Next Adventure!

It's hard to get rolling on a Saturday morning, but we are off to the races, so to speak. Bailey and I are loading up Powerstroke and Obediah and little Versie to head up to Cottonwood for a goat show! We won't be back until late tomorrow, so we are leaving the place int he capable hands of Charlie and Wyatt, as well as the farm dogs =).

Presently there are ten baby chicken in the house, five Brahmas, two Silkies, two Cochins and a d'Uccle.  The tiny Cochin front and center, as well as the little Silkie better seen on the right in the lower photo seem to ave the makings of being visiting chickens. They love being held and played with and jump right into your hand to go for a look around.

These group of them seems to like the camera, too! The remaining Brahmas hide when the camera comes around!

We have had five straight days with rain storms. Not all day, but at least once or twice a day. The geese are loving it, but the mud and the craziness have laying a bit off. The Ameraucana who laid this tiny green egg is two years old!

Well, with Bailey and I heading off, I thought I would share the contest one last time, and remind you to enter, we will draw winners shortly after we get back!

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Share with friends and have a great holiday weekend, cuddle your animals and stay safe!

Sweet New Faces

I am finding myself up late in lesson plans and sitting with a sweet old dog who is sneezing a good bit tonight.

Since I wandered over to check for news, I thought I would take a moment and introduce a couple new little friends...

Please pardon the photo quality, but this first one was from yesterday i the little nest box when we went to check on the three broodies in the Silkie group. She was still wet, so she stayed with the hens until today. As we have been relocating snakes from near there again, we went ahead and pulled the little one to the brooder in the living room. I didn't get any new photos, though, Wyatt is beginning to take the two Silkies that hatched for this year's showmanship birds.

We still had six eggs in the incubator, and Wyatt thought for sure last night that one was talking. I thought he was just hearing the very loud little ones in the brooder, but he was right. Today, a little bantam Cochin joined us, running about the incubator happily.

Once dry, Bailey lifted the top, and the baby chick jumped into her hand. Old man Vegas had to see the new little addition. He isn't too fond of the loud brooder, but has a soft sweet heart!

Well, everyone seems to be quieting for the night, though Shadow did sneak in and lay on my side of the bed. She worries when her big "brother" isn't himself, especially if her doting kisses don't fix things straightaway, or with her bringing him the bowl.  I suppose I should get some sleep, morning comes early, and I never know what the new day will bring! Have a good night, all.

More about our Giveaway Prizes!

The other day we introduced you to the first two of our giveaway prizes- our handmade all natural soap and special Patriot's Dream tote, as well as our all natural lotion bar and Patriot's Dream tote, shown off by two of our little friends, fluffy and baby.

Also in this giveaway, are a feathered hair clip,

and handmade crystal earrings!

Who couldn't use a little pick me up on a Monday?

We will be announcing winners on Labor Day Monday, so you have this week to enter, and some entries can be put in daily!  Have fun, and please share with friends to give them a smile, too!

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Patriot's Dream Farm Contest!

Fall giveaway coming here!

These two little cuties would like to share our new giveaway with you!!!

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It has been a rough week around here- big storms that brought more wind than rain, a challenging hatch, and more. So since we believe that you make your own happiness, we are throwing a giveaway!!! Four awesome prizes, we will highlight this week, including a handmade bar of soap and a tote bag, a lotion bar and tote bag, a pair of earrings and a feathered hair clip!

To get things started, these are the tote bags, and the winner will select their own variety of soap or lotion bar! I will share photos of the other prizes in the morning!

One Case For and Against Special Ingredients...

You know those designer super-foods and mega-supplements? You know the ones I mean, which are all over the news today, from special fancy melons in France or cute little fruits from the mountains of Machu Pichu or seeds or even little blueberries or pomegranate extract? They were just normal foods, now they are over the top good for you or maybe they were never considered that great before, but now someone has good results with them in one research study, so everyone wants to try them?Next week, there will be a whole new love affair with a whole new list. Or maybe not. Some are gone in a flash, others find traction with a core group of people who find a benefit.

Nothing will take the place of a good, balanced diet and exercise in keeping you healthy, but for some, they find solace for certain conditions or help with weight loss or whatever else by including these in their lifestyle regimen. Great nutrients, regardless of where they are found, are great nutrients, and it is always good when you get the best quality nutrients in one food, more bang for your buck! After five years of working in university research, I know that no study is tried and true for everyone, and no exercise or supplement is, either.

