Calamity Acres Hobby Farm

Back Again

2025-04-22T13:48:00.002-05:00

As I sit here this morning, I did not realize I had not blogged since January.

Oh, for the days when I blogged every single night after supper!

I just can't seem to do it anymore.

We have left the frigid conditions of January and February, and we are now at the end of April, when things are looking decidedly springlike.

There have been some surprises along the way, these last few months.

Bob's life hung in the balance for ten days.

On this day, I had actually taken him to be euthanized, as we had medicated and

given ivs all week to no avail. The doctor left the room... and the tech was kind enough to take what I thought were last pictures.

Within a few minutes, the doctor was back with the news that part of his bloodwork had come back early, and the culprit was revealed... feline micoplasmosis. As it happened, I already had a med at home that Coco had been on... I began it that day and within five days he was back to his normal self.

Whew.

All I can say is Bob, Bullseye and Wanda are expensive cats.

A year ago in March, my son borrowed a 20 foot trailer from his brother in law and hauled some fencing panels for me. The trailer sat at my house for a year, I mowed around it. It was pulled out on Thursday of last week. I am going to spread thickly.... pollinator flower seed in this space and water them in good!

I have had to start mowing, but NE Kansas is far behind in rain. We need some, and we may get some later today. I would love for it to come as steady rain and not tornados, please.

I thought this two year old Cochin hen was a goner, I kept finding her in odd places.

What has actually happened is that she has gone broody.

Oh, yes, I need to rake that hen house out and re-bed it.

This Wyandotte DID go broody... she is barely a year old... and hatched out two tiny

little chicks. I suspect they are the product of Rocky, my tiny mille fleur rooster, but we shall see.

We have had beautiful nights.

And beautiful, beautiful days.

I had to put the mother and babies in the brooder house with the four week old chicks (out of sight to the right). See how she has pushed straw into the water fountain? I have to go out there six times a day to make sure she has water, and .... woe betide the older chick who DARES to come near her babies. My plan was to raise those 17 new chicks in the brooder house, and she has wrecked my plans. I can't let her out... the chicks will be lost, I have never had luck with mamas raising their own.

I had a very bad fall on Friday. Nothing is broken, but I am very sore from it, and Chico and I have been spending time in the recliner under the heated blanket. It is getting too warm for that, let me tell you.

Guess what? The mama eagle must be on her nest somewhere, because the male is the only one visiting!

It's so hard to get a decent picture on a cloudy day.

You know I love wildlife but man... I feel like I am feeding all of Leavenworth County sometimes.

I pour a small pile out on the floor as I pick up the bowls in the evening.

I actually had to move the big bin holding the cat food into the big hen house... it's a pain to carry it back and forth... because I could NOT for the life of me keep the raccoons out of it.

That's Teeny the Meany, one of the three barn cats.

The warming lights are all off now, it's 77 out there today (April 22).

This beautiful dilute calico is Diamond Lil, named by Kitty Cat Connection, not me.

She came here six years ago, I have never touched her.

She came with Coco, who was called Coal at the time.

Lil lives in Troy's barn next door... but... she eats in the garage on my property. She has been greeting me every morning for a month or so now, so I take a two piece feeder and I give her wet food on one side, dry on the other, and then the big bowl of dry goes in there, too, you can see a pile from it, here.

A bowl of water is always in there. I start talking as I get close to the garage in the morning (I feed her first) and I hear her meowing to me as I get there.

Twenty years ago here, I planted tulips. There are a few that still come up. Every fall I tell myself to plant more... and every fall I forget or put it off. I enjoy the ones that lived!

I hope everyone is well and I am sorry it was so long in between posts... life should be getting easier for me but it is getting a little harder to get everything done here. I am hoping to stay here for a few more years.

Thanks for reading!

Things are Improving

2025-01-28T11:37:00.003-06:00

Well, after a morning at nine below zero last week, and multiple mornings under ten degrees... we are back in the Land of the Living here.

It was 24 this morning when I went out to do chores.

It's been a rough January, friends.

I lost my beautiful old boy Buddy, a week ago.

I knew he was failing... Tuesday, he struggled so, but was still eating.

I found him in a corner with a hen guarding him on Wednesday morning.

He stayed under the light most of Tuesday.

I reached to stroke him on Wednesday morning, and I believe I saw him take his last breath.

He was the best boy, had always been a great rooster and took good care of his flocks.

I set him in the brooder pen for a few minutes before taking him out.

I would have buried him, but the ground here is frozen still, and I put him in the pasture.

The next morning, I went out and got him... I could not bear to have him dragged off.

I disposed of his body another way.

Wanda has been sleeping in the big hen house all month. She has food and a water bowl in there, and had a litter box but I soon realized she was just GOING in the floor litter, so as soon as it is reliably warm, that whole house will be raked out and re-bedded. She is still sleeping in there... she was playing with Bob, last night, who was on the porch just outside the pophole.

This Wyandotte hen has been broody for three weeks... there are NO eggs under her. None.

I have thought about putting some eggs under her, but.... it has been too cold for one thing, and I do not need any more roosters, for another.

Because, you see.... I have had to separate the two Indio Gigante roosters now.

Big Bird and Little Bird were fighting... to the death. Little Bird, here, is about an inch shorter than his brother. He has a deformed leg, though, and walks with a hitch. When he was about 8 weeks old, a black snake encircled him and tried to kill him, but I caught it and pulled it off him. He has walked with a hitch ever since, but walks and can run lopsidedly.

I let him out of this pen yesterday, and he marched straight across the yard to fight with his brother through the fenceline.

He is back in the pen.

And.... he's enjoying the good life. He sleeps on the feed room side of the hen house, and has his own warming light.

You can see he likes it.

I carry him in and out, ditto, his feed and water.

Still trying to figure out a long term solution, because, you see, I like him a lot.

Rocket, the bantam Mille Fleur rooster, is the boss of the big hen house now that Buddy is gone.

I am waiting to see how he and Little Bird react to each other.

Buster, the Lavender Orpington rooster, is showing signs of the severe cold we have had.

His comb and wattles have become frostbitten.

Most of the snow has begun melting, but now we have The Mud.

I am still getting eggs.

I am giving away eggs right and left.

I have had two heated cat beds connected in the barn all winter.

I didn't think anything had ever used them.

I thought to put a camera out there the other day, and look what I caught.

It was not 35 degrees, either... it was under 20.

That heat lamp over the crate .... Mama the cat has laid under it on the top of the crate (Teeny is there in the picture) or in the straw in the crate for the last two months.

The barn has been livable, even through the bitter cold we had this month.

It came at a cost, my electric bill was over 400.00.

Oh, yes, after two weeks of bitter cold when no one came out... they're baaaacccckkkk.

I saw one of the biggest I had ever seen the other night on my porch.

I never, ever let Chico run out the door with his leash on at dusk.

I was looking back through old pictures the other day, and found this.

Those are the raised garden beds Keith built, and our hoop house, which he built in 2012.

You can see even the home built house made our pepper and tomato plants go crazy, and they were planted in wine barrels, buckets and bins with holes punched in them.

I had Ben take the rectangular beds out about four years ago, they were hard to mow in between, and hard to maintain, believe it or not.

However... I am going to garden again this year, after giving it up last year.

I miss it, and.... things are getting so expensive.

My neighbors Linda and Garry gifted me some green beans and peppers last year that were just wonderful... so... I am going to have a garden plot tilled and hope to gift others with garden produce.

I have my seeds ordered and bought already, and will get my seed starting setup operational here in another month.

It's 41 here right now, and to me, it's like a miracle. I have done so much slipping and sliding on ice in the last three weeks.

I am carrying my phone constantly in case I fall.

I saw in the long range forecast that we may get some snow next weekend.... but the LONG long range forecast is for dry conditions here, and friends, we need rain.

I am so grateful my well did not freeze up... and I have regular furnace and air conditioning maintenance and I had no problems during the cold snap... and Mid States Propane delivered on one of the coldest days of the year! I'm just grateful to have gotten through the cold blast in one piece.

Another picture from years ago... my beautiful Ranger boy laying at the front door with Winny and Windy the goats playing near him. What wonderful times those were, before Keith got so very sick.

I can look back on them and smile, though.

Happy little faces looking in the window.

It saddens me to think that those wonderful little goats are long gone... this was taken 12 years ago.

I have sure had a good life here, though... and it makes me glad to think back on all of it.

Stay warm and safe and healthy.

The Cold January

2025-01-19T14:24:00.003-06:00

Paths of ice through the snow. We had just enough melting for several days, and they refroze and about killed me.

This one, especially.

The badly-sited brooder house that I bought last year lays behind the old garage on the property... the original house was on this south end... and next to the barn, because it was cheapest to run the electricity from here. It is dangerous in bad weather... everything you are looking at is a layer of ice. I spread cat litter on it to try to get some grip. The back door (where the red bucket is sitting) froze in the worst of the storm last week, and I had to brace the door shut with a fence pole.

We'll come back to this.

My guardians have been coming daily.

Yesterday and today, though, in the bitter cold, they have stayed in their aerie, which I think is down on the treeline near Tonganoxie.

The starlings finally found my feeders on Saturday.

They have only been here in small numbers today. Oddly, I was kind of glad to see them so they could clean up the sunflower seed on the ground.

It is nine degrees out there right now, and the wind has been blowing all day. It's awful to be out.

My girls in the barn are getting through it, thank God.

That's Mama and Cleo.

Teeny still sleeps in the straw filled wood stove, even though

there are two heated cat houses in there.

I have a heated dog bowl for water.

This morning, for the first time, I lifted the water fount in the old henhouse, and the lid felt frozen onto it. Last winter I had fewer birds in there, and I have a deep dog bowl to use if I have to... but... they get so full of debris.

I have heater bases under all the metal founts.

We have two more days of this terrible cold to get through, then back to the thirties and forties.

I'm seeing lots of crows, too.

I would say about 60% of the snow has melted, but... now we are below freezing for another two days at least. At least I am not going through 16 inch drifts.

This happy little dog, Mr. Floofy Ears, aka Chico... has been here exactly one year today. He was brought here last year on a snowy day with cold temps.

He has been a blessing to me, even though we keep having to get up and go out at night here lately.

Bob is still here but wearing on my patience lately.

(you see the driveway has melted quite a bit)

My dear old rooster Buddy, in the background standing in the sun here,

put himself into the little hen house a week ago, and then stayed in there. He normally was king of the Big Hen House. He is having trouble walking and getting up the stairs, his feet are missing many toes. Buster, the younger rooster in the foreground, left him alone.

This morning, he was huddled under the warming light with a couple of older hens in back in the big hen house. I'm going to drop it down a few inches when I do evening chores.

Wanda was so glad to get out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but she was

glad to go back in last night. I think it may be Wednesday, maybe Tuesday, until it's warm enough for everyone to come out again.

They hate the snow.

These beautiful birds in the Brooder House, Igor the rooster and the two La Fleche hens, the two Putih Ayam Cemani (white) hens, and the two Bielefelder hens have gone to live with a friend from Fort Leavenworth.

Negotiating the frozen walkway between the garage and the hen house was increasingly hard, and I took my life in my hands every time I did it in the last two weeks. I carried my phone religiously, but if I had fallen it might have been hours before I was missed. I finally realized I was really taking too many chances, and I mentioned to my friend that I had some birds to rehome, and he was interested. He came Friday to pick them up, and I gave them to him gladly, knowing they would have a good home.

I miss them dreadfully, remember, I raised them from day old chicks... but it has been a blessing not to have to walk back there. Igor was one of the best roosters I have ever raised.

I have some plans for the brooder house, but for now, it sits empty, it's water empty, it's food dish removed, and the lights out... waiting for spring.

Everyone take care in this weather that is hitting our nation on all sides.

BRRRRR! The Polar Vortex has Returned!

2025-01-12T15:54:00.006-06:00

That was the view from my front door last Sunday, January 4.

The storm started the afternoon of January 3rd.

That was looking out towards the deck... I had tried to shovel a path, it was too soon.

At least fourteen inches settled on the deck... I did manage to open a path... and have used it all week.

I have paths through the yard, but oh, the drifts were HORRIBLE.

On Saturday and Sunday, during the worst parts of the blizzard, I went out to refill wild bird feeders and take care of my chickens at least six times each day. It was hard.

That is what my parking area looked like on Monday morning. As you see, Bullseye went out... looked at the deep snow, said "Ooops" and ran right back inside.

I managed to open up a tiny path and lo and behold... My neighbor Garry and his brother appeared in a Polaris with a blade! They scraped a good path down my very, very long drive and over to the old hen house, which made my chores on that side so easy (!) this week.

(What I forgot to tell you is that the car had no heat or defrost for a week, and the dealer could not get it in. I had a tarp across the windshield to keep it from icing too badly.

It was fixed on Friday in Tongie at the garage there, and I have HEAT again. )

Then Garry got out and shoveled enough snow that I could get to the car.

I am so grateful to them.

As of today, Sunday the 12th, the chickens have been in ten days. I did open the door to the covered yard of the brooder house today to see if they wanted to come out in the air...

the answer was... Uh, NO.

