3.21.12
One teeny little Banty hen named Widget ! I noticed she was missing Monday. Usually she's right here, wanting some breakfast or to sneak the cat's food. One of the working students said she'd seen her that evening, but I didn't. She wasn't around for dinner either, yesterday. I walked ALL over the farm, calling for her. She knows her name and comes a'runnin' when she hears me calling her, but nothing but silence yesterday. There was one place I Hadn't looked though- in the hay. Yesterday afternoon, while a student was grooming in preparation to ride, I got my little pen light and went searching. Well, I found her. There she was, wedged between a block wall and a big hay bale..... Just sitting there.
" hmmmmmmmmmm" I thought to myself as I tried to pick her up. I figured she'd just decided it was a nice place for a nap. Certainly there was no way she'd gone "broody" ( wanting to hatch out eggs and have babies). She was way to young for that ! Once again Mother Nature proved me oh so wrong. Widget had been one busy little hen. When I tried to pick her up, she fluffed herself to twice her normal size, and did a 'growl' of warning. Apparently she thought I was a predator come to snack on tasty banty sized eggs....
That little bitty hen had 14 eggs behind that hay bale !!!!! She had SO many she couldn't sit on them all to keep them warm . Obviously that was why she'd stopped laying in her little hen house- they were all there ! I had to squeeze in between 800 pound bales to bend over and gather them all up.
She's "missing" again this morning, since I let her out of her little nest...... Wonder where she'll decide to lay her non-fertile eggs now !?
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Doelings ! 3.20.12
They are here, they are here !!! Long story, short.... a friend of mine owns/ runs Brass Ring Fainting Goat Farm in Tennessee. She moved there a few years ago, and has been raising top quality Myotonic goats for some time. She shows & breeds them . I have loved the breed for as long as I've known about them, and never could afford to buy two does. So I enjoyed hearing of others' babies being born and seeing the photos shared. THIS year, my friend offered me two "bottle babies" and I took her up on her kind offer. There were some others that had "just been weaned" and turned 3 months old on March 16 th. The day I picked them up. We organized a clandestine meeting in the parking lot of a TSC store, and did the Great Goat Exchange there. All went well, and Misty & Malibu arrived here at the farm safe n' Hungry !!!
The first thing we did was go into the "goat stall" ( aka- one of the horse stalls in the main barn) and let them settle in a bit. Then, a late lunch was served of goat feed . The same kind they'd been used to eating..... and later on I let them out into the barn aisle for the first time.......
The first thing we did was go into the "goat stall" ( aka- one of the horse stalls in the main barn) and let them settle in a bit. Then, a late lunch was served of goat feed . The same kind they'd been used to eating..... and later on I let them out into the barn aisle for the first time.......
Can we please come out now, "ma" ?
First time out in the Big Barn Aisle !
Eating some hay first
Me n' Misty
Always checking for a way to get out of where ever they Are...
nom,nom,nom....
Malibu on the left, Misty on the right
Whew- exploring makes a baby thirsty
I'm Sure there will be many more pictures to come as these girls grow up. When they are old enough, I want to breed them and then we shall have kids for sale !
Welcome, Springtime ! 3.20.12
Today, as most of you know, is the 'first day of Spring' ! However, it is cloudy, showery and oh so humid outside. Yuckie beginning to Spring, if ya ask me.
Updates from our farm :
My little lavender Orpington chicks are NOT all Hens as I was told they may be. HA- I am seeing two with some mighty long tail feathers coming in and two, who have 'average' length ones. Now, from what little I know of telling roosters from hens - that's a pretty good sign, Other than crowing or laying eggs. ( Yeah- that would make me 100% sure ;) They are getting all kinds of stunning soft grey feathers, and are Tall for the age they are. Of course, the hens I bought from a "local" farm store were stunted and never grew to full sized " fat farm hens". This is all a calculated guess on my behalf. At any rate- they are happy, healthy and today were moved to the tack room ! Now I can clean the garden tub real well, and the carpet in the bathroom as well. Boy, chicks are dirty - no matter how often one cleans out their little brooders . If the sunshine ever comes out, I'll set up their little puppy pen out in the grass and cover it for their protection. Then I can also get some up to date photos of them. They were born on February 24th, so in a few days, they will be a whole month old :)
Updates from our farm :
My little lavender Orpington chicks are NOT all Hens as I was told they may be. HA- I am seeing two with some mighty long tail feathers coming in and two, who have 'average' length ones. Now, from what little I know of telling roosters from hens - that's a pretty good sign, Other than crowing or laying eggs. ( Yeah- that would make me 100% sure ;) They are getting all kinds of stunning soft grey feathers, and are Tall for the age they are. Of course, the hens I bought from a "local" farm store were stunted and never grew to full sized " fat farm hens". This is all a calculated guess on my behalf. At any rate- they are happy, healthy and today were moved to the tack room ! Now I can clean the garden tub real well, and the carpet in the bathroom as well. Boy, chicks are dirty - no matter how often one cleans out their little brooders . If the sunshine ever comes out, I'll set up their little puppy pen out in the grass and cover it for their protection. Then I can also get some up to date photos of them. They were born on February 24th, so in a few days, they will be a whole month old :)
Saturday, March 10, 2012
7/10/2011 Emmi & her Eggs
Oddly enough I haven't been publishing ALL of the posts here ! DUH . Check out the dates of the blog posts so you won't be confused with their order, please. I promise to try hard to not do this any more !
