Homestead Update 2

Sidekick finally got her new bike. She grew out of her last one while we were in California. We don't have any hard road here, but this one does great on the dirt, rocks, and grass.



Hubby throwing the ball for his dog Zorg.



Sadie Mae is a snuggly dog and even hugs us. However, we do curb her random jumping and trying to teach her to only jump up when we ask.



This one's funny because it looks like Sadie Mae is choking her! She's not.



This was the day after Grapes died. We took the kids out shopping at Goodwill, then ate lunch at a restaurant, got the new bike, and then got iced coffees and smoothies at a nearby *new* coffee shop. Sidekick was sick the day before and I just wanted to give the kids a good day away from home to get their minds off Grapes.



We had two days of HOT summer weather! Winter to Summer = not cool Mother Nature!

The bunnies stayed in their hutch, it was too hot to go out to the grass.



We gave the duck girls a fresh pool of cool water which they quickly dirtied up. No surprise there!



The forsythia are blooming, but not a vibrant yellow just yet.



I moved the chicken fence to a grassy area covered in leaves. When it was time to return the Henny Pennies to their run, they'd mulched every single leaf! Thanks girls! :) Just what I hoped they'd do!

Homestead Update 1

I'm excited that we got a Premier1 electric fence for the chickens! I've been wanting one since we got the chickens, for many reasons...

When they free range they don't really stay together and they wander all over the property.

One day we had to go on a hunt for a lone chicken that wandered WAY FAR from the rest. Scared us that something had grabbed her and taken off, but thankfully our daughter found her in the woods.

We rent cabins out to people and we don't want the chickens around the cabins.

I need the chickens to work for us. They are excellent mulchers, can clear grassy areas for us, and can even spread compost and wood chips.

The fence is powered by solar. It will help keep wandering dogs and other critters from hurting the chickens.

We've lived here a year and a half and have already had FIVE lost dogs here! Three of those we took to the shelter. One keeps coming around at odd times and won't let us catch it. And the last one, the person responsible lives across the street and was out looking for their dog and saw that we had her, she's come over twice.



We tried it out for a couple of days by Cabin 2 where the grass was needing a mowing anyway.



Only one chicken managed to get out and her wings are clipped now so hopefully she won't be able to do that again. The chickens aren't use to being out in the grass and having to stay in one area, they weren't happy with this fact those first two days.



The ducks seem to like hanging out by the chickens even though our white duck named Grapes would bully the hens. Unfortunately the next day Grapes was run over and killed by a cabin renter. They didn't see her or know that they ran her over. The kids and I were totally devastated for a couple of days. She was more like a dog than a duck! So now the ducks don't get to roam anymore. We allowed it because they stayed together and they stayed close to their run. So no more running loose for the remaining three ducks without supervision.



We took the fencing box and another large box and created a playpen for the bunnies. Totally supervised because there's nothing to protect them from predators in this pen.



The bunnies enjoy looking around, chewing the grass, and running and kicking up their heels. They are so cute!



They love the boxes, which makes them even cuter. LOL



I caught the ducks walking by in a row! And this is my last photo of Grapes. We miss her. :(



We had a couple days of spring like weather. Then it got cold again. Then it turned to summer weather. And now today it's raining and snowing again. *sigh* I hope spring comes back!

More Snow & More Randomness

We got some more snow! It's been bitterly cold lately, but it looks to be warming up slightly. Glad for that.

We took our ducks to the Big Puddle. It was quite the adventure getting them down there! Grapes (white) has been there before many times, but the ducklings had not. We tried herding them down, it was very comical, but we made it. I ended up carrying the black one most of the way, she was the only one of the ducklings we could catch.



Once down there, we tossed them in the water and they LOVED it. They had a grand time and we stayed down and watched them.



The sun even poked out a couple of times. After a long while, we headed back up, leaving the ducks in the water. But that didn't last long. Once we were out of Grapes' sight she started quacking and got out and followed us. The ducklings not far behind her.



Anabelle throwing snowballs to Zorg. He loves anything he can catch or fetch.



During grammar Navarre decided he wanted to snuggle with his Auntie Anabelle.



And of course we had to take pictures of his sweetness. :)



My sweet Sadie Mae, faithfully sleeps next to our bed. She is a very loving dog.



We call these two "the brothers with other mothers... and fathers". They sleep together in cute positions every day. We've never had cats that were so bonded before! They came from two different shelters, Navarre is a little bit older, but not by much.



Little Star helping his mommy wrap a present. He's so cute.



She was wrapping a gift for her brother. She wrapped it, put in a box, wrapped the box, put it in another box, wrapped it too, and so on. LOL.



Well, it's Monday again. I hope you have a great week! Christmas is next Monday, hard to believe the year is nearly over. I'm hoping next year will be loads better and we can start fixing up this house. More on that later. I don't think I've told the story of this place we bought yet.

Got Some Snow

Not our first snow of the season, but it's the most we've gotten so far.

Hubby took these for me while I sat inside and ate my breakfast and sipped coffee.







Snow chickens.



Snow ducks.




Our 13 year old daughter took these on her phone and sent them to me.

Cabins in the snow.





Thin ice on the big puddle/pond.



The dogs are loving the snow. Sadie Mae (yellow) was rubbing her face in it, typical Great Pyrenees reaction to snow. ;)



Zorg is a Labrador/Rottweiler mix. Sadie Mae is Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepard/Saint Bernard mix.

Randomness

The end of November and now into December has been a roller coaster around here.

As you know, we got our tree right after Thanksgiving. We got it up and in the living room right away. It took a while to get the lights on because one of the strands we bought last year was missing bulbs and some of the line didn't even work. We don't seem to have enough ornaments for the tree this year, but hopefully next year we'll have our stuff from Colorado out here. I do miss our Christmas ornaments and decorations!



Our daughter likes to bring in chickens to visit us inside. This is Rose. She is a white leghorn and lays big white eggs. She seems to be the most friendly of the flock.



We let the ducks wander around the property. They always stay together, unlike the chickens! They were drinking from this pool behind the house until Zorg came along to get a drink too. Navarre the cat is up in the window spying on all of us.



Sadie Mae likes jumping on and laying on the picnic tables. The power was out and we were all hanging out down at the fire pit with a fire to keep warm. It was warmer outside than inside. We couldn't get our propane fireplace to work, nor the generator! Thankfully the power was restored before nightfall.



We had some pre-cooked hot dogs in the freezer that we brought out to "cook" over the fire. I think hot dogs are gross, but I was hungry and we couldn't afford to drive into the city to eat at a restaurant at the time.



Navarre fell asleep sitting next to me while he was waiting for my breakfast to be done. His nose is pressed against my arm! He loves to get bites of meat or lick the runny yolk from my plate.



The power went out yet again (third time this season and we haven't even gotten into winter yet!) Our daughter had a strand of battery powered lights we used to play a game in the dark. Then we all went to bed. The power came back on at about 3:00 a.m., but it was not a freezing cold day so it wasn't too bad. At least it was during a time when we'd be mostly sleeping.



I was looking all over for Navarre, he LOVES to sleep. He sleeps more than any cat we've ever had and he sleeps like a log. Found him sleeping in my little wagon and of course we all thought how cute that was.

Ducklings Grew Up

The ducklings did not like the pool much when they were small.



In these older photos Grapes was still getting to know them. She picked on them a tiny bit, but once they started feathering out and swimming she accepted them. So much easier introducing new ducks to established ducks. I wish it were that way with chickens!!



They only spent a few minutes a day in the pool until they were old enough to move outside and out of their brooder.



Here they are a little bigger, but still not feathered.



They would spend the day outside in the pen and then we'd bring them back inside in the evening. I wasn't ready for them to sleep with Grapes in the duck hut until they were feathered.



These two have become BFFs!



It looks like they are having a meeting while the pool fills up. LOL.



After the logging, we found this little dug out puddle. (Anabelle calls it a pond, and she's working on turning it into one.) Anabelle and Grapes go down here to swim and do zoomies, but we haven't taken the ducklings there yet.



Now the trio has feathers and live outside with Grapes. They all sleep in the duck hut together.



They follow her around like she's their mama, it's so cute.



In the morning she likes to come out and eat some grass and dandelions for a bit and the trio follows in her footsteps, never straying far. Wherever she goes, they go. Maybe we should call them her entourage. LOL



And guess what? She is content again and has stopped the constant quacking. I am so happy that she is happy again!

All the ducks are females, no drakes. Only Grapes is laying. We are getting used to eating her eggs, but we often feed them to the dogs. I plan to use the eggs for baking.