Lovely Clematis

So no farm update today. Spent most of the day running the kids around here and there. But I did get a chance to go by a new nursery and they had this beauty there for only $9. The big box stores have clematis roots for about $5-$10. And those can be hit or miss if they grow. So to get a started plant for only $9. Quite a deal.

But, unfortunately, that's all the update I have for today. I hope to get a lot more done tomorrow. For now, take care and have a good night.

More Weedeating, Muscovy Bully and Seedlings

Did some weedeating today. Didn't get any pictures of the before or after. Only got through two tanks of gas before I was just too worn out to do anymore. But I think I made some good progress.

I'm going to need to do something about my muscovy drake pretty soon here. At first he was only bullying my big black rooster and I thought that maybe he saw the rooster as a rival. But now he's bullying the other chickens also. I've got several hens that are missing feathers.

But I don't know what to do with him and the two muscovy hens. I don't really have any other place to put them right now. They have to have some sort of shelter at night or they'll get attacked. I know this because I lost several other ducks to predators last year. But the only places for them are the chicken coop or the chicken tractor and both of those are occupied right now.

My only other option is to build another tractor. And that's just going to cost more money. I eventually want to get all of the chickens and ducks out on pasture anyway so I can the coop as a brooder and for the bitties. But I didn't want to have to build another tractor so soon. I've got fencing to do! Oh well. I guess the fencing will have to wait a little while.

In other news, the paper towel/baggie seed sprouting method has worked really well for the borage and sage seeds. I don't know why I had such a poor sprouting rate in the toilet paper rolls because these seeds are obviously viable.

Borage seedlings.

Sage seedlings.

Transplanted those into the toilet paper rolls and watered them in real well. We'll see how many make it. Just because they're sprouted doesn't mean it's a guarantee they'll survive being planted. I was as gentle as I could be. But we'll see.

K, it's late and I gotta get up at 3:30 am to take the oldest to work. Take care all and have a good night.

Car Fixed, Bittties Go Outside, Bees and Naughty Chickens

So yesterday was sort of busy. But I didn't do a post yesterday because before I realized it, it was bedtime.

So yesterday started out with getting the kids up and off to school. As usual. Fed the dogs and cats. Took the dogs out for their morning potty. I tried to start the car one last time but she just wouldn't do it. Then woke hubby up. He called the tow truck. Once the tow truck got here, we headed off to the auto mechanic. Told them what was going on. Then we went and got breakfast.

Came home and fed the outside animals. Relaxed for a little bit. Then I got bored and went outside to plant strawberry plants and potatoes. Hubby was kind enough to come out and keep me company. I didn't take a picture of the strawberry plants because they just look like dead roots. But here's a potato going in.

Hubby watered the strawberries and potatoes for me and gave the ducks and chickens some fresh water in their kiddie pool. It was actually starting to get warm outside so he went back in.

I decided since it was so warm outside that I would bring the bitties out and put them in the cage below our bantam rooster.

As you can see from the picture, I put some house siding on the top of the babies cage so that the little rooster doesn't end up pooping on them. The cage was also hanging kind of wonky so I took some bailing twine and sorted of sewed the gap between the top and bottom cages. Basically used the floor of the top cage as a support for the top of the bottom cage.

I also decided to straighten up my hives a little bit. The longer/shorter ones are two half of the topbar hive I built. The other is the standard langstroth hive. That one belongs to my friend. She let me borrow it last year to try to get a swarm established. Another beekeeper gave me the swarm. But they didn't stay over the winter or they died out or something. There's still honey in the hive but some of it has crystallized.

But when I opened that hive, I guess some bees in the area smelt the honey and were flying around it. A couple of them landed on the hive but then took off again like they were undecided on what to do. I got this picture just before she took off again.

Finally, I took a bottle of lemongrass oil and put a bit in each of the topbar hives. Probably too much in one of the hives but that stuff came out a lot quicker than I expected. Maybe they'll like it better. Bees like the smell of lemongrass oil because it smells just like the smell they let off when they've found a new home and are letting the rest of the swarm know that this is 'home'. Some people call it the happy bee smell. Now, if you're around bees and you smell bananas. That means they're mad.

After that, we went to pick up my car. Apparently the idle motor had gone out on her. I guess it's a motor or something that keeps the engine running when you're not pressing the gas pedal.

