Can You Believe January is Half Over?

February will be here before we know it! 

I have been watching large flocks of geese and ducks 

flying overhead the last two weeks... even though we have had gray days, 

they are moving back and forth.  The Kansas City Star did a long story 

on the weekend about "resident geese" versus "migrating geese", and 

how a company employs Border Collies to keep the geese moving 

so they don't get used to staying on the local golf courses, etc. 

I still love them, even though friends of mine call them "flying rats". 

Keith loved them, too. 

We have had too many days like this lately: 

When the roads are swallowed in fog. 

I watch for ducks with the groups of geese on the little pasture ponds. 

See the muskrat nest behind the ducks?  This is the little cow pond I always show you, but it 

is very low right now. 

I came across these girls, too, and had to grab the camera to get them through the windshield.  There were four more, they had already gone into the woods.  By the time I went down the road, they had disappeared in the underbrush. 

And this young guy was down around the corner of the road, and likewise taken through the window. 

I drove on so as not to scare him. 

I will get back to good photos soon, when I can lift the camera.  My hand is still too weak, but I do go for my first therapy appointment on Friday, and am wearing a brace.  I still 

can't lift anything really heavy. 

Sunday morning in the gloom, I heard a lot of birds behind me, and turned around. 

I had been watching this: 

Not a mallard. 

Landing gear started to come down as they circled the pond. 

Mallards were with them. 

The brakes come on all the way to the water. 

We have had very little of this in the last few days. 

60 tomorrow, and then 30s the rest of the week... Kansas weather, 

you gotta love it. 

I'll hopefully be back to posting regularly when I can hold the darn camera! 

Turkeys on a Foggy Day

We awoke to heavy fog in Leavenworth County today. 

That's not last night's blood moon... that's this morning's sun. 

Here was the waning moon in the opposite sky, so visible, go figure, despite the fog. 

Here's the view from the deck at the old house... remember, I am taking several pictures of the 

ponds at the bottom of the hill every day... I am at about 9 months now.  

You could not see anything.  (except our overgrown pasture)

Lilly went with me this morning, but Jester decided to stay home. 

I've noticed that on chilly mornings, he likes to cuddle with Keith or curl up on the couch, 

rather than face the wet grass. 

I have been trying for weeks to have time to stop and take a picture of this beautiful scene. 

It's on a bridge over Stranger Creek, on Leavenworth Road, in Leavenworth County. 

There are caves in those rocks, dangerous caves that fill at high water times. 

When I showed this to Keith, he told me that emergency management has had to rescue numerous people who became trapped there. 

Those are granite cliffs. 

I literally went around a corner and saw this flock come boiling out of the high grass on the left.  I could tell there were a bunch of young birds. 

They ran acrosss the road and into the pasture on the other side... 

And then headed for the shelter of the woods...

I used to keep turkeys, and I love these birds. 

Oddly enough, we saw another group as we got closer to home! 

Turkeys are normally very nervous... when I stop the car is when they run... 

but this group must have decided I was okay and started eating again, though they were 

heading steadily for the trees. 

Our weather has turned from the balmy temps of last week, to 95 this afternoon, with 

heat expected all week.  

The Big Thaw is Coming

Or wait, maybe I meant the big FOG. 

If you look in the middle, you'll see the owl on his perch, watching and waiting. 

The ducks, who had been kept in for five days, got right to it as they were let loose in the pasture. 

Even Donald could not just stand there and watch out for the girls, they began pulling up grass, etc. as fast as they could. 

No, they weren't starved, they just prefer the pasture grasses. 

Our cover over the new henyard is a little the worse for wear.  You might remember we had to drop it last winter when we got heavy snow.  It has pulled away from the building, so I am finding small birds in the yard, which we covered to protect from the starling hordes.  

However... I am not as concerned now, and I figure we'll pull it closer to the building once the snow in it has melted this weekend.  It has done a GREAT job for a year and a half. 

These girls have only been out once in the last week, so I hope to get them outside for a while tomorrow. 

We were expecting freezing rain this morning... which materialized as fog. 

There are going to be some slick spots tomorrow, though, as we have had thawing all day, and I expect re-freezing tonight. 

Rooster Larry in the new henhouse shows signs of cold damage to his comb.  Mediterranean breeds, especially, were not bred for these cold temperatures we have been having lately.  The points can actually fall off. 

He is fine otherwise. 

I thought these guys were getting tired of being in their pen, too... but when I threw the gate open today, there was not exactly a stampede to get out.  

They did go out in the pasture for a while and wander around, and then back to the pen.  

As you see, we have some wastage of hay, but that's a small price to pay for healthy, happy goats. 

(Kelly was standing practically UNDER me, so is not in the picture). 

Their light has now been turned off, we are having better temps for the next five days. 

Farm Assistant Abby, helping me this afternoon!

Everyone stay safe out there! 

More Unbelieveable Cuteness

I promise this blog won't go completely over to the goats, but goodness... the cuteness factor has really multiplied around here. 

They are sleeping UNDER the hay feeder... they have made a little tunnel back there and you can't even see them.  Here's Kaycee stretching as he comes out to my call. 

Here's my cousin Mary Frances holding Kody.  Mary Frances is NOT a farm girl, but she was totally enchanted by the babies.  Kody is a snuggler, too. 

One thing Michaele said is that these goats will always be friendly with us if they are treated friendly. 

Our good Dr. Jeannie Hauser came out while Mary was there, and it was so good to see her again, as she took care of our llamas, pony and minis.  She proclaimed the little boys happy and healthy, and advised me on feed, etc. 

