Hay!

We finally have some! My amazing father in-law sent my BIL and SIL over with two giant round bales of perfect fluffy hay this morning! I mentioned about a week ago that I desperately needed some for the turkey coop and to mulch the garden with. I really meant old hay that was no longer any good for animal feed. Usually there is left-over hay on the trailer that the cows eat off of or an old forgotten bale sitting in a field somewhere that is decomposing and full of fire ants that I can go and toss into the back of a truck and bring home. I feel guilty for using the hay of dreams for mulch and turkey bedding. I am so grateful though! I feel like it is my birthday or something! It seems silly to be this excited over something like a bale of hay, I know. I have been stressing about needing to mulch the garden and especially about the turkey coop needed bedding for weeks. I also usually have to use any hay I get very sparingly because there is never enough to go around. Never do I get to put such a beautiful thick layer of it where ever I need it and have some to spare!

Needless to say, I spent the entire day mulching the garden. The turkey coop got tended to immediately, of course, but the rest of the day was spent in the garden. I mulched every area that there is something planted and then watered it in well. By the time I was finished I thought that the mosquitoes and and no see-ums were going to carry me away and I wanted nothing more than to get inside and take a shower and some benadryl. I will have to take pictures tomorrow. I am looking forward to sleeping well this evening. That doesn't happen to often lately, as is typical in late pregnancy. I am already struggling to keep my eyes open.

While I was working the guineas made several trips by the garden. I am in the habit of counting them every time I see them to see if I have lost any. There have been 2 missing for a few weeks. I assumed that they were a mated pair and had nested somewhere, but didn't think I would ever see them again. Usually when any birds go missing for more than a night around here it is a guarantee that something ate them over-night and we will never see them again. I was surprised when I counted all 8 guineas. Then I noticed a little brown splotch move by one of their feet. It was a little baby guinea keet! It looks to be a week or two old and is the only one. The little guy sticks close to the group and the group keeps it tightly enclosed in its ranks most of the time. Hopefully it will make it. There are plenty of dangers for little birdies around here. Especially the hawks and snakes. I could hear the resident hawk close by most of the day. Brad took lots of pictures of them and I need to get them off of his camera. Our blue-slate turkey hen has been missing for a couple of weeks as well. I kn ow she was building a nest somewhere, but never found it before she started sitting full-time. I am holding out hope that she, too, will soon come wandering through the yard followed by sweet babies. It is doubtful though. I'll be happy if she come back in one piece, babies or not.

All in all it was a very productive and positive day. Tomorrow has been officially named as d-day. Tomorrow we are renting a shampooer and cleaning all of the carpets. It has been put off for far too long and I must get it done before I'm not able to. It is so daunting because we have a very small living space. I enjoy that most of the time. I won't get off on a rant, but I will just say that I think that people in our country have gotten entirely too out of hand when it comes to huge houses and the vast majority of people in most countries (yes even the highly developed ones) live in much smaller homes with more people per household (think extended family). Stepping off of my soap-box now. Anyway, if I am going to put in the effort I want it done all the way. That means moving the furniture, every piece, and cleaning under it. With a small space it is quite a bit like those square puzzles where you have one empty space and you have to move all of the pieces around and around to solve it. Luckily, I am not allowed to move heavy furniture in my condition so that lot falls to Brad and Keegan. I will be doing all of the vacuuming and shampooing while they shuffle everything around. Tomorrow should be a busy day. I'm looking forward to it being done.

Now, off to bed! Sweet sweet blissful sleep. It has been far too long.

Feathered Friends Picture Post

While wandering about the homestead the other day I took

 some picture of my feathered family and thought I would share.

 

 

 

Tallow and Tabby with some of the buff Orpington gals

 

Handsome Mr. Franklin strutting his stuff

 

My buddy Yellow and a passing herd of chickens.

They gallop through periodically.

 

Chicken Flower!

 

Einstein being a gentleman and showing the guineas the food.

They really didn't need any help...

 

My favorite hen, Ms. Laverne, and her bad eye

 

Little Miss Mae: One of my blue silkie hens that seem to stay broody.

These girls are so little! They don't let their size get in their way though.

They do wonderfully in my mixed flock with much bigger gals and

 don't hesitate to stand up for themselves.

