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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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New Feathers

Lucy and Ethel are looking lovely with their new bright white clean feathers, now the end of summer molting is complete...Sadly the their tail feathers are not looking so pretty...

Ethel in front, Lucy in back.

It has been a busy few days around here getting hubby ready to head to NC until Sunday night...I am not looking forward to picking lil Sara up from daycare today and have to explain why her Grandparents and her Daddy are not here...I think we will go visit the neighbors on the way home to distract her...Please pray for me alone on the farm with a 3yr old for 4 days....

Sunday sure does seem along way-a-way right now...Not just because hubby is gone, but that is the day my other baby moves home for awhile...I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning to come around but without the help of Advent chocolate to easy the waiting.

Blessings Kelsie

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Farm Photos

With the evenings getting cooler Lil Sara and I can get out walking after dinner again....The other evening it was to check out the big "sprinkler" across the road in the peanut field...Of course I took my camera along...

I had a little fun playing with my editing of these ones also...

Told you it was big a big sprinkler...You need click and enlarge this one to full appreciate how far back it goes into the field...

Am I the only one that loves photos of fence posts?
Maybe it is a sign I desperately wish we had our own fences already..

I love the sight of the Beauty Berry's...
Not just because they are so pretty, but they are a sure sign Autumn is on the way...

Blessings Kelsie

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New visitor at Our Country Home

As someone born and raised on the only continent in the world that does not have wild squirrels (other than those that have escaped zoos) I have a special fascination with these cute little tree rodents ever since moving to the USA...In fact during my first visit to the USA almost 35% of the photographs I took home were of the squirrel playing in the front yard of the house in Charlotte NC...I was totally enchanted.

Since moving to FL 7yrs ago I have always felt a special delight each time I see the big Eastern Fox Squirrel (that is what the "locals" tell me they are called...or cat squirrels) ....These guys are huge compared to the small grey and red squirrels I had grown so fond of in NC....The first time one darted across the road in front of me I was sure it was a cat because of it's size....I slammed on my breaks and then watch it dart half way up a tree on the other side of the road, spin around to twitch it's tail and tell me "what for" as only a squirrel can...

Alas we have never been graced with one of these guys on our property...at least not that I had seen...that was until today....Me thinks he might be after some of those pears since that is what brings in the small Eastern Grays (and lots of birds) to the trees just 30ft from our backdoor.

Isn't he/she just gorgeous...and since we have more than enough pears to share...I hope our new visitor decides to stay for awhile so we can enjoy watching his/her squirrel antics.

Blessings Kelsie

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2 Days, 2 Farm Tours

My dear husband has been ever so patient with me the last 2 days...(his days off work)...First on Wed, I drag him to Miracles Happen Ranch to visit Boots our goat and help worm and vaccinate 24 other goats...

Here he is with one of his new friends Lola the donkey...she is so sweet but very loud.

Helping Worm and Vac the goats.

Don't worry I chipped in and helped...I got to try out the super easy goat milking thingie...so much better than by hand :)

Hubby helped too...he held the lil buck Logan's lead so he would stay off of the milking station...And in case you could not guess by looking at him...it was HOT

As I mentioned yesterday, we also purchased our first Doeling while there...Deenie is Hubby's and will be the beginning of his miniature animal breeding empire...Oh and giver of milk.

Here she is from the other side...As you can see the sun was ubber bright and it is hard to photograph white goats that are group together in such conditions...

And lastly @ Miracles Happen Ranch..This is Patches...I was so brave and did not even need a fence between me and him...though declined to grab him and move him away when asked...Hubby came to the rescue and did it instead...(for those reading this that do not know, I am deathly afraid of horses ever since I had one kick me in the face and break my nose at age 13)

So because Wed's heat and humidity was not enough...I made arrangements for us to visit Miss Beth at Double Blessings Farm to check out her lovely sheep...St Croix and Katahdins ( I think...I am tired and my brain is fading quickly)...They are hair sheep though the lambs did look a little wooly until the will molt (rub) it off and look like the older sheep...We were nice enough to include lil Sara on this tour.

Of course we fell in love with the little tri-color gal in the back of this photo..

Then there was the friendly turkey to pet.

and a sweet (so they tell me..see above horse disclaimer) 30yr old mare...Again I am getting tired and forgetting names...Please forgive me Beth

Sara blending in with the young ones.

And even seem to make a new friend of this ewe lamb "Manna"...

We enjoyed our visits so much and today came home with a bunch of young trees to put out in our fields for shade trees (in a couple of yrs) thanks to Miss Beth.

After we got home we had 5 cubic yards of cow poop delivered so we can start prepping the soil for the fall veggie garden...I am so looking forward to a shower and my bed tonight...

Blessings Kelsie


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More Nuts @ Our Country Home

It has been Crazy Nuts here this past week...What with the Goat coming home for 5 minutes, life with my sweet little 3yr old and the unbearable heat followed by the afternoon thunderstorms, getting out in the flower garden has been some what of a low priority around here...But we have been discussing and planning the fall veggie garden however and even picked up some seed from the seed and feed store this week. Today's selection of garden photos have been snapped at random over the past week and really have no theme.

Wild bee/wasp on a Black Eye Susan

The Mexican Petunia are beginning to bloom

Butterfly bushes have been cut back since they got top heavy and the storms keep toppling them over

Bumble Bee after the afternoon thunderstorm had passed

More pecan limbs on the ground *sad face* At this rate will we have enough pecans for pies this Thanksgiving?

See how loaded this branch was?

And I have a challenge for you...Let's call it the boot challenge...

What is this plant? I know I did not plant it in the boot, but since I recycled some pots and soil it could have come from anyway...I think it is really cute and might even put it into a larger pot...I just wish I knew what it it..

AND FINALLY

We put a For Sale sign in front of the old mobile home...

Now I am off to take a nap while our Princess is, seems the visit to Otter Springs this morning wore me out as much as her...

Blessings Kelsie

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