Wind and Colds

(Taken as I stepped outside the henspa two nights ago!) 

VERY windy outside today, gusting to the thirties and forties, according to our 

forecaster.  I can tell you it's pushng me to go out in it. 

Keith and I are both down with colds.  He managed to struggle out of here 

to a meeting in Topeka this morning, but I had to call off 

lunch plans with a friend.  Just.Too.Beat. 

Taking lots of cold medicine, and making a chicken/noodle casserole for dinner, I hope. 

The skirts on the hens are blowing in the wind today, too. 

Despite the wind, the chickens were glad to get out of the old henhouse this morning.  It's quite "warm" out... up to 48, according to the thermometer... but the winds make it feel much colder. 

We are supposed to drop tonight and Friday, and then warm up this weekend. 

The weatherman said last night that we are still below the moisture needed for our trees and plants to 

thrive this year, and suggested that Sunday, with temps in the 60's, might be a good day to 

do some watering.  I think I'm going to hitch the Express up and carry some buckets of 

water to the apple and pear trees. 

IF I can stand up for a while by then! 

I notice that the Pinterest boards are now exploding with wonderful gardening hints and advice, so 

they are a pleasure to peruse.  I am not pinning as much as I used to... but I enjoy sitting and reading 

the gardening information when I have a few minutes. 

My helper was on the job this morning, and located a big green duck egg for me. 

And then waited for me while I filled the duck's pool for them. 

Lilly Ann had just seen her mortal enemy, a red squirrel, go up and over the fence into the pasture. Unfortunately, I was about to let the goats loose, and could not let her go down there.  She looks a little piqued.  

The baby girl goats torment her terribly... and I just don't let them near her anymore. 

Abby continues to improve daily from her tooth extraction.  She was chasing leaves in the wind around the patio, when I stopped her to try to get a picture... she did not have this pep before the procedure.  We are so glad we had it done! 

You can see that it's getting cloudier out now.  

I wonder if any of you have had experience using mint to keep mice out of your chicken house?  Did it work? 

Did you plant it around the perimeters? 

I know mint is invasive, but I have a bed of spearmint near our front steps and I would love to move it nearer the henhouses.  I just would like to talk to someone who has actually used it, in next boxes or 

near their coops. 

And speaking of coops... I am going to ask Keith if he would help me with this:

(from Pinterest)

I would like to have a lightweight box that I can use to brood about five replacement chicks this spring in the 

henspa.  It would need to be about this size, but made lighter, with hardware cloth walls and one by ones for corners.  I can see Keith laughing at me now.  

I think there are too many chicks in the above box, but I am thinking maybe five pullets. 

It would need to be easy to get in and out of, so I can water and feed easily... oh, and keep snakes out.  We don't have much of a snake problem in there, but the peeps of chicks would bring them running. 

I'm going to have to stop now and rest... I need more Nyquil! 

Everyone stay HEALTHY out there! 

That Was Yesterday, This is Today

That was yesterday, post doctor-visit.  Ranger is the most forgiving old guy, he lets the babies jump back and forth over him, and when he finally gets tired of it, gives a growling bark (at the air) and warns them to leave him alone.  They do. 

However, not my point. 

If you remember, Keith "fixed" the pophole by making it a little bigger the other day. 

ONE hen figured it out. 

Brava, Big Red Hen.  

The Ducks. 

Couldn't. Figure. It.Out. 

Stayed in for hours. 

"Mooooommmmmm!!!  Maaa Maaa!!!!  You forgot to open the gate to the yard!!!!"

"Hey, we can't get through that little hole!!!"  (Good!) 

It is blowing VERY hard out this afternoon, and the animals are all hunkering down.  The dogs went out for a few minutes, but decided they had better come back in. 

The birds are almost ALL hanging out inside. 

When I opened the gate to the pasture for the ducks to go out, they went out about 4 feet and hunkered down on the ground. 

Well, this was not an excuse to put a picture of the big old maple in the sun last night... but to show you that there is a widow-maker dangling.  You can barely see it in the middle, just hanging there. 

I have a feeling the winds of this afternoon are going to put it on the ground. 

And by the way, I relented and let the goats into the yard, but they are soon going back to their pen, where they can get in the barn and be safe from the winds. 

In happy news, our little friend Tweedles is out of the hospital and home with her mommies, and we are still praying for her recovery... she had a very big surgery, and has a lot of healing to do. 

Also, those of you who commented about Delilah possibly being in heat... it's funny, the wether here, Kelly, has not really paid any attention to her this week.  But when the wind blew all the leaves off the patio, I found three spots where it appeared someone had urinated, and all of them were rusty looking.  Now I'm really wondering if it was a goat or what????

I'm keeping an eye on the situation, believe me. 

Blown Away by the Day

My gosh, they predicted 50 mile an hour winds, and I think we have them!  Even Lilly wanted to be in today, and I don't blame her. 

I can't believe the chickens went out and stayed out most of the day! 

We continue to be very satisfied with the shadecloth over the henspa yard.  It is really standing up, despite billowing in the wind today. 

Even the geese were having trouble keeping up! 

The girls were busy laying in both henhouses. 

And I've found a black hen twice on the feed room side of the henspa... there is a gap in the chicken wire up above... now I see why she is coming over!  We can't use these eggs, though I think one is from today... so we'll hard boil them and give them to the dogs or the birds. 