And...I found possum tracks in the covered area... I think it has been under the hen house. I may go out there this evening (at 4) and find it in the warm hen house with the chickens.

This is not to say I have not gotten eggs all week. The rockstar Rhode Island Reds and Indio Gigantes did me proud. There were actually nine for two days (all nine hens laying), one was in the closet.

I have given away nine dozen eggs in the last three days.

I am very, very disappointed in the Columbian Wyandottes, and would not raise them again, I get very few eggs from them.

Yes, I know it's winter.

I would gladly add more Rhodies and a few Marans.

Having said that, I have come to understand that I am not going to be able to use the

brooder house I bought last year another winter.

Shoot, I did not know we could not load videos from our phones anymore thru Blogger, or I would show you. I'll take some pictures out there when I do chores and you will see.

When I bought the house, I intended to put it near the water pump, and near the large and small hen houses on the west side of the yard. The cost to trench electricity from the barn came out at 4,000.00, and yes, you read that right. I said no. We ended up siting it just south of the garage, and next to the barn on its east side, to bring the electricity over. Be aware of this if you buy a pre-made, and it is not wired, and keep in mind your costs to connect to electricity.

There is about two feet of clearance between the garage and the brooder house. It drifted DEEPLY and I had to shovel it in frigid circumstances. The door froze and I had to shut it all week with a fencepost braced on the barn, until it thawed yesterday. There are six hens and a rooster in there, but... I am going to have to re-home them, I think. They are the hens who get out through the fence almost daily... and... this carrying water in bad weather (and carrying feed) has proven very hard for my seventy four year old bones.

So. Many. Memes.

We were indeed, closed, all highways were closed and it was terrible driving.

I was home five days straight, and finally got out for birdseed and feed.

My two youngest grands were out of school all week... they were supposed to go back on Friday, but there was freezing rain.

Precip again Thursday night. Yes, there were moments of beauty.

I'm over winter.

I have spent a fortune on wild bird food, and I'm not kidding.

I'm embarrassed to admit how much. I am trying to let them clean up some of the sunflower this afternoon.

Wanda is living in the big hen house for the time being. It is 34 out right now, and I would let her out... but I am afraid I could not get her back in.

Our weather is diving tonight, and we will be up and down all week.

If we could get a little bit of melting, I would consider letting some of the hens out, but... I don't think it will possible this week.

The two warming lights in the barn, along with the heater and heated water dish, have kept everyone in there (three cats) safe for the week, better than I expected, in fact. (That's Mama in the picture)

I have not been dumping cat food into the bin at night like I usually do, I figure anyone struggling in this weather deserves a meal.

(possums or raccoons)

NOT KIDDING.

And now... the pictures everyone was waiting for...

That is a bird bathing in my heated basin in the yard. BATHING.

It was about ten out at the time.

I managed to dig the basin out two days later.

I have another fortex of water out there I dump at night.

I have seen a LOT of these guys, a whole murder, in fact.

And these guys, who don't come in fair weather because the cats would get them.

Three have been coming and I bought peanuts for them especially.

It was sure beautiful, if you were not a little creature trying to survive.

So many cardinals, and I am not kidding. Probably seven pair out there one evening... they are always the last at the feeders so I put extra peanuts out for them.

I just stopped typing long enough to go put more peanuts outside and the squirrels came down out of the maple almost as soon as I did.

The joke is on me... I am watching one eating right now at the foot of the maple, and he is eating sunflower seed with a pile of peanuts next to him!

Beauties.

Stranger Creek valley to the east of me.

Finches trying to eat during the storm. They are on the balcony rail outside my window.

Even the eagles looked cold.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday, they must have been in their aerie.

Tuesday, they were back on the comm tower.

The wind was blowing their feathers.

Looking opposite directions.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

And... just so you know... Chico runs up and down the plowed driveway to do his business, dragging his 20 foot long leash and MAMA right behind him. He is not going to be eagle bait.

I was standing at my back door, which is in my bedroom, trying to take these pictures with the camera and heavy lens, and freezing to death... I did not get very good ones.

I love these majestic birds. They were here this morning, but a friend stopped to get eggs about 2:30, and they were gone. To see them in the air is to feel your heart in your throat.

My friend Kim, who lives here in Leavenworth County, and her husband Mark, raise cattle. They have had a week like me.

She posted this last night and I laughed my head off.

My feelings, exactly!

Stay safe out there, friends!

And those who are in California... my heart goes out to you and yours for your terrible losses.

I am joking about winter, but I am so very, very blessed, and I know it.

Another Year has Turned

2025-01-01T13:31:00.000-06:00

And all of the sudden, it's 2025!

Blogger tells me that I have done over 2000 posts from my little home here in Kansas, and I wish I still had the fortitude to blog daily.

My last post was just before Thanksgiving, and now Christmas and New Year's has come and gone.

Today we sit at 37 at 1:00 PM, but we are headed for single digits, starting Friday, I believe. I just went out to the shop (barn) and connected a heated water bowl... and now there are two warming cat beds (if they will use them) as well as the hanging chick brooder lamp over the Kuranda bed (used every day). The cat beds are on two by fours, so they are not resting on concrete. I bought a new heater last year, but it blew a circuit when I tried to use it, so I am depending on the Lasko heater I have used for three years now. It keeps it liveable in there, but I am really, really worried about the weekend.

There is Mama, who prefers dry food, and Cleo, who prefers wet... eating in the shop. Teeny was out of sight of this picture. She still sleeps in the old woodstove, and it is bedded with deep straw.

These two prefer the Kuranda bed under the light, but I saw Mama investigating one of the heated beds today, and I am hoping she uses it. That plastic dish is their water... it was empty this morning when I walked in, because raccoons and possums come in at night. I cleaned and filled it, but the heated bowl is now connected, out of sight to the left and rear of Mama. Yes, the doggone wildings will spill it too... in fact, I am thinking I need to move it closer to the drain, but if it is really, really bitter, they won't come out.

You can actually see behind this finch feeding on the railing that we had a smattering of snow in early December.

There was a beautiful full moon.

There are two cardinals in this picture, but I took it of the bittersweet growing in my front hedgerow.

This was in my memory on Facebook yesterday... our beautiful, beautiful Jester, ten years ago, December 31, 2014. How beautiful he was, how healthy and happy. I miss him terribly.

This is why Chico does not get to be loose, ever, unless I am right with him.

That's the communications tower right across from my gate, on the undeveloped 26 acres.

If I had won the big lottery, I would have bought it to keep it free.

The pair of bald eagles is there many, many days now. So far, they have ignored my chickens... but... once they take one, that will be it. They are so gorgeous I can almost forgive them.

I wish you could have heard this eagle screaming, it was really something.

I know you all think I'm sappy, but this comforts me.

I miss all of my babies, not just Jes.

I had so much fun visiting my Garnett (Ks) grands and my little great grand, Aurora, on the thirteenth.

Nathan, her dad, and my other grand, Chris, were full of Christmas spirit. I went down again the day after Christmas to see them with a few extra things for them. Aurora had a great Christmas!

Chris and me that day, my oldest grand.

Chico and I, taken by my grandson.

Mr. Floofy Ears will have been here a year on January 18.

You know that I rarely post pictures of my family or myself, but I just thought the end of the year was a good time.

I leave you all with this... and pray we are not facing hard times in the coming year...

Thank you, as always, for reading this humble blog, and I will try very hard to post more in the coming year. I have actually already ordered garden seeds... so it should be an interesting one!

A Sunny Sunday before the Weather Falls

2024-11-24T14:01:00.003-06:00

Today was like a breath of fresh air... it WAS a breath of fresh air!

Big Bird, Little Bird, and their nine girls got to come out of their hardpan pen with no grass left, into the nirvana of the pasture. One hen had been flying over the fence daily... I finally took mercy on all of them.

I had left their front door open several times so they could get out with all the other birds in the fenced area, but they never came out.

Big Bird kept an eye on everyone, and I checked frequently. I am aware there are eagles in the neighborhood.

This one was on the comm tower across from my driveway on Wednesday morning.

She was looking the other way, into the wild area.

For years, our big pen on the back of the old hen house had a gate to allow access into the pasture.

I opened it every morning when I did chores.

After Keith died, and I started keeping birds again, I started finding dead hens in the pasture.

Finally, one day, I saw a coyote waiting under a tree, watching the pen! I stopped letting them out, and had the yard fenced in two, and the birds began to free range in the fenced area.

Yes, I was a little worried this morning but because of the eagles, not coyotes.

I have kept an eye on them all afternoon, and I won't let them out unless I am home.

Mr. Floofy Ears has been under the weather again. He has a narrowed trachea, and he is having some breathing troubles. He has been prescribed meds, which I will pick up tomorrow. His collar is off permanently, and when he needs to be on the leash, it will be with a little harness. He is pretty happy curled up in my lap. That's a heated blanket, on top of it.

I have been getting some beautiful eggs... but I should be getting closer to thirty a day. I suspect some are hidden.

I am giving them away as fast as they are laid.

I know there are about a dozen out there now, but... I let everyone out very early today, around noon, and I suspect I'll pay for it.

Igor may not be as showy as Hekyll and Jekyll were, but he is a gorgeous, steady boy who takes good care of his little group of six hens.

This is one of the two La Fleche hens, they are beauties.

The two Putih Ayam Cemani hens are laying daily... they are never going to be friendly, but they are good little hens.

The Bielefelders are beautiful, but only one is laying, and they are both big girls.

Flopsy was sunbathing just now by one of the planters.

It is 65 out right now, on Sunday the 24th. This is our last good day for a while... it is all downwards from here. Lows will be in the twenties and teens by the end of the week, and "possible snow" keeps going in and out of the forecast. The plants that have been trying to grow again in this mild fall have begun giving up the ghost.

Here is Dave, our board president, and Judy, the stalwart Jill of all Trades of the National Agricultural Center, when we were decorating for Santa's Express that will be December 7th.

If you are local in the Kansas City area, it will be a lot of fun for kids to make crafts, see Santa, and ride a hay ride wagon down to the train (weather permitting, of course). Cocoa and cookies will be available, too.

Thanksgiving will be upon us in a few days... I hope everyone has a good holiday this year, however you choose to spend it.

A Lost Fall

2024-11-10T17:29:00.000-06:00

It's been a long, lost end of summer and start of fall here on Calamity Acres.

Beans and corn have been harvested all around me.

There was "smoke" over the fields, every which way I looked.

Every once in a while, the smoke would clear and you could see the man or woman driving the big machine.

Friends, your blogger has been sick for almost eight weeks with a bad stomach infection, that is now, thank heavens, gone.

I had a terrible reaction to the strong meds that had to fight the infection and had many sleepless nights and miserable days. My weight fell, and to make things worse... I was dehydrated one day and fell in the yard, landing on my left arm. The doctor was sure it was broken, but exrays told us it was not. I am doing therapy, trying to get it back to complete usefullness. In the meantime, I have had to ask my grandson for help off and on to get feed moved around. Even lifting it high enough to type was difficult, so I did not even turn the computer on for a while.

This really big raccoon has been wandering around here at night. Once I thought I was seeing a coyote in the dark!

So has this elderly possum, and several younger ones.

Our little "pet" raccoon, Rocky, has moved on. I went out to the big hen house one day, and he was eating cat food on the porch. I stood there talking to him when another raccoon of the same size walked out from under the porch! They went off together between the two hen houses, and I have never seen them again. Remember, there are 26 undeveloped acres across from me, and they were headed there.

We have had a weird fall. All the hollyhocks are coming up again.

So is this little sunflower, and many others.

We did get three inches of rain this week, which we sorely needed.

This truck was parked in front of me the other day. Patrick would get the vote of everyone in KC right now.

So would these two.

Little Bird, one of the two Indio Gigante roosters.

His brother, Big Bird.

During the first part of October, I bought a companion for Doug, my Silkie rooster who was a real favorite.

Sadly, I lost Doug three weeks later. I think it was upper respiratory.

Shadow was kept seperately until I realized he really wanted out of the pen with the others, and now I simply let him loose from the inside pen at night, and he takes care of himself, because oh yes, it was another cockerel.

Still not positive, but I believe so.

He is by far the smallest, even smaller than Rocket, the Mille Fleur rooster.

My road.

Thank heavens I can still live here.

The last weeks have been very hard.

For years, I have waited for this beautiful tree to turn orange in the fall.

My eastern fenceline is now overgrown with red juniper. I know my neighbors would let me clear it out... but... tree work is now very expensive. I'm going to have to win the lottery.

I took this last night... It was still beautiful but almost hidden from me.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, I could not have said that a few weeks ago.

I'll get caught up soon.

Fall is Truly Here

2024-09-26T15:35:00.002-05:00

Oh my goodness, your blogger is so glad fall is truly here.

The verges grow more brown and yellow by the day.

The light is changing almost daily.

My compost heap is blooming! The milo on the right hand side of the picture is beginning to mature and turn yellow and bronze.

That space in the middle is the chicken dust bath, and all those flowers were volunteers from dumped pots.

The poison ivy growing up the trees is turning bright red!

