Chicks!

What a beautiful day!  Especially when compared with yesterday, which was wet and downright chilly.  We were down to Forest Lake to a graduation celebration for our young friend Alexis.  It was well worth the trip down and back to see Alexis and her parents, Mike and Melissa.

The waiting is over for our broody hen; the hatching began yesterday, and continued today.  We weren’t sure that we would get any chicks from this batch, since the hen had gone out the window a couple of times and wasn’t able to get back in until we rescued her from the other room.  The eggs had cooled some, and we just didn’t know.    A couple of the chicks didn’t make it, some of the eggs have not hatched and probably are not going to, but it looks like we will have a few survivors anyway.  Kori helped mid-wife a couple of them…

They're pretty exhausted but will soon fluff up and be on their feet

And, another hen has gone broody.  

Thanks for the colorful nestbox Leslie!

Meanwhile, the doelings are adjusting to their new lifestyle.  Most days they get leashed up and move over to the summer-coop pasture where there is some grass to nibble.  They are getting to be pros at walking on their leashes now.

Notice how I am dressed... it was delightfully cool this  morning, in fact, it was only 40 degrees when we woke up.  The best part was NO MOSQUITOES for milking time!

I’ll be home to garden on Tuesday again this week, so will update you all on the chick situation then.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

(Editorial remark:  I think this will say posted by Kevin down below... it's not, it's me Debby (like you can't tell!) )

Terrific Tuesday

I don't know how many of you regulars will see this post, as I usually am only here on the weekends, but wanted to share a little of this day with you. I'll be taking quite a few Tuesdays off this summer for spending in the garden.  These vacation days have been accumulated and protected all winter for just that purpose.  Today was a wonderful day; really nice weather, and pretty productive.  A lot of the planting is now done.  We ended the day with all four of us as a team to get the big corn crop in.  Here are just a few pictures for your enjoyment:

These Jacob's Cattle Beans are almost too beautiful to plant!  (credit hand model Kori)

The lasses hung out in the summer coop yard today.  Here's Chicky having a siesta

Ivy joins Chicky in the shade of the coop

Then later trying to get Javier to play "head-butt"

Javier retreats

Lily was the garden helper of the day

Planting the garden

Better weather today for planting, thank goodness.  Kevin offered up some much needed labor and moved mulch from on bed to another.  The tomatoes are now tucked into a leafy blanket.  I usually wait until the cages are installed, but the mulch had to go somewhere so I could get the melons transplanted.

Please forgive my poor photography!  They really are the most beautiful bright shade of green!

The peas are looking pretty good.  Planted two kinds of corn today, a bi-color for fresh eating, and a new kind of corn-meal corn.  We haven't planted our big patch of canning corn (it's actually mostly for freezing, but doesn't canning corn have a better sound to it than freezing corn?  That's my theory anyway...) but hope to get it in one evening this week.

Spot was also a garden helper today.  She generally just supervises.

If she looks a little annoyed, it's because she wanted a belly rub, not a photo-op!

To come back to the mosquito thing.    It does seem to me that this is the worst spring for mosquitoes than I can recall.  But then, I don't recall much. If you know me well at all, you know that I have a terrible memory. So, I invite you folks, the local ones or use-to-be-local ones, to weigh in on this issue.  Just click on comment down below there, and tell us when you think the worst mosquito spring was in your lifetime.

What say you?

The good, the bad, and the really ugly

First, the good:

The bees are back!  Phil’s bees have come back to the farm for another season of pollination and honeymaking.  Welcome back bees!  We are happy to host you at Ole Lake Farm!

If you look close, you can see the bees moving in and out of the hive on the lower left side

Next, the bad:

You locals know that the mosquitoes this spring are way beyond bad.  Horrible, awful, voracious, vicious, vile; pick your adjective!  It’s bad enough that they prey on us humans, but what really gets to me is the poor goats, especially the little ones.  Searching the internet for safe repellents, along with the various herbal concoctions, is good old Avon Skin So Soft.  So off to Aunt Lila, our very own family Avon Distributor Kevin went, returning with two big bottles of the stuff.  It seems to help some.

Yep, our goats smell like old women.

This morning I brewed up what amounts to a very strong rosemary tea.  This also seems to help some.  I have been out planting tomatoes (in the rain) and although there are clouds of the nasty beasts around me, I’ve only been bit a hundred or so times.  Instead of thousands. 

And then the ugly:

Cutworms are my enemy.  

 And I am their nemesis.

There are few things quite like walking out to the garden and finding your plants chewed off at the soil line.  It is but a small consolation to dig around the stump of the once beautiful plant and find the miscreant.  Capital punishment is meted out by my flock of feathered executioners who are especially fond of dining on the perpetrators. 

