Catch-up Day!

I took this photo leaving the farmer's market last night. Hard to believe that market will only be going through February. We are thinking for the time being, I will put more time into our own farm stand before committing to another market.

The sunsets certainly are beautiful!

While Bailey was at her town class today, I got a few errands run, checked on a friend, and got a little time for cardio! It was only 2.5 miles on the elliptical, but I was so thankful to do it with all the ways I have barely been teaching classes and students and athletes since I got sick a couple weeks back.  Moderate intensity, but consistent, a good step back so soon I can do more!

I knew I had made these and set them aside, but it took me until today to find them to go with another project.  Sometimes I feel certain I could misplace my own head if it weren't attached!  And all because I put things where I think they will be safe and easy to find...

Some of the plant cuttings I had rooting were ready to be transplanted.  These are a couple of them, but also two mint plants and one of the red leafed house plants I have somehow kept going since one of my clients, who was on the Game and Fish board, gave it to me years ago in a glass jar, just a cutting with a beautiful root mass.

These are all new plant cuttings in water for the next batch of mint and house plants to filter the air.  It is hard to see, but there are still a couple jars on the left where I will start some more mint. I have a special experiments I hope to try with the mint in the coming months!

One of the many things that I lost track of when I was sick for a couple weeks in there was the sprouts. We dumped the remains int he compost late last week and let the containers dry.  On Monday, I set the first batch of the containers in to soak.  I finally got them clean early this afternoon, and got the last of them in to soak.  I am still hoping to switch to different trays soon, my friend and I are planning a trade for soap, but she is as busy as I am and on the other side of town, so we ar working with the prototype models for now!

I had started the Barley soaking on Sunday after church, so those went in to three of the cleaned sprouting containers to start.  When we were recently out working on the goat projects, we checked out the sprouting setups of a few of our friends, and Charlene mentioned using a splash of ACV in the first soak to combat the growth of mold in the sprouting system, so we are trying that too, this time. We will let you know how that works for us =).  Have any of you tried that?

These are the next jars of Barley in their first soak.  They will be started Friday night, I hope!  A big thank you to Lynn for the tip of using the plastic needlepoint canvas in the jar rings for straining and keeping unwanted visitors out while soaking.

Also finally got around to candling the egg in the special hatch in the incubator. Unfortunately, the ones we have had in there were infertile, though we have several in there to hatch for ourselves. The six little ones in our brooder- three Brahmas, one Buckeye and two Silkies are doing well.  Wyatt also has new roosters nearing the end of their time in the quarantine pen. They have beautiful plumage on their heads, so we are looking forward to seeing what they bring to the line here. 

These are this yer's strawberry plants- yummy!

And the bright beautiful moon above us tonight had me wondering when the full moon would arrive for this month =)

I had the random idea that in this area along the side of the house, I would like to have additional asparagus patches and lavender. The melons I tried last year didn't work so well, so I figure this might? We shall see. But I needed a more defined space, so I took some scrap wood and made a little planter space for the asparagus starts I brought home today.   I ran out of daylight, so I will do the other little patch tomorrow morning!

I think I mentioned back when we had our first freeze, that despite the really nice frost cover, our pichu plants took it pretty hard. The stalks were still green, so we were letting them limp along and try.  Earlier this week, I was beginning to lose hope. But then, after transplanting the rooted cuttings and making the asparagus patch and beginning the watering...

I found new leaves!  Now I will need to share them on one of the gardening pages, because I really don't know when to cut back a Pichu plant!  Wyatt loves the fruit, so I have several saved to pull the seeds out of, but I really hope the plants we have can make it through the winter. 

The boys also worked on Wyatt's Science Fair project- a cycle powered generator. It is beginning to take shape, but now tomorrow Wyatt needs to try to resurrect an old laptop to try to power with it, and look up answers to some of the questions that are coming up as they work. The paper is also requiring some attention!  Wow, so much to do, but we are plugging along as usual.

Well, I suppose it is time to get the laundry rotated and the dishwasher started, and get some sleep to get on to the next part of the list tomorrow!  Hope you all have a great night!  Love to all.

Custom Hatch DC, part 4

Today was a big catch up day- again. I finally felt well enough to push the workout and work on projects on my list, as it has felt like treading water since I was sick and the beginning of the semester came with so many other commitments!

I wish I could say I had the video and other photos, but something went wrong with that process! Nevertheless, I finally got a chance to candle the second set of eggs for the DC Special Hatch.  You see, there is no candling eggs, or touching eggs or livestock when I am sick. The kids didn't complain at all about taking my chores, I take theirs when they travel or get sick.  So the candling, along with several other things, waited!

