Our first snow of the season

Well, it was bound to happen,  and it did!!!
Snow!!! Sam and Jasper loved it, poor Bella not so much.
So, I spent a little time in my sewing room, working on getting back into sewing a little. I have multiple projects stacked on my work table, that I plan on getting finished.
Life on the farm, and with the family is going well. I don't really have anything new or exciting to share at the moment.
I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!

Chicken pix

Life on the farm continues

Well, Autumn is official here, and October is more than halfway over. It's been more than a month ago that I got my new left hip, and I'll be in physical therapy for a while longer yet. However, that doesn't mean things have stopped here.

The Barred Rock chicks that I have in one of my grow out sections, are growing beautifully. I feel like they should be bigger than they are, but they are only about 6 weeks old, so really they are probably on track. The straight run Rhode Island Reds I ordered back in August are doing great. I ordered 10 of them, and have 5 boys, and 5 girls. I also picked up some ISA Browns from Tractor Supply around the same time, and I'm truly impressed with them as always. They truly are my favorite hybrid.
All 6 of my girl ducks are laying. Some days, I only get 2 eggs, and some I get 6. So, I guess that means. I will get eggs from them on an every day basis.

Our farm plans are moving forward. I'm hoping by Spring to have a website built and ready to launch. We will be selling hatching eggs. We're starting small at the moment, but will be selling Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, and Red Star. I plan on eventually adding Black Star, Black Australorp, Delaware, Dark Brahma, Copper Marans, and Speckled Sussex. We want to be able to offer more, however that may take us buying a bigger property, which we would eventually love to do.

So, keep your eyes open for the big announcement, and wish us luck as we get deeper into this!!!

Duck eggs!!!

Finally...or already, I'm not sure which it is with the excitement I'm feeling over getting my first duck egg. They weren't babies for long at all, they grew so fast, that I didn't get to enjoy baby ducks long at all. They really are just as cute as adults, but I almost wish they could have stayed babies just a little longer.

So, I had to throw in a couple of shots of my boys just because they are my boys!!

Still going strong

Here we are in the middle of August, and I'm far from slowing down!!!! I've bought the final chicks I plan on getting until I'm off of my walker from my hip replacement surgery I'm having next month.
I got some fun pictures this week, and thought I'd share them with you all. The black and gold colored bird is one that I had hatched out back in the spring. She is an Orpington \Australorp mix. I call her my Orpalorp, and it's a lot of fun to say.
My ducks appear to be full grown, and I'm finally positive on the genders. We have an even split, it's 6 and 6.
Junior still has a lot of growing to do, but it appears he takes after his daddy.
Yes, I took a selfie with a chicken. This is one of my older Rhode Island Red girls, and by the feel of her, she has been eating well. She is nice and solid. However, I think she is old enough she does not lay anymore, so she's living the good life.
My chicks that I got from Ideal and TSC are feathering out and growing quickly. I cleaned their broader today, and they were a bit flighty still, so it was hard to get a good picture.
Yup...more chicks!!! I went to TSC for chick feed, and came home with 20 straight run Barred Rock chicks. I was rather excited to find them, because they are one of the breeds we planned on having this spring. So, I got a head start. They will be outside before I have my surgery next month!!!
That's about it for now. I hope all of my readers who are anywhere near or in Texas are staying safe!!!

Finally Pictures!!!

So, it would seem, I need to use multiple devices to be able to write this blog if I want to post pictures! I am back to using a Galaxy, and it let me load the pictures right up!!!

We had a rather rough July on the farm. I lost over half of my flock to a couple of raccoons and some possums. I reinforced my run, and set bunches of traps. I even lost my beloved rooster, Wesley. Thankfully, I had done a hatch out and have his son, who is almost an exact replica of him. I even lost half of the chicks that I had gotten from Ideal poultry back in the spring. Now, we are working on rebuilding the flock.

This morning, I got to go to the post office to pick up some Rhode Island Red chicks that I ordered from Mt Healthy Hatchery. I ordered 10 straight run. (Because after everything, I was left still with no Rhode Island roosters) They always toss in an extra chick, so I have 11. I got a small order because I need to get them grown out and moved outside before I have My hip replacement surgery next month. Once I'm healed up and ready to dig back in, I'll work on replacing other parts of the flock. However, I will probably wait to do that as we get our new housing built. We have an entirely new plan.

So, the new plan is a rather fun one. We are going to be building hoop houses, and will be using the kennel panels to close everything in. Eventually, it will all be in one big enclosed square. The ducks will get to be out in the middle every day, and I will have 1 house of birds out at a time. I plan on rotating them through the day. When each house is out, I'll go in and clean that house, and inspect it. I will so inspections of every house, every day, but you can do a better one without the birds attempting to help.