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I got a photo of Emmi setting on her eggs-thanks to my pal, Shanna ! Here's Emmi- she has 8 'bantam easter egger' eggs to care for. Tonight I'll make my first attempt at 'candling' them to see if they're fertile or not.
This little hen is doing a superb job with being a brand new mama-to-be. She only gets off her nest one time daily. She takes a healthy dirt bath, gets something to eat, and drink, catches some tasty bugs, and she's back on her nest. Mother Nature sure created some wonderful instincts in these chickens !
Here's Emmi:
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I got a photo of Emmi setting on her eggs-thanks to my pal, Shanna ! Here's Emmi- she has 8 'bantam easter egger' eggs to care for. Tonight I'll make my first attempt at 'candling' them to see if they're fertile or not.
This little hen is doing a superb job with being a brand new mama-to-be. She only gets off her nest one time daily. She takes a healthy dirt bath, gets something to eat, and drink, catches some tasty bugs, and she's back on her nest. Mother Nature sure created some wonderful instincts in these chickens !
Here's Emmi:
I imagine I'll have to begin putting a small dish of water / food in a corner so she can have something to drink all day long. It's supposed to be HOT the next few days here, so she'll appreciate that.
The New Door - October 31,2010
The new overhead barn door is here and installed ! It works like a dream- soooooooo simple to lift up. Its designed to look like a carriage house door, but it slides up , out of the way. The folks who did the work And ordered it for me were Wonderful ! Gotta plug their business: "Garage Doors Plus" Lisa & Ron Short, from Enola, PA. They were so helpful in letting me know what my choices were, and the costs as well, up front. No hidden fees or surprises. I'd called a few other garage door installers, and they all had to " get back to me". Lisa was on a job, and asked if she could call me back in a few minutes. I figured she'd call later on when they'd gotten home. No- she DID call me back and With some suggestions, AND prices. Then they both came to see what work was involved and we ordered the door.It arrived faster than I thought and they were here that Monday to install it ! Here are some photos of how it all went. Ron was great about answering my 'stupid human' questions as he worked and I learned a lot about garage doors .
Lisa & Ron kind of posing !
This is their info.....
Lisa doing something important- the door is Almost up !
The finished product !
Lisa & Ron kind of posing !
White Horse of Uffington.
Here is what they did :
England's Uffington Horse is a 3000-year-old iconic carving into a chalky hillside. Was it designed by the ancient Celts as a sign to the gods, like some sort of equestrian crop circle? No one really knows. It's always been there, galloping freely across the vast clear hillsides.
Until this week, that is, when the local people woke up to find a jockey on the horse. and reins.
The amazing publicity stunt was pulled off by the Irish online gambling shop ("bookmaker") Paddy Power. We're in the final run-up to the Cheltenham Festival of National Hunt racing (steeplechasing, more or less, in US racing terms) and an annual prank was expected.
As you can see in the video, they didn't carve the soil, but rather used canvas to create the rider.
Paddy Power is known for its pranks and its controversial (and usually quite humorous) television commercials about gambling.
If you needed to end the week with a smile, this should do it.
England's Uffington Horse is a 3000-year-old iconic carving into a chalky hillside. Was it designed by the ancient Celts as a sign to the gods, like some sort of equestrian crop circle? No one really knows. It's always been there, galloping freely across the vast clear hillsides.
Until this week, that is, when the local people woke up to find a jockey on the horse. and reins.
The amazing publicity stunt was pulled off by the Irish online gambling shop ("bookmaker") Paddy Power. We're in the final run-up to the Cheltenham Festival of National Hunt racing (steeplechasing, more or less, in US racing terms) and an annual prank was expected.
As you can see in the video, they didn't carve the soil, but rather used canvas to create the rider.
Paddy Power is known for its pranks and its controversial (and usually quite humorous) television commercials about gambling.
If you needed to end the week with a smile, this should do it.
Hmmmm.... 3.10.12
I don't know if you have ever heard of the White Horse of Uffington or not, but if you do a search online for it, you can learn all about it. Seems, some of the folks from Paddy Power decided she needed a jockey- so here's what happened :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b8p4HQGXgak#!
enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b8p4HQGXgak#!
enjoy
Friday, March 9, 2012
Happy End of February !
