A Week of Fall Farm Pictures!

Fall is so beautiful on the farm.  I feel like I can't take enough pictures!  Enjoy and have a great week!

Warm breakfast snacks with extra protein for the molting chickens.

Thankful for the lives we share

Dedicating this morning's rising sun and beautiful fall colors to my big lady turkey who passed away sometime last night.  Her passing was not unexpected.  I could see her declining in recent days but it still makes me sad to know her time has ended.  She was one of my three ladies- three meat producing turkeys that we purchased at the same time five years ago and I am sad to see her leave us.

The typical meat turkey has been changed over years by humans to gain weight in their breasts rapidly.  They are voracious eaters and peck at food as if they are starving.  The weight gain tends to cause many health problems in the turkeys that are allowed to live longer than the 16 weeks at which most of them are slaughtered for food.  They have leg problems from the weight and heart problems.  

This lady turkey did live a life worth living with a group of friends, and plenty of healthy food and snacks.  Although she never actually hatched any chicks (this is also difficult due to their weight as the tend to crush the eggs) she did spend time sitting on a nest with the other hens.  She was able to be free range on our farm much of her life.  A pretty good life for a turkey if you ask me.

Thankful today for her and for all the lives I share this world with who come and go or stay for a long time. 

 RIP pretty lady.  You will be missed.

Duke and Daisy, our draft horses

Have I introduced you to Duke and Daisy, our Haflingers that we use as draft horses?

Duke and Daisy are a team and they are trained to pull a wagon or things like plows to help us do farm work.  Here is Duke pulling Frank in a cart.

Daisy is the mother of baby Buttercup.  We didn't know Daisy was pregnant when we bought her and brought her home about seven months before Buttercup gave a surprise appearance.  This is a picture of Buttercup on her birthday, May 5th, 2013.  Could she be any cuter?  What a wonderful surprise!

Just a week later, Buttercup finally got her name.  As we weren't expecting her, we didn't have any names picked out for our new little lady.  On May 10th, I walked out into the field to see how she was doing and there she was with her mom in a field filled with Buttercups.  Our little Buttercup!  What a nice addition she's been to our world!  (I had to give momma Daisy a dish of grain to get her to stand still.)

A good Rooster!

I love this big white rooster.  His name is 'Roooooster!'
He is a great leader and takes very good care of his hens.

One day, I heard quite a bit of squawking from our porch and walked outside to see the Rooster in a facedown with a fox.  No telling what the result of that would have been but I did chase the fox away.

Chickens in general talk to each other often.  They have many different chirps.  If you listen to this short video, you can hear the rooster doing his 'there's good food here' cluck.  Love this guy.

http://youtu.be/u90d6vnFO_o

YouTube: Rooster taking care of his hens!

Sundays are for Gratitude: What do you love love love about Autumn?

Good Morning! It is brisk out there this morning...had to find my hat! Continuing the Sundays are for gratitude trend, what do you love love love about this time of year?

What do you love about Autumn?

I love this time of year when the days are still a bit on the warm side but the nights are cool and crisp.  I love to see the dark sky filled with stars at night.
Welcome Autumn.  Some reasons why I love you:

Warm sweaters
Warm comforters
Fall colors
Falling leaves
Cool days
Cold nights
Squash
Apples
Pumpkin Pie
Winter coats on the horses, and on Gandolf (our Great Pyrenees)
Apple spice scent
Hot drinks
Mittens
Football
The World Series (Go Kansas City Royals!)
Fires in the fireplace
Crockpots
The Sunday smell of a roast throughout the house
The Roosters crowing later in the morning!

What do you love about Autumn?
Have a Happy Sunday everyone!  Enjoy this beautiful day!

An Autumn Week in Pictures!

We had a really, soggy, wet beginning to the week but it closed in a beautiful way with sunshine and colored leaves.  Some of this weeks highlights:


So much rain!

Gandolf didn't even want to go outside!

Mud is everywhere!

Soon as the rain stopped, the chickens went to scratching!

