Egg of a different color

On the way to collecting todays eggs, Bill stepped over what he thought was a splat of chicken poop on the ground. On further examination, he found a treasure. We'd heard there had been Indians here, now we had proof : a beautiful arrowhead made of stone. To see it in the field and hold it in our hands gave me a feeling of belonging to a long history of people that used this piece of land. We are like pearls on a necklace, each holding its place. I'd love to know the reason this arrowhead landed right here, 100 ft away from the lakebed. A missed hunting shot, or a hit and a meal for his family? We'll never know, but I get to hold it in MY hand now, in this place of time. In 2010, chickens peck and squabble, and lay their daily eggs where a hunting party once hid in the palmettos.

On another note. Check out my daughter's new blog. She's got a knack for writing and an artists eye. I never know what to expect next. You'll find it at http://www.beautifuleverafters.blogspot.com/

Summer fruits!

Hot days and loads of rain have coaxed the wild blackberries to hang heavy with beaded fruit. My ankles are scratched and my fingers smart with new barbs, but oh how sweet it is to fill a bucket with gleanings from the field. The best place we've found is in front of the studio. The mosquitoes buzz there too. Tonight I covered my legs with Skin So Soft, Catherine picked garden mint and rubbed it on her shins. We felt protected in our cloud of scent for only about 15 minutes but here is a picture of our bounty. Maybe more picking tomorrow.

That's not the only thing new at the farm. Eva, the pound puppy, joined us a week ago and is already having a great time with Jonny showing her the routine of being a farm dog. In true puppy fashion, she pulled a wet paintbrush across her body and across the carpet, waited to get into the house to pee, and ate a whole chicken foot out of the compost. She's a keeper!

Last but not least, my first try at a garden is yielding lots of zucchini! We've been stuffing and sauteing, and giving it away. It's still coming in. They grow stealthily, and creep to great sizes when you're not looking.

New batch of Egg Makers

Today I picked up peeping box at the post office full of our next flock of laying hens. These Ohio girls are 50 americaunas that lay the green eggs, and 50 black australorps that lay brown eggs. We should start seeing some of those eggs in about 5months. Our other flock is really pumping the eggs out now. Those 68 hens are consistently giving us almost five dozen a day! They have free range of the farm and do a great job searching out bugs and goodies. They come running when we open the back door hoping for a kitchen handout! We also added 3 pairs of ducks that should be laying any day now too. Can't wait.

Lions, Tigers and Bears - Oh, my!

Last week we noticed a spot in the fence that looked like a car ran into it. After a closer look, Bill noticed hair stuck in the wire. Deer hair. That deer hit the fence so hard it pulled off the post and broke the wires. We thought maybe it was being chased by coyotes. Our dog Johnny has been very clingy latey so we thought something may have scared him. Well.... this morning I was out before sunrise and heard a very strange noise coming from the woods. It was like a wild cat but it repeated about 5 times. We thought we had seen a panther before. Now I knew it could be back. Bill got on the computer and typed in panther sounds. Guess what matched the sounds I heard this morning...a panther in heat! Oh great. Well, now we are really thinking of getting dog number 2! We'll keep our eyes open for sure.

Our first Egg!

Well, we got two today actually! A green one and a brown one. The hens found a bit of hay in the brooder and they started burrowing in it and making lots of clucking. Bill came home and found two eggs inside. Finally! Breakfast for tomorrow.

It's 12:30am. We just finished bagging and tagging and freezing 46 chickens and 6 ducks. Yesterday was processing day. Whew. My feet hurt. Still filling orders. I'm still not able to give everyone what they asked for but we are getting closer. This time we had one jumbo. The cold weather has kept them from gaining weight like they did last summer. Soon we'll be bringing eggs to the market.

The bunnies are doing great. I've got three litters and two more on the way. Here's a picture of the two week old Polyface line rabbits. Eyes just opened. Boy are they jumpy. She's got eight in there!

Off to bed. It's hard to make complete sentences....

New Egg Mobile

Yes, we did it! Finally finished it. They LOVE it. They love being able to run around the yard now the most. The very first night they all went in and I just closed the door behind them. Wow. It worked. I just hope they stay out of my garden. I may have to fence it off now.

That's me moving ducks to a tractor in the rain yesterday. Ducks are waterproof. They don't get wet under their feathers. Which has brought us to another hard choice. We started processing ducks yesterday and found out that our equipment cannot separate the ducks from their feathers. We struggled for three hours until we finally decided that we can't offer dressed duck for sale. At least not right now. Until we find out another way to dress them, our career in duck is over. (It sounded like a good idea at the time.)

We also moved our next batch of chicks outside to a tractor. I love to watch them in the grass for the first time. They start right away to scratch and peck whatever looks good. They all gang up on one spot. It's so cute. Another order of 100 chicks is on its way to us tomorrow. Gotta get the brooder ready for them now.

Our family of customers is growing fast. God is so good. We are stepping up production as fast as we can to meet the need. Each week at the farmers markets we get more names on our waiting list.

On a sad note, I lost two litters of rabbits in the cold weather. But one litter survived and is doing great! It's my new NZW doe. She had three this first time. They are fat little butterballs. Today I am re-breeding the does that lost their litters. It will be warmer in 29-33 days when they are ready to kindle.
Gotta go for now!

Lots of new babies around here.

Last week I received a new shipment of 100 broilers plus an added surprise. The hatchery had mistakenly attached my order to another order and it all came to us. 200 assorted bantams were supposed to fly to New Mexico, but they ended up in Florida instead! Oh Boy! I was ready for 100, but not 300!!!! Thank God we had built the 2nd brooder. I divided both brooders in half and bought more feeders and waterers and nestled everyone in. What a day! I've included pictures of our babies. Right now our nursery holds 40 ducks, 100 broilers and 100 bantams. (I was able to find homes for half the bantams.) Can't wait to see what they turn out to be.

Today was our processing day, but it didn't work out as expected either. We started and the birds just weren't up to the weight they needed to be. I think it's the cold weather. They've used so much energy keeping warm that it has slowed their growth. We've decided to give them another week. I guess that's part of working with live creatures. They do what they want despite our schedules.

Bill is standing in front of our latest project. Our Egg-mobile. We got some car wheels at the junk yard and Bill is making a wagon-like structure on top. It should hold about 100 birds. I want to paint it. Maybe it will be pink. ?? Pink is for girls. We'd be able to find them in the field for sure. I'll keep you posted.

I've also included a picture of my RV with it's pretty bonnet. This is what Bondo Bertha looks like with the billboard on top. Even with all the rain we've had, everything inside is dry. I've got a new tent stove from ebay that Bill is going to hook up for me so I can have heat. Bertha's off grid and will probably stay that way. I bought a new oil lamp too. It's starting to feel like a club house in there.