Last week we took the last 10 meat chickens to be butchered. Well, I thought it was the last 10 birds...after returning from the processor...two more were lurking around. We have a bit of a challenge with "chicken math". Two nights before it was time to take them, I tried to count the number of birds we have. There are so many right now that I don't really break it out by what they are...just a beak count. I came up with 73. THEN we took 10 to the processor...so it should be 63, right?? I counted 67...then found 4 more sleeping in a tree...HUH?!?! So God multiplied where I subtracted. Since then we have lost 3. We had gone almost 6 weeks without finding a dead bird, so it was a bit disheartning to start counting again only to have them go and die on me. So I think we are at "about" 70 birds.
- 2 silkies (Professor & Princess)
- 3 adult Muscovy Ducks (1 Drake-Drake, 2 hens- Brownie & Quack)
- 6 "teen" Muscovies (1 Drake, 5 Hens)
- 1 Turkey (Thanksgiving-whom I think has been dieting as he is not ready for Thursday)
- 11 Guineas (2 white, 8 purple, 1 white & purple)
- 2 "left over" meat birds
- 2 roosters (Boo the Americauna and Mohawk the Rhode Island Red)
- 43 Hens (20 newish Americaunas, 2 newish RIR, and some of our named birds including the original Buffy and Muffy and Arica. Also Susie and Gibby-Gaby)
- Robbie (Buck-Californian)
- Meg & Mollie (Does-Californians)
- Spot (Buck-Lop)
- Sweetie & Frosty (Does-Lops)
- 2 Teen Californians that need to be "checked"
- There is a possiblity that I will be picking up another female "mini-lop" today.
We still have the 3 dogs. Kristl, the inside Eskimo Princess. Danny, the inside Eskimo Spazz (who was fixed on November 8th and just finished wearing the "Cone of Shame". and Iona, our barn dog Pyrenees. She is getting on the thin side so we are working on getting her fattened up for winter. Also, we are not completely convinced that Danny didn't have a romantic interlude with her before his trip to the vet....those cold be some interesting looking pups!
Friends of ours has asked if we would consider keeping a meat cow on the property for them. We are considering it. There is the whole fence situation...some areas are not very secure....and I'd like to have a goat or two to take care of the weeds and such. If we do keep a steer for meat....I'm thinking we ought to have one for milk too. But that's kinda getting the horse before the cart....oh and speaking of a horse....JK!
Our church had a "Thanksgiving" dinner last night. I didn't get to go because of work, but the guys went and took my entry for the Cranberry contest. Each family needed to make a dish with cranberries in it. It could be dessert, salad, etc. I made a Cranberry and Apple Crisp Bake with Honey Crisp Apples. There were 18 entries....and I got 3rd!! WOOT! So I hope I wrote down.....somewhere.....what I did!
So there's a quick update as to the happenings on the farm. I am looking to redo the blog so it has tabs and catagories instead of having 6 different blogs going on. I have been accepted as a local and national blogger for an online magazine site so I need to get this stuff figured out soon. The bonus of having deadlines for my blogging is that you will now get more timely updates! There will be tabs for homeschooling, homesteading, canning, scrapbooking, and also one for Zachary's "Smiles for Sam" blog...which was also updated this week. There are also some other things that I am working on that will be a cool addition if I can get it worked out....hopefully by January.
Stay tuned.....and please comment!
1 comment:
CONGRATS!!!
I'm so proud of you and i look forward to reading the pieces you publish.
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