Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Denim Deb]

I've come instantly wide awake on days when I don't need to get up and it's past my normal time to get up. Then panic sets in cuz I think I overslept, then I remember that I didn't need to get up. But of course, since I'm wide awake, I can't go back to sleep.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thankfully, my hours at work can be fairly flexible and usually - even when I'm late - I'm there ahead of everyone else!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Had a hatch today, and not a very good one...ugh. I set 30 chicken eggs...24 of them shipped...6 home grown. Started weeding them waaaay down after the first candling...and again after the second candling. I ended up putting 12 in lockdown and have six hatched so far. Oh well...whatcha gonna do?

I filled the dehydrator a couple days ago with tomatoes and pulled 'em out tonight. I got two quarts of nice dry tomato slices. Don't now what I'll do with 'em yet, but if nothing else, I imagine they'll be good in soup. We love soup, but do more in the winter than this time of year. This is the time of year for freshness! Fresh veggies, fresh fruit... yum yum. Speaking of fresh - my fig trees are LOADED! It is always a good way to bribe my daughter to come visit. She will get up first thing in the morning and go eat figs right off the tree....then she'll come inside and have coffee....then go back to the tree for her mid morning snack, for lunch, for afternoon tea, and for dinner, lol. Then she'll have a tummy ache and start all over the next day. She makes me laugh.

I scored on a leg of lamb yesterday. It was a couple days away from the 'buy by' date so I got it for half price! We do love us some lamb around here. I'll put it in the crock pot with a bottle of red wine and we will munch OUT on it when it's done.

I usually have Fridays off from May - August, but I've gotta work tomorrow. It won't be a bad day though. We'll be taking our high school students to a field day/academic decathlon tomorrow. Thankfully, it's not our year to host...geeze that's a pain! But, we've competed for 9 years and we've WON EVERY YEAR! Nothing like a little pressure to make it ten years in a row, huh?

I'm trying to foster the hatched chicks off onto a broody hen. I moved her a while ago and then I took the six hatched chicks out. She wasn't on the nest though...but I'm hoping she'll hear the chicks and accept them. I need to go check on 'em and if she's not being motherly I'm gonna have to move them back inside.

 

[Britesea]

When we lived in California, our neighbors had a huge fig tree, but no one ever got any fruit from it. The blackbirds would descend on it just as they ripened, and within a day or two they were gone. I think DH managed to get some figs one year, but most of the time, nothing.

 

[Denim Deb]

What kind of an incubator do you have? I have a Little Giant that I've never had any luck with. Hubby got me the Brinsea mini, and out of 7 eggs, I only had to toss one. The other 6 hatched! That's the most I've ever gotten.

 

[hqueen13]

Sorry you lost so many chicks! Hope the others do well!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Most of the ones I lost were shipped eggs with really messed up air cells. I have a Brinsea also, but it holds 24 eggs. It really works well...and this morning when I got up I had three more chicks! They will have to stay in the incubator until I get home today....working til three-ish.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The babies were nice and dried off when I got home, so I tossed 'em in the bin with the other six...all seem to be doing well. The fostering process last night was an epic fail! I guess moving the hen AND trying to get her to take new babies all in the same hour was just too much for her. If I don't fall asleep I'm gonna try again tonight. She went back to her original nest and is sitting there so I might run the babies out there if I don't fall asleep....zzzzzzzzzzz

Oh - in other good news.... Our students won the field day/academic decathlon for the 10th year in a row! We smoked 'em in the math competition, the relay race, the egg drop, and dodge ball .... and most importantly of ALL - the dance-off! Our kids were awesomely amazing and I'm soooo proud of 'em!

 

[Denim Deb]

That's great!

ETA: What is the hen sitting on? Your best bet is to either slip the chicks under her at night-w/no light!, or if she has chicks the same size on the ground, add them to what she has. They can't count. Every chicken at the farm right now that has chicks had chicks added to what they have.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My mistake was to try and move the hen to a totally different place AND put chicks under her at the same time. I knew it was a big gamble, but what the heck, I thought I'd give it a try anyway. Next morning she was brooding one chick, and the other 8 were on the other side of the pen all huddled together. Poor babies - it's a good thing it was a warm night!

After I brought the chicks back in the hen moved back to her original nest so I decided to try again. I put some of chicks under her last night, and voila(!), all is well! I decided not to risk the 6 Silkie chicks - I paid a chunk for those eggs so they're a little more precious to me. I have high hopes that they'll do all the incubating and chick raising in the future. And, even more hopefully - I hope I've got six gurls, lol! Anyway - I'll raise them in a tub in the breezeway until they're ready to go into the chicken tractor. I love silkies and it's been a long time since I've had any.

We got rain today. Couldn't work outside so it seemed like a good idea to hop in the hot tub, contemplate life, and watch the rain and listen to the thunder. It was nice....ahhhhhhh. We had a good 40 minutes or so of good solid rain. Just the right amount!

Leg of lamb for dinner. Haven't decided on sides, but probably a salad and maybe some roasted asparagus. Some garlic smashed potatoes would be my choice, but since we're doing the low carb thing.....