"Trouble" Is In Deep Trouble

This afternoon when William fed the chickens Trouble jumped on him. William has a spur cut just above the ankle. Trouble signed his death certificate when he did this. No mean roos are allowed to stay at Hunny Bunny Haven. Not for long anyway.

I have a feeling that Mr. Trouble will meet his demise come the weekend. I am thinking chicken and dumplings sound delicious.

I hate that Trouble has turned out to be a mean roo. I love the Barred Rock breed of chickens and would love to incubate some of our eggs. The hens are wonderful. It's just that dadblasted rooster couldn't keep his spurs to himself.


All I have to say to Mr. Trouble is, "You were warned. You didn't heed the warning so now you pay the price".

They're Heeeerrrrrreeeee!

The phone rang a little after six this morning. When I answered it a lady said, "Mrs. Roberson, your chicks are at the post office." Yipee.....we have 27 new babies. William went to pick them up while I got their new home all ready for them.

I took each one of the chicks and dipped it's beak into the water and set it down in the box that is their home for a few days. Some of them were a little wobbly but it didn't take long for them to start running around, drinking water and eating.







They haven't gotten quiet since I put them in the box. They're eating like godzilla.

We are feeding them starter/grower mix. The water has a spoonful of apple cider vinegar in it to help with the chicks digestive system.

We have a mix of the buttercup breed and the Easter eggers. I'd say they are doing fine, so far.

I enjoy listening to them cheep. Every once in a while I hear a louder cheep. They're already establishing the pecking order. Kids start young these days. LOL

Trouble thinks he's a bad boy

We have Barred Rock Chickens for egg laying. There are nine hens and a rooster in the flock. The hens are gentle and there is one hen that will follow me around. I call her Henny Penny.

The rooster is another matter. He wants to come after you. We can't turn our back on him. He's already gone after William twice. I am afraid one day I will find Trouble's head laying a far distance from his body if he keeps on with his antics.

Here's a picture of Trouble trying to fight with another Barred Rock rooster that has a withered foot and is in a pen by himself. Silly rooster doesn't realize he can't get through the wire but it sure doesn't stop him from trying.


Trouble, the rooster acting "BAD" Look at his hackles. He thinks he's one bad dude.





Trouble being the womanizer he is. I have proof!

The Bunnies And Their New Haven

William finished the bunnies new pen today. We moved the two pet rabbits into it. Below is some pictures of Loppy and Mr. Boots checking out their new surroundings.

We plan to get two new does and a buck as soon as we can. We would like Californians as they grow off fast and make good meat rabbits. We have some located in Attala County. I need to get in touch with the people and set up a time to go see their rabbitry.

The new Bunny home.






Mr. Boots checking out his new surroundings.







Loppy taking it easy in his new home.

Greens Patch

It has rained the last four nights. Also, rained some of the days and nights. Everything here is saturated with water. William tried to mow the yard but the mower kept bogging down.

Our garden has water standing in it. The plants that are up need thinning but it's so wet that I can't get to the plants to thin them. I am posting some pictures of the greens patch when the plants were a week old and some of the plants now.

We should be able to have a salad from our greens patch in a couple of weeks. Maybe, just in time for our Resurection Sunday lunch. Yummmmmmm....would be good.



The spinach & swiss chard at one week.



The lettuces (I mixed the differents seeds), burgundy mustard & radishes @ one week




Swiss Chard & spinach at 3 weeks.



Lettuces, burgundy mustard & radishes. Here one can see the seedlings need thinning.

A Rainy Wednesday

We had a rainy Wednesday today. We are more fortunate than some though as there was a F-1 tornado this morning that did quite a bit of damage in Lauderdale County. Lauderdale is the county just south of us. William's brother, Rick's house had some damage to it. Rick said mostly from debris from the houses around their's.

Rain is badly needed in this area as we are over seven inches short in rainfall for this year alone.

We have more rain and possible bad weather predicted for the rest of the week through Saturday.

The area that William tilled last Friday is standing in water now. We may have to till it again before planting.

One of the good things about a rainy Wednesday is that I have time to read. I am reading "Island Inferno" by Chuck Holton. This is the second in a series of three books. I've enjoyed reading his books. :)

That's about it for this Rainy Wednesday. I pray we don't have a Thunderous Thursday.