Since my last post, the buff Orpington I put in with Doug decided to vote with her wings, and flew out. Doug was all alone, and had actually stopped crowing. Last week, I went to Leavenworth and met a wonderful young woman who is breeding in her backyard. I bought a mixed pullet from her, and a young Silkie pullet, like Doug.

He is crowing again!

Ummmm we are having a problem with this guy, Rocky.

Rocky was a this-year's baby, and was weaned a month or so ago.

He has been eating cat food and chicken feed here.

He eats with the chickens and cats all around him on the deck of the big hen house, where he is here... but we know that will not go on long. He is maturing.

He comes on the porch, where he pays no attention when my son is out there, just eats the cat food.

Last week, I heard screaming from the big hen house in the evening. I went out there, and Rocky had made himself at home in a nest box. I shoo-ed him out the door.

Fifteen minutes later, I heard screaming again, and he had gone in the little henhouse next door to try to lay down in a nest box there.

I removed him.

This is him the other morning, he was waiting in the huge maple for me to come out and feed the cats and put all the bird seed out.

I have the big trap out, and am afraid I am going to have to catch and remove him... he will have to go out to the Leavenworth County Fishing Lake. The thing is, I know that catching him and removing him to a strange place will likely kill him.... but... I may not have an alternative, because it won't be long until he wants chicken dinner for himself.

I am in a quandary, because you know I cannot kill a living being.

Two weeks ago, I had the tree eaters here to trim the huge maple by my house. They told me they estimated it had probably four or so years to go, because the center is rotting.

This is the limb I initially called about, because I felt it was on its way down.

THEY LEFT IT.

The guy told me it would "heal itself".

This was the partial eclipse of the moon as seen from here last week.

At 1:30 in the morning two mornings ago, I got up to let one of the cats out

the back door.

This is what I saw:

That's all I've got for today!

Those of you in the hurricane's path, please take care of yourselves as best you can.

Almost Fall

2024-09-03T20:30:00.004-05:00

And.... it's been a month again!

Honestly, I THINK about posting, I just don't get to it!

Two weeks ago, I took a bunch of pictures!

I was trying to make a record of the birds I had bought this spring. (The ones that I am running myself ragged for).

This is Igor, the low man on the totem pole in the Brooder house, but I am keeping him over Hekyll and Jekyll, his two brothers who are better specimens BUT... Igor is steadier and takes great care of the six hens.

The breeder, Rare Treasures Hatchery in Oskaloosa, Kansas, was kind enough to take back the two Putih Ayam Cemani roosters. I took the two hens with me, but he did not want them... I brought them back and was glad to, because they were the first of the babies to lay.

Their eggs are small now, but will soon catch up, he showed me some full size eggs while I was there.

Hekyll and Jekyll, the other two LaFleche roosters, look better and more to standard, but I do not need ten extra roosters and honestly, they are making me crazy.

I planned on keeping Big Bird, the biggest Indio Gigante.

I was going to keep Little Bird, too, who was attacked by a snake at six weeks... the one I pulled the snake from. Little Bird has a difficult time walking, but CAN walk.

Big Bird attacked one of the pullets and wounded her badly, so... he is going to the auction.

So are these two, and a third who looks similar.

The breeder told me they will bring nearly 100.00 at auction... but I have asked a local friend's son to please just take them and keep any money he gets for them for the trouble.

He has to build cages, make sure they have food and water, and go check them in.

Little Bird.

The other night, Sam came over to check on the sheep and the pasture. He put electric fence up and divided the pasture in two, because they have overgrazed the north side again.

When he left, he forgot to close the big gate... that was partially my fault because I went in through the walk gate to talk to him and we walked out that way. At ten pm, I left the house to walk Chico on his leash in the yard one more time... to find the sheep in the driveway.

I made sure the latch was on the gate to the road, and left them. They put themselves away Monday morning.

I got a bag of sheep feed... just in case... and last night, let them in the yard again because they are eating the vines on the north and west fences, which is really helping me!

That feed got them back in lickity split this morning.

Yes, there is poop all over the driveway and in the yard, but... they are only here another week or so, and then will go home. I am enjoying watching them and I did not garden this year, so....

I will have to pressure wash the patio, I admit it.

I noticed last night they all bedded down under the light.

Last week the heat was terrible, in fact, a week ago today, the 27th, it was 100 degrees here.

It is 81 right now, and I have to admit that last week's heat nearly did me in. I was not as bothered by our hot spell in July, I don't know what the heck happened.

I am so glad we are back to more temperate temperatures.

I made this wonderful apple cake (apple pie filling cake) yesterday,

my gosh... I am going to make another for my friends at the commissary next week... it's easy and does not take long to make, and is so delicious. The recipe was on Facebook on Kristin's Friends, it was easy and excellent and I used two cans of the filling, in case you look it up.

It does not need any frosting, trust me!

The pullets are starting to lay, and I am getting eggs of all sizes and colors.

Oh yes, Mr. Floofy Ears is still here. I am just astounded how much I fell in love with this little guy.

I swore no more after I lost my beloved Jester.

Here's Wanda on the front porch of the big hen house the other night. I think she is going to live in there this winter, she does not want to come back inside the house, she has made that very plain. She is doing okay, and the vet asks after her every time I go to the office.

There's Rocket, Shuler and Lady on the front porch of the big hen house.

Lady is the oldest hen here now.

Shuler is not far behind her, and no, all the chickens do not have names.

That doggone Rocket has done GREAT since he lost his little mate and has begun to run with the big flock. I mean great.

That's Buster, the Lavender Orpington rooster, on the left. He has become a GREAT rooster, very steady and protective of his hens and the Wyandottes. However... he is in the little hen house, which was Doug's domain. He has begun battering little Doug, the silkie rooster, who is dear to my heart. I am now keeping Doug in a brooder pen at night in the big hen house, and he and Buffy, who was attacked by the Indio, are in a separate little house in the yard with a small enclosure, and are safe there. Buffy actually will wander with the rest, but Doug is staying in his new little house. I bring them in at night.

He was guarding her as she laid an egg when I checked on them an hour ago.

It is not ideal, but... he's safe.

I contacted the rescue where Archie is living last week, but have not heard from them yet. I will send a reminder to see if I can come visit him, and bring another donation.

I miss him, I admit it.

Something had to give around here.

Today is my beloved mother's 110th birthday. She has been gone sixteen years, and how I miss her still!

I know she would be glad I am so happy out here.

I notice that the verges of the road are beginning to turn brown and yellow.

Winter is coming.

Almost a Month

2024-08-05T14:01:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe I have done it again... almost a month since the last post!

Let's catch up.

I'm starting to get eggs from the new birds.

One of these beautiful little Wyandotte girls is laying now. I found four pullet eggs hidden behind a box in the big henhouse this morning.

Hallelujah!

I was getting only one egg every two days from the old girls, and have not been able to give away any eggs for a month or so.

Like Sammy, the Salmon Faverolle. I don't think she has laid in months.

I also had to move her and the last little red hen out of the old coop, the one with the Rhode Island Reds and the Indio Gigantes, the babies were just too hard on the old girls.

These are the birds from the old hen house, where I had the pen built this spring.

That bird in the forefront is Little Bird, only the Indios and a couple of others have names.

Big Bird and Little Bird look much the same, only Little Bird is an inch or so smaller. The snake attacked Little Bird, who does not walk right, but gets around okay.

Imagine my surprise when BOTH of these birds started crowing last week... I was sure they were pullets.

I now have FIVE Indio Gigante cockerels and two pullets. As these birds don't fight amongst themselves and there are six other pullets with them, I am not going to do anything about it right now.

This is what happens when you buy straight run, folks.

This is the problem pen, the Brooder House.

Those are two Bielefelder and one LaFleche pullets hiding in the covered pen because the roosters in there are HORRIBLE.

That's a LaFleche rooster behind them.

Yes, they are beauties... but... psychotic. Out of five LaFleche chicks, I got three cockerels and two pullets.

Out of four Putih Ayam Cemanis, I got two cockerels and two pullets.

I am not breeding friends, I was in this for the eggs and just wanted some exotics.

I love the little LaFleche pullets.

This pen is still too young to start laying.

Someone in the little hen house is laying. The Lavender Orps and the Cuckoo Marans are the same age, and I have to say something here. I got a rooster with the Orps... that is Buster, in the middle on the fence. He is shaping up to be the best rooster EVER.... he takes care of his girls well and is not combative with the other birds or me. I really like him.

Our first rooster when we moved here was a Buff Orpington, and we loved him.

Yes, Buddy is still here and still taking care of the big girls.

Doug the Silkie rooster is still in the little hen house.

We also have Sammy in there, and a red hen who lived in the old hen house.

And Flopsy, the red hen on the right in the picture above this, is back in there after defecting to Buddy for a while.

Rocket, the Mille Fleur rooster, is still with me... but ten days ago, I came home from doing errands one afternoon, and went out to check on everyone. In the pen (I made with exercise pens) in the big hen house yard, were Rocket, Mary, the little Mille Fleur hen, and the young four month old Cochin pullet with the deformed foot. As I walked into the yard, a Coopers Hawk flew up from the pen. It had killed and eaten both Mary and the pullet, and Rocket was in the dog house screaming (the dog house in the pen was for shelter). These birds were all carried in at night.

My heart broke, but that is life.

Both hens were beheaded and I carried what was left of them down to the pasture.

Rocket is now no longer kept in the pen... he is free to roam with everyone else, so he has a chance to hide with them, and I am happy to say he is getting along very well. He and Mary had always roosted in the big hen house anyway, I carried them in and out.

Mr. Floofy Ears comin' at ya!

I made a decision about Archie... and this hurt my heart, too.

He was the gentlest of goats.

He now lives at Shy 38 Farm Sanctuary at the other end of the county.

I hope to go see him this week.

We were not there long when another goat wandered up to say hello to him.

He was due to be neutered that week.

There is no cell phone coverage on my phone there, so I was texted directions, and I am going to follow those directions backwards to get back there.

I am so grateful to them for taking him in... with a donation, but still... I am just grateful that he will have a good home.

My little Wanda is still here and still healthy. We had such a battle last year keeping her in good health... she spent the winter inside and then went feral on me again.

She lets me pet her and play with her, but it would be hard to get her back in a carrier.

Lest you think I don't do ANYTHING but take care of the animals, I love progressive rock and Jon Anderson (from YES) was here last week with The Band Geeks, and the opening act was another favorite, Carl Palmer with ELP Legacy, and I was in the fourth row center. I had such a good time, and I am so glad I heard my favorite songs again... because Jon (and I) are getting on in years and you just never know. It was a magical night for me.

The Long, Hot Summer

2024-07-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

I bet there's a lot of people who won't get that title reference, but some will.

It's still hot, unseasonably so, but we are coming into the hottest time for Kansas summers. The next three days are supposed to be brutal, but... we can be so thankful that we have not had out of control fires or a hurricane hit us. I'll take the heat.

Red Winged Blackbird

I am sitting here at the kitchen table and looking out the window right now at a red-winged blackbird eating on the yard platform feeder. I just filled the finch feeders before starting this story.

This finch was waiting for the oriole to move its fanny so the finch could get at the oranges and jelly.

If you make that picture big, it looks like the finch is pretty perturbed... and... now that I look closely, that is probably a female Baltimore Oriole.

The peanuts I get by the big bag at Menards are pretty popular here.

Yep, the cardinals are still here, too.

I am so happy with the Columbian Wyandottes. They are the most vigorous chicks every, and run all around the yard all day long. They know how to put themselves to bed, finally, too. The big hens bully them... they have to wait for those hens to go to roost to be able to go in the door.

Big Bird, eating a treat. Gosh, I'm happy with the Indios, too. There are two cockerels and four pullets. Big Bird is a pullet.

On Wednesday morning, Isaiah, my yard helper, had returned from vacation and came over to weed eat. He helped me (okay, he did most of the work, pounding the poles in....) and I tie-wrapped the thing to the poles. I had some poly chicken wire in the barn, and I tie wrapped IT to the inside of the panels to keep the birds from going through. The doorway (at the other end) is made with an exercise pen.

I opened the big door of the brooder house, and it was hours before one bird ventured out. By yesterday morning, they could not WAIT to get out on the grass, they had only ever been in that enclosed pen connected to the building.

The temperature in this building has been going to 100 or 102 on hot days, and the birds stayed outside all day with water and food. Yesterday, it never got above 80 in there. My nephew came and looked at it, because a roofing company told me yesterday that they could not put a roof turbine on a metal building, it won't seal... a metal roofed building... but my nephew told me to buy a vent exhaust fan, and he will mount it to the side of the building to blow hot air out in bad weather. After yesterday, I may not need to do that... just the big door being open all day seemed to work. I did have two fans running.

Tomorrow will be the test, we are going to close in on 100 for two days.

These LaFleche cockerels are inside the building.

The barn cats know how to stay cool, too. That's Cleo.

Jurassic Park is being scooped out this afternoon when I finish this post. Then the tree eaters are coming to give me an estimate on removing a huge dead limb in the maple tree.

The stains on that wall are 20 years old, from starlings getting in there during winter.

Mr. Floofy Ears has been inside a lot lately, because it's so hot out.

We walk down the road in the evening, after the sun has begun to go down.

