Critters...

Summer has gone by too fast. Much to fast. I realize I have been neglectful when it comes to my blog. I like to tell myself that not much as been happening to write about, but that's not entirely true.

 

This post is dedicated to sharing all the new critters that have come to live at our house over the summer months.

 

 

First was Gus.

 

What little girl doesn't dream of having a horse? I certainly did. I am forty-two years old and I finally got myself a horse. I have so much to learn about horses and so much to learn from him. Thankfully, Gus is patient with me. He is a pasture buddy to Anna's pony Maximus and my two rams, Neptune and Gunnar. They all get along very well.

 

 

Next came Hermione

 

and Alexandria

 

Then came this little guy...

Who, by the way, is growing fast and not so little anymore. We call him "Jack" because Anna loves Little House On The Prairie and that was one of Laura's dog's name. Jack is a mutt - but we are guessing he maybe he has a little bit of border collie in him from his coloring and markings.  He cried constantly the first 5 days we had him, but gradually he stopped crying. He seems eager to please, but has a lot to learn. Jack has quickly captured my heart. I pray he has enough sense to stay away from tires and moving vehicles.

 

 

And my last purchase, could possibly be the one that causes me to lose all my hair!

Trixie

 

I brought Trixie home last Friday. I built a small pen for her in the barn right next to the other sheep. Trixie, apparently did not like her pen and jumped over the fence, not once, not twice, but three times. I finally gave up and put her in with the other sheep. Who, by the way, were not as happy as I was to have another ewe in the barn. They chased her away and head butted her when-ever they got the chance.

Sunday morning,  I was outside bright and early, thinking I was going to go to church at 8, so I wanted to get my chores done. I like walking out in the pasture among my sheep and scratching their chins. Even though I wasn't anywhere near her, Trixie freaked out. She ran into the barn, cleared the fence to the pen with no problem and jumped out the  walk-in door. I spent the next hour trying to "catch" her. She just wanted to circle the house. Finally, the farmer came out and together we managed to corral her into one of the sheds. I was able catch her with no problem after that. Honestly, I was ready to put her into a trailer and haul her to the sale barn. But, I didn't. I took her into the barn and sheared her ( she had managed to get her fleece full of burrs). She was well behaved during her shearing, probably cause she wore herself out. Then, I put her back in with the rest of the flock. I'm happy to say, she has since calmed down quite a bit and doesn't run every time I go out there, however, we have a long way to go before she is eating out of my hands.

 

 

It's been a hot, dry summer and I welcome the coming of Fall.

 

 

~Blessings

Kathy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Good Golly Miss Molly

This is Miss Molly. Miss Molly loved to fly the coop everyday. It didn't bother me but the neighbors dog as well as a few coon were enjoying my chicken for dinner far to often. The Farmer added Cattle panels to the fencing to make it taller in an effort to keep the chickens in. They all stayed in the run after this, all of them except Miss Molly.

Everyday, I would see her strutting around the yard, pecking and scratching for her dinner and every night I would see her back in the coop roosting with the rest of the chickens. I couldn't figure out how she got out or back in. I tryed to find and plug the holes but the next day, she would be out again. And then one night I noticed that Molly wasn't in the coop with the other birds. That was almost a month ago and I hadn't seen her since. I wrote her off as dinner for some predator.

Then this morning I was on my way back into the house when I passed by a fir tree out in the yard and heard some clucking noise and there she was, Miss Molly, coming out from under the tree with a brood of seven chicks.
I was dumb struck.

It didn't take long for the cats to find the chicks and we had to rescue two of them from being coming lunch. As much fun as they were to watch parading around we decided to move them into this little hutch.

 The family seems happy in their new home.

 I noticed that Miss Molly had left behind several eggs- when we picked them up we could hear chirping inside and one of the eggs was beginning to crack.

 This little guy makes the 8th chick.

Miss Molly made my morning, heck she made my week. We are all enjoying her new babies and marvel out how she managed to survive underneath that tree.

Once again, I can't help but marvel at God's creations.

~ Kathy

Wheat Harvest Begins

Today begins the first day of the wheat harvest. Its a little early but things have been so dry. We are on the verge of experiencing a drought. The wheat we started cutting today is the hard red winter wheat my husband has always grown. It is grown in what some people might call with conventional farming methods. The hard WHITE winter wheat will be harvested last. This is what the farmer refers to as "my wheat". He planted it at my request and there was a lot of legwork involved in finding the seed...but more on that later. He agreed to leave "my wheat" chemical free and I'm very anxious to compare the two, especially the yield.

