Dear computer, I have missed you.

Sweet-smelling honeysuckle blooming in the fence row

Since I've worked my fingers to the bone the last week or so, I thought I would reward myself with a relaxing day of my favorite cuppa and some computer time. Besides, it looks like it's going to be a cold rainy Wednesday so there is nothing outside for me to do.... *grin*
I thought I would write just a short post to say "howdy" and to show you some of the things that have been going on around here lately, then I'm off to catch up with my blog friends....

Remember a few weeks ago when Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird had 5 sweet little eggs in their nest?

This is what they have in their house now...

Daisy and Edie got their spring haircuts last week....

Here is a very short video of me shearing a years' worth of wool off sweet little Edie:

It wasn't all work last week; Hubby and I took Lily on a shopping trip to PetSmart, where we bought her a pretty pink collar and a spiffy personalized name tag.

(We won't talk about all the new toys she came home with...)

As you can tell by this next picture, she thinks she's hot stuff with her new accessories.

And finally, Happy 5th Birthday to Sarge and Big Bird!

Once upon a time we ordered chicks from McMurray Hatchery and they were 2 days old when we picked them up from the post office; that was on May 15th, 2006. Sarge and Big Bird are the last survivors of that batch. It's a pretty big deal around here to turn 5 if you're a chicken, because thanks to all the predators and varmints running around the life expectancy of our chickens is not very long. These two even lived through the raccoon attacks that killed Hamburger and several of our green-egger hens, but somehow managed to survive.

Even though neither of them lay eggs anymore, they still have a job to do around here as resident bug catchers, but most of their days are spent finding a sunny spot to take a leisurely dust bath.

I have a lot of catching up to do, so I'm off to visit my blog friends.

Happy Wednesday, everybody!

Farm Happenings Monday: Snow, sheep, and eggs

We had another visit from Old Man Winter on Saturday and lots more is on the way today- it's 5:00 a.m. and the snow is piling up fast. Hubby just left a few minutes ago- he has to go to work earlier than normal in bad weather. Lily and I are sitting by the woodstove enjoying the early morning quiet.... (well, I am- Lily is snoring again.) The only sounds I hear outside are my wind chimes singing softly in the cold wind and roosters crowing... I love it when all the roosters wake up and get started- it's like roll call: first one is always Beau, my biggest black silkie roo; then my little buddy, Cecil; then Buster, the splash silkie roo, and then last but not least, Whitey wakes his old bones up and eeks out some noises that sound nothing like a normal crow at first...but once he gets the frog out of his throat he really kicks it in high gear and crows for the rest of the morning.

I'm trying to keep a good fire going in the woodstove just in case we lose electricity... I have enough stacked up on the porch to last through today but if Hubby gets tied up at work (he works for the power company) I'll have to load my little trailer up with wood from the barn and bring it down the hill with the 4-wheeler. I'm so thankful I have this little gem to make light work of some otherwise tough tasks around the farm:

From the barn:

We seem to be doing pretty good on our hay supply right now... I've been trying to keep track of how many bales we've used so far and we're just about to the halfway point. I'm really happy we were able to put up on own hay this summer.... even though it was very hard work, it is really good hay full of nutrients and the sheep love it. It makes my heart happy to know my animals are well-fed and content.

The scoop from the coops:

It's official- the cold weather and short days have caused the Americauna girls to finally quit laying. Sarge and Big Bird, my two oldest green-eggers, haven't laid an egg since Thanksgiving and my four newbies: Goldie, Blackie, Shirley, and Chatty Cathy, who were all spring hatchlings, have also gradually slowed down and finally stopped altogether. Chatty Cathy is an interesting bird- I'll have to do an entire post on her sometime. I had a Chatty Cathy doll when I was a little girl, but Chatty the Bird talks circles around the doll. She will stand at my feet and go "rah rah rah rah" NON-STOP. The only thing that shuts her up for a little while is a handful of corn, and she gets that quite a bit.

Hmmm..... maybe she's smarter than I think she is....

 

Chatty Cathy, in one of the rare moments she isn't talking.

 

 

Farm Foto of the day:

Can you spot the sheep in this picture?

I think Edie is convinced the snow makes her invisible.

Happy Monday, everybody... hope you're staying warm today!

 

Bay-bee, its' cold outside.

Well, Edie doesn't seem to think it's very cold.... thanks to her thick wool sweater, she's convinced it's a warm sunny day in the Tropics.

Winter has officially arrived, bringing some veeery cold temperatures to our little corner of the world. With lows in the single digits and highs no where near above freezing, the only thing I accomplished this week was breaking the ice out of all the waterers every hour so the critters have something to drink. A nearly impossible task, seeing as how I wouldn't even finish making the rounds before they were frozen again... *sigh*

I'm so thankful for our little wood stove and some good dry firewood- we haven't needed the electric heat pump at all this week. It is really a blessing not only for saving on our electric bill and keeping the whole house nice and toasty, but also because it warms the hardwood floor around it.

(Ahhh... VERY nice...)

The cold temperatures have been hard on the chickens too... egg production has slowed down for the Rhode Island Red girls, and Sarge and the rest of the green eggers have stopped altogether. The shorter days also have something to do with it- less sunlight makes their little egg factories shut down. One of my Rhode Island Red hens has me a little concerned... she's been acting sickly and her comb is turning dark on the tips like it's  frostbitten. I put her in Intensive Care (the laundry room) for a couple of nights to make sure she stayed warm.