Piglets covered in mud!  And yes- this is my little Ginkgo on the left.  See the ginkgo leave on her nose?

I was surprised, but baby limes have started to pop up on my lime tree!

Beautiful Autumn Morning!

A Buttercup break!

Momma hens warm my heart.

A beautiful start to a Saturday morning!

September's ducklings are outside in their own area with their own little pool!

Rainy days and Wednesday's...

I love rainy days.  I get to sleep in a bit, warm coffee, tea or hot chocolate are that much better.  I love sound the sound of the rain and the peacefulness it brings to the world while everyone hunkers in to stay dry.

This morning, Gandolf took one look outside, decided it was better to stay in and went right back to his straw nest!

Is this bird sick?

This poor turkey hen looks so uncomfortable to me.   She is avoiding her bird family, looking a bit lethargic and her feathers are all falling out.  Is she sick?

No, this little lady is molting.  Molting means that she is losing her old feathers to replace them with new, healthy feathers to keep her warm and dry over the winter.  Male and female birds molt.  Sometimes they only lose a couple feathers and sometimes it can be so many the poor bird looks almost naked. When you look at the picture above, you can see the new quills growing that will be part of her feathers.  Right now they look like white points.

I don't know for certain if birds feel bad while molting but I notice many of the birds hide and keep to themselves.  Maybe they know they look silly.  

Many things related to birds are influenced by the seasons and the amount of light.  Birds usually molt when the days begin to shorten and there is less daylight.  Nature is planning for winter!

Sundays are for Gratitude

What a lovely Sunday morning and how lucky we are to be alive.

Go make today what you want it to be. 

Love your family, yourself, your dog, cat, horses, chickens, turkeys, woodchucks,  and your god.  

Appreciate this big beautiful world and all the creatures that wander through it. 

Sundays are for Gratitude.

One of the many inhabitants of our farm- Ground Hog!

We have many nut trees on our farm including Chinese Chestnuts, Oaks and Walnuts.  Just outside of our house, the Chinese Chestnut is dropping it's nuts right now.  They have spiny shells and hurt the dogs feet if they step on them.  But this little guy loves them!  Every day I see him out there chomping away enjoying himself.

Love Is...

A momma hen with her chick,

New friends,

Sisters,

A Momma and her baby,

Families!

Buttercup!

Our little Buttercup is a pretty little thing, isn't she?

Breakfast time!

Gota get my breakfast!

Sing a song while you lay an Egg!

I don't think it looks very comfortable to lay an egg.  What do you think?  This lady looks like she is in a miserable position.  Hens often sing a little hen clucking song while the lay.  Maybe the tune takes their mind off of the task at hand.

Peek a boo!

Peek a boo!  We see you!

Momma hen doesn't like me to look in on her.

I LOVE AUTUMN!!

37 degrees this morning. I love autumn! Cold nights, starry skies, quiet cold mornings and perfect sunny weather with trees changing colors during the day. Hot Tubs! Warm comforters! Hot drinks! Fires! Pumpkins! Turkeys! Football! Sloppy Joes!  Roasted beets!  Hats and mittens! Hikes, horseback rides! Have a happy, cool sunny Sunday!

PS:  It took a long time and many shots to get this guy (Narragansett Tom Turkey named Cherokee) to pose next to the pumpkins!

It's someone's Birthday!

Welcome to the world little chick!

Don't count your chickens before they hatch!

I enjoyed seeing a momma hen raise her chick so much that the next hen who wanted to sit on eggs, I've let sit.  She isn't letting me get close to her.

There are really three hens sharing sitting duties on this nest and I hadn't been able to get a look at how many eggs there might be.  And momma hens are viscous.  Finally, all three cleared out for a moment and I got a look.

YIKES!  This could result in many chicks!  But you know what!?  It's true- you should never count your chickens before they hatch.  Not all of these eggs will hatch for a variety of reasons.  Some eggs just don't mature into chicks and sometimes the egg was never fertilized.  It takes 21 days from the time a momma hen starts sitting on her eggs until they hatch.  We'll see soon who shows up!