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Hey bloggie blog. Right now I'm playing around with Tumblr, so that's why you haven't seen me here. I like it better than blogger so far, at least for posting photos. Look for me, same name as here ;)

Photo of the Day - Just me and my dogs

I'm feeling a little under the weather this week, I have these annoying chronic issues with my stomach and other things that get in the way sometimes. It's really frustrating being stuck on the couch while there is so much that I want to be doing on the farm. I hate feeling like being sick is holding me back. Somethings, like feeding and watering everyone, have to be done regardless of how I feel. It can be tough at times, but I manage. My husband and my dogs keep my spirits up when I'm not feeling well. Yesterday, I was feeling a little down so John called into work and we went to the movies together and spent a lazy day just relaxing. He even did all my chores for me:). When he's not around, I always have a dog close by to cuddle with on the couch on sick days. I'm so lucky to have my little family, I don't know what I'd do without my farm boy and our furry monsters.

Me and Iorek. Poco's in the back, firing up his laser eyes to shoot us both, he get's so jealous!

Photo of the Day: Chicken Watering Hole

The babies, they're growing so fast. I'm hoping the white one is a rooster. They're so funny, anytime they see my husband or I they come running and then follow us around all over the yard. 

Hero is doing good! This morning I woke up and John was already outside cleaning his wounds and taking care of him. I was so relieved, I wasn't looking forward to doing it, but John had no trouble at all. Tomorrow, when he's at work I'm going to have to handle it myself, but now I'm not worried after watching John. The castration wound seems to be healing up really fast, it's already scabbed up and looks pretty good. His legs still need time. He likes to lay on the hurt leg, which really bothers me because the wound is touching the ground when he does, but we're keeping the bedding nice and clean so hopefully that helps. This week, I'm going to get some photos and post a how-to on hydrolyzing wounds, just in case it can help anyone.

Anyway, hope everyone is ready for Monday. ;)

Hero goes to the Vet

 

Today, we spent the morning at the veterinarians office with Hero. After looking at his injuries more and a lot of discussion, we decided it was better to take him in than try to treat his injuries on our own this time. We don't have a lot of hands-on experience with things like castration yet, so we weren't quite up to the job. His other wounds were also starting to look a little infected, and I was worried about those. Luckily, we were able to finally find a vet that could help us after a lot of searching. The office is about and hour and a half away, but it was a nice drive.

I'm glad we took him in, not only did we get Hero all doctored up, we got a mini course on castration. If we ever have a situation like this again, we'll definitely be able to handle it on our own. I've only been to the vet with a pet, I was kinda expecting the same treatment on my sheep, but things are a little different for livestock. Hero did not get any sort of anesthesia or even local anesthetics, not so much as a pain pill. They cleaned him up, held him down, grabbed a razor and started cutting. Anyone who has the stomach for it and knows what to cut could have done it without a difference. I guess that's why most ranchers castrate their own livestock. We watched closely and asked a ton of questions, so now we have the experience we would need to feel comfortable doing it ourselves. I hope we never have to, and we don't have a lot of plans for the farm that will require castrations, but it's good knowledge to have for sure. He was also given antibiotics and a tetanus shot, both available at the feed store. The vet showed us how to properly clean his wounds. I was being way too gentle with my little squirt bottle. They took a hose with an adjustable nozzle, and sprayed the heck out of everything with pretty good pressure until it was clean and you could see a little blood rising to the surface of the exposed muscle . It's called hydrolyzing, and we have to do it twice a day on him until his wounds close. They weren't able to close up any of his wounds with sutures because of their locations and lack of skin, so we have to keep everything extra clean. The vet said the hydrolyzing will help get contaminates out as well as stimulate blood flow to the area. He also said it's going to take a few weeks for him to heal up and he's not out of the woods, but if we can keep him from getting infection and sepsis he should make it.  

I hope my poor little sheepy is going to be ok. We have good luck with healing hurt animals around here, so I think he'll make it. Positive thoughts are welcome right now!