I am sorry to say, but this batch was also infertile. It came from a Dutch that belongs to a friend of ours, who has been laying consistently and is in with a rooster.  It was worth a shot to see if they would be fertile! We had hoped, but perhaps later this Spring we can try again and it will work better. =)

Special Hatch DC- part 3

We do a number of special hatches here, yet hatching the eggs from other folks is more rare. Many of you saw the earlier posts about a special hatch for someone, using their own Dutch eggs.  Unfortunately, those were nt fertile, and since I was resetting more eggs in the incubator, I was able to start a few more for her again this evening.

Think good thoughts, we will share more when we candle them!

This Morning's New Surprises...

This morning, at around six, the thumping in the incubator began...

With all of the pipping, I slept in the living room so I would sleep lightly enough to get up if anything needed my attention.  So at around six, the thudding began. So I got up, checked on the chick who was then jostling all the other eggs around, realized it was a Silkie, and then plugged int he brooder light to warm up for when the little one was dry.

Turns out, I needed the new light bulb I bought yesterday, the littler one wasn't enough in the Winter chill.

 Within a couple hours, the little chick was  wandering the brooder, giving the other one space to hatch without harassment.  The first chick was not happy about being on her own in the brooder, but made friends with the stuffed armadillo I put in the brooder, and then made friends with the thermometer, too.  

The kids got a good laugh out of that part, but hey, if they life at our house, they cannot be boring, right?

I snapped a couple pictures before leaving for the farmers market.  She was very content with the water, and made a few faces at me for the camera!

This is the other little one. She had just moved from the incubator when I was headed out. Apparently, the love for the thermometer and the armadillo flows in both of them!  Silly little ones.

Well, everyone is in the capable hands of the farm hands at home for now.  Plenty of eggs not in the incubator, too!  More adventures are always to come!

Sunday was crazy, but time to let it go and get a little sleep!

Busy day in town today, but did get a few things done there, now I just need to get some things done here!

Finally got Wyatt a haircut tonight. I thought about taking a photo of the HUGE pile of his hair in the floor as I was sweeping it up, but thought better of it. I knew he was shaggy, but that was extreme!

I thought I was going to get to bed a bit earlier tonight, but while I was loading the dishwasher, Shadow let she and her brother out the back door.  I finished loading the dishwasher, called them back in, and figured I would peek int he incubator really quick.

See that at the top of the egg? That is a beak!  I realized that I was going to be reading that book I borrowed from Bailey for a bit, trying to decide whether I should wait up. But the chick is resting now, and could be a while, so I am going to go ahead and crash for a bit.

I did take the time to put two cups of each- sunflower seeds and barley- in to soak overnight.  I have heard that the sunflower seeds take a good bit longer than the barley.  So with the four big boxes ready to reload with seeds in the morning, I look forward to seeing them grow side by side so I can see for myself!

Well, I have to leave for work early, and get up in the morning to put Wyatt's morning lessons together to work on with his Daddy who will be home for the day, while Bailey and I go to my work then she will take her permit test. Hope you think good thoughts for her!  I will catch you all up later- 

Have a Great Night!!!

Custom Hatch January 2014 and Special Hatch DC part 2

Hi everyone! Some of you are following the special hatch, others of you are watching the custom hatches going on, and still others just love to see babies and watch for them to come along!

We fired up the incubator before Christmas, knowing we had a few folks looking for Silkies, some for Brahmas, and a few more for Buckeyes. THey have slightly different timelines, and we like to have the 'bator going for a bit before we start hem, just to get it all in balance.

As of tonight, we are two weeks in on some of the eggs, and one week on the special hatch we introduced you to last Sunday. We quickly candled the first few rows of eggs, but left he others alone as they would be a week or less in development.  This is what we saw.

We chose to not remove the eggs that we weren't sure about. A few will likely be removed later this week as we prepare for the first of the eggs to hatch. The ones which seems unlikely, but are only a week along, could be due to a host of things, from too early to see well to just too much handling, or they could be newer layers who simply aren't ready to produce fertile eggs yet. We shall see!

Special Hatch DC part 1

Some friends of ours recently lost a few birds, and happened to have a pair of Dutch together, and the hen had been laying, so they thought why not send a few down to our incubator to see what would happen...

First they forgot to bring the eggs, then we missed meeting them, so yesterday a friend of theirs took on the task of letting the eggs ride along to meet up with us at church today.  Both of our kids were sick, so I hunted the sweet driver down as I was leaving today, he had them stashed in his truck for me. (I was going to change how I put that, but is seems like a good choice for him- haha- thanks much Thomas!)

This post is part of a thread of posts so our friend can track the eggs, since we don't live very near one another...

Here were the eggs int he carton when I opened them at our house this afternoon...

They were labeled on the top of the carton as to where they came from.

I put today's date on them, labeled them for what they were and where they came from, and...

If you look closely, you can see them there in the incubator, alongside some Brahma and Buckeye eggs hatching for someone else.

Now the waiting game begins! We will share more when they are candled!