A Little Catch Up

We’re in the middle of a heat wave.
It’s hot.
I’m cranky because it’s hot.
I’m watering the garden a lot.
Birds get out at dawn and stay out until dusk.
I’d *love* to leave them out overnight in this heat but…someone posted on a local FB group that a black bear had been seen (with picture!) just a few miles from us.
Uh, I don’t need my birds being a bear buffet.
😂😂😂
And while I’m not adverse to shooting and eating a bear, I think it’s better to not have the birds out as a possible buffet temptation in the first place.
So up early to let ’em out, up late to put them away.

Still planting the garden.
These are the days of beans.
So. Many. Beans.
But, I didn’t get enough canned last year to make it ’til this years harvest (have 4 jars left) so the bean patch is getting a bit bigger. And I keep saying we need to expand the garden more.
Not even kidding.
But there’s a plan that replaces last year’s plan that didn’t work out and all it’ll take is a weekend to move a pasture fence and a couple big round straw bales…wheat straw please, because I can’t grow food to feed my Kid in oat straw…unless I want to kill her…which I don’t.
Obvs.
But that’s a Fall project.
For now, Hubby is building another brooder…that’ll be 4 for this year.
2 for turkeys and 2 for chickens.
Then he can work on a refurbish of the duck one (remember, it had mold and killed off over a 2/3rds of my first hatch of turkeys. 😥 )

Things went a bit sideways with my pre-purchased plants.
Trees were shorted from the order…so no saskatoons and no siberian crabapples this year.
Prolly for the best, I’m running out of place to jam things…for now.
Once the expansion is done, a section will be specifically for the saskatoons.
Then I heard from the local greenhouse that my order was being shorted the wild hops plants I wanted because the plants didn’t make it through the winter.
*sad face*
So I’ve substituted chives, a couple paprika pepper plants and mortgage lifter tomatoes.
I’ll get hops next year.
Really, it’s all kind of a blessing in disguise because I hadn’t figured out where to put all the trees, and not even kidding when I say I’m already exhausted.
😂😂😂
But…the end of planting is in sight, so once that’s done, it’s mulching, weeding and watering until harvest begins.
And feeding the bazillion and 15 birds.
Again tho…we’re gonna eat good this winter. 😉
Oh!
And the lady we bought our pig from last year has been in touch.
I have my pig booked for pickup in the Fall.
So just as I’m dropping from exhaustion from butchering birds, we’ll have another 250lb pig to do.
Not to mention the bartering trade of birds for a pig from a friend.
Lots of pork, lots of poultry.
Now, we’ll just need a deer or two and some beef and we’re set.
🙂

2 more weeks for the Sweetgrass turkey eggs.
3 more weeks for the Narragansett turkey eggs.
Then there will be many, many more turkeys.
And in case anyone thinks turkey might have a wee bit of a brain, trust me, there is a reason I call them my “stupid children”
Case in point:

She stood there a bitched and bitched and bitched…for a good 20 minutes…because her feet were cold.
Seriously.
Turkeys is stoopid.
But, they are also good eating and fun to watch.
Which is why I love ’em.
😂😂😂

Tired

With the excitement of starting up the incubators for the years comes the forgotten knowledge of what the 3 days of hatching is really like…
Exhausting.
Once the first chirp starts, there’s excitement.
Yay, we’ve got chicks!
But then…as more come out of their shells, the *loud* chirping starts.
And the scrabbling, jim jamming around…at all hours.
Then, throw in Daisy Mae, who has to tell me she can hear the chicks in the incubators.
At 2am.
*sigh*
Yes cat, I am aware that there’s birds chirping in the house.
Quite. Aware.
Thankyouverymuch.

So here we are on day 2 of hatching, running low on sleep, just waiting for tomorrow morning when we can take aaaaaallllll da little birbs out to the brooder and start again.
😂😂😂
And so it will go, every 3 weeks from now until the beginning of July.

This…this is what my face looks like right now…”Can I just get a little quiet time for a nap??!?” 😂😂😂

Busy Day

I feel like I’ve been going non-stop today.

From getting the feed ready for chickens this morning, I don’t think I’ve sat very long at all.
lol
But we have fresh hamburger buns for supper, a chocolate angel food cake for dessert, homemade mayo for next week’s lunches, plus homemade coleslaw and dressing…
Then all the clean up to go with that.
Oh!
And homemade cream cheese made from last week’s left over milk.
YUM!

And I’m prepping the pots for pepper seeds.
Then moving things around for the incubators.
Yup, got my 80 eggs ready to set, so gotta get that going too.

At the end of it all will be a nice glass of green tomato wine waiting for me.
Aaaaannnd, I have to get that bottled too.
🤦‍♀️
That’s what I get for complaining that I’m having to wait too long to get stuff going.
lol

20 days to spring!!

Monday Mood…

I’m slow today.
Just popped an angel food cake in the oven.
Hopefully warm cake will give me energy.
‘Til then, Sable says it all…

Is she laughing?
Yawning?
Silently screaming for coffee?
Only CinderBella knows.
😉

Sharing with Comedy Plus for Awww Mondays
and
Word of the Day Challenge for Nature…because being slow and tired on a Monday is just the nature of the working beast, imo. 😉

Right Place at the Right Time

My camera is almost always in hand on the Farm.
If not in hand, close to hand, so that I can capture things that just happen…Spontaneity in photography is a lot of what this blog is about. 😉
Of course, I do miss capturing some things, some times, but still…I catch all the good stuff I can.

Like yesterday…
I went out to take a picture of Anthony Piggie in her blankets:

"What? I like a blanket while I nap in the sunshine..."

“What? I like a blanket while I nap in the sunshine…”

She looks like she needs a good stretch, a scratch and a coffee. LOL!
Kinda how I feel in the mornings…but this was mid-afternoon for her. 😉

To capture that shot, I had to go into the Henny Yard for the right angle. While I was there I checked the waterers and found the hens were needing. I lined them up, turned on the hose, and while I was waiting for things to fill, I did the daily egg hunt. I noticed one henny was still in her nest, but had just stood into the laying stance.
I went for my camera just in time to capture the egg being layed…

Here it comes!

Here it comes!

Egg2

Egg3

And it's out!

And it’s out!

Egg5

And, that’s where eggs come from.
Pretty cool capture, if you ask me. 🙂