Day Three

And it's a summer cold, ugh, the worst kind.  I have had fever and chills all day, felt so horrid at work I came home again and went to bed for the second day in a row.  I'm still watering the flowerbeds, or would get into bed right now, at 7:30!

There may not be a post tomorrow, as I am going to stay at my son's.  My son and his wife are going to their yearly bowling tournament in Springfield, Mo.  They always take the kids, but this year, decided to have a couple-only trip!  YAYYY for them!  I am going to do my Saturday morning errands and then go into their house and watch the kids.  I'm picking up Candyland on the way (and maybe Chutes and Ladders) to teach the two littlest grands how to play.

I'm praying I feel better by morning... Nyquil is going to help with that!  I want to make cookies before going, but am worried about infecting all of them, so maybe I'll just buy some at Walmart on the way.

Neighbor Kathy is finishing up the great brooder pen she made me today... it was the best $150.00 I ever spent this spring.  She and Troy are going to get it into the little henhouse pen... I didn't ask how, but it will be there when I come home on Sunday morning.  I think their strong sons-in-law will be over tomorrow, so I suspect they will be dragooned to carry.

We are expecting nineties tomorrow, and a slight possibility of rain on Sunday.  How we need the rain!  I am watering every single night now.  I noticed some of my flowers had actually curled in the beds, and they got water tonight.  Keith will be watching the little birds and big tomorrow and doing water frequently.  I noticed that the turkeys are standing in the water fortexes, and emptying them during the day.  There is a pool in the pasture with water... Inca's... and I filled it high enough that the big hens can reach it.

These squash seeds sprang from an old squash a girlfriend had left on her porch at Halloween two years ago.  Ranger played with this crook-neck all the time, it was all dried out.  Finally, he broke it. Look what it has done in our compost bin!

I have not watered these.

We had a huge pumpkin yield, our best, about six years ago from the same kind of deal.  Pumpkin seeds in a compost heap of grass clippings and chicken-house cleanings, the best pumpkin harvest we ever had!

I love this hydrangea.

Someone at work game me a whole sack of surprise lillies, lycoris squamigera, today... but I don't feel up to digging them in.  I am going to keep them in a cool place until Sunday, and then get them planted.  I had them at the first Calamity Acres, but none were planted here, at least, none that survived.

Little Bessie, curled up on the right in this picture, will be moving on Monday to our neighbor's house.  Kathy has loved her since she came here, and Bessie loves Kathy, and slips through the fence every single time we let her outside without accompaniment.  Now Kathy has asked for her, and on Monday, after they have company this weekend, she will be moving close by, where we can see her, but where I think she will be so much happier.

Good night, it's Nyquil time!

A Sweet Little Face

Bessie and Abby tonight, watching me make BLTs for the kids and Keith.  Bessie looks so cute with her hair cut that the kids almost didn't recognize her when they got here from Garnett.

If you click on the photo, you will see her milky little eyes.  I'll start treating them tomorrow to try to keep them moister.  She is still getting around okay for the time being, though.

I wanted to apologize for not getting around to everyone's blogs here lately very often.  I am so tired at night and not sleeping very well, with my sister so ill.  She has now said goodbye to everyone, and her little granddaughters were brought down today to see her... and this weekend, she will move to the Hospice House before going Home for good.  I will miss her so very, very much. 

Not As Smart As I Thought I Was

Well, well, well.  I picture here for you some Wild Eastern Turkey eggs from Backyard Chickens:

Please note color and spots.

Tonight I couldn't find Sherman and Grant, who usually come running as soon as I get home from work.  I am a little down today, my sister is so very ill and basically, I can only pray her home at this point.  So I needed a little chicken therapy, and after talking to Keith for a while, went out to the pasture.

No Sherman or Grant, despite my calls.

Finally, after doing all the waterers... it's very hot and humid today... I went out in the tall grass of the south side of the pasture.

What I found under Grant and Sherman... errrr.... Clarabelle and Annabelle in the tall grass.

