We have a full weekend ahead of us, with the premise of warmer temperatures and more importantly, a lack of rain, something we’ve already had our fill of this week! The garden needs rototilling, and so does the chicken yard. All of the recent precipitation has also caused our lawn to wake up, unfortunately, so my husband will be mowing it, albeit reluctantly. We were hoping that it would be at least May before that was necessary. He mows about 6 acres of our 14, with a 48″ Skag mower. I really hope that we can get a tractor next year and I can take over the majority of that duty, using a PTO mower.
I am also finally planning to get the next round of seeds started over the next couple of days. My first batch is sprouting away, with few exceptions. We’ll just call them tardy – I haven’t given up on them just yet! I do have some peppers, onions, flowers and herbs all in their infancy, growing taller by the day. Once the garden is tilled, I can pop some cold-weather crops in for their first round of growth, too: carrots, peas, lettuces, etc.
We haven’t moved the new ISA Brown chicks out to the coop yet. Unfortunately, we had another casualty in the coop, my sweet little Rhode Island Red hen. My husband had heard one of the birds sneezing, but we couldn’t identify the culprit, and none of them had any obvious signs of nasal discharge, etc. But sadly, she passsed on. This was the sweet girl I posted video of the other day. 🙁 Respiratory ailments with chickens are a real challenge, and I am really hoping that we are done with whatever brought her and the previous Buff we lost down. Nobody else seems to be sneezing, and everyone’s acting normal, so I’m hoping we’ve nipped it in the bud. In any case, the little chicky-doodles will be staying here with us for a few more days. They did get an upgraded brooder this morning, allowing more space for them to run around a bit, even though for the most part, they enjoy huddling and snuggling together at this age:
They’ll go in the deluxe brooder condo in a few days. This is also giving me the opportunity to handle them frequently to socialize them, and they are little sweeties.
In more pragmatic news, we have decided to re-home our largest goat, Winter. Since she’s so much larger than the other two girls, she eats faster, and it’s hard to bottle feed three girls (although not impossible), much less with one trying to bogart the little ones bottles! (I think I bit off more than I could chew as a newbie, particularly with my surgery thrown into the midst of raising these babies. Ambitious much? No, not me!) She’s really ready to be weaned, but as they all stay together in one stall, and Heidi and Gidget aren’t ready to stop bottles just yet, she doesn’t want to stop, either. It will be better for everyone if she is re-homed elsewhere. She’ll be going to a new home with some fellow goat farmers who live in a neighboring township. I’m really happy about the sounds of her new home, and look forward to meeting her new owners tomorrow.
I’ve added quite a few more links to the site that you may wish to check out. Slowly but surely, I am going through my plethora of bookmarks and picking the ones I think are the most helpful or interesting to share with you. Please share your thoughts with me, and let me know if there are any sites you’d suggest for the links section.
Until next time, over and out!
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