The Young Pullets Have A New Home....

We moved the young pullets from the brooders into a pen this morning. They seemed to be enjoying the space......That is all except one and she was running the fence and flying around like a bat.....A Ding Bat that is. I told William there has to be one crazy one in every batch of chickens we order. I hope she settles down before she breaks her neck.

At least they have more space to run around and fly around. The brooders were getting pretty full the way the chicks are growing. Now they have a good sized pen to move around in and a house to get into at night.

The goslings got to move into a larger brooder after the chicks vacated the space. I noticed they are beginning to get feathers so maybe it won't be long before they can go to their own pen.

We have some pepper plants that are wilting and dying. William pulled some of them up this morning and he said the stems down near the roots were brown and dry. The leaves have spots on them as do any peppers on the plants. It is really disheartening to get the plants to producing and then have them die. Most all of the banana peppers have died and two of the bell peppers. The Jalapeno and the Cayenne seemed to be doing great and have loads of peppers on them. Guess I need to get in contact with our county extension official and see if he can give me an idea of what to do to keep the rest of the peppers from dying.

That's the extent of our day. Nothing too exciting going on. Well there was one exciting happening today....It RAINED!!!! I hear thunder in the distance right now so maybe we'll get more rain tonight. I sure hope so. :)

Goslings

The goslings are growing and eating up every thing they can find. I pull them grass and break it into little bits to feed them. By the time it's put into their bowl, it's gone. Maybe that means they will be good weeders for the garden. :)

When I went to make the picture this afternoon, Mr. Goliath fell out of the pen. I caught hold of him and he got loose from me and ran. I turned to catch him and stepped on his foot. I thought I'd broken his leg but fortunately it's not broken. Even though he is limping...Of course with someone like me stepping on a little goslings foot it's a miracle he's not maimed for life.

The picture below is from June 7th when they were a couple of days old.


This is the pictures I took today. They're over in the corner because they became scared when they both tried to run out of the pen.



Another picture....They're gobbling down the grass.



So far they are doing good. It won't be long before they'll be ready for a new home. They will probably live in one of the pens for a while. That is until the garden is fenced around it and they have a house that I can close at night. I've already told Santa what I want for Christmas and my Honey what I want for our anniversary and for my birthday. I have to get my order in early so he'll have time to think on it and then get it done. LOL

More Rain Today!!!!!

We had more rain today. The good soaking kind of rain sans any thunder or lightning. That's what I'm talking about! I'm a wuss when it comes to lightning. I don't like thunder either but I know that thunder won't hurt me nor do damage to any of our property. Lightning....Well that's another matter.

We mostly had a stay in day today. I had to go for blood to be drawn for an INR this morning and we stopped by Mom's for a visit with my stepbrother. The animals were fed and watered. I gathered a few green tomatoes. That's the extent of my activity for the whole day.

Just In Time

I got out early this morning and gathered the peppers, asparagus beans, okra and blueberries. Then I came inside to do some inside chores.

William and I had checked the map on the Weather Channel before he left for a school workshop this morning. The map showed rain all down Texas and Louisiana. Me being the smart thinking person that I am (AHEM) figured that we'd have to get rain today.

With that thought in mind I picked up the pot of tomato plants (you know the ones I was going to transplant a couple of weeks ago but it's been so dry) and carried them to the garden. I reworked the bed, dug the holes, put the plants in and watered them well. I got 8 plants transplanted into their new home. I think there's three more plants that I will put out in the next day or two. But to make a long story short....About an hour and a half after I got the plants put out the rains came. It's been raining for an hour or so but the good news is there's rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. YAY RAIN!!!!!!! :)

Our garden is at a standstill because of the dry weather....Well everything except the peppers and I picked a dishpan full of peppers this morning. Bell peppers, hot banana peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Cayenne peppers and sweet banana peppers. I'm going to put them in the freezer for seasoning soups and stews this winter.

The temps have dropped since the rain moved in. According to the computer the temp is only seventy-six here right now. That's quite different from the ninety-eight we had yesterday. Also a pleasent respite. :)

The young chicks are growing like weeds, the ducks are almost grown and the goslings have taken a real liking to me. So much so that Goliath tries to eat my finger when I feed them grass clippings. LOL Now if we could just get our garden to grow like the new birds are growing we'd be in business.

There you have the latest news from Hunny Bunny Haven. The best news is the rain! :) Thanks for dropping by and do come back any time.

Being A Lazy Bum.....

Or being smart? I picked the blueberries early this morning. The temps were already warm but a breeze was blowing between six and six-thirty this morning. That's when I picked the blueberries and that was the last time I ventured outside for the rest of the day.

The temps have been up near a hundred today. It's been hot inside the house so I know it's really hot outside. William has been outside several times today to see that all the animals had water.

He loves to be out in the heat. Not me. I like hugging an air conditioner. LOL At least being close enough I can feel some cool air every once in a while.

Today I did some preparation for William's Father's Day meal. I made cornbread for the dressing, cooked chicken to go in the dressing and then mixed the dressing together and put in the refrigerator. After I finished with the dressing I made a pound cake to carry to my stepfather for a Father's Day gift to him.

I did the inside chores and actually cooked three meals today. So I guess I'm not really a lazy bum. I don't enjoy the high temperatures. Nope, not one bit. But I won't complain very much because a couple of months ago I was saying just the opposite. I couldn't wait for summer to get here because I didn't enjoy those cold temperatures. Nope not one bit. I'm just like most people.....Can't be happy with what I have. :P

The Garden Is O.K.!!!

One of the first things I did this morning after getting out of bed was to look out the back door at the garden. Some of the peppers were leaning a bit but nothing dramatic! Even with the winds we had last night no plants were damaged. That my friends, is a good thing. :)

I had planned to transplant the rest of the sweet potatoes slips and the Mariana's Conflict tomato plants but William had other plans. He set fire to the pile of limbs and brush in the pasture area and there's been so much smoke that I have stayed in all day. Maybe the smoke will be cleared out by tomorrow and I can get all the rest of the transplants moved tomorrow afternoon.

I noticed that the asparagus beans are blooming. We should have some of those "LONNNNNGGGG" beans in a week or so. I cut these beans and dump them into boiling water for a couple of minutes, then they go into a ice bath and out of that to be dried off. After I get the water off them I put them into a little olive oil and garlic and sautee them for a few minutes. They're delicious cooked this way. They still have a little crunch to them and the olive oil and garlic give them a great flavor.

William pulled some green tomatoes this morning. I will be making green tomato BLTs for lunch tomorrow. YUMO!

Nothing exciting going on today. Just the same old, same old.....Cook, eat, wash dishes, cook, eat, wash dishes, cook, eat....well you get the picture.

Tomorrow I will be getting food prepared for William's Father's Day dinner. Roast turkey breast, dressing, peas, corn, mashed potatoes (or potato salad) and strawberry pie are on the menu.

That's it for the day. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and all you fathers will have a happy and blessed Father's Day. :)s to all of you.

And It Rained.................

Then it rained some more. The rain fell for almost three hours with no letting up. :) There was a lot of wind in the thunderstorm that came through. I am not brave enough to look at the garden. If the wind blew it topsy-turvy I don't want to know. The old saying "Ignorance is bliss." is true in this situation. I'm going to enjoy the fact that our garden got some very good watering and leave it at that until the morning. :)

I'm so thankful for the rain.

Goings on....

Yesterday we moved the goslings to the brooder. They are doing good. They're even eating better. We still have a light on them but with the temps as high as they have been the last few days I'm not sure if a light is needed. We will leave it on for a few more days to be sure the little rascals have enough warmth. If the temp gets too high the brooder is large enough the goslings can get away from the heat of the light.

William removed the old squash vines to the compost pile late this afternoon. Then he reworked the bed. Tomorrow afternoon we plan to transplant the rest of the sweet potatoes into that bed.
We'll have an approximate total of sixty square feet planted in sweet potatoes. While that's not very large it's more than we've ever planted before.

I hope the sweet potatoes will produce enough potatoes for us to eat this winter. We enjoy baked sweet potatoes but we don't eat them every day nor every week. A bushel of sweet potatoes will last us all winter. Keeping my fingers crossed.

That's it for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Rain, Rain, Sweet Rain

Late yesterday afternoon a thunderstorm blew through with some high winds. We had several plants in the garden blown over. Two pepper plants were laying on the ground and some squash were blown up BUT.....we got rain.

