Personally I like to end things on a positive note and anticipating bad news can sometimes be as bad as the bad news itself, so I'm a fan of just getting the bad news over with myself.
But you can pick and choose which you want to read first. You'll just have to hold your hand over the screen and scroll if you want the good news first. You have ALL the control right at your fingertips.
Anyway.
Sigh.
Here goes:
BAD NEWS
I don't know how to break the news gently, but Little Red didn't survive the night last night. We thought we had her all nice and secure in the chicken tractor. In fact, at night Jake would safely tuck her into a dog kennel (the plastic kind with a metal door) within the tractor and then would let her out each morning. That's two layers of security folks. But apparently it wasn't enough.
Whatever it was, tore through our chicken tractor and then ripped that metal door right off the cage and made off with Little Red.
It was not a pretty scene to discover.
That predator is going down!
GOOD NEWS
Candace and her boys came to visit this afternoon and brought the Pioneer Woman's Key Lime Pie. I didn't even know if I would like Key Lime Pie, but oh sweet mercy, it was all kinds of good. And having a foodie friend who comes over with pie after you've lost your last chicken is pretty sweet too.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1:21
I'm not sure where May went. I looked back through my pictures
and apparently it rained a lot in May.
This is a picture of what is supposed to be the little creek in our front yard.
We had a TON of rain in a short period of time and that water just didn't know where to go.
For a little bit, we had an awesome waterfall going on. It looked like a raging river!
The boys couldn't wait to investigate it once the water quit moving so quickly.
And soon enough, all of the animals came out of the barn to check things out again.
You see that wooly sheep? He needs to be sheared this year. And I'm a little scared.
Any volunteers?
Even though we've had a recent cold snap and even had some snow flurries yesterday, Spring really is here. I just had to look back through my camera for a little reminder.
This bush is positively full of blooms!
I've forgotten what kind of bush it is though. Do any of you know what kind it is?
Also, Jake saddled up Billy for the first ride of the year. Interestingly enough, Baab kept up with them all the way. Billy has a fat little ram who fleece is as gray as a rhino,
And everywhere that Billy goes, Baab is sure to go.
I'm thankful for these pictures because it sure hasn't seemed very springy the past few days. It kind of makes it easier to get some bookwork done, but I'll be glad when it warms up and we can get back outside again. I sure was enjoying the sunshine.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have determined that the very best way to relieve stress, both physical and mental, is to read a book. Got your attention?
As reported in The Telegraph, the researchers found that stress levels and heart rate showed a 68% reduction in measurable stress after reading from a book.
Other stress relievers included listening to music (61% reduction), having a cup of tea or coffee (54% reduction), and taking a walk (42% reduction). Playing video games lowered stress rates by only 21%, but left heart rates racing.
Interesting stuff, huh? Maybe a few books will help keep the stress away until it warms up again.
I've been thinking for years that hormones play a huge part in how we feel every day. I've read some really great books on the subject and have considered taking bioidentical hormones.
It's really sad to realize just how much "junk" is in our food these days. Animals are fed all kinds of hormones and medicines in order to get them fattened up and to market as quickly as possible. Realizing all of this was what started us down the path of organic gardening and raising our own chickens for meat and eggs.
Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food."
I've got a loooooong way to go in this area, but I just keep reminding myself that every little step I take can help.
How about you? Have any of you tried the bioidentical hormones or had really good results from taking Iodine or Maca?
Well it's been a bit exciting in our neck of the woods what with the Ice Storm of the Century and all. Our area was coated with ice and although it was quite perty. The trees couldn't bear the weight - so they came down - and so did the power and phone lines!
We actually had some really good warnings that this might happen though and when they started saying that this could even be worse that the storm of 94, my family started getting things ready.
We already had a kerosene heater and a little bit of kerosene, but Tony went ahead an filled up 2 more containers.
He had the boys dig through our camping supplies in the garage to get out the cookstove, extra containers of fuel, and flashlights.
Then they made a last minute run to stock up on a few things - mainly batteries.
I must say that I thought Mel would have been proud of how we weathered the storm.
The kerosene heater did an awesome job of keeping our home warm & cozy. Tony and the boys *did* get more kerosene when we started getting low, but then our electric came on the very next day.
If you live where it gets cold, buy yourself a nice kerosene heater when they're on clearance. And then buy 2 kerosene containers, fill them, and store them safely on your property.
Learned something kind of interesting. One afternoon there were lines and lines of folks waiting close to an hour to get gas & kerosene. Just a few hours later after dark, no lines. If your roads are clear enough that you can be out after dark, you might save yourself quite a bit of wait time. Of course, people were afraid that the kerosene (or gas) would be all gone by then. It wasn't though and since our situation wasn't dire, we were able to wait and avoid the lines.
The cookstove and extra tanks of camping fuel - Awesome to have on hand. We could have used our grill for cooking if we had to, but instead we were able to just set up our cookstove right on the countertop - easy-peasy. We had spaghetti one night, oatmeal & toast most mornings, mac & cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, canned soup, etc... We were warm and we had food to eat. It made the frustration of not being able to flip on the TV easier for my gang. Ha!
Campfire lantern, oil lamps, fuel, flashlights & batteries. We love them. The lantern was awesome for lighting up a whole room and even put out a fair amount of heat. The oil lamps definitely help light up the area, but aren't quite bright enough to read by (at least not for me). Every person in our family was assigned a flashlight and kept up with it for the whole week. Tony & Joe had mag lights, while Jake, Jon & I had small led flashlights. All held out the whole week. The smaller ones are easier to misplace, but those led lights sure were nice and bright. I liked being able to keep mine with me at all times. At night it was so dark, you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Even when we would run to town I kept it in my purse so I could shine it as we went into the house. VERY handy!
The scanner - Awesome for being able to *hear* what was going on around us. We aren't able to pick up radio stations well from our home so it's really our only way of judging how things are progressing. We could definitely tell that this was a HUGE issue and not to expect the lights to come on any minute. Likewise we were totally impressed with our emergency response folks, police, dispatchers, fire departments, rescue squads, weather spotters, volunteers, electric linemen, phone guys, etc... Hearing how they were cutting their way through the streets to get to people even with lines down all around reminded you that there are heroes among us everyday.
The portable radio/weather radio - ours didn't get a good signal, but it kept us occupied trying to hear things. Ha!
The portable CD player - By day 3, we were able to get back and forth to town so we went to the library and checked out some audiobooks on CD and regular books. The only problem was that the CD player took 6 C batteries and Wal-Mart was totally sold out. We looked at grocery stores, dollar stores, etc... Finally found some at Walgreens. Apparently not everyone else had thought to look there yet.
Animal feed & hay - Fortunately we had just stocked up before the storm hit. The animals were mighty grateful for that too. Nobody had to go without and Jake was able to chip through the ice and give them some fresh water each day.
Boys - Really wouldn't want to go through something like this without them. They did a great job of keeping kerosene in the heater, the animals fed, and our food at the right temperature.
As our refrigerator started to lose its chill, we put the refrigerated food in a box with ice and moved it to a bedroom that we weren't heating, opened the windows and made that room into our walk-in refrigerator. We boxed up the stuff from our freezer and took it to a friend in town who had extra room in his big ol' chest freezer. That was such a relief not to lose all of that meat!
The storm really wasn't that hard on us. Not being able to use the phone was probably the worst since we don't get cell signal at home and couldn't get in touch with family or each other when some were in town and some were at home. We did still have water. Not hot water of course, but it was easy enough to warm some water on the stove to wash your face with etc... Plus, we were able to drive into town and go to a friend's hosue to do some laundry, take showers, use the phone, etc... (Although Tony did even buy a filter in case we had to get water from the creek.)
Overall it was a kind of fun family adventure. The dogs enjoyed spending so much time in the house and we appreciated their extra body heat. We laughed a lot at flipping the switches as you would go in or leave a room just out of habit - even though they hadn't been working for days. We cuddled up together, played cards, talked a lot, and read some books.
Again, I just want to express my appreciation to the folks with the electric company, road crews, phone company, and volunteers who worked tirelessly in the rough weather to help get the power back on. They definitely rose to the challenge and did an awesome job!
Please remember to pray for the folks who are still without power. Folks not too far from us might be without power for (get this) up to a month! I can only imagine how difficult things are for them. I am MIGHTY thankful that our *little adventure* was less than a week!
