Yeah, we're snowed in again. Living in the desert as I do any moisture at all is usually a cause for at least a smile but I really need to get going on this whole garden thing and snow is not conducive to good gardening. Rain, I can work with rain because it doesn't keep the ground temperature from warming so while I can't actually plant something I know it's not going to set me back but snow means another week at least before anything can go in the ground.
Does it seem like I'm always bitching about something? I assure you I was once regarded as the eternal optimist so perhaps it's the blogging experience and I only feel compelled to write about my adventures when I'm having difficulty.
In other news, the horses are not happy about their advancing pregnancies. Fiona who actually knows what's going on inside her is still kicking her belly to teach that little foal a lesson for kicking her mama. She moves very slowly and deliberately. You can see her weigh her options these days. "Should I walk up and see if Mom has a treat for me or should I stay here awhile and see if she'll come to me?" Dixie is very worried about her own belly as she glances back frequently to see what it was that just moved inside her and then asks me what the heck that was. She too is moving slowly though she's a third of Fiona's age so she still seems a little lighter on her feet. I still worry about them both and can't wait for this to be over.
The kids took some tests for school today and really did quite well. I was rather surprised. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really doing them any good at all by keeping them home to teach them and then I get results like this and realize that somehow, some way they are learning something so I'm not the worst teacher in the world. Annie actually asks to read so that's gotta be a good thing, right?
I've moved all waterfowl to my hatcher incubator. My mentor seems to think my humidity is too high for turkeys which may have spoiled my last hatch so I put the ducks who are close to hatching in one incubator with much higher humidity and I'll leave the turk eggs in the incubator with lower humidity and see what happens. I've gotta get at least a few out of this batch or there will be no breeding stock.
The ducks and geese and turkeys that came from the last hatch are all doing very well. You can't help but like a little duckie although it seems like my heart belongs to turkeys. My pet turk Jefferson (who appears each day to be more female than male) likes to pretend that he (she?) is a parrot and flies up to the top of the gate so that he can sit on my hand and be cuddled. The new little Midget turkey (Tattoo) is coming along quite nicely. I think from now on I will offer food that has been wettened for new turkey hatches. They seem to eat it easier and make it through those first few dangerous days easier.
We had a great weekend this weekend! I sold 180 dollars worth of plants!!! Can you dig it? Any naysayers out there who think I can't make money with my growing prowess now? No, I didn't think so. We also sold some not-so-baby chicks but I doubt that we are making much of a profit on them at this point. Still, came out of the weekend with over 200 bucks I didn't have going into the weekend so I'm not going to complain. Tomorrow I'll be selling more tomatoes and chickens....sounds like a good day to go shopping!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Spring.....?
Just an update on the farm happenings. My last hatch was yet another failure more or less. Apparently the humidity either was too high or spiked after a fill and drowned my little turkeys because everyone that went into the hatcher was nicely developed and alive but only one hatched. I could just cry. I spent good money on those little Midget turkeys babies and hated to lose them. On the other hand, I did get three duck babies to hatch. They LIKE the high humidity hatch. So I have one lonely little white midget turkey baby and two blue Swedes and one black Swede. They are awfully cute. Then Greg came home with three baby buff geese. I really, really need geese....I do! They're adorable, who could not need geese? One good thing about the whole thing is that the ducks and the geese keep reminding the turkey about where the food and water are so he's doing very well at eating.
On to the next hatch. Seems like I'm always pinning all my hopes on a new incubator full of eggs. The next hatch is lavender turks, Beltsville turks, runner ducks, call ducks, some chickens from my chicken house and some Pilgrim geese. The plan is that I will use the hatcher for a high humidity hatch for the waterfowl and keep the turks and chickens in the incubator with the turner turned off and lower humidity. THIS time it's gonna work. I've ordered some more Midget eggs too because I'm just that confident that I can do this. Damn it.