We have finally made a firm decision on the breeds we plan on to get our small hatchery up and off the ground, and I can tell you we had a lot of discussions about what I wanted and what Frank wanted. We did come to an agreement however, because some of what I wanted will happen, just not right away due to needing to get started in general. So, we will be doing Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Tetra Tint, Red Sex Links, Delaware, and White Leghorn.
Once those are established, we will add Black Australorp, Koo Koo Marans, Dark Brahmas, and Light Brahmas. Eventually, we will add other breeds, but we have to take it one year at a time.

Now, I want the Dark Brahmas in honor of Dot, my one chicken that was truly a pet. She had honor status because she was one of the first. She passed away back in June, and unfortunately she passed in front of me. I still watch for her every time I introduce new birds, because she was always the first to greet them and let them know, she is in charge. I'm not certain what she would have made of the ducks.

Well, I shall end this for now, as I always fear I'm rambling on a bit. I'll talk about the rabbits in another post!!!

June is at an end

This is the last day of June, the last sleep of the month. It's been a bit and humid month at that.

I've started working on getting my house ready for my hip replacement surgery that is happening in September. I found a couple of groups on FB, for people that have the same hip condition that I've lived with for most of my life now. I cannot express just how wonderful it was to finally talk to others that have had to deal with it the same way I have.
What I have is a joint disorder called Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis. It happens to children between the ages of 10 and 15 for the most part, as they are growing their growth plate starts slipping, until the hip joints look like a melting ice cream cone. The first initial pains felt are in the groin area, and most parents just think the kid is having growing pains, well you all can Google it if you really want to know any more.  But needless to say, I'm going to feel like an entirely new person. I think the thing I'm the most excited about, other than having a lot less pain, is being able to the my shoe again. I've not been able to the my left shoe for the last 10 years.

I've lost 75 pounds, and still have 35 more to go before I make my big goal of 110.  I'm hoping to take off another 15-20 pounds before my surgery. That will put me at 165-170 pounds. Yes, right now I weigh 185 pounds. I'm not ashamed to say it, because when I started this train, I was 260 pounds.  I was about to have to buy the next size up in Jeans, which would have put me in a size 24, I was squeezing into my jeans, and I can't lie, they were quite painful.

Now, onto farm stuff!!! It looks like most of what hatched out, that I'm raising up are Rhode Island Red\Buff Orpington mixed, 3 pure buffs, and a Black Australorp \Orpington mix. I think the Australorp mix is a female!!! It's really neat looking, and if it is a she, I'm going to have to keep it.
Frank and I decided to keep the male Orpington. I realized that if something happens to Wesley, I don't have an Orpington rooster to take his place until I quickly hatch whatever eggs my Orp girls lay within a couple of days. So basically, I would be without a rooster to replace him. I've already started calling him Junior, because he seriously takes after his father!!! If his mom is the biggest Orpington hen, this guy may end up bigger than his dad.

The ducks are 13 weeks old already. They have slowed in their growth majorly. I don't know if they will grow any more or not. I'm assuming they probably will, because at just 4 months old they are rather big, and will probably grow a little more. As you all know, this is our first go with ducks. So we are learning as we go. We still have no clue how many are what gender yet.  I'm going to have a really hard time when butcher time comes for the excess boys. I'm not going to lie. I actually love these ducks more than chickens. They are the happiest animals I have ever come in contact with.

Well, there really is nothing more for me to ramble on about tonight. I'll close this up, and hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July

So much

Hello there!!! June is moving right along, and before we know it, July will be here. This has been a full year so far, which is one of the reasons I've not been blogging much. However, I miss writing this blog, and am going to try to set aside more time for it. I've learned a lot more about chickens, because truly I don't believe we ever stop learning. I'm still learning about ducks, and rabbits. I have also started reading up on Turkeys, and quail. Frank wants quail, because apparently those tiny little eggs are wonderful. I want to raise a couple of turkeys a year, 1 for holidays, and one to part out for the freezer. We are still wanting to get involved with bees, and hogs, and milk goats.  I think we are going to end up needing more property!!!

So, to report on all the creatures and people currently in our lives, there is some fun stuff to report on.

Back in May, I set over 80 eggs to hatch. That was 1 rooster with more than 60 hens. I had 15 hatch out. Most of what I had set weren't fertile. However, I did expect that. Only 2 from what I can tell are pure Buff Orpington, 1 boy and 1 girl. I may have 1 or 2 more girls that are pure, however I can't tell because everyone hands out in the shade of the little coop and run that they are in. Next month we will be butchering the boys, they will be part of our winter meat stock. Plus, as we all know you want to get the boys before they get too chewy.

The chicks that we ordered from Ideal Poultry that came in about a week before the hatch are all doing and growing well. We ordered 5 Rhode Island Red Roosters, 5 Buff Orpington Pullets, and 25 Delaware pullets. I had no clue I was going to fall so in love with the Delaware breed like I have. They are so laid back, and they never went through the ugly teenage stage that most chickens do.  I cannot wait until they are fully grown!!!