I've been talking to my good friend & former neighbor, Julie, about swapping her some guineas for a cat that looked like our beloved George. She was starting to think it was a pretty fair swap until she got to thinking about it and asked "What's the difference between a guinea and a chicken?"
So, here without further ado, is my mini-essay on the difference between a guinea and chicken.
Exhibit A : Chickens & Guineas at the Hen House You'll notice the variety of chickens and then our gray guineas in this picture. Chickens have a cute little curve to their back, while the guineas have more of a humpback shape. However, they actually remind me more of Sherlock Holmes searching for clues than Quasimodo.
Exhibit B: Nuttin but Guineas In this photo, you can get a better look at the delightful polka dots on our guineas. I believe our guineas are pearl grays. None of our chickens have polka dots.
Also, check out the little pointy things on their heads? Guinea folks call that a helmet. None of our chickens have helmets. (I wonder if they're jealous?)
Plus, oh my word, they make VERY different sounds than chickens. They are no-ooo-ooo -oisy!
Exhibit B: Video of the Sounds Guineas Make
Listen closely. You'll hear a lot of buck-wheat calls - those are the girls. And then you'll hear a whole lotta loud Ca-Ci,Ci, Ci screeching - those are the boys.
Every week I have a phone meeting with some of the marketing staff at TOS and almost every week, those folks can hear my guineas in the background. Guineas are loud. Some folks actually find them to be very handy watchdogs because they are so loud. Ours don't really announce when visitors are here or anything though, so I just call them loud.
Exhibit C: Guinea Eggs
You can see from the pics on this website that guinea eggs are much smaller than chicken eggs. You can eat them just as you would chicken eggs, but you'd just need more of them. The challenge however is finding the eggs! Most people allow their guineas to free range and since guineas aren't as domesticated as chickens they don't opt to lay their eggs in the lovely nesting boxes we have. Nope, instead they enjoy the privacy of tall grass near the edge of the woods. We've never found our guineas eggs, but instead were just surprised when they came strolling out with keets.
Exhibit D: Well, I don't have an exhibit D, but here's a few other things.
Guineas can fly more than chickens. They're actually more like turkeys in the how they fly. They mostly walk around, but they can fly up into the trees to roost at night or just to get from one spot to another.
Guineas are more wild than chickens. They're not as domesticated and while some people keep them in coops or chicken tractors, I think they're meant to free-range. It's nice if you can tuck them in to roost at night to help keep them safe from predators, but even though we have had a hen house with roosts, ours would rather sleep in the trees or high in the rafters of our barn.
Guineas are famous for their bug-eating ability! Many people are getting them specifically to help keep down the tick population. Plus, they don't scratch around like chickens so they don't tend to tear up a garden or young flowers like chickens.
Guineas like to admire their own reflections. We've heard of people having trouble with their guineas jumping up on their cars to admire their reflections in the windshield or pecking at the sliding glass door as they study themselves. You can often stop that behavior just by placing a large section of mirror specifically for that purpose out in your yard.
Guineas must be kept penned for quite some time to acclimate to new surroundings. Otherwise they tend to wander off as they try to head for home. We kept ours in the chicken tractor as keets for about 6 weeks before we turned them lose. Furthermore some people suggest using their flock instinct to train them to stay close by only releasing a few at a time. Those few will stay close to the pen where the others are until you finally release them all and they've learned to stay close.
I definitely wouldn't recommend backyard guineas like I do backyard chickens. I think they're probably too noisy for most neighborhoods. But they've definitely helped cut down on the ticks around here and have added lots of polka-dot interest to our farmyard.
While we have read a lot about straw bale housing, we finally decided to actually it was time to do some actual construction!
Of course, we only wanted to spend about $25 so no big fancy house or anything.
Instead, we decided to build a straw bale dog house for our beasties!
We found straw bales locally for $2.50/bale and bought 12 of them. We used two of them in the barn and the rest for the actual dog house.
Two for each side, two for each section on the front, then we put the old messed up top from our picnic table (covered with a tarp) across the top, and then used the last two bales to weigh it down.
Tony and the boys made it big enough for all three dogs. Not that Mary Jane will actually let everyone in there. But, we tried anyway.
Hank says it's very cozy in there.
But he's got other things to do - places to go, people to see, things to bark at.
