Chickens

Painted Turtle

Kobe and I came across this creature early last week before the field was mowed. I believe he/she is a painted turtle.

Field to Barn

The first cut of hay off our field yielded about 370 bales last Thursday. Since we don't have the equipment to mow, rake, or bale the hay, our neighbors help out. For that, they get a cut, so not all of the bales end up in our barn. 

A Barn Cat's Rough Life

Up on the Roost

Bees

Ruffled

Friday was the laying chickens' first excursion into the great outdoors. It took some finesse to catch the chickens and nudge them out the door of their coop.

Feathers were ruffled as the girls examined their new environment.

They all stuck close together as they explored their run.

Finally scratching and pecking in the grass.

Charlie couldn't understand why the chickens were so frazzled about being outside on a gorgeous day.

Vegetable Garden

With a lot of help from my Dad, we got the vegetable garden planted last Friday. It took a couple of hours.

Before planting... 

... after planting. We laid down a couple of soaker hoses to make watering easier.

We're going to have a lot of zucchini and yellow squash.

This is a row of peppers.

We planted corn, summer squash, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, peppers, beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Time will tell if it was successful. The ground wasn't as tilled as it needed to be, and there will be deer and rabbits to contend with, but hopefully we'll see those plants produce.

Rollin'

Update: What Became of the Meaties

We've been without the meat birds for a week-- last Friday they were put into a pallet "cage" in the back of a truck and taken to the Amish butcher. (I tried to take a photo of their final journey, but my camera phone wasn't working).

The next day, we picked up 22 processed birds which promptly went into the deep freeze when they arrived back at home. Last Friday I finally got a chance to cook one, and it was really good!

Garlic-herb chicken from the crock pot 

You can't have a chicken dinner without biscuits.

I weighed six of the birds, which ranged from 5-6.4 lbs. for their finished weight. While I did not really enjoy raising these chickens, the final product is pretty tasty.

Going Solo, er Double!

Monday was a busy day at the office. Some time between all of the phone calls, emails, data entry, and gazing at the lovely green trees, blue sky and sunshine out my office window, an idea popped into my head: "It would be a great day to take Charlie for a drive."

In the past, I've been a little leery of hitching a horse by myself.What if I can't get someone to help me? What if I don't connect all the harness straps together correctly? What if the horse won't stand still while I'm trying to get on to the cart? What if I can't get the harness or bridle on the horse? (Charlie's good about being harnessed and bridled, but he is 6 feet tall at his withers while I'm only 5'6").

Yesterday was the day to get over all those excuses. My driving mentor was out of town and my husband was in the house (albeit in earshot in case something went wrong). I've been driving for 2 1/2 years now so I sure as heck ought to know how a harness goes together and gets hooked up to the cart. Not to mention I've been hauling hay bales and 50 lbs. bags of feed around for the last year, so I'm certainly strong enough to throw the harness over his back.

Charlie handled everything as the calm draft horse that he is. He was really patient while I checked, double checked, and triple checked that everything was correct on his harness. The biggest obstacle I faced was the cart-- the one I have is really heavy and hard for me to maneuver on my own. Charlie got poked in the rear end a few times, but eventually we got everything connected. He stood perfectly still after I untied the lead rope from the fence and got settled in the driver's seat. When I asked, he  strolled away from the hitch rail like a perfect gentleman.

Since Charlie hadn't been driven since February, we mostly walked around the hay field and arena for about 30 minutes. We did some figure eights, stopping, turning, backing, plus a little trotting. He will probably end up pulling the wagon at the corn maze this fall, so he needs to get into shape. My goal is to work with him at least 2-3 times a week over the summer to get him in better condition.

Horses!