New Farm Chicks

Our new chickens are beginning to lay.  Our fancy Frizzles which are smaller are laying and as you can see they are much smaller than our Americanas eggs.  So cute to find in the hen house!!

Apple Pie Filling

Grandma and Papa came this weekend to enjoy a football game with us, then Saturday we  arose to make 60 jars of apple pie filling. Yes, that is five cases of quart jars, we were a little goofy by the end, but it was great fun!!

Off to the Apple Farm

My daughter and I headed off to Gizditch Apple Farm last week and came home with two bushels of Newton Pippin apples. Of course we had to get a piece of warm apple pie and ice cream from their pie shop then we hit the road again after taking a short stroll through the trees.

Foggy Mornings

A few weeks ago I popped up out of bed on a Saturday morning to find our valley all fogged in.  That is a regular occurance, but since everyone was still sleeping after our Friday night football game I dashed out into the field with my camera. This is some of what I saw......

Man About the Barn

I want to introduce you to Switchfoot.  He is our male barn cat, and quite a mouser!!

Mmmmm, what happened here?

Our neighbor saw this at our barn one morning and assured us it is the "ultimate sign of affection!".We want you to know we know who you are and we look forward to showing our "affection" for you!!

Leaf holes?

So out here lots of things are new.  My green bean leaves were never riddled with holes in the city, so what could it be? Ah, yellow jackets!

Gardening Fun

Whoa, I am so excited, found my first cherry tomatoes on the vine this am.  I planted so late this year I was concerned what would actually produce.  Happy moment in the field for this farm mom!!

Barn Painting Fun

Teenagers love to have fun while they are working!

Tractor Fun

Sometimes when you have teenagers too far from the city they get a little goofy!

Our Chickens Grow Up

Well here we have our chickens in the teenage phase.  Like most teenagers, sometimes they surprise us.  Well these are NOT hens, they are roosters.  Just like teenage boys whose voices change a rooster learning to crow has a halting cracking crow that sounds very forced. It takes them weeks of practice to get their crowing down.  Just long enough for you to identify them and return them to the feed store, before your neighbors are at your door.  They are beautiful but just too loud to be fair to the neighbors.  We loved their wild feathers and long quick strides across the yard, but farewell dear boys the girls will have to survive without you!

Anatomy of a First Aid Kit

So a few weeks back I began thinking about how we would respond in an emergency, and were we ready?  We have had some nasty emergencies in the past, and well I began thinking better ready than sorry. So I looked up the anatomy of a first aid kit on the American Red Cross website, then took myself off to the hardware store for some sturdy tool/first aid boxes. Home I came with these stellar metal tool boxes, and then took my Red Cross list to Target for all of my supplies.  Here is the outcome!  I am feeling safer already, one for my car, one for the house and one for the barn!!

A Deal of a Hay Fork

So here is my first hay fork.  I found it at my favorite salvage yard for five dollars!  YEEHAW!!

The Girls Have Arrived

So nestled in our warm garage are 28 chicks.  We have 2 white Frizzles, 2 Black Frizzles, 4 Polish Crested Chicks, 2 Buff Orpingtons, and 18 Americanas.  Wow,  what a chirping group they all make!! And here they are making their internet debut.......drum roll please......

Chicken Fencing

So now the fencing goes in as my guys think about the front of the coop.

Getting Ready for the Girls

Work continues on the coop for our new "girls".  The back of the coop is very cute!!  I wish it was the front, so now my amazing coop builders are hatching plans to make the front just as cute as the back!!

More on the Coop

Well work also progresses on the chicken coop.  We completed the walls and roof, as well as put in the windows.  So it was time for paint!  We finally found the barn red color we were looking for, so we are getting closer to live chicks!

Rain, Rain, Rain

As anyone in the area knows we have had above normal rainfall this year. Well that created a situation in the field which my grandma would have called "getting yourself in a pickle."  But we learned about hill run off and swampy fields to avoid getting in a pickle in the future!!

Cutie in the Barn

A sweet little friend of ours brought hot chocolate to our barn workers, with marshmallows of course.  Thanks little buddy!

Busy Days in the Country!!

Lots of work happening in the barn. We had an amazing group of boys and dads come out and help remove the stalls and eeww remove about one ton of horse manure!!  No exaggeration there, now we know what a ton of manure looks like.  And we passed the second phase of construction on the barn with our friends at the county, so moving forward!

Coop Builders Extraordinaire

Here we have our own master coop builders!!  This is not the first coop they have built but it will definitely be the fanciest!!  You go boys!!

Recycled Floor

We found these previously built platforms just off the barn road, so we are reusing them as the floor to our chicken coop. Thank you to whoever built them!!

Coop De Ville Under construction

Here is the foundation for our new chicken coop.  It will be a 10 by 12 foot building, built off the ground to discourage rodents. (If discouraging them is possible!)

Bo: Our new farm dog

So here is BoJangles our new farm dog.  We call him Bo for short.  He is a male Lab/Mix, and has the kind of energy and exuberance we would want to see in a farm dog.  Ya know, one that could chase down ground squirrels in a blink!!