NoobieChickenLady's Journal - SS Score and Mah Kitteh is HOME!! Yay!

[Dace]

That is awesome! Mine kind of happened the same way....I just did my own thing and did't push...then one day he said "will you help me?"....which is really husband speak for 'please make me breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday...and don't forget I need snacks in there too!'

Somedays I am certain that I have 5 children.

Edited to add that with salads they are pretty easy to add variety...chicken, hard boiled eggs, olives, cheese, avo...I mix it up a lot as we have them for lunch everyday.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I am very thankful that all of my children love salads, including DH

I like to mix them up too. We've had Tex-Mex salads with ground meat in a tomato sauce, chilis, cheese, avacado & tortilla chips. Chicken fajita salads; wilted bacon, egg, cheese & spinach salads Greek type salads with feta, tomato, red onion (olives for him, cucumbers & bell peppers for me); Asian inspired with manderin oranges, almonds & a sesame-garlic-ginger dressing. There really is a LOT of variety you can put into a salad.

Well, mama rabbit is doing well, keeping her babies fed & comfy. They are just starting to get fuzz so they still sorta look like rats to me, but I still want to nuzzle them. I leave her alone though I do pet her & check the babies when I check her feed & water & clean out the poop.

I would have had 2 full quarts this morning I do believe, however, dufus (Shadow) jumped on the stand & knocked over part of the milk. Still have not finished the cross fencing. I need about a week off...

Thinking about clipping them to a feed line when I milk, that's when I feed the pellets & wormer. Dixie's former owner clipped all her goats when she fed. I have room in the goat shed to do that.

Starting to let the chickens out to free range (out of the tractor). They are loving the freedom & come back to the tractor at sunset. Also starting to transition them over to whole grains. If it doesn't rain I'm planning this weekend to strip disc a section of the back lot & see what comes up. Tonight after milking, I will go check the dewberries & pick any ripe ones. There were several red when I checked on wed & picked that handful.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I had the day off yesterday, and man did I miss my SS fix
Something scratched Dixie, sometime before the morning milking. When I went to milk yesterday morning, I saw a small fresh scratch on her right teat. Not deep, not bleeding any longer, but I know it had to be at least a little painful. I carefully & gently milked her out (after washing, of course) and then applied an aerosol bandage. Same thing that evening. She was better this morning, but she was still a bit kicky. Not like she meant it, more like "Hey, that's tender!!" No wonder, poor girl. She still gave me almost a gallon on Monday, 3.65lbs & 3.89 respectively, and another 3.78 this morning.

I can't imagine what got to her, unless one of the mean RIR roos scratched her. I'm going to keep an eye on it.

We rented out the wether for a week or so. A friend needed to clear off a fenceline, so I went & checked that there were no hemlocks or other poisonous plants. Looks to be a majority of sweet gum, baby oak, poison ivy, clover & overgrown burmuda grass. All very similar to what he is eating around here. Dixie & Shadow seemed to miss him a bit (of course!) but this morning's milking went a LOT smoother without a wether stepping on my foot trying to get to the food before anyone else


In about 20 minutes yesterday evening, DH and I picked a GALLON of blackberries/dewberries. We came inside when it got too dark to see the ripe berries. Our yard help is coming over again today, hopefully it won't rain. DH is going to get him to help pick all the ripe berries they can find. I will freeze them until I have enough to do something major with. I'm really thinking wine, but I'd settle for jam.

The baby bunnies are getting plumper & furrier by the day, I can almost see them grow. Mommy #1 is going to be a good mommy, none were eaten or pushed out of the nest, she's taking very good care of them. The yard help will also be helping DH finish up the hutches we worked on over the weekend so that mommy1 can get out of my shower.

The chickens are doing well, I'm picking out ones to eat first
I believe that the two orange & blues are 1 male & 1 female. That would be COOL!
My cats have learned that Yes, these are the same flappy, pecky things that invaded our space last year. *Disdainful sniff* Thankfully, they are confined (so far...) to the backyard. They haven't yet figured out they can fly over the fence.

The feta got a "comme si comme ca" from a feta fan friend. His exact words? Not the best, but I wouldn't spit it out
I love getting opinions on food from this guy, you get his unvarnished view.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

picked a GALLON of blackberries/dewberries.

WOW! i've been dreaming of blackberry cobbler.... yummmm.....

Vita had a little scratch on her also the other day.. i think it may be that she is hangin' low...

