Took Zelda back home and moved the guineas out to the farm

Well, like I said in the previous post, I deeply regretted moving Zelda the cat out to the farm and vowed that if she showed back up, I would bring her home.  I went back out to the farm to put the chickens up yesterday afternoon, and I called for her for at least 30 minutes.  Then I heard her meowing loudly - it was coming from the woods near the "upstairs" coop.  So I got her cat carrier ready and put her in it and brought her home.  It wasn't 15 minutes after she got back home that she was on top of the guinea brooder again.  So I decided to bring the guineas out to the farm sooner rather than later.  They made the trip earlier today.  They seem to be doing okay with the other chickens.  Here's some pics from yesterday and today.

Zelda's coming home!

I gave the chickens some yummy watermelon that we had leftover.  They devoured it.

Look closely and you can see 2 little birds sitting on a branch on the right side of the fire pit.  We have a beautiful family of blue birds out at the farm and I've tried so hard to get a good pic of them.  This is the best I have been able to do so far after multiple attempts.  They are the brightest blue!  I believe there are 3 of them altogether.

Home, sweet home :)

All of the "upstairs" chickens, right after the guineas were introduced.

The guineas - they are so pretty and very interesting, kind of like a cross between a chicken and a turkey.  I can't wait to see how beautiful they are when they grow up.

Here you can see how tiny the guineas are in comparison to the juveniles.  The juveniles are the 7 babies that hatched just a couple of weeks ago.  They sure do grow fast!

All good things... must come to an end...

Well, I had a telephone job interview on last Monday for a traveling consultant position in Yonkers, NY.  And I got the call later that day that let me know I had gotten the job.  I will start on next Monday.  So my full-time farming stint has come to an end, at least for the next 6 months.  The job is a 6 month contract, and I will be flying to NYC on Monday mornings and flying back on Thursday evenings.  It's exciting, scary, bittersweet.  Not having a "real" job was really driving me insane.  But to go from one extreme to the other is no doubt going to be difficult.  Being away from the family and animals for those 4 days every week will make me very sad.  Plus, Jason will have the added responsibility of taking care of Ezra in the mornings and in the evenings on those 4 days - which of course makes me feel guilty.  But it's only for 6 months.  It was this or nothing, and nothing was just not cutting it any longer.

Looking back on the things I've done over the last few months of joblessness, there's a couple that I'm proud of and many more that I'm not.  
Proud of:  painted the barn, painted the chicken coop, sawed down a bunch of trees, donated bone marrow, learned how to hatch chickens and successfully hatched out at least a couple dozen.
Not proud of: didn't ever cut Peetie's toenails, drank way more than I should have, gained weight, watched the first 3 seasons of Dawson's Creek on Netflix, didn't ever get to where I made dinner every night or even most nights.

Frankly, I sucked at being a stay-at-home mom slash full-time farmer.  I'm just a lot better at going to a job and getting paid for using my brain.  Ezra is better off at daycare during the week, and my few accomplishments out at the farm do not come close to justifying not having a job.  But I gave it a go.  And it was a nice spring/summer.  I hope that when I become worn down at work, I can look back at this experience and know wholeheartedly that the grass is not greener in the unemployment line.

Here's a few pics from the last week or so out at the farm.

Barn painting completed!

MooMan and Stevie got into the paint before I could get the lid back on...

Yum, paint...

I let Mama Llama out of the fence to chow down on some "other side of the fence" grass - Brutus was jealous.

Took the 7 newly hatched chicks out to the farm to the upstairs coop to room with Cindy and Brenda

The "downstairs" chickens followed me up to the "upstairs" coop.  I just love our beautiful blue maran rooster!  Hopefully, he won't get all mean like our last rooster did.

The downstairs flock enjoying some morning grass

I love our little olive egger rooster.  Too bad he won't be laying any olive eggs.  He is the one chick that hatched out of 6 eggs I ordered off Ebay from Maryland, I believe.

The big laying ladies

Our beautiful white wyandotte hen.  She is just gorgeous!

Zelda made the move out to the farm.  I hatched 10 guineas in the garage back at the house, and she got into the brooder and took 6 of the guineas.  So she got moved out to the farm.  I deeply regret it now and will bring her back home if she shows back up.  She was there yesterday morning, but this morning I called for her and she wasn't there.

There's Zelda on the right behind the chicken run.

My beautiful kitty

Ezra picking up rocks.  There's no shortage of rocks out there for him...

Hanging with the chicks and painting the barn

Here's some pics from the past week.

Dolly Llama getting some green leaves

Check out all of our chickens!  They are begging to get out and peck around.

I thought this chick was having some issues.  Turns out it just liked hanging out on its back.  A week later and it's just fine.

Our newest chicks - 7 total hatched out.

Dolly and the goats got to go outside the fence.  Brutus was jealously looking at them.

Dolly

Mama Llama was sunbathing.  She looked all puny so I decided I should deworm her.

This is right after that heifer spit on me.  Grrrrr!  Dolly's in the background like, you better not mess with my mama!

We brought Norman some Romaine lettuce.

Here's Norm's abode.

We got all of the supplies to put up our fence for the goats, but didn't quite get it done this weekend.  Decided it would be more fun to go hang out on the lake in our neighborhood.

Here's Brenda, our crippled chicken, and her friend Cindy

Brenda's right leg is a little mangled.  She hatched that way.  Other than the leg, she is a gorgeous chicken - a white Wyandotte.

Good ole Stevie trying to get in Jason's truck - and Jason resisting.

Got started painting the barn.  The llamas thought it was very interesting.

Making progress.  Hanging out with the chickens.

The chicken got painted a little too - look on its back.

The chickens pecking around below while I was on the ladder painting.

Stevie and MooMan were worn out.

Our wonderful menagerie of animals

More progress painting the barn.

Different angle

Done with the green (disregard the unpainted gable...)

Read the sign - no kidding!

The goats were revived and got into the paint.

Stevie thought it would be fun to lick the paintbrush.  MooMan preferred to eat my washcloth.

Check out Stevie's beautifully painted hoof.

I still love him though :)

Got a little something on your chin...

Now That's how you paint a hoof.

Brought the chicks inside to hang out a little last night.

Got the white trim on the barn today.  Still need to paint the gable...

That's all for this week.