Hero in his pen resting, he had a tough morning.

Spirit in Action

This morning, Spirit went for a nice roll in the dirt.

 

Then, she spotted her friend, Nicey, all the way at the end of the pasture and took off.

When I caught up with them, they were busy nuzzling and being cute. Nicey is our neighbor's horse, he lives in the pasture right next to us. We call him Nicey because he's nice and we're really creative. There's another horse that lives there too, he's not as nice. We call him Blindy. We call him Blindy because... well you can probably guess.

Spirit grazing.

An update on Hero, our ram with the injured balls... We're going to have to castrate him. After talking about it on some sheep forums, we've decided the best thing we can do is band him. I'm headed to the feed store to get some supplies so we can get the job done. I know a lot of people that just put their livestock animals down when they have such an injury, especially since he won't be able to be bred now, but I don't believe in culling like that. I also think that temporary pain is worth it if you get to stay alive, I'm sure if Hero had a say, he would not want to be "put out of his misery". Animals have a strong survival instinct, I know he wants to survive, so we'll do whatever we can to heal him. It pains me to see him limping around, I can't wait until he feels better.

Attacked

Yesterday, I did not post anything. I had such a busy, hectic day, the blog was completely forgotten about. Our ram, Hero, was attacked by a dog. He's going to be ok, but he does have some injuries that will take a while to heal. He suffered a lot of bites, the worst being to his scrotum. Half of the skin on it is missing, leaving one testicle completely exposed. Yeah, ouch. We're doing all we can to keep it clean and infection free. We may need to call in the vet on this one and have him castrated. Unfortunately, we don't have any vets around here that you can just call to chat with about the situation before taking them in, and the visits for anything that isn't your basic house pet are really expensive. Expensive is not good right now. We'll see though, poor Hero can't just walk around with his testicles out. I have learned that farm animals are tough creatures, they survive things you would never think they could. Hero is up and walking around, slowly and with a limp, but I'm sure he'll be ok. I hope we can keep his manhood in tact after this is all said and done, it would be nice to have some lambs.

So since this isn't a very nice story to share today, I'll close with a funny pic; Goober using his horns to scratch his back. He uses them for this, ruining fences, and ramming John and I when we turn our backs.

Look at that belly!

A Horse, a Sheep, and a Goat

 

 Over the weekend, my hard-working farm boy finally finished our new goat yard. We've been working on it for a few weeks, but the heat has been so oppressive it's been slow going. The new residents, Goober the goat and Hero the sheep, love their new home. Spirit is a little jealous, but she's not allowed around the smaller animals. She tolerates Goober, but everyone else she tries to kill. She even chases the chickens out of her yard, stamping her front feet at them as she runs. We've been having a problem with this one coyote coming around, and we've actually witnessed Spirit chasing the coyote out of her pasture. She's a great guard horse, no need for a donkey, we just have to be careful with her and the smaller animals.

She's so curious, always has to check everything out.

Isn't she pretty? I just love her.

 On a different note, I made my first sale on Etsy today! I'm so excited! It makes me feel really good knowing that someone liked something that I made enough to buy it, I'm so flattered. I've been working on a lot of new stuff for the store that I'm really excited about, too. Last night I was up until 2am finishing this guy up...

Sharktastic! Tooth from a sand tiger shark.

I'm pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself ;). I may keep this particular one, but I'm definitely going to be making more for the shop. I gathered the teeth myself from the bottom of the shark tank at SeaWorld, back when I was a diver for their aquarium. We would spend 4 hours a week in the shark exhibit, vacuuming up shark poo and scrubbing fake coral. We wore normal SCUBA gear, the only protection we had from the sharks was a 3ft pole shaped like a T, made from 3/4" pvc pipe. It wasn't really any protection at all, definitely not going to stop a shark, but we used them to gently nudge the sharks away if they swam too close. During those countless hours on poo-duty (ha), every time I saw a stray tooth I would tuck it away in my wetsuit and vacuum on. I gave most of these teeth away, however I do still have a small collection left. I think making jewelry with them is a great way to use them, I'm going to have a hard time deciding what to keep and what to sell, though!

