Random Shot Thursday

An early post today, as I have plans for this evening if the weather holds. 

I have tickets for a touring Broadway show in Topeka, about 50 miles from us.  A friend is supposed to go, but we already have rain coming down, and we are expecting later tonight a change-over to snow, so we are playing this by ear. 

I would hate to lose those tickets, but we won't go if the weather is very bad. 

(Update... my friend has written to say that we'll go in her heavier vehicle, a Suburban, and she'll drive, so we're set to go, yee ha!)

I'll tell you about the show tomorrow. 

Gratuitous goat cuteness, Winnie, making up for jumping on Maa Maa's car. 

The henspa flock is still working on turning over my raised beds.  I'll be gardening in these again next year, and for the first time, I kept a notebook to remind me what was planted where.... and will rotate everything.  I still need to do some maintenance on these beds, as you see... pull the pumpkin vines out of the top one... and then put compost on all of them. The straw bale garden will be alongside this one. 

Oh, I am so proud of this, but I am going to have to move the yarrow next to it, and I planted it way too close to the fence. 

It is a white lilac that Kathy next door gave me three years ago.  It was a tiny little plant.  

It is going to grow and bloom before I die... I'm so glad!

I hope whoever lives here in years to come enjoys this plant as much as I am going to! 

Gratuitous pug cuteness, courtesy of Abby Lynn. 

This is what the fortexes in the big henyard look like in the morning, after a night with the ducks.  

These are the things that are hard to clean out once the hoses stop running... maybe even tonight.  

It makes hauling water the harder, because I can't carry full buckets anymore. So I haul a half bucket to clean out the fortex... and a 3/4 bucket to fill it to the brim when clean. 

So much easier when the hoses are running. 

Filling this is also much easier when the hoses are running, though I did fill it once by bucket last week while waiting for the new yard hydrant to be put in. 

This morning's fill may be the last for a few days.  Once it truly does get lasting cold, I'll put this up, and we'll use a double deep fortex for the ducks.  There is one in the pasture, and I'll put another in the henyard, and fill them for the duck's winter use. 

And speaking of the ducks, only two are laying now, and I found this egg in Fort Apache, under the little red hen house, this morning. 

This one was out in the open! 

I thought you might all be interested in seeing what I feed the wild birds daily. 

This is "Back Yard Blend" from our feed store where I have bought feed for 20 some years, Valley Feeds in Bonner Springs, Kansas.  They mix this blend.  They also mix a more expensive one... about five dollars more a bag, and a cheaper one, similar to the Pennington mixes. 

As you see, this one has peanut halves, safflower, milo, cracked corn, striped sunflower and some black oil sunflower.  It's a great mix, and the wildings love it.  I already have moved the dog's water fortex onto the middle of the deck where the sun can warm it, and they are coming to it for water now... and I am seeing more birds at the flat feeding station.  I have seen the Northern Flicker twice in the last week at the suet feeder. 

(Reddy, in toto.  Notice the white tail) 

Today on Facebook I saw a great post about how chickens see... if you have time, please glance at it.  I learned so much from it, and things I did not know about chickens despite keeping them for so many years. 

It's HERE , presented by Lisa at Fresh Eggs Daily, but actually was written, I think, by another blogger. 

Excellent article!  Lisa's blog is also a very good one, if you are not familiar with it. 

And lastly... it's World Hello Day... thanks, MA!  

Say hello to all your friends and loved ones with a smile on your face, 

and remember to carry some one dollar bills and a smile for the hard-working Salvation Army bellringers who will be out in the cold and rain and snow of the next five weeks on their annual 

fund raising mission!