So we got the car ($500, apparently the parts were pretty pricey. They did give us some discounts though.) and went and got dinner. Normally we don't eat out this much. But when you're running here and there, it's just easier to stop and get something.

Then hubby and daughter went home in his car and I ran by the grocery store. While in the checkout line I get a text from hubby asking if I'd let the chickens. No, I hadn't. Luckily my daughter ran out there and got them back in the pen. According to my husband she was almost like a military sergeant. Ordering them where to go and using a stick to guide them. She got them in there pretty quickly.

But apparently they'd been out enough to discover my freshly planted strawberry plants. Yup, they dug through my strawberry bed. I think they were more attracted to the freshly dug soil then the strawberry plants themselves. But they did dig up some of the strawberry plants and I'm sure buried most of them. I replanted the dug up ones that I could find and tried to even the soil out a bit. But we'll see what survives. I don't think they were in their enough to cause TOO much damage. But we'll see.

I don't understand how I didn't latch the door to their pen. I never miss that. Just for reasons like this. It's automatic anymore and I latch it without thinking. So I just don't get how I missed it.

After that I begrudgingly gave the chickens some food and fed the rest of the livestock animal. I took an extension cord and gave the bitties a light in their cage just in case they wanted the warmth. Then I came in the house, played a little World of Warcraft, realized it was past bedtime, took a shower and went to bed.

Today I hope to do some more weedeating around the sheep and pig areas so I can extend the electric wire a bit more and give them more room. But we'll see how the day goes. Wish me luck.

Anyway, almost time to feed the livestock again. So yall take care and have a good day.

Beautiful Eggs

I didn't do a post yesterday because I really didn't have anything to post about. Didn't really do much except watch some netflix and crochet. Just been kind of blah lately. Not sure if it's hormonal or what. Just no energy.

Today I was going to try to get some projects done but then my car decided it didn't want to work right. I could get it to start and it would stay started if I revved the engine. But as soon as I let go of the gas pedal, the rpms dropped to zero and it would stall. So today the husband and I have tried to trouble shoot it. We changed the spark plugs and wires. No joy. We changed the pcv valve and tube. No joy.

The things next to try would be sensors and the fuel pump. Since we have no idea what sensor is what, we're going to have it towed to the mechanic tomorrow so they can figure it out. Hubby is probably going to have to use a vacation day unfortunately. And it's going to cost us more money to get it towed and fixed. We've already put more money into this car over the years then it's worth. But we can't really afford to get another car right now either. Partially because we keep having to throw money at this car!

Since I don't really have much of a post anyway, here are some pretty eggs I got yesterday from our chickens. And one duck egg. The egg on left I believe is a maran egg. The other dark-ish egg wasn't that dark in person but I'm not sure who laid it either.

Anyway, that's been my last couple of days. I'm going to go kill stuff in World of Warcraft now to take out some of my frustration. Take care and have a good night.

Polish Chicks And Cleaning Out The Rabbit Pen

Sooooooooooo, these are 4 bantam polish chickens. I went to Tractor Supply to get chicken food and I saw these little guys. (Hopefully 1 guy and 3 girls.) But I've wanted a couple of these for quite a while now. So when I saw that there were actually some in the bantam bin, I just gave in. You can see their little poofs on their heads already. Aren't they so cute? That's how I knew they were polish. I believe they're going to be buff laced. But we'll see once they get more feathers.

I've also started getting the rabbit pen ready for them to come out of their cages. This is my compost pile and half of the stuff on there is from when I had the meat chickens in the rabbit pen. Hopefully I'll be able to get the rabbit pen finished this year and they'll just be colony bunnies.

I've yet to have much success with the cage method. They've only had a couple of litters and I've only had one bunny survive. Most have only survived a couple of days and then died. I don't know if these rabbits are just really bad mothers or if something else is going on.

K, dinner time. I is hungry. Take care all and good night.

Weedeating And Our Property

Today I did a bit of weedeating around the outside of the electric fencing. I only got one pass all the way around though so you can't really tell in this picture. Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to get a lot of this knocked down so I can expand the pig and sheep areas some more. This year I'd like to get most of the property fenced in, even if it's just mostly electric wire.

I also went for a little bit of a walkabout on the other side of our property. There's a runoff from our neighbor's pond that cuts our property in half almost diagonal. In this picture is the half with our house, the chicken pen and garden toward the trees and the pig and sheep areas more in the fore front.

I also saw some deer on our neighbor's property and took some video. But I only had my phone and it doesn't take the best video from a distance. You can see the deer but they're pretty much just silhouettes.

I also finally started my sage and borage in paper towels in baggies. Didn't take a picture of those because, honestly, it's just seeds in a wet paper towel and laid in a baggie.

After I got done with all of that, we went into town to get more weedeater fuel and an early dinner. A good thing I guess since as we were leaving the house, it started raining. And tonight it's supposed to snow again! For fuck's sake mother nature! It's almost April! Excuse me. I just had to let that out.

Ok, I'm going to go play some World of Warcraft and imitate a vegetable. Take care all and have a good night.

Canning and Lavender

No, I did not can the lavender.

I canned chicken vegetable noodle soup. Right now it just has the vegetables in it. Peas, green beans, corn, carrots and potatoes in chicken broth. Seasoned with oregano and basil. When they go to warm up the soup they can add the chicken and noodles to it. I've got the seven jars sitting there and another seven in the canner.

As for the lavender.I have a couple of the 'true' lavenders coming up in my seedling trays. But the ones that I really wanted to come up were the were the ellegance lavenders. They are supposed to be more suited for my area. But, only one came up and it's tiny and weak and I'm not sure if it's going to make it.

So while I was at Wally-world today, I was looking for luffa seeds so I can grow those this year and have some sponges to clean my jars with. I hate synthetic sponges. They didn't have any luffa seeds (gonna check some other stores in town but might have to order them) but they did have the ellegance lavenders in the large peat pot planters. So I grabbed a couple of those since I don't have anymore seeds to try again.

But that's been mostly what I've been up to today. Didn't do a post yesterday because the only thing I did was do some cleaning in the kitchen and catching up on my youtube subscription list. Not really exciting enough to write about. I know I should have at least posted a picture or something. But as usual, I lost track of time and it was bedtime before I knew it.

As a matter of fact, it's almost my bedtime now. As soon as this set of jars gets done, I'm off to bed. You should get to bed too if you're reading this, this late. Go on now. Get to bed. = ) Take care all.

Chicks And Seedling Duds

Ok, guys. I'm throwing this up quickly because I'm tired and I want to go to bed. I meant to post this all day but just kept forgetting. And I haven't really done anything today to be tired from. I've just wanted to sleep for some reason.

But anyway, here's a pic of the bigger chicks in the chicken tractor. Normally they're under the lamps, eating and drinking. But when I opened the top, they all kind of scattered to the other side. Still not used to me doing that yet. Pretty soon they'll realize that means food and they'll be rushing over to me.

Here is the the tractor covered in blankets. I did this with the meat chickens and they did fine. These guys won't get nearly as cold weather as the meat chickens did so they should be just peachy.

And last, but not least, is my lonely borage seedling. Nothing else came up in this tray except for a single lavender and that's even doing sketchy. So tomorrow I'm going to take all of my sage seeds and all of my borage seeds and do them like the moringa seeds. Just put them all in a wet paper towel and put them in baggies. If anything sprouts, I'll be able to see it for sure and transplant it. I hate when I plant something and there's just a no show. At least with the baggies I can see if they will even sprout at all.

Ok, I'm going to bed early and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Take care and have a good night.

Planting Flowers And Moving Chicks Outside

Today I planted some bulbs, roots and rhizomes. These red hot pokers.

Stargazer lilies.

And I transplanted these irises from one of my veggie garden beds to my front yard. This is a picture from last summer when they bloomed. They probably won't bloom this year though. But next year, I should get a profusion of lovely blue/purple flowers.

I had a lot more than I realized. As you can see from the first picture, there are some on the left near the trellis, some to the right in front of the fence and also on the other side of the fence. I planted the lilies in the corner and the red hot pokers at the end of the fence section. I can't wait until the lilies and pokers come up. My daughter likes the lilies. I'm more excited about the pokers. Always thought those were really neat looking. Very bright red and orange.

I also put the bigger chicks outside in the chicken tractor. Didn't think to take a picture but I'll try to remember tomorrow.

