Farm Life, Chickens and so Forth: July 2010

My blogging life is ruined. I've misplaced my camera. I won't say lost as that makes me irresponsible. The only means of taking pictures that I have is my phone, I guess it's my punishment.

The worst part is, is that I know it's around here somewhere. Along with Kevin's fishfinder, our flash drive, the son's flash drive, and a lot more things that I can't find.

Here's a few pictures that I've managed to take with my phone. The pictures are kinda random but since I've not blogged in a month and a half I'm all over the place.

I thought the pictures would be really small and not as good as my camera but as I'm looking at them they are really not so bad. The hardest part about taking pictures with the phone is not having a view finder and having to look at the display screen while taking the pictures... kinda hard in daylight.

Salsa fixins, finally found a recipe that we love!

The son and his best girl.

Kevin with his jumbo catfish. I think they are three years old. He's hoping they spawn or have spawned. He doesn't want to harvest any large ones until they do so for now it's catch and release.

He made this fish catcher but so far all we've caught is a couple of minnows, he thinks he needs to modify it some, not sure if they are getting out or not getting in in the first place.

Here's our sweety Buster. Unfortunately he's picked up the dreaded Feline Leukemia and we almost lost him. After force feeding him and some potent antibiotics he pulled through. Although now he's susceptible to everything. We have to watch him closely.

And if he wants to sleep in the bathroom sink he can. Actually he can sleep anywhere he wants to.

(See, really bad picture, lots of the phone pictures are really blurry)

Last spring I brought some sunflower seeds to work for the cardinal that sits in the trees and sings every morning as i walk into work. It's such a wonderful sound after the cols winter that i wanted to give him some nourishment to thank him.

One of the seeds started to grow and i really enjoyed watching it all spring. I was so hoping that no one cut it down so I talked to the landscapers that mow and trim the grass and they said that they would leave it.

Here's the little sign that i put on it to try to keep it safe. When i first put it on the plant was so little that it would hardly stand up with the weight of the clothespin.

On my way to work one morning I had the privilege to see this! It was really odd, no rain anywhere. It didn't help me feel any better about going to work but I did stop on the the road to take this so I guess picture phones are awesome anyway.

Our first little harvest of broccoli, not much but some.

It made three bags.

The rest of the pictures are from my new phone that I recently got. The colors seem a little washed out and faded but maybe after i learn to use the adjustment features they may be better.

We used to have an unsightly spot along our driveway that we turned into a flower garden. We've planted mostly perennials but included some annuals for instant color. This is one that is really instant. This sweet potato vine is going crazy. I'm actually going out after i finish this post and give it a drastic haircut!

We've got all kinds of nice things growing now.

Annual verbena is available in the nicest colors. I planted it all around to help fill in until the perennials become established.

This little Corsican mint is incredibly charming. As it gets larger we will split it and move it around the rocks.

A pale purple verbena.

The bigger picture of the invading sweet potato.

There's some alyisim (don't know how to spell it), creeping jenny, rudibeckia, and some cheap lights that i got at Walmart that give off no light hardly at all.

You can see a grape vine trailing at the end. Kevin is going to put up a lattice privacy screen at this end and he will train the grape to cover it. Eventually we can sit here and snack on grapes in the evening. (I guess I shoulda moved the hose for the picture but i didn't.)

Puppy went on my morning stroll around this morning. She is my shadow.

A close up of the water lilies.

The bigger picture.

As every year, the moon flower went crazy. And this is just whats growing in the gravel walk.
I pulled out maybe 500 plants yesterday, some with stalks as thick as my thumb and some tiny seedlings.

I finally got some morning glories to grow after Kevin killed the first batch with weed and grass killer. He didn't know.

I have them growing up the bird feeder too. This is the area where I pulled the moon flowers, you can still see hundreds growing in the gravel. They had almost smothered the little flower bed.

Butterfly bush way overgrown, it would get a haircut too but the stalks are so woody I'd need a chainsaw!

A month ago or so I had the boys drag this trimmed up tractor tire into the back yard and fill it with some dirt and a little peat moss. Then i planted it with the strawberries that I bought maybe two months ago. I couldn't believe that they were still alive. i kept the weeds out and then this morning when I was going around snapping pictures they looked like this. I set down the camera/phone and then...

they looked like this. Not perfect but better.

The old apple tree has lots of apples this year, I think half of them have already fallen to the ground making mowing interesting.

I strolled on over to the grape arbor and took this picture of the trunks, do grapes have trunks? Stems? Stalks? I am grape terminology challenged. There are really old, not sure.

Laddie, our shy, really, really shy adopted dog watches my every move. Scared that i will try to catch him.

I got a little closer...

Then I got too close and he moved. He will come and take biscuits from my hand and once in a while a piece of lunch maet which he wolfs down like he's never eaten before. I'm sure he's never been fed by hand because a couple of times he's gotten my hand while grapping the food, ouch.

While I was taking the pictures of the grapes I turned around and look at him, keeping his eye on me, all the while Cleo(the black, chubby one is looking for sopmething to eat and Puppy is ever vigilant waiting to herd the neighbors car. She doesn't get too far cause the fence stops her.

We ordered some more chicks, I am crazy... thats the last thing I need but I had too. I have them in this brooder/rabbit hutch that my friend, Eileen gave us. It is perfect for the job. I have a heat lamp in the one wire window which I covered with a plastic lid to keep the drafts out. The new Cochins were in there then we moved them out to be replaced by the turkeys I hatched and now it's the new ones. Once they get big enough I will remove the door to the little ladder so they can get outside.

I got some RI Reds and some Cornish. The Cornish is the one they use to cross with a White Rock to get the standard meat bird.

We are going to try crossing them with a Chochin rooster and see what we get. The Cochins are huge and fast growers and the Cornish have the broad body and sturdy legs so we'll see what we get. If we like the cross we will hatch out our own eggs and raise our own. We can hatch eggs at any time od year and as many or few as we want. Chicken eggs are a breeze to hatch and raise compared to turkeys.

The cornish cross birds are so disgusting in their habits that it makes us kinda feel bad raising them. We don't care how long it takes to get them to butcher size as long as they are able to walk, have feathers and eat in a normal fashion. Also not die because they eat too much.

Here they are, the stripedy ones are the Cornish and obviously the red one are thr RI Reds. All pullets except one free rooster which happens to be a fluffy head..umm a Polish Crested?? Yeah, I think thats it. I did NOT want an extra rooster cause we want only the Cochin roosters but what can we do, it's so cute and his name is Spareburt.

I know someone who has spiked blond hair and that's his nickname and his hair looks just like the little rooster, too funny. I'm going to out and try to get a picture of him... hold on a minute.......

Here he is... check out his hairdo. He stood up tall just at the last minute, I took three shots of my face before I turned the phone the right way.

Sitting on their little roost I put in for them.

Here's our new ducks, they will soon take up residence in the pond and eat all the weeds we don't like... at least that's the plan. I got a pair of Harlequins and a couple of white Runner ducks. Don't really like white ducks, (white feathers floating all over the pond) but oh well.