It's the end of October?!?!?!?!

When did that happen??

We should be getting eggs in the upcoming weeks!!!!

Everything is still alive :) so that's a good thing.

I am getting upset with our dogs. They will not go into their new home. Fear not, I have an idea. What? :)

I have to get back, but I wanted to at least post something before November! :)

Hope you had a Happy Halloween/Blessed Samhain/Happy All Saint's Eve.

TA DA!!!

This first picture is of Miss Henny Penny (we call all of the RIR hens Henny Penny) out of our 'new and improved' twine-chicken-keeper-inner. :) Which didn't work... but we didn't find that out until after the goats came to us. Oh yes, you read that right! We thought they would be up in the loft, but they were nowhere to be found. I turned to Ben, asking "Do you see them?" and there they were, all in a row, right behind Ben.





As we approached the barn, singing, Slash and Deer came to the window to see what the caterwauling was all about.












Since I had the camera, I took a picture of the hog huts with their impromptu hole-cover-up. No, it's not pretty, but it does keep the wind out. Maybe once we have pretty things, then we'll get the goats prettier accommodations. :)

Well that didn't work

After about 40 minutes of trying to find/charge some AA batteries, I have given up. I have a picture of the new and improved "I am smarter than these chickens!!" coop, with a RhodeIslandRed outside of it. We chased it back in. "Improved it" by putting the left over twine in a large V over the whole thing. Yep, on the way back from playing in the barn, there were 2 RIRs out. So, I think it's safe to say that we are smarter than the Aracunas, but not the RIRs. Yet. Fear not, as soon as it stops this drizzling, we will be back at it!!! We have had rain everyday for over a week. We are soaked through. Thank goodness for that 8qt bowl I thought was ridiculous! It's PERFECT for catching rain! Speaking of, as of right now, we are going to the bank on Monday, Oct. 29th (Ben's 5th birthday!!!!) and we should know within 24 hours if we're approved. I will not speak of it again, and if I really don't, please do not either. We'll just try again, I guess.

I have had a kind of discouraging day, so I'm going to end it...... now!

Well, we'll know in the morning if it worked or not.

So, hello!

On Sunday, Eric tackled Gunner to the ground, so that he would drop the chicken he had in his mouth. We've come to the decision that 4 ft. is not a high enough fence for these chickens.


Apparently, the easiest way to stop your chickens from 'flying' (it's more 'glorified hopping with some flapping') is to break one of their 'wrists' soon after they are born. I imagine it is similar to flicking off a puppy's dew claws. We did not do this, as we didn't know about it. :(

So, every morning, we chase anywhere from one to four chickens back into the coop. It's very frustrating, and half the time, now, they go right past it, have no trouble going around the ladder (on the left side of the coop in the first picture--it's there as a wedge, so that the chickens go into the coop. It's really funny, actually, how most of them that are smart enough to actually get out, don't realize they can 1) go over the ladder (2 go around the ladder (the other way!) 3) they actually fit in between the rungs. That got me to thinking...

My mom says that to be a good mom, you really only have to be half a step ahead of them. These chickens are not smarter than me!! So the first plan was to put a faux 'roof' using string. Um, no. Then we decided to just go get more chicken wire and put it above the existing fencing, and let the top hang in a bit. (there's only an extra foot or so of post above the existing fencing) Hmm. Well, as I loathe to part with our hard-earned money, Ben and I went down the lane in search of some chicken wire... we found some snow fencing. Well, it would be a possible alternative. Then we popped into the machine shed. I prowled around, using my 'common sense' and found nothing that would work. Then I saw the rolls of twine. Chickens aren't that smart... and the roof was too complicated, but if I combined: higher fencing with illusion of structure... and viola! I tried to get the picture to show the X with the line above it above the chicken wire. Either way, there are the chickens, and Ben, 'sprinkling' scratch for them. :)

One day at a time, one day at a time

This weekend, Eric put the doghouse together. I know. I know. So today, Ben and I painted it's first coat, and started the shingles. YEA!

The door swelled shut on the chicken coop, so that's kind of a problem.

The goats are doing alright. Gabby's eye is now blood red. We'll get that checked out as soon as possible. I'll let you know how it goes.

The dogs are super-dee-dooper happy. The cockle burrs are mostly gone from Gunner's ears, and we found a venison roast that wasn't well trimmed before it went into the freezer, so the dogs had a fantastic treat yesterday. I am their new best friend!!

The cats have let us know that containing them into 3 rooms is unacceptable. We'll see how that pans out as it gets colder...

The fish are doing just fine.

Now, to get the humans organized...

I'm a GENIUS!!!!!

Alright, so we have been having some problems, mostly due to me being incredibly unorganized and self-sabotaging. So, today, on the way to clean out the chicken's water, and give them feed, I realized that hey, the scratch we use to help the chickens like us is essentially cracked corn. Hmmm. Goats LOVE corn. So we took some scratch down to the goats.

Now, Deer has been in the kennel for almost 2 weeks now, and every other day, I open the front, pitch it out, open the side, pitch it out, put in new in the back, then open the front, put in new and give her fresh water. Well, today, I get to the barn, and the kennel is standing open. I have to smile, because damn, they weren't kidding. Goats are smart. Anyway, she's limping around, so I need to talk to the vet about what we can do. The leg did not heal cleanly, so I need to figure out what to do next for her. In the meantime, we sat down on the ground with our leaves and water, and handfuls of scratch. Oh, yea, they LOVED it. They are still skittish around us, so we just sat, and talked while we held out our hands. YEA!! This is a major victory for us. They ate out of Ben's hand, too!!! I think he makes them nervous. Hey, it's just plain fun to chase the goats, alright?

Ack, I have to get...
Have a fabulous weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those poor guinea pigs...

I am starting to feel really bad for our animals. Perhaps it's because I actually butchered a few. (I still can't buy meat at the store!) The swelling in Deer's leg has finally gone down, but what to do about it??? I tackled Gabby to the ground, and pulled the cockle burrs out yesterday, only to find out that she is blind in one eye. What are we doing???

The chickens have at least one out every morning. We are having some difficulties with the doors--and they are flying out. The dogs do not seem to have any interest in them at all. They are also becoming quite adept at flying over us, scrabbling about, so that they are crazy-hard to catch. There were 3 out this morning. I am thinking that the beginning of November, we should be able to get a deep-freeze... maybe when it gets cold, we'll just have us a big ole butcher party, and get rid of them!

Bottom line, I am feeling overwhelmed. Big time. So, here's the blog for today. It's not as if anyone reads it, so I guess this is turning into my journal. Welcome to my journal. Thank you for reading. Come back tomorrow, and see what's happening then :) It's really a crap shoot. I know it, you know it.

It's been hectic...

Which, of course, is no excuse, but it's what I have. :)

Yes, the chickens are dead. It was something that is really unexplainable. We did opt to cut the heads with the knife, not the hatchet. It was definitely an experience. It was beautiful and full of honor, and showed how strong we could be. We raised these animals, we cared for and loved these animals, and now they are helping us care and take care of and love our bodies. We know where they were, what they did, and how they were treated their entire lives. I was at the store yesterday, debating about buying some meat. I will never be a vegetarian, but I really thought about where this meat came from. I did not buy any. Now we have to get cattle. :)

Deer's leg is no longer swollen, but after 14 days, I am unsure about what to do at this time about the actual break. Then, we find out that Gabby's eye is blind. We have no idea how that happened. I am wondering if maybe we were not quite ready for the responsibility of all these extra animals. Especially with winter just around the corner. I mucked out the kennel for Deer today. Yea. Well, I can do it, but I really am not horribly excited about it. :) I totally understand why people hire people to do these things. But they are missing out on the satisfaction factors. That, plus we will NEVER have to pay for gym memberships :)

Oops, that's my cue... the goal is to write more often, and I have found the camera. Yea! :)