We have been working on buying kennel panels on a regular basis so we can work on everyone's separate runs.  We are also going to have several different grow out sections for raising started pullets. For starters, we plan on red sex links, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpington, and Tetra Tints. We eventually plan on breeding Delaware, White Leghorn, Dark Brahma, Light Brahma, and Marans of some sort. I really want to raise Black Australorp, however we will have to wait and see how all of the expansions go first. We will be adding the other breeds over a course of a few years. We are going to have all the housing going around what used to be out back yard garden. That way, we will have a yard that we can let them out into one breed at a time. It will let them free range a bit safely.

We have decided that we are going to faze out our Easter Egg hens. They are not the best layers in the world, and unfortunately seeing as I cannot sex a chick the way they do in the standard hatchery, we can't sell them as chicks because nobody wants to buy them as straight run. Then it takes so long to grow them out to tell the girls from the boys that nobody wants to pay what it cost to raise them up to that size. I unfortunately live in an area where people are cheap, so selling a 4-6 month old Easter Egg hen  for $15-$20 just doesn't always happen. Really, that's not that expensive when you see what they sell for in other places. Anyhow!! Moving on!!!

The ducks are good!!! I've changed their feed from starter grower, to the finisher. I'm feeding them Dumore from Tractor Supply. Generally, I feed all of my animals feed from the co-op, however, they don't sell unmediated feed there, and even though different people say you can give them medicated feed now because the formula has changed, I just don't care to risk it. I still don't know the genders yet, but I do know, they are still the happiest creatures here, as well as the messiest. I should be able to tell in hopefully the next 2 months.  Just waiting on those drake feathers to curl.

Not much to say on th rabbits. We haven't done any breeding this year. Frank's work schedule has been really insane thanks to all of the overtime he's had to work.  Fingers crossed they get help soon.

As I've talked about before, my Father in law has cancerous tumors that are inoperable. He's been getting a once a month shot for over a year now. The shot is doing great, and is keeping everything right where it needs to be. His bloodwork last month came back great!!! I'm really happy to be able to report such great news. His hearing however, has gotten a lot worse. His hearing aids help very little, but he doesn't let it slow him down.

I went back to the UVA (University of Virginia) this past week. I'm waiting on the Surgical Coordinator to call me. I will be getting a new left hip at the end of August!!! I am super ready for this to happen. However, I'm starting to get rather frustrated with this guy, because getting a call from him, is kind of like waiting for Christmas. He seems to take a good amount of time off or something. I have the one nurses number, and if he doesn't call me back by the end of this week, I'm going to call her and see what the problem is. From what I'm told, they don't normally actually take this long to call back to schedule things.

So... Now you are all caught up!!! Sorry if I got a little wordy, but I'm rather good at going on about stuff!!!
Until my next blog, keep cool!!!

Rain Rain

Well, it's calling for rain all week long. It looks like I won't be moving chicks outside this week. I really wish Frank's work schedule wasn't so packed. We haven't been able to get anything built, or anything. We have a house for the Orpington pen, that still also hasn't been out up, and the list goes on.

I've noticed this trend in some of the facebook groups that have to do with farming, or chickens. Someone has these more expensive chicken breeds, and a dog gets in and kills them all. So they do the big sob story and ask if anyone could sell them some replacements for free or cheap because they can't afford to spend a lot now. So someone falls for it, and then a few weeks later I see these same birds on another site for sale for full price by the person who lost them to begin with. I'm pointing this out because if you raise and sell chickens, I don't want you to get suckered in.

My peach trees are full of fruit, I'm really hoping they make it to maturity. I want to can some this year. I bought some from Walmart last year to try and can, however they had no flavour and were hard. So I put them in a dark place and thought I'd let them sit overnight and see if they got ripe. Wouldn't you know, I checked them the next morning, and they were all rotten on the bottom that fast. I should have went to the fruit stand and bought a case. It probably would have worked out better for me.
 

Moving along

It's raining pretty good out there tonight. It drizzled most of the day, but after 8, it let loose. At least I was able to get all of my animal chores done.

Tomorrow I hope to finish getting my grow out pin ready. My chicks that came in from Ideal are ready to go out. It looks like one of my Delaware chicks may possibly be a little boy. I'm not upset about the possibility though, because we eventually planned on getting a Delaware rooster and breeding our own replacements for the sex link breeding we are planning on.

I have to replace my 3 gallon water container I had in my big chicken run. I had a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon. Well I went out there the other evening, and the entire side had split open. Sometimes I get lucky, and it's the cheap stuff that has to be replaced.

Those crazy ducks are still growing quickly!!! They are eating a lot as well. We're still playing the guessing game with their genders. Right now we are guessing we have 4 or 5 females looking at the shapes of their tales.

And finally baby ducks!

