Saturday, March 16, 2019

From Winter to Spring!

On the fifth, we had bitter, bitter weather. 


This young bird hung around all morning, I am sure it was 
very, very hungry (juvenile red-tailed hawk). 

It was bitter most of that week, and my electric bill 
reflected it.  

This week, just past, was milder, but very, very rainy and windy. 


Every time I looked out the door, this is what I saw.  
Chickens (and roosters) on the doorstep, staying out of the rain. 

I have tripped over them numerous times, and frankly, I am 
up to here with chicken poop. 

So....


I have hired a fencing crew to come and put up fence.  I originally 
thought to cut the yard in two, and fence off the southern half for the chickens, 
with a wide driveway gate, and two smaller walk gates.  I realized I did not 
really want to do this, so asked the fencing supervisor to re-measure, and we are now 
going to fence the half acre around the two bigger henhouses on the west side. 
The hens in the old hen house, pictured above, are moving back to the 
National Agricultural Center for the summer. 


Tuesday night, the fencers came to drop off supplies.  As you see, the truck was 
parked just OFF level ground, and they became hopelessly mired. 
A second and then a third truck was brought to try to pull them out, and as you can 
see, it left a mess, nine inches deep in some points.  The supervisor told me that 
when they DO start fencing, he will use displaced dirt to fill it in. 

I have told him NO fencing will commence until the yard is dry.  I can wait. 


I went down to Garnett on Sunday to get grandson Chris.  He helped me 
on Monday morning to take Cookie to the vet in Tonganoxie to be 
neutered.  I did not realize that with lambs it is imperative that it 
be done EARLY, within two or three weeks, because goats can 
wait a little later. 

As you see, Cookie was getting to be  handful at three weeks. 


Dr. LaRosh at Pleasant Valley Veterinary Hospital made quick work of the neutering. 
Yes, Chris and I had to leave the room.  Cookie and his mama were so glad to see each other 
when we got home, and Chris got the crate broken down and put away and we actually jumped in the car to go back to Garnett. 

Cookie stayed away from me the rest of the day after my return, and I was glad it was still cold, as it helped with healing and NO FLIES.  

By Tuesday, I could tell he was still stiff, but running around happily again. 


He is one month old today.  He is eating along with his mama and Aunt Fluffy, 
both grain and some hay, though he is still nursing. 

I wish he had a playmate, but frankly, after the hard winter we just had.... I am glad 
I was not caring for all eight sheep that boarded here before. 


It is a glorious day today, and I actually enjoyed carrying my feed in buckets to the different hen houses.  So much better than trudging over the snowy ground. 

There are buds everywhere. 


As I took the feed into the hen spa this morning, 
I interrupted feral Rusty eating his breakfast (I leave a deep dish of 
cat food in there for them) and I stopped to look at the nest boxes, 
there were five hens already laying.  I am averaging from 21 to 25 eggs a day now.
I have a lesser number about every third day, some of these hens are, after all, three year olds. 
I talked to one of the shelter managers at The Community of Hope on Thursday, and 
6 cartons of 18 eggs are about what they need weekly, so I have enough to give to friends, 
which makes me happy.  

Yes, I know this morning's news has announced more bad news about eggs and cholesterol.... but eggs are not the only cause of cholesterol, and people have eaten them for millenia.  I am still going to eat them. 

All three henhouses need a thorough cleaning, and that is part of what I have on the agenda 
this coming week in the better weather we are now having. 


Paiton and Jax had spring break this week, but I had so much going on, I did not see them until yesterday.  We went to lunch at Ihop, and as you can see, they had breakfast for lunch. 
We had a great time visiting. 


I have a confession to make, I LOVE IHOP HOT CHOCOLATE! 


Last Friday, I took Paiton to her riding lesson. 


At this stable, they just don't jump on and off the horses.  She had had to go to the pasture in the cold to catch the horse up, bring her in, groom her, tack her up, ride the lesson, and afterwards (it was nearly seven pm and dark) blanket Appy again before she was turned back out.  Thankfully, her riding instructor took care of that on Friday evening. 

Paiton is doing very well, and I hope to take her again in a few weeks and get good pictures of her. 


Jester loves his sunbeams. 


