June 16 - HOT

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. 

 

Fall is Almost Here

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

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!