Here they are!!! My 4 week old baby ducks!!! Sorry I didn't get to post the pictures of them from when I first brought them home. It's really hard to believe just how fast they grow, but I could watch them all day long. Please excuse the messy run, I had to learn that I'm better off cleaning it once every 2 or 3 days. With the bedding I use, clean up is easy, and quick. From what we can tell, we only have 4 girls. I think a flock of 5 will really be perfect for us. Honestly we still have a lot to learn, and I did kind of get them at a fairly crazy time. Between Frank's work schedule, and me getting close to a hip replacement surgery.... Well you know. What can I say??? I'm a glutton for punishment!!!

picture test

So, I gave myself an hour of quilting time, and thought I would use my quilt pieces as my test subjects. I'm working on the mystery quilt that we do at the sew and vac in town.  If this works I will definitely share pics when it's done!!!

testing

So, I have my kindle, and this is a test post to see how easy it's going to be to use. I'm debating on purchasing the app, but haven't decided yet. I plan on taking some puct with this later on today to see if I can start loading them again. Right now this is like a fun new toy!!!

oh!!! Happy Mothers Day out there to everyone!!!

Sometime next week

Morning all!!!! The sun is working it's way up in the sky, and I'm sitting here drinking my coffee, thinking about what the day is going to bring for me. I'm thinking it's going to be a great day based on the fact that it's not calling for rain.

I was on Amazon the other day, and found they were having a sale on their Kindles. I ordered the one that they came out with last year. I just couldn't bring myself to pay for the newest version. Mostly because 1 it's rather expensive, and 2 chances are, and with my luck, if I would have paid that much money for one, and for two, an even newer version would have come out, and the price would have dropped drastically. I went with the no rush shipment so that I could get the $5 credit to Amazon Pantry. I thought that was pretty neat. As much as we use our Amazon Prime subscription, I'm pretty sure we will be able to get a full cart of groceries in no time! But anyways, it will be here next week, and once I learn it, which I'm thinking won't be much different from using a smart phone,  I'll be able to start getting pictures up here again. I especially want to get pictures of the ducks before they get too much bigger on here. I can't believe we will have had them a full month this coming Saturday already.  They have grown so fast!!!! Frank and I were having a conversation about them yesterday. I told him that I had noticed some of the ducks tails were starting to flip up on the end, but not all of them, that some of the tails were staying straight. I was thinking that maybe it was because they might not all be the same age. Frank said he thought that only the male ducks tails flipped up on the ends like that. So last night while I was out in the pen with the ducks, I was trying to get a good count of the straight tails, because obviously we want the girls. It looks like, if Frank is right I have 3 girls, with a possible 4th. I'm a little leery on the 4th one, because the tips of it's feathers are slightly curled up, but are staying straight. Of course that one kept jumping into the water as well, so it's kind of a wait and see sort of deal I guess. Any of my followers have any experience with ducks???? Specifically White Peking?

This morning, after I first got up, I decided that I had not weighed myself at all this month, and I needed to do so. I had lost 65 pounds by the end of last month. Honestly, I thought I had gained weight back, and was a bit afraid to hop on. However, It's one of those things, I really needed to hop on so that I knew if I needed to be a good girl, or if I was still on track. Much to my happy surprise, the scale read 191!!!! I'm down 69 pounds!!!! I'm fairly certain that I'll make it under 190 this month if I can keep being good. My goal is to make it to a 110 pound weight loss. I may have to lose more, It all depends on what my doctor says when I take off 110 pounds. I'm also working on putting money back to help pay for skin removal surgery. My health insurance will pay for what they call the Apron, but not the other stuff. I'm going to have to have skin removed from my upper legs, my upper arms, and my upper back. It's not going to be cheap.  However, I feel like I've managed to accomplish so much this far, that I'm sure I can keep going.

Well, that's all for my morning ranting. I suppose I should throw on my blue jeans, and get up the hill to feed the ducks, who probably think they are starving!!!!!
Hope everyone is doing well!!!!

How are we this far into May already?

It seems like time and life is moving at a rather fast clip these days. I blink, and we've turned the calendar. It feels like the year just started, but I suppose it's true what they say, the older we get the faster time flies. I like to think it's flying by so fast because I'm having fun.

I swapped out half of my rabbits water bottles for a different brand last month to see how I like them. I had been using some from tractor supply, that weren't exactly cheap. They had a flip top lid that makes filling them quite easy. However, they kept developing leaks really fast that I couldn't make stop. So, I decided to try the other ones that they had there at TSC, that aren't flip top, and have balls in them. So far, I like them a lot better, even if I have to take them off of the cage to fill them. I'm thinking I'm going to replace the rest of my water containers, and then buy my extras for swapping out to wash. We haven't done any rabbit breeding because we have to completely rebuild a bunch of cages. We bought some wire from Lowes for the bottoms of the cages, and I guess something went wrong on the line somewhere while it was being made. Frank is starting to think that at this point, it would be easier to just buy the pre built cages from Tractor Supply. Honestly, I'm thinking he's probably right. Especially since we've added the ducks.

Ah, my ducks!!!! I really do love the little critters. They seem to be the happiest animals on the farm right now. I think it's because they always look like they are smiling. Unfortunately though, I've a bad habit of not handling my farm animals very much unless its absolutely necessary. This is a practice I started when we added the rabbits because of all the horror stories of "cross contamination". I've learned that they aren't always true, however I like to practice better safe than sorry. Anyways, since I have only handled the ducks twice since we got them, once when we brought them home, and then again when I had to put them in the carrier to take them outside, they aren't much up for interaction. I don't know how this will go for me when they are full grown, but they do know that I'm the bringer of the food and water.

My chicks that came in the mail are growing swiftly, not as swiftly as the ducks, but fairly swiftly. I think I will be able to have them outside in 2 weeks for sure. As long as it's nice out, I like to try and have my chicks outside by 3 weeks old. One of the 5 Rhode Island Red rooster chicks had to be moved into the brooder with the chicks that I was hatching. I think the poor little guy got crushed a bit when I had them in the starter brooder. He was leaning to one side, and had to hold his wings out for balance. I wasn't sure if he would make it or not when I put him in that brooder, but he's doing great. He barely holds out the one wing when he walks, and is walking upright now. I think he just needed to get to heal.   I'm not positive, but there is a slight chance one of my Delaware chicks is a boy. Ideal poultry only guarantees 90% that they are male or female, and if it is a male, out of more than 100 chicks that we've ordered from them, this would be the first time they sent me a male in place of a female. However, we aren't going to complain about it one bit, because we've been thinking about wanting to raise our own Delaware's anyways. I'm not overly familiar with the breed though, so I can't say for certain if my assumptions are correct.

I called UVA (University of Virginia) This morning to get the ball rolling on my hip replacement surgery. I got transferred to the guy who does all the scheduling for stuff like that. However, my call went right to voice mail, so I'm probably going to be waiting for the rest of the day for him to call me back. Nothing like hurry up and wait! If I don't hear back from him today, I guess I'll call back again tomorrow, and probably get to go back to voicemail.  That or he will call me back tomorrow while Frank is having his gum surgery. I am not complaining though, because I know how busy they are. However, I'm not happy that I have to go all the way to Charlottesville. The surgeon here won't touch me due to the severity of my hip.

So, now you all are caught up!!!! Eventually I'm going to get a tablet. I've given up on being able to post pictures from this computer. We have gone through and changed every single setting, and I've tried different  internet servers, and nothing! 

Random Updates

So, we may have figured out what the problem is with being able to upload pictures. We're going to have to go through and change all of the settings on the laptop again. Turns out our Windows defender or whatever it is causing problems.  So, we plan on going through and changing the settings again and I will give it a try.

So, those baby ducks are getting huge!!! In fact they are close to having outgrown their current brooder situation. I was wanting to have their house and run up before that happened, but with all the rain we've been getting, and everything else that goes with it, we haven't been able to do that. So, we're going to have to move them into one of the grow out pens if we can't get it up in time.

I'm waiting on the post office to call me. I have chicks coming anytime now. We ordered our Chicks from Ideal Poultry. If all goes right, the 5 Rhode Island Red rooster chicks we ordered, will be rooster chicks. Last Spring we ordered 5 rooster chicks from a different company, one we don't normally order from. Well, those 5 rooster chicks we ordered all turned out to be pullets. I emailed the company, and they didn't offer to send me 5 rooster chicks, but a refund. I was like no, I can't accept a refund, because hens are worth more than roosters, and they've started laying. I've decided to not order from that other company again. When you have the chance to get rid of roosters, you really should take it.  Anyways, I have my chick brooder set up, my brooder heater is ready, and I have water ready for them at room temperature so that their little systems don't get shocked.

Well, that's about it for the moment. If all goes well, I'll be able to post pictures here soon. (fingers crossed)

Happy Easter!!!!

Good Morning, and Happy Easter to you all!!!! I hope that you all have a really wonderful day today!!!!

So, yesterday, we made a trip into Tractor Supply, and my powers of resistance failed. I brought home 4 baby ducks, 4 fluffy yellow ducks. Since they are straight run, I was a little sad, because all I was able to get at TSC was 4, because well that was all they had left.  So off to Rural King in Front Royal we went. I now have a full dozen baby ducks. I'm hoping for at least 4-5 girls. We're planning on keeping 1 boy. Hopefully next spring we will be able to incubate some duck eggs. That will be fun to try. Mostly though, we are interested in eggs right now. We are going to set them up with their own house, their own run, and a little swimming pool. Not a big one, because from everything I've read they aren't going to need a huge pool.  Right now, I'm really amused with the way they move as a group, or as I've been calling it a glob of baby ducks.

