Uh- Yeah. SO this happened.

Part of why I've been so busy and WANTING to post about it, just not getting around to it?

Because this happened:

Oh so cute and fluffy. They've been around a couple weeks already and they've outgrown the little tub. That happened on week 2.

Week 2 also saw that all of them had wing feathers and the down markings are fading here and there. Still awfully cute though.

Now week 3 and they are beginning to get in their tail feathers and they are FLYING. Not far, but flying none-the-less. Especially to the top of the water canister. They love getting up higher than the other chicks and being the one looking down. Of course the dynamics insist that the chick on top gets knocked down by another occasionally and so on and so forth.


So, introductions....




This is Bunny. The coloration of it's down was all rabbit colored and mottled. Grays, tans, a little peach, BEAUTIFUL little thing. The feathers so far are lavender, grey, white and lightly tinted with gold.

This one is supposed to be an Easter Egger but has no promise for muff or beard development as of yet.

 S/he also tends to hop around a lot. So Bunny will probably stick as a name.

This chick is probably the most independent, but still enjoys a good snuggle. I think it will also be the first to spend the entire day outside by itself. (Safely enclosed in a cage of course)

Speckles, dotty, whatever is on the left.

This is our other Easter Egger, She does have wonderful ear muffs and shows promise of a small beard as well. This ones name started as Speckles, changed to Dotty, then.... well I don't think it's settled just yet.

 


This ones adult coloration is changing rapidly. red/gold with black circles on its feathers. It will be interesting to watch it develop. Just in the few days since I took these pictures the color pattern has changed.

Below are the two Brahmas. A light Brahma (Yellow chick) who's name is Fluffy. This one's name may be changed to Angel as I've caught the kids calling it that a couple times.

 




The black one in the back of the above photo is our dark Brahma. I've nicknamed this one PJ. It never really had a name, but always looks so scraggly, disheveled and the feathers on it's feet remind me of bedroom slippers. I'll have to get a better picture of that though because as soon as I pick it up it sits down. LOL


We are pretty well settled on at least one of these 4 being a roo. It's just a roll of the dice and even though all of them were sold to us a pullets (hens) it's a 10 to 1 chance of a boy from the breeder, and of course then you have the people who let their kids pick up the chicks and if they put it in the wrong box...well lets just say that I've found a 50/50 chance is normal hatch rates so anything better than that and you are lucky!

Only good news there is that if we have any roos it will make deciding who is staying and who is going much easier. No boys here, and I can't keep 4 more chickens...no way I could stay under the radar then!

So these have kept me busy beyond all belief but then this also happened....

Oh Boy...

As if I didn't have enough going on. She's sitting on 5 eggs. I didn't want her to have more than that. 1 has quit developing around day 6 or 7. So we have a chance at 4 ducklings. I'll keep you posted on that. Due date for hatching is around April 15th, So I'm thinking of duckling names like Uncle, Sam, Bill, Dollar, etc. Unfortunately those sound mostly male so maybe I should rethink that.

Anyone need a duckling? These ducks are absolutely gorgeous, and from what I understand good tasting, too. I can tell you this girl of mine laid an egg every single day from 22 weeks until she turned 1 year old, and then she promptly decided to sit. Even as a broody she's sweet as all get out. I can move her off the eggs and while the drake Swayze will come after me, he doesn't hurt me either.  <3 What a lovely breed. But, living on a postage stamp in an HOA means no more ducks for me...unless someone wants to trade a Welsh Harlequin baby or maybe 4 babies for a muscovy hen. Or even muscovy ducklings. I'm also willing to raise the ducklings for meat if you will come pick them up and do the butchering yourself. LOL

Nothing like Spring, huh? Babies everywhere. Good thing it's not contagious!

See you soon.

Barbie~

Harvest Monday?

Yup. I know. I blew it. Again. I keep forgetting to post my Harvests on Monday. Not like i haven't been doing this long enough to know by now. So. I guess today it's Harvest Tuesday! Wahooo!!!

We've been extremely busy around the house lately. Not just with harvests but lots of other things too. I havne't posted much the last few weeks and soon enough you'll find out why.

Meanwhile - The harvests right now are centered around my fruit trees. Persimmon and Pomegranates are the majority of what I am bringing in, but citrus and figs are also hitting the table pretty regularly as well...

My fruits are generally no spray. These pomegranates are no exception. Because I don't spray the outside rind of them gets speckled, and a bit ugly. But on the inside the arils are nice, plump and perfectly wonderful. These 6 below made nearly a gallon of arils. They are heading to the juicer tomorrow. :-) I can't wait for breakfast.