Uh huh.

The funny thing is, I found an egg like this last week, and I remember thinking "Who laid this egg with the red specks on it???".  Never even occurred to me!  They are not as big as the eggs laid by Helen, our Bronze breasted turkey hen five years ago.   So... live and learn!  I guess we have two Eastern Wild Turkey hens and a Bourbon red as formerly thought!

I left the eggs where they were, but the girls came in for the night.  If they run true to form, they'll accumulate a bunch and then set them.  We'll see... I haven't really seen any breeding activity and I doubt they would be fertile... but then, I'm gone nine hours a day, too!

And this, my friends, is what was under the tangle of hair on Bessie!  What a cute little girl!

If I could have gotten her to hold still for one minute, I would have shown you her cute little face!

I'll get Keith to hold her tomorrow so you can see how nicely the groomer turned her out today.

We had no idea there were so many spots under that unruly mess. She was sure glad to see me when I picked her up, and barked the entire ride home in her carrier... giving me what for for leaving her all afternoon!

Saturday Not and NOT for Fighting!

Pooped tonight, I have cut almost the entire yard... pasture tomorrow...and done errands, worked a short time in the garden, regular daily chores.... my friends at work laugh at all this.  They don't understand that by doing these things, we ward off old age and stay active.

So here we are back at the start of the year again, and look what's peeping tonight in the big henhouse...

Here is the current setup for baby chicks.  It's a Rubbermaid tub...with a snake guard on the top.  It's up on two cement blocks to make it a little easier to get into... as last year they were flat on the floor of the shop, and I did a lot of bending.  I don't expect these babies to spend the whole six weeks in this tub... last year I had to separate them at about 4 weeks... but there is just room to put the other tub next to it if I move the feed barrels.  The snake guard is to keep rats and mice out, too... and just as we put the light on, the big snake who has been hanging out in the henhouse slithered under the white cabinet to the right.  I especially don't want to come out in the morning and find him full of my babies.

There are six Porcelain D'uccle chicks (straight run, of course) and an assortment of Red Sex Links, Black Sex Links and Cinnamon Queen pullets.  Yes, I went for the egg layers.  The nurseryman threw in three extras, I went for fifteen and came home with eighteen. He had some very nice Ameracaunas, but was selling them straight run, and I just have too many roosters as it is.

I'm hoping the eggs from the incubator in our bedroom (!) hatch in 4 days as they are programmed to, and we'll move them to this tub, too. 

Here's a sad note...This morning I found this old girl laying in the straw inside the big henhouse.  I watched her as I did morning chores, and realized she is likely not going to be alive tomorrow.  I noticed during the day that she did go out in the pasture with the others... I was very surprised at that....but tonight, as I did the waterers...I saw her out of the corner of my eye in the dim light of the little hutch I used for the juveniles last year.

I left her in there... she chose that spot, and I figured she knew best.  The hens like to hang out in this little hutch during the day when the sun is high, and some lay under it on the cool earth.  The turkeys will even crowd in here.  I put the food fortex in there in case of rain (there is a tarp over this pen) and shut the gate so she wouldn't be bothered after the last of her sisters went in.

You can see from her faded face she is pretty old... and I suspect older than the four or five years I was told after I bought this group... and MUCH older than the 18 months I was told initially. This is the third of the sixteen hens to die.

Here are Sherman and Grant tonight...as you see, their poor feathers are still very tattered, they came to us in this condition.  They can get to the top of the doghouse in the henyard, but they cannot get to the top of the little henhouse, where Jackson roosts at night, though they would like to.  I'm hoping their feathers will grow back in, and they will be able to join their "brother". They remain very gentle birds, and big gallumping "tweens" when they see me in the pasture and think I have a treat... it's the Charge of the Turkey Brigade!

Yes, we still have llamas!  Here's Tony on the dirt hill, watching Kathy in her back yard where she was planting flowers around a bench she put by the pond last weekend.