But that's all the news for now. Take care folks and have a good night.

New And Improved Chicken Tractor

Remember this mess from a couple of days ago?

It now looks like this! See the hinged door on top?

It also has another door on top. This way I will have access to all areas of the tractor. Those doors also have latches for safety and assurance. The opening in the front also has a door but I forgot to get a hinge and latch for that one too. Not that it really matters much since they probably won't be coming out until they're much bigger.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I think I learned a lot from the first version. Best lessons learned are from your mistakes. Right? Tonight I'll set it up like if the chicks were in it and I'll put a digital thermometer in it so I can see how low the temperature gets during the night. I just want to make sure that it stays at a decent temperature to keep them warm. I don't want to just throw them out there and have half of them freeze.

But we definitely need to get these babies out of the house. They're getting crowded in these storage container brooders. But also, the smell is getting unbearable. Even if I clean them out every day, they get everything messy and pooped up quite quickly.

The only thing I can't decide at this point is where I'm going to put the tractor. I WAS going to put it in the chicken pen so the other chickens can get used to them. But with all the rain we've had recently, the chicken pen is just a giant mud patty. So I'm thinking I may actually use it as a tractor like I did with the meat chickens and move it around the front yard. I can always move the tractor into the chicken pen later when the babies are bigger. Yeah, I think I just decided. lol

I eventually want to have several fenced areas to rotate the sheep between. After the sheep leave one area, I'll move a tractor into that area with one of my flocks. (Wyandottes, orpingtons or mixed flock.) That way the chickens can clean up behind the sheep and help take care of any parasites. Oh! And then I'll be able to use the chicken coop as a brooder! But that will be way down the line. I gotta get the perimeter fence done first and that will probably take me all year, if not two. Especially with all the other projects that need to be done.

Anyway, need to figure out what to do for dinner. Take care all and have a good night.

Strawberries And Potatoes

I didn't do much farm stuff today so here's a picture of some strawberries and potatoes I bought yesterday. I hope to get these in the ground/beds sometime this week. I just realized while looking at this picture that I got two different kinds of strawberries. Oh well. I meant to get the ozark beauties. But the earliglow seem to be an early maturing variety so that's cool too.

Working On The Chicken Tractor and Sheep Roof

So I've gotten up to a couple of things today. First, I started to dismantle the chicken tractor so that I could make improvements. One improvement will be hinged panels as part of the top. That way I can reach down into the tractor when I need to. I was in such a hurry when I built it that I forgot to included that in the original design.

During the winter I had the plastic and some blankets completely covering it to hold in the warmth. The chickens did fine. Didn't lose a single one. Actually, that's wrong. I did lose one. But it was before the colder weather hit. Not sure what it died from though. But they were cornish cross. They are known to die for no reason.

The buff orpingtons and silver laced wyandottes will go in the tractor. The bitties will go in the hanging cages in the chicken coop. I might wait on putting the bitties out though since they are so bittie and might get cold easier. Everybody is feathering out nicely and I should be able to put the bigger chicks in the tractor with some added heat in just a couple days. The tractor will be moved into the chicken pen so that the bigger chickens can get used to the chicks but not hurt them or eat their food.

The chicks will stay in here for a while though. There was some kind of hawk or something sitting on a post at the far corner of the pig area today. It was only about the size of a chicken so don't think it could have flown off with a full grown chicken. But the chicks would be easy pickings.

This is the other thing I did today. (With my son's help so I didn't fall off the ladder.) These are the pieces of wood that are used for the dog ear fences. I use them for a lot of other things though. Like my garden beds are made from these. They're only a dollar something each so nice and cheap but a fair size. These are mostly to act as support for the tarp. The tarp will be what actually keeps the sheep dry. And yes, I know that tarp is not on their right at all. But the wind was being a prick, as usual. So I will have to wait until a windless day to adjust it.

As you can see of the pig shelter, this design is a little bit different. Just less boards on the sheep shelter basically. And the boards are going front to back instead of side to side. But I figure this will still work just as well. But this is the pig shelter before I put the tarp on it. I still haven't done the other side of the roof and it catches water everytime it rains or snows. But, not a top priority right now so it'll have to wait. It's functional so it'll do until I have more time. Not sure when that'll be.