The persimmons turned into persimmon cake... This was better the 3rd day. It started out a little dry, but ended up nice and moist, a real treat!

OH! I nearly forgot. Also being harvested once again - EGGS! I'm SO incredibly happy about this. I had to break down and BUY eggs the last 2 months. Whats up with that? LOL.

That's it for my wonderful harvests. I know I had a few more that I didn't get pictures of, but my poor memory can't manage to keep track any more. I'm off to do some weeding!

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 8.25.14

Welcome back to Harvest Monday! Once again, I'd like to thank Daphne for sharing her links. Be sure to stop by Daphne's Dandelions to check out what gardeners are harvesting all over the world!

It's the last harvest for August and it's so appropriately timed. 

This week I harvested...Sweet Potatoes! 2 very large specimens. Perfect for a dinner side dish for all 5 of us. It's hard to believe just how big these spuds can get. They were both wonderfully flavored, but then again we were not looking for super sweet. These were sliced and roasted instead of baked and not sweetened. They offered just the right amount of sweetness without any sugar.

Um... and as it turns out I only took a picture of one. LOL. 

Don't let that picture deceive you. This sucker was larger than my hand and over a pound! The stem end there was as fat as a marker. The big news here? NO bug damage. I don't know if it's because I didn't let it store like I did last year or if things are finally evening out in the garden, but either way I'm very glad for it. 

I also harvested a decent sized bell pepper and another gypsy pepper. Those were used in a stir fry and a salad. The guavas are still coming, but most of the fruit now is gathered and eaten then or given to the chickens. They are in full molt mode and in just 3 days times my barred rock went from fully feathered to less than half feathered. She's not happy and hasn't laid in a week now. I don't blame her. All those quills everywhere must be uncomfortable. I might come show you later this week, but don't tell her. I'm pretty sure she'd never lay again if she knew I had shown you her pitiful self right now. ;-)

Kids went back to school last week as well. I can't get over it. They have grown so much over the summer. The difference in them now is astounding. They are actually in different sized clothing which almost never happens. Up until now the only thing I had to buy different for them was socks. Poor Katie got my big feet!

Aw, but isn't it sweet? The first virus of the school year has also been brought home. So much for being excited about going to a bigger school. The pitfalls of more kids is, more germs. Ho-hum. So Kate's home sick today and milking it for all it's worth. LOL. Just hoping Annah or any of the rest of us don't get it. We're supposed to be bringing the ducks up to Alabama this weekend. If we miss this opportunity then they will probably be with us until spring. That means at least one of the males will have to 'disappear' soon. If not 2. I can't have them chasing the girls around and causing a ruckus. The neighbors haven't complained yet, but I've got the girls sectioned off with only 1 of the males. The other 3 boys are in 'The bachelor pad.' So far this has worked pretty well and everyone gets along this way, but I tried putting them all together and it didn't go so well. A few of the boys are overly aggressive with the girl ducks. Now, there would be some advantages to keeping the ducks around for the winter. Eggs for instance. It would be GREAT to have a good supply of eggs over the winter. Oh, how awesome that would be. Besides it wouldn't be so bad to have duck on the menu for Thanksgiving or Christmas, either. 

Making my lists for the great Fall garden cleanup...

See you soon!

Barbie~

2/17/14 Harvest Monday

Hey there! It's Harvest Monday again! This weeks harvest includes most of the things you've been seeing here this winter. But this time I threw in something different, just for fun. LOL.

Cabbage made it on the list! Finally something different. I adore broccoli, but it's nice to have something else coming out of the garden, too. 

I got 2 of these bowls of broccoli from side shoots, and my head of cabbage as well. The hens are still giving me a decent supply of eggs. I've only gone 5 or 6 days the whole winter without one or the other of them giving me a little present. Good hens! I'm considering chicks right now, but it's such a catch 22. If I get chicks I have a better chance of being discovered. SO it's get new chicks, get rid of aggressive hen - BONUS... get chicks, get found out - BOOO!!! What's a gal to do? Additionally something has been getting into their pen lately. Food consumption has tripled. I'm thinking it's probably rats, and there isn't much I can do about that. I can't afford a $150 treadle feeder...so I'm not sure what else to do. :-( 

My first set of green beans is due this week. I can't wait to eat them!

Thanks Daphne for hosting, as always! Don't forget to check out her blog for loads of other harvests from around the world.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 11.18.13

Ah, it's Harvest Monday again. Maybe I should just start doing monthly installments.

