This weeks pictures

Its been a long week, and its only Wednesday. My hubby has been working extra due to being shorthanded at work. Hopefully this weekend he won't have to work...he's supposed to be off. I'm thinking about trying to talk him into turning off his phone.

So, as you can see by those first 3 pictures, that our chicks have really grown. They are almost big enough to let in with the big chickens. We're going to put them together with the big chickens here in about a week. We just let the little leghorn chicks and the golden comets in with the bigger chicks yesterday. Everybody seemed to do great together.

Well, we will not be bringing Carmel home to live with us. I'm very grateful, that her owners have decided to keep her. She was so very attached to her people, and her pack. Huskies are indeed pack animals, who actually mourn the loss of pack members.  We are however, it would appear, going to be meeting with a different female, who is under a year old, and of a different breed. I'm not sure what her name is, but she's a Walker Hound, who is "high spirited" She's spayed, and up to date on all shots as well...I love when people use that term about a dog..I believe that means that she's still got a lot of puppy energy, and I'm wondering if I'm not going to need to get a harness to walk her. I believe that since she's been socialized with other dogs, that it should go well. Sam and Jasper have been socialized, but don't do well with other dogs who haven't been...so we will wait and see.

Oh..back to the pictures, I got a little off track there didn't I? So, I thought those clouds were just really neat looking. I loved how they looked like they had such a neat texture. And those worms, well, they come up in the same place, at the same time every day. In fact, they have permanent looking holes in the ground where they come up. Frank wants to try to catch them, but I'm thinking I'd rather let them stay there and keep doing all of the hard work they've been doing for us.

And of course, I'm so in love with that Ballerina doll I designed, I can't stop sharing her picture. That's the last share, promise!!! :D

Well, I had better get off of this computer for the morning. I have to get to the DMV to renew my car tags today. I've had all month to do it, and have yet to get it done. Plus I still need to gather the mornings eggs. I have the incubator fired up, and ready to go. We are going to be filling it with Leghorn eggs to see if we are going to get those Sex Link chicks we're after. We are hoping to get Red Star Chicks, so keep your fingers crossed on that.

Hope everybody has a great week!!!!

Crocheting

http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/crocheting/toy/ballerina-rag-doll-/94609

So as we know, I sometimes write patterns to sell...this is one of those. Now I'm not asking you guys to go out and buy my patterns, or anything like that, but it can't hurt to advertise a little bit. Dolls are my favorite things to design. This one here took me about a year to finish. It's not a complicated pattern at all...not one bit, but getting it perfected was.  I'm not going to lie, I'm madly in love with this doll.  She's 21 inches tall, and huggably soft. 

Please, feel free to share this pattern with your friends and or family!!!!

Thanks for reading my advertisement!!!!

ARBA

ARBA??? What's that?? I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who know, but for those of you who don't, its American Rabbit Breeders Association.  We got our cards, paperwork, and handbook in the mail yesterday. We joined up together under one membership, which is pretty cool that we got to do that. There are a great number of benefits involved. Once we start breeding, we plan on listing our bunnies on there as well.

Speaking of bunnies, Cadburry and Pinkerton are growing nicely. We do have them in their own separate cages now however. They don't seem to mind now, with all of that room they have to hop around, and act crazy. They are in stacking cages, that we had the dickens of a time putting together thanks to the fact that the wrong parts were in the box.  Pinkerton is in the bottom cage, and we get the biggest kick out of her. She shoves her head under the feeder and watches television. I do need to get some new pics of them to share with you guys. I plan on doing that here in the next day or two.

Our worm tubs are doing great thanks to the bunnies. These two little house bunnies have produced enough poop that my 3 remaining tubs of worms, have a nice thick layer of poop on the top of each tub. My worm poo will be super awesome by the middle of summer!!!

Making worm grit for your worm tubs

When you raise worms in captivity, there are a few things that they actually do need that they can get in the wild. They do need a bit of grit to help out their digestive system. Now I'm sure that in the wild, they aren't getting finely ground up egg shells, unless they are hanging out in somebodies garden or compost pile....and even then its highly doubtful that somebody is going to turn their egg shells into grit for the garden/compost pile.

Since we have chickens, we have eggs (obviously). I generally throw the shells in the compost bucket.  But when my egg shell grit is getting low, I will throw the shells into a bowl until I have a big enough batch to bake, and crush, and then run through the blender to turn into almost a fine sand.
You do need to bake them for your worms, because of the whole salmonella issue, and for some reason (that I'm not sure of) you do need to bake them to kill whatever germs there are, that are on the shells.

Basically you throw them in the oven at 250 for 20 min. When you get them out of the oven, they will practically explode in your hand. That's on of my favorite parts. So what I generally do is put them in a big bowl after I bake them, and then beat them down with a wooden spoon, and then I throw them in the blender until they look like bits of sand.

Other than helping them digest, it also helps to keep the alkaline down in the tubs if you give them coffee, and stuff along those lines.

Now, if you feel so inclined to keep a constant baking of the egg shells going, you can also give a sprinkle of this in your chicken feed to help make sure your chickens are getting plenty of calcium. So, this is multi use, which is awesome....and if you like the texture of it, you could also keep up with it, and sprinkle it directly on your garden to help with the dirt. Over time if you have a clay garden, this will help to bring your soil around. And yes, I do plan on using this as an additive, on a regular basis, to my garden. We have a nice sized garden, in a great spot. The only problem is, the dirt isn't the best. But now that we have the bunnies, and a good size compost pile, our garden should really start getting awesome here in the next few years.

Alright, enough of that...let me talk about my last post a bit. Carmel did come to visit us, and she is indeed a most beautiful pup. Her current owners are great people, and were off on her age by a couple of years, but that's ok. They are going to come again for another visit, but I honestly fear that it may not work out. I'm not so certain that Carmel likes us. As we know, that's a most important thing when you are bringing a pup home to the family circle. I want it to work out so badly, but I cannot push something onto this sweet beautiful dog, who is past middle age. If things don't work out with us, I certainly hope that her family reconsiders rehoming her, and keeps her with them. She truly is set in her ways at this point in her life, and I believe that she is very happy with her family. She is a very intelligent dog. I've decided that if things do not work out with her, that perhaps we should just be happy with just Sam and Jasper, and be a happy home with just the two of them. They seem quite content with the way things are. I think they could be happy with another sweet girl, but that sweet girl would have to love them back as well.

Alright, that's it for the rest of this day, I think its time for me to settle in for the evening with a bit of crochet. I'm toying around with the idea of a new crochet pattern. Something bright and springy...keep your eyes peeled!!! If you have any ideas for a pattern that you might like for me to write, don't hesitate to let me know!!!! I'm up for any challenge!!!!

a little personal

As you all know, I don't normally get too personal on here, I usually keep it about the happenings of things around here.  Right now, my hopes are pretty high.

As some of you all may or may not know, last summer our Oldest Husky Nikki crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Its left a huge gaping hole in our lives. Everybody who knew her, couldn't help but to love her. Her presence is missed even now so many months later. We've been thinking and talking about and searching for a new girl to come and help with the healing. We even went to the animal shelter, with a leash, in hopes of bringing home a new girl. We came home empty handed, and down trodden.  We've answered many adds on Craigslist, only to find out that some wanted a huge re homing fee that was just incredible. Sometimes the dog had already been rehomed, and sometimes they owner changed their mind at the last minute.  Well, yesterday Frank found an add on there he wanted me to look at. So I sit down with my cup of coffee, and I take a look...and I look, and I look, and then emotions overtook me. I cried. This 3 year old vision of beauty just stole my heart right then and there. Her name is Carmel, and she needs a good home with people who have lots of time for her. Once I was able to stop crying and get control of myself, I answered, hoping for a great answer.
Well to make a long story short, she is coming here tomorrow, to meet everybody, and hopefully to stay with us forever. Somehow I think the timing must have finally been right for us to bring home somebody new to love. Just her beautiful face, was a balm on my aching heart.

