We have gotten 2 more chicken coops, which brings the grand total to 6. We found a retired man just up the road that builds them for a reasonable price, so hopefully more to come :)
We gave one of the kittens (Willis) away to my aunt Penny's coworker - she has 3 elementary school aged kids who adore the kitten - they renamed him to Oreo.
Mae and Lou have now been fixed, and the other 4 kittens will be fixed next month when they reach 3 months old. Then we will be kittenless for a while.
Our orchard plans were drawn out, and we found a local landscaper to do the installation. He gets started pulling up stumps and mulching the area on October 5.
We ordered a John Deere 44 hp tractor with front loader that will be ready mid-October. That will be a huge help for moving dirt around, grading land, plowing, etc. We are super excited about that.
And, finally, Jason finished the passage from the main field to the field at the front of the property, so now the animals can easily be moved between fields. There is usually a stream in the middle, but due to the drought, it's all dried up right now. But when it starts flowing again, the animals will also have a place to drink and wade.
Here's some pics from the past few weeks on the farm:
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| Feeding Norman the tortoise while all the other animals watch enviously |
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| The House Chickens |
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| The house cock |
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| Bless Lou's heart - all 5 of the kittens nursing at the same time |
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| Rock out with your flock out |
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| Evening routine |
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| Little boy giving them some scratch |
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| Lucy Llama looks lovely while Mama Llama give the stank eye |
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| Enjoyed the colorful flowers in the hanging baskets and in front of the house |
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| Got our logo on our vehicles! |
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| Well, I covered a stubborn tree stump in our front yard with compost, hoping to decay out the stump, but I got impatient and planted 3 perennials there. |
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| Driveway after some rain |
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| Yep, feeding time again! |
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| Mae loves that rain barrel |
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| Nice evening sky |
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| Hatched out some chicks! 10 Llamas on the Loose mixes from our own flock and 8 Seramas I got off eBay. |
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| Teeny tiny Serama chick |
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| Serama chick in front, Llamas on the Loose chick behind - both hatched the same day |
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| Lazy day for the kittens |
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| Getting the goats' food ready while the llamas' mouths water |
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| Lucy Llama in this menagerie |
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| Another beautiful sunset |
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| Getting those goats fed |
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| Picture perfect kittens |
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| Serama and barnyard mix |
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| Orchard plans!!! Installation starts on September 5!! |
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| A predator got himself another one... |
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| Enjoying the baby chicks |
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| Little farmhand helps to water the lawn |
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| Lucy Llama loves the camera |
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| Those kittens just won't give Lou a break! |
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| Instead of sticking to wild birds, Mae suddenly has a fancy for the chickens. |
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| Little farmhand climbing a gate like he loves to do |
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| We got Mae fixed in August so we wouldn't end up with more kittens, as much as I would like them :) She now lays like this - not very lady like... |
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| Got someone to build us some lean-to's on the side of the red building |
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| They turned out really nice! |
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| More gate climbing |
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| Dot is awesome |
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| Big beautiful butt |
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| The "compost garden" gets a border so the chickens and cats don't scratch all of the compost out |
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| Butterfly on the basil |
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| Lucy Llama in front of the scarecrow, but it looks like she's wearing a hat :) |
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| Cats are interesting, says Lucy Llama |
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| Canadian geese have been flying over the farm every evening at dusk for all of September - we always clap for them. Not sure why, but it is fun :) Kinda like cheering on runners in a race... |
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| T-ball in the front yard |
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| Get outa my face, says Mama Llama |
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| Sometimes we don't quite make it out to feed the animals until after dark. Luckily we have headlamps! |
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| Sweet June on the tractor |
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| Picked up coop #5! |
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| Sweet nephew Eli is a true kitty lover, just like me! |
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| Brannon helps to unload the new coop |
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| We put it up on concrete blocks initially |
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| More kitten hugs by Eli |
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| Throwing bread over the gate for the chickens |
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| Chasing chickens! |
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| And feeding chickens scratch |
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| And of course, doing a little gate climbing |
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| Off to feed the goats |
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| Ezra watches while Eli feeds them |
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| Replaced the concrete blocks on the new coop with wooden ones |
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| Looks much better! |
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| The kittens like to lay on empty seed bags in the garage |
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| Painted the new coop! |
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| Same colors as our house |
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| That grey chicken in the middle always gets in the pics - she is molting right now and looks a bit pitiful, but they all do this at least once a year. Not all at the same time, though. |
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| The elephant stick came along for the chicken feeding festivities |
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| Came home from picking up some hay, and found this hawk IN the chicken run. Predator discovered! That's who had been devouring our chickens in the middle of the day for all of these months. |
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| Not cool, man - not cool |
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| The llamas were like, what???? |
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| The chickens hid under the tack room for the next few hours - it looked like the hawk had tried to get the guinea since there was a wad of guinea feathers in the run, but ole Pearl is still doing fine so I guess it didn't get her too bad (you can see her behind Dot). |
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| Full moon on a late summer evening. Mae took a walk down the driveway with us. |
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| Somebody got all dressed up and proceeded to play with a lot of dirt... |
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| I got your eggs! |
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| The chicks are growing quickly - Mae is watching them in the background... They have a fancy Amazon box shelter lol |
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| Bucket head! |
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| Trying out the halloween costume on a tractor ride |
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| Coop #6 acquired! |
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| Lulu on the tractor |
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| Got coop #6 into the field, managing to avoid the storm. Perfect timing. |
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| We let the goats into the field before moving them to the backyard |
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| Lucy Llama demolished our scarecrow... |
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| She decided she loved scratching her head on it |
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| We moved the goats up behind the house temporarily. It's kinda fun having them there when we come out of the garage and being right there to greet us when we come home. |
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| Chickens and the styrofoam headed, llama-destroyed scarecrow... |
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| Little chicks venturing out beyond the coop |
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| The tiny Seramas are so adorable |
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| Ah, a year's worth of work coming to fruition - Jason has been working on a pass from the front field to the back field for a very long time now. And we're ready to cut the fence and let the llamas see their new area! |
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| Dolly Llama was the first one to show interest |
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| Then she got the other 3 to venture up there |
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| Ah, awesome abundant grass! |
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| View looking toward the front of the property |
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| Happy Fall, Y'all! Dolly sure is happy that Fall is here - see that big ole grin? |
