J & J’s Farm-ily

Those who have chickens know that there is always a favorite nest to lay eggs in. We have ten nests. Five of which are usually empty. Example of yesterdays action:

Nest 1:

3 eggs.

Nest 2:

1 Egg.

Nest 4:

2 eggs.

Nest 6:

1 egg.

Nest 9:

9 (!!!) Eggs.

The popular nest changes locations daily so I’m not sure what makes it a hotspot.

Garden Update

I haven’t said too much about our garden lately. 1/2 of it is doing really well:

From L-R: Peas, Carrots, Lettuce, Cabbage

We plan on putting woven wire up for the peas to grow on. They’re already reaching for something to grab onto.

Ugh. Weeds.

The other half isn’t doing so well. The tomato plants are really suffering. This poor little pepper plant lost all it’s leaves during a really windy day a couple of days ago.

He’s a little pathetic, eh? Ignore the weeds. The dirt has been too wet to hoe!!  

So we may be re-planting some things this year. My corn isn’t popping up like I hoped it would either. But I don’t mind replanting since it’ll stagger the time when the vegetables are ready to be picked.

Homemade Gifts

I worked with a woman named Maria at the Restaurant before I graduated college. She had chickens and really she was the one that reminded me about how much fun chickens were. She had to give up her chickens because the house she was renting is now the home of a crop-advisor (or something like that) for the farmer who’s land she lived on. Now she lives in a sub-division. And hates it.

So I like to send eggs to her every once in a while since she of all people appreciates farm fresh eggs. She sent me homemade yeast rolls a couple of weeks ago. This time she sent me homemade scones which are fabulous. She also sends any egg cartons she has. It makes me smile to get packages from her.

The scones are in the tin.

It’s funny because if you were to have worked with me (young, know-it-all, with a bitchy attitude) you’d never think that Maria (sweet, easy going, and never talks bad about anyone) and I would be friends, especially after I left the restaurant. 

That’s all for now. I hope your gardens are faring better than ours!

So a couple more pullets are showing wear signs, so I picked out the worst two out of the group and gave them the last two saddles I had ordered. I may have to order more b/c apparently our roosters are busy little bees.

Here’s one of our speckled sussex before:

She looks sort of rough after being out in the rain all day.

And her happily preening after getting her new chicken saddle:

She seems to think she’s sexy.

I also put one on another Rhode Island Red. She was NOT happy about it at all. (She’s in the younger group and they aren’t as human-socialized as the older group)

Mr. C thinks she would find it very offending if she knew there was a DUCK on her back. hee hee.

Like I said, she’s shy.

God said “Not yet.”

We never heard back about the 53 acres, and the ad hasn’t been in the paper for the last two weeks… so I think that idea is shot. I’m still going to keep looking in that area for land. I think everything happens for a reason and obviously that just wasn’t the perfect land for us! (But it sure sounded like it, gosh darn it)

A horse, of course.

I’ve always wanted a horse, for as long as I can remember. I’ve also thought it would be a neat experience to volunteer at a horse rescue facility… that way I could learn how to take care of them and learn more about them before I have one of my own.

I found one that’s about an hour from our house. It’s called the Indiana Horse Rescue South. Unfortunately with me travelling so much for work and having weekend plans, it looks like I won’t be able to start volunteering when I want to. (RIGHT NOW!) But it is something to look forward to when things settle down again.

The chicken saddles arrived!! Actually, they arrived this past Saturday. For those who don’t have experience with overly-anxious roosters, here is a picture of one of the hens whose feathers had all been pulled out:

You can see that her back was almost bloody from all the ‘action’.

But now she has a beautiful sunflower chicken saddle:

Hopefully her feathers will be growing back very soon. And I happen to think she looks fabulous in a saddle!

 The Staples of a Fridge

Ah yes. Alcohol. Milk. And a CRAPLOAD of eggs. And that’s after I gave my family 4 dozen!!!!

What happens when you plant an egg?

You grow a chicken of course!!! This is Dum-Dum and she acted like standing in the potting soil was the best thing she’s done all day.

The weather has been beautiful around here… warm during the day and the perfect temperature at night so you don’t need an air conditioner or a heater.

