A Bit Of Everything

It has been a couple of months since we did a blog about the farm.  We have been very busy, but it just hasn't seemed like there was anything very exciting to talk about.  NOW there IS!

The young chickens are starting to lay!!!!!

We kept telling everyone that we should have more eggs in July sometime, and I am sure that many of you were beginning to doubt it, but here is the proof!  :)

The young chickens (pullets) layed their first two eggs on Friday and have so far layed three more.  :)  Typically, the first eggs that a chicken lays are much smaller than "normal".  Below are some pictures and comparisons for you to see.

 

5 little eggs in Daddy's hand.  He could probably hold a full dozen in one hand.

 

In this picture, we are comparing the five little pullet eggs to the normal eggs that we have.

 

Another comparison is size.  I think you could probably line up a full dozen around one of our normal eggs.

  

One of our regular eggs (we sell these as large, but they are so big that we can't even weigh them......our egg scale doesn't go that high) and one of the pullet eggs (that is so small that its weight won't register on the scale either).

 

This is just a random picture of the milking girls when I went out into the pasture.  They always make a stampede toward me.   Chrys normally feeds the yearlings and the bucks so when ever they see him, they start hollering and carrying on for his attention.  I have really enjoyed that since they mostly ignore me when they see me.  Well, the last couple of days I have been the one to feed them and guess what........Now they want "my" attention EVERY time they see me!

 

This is Zanna.  We got her just before Christmas at the same time that we got Alvin.  Zanna is quite a mess.  Her favorite thing to do is to reach through her fence and pull your hair.  Our granddaughters don't like to go near her fence for that reason and I have to admit that I am not to fond of it either.  She has the hair pulling thing down to a science and it hurts pretty good.

 

An lastly is my ever faithful companion, Cammi.  It doesn't matter where I go, she is always nearby and patiently waiting on me..........unless she sees a bird, but even then she won't be gone long.

Cammie

Cammie is now almost a year old. If you remember, she was a birthday gift this year from my wonderful husband. It took her a long time before she really liked me. Seems that for the longest time she much preferred Chrys or Megan. Once I was home full time we became fast friends though......or maybe she just likes me now because it is usually just her and me......and the goats......all day long. :) At any rate, Cammie is always by my side now. We seem to do everything together. :)

Two things Cammie seems to hate are birds (which is ok, they don't stand a chance of getting in the gardens) and she seems to HATE having all of the dog bowls where they are suppose to be. We have six dogs. Five are Livestock Guardian Dogs (3 mature and 2 pups in training) and Cammie (who is a Sheltie and should be a herding dog, but doesn't seem to have a lick of herding instinct). Anyway, Cammie is always carrying off the dog bowls. Not just one or two, but ALL of them! I line five bowls up along the fence (about 10 feet apart in order to give each dog their own space) and I no more than turn my back and Cammie is carrying them off. The next day I have to go find them all again. It is like easter every day. The only bowl she doesn't carry off is the metal one that I left at the end of the shop.

Well, I'm a little slow I guess. After about three weeks of the daily dog bowl hide and seek game I finally got smart. I drilled a hole in each bowl then I ran baler twine through the hole and tied each one to the fence. Now Cammie can't carry them off and hide them. And when I go to mow along the fence all I have to do is throw them over the fence with the twine still attached and they will still be right where I need them to be. :)

I finally got all of this done on Saturday afternoon. Several of the twines have been taught where Cammie has attempted the dog bowl hiding game. :)

Cammi

I haven't posted any pictures of Cammi lately. Meg took some good ones of her this weekend so I thought that this would be a good time to show you how much she has grown and how pretty she is. Cammi is now 8 months old and we have had her for 6 months....and YES....she still loves Chrys and Megan more than she does me although now that I am at the farm full time, she does follow me everywhere and always waits patiently nearby until I am done with whatever I am doing.

Now.....If I could just get her to round the goats up for me at milking time.....

Cammi

I have several things to update on today, but I am going to put them into a couple of blogs to kind of keep the information seperate. First is just a couple of pictures of Cammi. She is sure growing! And she is always in perpetual motion so getting a decent picture is no easy task. Cammi is, evidentally, a "collector". She has all of these "treasures" that she collects and she wants to keep them all right by the door of the milk barn. It is really kind of cute , but it is annoying too. It gets to looking pretty trashy (even though these things are treasures) and I have no idea where she finds all of this stuff!

Cammi Jo

Cammi Jo is 8 weeks old now and has been a member of our family for 2 weeks (tomorrow). The first few days she did really well on her house training and then.......the snow storms hit. Really for the most part she is still doing really well. She loves her treats and those have not only helped in potty training but in teaching her to "sit" as well. She is actually doing very very well with that command.



This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard this strange noise and couldn't quite place what it was. A few minutes later Chrys comes back to the bedroom carrying Cammi and said, "Did you hear her?" Then her proceeds to open her mouth and show me a very bloody tongue! It seems that Chrys was stoking the fire before we left and little miss Cammi followed him out to the porch where we have a metal wood rack. Cammi proceeded to "lick" the metal and her tongue became stuck! Chrys was trying to get some warm water to "unstick" her tongue when she pulled it off of the metal. Poor baby! I hope she doesn't do that again, but I checked with Megan a little later and she said that she is acting fine.

LOL.......another day on the farm. :)

Weekend of Progress

It was a productive weekend. :)

Friday evening we went to pick up the newest addition to our farm family. Camouflage (aka Cammie) is a six week old Shetland Sheepdog. She is very very cute and "already" very very spoiled.

On Saturday we went to town and picked up a few supplies then we spent the afternoon trimming the goats feet and giving annual vaccines. Saturday evening we went to the winter meeting for the Tahlequah Farmers' Market. There was a good attendance and it looks like it will be another great market year.

Sunday was a good day. We got door #7 installed on the dairy barn and we also got all of the batting strips up on the ceiling of the creamery. Daddy is working today on getting the first coat of paint on those and then some caulking and another coat of paint and the ceiling will be done.

This evening will be spent making final preparations for this horrible winter storm that is suppose to assault us beginning tonight. I will get all of the feed barrels filled during my lunch hour today then will stop by the grocery store on the way home this evening. Once we get home we will make sure that the diesel and fuel cans are full, the wood supply by the door is full, the generator is operating properly and all of the extension cords are handy. We will also make certain that all of the critters have their hay feeders full and are tucked snugly into their appropriate housing area.

I will be very glad when winter is over, but I am thankful right now that it is still a full three weeks before our kidding season begins.

Stay safe and warm! We'll report in as time and weather conditions allow.