My girl Lil, in the last light of day on Sunday,  on her favorite couch 
in my bedroom. 


There was standing water everywhere after the rain this week, and the ducks were in their glory. 

Here I need to talk about ducks.  These are three Pekin drakes.  For the last week, 
they have been displaying mating behavior on each other... it is normal, but disconcerting. 
They are actually hurting each other.  
I looked out this morning and did not see them anywhere, and finally, after I started chores, I saw them way down in the pasture, trying to breed each other, filthy dirty (all the water has sunk into the ground). I could tell their pool had not been used. 

I went ahead and bucketed a fresh pool, but left them alone.  I had a chance this week to 
send them to the annual spring poultry auction in Gardner, but turned it down. 
I may still re-home them at some point, but for now, we will just see what we will see. 
As of my sitting down to type this at noon, they have still not come back up to the yard. 

More about the fencing... the chickens are going to be in the half-acre on the southwest side of the more-or-less-two-acre yard.  I will miss seeing them running all over, but I will NOT miss 
having no garden (they pulled it all up last year) and having no vegetables at all. 
I can always open the gates if I want them out, but I am making a considerable investment to do this. 

Singleton's group will still be loose in the old hen house, but this is the flock of roughly twelves hens and Singleton that are headed to the National Agricultural Center for the summer. 

It is already 47 here, and going to 57.  I am going to go out and do some preliminary work 
in the gardens, but grandson Chris will be back up in two weeks to do the heavy lifting. 

I hope this was the last blast of winter, it is so nice to walk outside without double layers on! 

One last comment, directed at any other bloggers reading this... last post, I had the strangest comment, one unusual for me, and I have been blogging literally ten years now. 
It was a post from a foreign country delineating "escort" services for those visiting the country.  It was lengthy.  I am sorry if anyone read it and was offended, I took it off, and I realize I need to LOOK at my comments regularly.  I have never had anything like that posted before, though I have had some critical comments that were unwarranted (and I removed them).  












7 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    Keeping busy, Mary Ann!!! You've got spunk, woman. I get exhausted just thinking about what all you have to do. Meanwhile, we just returned to winter. Snow falling all day. It won't last, but stil...

    On that last matter; it has been popping up around the traps. Removing it is fine - but don't forget the better way is to use the spam filter in the comments page of your blogger dashboard as well as on the email alert (though I am guessing you don't have your comments redirected to your mail box which may be why you missed this - if you'd like to so you don't miss any comments, you will find the 'switch' in the settings; email; comment notification email. Just enter your email address and save to update.) If you use the spam filters diligently, Google pays attention.
    YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't see your spam but have had similar ones on my site and know it is just bots. I never thought about sheep and goats being neutered before. Glad you got time with the grandkids.

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  3. We neuter our ram lambs at several months here, to give their urethras more time to grow and develop. It's supposed to reduce risk of blockages from urinary calculi, but I can vouch that it's not a guarantee. Then again, I've lost a young adult intact ram to a blockage, too.

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  4. Glad you are finally warming up there. I'm thinking that it is going to be wonderful having that fence up ! Nice you have some wonderful help there and seeing the pictures of your grandchildren always makes me smile. I'm hoping to that the last blast of winter is over and done. It's time for spring to come!

    Love and hugs,
    Pam, mostly known as 'ma'

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's nice that you are getting some warmer weather there. It has been a fierce winter, and we are ready for some sunshine and warmth as well :)
    I think you will love having a fence for the chickens. You will wonder why you didn't do it sooner..*smile*. No one likes having chicken poop on their deck!
    It's so incredible how your Grands are growing!! It's wonderful that you are able to spend so much time with them!
    Our only Grand is far away in California, and how we miss him!!

    Have a happy week, and enjoy the turning of the weather and more sunny days ahead.

    ~K.

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  6. Sounds like spam. Spammers need to be shot in the bums. Because they are a pain in ours.

    You've been busy. If I were a chicken, please be my momma.

    Take care,

    ReplyDelete
  7. My husband grew up on a farm and he would love to retire some day and get a few acres.
    Just popping in from Country Dreamings Blog. Have a great weekend!
    Joy@Books and Life

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!