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.