Feathers Tell the Story

Last Friday night, Keith and I tried to catch two young birds roosting in the tree that I trimmed this week... and they beat us with their wings and got away.  Even though we were laughing, we were perplexed, because frankly, it's unpleasant being beaten and scratched, and even though we had the spotlight, we could not find the birds anywhere in the henyard.  Finally, we went over to this:

 

 

This, my friends, is the "gate" to the pasture from the henyards.  Pretty feeble, huh?

 

When we looked at it that night, it was obvious that the two missing hens had pushed against the south side of it, and managed to push it far enough open that they could slip through into the pasture.  Keith and I shook our heads.... he shone the very bright spotlight all around, but we saw nothing.  The hens were black, by the way.

 

I try to keep it bungee-corded very tightly, so the fox can't push in.  Ha Ha.

 

So yesterday I saw this while I out doing water:

 

 

She was on the pad that Keith created four years ago for a barn, which has not been built.  You can't really tell, but there is a TOWERING horrible weed to her left that I am going to have to dig out, full of thorns.  I always try to find them and dig them out, and missed this one this year.  This would not be remarkable, but every bird was in, and it was just a blessing that I turned around and saw Tiny.  I had already barred the door, or bungeed it, as it were.

So she saw me and ran over and ran in the gate, which I had opened for her.

 

I walked over to see if she had laid an egg in the high grass, because despite being four, she is still laying. 

 

Here's what I saw when I got there.

 

 

 

(I'm stylin' in my tennies)

 

First thing I thought was "Uh oh".

 

 

It was easy to follow the trail where she fought.  There were four big clumps, and finally, skin pulled away with some of the feathers.  I'm sure the fox had a good dinner that night.

 

I counted 8 pullets and Legs Diamond today, where once there were eleven.  The other "lost" bird could have been in the henhouse, as it is cold out there with a brisk breeze growing, and a lot of the big and little birds were hunkered down early, but it is much easier to count now that the branches are out of the way, and I threw some bread to them to get a count.   We knew pretty much on Friday we wouldn't see them again.

 

This will be a non-issue once everyone is moved over to the new henhouse.  The free-rangers are going to be sorry, but the elderly birds will soon be back in their newly-refurbished digs.

 

It's 52 degrees F. out there right now, but a breeze is blowing, making it feel cooler.  I had to wear a hoodie while I cut along the road and cut in the garden, weeds are still growing.  We were supposed to have a bit of rain today, and there is heavy cloud cover, but so far, nothing.  I am trying to spiff the place up because this weekend is the Kaw Valley Farm Tour, and my neighbor Roxanne of Screamin' Oaks Dairy will be welcoming agri-tourists for the weekend.  I like to have our yard looking presentable for the visitors who only come this way once a year, and I plan to be down helping Roxanne with her visitors over the weekend.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farm Tour Part Two

This was another stop on yesterday's farm tour (which was actually the first and the second of October.... more later).... Knapp Family Farms who are about seven miles from us.  This was their first year on the tour, and I have always wanted to see their operation, so I was very glad!  Their relatives raise registered Gelbvieh cattle, and they raise hogs.... it was so very interesting learning about their breeding operation, and everything involved.  You would NEVER know so much went on on their neat farm, with no "piggy" odor!  From the road, you cannot see the operation, believe me. 

Here is the sire for the sows this year.  He is a young boar, Mr. Knapp got him up so we could see him.  You see all the pens were very neat and clean, and I have never driven by there when the one big yard we can see isn't neat and clean. I admire that.

We were allowed to go into the farrowing barn, and they explained the schedule that they follow for breeding each year.  It was so interesting to hear about it!

  There is one little pig who was awake and watching us through sleepy eyes!  If you enlargen the picture, you can see him in the middle.

The mamas have numbers on their backs that correspond with the pens they are in.  That way, when they get out to go to the bathroom several times a day, they come back in to the correct pen with their babies.

In front of you, with her back to the camera, was a delightful young lady there with her mommy and daddy, and she got to pet a tiny little pig.  He was a delight, too bad they don't stay that tiny!

When we finished seeing the pigs, we were loaded into a haywagon and taken across a just-cut cornfield to the relative's home, with the Gelbvieh herd.  I had wanted to see THESE cattle, too, driving by them often. 

Gelbvieh come in red and black, like Angus. These were the show heifers, getting ready for the American Royal Livestock show in KCMO this month.

Next to them were two young bulls... a red and a black.

