FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[FarmerDenise]

Yesterday was a "low" day. No motivation, and spent it watching movies.

Today, the sky was blue when I woke up. My nose crinkled as I reallized the odor was morning chicken poop!! Urgent time to clean Susie's pen! After a couple of cups of coffee and vaccuming and other cleaning chores, It finally got warm enough outside to take Susie and her chicklets outside, about 50*.

I cleaned her inside pen, did 3 loads of laundry (including the sheets for Susie's pen), weeded the vegies I planted last fall, hoped to find some still there, (barely any were there, they must have gotten eaten or frozen), the chickens enjoyed my weeding, started pruning the peaches, let Susie and chicklets out of the outside pen, nothing bad happened, pulled weeds for Susie and chicklets, other chickens came and it was ok., took down dried laundry, pulled more weeds, SO weed whacked, fed the rabbit, 3 hens tried to sit in the same nestbox, got 7 eggs, enjoyed just sitting in the yard, surrounded by the critters, Petey (kitten) watched a hole in the ground, Susie and chicklets took a dust bath, petey watched, Some chicks came up on my lap to warm up, It got cold and I brought Susie and chicklets inside to warm , clean pen.

Drinking wine, keeping fire going, smelling dinner cooking, chatting with friends on SS forum. It's a nice day!!

 

[murphysranch]

That sounds so wonderful. May I join you? In each and every activity?

 

[FarmerDenise]

Sure, come on over. I love the company and I'll gladly put you to work , then we can see how my homemade plum wine turned out

A day similar to yesterday, put susie and her chicks outside, cleaned her inside pen, cleaned the rabbits pen a little, gave him fresh straw in his potty box, boy did he like that, he hopped right in and started munching on it and re-arranging it, , he got fresh greens, a carrot and some grains as a treat, Petey checked out the inside of the chick pen while the chicks were outside of it, Susie picked a fight with one ameraucana hen but not our BO hen, go figure I cleaned a bit more in the front yard, but generally took it easy today, my back is a bit sore, probably from pulling all those weeds, SO made dinner and we watched Sicko, that was one heck of an interesting film. Now we don't feel so bad that we don't have health insurance :/ looks like we're no worse off than people with health insurance.

It's finally off to bed, but I don't feel tired And I don't have a good book to read, one that would help me go to sleep that is

 

[Dace]

Hey are you sending rain my way tomorrow? Just wondering what it is like up your way today

We say Sicko......makes you want to move out of the US huh? Insurance is a racket.....that's all I say for fear of getting my typing fingers smacked!

 

[FarmerDenise]

So far the rain hasn't come down, but it is very gloomy here. The rain is supposed to come around noon.

We got the outside stuff taken care of yesterday and I am focusing on inside chores today.
this morning I am trying to get my phonecalls made, but I have to charge my phone first :/
So I only got one call done so far.

Yeah, Sicko definitely made me consider moving to another country. My rich uncle lives in South America, I think I'll start saving my money, so I can go visit him. Maybe that is why he moved to Argentina. Actually he did move to Argentina, because the living conditions are better for a couple of old people with money.

I am definitely keeping the lines of communication open with him.
Actually he was always my favorite uncle. When he visited us when I was about 3 or so, I loved playing with him. He was so much fun. I was unconsolable when he left to go back to the US. Before he left, he bought some more lego blocks for us, which I loved. I still have some of them!!!

The chicks are growing so fast. I have raised so many chicks and yet it amazes me each time, just how fast they grow. I have to find some rechargable batteries, so I can down load the pics from my camera. I don't feel like going out and buying batteries, but I guess I will have to soon.

ETA a missing word

 

[FarmerDenise]

I am soo mad

Someone just hit my neighbors little dog and just kept on going!!!!

I was sitting at the puter, when I heard this odd yelping sound. So I look out the window and see this little dog lying in the road. Of course I know right away what happened. By the time I got to the street (I had to put my wet shoes back on), someone had stopped and was about to check on the little dog too, another neighbor was coming from down the street and said he saw a red impalla hit the dog and drive on down the road, not even bothering to slow down. He had just knocked on the door of the people the dog belongs to and got no answer.
I picked the dog up and brought him in the house. I checked him out, He was in shock, bruised and bleeding. I gave him some rescue remedy and his eyes went back to normal and he became a little more alert. I checked for broken bones and didn't find any, thank goodness. But his hind leg was obviously injured. I sat with him and talked with him and pet him. Then I went to write a note for the neighbor to let them know about their dog, Nugget. When I got out of my room from writing the note, Nugget had tried to follow me.
I decided to go to the neighbor's to leave the note, when I knocked the man answered. He came and picked up Nugget. Before the neighbor got to my house (he had to put shoes on) I tried to pick Nugget up again, I guess he was feeling much better, because this time he bit me, ouch. This made me realize that Nugget was in a lot of pain and I pointed it out to his owner. He said he was going to take him to the vet right away.
I feel good that I was able to help Nugget right away. Nugget is the pet of the neighbor's children and they take good care of him. Unfortunately they don't have a very secure yard, because Nugget gets out all the time. Maybe this will be a wake-up call for them. It could have been much worse!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Before the dog incident, I got a lot of things done today that I can feel good about. The weather doesn't know which way to go, we'll have downpour one minute and sunshine the next. I wanted to take Susie and the chicklets out, so I moved the outside chick-pen to a fresh green area with SO's help. But then I decided to just let them run around the field and that I would just stay out there with them. We had a couple of downpours, but I managed to keep them out there for almost an hour, before I gave up and brought them back inside. I got pretty drenched, During a downpour I shielded the chicks with my body Can't risk getting those babies wet and chilled.
I started trimming back the lavender and did a little bit of clean up here and there, keeping an eye on the chicks all the time. I also managed to make it to the bank, my one important errand for the day.

Since I am stewing some chicken (One of the ones we butchered last fall), I thought it would be nice to have a salad for dinner as well, I am tired of just plain lettuce, so I picked assorted greens. I got some chickweed, some wild mustard leaves, chives, garlic greens, Japanese mustard greens (we have volunteers growing in the garlic bed). I figure I'll also cut up some carrots to go into the salad and maybe boil up some eggs. That means that tonight's dinner will be mostly homegrown food,

I love it!!!! The chicken is stewing in home made salsa and tomato paste. So the only thing store bought will be the rice and the head of romano lettuce, oh and the oil in the salad dressing, since the vinegar is also homemade. Oh my, I impress myself

 

[modern_pioneer]

It makes you feel a sense of pride doesn't it?

about the dog

 

[murphysranch]

Oh FD, I'm so glad you were there to comfort the doggie before its owner came to get it. You made a significant difference in that dog's life. Way to go!

Dinner sounds yummy. I'll come on up; be there in about 4 hours!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I spent a good part of the evening "shelling" our popcorn while watching TV. I am trying to get it finished up. We probably had 3 bushels of pop corn, if not more. I save some of the smaller ears for the rabbit. I remove the larger kernels for popping and seed. The smaller kernels near the top I put in the hen scratch bin.
I think it is rather funny that my chickens love the homegrown corn, but only reluctantly eat the store bought stuff, maybe they know it is GMO stuff?

Once I finish the popcorn, I will get to separate the grain from the broom corn. The chickens love this stuff too.

Tomorrow is my singing group. I still have a slightly sore throat, but I plan on going anyway. I need to get familiar with the songs, so that when my voice does come back, I'll know what we're singing. It'll be nice to visit with this group of friends and soon to be friends. We plan on going to senior centers and homes and sing for them, encouraging them to sing with us. Should be fun. We have a good list of upbeat songs. Our first "gig" is coming up soon.