The rain fell for about an hour. It wasn't the hard, washing, running off kind of rain but the good, soaking kind. Our garden plants look so much happier today. :)

This morning we gave all the garden plants some food. That is all but the sweet potato plants. They were just put in the ground one day last week so I want to wait another few days before feeding them. Let them take time to get their roots growing.

William is outside at this very moment building another brooder. This time it's a brooder for the goslings. Yep, it's time for the little stinkers to move on out of here. I hope they will do alright outside. We will keep a light on them since they still don't have any feathers although the heat index here is over a hundred degrees. May be a good idea to turn the light off during the day and put it on at night time.

Back to the garden, I think the squash have about done their do! The plants are getting yellow and there aren't any squash on the vines. It's about time to pull them up to compost and plant something else in their place. Just not sure what I want to go into that bed yet. I may plant the rest of the sweet potatoes there.

I will wait until about August and plant some more squash, zucchini and cucumbers. They'll have time to produce before frost hits us. If things go right we'll have fresh squash, cukes and zukes until the last of October or middle of November. Sounds good to me.

That's all the goings on around here. I hope you all are staying cool. Come back again, O.K.?

Only Two Goslings Now.....

This morning one of the goslings was a little droopy. I checked it out and couldn't see anything wrong with it. A few minutes later I went to check on it and it was dead. :(

I always feel so bad when we lose one of our animals. I know it happens but I still feel responsible. I wonder what I could have done differently.

One of our little chicks flew out of the coop a couple of nights ago when William was giving them fresh water. We searched all around the place and couldn't find it. I figured the poor little thing was dinner for some critter. BUT....yesterday when we came back from Meridian the chick was in the roosters' pen. Now it's safely back with the rest of the chicks. :)

We found one gone astray and lost one. I guess that's the way life goes.

Our Newest Hunny Bunny Haven Residents....

I had talked with a man last year about buying some goslings from him this spring and then I reminded him a few months ago. Today he came over and asked if I still wanted some goslings. He said that three had hatched out a couple of days ago and I could get the two I wanted. After he left I called him and told him I'd take all three if he'd not promised the extra one to someone else.

This afternoon the three new residents of Hunny Bunny Haven arrived. They are so cute. They make me think of powder puffs. LOL




When I called him to tell him I'd take all three, I asked him if he'd be interested in some of our extra roosters. He looked at them when brought the goslings over and he's taking enough roosters to pay for the goslings. A good trade makes me happy!

He told me that he has some turkey eggs in an incubator and if they hatch that he will sell me five of the turkeys. I would love to get them and keep a tom and hen to raise my own turkeys from now on. The other three would go to Freezer Camp.

If I can get the turkeys from him then I'll have all my birds. Well, unless I can find someone who will sell me some quail. I'd love to raise some quail to put in the freezer but if I don't find the quail then I'll have all the birds I've been wanting. We have chickens, ducks, geese, guineas and then the turkeys.

As The A-Team's Hannibal Smith used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together." Now if I can talk William into buying a calf, pig and some goats. Our farm will be complete. I think.

Sweet Taters Are Planted....

Finally! I was waiting on some rain but none has appeared. We got some of the slips in the ground late this afternoon. We put plenty of water around them so maybe they will be alright without rain for the time being. Rain will come......One day.

I'm going to pull the beets and put them up. Then plant some more sweet potatoes in the bed where the beets are now.

We've never planted sweet potatoes before but these were given to me by my stepfather to plant for the slips so if they don't do well then we're only out our time and energy. I'm hoping that we'll be able to harvest a few "taters" any way.

The green beans are making good. We will pick them again tomorrow morning and then I am planning to can them. I may have to go to my Mom's to get her to help me but I will get it done one way or the other. :)

That's the news from Hunny Bunny Haven. I hope you all are staying cool. I'm sure trying but it's a job what with temps almost hitting the 100 degree mark and heat indexes over 105.

Is This Purple Enough?

I made a quilt block for a homesteading forum quilt. I didn't get the fabric until late and this is what I put together. The pattern is Churn Dash. It's just pretty purple!



I'm not too sure about the fabrics that I've put together but the block has to be back to the mailer by June 15th. I'm going to send it like it is and hope that it won't blind the person when they open the envelope.