We will try it if it does not get too hot out during the day, but I have carried him in twice.

He doesn't act it, but he IS over 9 years old.

A sunflower that volunteered on the deck in one of the planters!

The maple tree behind it has the huge dead branch, and I am praying I don't lose the tree. The same tree service looked at it three years ago and thought it had some time left.

Wednesday night, I got together with about 20 of my high school (and five grade school!) classmates at a local eating establishment.

Not everyone is pictured here.

It was so good to see everyone, I had worked hard outside all day, showered, drove 25 miles to the place and was greeted by three of my cousins when I got there, so I had a good visit with them.

I was only able to stay about 90 minutes... I had to get the birds in... but oh gosh, what a wonderful time seeing all my old friends and catching up. We try to do it a few times a year... it has been 57 years since we graduated.

To save you from calculating that in your head... class of 1968.

My great grandson, Wyatt, on the Fourth.

I was here, cowering from the explosions that went on until midnight. I will have to say, though, that they were not too close, and the cats and dog did not seem that bothered.

Archie, whom I have become very attached to... is going to be going to a farm sanctuary in the next county on Sunday afternoon. Doodle, his friend on the left, will go back to her sheep herd.

I have come to the realization that I cannot do it all anymore at my age, and I am afraid carrying all that water in the winter is already going to get me. The Brooder house is far from the pumps, and don't think I have not considered selling the Putihs and the LaFleche, and then putting the Bielefelders and one cochin girl in one of the other houses... cleaning it out, and closing it up.

I will really miss Archie, he is the gentlest of billy goats, and I have enjoyed having him here. My time has passed, I think.

My beautiful boy for a short time.

I am the little pink blob sitting at the left rear :-)

If you are in the Houston area... I pray your lights are back on soon.

Everyone else, take care out in the hot summer weather.

Let me just go start raking that hen house.

June 16 - HOT

2024-06-17T18:09:00.000-05:00

Somehow, before it's officially summer... we have descended into the heat of.

We are still getting a respite at night, but the temps are only falling to the low seventies instead of the fifties of a few weeks ago. It's enough to give the animals time to recover from the heat of the day. I also run fans in all the hen houses.

These guys are going home today for a few weeks to give the pasture time to recover.

(She is rubbing herself under the little red hen house, the only one not in use).

In a way I'll be glad, because I have made myself crazy making sure there is water for everyone to drink here this last week. With two goats only, that load will lighten.

I'll miss them very much, though.

These naughty, naughty Wyandotte girls.

They are the very last to go in at night, because the oldest Cochin hen drives them out. I was completely out of patience with everyone last night, it was hot and I was REALLY tired, and I finally went out there and was ready to lock the hen up in a brooder pen, and they were all in but one. She soon went in, and everyone went up to roost. Whew.

Doug is a captive now, with the Lavender Orps and the Cuckoo Marans. I did lift him out the other day, and his spur accidentally caught my hand, and the darn sore is swollen. I am on penicillin from a sheep hoof scrape, so I am hoping it does the trick for the second. I am diabetic... the sheep scrape is 17 days old today and still not healed.

He is doing a really good job teaching this little group... and... in another week, like next Monday... I'll take the Ex pen down, and they will be free to go out in the yard with the others. They have only one hop into their house, not like the steps of the big hen house.

That ex pen is going to move out into the yard to be a shaded pen for Chico, his big pen is in the sun most of the day.

The dog pen to which the ex pen abuts is going to be moved over, too.

About half of the lavenders are frizzled, which I love. The cockerel is.

These are group four birds in their attached pen... Putih Ayam Cemanis, and LaFleche.

There are three LaFleche cockerels and only two pullets, darn it.

One of the two pullets. I swear they look like little ravens!

Cleo waited for me in the barn door as I brought her canned food out last night.

The others in there don't eat canned.

Mama is one of them.

She was the mother of the four kittens (spayed after they were adopted). I looked back through old pictures yesterday and those kittens are two years old this month.

What would a post be without my beautiful boy?

Doodle, the goat belonging to my sheep boarder friends, is going to stay when they go home today to keep Archie company.

I call this Indio girl Big Foot. She is the tallest of all the birds, even the Indio cockerel.

She will come up to me and look at me while I talk to her, as if she is listening to everything.

There is the cockerel on the right, and one of the other pullets.

Most of the milkweed has gone by, but this, in the fence, is still blooming. It smells so wonderful

The June candles from last week have also almost gone by... other wildflowers are about to bloom.

There is still some on the east side of the road.

And the glorious "ditch" lilies are blooming now, too.

This is the comm tower I can see from my bedroom windows.

It is in the undeveloped 26 acres across from me, where Chico went the day he disappeared. That land is for sale, but supposedly does not have enough water to support more than a house on it.

At some point it will go for development... I hope I am not here to see it, I like it wild.

Try to stay safe and cool, everyone.

Post Script, added at 6:07. I was working on this entry this morning and was overcome by nausea and fatigue. I knew I was dehydrated, but did not realize how badly. I was okay after drinking a lot of water and a short nap. It was a reminder that we all need to hydrate regularly, all day long in this heat.

The sheep did, indeed, get picked up, and Doodle stayed behind to be Archie's companion. She is NOT happy.

We will see what happens.

If she does not settle down, her owners will come get her and I'll get a young wether to keep him company. She had been with the sheep since a tiny doeling.

A Beautiful Sunday

2024-06-09T17:16:00.000-05:00

We have had a wonderful day here in NE Kansas, after two nights of rainstorms.

It was good to get a couple more inches of rain.

I am hoping haying can start, because I need to buy some hay for Archie.... who now has a companion who will be staying when her sheep friends go home... Doodle, who was here last year.

Her owners have agreed to leave her when the sheep get rotated out in another week, to give the pasture time to recover.

I made the mistake of talking to Archie as I came through from the yard into the chicken pen, so I could take some pictures. The entire flock came running to see what was up. That white sheep there is Fluffy, who lived here with me four years ago, and had Nugget, who is also still with this flock.

I couldn't get a good picture of Archie because he stepped into the shade.

He is looking so much better than a month ago. He will also touch noses with me now. I still can't handle him, the guys who are going to do shots and hooves will have to catch him, but I will have him in the barn (after the sheep go home). I can touch him, just not hold him. He does NOT threaten me with his horns.

Remember I thought I was buying six Buff Orpington pullets... and I actually got five Rhode Island Reds and a buff. Here is the pretty buff. They are from Batch one, the oldest chicks.

I went inside to take pictures, because the sheep scared everyone. Those are the Indios...

Another Indio... they are so tall and they have HUGE feet!

Of course, I did not get ONE foot picture, but my neighbor came over the other night and went "whoa!" when he saw them.

I have not heard an Indio crow, and they are the oldest chicks, nearly five months.

This guy is crowing! So are two others in the brooder house.

There are seven lavender Orpingtons, and they are moving tonight, they don't know it. I think the three Cuckoo Marans are going, too, because they will be fairly big chickens

Doug the silkie rooster and the two older hens in the little henhouse are going to get the surprise of their lives when they wake up tomorrow.

I put an exercise pen extension on the front of the dog pen I bought from a neighbor, and tonight after Doug and his two hens go in, I'll start moving the lavenders. Dusk is the best time. They will only have to stay in this pen for about two weeks, and then can be free, and I'll take the ex pen portion down.

I have a small rug I am going to put over the doorway opening so Doug can get in and out safely.

Or... something.

It took my beautiful Columbian Wyandottes about two weeks of being carried up and down the steps of the big hen house to figure everything out. I do wait every single night for them all to go in.. I think the big hens are bothering them... but they do eventually go in.

The mature chickens were really interested in what I was doing today.

When I finish here, I'll go out and do all the waters.

There are only ten mature birds, and one has waterbelly... a heart condition... and this is my second. They both came from a flock being dispersed by someone and neither was laying.

I have two birds who ARE laying.

Flopsy, this hen here in front of Buddy, is still laying.

A word about Buddy... I had Ferdinand, the big rooster who was Buddy's dad and Buddy looks just like him. Singleton, the white rooster, was also Ferdy's son, and dominant over both. I lost both Ferdie and Singie last year.

I honestly don't expect Buddy to make it through the year, he is seven... but he has done a wonderful job of taking care of his ever-changing harem for me over the years. He has spent his whole life here.

Here is one of the two Bielefelder pullets. They are such pretty girls.

Out of the four Putih Ayam Cemanis, I got two pullets and two cockerels.

He is crowing.

So is one of the LaFleche chicks... I just cannot get a good picture of him!

This umbilliferous daisy has grown wild in my fence line for two years. Seeds don't break off, a whole umbel does, so all you see here disperse in little umbrellas across the grass. They are beautiful.

This wildflower is in front of the little hen house but I could not cut it down. It cheers me up every day.

The "June candles" ... yucca... are blooming here now.

It grows along this end of the road.

198th "street"... still unpaved.

Here comes Bullseye across the deck.

And there's Bob.

These two have been fighting... a lot... Bob also has a very, very annoying habit of walking UNDER my feet as I walk across the yard, or running up behind me and running under me. I can't tell you how many times I have nearly gone over, and that could be bad for me. I haven't decided what to do yet.

Bullseye came here as a young feral kitten... Bob appeared out of nowhere as a neutered adult. I have vetted both.

I am thinking about what to do, it would make my life easier not to have to worry, but... I also recognize there are not enough homes for animals.

(Bullseye would be staying)

My red-eyed Chico has been under the weather today... I am hoping it's just the heat.

I have got to get a photo utility!

Everyone have a good week!

June 2nd

2024-06-02T20:39:00.000-05:00

Posting within a week... whoa!

I'm telling you once I figured out the pictures, I am just going to take them with the Canon and upload them and go from there, like the old days.

It makes me much pickier with photos, I don't upload them all anymore automatically.

Here is my boy Chico in his yard earlier... remember, he cannot run loose.

Chico and I take several walks a day, and he has several times he is out in his big yard. He is safe there and can't get out. I mowed it with the push mower today, since the boy who weed eats for me has not been over in several weeks.

I did a lot of push mowing, in fact.

If I find I can do what he was doing with the weed eater, I'll be doing it the rest of the summer and save the money.

Last summer, I had at least twenty containers on the patio with wildflower combinations in them. I had them all dumped at the end of the summer, they took so much water and I vowed to refill them and plant different combinations. The fact of the matter is that I have been so busy with the chicks and spending so much money on them, that I have not planted anything. It was good to see some escapees come up.

These are all escapees. I am ashamed to tell you I have not even planted the raised big planters.

Maybe next week.

Something had to give, and a close friend told me it is my body telling me it is time.

The seven Wyandotte chicks have integrated into the big hen house.

I have to wait until 8 every evening for them to all go in.

It's hard, but... it's happening.

This is one of the year old cochins, I raised three last summer as a fun project. They lay abysmally, but I knew that.

There are actually four... one is an eight year old hen, the last one from the Ag Hall flock.

Shuler is also one of the oldest hens now, she was the sole survivor of a dog attack at my friend Wilma and Wayne Shuler's four or five years ago. (hence the name).

Also a non-layer.

Sunbathing in the compost heap.

All non-layers except the red one whose head is missing, Flopsy. I know she laid today, but I have not gotten the egg yet.

The lavender Orpingtons are displaying frizzle feathers, I love it.

Do you see the white feathers all over the ground? I went out there an hour ago and found them... I caught a raccoon coming out of the garage earlier, and I suspect it was a nursing mother, being out in daylight like that. I wonder if she tried the fencing.

There were an awful lot of feathers.

You can see the "horns" growing on this LaFleche easily today.

The Lavender Orps are the next to move... they will go to the little hen house, where there are only two hens and Doug, the silkie rooster. I am SURE one of these is a cockerel, so I can't wait to see what happens. I bought a dog pen to put in front of it, and my son will come this week to help put it up. Then they will learn how to stay in their pen until I think they are ready to come out and free range, but know where they are going back to. Doug and the two hens will be perplexted but that is life. I think the Cuckoo Marans (on the left) are coming with them, too. That leaves only the LaFleche, the Putih Ayam Cemanis, and the two Bielefelders in the brooder house.

Putihs.

The Bielefelders.

This knothead got out of the pasture last night.

I had been at the Ag Hall, and came home and he did not run to my call, as he has been.

After a couple of hours, I really worried...and went into the pasture to check the fenceline. Once I had to cut a lamb out of it.

There he was, in the Spehars pasture on the north side.

I called my neighbor Troy who was home, thank God.

We got a piece of short fencing... the big cutters... some feed...

some zip ties.

In horrible humidity, we got him back over.

We had to lock the sheep up first and instead of throwing the feed into the corral, I held onto the bucket and they stampeded me and tore my leg up.

I was not feeling kindly.

The fence has a big piece of fencing that came from a garden trellis years ago (I don't throw stuff away) and Troy and I were dripping when the little stinker was back in.

He is not going to do that to me again, if he gets out, he will have to get himself back in or hit the road again. I guess if the sheep were not here, I could lock him in the corral with a friend, but... I don't know.

We will see what happens.

Here are some of my big babies, the Rhode Island Reds and Gigantes, enjoying their yard this afternoon.

