Hot Fun In The Summer Sun (or Hot Work)

      I am really moving slow this morning.  I just started a second cup of tea.  I worked many hours in the sun yesterday.  Then I walked 2 hours at the Relay for Life from 11pm to 1am last night, and didn't climb into bed until 1:45am.  I plan to head back outside in a bit.  It is actually much nicer out today.  We had a heat advisory Mon-Thur. because it got up into the mid 90s every day.....made working in the yard quite hot and tiring. The new grass seed is planted, and will benefit from the heat and rain.

     The man to cut hay is coming today.  I’ll be praying we get no rain until after we bail it on Monday or Tuesday.  It is really going to be a lot of work getting it all up into the hay mow.  He is going to bring 2 hay wagons, an elevator to get it up to our hay loft, and 2 helpers when he comes to bale.  He wants us to have 4 more helpers.  Probably we should get 5....4 country
                                                                boys = 5 city folk.  Hope all the activity in the barn doesn’t scare our barn cat(s) off.  We will be cutting all 3 pastures, but not the paddock.  As you can see here, the paddock is very weedy....it is also too small and has too many buildings to maneuver around.

      We had another series of storms roll through here from 7 to 10pm last Friday night.  There were more high winds and monsoon rains.  This has made it very tough for our pastures to dry out.  With rain in the forecast 2 days this past week, we have waited on the cutting of hay.  We did get a couple of isolated thunder storms, but not too much rain.

     The crippled baby chick has steadily improved all week.  First it became able to stand and walk on its own.  When it walked it stepped forward with it's left leg and then brought its right leg up to the left.  It couldn't step forward with the right one.  I continued to work with it on that.  I would hold it’s left leg in place and tap on the back of its right leg until it would step forward with it.
(I am a chick
physical therapist).  It is now walking very well and almost normally (left foot forward, then right foot forward, etc.) but its' one foot is kind of twisted or turned with the toes pointed medially.  I am not sure how to help it correct that.  Maybe it will grow out of it. 

      The chick has grown a lot and is catching up to the others in size even though it is still smaller.  It also tends to be on its own more, not
                                                     staying as close to the other three. 


Yesterday (at 2 weeks of age) I moved the “babies” out to the coop into a bigger cage, and I put them in a small fenced in area outside each day. 

     The older chickens are also growing a lot, and are enjoyable to watch.  They (especially the 3 roosters) are very interested in the new arrivals.  I am keeping them separated as long as possible. 

      We have been thinking of things we can do with our three grain bins. Right now we have a bunch of old cinder block and fencing stored in one of them.  Different people we have spoken with have seen or heard of other ideas.  Cut a large "door" so live stock can go in, or to put farm equipment in, or to convert into a play house or shed.  We may store sacks of grain and feed in one of them.  If we could, we would sell the metal and have it hauled away. 

     This past week I have been doing a lot of landscaping on the North side of the house.  I have been moving some bushes, hosta, and day lilies in addition to planting some bushes and flowers I bought.  I have put down some weed block tarp and added cedar wood chips on top.  I am happy with the results I am getting.

     Today I will move myself around to the west side.  I planted flowers in one area early this spring but really need to weed it and add wood chips.  I have a bush and 2 trees to transplant in another area and will then be done with the west side.  The east side needs weeding and wood chips too.  Lots more fun work to do in the hot sun this summer.

Establishing A Routine

      Cathy and Ralph just left for St. Joseph, Missouri a bit ago, and I am done with my morning walk and chores.  So, I’ll see if I can get this (A letter to Mom) done today.  While I am typing, I look at the e-mails I sent Carol during the week, which helps me remember all that has happened. 
And to post these Blogs (a year later), I look at the letters I sent Mom.

Our group that went to Edisto Beach, South Carolina.

      I was all excited last Fri. when Dan called us in South Carolina to report on the 20 eggs Carol had given me. He “house sat” the 9 days we were gone. He said there were several eggs with holes in them and he heard a lot of peeping.  By Sat evening though, only 6 had hatched and 2 of the chicks
                                                                                    couldn't stand

 up.  We got home late Sunday...after a 16 hour drive and the first thing I did was look into the chicks.  Joe's sister Mary and I hand feed the 2 that could not stand up. (I know...you aren't supposed to do that)  But I couldn't help myself.  I felt so sorry for them.  One of the other 4 is also having issues with 1 of it's legs.  It keeps going spread Eagle and can’t walk, nor does it stand very well.  Tracy (brother in law who grew up on a farm) said that the bad leg may correct itself over time.  He said if the legs are turned wrong while the chick is developing in the shell, it will be twisted like that.  If both legs are bad it will not survive. One of the 2 we fed ended up drowning in the water dish during the night and I put the other one out of its misery Monday morning when opening all the un-hatched eggs.  I hated to see it suffer any longer than necessary.  So, of the 20 eggs, 6 chicks hatched but 2 were unable to survive....3 are healthy chicks and 1 has a twisted leg and cannot  stand or walk very well....but it is trying.... and eating and drinking on it's own...so I am going to try to save it.  Of the un-hatched eggs: 2 were trying to hatch but did not succeed, 4 others were nearly full term with a little yolk sack, 2 had stopped developing half way through, and there was 1 with a very small embryo....the other 5 were infertile. I am excited to have the 4 we have.  They are very cute.  Our "chicks" from school are really growing fast.