Lest you worry over  my newly planted tomatoes, they are all protected by soggy newspaper collars. 

And just a few photos from earlier in the week: 

Ranger just barely fit in our largest animal crate for the short ride over to Righteous Oaks Farm.  Matt and Katie report that he is doing fine at their place.

Cramped quarters!

Some hens love to sunbathe...

While others prefer to dust bathe in the shade. 

 So, time for a little lunch, then out to the to fight the rain and bugs again.  Until next time, be well.

Caprine Transitions

Thank goodness Kori was here to revive that hen on Friday, or she surely would have died.  What a strange thing… 

Yesterday (Saturday) was a pretty busy day for the entire Flowers bunch.  Kevin preparing another field for planting (this one will be wheat), Kurt and Rollie in the woods a good portion of the day doing something with firewood and breaking down equipment, Kori helping out with miscellaneous activities, Ardis vending at a flea market, and I in the garden. 

Yesterday was also the first day of the new Farmers Market in Aitkin.  We had thought about participating as vendors, and still hope to in the future, but for this year, it just didn’t work out.  Normally I would never go to town on the weekend… I spend enough time there during the week, but I just had to go in and check out how it was going though.  I think this is just a great thing for the local producers and the community.  So, after milking and muffin making, I headed for town.

Before visiting the farmer’s market, I got a run in on the town streets and paths.  A little variety is nice, and I got to meet this gal (I think) near the river.

Had a nice visit at the Farmer’s Market with the various folks that were there.  Purchased some awesome Cracked Wheat Potato Bread, and some amazing asparagus.  The set up was nice and the vendors seemed to be moderately busy while I was there.

Back to the main topic of today's post though, Caprine Transitions.  Caprine is the goat family, and of course Transitions is change.  Every member of the goat crowd has something going on.  For Ranger, the plan is to move today over to Matt & Katie’s place, Righteous Oaks Farm to spend the summer with their buck.  For the doelings, more unfortunate things (from their point of view) are happening.  Yesterday, Kori and I gave Ivy and Sunflower their tattoos.  As purebred registered goats, the American Dairy Goat Association requires that they be tattooed, so now they are.  Sorry, no pictures of the actual deed, but here is Sunflowers sporting her green inked ears.

This is also weaning weekend, so as of today, the doelings are separated from their mammas.  Vinca and Daisy will be milked twice a day.  Ivy and Chicky are moving to the chicken yard and will be commuting back and forth to the summer coop pasture on nice days to graze.  Sunflower left us yesterday.  A very nice young man purchased her and she will be joining a doe his house.  At some point, Ivy will be moving to Righteous Oaks Farm too, to become their first dairy goat, but for now she will stay with us for a while longer.  Chicky will most likely be sold too. 

So, I didn’t really get a garden update in here, but this is getting really long!   Since tomorrow is Memorial Day, we will get some extra time in here at home, so maybe I will get back to you then. 

So, until next time, be well friends.

Heroic Hen Rescue

I saved a life yesterday.

My terms for living at home mean that I have daily chores and tasks that I have to perform. Yesterday I had to rake sticks and dirt, and ashes, which is about as much fun as it sounds. I had finished the first batch of tasks and was about to start raking ashes next to the garden when I noticed something really, really, weird.

A hen, on her back, in Mom's garden.

Now, a chicken flat on her back is not normal chicken behavior. It's not even normal dead chicken behavior. So I was naturally quite concerned, and ran over, wondering if this was some poor hen that had passed and Mom had, for whatever reason, chucked it in the garden.

She was alive. Panting like crazy, warm to the touch, and in shock, but alive. I picked her up gently, in case she had injuries, and brought her into the house. I put her in the sink, gave her a drink of water, and covered her with a wet towel.

This poor hen couldn't hold her head up on her own and seemed very tired, or at least kept going limp and closing her eyes. I moved her from the kitchen sink - she didn't seem to have a problem with being in the sink for extended periods of time - to a cat carrier in the warm shed, which, contrary to its name, is the coldest place to be during the summer. Out of the sun, and in a good place to nap, I left her to recover.

When I checked on her during chore time, I found her able to support her head, but she didn't seem to want to move around much. At bedtime, when Mom delivered her back to the summer coop, apparently she was well enough to get up and walk off on her own. Today we can't even tell which hen was the one with problems.

Current theories about how this hen ended up where she was: Kurt thinks she flew over the fence, got dehydrated, and flopped over. Its also very likely a bird of prey picked her up and then dropped her, sending her into shock (we've never had a problem with raptors going after the hens before). I personally think the aliens almost got her, but decided they didn't like the taste of chicken.

A happily rescued hen