Here are farmdogs Gertie and Bessie, on fence patrol.

I took Bess to the vet this morning, and a guest vet was standing in for our good Dr. Tom.  He took a good look at Bess's eyes, and unfortunately, she has extremely little vision, as we thought. We are about to start another round of eye drops, as we did with Hannah Jean for so long... in hopes that we can give Bessie a few more months of happiness on the farm.  Right now she can just see to go out in the yard, and wander around, but we watch her walk into things regularly.. and know the vision is going.  Hannah only rarely felt grass under her feet, as she was frightened of leaving her "world"... the house, porch and deck.  We want Bessie to enjoy things while she can. She has a mammary tumor, as well... and we have never seen her come into heat, but we suspect that the eyes were the cause of her being dumped.

And on the good news front... Keith is out of the hospital and home, thank heavens.  He has a new regimen of medicine to take, and must change his eating habits, but I can help him do that... and we'll take it one step at a time.  He is still very, very sore from the fall... and unable to do much around here for the time being, but at least is on the mend, thank goodness!



What Her Paws Hath Wrought

It's no wonder she's tired.

She's been digging to China again.  I noticed a large hole in the side wall of the henhouse, and I am going to have to bring it to Keith's attention tomorrow, or else we are going to have a wholesale slaughter.

She's been digging all along the side of the big henhouse, including under the scaffolding stored in the corner, where she has exposed a bunch of tree roots.  Yes, mice and the odd rat are going in and out on this side, but she must have been at it all day in the wind.  And yes, folks, it's windy here!

We are both still dragging on day 12 of the Crud.  I am actually going to go to the Army post tomorrow and see my healthcare giver, I just cannot seem to knock it, and we suspect a second infection.  Keith is much better, though, despite the odd cough here and there. 

I promise I'll spend some time this weekend looking at everyone's blogs... and putting a decent story on this one! 

I end with a picture of Gremlin ears

Just call her Gizmo!

Whew!

I don't know how we made it to the end of this week.  We think we are on the mend... Keith was able to get out and do the Saturday errands... feed store, groceries... but finally gave up and laid down for two hours this afternoon.  I laundered everything we have been wearing and sleeping on all week... and hopefully we have killed some of the germs.  I was able to go out and get the chores done and come back in without falling over with exhaustion.  I did make a good stew with some corn muffins... and I must be reviving, because I ate a big bowl with pleasure.

"They" say a cold's effects can last seven to ten days... so I hope this one is on the wane.  We haven't been struck this hard in several years.  My guess it's the cold, the doing of chores in the cold and wet, and constant stress over the last month that got us down.

Here's something else that made me grin today:

There are the rosettes coming to life again in this planter of asters.  It's time to get out to loppers and cut off all that dead growth here and in the garden, in fact, past time.  It will all have to wait another week, though, as I am not going to go too fast and have a relapse.

Here are my two sweet little helpers waiting for me at the gate this afternoon after I carried feed into the henyard.  The starlings had wiped out the little henhouse.  The odd thing is, there was plenty of feed outside, but I have those seven birds who DON'T go outside.  Even Silka, my buff silkie hen, no longer goes out.  The starlings were in the big henhouse, too... they had fouled the waterer but had not eaten all the food... we have noticed this for the past week.  Maybe.... maybe the worst is over!

Do you believe this?

On Wednesday, as I came home from work early and staggered, literally staggered through chores.... I upended the nest box that has been sitting on a cement block in the center of the big henhouse. Under it, where you can just see in this picture, there is an empty space, formed by the two boards that are the framework for the nest.  On the cement block was a nest full of baby mice that had just "haired" out... they were woolies, instead of pinkies.  I set the box back over the nest carefully, and then freaked out, I mean FREAKED out that their mama could not get back into where they were.

