, so she was named Cream.  Cookies and Cream call to Lambchop like she's their mother, but we're keeping them seperate until they settle in and we know they aren't sick. They seem very healthy and energetic.  They are only four months old, and very skittish.  I can sneak a scratch behind their ears while they are eating, but they run when they realize what I'm doing.  I don't know how I'll ever catch them to trim their hooves.

Lambchop's little lambs are growing fast.  She's a good mother too. I think her un-shed wool looks like a rump toupee!  She doesn't like it when I try to pull it off.  The ground all around her barn looked like snow, she shed so much wool.  Just imagine what it will look like when there are five ewes shedding next year! 

The donkeys haven't started their heavy shed yet.  They still have the cute fuze around their faces.  

A box of chicks came through the mail.  Fifteen mixed breed layers, plus ten of the pearl white leghorns, which are small birds and make big white eggs.  Most of these will go to my parents or my boss, but I get to enjoy raising them in my brooder box for their first weeks.  I stored spare hoses in the box over the winter, and when I pulled the hoses out to get ready for the chicks, mice crawled up the hoses and gave me a scare!  Brandon turned the box upside down and stapled wire screen over the bottom, so hopefully the mice will not get back in.  

I really like raising chicks with the artificial hen/warming plate rather than the heat lamp.  The chicks snuggle under it and sleep so quietly, and I don't worry that I'm going to burn the barn down.  

They're so cute!

Ernest is Ours

 

I mailed the mandatory veternary inspection form today, along with this photo of Ernest.  These were the last two items I owed the equine adoption agency, and now Ernest should be offically ours!  

I'm not sure Rufus is as excited by this as I am.  You mean we have to keep him?  Ernest passed the vet inspection, getting good ratings for his coat and foot condition.  He did have to get his teeth "floated," which meant he was sedated, rigged up with a wicked looking metal halter that pried his mouth open, and his teeth were filed with an electric grinder.  The vet said older equines sometimes have the outside of the teeth grow too long, and that's probably why Ernest was packing his cheek with chewed food, which isn't good for his teeth.  Ernest balked when he saw the needle, but once that part was over he handled having his teach filed pretty well.  He wobbled and sneezed from the sedative for the rest of the evening.  

Our ewe, Lambchop, never had a baby.  Brandon is nearly finished with the fencing on another small pasture, so we can rotate our grazing, and we have two more ewes on order for May.  We're not counting lambs before they hatch, of course, but we're hoping that next spring will find us with lambs for the freezer.  

Sienna, our newest livestock gardian (ha!) dog, killed and ate one of my chickens yesterday.  Sigh. 

I ordered chicks, which should come in the mail at the end of May.  I'll raise them in my brooder until the have feathers, and then they are for my parents or my friend.  It will be fun to have little chicks again! 

We might have flurries tomorrow, and a few nights of below freezing temperatures, but I think winter is behind us.  The frogs are calling furiously from the neighbors pond, the birds are in a twittering frenzy, insects swarm my headlamp during my nightly rounds, and the plum tree has so many blooms that the air smells like candy! 

Snow Day Morning Chores

 

Finally, a work day snow day!  We had perfectly picturesqe snow on Christmas day, but I already had the day off so it hardly counts.  The perfect snow day is an unexpected day off, right?  

Especially if you have a collection of fuzzies to keep you company.  Sienna puppy is growing so fast, but I predict she will not be as large as Wendigo.  I've been reminded that I thought Wendigo was a challenge when she was Sienna's age too, but now Wendigo seems a perfect angel compared to Sienna. 

Sienna chases, chews, and pounces but it's so good to have a dog that will do all my chores with me again.  Wendigo limits her exhertions to protect her bad knees, but Sienna sticks with me no matter how many trips I make to take to visit the goats.   

We begin our mornings chores with a visit to the donkeys on our way to the mobile chicken coop.  Good morning Ernest - what a big yawn!  

The mobile chicken coop has been moved into the small fenced paddock next to the donkeys.  This gives the chickens their own space to eat and assemble at the coop without being harrassed by Sienna.  The chickens can get out of the fence through gaps, but they tend to stick to the tree lines and back fields to avoid the dog.  I miss seeing them near the house, but it's nice that they keep their mess to the back of the farm now.  