The Goings On At Hunny Bunny Haven!

I haven't blogged in several days so now it's time to catch up on the "goings on" around Hunny Bunny Haven.

William has the new rabbit pens almost finished. We will be moving the two pet rabbits into their new homes in the next couple of days. The other three rabbits will be sent to Freezer Camp asap. We then plan to purchase two new Californian does and a buck to have for breeding meat rabbits. I will be happy to sell a few if we have the extras. Selling off the extras will help with feed costs.

The garden greens are growing. Plenty of the seeds germinated. I think I am going to have to get out there and thin some of the seedlings but I am waiting until they get a little larger so we can have a salad from the thinnings.

The baby chicks are scheduled to arrive next Monday, March 30th. I am so looking forward to these new little cheeps. I have ten Buttercup pullets and two Buttercup roos and ten Araucanas/Americanas pullets and three roos coming in this order.

Araucanas/Americanas are better known as Easter Eggers because the egg's shell is similar in color to Easter eggs. Blues, greens, blue-green and green with brown spots are some of the colors the Araucanas/Americanas lay. It will be fun gathering brightly colored eggs each afternoon.

I ordered the Buttercup because it's a critically endangered breed of chicken. Also, these chicks were ordered for their white eggs. Some people prefer their eggs to have white shells.

We still have some work to do on the brooder for the new chicks but we should be able to get that done in an hour or two. It will be ready for the babies when they arrive.

There is another order that is scheduled to arrive in May that contains fifteen turkeys and ten ducks. Three ducks are the Khaki Campbell breed. This breed is my favorite. I had a trio of the Khaki Campbell but some wild animals had them for dinner one night. The trio that is on order is to replace the "murdered" trio.

I hope to keep six of the turkeys and sell the other nine. I plan to put six turkeys in our freezer for winter foods.

Back to the garden, William tilled the rest of our garden space last Saturday. Now it's ready to make into beds so as to get the summer veggies planted about the middle of April.

Well, folks that's about all that is happening on our little acreage at this time.
Check back later for more exciting news from Hunny Bunny Haven.

Baby Spinach and Baby Swiss Chard join other greens

One of the first things I did this morning is check on my greens that William and I planted about a week and half ago. The spinach is coming up and so is the swiss chard. From the amount of little seedlings I have a good stand of both. This is good since I've had trouble getting spinach to germinate most every time that it's been planted. Maybe, this time I have hit the jackpot!

Fresh spinach salad or sauteed swiss chard in a little EVOO with garlic and a sprinkling of parmesan on top is delish! I'm looking forward to having some of these wonderful dishes in the near future.

Today, I purchased some kale seed and some turnip seed that I am about to get sewn into the waiting rows in the greens bed.

Kale, potato and sausage soup is a great meal. Along with the fresh spinach salad and the sauteed swiss chard, I will be patiently (yeah right) waiting for the kale to get large enough to make into soup.

While I was buying seed I got the Louisiana purple pod (green) beans, yellow straight neck squash, and dwarf okra seeds.

It's such a beautiful day today that my fingers are itching to get dirty. However, I know that it is way to soon to plant the beans, okra and squash. Again, I will patiently (hee hee hee) waiting for warmer weather.

Gardening is a satisfying and an energizing endeavor for me. I love gardening!!!!!!

Learning about myself

I love to work with the veggie garden, our flowers, shrubs and roses. Animals are a joy to be around more especially the chickens. They are such comical creatures. Usually when a person has a love for the homesteading/farming type of life whether it's their livelihood or a hobby this person has been exposed to the life somewhere down the road. This is true of me as well. My parents raised chickens, pigs, geese, rabbits and cows when I was growing up. They always had a huge vegetable garden every summer from which they canned and froze many vegetables for our winter use.

My maternal grandmother had chickens for eggs. She sold eggs to the grocery stores in our little town when my Mom was growing up. I remember her selling eggs when I was a child. My maternal grandparents may have had other animals for their food source but I only remember the chickens.