Tue....I was still feeling a little blue after the chick loss and end of vacation.  And I was tired from the drive.  I am still a little overwhelmed with where to start around here with the endless jobs.  Today I need to gather up all our Garage Sale stuff to take to town for our Relay For Life Team Garage Sale.  It looks like we may get more rain, which I am sick and tired of.  Feeling so down Tue morning, I reminded myself that it was the first day of the rest of my life, and I decided that I was going to make something of it.  I decided to get into a good summer routine that will hopefully carry into the school year.  I have a great schedule next year, even though I don't have morning classes (which was my preference).  I teach 3 classes in a row, from 10:00 - 12:40, all in the same class room.  So I will be able to leave earlier than last year, and I do not need to arrive at my usual 7am time.
So, here is my new routine....that I am going to try to stick to:
Get up by 7am.    Start my cup of tea.    Go for a 30 to 45 min walk with the dog. (I saw on TV where a girl lost a bunch of weight, the key was doing morning exercise to get her metabolism going, in addition to watching her
                                                      diet.)   After my walk I will relax with 

my tea, eat a healthy breakfast, read e-mail, and plan my day.  Each day will include working around the house or farm, reading my bible, and relaxing, maybe even napping.  After dinner I will try to get in another walk, even if it is just around the farm and yard.  Each day I also need to remember to take time to smell the flowers and count my blessings.
      Well, Tuesday morning, my first day with my new routine, I got rained on during my walk....but that's okay....I am going to go rain or shine, snow or sleet, and just learn to deal with the weather and dress appropriately.  The banana I ate made me burp....so I was thinking maybe I should have stuck with the usual toaster strudel. It was so cold and gloomy I had a second cup of tea after I started a load of laundry.  Tuesday's job was to catch up on all of my e-mails and face book and organize photos for my farm blogs.  I still haven't figured out how I want to do a blog.  I may make it open to the public, and assume no one will want to read it, except for family.  But I worry about privacy with all the pictures I want to post.  Tuesday night golf league was hot and muggy....making the dinner and beer after wards all the more enjoyable.    
 
     Wednesday I kept to my morning routine.
I then did more laundry.  I had the sheets to wash (Joe's sisters stayed Sunday night).  I also did a bunch of weeding....they sure grew during the 10 days we were gone.  I burnt the thistle Dan and I had dug up.  I worked hard in the yard and also had a riding lesson.







       We had a big storm blow through here at about 5am Thursday.  I said I was going to walk rain or shine.... but I decided during a severe thunderstorm it was not a good idea.  It was thundering and lightening and rain was hitting our windows from three directions. I watched the fern I had hanging from a shepherds hook blow away and the gliding porch swing slide across the deck.  I took the cat and dog to the vet for their annual appointment and shots.  Came home and did some house cleaning in preparation for Cathy and Ralph.  I drove into LeRoy to get groceries and walk Kaysha.  There were a lot of trees and some power lines down.  Guess we are lucky to just get lots of water.
      
      Oh....Dan has only seen the two female barn cats while we were in S.C.  I am guessing the male decided to try his luck else where.  I have only seen the black and white cat two times since we have been back. Monday night on the way to bible study, there was a black and white road kill 1/4 mile from our lane.  On the way home I had Joe stop so we could determine if it was one of our cats. It was a skunk.  (hopefully the one that has been under our corn crib)  No cat food has been eaten from the barn for a few days, but the dog chased the black and white cat up a tree by the corn crib yesterday.  There was a starling nest and the cat was being attacked by angry parents while Kaysha was barking and jumping up at the
base of the tree.  Once I had Kaysha
under control and sitting 20 yards away, the cat scurried down the tree and under the corn crib.  Hope that wasn't enough to completely drive her away.  This is a photo of a baby robin I discovered one day....making its' parents quite upset.
      Yet another ground hog has surfaced in the barn...so we need to set the trap again.  As many holes as we have, there may be a whole colony of them.  Is it possible for the three Daniel trapped and released 7 miles from here to find there way back?
      The "crippled" chick is hanging in there.  I was pretty worried about it because it can’t bend it's legs normally, they are in the splits position so it has troubles walking and can't lie down. The poor thing gets so tired and sleepy it falls forward on its beak.  The other three will be lying down sleeping and the crippled one falls into them. They also kind of pick on it.
                                                      It also is not getting enough to eat.
It does peck at food and try to drink, but usually loses its balance.   In this photo you can see it falling over on its' side.  I found lots of advice on the internet, including this piece on "crippled chicks".
    “Use some sort of splint, like a toothpick and hold it up so it can stand.  If it can't stand up naturally then gradually everyday build up the time you support it and try to get it to move its legs so it builds up a bit of muscle. If it looks like it's doing the splits, it's straddle leg. Just tie some yarn around both legs so they are an appropriate length apart and leave it on until the legs return to normal and the chick can stand up.”
     I decided against the yarn because I was afraid it would draw attention and the chick would get picked (pecked) on more than it is already.  I have been holding it and working with its bad leg to get it to bend correctly when I feed it.  The chick pecks the food out of the spoon.  It is eating very well when I feed it, but not keeping up with the growth rate of its fellow hatchlings.  (I probably need to feed it more than 3 times a day) I am working on lining up it's legs while I hold it...which seems to be helping.















      It falls asleep while I hold it cause it is so tired and can finally relax I think.  The “therapy” seems to be helping though.  The chick is getting much more mobile.

     I still have a lot more unpacking of moving boxes to do. I am not sure it will ever get done.  I went through a few boxes to collect stuff to take to the Relay For Life Garage Sale. But there is still a lot more.

New Commers and Visitors

     This past week has been a time of coming and going for visitors, workers, and consultants, and the arrival of new farm pets.  I got the goldfish into the pond with out any casualties.  I also brought the chicks home from school the end of last week.

  Kaysha loves to watch them.                        And to smell them.   

    We leave for South Carolina tomorrow morning.  Joe’s  2 sisters are getting here for dinner tonight and we are meeting the other sister with her husband and 2 kids in Tennessee tomorrow night. Joe's two sisters will be riding with Joe, Courtney and I....so traveling should be fun.  Hope I can leave my farm cares behind for the week.  They aren’t really “cares” but chores and things I want to get done.

     It has been rather slow progress around here because the weather has been so wet.  Farmer Jeff is going to do our fence corner posts but has been too busy or waiting on the weather.  His Uncle (Dave) will probably be building our tact room, but has been re-hired so is not as free with his time.  The gate guys arrived from Indiana Tue. evening with their big truck filled with gates as seen here. 
We bought 5 gates, at a very reasonable price...one 16 footer so we can get the hey cutter into the fields, and will do two 8 footers between the barn and corn crib.  The 10 footer is about 4" too long for the inside end of
the corn crib, but we may angle it to
                                                    keep the horses away from the electrical box and light switch at that end of the corn crib. The 6 footer is for easy access to the back pasture.       After unloading gates into the corn crib the Kentucky "boys" headed out going down Becks lane to the west of us. 
        
     The ground hog remains a pest.....reminds me of "Caddy Shack"  seems he is impossible to catch.  We tried 2 different poisons, a sonar device, a guillotine trap, and now have a live trap baited and set.  The dog has been on a constant search for the bugger also.... but has had no luck.  Daniel, who has been painting out buildings has spotted the ground hog several times, but been unable to get the 22 fast enough before the ground hog returns to its home.  He even sat out with the gun for a few hours 1 day waiting for the ground hog to surface.

     We got the big dead tree just south of our garage cut down last Sat morning.  To get it done for $650.00 we had the three men cut it into "manageable" pieces and leave the stump.  This first picture was taken of
the "the beast" (as the men referred to it) a few
days earlier.  Here is a series of pictures
showing that whole process.   You can see that the skies were threatening rain during the early part of this 2 hour process. If you click on the pictures they will enlarge.  In these first two you can see the man up in the tree trimming out large branches.












Then they cut the wedge, knocked it out, and using a truck pulled on the tree as the last cut was made to the backside of the it.  It was frightening and amazing.  Their biggest fear was climbing on and hanging from the dead branches.  The dog even got in  on the clean up action.  The last picture shows all the big logs just as they left them for us to later clean up.

     We then spent all last weekend hauling parts of it to the wood shed and burning the rest of it.  Some sections
were too big for the Kobota tractor to lift even, so we drug or pushed them.
We had a fire going for three days that got put out by Monday nights rains.  I got it burning again yesterday, and will keep at it all day today.  We are making progress, but it has been slow.

     We are now short 1 chicken that escaped and was caught by the dog. 
                                                      It was too late for me to intervene
by the time I realized what was happening....but I made it clear (I think) to the dog that that was not to happen again.  As you can see from this photo the 5 remaining babies are growing fast.



     We ended up getting 3 barn cats, they convinced Joe to take the third one. He picked them up just last night.  Our attempt at keeping them in the barn failed.  I saw the male (I am going to call him “Him”) drinking out of my fish pond at 4am this morning.  At least I know he is doing okay.  He was really freaked out yesterday.  I haven’t checked on the 2 girls yet.

<- the black and white one in this crate is the boy.





I have decided to call other black and white one in the crate by herself  “Her” and the all black one will be “Girl”.  I let the chickens out this morning but did not go all the way out to the barn.  All three cats are extremely wild, each is neutered and has it’s  shots and all were free.  Hopefully they will stay around and catch lots of mice. I’d rather they leave the birds (especially the chickens) alone.

      Well, I need to do lots of cleaning before guests come and I haven’t even started packing.  There are also daily chores and a few more flats of flowers yet to plant.  And if there is any spare time, I wanted to work on un-packing some more boxes of books.
Daniel built the two bathroom medicine cabinets I just bought, now I need Joe to hang them so I can finish unpacking and organizing all our bath stuff.  I am not so worried about the unpacking (although it would be nice to get it done).  What is most important is to spend time with family and enjoy the farm as well as take care of the animals.