ok, now I remember

Some of it, anyway.



Here's vanna and little guy on a hot one.

Bill is definitly feeling better, I think. He still has snott running from the 2 very big holes in his nose, and his eyes are pretty yucky every morning, but by the time he wakes up and rambles around a bit, he seems to feel pretty good. This morning I slept in till 7 and was wondering how he would be fairing since I'm usually out there by 6, but he was still snoring away. He let me pet him for a bit, which is very good. I still have to take the metal tag out of his ear. Jill and Alex had come over last week and Jill said that I will need to take two pliers and pull them apart. Geez. It is always bleeding and looking pretty bad. What they do to these animals getting them ready for auctions is terrible. We are lucky that Bill will even let us get that close. But he is definitly looking for us now, which is good, and also bad. Cause he's bad and gets into everything. But he sure is cute.



The guys named our beat up chicken Bucky after the song "Bucky the chicken," and our friend Buck. She is doing much better these days, but her feathers still aren't growing back. There is another chick in the coop who is missing the top of his wing feathers. He looks very strange. I'm keeping an eye on him and he is never bleeding or getting picked on, so hopefully he will do ok. There should be enough room in the coop that the fighting will be kept to a minimum.




Finally got the guinea coop built. Boy, they needed to get out of the house. They were making way too much noise at night and kept waking me up. They haven't quite found their "buckwheat" call yet, but I'm hearing variations on it. And man, are they easily freaked out. It was hard to catch them from their little cage to take them to their coop. I had to keep a lid on the box and even then some of them got out. I was pretty happy to catch them all. I think they will like their new home, although they don't get quite as much light as the chicks. Their space isn't quite so big either, just because they probably won't be spending much time in there. I hear they like to wander free and fly into trees. I want them to get used to that being their home, and will keep the water and food in there, but I guess if I want them to be eating all the ticks we have, I will have to let them loose. We'll see how that works.

I gave the turkeys the biggest space, because they will get hugical, and because I will like to raise more of them next year.

Although the coop turned out ok, I did make a few stupid mistakes that cost me some time. I ended up using some old 2x6's that were on the property for the bottom dividing line. I buried them in the sand, and attached the upward beams to them. It worked really well. Where I goofed was in my placement of the lower beams. I forgot to line them up with the rafters, which meant I had to find a new way to support the upward beams. I worked it out, but geez, it took more time and made the chicken wire fencing a lot more complicated to put up. It doesn't look near as nice as the chick coop does. But it will do. I ended up using a large glass window for the door, but was suprised to realize that I had run out of old hinges! I actually had to go buy some. Couldn't believe it. I'm starting to run out of wood and other stuff. Crazy! For some reason I thought I had an endless supply of whatever I need through the recycling of all this stuff here. It's good in that it means I am using stuff, bad because it means I have to start spending some money. Bummer!



I do still have the old goatbarn to get materials from.



We're having our first of the "drunken goat fire circle" bonfires this evening. It's kind of hard to see from this picture, but this is where the fire pit is--next to the horse barn. My friend Eric is in town, and it was a perfect opportunity! I have so much to burn it isn't even funny. When that supply runs out I'll be really shocked! I think people may come early so they can see the animals before it gets dark. Thought I would hunt up some fun pictures of one of last year's fire circles.