Ok...sorry, I'm all done with the emotions for now. I will hopefully be able to share lots and lots of pictures with all of you tomorrow. I'm currently taking a morning coffee break. I got up early to work on rearranging things. She will be coming with a crate, because that's what she's used to sleeping in. Not because she has to, but because some dogs just do that. So, since she's going to be adjusting, I'm not going to take that away from her. If she needs it for the rest of her life, then so be it.

Right now, I want to take a moment to thank all of my readers for following along and reading this blog. I know that sometimes its probably a little corny, and a little different. It's a fun blog I hope, and in it I share my learning experiences, and many different things...and learning I have done a lot of.
I hope to continue to bring you all different recipes, pictures of animals, and things that are happening on our ever growing 3 acre farm. Some people think we are indeed a little crazy, and I love the looks on family members faces when we tell them what we are doing next. But in the end, we're happy, and we have each other. (Even if sometimes one of us thinks the other is nuts, we chug on along anyways)

So from the bottom of my heart, to all of you, Thank you for sticking with me, thank you for reading, and have a fantastic week, all of you.

Our Growing Farm

As you can see by the pictures, our little farm is growing!!! We went to pick up our THREE Black Silver Fox Rabbits yesterday from a really awesome farm, about 45 minutes from here. Let me start by saying, this farm has goats and rabbits (and dogs, which is most important on a farm I believe), it was really awesome, and made me believe that our little farm, is probably awesome too. We just have chickens and rabbits and dogs.  Well Donna, the lady who owned the farm, took us around to see her other rabbits, and her set up, after we had our 3 loaded up. She has some of the most beautiful rabbits, she has blacks, blues, and chocolates. I held a really beautiful Blue bunny, but when she put that Chocolate girl in my arms, I was in love...and was not to be parted from that bunny. Her name is Betty. I cannot wait until she is old enough to Breed, because I think she's going to make some fantastic babies. Once everybody gets settled in better, and used to the dogs running around barking at them...and when the dogs get used to them, and stop running around barking at them, I'm going to work on getting more, and better pictures of them. The silvering in them is just fantastic. I'm not sure if you can tell by my gushing, but I'm absolutely in love with these rabbits.

Now, onto those cake pictures I have posted, that have nothing to do with bunnies...and more to do with what looks like owls...we went to a birthday party for a 1 year old yesterday. It was a great celebration. They had an owl theme, which was Look Whoo is turning 1. Let me start by saying that this baby is truly a blessing to her family. My friend that had this baby, went through a lot to be able to get pregnant, and struggled for many years. She got pregnant with twin boys, and tragically miscarried them. They were beautiful little boys. Within a few months, she managed to get pregnant, without even trying with this little girl, and successfully made it through this pregnancy, and this baby is a beautiful Joy to everybody who meets her. We were truly blessed to be able to be part of this celebration.

With that, I will close this up for the day, I hope everybody has a very Happy and blessed Easter, and many more Easters to come, from our Family to yours.

Corn in the worm tubs

Worms love corn!!! They especially love it when the corn is still whole, and still on the cob. As you can see they will swarm to it. I think part of it is the sweetness of the corn, and the other part is that they love to lay their cocoons in the cob, which makes it even neater, because the babies will hatch into the cob, and will stay there for quite a while, eating the corn cob from the inside out.

Sometimes when we buy dried corn on the cob which we hang in the chicken run to amuse the chickens, we will take the dry cob and toss it into the worm tub. I wish I would have gotten pictures of it, but one day when I was going through the tubs, I broke one of those in half to see how it was going, and it pretty much so crumbled in half, and was just absolutely filled with worms. It was awesome!!!

I would estimate that most of this corn will be gone in about a good month. 

Now as you can see in the bottom picture, there is a used coffee filter, with some grounds, and some dog fur. The worms absolutely love the fur as well. When I read that at first I was kind of skeptical, until I tried it. I opened up the tub after I put it in a day or two later, and it was filled with worms. You just have to make sure it stays lightly damp so that the worms don't dry out.

The neat part about the worms, and the rabbits is, not only can I dump their litter right into the tubs, BUT after they are done with their nesting box when the babies are ready to be weaned, I can put parts of the nest into the worm tubs. The fur can go into the tub, and if I'm doing a more open tub, I can put the hay/straw into the tubs. IF I put the hay/straw into the tubs, I would have to make sure to mix it in well, so that it doesn't get too hot, and melt the worms. Yes, that can indeed happen. Chances are that part of it will just go onto the compost pile.

Tomorrow we will be picking up our Black Silver Fox Rabbits. I'm fairly excited about them. That will take our little farm to the next step. Cadburry and Pinkerton are going to be part of the farming, but they will be more for pets than for anything else. In other words, they won't get ate.

This is going to be a very busy weekend, we get the bunnies tomorrow, then I have a birthday party to go to later on that day, and then Sunday is Easter, so lots of family stuff going on there. My poor DH won't have much of a weekend off.

Well, That's it for now!!! Happy Easter Everybody!!!!

Spring on the Farm

So, as you guys can clearly see, I went picture happy the other day, this is the time of year where there is just so much going on with the tree's, and the bushes, and just everything!!! So that means, I've got to keep my camera in my hands.

It was raining the other day, and the nice big fat worm, was just moving right along. I thought about grabbing him for my worm tubs, but decided he was better off outside where he can do my yard, and garden plenty of good.

Pinkerton, who was really hard to handle the first day we brought him/her home, has really come around. Now the little white fluffy bunny will greet me at the crate door when I walk up to take care of everybody. Cadburry has gotten a little jumpy, but we think he/she is having a hard time adjusting to  the new surroundings. With a bit of time, I think that Cadburry will come around.

My doctor started me on some skin cream to take care of that skin condition known as Rosacea. I've had it most of my life, but he decided I needed to be on something. SO...using it, I need to wear a hat when I'm out in the sun.

The next 2 pictures are of our garden, which got plowed the other day. Once everything dries off, the guy who does the plowing, will come back and disc it up. We've got some compost that we've got to get spread before he gets here though. I want to get that, and the worm castings we have in there here in the next week or so.

My Red Bud tree's are blooming out so beautifully. I love those tree's. They grow at the edge of the woods, so its nice that they bloom out before everything else does, so I get to enjoy their beautiful color. I almost wish I could plant some in other places in the yard, but since we're going to be planting fruit tree's, I'll just have to enjoy them as is.

The Black Raspberry vines are leafing out really well. I'm hoping that we have a nice heavy crop this year. I'm going to save them for pies this year. I still have a bunch of jam and jelly left. As much Jelly as I've made over the last few years, I still have plenty to share around.

I love when I get to see some of the random things as the grass starts growing in the woods and brush. I get to see the random animal paths that have been beaten down by my dogs, and the deer, and the groundhogs...they remind me of little dirt highways.

And FINALLY we come to the last picture. One of my many gooseberry bushes are nice and leafy. I have 2 in the back yard, and then the whole side of the house has them lined up growing there as well. My hubby planted those there. The ones in the back yard, are more of a distraction for the birds, so we get a lot of them off of the bushes out front.  I haven't made any jelly out of those in a while, so I'm thinking there will be some jelly making done out of those this year.

Now the thing about Gooseberries that I have learned, no matter how tempting it is, let them get ripe!!! I remember the hard lesson I learned one year before we had our own. My dear sweet mother in law is one of those who likes to pick things before they get ripe, because she doesn't want the birds or deer, or bear to get them. Some things just won't get ripe after they've been picked. She gave me a big freezer bag full of these things...so I thought, well Frank likes pie, I'll make him a pie out of these, I found a recipe for this, and this turned out to be THE most beautiful looking pie I ever made. It got cooled off, and I cut Frank a piece, and cut myself a piece, and I took a bite of this pie, and it was THE MOST bitter pie I had ever had. It was like having a mouth full of that sour candy that makes you pucker up. Now either he really did like it, or he's one hell of a man, because he ate his piece, and went on and on about how good it was, and he even ate most of the rest of it over the course of a week. I haven't made a pie out of the stuff since. I may however have to try it again this summer.

Well, That is going to be it for now!!! Hope you all have a fantastic day!!!!!!

Oh, and I hope everybody enjoyed the Easter Pattern I wrote. Sorry I didn't do any kind of a commentary on it last night, but it was getting late, and seeing as Easter is this Sunday, I had to hurry to get it up there. I knew I hadn't posted a pattern since the little scrubby that I did.
As always, you can do whatever you want with what you make from the pattern, but please, don't sell the pattern, and please link back to me if you post pictures.

OH speaking of pictures, I would love to see what you make from my patterns. If you send me pictures of what you've made, I would gladly post them on here to share with everybody!!!!
Email me your name, and where you are from along with the pictures.
crochetbrandi@gmail.com

Ducky and Bunny Easter Egg Cozies

 

Materials

Small plastic Easter Eggs

Small amounts of worsted weight yarn in

Pink

white

yellow

orange

black

H and I hook

yarn needle for sewing

 

 

Body

W/ Yellow for duck or white for bunny

 

1) Ch 3, 9 dc in third ch from hook, join w/ sl st to first dc. 9 dc

 

2) Ch 2, 2 dc in first st, dc in next st, rep around join w/ sl sto to first dc.  15 dc

 

3) Ch 2, dc in each dc around, join w/ sl st to first dc.  15 dc

 

4) Repeat row 3

 

5) ch 1, hdc in each dc around - join w/ sl st to first hdc, finish off. 15 hdc

 

Feet

 

w/ orange for duck, or pink for bunny and I hook

join w/ sl st  in bottom of any hdc, ch 6, join w/ sl st in same ch as joining, ch 6 again, and join w/ a sl st in same st, repeat 1 more time, and finish off.

 

Skip 5 spaces, and repeat for second foot.

 

Duck Beak

1) W/ orange and H hook ch 2, 3 sc in sec ch from hook, ch 1, turn. 3 sc

 

2)  2 sc in first sc, sc in next, 2 sc in last sc.  5 sc, ch 1 turn

 

3)  sc in each sc. 5 sc. Finish off leaving long tail for sewing.

 

Using pic as a guide, sew onto face.

 

For eyes (bunny or duck) w/ black embroider eyes onto face.

 

For duck hair, tie a few strands of orange to top of head.

 

Bunny Ears

H hook

outside (make 2)

1) w/ white ch 4, sc in sec ch from hook, and each ch across 3 sc, ch 2 turn

 

2-4) dc in each sc across, 3 dc, ch 2 turn

 

5)  dc in each dc across, ch 1 turn

 

6)  sc dec all 3 st tog, finish off.

 

Inside ears (make 2)

 

w/ pink repeat instructions as for outside

 

Ear assembly

holding 2 pieces together, w/ white starting at flat end, sc evenly around, 2 sc in each corner. Join w/ a sl st, fasten off, leaving long tail for sewing.

 

Fold flat part in half, and sew tog, (see 3rd pic) using pic as a guide sew onto head.

 

Using pic as a guide, embroider face.

 

 



 

 

 







around the property

We have so many things blooming around the property, its hard to keep up with. I've been trying to work on getting everything in order garden wise. I'm working on the biggest rock garden space right now. I'm going to be planting some gladiolus tomorrow if it doesn't rain.  I'm working at it from the top sides in and down.  I think the top part is the hardest to work on, because its the rockiest part.  Once I get it cleaned up, and situated, I'll take some pictures and get them posted. I wish I would have taken some before pictures, before I started working on the digging.

Hope everybody had a great weekend!!!!

Welcome Baby Bunnies!!!!

I went to Tractor Supply this morning to get one of the Easter Bunnies that they were selling. I truly only wanted one, since we are getting bunnies next week. I got the black bunny, the one single black bunny...brought the little guy home, and my hubby says...hey I think we need to go back and get another one so he wont be lonely. (We don't know if they are male, female, or one of each yet, because they are only 4 weeks old) So...back to TSC we went, and got a second sweet fuzzy bunny. We got the white one, who was from a different litter than the first one just in case we have one of each.  I must admit, bunny rabbits are really super quiet. I wouldn't even know they are in the house if it weren't for the fact that I walk by the crate, and every now and then I hear one of them hopping along.

Truly it is quiet in here today. About the only noise here in the house other than the clicking of my keyboard, is the sound of the clock on the wall. Why is it so quiet??? Well, because I took the last of the chicks outside. They were finally big enough, and feathered enough out that it was time for them to go....that and they were making bigger messes all over everything.

So our journey into rabbits has begun!!! Our little farm is growing little by little, started with a dog...then we added 2 more dogs...then the worms, the chickens...lost a dog...added more chickens..and now the rabbits. We will have to see how it goes when Sam and Jasper come into the house and see these guys for the first time...I'm a bit nervous about that, and am hoping that they do with them, like they did the chicks in the crates.

Stuff

One of my white leghorns started laying, which made me pretty dang happy!!! It feels like we are putting in a lot of work, (and feed) for very few eggs. Some of the eggs we were getting, we aren't getting because we had to butcher those due to the fact that they were eating eggs. (oh joy) Now we do highly suspect that our leghorns are eating eggs, but we are working on trying to break that since we've been working with them since November when we got them as baby chicks. We are thinking about setting up an area in the one garden where we can put them for a while to see if segregating them will help. We are hoping that we can break them of it...although I think we are having a problem with our Rhode Island Reds as well.
We are pretty positive that the Leghorns are our worst culprit, because I put some fake eggs in the chicken house that look pretty darn real. Well I stood back and watched to see what would happen, and the Leghorns attacked them pretty viciously. I was really worried that my roosters were involved in this, but they just kind of walked in to see what the girls were doing, and turned around and walked back out. SO thankfully that takes care of that.

I took a picture of the new Leghorn egg, and then took a pic of it with my red star egg. She's been laying longer than anybody in the hen house...about a year now I think. I wanted you guys to see the size difference between a new layer, and a well established layer. Its fun to see I think.

Since I put everybody outside in the grow out area so they could finish getting big enough to be with everybody else, my chicks have really grown!!! They are really happy out there too. They have a blast running, and pecking, and digging, and jumping. My Easter Egg chicks have grown and gotten quite beautiful. All 4 of them have different patterns, which I find to be quite fun. This one was the only one who stayed still long enough for me to get a pic.

The two worm tubs that I set up in trade for the rabbits are nice and active. They have really started reproducing well, and are really working well. The hubs has started assembling the rabbit hutches. I helped him to get the wire cut yesterday (sort of).  We're going to go to Tractor Supply today, because somebody there has Easter Bunnies, and we're thinking about maybe getting one to add in for the fun of it.

Wildflowers are in bloom!!! They are absolutely beautiful!!! These are blood root. This is the first year we've seen them. Mostly because of the brush. Thanks to a group on FB, I was able to find out what they were. One lady was even nice enough to send me a link to them, and I find them quite fascinating. Native Americans used to use them for many different things, and I found that to be a fun fact!!!

Well, Hope everybody has a great weekend!!!!