Leveling Things Up

Okay any married ladies reading this, I’m just wondering. . .  when your husband loses something, does he ask you what YOU did with it?

The Farmer may protest otherwise, but it seems to me that when something gets misplaced around here, I hold a very responsible position.  That being that somehow, I’m always held responsible.  Not to say I don’t lose my fair share of stuff and then some, but it’s not ALWAYS my fault when we can’t find something.

Recent case in point… Saturday the delivery guy was here to repair our mailbox.  (That’s a story for another day…)   He was setting the post in concrete, and asked The Farmer if he had a level.

Well, he does.  A couple of them in fact.  But he couldn’t find his shorter level.  Later that afternoon, when he was back inside, he wanted to know what project the Cave Geek and I had been working on, and what we’d done with his level.

I informed him we hadn’t been near his level.  I’m not sure he believed me.

Now fast forward from Saturday to this morning.  We’ve got a bunch of roosters penned up, and one of the hens managed to crawl through a little hole and get in with them.  Now one hen in with 9 or so roosters makes for a bad scene for the poor hen.

I managed to chase her inside their building, and shut the cat door leading inside. 

Okay, I know that sounds weird to have a cat door in a chicken house, but cat doors really make great little doorways for chicken houses, because you’ve got a neat sliding panel you can take in and out.  It really comes in handy sometimes, like today.

Anyway!  I slid the panel shut on the cat door, and opened the people sized door to get the hen.  Bet you can’t guess what I found?!

Yep, sure enough, there was the level The Farmer was looking for Saturday.

It’s like this, sometime back he was putting in some new roosts for the roosters.

And I guess he wanted to be sure the roosters weren’t tilting while they slept, and used his level to get the roosts… well, level!

Once I took a picture of the incriminating evidence, I carried the level around to The Farmer’s workshop, and hung it on the peg board.

See, there it is!  It’s probably not in the exact spot The Farmer would hang it, but I don’t think he can miss it.  The level is back in place, and just so everyone knows….

I WAS NOT THE ONE WHO LOST IT!

Backyard Chicken Raising

There are a couple of orphaned chicks on the farm.  I really think they belong to Peepers, but hatched out after she had already left the nest.  I made them into pet chickens and kept them in a birdcage on the back porch until a week or so ago.

By then they were getting a little big for the cage, and I figured they could fend for themselves.  I decided it was time to turn them loose, but first I wanted to introduce them to the other critters.

So The Farmer carried the cage out into the backyard for me.  It wasn’t long until our two most curious creatures were checking the new chicks out.

Hey Lady, WHAT are these little critters???

The sheep were a little more wary, and just looked on from what they considered a safe distance.

Whatever they are, we’re not going near them!

However, with Cinnamon the goat and Keira the llama, curiosity wins out over caution.

Let’s get a closer look at these pet chickens that crazy lady put out here.

I guess since nothing jumped out at them, they decided to move even closer.

.
Even the guineas decided they needed to check out this strange contraption and it’s inhabitants.

We don’t care if they ARE your pet chickens, we don’t share our food!

One guinea decided to get up close and personal to check out these newcomers.

You don’t look so tough!

Neffie gave me the evil eye, no doubt figuring I was just making more work for her.

Thanks a lot… that’s two more critters I have to watch over!

I finally opened the door so they could come out.

They were a little tentative at first, but it didn’t take them long to want to get out and explore.

That was when some of the old Buff Orpington hens decided it was time to check out these new additions to the backyard flock.

Hey look! There’s some new youngsters!

Now they’re right out there with the rest of the chickens every morning, looking to see what I’ll throw out for them to eat.

They seem to have blended in okay with the rest of the chickens, and are growing fast.

I love my little chickens.

Chimera Chicken Bird Update

Remember the chimera chicken bird?

It started out as this cute little chick with reddish-brown fuzz:

Then got older and became ….
chi·me·ra kī-ˈmir-ə, kə- noun –
an individual consisting of diverse genetic constitution.

I was hoping when the head feathers came in, they’d stay reddish-brown.  Alas, that was not to be.  When the new feathers started coming in, they were an off-white.

And today, the chimera chicken bird no longer looks strange.  Nope, it just looks like a regular chicken now, with dark brownish-gray and off white feathers.

Too bad.  I rather liked the looks of the reddish-brown headed Chimera Chicken Bird!

Ewe Crazy Sheep!

One morning this week I went out to do chores, and saw this:

If you don’t see it at first, look a little closer.  Papaya has a big briar stuck to her butt.

Valrhona wanted to know just what I was going to do about it.

Can’t you see she’s got a briar on her butt? DO something!”

Our flock matriarch strolled out to have a look-see.

Papaya, you crazy ewe! There’s a briar on your butt!

One of the hens wandered by, totally unconcerned with any problems the ewe sheep were having.

Nice try Papaya, but that looks NOTHING like one of my beautiful tail feathers.

She probably figured it’s just some more shenanigans from those crazy sheep.

Papaya seemed to think there was nothing wrong.

Hey lady! What are EWE lookin’ at!????

She left all in a huff, dragging her briar and her buddy Valrhona along with her.

I had to corner her in the sheep shed and chase her around a while before I could get hold of her.  (Too bad nobody was here to take a video of THAT, ha, ha!)  She’s a wild child, and doesn’t like to be caught. 

Eventually, however, I got hold of her and pulled the briar out of her wool.  No more briar on her butt.

You crazy ewe.

Friday’s Farm Fotos

Another Friday, and I think I’ll share some of the pictures I took around the farm this week to make it another Friday’s Farm Foto’s Day!

This first one is of Samson, our male llama, out in the main pasture grazing.

All the animals seem to enjoy the medium length grasses in the main pasture, although the llamas like to browse the taller weeds along the fenceline too.

However, they don’t stay there all the time.  They have a routine, and part of the day the sheep and llamas and goat are in the back yard.  This particular picture is of one of our shyer Shetland sheep, Valrhona.

Of course, our farm collie, Toby, can be found in the backyard almost any time, along with some chickens, plus the peacocks and peahens in their pen.

The signs of fall are everywhere, but when the sun shines just right on some of the trees along the edges of the bottom pasture, the leaves glint and make it look like the trees are full of white blossoms. I did a double take the first time I saw it. After all, it’s not time for trees to be in bloom!

Except, of course, the camellia is still blooming. Some of the blossoms look pretty ragged, but I don’t think this Grandaddy Long Legs minds.

Did you know that these critters, also called harvestmen, aren’t really spiders?  They may look like one, but the biggest difference is that spiders have two body segments, whereas a Granddaddy Long Legs has an oval body that is only ONE segment. They also do not produce silk or a web, so turns out they are not true spiders.

The ferns back in the woods are still nice and green, but then, they stay pretty green all winter.

The creeks and sloughs are full of colored leaves that have fallen from the trees.

Meanwhile, when the sun warms things up, there’s usually at least one little turtle on the long floating in the pond.

However, they are still very shy, and don’t let people get very close before they plop back down into the water and disappear.

And while our lone wandering white rooster is still AWOL, it seems we may have missed a couple of younger chickens that are roosters.  I looked out our dining room window yesterday and saw at least two roosters fighting.

There was a third one nearby that acted like it might join the fray, but since it never did, I’m not sure if we have 2 or 3 young roosters running loose.

This morning I looked out to see a bunch of squirrels running up and down the fence posts.  This one peered inside a rotten post. . .

I think he’s wondering if he put any nuts in there.  Maybe I should tell him he’s looking in the wrong direction.

Cause there are some big nuts inside the house!