This farm owns, in conjuction with another farm, the junior grand champion Gelbvieh bull from last year's national show.  He is not in residence at the moment, but on his way.  They breed 95% of their herd by Artificial Insemination, but put the bull in for "cleanup". 

I enjoyed this trip very much, and we are going to buy some pork from the Knapps.  I just hope I didn't meet any of the hogs!

I leave you with a picture of a dry stone wall, reminicient of Great Britain, but the farm behind it is the farm I had just left, the Henry's.  All along their road the farms had these dry stone walls surrounding their fields.  What a testimony to the first settlers, who had to lug these stones out of their fields in order to plant or pasture their animals!  Some are falling down, but others are in pretty good shape, like this one.  I can't think of any other area around here where I have seen so many dry stone walls.  These are about thirty miles from where we live, out by Clinton Lake.

I have more pictures of my farm tours, which I will share over the next few days.  I DO have a comment to make.

These tours attract people not just from the Kansas City area, but from well outside the area.  There was a busload of folks from Salina, and people from different states... probably in the area and decided to go on the tour.  They actually fill a bus each year for the tour, and then each stop must have parking for up to 50 cars or so.  It is a great chance for the participating farms to get their animals and products out in front of people.  Some of these folks regularly go to a farmer's market, some market their beef, pork, chicken, turkeys... some sell vegetables only.  Some were straightforwardly hawking their products, some made it an educational experience for adults and for kids.  Some are very family-friendly, and some, not so much.  What I am trying to say is that is very often the ONLY exposure some of these farms get every year.  I noticed that this year some farms had dropped off, and others had come on (the Knapps were new).  I have always been treated well on the tour, though I have found some places more interesting than others.  I wanted to get to the Iwig Dairy in Tecumseh, but could not get out there yesterday.  I talked to a lady today who said everyone was treated royally there, and it was well worth the fifty mile drive.

The tour probably covers a hundred mile area with 25 stops on it. 

I spent today, after church and baking for the grands, helping Roxanne, the goat lady down the road from us.  She has done this tour for years, and I have pictures taken at her place today.  She had so many people there yesterday that she filled her parking and folks had to park in the road.  We had a steady stream this afternoon, all the way up until the tour ended at 6 PM. 

More pictures tomorrow, and thanks for all the wonderful comments.

And Then I Fell in Love

The farm of my dreams.

Please click on each picture to make it larger, it's worth it!

This beautiful place was my first stop on the Kaw Valley Farm Tour yesterday.  The Henry Farm, it is home to a family who has a greenhouse business and are serious gardeners, as you can see.  It was aboslutely glorious, on a fine morning, to walk around their property and take pictures of the display gardens.

I tried to post these last night, but could not get Blogger to load anything.  This morning, only one picture has loaded as regularly does, and the rest will not re-size.  They also loaded themselves wherever they wanted, and not where I wanted them!     I'm just grateful they are in.

As well as plantsmen, the Henrys are also animal caretakers, and many of their pets have come to them from others who have bought a baby, and then were thunderstruck when it grew up.  This is one of them:

They also have four alpacas, a herd of sheep, a team of grey percherons for which they have a collection of beautiful old wagons and surreys... an emu, a riding horse, and two mini horses re-homed from those who could not care for them.  Couple this with a well-fenced poultry yard with geese, ducks and chickens... rabbit hutches.... a good old dog.... and a collection of cats of every color and size, it was just a lovely place to visit.  They  had a bunch of these:

I fell in total love with this farm.  The family has been there 40 years, and run the nursery business for nearly thirty of those years.  They are good stewards of their land and animals, and plantsmen from whom I hope to buy some good plants next spring.  I was glad to discover them, and to know that the grand old farms (the house was built in the 1880s) are being cared for so well.  What a privelege!

I got out of my car and looked up the lane... and wished I could see this every night.

 Still having problems at the end of this post... cannot enlargen the pictures at all.  I think it must be Blogger.

I have many other pictures of the great plantings at this farm, but will leave you with one of their line-up of Mums in front of the greenhouses.  I overheard the owner say that they normally started 1200 mums for fall sales, but this year started only 400, because of the severe summer weather.

Here are some of them, and yes, I bought a gorgeous orange one called "Hannah" in honor of my little doll.

          More pictures from other tour stops coming later today.  I am helping Roxanne at Screamin' Oaks this afternoon... she had so  many people come for the tour at her stop that she ran out of parking several times!