This winter has been good to us. "Warm" temps, little snow, some rainy days- but generally ? A good winter so far. Now- since I just typed that, we'll get a HUGE snow storm in March, Just to prove me wrong.
Alli , my ancient App mare, has come thru this winter in good weight. Normally, she'll loose a little by this month no matter what I try to tempt her with.... but not this year. Alli Likes warmer weather - as do I.
This is a short one- as I'm attempting to once again, learn a stable management program I purchased. So far, so good, but whew, I'd MUCH rather be driving horses !
Take care, and check back again soon !
Below are a couple of photos from our late January snow :
Alli , my ancient App mare, has come thru this winter in good weight. Normally, she'll loose a little by this month no matter what I try to tempt her with.... but not this year. Alli Likes warmer weather - as do I.
This is a short one- as I'm attempting to once again, learn a stable management program I purchased. So far, so good, but whew, I'd MUCH rather be driving horses !
Take care, and check back again soon !
Below are a couple of photos from our late January snow :
Welcome, March !
3.9.2011
March is here ! To some, March comes in like a 'lion', and goes out like a 'lamb'. So far , THIS March in south central Pennsylvania has been all " lamb", with an occasional growl from that 'lion'. I'm usually waiting for April to show up because this last month of winter can often be more nasty than other months. But, our daffodils are up and have buds on them ! Our forsythias are developing baby sized buds- both promising glorious color for this upcoming Spring. Each year, Spring is a new Beginning- and once again, I can see glimmers of green grass, the teeny early spring flowers and I'm sure Spring is arriving Soon.
We have some new chicks - another Spring Event ! These are called Lavender Orpingtons and are going to be stunning birds once mature. Right now, the four peeps are living in a brooder in my bathtub, and are growing like mad. This morning, one flew up on the edge of the brooder and hopped down. What a scary moment that was for her. I don't think she thought all of this flying thru real well- it's just that she has little bitty feathers, flapped and There she Was. I'll be sure to add a couple of photos of them when they arrived last week. This is the third week of life for these little peepies.
There was a boarder who just never did fit in here who finally moved out the last day of February. You know how some people know less than they Think they do ? Well, that's how it was here, and proceeded to get worse and worse. We had decided that March 31 was to be their last day of keeping their ponies here, but they chose earlier, and now our barn is back to being a great place again. Its odd how just one "bad apple'' really DOES make things rotten.
One of my working students and friend, Shanna, has purchased a horse for her ! This is the second one she has owned, and is SO excited. We took a road trip yesterday with her mom ( who knows horses too) to see this little horse. Oh my- she was PERFECT ! A perfect size, build, sweet personality and has the basics in training down really nicely. She's just 4, so it'll be a wonderful, long relationship between the owners , I hope.
There has been some interest from some other people in coming here to board, but we shall have to wait to be Sure.
That's about it- other than me remembering to add the chick pix , so here they are in no particular order.....
Misty, Lilac, Layla and Dixie:
March is here ! To some, March comes in like a 'lion', and goes out like a 'lamb'. So far , THIS March in south central Pennsylvania has been all " lamb", with an occasional growl from that 'lion'. I'm usually waiting for April to show up because this last month of winter can often be more nasty than other months. But, our daffodils are up and have buds on them ! Our forsythias are developing baby sized buds- both promising glorious color for this upcoming Spring. Each year, Spring is a new Beginning- and once again, I can see glimmers of green grass, the teeny early spring flowers and I'm sure Spring is arriving Soon.
We have some new chicks - another Spring Event ! These are called Lavender Orpingtons and are going to be stunning birds once mature. Right now, the four peeps are living in a brooder in my bathtub, and are growing like mad. This morning, one flew up on the edge of the brooder and hopped down. What a scary moment that was for her. I don't think she thought all of this flying thru real well- it's just that she has little bitty feathers, flapped and There she Was. I'll be sure to add a couple of photos of them when they arrived last week. This is the third week of life for these little peepies.
There was a boarder who just never did fit in here who finally moved out the last day of February. You know how some people know less than they Think they do ? Well, that's how it was here, and proceeded to get worse and worse. We had decided that March 31 was to be their last day of keeping their ponies here, but they chose earlier, and now our barn is back to being a great place again. Its odd how just one "bad apple'' really DOES make things rotten.
One of my working students and friend, Shanna, has purchased a horse for her ! This is the second one she has owned, and is SO excited. We took a road trip yesterday with her mom ( who knows horses too) to see this little horse. Oh my- she was PERFECT ! A perfect size, build, sweet personality and has the basics in training down really nicely. She's just 4, so it'll be a wonderful, long relationship between the owners , I hope.
There has been some interest from some other people in coming here to board, but we shall have to wait to be Sure.
That's about it- other than me remembering to add the chick pix , so here they are in no particular order.....
Misty, Lilac, Layla and Dixie:
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