Week In Review

We had a guinea casualty yesterday. Keegan noticed one of them hopping around the yard on one foot and let me know that it was hurt. We managed to corner it in the turkey coop so I could catch it and check it out. The poor thing had a severely broken leg. We had to put it out of its misery. My heart breaks to know that it was in such pain and I hope that it wasn't suffering for long before we found it. I wish I knew how on earth it managed to break it like that?! It is hard to tell. The guineas have started wandering farther and farther from home, always coming back, but who knows what kind of trouble they are getting into while they are gone. Brad has caught them in the road on several occasions and I hope that they don't get hit by a car!

Now that the guineas have stopped being so loud and alarming at the slightest little thing, I am much more attached to them and would like to keep them around! I never really noticed how pretty they are until I got a close-up look yesterday. They have such pretty eyelashes and are really attractive birds once you get over the shock of the white face, Mohawk, and horn on the top of their heads. They do need to get better at the tick control issue, which is a big reason that we got them to begin with. Keegan found 2 ticks on Ari (our little tick magnet) yesterday so they aren't doing as good of a job as I would like. Hopefully the remaining 9 will keep out of trouble and eat lots of bugs. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go ahead and  incubate some eggs just to make sure I'm covered? The eggs are fertile btw! I'm so excited!

The 10 baby chickens that hatched are doing well and have more than doubled in size! I can't believe how fast they grow! Their wing feathers have already come in so they will soon be out of the cute sweet baby chick stage and on to the awkward teen stage. These are the feistiest but most curious and trusting chicks we have ever had. They remind me a lot of turkey poults. When I put my hand in the brooder, rather than running away, the chicks run toward my hand and bite at it. No doubt thinking that I have food. These are the first chicks that I have hatched in the incubator rather than buying at the feed store or having them shipped. Apparently it really makes a difference in how they react to us. I hope they are this friendly and accepting of us when they grow up!

The tomato seedlings are about 3 inches tall and have 2-3 sets of true leaves. Time to transplant soon! The peppers are still germinating. It seems to be taking them forever, but then the tomatoes were much quicker than most plants and coming up. The oregano still didn't sprout... I will never order from that company again. I had hoped that it was operator error (even though I know I did everything the way I was supposed to) but too many seeds never even germinated despite any changes or extra effort on my part. They were duds and I wasted a lot of money. Lesson learned! Baker Creek from now on.

In other news... Brad and I got hitched on Friday! The thought of planning (and paying for) a big wedding had stressed me out for faaaaarrrr too long. I'm not a big fancy wedding type of person anyway but I was doing it for Brad's sake. Friday was our anniversary anyway, marking 6 years since the first day we met and I fell in love at first sight. We decided to make it official at a very small service. Maybe one day we will renew our vows and have a big celebration, but until then I am just happy to be married to my soulmate. Married... wow... 10 years ago I would have said you were crazy if you would have told me it would ever happen! And that I would be this happy about it! It goes to show that there really is that one special person out there for everyone. I've officially claimed mine and have the papers to prove it!

Here's to 2014!

It has been a few months! Blogging has just been off of my radar for a while. I hope to remedy that and what better time to start than when I am starting to get spring fever? We shall see. I tend to stay more caught up with blogging when things are really busy around here, which it hasn't been recently.

That isn't to say that nothing has been going on or changing on Sunflower Hill.

The garden is closed down for the year, with the exception of some carrots still in the ground, but will be back up and going very soon! It is past time to start seedlings already!

The guineas free range full-time now. They bully the turkeys terribly so they had to be booted out of the turkey coop. They are still bullies when the turkeys are free ranging, but it helps the rest of the time. The guineas now sleep high up in a couple of trees that are located in a triangle between the turkey coop, chicken coop, and pig area. They are pretty safe there, especially guarded by the dogs all night. They also help protect the other birds. All are still accounted for and are healthy and LOUD! One thing is for sure... Nothing will enter our yard without the warning sirens going off.

