March 2nd, 2011
Here is a picture of one of my favorite chickens. Shhh--don't tell her sisters!
My family is notorious for playing favorites. My paternal grandmother had four grandkids and she told every single one of us that we were her favorite.
On my mom’s side of the family, they played hardball when it came to playing favorites. Once you aligned yourselves with your favorite relatives, you shunned your other kin completely. This led to some very interesting situations where family living under the same roof had to eat dinner in shifts and other such nonsense in order to avoid speaking to each other or even being in the same room together.
Because of this, I’ve always tried really hard to not play favorites with anybody. Despite my best efforts, it occasionally does happen. Recently, I have developed a strong favoritism for one of my laying hens.
Over the past decade or so, I have always had a flock of at least thirty laying hens, and have sometimes had as many as 150 or so of them, give or take. And I try to love them all equally! I have never really had a favorite chicken.
So, I don’t know how this happened, but one of my chickens managed to capture my heart. She came to our farm as a chick this past fall along with 29 of her newly-hatched siblings. She didn’t do anything special, but somehow, I really took a shine to her.
Now, I give her special treats almost every day. I have been trying hard to figure out what breed of chicken she is so I can find her relatives and make a scrapbook and family tree for her. (Ha, just kidding!). Anyhow, as much as I like her, I try hard not to make her siblings jealous. Maybe I’ll take a play from my grandmother’s book and pull each one of them aside to let them know that they are my “favorite”.
Tags: backyard chickens, laying hen
Posted in livestock | No Comments »
February 27th, 2011
Red maple trees in bloom are one of the first signs of spring for us here on the farm.
What do peepers, red maple trees and watery eyes have in common? And for all y’all who don’t live down here in central North Carolina, when I say peepers, I don’t mean pervs looking into my bedroom window. I’m talking about little teeny frogs that start making a huge racket day and night as they celebrate the start of baby peeper-making season.
Yes, peepers, red maple trees and watery eyes are all signs of spring happening on the farm right now.
In addition to the peeper’s singing, the red maple trees blossom and give the forest a reddish halo, and everyone’s eyes are all watery from the pollen, including the horses. Yes, horses have allergies too.
Happy spring!
Posted in horses, weather | No Comments »
January 31st, 2011
Even though I’ve totally had it with winter and can’t wait until spring hits, I have to admit that some of the snow and ice we’ve had here has been truly gorgeous to look at.
One of the neatest things we’ve had going on ice-wise this winter have been the ice spikes that have formed in various locations around the farm. I have read that it’s rare for them to form from water that isn’t pure distilled water, and even then they usually have to be coaxed and fussed over in order to grow. I guess we just lucked out: at our place, they formed from rain water, without any help from us. When I asked Dave how he thought it happened, he said “I don’t know. We just get some really cool ice stuff here.” So, there’s the best answer that I’m ever likely to get.
Posted in weather | No Comments »
January 12th, 2011
The snow cover didn't stop us from using the trencher that we rented to install our new water line.
Our friends at Hertz Equipment Rental in Apex, NC helped us out yet again by renting us some equipment that helped make our lives much easier! The glorious diesel guzzler that we rented this time around was a trencher.
By using the trencher, we were able to dig a 600 foot long, 24 inch deep trench much faster than we would have been able to with shovels!
Yep, one day with the trencher was enough to dig all of the trenches and get water line run through them. Lo and behold, we now have running water at several very convenient locations on the farm. This will really cut down on the number of hoses that I run over with the lawn mower, which also cut down on the number of hose repairs that Dave has to do!
The water line will also help to eliminate one of my biggest summer pet peeves. Much of the over 1,000 feet of hose that we’ve had running all over the farm is shiny black hose that looks an awful lot like a black snake. So, when I’m walking through tall grass in the summer time, the dang hose often manages to give me a start as I step on or near it. I won’t miss that at all!
Tags: do-it yourself, farm construction projects, trencher, water line
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