She also got fed very well, and I think she kind of liked the extra attention- she flew up on my arm this morning as if to say, "you ARE taking me inside again tonight, aren't you? Huh?"

Maybe I need to talk to Hubby about installing a heat pump inside the Chickie Chalet......

Or, maybe not.

Today is errand day for me so I'll be heading out soon...
They're calling for snow this weekend and I want to get an early start fighting the masses at the grocery store for that last jug of milk and loaf of bread on the shelf. *giggle*

 Happy Friday, everybody!! 

Drying out

 Smokey yawns after waking from a little nap in the sunshine.

After an unbelievable amount of rain over the past couple of days, I awoke this morning to light snow falling. This was the precipitation total from 5:00 p.m. Monday until today:

 In case you can't read our little rain gauge, it's sitting on 4 inches.

(Yes, FOUR.)

The chicken coops are a muddy mess and at one point there was a small river running along side the sheep lot. The barn also flooded, but thankfully the hay is still dry- Hubby stacked it all up on wood pallets just in case... *Whew* so glad he did. The sun is out at the moment; hopefully it will dry things up a little even though it's colder than gee-whiz now.

Even Edie, whose wool has gotten so thick she normally shuns the warmth of the sun, has been outside almost all day soaking up the blue skies.

Even with the rain yesterday it was still a productive day... two more batches of deer jerky are finished and I'm drying apples today.

I also worked on the Christmas decorations and although they aren't all up I'm nearly finished with the indoor decor.

Hubby and I have enjoyed hanging this huge wreath on our barn for the past few years....

But while we were discussing getting the wreath down from the loft this past weekend, we realized we had a problem- when we ran electricity to the barn last spring, Hubby hung this light right over the spot where the wreath hangs.

I think we've decided to re-locate the light to a tall pole next to the barn (we need to anyway because this light is very bright) then once we do that, the wreath can go up once again.

Problem solved. *Yay!*

Now if we can only do something about the rain doing such crazy things to Smokey's hair....

(not to mention what it does to mine...)

Happy Wednesday, everybody!

Monday morning

It's Monday morning, 6:10 a.m., and everybody is hungry..... want to help with my feeding chores?

Well, put on your muck boots and come along!

Smokey is waiting for us- he's already been running rabbits out of the garden.

Once we get up to the barn, the first stop is Daisy and Edie's. This is the view from inside their pen.....

I put out grain and hay and Edie goes to work, sampling both of them.

See the hay on the end of her nose? *chuckle*

Daisy's first order of business is to go outside. She'll eat after Edie samples everything. She loves to be the first one outside.

She looks like she's thinking, "So much grass, so little time..."

Smokey thinks he smells a rat.

Literally.

Next stop- the Big House where Hamburger and the girls are waiting patiently. (NOT!!)

I put out their feed and open the door... once everyone is out, I peek inside.

I never get tired of seeing this sight!

Smokey waits for the next stop.

Come on, Paula- hurry up!

The banty coop is next- I let the terrorist offspring (all 8 of them) and Liza Minelli out of their box...

Then the silkies......

Then last but not least, Whitey and Ruthie.

Good morning to you too, Whitey!

The banty coop is now a flurry of activity... crowing, fighting, squawking, fuzzy bottoms.... *sigh*... have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE fuzzy bottoms?

Next stop- Elvis and Priscilla. Who are also waiting patiently, as you can see.

Once E and P are fed, I glance up the hill toward the beehives and the garden-

I'll check them out when the grass dries up a little more. That will be on the afternoon schedule of things to do.

Time to head back to the house- everybody's had breakfast but me and Smokey.

After a quick check of my tomato plants, I put out some food for Smokey...

Then on into the house for my breakfast. It's now 7:00 a.m.....

I fix my cereal while an egg cooks in the skillet. After I eat, the next hour or so will be my time for morning devotions and check in on all my Blog friends... then it will be time to get on with the day.

Thanks for stopping by and helping- hope you have a wonderful day!

Seeing spots

Shearing Daisy and Edie, our sweet but very spoiled sheep, is always a challenge, to put it mildly. Daisy does okay for the first few minutes, then starts to squirm to let me know she's had enough. Edie just bawls like a baby and pees all over everything. (That's her nervous reaction to EVERYTHING.)
Every time we shear them, their wool underneath looks so different than we remembered... but I sure don't remember them having these many spots before!


I'm beginning to think Edie is part Appaloosa-




Daisy's spots are smaller- but you could still play connect the dots.

A few weeks ago I mentioned our barn was getting a much needed makeover so we could make better use of our space. This is what it used to look like-

Hubby put in lots of long hours on this trying to get it done as quickly as possible, but he also wanted to do a really neat job to make it look good, too.

I think he out-did himself on this project.....

I bring you-

the finished barn!

This is looking through the hallway from the back of the barn....

This is my new feed room...*squeal*.. everything is so neat and organized, I can't find anything anymore! LOL

And this is Daisy and Edie's new pen.

To show my appreciation for Hubby doing such a wonderful job on the barn, I cleaned up his tractor and plow for him.

Which is kind of crazy, since he's going to play in the dirt with it this weekend.....

The event Hubby looks forward to all year is coming up this Saturday in Crossville, TN- the annual antique tractor Plow day. Hubby isn't the only one looking forward to it... I love being a spectator and taking pictures of all the old tractors and the beautiful mule and horse teams as they plow up the ground. Plus, the scenery on the Cumberland Plateau is wonderful.

More bee updates coming soon- plus an update on those two broody banties who are trying to hatch out ONE EGG between the both of them.... until then, have a great weekend, everybody!!