Ok guys. Gonna go and get some dinner. Take care and have a good night.

Doing Some Work In The Chicken Coop.

Today I did some rearranging in the chicken coop. Some of the chickens and guineas had gotten in the habit of roosting on top of the cages and on the nest boxes and I wanted to get them to stop. I'm standing in the doorway and this is one side of the coop. Yes, that black stuff looks really gross. I think it's mostly mildew because I'm still having problems with the roof leaking. I want to eventually take off all this osb and redo the walls with some better wood.

Also taken from the doorway. That fan runs 24/7 during the summer. My nest boxes are a 5 gallon bucket cut in half. All the wood is reused from other projects. Can you tell?

I've thought about making more nest boxes but as you can tell, they like to mostly just lay in the left side. These girls kept getting freaked out about everything I was doing in the coop but kept coming back in and hopping in the nest boxes. Later I only found one egg in the nest box. Not sure if the other girl actually needed to lay an egg or if she was just being a goofy chicken. Or she might have layed somewhere else. I didn't think to check.

And finally I put up a couple more roosting spots to give them more room. I know it looks thrown together. But I basically just put up scrap pieces for now. I want to completely redo the roosts too. I also dug out a lot of the droppings that had accumulated under their roosts. Then, a fresh layer of shavings to make everything look pretty. Ok, pretty-ish.

Tomorrow I want to put a better roof on the sheep shelter. The tarps keep getting loose and keep collecting water and/or snow. A shelter is kind of pointless if it doesn't keep them dry. So that definitely needs to get done. I want to do it like I did the pig shelter. I know I have pictures of that somewhere. I'll find them tomorrow and put them in tomorrow's post.

For now, I will bid yall adieu. Take care.

18 Years Old!

You'll have to forgive the lack of a regular post today. Today was our younger son's eighteenth birthday. A big milestone for us and him. So I didn't really do anything farm related today. Tomorrow will be back to our regularly scheduled program. Night all. Take care.

My Moringa Seeds Have Sprouted!

I'm really surprised by just how many of these sprouted. I'm going to have lots of moringa trees growing this summer. Time to put these bad boys in some soil. I'll take another picture once they start sprouting from there.

In other news, in snowed yesterday. We were getting estimates anywhere from a couple of inches to 8 inches. But we only got a couple of inches and most of it has already melted today. Here is a little bit that was left over in my compost pile.

Anyway, was playing some more World of Warcraft today. I know it seems like I play a lot of video games. But we're at a point in the game where we can unlock some new races. I not only do my characters but I sometimes do hubby's as well. Since he works some odd hours, he doesn't always have the time to play and level up his characters. So I step in and help him out. I also do a lot of other things in the game that helps to prepare us for the more fun things in the game. He works his job to provide us a home. I work in the game to help provide us with things like new armor and mounts.

Hopefully tomorrow will dry out a little bit so I'll be able to do some things outside. After this weekend the temperature are supposed to go back up to more normal spring temps. Hopefully soon I'll be able to put my seedlings and the chicks outside. And hopefully this is the last hurrah for mother nature this spring. We shall see.

Take care yall.

Mother Nature Is Confused

So I get I'm not getting any farm stuff done today. It is currently raining and sleeting and we're expected to get a couple of inches of snow. Last month it was warm enough to turn the a/c on. Now it's going to snow. And in a couple of days the temperature is supposed to go up again. I've got things to do mother nature! Make up your mind!

Seedling Update And Wet Chickens

Today was mostly a day of nothingness. Hanging out, playing World of Warcraft together. But I did get some pictures for yall.

The front row is some lavender. Next couple of rows is bell peppers I think. After that was going to be lemongrass seeds but we know how that went. Instead I planted lavender there.

First row on this one is an eggplant. Next couple are the cotton seeds. Next couple would be the banana peppers but only a couple of them have come up so far.

On this one there are only a couple of borage coming up so far. There is also supposed to be sage but it's not coming up yet. Directly in the front and in the far back is another seedling or two of another lavender variety. Things are coming along slowly but they're coming along. Hopefully soon I'll be able to put them outside.

In other news, it rained today and my chickens got wet. Instead of going inside the coop, they decided to stand out in the rain. The ducks I can understand. But the chickens just look funny wet.