I had an uncle that had all sorts of animals. He raised them and sold them in a flea market type setting. He and his wife had large gardens every summer, too.

I came to the conclusion that my love of the homestead/farm type life came from my Mom's side of the family.

A few years ago, I began to get to know a cousin with whom I had never had much contact as we grew up. This cousin was my Dad's brother's child (or my Dad's niece..LOL). The first time I saw her in eighteen years, I found that she loved to raise chickens and had a flock of laying hens. She loves to quilt (Me TOO!!) and makes lye soap. I was amazed that we had so many of the same interests.

This weekend we had the pleasure of making a trip to Louisiana to visit with my Dad's brothers and sisters. Much to my delight, I found that my Aunt Betty raises chickens, pigs and calves. My Uncle Henry has a big raised bed garden and has chickens and goats. My other aunt and uncle don't have any animals at this time but Aunt Jackie told me that at one time she and Uncle Max raised their beef, chickens, etc.. Both Uncle Max and Aunt Jackie and Uncle Melvin and Aunt Shirley always had big gardens until they could no longer work them. Age takes a toll you know.

Now it is easier to understand why I enjoy the things that I do as much as I do. It's in my blood. On both sides of the family.

Baby Lettuces, Radishes and Mustard

I just went to check on the seeds that we planted last Saturday. So far we have lettuce, radishes and mustard coming up. Yipee, we'll soon have fresh salads from the garden. I can hardly wait.

Spinach and chard takes longer to germinate. They should be sticking their little heads through the dirt by the time we get back from our trip.

The first plants of spring are always so exciting. Now I am ready to get planting for summer but it's a little too early. I am not good at waiting.

William has me two more short rows to plant spring crops on so now I have to think of what I want to put there. I would love to put out some cabbage, onions, kale or green mustard. I don't know what we will put on those rows yet. I will be thinking on this. I could plant zinnias and marigolds on those rows. That would be so nice to see when we look out our back door. Marigolds are edible but if they taste like they smell I am not sure that I want to try them. :)

Spring is in the air!

A day in the garden

Today we started our spring garden. We made a raised bed where we planted a mixture of leaf lettuces, spinach, swiss chard, radishes and burgundy mustard. If all goes as planned we will have salads from our garden in a few weeks.

Along with the veggies we transplanted three blueberry bushes. As per Felder Rushing's instructions William dug a hole four feet across and a shovel's depth. He then worked the dirt in the bottom of the hole and then added peat to the dirt mixing the dirt and peat well. We then planted all three blueberry bushes in the one hole. They are located just outside our back door. Very convenient for grabbing a handful to go over oatmeal for breakfast or making a blueberry cobbler for dinner.

Next on our agenda is getting the rest of the garden space plowed where we can get it ready to plant the summer veggies.

All in all, we've had a productive day. I am tired but it is a satisfied kind of tired.

Frugal Month of March

On January 31st we bought groceries for the month of February at a cost of $329.32. By February 5th we had spent a total of $167.41 for another trip to the grocery store and eating out or take out.

We decided to try a frugal month of eating at home and staying away from the grocery store for extras which were mostly junk foods.

Today is March 5th and we have spent a total of $2.01 over the monthly groceries and that was for a bag of salad that William picked up this afternoon when he picked up his medicine.

So far we have saved a total of $165.40 over our spending last month.

I am cooking from scratch and we are staying away from take out, delivery and going out to eat. This is healthier for us and it leaves more money in our pockets.

We are planning a trip to Louisiana this month so there will be a couple of meals that we have to eat out but other than that I plan to cook at home.

This is the frugal month of March. We should be on the road to a more frugal year. I feel good about myself when I save money that William works for and money that I receive from retirement.

Please disregard the last post...

On February 27th I posted that spring is on the way. Today is March 1st and there is snow on the ground. Sooooo...please disregard the last post. Spring is setting off in New Zealand or some far away place and has no intention of showing up in Mississippi for weeks, maybe even months.

Oh well, William is happy with the snow. Even if it is a little dusting across the woods. The sky still looks snowy so there may be more in store for William. Whether it snows any more or not it's cold as a well digger's butt in Minnesota this morning after temperatures in the mid 70s the last few days.

Spring will come by and by.