Happy Birthday!

To me! Just wanted to share that it's my birthday!

Merry Christmas!

Free-Ranging Here we Come!

All of the big flock went into the coop to roost after their accidental free-ranging, so we are going to be free-ranging everyday again!

They're lose!

All of the big flock got lose today, so I opened up their run in the hopes that they go back in on their own tonight. I'll hopefully get a chance to post tonight to tell you what happens.

Runs and Runaways

Yesterday we had an incident, when I got home the BA/EE hen was out of the run and running around and with no hope of catching her and no time, I let her enjoy her time out and about. Why didn't I have the time to catch her? Well honestly because I had to go Christmas shopping, because I had almost nothing bought. So after shopping we got home after dark and I went looking for her.

First I checked the coop just in case she had gotten back in, which she hadn't then I moved on to searching the trees. Only to find that she was roosting in the tree next to the old coop, were I had had problems with them roosting before the move. So I pulled the tree branch down a bit, grabbed her legs and pulled her out of the tree and back into the coop.

So today with not being quite sure how she escaped I replaced the big flocks run with taller fencing which had been formally part of the two dog runs before they where partly ripped apart (some left behind) to make room for my old coop and then where being used as garden fencing. Unfortunately this decreases their run size, but it should keep them in.

Then I took the big flocks old run fencing and made a run for the cochins and Kernel.

  Which all of the cochins checked out and had some run eating grass. Kernel hasn't figured it out and he may not with his eyes, but the girls will enjoy it. Hopeful next spring I will get around to real runs and some time this winter the big flock will be free-ranging. And to finish off this post her are some pictures of the flocks!

 I apologize for the mess these guys side of the coop is they keep dumping water (working on solving this) so I need to clean out all the wet bedding, plus they are right under their roosts.

Temporary Run

The main flock enjoying their new temporary run yesterday, which is made from some of the gardens fencing and post. The plan is to keep them in this run for a week or so and then try to start free-ranging.

Part of What I Thankful For....

New Coop!

I hurt....

I am so sore, it isn't even funny. I just finished with a lot of help from my sister and a little from my mom cutting down and moving parts of a tree in prep for the new coop. Which is arriving tomorrow! There will be a lot of pictures of it, probably Friday due to having plans tomorrow night. 

Blue Eyes Passed Today....

Blue Eyes and her son Magara

Blue Eyes passed away today. I'll do a post all about her later but I can't deal with that right now, I'll just start crying again. She was about 14 years old this year.

First Snow

Today was the first snow of the season, if it's still there tomarrow I'll take some pictures. Also I've started work on taking down a limb of a tree for the new chicken coop.

Pumpkin Weigh-in

I just weighed my pumpkins for a fun little compilation on The Easy Garden. So I thought I would share the weights for my pumpkins on here too. I gave them numbers so it's easier to keep them strait.
 

1- 6.5
2- 4.2
3- 3.4
4- 2.5
5- 4
6- 3.8
7- 3
8- 5.4
9- 2.4
10- 3.8
11- 1
12- 1.2 (the one with the chicken bite)

Where the deer and the chickens play....

I think Otter is gone....

Most of the cats are on the deck at least once a day or at least every other day. But a few days ago Otter (grey stripe in the above picture) stop showing up He had been having trouble and loosing weight, and we where getting worried about him. But I'm starting to think he has passed, many cats go off on their own to die.

We have no idea on his age, due to his history. He was dumped out in the country by someone who no longer wanted him. We belive that he was no longer wanted because A: He talked, loudly, when he wanted attention and B: He was never taught manners, as in he had no idea counters where off limits.   But he was very loving, even if he was a little annoying and he got along with all 6 of the other cats. We will miss you Otter.

Fall Harvest

Here are the pictures of my harvest I haven't posted yet, up till now:

 And on Saturday for fear of frost, which it didn't, (It snowed in town Sunday morning, but it didn't stick) I did my major harvest because gourds will rot in storage if they get more then a little frost. I have a little left to harvest, carrots and potatoes for one but those can last until the ground freezes, and if the weather holds out I might have some more gourds to harvest and more tomatoes.

 This one the chickens had a taste of:

 This bright orange pumpkin I harvested last week, next to it is my only watermelon:

I will be posting....soon....

I will get back into the routine of posting, soon, at the moment I'm so tired it isn't even funny and this weekend isn't going to help as I'll be running ever single day.

I need to post the start of my pumpkin harvest and I need to do some major harvesting soon. But that is going to have to wait until at least tomorrow..

3 to 4 Weeks!

And I will have a new chicken coop! It will be divided into two sections so Kernel and his girls can have their own space. There will be plenty of pictures when it gets here, but before it gets here I need to remove some branches for the apple tree (it will be against it) and get some gravel to level out the space. Updates to come!

Their Getting Along!

Introduced the girls to Kernel yesterday and everyone is getting along fine, even if they are ignoring each other for the moment. Pictures soon (they can all walk under his chest, with clearance!) I need to charge my camara batteries.

I've been busy with the garden and am over run with tomatoes! But I don't think I'll be planting Chocolate Strips next year, they didn't produce much and what they produced went bad fast. Our first frost hit last Thursday so I'm hoping I can get everything in (and ripe, I have some very green pumpkins) before our first bad frost, this one just killed some gourd leaves. Today the smaller of the EE/BR roosters (who are still looking for a new home(s)) got in the garden and was running around having a good old time.

There in the coop!

The bantam cochins are out of my room and our now in a cage in the coop! Tonight I plan to introduce them to Kernel. My room got a good vacuuming but still needs some dusting and a little more cleaning overall, but it is so nice to have them outside!

Almost Move-out Time!

One Week to Go!

Until the bantam cochins are out of quarantine (woot!) and can move out of my room to the coop, we will see how they get along with Kernel. 

5 out of 5!

All five hens old enough to lay, layed today.

This is what happens....

When you haven't harvested for almost a week: 3 zucchini, an eight ball squash, 2 Mortgage lifters, about 13 Riesentraube, and about 17 of the hybrid babies :

New Egg

Looks like the Buff bantam cochin is laying!

Todays Tomatoes and Eight-ball Squash

Harvest So far this Week

My harvest from two days ago and I have more to harvest. The large ones are the chocolate strips, 2 small round ones Riesentraube , and the others the hybrid/hybrid cross/volunteer:

and the All Blue Potatoes I harvested the same day:

And I've got more tomatoes to harvest today.

First Tomato Harvest of 2011

The ones to the left are Riesentraube ("giant bunch of grapes") and the ones to the right are the babies of last years hybrids that popped up.

These guys are Chocolate Stripes and I'm trying to figure out if they are ripe yet:

One of the marigold:

And these are some of the evil bugs in my garden:

The Girls!

The Buff one (I really need to name them) who is about 13 months:

The black and white mottled about 3 months old, who would not stop moving so after about a million pictures here is what I got:

and the pretty little white one, also 3 months: