Showing posts with label Farm Friendly Fridays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farm Friendly Fridays. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2011

Something is wrong with this picture...

As I mentioned earlier in the week 
Life on a Southern Farm ran a Chicken Nest Box giveaway and *happy chicken dance* I won.
It was delivered on Wednesday...Now that is impressive folks...Winner was announced Sunday...and yup prize in hand by Wed....FarmWoman and FarmMan ROCK!!

Ok so now you are all caught up...So I installed the boxes...By installed I mean I popped it on a couple of bricks inside the pen because our coop is too small and "temporary" until I win lotto (hey could happen, I just won the nesting boxes, I am feeling pretty lucky...and yes I did buy a lotto ticket this week) and build a good size barn/chicken house.


This morning since I had noticed the bedding had been disturbed but no eggs yet, I popped a marked egg into one of the boxes to see if that would entice the ladies to do their thing in the shinny new digs. And this seemed to be working...Lots of interest was being shown to the boxes and my little white Easter Egger even got into the box and was fluffing around etc, but then....



She was chased out and the chaser took over the box.... 


 Have a closer look who is in there....

 Ok, try from this view...

 Yes my STOOPID (too old to kill and even make stock from) rooster Bravo...So I chased his butt out of the box...

and back in she went...Oh joy oh rapture, I am so excited to find me a little green egg in the shiny new Nesting Box today...

Or will I??

Every time I check Mr Gender Confused, Might Be Good for Stock Anyway Bravo is chasing her out again...

Does anyone else have a rooster that does this?

Oh and when the girls are doing their "Chicken Song"...he is right outside the box joining in the chorus...actually he is even louder than they are...I might have to try videoing that one to share.

Blessings Kelsie

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Farm Girl Friday @

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Farm or Zoo??...You tell me

Sally (the not so sick but still comes inside in a cat carrier at night) Chicken, bless her little chicken heart. We tried to put her back out with the flock yesterday but Bravo is just too rough and kept chasing her down, now she is limping again...I think she prefers the backyard...wonder how she would go living with the goats?

The others are laying pretty well for this time of year, we average 3 to 6 eggs a day and I have found ppl willing to buy said eggs...yay for Egg money...I might save up to buy me some new boots.

I finally tracked down some clippers and a rasping tool thingie, to do the goat hooves (3 stores and a week later) and today should hopefully be the day I will get them done...Also have to treat them for lice..ick...fortunately Goat Lice don't like ppl or anything other than goats and sheep...Does not stop my head from itching every time I think about it..*scratch scratch*

Talking of scratching, I have to bath the stinky dog today...no she is not really that stinky, well no more than a 13yr old dog stinks anyway...I was delighted to find out yesterday that I can attach a garden hose directly to the faucet in the utility room sink so at least Nardia will be getting a warm bath out side and not dirty up my bathroom this time.

Speaking of which, yesterday we got a little side tracked (hence why the dog did not get a bath even though I had the hose attached and ready to go) because we discovered the old fish pond at the old house had sprung a leak and 6 little fishes only had 2 inches of super muddy water to swim in...So we scooped them out and put them in an old paint can (as you do) and then spent the rest of our pre-pickup Sara time cleaning out the old bearded Dragon tank and praying it would hold water...cleaning old garden pond rocks that have been in a now broken plastic kitty litter bucket in the sun for 7yrs and a small water pump...and made them a home on my dinning room side board...I am starting to feel like I live in a zoo.

Talking of Zoos...and this is a little weird, but I did in fact see a monkey on the loose a couple of weeks back...It was sitting on the next neighbors fence (and by neighbor I mean the ppl 1/2mile down the road)..looking at me...I thought I was going crazy and from the tone of her voice when I called my neighbor at work, she thought I had lost my mind too...and being as we have spoken just once before at my mail box to exchange phone numbers this was a rather bizarre phone call to make to her at work...

It went like this.
Me - Sherri?
Her - Yes?
Me - Hi, this is Kelsie from down the road in the blue house...Do you have a pet monkey?
Her - Pardon?
Me - Do you have a pet monkey
Her - Ummm no??
Me (very quickly because I can tell from the tone of her voice she is verging on hanging up on this crazy woman from down the road)...I am out the front of you place and there is a monkey sitting on your fence.
Her - Really??...ummm did you call the sheriff??
Me - No..I wanted to make sure it did not belong to you.
Her - Can you? I am at work and have a class of kids right now.

hehe Can you imagine what was going thru her head at this time??...So turns out that I am not the first one to see this monkey in the area...and he has been sighted again since almost a mile away...or could it be we have a pack (do monkeys move in packs??) loose in the middle of no-where North Florida.

But there is more...Last week the sheriff was in the area door knocking, trying to find out if anyone owns the Llama that is running loose just down the road from me....Good golly grief...I hope the neighbors with the Lion and Tiger rescue farm (1 miles as the crow flies to the east of us) is keep their animals locked up tight.

Oh and of COURSE there is another bobcat in the area, has been sighted multipul times and stolen a few turkeys already this yr...

So much for the quiet country life
Blessings Kelsie

Sharing Today:
Fall Farm Friends Friday @




Friday, December 9, 2011

Inside the Chicken Coop...

I snapped a couple of photos thru the chicken wire with my phone lastnight of Lil Sara. She takes her chores very seriously, as I have mentioned before, these chores include feeding the chickens their nightly scratch, checking the crumble feeder has feed in it and collecting/counting/color identifying the eggs. (me and Daddy keep the water containers cleaned and filled because let's face it...that is not a job for a 3yr old unless you want lots of chicken coop mud all over her)

As you can see my coop is not a pretty thing at the moment...But I do love to dream about the day when we will have the money to build the coop/feed shed and dismantle this converted old carport that sits next to the driveway.



We have rehomed the "new" rooster as he and Bravo just could not agree to get along and kept trying to tear each other to pieces...But the ones that really suffered during this time were the hens...Rotating who got to come out of the coop to forage each day....Now with him gone, all the girls get to range free all over the property all day everyday...We average 4 to 6 eggs a day at the moment...I hope this will increase as time goes on.


We are still nursing Sally Chicken...Though now I think it is simply her leg was injured and she got a little malnurished and dehydrated from not being able to compete for food with the other 11 gals....She currently sleeping in a cat carrier at night in the laundry room because of the cooler weather and has free range of the fenced area outside the back door during the day...We have been giving her "Chick Start" electralite treated water, and a Vitamin supplement drench every couple of days, and just trying to leave her alone to rest as much as possible...She is still limping but is more active now than 2weeks ago...When ever she hears Bravo on the other side of the fence she runs and hides in the cat carrier...Smart girl.


Blessings Kelsie
Fall Farm Friends Friday @


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thankfully


The fall garden is growing...


Farmer Brown feed the goats their Oak branches this morning

We have cute 2 little goats to entertain and give us goatie snuggles.

We were able to put up a temp divider in the chicken coop.

The new chickens got to enjoy scratching around in the woods for the first time today.

And THANKFULLY they all came home to the coop to sleep tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving
Kelsie

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Farm Journal...Unexpected Blessings.

This week I was inspired by two lovely ladies...One an old friend (and a hero of mine) Kari and one new friend, Patty ..

Kari, is like an organized, homeschooling, artist, CEO, motivated woman super hero and has taught me so much with her fun journaling photographs, lists, and sticky notes.

And Patty with her "Homestead Diary" posts on her blog, showing me what I really should be keeping records off and how to put them into words that make sense to us "new farmers".

AND that has motivated me to finally crack open the journal I purchased the same week the goats came home and make use of it.

So here we have it, my Farm Journal...

Each month has a calendar overview at the beginning, I will record reminders of upcoming animal shots, vet visit etc...Post-its have stuff I need to research farther...

Inside each month I will record, daily diets for animals, health updates as needed, garden needs, and that kind of thing...Today's entry was not written at the time I took this photo and had a lot on it...I might need to think about upgrading to a bigger journal before I get to far into the entries and have to copy them over.

One of the reasons for such a long entry today was the unexpected expansion of our flock of chickens....Our wonderful neighbors needed to thin out theirs and asked us to choose who ever we want and as many as we want because otherwise they are going to the auction.
OMGosh...*happy chicken momma dance*

How could I not take the 3 Araucona hens and Rooster??
At least that is what I think they are called...My neighbor told me they lay green eggs (which was my guess as soon as I laid eyes on them)...I was planning to order some "Easter Eggers" come spring so this just speed up my dream a little.

The moment I saw the B&W girls, I knew I had to have them...My neighbor thought them to be Barrocks but I think they could be Wynodottes?..Well whatever you call them, they sure is pretty.

Bravo was not happy to see a new man in the coop...And they spent the next hour or so fronting up thru the fence at each other...

I think I will keep that fence between them for a few days at the very least....

Tomorrow I will go and get 3 more hens...Road Island Reds...They will join Bravo's girls...So maybe he will be not so threatened once he and the new Rooster have the same number of girls each lol.

Blessings Kelsie

Sharing this post at:
Farm Girl Friday @http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/
Potpourri Friday @ http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/
Fall Farm Friends Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com

Friday, November 11, 2011

Dream Goats

Many years ago before Farmer Brown AKA Hubby and I were married, we talked about what the future would hold for us...We discussed all the usual things, children, career paths, our expectation of a future together, what country we would live in (he is American, myself Australian) and the logistics of the relocation etc....and of course GOATS....

Just like any other couple preparing to spend a life time together, right??

Of course our discussion about goats was about one day when we retire, it sure would be nice to own a little land and raise a few goats, sheep and potter about our garden enjoying the quiet country life style as we grew old and grey together...

Well seems this dream was closer than we could have ever possibly imagined back in 2000 when we tied the knot...Due to a series of events that started with 9/11 and the impact it had on the airline industry (my husband's chosen field) we found ourselves re-accessing, re-working and by 2004 relocating to a small parcel of land in FL that had been home to more than a few generations of my husband's family...(they homesteaded it in 1896)

Finally in Nov 2009 we had the opportunity to purchase the parcel of land for our very own and we began to build us a little blue house...We moved into the house on May 4th 2010 (Our 10th Wedding anniversary) and then started working on making our long shared dream come true..

This year we purchased our first 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats...and though we have a long way to go, each time I look out my back windows to see these funny little creatures (usually eating) I have to pinch myself....Because these 2 little goats are just the beginning of the dream...

They are our DREAM GOATS...

Blessings Kelsie

Sharing this post at:
Farm Girl Friday @ http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/
Potpourri Friday @ http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/
Fall Farm Friends Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com
Show and Tell Friday @ http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Friday, November 4, 2011

Getting to know you...

Today I have a little bit of a random assortment of images to share with you...As I have mentioned in a previous post I am trying out a Nikon 5700 camera to see if I want to buy it...Well as with everything around here, it got interrupted and delayed a little.

BUT, Yesterday I did manage to find a couple of moments to take it out into the front garden...Alas all the squirrels and birds scattered and I did not have time to await their return...So instead...

I took a new photo of my little Cherub statue...
Don't blink, he might cry
(little Dr Who reference for those of you are confused right now *grin*)

Change of focus, Cherub in the background and a lovely new Lavender stem in the front.

Then in the afternoon Lil Sara, her dolly Wil and myself took a little stroll to see what we could find...

Look we found Daddy working on his cars...So Lil Sara and Wil helped him out some.

Then Sara checked all the tires where good and tight....

The cows next door were very curious to see what was up...Who would have thought dust from them running to the fence could look so pretty in the afternoon sun light...

Talking of fence...Only our southern property line is fenced...We dream of the day when the rest is too and we can bring in more animals and really get serious about raising our own food.

The gate in the south fence...It used to get used a lot but alas our neighbor moved away and now his house stands empty and his fields are rented out.

I hope today to have more quiet time to work with the camera so I can try and make a decision about buying it or not...We have a hawk that hunts in the Sorghum field behind the house each day that I am dying to get some photos of.