The turkey population here at the homestead dropped by almost half right before Thanksgiving. A pair of black babies and a Bourbon hen found new homes. One turkey was sold for Thanksgiving dinner to a wonderful native american lady and her family who wanted to thank the spirit of the turkey before humanly processing it. Three others were processed here at the Homestead for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They were wonderful! We are blessed. We now have 6 turkeys. A Blue Slate trio (Yellow, Tallow, and Sari) and a Bourbon Red trio (Franklin, Tabby, and Terra). A new Bourbon tom, named Franklin, has joined the main flock. He is very curious (even by turkey standards), has to be in the middle of everything, and basically resembles a rambunctious teenage boy in every way. He is sweet and we are enjoying him. I am especially enjoying that I am not moving hoop tractors everyday anymore! I will soon forget how much work it was. I am already anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first turkey eggs of the year.

The tractors have been retired for the year but I expect to get them back out soon. Yes... despite being exhausted from working such long hours (tax season) and being sick lately, I have again been struck by chick fever! The incubator has been put back into action and is currently filled with two dozen Speckled Sussex chicken eggs. I have had roos of this breed in the past and loved them so I bought hatching eggs from a friend of mine. Unfortunately, the day after they were set the temperature here dropped and so did the incubator temperature without heat on in the house. It wasn't a huge drop. Just to 95F or so, and I don't think it was for very long but it was severe enough to have potentially killed the embryos. I am anxiously awaiting candling day!

The reason for the breed switch is because we no longer have most of our Buff Orpingtons. Our puppy, Luna, managed to take out all but 3 hens, including our head rooster, Jack. She is such a super sweet girl but she just couldn't manage to keep from playing with the chickens... to death. No harm appeared to be meant, but regardless, she was no longer able to be trusted with chickens. She was tied to a run line during the day and let loose at night to get her energy out for a while, but she soon learned how to free herself from the chain. She has since had to be rehomed. I really hate that, but living her life tied up was not fair to her and putting the lives of my birds in danger constantly wasn't fair to them. We sorely miss Luna, as well as Jack and his girls.

The other chickens are doing well, although not laying well at all. I think that some of them must be laying somewhere else but I have yet to find where. We are still way over our ratio of roos but I just don't know what to do with the 3 silkie roosters that we ended up with. The other rooster, Red, is one of the little ones I hatched out in the soup pot. He is so big, goofy, and sweet, that he has just managed to stick around so far. We shall see what happens later I guess. Hopefully the remaining hens will begin laying better soon.

Our pigs are no longer with us, but are rather, in my in-laws' deep freezers down the road along with a cow they had processed at the same time. One was processed right before Thanksgiving and the other two went to the butchers in early January. I had planned on processing them myself but my father in-law managed to convince me otherwise. The butcher shop is a very small family business and does a good job in a humane way. The pork is AMAZING! I never want to eat store bought pork again! I guess happy animals really do make much better finished products. I wasn't sure I could part with the pigs in the end and even though I was ready for a break, tears were shed when they left us. By me, at least. They didn't seem to care, being more interested in the feed and fresh eggs in the back of the trailer we used to haul them. It was made much easier by the sweet cutie baby pigs turning into giant monster pigs that tried to knock me over and bite my legs every time I got near them and were FOREVER ripping the hose off their waterer and flooding the pasture. I couldn't even get on their side of the fence most of the time without them running toward me full speed and threatening bodily harm. Especially when there was food involved. They fought with each other and anyone close to them was likely to get hurt. I know that most of the time they didn't mean to be mean, but those were some really big pigs and it wouldn't take much to hurt someone! I loved having pigs but pigs that size can be dangerous and I was not-so-secretly ready for them to go. I do look forward to having them again, though. We are already planning to get new babies in April, so we have them when the garden is in full production and canning is producing a lot of waste.

Here's to a brand new year! I hope it is as magical and blessed as the last! Things are not always sunshine and roses on a farmstead but it is an amazing life full of blessings, all the same. I'm looking forward to another beautiful year on Sunflower Hill!

No More Excuses!

I keep putting off writing a blog because I want to take pictures to post with it. I keeping thinking about writing, usually first thing in the morning before I have had a chance to take pictures, or last thing at night when it is too dark to take pictures and I realize that I had forgotten during the day. That, and my camera has been going downhill since the screen got busted a month after getting it. It was brought down by a drunk falling out of a pub in Galway (Ireland). And no, I wasn't the drunk. LOL It was another American tourist that apparently attempted to drink like an Irishman. Perhaps it was the attempt at walking after drinking like an Irishman that got him... and my camera. Anyway, I need to post with or without pictures because I'm getting behind!

 The piglets are getting huge! I brought all three home in 1 medium sized dog crate. I don't think I could fit 1 of them in that dog crate now. They moved out of the garden and onto pasture about a week ago. My garden went from resembling a jungle, to being clear of weeds and tilled without any backbreaking digging or tilling on my part. Pigs make wonderful plows. They are now working on clearing a large section of brush that has been growing up for about 10 years. My brother helped me finally get the fence up around a little over an acre of wooded brushy area with some pasture surrounding it. It is beside the garden so they just had to cross the fence from one side to the other. Moving them out of the garden took a lot of persuading... and about 3 dozen eggs. I unplugged the electric fence, moved the wires down so they could step over, and put eggs on the other side of the fence. Jimmy is very curious and always the first to come when I call. He crossed immediately with no problems. Dean came shortly after. Poor little Link was another story. He knew that fence wire was there and he didn't want any part of it. He paced back and forth, squealing his little piggy squeal for over 10 minutes while the other 2 ate all of the eggs. After reasoning and trying to chase him didn't work, I finally had to raise the wire so he didn't have to step over it before he would cross. I saved him some eggs as a reward when he finally got the courage to run over to the other side. They went from a 3 wire fence, to a single strand run around the pasture. They don't seem to be the least bit interested in crossing it. In fact, Keegan accidentally unplugged it the other day and it was off for at least 24 hours. The pigs didn't even test the fence. I'm amazed! They really are smart.

My brother, who is staying on the property with us for a few weeks, and I have been working on getting the garden planted now that that half is cleared and tilled. So far we have broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, swiss chard, and kale planted. We have been covering all of the planted areas with newspaper and mulching with hay to try to stop the weeds before they start getting out of control again. Hopefully it will do better than the summer garden did. It has stopped raining and I have actually had to start watering the plants and plants-to-be daily because it is so hot and dry! What a change! The pig waterer is taking the use of my long hose, so I have been lugging buckets of water to the garden to water the seedlings and plants. Today I got a new Gorilla Cart, and boy did it make that job much easier! My wheel barrow has been worked hard and has been overdue for a replacement for a while. I love this cart so far. I hope it stands up to the test of time. I am rough on things. Real work gets done around here, and cheap flimsy tools don't last long. I really need to invest in another hose.

Luna, our new farm puppy, is so playful and sweet! She is so full of energy, but that isn't great when there are skittish chickens roaming around. She hasn't hurt any of them but she has been chasing them periodically. I bought a remote controlled shock collar for her. I know, I know... It seems so cruel. I have always hated the thought of those things. I even admit to stealing them off of dogs when I was a teenager and throwing them away... yes I was that pain in the butt animal and environmental activist that would have freed the frogs from the biology lab had they not started using computer programs instead of the real thing. But getting a few zaps seems much better than taking her back to the pound. She is a pitbull, which means that she doesn't have great odds of a happy ending. Also, it doesn't seem much different than using the electric fence. I tried it out today and it is amazing! First a zapped myself. I figure that if I'm going to inflict something on anyone I should know what it feels like. Funnily enough, the shock doesn't seem to bother her at all! The vibration setting is what gets her attention. No pain at all, just a little vibration to get her attention. She is already much less interested in the chickens, even when they run right past her. I'm so happy! I was really worried that she wouldn't work out and I couldn't bear having to take her back to that place!

Tucker, the 2 girls (juvenile turkeys), and the guineas are going to be transitioned to the big hoop coop soon. They are getting big and I think they are ready to have more room. The other small hoop coop of turkeys are doing great and they are getting big too. Both small hoop tractors have been being moved every day and I think that all of the fresh grass and bugs really do them good.

