Descions

So I guess Larry has decided to sell Spirit and NoName, I'm not happy with the decision, but I can live with it. We will keep Bandit, which reminds me, I need to go buy wormer and some high protein food for Bandit, he is way too skinny.

Brrrr

Today was slightly cold compared to the days we have been having. The horses once again got into the feed room and gobbled up most of my chicken feed. Luckily we don't stock it up and there is never a whole lot in there, but still. Annoying, I need to get a new latch or something for it.
I once again lazed out and let Larry feed, I will probably continue to do so until school starts back. Sometimes all the "help" can just leave me frustrated. They scare me around the horses, and I worry they will let the chickens out, it's just too frustrating, so I prefer to do it on my own, but Mikey rarely naps when they are home and when he does they want to go with or they will stay inside and get loud, waking Mikey up. I will probably go back to feeding and just deal with it, but it's nice when Larry will do it for me when he can.

Windy day!

The wind is just horrible today. Larry went out to feed the chickens and discovered that the roof was off of half of the chicken coop. The pen is going to have to be fixed, it was built well up until we ran out of time and then it got thrown together and never finished properly. A tin roof and some walls and hanging nest boxes are a must. Also a automatic feeder is needed badly in the smaller pens, I have one in the back pen. For today we moved the chickens around and will keep them that way leaving the two topless pens empty until we get the roof finished. It is supposed to storm tonight, I hope the other pen's roof stays intact.

And some more

Finally some of Spirit with the other horses and a sweet napping picture of Cat Cat and Ginger.

Pictures

The barn on a pretty fall day


Bandit and NoName


Silver Duckwing Bantams


"Grace" my rescued game hen. This is when she first came to us. She was torn up pretty bad, I will post update pics as soon as it quits raining.


Bandit and NoNAme


The pasture


My free rangers. A game hen and a guinea, they just roam around and have survived thus far.

Pictures

The first two pics are of babies I hatched myself with my incubator. For some reason the batams didn't make it. (the little ones) but the buff orpingtons are still thriving.




This is called zipping.

A dusting of snow on the pasture, lasted just long enough for a good picture.


A buff orpington baby


A lot of them


Chopper is amused with the brooder.


Silver duckwing Bantam hen


A buff orpington and a rhode island red adolescent, I think both cockerels, we will soon see.


A few of my "babies" and the auto waterer my hubby made for me.


My buff babies when they were teeeny tiny


My first batch I hatched, stupid power went out and only like 5 hatched.


New Hamp baby


This pic is from when I still has black sex linked, the black ones are hens, the speckled ones(barred) are roos.


Chopper, yes, he is still a puppy.



Cat Cat, when we first got her


Ginger snoozing in Grandpa's recliner


Bandit

This week on the farm

Lots of things happening around our house this week. Raven's puppies are getting so big, we think we will end up with 3 almost identical to Chopper, 1 Raven look-a-like, and maybe a chocolate lab look-a-like. Not sure what you can expect with a black lab and a husky as the parents. The "baby" chickens are growing so fast. I'm not sure how many we have left, those cold days we had early on, we weren't prepared and we lost several. I know for a fact there will be no more babies in the fall or winter. Hatching and ordering is for the spring. Unless I get a broody hen, which would be awesome. I picked up some cockrells a week or two back, dh wasn't happy, but I plan on having a trio of silkies in the spring and now I have the boy, just need some girls. I also picked up 2 show girls to go with him. They are so ugly they are cute, I don't have pics of them yet, but will soon. I think I have a video. The silkie is white, and Bo has adopted him as his favorite. That chicken will lay his head on Bo's shoulder if he picks him up, it's a sight to see. Larry has been taking over some of the chicken responsibilities for a few days, I have had a rough patch the last month or so, but I think I have eliminated the source of my stress and things will get better. I will have to get over it and tend to the animals myself, b/c Larry doesn't know how. He picked up feed the other day and went out to feed the dudes and dudettes. He came in later to tell me that he fed the horses 50lbs of livestock feed, they should eat on it for a few days. HOLY NONO BATMAN! I then have to explain to him that horses will not stop like cows will, they will eat it all and make themselves sick. He know understands that and luckily, no one is hurt, although Bandit is having some intestinal issues. The horses look terrible right now, between the winter coat, the rain, and the mud, they look horrific, but I guess they are comfy.
A few weeks back I was trying to get rid of an extra Rhode Island Red Roo, now I find myself in need. I am hoping that I don't loose my cockrell I have in with the babies. Both of my roos died unexpectedly with in a few days of each other. Larry says I need to feed them more to give them more energy to fight off the cold, I think he needs to enclose the pen. In the end they will probably get fed too much and get the pen enclosed. LOL!

Ignore button

I will admit that I have ignored this new blog b/c I have been pressed for time. But things are calming down and hopefully the rain will clear soon as I am in need of more pictures of my animals. I am going to get this blog going, I am, I am, I am.

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Melinda and I live with my husband and 3 children on a 30 acre "mini" farm. We are working on living our lives more independently. Raising and growing our own food, raising our animals in a nice loving environment. We currently have a pom named Ginger and a Cat named Cat Cat living in the house with us. We have a black lab outside, his name is Chopper. We have 3 horses, Bandit, Noname and Spirit. We have around 100 chickens and 1 guinea. Life isn't boring around here, that is for sure.