And Faith approved too. She thought it was very nice of us to build a house for the OUTSIDE dogs, but she reminded us that she's an inside dog and that she really must get back in the house and guard the recliner. She's dedicated like that! All business, all the time.
But Mary Jane? She LOVES it. And has claimed it as hers alone.
It's pretty nice. You can see the photo at the top. The only problem is that I am having the WORST time trying to work with satellite internet. I thought that my internet woes would be solved when we switched to another company, but alas, it has only led to more frustration.
Apparently I use WAY more than the "average" users that satellite companies like.
I'm not sure what to do. I spent the past week and part of this weekend driving back and forth to town so I could work online. I am NOT a happy farm woman.
Sometimes living 20 minutes out of town is rough.
sigh...
(I'll cheer up soon enough I'm sure, but all of this stress is wreaking havoc on my fibro right now. Thanks for bearing with me. )
A week or so ago, we discovered that one of our guinea girls had hatched out a whole clutch of keets. We never saw her sitting on a nest and still have no idea where it was. Apparently we haven't given the guineas enough credit. They must be smarter than they look because they've managed to keep these little ones alive. The baby chicks around here didn't fare as well this summer.
They've juuuuust started bringing them out into the open the past few days. Before that all you could do was catch a quick glimpse of them in the tall grass of the pastures or along the creek bank.
Notice how they all kind of stay in a triangle? Two in front and one following behind? I don't know if that's "normal" guinea behavior, but it seems to be working for them. We've actually been very impressed watching them all together. The daddy guinea stays right with them and will absolutely challenge any person or dog who comes near. Meanwhile the two girl guineas will run with the keets into the tall grass to hideout again. In fact, apparently they've taught the babies to "get quiet and hide" if they ever get separated from the group.
One day the boys tried to "catch" one of the babies so we could get a closer look. Well the daddy guinea wouldn't tolerate it and they all scattered and one little guinea got separated. We just barely caught a glimpse of it scurrying across the yard towards the pasture, but all of the other guineas had headed towards the tall grass on the other side of the yard. What do do?!
We tried to find the baby, but it would get quiet anytime we got close and in the tall grass it was impossible to see. We decided to just back away and let things settle down.
Sure enough, after a few minutes the rest of the guinea family came strolling across the yard calm, cool, and collected headed towards the pasture. And wow, once that baby saw the family it commenced to chirping and literally ran to its family. It was really awesome to see.
Not that we get to see them too much. Because whenever they see us, they gather the children and take off for the high grass again.
Thanks for all your words of encouragement and empathy on the clutter post. I am SO going to tackle that humongous stack of magazines and report in once I'm finished.
Meanwhile let's think of other things. (I can procrastinate with the best of them!)
Baab's really not a baby anymore. He's pretty much a free range sheep and just happens to think he's one of the dogs now. He even ran up to greet the mail carrier when she brought us a package today. If he starts barking, I will SO post a video!
Bill's doing well. He appreciates having his nose rubbed down with flyspray!
Buffy the Buff Orpington has hatched out another set of chicks. This time we left her alone and she's keeping them in the tall grass safely away from all the cats. Looks like this little guy is none too pleased about being away from his mom to have his picture taken.
And finally here's a Mary Jane photo for all of the Mary Jane fans out there.
Have a great week!
This is a picture of what is supposed to be the little creek in our front yard. 
I've forgotten what kind of bush it is though. Do any of you know what kind it is?
Interestingly enough, Baab kept up with them all the way. 
You'll notice the variety of chickens and then our gray guineas in this picture. Chickens have a cute little curve to their back, while the guineas have more of a humpback shape. However, they actually remind me more of 
In this photo, you can get a better look at the delightful polka dots on our guineas. I believe our guineas are 
Baab's really not a baby anymore. He's pretty much a free range sheep and just happens to think he's one of the dogs now. He even ran up to greet the mail carrier when she brought us a package today. If he starts barking, I will SO post a video!
Bill's doing well. He appreciates having his nose rubbed down with flyspray!
Buffy the Buff Orpington has hatched out another set of chicks. This time we left her alone and she's keeping them in the tall grass safely away from all the cats. Looks like this little guy is none too pleased about being away from his mom to have his picture taken. 
