Goose Adventures

My family is always full of surprises. Recently my aunt and uncle came for their first visit to our farm. I was so excited to show them all the things we've been doing. When they arrived, they had a big cage in the back of their pickup truck.

"We brought you something," my aunt said with a big smile. I looked in the back of the truck and saw four heads with long necks and big eyes. Four big geese looked back at me. They were just as surprised as I was.
Of course I thanked her, I mean, when do you ever get four big geese for a present? My next thought was, "Where am I going to put them?"
My aunt seemed to think they would be fine in the corral with the ducks for now. At least until they settled in. Then she said I could just let them roam around the farm and they would be happy. We found a container big enough for them to have a "pond". So far so good.
The next day we received a giant goose egg and I thought this was going to be a good relationship after all. Well, that's what I thought until on day three, big goose number one decided to spread his giant wings, glide over the electric netting away from the ducks, and settle on his own in the north end of the property. Geese two, three, and four soon followed. Well, maybe they know where they live now, I thought. My mom and Danielle, my daughter in law, were staying over, Bill was out of town, and I figured the geese could do their own thing. But then we had trouble. The four wild things did NOT want to stay on Laughing Chicken Farm property. In fact they were flying over fences like crazy and I could just barely see them in the neighbors field.
"Get in the truck!" I yelled and we three girls drove up the driveway. I parked and jumped out, running through blackberry bushes and cactus. I caught the first goose and handed her to my mom. I asked her to hold on tight and sit in the truck with her. Poor mom's shoes were full of cactus spines and sand spurs. Without complaining, she held the goose on her lap. Danielle and I could only catch one more goose. The more we ran after them, the farther away they flew. We all rode back to the house with the two geese in our arms. I rode on the tailgate while Danielle drove and the goose in Mom's arms pooped all over her lap while uttering deafening honks the whole way home.
Danielle took the pictures while I clipped the wing feathers on the two we'd caught so they would stay behind the fencing. We could hear the male calling while the females called back all through the night. I felt so helpless.
Thankfully, the next morning the male had made it back. I opened the fence, and he walked in. I was just glad he didn't get eaten during the night. After talking with my aunt, we decided it was best to find them a new home. A friend came and picked them up and off they went down the road again in the back of a pickup truck, necks stretched out and eyes wide with surprise.

A New Year!

We've got one more week of 2011. The quiet space between the busyness of Christmas and next year's projects has me feeling restful and antsy at the same time. I find myself walking in circles, feeling less than motivated, not sure what could be the best use of my time. I guess I'm putting pressure on myself because I want this next year to have purpose. I want our farm to have purpose.

Not that we haven't had purpose already. God has blessed us beyond our imaginations in the last three years. We've learned so much about this land and cooperating with it and the animals. We've made so many wonderful relationships with our customers. I'm so grateful for all of these blessings. But this coming year is beckoning me to explore new ground and think bigger. For one thing, we sent our ewe lambs off to be bred with a friend's ram. As simple as this sounds, it will take us in a whole new direction. Fencing is now Bill's priority project. He's gone from "letting" me keep a few pet lambs to looking at sheep as a future product to sell. This is exciting, yet daunting because we've never raised sheep before.

Another direction I want to move the farm in is to include more art activities here on the land. Our first event will be an open studio/outdoor art day the third Thursday of January. I'm inviting anyone who would like to come out and do art, talk art, eat, take a walk, paint, photograph, whatever, for the day. Bring a lunch, meet the animals, draw or paint a picture. (I'll be happy to offer instruction, but only if you want me to.) We'll be open from 10am to sundown/feeding time.

These are just two ideas for 2012. I'm looking forward with a thankful heart at what God has done here on this 13 acres in Gilchrist County. I also know that direction and inspiration come from our Heavenly Father. You can bet I'll be spending more time seated at His feet in prayer as we approach the next year. I want to hear His Voice with all my heart.

Embracing my studio

I've had a love-hate relationship with my RV studio. The eyesore we call "Bondo Bertha" sits 150ft from our house. It takes me quite a few steps to walk there. Usually when I get there, I've forgotten something or suddenly need to use the bathroom so I have to just turn around and head back to the house. It has LOTS of storage space, cabinets and cubbys. However, even though we had the electricity brought to it, only half the lights and appliances work off that system. The other things like the refrigerator, heater and overhead lights are on a separate system connected to a battery that died long ago. We've found other ways to deal with the broken things, but the lighting has really been a challenge. How do you create art when you can't see?

Recently we positioned our new shed closer to the house in hopes of making it into a sales area for chicken and a brighter studio space for me. The reality of it is that it is yet another project on an ever growing list of farm related, more urgent projects. So....yesterday morning, I realized I'll never paint if I wait on the perfect studio space. There are always excuses and reasons to delay squeezing out the paints. Why do I always put the creative time on hold? I feel so guilty when the housework awaits or the husband and son need clean clothes.

I sat down yesterday and pulled out the paints and finished this little chicken painting. I didn't get frustrated over the limited light, I just added another lamp. I took the phone with me and answered calls from the studio. It really felt good to finish something. Even something small. I didn't try to fix the world around me, I just used what I had available for the day. And it worked. Hopefully, I can keep this attitude. Hopefully I can turn my attention away from what isn't perfect and focus on what I can do with what I have.

So much of our farm runs that way. We've scrounged most of the building materials for all of our equipment. God blesses us time and again with witty ideas of what can be done with a pile of odd things. I'm sure in time I'll have that fancy studio in a more convenient place, but for now. I'm going to join hands with Bondo Bertha and see what we can create together.

Turkey Harvest

Today we harvest the final turkeys for our Thanksgiving sales. After extensive emails, phone calls, and lists of lucky customers, we know who these next 35 turkeys belong too. We just have to get them ready. We've never done this many in one day. It should be an adventure.

This year has been another year of experimentation in the turkey operation. Will we sell them in the summer? Yes! How many can we raise? We maxed out at 150 for the season. Will we put people on a waiting list again? No! Besides our fresh turkey list of pickups, next year we have to come up with a better solution than a wait list. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening. Bill had it right when he said we should just offer them for sale first come, first serve. Next year, that's the way it has to go. The only problem is the freezer space it takes each week if they all don't sell. Where do we put the next batch? Maybe another freezer is in our future.

Another thing we learned this season is how hard it is to clean ducks. Again, I had to learn it the hard way. Poor Bill, I keep insisting we can do better with ducks and I order the next batch. Then comes butchering time. No matter how you slice it, it still takes hours to clean just a few. We could have done 50 chickens in the time it took to do 12 ducks. So... I guess I'll leave the ducks to the experts for now.

Something else that we are looking into that I'm really excited about is more sheep. Bill and I have been talking to other farmers about raising sheep for meat. I have been trying to convince Bill for a long time to let me have more lambies. I think I'm addicted. Now it looks like I'll get my wish. All we need is more fencing. Lots more fencing than we have. Hopefully the turkeys will help with the fence projects. I'm going to try to get the two sheep that I already have to be bred for spring. Oh, I can't wait to hold baby lambs!

Foggy Morning

The weather has changed, hasn't it. I laid my cut off shorts out a few nights ago, but haven't had them on yet. The thermometer read 37 on Sunday morning at daylight! We put out two more thermometers beside it because we didn't believe it could be so cold. Out came the wool socks, jeans and sweatshirt. The sheep were skipping and bouncing this morning and playing chase with the dogs. Everyone is enjoying the crispness of the air and a renewed appetite. I'm thrilled because now I don't mind turning on the oven to bake some goodies, now I can make a batch of soap and...did someone say plant something in the garden?

Here at the farm, we're already planning for the holidays ahead. We sent out the email inviting reservations for turkeys and the response has been huge. The weight of the responsibility is intimidating. I'm praying for blessing and safety on each and every turkey out there so they can be a blessing in return.

The painting here was a quick oil study on panel I did last week when the fog filled the yard before the sun climbed over the tree line. I had to work quickly, because the light changed every minute, but sometimes that forces you to make better decisions in the painting process. There's our little tractor, a gift from a customer, awaiting a mower attachment Bill has his heart set on. Maybe by the spring he'll be able to mow down the weeds that make pulling the chicken tractors a challenge. (They have fertilized so well, of course the weeds are happy.)