I'm sorry I still don't have any pictures yet, but it would seem we have to go through and suddenly change every single setting on our computer. I'm not sure what changed, but we have to try that first. Once I'm able to upload pics, there will be plenty to share with you all!!!!

I did not abandon

Hey there! For the last month, I've been trying to upload pictures to this blog, and would get mad, and just shut it down. Not completely sure what's going on, but I finally sent a note to Blogger to see what the problem is. I know not everyone is having this problem, but hopefully it's not just me.

So anyways, I've been doing quilting, working on cleaning out the chicken run, making the chicken house pretty, keeping the nest boxes cleaned out because chickens are nasty...oh and I set eggs this week.

I set my first batch on Tuesday night, in the new incubator that we got last year. Well, went out and got new batteries for the one humidistat because it wasn't working. Got the new batteries in, it came on, hooray!!!! Set it in my old incubator that we started out with, and it was working just fine. Came back 10 minutes later to check the temperature and humidity, and it was dead!!!! Well, thankfully I had thought to order 2 new ones because you never know. So they came in yesterday, got it in, and well the temp in that incubator was at 105...so I turned the heat back, and took out the plugs to let heat out...the temp was not coming down. So I took the lid off, thinking that maybe it had just been at that temp for too long. The temp came down fairly fast, put the lid back on, and the temp started climbing again, rapidly, and I'm turning the heat back and it's not working. So I called for Frank, who comes and looks at it, and informs me that the switch is gone, and that incubator will basically have to be rebuilt. He can order the parts and have them here fairly quickly, how much time did we have left before we had to get the eggs in...basically none. So...I apparently looked so sad and forlorn, that he told me to go and get a new incubator, since we had planned on getting a third one this year anyways. I had decided that I'd get the cheapest one I could find. Luck would have it when I got there, they were on sale, the really expensive ones were the same price as the ones that didn't even come with a turner!!!! So, I got a sports model that is really deep, and you can hatch Turkey eggs in!!!! The entire top is clear plastic so you can watch them hatch out better,  and has a digital count down on it. Now eventually we do plan on having a cabinet incubator, but for now, this will work out perfectly. So as of right now, I have 82 eggs set, and they have 2 different hatch dates. Now, they all won't hatch, because it's just my one rooster, with a lot of hens. I'm going to candle the first incubator tonight, and I'm sure that I'll be taking close to half of the eggs out. (I'll let you all know)

 Alright, that's it, going to try and figure out this picture problem, because it really is quite annoying!!!!

Time flies

Hey everyone who may or may not still be reading my blog!!! Time really gets away from me as you all can tell. I'm going in so many directions at once, that it's hard to keep up with everything I love. And trust me, I love this blog!!!! You just can't tell here lately by the way I haven't been posting.

Frank has been working a lot extra at work, he's been teaching some classes, and then they have a bunch of overtime days. So, I've been trying to keep up with all the farm work, the book keeping, the house work, and my sewing. This is going to be a sort of catch up blog.

Last weekend was Frank's birthday. We didn't really do anything to celebrate. As we get older, we find that we like to spend a quiet night at home. So, we made a big pan of nachos with seasoned beef, lots of cheese, black olives, refried beans, salsa and some other stuff that we put in the oven and baked until everything was nice and hot and bubbly. Then, we put sour cream on top of it all. Once that was ready, we settled in to watch TV. We were going to watch a movie, but decided to watch a couple episodes of Lethal Weapon on Hulu. (We're still behind, by 5 episodes) (I was really afraid to watch it because the movies are classic, and was afraid they would really ruin it, but I was wrong, it was fantastic!!!! It really gives the characters more depth, and personality, and gives them so much more life. I love it) Then we added some grown up beverages, and it was just a nice relaxing evening.

My chickens are doing great, they took me by surprise last week. I walked into the hen house, and there were 4 eggs waiting for me...after not getting eggs for a couple of months, I was so happy!!! The next day there were more, and then I got 9 eggs by day 3, and by the end of the week, I was getting 3 dozen a day!!! I truly was not expecting that considering the number of older hens I have.  When I went to Tractor Supply yesterday to pick up some feather fixer for some of my Easter Egger Hens that had been in a separate pen with 6 roosters, which are no longer in existence, I had to stop and ogle the chicks. Oh they are so cute, and loud!!! I almost caved and bought 6 Black Australorp chicks...I still have my original girls of that breed, and they are older, and barely laying these days. They are laying, but just a couple times a week. What I love about them goes beyond the fact that they are good layers. I love that they are big, and beautiful, and so laid back, and calm and friendly, and don't act like fools when you pick them up to check for eggs. Not like the White Leghorns which are fantastic layers, and don't eat much compared to what they lay. They aren't my favorite breed, they are a really high strung bird in my opinion. They tend to get my Easter Egg hens wound up, which cracks me up because they are generally a laid back breed.

