The ORIGINAL Bruce

After Dad's comments on my last post, I thought I would see if I could find some pictures of my Grandpa Bruce ... turns out I didn't have to dig very far!

I love these pictures ...

Yeah ... looks like he definitely knew a thing or two about chickens!

And dairy cows ... "Prize Cow!"

He was awefully handsome, wasn't he?  Kinda like this Bruce ...

(Come on, you didn't think I could post pictures without ONE of the little guy, did you?  Wish I had one of him with his spiffy new haircut ...)

Now, for answers to a few questions that have come up recently:

It's a little-known fact that you don't have to have a rooster to have eggs.  You do, however, have to have a rooster to get CHICKS (ie: fertilized eggs).  Makes sense when you think about it, doesn't it?  And since - as I said before - we don't plan to raise chickens, we have no need for a rooster.  I'm fairly confident that most people who have spent time around roosters (a typical rooster, not a weird "nice" rooster, that is ..) feel the same way I do ... better off without 'em. 

When you go to the feedstore to buy baby chicks, you can buy "straight run" chicks, which means they haven't been sexed so you get both roosters and hens.  Or, for a little more money, you can get chicks that have been sexed, so you know you are getting all pullets (baby hens).  In answer to the last question: I have no idea how to determine if the chick is a rooster or a hen.  That's why we paid more money.  :)

Hey!  Those "answers" totally made it sound like I know what I'm talking about!  Ha Ha!  That's funny!  I really don't know anything about chickens.  Anything AT ALL.  I actually had to buy a book about chickens just to learn the basics. 

And I'm on page nine. 

But I did already know that part about the eggs ...

P.S.  Gage assures me the snake was a bullsnake ... but I agree it doesn't look anything like the bullsnakes in Western Kansas. 

Chicken Farmin'

I mentioned a few posts back that I would talk more about our chickens and ducks at a later date.  And while I call it chicken farming, it's really more egg farming, as we don't actually plan to raise and breed chickens ourselves. ... primarily because I don't like roosters.  :)  

It all started in late April when I started thinking about how great it would be to have a few chickens and get fresh eggs every day.  The thought had barely even formed in my head when Gage said to me, "I think we should get chickens."  We didn't even give the idea time to marinate.  We went a bought chicks the very next day. 

Which was April 30th. 

Our anniversary.  

We bought each other chickens on our anniversary.  

We're weird people.

Anyway, we bought ten that day - four different kinds, just to experiment.  On his way home from school a few days later, Gage stopped by the co-op to see if they had any different kinds.  They did, and he bought four more chicks.  For some reason, the cashier offered to throw in 3 wood ducklings for free.  Not really sure what we were going to do with ducks, Gage took them anyway.  What harm could there be in having a few ducks around, right? 

While the baby chicks were cute and calm and would even let Bruce pat them and coo at them and squeal "chick!" a million times, those little ducks were just flat LOONEY.  Our first mistake when Gage brought them home, was to take one out of it's box inside our house.  They were so tiny and cute, we knew Bruce would just love them.  I have NEVER seen anything so small move so fast.  We chased that dumb duck all over our kitchen, through the dining room, through Gage's office and finally cornered it in the safe room.  We ignored the nagging voice in our minds saying that this animal was not normal.  We took the captive and the two other ducks and built a little home for them in a large barrel with a grate over the top (trust me ... they were TINY.  We could have easily fit 10 more in that barrel). 

A few days later, when checking on the birds, I found one of the baby ducks dead.  No reason.  Just died.  Maybe it had a heart attack.  Maybe it had a panic attack.  Who knows, but it was gone. 

When I lifted the grate to remove the dead bird, the other two tried to JUMP out, like creatures possesed.  The second one died a few days later.  Gage thought it would be okay to put the last surviving duck in with the chicks.  Its feet had barely landed in the cage before it shot through the bars and was gone.  Maybe it's still living in our shed.  Maybe it got eaten by a snake.  In any case, that little sucker is GONE.  Good riddance.

Back to the chicks ...

Gage has designed a chicken coop that can be moved every few days.  This way, the chickens can be kind of free range without getting eaten by coyotes, or bobcats, or farm cats.  So far, it seems to be working well.  Once they are bigger, the coop will be out in the pasture, but while they are small, we want them near the house.

Emily is determined to make pets of them. 

Which is fine, until they stop laying eggs.  Then we are going to have a problem.  :)

Bruce wanted to help.

Emily is such a good big sister!  Holding up a chick so Bruce can pat it.

Nicer

I couldn't keep looking at that picture of that snake.  Here is something nicer to look at ...

Latest Bruce news: little man has FINALLY grown a tooth - one of his top canines, so it looks like he has a fang.  :)  He has also learned that he CAN walk.  He just doesn't like to.  It's really stressing out his mommy and daddy ...

In other Bruce news, he is a talking machine!  He gets on kicks when he will repeat just about anything you say (watch out ...) and is even saying some sentences!  Last night in the bath he said, "Stop it, daddy!" when Gage started draining the water.  :)

EEK

We learned something last week.  Lucy is good at "treeing" things.  See?  Here she is, looking up at her "prey."  Now wait, I can hear your questions now.  "It looks like she's on your porch ...  What could she have treed on your porch?  And WHERE?"

Look closely ...

Yeah.

At least we know she's not going to sit passively by and let snakes take over the farm. 

 But still ...

And NO, I did not take these pictures (are you crazy?).

I wasn't even home at the time, thank GOD.

Weekend pics ... before the weekend

So I'm a little slow getting these pictures up from last weekend.  Andy, Libby, Kalo and Maggie came to visit, which was AWESOME ... just what we needed.  A little down-time with family was just perfect!

The weather was a little chilly, but that didn't stop the kids from playing outside! 

They made good use of the sandpile ...

Had fun on the swing ...

Fished in the pond ... 

Caught one!  (actually, the kids caught LOTS!)

Threw rocks in the creek ...

And inspected the fish that Gage and Andy caught!  Yum!  Fish Fry!

(I can't believe I didn't get pictures of two of Kalo's favorite things ... going over the bridge and picking STRAWBERRIES!  Libby I hope you got some pics.)

When it was too cold to go out, we had plenty of fun inside!  Maggie thought it was great that Bruce would push her in the wagon.  :)

Cheeser!

Playing "Ponies" ...

and Playing board games!  Good times!

What's Growing on the Farm

Things that are growing right now on our farm:

... Daisies and Chives

... Broccoli, which is DE-licious

... Strawberries!  I just picked the first ripe ones two days ago.  You have no idea how good a strawberry can be until you've had one straight off the vine!

... My cherry tomato plant - can you believe it already has green tomatoes? 

... Volunteer cilantro

... Baby chicks 

... Yes, we're chicken farmers now.  More on that later ...

... Strangly enough, this hedge post that Gage cut last winter and used to make a fence has decided to start growing.  Weird.

... Little boys

 "This sand doesn't taste good!"

Now, things that are no longer growing on our farm:

Baby ducks - rest in peace, you crazy, crazy little things (more later on this, too ...)

The grass on the front half of our lawn.  Gage: "What?  You told me to take care of the lawn.  You mean you wanted me to MOW it???"

P.S.  No, he really wasn't that confused.  We decided to use the front portion of our HUGE yard for blueberries, which means we have to begin amending the soil now if we want to plant blueberries anyime in the next few years.  Gage made me come out halfway through the job to offer moral support, as he was ... you know ... tilling up our yard.