They have a date to be wethered by Dr. Jeannie at her office in about a month. 

You see we had quite a bit of fog this morning. 

It is clouding up now after a very sunny day and 80 degrees.  

Yes, more rain is coming, and I am really getting worried about the garden.
I am going to go out tomorrow, rain or shine, and get the beds worked over again, and then I think I'm going to plant some of the tomatoes. 

The balsam and zinnias need to be in the ground, too.  I know just where they are going. 

The south perennial bed is a mess, though, today... the worst weeds I have ever seen, so I'll wait until they are wait and then go out and dig them out.  Ugh. 

Photobomb! 

Cardinal! 

Kody is very adventurous and tastes everything.  

He can fit just through the opening you see behind them to the right of the gate, and proved it by following Keith this afternoon as Keith went in the house.  

I'll be covering that with chicken wire for a while, but under the gate is a problem, too... so they are not out without supervision. 

I'm off to cut some more grass... so that's it for today from Calamity Acres. 

An Early First Sunday of Advent

I got up early this morning to get chores done before leaving for church.  The chickens and turkeys are all happy to get outside in the morning, and are waiting in line at the popholes to come out.

 

This is what they saw:

 

Fog, everywhere.

 

 

When I got home, still foggy... and the chickens had decided to hang out inside for a while.

 

The lesson today, for the First Sunday of Advent, was all about Hope.

 

I hoped all day that soon we will get some rain.  After Keith goes to work in the morning, I'm going to reconnect the garden hose and start watering... I checked some of the perennials today, and they are not looking good. 

 

I'm also going to start the clean-up around the new chicken house, and to clean the big henhouse out this week, and re-bed it for winter.  I'm using a partial bale of straw, and some hay that the llamas would not eat before they left.  I don't usually bed with hay, it can cause respiratory problems, but I think this is sufficiently dry and was certainly weedy.

 

 

Here is the new pophole in the henspa, all framed up.  Unfortunately, one of the younger hens came out this afternoon, and has hidden UNDER the henspa and is roosting under there, Keith got down on the ground before dark and saw her.  We can't get to her.  My biggest fear was that they would start laying under there, and I would never be able to get the eggs, because I'm not gonna belly-crawl for them.  Tomorrow, I'll go to Home Depot and buy some snow fence, and we'll tack it up there to keep them from going under until they get used to roosting inside.  It won't be until it gets hot next spring that they will need the shade, but we will have to wait for this hen to come out before I start.   My guess is that she will spend the night under there, and I'll find her pecking around in the yard and thirsty in the morning.  No, we have not hung the netting yet.

 

I have a lot on my plate this week, as I am starting the Christmas cookie baking tomorrow, as well. 

 

Somehow, the tree will get put up.  We were going to wait until the rugs were cleaned, but we are re-making that date for a little closer to our family lunch on the 15th.

 

 

Keith had some help watching the Chiefs play this afternoon, after the sad, sad day that they had yesterday.   I went to Walmart right after this picture... oh, what was I thinking????

 

 

 

And this evening we were so glad I had my camera in my pocket when this flock came right over our heads as we talked in front of the new henspa.  We have seen far fewer geese than normal this year... and far fewer this fall.  They were headed, we think, for Leavenworth County Lake. 

 

 

Spiderwebs and Fog

Labor Day dawned somewhere, but here in the Midwest, outside the little town of Tonganoxie, it was all fog and dripping. Spiderwebs hung damp in the fog, gracing porch and gate and plants. The full moon shown weakly through the fog as it went down in the west, and the sun surely was rising in the east.

If the pool is open today, it surely will be the last time anyone takes a dip this summer, and the unofficial close of summer is a wet one.

Having cut the entire 2 acre yard in one fell swoop yesterday (rarely done!) I was able to sleep a little later this morning, and enjoy it. Yesterday's dawn brought the loss of little Curley, the frizzle cochin rooster. Only two pounds dripping wet, Curley was a featherless wonder who ran like Speedy Gonzalez from horsepen to hen corral at the speed of light. He jumped the hens, no matter how large, and flapped his miniscule wings at his mighty crow. He brought a grin to my face daily with his antics, and even though he has been featherless for months over half his body, he was amazing in his spunk and ability to fight off the marginally-larger roosters. Sometime in the night Saturday night, a snake got him. It was only able to suffocate him, not swallow him, and so backed off as it did the beautiful brown pullet earlier this summer, leaving him dead. I almost wouldn't mind if the snake had a meal, but to lose a fine little rooster for nothing was a blow. Snakes 3, farmer 0 for the summer.

Curley had taken to sleeping on the floor of the henhouse, and I had feared that very thing happening. Last night, the crippled hen Brownie slept on the floor in the closet, instead of flying up to the hanging nest boxes. If this presages her demise, I would not be surprised. She will be easy prey for suffocation by Mr. T if she stays on the floor, despite her big size. She is one of the few Rambo daughters I have left.

Baby Rambo has shaped up to be a nice cockerel, but I have yet to year him make a sound in crowing. Normally cockerels start at about 4 months, but he, at 8, has yet to throw back his head and sing. Even Cocky, the silkie cross cockerel is crowing a reedy crow now. They are contemporaries, as are One, Two, Three and Four, and 2 year olds Studly and Butch. Butch has taken over the big hens now that Rambo has gone.

While mowing, I found part of the gray pullet lost ten days ago to Lilly; She had to have been snatched through the fence or flown over.

Saturday spent at a craft fair, Sunday spent at church and mowing... today will be a rest day for your farmer. Safe holiday to all!