I don't have much to share. I didn't take pictures of the last of the black eyed peas, or the single tomato that I got. My purple sweet potatoes are flowering like crazy (but that isn't a harvest, is it?) I got a few sprigs on cilantro as well. Things are super slow right now. I guess I need to really work on that soil problem so I can get the rest of my cauliflower in. It's no longer growing so at the least I need to up pot the little seedlings.

 

My neatest harvest this week? Crawfish!

 

We are heading to Alabama and this catch is coming with me. ALIVE! I also have a tank full of tadpoles to go as well. It will be nice to have these crustaceans in our pond though. I'm hoping for a few more to put in the lake as well. Then in a year or two we should have enough in there to harvest. I do love to eat crustaceans. They (all types, not just these) are some of my favorite food.

 

I am still getting a few eggs, but the laying has slowed considerably now. It's good and bad. I no longer have a large stash of eggs in the fridge waiting to be eaten, but then I also know that the laying will stop soon. Will I end up buying eggs before this is all said and done? That would be bad. I'm also no longer going out to the run as often. I find without my favorite hen out there it's harder to pay attention to the remaining two. Especially when one is aggressive. :-(  I guess it's time to start thinking about what I can do to remedy this situation once and for all.

 

Preparations are in order for our first fall hunt in Alabama. We are hoping for a turkey and quail for Thanksgiving and the first of the deer for the freezer. It's looking a bit shabby in there and it's time to refill! If it's warm enough we'll also harvest some of the fish from the lake. It will be good to get the freezer stocked again. I always worry that we won't have enough meat for the year and until the freezer is completely packed it will be on my mind.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 9.30.13

It's still September, and no- I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. It just seems like it. Linking into Daphne's Dandelions. (Sorry I missed y'all for so long!)

My harvest? Well they have been many but my brain refused to remind me to take many pictures. The last few weeks I've harvested green beans, (YIPPEE! They're back!) black eyed peas, lady peas (ha, that sounds dirty, doesn't it?) loads of sweet potatoes, a few leeks, some strawberries, (WAHOO!) lemons, limes and... I know there is something I'm forgetting here. Eggs. Yes, eggs. How could I ever forget them?

   The citrus is from the tree that I am treating for "greening disease" Following the protocol of antibiotics and an overabundance of fertilizer this tree did not produce edible fruit last year, but this years fruit is once again edible! I'm shocked but also aware that I am only prolonging the inevitable. I'll lose the tree eventually and if the replant any of the dead groves around me I'll take my tree out so as to not reinfect their new stock. Meanwhile though, I'm enjoying fruit again this year!





The leeks are a few representatives of what I pulled out of the garden over the last couple of weeks. These were destined for stir fry and some soup. I wasn't feeling well this past weekend and soup was just the thing for this Mamma.

Poor Dusty. I miss my little (OK, LARGE) girl. She had gotten down to a single tail feather and one side of her neck feathers were completely replaced already. She was looking rough, but really coming along nicely in her molting process. I think that within just another 10-15 days she would have been completely feathered in except the tail and ready to rejoin the flock again. It was nice to see her turning back to white. It was so strange that her down was grey. I don't know why I didn't think it would be. I have checked her thoroughly for mites time and again but never noticed that. Go figure. See that her feet had completely feathered back out again?

I now know why she passed away. She was murdered. It was an act of carelessness really. I did it, and I feel completely terrible. I didn't realize that her food dish in her isolation pen was holding water. It had rained every day that week, and her food had gotten moldy. I'm a bad chicken Mom. :-( Moldy food can kill a chicken quickly. She didn't act sickly at all. I spent a good hour outside with her as she preened and hunted up some grub the night before and she was acting completely normal so I know she went quickly and didn't suffer, but it still hurts to know I was responsible.




 Large eggs this week, and limes, too. The next round of seedlings are almost ready to go into the garden. If the rain will hold off for just a couple days it would be nice. The seedlings tend to do better with a watering rather than our crazy rains when they are first transplanted.

I pulled up a little more than half the sweet potato bed. Remember that this is the half I just harvested last month. I have continually harvested from this bed all year long as I needed them and yet I still had a decent yield. This bed is almost 4' square. After providing spuds all year long it gave me 4 taters that were unusable thanks to the rain (splitting) and 8 pounds of beautiful usable delectable sweet potatoes. These spuds are going to the crock pot to be used this weekend for my Father-In Laws Memorial. Well- for afterward when we all gather together.




Funny how funerals and food go together hand in hand. I guess that it's just a way to comfort ourselves.  We find comfort in each other and in food that we are familiar with. I'm going to put a crushed pecan and brown sugar crust on them. I'm hoping I'm not the only one that finds them soothing and comforting. TO me sweet potatoes always remind me of family coming together for the holidays and this is no exception. It may not be a holiday but we will all be coming together.

