What a week....

This week was crazy! We have had some predator issues. An owl and a skunk decided to make visits. I was so sure we had our bases covered but unfortunately we lost our male duck to a huge owl. It was a sad day for the little girls because every morning they are the first ones up and they head out to check for duck eggs. It's their favorite breakfast and they love the ducks. Our female ducks are still out there and doing great with the exception of a minor injury to the smallest one. It just never dawned on me that an owl would mess with them. They are a Rouen and Pekin mix, so they are really big. I think the male duck was protecting his girls. One of my neighbor’s dogs ended up being sprayed by a skunk. I just hope it doesn't try to make a guest appearance here. We smell him almost every evening. Cool weather always seems to bring the predators in closer. It's time to keep a watchful eye.

A neighbor’s dog actually tore up the fence to one of the chicken breeder pens. Thank goodness I designed the coops to keep them safe. They can fly up top and get away from most anything. Unfortunately chickens, when startled, sometimes fly out of the pens. One of my beautiful lavender pullets managed to fly out and the dog grabbed her. Thank goodness my neighbor was able to grab the chicken before there was too much damage. I did have to stitch up her abdomen(a first for me) and give her an antibiotic shot. She is now up walking around and seems fine. I thought she wouldn't make it through the night.

We had baby ducks last weekend, right after my post.  Four beautiful ducklings. There were 2 yellow ones.  It's really hard to keep that many ducks together to take pictures.

 This weekend I was so excited.  I had ordered pretty expensive hatching eggs from CA.  They are a very rare breed called Isbar.  I ordered twosets of eggs. In the first shipment, I received twenty eggs. A few broke during shipping and only one developed.  I was so worried it wouldn’t hatch, but guess what!  It did.  I have a beautiful splash Isbar chick.  In the second shipment, I received eighteen eggs and only one developed.  I can only hope it hatches as well.  I moved it from the incubator to the hatcher this morning, and it is due to hatch on November 1^st. 

We finally made progress fixing things.  We made a new flip up door for the broken coop and started on the nest boxes for the other four coops.  We also made time to clean up the shed which needed it badly!  Let’s keep moving forward. **smile**

A farm never sleeps

This weekend found us finishing up projects and repairing others.  Unfortunately we never seem to finish all we set out to do.  Our plan was to fix a broken flip up door on the bottom of a chicken coop, rebuild a warped door on the chicken tractor, fix some broken face boards on the well house and rebuild the dog run that out precious little 2 lb Chihuahua keeps climbing out of. 

We didn’t even finish half of what we had planned. We were able to rebuild the dog run.  The ducks were happy to have their area back to themselves I am sure.  Two playful pups are not really their cup of tea. Thank goodness little Francis is still contained, so I think his climbing days are over.  We went from 2 ft fence to 4 ft fencing. Hope this one lasts.

We were able to rebuild the door for the chicken tractor.  That was a quick and simple job. The hard part was we had to rearrange some of the wood and hardware on the front of the tractor.  I like the way it looks now.  I get to watch the chicks since the door is a frame with chicken wire.

About the only other thing we accomplished other than enjoying a beautiful weekend was our compost bins.  We finally started working on them.  We have been piling up hay and chicken manure for 2 years now, but never really ended up with anything usable.  We built what will be our first section of the compost system, and we filled it up too. We will have to add on to it as soon as I clean the chicken coops this week. Sounds fun, right? Funny thing is… I actually enjoy it. 

Goats are doing great.  Neither one were used to being messed with. The younger one (Bonnie) is now sweet as can be. She will jump up on me like a dog at feed time (no it doesn’t hurt), and calls me over there every time I am outside. I love it! Fancy on the other hand is still quite shy.  She is just beginning to ask for attention. She is eating out of our hands, and will only allow me to touch her head.  If I try and rub her head she still pulls away, but at least it is progress.

Finding Time....

Finally sitting down to take a breath.  Made some progress here on the farm over the last week and weekend.  Here is the beginning stage of the newest project. The goat shelter! We decided to start small instead of going straight for the full size jersey cow.  They require much more pasture space, more feed, and what would we do with all that milk???  Starting with 2 nubian doelings sounded more reasonable.  Giving us all a chance to bond with the younger animals and learn the skills of the trade, so to speak.

Framed from FREE pallets from my local lumber store and feed store.  We were going to pull apart more pallets to fill in the gaps on the outside, but we were strained for time and good weather.  We went ahead and used siding panels for the back, front and west sides.  We left the east side ventilated. We also purchased galvanized steel roofing for $18. Not too terribly bad.  Here is the finished shelter and my girls. 



A Little Progress

    Today found a little progress... The cooler air moved in just in time for us to make our rack for the fire wood.  It had been sitting in the trailer for almost 2 weeks. We knew what we wanted to do, but had to find time to build it.  The weather was just a bonus.    

Here is the front side .  It holds all the fire wood for the house.  I kept a few buckets of wood for the fire pit I plan to put together sometime this fall.  Not sure where I will keep that yet.  I am sure we will come up with a plan soon.

Here is the back side.  It holds all the grill wood. Richard loves to smoke brisket, chicken and ribs.  All the retaining wall bricks were given to us by my father-in-law.  So that was free!  The sweet man we bought the firewood from gave us the pallets.  We only had to pay for the wood. The larger chunks of wood we decided to use as seats around our fire pit. Those were also given to us by the man we bought the firewood from.  I love the rustic look it gives everything. 

 

  Hopefully my next update with be about our new goats.  We were in the market for a family milk cow.  Since we needed a little more time to prepare for a cow, we decided on the milk goats.