We've moved the baby chickens out to the new coops and my baby turkeys are now in the grow room so the new ducks and newest turkey could have the little bathroom brooder. Where will I put the new hatch? In Greg's sock drawer of course! I hate cornish chickens. Just want to get that out there. If I EVER grow meat birds again it will not be these aggressive, ugly, smelly things I can assure everyone of that. I'll butcher my Reds before I do cornish again.
My plants are thriving of course. Ever see a plant that I couldn't make grow? People have purchased quite a few but everytime I get some extra space I plant some more stuff. Last week I planted my pumpkins and some more herbs and the last watermelons and broccoli. In theory, I'm done but all bets are off if I sell some more of my babies.
So we have snow now. I mean really, a LOT of snow. We're so snowed in that if I didn't know we were going to have 70 degree weather on Monday I'd think this would be something we were going to have to deal with for awhile. Ah, but my pasture and trees are so happy. By mid-week next week we're going to have so much green out there that it will burn your retinas. You just gotta love spring in the Rockies.
Kids had a review at the school last week. All went as expected. They all had vision and hearing tests. DJ flunked his hearing test but it's allergy season for him so my guess is that his ears are swollen or fluid filled. The three little ones had reading tests. DJ went into sensory overload and failed miserably even though he's been steadily improving since he got the Hooked on Phonics program. He' s actually relaxed quite a bit about reading since he's started to gain some proficiency. Oh well. Mikey did as well as expected considering he still lacks some of the fundamentals regarding phonics. He knew a few sight words and then wanted to do something else, anything else. Annie showed off and did a good job so at least someone was able to confirm that I am teaching the kids something. We did DJ's IEP which was the usual stuff, nothing new. Rissa has been playing lately so we discussed some ways to motivate her. We'll see. And that was a day at the school. It was nice to have Greg be a part of the process too.
And that's about it for me. I'm canning chili today and have a couple of whole chickens in the oven for supper. I've discovered that I really like black beans so I put them in the chili. I had a bowl of black beans with some butter and a little salt. They were very good. Need to do that more often.
On to the next hatch. Seems like I'm always pinning all my hopes on a new incubator full of eggs. The next hatch is lavender turks, Beltsville turks, runner ducks, call ducks, some chickens from my chicken house and some Pilgrim geese. The plan is that I will use the hatcher for a high humidity hatch for the waterfowl and keep the turks and chickens in the incubator with the turner turned off and lower humidity. THIS time it's gonna work. I've ordered some more Midget eggs too because I'm just that confident that I can do this. Damn it.
We've moved the baby chickens out to the new coops and my baby turkeys are now in the grow room so the new ducks and newest turkey could have the little bathroom brooder. Where will I put the new hatch? In Greg's sock drawer of course! I hate cornish chickens. Just want to get that out there. If I EVER grow meat birds again it will not be these aggressive, ugly, smelly things I can assure everyone of that. I'll butcher my Reds before I do cornish again.
My plants are thriving of course. Ever see a plant that I couldn't make grow? People have purchased quite a few but everytime I get some extra space I plant some more stuff. Last week I planted my pumpkins and some more herbs and the last watermelons and broccoli. In theory, I'm done but all bets are off if I sell some more of my babies.
So we have snow now. I mean really, a LOT of snow. We're so snowed in that if I didn't know we were going to have 70 degree weather on Monday I'd think this would be something we were going to have to deal with for awhile. Ah, but my pasture and trees are so happy. By mid-week next week we're going to have so much green out there that it will burn your retinas. You just gotta love spring in the Rockies.
Kids had a review at the school last week. All went as expected. They all had vision and hearing tests. DJ flunked his hearing test but it's allergy season for him so my guess is that his ears are swollen or fluid filled. The three little ones had reading tests. DJ went into sensory overload and failed miserably even though he's been steadily improving since he got the Hooked on Phonics program. He' s actually relaxed quite a bit about reading since he's started to gain some proficiency. Oh well. Mikey did as well as expected considering he still lacks some of the fundamentals regarding phonics. He knew a few sight words and then wanted to do something else, anything else. Annie showed off and did a good job so at least someone was able to confirm that I am teaching the kids something. We did DJ's IEP which was the usual stuff, nothing new. Rissa has been playing lately so we discussed some ways to motivate her. We'll see. And that was a day at the school. It was nice to have Greg be a part of the process too.
And that's about it for me. I'm canning chili today and have a couple of whole chickens in the oven for supper. I've discovered that I really like black beans so I put them in the chili. I had a bowl of black beans with some butter and a little salt. They were very good. Need to do that more often.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Migraines and megrims
Yesterday we decided we were going to the store. I was like the dog or something-GO?, GO NOW? WE GO IN CAR??? NOW? Hey, I don't get out much, okay? Anyway, I was excited about a road trip. I actually like getting out of the house with the kids. My kids are usually more or less well behaved in public so it's nice to go places with them.
As we left the house the sun shone brightly reflecting off the newly fallen snow. Little sparkles glittered everywhere as we happily set off on our journey. The closer we got to town the more I noticed the colors in the shimmering snow. How strange that the very sky seemed to dim next to their brightly flashing ......wait a minute, I turned away from the scenery but the circles and bars of light went with me. Blinking and shaking my head a little didn't change the patterns or disturb their flight across my husband's face or the seat of the car. Like a circlet of diamonds, I couldn't really see anything but the light refracting through the rainbow of vibrant and pastel colors. Little floating UFOs of gorgeous flashing and Fourth of July explosions. It's a shame I only get to see them when they're warning me of danger because they mesmerize me everytime.
Yes, I have classic migraines. I get to see these beautiful auras as a sign that the most horrendous pain possible is coming like a freight train. If I'm smart enough to recognize the signal and get to some medication quickly enough I can stave off the worst of the headache but if not.....
So I didn't have the medication with me yesterday and my husband was quick enough to understand my problem. He turned around and raced home. When we got here he closed the windows, covered all light sources and put me to bed but it was really too late. I got to experience the whole thing. But I didn't get to experience the road trip.
As we left the house the sun shone brightly reflecting off the newly fallen snow. Little sparkles glittered everywhere as we happily set off on our journey. The closer we got to town the more I noticed the colors in the shimmering snow. How strange that the very sky seemed to dim next to their brightly flashing ......wait a minute, I turned away from the scenery but the circles and bars of light went with me. Blinking and shaking my head a little didn't change the patterns or disturb their flight across my husband's face or the seat of the car. Like a circlet of diamonds, I couldn't really see anything but the light refracting through the rainbow of vibrant and pastel colors. Little floating UFOs of gorgeous flashing and Fourth of July explosions. It's a shame I only get to see them when they're warning me of danger because they mesmerize me everytime.
Yes, I have classic migraines. I get to see these beautiful auras as a sign that the most horrendous pain possible is coming like a freight train. If I'm smart enough to recognize the signal and get to some medication quickly enough I can stave off the worst of the headache but if not.....
So I didn't have the medication with me yesterday and my husband was quick enough to understand my problem. He turned around and raced home. When we got here he closed the windows, covered all light sources and put me to bed but it was really too late. I got to experience the whole thing. But I didn't get to experience the road trip.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Days of Summer?