This past weekend, we went fishing again. Mr. C caught quite a few but they were too small. For whatever reason I wasn’t catching diddly squat so I declared that he was somehow cheating and therefore his didn’t count. hee hee. Jolee was bounding through the tall grass and collecting ticks like they were gold. Needless to say, she was worn out at the end:

She’s way too spoiled.

53 Acre Update

Mr. C called the people and left a message, but they haven’t called back. I looked up their number on whitepages.com (using the reverse lookup, I love that thing) and they’re between the ages of 31-34… so I’m curious as to why they’re selling the land. I guess I may never know.

:::::

For Sale: 53 acres. 28 tillable, 25 wooded

::::::

I think I’m in love. The land is in Deputy, Indiana. Never heard of it, eh? Me either and I love it. 53 acres would be perfect. I’ve been hounding Mr. C to call the owner and see if it’s still available and see if we can come look at it. My thoughts are that we could buy the property and wait a few years (so we can save some money up) and then build a house. The location is almost exactly halfway between Mr. C’s workplace and mine. (about a 50 mile drive for both of us) The price is also very reasonable… roughly $2000 an acre.

Of course there are many other issues to think about: Mr. C and I aren’t married, the down payment would completely (and then some) wipe out our savings, and who knows what could happen in a couple years.

At the same time, it’s 53 acres!! And half is wooded (think of the adventures!). And half is tillable… so it could be horse grazing land! And it’s in the middle of nowhere!

I’m not sure if Mr. C is fully on board with my push to want to buy land, so I’m leaving it up to him to call the owner. And by that, I mean that I’m giving him a week and then I’m calling.

As my boss says “You can’t make more land and it’s not getting any cheaper.”

53 acres. I’ll be daydreaming all day now.

There are two things that I don’t like about living in the country.

 1.) The MICE

We used to just have one or two running around, eating holes in the bottom of the feedsacks, but the other day I heard squeaking coming from behind the nest boxes and at least EIGHT mice ran like crazy when I moved the boxes.

Now we have to figure out how to kill the mice without hurting the chickens.

Oh- and that great mouse catching cat I used to have? The ferocious beast who would wait all day in one spot to catch a mouse? That cat is now a plump house-cat who freaked out when I put her in the garage. (Hoping it would bring back old mouse-hunting memories) Sigh.

2.) The Ticks

I had forgotten the ’somethings crawling on me in the middle of the night- I hope its not a tick’ feeling. That came back to me on Friday night. I woke up to what felt like something crawling up my arm, so I quickly brushed it off and hoped it wasn’t a tick. Then when I woke up that morning, I found a tick on our sheets. Then later I found one ON ME before I got in the shower. Mr. C pulled THREE off of our dog, Jolee.

I know it’s all part of country livin’, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!

I’m thinkin of changing this blogs name to Jennifer Jo’s Country Hole. Or maybe Jen Jo’s Country Hole. (Yes, Jo is my middle name) What do you think?

I ordered 3 chicken saddles today.

Picture from mbldesigns.com.

No, really. A couple of our pullets seem to be favorites of the two roosters… which means that they are bare-back from being… um… played with so much. One of the RIR’s back is just bare skin now. So you get these saddles and that way the rooster isn’t hurting the chicken anymore and her feathers can grow back.

I ordered them from MBL Designs. I ordered 3, since there’s about 3 hens that are looking worse-for-the-wear.

I’m not going to tell Jimmy that I ordered them. When I get them (next week) I want to see how long until he notices the chickens wearing them. hee hee.

Creativity Update

I had two great responses to my Request For Creative thinking in my last post. I like the hand-rail idea and the tree/shrub idea. So I may somehow incorporate both. I had a suggestion over at TheEasyGarden forum, but it was a lot of flowers I don’t know so I’ll be doing some research this weekend.

I’ve been practicing much self-control with not buying flowers so far…. which is apparently a good thing since we’re getting a ‘light freeze’ next Tuesday night. I will be in Michigan so I’m sure it will be a ‘heavy freeze’ up there. Fabulous.

Money Tree Update

Some of you had asked how my money tree is doing… and I’m proud to say that it’s looking fabulous and even sprouting new money leaves! I’m guessing we’re going to win the lottery any day now!

