sigh......

So it's the 24th already, and I have no new work pictures. I've had to redo a comps question, so have been doing some more sitting. I'm really itching, though. The weather has been all over the place, from the upper 80's to a bit of snow. I planted some dill that the guys got me for Mother's Day, and some climbing peas. Can't wait to see if everything grows!

Anyway, back to writing. Hopefully this will be the last writing weekend in a while! At least as far as intensity level goes!

Here's Vanna chilling:



I usually run by this field, and thought it was so beautiful now that it is turning green:

we've got shade!

I put the shade cloth up yesterday. It was so hot, and even though I was really itching to get some more wood moved, I decided it made sense to do that first. What a difference it makes! There is still some sun that gets in, but it's cooler and it makes sitting on the deck so much more enjoyable. Feels kind of homey having a ceiling of sorts. My friend Amlan came with his friend Travis last night, and Travis recommended I put posts under the cloth to create a higher ceiling. It was a really smart idea. I ended up using the xmas tree stands, and found some old wood that worked. I will probably replace one of the posts because I'm concerned about its strength, but overall, I like it! I'll have to move them around when I get the second part of the shade cloth up.

Oh, I was able to hook up the shade cloth by using old mattress support thingys. Not the springs, but those really curvy sections. I found them in the fire pit after burning an old mattress last year. Saved them for something, and bingo, something came up.

Here's the deck before:



And after:



And look! No bricks or apple wood sitting in the front yard! Man, it is really going to look amazing when it's all cleaned up. I think you can see the manure pile by the barn. I still have one whole section to do. It will probably double the pile! Yikes!

pics of adult chickens

Here are a few pictures of what the unusual breeds we bought will look like! Because they are females, we hope they don't abuse each other!

Turkens:


Crevecoeurs:


Black Cochins:

baby chicks

Here are a couple of baby chicks pictures. I was trying to get a close up of a turkin so you could see how cute they are. And imagine how not-cute they might be in 6 months! They are the yellow ones with no feathers on their necks. It's a bit hard to see, but the black/yellow chick in front of the turkin has feathers on his legs and feet. They are going to be beautiful when they get bigger!

I have been having a bit of a hard time regulating the temperature in theirpen, but I they should be ok.

I think today I need to work on cleaning out the other part of the chicken coop. It is really going to be a job! Lots of intense manure in there!

the goats

have been out now that it is warm. I've set up some different areas for them to enjoy the new grass, and boy, do they completely eat it down to dirt! I do love these portable fences--we can move them around each day. I'm setting up a new one when I get finished here, and they will be eating all day. They certainly have not been needing as much hay, which is pretty nice.



The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the fence!

Doug visited last night with a friend of his, Amalia. He's heading out to Germany this next week to work as a really smart dude doing something with computers and stuff that I can't even begin to understand. What I do know is that the animals love him. Station sat on his lap, the male turkeys tried to jump on him, and Lily just enjoyed the petting!



Sweet Vanna:

rooster issues

So I butchered 4 roosters yesterday. It was awful, mostly because I did it myself and was a bit freaked out. But there is also something to be said for that as well--they are my responsibility and, in some ways, my needing help has been a way to pass off that responsibility, if that makes any sense. I butchered the 4 meanest ones first. The hens are in physical trouble due to the roosters constantly jumping on the them. One of the little white ones has holes in her back, no feathers left at all, and last night I found her hiding away from everyone else. I gave her some food and water and hope that she will be ok until I can get to the last 4 roosters. I need to sharpen all the knives and need to borrow a sharpener before I can get to the last of them.

Anyway, it wasn't fun, but the relief in the barn is quite amazing, even with just 4 less roosters. It will be really quiet when the rest are gone. The boys are keeping their favorite rooster, Chirp, so we'll have one guy around. He gets beat up by the rest, too, so it will be a relief to him as well.

The 3 male ducks need to go as well. They are abusing Wattlesworth, the female goose, as well as beating each other up. They don't have any neck feathers, either. It is going to be a quiet barn, that's for sure.

We got a batch of new female chicks yesterday, though. We got an assortment, but only 2 males so that we can perhaps have chicks next year. I can't remember now which breeds we bought, but I do know one of them are turkins. No feathers on their neck--cute as heck now, but will be super ugly when they get bigger. Should be interesting! I hope that they don't get beat up. We'll have to keep an eye out for that. We lost one chick last night. I wasn't too surprised because she was pretty weak when I took her out of the shipping box. Sometimes one of them gets sat on throughout the journey, and they just can't recover. It was sad, but if that's the only one we lose, we'll do ok.

The guys took a couple of pictures, but I'll get some closeups of the different breeds today:

yippee!!! it's summer!

Hey!!!

So I haven't written in months, but that's ok. Got my comps finished, although I still have my oral exam staring me in the face. Next Tuesday will be the deciding factor. I really like what I wrote, so that's very cool. I also now know where I'm going with my dissertation because of the comp process so that's even cooler!

But in the meantime, work at the goat has now started. I got 2 sections of the barn cleaned out, and, as a result, now have a huge pile of manure to play with. I bought this compost cover thing that speeds up the composting process, so I'll be excited to see how that works. I should take pictures of the huge pile already sitting outside of the barn--it should double in size once I get the last section cleaned out. That's going to be quite the job!

I also moved a bunch of wood and have found out that I have a lot more ready for next year than what I thought! I am converting the wood shed into a pig shed for the summer. I bought some portable fencing units that I'll be able to use for them as well, allowing them to get out and clean up a section of land that I want to plant next year. It's an interesting process to look ahead and figure out what needs to be done to get things ready for something in the future.

Here's some pictures of some of the animals out this spring....

The turkeys--as manly as ever!




Station and the geese:


Chirp: