Our new kittens!

In the early spring, a friend of the family had two kittens that needed a home.  At the time, Yellow Cat had disappeared and had been missing for quite a few weeks and we were sure that a coyote had gotten him. (and the day I agreed to take the kittens, Yellow Cat showed back up--fixed and his ear docked)

Then Man got sick....so the kittens got put on hold...fast forward a few months.  Our friend asked again if we would be willing to take the kittens in.  I had already said yes, and just the week before there were more mice causing chaos in the pantry so I said sure.

We we went to homeschool gym, knowing we were getting cats.  Knowing and thinking are two totally different things with me.  Did we know we were bringing home cats? Yes.  Did I think to put a carrier, box, SOMETHING into the car to put them in? Um...what do you think?

Did I have other errands I had in mind to do after gym?  Well, yes.  Is our son highly allergic to cats?  Again, Um, yes.  And Man, too?  ?  Then yes, lets just let the cats roam the car as we drive the 20+ miles home...and while I'm in the grocery store.  Sounds like an excellent idea!!

So without further ado....This one is named Molly...but is called Boots (Bootsie)

These cats could not look more different.  The one I'm holding looks like a Siamese.

Her name is Asia.

Yellow Cat (Timmy) is not so sure about these new residents...

And the kittens aren't so sure about Danny...

A Day in the life...CSA Day (Picture Intensive!!)

One of the items on the 101 list was to do a "Day in the Life" blog post.  

It was requested that I do a CSA delivery day.  I didn't feel like it was a "typical" day as I am off the farm and in town, but then when I thought about it, yes, twice a week this is a typical day.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, I pack up the "little dump truck" with all the farm goodies for my wonderful friends/customers that have are subscribers to various items off the farm.

After the morning milking (no pictures of that....until I get a staff photographer, not enough hands to milk AND take pictures!), we load up the car and head the 25 miles south to the city to meet with my wonderful ladies.

This day, Boy went with me because he was going home with one of his best buds (whose mom is one of our friends/customer, too) for a sleepover and fun at one of the local water parks.

After the pickup, I also had food to take to my Reyn BFF, as her father-in-love had just passed away and I only know one way to comfort...food.  This ended up being a whole 'nother "Rea" fiasco because later I discovered that I had left the food at the wrong house, and the residents were sure that the chocolate chip cookies I left must have been poison.....sigh. 

And what timing!  My car turned over a milestone while I was out! 

(And yes, I am aware that there are TWO check engine lights, and that I am out of gas!) 

After all the deliveries, over to Sam's to pick up coffee (something I am not able to grow on the farm) 

And fuel, because everyone gets nervous when I am out driving on fumes. 

And briefly looking at a new "milk mobile" because of the check engine lights..

Then finally a stop at the grocery to pick up prescriptions and my vice, Diet Citrus Drop (something else I can't grow on the farm -grin) 

Then back to the farm by 3 pm.  

Unload the car.

Milk jars to be sterilized.

Brief nap to take.

Then chore time....chores were a bit longer tonight as my Boy was off having a blast!

This is our only named chicken, Omlet.  She lets us pick her up and pet her.

More about her soon!

Taking care of my "flock" of turkeys.  OK, it's only 2:  a male (Stuffing) and female (Cranberry). 

Omlet is their 'pet chicken' too.

Taking care of the "girl dogs" Kristl and Iona.

Taking care of the 'herd' of rabbits.  Currently 38.

And the Twins!  They are getting so big!!

Miracle (left) and Franci (right)

Mama Cow, Hershey, out on her pasture line.

And Yellow Cat waiting patiently for his dinner.

Calling the hens for their dinner (sorry the video is choppy)

After all the Critters are fed and watered, it's time to go in and feed the people.  After fixing dinner, eating, and doing dishes, it's time to go do some work in the gardens.  

Danny Dog is my farm dog and comes along for all the chores....plus, he LOVES raw beans so he keeps me company with the hopes of getting a few (and usually does!)

This is the brassica patch in the front and behind that is the bean patch.

The Roma tomatoes are finally starting to change to red!!

Then as the sun gets ready to go down, it looks as though a storm is rolling in...

and I was able to get some amazing pictures of the sun rays!

And off to the house to finally get some sleep before it starts up again tomorrow morning!

Baby it's cold outside!! Animal Updates!

So it's the second day of sub zero temperatures.  Weeee!  I LOVE my new coveralls that the guys got me for Christmas.  They are pink-alicious!! AND WARM!!  I will definitely never get lost in a snowstorm....Raspberry colored coveralls, Lavendar Boots, and my Sky Blue Grandma Coat. (And don't forget my new "darth vader" ish face mask and -22 degree ski gloves!!)  I AM READY!!!

Time for animal updates.

And so far, so good.  All the animals are surviving.  They are all locked into either the barn or the coop.  We haul out hot water twice a day (sometimes 3 times) to make sure everyone is drinking and to help warm them up.  I have 10 chickens that have decided they are "too good" or "too wise" to hang out in the coop.  These are the 5 meat chickens that really need to go to "camp" and 1 rooster and my 4 oldest hens.  The majority of the occupants of the chicken coop are the 30 "teenaged" pullets that can start laying-any-day-now-thanks! and the ducks.  (I'm to the point of being ready to rehome the ducks too.  They won't go to freezer camp because we don't like to eat them. I'll have to find someone that does.)

We lost 3 of our rabbits before the cold really started.  It's sad because all of the rabbits currently are the ones with names that have been here for over a year and have given us litters.  All the ones that generally remain nameless (because they will eventually feed us) went for their drive in November.  We lost Waldo (AKA Killer) our big New Zealand White Buck.  He was very friendly, and loved to be scratched.  He was the daddy to most of our litters.  We don't know how old he was when we got him, and he started stumbling and not keeping his balance and then we just lost him.  Then there was our Florida White Buck, Lightning.  He scratched his eye and it got infected.  We treated the infection for almost 3 weeks.  One night I brought him in for his nightly wash out and treatment and he was fine...I made a decision that I was going to keep him in the house until he was well (something we DON'T do-keep rabbits in the house) and as I was telling Boy to go get me a cage to keep in the laundry room, he (the rabbit--not the Boy!) thrashed his legs, screamed and died.  It was very upsetting!  He was very docile and sweet so it wasn't the stress of being held...I think the infection took over more than his eye...and at least he died being held and loved.  Finally was the most upsetting, it was my "designer" rabbit that we got "free with purchase."  We bought some cages and she came with the cage.  She was a Trianta rabbit which is a fairly rare breed.  She was gorgeous with bright auburn hair.  She gave us a really nice litter this past summer.  She passed right after Christmas.  And even sadder is that her namesake is one of my Besties.  :(   We also don't know how old she was when she came to us, she wasn't actually sick, so we're going to call it old age also.

So we are down to 11 rabbits, and 1 is promised as a delayed Christmas gift.  My Man has been researching a new breed that we are going to incorporate into the rabbitry.  They are called AlTex Rabbits.  As soon as it is warm enough to bleach down cages, we're going to get just an AlTex Buck and breed him with our New Zealand Girls.  We have two that are currently (hopefully) bred.  We'll see around the 15th of this month if they took (fingers crossed!!)  Bred is Rexella (our new white New Zealand Doe that actually was born and raised here.) And Shadow, The Boy's black lop bunny.  We'll breed our other lop next week for Easter Bunnies.

Weldon is getting BIG!  He is doing just fine in the cold. He has his routines and doesn't like when they are messed with.  The other night I watered him and then had to go get feed from the chicken feed for the "uppity" birds in the barn, and he ran to the door out to the pasture and didn't just MOO at me to get back there to feed him his nightly ration of sweet feed...but seriously BELLOWED the whole time I was walking away.  And didn't stop until I turned around and was heading back to the barn.  Silly Bull!

Our Yellow Cat (Timmy) has taken to disappearing for days at a time, but I have recently discovered that I am pretty sure he actually is living in the loft and usually can't be bothered to get out of the hay to come be social.  Unless I call for him, which means I have some scraps for him and Iona.

When I went out to the barn this morning, I hadn't seen Yellow Cat for 3 days.  I had prayed over all the animals in the barn as I listened to the 30+ mile-an-hour winds that howled all night causing -20 degree + windchills.  I prayed an extra prayer that I would see the cat, so I would know he was not out on a prowl...I came into the barn this morning to find the cat cozily sleeping in the dog house, basically under the Pyrenees.  That is one smart cat.  That is the best place in the barn--under a big dog blanket!!  Iona (the Pyrenees) loves Timmy.  We are so blessed that all the animals get along!!  And I was blessed to see that the cat (and everyone else) was doing just fine.

In the house....it's COLD!  It's a very old, very drafty farmhouse, even with the new siding and putting plastic up on the window.  We have suspected for the last few weeks that there is a blockage of some sort in the chimney as we get smoke every time we open the door to add wood.  And really we don't seem to be getting much heat from it.  So tonight we will have to forgo our woodburner....(softly crying) and go with the emergency back up heat pump (that seems to only work well if it's OVER 30 degrees) and crank up the electric blankets. The fireplace needs to be completely cool when they come to work on it.  I think the predicted NEGATIVE 10 degrees will cool it down sufficiently, don't you??

Yellow Cat

Yellow cat only comes around at chore time.  But he is my buddy and does love to be scratched...just not picked up!

 

 

 

Black Cat looking for milk.....can you tell how much we starve our cats?

 

It seems my life revolves around....

...this bovine!

 

It was warm enough today that I let the chickens and ducks out to free range. 

This is what it looked like on my path to the barn tonight:

 

In the barn, another "peaceable kingdom" picture. 

This sad rooster has been relagated to the barn.  His comb got all frostbitten and bloody on the first really, REALLY cold night.  Then the blood was covering his nose and air passages and he was making a terrible wheezing sound.  I was sure he was as good as dead, so I kept him in the barn away from the other chickens.....alas...two weeks later and he seems to be fine.  And started crowing again this morning.  This evening he was sitting on the stall wall behind the rabbits, and then Yellow Cat hopped down from the loft to see what was going on. 

 

 

Finally the view from the Barn as I finished up chores...

 

Quick Saturday Updates

So here it is the end of April...obviously it wasn't this month that I posted faithfully as promised in my 101 list...May...May will be the month!  (Oh, and there are updates on the 101 list-I'm slowly working on it as health allows.)

I wanted to do a quick list of what is going on here at the farm, in our little world, etc..(my BFF did a bulleted list and I thought...what a great idea!)

• Boy's play is today.  It is so cute.  He ended up being "Fozzy bear" from the Muppets.  I've had several mom's tell me that they knew he wanted to be Elmer, but that he was the perfect choice for Fozzy...."Hey..Ker....mit! Wakka, wakka, wakka"  They did it yesterday for the video cameras...today for an audience.
• My parents are back from their winter hideaway.  Glad to have them home.
• Easter was a quiet affair this year, because I got signals crossed.  So Boy cooked his first holiday meal and did a great job.
• I've had 3 more doctor appointments since I last posted.  Still have TN.  Still have depression aggravated by having TN.  Went to see another Dr last evening...changed meds yet again.  I'm sure they will figure out the right cocktail soon.  Another appointment next week (?) to be referred out to the neuralogist (sp?) as the attacks are still doing a number.
• We have two ducks sitting on nests.  They were the from the clutch of ducklings from last year.  We still have two drakes, but "Duck Stew" is going to be going to the processor soon along with a few of the hens.  I've never had duck, but have heard that Muscovy is the least 'greasy' of the ducks. 
• We are now getting about a dozen and a half eggs a day...along with a few random guinea and duck eggs.  But it is an egg hunt on a daily basis.  They have picked a few odd places around the farm that they all seem to like to lay, so we have to check the corner of  Boy's club house (horse stall), in the rabbit nest boxes (that are in storage), the corner under the rabbitry, oh and 2 out of the 12 nest boxes.
• We still have both kittens.  I took them out of the chicken brooder and put them in their own cage.  We I went back later, I apparently didn't latch the cage well because they were both gone.  After hunting through the barn (in the dark--only with a headlamp) I gave up and went to check on the baby chicks....only to find the kittens in the sleeping pile of chicks...Oh well!
• The garden is about to go in.  We've been working (in between the periods of pouring rain) to get all the stuff yanked out.  I'm going to try a different method of planting this year.  I was told by a local, that if you till the soil, it restarts the horseweed (otherwise known as ragweed!),  So at least in the tomatoes and peppers, I'll only till the rows where the plants are going and leave the rest untilled.  
• The root veggie patch will still be completely tilled.  I've chosen a new area to add corn.
• We are about to add some bigger animals.  We will be using Joel Salatin's model to have moveable pastures to grown broilers (chickens), a dairy cow and a few mowers (goats).  Possibly even a "salad bar beef" (Grass fed meat) cow, and a few pigs.  Also, we are scheduled to go look as some meat rabbits. (New Zealands this time.)
• This week will be getting the rabbitry bleached and sanitized for the new rabbits.
• Both the push mower and riding mower refuse to start and have taken the last spin, so we are looking for a cheap mower until the animals can get the fields under control.
• We have gotten a set of solar panels that we are excited to figure out!
• I have found some crazy ideas on the internet that I am going to see if I can make work here.  I'll keep you updated on this...but one of them involves lots of pop bottles, another a bunch of cans!  Good thing we like soda pop!
• We watched a DVD the other night, Food, Inc that reinforced our position of eating locally and in season.  I am still going to the grocery store...and I know our sodas are not healthy or local, but that seems to be the only thing I am buying there anymore.
• I changed the 1001 cupcakes on my 101 list to 800 jars canned.  And I have some unusual recipes for new jellies this year!

Well, my bulleted list is just as long as a regular post. And I'm not done!!  No, I'm not wordy at all!!  :)  I WILL POST EVERY DAY in May!!   Even if it is only short.  Tune in.

Really...we aren't cat people....

So I'm driving home in the dark last night...going down our country road.  There was a car ahead of me and I see him swerve.  So I slow a bit down and then see what he was trying to avoid.  Two very small crawling things in the road.  VERY SMALL.  I missed them and then stopped.  Wrestled with myself...look into my feeble mind  "we are NOT cat people.  Boy and Man are very allergic to them...Man worse than Boy.  We do NOT need another mouth to feed.  But they are so small..and it's supposed to get down to 35* tonight...I can't believe someone would dump kittens on a country road...we do NOT need cats...well maybe one as a mouser in the barn might be alright....no one is taking cats...if they go to the pound....I could put them on Craigslist.  No Cats!! " Meanwhile Boy is sitting there "Mom, what are you doing?  Why are we just sitting here? Where are you going?  What's that?  Mom?!?  A cat!  Another cat!! Can I keep them??"

The black one is "Tom" and the Honey-colored one is "Molly".  We put them in a box in the chick brooder last night to keep them warm.  The box seemed to come up to the mesh, but this morning we found Molly..

Sleeping with the chicks!!