Not the woman I thought I was.

Okay, so I tried to be the hero. Bill was invited to last weeks Gator game. Of course he had to leave before feeding time, to which I said,"No problem". Then he told me there were visitors coming in an hour, to which I said,"No problem". I really wanted him to take advantage of the opportunity to be with with the guys. Then I realized that our son Micah had truck number two and I would be feeding everything on foot. No problem. I've got this.
Kissed hubby good-bye and started feeding baby chicks first. Our farm visitors came and I had a very willing, six-year-old helper for the evening. Everything was cruising along smoothly until it was time to carry the feed up to the hens. We used the wheel barrow to move three 30lb buckets of feed and laughed about how heavy they were. His six-year-old muscles did the watering, and I thought I was Wonder Woman and hoisted the buckets into the air and over the electric fence. No problem. At least that's what I thought.

The next morning Bill awoke with a smile on his face with visions of touchdowns in his mind, I awoke with a curve in my spine, a stitch in my side, and a hip that felt like it had been hit by a truck. Of course it was Sunday, so I lay on the couch until Monday to tuck my pretzel shaped body into the truck and go to the chiropractor.

He worked me over and said I may be a little stiff for the next day or two. Ha! Stiff didn't begin to describe what felt like a steel hand gripping my bones and twisting my muscles. And the next day happened to be butchering day. Quickly I called a friend with two teenagers familiar with chicken handling and asked them to come catch the batch that was ready. They did a wonderful job and in a half-hour had seventy six portly chickens waiting contentedly in cages by the processing area. The processing day went better than expected, and the next day of packaging was so much better with the help of our friend Theresa. Thank God for Micah. He's done so much extra work to help too.

Here we are on Friday, with another visit to the chiropractor behind me and things are looking up. I have been so humbled by the love and prayers sent my way by all our friends. I am truly blessed. Now I just have to remember that I'm NOT Wonder Woman, even if I want to be. (Even if Bill says so.)

Just found out that they published a pic of me on the cover of the Newberry/Jonesville Magazine today. If you look closely, you can see the silver bracelets Wonder Woman let me borrow for the picture.

Chicken Adventures

The new coop is finally finished. (Thought you would enjoy a picture of the painting I did of it rather than a photo) The nest boxes are in, the perches are up and the door has a latch. Filling it with chickens has not been as easy as we thought. Not all birds go into coma-like states at night, thankfully chickens do. Maybe it's because they can't see well in the dark. Whatever the reason, it give us the advantage after the sun goes down.

Bill and I became chicken ninjas. We dressed in black, grabbed a flashlight and a carrying cage and headed where we knew they would roost. Some were in the old shelter, some were high up in the surrounding trees. Luckily, the moon was nowhere to be seen. Bill shined the light just enough to see body shapes, then I grabbed them one at a time from their perches. They screamed and squawked as I walked them over to the truck. Bill clipped wing feathers hoping that would be enough to keep them from getting over the electric netting.

The ones in the trees were a little trickier. Bill set the ladder under them, I weaved through the branches, reaching for two legs. Both the chicken and I would come down off the ladder with leaves, twigs and feathers flying. For two hours we stole the birds from their roosts and placed a total of 142 inside the new shelter. They squawked some more when we unloaded them and they had to figure out where the rest of the night would be spent and who would roost next to whom.

The next morning, we opened the door. It seemed that there hadn't been any fighting. The two groups of chickens that had fought like crazy were now drinking out of the same waterer. We even opened the door to the older hen's section and they were sharing nicely too. Wow. It looked like the plan worked!

Then, the clever little devils started taking a jump at the electric netting. They flapped and climbed at the same time and about 15 birds got out again. Now they were all the more wary and harder to catch. We've been catching who we can and clipping the other wing. I caught one yesterday that already had two wings clipped. There's little more I can clip that won't require an operation and stitches!

So...we are still hunting eggs in the grass, only the dogs are hunting them too and they've figured out all the good hiding places. Most of the time I find empty shells. The ones inside the new area are giving us about 7 dozen a day, and we can find all of them, so all is not lost. I'm thinking maybe the only way to deal with the rebellious is put on my ninja costume again and keep them in solitary confinement. Maybe they'll be reformed.