The other half of the sweet potato patch will be allowed to continue on until the first frost. The night before I'll go out and yank a few of the vines and keep them in a vase in the kitchen so I will have good starts for the next year. Sometimes I don't even need them!

Well- I think that's it. I'm busy with guests and arrangements and still trying to get the garden ready for those little seedlings. It's going to be a wild couple weeks. Hopefully things will settle down soon.

Be back soon!

Barbie~

What remains...

What remains?

What remains of the bees? This remains of the bees.

Soon the Bee Keeper will be(Bee?) Back to vacuum the few stragglers away and take them to the rest of the hive. Speaking of... The hive was much, MUCH larger than anyone realized. Jeff was thrilled to have received such a gift. The hive is very healthy and must have simply been hidden by the vines longer than we realized. Thankfully the vines are easily trimmed and the hive removed. If it had been in the trellis instead... :-( it would not have been as easy and the bees would have been very agitated.

What remains of a molting chicken? Solitary confinement. Not only that, but I don't really have the resources for solitary - so we have improv! I took a beat up old playhouse and made it into something that would do. At least for short term...

 

Do you normally have to put your hens into solitary confinement? NO! But, see I have mean red that like to pick on her and I came home to a BLOODY hen instead of a bald one. Poor baby. So into the pen she went. Good news is she's so darn concerned about pruning she couldn't care less that she's all alone. It's only been a week and she's already got 4 of her flight feathers back! What a mess she is.

My normally pristine WHITE bird is GREY, and dappled and....balding and....embarrassed!

 (here she has spotted me with the camera)

(now she is running away from the camera)

 

Below is her normal behavior. Running TOWARD the camera. LOL. What a difference. Look at that sparkling WHITE bird!

 

 It's hard to believe she is actually grey under all that white and hides it that well! Her face looks gargantuan without any feathers on it, and that tail? Oh, My! She looks like someone has already pre-plucked her for the frying pan. It's a good thing we love her. I can't wait until RED molts. There will be no solitary confinement for her. If she gets picked on, oh well. She deserves it! Mean old biddy! She needs to just be soup, but I can't seem to find the time to do it when the kids aren't around. When the chicks are in the feed stores in spring may just be the time for her to disappear. Then two brand new chicks can take her place. That may just do. LOL.

OH, Did I mention that Dusty is like- Super molter? She's only one week in - half bald (or more) and she LAID AND EGG this week! Yes, only one - but still. Would you? I sure as heck wouldn't! I'd be putting my feet up and telling my people to go lay their own dang eggs!

See you soon!

Barbie~

Tuesday Harvest? 9.3.13

You know when a Holiday falls on a Monday it throws me all kinds of out of whack!

 

It's like Monday just doesn't exist or something. Don't get me wrong. I'm OK with this fact. It means I've had one less day sitting behind my desk at work. ;-)

 

This past weeks harvest is kind of important though so I wanted to tell you about it. Not in so much as what I harvested but what I didn't harvest.

 

My blackberry bushes are forming berries again. The second crop is always much smaller than the first. I'm pretty good with this as it's usually sweeter as well. The larger berries are better for juice/jelly and such but these berries are better for fresh eating.

To wit - this is the only berry I managed to remember to take a picture of. This time of year the stalks are longer and weep closer or even all the way to the ground so it's a fight with the chickens over these if I forget to tie them up before I let the hens out for the afternoon over the weekends.

Not to mention I have to fight with the kids and myself over not just popping them in our mouths and eating them. Actually getting them inside for a picture is a feat in itself. This one got mangled on the way in. Then no one wanted to eat it because it wasn't as pretty. Well - boo hoo to them. It still tasted just as good!

 

 

 

It being September means the sweet potatoes have been in the ground for seven months now and I like to pull them up sometime between September and October. So I rooted around and found a few potatoes. What I found wasn't very encouraging. So I stripped the plants of any formed potatoes. My hope is that if I give the plants another 6 weeks I might have a last round of sweet potatoes to carry me through. What I got out form under the plants? 10 pounds of extremely split sweet potatoes and about 2 and a half pounds of usable ones. I also got a rogue carrot, and a snake skin. LOL. Never know what you'll find in such dense vegetation 'round here!

Split potato in front (vast majority were this way) only usuable ones in back. Snake skin and carrot on table, too. The kids thought it was funny that the little carrot formed. It wasn't bad considering it was a summer carrot. The shade from the heavy foliage must have helped the carrot but it was still rather bitter. Snake looks like a rat snake or garter. Both are very common here.

