Having Fun: Washing Dishes

Having Fun: Washing Dishes

Washing up dishes has to be one of my favorite kitchen chores, next to cooking of course! And yes, you can actually have a favorite kitchen chore, for you information. ; )

However, I'm not particularly fond of washing dishes at the moment. Want to know why? Because the sinks are stopped up. Yep, just what you want to happen when it's below freezing outside. Unfortunately, everyone won't stop eating, so the dishes still pile up. Now when I resume my spot at the sink to wash dishes I have to stop every 3 minutes and dump the water that has been collecting in the bowls placed in the sink to catch all the water. In result, I suggest caution when you step out the back door. We have an ice slab. Please only go out that door if you are wearing ice skating equipment. You've been warned.

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Spring Rantings

Spring Rantings

Yes, I'm afraid my better judgement has run away with me, I am longing for babies...fuzzy ones. 

A whole basketful of them. Is that too much to ask?

I want to hold them and cuddle them.

Just take one little look at this face...

and you'll understand why I feel like this:

and this:

Blessings - 

~ Momma Goose

Cold Weather Difficulties

Cold Weather Difficulties 

 With cold weather comes extra chores that don't normally need to be done. Such as breaking ice, hauling warm water to the animals, gathering eggs multiple times a day to keep them from freezing and cracking open, shoveling snow, chopping and hauling wood to feed the three fires we have going, I could go on, but you get the idea. Snow maybe pretty, but the prettiness only lasts so long before you wish I'd melt, then you're left with a bunch of mud, then the only happy campers are the ducks, who play in the mud. Then for a few days we have some warmer weather and then we start the cycle all over again. 

 

And the we all have faces like this:

Last night it started snowing again, it was so cold that I barely got a wink of sleep. This morning we had a new dusting of snow, and it was still ridiculously cold. I think I may be becoming a dragon. Every time I go outside, I can see my breath come out in big clouds before me. Scary. 

All this cold weather has apparently triggered my Muscovy girls to go broody, the geese to start laying, one of my Sussexs to go broody (on 14 eggs), oh yes and um now I have egg cartons full of chicken, duck, and goose eggs on my dresser that I am highly tempted to incubate. Someone please come over and stop me from doing anything irrational! I think all the "mother henning madness" is taking affect on me! Help!

Blessings - 

~ Mother Hen

I Went Chicken Fishin'

I Went Chicken Fishin'

You ever gone chicken fishin'? Yeah, me either. That is, until yesterday afternoon.

Stockton had gone out to bait the rat traps in the shop, here in a minute he came running back in and breathlessly told me that Winston was outside and couldn't breath. I through on my coat, boots, and rushed outside to find Winston with his mouth gaping open, sitting hunched on the ground. When I approached him he started doing flips and acting crazy. I gentle grabbed him, and found he had a fishing line caught around his legs, and entangled around his body. After much scrambling about, we used some wire cutters to cut it off (because apparently scissors are too hard to find..). After we cut it off, we noticed that a string was coming out of his mouth! WHAT?! We gently tugged on it, but found it was stuck down inside his throat. Wonderful. We had no idea how long he'd been attached to the string so we brought him inside to warm up and get a drink. We gave him a few drops of water down his throat, and it seemed to loosen up the string, and we're able to get a few more inches of it out, before it go stuck again. We were stumped on what to do! We could only assume that he had found the two fishing poles that were lying by the shop, and had swallowed the bait that was attached to the hook. However, there was a possibility that he could have just swallowed the line, but we had no way of knowing. We tried shining a flash light down his throat but weren't able to see diddly squat. None of the guys were home, so Mom told me to take him outside and put him in a cage and wait for the guys to get back, maybe they'd know what to do. While attempting to put boots on, zip up my coat, and hang onto a 15 lb rooster, he *somehow* manged to get away from me. I spent the next 10 minutes chasing him around the house. It was quite a sight to behold, I'm sure. People chasing a rooster around the house, jumping on the tables, knocking stuff over, rooster flying at the windows and almost knocking himself out in the process, rooster getting tangled up in electrical wires, so forth. Thankfully I was able to nab him, finally, and was about to carry him outside when I noticed that the string was gone! During the whole chase he must have swallowed it all the way. He seemed to be acting fine and we had no clue what to do, so I turned him loose, outside this time. 

Today he seems to be no worse for ware. He is running around the ranch with his harem of hens close on his heels. 

I'm tellin' ya, when you live with animals, there is no telling what wild and inconceivable things might occur. 

Blessings - 

~ Chicken Fisher

Good Morning!

Good Morning!

 From the Cold and Shivering Farm.

Several more inches of snow fell during the night.

The chickens refuse to leave their respective lodgings, the waterfowl are snow sledding, the rabbits..well they don't really care because their in their warm hutch, and last but not least, the peafowl are filing a complaint by screaming. I can hear them all the way inside. Thus is life on the farm this morning.

How is your morning going?

It's time to milk, Belle, I have to go!

Stay cozy!

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Winter Weather

Winter Weather

Sunday night we were expecting snow and ice. Monday morning I woke up to this:

The birds are very glad for all the "goose down" (literally) they have on. They spent most of their day lying down trying to keep their feet warm. Later on that morning I spread some hay on top of the snow for them to lay on. They were very appreciative. 

What did the peafowl think about having more snow?

Tulsa: "Mommy, I'm ready to go snuggle under the goose down when you are!"

Tamina: "Ohh..is our food frozen? MOMMY! Can you bring us some hot oatmeal?"

Prince: "Mommy, I think my toes are sticking to the ground! House-shoes please!!" 

 

Monday the snow started to melt a little bit. Today there are splotches of snow around, but guess what? We are expecting more snow and cold weather all week long. Oh joy.

Stay warm.

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Peeps! Drop The Stick!

Peeps! Drop The Stick!

I've started making a wet mash for the birds again. I've fermented, mashed, and smashed their feed in the past, but got lazy and quit doing it for awhile. During the coldest days in winter, it's important for the birds to stay nice and full of food in order to help them stay warmer. So I started making them a warm mash of layer pellets, whole corn (generally I dislike feeding corn, but during the coldest days a little bit doesn't hurt, and it helps them stay warmer), and for a little extra boost I add in some organic Brewer's Yeast, and  organic ground Cayenne pepper.

Well, Peeps is a very smart chicken and she figured out where I kept my feed soaking bucket.  

She's headed for the bucket...

She sees there is food inside...

She just knows if she can get that stick off the top she can get to the feed.

She attempted to grab it with her beak and pull it off.

After about thirty-seconds of trying, she succeeded in pulling the stick off the bucket. 

Then she came over to tell me about her achievements. 

That and because you already know she loves the camera. 

Peeps: "Momma am I famous??"

Peeps: "Momma, are people going to want my autograph?"

Peeps: "Does Mommy have treats??"

 Peeps: "OH look! Treats!"

Me: "OUUCH! Peeps, those are Mommy's fingers!"

Peeps: "Fine. I'm going to go stare at my stick."

Peeps: "Oh stick! Where are you??!"

Stella: "I don't know her!!"

Peeps says to send all her fan mail to:

Peeps

1341 Chick Lane

Fluffy Puffy Farm, TX

79301 

Blessings - 

~ Aspen