Let's Use Up Some Pictures

The hens have been very busy re-arranging my flower pots. 

Forcing me to resort to this!!!

I have forks in some pots, spoons in the others. 

They can't settle now!

That doesn't mean I am not still finding eggs in other odd 

places, I heard cackling from the sheep barn this morning, so 

will be checking in there.... and I found two in a zinnia bed yesterday. 

Here is your blogger at Island Creek Schoolhouse last week 

for class for a tour. 

It was MIGHTY warm that day, notice my unbuttoned collar.   I had 

windows and the back door open, but my dress was soaked at the end of the tours. 

I have to admit I was glad to change back into shorts and a shirt, how did they ever do it? 

I try to be there early, so it was very peaceful that morning... for a while. 

African Violets are blooming like crazy on my east-facing 

kitchen window sill.  We had actually had a tiny bit of rain the night before. 

The six Gold Comet babies love to nest together in their feed bowl at night. 

I might have bought a few more plants at a 50% off sale. 

Two weeks ago, I started giving this to Lilly, who has a torn ACL and is not a candidate for surgery, due to her age and weight.  At the end of April, I had actually made an appointment for her 

euthanization, but decided to try to make her comfortable and give her a few more months. 

My gosh.  

She is now limping only slightly, bearing weight on that leg, has enough 

pep that I literally have to keep an eye on where she is when she is 

outside, because she is going after Singleton, who gets out daily. 

The other morning she CAUGHT a chick.  (she dropped it on command, and it lived) 

The following video is from the hen house, she could not even get up the five steps into it a few weeks ago.  She actually caught a mouse as soon as I stopped taking, but dropped it as she got back out to the yard. 

I thought you might enjoy seeing pictures from the game camera. 

A very pregnant raccoon has been coming to eat nightly. I thought she 

was already nursing, but I am not so sure. 

This was taken the night before last, she looks pretty pooped out. 

While I have the standing feeder out in the pasture, I leave some at the front of the 

hen house for Harley to find.  

Petey eats in the pasture feeder every night, 

so does the Tabby cat, and also Rusty and Spooky. 

Here let me say that I was feeding up to four sacks of 

cat food weekly, there were so many wildings eating it. 

I use maybe one a week now, MAYBE. 

I do still feed some wet food. 

I am studying how to cut back on my wild bird feeding, it is by far the most expensive feed I buy.  There is a huge portion uneaten, and I am studying it daily to see what IS being eaten. 

I cut the pasture on Tuesday. 

Every time I drove under a mulberry tree, I had to stop to eat. 

Here are the Cayuga ducklings at 5 weeks.  I have them in a separate cage now. 

However, I am dying to put them with the teenagers.

The Gold Comets at five weeks. 

These chicks are some of the most excitable I have EVER handled. 

I can't explain to you all how badly the hen yard is smelling because of the 

baby ducks being confined there. 

IF you have a chance to raise ducklings DON'T.  I 

have always had adult ducks... these confined babies are 

just almost beyond tolerating, cute as they are.  They are poop machines and I am PRAYING my neighbors cannot smell them. 

No one wants to be near them, let alone me.  I have to change their 

water four times a day... UGH. 

And, here, just to prove that I really DO drive Thunder, 

I am coming in the gate, with a load of paint and a piece of siding for the haybarn.  Grandson Chris took this picture. 

And just as an aside, every single time I tried to load a picture of the 

DUCK HELL HOLE in my hen yard, it would not load.  I tried at least seven times. 

Interesting! 

Where to Start...

My gosh, we are rocketing along in the year!

Northeast Kansas had winter-like weather all the way to the end of 

April, and now we are in the middle of summer heat, with temps 

in the eighties, and even ninety yesterday on Mother's Day. 

Six "started" pullets came home with me from the feed store on 

Saturday, and somehow, two little tiny Cayuga ducklings ended up in the order. 

"Started" meaning they didn't sell at a day old last week. 

Hmmmm. 

I mistakenly called the ducklings Anconas on FB and Insta, because I want 

Anconas badly.  (they are good egg layers). 

Now I will have black and white ducks.... with the big four 

already here. 