It's been spring here since the middle of February. Don't get me wrong, we love the warm weather as much as anyone. You can't beat the money savings from not having the furnace running and all those little chores you have to wait to do can now be done....oh yeah, YEA! But watching the kids run around in shorts in the middle of February sets up expectations for your subconscious brain. You start thinking about planting and building fences and chicken coops and mucking stables and why the heck haven't those horses dropped their foals yet....oh yeah, it's FEBRUARY!!! Then to top it all off we're supposed to be getting snow this time of the year but day after day after day dawns bright and clear and sunny with no hint of moisture for my thirsty pasture or trees. (sigh)
So I have given into temptation and started my spring planting. The grow room is full of pots filled with dirt and tomato seeds. Some are sprouting but I've sort of stretched out the process so many are still newly planted. So far, 375 possible tomato plants live in my special grow room. I'll be planting pepper seeds next week and probably the melons and herbs another week later. I may run out of room which almost seems impossible but I hope to sell some plants this year so I've planted many different things that I wouldn't actually grow in my own garden. I tend to be a bit of a tomato snob and only heirloom varieties get to grace my garden.
The big chickens have been TURNED LOOSE!!!! They are definitely free range girlies now and there ain't nothin' scarier than chickens gone wild. They are scratching up the evil weed-infested straw bales and hopefully eating all the weed seed. Throwing the pieces of straw in the air until the wind takes it and then chasing it down only to find it's a piece of straw, chickens are more entertaining than.....than kids!
We've also got baby chickens now. The MacMurray order came to us with one DOA and the rest all terribly healthy and active. Those were all Easter Egg chicks. The Ideal order was Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orps and some extra RIR males but the boys are all marked. It's very colorful out there in the baby chicken room because of course Easter Egg chicks come in lots of colors and we then we have the pretty little butterscotch colored Buffs and the cinnamon colored Reds. The two lonely little chicks I hatched are out there too. The little Easter Egger has disappeared into the throng of chickens who look just like her but the black boy I hatched out is still quite noticeable.
And that's it for today. I see snow in forecast for this weekend. We'll hope for a little reminder that it's only March and not May.
So I have given into temptation and started my spring planting. The grow room is full of pots filled with dirt and tomato seeds. Some are sprouting but I've sort of stretched out the process so many are still newly planted. So far, 375 possible tomato plants live in my special grow room. I'll be planting pepper seeds next week and probably the melons and herbs another week later. I may run out of room which almost seems impossible but I hope to sell some plants this year so I've planted many different things that I wouldn't actually grow in my own garden. I tend to be a bit of a tomato snob and only heirloom varieties get to grace my garden.
The big chickens have been TURNED LOOSE!!!! They are definitely free range girlies now and there ain't nothin' scarier than chickens gone wild. They are scratching up the evil weed-infested straw bales and hopefully eating all the weed seed. Throwing the pieces of straw in the air until the wind takes it and then chasing it down only to find it's a piece of straw, chickens are more entertaining than.....than kids!
We've also got baby chickens now. The MacMurray order came to us with one DOA and the rest all terribly healthy and active. Those were all Easter Egg chicks. The Ideal order was Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orps and some extra RIR males but the boys are all marked. It's very colorful out there in the baby chicken room because of course Easter Egg chicks come in lots of colors and we then we have the pretty little butterscotch colored Buffs and the cinnamon colored Reds. The two lonely little chicks I hatched are out there too. The little Easter Egger has disappeared into the throng of chickens who look just like her but the black boy I hatched out is still quite noticeable.
And that's it for today. I see snow in forecast for this weekend. We'll hope for a little reminder that it's only March and not May.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A chicken in every pot
Chicken eggs incubate for 21 days. I was pretty sure by day 14 that we weren't going to get much if anything out of my first hatch. The Frizzle and Silkie eggs had been badly scrambled by the Post Office and my wildly varying temps in my old incubator couldn't have helped the other eggs much. Problem was I couldn't really candle the other eggs very well since they were all dark egg colors so I didn't know what was going on in there.
So day 21 came and went without so much as a peep from any of the eggs. In the meantime I'd gotten my new incubator and had filled it with eggs and had pinned all my hopes on the future hatch so I'd determined that I would throw the old eggs out on day 22. Yesterday the cat seemed quite interested in my incubator and a check revealed a newly hatched baby chick. Looks like an Easter Egg pullet and she's really strong and pretty. I decided well, maybe, the average temp was a little cool and slowed down hatch and I'd better give all those eggs another day. I checked almost every hour and nothing except a very noisy little baby chicken. Later in the day I thought I saw one of the brown eggs move but by bedtime there was nothing going on so I convinced myself that I'd been mistaken.
