Showing posts with label turkeys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkeys. Show all posts

Thursday, November 26, 2015

November Notes, Day 26


Dear Heavenly Father,
Today we give thanks for the many blessings You have bestowed on us this year.
We thank You for a prosperous year and the ability to serve You through others.
We thank You for our health and family.
We thank You for keeping us safe and free from harm while traveling
and enjoying the splendor of Your Earth.
We thank You for protecting our home and our creatures
that You have placed in our care.
We thank You for this gift of life, may we continue to live it
in appreciation for the many wonders You share with us.
We thank You in Jesus' name
Amen

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Day 27 - Thanks for the Memories


On this day before Thanksgiving, I thought I would share my
postings from previous years...







I hope you will be sharing tomorrow with loved ones...
I'll be sharing mine with hospital staff and patients.




Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Day 19 - Counting Chickens...


We bought our home in the Spring of 2011,
and it wasn't until later that summer that we got
our first chickens to put into the existing chicken coop...


A bantam rooster and two hens.
The rooster and one hen were promptly eaten by a bobcat.

I then started collecting more bantams
which we called the "mutant chickens."

We added some guinea fowl,
six of them...
two females and 4 males.
Two males went back to the breeder and
the two females
were killed by a bobcat.

I detailed most of this in a post
involving goats and a bear.
At that time I tallied up all the new chickens and fowl.

Somewhere in here we got two dogs,
and there have been no more bears or bobcats;
 that we've seen close to the property, at least.

Then this February we got turkeys...
six of them,
Unfortunately, both males.


Then we had the chick explosion a couple of weeks ago,
adding 22 new chicks to the group,
of which 1 mysteriously disappeared.
I hope another bobcat isn't around,
but maybe another hawk..?

So, we have a LOT of chickens...
but we thinned the herd down a bit 
voluntarily over the last couple of days.

Yesterday, 5 of the pullets and 3 of the younger chicks
went to a new home.
Today, a turkey and the remaining 4 "mutant" bantams
went to a new home.
The remaining turkey will be gone next week...
a friend has bought him.

So, as of today, we have
one remaining male guinea fowl
the "fluffy chicken" - one of the original "big chickens" we got
the "chicklets" - Hawkeye, Muffin Top and Madge (they're our best layers)
Roosters - big white Frederico & the "pocket rooster" Ollie
Hawkeye's Twins - two cockerels that just crowed for the first time this week
the pullets - of which 5 remain
the new chicks - of which 8 remain including
Sunshine (who will remain on the farm)


We'll have to see how many of the pullets and chicks
turn into hens and roosters...

If anything we'll get some more of these....


Saturday, November 16, 2013

Day 16 - Muckin' Around

From this....


To this...


We had a chicken explosion as I wrote about last month,
so the barn has been getting quite a beating.

If you've never had a chicken coop, it takes a bit of upkeep.
And, at least once every couple of months,
you have to go in there and totally clean it out
and replace all the shavings.

Today was the day.

And, now the chickens have a nice clean home
once again...



Now, if only those turkeys would "spread the love"
a bit more around the barn instead of in one big pile... 
yuck...!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

And, In Our Last Episode...


Where has the time gone...?
That's one of the things I like/love/hate about the blogging challenges...
they keep me writing daily so it becomes a necessary part of the day.

Just like my exercise program, I get lazy, fall off the wagon,
and BAM!  no more postings for over 4 weeks
and sneaking hamburgers when I'm supposed to be eating salads...

Let's catch you up on life...
This month's travel took Momma, the husby and me, plus the dogs (as always)
to Lake Tahoe...

I actually won a small jackpot ($250) on the first night,
and Momma exacted her revenge by winning the remainder of the time.
She is the Slot Machine Queen after all and wanted to make sure she kept us in our place.

The rest of the time, I've been putting that extra money
We're finally doing some more remodeling of the house.
Here's a before and current...

As you can see, the face of the house is completely changing
and many trees in the back have been cut to allow more
sunshine into the back yard.

Those big sliding-glass-door window in the front will be changed out,
and there's going to be a side arbor to the porch.

It's a lot of work...
For some reason, this picture reminds me of those NYC skyscraper
shots from the 30's... yeah, I think it's kind of majestic like that in a way...

In other news, the flock count has changed again.
We started off with 6 turkey chicks.
One died the next day, and two developed splay leg (spraddle).
One had to be put down after about a week because it started to develop sores,
the other was put down after about 6 weeks because it was outgrowing the 
different splints I was applying to see about correcting the problem.
So now, there's three "turklets" one male and two females...
Here's the male showing off for the first time...


We also exchanged Benny the Rooster for another rooster 
who I call Frederico

since it seemed Benny didn't know what he was supposed to do around the hens...

But then, about 2 days later, Hawkeye, who had disappeared a couple of weeks back,
reappeared with two in tow...

So maybe Benny was doing something right after all...
He's in a new home, with a new flock,
but his memory will live on here.

We also had to put down one of the original chickens who
seemed to start going blind and started losing weight.
Her sister has disappeared, and if the bobcats haven't gotten her
Benny may live on in yet another generation of chicks...!

What else has happened...?
One of the goats developed a Listeria infection that caused her
neurological problems, like spinning around continuously
because it affected her nervous system.
So it was every 6 hour high dose penicillin shots,
along with B vitamins,
and a lot of anxiety given what I went through with Boots.
Luckily, through a lot of dedication, Shirley pulled through.

I think that's about it for this time.  July is just around the bend,
and I will do my traditional iPod Birthday Month Shuffle,
so I will be posting more...!

Thank you for visiting along...!






















Tuesday, April 9, 2013

#568 - H is for Hungry

I don't get a lunch break...
There's no 30 minute leave work and take time for a break.
I'm lucky if I get 5 minutes to run to the bathroom
without someone calling me on the phone.

I usually get breakfast.
The ED doesn't start getting busy until about 10 in the morning.
So I always make sure I get a good breakfast.

Some days, I do get a lunch,
but some days I don't...
We work twelves, so even if I get a lunch around 1:30,
it's still a looong time until 8 p.m. when I get off shift.

So around 6:30, I start to daydream,
and I start to think about what I'd like to be eating....

smoked turkey drumstick

Rubio's fish tacos especial...
for those of you that recognize this, 
yep, it's the Pesky Combo...
yum..!

and hot dogs...
why do I crave hot dogs...??

The nurses try to keep me fed...
Because they say I get like this:



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

#595 - B is for Brooder


We have 13 chickens on the farm.
This year I am trying to raise turkeys.
Hubby didn't like the guinea fowl much, and now there's just one left...

Here's the poults on the first day... 
there were six... were...


Here are the remaining 5 on day 5... doing well...


Believe it or not, they're starting to show little personalities...



We're just curious about everything...


One of them even managed to jump out of the box last night...
I heard loud "peeping" right about the time I went to bed.
Good thing I went to investigate...

Back in the brooder safe and sound...
They're growing so fast, they're not going to last in there much longer...!




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