I am losing my beautiful hollyhocks to mosaic fungus, and it's breaking my heart. They are all infected.

They were beautiful.

Let me stop here and go out and start pushing hens in. I like to have everyone in before eight, if possible.

Everyone have a good week!

Why I Have Not Posted

2024-05-27T15:35:00.000-05:00

This is going to make me sound ancient.

Friends, I have not posted because technology got the best of me. Last month, when I posted in mid-April, everything was as it had been in the past. I was able to import pictures from my phone and put them easily into the stories. Prior to that for three months, I would have to painstakingly send the pictures from my phone into email... then change them to JPEGS, (I never had to do that before) using a conversion utility, and to do one post would take me two hours.

Suddenly, last month, I sat down and was able to post normally. Then... a week later, I was back to the mess.

I gave up.

I finally realized that if I would just go out and take pictures as I used to ... with a camera, I could import them easier and use them on the blog. The picture utility I used the last six years or so, a Sony product, was discontinued in February, so it is not as easy as it used to be, but I can still do it.

So... bringing you up to date:

Here is my new goat, Archie, out cleaning the fenceline right now.

Yes, he has formidable horns.

Archie came here three weeks ago. He had been astray in Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties, going to people's doors and being run off. People kept posting him on Facebook, but no one was HELPING him. Finally, my good friend Tammy Potts called and said she knew where he was, and did I want to go get him?

HAHAHAHA. I took a dog lead. I have had goats, I don't know what I was thinking. I have a Buick Encore. I did not even put a dog crate in it.

We got to the people's house, and he was already gone, but the mother knew where he was... around the corner and up a hill a mile away, at the home of some people who kept longhorns. We got there, and the kind man and lady helped us for an hour to catch him, and frankly, the man did.

He hog tied him and put him in the back of my car, and Tammy and I prayed he would not die on the way home.

The sheep had just come the week before... but he survived the drive and slowly was accepted.

He was found on Archer Road, hence the name Archie.

I feed him right here in this corner of the pasture, next to the old hen house and near the yard where the Gigantes are kept. That's a lamb from the sheep flock snitching his hay. Remember, goats are browsers.

There is a goat with the sheep, Doodles, who was here last year. She does not appear to be interested in Archie, or he in her.

There are Doodles and some of the sheep watching me a few minutes ago, when I was taking these pictures.

The rest of the sheep are in the barn you can just barely see behind you, there are 24 sheep and Doodles.

I have a fan running in the hen house, and some of the Gigantes prefer to lay in front of the fan. Here are two on the ramp.

Here is one of the pullets outside just now. They are TALL. They have big feet!

One of the Rhode Island Red pullets... remember, I picked these out of a tub that said "Buff Orpingtons". I got four RIRs and ONE Buff Orp.

That one.

I had a 30 x 30 foot yard (more or less) put up by JP Welch Fence Company for these birds, where our first pen sat behind the old hen house. They did a great job for me, I wish I could afford to have them come back and do a pen adjacent to the brooder house. Maybe I'll win the lottery this summer....

Here is part of the "little flock" as I call them, in the brooder yard attached to their house.

This sits on the south side of my property, so you see my neighbor's cars behind it.

These are some of the smaller chicks, though the lavender Orpingtons will be moving out soon.

The black birds are LaFleche, and if you look at the bird in the middle, lower part... he is growing two little horns for his comb.

You can just see them there.

They look like little ravens.

I am so happy with the Orpington on the left, it appears to have some frizzle genes.

Here are two of the three Cuckoo Marans... Cuckoo is their coloring. They lay a very dark brown egg. (or will).

The Marans and the Orps in this brooder house will be moving to the little hen house in a week or ten days, I have a pen bought that will attach to the front of it, and they will get used to being in that house and then be allowed to free range, as the big chickens do. Right now, in that house, are only two hens and Doug, the Silkie rooster. There IS a cockerel with the Orpingtons... they were supposed to be pullets, but... things happen... so we will see what happens.

I want them to get a little bigger first, because a big snake is hunting over there. She can't find any eggs, I am lucky if I get one or two a day out of my mature hens, including the three Cochins I raised last summer for fun.

She can't swallow these chicks, but she could sure kill one if she wanted. I already rescued one Gigante from a snake... I would show you the picture if I could. Both snake and chick lived.

I had three Bielefelder chicks, but only two survived. I lost one at three weeks from pasty butt.

I bought these from a private breeder and had doubts when I got there. I'm glad the other two made it, they are good egg layers and pretty chickens. Those are La Fleche with the Bielefelder, they are all the same age.

They will stay in the brooder house as their permanent home, and I hope to build a pen alongside it so they have more room.

I have three fans running in there... it is the hottest little building you can imagine.

This is one of the Putih Ayam Cemanis. The Ayam Cemani is an all black bird from Indonesia, black skin, black comb, etc. etc... but the Putih is the white version of it. They look like little ghosts.

They are a stylish looking little bird.

The Putihs, the La Fleche, and the Bielefelders will all stay in the brooder house as their permanent home.

The seven Columbian Wyandottes moved over to the big hen house

three weeks ago. For almost two weeks, I carried them up and down the stairs... one by one... twice a day, putting them in with Rocket and Mary, the Mille Fleurs.

This pen runs across the back of the fully enclosed big hen yard.

After two weeks, the little girls began to fly up and over the ex pen walls of the smaller pen.

Two days ago, I said The Heck with This, and let them loose to go down into the yard.

They put themselves all to bed inside with the other birds.

However, last night, three were scared to go up the ramp (there are four steps or a ramp) and go in, and I literally waited an hour for the last to go in. I have not had to low crawl to get them yet, but I did have to go out frequently to check on them as dark was coming.

I took this picture a half hour ago, they were hiding from the sun where it was cool.

So were Shuler, Buddy, and one of the yellow hens across from them on the other side.

I decided, as I came out, to let everyone loose into the house side of the yard, and the older hens and Buddy are out there where I can see them, under the finch feeders. I have not let them out for a week.

I can see the front of the big hen house yard from here, and haven't seen any little ones come out, I really don't want them in this side yet.

They are the Group Two birds, the Gigantes/RIRs are Group One, and the Lavender Orps and Marans Group Three. They will move next in two weeks or so.

I am down to nine large hens, and of those, I am only getting one to two eggs a day.

I lost another hen yesterday, I have lost nine in about eight weeks. The one yesterday was fine on Saturday... she flew up to the roost for the night, and when I shut the door of the little hen house, she was on the roost and the other two in the rafters, and Doug in his nest box. Yesterday morning I found her dead directly under the roost, and it sure looked like a heart attack. She was in good flesh.

I talked to a pair of chicken friends and they both think heart attack, too.

Remember, all my big hens but the three Cochins from last year are aged birds.

Buddy is aged, too... so I guess it is lucky the little Orp rooster is coming along... and I suspect there is a cockerel with the Gigantes, too. I don't think the Gigantes and RIRs are going to run loose and free range... at least, that is not the plan right now. They have plenty of room in the fenced yard and their hen house.

Sammie the Salmon Faverolle is one of the big birds left.

This little guy, Chico, is still here, too. I was so lucky to get another dog that did not bother the chickens.

He has become a wonderful companion to me. He is over nine, but in pretty good health now that the bothersome teeth are gone.

The kitties are all still here, too.. here's Bullseye snoozing.

And Bob smelling the daffodils a month ago.

I am so blessed to have a view like this.

I hope everyone had a safe Memorial Day weekend... and the start of a good summer.

More than a Month

2024-04-16T12:33:00.000-05:00

More than a month has gone by since I was able to post. It is the busiest time of year, here, and the work never seems to stop. I have injured my leg, and am limping pretty much all the time... I see the doctor on the 23rd about it.

We also were dealing with spotty broadband service for six weeks, until we lost it entirely for a weekend and I put my foot down and called the company. They had a tech out here a day later who did a site survey, and lo and behold, when I called again in the morning... a service call materialized suddenly (they are usually days out) and someone came and worked on the apparatus and moved it to the peak of the roof and it is pointed in a new direction. In fact, I noticed this morning it is a completely different kind of receiver. Before the tech left, we reported (my son and I) that we could not get internet, and he climbed back up and replaced the radio in it, which we suspect was the problem all along.

I'm going to give a review of the new hen house. I had it wired by a local electrician and I am so glad I had plugs put on three walls. It is hot, hot, hot, and in fact, miserably so. I went in there Sunday to find my poor birds had literally drank two gallons of water and were suffering. There are two fans in there, the windows are open, and the pophole is able to be opened with a screen stapled across the INSIDE so no one can get out into the covered pen. You see, because it is on skids, it does not meet the ground. A friend donated wood to be attached to the bottom, but that has never happened, so yesterday, I pulled two expens I had bought from a friend down the road (dog exercise pens, like I made Chico's pen with) and put them around the enclosed pen, and I could tell nothing can get under them. Problem solved. I am stapling them TO the building today.

I know now... at least I suspect... why this building was returned from its rental... it's almost unliveable.

Right now, the oldest chicks... the Indio Gigantes and the Putih Ayam Cemanis and Columbian Wyandottes are in there, in two separate pens (again, using ex pens). The bigs cannot be with the littles, the first thing they did was attack them. All of the chicks are out of the tubs now, and there are two batches in the brooder pens in the big hen house and the old hen house.

Indio Gigante chicks look like little velociraptors, and their big feet make a lot of noise!

You can see how the building is divided. The big chicks get the roost. Remember, these birds will not live in here forever.

They stampeded into the corner because I was doing water. This is called "piling" and is not a good thing. Where you see the ex pen, the light hangs over... it is visible in the picture before this... so both groups can enjoy the heat from that far lamp. There is another lamp that I will use the next few nights, as we have gone from three days in the eighties to more seasonable temps and will go to the forties at night.

The only chick I lost... a Bielefelder pullet. I bought three from a young woman about twenty miles from here two week ago, and found this one dead on Sunday. They are beautiful little chicks. The other two that came with her had pasty butt... I suspect that is what got her. I got them all out of the last trough that day, checked them all, and am continuing to check them. I had only bought three, and frankly, they are the only chicks I have had a problem with the whole time.

I do a chick check about four times a day. Tomorrow, I am cleaning buildings at the Ag Hall, and will come home at noon to make sure everyone is okay.

The chicks in the new hen house will be dispersed to the old hen house, which has only three old hens in it.... but that building is due for a cleaning (Thursday) and re-bedding, and then my farm helper and I are going to build a new outdoor pen for them, where the original chicken pen used to sit. Once they are trained to that house, they will be allowed to free range. This pen will be temporary only, made with cattle panels and tee poles and zip ties.

They have to be big enough that this cannot get them.

Can you see it there on the left of the stone?

Three feet long, if an inch.

They can swallow chicks as big as the Indios above.

Lavender Orpingtons and Cuckoo Marans.

I need to clean their brooder today. I have to catch them one by one, but them in a cat carrier, and then clean the pen thoroughly. Chicks are VERY messy. The Marans lay a very, very dark brown egg.

Oh yes, Little Mr. Floofy Ears is still here. After his great escape, he is no longer allowed loose in the yard. He is on a leash (30 feet) with me walking in the yard, or in his 20 x 30 foot yard. Not ever taking a chance of his getting loose again. We went to the vet yesterday and he has lost a pound and two ounces, which is a little worrisome... he does not have a good appetite generally. He only has about four teeth left.

So, Sunday I got up to find this in the old hen house:

That is a dead hen at the foot of the brooder pen.

She had been trying to die for a week, but was not suffering. I have had a group of generic red hybrids that were way past laying age, and are pensioners. Some days I get two eggs, some days, six. (miracle).

She had not laid in several years. I had had one put down at the vet two weeks ago, they charge 84.00.

I decided to just let her go gently. I noticed she had quit going outside.

I am showing this for a reason.

The same day, I found this beautiful girl I bought from a friend dead in the big hen house.

She is a Mille Fleur D'Uccle, I bought two hens and a rooster from my friend Diane.

I believe she hurt herself a week ago fluttering out of my arms into her pen... she landed badly and was stunned... and then I noticed she was moving hesitantly. I was not surprised to find her.

I took the pair down to the pasture where my favorite birds, the vultures, could find them.

They were in the middle, where the grass was kind of short.

Yesterday, I was out in the yard working.

I have decided not to garden this year... that is the next post...

but I was cleaning up a planter.

I noticed a bird go overhead and I thought oh good, the vultures will get those birds.

Folks, the bird landed.

Oh, yes, friends, it's a bald eagle.

Never did we see them here until a few years ago, at least far from the river.

So, of course, I ran into the house to get the long lens.

And when I got back out, I noticed a bird overhead... it was the mate!

It was so cloudy, so they are a little hard to see.

They sat there for a good ten minutes. The chickens became aware of them and a scream was made and they ran as fast as they could for beneath the big hen house. All except Doug, the white Silkie rooster, who froze completely.

I was ready to put my camera down and get him, don't worry, he is one of my favorites.

One red hen had not run, and I think Doug was standing his ground. He would have been mincemeat.

Look at the beaks on those beautiful birds!

Anyway, forewarned is forewarned. We are keeping an eye out for them now, and especially being careful about Chico... another reason he cannot be on his own. Someone is out there with him when he is in the pen, at least sitting on the porch and watching him.

It hasn't been all work... last week, I went to see my great granddaughter Maci in her first school program.

Little brother Wyatt was there, too.

These two live 75 miles from me and I don't get to see them very often, in fact, Black Friday was the last time I had seen them. I was so glad to spend a little time with them.

I am pretty tied down to the place until the chicks are a little older.

In my head, I have them divided up among the three hen houses already, and yes, there IS a chance that some will stay in the new building, but instead, I see that as a bantam building for the Mille Fleurs.

I'm not breeding, just keeping them for fun.

They have to get big enough that the snakes can't get them, first.

Now that we are connected with the world again, I'll be able to post more often. You don't realize how much we depend on the internet until we don't have it, in this day and age.

As always, thanks for reading!

Update on the Birds

2024-03-10T17:35:00.001-05:00

Well well. I went out just now to get pictures of the chicks, and guess what? Dead batteries!

Bad me!

We are at 64 and sunny today, and there is more news to talk about.

On Wednesday, this was delivered:

Yes, friends, it's a new chicken coop!

It's pre-fab, made at D and M Mini Barns in Garnett, Kansas.

It was used, and I stopped at their lot when I took grandson Chris to the doctor two weeks ago, and took a look. I signed to buy a 6 x 8 building, also used, but went back the next day when I took Chris home, and got the bigger building.

It is waiting for electricity to be brought to it from the barn. I hope to have it in this week, and then the chicks will move into it and grow out.

It has a coop space attached to the front, but there is a problem there, and I have time to fix it.

Because it is on skids, the front enclosed part does not reach the ground, and we know what a problem that would be with possums and raccoons and skunks. So.... I will be closing that off with hardware cloth this week, and probably put some landscape timbers around the three sides. The reason we had to place it there is that the original place I wanted to put it... over by the big henhouse and the little hen house.... the cost of trenching electric from the barn to this house was estimated at 5,000.00. My budget did not allow for that.

The electrician looked at several places, and we decided on this.... he will run a pipe from the box in the barn just behind this coop, and put an overhead light with two receptacles with two plugs each. I will be able to have light, and to run a warming light in winter, a fan in summer, and a heated water, if I need to. I hope to have the Buff Orpingtons in the big henhouse when they are old enough.

I will get better pictures of it this week.

This little guy about tore our hearts out on Monday. I was outside cleaning the inside of the car out, on a beautiful day. Chico was with me...until he was not. He literally disappeared. I stopped what I was doing and began calling, because he absolutely loves this yard and would run all over it.

The problem is, he only weighs eight pounds and three times, squeezed through and went into the pasture.

Well... he did not come back. My son got the binoculars and walked up the road towards the highway, looking into our neighbor's pasture. I went up into the wild 26 acres across from my place... there is a comm tower there but the access drive has deteriorated and I had to stop the car and walk in. I called and called and called, thought I heard barking once... called some more.

I posted him in Basehor Lost and Found and Tonganoxie Lost and Found, called my friend in rescue, she called KC Dog Trappers. My neighbors were all out checking their buildings and pastures, and I checked and then checked again the cistern in my pasture.

After four hours, the dog trapper got here after work and set up cameras and bait, and my friend the Bonner Springs Animal Control Officer came as soon as she got off work to help.

We all feared he had been picked up by a hawk or eagle.

About three, Kendra looked at her phone and said someone had reported him crossing the four lane highway that is two tenths of a mile from the house.

My heart was breaking. When the trapper left, at almost dark, Kendra and I decided to go up to the wild area one more time. We called and called, and Kendra, who was in front of me, turned around to say something and then said "Turn slowly" There was Chico coming towards me. He got scared of Kendra and turned and ran again... but I called him and he stopped and then slowly came to me. Remember, I have only had him since mid-January.

Here is the stupid thing. I had vetted him, as far as bloodwork, heartworm, removed 14 teeth, etc. but had not chipped or neutered him yet because let's face it, I am not made of money. He had no colllar on because it was a little too large for him and I had taken it off Sunday because we were always outside with him.

We reported him found, and at dark, we went to the Bonner Springs animal shelter where Kendra went in and got the microchip kit which belongs to Bonner Animal Rescue, from whom I have adopted two dogs in the past. He was chipped in my kitchen.

Tomorrow morning, at nine plus years old, he is going to Northland Animal Welfare Services to be neutered. We don't know that he smelled a female in heat, but, we are not ever taking a chance again.

He now, as of Tuesday, has a 20 x 30 foot yard to be at large in, and he does not like being confined, let me tell you. The Dog Trappers gifted me a thirty foot lead, so I am taking him for walks in the pasture so he has an illusion of adventure, but he will not be able to run again. Yesterday afternoon, he tried to go through the front fenceline (across from the wild area) with the lead on, and I gently pulled him back.

A few months ago, I noticed that I was no longer able to "go to my phone" on Blogger, as I had in the past, and pick photos to be uploaded from Google. Now, there is a long way it must be done, and it is very time consuming. What it has meant is that I struggle to get the pictures I am posting and it takes twice as long. The photo utility I used for years, a Sony product, has stopped being available, so that takes longer as well. On top of all this, the computer squad I used to teach me here at home once a year or so has now closed, so... there's that. I'm still trying to learn new tricks and will figure it out.

I planted these daffodils when we moved in in 2005. I can't believe a few are still coming up.

These are blooming down by "Oscar's Tree" in the north end of the yard, someone long before I planted them.

This is the male Harris Sparrow, outside my window (and someone correct me if I am wrong). I have not seen any here before.

You can just barely see the exercise pens we made Chico's Yard with... it is attached to the fence that separates the north and south ends of the yard. We drove four tee posts into the ground to strengthen it, they are attached with zip ties. He does not like being confined but I am going to say something mean... that's tough. I can't go through that worry again.

There is a better look at the henhouse on the trailer as he came in.

The eleven chicks are now together in a brooder pen in the old henhouse, still under heat as we are having cool nights. We did get to 65 today, and the rest of the week should be in the 70's.

On Tuesday, I am going back out to Rare Treasures Hatchery in Oskaloosa (Kansas) and getting some chicks that have been hatched on Thursday... they are Putih Ayam Cemani, the white sport of the all black Ayam Cemani. I am getting close to the maximum number of birds I want to keep, so this will be close to the end of my purchases.

The electrician is hoping to be here by the end of the week to run the electricity to the new pen, and as soon as he does, I'll move the older eleven chicks over there and let them grow out inside it. I have a trough set up in the old hen house for the new chicks coming on Tuesday.

I took a picture of the brooder, but of course, the computer is not letting me share it with you, sometimes my camera pictures save as .heic... this is something new... and doesn't want to convert to jpgs without me paying for the service.

I did take a couple with Nikon but I'll be darned if I can find them now.

ARGGHHH.

I'll post pictures (I hope) of the new chicks in a few days, and please say a prayer for Chico's surgeon tomorrow.

And It's Thirty Days to Spring!

2024-02-18T16:17:00.001-06:00

Where do the days go? I pledge to post more often, but it just does not happen.

By evening, I am done. I admit it.

Changes here in the last month:

Here's the big one! After ten months without a dog, I adopted a nine year old chihuahua, whose parents had to go into nursing care. He's a pistol, believe me!

He is an eight pound wonder! He spends quality time on my lap, and after two weeks, learned he could jump from the loveseat in my room onto my bed, and now is sleeping with me every night. He does NOT like for the poor cats to cuddle closely, and does not like for them to be in my lap when he is there.

He only has six teeth left.

We are having a hard day today, as his stomach is upset.

His name is Chico.

Our big game day treat. Last week, you know, was the Super Bowl. I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and now live in Leavenworth County (Kansas). Yes, it's a big deal here and so much fun to see all the hoopla before the game.

Sadly, it ended badly on Wednesday with a terrible shooting.

It's time to get the guns off the streets.

Sammie

This is Sammie, my Salmon Faverolle hen.

She has gone broody. She should be hatching by Wednesday, unless I am off a few days. She is safely in a brooder pen and there she will stay for a few weeks with her babies. Then she will rejoin the flock and the babies will be under light for a few weeks. I am in the process of getting the little red hen house doors fixed so that all the chicks coming can grow out in its confines and be safe. (from predators). Sammie had six eggs under her originally, but the last time I checked (as she squawked in indignation) she had two. I think the other four were gathered up into her wings.

I have a sick bird in the other brooder pen, but I checked on her a bit ago and she seems better, she may go back with her group tomorrow. Then I'll set that pen up, too, to brood new chicks.

On Thursday, a good friend took me out to Oskaloosa, about 25 miles from here.

I had run into a man at the feed store the day before, and he had a very unusual chicken with him, on a leash, on his shoulder!

I don't have permission to use his picture... but the following day, I went out to his farm and saw all of his unusual chickens. I had already decided to let Sammie brood, and to buy ten replacement layers at the feed store. Now I have ordered four of these above... Indio Gigante! Those are birds in his pen, and believe me, they get TALL and long legged! I wanted to see if I had pens secure enough to enclose them until they integrated with the flock... and I do. That rooster (above left) is not as tall as they can be, but I just like the look of them, and they lay abundant eggs, too. I am not a breeder, I'll leave that to someone else... but I do like unusual chickens. He has another breed in which I am interested, but I will wait and see a few months before trying that one.

A friend drinking out of the warm water bowl on the porch the other night.

That's a big possum.

I suspect the possum was at the back of the shop, because both Mama and Cleo were watching it.

This week, on Valentines Day, parade day, it was 67 degrees.

The following morning it was COLD.

On Friday, we had snow. It snowed all morning, and it was frigid out,

but the snow stopped by noon and is almost gone now.

I took this picture through the window of a Harris Sparrow, eating on the deck rail.

And a crow, eating on the farthest feeder:

There were lots of finches eating... I am pretty lavish with the mealworms and sunflower hearts.

I am so grateful the snow was not long-lasting!

Bob

Coco

Molly

Bullseye

Wanda

Yes, the cats still live here, too!

Here we come for one of many, many walks outside!

He loves living in the country!

Welcome, Little Chico.

Everyone Lived

2024-01-15T11:03:00.003-06:00

Everyone Lived.

Those of you out in the country know those words mean a lot.

We were down to eight below the last two nights here in NE Kansas, and it is only minus 2 right now, as I start this blog post at 10:15 AM.

It is miserable. My poor cats in the shop are miserable, two were under the hanging brooder lamp this morning, and the Lasko heater from last year is barely making a difference. I bought a new Lasko heater a month ago, hooked it up one night and 24 hours later, it blew the circuit and I am afraid to use it. I need to have an electrician come, but it was just before Christmas and.... money.

I did buy a new heated dog water bowl when I went out and discovered the dog bowl from last year had frozen in the old hen house. The cats are using a low basin that I used to use outside for the wildings.... and yes, friends, there IS still one outside for them and I just watched scores of birds using it, so I'll have to refill it shortly.

So there have been HUNDREDS of memes over our snowy weekend here, and I am the first to tell you that the four inches we got was nothing compared to what they have gotten in many other places.... but.... the cold... brrrrrr.

In the middle of all that, I had two lovely little fosters, Bella and Franny.

Franny, the blonde on the left, and Bella, the darker girl on the right, had lost their mama, sadly. They were lovely little girls, but Bella far more infirm than Franny. Franny did NOT like the cats. The cats were terrified of two pound Franny.

They have gone on to a wonderful rescue in this area. I may get Bella back as a hospice rescue, we will see.

Of course, they were here on the coldest days of the year.

The shop camera caught me looking down one day... and I can tell it is not from the weekend, because I am wearing a white covid mask that covers my entire lower face and keeps me warm! I don't care how I look as long as I am warm! Warmth is the name of the game.

This girl is gravid, and I hope she does not have her babies in this weather, they will surely die.

She was not alone.

I have only seen one raccoon all weekend, and there was food left out on purpose the last three nights, and it is still there. There is also a pile of food in the garage that has not been eaten. Possums and Raccoons tend to den up in the bitter cold.

There is a heated dog bowl on the front porch, a heated bowl in the shop, and a heated bowl in the yard.... oh, and one under the porch of the big hen house, and I am putting food out there, too.

I need to put my boots on shortly and go out and replenish water and feed again in a few minutes.

Just prior to the really cold snap, I caught a picture two nights in a row of a possum in Bob's heated house on the porch. Bob is in the house, and he and Bullseye are not happy, but they are NOT going to stay out in this cold.

We have been doing a lot of this (Bob).

A blue jay.

Not one, but two Cooper's Hawks, way at the bottom of my pasture, looking down on the Spehar's ponds.

That was a water bowl I brought in from the barn yesterday.... Coco is modeling. The cats out there have a heated basin now, and they are doing ... okay... in the cold.

I'm seeing a LOT of these guys (crows).

And hundreds and hundreds of these flying overhead. The bean fields are all under snow, I am not sure where they are eating.

I love them and I worry about them.

Right now, I estimate there are two to three hundred little birds out in my yard, eating, and I need to go replenish here shortly.

The Coopers are beautiful.

This was the ONE day it was not blowing or snowing last week, and I let the birds out . They have been in ever since. Buddy, the last big rooster, is suffering in this cold, his comb looks like it will fall off. I hung a second brooder lamp in his house yesterday and I found him directly under it this morning, it is closer to the ground than the first. I was so glad to see him under it.

That is before the heavier snow... yes, it's beautiful,

but so hard on animal and human and bird.

Say a prayer that THIS human does not slip and fall and break anything, because it will mean the end of my dream here!

Everyone be careful and be safe.

Beginning Another Year

2024-01-01T14:04:00.000-06:00

The holidays are over again, and it seems fitting that we start another year on a Monday.

It is sunny with some clouds here in NE Kansas, and the wind is blowing my flag from the south at the moment, though our days of temperate temps are gone for a while. We are in a period of cold, but not like the cold and snow our friends on the east coast have seen. In fact, one year at Christmas we had nine inches of snow... that was hard on man and beast.

I was stunned to see I had not blogged since October, and I hope to do better this coming year.

How did I ever find time to do it daily in the past?

2023 was hard for me here, and I am going to write about why. I have not written about it... on purpose, because my heart was broken... and I was having trouble going on.

On April 4th, little Zoey begain to have trouble breathing one day. I had adopted her from Bonner Animal Rescue in November, 2021.

This was two days prior.

She had had a chest infection in March, and had taken medicine for it, and had had several visits to the vet. That week, she had a follow up, and I was told her chest was fine. I asked if they should xray again, and the vet assured me her chest was clear.

Two days later, she struggled to breathe. As it went on during the day, I began to get more and more alarmed, and I ended up taking her to the 24 hour ER. They took her right back and put her in the oxygen chamber, and told me to go home they would call in the morning.

The phone call I got at 9 AM was to tell me she had died.

They told me the doctor had reached in to get her to give her a lasix shot and she had fallen over dead.

I was so stunned, I cried out, and I got myself together and drove over there and spent time in the family room holding her. I could not believe it.

My sweet little girl.

She had embraced being a farm dog to the fullest, she did chores with me everyday.

Her groomer posted this for her. Yes, she cleaned up pretty good thanks to Brooke.

On May 5th, we had to make the decision for big Buddy to cross the Rainbow Bridge.

He was only here for nine months as a foster, but oh, my, how he stole my heart.

Majestic.

Officer Kendra from Bonner Springs (Kansas), the ACO, escorted us down to the vet, and stayed with us to the end. He was having increasing trouble getting down the three steps to the yard... and we were afraid he would collapse out in the yard at some point.

He had a wonderful last nine months.

That left this guy.

My Jester, my heart. Remember, I had lost Snowy and Fritzi before I got Zoey, and Jester accepted them all. He was good to everyone, even big Buddy. We had had four pugs, but had never had a Boston until my son asked us if we would like to have him in 2014, they had taken in a Boston and an English Bulldog puppy, and it was too much for them.

We had dog sat for them and we liked Jester a lot.

More importantly, Lilly Ann liked Jester.

One of my favorite pictures of our water baby, Lilly.

My babies.

On May 25, at 5:00 in the morning, Jester, who had never barked in the nine years I had him... he was eleven years old... began to scream and bark. The screams were almost like human screams. He frantically ran from the living room, into the shower stall behind the curtain, all the while screaming. My son ran out of his bedroom, and was afraid to touch him, and I was shaking... I hurriedly dressed and in the dark, caught Jester and carried him to the car, and set out for the ER which is thirty miles away.

The unearthly screaming stopped in the car, but he was panting terribly.

I got him in the door and they took him right back, for once, the waiting room was empty.

I stayed for a while, but they told me it might be hours, and I was pretty shaken.

I drove the thirty miles home.

I had phone call after phone call with increasingly bad news.

He had Cushings. He had a huge tumor wrapped around his spleen (they suspected it had started to come apart)... he had growths on kidney and liver....

Fritzi had had Cushings, their life span is very short, and it takes a terrible toll on them.

There was not one encouraging thing in the doctor's reports.

I made a decision to let him cross the bridge... and it was horrifying.

The young doctor had a condition which did not let her empathize, and the procedure was done in a terrible way, with no time between sedative and final shot. It broke my heart completely, my boy in my lap, literally.

The ER offered a pet loss psychologist, and I saw her over the summer because I literally felt like I was coming apart. Nothing had ever affected me that way, not even Keith's death because I had been able to prepare for it and we had talked about it over and over.

Jester was my last link to Keith, pet-wise.

It was crushing.

I have had dogs almost my whole life, and I have none now. I just can't go through it again, I can't. I try... I know there are so many in shelters that need homes... I am donating, because I can't trust myself not to go off the deep end with another loss.

I didn't tell anyone for weeks. I didn't tell members of my family for months... I couldn't. A few trusted friends.

At Christmas, I got cards addressed to Jes, Buddy and Zoey, and I just had to grit my teeth.

Anyway.... they are gone.

The year otherwise was pretty good.

My little great granddaughter, Maci, and great grandson, Wyatt, had a great Christmas.

I had them here on Black Friday because I know they have a huge round of family at Christmas.

The cats have pretty much taken over around here.... In descending order, that's Bullseye, Wanda, on my bed, Bob, Coco is in the seat of the chair, she is so black you can hardly see her on the coverlet. Molly is on the back of the big couch. Wanda was vetted for a cut on her neck, and has become an inside cat, along with Coco. The other three still go out.

Mama, Teeny, and Cleo are still out in the shop, and thriving. They have a heater and a warming light.

We have not had frigid temps yet.

Teeny still sleeps in the wood burning stove, she has a deep bed of straw in it.

Everyone has their current shots except Cleo, and she is going to have to be a drop off, I think, because it will depend on when I can get her into a carrier.

Oh, yes, we still have plenty of these. Mama Raccoon taught her babies how to come in and out of the barn to check for treats. I pour out a small amount of dry cat food when I close up at night, and if it is warm, I leave the door cracked. They also still come in and out through the "cat hole" in the wall.

That's Bullseye out in the shop overnight on the Kuranda bed, and you see there is a big possum right behind him.... I love them, they are so helpful and eat ticks, etc.. They can carry a horse disease (if they have it) but there are no equines here now.

They are gentle creatures with short lifespans.

I feed the finches on the deck rail outside my window only when the cats are in.

I love to watch them.

This Cooper's Hawk has taken up a nest in my pasture, and he often sits on the fenceposts. He is a beauty!

So far, he has not gone for a chicken.

Speaking of the chickens,

I am down to sixteen now. I started last year with four roosters, I have two and I don't expect the larger of the two to be around for long, he is six and showing signs of being tuckered out.

Doug the Silkie rooster is still going strong.

The trees in the wild area across from my place turned bright red in the fall, it lasted almost ten days and was glorious.

And yes, the sheep came back, and when the big flock went home... I had Snickers the Jersey Heifer, Doodles the goat, and an ancient sheep I called Grandma as boarders for the next month, and I really enjoyed them.

My beautiful rooster Singleton left us suddenly in October; I went out to his house and found him gone one morning. I lost his dad earlier, and his brother, Buddy, has now moved into his house.

I hope to do better at blogging this year... 2024.... it sounds so strange to say it.

I do enjoy reading other's blogs, still, and I miss staying in touch this way.

I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful year, full of all the things you are hoping for.

Jester Boy Yoder, 2012 to May 25, 2023

Back to High School

2023-10-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

I used to blog daily! That was actually while I was still working and taking care of a lot more animals than 24 chickens and eight cats!

It seems I am busier now than then, and I apologize for the long gap.

This was my yard at the beginning of the week. Dreadfully dry.

This was our temp on Monday.

This is today, right now.

We have had over 3 inches of rain, and it has been raining steadily all afternoon.

This was, unfortunately, the day of the Jack O'Lantern Jamboree at the

National Agricultural Center. The grounds were decorated, but a decision was made to bring it inside the barn at noon... and I am sure the train did not operate, as it cannot run in rain.

I feel sorry for all the kids looking forward to it. The volunteers were all there

and the businesses offering candy, and I hope a few at least got to have fun.

I just got word that many families did show up and had a good time, despite the steady rain all afternoon!

Sorry for the graphic photo. This is Wanda, my little girl that lives in the big hen house.

Wanda was injured about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and you can see here the top of the tear.

The stitches (purple string) are now out, and the hole is almost closed. We went to the vet every other day for two and a half weeks and she has been living in our office (smallest bedroom) since the start of the treatment. She is doing amazingly well!

The hole was treated with a poultice of sugar, honey and silver, because there was not enough skin to pull together over it. It looks clean today and is healing fast.

I'll try to get a picture tomorrow of how it looks now. She is in for another few weeks, and is welcome to be an inside cat if she wants.

There are still some baby raccoons out there.

And, some giant ones!

I turned the warming light on over the Kuranda bed two weeks ago, and Cleo loves to sleep on it.

This month marked the seventh anniversary of Keith's death.

I cannot believe it has been that long.

My friends Snickers and Doodles went home a week ago tomorrow.

Along with Snowball... at fourteen, I don't know if she will be back next year.

I really miss them already, but am also glad not to be carrying water in buckets, since I have dropped my hoses.

This is Sammy, the Salmon Faverolle, and Reddy, the red production chicken,

neither of whom lay.

I have a lot of pensioners here.

Someone contacted me today... I don't know how he got my number two years later... he must have kept it... I rescued two chickens from him TWO years ago... he wanted to know if I could take ten roosters from his parents, they had bought chicks at a feed store and ended up with ten roosters.

I respectfully declined and told him I hoped they could find someone.

I am down to two roosters, and holding there.

Buddy has taken over his brother Singleton's flock, and spends most nights in the old hen house now.

Every once in a while, I find him back in his own big hen house. There are two very old hens in there, and I don't know if they will make it through the cold this year.

Two weeks ago, I celebrated my 55th high school reunion.

Yes, folks, my 55th!

That's your blogger in the middle of the group... these are 1964 graduates of

St. Peter's Cathedral Grade School, now called Resurrection School.

There were 8 of us there and there were two more expected, who were unable to come.

Please excuse my crazy short hair, and it was a sight that day!

I had on my Ringo Starr tee shirt because my childhood friend Debbie, who

you can see in the middle of the two ladies to my right (left in the picture) is a huge Ringo fan and could not go to the concert.

About 52 classmates showed up, and we visited and ate barbecue and generally had a great time.

I think we are all past trying to impress each other.

We had lost seventeen classmates since the 50th...

we met in our school cafeteria.

I can't tell you how good it was to see my old friends and have a good face to face visit.

(each grade school had their pictures taken together... some had only one or two representatives, as time is really taking its toll on us).

We've become our grandmas.

Somewhere in this computer, I have some lovely photos taken on my big cameras. I can't find them.

The program I have used for years is no longer active, and I have to save them willy nilly, and I am losing the darn locations.

I'll try to do better next time!

Happy Halloween!

This is from a wonderful yard in Garnett, Kansas, that decorates every year for Halloween. My grandson Chris and I went to the Mennonite store on Tuesday, and came around to the side to take some pictures.

If it had not been raining, we would have gotten out.

You see on the tree the yard is all lit up for the display at night.

Truly remarkable!

P.S.

My hair looks SO STUPID in that picture :-)

Fall is Almost Here

2023-09-15T11:35:00.004-05:00

The summer flowers have still been going strong...

But the fact is, things are starting to fade now. I have already pulled the
amaranthus out of the two planters it was in.

I won't plant it again, I had planted it in the ground years ago, but I did not like how it looked in it's planters over the summer

I absolutely loved the wildflower mixes I planted this year, but they were extremely water-hungry, and I could not keep up with dead heading the many zinnias. As much as I loved the unusual wildflowers in the mixes, I won't plant these next year.

My well has to pump up after I use a lot of water, and I had to pace myself all summer in our hot weather.

I'm going for something much easier to take care of next summer.

The hanging baskets I made still look really good on the shaded edge of the porch roof.

They smell good, too.

My one tomato plant, a cherry, is still bearing, and that blue flower is an example of the wildflowers in one of the mixes. I really enjoyed them.

The grass is dying already, and I have not had to cut often these last two weeks. I am going to get the mower out today to do along the road and a couple of other spots, but really... we have had so little rain it has not been necessary.

My friends in the big sheep flock went home three weeks ago, and three

individuals came over to stay with me for a while...

Snickers the Jersey heifer, Doodles the goat, whose mama Apple was here for two summers...

and Snowball, one of the first sheep my friends who board here owned.

I have so enjoyed watching these three, I told their owner I was in love with them and they had to stay forever!

Seeing their faces at the fence makes my day brighter!

We have had some losses here, too, including one very sad one, yesterday.

I took this picture one day last week, when I randomly walked around with my camera one evening. I had let the chickens over on the "house side" of the yard... and I found Singleton out by the deck as I came out.

Singleton was the boss rooster. He was one of two sons of brown Ferdinand, who died over the summer. Singie was the only chick in his clutch to hatch, and his mama raised him for a few weeks way back six years ago, thus his name, Singleton. He bossed his daddy around unmercifully... and his brother Buddy and the smaller rooster, Doug, the Silkie.

On Wednesday, I heard him crow oddly... and turned around and teased him for it.

That morning, when I let them out, I heard him give a barking cough, twice, and I turned quickly to see who had done it, because it is an indication of respiratory infection.

I told him he had better not get sick on me. He took wonderful care of his hens, and I could trust him to get them in safely every single night. Indeed, Wednesday night they were all in at seven, waiting for me to lock up.

I found him gone in the brooder pen yesterday morning. I was stunned.

The ground is like iron here, or he would have been buried.

I could not get a shovel into it out in the garden to dig a hole, and my oldest son was out of town this weekend.

I had to put him in the pasture, where I put other offerings for the coyotes.

It broke my heart; of all, he should have been buried here.

The day before, I had lost my last Ameracauna hen,

she had been fading over the course of a week... not going outside.... not able to stand for long. She was not in pain, just fading. (no coughing)

She was on the floor, gone, when I walked in on Wednesday.

I feel like this girl will be the next. She is very old, already eight... she is the last of the Brown Leghorns, and laid a wonderful huge white egg for years. She is the first one in every evening, and is not roosting anymore, though she does fly up to the next boxes in the big hen house and make herself comfortable in a nest for the night.

It saddens me to see my birds grow old. I only get a few eggs daily now... though I do have the three pullets from this year to come on in the spring. Cochins are not prolific layers, though.

They are still being carried in and out daily, though they are almost full grown... because I am afraid for them to go under the big hen house and then have to struggle to get them out.
It has to come sometime, I know that.

I am wondering if maybe it is time to move them over to the old hen house which is on level ground, and introduce them to the girls there.

(Singleton's old house).

There's Bob... cause of my rabies shot series that I just finished.

I am not dead, so he must not have had it.

He is going to get rabies and distemper shots in the next few weeks, so I don't ever have to worry again.

The trees are already turning, and poison ivy growing in them has turned bright red.

Fall is here.

Even More Heat

2023-08-22T11:46:00.003-05:00

Heat has become the new normal here in Kansas lately.

The sheep came back just in time for the heat. They are grazing in the early morning and the late evening, and at night.

They have been doing okay in the heat of the day, and believe me, it's been hot. It got to 100 yesterday, with a "feels like" of 124.

I try to keep their pools filled with clean, cold water... and the swimming pool that is their drinking backup is in the shade, and the area all around it is kept wet and cool... about six of them lay there in the shade every afternoon.

So far, the chickens have survived, but egg production has gone down to two or three a day.

I did lose one bird in the hot spell three weeks ago... but so far, no more.

I check them frequently during the day. About 5, I put frozen bottles in their fountains with fresh water, but frankly... today it will be six before I do that, because I am leaving them out later. I'm letting them choose when to go back in the hot hen houses.

Mamita was enjoying the fan and the cool floor in the shop.

Mama was the mother (now neutered) of the kitten litter that was born here. They are all in rescue now.

She never got bigger than a teenage kitten herself.

I don't even shut the shop door at night, they have to have some air flow, along with their fan.

That is NOT a cat on the porch of the big hen house!

The same camera caught this picture I was so glad to see. That's Diamond Lil from Kitty Cat Connection, she is truly the most feral of any cat that was let loose here.

She will not let anyone come near her, and I honestly thought she had disappeared, I had not seen her in so long. She was out of luck... I take the food up at night... so I am hoping she is eating in the garage during the day, when I don't see her.

She is a dilute calico.

Here is Bob looking in the window at me. He wants to come in and be on my lap.

Bob is still half feral... he and Coco cannot be together, she hates him.

What happens is one must go to my room and be locked up, while the other is in.

Last night, Bob was in my room and ... still playing roughly... bit me hard, breaking the skin on the back of my left hand. I'll be watching it for a few days to make sure I don't have a problem there.

He was ushered out with a bowl of food onto the back deck, and did not come back in until early this morning. He is our right now, under the deck where it is cool.

Every year, I like to grow something a little different.

This year, I grew wildflower mixes in the various planters I have.

I have some opinions about them after the summer has passed.

They have been WAY too water-dependent... and the zinnias, frankly, while always some of my favorite flowers... have been a pain to deadhead. Notice I took this from far away! I need to spend 30 minutes deadheading later today, that's how bad it is.

All those spent flowers get carted to the compost heap.

I used to save all the seeds, I no longer do.

I saved balsam seeds for years, and my porch planter balsam is half the size of the balsam in the planters that I planted this year.

That's balsam on the patio, and the deck balsam is about half that size.

I do love that there are tiny wildflowers in the mixes. I love them.

And I am seeing butterflies.

The bed of sunflowers I envisioned did not happen. I had about eight come up, that's it. That lovely orange one was in the middle and is just blooming.

I am going to find a different place to plant them next year.

The problem with sunflowers has always been that their root balls take up so much room.

Another example of a wildflower in one of the mixes.

The only tomato I grew this year was this red grape, and it has been very prolific.

I have huge, fat milkweed pods this year!

That's my sage bed, taken on one of the rainy days we had.

There's little Pip on the front porch of the big hen house.... Sunday morning, she squatted down when she came out, and kind of sat there for a minute. I looked when she moved and she had stopped, laid an egg, and then went on down the steps!

Everyone try to get through the heat-rain-smoke as best you can... fall is coming!

Days of Rain

2023-08-13T17:56:00.000-05:00

Last week, I posted about the fact we had been sweltering through a hot summer, as so many of you are this year.

This week, we suffered again, but... we have had 3 inches of rain since Thursday! Two, today, from a storm early this morning and then another this afternoon. We have a storm warning for tonight, too. I am supposed to have a construction company here this week to start doing some work on the house, so I am not sure what this means, but I am so glad to have the extra rain.

This happened in a storm three weeks ago. Ben tried to get it down, but no tugging would do it. If you look on the left, you will see one branch is totally dead, but two are still hanging secure. One has dropped down almost to the ground now, and I am mowing around it, and yes, I am careful. I am hoping if we do get the additional storm tonight, there will be some movement while no one is under it to get hurt.

Look who came back this week! (Yes, that's the ram in the foreground... impressive!)

Nugget, who was formerly mine, was born here and she is heavy with lamb.

It is so good to look out in the morning and see them all grazing.

The length of time they will be here now will depend on the grass... but this rain surely helped.

They made quick work of the weeds in the pen.

I have let the chickens over on the "house side" of the yard several times this week.

I looked out to see Singleton, the most dominant rooster, on the porch one afternoon.

Singie was the lone chick that hatched under his mama.

He is five this year, and more dominant than his brother, Buddy, the other big rooster.

I looked out one morning to see Bob staring up at the feeder.

There was a squirrel perched up there eating, not knowing how close Bob was.

(or maybe knowing full well!)

Bob was actually standing on his hind feet stretched out against the pole, but got down when he caught movement in the window where I was.

I finally went out and called Bob, and the squirrel ran off.

It's bad enough that I'm always running out to rescue birds from Bully.

Here was one out here today, while the cats were all inside sleeping.

Don't look now, friends, but the next holiday is upon us!

I walked into the commissary at Fort Leavenworth this week to see them setting up the Halloween displays.

I actually am going to confess that I went to Sam's for cat food today, and

looked at all the Halloween creatures that lit up and talked, but did not buy anything. I DID, however, buy the first two Christmas toys for the little ones for this year. I am limiting the three great-grands to three each, and buying them early, as my hard rule is NO CHARGING GIFTS. I have followed this rule for years with great success.

I have one for each of the first two.

I had just unwrapped this rocker I got at Tractor Supply when I took this picture.

I have wanted a rocker on the porch for so long... and the wood ones were always expensive.

This was reasonable, on sale... it is just a tad too high for me, but is comfortable and I rock Bob in it.

I found him asleep in it today.

There are mama and the three babies on the front porch of the big hen house the other night.

And here they are scavenging in the barn. When the weather is so hot,

I leave the door open for the two cats that live in there. They have a fan, too.

I leave a tiny pile out for the cats when I take the food up at night, you see the raccoons are eating it. Mama does not let the littles have any if she wants it, that one on the right is begging her.

A friend of mine with a large farm told me her electric bill was 690.00 this week, she has fans running in all her buildings, two fans dedicated to old horses, fans in her chicken houses, etc. I am planning on mine being between 4 and 500 dollars, because the fans have run almost non-stop, plus the air in the house. I do have it cycling off and on, though, and try to keep it high enough to be comfortable but low enough to be tolerable.

Here is my little Wanda crossing the porch at night... of "her" hen house. One morning of rain this week was chilly, and I found her curled up in a nest box for the first time. The next three days were awful, though, and I think she goes under the little hen house to escape.

She will sleep inside the big hen house this winter, as she did last winter.

Her eyes are looking a little rheumy again, so a trip to the vets may be in her near future.

Here I am, caught by the camera on the porch of the hen house, doing what I feel like I did all week long... mowing... I got almost the whole yard done before the rain today. I swear to you that I mowed last Saturday and Sunday, and by Wednesday it was like a hay field again!

I didn't get that cat food in quite early enough!

That's Bob. This is a miracle.

That's Coco, also a miracle... who HATES BOB.

These two could not care less.

Oh yes, he is the King!

(see little Wanda behind him?)

The Drama!

Have a good week, friends. I know so many of you are coping with fires and floods, and terrible, terrible weather. I pray for all of you, daily.

It's Been a Hot Summer

2023-08-06T11:17:00.002-05:00

And I guess the title is true for most of our country, this year.

It's been hot here in Kansas, too.

Fans running in all the henhouses, and a fan running in the barn for Mama and Teenie.

Bullseye was taking a lazy way of watching the birds one morning... and actually, he does this many mornings! I'll look out there and see all four paws in the air.

I looked out the window to see Wanda here one morning, and I watched as she calmly walked all over the roof, and then jumped down and walked along the top board on the fence.

Cleo lived in the barn with Mama and Teenie for the last two years. Either Teenie, who has a notorious temper, or Bob, the (former) Porch Cat, now laying on my kitchen table as I type this... has run her out.

She eats at the fence daily, and sneaks into the yard to eat dry food in the garage. She is so beautiful, and my heart is breaking for her. She sleeps under Troy's shed or under the implements.

I am hoping we can get the whole situation rectified before cold sets in.

This week, Troy and Kathy gifted me with this:

Friends, I no longer can anything, so I passed most of this along to the Manus family, whose sheep come here. Ben, the middle brother, has been my stalwart helper doing heavy yard work for the last three years. He left yesterday for college in Arizona for his sophomore year, and it's likely he will do summer studies next year and won't come home. I am hoping his younger brother Isaiah will be able to help me. I have been so grateful to have Ben's help for these last few years.

Those tiny tomatoes had the best taste ever... and I saved a bunch back to make nachos today.

Troy and Kathy's daughter Sarah has a one acre garden at her place... and Kathy has been working in it constantly, even in the heat. They had a wonderful yield this year.

I know you all want to know the upshot of the Great Tank Blowout.

It took four phone calls to get the company to get out here and put a new gauge on and check the tank for leaks. I called the provider I used at my old Calamity Acres in Kansas City, Kansas, and made arrangements to switch tanks out and go with his service.

The driver dropped the old tank out by the gate and it was picked up a week later.

My neighbor Troy did the same.

Last week, in the dreadful heat, was the Leavenworth County Fair.

Here comes a group leading their bucket calves along the walkway.

I will have to say entries were down, and it was not just me who noticed.

I went at midday on purpose, to avoid the crowds because ... covid has reared it's head in our area again. Just being cautious.

This was the champion market ewe that Isaiah showed, and will be coming here this week.

She's a beautiful girl.

There were some beautiful goats.

Very few bunnies... maybe thirty... were on display, and those included cages for sale. I will give the bunny parents much credit, though... because they had fans set up every three cages and the bunnie's fur was literally blowing in the wind.

There were some beautiful quilts on display, but overall,

entries in all these categories appeared to be down.

When my sister was alive, she often entered quilted goods in the fair competition.

Coco has become almost an indoor-only cat. She came from a feral colony, this is a huge about-face for her. Every once in a while, she lays on the back porch for a little while. It was NOT 115 that day, unless that was the heat index!

The flowers are still looking good, because I have literally watered them sometimes twice a day.

Thank God my well has not had any problems since earlier in the summer.

I planted my tubs and troughs this year with either wildflower mixes or hummingbird mixes.

I honestly do not see hummers around them, but I have very few around my feeder, either. I am taking that feeder down daily and putting up a clean one, the few I am seeing are almost ready to leave.

Here is what I have to say about the mixes... they have been glorious but they must be watered heavily. Deadheading the zinnias can be onerous... I need to do it today again, in fact. I have decided that I am going to cut the deck containers in half next year, and plant lower-growing flowers in these troughs.

They have been beautiful, I have to admit.

That's amaranth behind the portulaca... I had not grown in it in years.
It has looked good, but it has been attacked by the Japanese beetles badly.

My mom could not grow anything. She marveled that I could.

She loved cypress vine, and I try to plant it every year in her honor.

It ain't Kansas if there isn't a sunflower or two!

That's all, folks, thanks for bearing with me. I'll try to post again

in a week or so.