Case in point, when I was early on in my days in research, the nurse on our study was using a joint supplement. One of the head researchers who had written the study, focusing on early knee osteoarthritis, felt very strongly that this was like a placebo effect- like a sugar pill given to some in research, causing a psychological improvement in symptoms. Last I heard, she is exercising more while taking it, he still thinks it is all in her head.

In the research we were doing, some folks had great benefit, others had additional health factors that led to more concerns, or needed more modifications than others.  Every person is different.  We can find a lot of common underlying ground, but no two people are exactly the same, or react the same to treatment.

I have also seen many instances where certain brands worked better than others.

But I digress.

One of these such super elements is Emu Oil. Some folks have dome to swear by it, for everything from psoriasis to eczema to arthritis and cancer, among a whole host of other things. The research on Emu Oil, however is still early, and while some folks report amazing effects, others  have not found any benefit at all.  Are the benefits a placebo? I don't know!  Funny thing is, they likely won't know, as the same sizes (number of folks in the study who actually complete the whole study and in the way they are supposed to) are often not that large. Part of that is because human subjects (people who volunteer for research) have lives outside of the research, and aren't always that compliant, so it's very difficult to make all of the conditions the same!

Nevertheless, Emu Oil is very popular in soaps and lotions, especially the all natural specialty ones. We have never been about merely have pretty, sweet smelling products, because the line was designed in response to my daughter's health issues, and expanded by individual requests for more types that either included or omitted specific oils or essential oils for the needs of different folks. So, as the preliminary research does tout great results for folks with arthritis and skin issues, and I have been reading more and more, we decided to try it.

This fledgling attempt with Emu Oil is available in a Emu Oil and Glycerin, lavender essential oil scented soap at present. I am interested in the feedback of our customers before expanding this too far, though I may try this with goat's milk formulas for the holidays, since I now have a local source for proper Emu Oil. The present recipe seems rather soft to me, with almost an oil film on it, that glistens, leading the kids to call it "the sparkly soap"

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that this is Emu Oil, rendered from Emu, and is not vegetarian. This means that any of the products we include in it in are not vegetarian or vegan. While this might seem obvious, there are a lot of names out there that make products  sound like something other than what they are, and folks might just not expect to have actual Emu Oil in soap.  Really, it doesn't sound like the norm now, does it?  I will take a moment later to blog about vegetarian and vegan soap options and ingredients, but if you have any questions at all about a soap or product you are interested in, just shoot me an email or message, I am glad to help you find what you need. =).  Additionally, if you would like to volunteer to be a product tester for new products, let me know! You would receive free products in exchange for your honest review to help shape the best natural products. Have a great day, and keep your questions and requests coming!

Country Bumpkins Depart the Farm for the Big City!

This past week, the kids and I drove up to Phoenix for a home school event at the Sea Life Aquarium up there. From the time I downloaded the directions, we laughed because this was at an aquarium in a MALL! The kids already know that driving up to Phoenix makes me grip the steering wheel tightly and worry, as the traffic is intense with weird roads named multiple things and highways with six plus lanes in some places. Wyatt asked how many extra hours I was planning for the drive, and we were all glad to see it was just off I-10, which is a little less crazy. So it wasn't much of a jump when Wyatt began joking about us country people heading for the big city. (Please note, I have driven up there several times lately, now!)

So the kids got to take part in a dissection, it was really well run, and we will continue wit that is our biology work this week, following the tarantula and more as we kick off the science for this year. The displays were pretty and the education was hands on and close up. 

Scheduled feedings, vibrant colors and music and interactive educational stuff made a nice experience.

We wandered the huge mall and enjoyed gelato, and since they had a Rain-forest Cafe, and Bailey had been to one while away on a robotics trip a couple years ago, she wanted to show Wyatt the cool stuff.

Wyatt enjoyed trying on hats, 

we found a red, white and blue fish, (that excitement really only underscored the rednecks in the city theory, huh?)

and since the IKEA store was one exit down the road, we decided that would be a good one to check off the list of things to see once in your life.

They tried out desk chairs,

Bailey checked out the wardrobes to see if she could find her way to Narnia,

Wyatt tried to see what the chicks feel like before hatching,

we tried random snacks they had heard about...

And laughed about how faded the stamps were from the aquarium.

Then we drove on home to do evening feedings and collect the eggs and all the normal things we do every day. We are looking forward to a couple more field trips, hopefully before the end of the month, as we haven't gotten to use the Blue Star museum pass yet!

Kicking the week off with some science...

Sorry, I have been a bit out of touch. It has been a crazy week thus far, ups and downs and ins and outs. So I thought I would share a very messy table with you. Actually, it is one of those things I never expected. We did a tarantula unit in science on Tuesday. Bailey worked Monday, so with Tuesday on all these other things,we didn't quite finish our Tarantula unit yet.  But we will get back to it after we play catch up on the chores today.

So, step one was drawing all the parts and the whole tarantula, observing, etc. I notice they decided to use my water bottle for circles- did they have to share it by sitting it next to the jar with the arachnid? 

They consulted books and compared information, and enjoyed colored pencils and tried to see what the other forgot or missed. I hope to finish this unit soon, though a Facebook friend told me we should feed and keep it until it sheds its exoskeleton. Ugh, if it does okay living on the back porch, we shall see...

Wyatt did set up an experiment with dye afterward, with different concentrations and total liquid amounts, to see how far the color would travel.  He also practiced looking at experimental error with pooling as opposed to travelling. He broke it all down with me last night, and did the measurements. We will work on the math and a new style of reporting later today. too.

Yup, I have been at it with the sunset photos again!

These two were on the way back from the market.

This one didn't look nearly as pretty as the scene, but I thought it would be fun to see how much you really can see from the house itself.

We were out late Tuesday night to watch the tail end of the meteor shower.  We each picked a constellation to teach. I went with the dippers so they could not go easy=). Wyatt taught Perseus was appropriate for the Perseid shower, and so Bailey taught Cassiopeia.

It still really feels like time gets away from us too quickly,and we don't truly have a schedule down yet. But then, there are only two weeks left until the blue star museum pass runs out, so we are going to try to get using that privilege!

Well, lots to do, and lots more to catch you all up on later today when I get a chance.  Got favorite posts? Let me know. Got things you think I should share or explain? Want to be a guest blogger? I love hearing from you all!

Sunday Funday?

Well after a long night, where Vegas slept beneath the brooder, and the baby chick was annoyed with a moth and hollering the whole night, it took a bit to get me rolling to have anyone ready for church! Bailey wasn't sure if she had allergies or was getting sick again, so she stayed home and Wyatt and I went to church.  As we pulled in, a boy from the 4-H club dashed across the parking lot to say hi and welcome Wyatt.  How sweet!

We ran a couple of errands, and found some cute little terracotta frogs for the front yard at a yard sale. Wyatt completed a math test on the way home, and we made lunch and he sat down to work on schoolwork he should have finished last week as I headed off to tear apart the shower and Bailey set up a Chemistry experiment.Life is never dull around here!

It looks like the shower is going to take longer than I hoped, will work on another stage of that tomorrow. After dinner, some folks stopped by the farm to look at something Charlie has available for sale, and little baby chick, who is presently on the way to either the name Munchkin or Cookie Monster, got her first round as baby chick ambassador.

Isn't she cute? I think she hatched a little early, based  upon the dates I have listed, and so far no one has hatched to be her friend, so she is spending a lot of time being held and cuddled!  She doesn't seem to mind at all. =)

I did transplant a few tomato starts. It was time to give up on those yellow pear tomatoes. As much as I enjoyed them, I will have to remember that they need to be earlier plants for next year!

During the evening news, I got the recent batch of Goat's Milk Lavender Soap into the packaging.  This was after reprinting all of the labels, because I forgot to put the cocoa butter on the ingredient list!  Oops...

 These photos are form an Emu Oil project I am working on. What is Emu Oil? What role does it play in soap? I will get to all of that tomorrow, I promise! It is enough for a post all in and of its own.

I will also cover the ins and outs of vegetarian soap, too!  But if the post gets too long, I might separate them!

For now, cute little paw prints and soaps and baby chicks will have to hold us all over until tomorrow, because I am TIRED!  Love to all!

Simple Saturday

Well, we slept in until about 7am today.  As we finally got rolling, the boys quickly followed the chirping to the new baby in the incubator.  While I set up the brooder, Wyatt took the new little munchkin outside.  

The little one hollered and hollered all day, but no one else emerged from their eggs in the rather full incubator, so "she" is still by herself  in the brooder.  Poor thing! But she is getting attention from us until she has friends!

Sorry about the sideways photo here. Sometimes blogger gets the best of me. Shadow Paws actually cried for Wyatt while he was at football practice last night, so she didn't really want to share him with the little chick. Every time he went to work with her, she laid on the floor and gave them dirty looks. Poor baby! Not "her" fault! Goofy puppy!