Blessings Kelsie

Sharing this post at:
Farm Girl Friday @ http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/
Potpourri Friday @ http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/
Fall Farm Friends Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com
Show and Tell Friday @ http://romantichome.blogspot.com/


Thursday, October 20, 2011

My goats are not spoilt at ALL

Just because each day I go out and cut a couple of fresh Oak branches...

And then serve those branches from the holes in the top of their spool...

so they can pretend they are eating from a shrub and not eating off of the ground...

This does not make them spoilt brats...

All the goat snuggles and huggles does that...

Blessings Kelsie


Sharing today:


Fall Farm Friends Friday @
http://www.verdefarm.com

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Fall Veggie Garden

Finally found the time to get some of the fall veggies seedlings planted this week.

Farmer Brown aka Hubby, planted 7 more rows of corn seed...The soil (who am I kidding I live in FL it is sand) was good and soaked thru from all the rain earlier this week.

Bok Choy ( Chinese Cabbage)

I mixed in some cow compost and then covered with used hay from the goat pen...I hope this will do well to build up the "soil" so we can avoid having to add any man-made chemicals...

We still have plenty more to plant....Hope the nice weather holds.


You didn't really think I could do a post without a goat update did you?

As you can see they are settling in well and lil Sara is even kind enough to share her slide with them....

I do also want to explain why I have not been visiting all my favorite blogs much lately...Being out in the country we are on satilite internet...and this comes with limited daily bandwidth usage...With Big Daughter home, not only does that put a 3rd person on the internet, but also she needs it to fill out job applications...So as any mummy would do, I have scaled by my own usage to allow for the extra draw on our bandwidth...I miss seeing what is going on out there in blog land and all my fellow blogging friends.

Blessings Kelsie

Sharing today:

Fertilizer Friday @
http://www.tootsietime.com/
Fall Farm Friends Friday @
http://www.verdefarm.com

Thursday, October 6, 2011

THEY'RE HERE!!!

It has been a long and exhausting 48hrs here, but we did it...We got the pens finished the shelter in place and drove to Fort White and collected our goats....Only took us 8 weeks to get them home...

I only managed to snap a couple of photos with my phone because as soon as we got home and them unloaded it stated to rain...Then we had to run to town and pick-up Sara from Daycare....Maybe tomorrow I will be able to take the Nikon outside and try for some better photos.

Boots in the back and Princess (the goat previously known as Deenie) in the front

Not a great photo of the goats but I love the over exposed Americana feel of this photo of Sara, whom is VERY happy to have the goats home...Boots of course is hers and Princess (goat formally known as Deenie) is Big sisters.

And lastly Farmer Brown aka Hubby with the goats...You get a real sense how small they are in this photo...I love the fact that as Nigerian Dwarfs they will not get much larger either.

Blessings Kelsie

Sharing this post at:
Fall Farm Friends Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com
Show and Tell Friday @ http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Home grown Pear Pie

I believe I have mentioned occasionally that we have a few (14) very old, very large, super productive pear trees at our place...I know...Joy, Rapture and all those fun noises...Well the trouble is everyone of them are "cooking pears"...not the kind you could just pick off the tree and nosh on...So what does one do with so many cooking pears??

This was one of 4 box we took to Miracles Happen Ranch a few weeks ago

Well many of them go to a friend for her goats and horses to enjoy....I send some home with my MIL...I actually enjoy watching the squirrels and birds devour them....and many get run over with the lawnmower and/or get composed...My chickens do try very hard to make a dent but alas, we still have hundreds of pears EVERYWHERE....

Well this afternoon I took some advice I was given to "treat them like apples" and made a Easy "pear" Pie....I simply followed the recipe here
http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/easy-apple-pie-recipe/3/
but substituded pears for apples....

The perfect way to end the evening...
Delish pie from home grown fruit and a glass of milk...

Blessings Kelsie

Sharing this post at:

Farm Girl Friday @ http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/
Farm Photo Friday @ http://farmchickskitchen.blogspot.com/
Potpourri Friday @ http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/
Fall Farm Friends Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com
Show and Tell Friday @ http://romantichome.blogspot.com/
Fertilizer Friday @ http://www.tootsietime.com/