This morning I wanted to throw out the old eggs because I wanted to give the sole survivor of my hatch some more room to run around in the incubator. I gave all the eggs to Riss and told her to throw them out. She came back a few minutes later to show me an egg with a break in it's shell. Oh no, I almost threw out a baby! But surely all the moving around had killed it or perhaps it was the egg I saw yesterday and it had broken the shell yesterday and was dead now. So I broke EVERY rule of hatching and cracked the egg a little. And we hear "peep, peep." Everyone has been glued to the incubator all day waiting to see if the little one would live or not. I was pessimistic but late this afternoon I heard the loudest chirping ever and sure enough the little chick was working his way out of the egg. New chick is probably some kind of red chicken mixed with Wyandotte, probably a roo.
So the new question is.....can I throw out the old eggs NOW????
So day 21 came and went without so much as a peep from any of the eggs. In the meantime I'd gotten my new incubator and had filled it with eggs and had pinned all my hopes on the future hatch so I'd determined that I would throw the old eggs out on day 22. Yesterday the cat seemed quite interested in my incubator and a check revealed a newly hatched baby chick. Looks like an Easter Egg pullet and she's really strong and pretty. I decided well, maybe, the average temp was a little cool and slowed down hatch and I'd better give all those eggs another day. I checked almost every hour and nothing except a very noisy little baby chicken. Later in the day I thought I saw one of the brown eggs move but by bedtime there was nothing going on so I convinced myself that I'd been mistaken.
This morning I wanted to throw out the old eggs because I wanted to give the sole survivor of my hatch some more room to run around in the incubator. I gave all the eggs to Riss and told her to throw them out. She came back a few minutes later to show me an egg with a break in it's shell. Oh no, I almost threw out a baby! But surely all the moving around had killed it or perhaps it was the egg I saw yesterday and it had broken the shell yesterday and was dead now. So I broke EVERY rule of hatching and cracked the egg a little. And we hear "peep, peep." Everyone has been glued to the incubator all day waiting to see if the little one would live or not. I was pessimistic but late this afternoon I heard the loudest chirping ever and sure enough the little chick was working his way out of the egg. New chick is probably some kind of red chicken mixed with Wyandotte, probably a roo.
So the new question is.....can I throw out the old eggs NOW????
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Farm life
You know you live in a small, rural town when a herd of deer cross the street in front of you. There I was driving through my little four block long town and the whole herd of 35-40 Cervidae jump, bound, leap and amble across the road from the gas station driveway, past the liquor store and down the street to the police station. I smiled at the impatient driver coming from the other way, obviously on his way to work or some important place. Apparently, he's from a city.
Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe you're going a little overboard on the whole farm livestock thing? Everytime I see another variety of chicken or turkey I want to add it to the flock. I've ordered my Beltsvilles and Lavenders and plan to order some Midgets soon but I do so want some Palms and Bronze turks too. (sigh) Must practice patience grasshopper.
Tonight was tuna casserole. I think I have the only family in the world that actually asks for/begs for tuna casserole. Weird, weird people I live with. The secret is not cooking the noodles, using creamed corn and lots of cheese and a little sour cream never hurt nobody.
I made cookies today. Just plain ol' chocolate chip cookies to keep Adam happy. While I was making the dough Annie came over and put her little arm around me and said "I love you Mommy, you know why?" "Not a clue." "It's because you make such good cookies." Awwwwww. I told her "I love you because you think I make such good cookies." She didn't get it but that's okay.
I
Income tax should be here this Friday! Woot! Gonna spend me some money. Not really. We're paying off some bills, I'm buying my new incubator and we'll get some more supplies for the new poultry coop. That'll about do it.
Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe you're going a little overboard on the whole farm livestock thing? Everytime I see another variety of chicken or turkey I want to add it to the flock. I've ordered my Beltsvilles and Lavenders and plan to order some Midgets soon but I do so want some Palms and Bronze turks too. (sigh) Must practice patience grasshopper.
Tonight was tuna casserole. I think I have the only family in the world that actually asks for/begs for tuna casserole. Weird, weird people I live with. The secret is not cooking the noodles, using creamed corn and lots of cheese and a little sour cream never hurt nobody.
I made cookies today. Just plain ol' chocolate chip cookies to keep Adam happy. While I was making the dough Annie came over and put her little arm around me and said "I love you Mommy, you know why?" "Not a clue." "It's because you make such good cookies." Awwwwww. I told her "I love you because you think I make such good cookies." She didn't get it but that's okay.
I
Income tax should be here this Friday! Woot! Gonna spend me some money. Not really. We're paying off some bills, I'm buying my new incubator and we'll get some more supplies for the new poultry coop. That'll about do it.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Sick kids and hatching eggs
We had a little visitor come over to play with the youngest three kids last week. Noticed she was coughing when she came but she was upset because her horse was being put down so I didn't think about her being sick. But the day progressed as days do and the child was soon hacking pretty consistenly, not eating and laying around listlessly watching TV (she's always pretty hyper). So it's not like I didn't expect that we'd be ill this week. I pretty much saw the writing on the wall. Mikey was last up this morning and he's usually first. As soon as he got up he laid back down on the couch next to his two older hollow-eyed siblings. They all glanced at me without interest (no really, they usually are interested in me) when I checked to see if they were okay. With Annie's diabetes we are very vigilant about sickness because it really messes with her numbers. Luckily, in anticipation of this event I'd gotten some cold medicine for them and started dosing them accordingly. They're feeling better but now I feel like crap. Oh well, I'll be a good mother and say that I don't care if I'm sick so long as my children are okay.....Blah. Maybe I should be like Greg and just not kiss the kid all winter long for fear of coming away with something other than sucker slobber.
It's day seven for my hatching eggs so I got to candle them. For you city slickers, candling means you hold a bright, bright light up behind the egg and look through them to see the little embryo inside. Looks like at least 14 of the little Silkie and Frizzle eggs are growing little red spiders inside so in spite of my fluctuating temps and unstable, obsolete incubator I am growing babies as of right now. Who knows if I can bring them all the way though? The mutt eggs are mostly really dark colored so I can't see into them. There are five that are light colored and two of them have little red spiders in them so I guess I just wait to see if the rest are okay.
Wrote to my Mom about my candling and possible hatch. Sent her pics of the chickens and then complained about my ancient incubator. The woman is sending me money to buy a new incubator!!! She's all excited about my chickens and wants me to keep hatching. Just goes to show you that your family is always the worst at enabling your addictions.
Okay, blog updated. Everyone happy?
It's day seven for my hatching eggs so I got to candle them. For you city slickers, candling means you hold a bright, bright light up behind the egg and look through them to see the little embryo inside. Looks like at least 14 of the little Silkie and Frizzle eggs are growing little red spiders inside so in spite of my fluctuating temps and unstable, obsolete incubator I am growing babies as of right now. Who knows if I can bring them all the way though? The mutt eggs are mostly really dark colored so I can't see into them. There are five that are light colored and two of them have little red spiders in them so I guess I just wait to see if the rest are okay.
Wrote to my Mom about my candling and possible hatch. Sent her pics of the chickens and then complained about my ancient incubator. The woman is sending me money to buy a new incubator!!! She's all excited about my chickens and wants me to keep hatching. Just goes to show you that your family is always the worst at enabling your addictions.
Okay, blog updated. Everyone happy?
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