This is the little one in the brooder. She was getting along okay, but Bailey and I kept looking at one leg and worrying, 

We think it is a little loose and not lining up right, so we splinted it. Now she is walking much more correctly, but we have to leave the corrective measures on until the muscles catch up.

We lost a day of schooling this week to football stuff, so after I made waffles, Wyatt was set to school work, Bailey to Chem experiments, and me to cleaning.  Charlie had me make out a shopping list and headed to town, and the post office to try to figure out what has now gone wrong with our mail. Looks like I have to take it on again Monday.

Charlie did some shopping, and in the end felt like bringing home special things for us- how sweet!

He brought us a new electric toothbrush, and the dogs new dog beds.

Shadow needed no convincing. She decided immediately it was hers, and got comfy.

Vegas took considerably more effort. He stood by them and demanded his old bed back, then laid on the floor and grunted.  Poor old boy! Charlie carefully helped him get on it at one point, but it didn't work.  Then tonight, after Wyatt took Shadow Paws to get in bed for the night (Spoiled puppy has her own pillows on Wyatt's bed), Vegas walked across both beds two or three times and decided Shadow had broken the one in well enough, then laid down to sleep.

Well, I am pretty beat. I don't have much to show for my day, to be honest. I made three meals, cleaned the fridge, a little laundry, taught math, helped the baby chicken, and cleaned the kitchen.  Hopefully I get more done tomorrow!!!  For now, though, good night!

Container Garden Thieves of Personal Space

So, if I were this tomato plant, I would be wondering where the respect for my personal space.  I have watched this summer as honeydew, cantaloupe, cucumber and zucchini vined their way into other pots.  I untangled the regularly, relocated some plants to large planters, and kept trying. And when I unwound them, they were frequently found back in a similar fashion after the next rain.

You can click on these photos to enlarge, if you like, and see the large leaves winding up the cage of the tomato plant.  And if you look closer, you will see the honeydew fruit hanging off the front.  And to answer the question, yes, it keeps pulling the cage over. Fortunately the tomato plant is holding its own anyway!

I wonder if the tomato plant somehow wants to tell the honeydew, "Hey you have plenty of sunlight and vertical space right next door. Why do you feel the need to mess with me?" For now, I guess all that is left is to see how long the cage can sustain the fruit, and not sacrifice the tomato plant or the crop yield. I will try to share a photo as it gets bigger, if I can/ Have yours done this?

Attack of the Green Tomato Hornworms...

Last night, I subbed two evening classes. I am normally a morning workout person, and truthfully, a morning person in general.  My mind starts to slow down after 4pm or so, I was glad to teach two strong classes, then Bailey and I ran a couple errands on the way home.  She settled into a few last math problems, and I headed out to water. I was half way through the watering when I realized something had eaten the majority of the leaves off the Pichu plant.  Whoa! I posted on line for ideas,as I thought it hadn't hit the tomato plants.

By morning light, I was sick and not standing up well. I am hoping that qualifies for how I could have missed these giant worms blending in with the plants.  But when someone had posted the idea when I was trying to read emails this morning, the kids offered to help.  And they helped pull them off the plants- over and over and over...

The green horned worms grabbed hold of the kids fingers and didn't want to give up their muchies.  The kids gathered them up and did want farm kids do with worms on a little farm.

The picked them one by one off the plants, and found them on other plants I hadn't noticed before. Then they put them in a big jar and went out on a little tour...

of the chicken coops.

Bugs and worms are great nutrition for the chickens, and considered to be one part of why pastured (non-factory farmed) poultry beat the factory farm poultry in terms of Vitamin D and many other nutrients in the eggs they produce. Dramatically, hands down, by leaps and bounds. 

Unfortunately for the plants, but fortunately for the chickens, there were several worms.

While the roosters in this pen are favored by the hens for being nice and gentle, the clearly need a lesson in chivalry, they chose to eat first, and one even ran off with a hornworm without sharing!

I made a big deal of that discussion with Wyatt Clay. I sincerely hope to raise a good young man with manners and a servant's heart who knows how to be a gentleman, so I sure hope that the more we discuss it, the better it takes! And I hope he teaches those goofy chickens!

Anyhow, that is what happens to worms that eat our crops around here!  The cycle of life, in a way. So perhaps this rambling is a lesson to me about no blogging when sick, but hope you all have a great night, and a beautiful tomorrow. Feed your animals well, water precisely, and check for bugs. Any crazy stories to share? We would love to hear them!