 

[noobiechickenlady]

OFG, Dixie does indeed hang low. Hock knockers, I think you called it? Yeah, like a native tribewoman... She appears to be healing nicely, she didn't kick at all last night or this morning. The more I look at the scratch, the more I think it was a chicken.

More rabbit babies last night! 5 of them as of this morning, that brings us to a grand total of 19 rabbits Mommy #2 seems a little freaked out by the whole event. I hope she comes to herself & takes care of the little ones. I put them under a heat lamp as she hadn't pulled much fur and it was a little chilly last night.

Picked another gallon of blackberries last night, sent a quart home with a friend who was over for dinner. We had blackberry shortcake with real whipped cream for desert

DH and the yard help got the compost pile moved & re-piled. The chickens had absolutely destroyed it. They put a circle of chicken wire around it to keep it from being flung every which way. They also cleaned out our pool. DD has a birthday coming up next month and we really need to get it cleaned up & moved for her party. She's about set on having a pool party again this year. No problem for me, means all I have to prepare is a cake & some snackies. I'm thinking the black bean cake with a blackberry cream cheese frosting would be fantastic!

Probably going to pick up a pavilion from freds to put over the pool so we don't have to worry as much about sunburn. They usually have them for $20 or so. The one we had finally died after giving 3 years of service.

Baby bunny, 2 days ago.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

We are now experiencing a baby bunny attack. They are converging on our position and refuse to be defeated or deterred.

Seriously though, all my females are now quite pregnant or have babies. Male rabbits cant successfully breed until they are 6 months old at least BAH! The oldest was 8 weeks old when we got them around the fifth of April, that makes them about 14 weeks old now, the youngest were 6 weeks old. That means that my males bred just a few days after I got the dang things!!

I have a maternity ward setup & believe I am prepared for all the females to kindle. I feel bad that my young females are all bred, most likely, but the first three that have kindled seem to be old pros now, although Mommy 2 & 3 were a little freaked out by the event. We havent lost a single baby yet. Small litters, but thats for the best dont you think?

I need to trim Dixies hooves, but the heifer wont let me touch a hind leg without kicking & bucking up a storm. Im going to call the former owner & see how she handled trimmings. She may not have needed to mess with them as much since she had some rocky terrain in her area. DH is prepared to hold her down if need be, but Id hate to resort to that if we didnt need to.

More blackberries, I guess my cat is doing his job because I have not seen very many birds in the patch, no poop either. Also, the deer seem to be avoiding my area since I got the goats. Good deal!! I like having them there, but not having them eat my garden.

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, NCL you are amazing. All of those bunny and goats going on. Did yo say yo work also?

Very cute bunny pictures. Are those bun buns going to freezer camp?

I am impressed.

gina

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Heya tanks, yeah I work 8 hours daily, with a 1/2 hour commute and a 1 hour lunch. I fall into bed exhausted!!
Most of them are going to freezer camp, I'll try to sell some, the rest are nummy

Thankfully, the bunnies don't take much time in the morning. Just refill the feeders & waterers & look everybody over. Take out any nasty spots of bedding & add fresh straw & hay. Nothing in and of itself takes much time, 15-20 minutes total for milking, from sterilizing to putting the milk in the freezer to cool.
You learn to streamline, like filling the feed bowls while the equipment sterilizes & putting the milk on to cool while she finishes up eating. All my chores add up to about two & a half hours, I guess.

I putter on the other stuff, like berry picking. I didn't think about it until the sun was already down and I didn't want to brave the mosquitoes, so I skipped yesterday and picked this morning a bit.

But it works. DH does a LOT, he's a stay at home dad and does a lot of the domestic stuff, I help inside after the sun goes down. He homeschools our daughter too. She's a gigantic help in so many ways, and she's very interested in the whole deal, rabbits & blackberries & milking, oh my
She wants to milk so bad she can taste it, so I have her practicing on a thick rubber glove blown up like a ballon.
X-man couldn't care less about it. He likes to play with the goats though & will help a lot too, but for him its a chore, babygirl is actually interested

Gonna get her involved with 4H soon, there isn't much activity but more than with FFA, which is what I was in.
Edited to complete sentence... blah

 

[TanksHill]

NCL how old is your daughter? My sil told me with 4H they have classes for the little ones but they can not raise an animal until hey are 9. Is it the same for you?
That's nice about you dh doing the homeschooling. I bet your daughter just love being with daddy all day. Mine would.

I think I am going to start a thread on chores. Animals and such. How long does it take. How far do you have to walk? That kind of stuff.

gina

 

[TTs Chicks]

that's a lot of rabbits - cuite pic. Hopefully soon I'll have baby bunny pics