Yes, part of their pen is mud. Like I've mentioned before, chickens have no respect for a nice green yard. It's ok, once all the spring rains are done it will all dry out. Next spring I will spread straw everywhere. That seems to have helped the rest of the chicken yard.

It's Still Yesterday Because I Said So!

I swear I'll get my act together for tomorrow. Or I should say later today. Not sure what I'm going to update about since I don't have any projects planned for tomorrow. I mean later today.

 Anyway, this picture mostly looks like the one from yesterday. What you can't see is that it's not really leaking from the rubber adapter part anymore. It's got a slow drip but not like it was yesterday. Now it's sort of coming out of the nipple itself. But again, it's not draining the bucket anywhere as fast as it did yesterday. Besides, if its leaking from the nipple that means the pigs will realize that water comes out of that and learn to drink from it. Win win.

I can dump out the bucket, let it dry and try to apply more calk around the rubber adapter part. But I think for now I'll just wait and see how this goes.

Most of today was more running around town. And when I wasn't doing that, hubby and I were playing World of Warcraft. The weekends are our time to play together since during the week he doesn't have as much time to get vested in it before he has to go to work. But I swear I probably went into town at least 5 times today. Go into town, come home, realize there's something in town we forgot to do, etc. I hate having to make more than one trip. But if you gotta, you gotta.

But now, I need to get more sleep before I take the oldest back to work. See ya laters, taters. Take care.

Does This Still Count For Yesterday

I forgot to do a post. Brain has been busy. Luckily for you, I can only sleep part of the night in the bed before my hip starts hurting and I have to come and sleep in my recliner. Then I decided to check my email and such and here I am.

So I did this today. If you can't tell what it is, it's a pig nipple waterer. No, it's not actually made out of a pig nipple or made to look like one. It's just for their water. But anyway, I did this last spring too and they didn't really use it. But I'm not giving up. I'll try it again. I had to reinstall it on a new bucket because the other one got busted. You might also be able to tell this one is leaking around where I made the hole. This happened last year also.

This is the inside of the bucket. Duh, right? Well, you can see the threads around the rubber adapter thingie. After I realized that it was leaking again, I drained the bucket and took the ring off the threads. I smeared some silicone caulking around the area where it comes through the bucket and I'm letting it dry overnight. We'll see tomorrow if I succeeded in stopping the leak.

In other news, the kitty is now spayed and tomorrow a guy is coming to fix the shingles on our roof. $195 to fix shingles that the stupid wind blew off. Screw you, stupid wind!

Anyway, I'm going back to sleep. Take care yall.

Seedlings And Cleaning

These are some cotton seedlings coming up. I've also got some lavendar and eggplants coming up. But they haven't got their leaves out of the soil yet. Kind of like the cotton seedling on the right.

Didn't do anything outside today but I did get some cleaning done in the house. Not as much as I would have liked. But it's something.

In other news, I'm still tired so I'm going to bed early. I've got to take one of our cats to the vet tomorrow to get spayed. Responsible pet owernship, yall.

I Straightened The Arbor Today

This is the arbor that got knocked over the other day from the wind storm. I took a picture before I straightened it but my camera decided to lose it. So we only have the after. It wasn't leaning severely. But it was enough where you could see that it was off.

I only had a couple long screws so I need to get another box to completely secure the arbor to the u-posts. Then it will be good to go. But at least I have it straight again. And after I get the rest of the screw in, this thing will stay upright with anything short of a hurricane. I hope to God we don't get a hurricane here. Our shingles started coming off just from the wind storm. I'd hate to see what a hurricane would do. Might end up with a nice skylight for a while. Ugh.

This didn't take me all day. But I couldn't really do anything outside because it was still wet from yesterday and sprinkling today. We even had tiny bits of hail for about 10 minutes.

Inside the house?.... Yeah, I 'meant' to clean. Just never got around to it. Tomorrow I really need to force myself to get things done in here. I know I keep saying I'm going to do it. But tomorrow, it's got to get done. Mostly just sweeping the floor and doing some dishes. Some straightening up.

In my defense for today, I didn't sleep very well last night because I was dealing with some stuff with my daughter. She's a type 1 diabetic and yesterday the site for her pump connection started leaking. Since she wasn't getting all of the insulin that she should have, her blood sugar got really high. Of course, this happened around dinner time and she didn't tell me until almost bed time. So I ended up changing her site and staying up about 3 hours past my bedtime to make sure her blood sugar went back down. Then I had to get up at 3:30am to take my oldest to work.