My rabbits are doing well. I think I told you all about Betty having to come in the house. (My Chocolate Silver Fox) I thought she was doing well, and was going to possibly make a full recovery and be able to go back outside when it warmed up again. She was doing great, she was eating, and drinking, and cuddly. Then one day she just stopped eating, but was still drinking, the next day, she stopped drinking as well. I kept her close to me that day, and examined her, but my guess is, she had injuries to her back legs that we didn't realize, and we made the decision to very quickly, and very humanely put her out of her pain, because it was very obvious she was in pain. I can assure you all, she didn't feel a thing. We do not believe in allowing any animal to suffer, and will do everything in our power to keep them from suffering. Yes, I buried her, and yes I cried. I still get kind of teary eyed when I look at her son George who we kept. I'm planning on breeding him with Ethel this spring/summer since I know she has the chocolate gene, and plan on trying to get a new chocolate doe.

I have lots of sewing projects going on!!!! I'm working on some more dresses for my friends little girl, a dress for myself, some dresses for the dress a girl around the world project, some t-shirt quilts, and some other quilts that I've been working on for a long while. I have one pinned together, that's ready to be quilted. Frank is back on his regular work schedule starting Saturday, so I'm thinking I'll work on finishing something this weekend.  Basically, I sew based on how my hip and back feel.

I'm still in love with the Subaru. I don't know what took me so long to decide that we needed one of those!!!! Since we've done all the work on the Neon, it's running like new!! Well, not quite like new, but it's running better than it has in years. It still has under 120 thousand miles on it, and with it being a Dodge, and is over that repair hump, Frank thinks we can make it to 300 thousand miles easily. I think I might be a little sad when the Neon does kick the bucket though, it's kind of part of the history of Frank and Brandi.

That's about it from here for now. Hopefully I can get back into posting things again, it's just a matter of things getting back to normal!!!!

Fudgy Mocha Brownies

These brownies are incredibly delicious!!!! I love baking from scratch, It's just one of those things that I find relaxing, and these were no disappointment!!!!  I don't know how much you all will love this, but I know they were a hit here!!!!

Ingredients

1 and 1/4 cups unsifted flour devided

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cold butter

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 egg

1 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 cup chopped nuts

Directions

preheat oven to 350 F

In bowl, combine 1 cup flour and sugar, cut in butter until crumbly. Press mixture firmly in bottom of 13x9 inch baking pan.  Bake 15 minutes.

Meanwhile in large bowl, mix all other ingredients including 1/4 cup of flower, but leave out the nuts. Mix well, and then add the nuts after everything has been mixed. Pour mixture over crust after it comes out of oven, and then bake for 20 minutes until center is set. Cool, and then cut into 36 brownies. Store in an air tight container at room temperature.

This is very very tasty, however, it could use a little more coffee in it. I'm thinking that maybe one more tablespoon will make all the difference.

My DNA quilt

Hello everyone!!! Bet my post title got your attention!!! This is a quilt I made for us here at the couch, after it's been to show and tell at the quilting bee the weekend, It will go on the back of the couch, where we can pull it over on us should we get cold.  This was my first big scrap quilt, and I must say, I think it turned out fairly well!!! I have been jokingly calling it my DNA quilt, because of all of the injuries I managed to get while working on this bad boy!!! First there was the running the sewing machine needle through my finger, and after that, I went back into my sewing room Sunday night, and managed to snip my finger while snipping threads...to be honest, that hurt worse than the sewing machine needle, bled more too surprisingly. After I got through all that, and managed to get this whole thing quilted, I was removing the last safety pin from the quilt, and when it popped open, what happened??? Why the darn thing decided to give me a nice big scratch. Thank goodness, I managed to get the binding on without any incident. Although for you quilters, I want you to know, I was determined to use up all of that black fabric that I used as my sashing, and cut 2 inch strips for my binding. That was work getting that on there, and I did it by machine, because this girl doesn't do any hand sewing if it can be avoided.

Right now, I'm working on some t-shirt quilts. I started ironing on the stabilizer this morning, and thought there was something wrong with it at first...absolutely nothing wrong with it. It would seem I forgot to turn my iron on. I think my brain is broken!!!! I have 2 of them I'm making, and will post pictures once they are done. Hopefully I don't get any injuries while working on these.

If you are interested in how I made my quilt, I just did 12 inch Churndash squares using scrap fabric, and I did 3 inch sashing between everything. The white fabric going around the inside was a 2 inch strip, and then I think I did a 5 or 8 inch strip around with the green fabric. It was a lot of fun to put together, it was a great escape, and I found myself in a happier place while working on this quilt, because I wasn't thinking about Facebook, or any of the protests going on. It was just me, my fabric, my rulers, my rotary cutter, my thread, and my machine, and Bryan Adams in the CD player.