With only ten hens, a rooster, and two guinea fowl, there's plenty of roost space in the mobile coop, yet five of the hens are roosting in the cedar trees at night.  They are taking a risk that a racoon will nab them while they sleep, but they roost so high in the tangled branches I can't fish them down and re-train them to the coop.  Cross you fingers that Sienna and Wendigo take their guard dog duties serisously.  

I moved the chicken food to a lidded barrel near the coop, and I have water buckets near the fence that I can fill from the hose.  I secure the coop door open in the morning, spread chicken pellets on the ground, and bust the ice from the water bucket.  Sienna waits with the donkeys while I tend the chickens.  On this snow day, instead of the normal excided exodus when I open the door, all the tree roosting chickins quickly hopped inside instead.  I don't blame them for wanting their feet out of the snow.   

Look!  Eggs in the nest box!  

After a winter break, my hold hens started laying again when the days began to get longer. The giant white eggs are from the little white hens, and the smallest tan egg is from the giant red meat hen.  

Good morning, Rufus!  Are you anxious for your breakfast hay?  I break the ice on the donkey water and give them a couple flakes of hay.  I've been told that mini donkeys can live on a single flake of hay per day, and a flake is approximatley four pounds of hay.  Rufus and Ernest love to eat, so I give them each a flake in the morning and each another at night.  They would eat even more if I gave it to them, but Ernest is supposed to be on a diet.  I've been cutting little maple saplings from the tree lines and pitching them in the fence.  They eat all the little twigs and peel off the bark!  I think they get bored without something to chew on.  Especially Ernest, who nibbles on the wood gate.  

I need to weigh a flake, because I may be giving them way more than they need, and Brandon is worried I won't make it through until spring with the hay we have stored.  I can easily use a bale each day, and we won't make more bales until the end of May.  I do have one last giant round bale from the year before, so maybe we'll squeak by.    

The goats are living in the fence in the woods behind the zip line field.  Can you see the little shed in the photo?  It's a bit of a walk from the hay barn or the water spicket, so I get plenty of steps during my chores - even some wieght lifting as I carry hay and water.  

My nephew and I walked to visit the goats when we had our camp fire thanksgiving pie celebration, and he mentioned that all these animals seem like a lot of trouble.  Tell me about it - Ha!  I told him that I spend about a half hour on chores in the morning, and another in the evening, so I get an hour of outside excersize every day, rain or shine, because if I skip it my animals will suffer or die.  Talk about motivation!  He said he spends an hour outside playing basketball every morning since he can't go to school.  Why didn't I think of that! 

Unlike the sheep, who rarely need their hay basket filled as they spend all their time grazing grass, the goats are voracious hay eaters, and hay wasters.  Can you see how much hay has built up inside their fence?

The goats are standing on nearly two feet of hay they drop from their basket, and once it hits the ground they don't eat it.  It's good for them to have clean hay bedding, and all that organic matter heats up as it composts and makes a nice warm bed for them.  Brandon found a big wooden crate dismanlted in the dumpster at school.  He brought it home, reassembed it, nailed some tin on for a water proof roof, and cut a little door way into it.  The goats think this goat house is the perfect place to cozy up out of the weather, and I laugh when I see them all come squeezing out of that little hole like clowns from a clown car.  How do they fit?   

The last chore is to feed the wolves dogs.  

Wendigo thinks it's rude to take photos of her with her mouth full. 

Seinna looks ferocious when she chews! 

October Things

My brothers and I celebrated our birthdays this October, and I baked two cakes!  Real cakes, with gluten and sugar and all the bad wonderful tasting things.  The cakes were a treat to eat, and also a treat for me to bake.  We would have needed one hundred and nineteen candles to represent all our years!   

Our traditional October birthday family meal is chili spaghetti, Cincinnati style, topped with shredded cheese, diced onions, and oyster crackers, and served by the fireside.  This year, along with regular spaghetti and gluten free spaghetti, we served spaghetti squash grown in my garden, which has been stored in the root cellar.  

I baked the squash halves at four hundred and sixty degrees for an hour, then scooped out all the squash noodles into the crock pot, topped it with ghee patties, and turned it on low.  It worked pretty good!  I hoped that if I skipped the real noodles and crackers, then I would do less damage to my body when I ate two pieces of cake!  