In fact, I worried all night, and despite the fact I was barely able to crawl out of bed the next day, dragged back out there and found one baby in the dirt at the side of the block.  I lifted it up and put it back with it's brothers and sisters.  Finally, I was so worried, I went back out one more time, and lifted the nest box back up, set it down on the dirt... and went away, letting Mama Mouse have her way.  Yes, by Friday, they were UNDER the box on the floor.  They also doubled in size in two days.

I lifted the box up this afternoon to check them, and there they were.

Hopefully they will be old enough by tomorrow or Monday, and I can put the box back up on the cement block again, where the little hens have easier access to it.

Don't start about vermin in the henhouse... how aware of it I am!

I read a blog tonight about a lady who has just started raising chickens... she is determined to keep vermin out of her henhouse.  Folks, I don't know despite 15 years of keeping chickens, how this can be arranged.

Totally gratuitous picture of Bessie, Queen of the Recliner:

How lucky we were that this sweet little girl came into our lives.  She is very undemanding, completely housebroken (Abby and Gertie!) and though not cuddly, likes to be near us.  She has not replaced our little Hannah, but filled a hole left in our hearts three weeks ago. 

Yesterday to Today

We had snow here, finally, yesterday!  It filled the satellite dish with snow and ice, so our service went out temporarily until I thought to have Keith check the dish today.

Only about two inches all told, it still made walking treacherous. 

Keith had to get my car out of the driveway, I managed to get it stuck as I was leaving for work.

These two didn't care about the snow, they wanted to help in the henhouse. They got to, too.

Today it got up to 50 degrees, and this was the result... mud, mud, mud!  The forecast is for rain tomorrow.

 

And in case you were wondering, yes, Bessie is still with us, and as you can see, has made the back of the recliner her sleeping place.  She can jump up onto the chair and then clamber up onto the back, and makes herself quite comfortable.  She can also see what's going on everywhere from here.  She's learning to look for snacks, and I'm glad, because she still has a long ways to go to fill out that little starved frame.

Keith is stick tonight with a cold, and I am coughing and praying I am not coming down with it.  Our romantic Valentine's Dinner that I planned was eaten at the same table, but not touching. We had New York Strip steak (we share one), baked potatos, peas.  I ended up not fixing the rolls I had gotten since I took so long doing chores.  Keith was able to get up to eat, but is in bed now.  His boss has told him to stay home, they have already had one round of this at the state office building where he was supposed to go for a training class tomorrow.  I am sure hoping that I don't get it, my office has also had a round of it about 3 weeks ago. 

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day.

A Super Sunday

After yesterday and Friday's gloomy, rainy days, we dawned to snow on the deck.  I would have shown you but I forgot to charge the camera battery last night, and by the time I got ready to leave for church, the snow was almost melted!  I had a quiet Sunday morning, and got the brisket ready and put it in the oven.  We had let it marinate since yesterday afternoon, using a braised brisket recipe from the Pioneer Woman that you can find here.  I HIGHLY recommend this wonderful brisket, it was tender and good, and man, did the house ever smell good.  After church, Nathan and his mom, Sherie, came by to pick some things up, and we sat and had a brisket sandwich on good sourdough buns, and some corn dip and chips.  Yumm!

Here I am doing chores this afternoon.... Keith was kind enough (laugh) to take a picture of me in my chore coat, and yes, it's the same one from two years ago.

Admit it, you want this coat!

Keith was good enough to do water all weekend, so I told him I would do it this afternoon.  The henyards are MUDDY.

The big henyard birds were hanging out in the sunlight. They had had their bread treats and were just catching some rays.

While some of the birds in the little henyard were cleaning up the rest of their treat.  This flock is much diminished, and when I get replacement hens, they are going in this yard until the new henhouse is finished.

I came the closest I have ever gotten to being spit on tonight, getting in the middle of these hungry llamas going through the gate.  They all got a talking to!

This picture shows Azzie's beautiful grey undercoat... it goes clear up her neck to just under her chin.  Her mother's is black, with brown on the topcoat.

I end the night with a picture of gratuitous cuteness.

She Wags for Him

Uh huh.