Our Cows

I've not shown the cows in a while so I thought I would snap a few pics when they visited us down here at the house a couple days ago.  It was a beautiful sunny day!

 Rosebud is over 3 months old now, and doing great!  She has certainly grown!

There have not been any changes in Violet or Dandelion.  If Violet was really bred when we got her, she should be calving any time now.  I'm starting to have my doubts.

Here's all three of them together.  You can tell that Violet is a much bigger cow than Dandelion, but I don't think she looks pregnant.  Apparently it is pretty normal to be able to see the rib cages in Jersey cows, even when they are healthy. 

They decided to line up to show their different sizes: small, medium and large!

We've been working on  fencing a large portion of our hillside for them this summer.  It's been a long-going project but we get a little more complete everyday!  Other than that and waiting for Violet to calve, there is not much to report on the cows, so this is a rather brief post.

The Culprit Is In Custody!

 It did not take long to catch this masked bandit!  It was a case of the criminal returning to the scene of the crime, but this time he walked right into a trap!

Check out those hands! 

Those hands are perfectly designed to be able to reach under nest boxes and snatch chicks from unsuspecting mama hens!

The mama hen that got robbed the night before was not going to be an unsuspecting victim this time! Perhaps the attack affected her more than I thought, or perhaps it was just her God-given instinct, but she refused to go back into her box/cage last night, even though I fortified it with bricks along the outside.  She actually hopped into the coop once with some of her chicks following her, but since a couple did not figure out how to get into the coop she settled on roosting outside on top of one of the other nest box cages.  She would have been a sitting duck had she stayed there.  I waited until complete darkness to move her into the safety of the coop.  I grabbed the mama and Matthew, Simon, and Timothy scooped up the chicks.  They seemed content to be in a nest in the coop, and I hope they will go into the coop by themselves tonight.

The other chickens were not bothering them at all this morning, but I decided to let them out of the lot anyway.  Here are the 6 surviving chicks, now 19 days old. 

I think that the markings that are coming out on the dark chicks will make them very pretty chickens, if they survive.

 

I finally took some pictures of the clutch that Buffy is raising.  I never could get all 12 in the picture at the same time, but they are all dark with some light markings.

They are one week old today, and doing great!  I am pleased that this mama has not lost any of the ones she hatched during this critical first week, and I hope we will be able to keep them safe in the future.

And since I had the camera out this morning for the coon, I thought I would snap a few pictures of some of the other chickens.

 Our Buff Orpington/Jersey Giant rooster always has something to crow about!

I like my Barred Rock hens because they remind me of one of our early flocks sired by Big Daddy Dommer.

We don't like chickens roosting on our benches, but it makes for an interesting picture anyway.  This is one of the White Rocks that is not yet setting.  Of the 9 White Rock hens we have, 1 already hatched a brood and 3 more are currently setting on nests.

And this is one of the Jersey Giant mixed hens that came from the Joe Castle homestead.

Now, I have to decide what to do with the coon.  Should we just shoot him and be done with it, relocate him far away and release him, or kill him and go to the trouble to try to make a coon-skin hat?  I haven't been able to see this one's tail, yet.  If we go for the hat, I would want a nice tail.  We've never tanned a hide before, but we've been saving our deer skins with the thought of learning how.  I'm sure it would be easier to start with a smaller skin like a coon, and I've seen patterns for making the hat on the internet.  If only we didn't have so many other things that need to get done around here, and if only I wasn't bent so much toward laziness, I think I would go for the hat experience!  But as it is, we will probably take one of the easier ways out.  We'll see....

Sunday Meetin' and Dinner On the Grounds

Today we officially dedicated our new fellowship hall to the Lord.  It has been a very long time in the making, but the church built it all debt free.  We have used it several times in it's unfinished state during the past couple of years, but now all construction inside and out is finally finished!  In the pictures that follow, the fellowship hall is the white building behind the red brick church house.  The church decided to have a cook-out fellowship meal after church today to commemerate the occaison, and it was nice to see the new building full with fellowship.  I took several pictures in and around the church grounds, as well as inside the new fellowship hall.  I'll just post them and let the pictures speak for themselves.

     

Homestead Happenings: Random Pics From First Half of May

Things have been rather busy around here, lately, and I've not had time to record much of it.  I did take the camera out a few times and got some pictures, however.

The meat rabbits are still doing well. 

Simon and Timothy enjoy taking care of them!

Our Angora rabbits are also doing fine.  Christina tends to them everyday.

Matthew, Christina, and Simon went on a fishing expedition down the river the day before Mother's Day.  Lisa was hoping for some catfish for her Mother's Day dinner.  They had a nice time on the river, and saw several geese and a couple of mama ducks with their ducklings, but the fish weren't biting.  Maybe next time.

Chief is rather old, for a Great Pyreneese, but he is still with us.  I think he has the sweetest face!

Christina did not want to wear the helmet, but since they were going to be on the road, we insisted.

Augusta (long u in the middle) is a good dog and loves her family.  Wherever we go, she is sure to follow!  Luna is still with us, also, but she didn't make it in a picture this time.

Timothy, 'Gusta, and Sandy looking around up the mountain.

Tigger is one cool cat!

I didn't take pictures of the other cats, but they are all cool cats as well. 

Since I'm thinking about it, I'll report that Fritsie has had her kittens!  The children found them in a box in the wood shed.  I think there are 6 of them, but Fritsie hasn't brought them out to play yet.  When they start appearing in the open and playing, I hope to take several pictures of them.  It's been many years since we've had the kitten experience!

The chickens enjoy their free-range time! I like to let them out early in the afternoon, as long as they don't go to the highway in front of the house.  When they get into that bad habit, they find themselves staying in their lot much later into the day!

One of the White Rock hens is setting right now.  If all goes well, we should have baby chicks around the first of June.  But I'll not count my chickens before they hatch!

We still have 2 hogs at the moment.  We will be butchering them if we don't see piglets pretty soon.

So, I've reported about our dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, and pigs, but I've not said anything about the cattle or bees. 

Well, one of the hives swarmed earlier this month before we could divide it.  We lost them because they swarmed to the highest point in a tree in an impossible location for us to capture.  We need to try to divide the other hives before they swarm, too.

I haven'tt gotten a picture of the cows in their lots for a while.  Right now we have Violet, Dandelion, and Rosebud  here, close to our house.  They have both barns and the hill lot that we originally fenced off for goats.  It's not a very good pasture, but at least they have room to move around and they like to eat some of the leaves and branches from various trees and they find some grass and weeds that they eat. 

We plan to start trying to milk Dandelion soon, but are concerned about her cooperating with us.  Rosebud was her first calf so she has never been milked.  Violet should calve sometime in June, we think.  She is starting to show some signs already.  But after our experience with Dandelion, we're not going to expect any calf too soon!

Meanwhile, Gracie and the two bull calves are at Pure Water Pastures.  There has not been much change over there in a while.  I plan on doing some more fencing work over there.  I already have all the materials laid out there for a second lot, but I need to find the time to invest the sweat equity required.

So, that's a bit of what has been happening around our homestead.  We've also spent several evenings getting our garden out.  I hope the garden will do well, even though we've had some cold temperatures in May.  Last week we even had a few nights in the 30s!  But I'll save the garden news for a future post, because we still have some room out there to plant.

Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings!