Smorgasbord

And then there were nine. TWO chickens got abducted and eaten last week. Of course both of them were active layers and not the two gimpy chickens that don't lay yet I continue to feed. I'm so disgusted. We got home after gymnastics last Tuesday night and I went down to feed the duck. I say DUCK as in singular because one of them vanished a few weeks ago so we only have one now. As I was walking to the pond I stomped across a pile of black and white feathers and then followed a trail of stragglers to the edge of the woods. Definately the Wyandotte.

I had decided to keep them cooped up the next day to discourage a binge but Bryon talked me out of it and I left them out again. Wednesday there was ANOTHER pile of feathers right outside the coop. Apparently the culprit had a taste for Wyandotte because the other one had vanished into a pile of black and white feathers as well.

My friends, it's dangerous in the country.

So NOW, I have 4 or 5 eggs a day which don't add up nearly as quickly as 8 or 9 a day. I'm pretty sure the two gimpy birds will never lay. I have started mixing up the cracked meal like corn we feed the pigs with water for the crossed beaked chicken. I think she can get more into her beak that way. She ate for 20 minutes this weekend one night while I shooed the other hens away from her. She finally walked away (and probably took a nap!) with what I can only assume was a full belly or gullet or whatever chickens have.

Grace hasn't been too concerned about the diminishing flock.

One of the Buff Orpingtons has gotten all broody and tries to hatch the eggs every day. She sits in there constantly on the eggs and gets all upset when I scoop then out from under her. I'm thinking maybe I should just get a rooster and let them hatch out to replenish the flock and maybe the rooster would be able to protect them a little more too during the day. Of course winter is probably not the best time to hatch that plan (pun intended). Maybe I'll just make it through to spring and THEN get a rooster. I really wanted to wait until I could have a pure flock since I have 5 different breeds of birds now instead of six, at this rate that won't be long anyway.

Oh the perils of farm life...

Grace and Olivia

Cheerleading

Grace has been going to a mini cheerleading class at gymnastics on Friday nights and it culminated today in getting to cheer at the MFL (Marshfield Football League's) flag football game today. Getting 4-7 year olds to cheer in any sort of coordinated fashion is like herding cats. I would have lasted about 45 seconds if I was in charge. Mercifully I wasn't. The girls had fun. I'm not even sure if our team (the Cowboys) won or not, but it wasn't from lack of enthusiastic cheerleaders rooting them on!

Farm Update

This has been a busy month with Bryon's Dad here visiting. We've enjoyed spending time with him and Grace has enjoyed getting to know her Grandpa Medley better. I think she's probably worn him out. Gary has taken over most of the farm chores while he's been here and starting tomorrow it's back to regular business around here.

He's given a lot of special attention to the crooked beaked Aracauana and she has followed him around the farm like a puppy. She's going to be lonely when he's gone. We lost a duck last week. We don't know what happened to it but the other duck quacks around looking for it. It's pretty sad. The chickens go down and visit it from time to time but I think it needs a friend. We missed the small animal swap meet this month and the last one is Oct. 25, the day of Grace's 4th birthday party so I'm not too hopeful about making it over there to get another duck.

The pigs are getting big and aggressive. They push and shove on Bryon and Gary when they go out to feed them. I've only fed them once by myself. They are getting kind of scary. I thought I was going to have to feed them this weekend while Bryon takes Gary home, but it looks like the Huggler Men are going to take care of them for me. I'm glad because I had decided I was just going to get a bucket to stand on and throw their food over the top of the kennel instead of going into it. Bryon says they rush him now for the food as soon as he gets to the door.

We haven't had any more 17 egg days. I'm pretty sure we must have just missed them, even though I just don't remember missing a day. Being out of my routine these past few weeks though I suppose I must have. We are regularly getting 7-9 eggs a day. We're eating some, giving some away and selling some from time to time. I feel sort of bad selling them to my friends. I hate asking them to pay for them, but when I do sell them it just helps pay for their feed and upkeep.

I finally caved in and let Bryon spray for ants last weekend. We had been overtaken in the house with ants in my kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. I tried to fight them off but I was NOT winning the battle. Not a very green choice, but I was sick of the fight.

This weekend is going to be busy since I decided not to go to Nebraska with the boys. Grace and I have a lot to do. I'm taking Friday off and taking Grace to school then she has cheerleading practice Friday night. They are going to get to cheer at the K-2nd Flag Football Games at the Jr. High. They'll only have three games to go to and Grace will only be able to make it to 2 of them, but it should be entertaining. Don't worry, I plan to take pictures and some video if I can.

Sunday afternoon she has a birthday party to go to at McDonalds. I've started planning her Cow Party and trying to get the invitations made out. I didn't make them this year. I just gave up and found a farm theme and bought them. I did find her a cow mylar balloon and plan to make a cow cake. I asked her tonight on the way home what she wanted for presents for her birthday and she said a Barbie and a pink guitar. Seems reasonable enough. I'm going to try to find her guitar. I've had mine out while Gary was here and I think that's why she wants one. I can't play it but I'm hoping she and I can take lessons someday. With any luck she'll have some of Gary's musical ability because she's SOL with me and Bryon :)

Do You Like My Pretty Hair?

11 Chickens = 17 Eggs ??? Hmmmm...

Yesterday was insane and I had to work really late. I got home about 8:45 pm and Bryon had just shut the chicken's up in their coop and was heading into the house. Grace and I usually collect the eggs as soon as we get home (about 5 pm) but last night they waited because they wanted me to collect them. They finally gave up and Bryon took them in the house. They waited so long because YESTERDAY there were 17 eggs!