 

Last but certainly not least the eggs. This is what my eggs looked like this past week on Friday...

 

I had been getting 3 every day. Just like usual with a skip by the large bird about once a week, sometimes twice. She's not meant to lay 7 days a week so that's just not a shock there.

 

Friday, Saturday and Sunday I got 2 eggs a day and this is what the nest looked like:

 

Oh, my. I guess we know what is going on here. It's just that time of year after all. Thankfully for my birds they are going to be getting naked while it's still quite warm out. I feel bad for the birds up north that get naked when it's so cool at night, and even in the SNOW! BRRRRr..... Yesterday, on Monday? Only one egg. So it looks like egg production is down, feather production is up and my birdies will be looking rather disheveled for a while. I'm hoping it won't take too long. I'm also hoping it will set little Miss red on her rear! She's been pecking on Dusty when she's in the nest box and has managed to pick all of her neck feathers out. It would be good if this helped to change her temperament a little bit. *crossing fingers* If not I'll be buying two chicks in the spring to replace her and while my soup pot will be fat the hen house will get skinny. LOL. Just don't tell the kids. I don't mind them knowing where our food comes from, but these hens are their pets. After all they watch us quarter the hogs and deer. Meat and butchering is not a surprise to them.

 

Ah, so that was my Labor Day weekend. We enjoyed ourselves, puttered around the garden. Replanted the corn that didn't come up...(Oh, yes that is another post)  This week I'll tear out the squash that just up and died on me. *pout* and the circle of garden life continues on.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

 

 

Harvest Monday 8.12.13

It's Harvest Monday again.

I've decided to take the tally down. I don't keep track of how much I'm bringing in currently so it's pointless really. Maybe I'll put it back up. But, I realized that I never accounted for any of the blueberries, or the potatoes I harvested... much less the sweet potatoes I've harvested. I'm just not good at it. I know I've gathered over a hundred pounds this year. And the most productive time is yet to come. Heck, I had my garden completely out of order for a few months while I created the new beds. (I seriously love my new beds BTW)

SO, news for this week? I had a harvest to show you. I had a lovely bunch of green beans... well I should clarify. Green yard long beans in a bowl waiting to go inside. In the bottom of this bowl I had my cow peas. Pink Eye Purple Hulled and a couple holstein beans. I set the bowl down to go out and trim up the orchid tree where it was rubbing the fence... guess what I had when I came back?

Only the dried or drying cowpeas. All the green type beans for fresh eating were gone! THIEVES! DAB BLASTED... FREAKING FRACKING.... bushy tailed RATS!!!! Now, granted that I went from just trimming that single branch back to all out cutting a third of the tree down as it was encumbering my guava bush and it ended up taking me an hour - but sheesh! I'm guessing this may be part of the reason my harvests have gone down so drastically this summer. Not that I have a lot to harvest, but this was the frist time ever that I've actually been out working and had the critters steal stuff from under my nose. >:-( Grrr...

OK- Onto another interesting development. One of my little lovely fluffy butts has given me a little gift of wonderment. She normally lays eggs that are a plain pale pink but yesterday she gave me one that apparently went in for a second coat in the paint department. What a beautiful egg! I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to eat it.... wait a minute. I'm sure I'll get hungry enough at some point, but it will be hard to crack that pretty thing.

Normal above - Yesterdays speckaled job below

 Pretty eggs. Make for a yummy breakfast. Thanks Dusty! She's a great bird. Now that it's getting so close to Fall I'll have to start thinking about ways to preserve some of their eggs. They are all over a year old and likely to stop laying over the winter. (BOOO, HISS!)
 What would I do if I had to pay for eggs?


The main garden was turned under as promised and I sowed out this weekend: corn, roma bush beans, Kentucky wonder beans, pole Violetta, popcorn (different silking by 30 days) and watermelon. Also in the main garden is: Tomatoes - Betterboy, big huskey cherry, bog boy and solstice.
I also have a good 30 tomatoes chitting currently that are mostly determinate type for the high raised bed. These are due to be planted into the first cups today if it doesn't rain and I can get the mix on the way home. I should have a good 10 extra tomatillos if anyone needs some. LOL.

That's all the big news at the moment form this end. Things have been quite in blog land because summer is coming to a close and we have been busy making preparations and finding courses to enroll in. I'll delve more into that in another post since we have a complicated mix here. I hope the Back-to-school preparations are going well in your land, too!

See you soon!

Barbie~