So, of course, I haven't had much energy today. Actually, I think straightening the arbor was pretty good for the day. Of course, there was the usual feeding of the animals. But that happens every day so I don't usually report it.

I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight. Try to catch up on enough sleep to rejuvenate me. Or at least make me functionable. Have a good day everybody and take care.

Baby Chickie Update

Nope. I didn't get any cleaning done today except for cleaning out the chicks brooders. (I blame hubby.) But as you can see, the buff orpingtons are doing well. Getting lots of feathers.

Most of the silver laced wyandottes are doing well. I say most because one of them came down with what I believe is wry neck. But the rest of them are doing great.

The one that got wry neck is in this container with the bitties. I figure he won't get smashed by them as much. You can see him snuggled up in the top corner. But all the bitties are doing good too. I've started giving the little wry neck baby some vitamin E. We'll see if he makes it or not.

Right now we're still having nights around or below freezing so these guys will be inside for a couple more weeks at least. But as soon as it warms up enough, they'll be going outside in the chicken tractor to learn how to be chickens.

But that's my update for today guys. I'll see you tomorrow. Take care.

Lemony Plants and Got All Of The Sheep Area Knocked Down

Soooooo, remember when I said I was going to get lemongrass seeds? Well, I didn't. I got this plant instead. But not necessarily because I didn't want to do seeds. But so I could order this too.....

It's a lemon verbena and the leaves smell so good. I've gotten one of these from this company before. I don't remember why it died. But I've wanted another one ever since. If you rub a leaf, it smells like a minty lemon scent. I know that proably sounds weird. But I so love the smell of it. I will be babying this so it'll grow into a nice healthy bush. Ever time I walk past it I'll run my hand over it and get that lovely smell.

In other news, I got all of the sheep area knocked down but not all of it mowed into smaller pieces. I posted a video on my instagram of what I got done. It won't post the video here so I'll just leave ya the link.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf9UGcIgeUI/?taken-by=silvermoonhomestead

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain so I won't be able to get anything else done outside. So I'll probably get some much needed housecleaning done. Hopefully. I hate housecleaning. I would so much rather be outside building something or doing something with the animals. But this house ain't gonna clean itself. Wish me luck.

Take care everybody.

Cutting Down The Sheep Area

Today I got a lot of the sheep area cut down. The girls don't really graze in this area right now because it's just too tall. They like the soft tender stuff that's just coming out of the ground. They don't eat this tall dead stuff. I tried to get it cut down with the push mower but it was too hard to get the mower to push down and then mow over when it's this tall. And as I discussed yesterday, the previous head for our weedeater was no longer usable.

So I got one of these.

And did this. You can see one of the girls in the back kind of standing in the tall stuff. But that's about as far as they go.

They did kind of follow me around though. Explored and nibbled at the areas I uncovered. It gives me a certain kind of peace and satisfaction to watch them grazing. Something very connected-to-the-earth about it.

I would have gotten more done but I ran out of weedeater fuel. Tomorrow I should have it all knocked down and then I can go over it with the push mower just so this tall stuff doesn't cover what grass there is and I end up with big dead spots. The earth must have sun!

Something else I need to get done tomorrow is I need to get some u-posts and brace up the arbor. The heavy winds we got knocked it over (and that thing ain't light) and I think some of the screws have loosened a bit and now the darn thing is leaning. I knew I should have braced that long ago. But the hubby was like 'nothing's going to blow that thing over'. I would tell him I told you so. But he conveniently won't remember ever having the conversation.

But that was most of my day. Not sure what my next project will be. Lots to get done. Only so much time in the day. I do know I need to get the irises out of one of my garden beds. And I need to get the rest of the rabbit manure and put it in the beds. I also need to get some things done in the chicken coop. Like I need to replace some sections of the floor that are falling through. We knew this would happen eventually because the OSB we used is not good for this. Especially since the friggin coop still leaks. That's something else I have to address. Only so many hours in the day! And only so much money for said projects.

K, time to go relax. Maybe go to bed early. Take care peoples. Here's a pic of one of my plum trees blooming.