Baby chicks, that's what is new. On Saturday when Joel went down to put the chickens to bed for the night, he heard a little "cheep, cheep, cheep" coming from just outside of a nest where a hen has been faithfully sitting on some eggs for a couple of weeks. It was a baby chick! He/she jumped out of the nest and couldn't get back in and mama was still sitting on some eggs.
Well, actually, there were three little chicks. He scooped them up and brought them into the house since it was an especially chilly, damp night and he was afraid they would die of hypothermia overnight since mama didn't appear to be budging from her perch. We quickly put together a little pen for them with straw in the bottom and some water for them to drink. And of course we managed to clean up the heat lamp for them to keep them warm for the next couple of days while we determined if we could put them back into the coop with all the other chickens.
Well, by the time we went down to the coop on Sunday morning, we had another and then another baby. All yellow and fluffy and cheeping as they tried to wander around on the straw on unsteady legs. Joel had to run into town quick Sunday morning to buy chick food for the wee-ones since they need a special diet when they are first born.
Doesn't she just ooze cuteness? Well, this morning(Tuesday) we took the makeshift pen down to the coop and reintroduced the babies to their mama. You see, she hatched more chicks over the last day and a half and now there are 8. And since she is done sitting on her eggs, we decided that it was safe to have all her babies in one place.....where they belong....with their mama. Joel has gone down to the coop several times to check on how the chicks are doing and he said mama is proudly strutting around the inside of the coop with little chicks flopping and tumbling around behind her. Just. Too. Precious.
We'll keep checking on them to make sure none of the other chickens pick on the babies. But, so far it appears all is well in Chicken Land. Ahhhhhh......
We've had a lot of rain this Spring......it seems like almost every day we've had drizzly, foggy, or rainy conditions. When we got a break in the weather yesterday, we loaded our caffeine up in our mugs and jumped in the Polaris to do some work in the orchard. We had planted quite a few trees last Spring only 2 months after arriving here on the farm. Unfortunately, six of them didn't make it thru the harsh weather this winter. We've pulled them up and now it was time to do some orchard maintenance.
This is our crabapple tree in full bloom. And the blooms smell incredible. We put new tree rings around the base of all the trees in hopes of making our job of mowing around each and every one a little easier. Then I trimmed up a few of the branches and we took stock of what new trees we would like to acquire in the next few weeks to round out our selection of fruit.
Our McIntosh apple tree has blooms popping out all over its branches. I sure hope we don't have a freeze this year after the blossoms drop so we will have a harvest. Last year, it snowed on April 15th and it cut our harvest down to almost nothing. And since the fruit comes on the tree where the blossoms are now, it's important to not have a freeze from now on this spring. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I also decided to put some of my own personality on the outer edges of the front yard. We have an old stump that is slowing decaying.....not especially a pretty sight. Until now, that is. I picked up some flowers at the store and used potting soil to create little pockets of posies on the sides and top of the stump. A few larger blue-eyed daisies and red geraniums around the base completed the picture. After dumping a bag of mulch around the perimeter and watering, now all I have to do is wait for the petunias to drape down the sides of the trunk and the eyesore is now something fun to look at. I think I'm going to paint a sign that says something like, "Just plain rotten" and stick it in the dirt around the trunk. Ha! That should get the locals talking.
Anyway, lest you think everything on the farm is clean and pristine, think again. This is what the front seat of the Polaris looks like on any given day. Plastic coated wire, bug spray, eggs and work gloves....all these items are part of our daily work outside. We may not be a big farm, but we're doing our best to be a "real" farm.
Wouldn't you know it, this morning as I was all set to take Molly outside for her walk, I spotted this big turkey strutting around the back of the potager garden. Do you see it? It's the dark grey object with it's head down eating bugs behind the garden off on the right side of the pic. Well, as soon as we went outside the turkey high tailed it out toward the back of our property and the tree line.
And so that is how I started my day today. A little bit of light fog, some drizzles, and lots of birds singing to one another from tree to tree. And then as I looked up I saw the light clouds skimming the far away top of the mountain again. You can see the grey mountain looming up behind the tree line. Ah, yes, it's good to be here, even in the fog and drizzle.
Grateful for our first live births on our farm,
Debbie
