Pages

Sunday, March 23, 2014

March Farm Update + Tabby's Federation results

I haven't given a farm update in awhile and yesterday I determined I would do one today.  So when I took Solomon outside yesterday afternoon, I took along my trusty camera.  We walked into the chicken coop and I snapped a picture of our broody hen's adopted eggs, and then thus said trusty camera proceeded to break.  Horrors!  The off/on switch completely stopped working.

Honestly I feel almost like my arm has been cut off.  I bought that camera during Lilly's life and took pictures of her almost daily.  And after she died, I have continued to take pictures almost every day.

Hmmmm ... I'm wondering what the first picture I took of Lilly with that camera was?  Let me check!  Flashback:


Awwww ... how sweet!  It's of Tabby & Lilly on a Sunday.  (June 2011)

OK - back to the farm update.  Earlier this month, we got a dozen fertilized chicken eggs from Bentwillow Bunnies farm and put them under our broody Buff hen, My Precious.  Frank first labeled egg with a "P" for Precious, then Tabby put them under her.  They are labeled so that when Tabby goes to collect eggs each day, she gets the right egg from My Precious.  (All the below photos are from earlier this month, due to the sad state of my camera.)



Tabby has a funny story about My Precious's assistant here on her blog, The Goat Chick.  Once you put fertilized eggs under a hen it usually takes 21 days until they hatch.  The woman we got them from said the eggs on her farm tend to take 20 days.  Tomorrow is day 20 so we will be running out to the chicken coop a lot to check and see if any biddies have hatched yet.  A very exciting homeschool lesson in action!

Our "goaty girls" Nutmeg and Pip are doing well with their pregnancies.  Their babies are due in May.  Goats typically have twins, so it will be interesting to see how many babies these girls each have.

Nutmeg, Pippi, Tabby

Lucia had been doing really well, for at least a month, out in the yard loose every day.  She hadn't hurt any chickens.  Until recently, when Frank found Knucklehead dead.  Sigh.  (You can see a picture of Knucklehead and read more here in Tabby's blog post.)   So we're down to 11 chickens.

At first we decided to try Lucia in the goat pen, as she likes going in there with us.  Big Christa  - I don't remember how the "Big" got added to her name - didn't take anything from Lucia, and kept her in her place.


But then a few days later, there apparently was a big fight and Big Christa ended up with a hole in her ear.  So Lucia is back in her normal place, on a long cable during the day, and loose once the chickens are in for the night.

The previous owners of this house told us that well over 250 bluebirds were born here, in the blue bird houses.  Wow!  Babies were born here last year but didn't survive, thanks to Mr. Rat Snake.  The bluebirds are busy building their nests again this year.  We know for sure that at least one of the same ones is back.  A male bluebird I named "Peepers."  Why Peepers?  Because, just like he was last year, he is proving to be a regular peeping Tom!


I don't know how he does it but he seems to be at the window of just about every room I walk into!

On completely unrelated to the farm update (unless you relate by saying it's about the farm girl), Tabby got the results for the piano competition she was in.  (She competed in the National Federation Junior Festival under the North Carolina Federation of Music Clubs.)  She got an "excellent" on her theory test.  She got an "excellent" for the two classical pieces she played by memory ("Winter's Serenade" and "Ballade."  And finally she got a a "superior" rating for the two hymns she played ("Come Though Almighty King" and "What Wondrous Love is This?")  We're so proud of her.  :)

Finally, I had to laugh when I found Solomon's cars the other day.  Just like Hunter used to, he likes to line them up neatly:


"Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion." - Psalm 103:22

No comments:

Post a Comment