BRRRRR!

Frost alert, LOL!  Yep, the ground was covered with frost this morning.  OHHHH, I am not ready for winter!  The chicks are hatching, so far I have 2 dried off and another pipped, 16 were in this batch with another 16 in 6 days.  With the power outage and then the over heat, I'm surprised any hatched at all.  Now to see if they're messed up physically in any way.  I'll know soon enough, they will die if they aren't right.  So, I've got fingers crossed they will live and grow like they should.

There's just 3 people entered in the raffle for the Grape Fizz lap throw.  I will draw tomorrow night after I get home from work.  Good luck ladies!

I'm a happy camper this morning, I traded a couple pats of goats milk soap to a neighbor for some bartlett pears. Yum, I love those!  Soft and sweet, the only real pear in my book!

ARG, the rabbit doe I love so much done killed every one of her new kits.  First time she's ever done that to me, must have been something not right with them or something unseen by me annoyed her.  Hate to lose those kits, that's food out of my mouth there!


Eh, gotta go to work now, see yas Saturday morning with the raffle winner's name!

First Frost Already?

Brrr, it was unpleasant this morning!  Not quite a frost but 44F is down right unpleasant compared to what it was just a week ago.  Yep, it's that time of year already, it's going to be cold all the time very soon.  Am I ready?  Well heck no I'm not.  I never am.  I'm a big fat cry baby in cold weather.  I plug through it, miserable just because I would rather not be cold.  Busting ice out of buckets, frozen feet, chapped hands from the hot water in cold air for milking time, eh, just whaaa, LOL.

Eh, anyway, the cows are fat, the goats are sassy, chickens are finally laying steady now that Brandy dog is gone, rabbits should kindle in the next day or 2 and the pantry is full of canned goodies from the garden.

Now is the season of reading and writing, crochet and soap making.

So, here's the first blanket raffle of the season....

A reader asked I put this one up first so here it is.  The Grape Fizz, 38x50 lap throw.  One entry for $10 or 3 for $20.  We'll keep the entries open until Halloween.  You can enter via the paypal button, make sure you put grape fizz in the comment section or you may email me for snail mail(mmpaints@yahoo.com). 

I've got an incubator full of eggs but I'm not too sure they're going to hatch out.  The darn fuse blew over night and the poor unborn chicks got cold, too cold. So, a candling is in order tonight to see if they're all dead.  I hope they aren't dead but just in case, I did put 18 new eggs in there a few days ago.

As I said above, I've got 2 does that should kindle tonight or tomorrow, both good Mommas so 12 to 16 new bunnies should be arriving soon.  I love the bunnies, they are so darn cute and cuddly.  Something to play with while I'm waiting for the new round of goat kids to arrive.  The first ones should get here the 2nd week of January.  Seems like a long way off yet but they'll be here soon enough and it will seem like it was just yesterday when we started waiting for them.  Calves in February or March and we'll be full swing into a busy, busy year around here!  Milk, cheese, the new bake shop, the gardens, the quilting shop I'm working on, the new chicken runs and rabbit house, busy, busy, busy around here!  Plus the quail I want to add and the turkey runs, I've got some exciting plans for the new and revamped farm! Been a tough road and an even rougher summer but I can see daylight now.  A few small fixes on the 2 farm trucks (spider injection on the chevy and a few sensors for the ford) and we'll be in good shape for the new year.  I did manage to get all the parts for the hay equipment paid for, now I just need to find time to put it all together so it's ready for the next haying season.  This winter will be tight for hay but I think we'll make it through it.  Might have to buy a bale or 2 but it will be okay.  All we need to do is to get the taxes paid and we're good for the rest of the year.  How awesome is that?

Until next post........

Quiet Week of Planting

3 weeks ago, I put 25 eggs in the incubator.  15 of those hatched out for me.  1 chick drown in the water over night and 4  more didn't make it longer than the next day.  The rest are healthy and happy, eating and drinking like they should.  Now if I can just keep the puppies from eating them.  At least they'll grow a while before I have to worry about those puppies getting after them.

Well, the farm now has 100' of water melon, 100' of cantaloupe, 250' of sweet bell peppers, 300' of tomatoes, 20' of cucumbers, 20' of zucchini, 2 sets of tater tires, 200' of hot peppers, 4500' of sweet corn, 800' of corn meal corn 200' of kidney beans and some misc stuff nobody eats but me.   Now all we need is the rain coming in for this weekend.

I've been push mowing around the farm today since the big mower is broken and no chance of getting the repairs done.  Just gotta do what I can, when I can...

A Greek Tragedy

Yes, that's what it is here today.  My son is the king of Greek Tragedy.  The smallest little thing can throw him into his world ending sulk.  Today is a continuation of the front brake job on his truck. Yesterday, it was worn out front bearings ate his rotors up and it all needs replaced(no it doesn't and no, the bearings arent bad).  Just pull the tires off son, Mom will look at it.  Here he comes again with the whine going.  Can't figure out how to get the brake caliper off (it's not bolted, the press pin configuration).  So, as usual, Mom goes out and shows him how to do it and proves to him his bearings are not bad.  Now today, it's the brake bleeding and his all of the sudden faulty lug nut fit.  Geez, this is one of those days I completely understand why some animals eat their young.  Always making mountains out of mole hills.  I never would have guessed 20 years ago that little boys were more emotional and whiny than little girls.  One of these days I hope he gets it figured out that shit happens and get over it already.

The new sweet corn patch got planted.  Hubster worked hard on it all weekend and planted all  the corn, some melons, sweet peppers on a corner and hot peppers on another corner.  It got life giving rain last night.  Me, I need to patch a hole in the fence to keep the goats out and get the corn meal corn, squash, beans and the rest of the stuff for over here set.  Then get the perimeter fence in place before the goats figure out I have something worth chewing on in there.

The eggs in the incubator have started to hatch, 3 so far and 2 more eggs with pip holes and chirping....