Turkey Stew

Turkey stew, anyone?

Man, is it HOT outside! Like many places around the U.S., we have been experiencing record heat this summer. I've been coping by hiding away inside during the hottest hours with the a.c. on full blast, and taking care of any chores that I need to do either before the sun is up, or after it's down. The animals have been coping in anyway they can. Today, the turkey took a nice cool dip in the water trough. I don't know if all turkeys like water or just ours, but she just loves going for a little swim. I think it's the cutest thing. :) 

Keepin' cool.

  

Getting Started on Etsy!

 

Hey everyone! Since quitting my job I have finally been able to spend some time crafting. Mostly, I've been making jewelry. I have quite a few necklaces that I've made, and yesterday I finally took some time and got a couple uploaded to Etsy.

 

Right now, I'm working on getting my "Butterfly in a Bottlecap" series uploaded, and then I have some other stuff, too. I'm super excited, I hope I can get some sales so I can have an excuse for more crafting. My shop name on Etsy is AGirlandaFarm, go look! :)

I made these necklaces using resin, you mix it and then pour it into anything you want. You can also paint it onto items. It dries hard, and looks really nice. It's pretty neat stuff. I'm also experimenting with some really fun paper mache stuff, but you'll have to wait a little for more info on that...

Potato

Potato is getting big! Her bad dreams have stopped, and she's so much happier. She has stayed very emotional and sensitive, so we have to be careful not to hurt her feelings. If you do, by not giving her enough attention or raising your voice at her, she'll go lay down and cry. It's the saddest thing to see her laying there, whimpering and sighing. When the other dogs are short with her or ignore her, she does the same thing. It takes a lot of hugs and love to cheer her up again. What an emotional little puppy. Those little things above her left ear are stickers, Potato loves running through the weeds and always comes out covered in them. Luckily, they aren't the painful kind of stickers that really poke you, these ones are more like Velcro; they just stick to everything. They also have a tendency to get into the most annoying places and irritate the crap out of you, like in the ankle of your sock. They don't seem to bother Potato much, but they sure annoy me.

The Itty Bitty Toad

Day 4

I found this little guy floating in a water bucket this morning during my rounds. Good thing I came along, he wouldn't have been able to float there for too long. We have a lot of these toads around our house, the chickens can sometimes be seen tearing one to pieces. I found him a nice safe spot to live though, so no worries for him. :)

 My Husband HATES frogs and toads, they really freak him out for some reason. I've never really understood why, he loves every other kind of reptile. Sometimes, when I feel like being mean, I'll catch one and try to make him touch it. He gets so mad, but it's hilarious to see him squirm around like a girl. That sounds a little cruel... But it's damn funny. If they pee on me, as they often do when caught, he will actually gag. Usually, this game ends with both of us doubled over. Him with dry heaves, and me with laughter.  

My manly husband.

His biggest fear.

The Littlest Lizard

Today is day three of my photo-a-day challenge, and I have some cute ones. I found this little guy on a hose when I was out watering the dogs. He's a green anole, the smallest one I've ever seen.

 We did a little photo shoot before I let him go in a more suitable area... My chickens love eating lizards!

I just love this little guy, so cute!

Day Two- The Dog Cave

Like a lot of dogs, my furry brats like to dig. They have ugly holes dug all over the place. About a year ago, I discovered the biggest hole yet, now referred to as the dog cave. The dog cave is a hole about 3ft by 3ft and about a foot deep with a deep cavern located in the back of the cave. The cave was carved out under a pallet that now acts as the roof, allowing in plenty of light and fresh air. I gave up long ago trying to keep it filled in, it just reappears every time. Our dog, Puppy, is the one who did most of the work and it's her favorite place to hang out. She lays in her cave all day, barking through the pallet at anyone who passes by.