The chickens have been laying like crazy! Yesterday I got 13 eggs and today I got 16! I have 20 hens and 5 roos right now. I really need to get back down to 2 roosters soon because they are making the ladies' lives rough. Now that Brad isn't working (back to school) and selling eggs at the office, I've been trying to find every way imaginable to use eggs. A couple of nights ago a scrambled over 2 dozen with onions and peppers, wrapped them in tortillas, and froze them so my guys have something easy to heat up for breakfast. Thankfully, Keegan has gone through them fast so I can make more soon. I hate wasting eggs! The pigs love whatever we don't use, so I guess it isn't a waste. It may seem strange, but I think a basket full of my green, blue, brown, pink, tan, and white eggs is such a beautiful sight! It makes me smile every time I walk by the kitchen table and see them sitting there. Simple pleasures. Life is good. :)

Productive Days Make Me Happy

When I woke up yesterday to see it overcast, yet again, and checked the weather to see that we were completely surrounded by thunderstorms, I thought that this weekend would be a total wash. Yesterday was, but it was nice to enjoy a day inside with the family. Today I tried to make up for it and I got so much accomplished!

The guineas and 3 turkeys graduated to one of the hoop coop chicken tractors! They were so excited to get to explore the grass! I love introducing babies to grass for the first time. They huddle together for a minute or two, and then one or two venture out to see what all of that green stuff is. Then before you know it, they are all running and flapping all over. The real fun begins when one discovers that bugs live in that green stuff! Tucker didn't waste any time at all. He doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. He is so adorably aloof. The guineas chirped and "Chrrrrrr'd" away as they scratched around in the grass. I got their grown-up feeder and bucket water system cleaned and sterilized and put the tarp back on to give them some shade and shelter.

I also added a new roost. I've been needing to put one in for a while but I wasn't sure how to go about adding one that wouldn't make the coop difficult to move and wouldn't put weight on the wire, but would be sturdy enough to hold the birds once they start getting bigger. I suspended a tree branch from the "spine" of the coop with thick wire. It is a lot like a swing, except that it fits snugly to each side so that it doesn't move around very much. The babies seem to be enjoying it, although they still decided to sleep on the ground in a huddle. Maybe tomorrow.

One of the reasons that the guineas and older turkeys moved to the hoop tractor is because I have had 2 batches of turkeys hatch out in the last 2 weeks! One batch is about 12 days old and the other is 4 days old. I have only sold 3, and still have 13 left (9 older 4 younger). The older babies were getting pretty rambunctious and the indoor brooder just wasn't big enough to give them the wing-room that they felt they needed. They were flapping and jumping everywhere! They knocked the filament loose on 3 light bulbs in one day and insisted on perching on top of the waterer. The funnel I put on top of it merely slowed them down.
The little ones are now happily residing in the "Tank" and my living room seems so much bigger! And quieter! The littlest tid-bits aren't getting knocked about and can rest now.

While I was cleaning out feeders I decided to collect all of the adult chicken and turkey feeders, disassemble them, scrub them out, and sterilize them. It doesn't seem like much, but I feel accomplished. I just realized that some of the pieces come apart. Feed kept getting stuck under the middle piece and molding, which is bad enough, but they were so difficult to clean like that! I took the middle pieces out and threw them away.Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me in the butt, but I'm pretty happy with them! They are super easy to wipe out now and I feel so much better about them getting fresh quality feed! I left the middle part in the littles' feeder because they are small enough to climb right into it otherwise. Except for sweet Tucker who just steps over it with his giant crane legs.

My last accomplishment was to erect a new turkey tee-pee. Tallow has taken over the other tee-pee and is sitting on eggs. She is being such a good little momma to-be! When I called the turkeys to put them up this evening only the boys came. I found Tabby sitting in my Cosmos near the little garden, and Tawny in her normal nest. Both of them had around 6 eggs each. Heritage turkeys won't be full sized by the holidays at this point, and the spring baby-fever is over, so I have had a difficult time selling the babies I have. My problem is that I have some sort of strange inability to let turkey eggs go to waste. I don't like the consistency of the eggs, so I don't eat them. They are very thick. I need to girls to stop laying! I need to wash the incubator and put it up for the year. I put together a new tee-pee next to the inhabited one, and put all of the eggs I collected into it. Hopefully, one (or both) of the girls will decide to sit. I didn't get pictures because it was dark before I got done. I was working with my head-lamp (one of the handiest things EVER btw!).

It doesn't seem like a whole lot, and in reality, I guess it wasn't. But, I feel so much better after having worked all day doing things that really needed to get done. Better yet, knowing that what I accomplished had meaning. It wasn't just the usual mowing, clearing brush, or tending the garden. Don't get me wrong, those are all very important things. But everything I did today visibly made my animals happy, and I know will make them healthy. That makes me very happy! Maybe before I go to bed I will give the dogs baths too. That way I will have done something nice for all of my animals today. On second thought, I think they would be much more thankful for some left-over turkey and rice instead of their icky dog food.

I love productive days!

Introducing the New Homestead Babies!

I am always excited to get new babies! Having gotten the new chicken hens settled in to their new place in hen house with all of the big guys and gals, I have more time and space for little ones!

Sweet Tucker! He may have a face that only a mother
can love, but I love him bunches! Sweet sweet guy!
5 Weeks Old

First is the new trio of turkey-heads!

Sari (left) and Terra (right)
3 Weeks Old

Tucker is the oldest. He is a bourbon x slate cross, was hatched on June 6th, and was 1 of 20 hatched. Unfortunately he didn't develop quite right. His skull is a little lopsided and one of his eyes is small and I don't think he can see out of it. I'm not sure what happened during incubation to make him like this, but I'm pretty much positive that it isn't genetic. All of his hatch-mates were sold, but we decided to keep him. I have kept an eye on him to make sure he is growing well and isn't suffering or having problems. He was so lonely for about a week while he waited for another hatch, so he spent a lot of time riding around in my shirt. I'd stick him in the top of my tank top and he would lay his head down and fall right to sleep. When the next batch of turklettes hatched he showed them all how to eat and drink, and really enjoyed having snuggle buddies.

I couldn't leave tucker all alone so I kept 2 more babies out of the last hatch on the 18th. I'm hoping both are hens. Sari is a self blue like her daddy, Yellow. I have a strange sense of humor, so Sari means Yellow in Turkish, or so Google says. She is a calm sweet little baby. Terra is a Bourbon Red. She is loud and opinionated. She puffs up and calls when she is upset about something. She sounds like a little turkey hen already!

Our other new babies to be introduced are our new guineas!
I have been wanting guineas for a long time. I keep hearing how wonderful they are to have around for insect control, especially to keep the tick population down. I also want something that will alert me to anything out of the ordinary, such as hawks or snakes. Most snakes I am fine with. I like having them around to keep the mouse population in check. I don't feel quite as warm and fuzzy when it comes to the venomous ones. We just found the second Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake on our property in about a year and a half, and these are BIG snakes! Luckily they are not aggressive, but I'd rather not have them around. Hopefully the baby guineas will grow up to be good alarm systems.

They are supposed to be Pearl Guineas. Right now they are marked with different shades of brown and have feathers sticking out at awkward angles. They remind me of frizzle chickens! They make the most amazing noises. As silly as it sounds, they remind me of a Disney movie forest, filled with happy bird, bug, and frog sounds. They make all kinds of different noises and I could listen to them for hours. I got 12 babies, but sadly I lost 1. I'm not sure what happened to the poor little guy. The rest of them are doing wonderfully! They are so active even at this young of an age! They range in age from 2 weeks to 5 weeks, so are slightly different sizes. The ladies I bought them from said that they did that specifically because they were from separate, unrelated, flocks, so that I can mate them when they get older.

I have been told that baby turkeys start killing when they are 2 weeks old, so I shouldn't put the guineas in with them. The 3 turkeys seemed so lonely in the big outdoor brooder, though. And the guineas just didn't have as much room to run around as I thought they needed in the smaller indoor brooder, so I put them together outside in "The Tank". They all eat the same high protein game-bird starter so keeping them together isn't an issue on that front. I put in a large PVC corner joint, big enough for the little guineas to hide in but too small for the turkeys, to allow the guineas to escape if they needed to. I kept a close eye on them to make sure that the turkeys didn't bully them. Almost immediately, Tucker got excited to see new babies, and started showing them how to eat and drink. He is such a good big brother! Sari was a little stand-offish but warmed up to them quickly. Terra puffed up and paced around, yelping all the while. I think she must be Tabby's baby, because she acts just like her! Eventually she settled down, and now they are a great big happy family!

The new babies are settling in well. I'm looking forward to seeing them all grow up! The new hens in the hen house are fitting in well too, and I have even started getting some new, very small, green eggs! New additions are always so exciting! Our next addition is in the works and we will be announcing their arrival soon!