Here is the flat feeder out in the garden, and as you see, there is lots of wasted seed under it... though the ground feeders eat out here daily.  Seed blows off, or they knock it off, or it gets wet and I clean it off.  I'll rake this up in another few weeks. 

Look what I found under it 30 minutes ago: 

Yee ha!!!!!  Those are sunflower seeds sprouting! 

And here, under Oscar's tree.... daffodils!

We've both seen lots of robins these last few days... can it be that spring is almost here???

We heard from Keith's sister Kim this afternoon... she and her husband, Duke, live in Wallingford, Connecticut, and Wallingford was featured on the news last night for the amount of snow received... some 32 inches!  They had power and were fine, but are very, very tired of shoveling.  We thought of them yesterday, and all those dealing with the weather this weekend... we hope they all make it through safely.  

As it is, there has just been a huge burst of wind here, so I'm going to end this and go look out and make sure things are still okay. 

That's it for today from Calamity Acres! 

Bloggers, I Need HELP

An emergency here, a Christmas emergency.

 

Yesterday morning in our paper (here, the Kansas City Star) there was an insert for WalMart. In this insert was a number of recipes... some very short ones but very good ones, of course advertising products for sale at WalMart.  I took the fudge recipe and made fudge with goat's milk that came out absolutely perfect, set it to cool in the fridge, and then took half of it to my friend Jill at lunch.

 

The insert is gone, and the trash out.... I think we threw it away! 

 

Does anyone still have this insert and could type up the recipe for me and sent it to Ksredhead1950@gmail.com?

 

It was a very brief recipe, but I want to be sure I get the measurements right.

 

Whew!

 Look what happened to us last night!

About 1 AM the wind began to blow, and it has not stopped yet.  It wouldn't be so bad out there if it weren't blowing so hard.  I said prayer after prayer for those on the road this morning, because driving was treacherous.

The tiny wildings were out eating as much feed as I put out for them, and they had water to drink, too.

 

Here is one perched on the edge of the dog waterer on the porch.  I emptied this last night, I figured they would need it full of warm water this morning.  (Paw prints on the window, again!)

 

The fearless Lil did not let the wind stop her. 

 

And oddly enough, this fat little pug girl, Abby Lynn, stayed with me while I did chores.  I did not want her to get in the pasture... it was blowing too hard, and the snow had made some deep pockets here and there... and she has enough breathing trouble as it is.  She sat and waited for me, and I did have to go back and pick her up... it was just too much for her in the end... but she has been out two more times, including just now, as I started this post.  Good girl!

 

None of the birds has come out.  I did go out and finally get popholes open at 1... I had to use a screwdriver to chip ice at the door of the little henhouse... but no one came out.  I am about to boot up again, put my warm coat and hat on, and go out and check on everyone and close the doors back up.  I suspect I'm going to have to run starlings out of both henhouses (but not the spa). 

Ugh.

 

It's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Windsday, no, Thursday!

Oh, my, almost blew away today!

 

I kept waiting for branches to come down from the old maple tree.

 

 

The wind blew in clouds, but it didn't faze the little bunch from the pasture pen... Junior is taking good care of them, and the big roosters are actually leaving them alone.  He has two little brothers to help him, one is pure Mille Fleur like he, and off to the left, and the other is the pretty mix just to his left... yes, another pretty rooster I hate to put down!

 

They went as far as the horse pen today, and it was so good to see them out digging in the dirt like happy chickens.

 

 

The fiery red tree beyond the ponds (from our header) has dulled now, but is still a beacon in the distance. 

 

 

What's this empty picture?

 

That, my friends, is a llama bathroom, now composted by the chickens.  I am going to plant grass seed there so that we can get some grass started again in the pasture.

 

 

And this is another "empty" picture.. you see, we have plans to replant our pasture come spring.  This is the area grown up to weeds where our little pond once was, the pond that sat on a limestone shelf, discovered when the pond man came to make a real pond for us.  Since he had to fill it all back in, he stirred up a whole huge patch of weeds.  We hope to be able to get this area harrowed in the spring, and replanted to good pasture seed.  We're praying for snow and rain.  Right now I can't even get in there with the John Deere lawn tractor, because rocks were stirred up, too, and I don't want to tear it up.

 

The yellow tree is a mulberry.

 

 

 

 

And here's the Range, tonight.... he was playing with a planter he had found near the garden, and ran off to chew on it.  Lilly usually takes anything he finds away from him, so we were glad he got to play for a minute, since he's our good old boy!

 

Still blowing hard out there at 5:53, and sprinkles are now coming down as I wait for the last birds and turkey to go in to roost!

 

 

 

 

It Was a Windy Day

It was another terribly windy day here, with gusts up to 40 miles an hour.  I have to admit that I am getting a little afraid when the wind comes up so strongly now, after all the bad weather the last few weeks.  I went out just now at 9:00 to walk Bessie up the drive to go to the bathroom one more time... and it just about blew me over.

Here were our neighbors this morning, as I was getting ready to go to work:

The little calves like to get in the corner of the pasture where the trees give them some shelter.  The Spehars were going to push all these trees over, and I begged that they let them stand... I love the little copse of trees just beyond our north fence, and the calves do, too.

You can see from this picture how hard it was blowing the birds, and it was hard for the smaller birds to stand up.  Not many minutes after I took this picture this afternoon at 5:30, all the birds went in for the night, even though there was still plenty of daylight. 

We are expecting some rain the next two days... and I'm fine with that, as long as it's just rain!