I'm currently playing around learning how to use my quilt designing program, and have many hopes of designing a few things for here. Stay tuned, as soon as I find what I did with it, there will be a new crochet pattern coming your way!!!

Stay warm!!!
Brandi

So Sorry

Hey everyone!!! I know I promised you guys recipes and some new crochet patterns this month, and I truly have a stack of recipes, and patterns I've written, and I swear I'm not coming up excuses for reasons why I didn't get them posted.  Both Frank and I spent most of this month sick. We got whatever that nasty gunk is that's been going around. I had it twice as long as Frank did unfortunately. My congestion was so bad, that when I would lay down because I was feeling so bad I had to lay down before I fell down, everything would drain to one side of my body, and then when I sat up, I had to stay in the upright sitting position for a good 5 minutes before I could stand up. I still have a little bit of congestion that gets me at the end of the day, and my nose holes are sore still from all the nose blowing I had been doing.

In other news, I had to break down and buy a new sewing machine a couple of weeks ago, thank goodness for an Amazon Prime membership. I would have to say it's the best investment we have ever made. It's already paid for itself, between the movies, the free shipping and the discount prices. I was working on quilting a scrap quilt that I made to get to know my new sewing machine, and for the first time in my sewing career, I actually ran my finger under the sewing machine needle!!! It went all the way through, the tip of the needle came out a good 1/4 inch of the other side of my finger. I don't know how I didn't panic, and how I kept calm enough to raise the needle out of my finger. Frank grounded me from my sewing room for a few days, and I haven't been up to finish my quilt. (Although I've decided that my finger doesn't hurt much anymore, and I can type with it with no problem, so that means I'm healed up.)

Our Neon is almost over the repair hump according to Frank. It's in the shop right now, there is another sensor that is being replaced, and the final engine mount is being repaired, and whatever is wrong with the break line is being fixed. (All I can say about the break issue is, thank goodness that it went while I was sitting in the driveway, and not when I was halfway to the grocery store, or while Frank was on his way to work) After about 3 months of research and saving for a down payment, we got a new car. I think I know more about vehicles than I ever wanted to know. We knew we were going to want something with all wheel drive, but something that got good gas mileage. I was comparing cars against each other, and reading reviews, and stats, and learning about problems, and longevity, and the list goes on. My list started out with 56 different vehicles. Who knew that I would have that much of a choice, it ticked off so slowly, and it came down to 2 different vehicles of the same make. It came down between the Outback Subaru, and the Subaru Forester. The winning car was (Insert drumroll here) The 2017 Outback Subaru. We got it this past Thursday, and I'm not going to lie, I absolutely love it!!!! Considering children are not off the table for us, no matter how we become parents weather it's natural, scientific, or adoption, we still want to be parents, and I like knowing that I have a vehicle that will be a great family vehicle, with safety ratings that are completely awesome.
   
So!!! Now you have been caught up, and I promise you guys, I do have recipe's and patterns coming your way. Once I figure out my electric quilt program, for quilt designing, I'm hoping to have some quilt patterns to share with you all as well!!! So then, this little farm blog will have a little bit more of everything!!!!

Happy New Year

Greetings my fellow readers!!!! I'm so happy that the new year is here, and that we can get a fresh start on things. Nobody can deny that 2016 was a rough year, it wasn't all bad, but it was indeed rough. It seemed like everything kept breaking, and going wrong. However, some of the breaks were for the better it would seem. Having to replace our Washer and Dryer, we got an HE, and monitoring my electric bill, it's actually using about $40 less worth of electricity a month.  So, even though it seemed tragic at the time, it was kind of a blessing in disguise. (I will admit though, it was really kind of sad, because Frank's parents bought us that set when we bought this house many moons ago)
We've managed to keep the Neon going, and are probably going to be putting it in the shop again here soon, and getting something else fixed. We're going to try and limp it along for as long as we can. Our plan is to get something with 4 wheel drive, that sits up higher than a car, but isn't huge. We've been looking at the crossovers. The plan is to have as big of a down payment as we possibly can, so that we can pay it off as fast as we can. We actually managed to pay off a bunch of stuff last year, and I really love not having a lot of payments.

I have been writing new patterns to share with you all, and I have them in many different drafts right now. I think you all will enjoy them. They are fun, and fast. I'm going to attempt to post a pattern a month for you all. The first one won't be posted this week, mostly because I have a bunch of stuff going on this week, but I will have it up before the month is out!!! I've also been trying new recipes, and I have a huge stack of them to share with you guys, and I'm going to try to share at least one a month with you guys as well. I know that last year my posting got rather minimal, but this year, I'm going to try to do better. This blog is a fun hobby for me. I love writing, and sharing, and I truly hope you all enjoy my rambles.

Well, that's it for today, Until my next post! Have a great week, and a Happy New Year!!!!