Puppy at the entrance to the dog cave.

The cave with the pallet roof removed.

Iorek renovating the back cavern. 

The dog named Puppy.

Photo-a-Day Challenge

So here I am, I'm not sure how long since my last post in which I stated I would be posting to my blog all the time, and then I haven't written since. Things don't always work out as planned. I haven't really had any computer access for a while, so I haven't been able to do a lot of things. I got a brand new laptop though, so now I should be able to write a lot more.

I've decided that to get myself started, I am going to post one photo a day for the entire month of August. After I complete this challenge, I'll back off to posting a few times a week.

I'll start off with a photo I snapped this morning, getting close to noon. My horse, Spirit was being lazy this morning and got up late. She and Goober lounged in the shade all morning long. I don't blame them, the heat has been horrible lately. I can't wait until fall arrives and brings us some relief!

Lazy days of summer.

How to get Rid of Wasps Without Poison

 

Today I discovered the biggest wasp nest I've ever seen, right after I nearly stuck my face into it. Luckily, the wasps were pretty distracted and I had time to snap a photo before I sent them to the insect afterlife.

I Don't like wasps. One time, when I was a kid, my friend pissed off a wasp while we were skateboarding. She lost her balance and swung her arm out, hitting the wasp. He disappeared, but within a minute he had brought back up and they were everywhere. Although I was an innocent party to the assault on the wasp, they went after me. Probably because I was wearing a bright colored shirt, which apparently attracts wasps. Fun fact; Wasps, unlike bees, keep their stinger after using it. This allows them to sting over and over again. By the time I got away from the wasps, I had several spots that were swelling to the size of golf balls. My friend, not realizing how dangerous the situation really was, laughed the whole time and was untouched. 

Wasps aren't really all that bad though, the serve many important functions in the ecosystem. They eat pesky insects and are a food source for lots of other animals. Still, if they are close to the house it is best to remove them. Wasps are very territorial and you, kids, and pets may get stung.  If they are not close enough to bother anything, just let them live.

When removing wasps, wait until it's dark so the wasps are not active. You can spray them with a wasp spray, however these are highly toxic. With my chickens running around everywhere I worry that they would eat a poisoned wasp and get sick. A great alternative is to spray them down with soapy water. Just add dish soap into warm water, load into a squirt gun, and spray away.

For more information on wasps, including their history, this website has some interesting info.

More to come tomorrow, I have a bunch of pictures I need to put up as well as some updates on the farm. See you later ;)

A Chick Named Miracle

Hatching season is here, and our hens suck at it! So far we have had six hens go broody. Out of those six, one has been a successful mother. True, it is their first time raising babies; but their learning curve is really killing me... and the babies, unfortunately. Two hens gave up on their eggs before they were done. Another one hatched out her eggs successfully, but managed to crush half of the babies. We took the surviving chicks from her and are now raising them in a brooder. The other two crushed more eggs than they hatched. One of the crushed eggs I discovered a few days before hatching time. It was broken pretty bad and felt ice cold, but I noticed a tiny movement inside.

The egg after being cleaned up

 I thought there was no way the egg could make it, but I just couldn't manage to throw away an egg with a still-living chick inside. I took it inside, cleaned the shards of shell off, washed it with warm water on a cotton ball, and applied a tiny bit of neosporin to the tears in the membrane to keep it from drying out.

Another view of the damage, the shell was shattered.

Every time I checked on the egg I expected to find it dead, however, for nearly two days the it survived. Finally, I heard a flurry of peeping coming from the incubator and the chick was actually hatching!

Starting to push..

And out!

She was born with a crooked toe, but otherwise perfect :) I named her Miracle, because of her amazing survival. So, this hatching season could be going better, but it is the first for both us and the hens, so a few hiccups were to be expected. At least we have a whole brood of new babies, and the first generation born right here on the farm :)

Miracle and her crooked toe.