Incredibly beautiful day

  

Office for the day

I'm glad I don't have to bale all that straw

 

 

God Bless,

Kathy

Everyday Farming Problems

It has been a busy week here. The planting is done.. The garden is in. But we haven't had any rain. Things are dry. So I've been watering like crazy. The new fruit trees, the garden, the animals.

Moon Gold Apricot Tree

Yellow Transparent Apple Tree

If you have been following my blog you might remember that a few weeks ago (or maybe longer) we lost a few chickens and ducks. I was confused because it didnt' seem like  coyote behavior. Well, we caught the predator red handed. Our neighbor's dog. We really like our neighbors and the dog has visited before and we speculated the loss of a few other birds might have been him but for some reason it never occured to me that he was the cause this time. But then a few days later, I caught him red handed. Our neighbors have cooperated in efforts to keep this from happening again and  reimbursed me for the  loss. Its good to have wonderful neighbors.

This is what I woke up too yesterday morning. "Georgy Porgy pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry when the boys came out to play Georgy Porgy ran away."

You should have run away Georgy.

 Poor Georgy. He fared better then I did. Things like this stress me out. I have such a small flock of sheep I dont' keep a lot of medications on hand. After I panicked, I made a trip to the vet and after I got him doctored up, I felt much better. It was just the shell he broke off. He was so good letting me take care of him.

Last night we finally caught our nightly visitor, or at least one of them. The cat food was disappearing at an alarming rate and duck eggs were being eaten by the dozen. I found this in the barn when I got up this morning.

I set the trap, and now I am trying to play the girl card and get the farmer to take it from here. Poor thing looks terrified.

He will be relocated.

Our son got his ATV this week so we took a ride through the pasture and around the farm the other night. It was really windy and if you didn't keep your mouth closed you ended up with a mouth full of insects.

We saw deer, coyotes and a pair of pheasants. All running to fast for me to get any pictures.

These are new food plots for the wild life.

black raspberry plant, but they need rain

So happy to see he always wears his safety goggles and helmet.

Fishing pond #1.

These were everywhere. Any idea what kind of flower they are?

Old barn which houses the rams and ponies.

Pond #2. It had lots of catfish in it at one time. Not sure if they are still there or not.

But there are dozen and dozens of frogs.

Hoping all of you have a blessed weekend and please pray for rain.

Maternity Ward

I was out in the barn this morning grooming the bunnies. The kids came out to bring my camera. Caleb was playing with the cats and asked me if I thought they were getting close to having their kittens. He thought his cat "Q" looked like she was breathing heavy. I glanced over to see and sure enough she was in labor and VERY restless.

After her first kitten was born she kept dragging it all over the cold hard cement floor. We got an old blanket and transferred her there.

There was so much activity in the barn. Chickens clucking, Roosters crowing

Noisy and NOSY Sheep

Whats happening?

We got a box and decided to move her into the other room of the barn where I usually keep my hay.

Only to discover that another of our cats was having her kittens. We gave them separate boxes but they insisted on sharing.

 Its quieter in the room and Q finally settled down to have the rest of her kittens.

Our cats love each other very much.

We have one more cat who looks like she is expecting.

Normally cats don't stay around long on our place. With all the wooded area, they seem to "disappear" But the 5 we have now have been around for almost a year. I think that they will be paying a visit to the vet very soon!

Picture day on Smith Farms

I was thrilled to have my friend and professional photographer http://www.phoenix-photography.biz come out one afternoon and take pictures of the kids and animals. She is

passionate about what she does, and when someone is that passionate you know your going to get wonderful results. Here is just a sneak peak of some of what she has done.

Soon will be a high school graduate

Remember the tire swing was suppose to get her mind off a pony - That lasted about 5 months when Dad had a weak moment on Christmas Eve. The princess loves them both.

 Our Rhode Island Red Rooster - who is missing a toe on each foot due to being hen pecked (and I do mean that literally) and his entourage of Shirleys (any sex link hen is known as "Shirley" on our farm)

Sunshine and her gorgeous ram lamb named Trouble and rightly so

Our handsome 10 year old and Simon

Life is good and we are truly blessed. Hope to share some more photos from this shoot soon!