critters, veggies, life

Hey everybody!!! Sorry it's been quite a while between posts. Things have been a bit on the busy side with summer, and canning, and critters.
We finally got the grow out pen completely shoveled out, and some fresh new bedding down, a coop moved in, and we now have our Americana hens and roosters in there. (yes!!!) Although the one rooster is going to have to go. He's way to mean for my liking. I've never been scared of a rooster until him.
We did get our Americana chicks moved outside a couple of weeks ago, and they are doing fantastic out there in their little coop and run. We are starting to be able to tell the difference between the girls and the boys so, soon, very soon we will be taking out the boys, butchering them, and getting the girls ready for market.  Which will be great because my newer pullets that came in the mail back in the early spring are about ready to start laying, so I will be able to do my next round of hatching.
My dogs, all 3 of them are doing fantastic. Sam pretty much so stays in the house, because he melts outside.
My pumpkins are growing fast!!! I have some more up to date pics than these, but I've just got to get them uploaded. Some of them at this point are already turning orange!!! Hard to believe that they have grown so swiftly.
Then finally, I'd like you all to meet Lucy!!! She's the newest Silver Fox in our herd. She is the Daughter of Fred and Ethel, and is just under 4 months old. She has a great size, and great fur, so I can't wait to see how she finishes growing out.
Even better news!!! Betty, my Chocolate Silver Fox who was having such a hard time taking care of her kits, finally has a litter that she is taking care of perfectly. she made a nest, she's feeding them, all of it. She just seemed to have a hard start with the others.
I have a few recipes that I'm going to be posting here in the next day or two as I go.
Oh speaking of recipes. Remember a while back when I made that chocolate cake from that old old old recipe, and couldn't find the Hershey's syrup that I could have used in it at Food Lion? Well, Matthew my favorite grocery store dude, showed me where it's located! For some reason they have decided that it does not belong in the baking isle, but with the ice cream stuff. Ah well, at least I know they have it for next time!!!

Lots of pictures!!!!

I decided that I hand't taken enough pictures of my chickens here lately. I thought that perhaps they may be feeling left out, since I've been spending so much extra time with the rabbits.  As you can see, everybody is growing, and eating, and eating and growing!!!!
This evening I had decided to go up there a little bit early, because we've been going ahead and doing some preventative worm treating. Well, I'm so glad that I did!!! I have these crates that I use in there that have holes in them. They are like milk crates, well, one of my Easter Egg pullets, had stuck her head through one of the holes, and got her head stuck. Her feathers were preventing her from getting it back out. So I pulled on a pair of gloves, just in case she decided to peck at me while I was helping her, and carefully pushed her feathers through there, and got her head unstuck. That crate wasn't serving a purpose at that moment in time, so I just took it out of the run. I have some extra cinder blocks that I'm going to use in there instead of those crates, so that, hopefully that doesn't happen again.

Ginger is due this Sunday, and I noticed this evening that she has started pulling fur. Not a lot, but enough that it makes me wonder if I'm not going to get up in the morning to find a nest box full of fur and babies. As you all recall, she was the one who pulled a whole bunch of fur, and made a nest the one time, even though she wasn't pregnant. She had a really good false pregnancy. Well, we are positive she's having babies this time.

Everybody is growing swiftly baby wise. Doris's babies are much smaller than Ethel's, but then Doris is a much smaller rabbit than Ethel, even though they are the same breed.
Now for some Sad news, and some glad news.
This morning, when I went out to feed and fill the water bottles in the rabbit house, Ethel was very loving and seemed a bit upset. I saw why, the chocolate bunny was laying on the wire, I pulled the little guy out, and he/she was still alive, but was so cold, and had quite the cut on the top of it's little head. So, I took him in and was trying to get him warmed up as best I could. I put some Neosporin on the cut, and was thinking that perhaps if I could get him warm, and the bleeding to stop I'd have him back in the nest box before the end of the day, and the next feeding. Frank brought out the brooder heater, and we covered the heat part with a towel, and put the little guy on top of that and covered him with a towel. Then we turned the heat on in the bathroom. Unfortunately, he didn't make it.
I went back out to finish feeding and to check the rest of the babies in her nest box...there was another one missing. It was one of the black ones. I checked the cage, and the ground, nothing. Sadly, I was thinking that he must have gotten eaten, or something along those lines. Well, I had to go out this morning to get a prescription refilled and to pick up a couple of things. It was around noon when I got home, and had the egg basket, and was going up the hill to gather eggs. I spotted this little black thing in the grass near the woods (so this is 4-5 hours later). My first thought was, is that a baby skunk, or a rat??? I decided I had to go and look, because I didn't want either around the rabbit house. I ended up doing a half jog!!! It was the missing baby bunny!!!! Other than having a little tiny cut on his head, there was nothing wrong with him/her!!! The little thing was just moving along, I scooped it up and held it close to me, trying not to cry at this happy find!!!! I took him back in to the nest box, and put it back in with its brothers and sisters. When I checked on him again this evening at the final check, he was just as happy as can be!!! Snuggled in. I did see where he got/fell out of the cage. some of the wire on the cage had broken, so Frank fixed that for me as soon as he had dinner, and before he went to work.

So, now that you are all caught up on the farm pictures and news, will let you know how all goes with Ginger!!!!

Another Day on the Farm

I've been trying to get some better pictures of my bunnies, but that's hard to do...but I managed to get some...I managed to get Hudsen, Fred, Cadburry, and Betty. I love me some Betty, she might not be the most loveable bunny, but man she is beautiful!!!

The weather has been really hot, I promised myself I wouldn't use the H word, but I just did...really its the humidity, and honestly, it doesn't bother me as much as it does the fact that I can't bring all of my animals in the house, so I spend lots of extra time making sure their water is cold, and that they have ice bottles to help keep them cool. I'm hoping that we will be able to have a building up by fall. Its not looking like summer time will happen, but hopefully fall will for sure. I'm just going to have to work extra hard through these summer months to keep them as comfortable as I humanly can.

Today I sent two of my roosters off to a new home. I was sad to see Spot go, but we can only keep so many roosters at a time. The other rooster that went with Spot, was one that we missed when we butchered the other week. I kind of feel like if he managed to blend in well enough to get missed, he deserves a pass to get to live.  They are going to live on a farm where they will be able to free range and live happily. (I know I'm not supposed to allow myself to get so attached to the livestock, but well this happens.)

We've been working with Bella on her house behavior. Its getting so much better. As of right now, she's not sleeping in her crate, which has made a huge difference in her behavior. She actually sleeps more solid at night, and is less wound up during the day. We've been trying not to put her in the crate during the day unless we are going somewhere, or if Sam and Jasper need a time out from her because she's gotten to be too wound up. Today was a much better day though, and she hasn't had to go in there. Instead of getting wound up when she gets tired, she's actually just laid down on the dog bed and took a nap. Little steps.

Well, the day is over, so I'm going to turn down the lights and put my feet up. I need to do a little bit of research, so I'm probably going to do that. I hope you all have a fantastic night!!!!