Happenings Around the Farm

Hello :) I apologize, for I have not been writing nearly enough. That however, is about to change...

Ta Da!! Screw you steady paycheck, nobody needs you.

 That's right, I put in my 2 weeks notice at work. I'm super excited, and a little (maybe a lot) nervous. I have a good feeling about this though, and I am looking forward to the many changes that are coming! So, what am I going to do with all my new found free-time? I have a ton of plans, for starters taking care of the farm. John and I are busy every single weekend with random stuff that comes up, for example the turkey disappearing or the pig escaping, and we got to thinking about how when we're both at work, nobody is home to take care of the important things that pop up. That thought makes us both very anxious. This place just needs a lot more care than we can give it with our current schedules. So we've done a lot of talking and planning, and I decided to go for it and quit my job. I'm going back to school in August, so until then I'm going to focus full-time on the farm. I'm taking most of my classes online, so it should work out perfect. I'm really excited about the future right now :)

Meantime, on the farm, we have new babies! Our chickens have been going broody left and right, and we finally have some new chickies :)  They're so adorable!

Hatching

Mama Hen and a Chick

Also, We found this puppy...

My brother told me that there was a dog running around by his friends house with a litter of puppies. All the puppies had been killed except one. One got hit by a car, I don't know about the rest. He convinced me to go look for the remaining puppy, who we found sitting on the sidewalk near a drainage ditch just inches from the busy street, and now here she is! John, my husband, has dubbed her Potato. Often times she wakes up crying and whimpering loudly, like she is having bad dreams. :( She has nothing to worry about anymore though, the poor little pup will have a nice place to live here on our farm.

Follow me on Instagram!

http://instagr.am/p/J3aF3eNw7d/
I have to admit, I'm a little addicted to Instagram. My username is aGirlandaFarm. Follow me, I'll follow you too. :)

That Troublesome Turkey

Dino the turkey is up to her usual antics. The other day when we went to close the coop for the night, she was nowhere to be found. We didn’t panic right away, knowing from last time she disappeared that she was probably brooding somewhere, so we started searching. After a while the sun had gone down and all the usual places had been checked, but no turkey had been found. Panic started to set in at this point. More than likely she was fine, but she would not be fine for long if we didn’t find her before the predators did. We’ve lost too many of our birds, sometimes right under our noses during the day, to feel secure with her out of the coop for even a few hours after dark. It really doesn't help that at night time, turkeys (and chickens) seem to lose all thinking ability and just sit there, no matter what's happening. Predators have no trouble walking right up and making a meal out of them, they don’t try to get away or anything. I guess it's the darkness or something, I really don't know. By now it was now plenty dark and my turkey was still not in the coop. I started running back to the house to get a flashlight, feeling my heart sinking. Suddenly, I felt the earth squish under my foot as something let out an indignant squawk. I flew towards the ground, catching myself on my hands and knees. Dino stared down at me, feathers ruffled but otherwise ok. 

She had apparently decided that the middle of nowhere with no cover or protection, other than being slightly hidden in foot tall weeds, was a great place to make a nest. Oh turkey..

She's a looker.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Turkey

Dino, our pet turkey

Yesterday, we learned what it feels like when a parent loses there kid in a crowded area. Our child was a turkey, lost amongst acres of four foot tall weeds, but I'm sure it's a similar feeling. I got home from work, and as soon as I saw John I could tell something was wrong. "I can't find turkey" he told me sorrowfully. The next 30 minutes were a paniced blur, we combed the property, looking everywhere. "Maybe she's hiding with some eggs", John tried to cheer me up. I rejected the idea, she had never even layed an egg before. If she didn't come for the afternoon scratch treat, the worst had to have happened. We called her and searched the best we could within the rain forest of weeds that is currently our property, there was no sign of her. Every bunch of weeds I searched, I expected to find her body, half eaten by a predator like we've found chickens who have gone missing. It would be hard, if not impossible to find any remainder of her amongst the weeds, so we headed back to the coop, giving up.