It's hard for me to believe that October is already over.  October was the check-in on Ernest from the equine adoption agency.  I had to submit a picture of his body, from the side, and a photo of his feet.  In January they will remind me that his vet check-up is due.  If the vet says he's well cared for, then I think the adoption agency will be satisfied that we've provided a good home.  Ernest has settled in well, and feels free to bray for food and attention!  We can tell the two donkeys apart from their bray.  Rufus sounds like a rusty hinge, and Ernest sounds like an old fashioned car horn.  Aa-ooga!  Aa-ooga! 

The new puppy, Sienna, likes to chase the chickens.  Not with intent to eat or kill them, but she enjoys it when they squawk and flutter away. She's a ruckus instigator!  

When the puppy is on the loose, Cogburn, the rooster, clucks and calls all twelve hens together and leads them into the dense weeds in the tree line.  Most of the hens look ragged right now from the fall molt.  They look like scruffy ruffians hiding in the weeds!  

Look, a double rainbow!

The guineas are more brave than the chickens, so they don't run far when Sienna charges through their space.  Wendigo knows to pay attention when the guineas sound the alarm, and you can see her turn her head and prick her ears when they start to call.  She will follow them to the source of their excitement, and I've noticed the puppy following her lead.  Guineas and great pyrenness make a good defensive team.  

Pistol Pete, the ram, is growing a long shaggy neck ruff.  He's very shy and won't let me pet him.  When he sticks his head in his food bowl I sneak a few scratches between his ears.  He gets offended, and ducks his head.  He loves his daily pound of mixed grains, which I call cookies.  Who doesn't love cookies!   

Lambchop, the ewe, hasn't had her baby yet.  When we brought her home, we thought birth was imminent, but she just keeps getting fatter!  Sheep are pregnant for five months, so if her pregnancy started in July, it may be as late as December before we get a new lamb.  The reason the farmer wanted to sell her was because she was pregnant out of season, and will give birth during the cold winter.  My hope is that we can keep her lamb warm and help it survive despite being born in the wrong time of year.  If we can keep it alive, and it's a girl, then we will have another breeder.  Cross your fingers!  Lambchop is getting tamer by the day, and will even stay lying down while I pet her.  She's as soft as a cotton ball.  

Do you know how I can tell it's getting to be winter?  Is it the frost, or the dropped leaves?  Nope.  It's how many pictures I've taken of cozy cats!  

The cats and I are patiently waiting for the first inside fire.  Brandon has accused us of burning all the best, driest wood early in the year last year, so this year I'm wearing an extra sweater, and the cats are curled up somewhere snugly until real winter sets in.  It won't be long!  

One Chick, and Backdoor Flowers

I have fond memories of visiting with Brandon's mother while we created the perfect chicken haven from bits and pieces we scavenged from the old farm house and out buildings.  My brother gave us the small trailer that the mobile chicken coop is built on, and although it has moved from place to place, it mostly lives in the shade by the tree line.  The mobile coop sometimes gets criticized for it's scrappy appearance, but it safely housed my first flock, guinea keets, several batches of meat birds, and even a turkey!  

It's the perfect place to put a broody hen on her nest of eggs.  

This is the little hen that spent so much time with Rufus the donkey.  She was determined to sit on a clutch of eggs, so I waited until after dark, moved her and seven eggs to the dog crate, and placed it in the mobile coop on the thick bed of old hay and dried droppings from the last time the flock used the coop.  

She was patient for three weeks, and now she has a chick!  Just one, but she seems content to scratch in the bedding and cluck at her tiny chick.  I haven't been able to get very close to the chick yet, but when I told Brandon I thought it seemed like a rooster, he asked "Why, does it act cocky?" Ha!  Here's a link to a short youtube of this hen and her little one searching for tasty bits in the hay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPFQIujQIhQ 

We've been enjoying the aroma of the milkweed blossoms near the back door.  

The floral aroma is very strong right now, and the insects are loving the nectar.  

We forgive the elderberry shrub for crowding the door because it has such gigantic flower clusters! 

The flowers are very tiny, and have a delicate aroma compared to the powerful milkweed scent.  

The petals are beginning to drop - it won't be long until there are elderberries!