More photos below. . .
Showing posts with label chickens 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickens 2013. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 23
Sunday, October 13
Tuesday, August 27
Friday, August 16
Friday Dose of Jasper Cute
Have a relaxing weekend.
What a pleasant week. We've been working outside as much as possible, inspired and invigorated by this unseasonably cool weather. Fifty degree mornings in August? Unheard of. And wonderful.
This respite from the energy sapping heat and humidity has the wildlife out and about too. More below. . .
Monday, July 29
Monday Dose of Cute: Ready to Jump into a New Week?
It's gonna be great.
More Jasper? Here.
More chickens? Here.
© FarmgirlFare.com, where somebody promised you Jasper's story ages ago and then totally forgot to deliver. It's actually a fairly short story, so hopefully I'll get around to telling it soon. Meanwhile he's pretty much taken over the farm.
Wednesday, July 24
Friday, June 21
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #31
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a sporadic series where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (sometimes actually on Friday). Just joining us? You'll find all the previous Friday Farm Fix posts here and here.
Beagle Bert still likes his chicken TV.
Wondering what was happening on the farm this time last year? Check out the Friday Farm Fix #15. (I miss not having all those baby chicks around this year!)
Happy first day of summer! We spent it recovering from cutting the third—and final—section of the hayfield. It's been sweltering this week, which is great for the hay but rough on the hayers.
It felt ironically appropriate to be lugging 148 square bales of hay from the field into the barn on the longest day of the year, since that itchy, exhausting, sweat-drenched job always makes you think that the day is never going to end, especially if you aren't as young as you used to be (which is why we broke down last year and bought a 25-year-old round baler to help out).
But it also feels really good to be done with haying for the year, and to have a nice crop of hay in the barn. The 330 square bales—which we're figuring as 300 since some of them are really light—along with the 26½ big round bales from the second cutting, plus 43 high-dollar square bales of alfalfa leftover from last year, should (knock on wool) be plenty enough for the coming winter and next spring, no matter what might happen.
In comparison, two years ago we put up just under 900 square bales (and had plenty of hay and more sheep), and last year we didn't put up any hay because of the horrendous drought.
This year's hay all looks pretty good, and it's such a relief to know that even if the fields burn up in a summer drought, or the cool season autumn grass doesn't grow, or we get extended periods of early snow on the ground, or there isn't enough rain and the grass gets a late start in spring, the donkeys and sheep will still have plenty to eat. You never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at us.
20 more farm photos and the rest of the weekly recap below (hover your cursor over each image for a description). . .
Wednesday, June 5
Sunday, May 26
Sunday Dose of Happy Cute
I hope you're enjoying the weekend!
More chickens? Here.
More Beagle Bert? Here.
© FarmgirlFare.com, over easy and rollin' along.
Tuesday, May 21
Friday, May 10
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #25
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a sporadic series where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the previous Friday Farm Fix posts here and here.
Hay inspectors back on the job.
It's been quite a while since I posted the last Friday Farm Fix, but the other day Joe and I were talking about how much we both miss this series. We love being able to look back and see everything that was happening around here during a specific week, and I confess to sometimes including extra photos especially for us.
This time I thought I would also a list of some of the things we've been doing around the farm, for those of you who are interested. If you've been missing your Friday Farm Fix, I hope you enjoy this cute-filled, spring green installment.
So what's been happening on the farm during the past week? We've been busy. . .
—Eating giant freshly picked kale and Swiss chard salads nearly every night.
—Splashing through the creek.
—Worming the sheep and trimming some hooves.
—Planting 10 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes (the 5 pounds of Pontiac Reds already in the ground and a few inches tall froze this week but should hopefully make a full recovery).
—Reorganizing the walk-in pantry (it looks and feels so much better in there!)
—Cracking up at our new farm cat (a proper introduction will hopefully be coming soon, maybe when he gets a real name).
—Getting invaded by armadillos (including one that almost dug its way into the shop, which is attached to the house, the other night at 10pm).
—Enjoying the unseasonably cool (mostly under 80°) and beautiful mid-spring weather.
—Locking seven wayward, disappointed donkeys back in Donkeyland (I told you they'd start misbehaving).
—Stopping to smell the lilacs.
—Trying to fix the broken sickle bar mower and the little antique diesel tractor so they're ready for haying season (with a minor head wound to Joe and a sledgehammer to my finger in the process—ouch).
—Celebrating the much needed rain and hoping it keeps on coming.
—Polishing off the third (!) batch in a row of these addictive (and almost too easy to make) Baby Chocolate Chip and Toffee Shortbread Cookies (hint: you can double the recipe).
—Loving all this gorgeous green.
16 more photos below (hover your cursor over each image for a description). . .
Sunday, April 28
Sunday Farm Tale: Chickens and Eggs
Farm fresh eggs: they're what's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Ever since a kind friend brought Whitey the Chicken a dozen fertile eggs to sit on six years ago when she went broody for the first time in her life at the age of seven, our chicken population has expanded each spring.
Whitey died last year at the ripe old age of 12 (when I checked a few years ago, the world record for oldest living chicken was 14), but her legacy lives on. She raised seven chicks during her one and only stint at motherhood, and we kept one of the roosters, which meant that we now had fertile eggs—and our hens have been taking advantage of that fact ever since.
I once read an alarming statistic that said something like 95% of hens in the United States have had the instinct to sit on a nest of eggs and hatch out some chicks—known as going broody—totally bred out of them. So despite the fact that we don't really need any more chickens, I've never discouraged a hen from doing what she's naturally supposed to do. Plus it's always fun having baby chicks around.
Last year, though, six of our hens hatched out a total of 40 live chicks. Lokey alone was responsible for raising 20 of them. A friend says she's worth her weight in gold.
More photos and a lot more story below (hover over each image for a description). . .
Saturday, April 20
Saturday Dose of Cute: Really Lemony Lemon Bars Photo Shoot (The Whole Picture)
Really Lemony Lemon Bars recipe here.
More of The Whole Picture series? Here.
More chickens? Here.
More farm inspectors? Here.
© FarmgirlFare.com, where if you bake it, they will come.
Wednesday, April 10
Wordless Wednesday Late Night Dose of Chicken Cute
More photos below (hover over each image for a description). . .
Thursday, March 21
Wordless Thursday Dose of Cute
More roosters? Here.
More Lucky Buddy Bear? Here.
More wordless cute? Here and here.
© FarmgirlFare.com
Wednesday, January 2
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