Monthly Archives: February 2020

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Tomorrow…

Tomorrow we fire up the incubators.
I’ll have collected the last of the eggs I need to run 2 full batches.
In 3 weeks we could have as many as 80 chicks.
Depending on fertility.
There’s too many roosters in the coop right now, so I know just about every hen is getting a little lovin’.
😂😂😂
If the weather holds, there will be at least 5 less roos next weekend.
I have to count how many boys there are for sure.
I know the 3 big orpington/wyandotte cross boys are staying.
Everyone else is going to Freezer Camp.
That’ll give some of the “favorite” hens a chance to recover and regrow feathers where the boys have been a bit too exuberant.

But that’s next week.

This week, tomorrow, we set eggs for hatching.
And start pepper seeds.

Today?
Today we rest.

Ruby

Sharing with Word of the Day Challenge for Recover
and
Oak Hill Homestead for the Simple Homestead Blog Hop.

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Area 51 North

There’s a teeny place in the middle of Manitoba.
A place where it’s rumored that the aliens have landed.
On more than one occasion.

That’s right, Oak Hammock Marsh, is rumored to be a hotbed of alien activity.

Area 51 North, if you will.

And so when we looked out into our back yard (which may, or may not be, within alien distance to the Marsh) and saw this lovely Palomalien standing there, we had no choice…

The Kid had to go and try to tame the beauty!

It didn’t take long for The Kid to get a leash on her…

A soft voice and quiet hand and that Palomalien was ready for The Kid to touch her face.

Not sure what the leash attached to her meant, The Kid used a cookie to explain to the Palomalien what she wanted her to do…

And when the Palomalien understood, The Kid offered her the sweetest treat yet.
Her very own bright red apple to enjoy!

Oh and enjoy the Palomalien did!!
So much so that she followed The Kid readily to her new shelter.
❤

Another bite of apple to cement the friendship, and the Palomalien was completely smitten with The Kid.
So when The Kid asked her to stand just so…
I jumped at the chance to take a portrait photo of our wonderful new Palomalien.

Never let anyone tell you aliens aren’t real.
We know they are.
We know…
The truth is out there.
In Area 51 North.

Sharing for Thankful Thursday with Brian’s Home.
I am so grateful for our Palomalien.
Not a lot of aliens would be okay with photoshoots like this, but this one?
Oh yeah.
Plus, the Palomalien and The Kid turned 19 and this was their annual birthday photoshoot.
So I’m thankful my Kid was (albeit grudgingly) willing to pose in front of the camera. 😉

Also sharing with Word of the Day Challenge for Kick, because holy moly did I get a kick out of doing this shoot.
And the editing.
I swear I giggled like a fool going through the images.
The Palomalien and her Kid are incredibly cute together.

Finally…
Happy 19th birthday to our Old Lady and our Young Lady.
May they have many many more happy years together.
💛💛💛💛

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Capture 52 Week 9 ~ Pets

As I wandered out to pasture to take pictures of Astrid napping, my faithful feline companion joined me on my trek.

Here MaxCat takes a moment to look around and decide if it’s safe for his Food Lady (me) to proceed.

Sharing with for Wordless Wednesday with Comedy Plus, Image-in-ing, and bethere2day
and
Create with Joy for Inspire Me Monday

I know I missed last week’s Capture52 prompt Bucket List.
I’m still working on that one and will post it asap.
🙂

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It’s Here!!!!

The new incubator arrived last night…

Can’t I haz the big box?

Yeah the box is huge.
The incubator is huge.
It can hold 56 chicken eggs, so I shoulda realized how huge it was gonna be.
D’oh!
That’s okay.
I have a spot for it, as well as the first (smaller) incubator.
This year‘s hatching is about to start!
🙂

Sharing with Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday
and
Word of the Day Challenge for Year

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Sooooo Close!!!

After a week of frustration (trying not to be frustrated) of no new news on the tracking for my incubator, a friend mentioned to check with our local post office…because the courier doesn’t ship outside of the big city, but hands parcels off to Canada Post.
Well…wooooooohoooooooo!!!
My incubator is sitting at our local post office.
So, Monday I get to go pick it up.
🙂

And then, March 1st, I set my first round of eggs…
80 eggs.
There will be so many chicks!

15 chirp chirps

Like this ^^^ but so many more.
I’m looking forward to it.
🙂

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Feline Friday ~ The Outdoor Boys

Last Feline Friday I shared about our outdoor girls.
This week, the outdoor boys.

There was a time we had over 20 outdoor cats.
There were so many kittens.
Too many kittens.
And then I spent a whole lot of money and a whole lot of time and got the entire Marauding Hoarde fixed.

Now we’re down to 5 outdoors.
The 3 girls, and these 2 boys…

❤ Max ❤

Max has been here the longest of all our outdoor felines, coming up on his 7th year with us, come this Fall.
He came to us through the local humane society’s barn buddy program.
He was, apparently, not a good fit as an indoor cat.
But as an outdoor, who rules the garage and the deck, he fits perfectly.

Oh the joy of a roll in fresh dirt at sunrise!!

He loves to sit on the deck with us for bbq’s and sometimes even cuddles.
He drools like crazy when he purrs…which is why we tend to pet him on the ground, instead of picking him up a lot.
lol
He has also learned that he’s not a good goose hunter.
Thankfully, he only needed that lesson once…

Unlike Trouble.
*sigh*
Oh, our TroubleCat…

Born and raised a Midnight Calico Farm cat, this guy tried to take on an eagle as a kitten.
🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️
Thankfully, that eagle just gave him a look of righteous haughty derision.

And then there were the goose hunting tries.
Jeebus.
Do you know how big of a hole a Canada goose can put in a cat???
Trust me, it’s a big one.
And it’s a wound we treated on Trouble a half dozen times.
He’s tenacious for sure.

Just when we thought we’d lost him to a coyote, he reappeared during one of the worst ice storms our province has seen.
Hubby had gone to the garage to feed the cats and when he shook the pail of food, he heard meowing from the roof.
Looking up into the ceiling, he found our boy, scraggly and a bit thin but happy to see a human.

And Trouble has been Home since.
He really is the King of the Midnight Calico Farm Cats.

Long live the King.

Sharing with Comedy Plus for Feline Friday.

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Muse

Used to be Cookie was my muse…
Just about every photoshoot, while it may have started with Sable, became about whether or not I could get Cookie to do as I asked.
She didn’t have a whole lot of equine interest in humans (she didn’t care for humans much…as long as the food kept coming), so winning her over was a tough task.

❤

But, with time, patience and a few (okay, a LOT) of treats, I won her over and I did thinks like ^^^ this to her…and she let me. ❤

Well then, she up and died on me.
And I was left without a muse.

Ahhhh, but that Ruby…
Ruby has neatly stepped into the role as my muse.
Because what’s more fun than a paint horse who doubles as a unicorn in disguise?

Whatcha want?

So now Ruby gets to be the focus of her own photoshoots…she does have her own Instagram account, after all. 😉
But yeah, I’m grateful that she’s decided that The Food Lady ain’t so bad.
Before she was pretty ambivalent to me.
Now she’s decidedly a Mama Suck.
I think it’s good for both of us.
🙂

Sharing with Brian’s Home for Thankful Thursday
and
Word of the Day Challenge for Muse.