Garden Update

Jimmy and I have been busy little bees in the garden. So far we have planted the following: okra, carrots, peas, onions, corn, cabbage, and lettuce. This weekend we are heading over to his mom’s house to work on Garden B, where we will plant potatoes and the like. If two gardens doesn’t get my hoein-muscles in shape, I don’t know what will!!

I like to think I’m creative.

But when I try to be creative with flowers, I don’t get the best results. (Since I’m a new-green thumb and all) So I’m asking for ideas or suggestions on what to do with these steps:

The stairs aren’t functional, just probably very old. You can see the road in front of our house in the lower part of the picture. I thought it may look kind of neat to have some sort of flow-ing type of flowers drapped down the stairs. But I don’t know. What do you think? And what type of flowers do you recommend?

Chicken Drama

**Maybe kind of graphic detail** 

As I mentioned in my last post, we lost one of our golden laced wyandotte pullets. It was sad and a little stressful. The next day I went into the chicken coop and Fred (our older rooster) had blood down the right side of his head/neck. I looked at it briefly (Mom always said head wounds bleed worse than what they are… I’m sure that applies to chickens, RIGHT?) and decided to wait until everyone had settled in for the night to take a closer look. Chickens are always calmer at night.

Ends up, his whole lower wattle is slashed open. I cleaned it the best I could and put triple antibiotic ointment on it. The other chickens seemed to be leaving him alone after I cleaned it up. (Chickens are weird with red… if they see blood on another chicken they will peck it to death)

It almost looks like it needs stitches because it’s THAT tore open. I’ve seen the hens peck and pull at his wattles before, so I’m thinking that one got a hold of him, yanked, and did the damage.

These chickens are wearing me out!

Pictures to end the post with

Picture taken on 4-21-2008.

“You said right foot on GREEN?”  

One of our green egg layers, Fluffy Face.

We have some hardworking chicks around our place. Although sometimes I can’t help wondering if they’re working or laying down on the job.

(From L-R) An Ideal Hatchery Speckled Sussex (not as brightly speckled as the ones from Meyer) <brown egg layer>, Barred Rock <brown egg layer>, and an Easter Egger <green egg layer>.

A Deleware (brown egg layer).

An Easter Egger (green egg layer). She’s trying to hide from the camera.

The Downside of Free-Ranging Chickens

Last night I went to go lock the chickens up for the night and wound up missing 1. So I called for Jimmy and we went out looking for her. He found her dead on the other side of the road. Apparently she had gotten hit by a car or motorcycle. I feel bad, but I also realize that it’s a price we have to pay for letting them free-range. Bad chicken-crossing-the-road jokes aside, she will be missed. (Don’t think I’m cold-hearted, but sometimes the real farmer-mentality gets the best of me)

Jimmy did feel bad and even said I could replace her. I may just let one of our hens hatch chicks. (If they ever go broody)

Our Garden is Growing!

Even though the weather was less than ideal this weekend, we planted lettuce, carrots, and sugarsnap peas. I’ve never had garden-fresh carrots (or peas) so that’ll be a new experience. We went to the local hardware store and got a boatload of seeds. I got three different variets of corn (sweet, bi, and yellow, I think) even though Jimmy laughed at my inability to remember which corn I liked the best. We also picked out some pepper plants, tomato plants ($1.25 for four of them at the local greenhouse!),  and pototoes.

I’ve been price-comparing flowers at the different stores and greenhouses so I know where I’m getting my flowers from. Now I just have to wait until May 5th, so that there’s almost no chance of frost.

I used to now like petunias b/c their so… ordinary. But I love all the different colors they come in, so I think I will be a big petunia buyer this year.

I love color!

Have YOU started planting flowers yet?

I think Indiana has some amazing sunsets. Last night was an example of one.

An Indiana sunset. April 17, 2008.

The crazy thing is that I’ll notice the sunset, run inside to get my camera and by then the sun is almost below the horizon. You can barely see the sun peaking out in this picture.

I went to the local fruit/plant stand and picked up some cabbage (18 plants) which we will plant tonight, hopefully. We’re planning on a row of a cabbage and a row of lettuce… then we’ll plant 2nd rows of each later so that we don’t have a ton of cabbage/lettuce that goes bad.

Chickens (again)

I’ll finish today’s post with a picture of two (out of 3) of our Speckled Sussex. They came from Meyer Hatchery and I love how very speckled they are.

“I hope she’s got a treat.”