You know, these guys. 

LOOK AT THAT ORANGE BILL!!!

I am so glad for them, as their bills were totally white when I brought them home. 

I am hoping the two little Cayugas are ducks,  not drakes, but we shall see. 

I must be nuts to take on more tiny babies. 

I am nutso about fresh water, and check them numerous times a day. 

In fact, I was just out there. 

I have tours for the next three mornings, so will be worrying in the back of my mind. 

I may put a second water in there for those mornings. 

I am still trying to get the rest of the perennials in and cut the saplings OUT... but these girls are NOT HELPING ME. 

 My buddy. 

Yes, Lilly Ann is still with us, too. 

I found this four foot long black rat snake out by the 

old walnut stump yesterday morning. 

I suggested he go over to the hen spa and help me out.  

It worked. 

I am hoping he starts working on the prolific mouse population, because I am 

still a week away from cleaning the hen house and re-bedding it. 

There are just too many tours this week. 

The babies are in the brooder on stilts, and I had the guy make it 

with hardware cloth instead of poultry wire, so snakes cannot get through. 

Last week, I took delivery of a new hen house. 

This is the interior.... there is a nest box and a sturdy roost. 

It looks huge, but it is actually only 8 x 10, and sits right next 

to the hen spa. 

If you can believe this, I FORGOT TO HAVE THE GUY CUT A
POPHOLE. 

I need to get it fenced, and then I'll move the babies into it. 

I also have a guy who can run some outlets over to it, 

for lights and to run a water base in winter. 

I am not going to put an elaborate fence around it, 

like the hen spa yard, but enough to dissuade the 

raccoons.  Remember, these are in the yard, not the pasture. 

See it sitting next to the hen spa? 

See the weeds in the perennial bed???

Still working on them. 

This is a Baltimore Oriole on one of the hummingbird feeders. 

He tried so hard to get sugar water. 

The day I bought the chicks/ducklings, I bought an

oriole feeder and put grape jelly and sugar water in it. 

Then I didn't see the oriole for two days. 

Just ten minutes ago, when I went out to check the water for the chicks, 

the oriole flew off the feeder!  Hooray!

I love the wild birds as much as my chickens. 

You need to peer at this picture closely.  Every morning when I 

go to take care of the tweenage chicks in the little red hen house, 

I leave the gate to the hen yard open. 

This is what I am finding now on a daily basis... the sheep chew 

their cuds in the shade of the hen house, see them under there? 

Keith would never have dreamed of this, and I am sure he is 

laughing at me up in heaven.   They are also grazing that yard down, for which I am thankful. 

I regularly get closeups on the game camera. 

I LOVE these girls and babies. 

My neighbors Troy and Kathy told me yesterday that they are 

really enjoying sitting out on their deck and seeing the lambs playing in the pasture. 

So am I. 

Of course, these guys are still around, too.  I am about to 

foil them, though, as I have found a carpenter to make 

the raccoon-proof feral cat feeder for me, and they are going to have to 

make do with spillage in the future. 

I haven't only been working on the place, though, 

I got to go out a week ago to see The Little River Band 

who were appearing here locally.  Keith and I had seen them five 

years ago in Ottawa (and I had seen them several times in the past). 

A new member is missing off to the right in this picture, who had a great voice and played 

great. 

Wayne Nelson has been the lead singer for many years, as the band 

transitioned from it's Australian origins to being an all-American band, 

but they played the good oldies so very well, and had the whole theater 

rocking.  If you have a chance to see them, GO. 

I end with this picture taken yesterday at the ballpark, where Jax was 

playing in a tournament.  The coaches of his team made a 

presentation to the mothers/grandmothers who were present, the 

moms got red roses and a cookie, and grandmas got pink roses. 

It was a HUGE surprise, and almost made me cry.  As you can 

see, the sun was beating down, and I actually had my sun glasses on, 

it was hot and humid.  Amy was as surprised as I was, and it was a wonderful 

gesture on the coaches' part. 

I have some good pictures and videos of the setting of the 

new hen house, and I'll try to post them this week. 

The days are rushing by, I don't know where the year is going.