Well guess who was waiting for us at the coop when we got there? I don't know where she had disappeared  to, but at least she was safe.

Natural World: Farm for the Future; A video intro into permaculture

While wasting time at work one day I stumbled across this video on a website, http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/, that has given me a new perspective on farming. It explains how huge monoculture style farms, tilling, and pesticides are not sustainable methods of agriculture, and that if we are going to feed our ever growing population things are going to have to change. The video teaches how diverse, permaculture farming methods are the the future of farming. My favorite part, the documentary advocates no-till farming, which I am a huge fan of. Watch the video, I promise you'll learn a lot :) 

Natural World: Farm for the Future

Something to make you say "awwww!" - Video of a chick hatching

Here is a video of the chick we hatched out in the incubator after the mom gave up on it. After she dried she went back outside and now we can't tell her apart from the other chicks. Oh, and don't worry, the blood is normal. ;)

Guineas, Weeds, and Hero

The four guineas we've been raising are finally ready to go from the brooder to the chicken coop. We moved them a couple days ago. After a few weeks they'll be ready to be let out of the coop to free range with the rest of the poultry. They've already made a friend; a black sex link has found her way into their part of the coop and is now roosting with them.

Sadly, weeds are taking over as our little lawn mower broke over the weekend. But on an up side we got a new feed bin, we'll no longer have to keep the scratch in the truck. Hopefully this cuts down on the chickens attacking the cars when we drive in.

Hero, our ram, is still getting used to being tied. He still tries to run from us every time we approach him, even though he's eaten many treats out of our hands and let us pet him a bunch of times. But each time we go to catch him to tie him out to eat he runs.  During the chases around the yard we've discovered French Fry, the dog we found and put in with him mainly because there was nowhere else for her and they both needed company, is a pretty good herd dog. She actually helps us by cutting him off when he runs and keeps him in place by licking his face. The other night he came untied, but all we had to do to catch him was let French Fry out and Hero followed her right back into the yard. They've bonded well, but we definitely need to get Hero some sheep friends asap.

This weekend we're gonna do more work on the garden and post some more photos to the blog, check back soon!

New Babies on the Farm

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.  ~Bern Williams

Spring is here at Clover Leaf Farms! Over the last few days our broody hen’s eggs finally hatched; leading to eight fluffy new additions to the farm. This is the first time we’ve had a hen hatch out eggs, so we’re very excited and a little anxious about it. So far, things are going well. We have them in their own enclosure to try to keep the other animals, mainly the cats, away from them. I also worry that the other chickens or the goose would try to eat them. They can be vicious little things; I’ve seen my chickens rip toads, lizards, snakes, and mice to shreds in a flurry of blood and feathers.  The first time I saw my sweet little chickens rip apart and devour a large toad, I was appalled. I had no idea chickens were so carnivorous. It scared me a little. After the initial shock I got used to it, they are related to dinosaurs after all. 

We’ve lost 2 chicks so far; hopefully there will be no more. Both chicks died shortly after hatching, one was still halfway in the shell. I’m pretty sure that the mom accidently stepped on the other one. It was fine, and then suddenly it was dead. We dug a small grave and buried them. The momma hen got off her nest and started walking around with the babies, leaving 2 eggs behind. The eggs were cold when I picked them up. One of them had pipped, but wasn’t moving and appeared dead. I picked away some of the shell and the chick moved just a little, so we quickly took the remaining eggs inside and put them into the incubator. The pipped egg eventually hatched, and when the baby was dry enough we took it back outside and slipped in under the mom with its siblings. The last egg never hatched, and a small hole I broke into the shell revealed that the egg had never finished forming. So all in all, our first broody hen hatching was a happy success! The little chicks running around after mom is the cutest thing ever, and we have a few more chickens for our flock… One can never have enough chickens ;)