Now we only have 11 chickens and I hadn't missed any from the day before so HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? Holy cow that was a lot of eggs! I thought they could only lay one egg a day so now I'm baffled. The only thing I can think is that some of them layed after I picked them up the day before and ALL the rest layed the next day again. I guess I'm going to have to look at night after they go to roost too now.

Those are some happy chickens.

Little Fishes Swim in the Water

Hey Fans, Get Up!

I took Grace to her first cheerleading class last Friday night. Her gymnastics school is offering a mini cheerleading class for ages 4-7 years old and Grace is forever going around making up little cheers so I knew she'd like it. I'm not sure where she's come up with that particular obsession other than the fact that Bryon was pumping her little fist and yelling "Go Big Red" from the moment she emerged from the womb.

I, obviously, was NOT a cheerleader. I did have a brief moment of peer pressure weakness in my quest for popularity in the 8th grade when Susan Mumford and I tried out for the Junior High Cheerleading Squad. Neither of us really had much hope. I, at least, was horrible and awkwardly uncoordinated and certainly NOT cheerleader cute. We didn't' make it. It was not the life crushing blow you would think though, in fact, it was sort of a relief. I don't think I could have maintained the required level of peppiness.

Grace watches a lot of Max and Ruby and I did see one episode where they were Bunny Cheerleaders. Grace gets her red and white Huskers pom poms and goes around the house shaking them low and then high saying "Gooooooo team!"

Of course she has also mentioned several times she wants to be a football player.

I'm hoping the cheerleading sticks. I'd rather defend her choice to be a cheerleader as opposed to a female on the football team. Of course she's her own little person already so we'll see what develops.

The class was crazy. There were about 6 little girls and it was like herding cats. They each have the attention span of gnats and it's in the GYMNASTICS gym full of trampolines and fun stuff so of course they wanted to do EVERYTHING. It stayed out there to watch and listen (I usually go upstairs and watch through the windows because Grace comes out to kiss me, get a drink, greet me eight thousand times if I stay within site). This time though I wanted to see if it was going to be a worthwhile class. Rachel (the adult teacher) had three junior high cheerleaders helping her so there was almost one teacher per child but it was still pretty funny. Grace has my skills at group activities so far (ie four steps behind the aerobics instructor and the rest of the class) but she was doing pretty well considering all the distractions.

Their cheer was "Hey Fans, Get up, Get up! Hey Fans, Get Up!" She won't let me help her because I "don't do it right".

Alas, I'm still not a cheerleader. Oh well, guess I can be the Mom of a cheerleader now :)

I Almost 16

Yesterday morning as I was driving Grace to school she said,

"Mama someday when I'm big I'm going to sit there, (points to my driver's seat) and you can sit there (points to the passenger seat)"
"Yes, someday when you get big you can drive," I said "But you have to be 16 years old first and grow big and tall so you can reach the pedals and see out the windows"
"So I can watch the road." she said.
"That's right" I said.
"I almost 16" she said.
"You are almost 4" I said.
"Yes, but I getting closer" she said.
"Yes you are" I said.

Oh Honey!

I robbed the bees Saturday afternoon. I really didn't expect much. I had checked on them in the spring and there didn't seem to be all that many bees. I had worried that the queen was probably dead and even made a call to see if I could get one shipped asap. They wouldn't ship one until May 5. By that time, the bees would either be going strong or dead so I decided to just wait it out. I checked on them in June and expected they would be out of room if they were still alive. I had driven by them several times in the field and saw bees flying around but it's impossible to know what's going on INSIDE there without looking. The more I look, the worse they do so I just moved along and let them be.

In June, I did go out to put another super on just in case they needed it. They didn't. They hadn't even drawn out the comb on the first super I had put on in the spring. What the heck were they doing all day? I figured they were probably done for but Saturday when I finally went out to make another check they had one whole super full of honey for me and another super with a few frames filled up and there were A LOT of BEES! Oh my gosh were there a lot of bees. I get pretty anxious when there are THAT MANY BEES flying around me and angry. I was very, very thankful for my suit and my smoker. I set the super full of honey aside and took frame after frame out brushing off the bees with my bee brush. I finally got most of them off and there were probably a thousand bees flying around and they were NOT happy. I can't believe I didn't get stung. I thought once I might have gotten stung in the back but it was just a brief pinch so maybe it was a glancing blow but nothing lasting.

I plopped the heavy super on the tailgate and drove back to the house. A few lingering bees crawled up out of the frames and I took it into the house dripping all the way. Pooh could have easily found his way to my kitchen Saturday.

I dug out my home made extractor that I found the plans for on the internet years ago and cleaned it up in preparation for the job ahead.

It took a while to cut out all the frames and stuff them into the top bucket. I usually use a paint strainer bag and had to make a trip into town to Wal-Mart for one. Of course they didn't have one so I figured I could make due with cheese cloth. The cheese cloth was not a very good substitute. I had to strain it twice to get it really clear. I let it set until today and I spent about three hours straining it and bottling it up. I got just over 2 gallons of honey off that one super. I took the rest of the comb and put it all back together with MORE cheesecloth layers this time so I think I'll get a few more jars if I let it sit and drain a few more days. Hopefully I won't have to strain it twice this time. This method tears up my comb but since I only want one bee hive I figure it's okay.

The bees still have two more supers of honey to get through the winter so we'll see what next year brings.

Sweet success!