Just another day in paradise...

Charlie volunteered to take the kids and their science projects to school this morning- YAY!  Yay to the part about Charlie giving me the morning at home, and definitely yay to the science fair being all turned in and off our to-do list!

With Charlie off running errands and managing the morning commute, I settled in to chores and tidying up.  Of course, I never manage to get in as much as I would like.  While carrying the paper cutter out to the shed, I was swarmed by the chickens, who wanted an early lunch.  I ended up giving in, but along the way I picked up little Fly By Night for company...

We went to check on little Aggie.  She is holding strong after something got her buddy last week, and making a place for herself in the big pen.  Looking forward to when she gets past the gangly stage...

Fly By Night wanted to play hide and seek around the trailers.  Here, he was pretending I couldn't see him...

So I went to water the greenhouse.  Not quite enough time to plant while I was working on other things.  I figure one more round of greens before it gets too hot- at least I hope!  The bottom right are the ots where I put seeds in for jelly bean tomatoes last week.  Sometimes this really teaches me patience waiting for things to come up!

These are the strawberry baskets I keep running my head into.  Hopefully they adapt quickly, and are ready to produce soon.  Wyatt loves to sneak strawberries from the greenhouse!

This goofy chicken felt the need to stand on a light fixture to make a statement.  I think the statement had something to do with this place being run my the animals...

Goofy bird!  Since Monday is allergy shot date, I gave the goats a snack to hold them over until we got home.  Olympia says the food bowl is her nap spot, but she did get up for me to put the snack in.

After teaching two classes, picking up the crazies kids, and getting Bailey's allergy shot (which after last week's reaction required thirty minutes with a monster ice pack), we headed for home for dinner, homework and chores.  Vegas got tired, so he slept with the green shopping bag I accidentally left on his double bed.  What a good green military dog.  Not just ready to shop with a reusable bag, but the one from the commissary!

Well, on to another busy day.  Today has a special adventure logged on for first thing, and ends off with 4H Community Club night!  Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Chore Day Saturday

After spending two hours on the phone with HP technical support, I learned that the problem seems to have been software related.  Boy, do I love that Windows 7.

Today I spent a good bit of time in the greenhouse.  I amended the soil for today’s work, prepped and seeded pots for the Roma tomatoes.  If all of the tomatoes I have seeded into nursery pots grow, we will have a lycopene rich summer here!   Or, maybe have some for our farmers’ markets- both plants and fruits.

I split one of the strawberry plants, and then transplanted them all into hanging baskets.  The root systems were doing beautifully, so hopefully they will catch up quickly from the transplant and be ready for spring strawberries.  It would probably help, though, if I could quit walking head first into the hanging baskets.

Little Fly By Night had to move in with the bucks a week ago, as we were hoping to wait until spring show before deciding about wethering him.  He is not transitioning very well to the living situation, but his half-brother Obediah is trying to help.  Huey is pretty mellow, and likes having his sons as pen mates, so hopefully a few changes will help him settle in more positively.  He is such a cuddly sweet boy, and truly loves his Mama.  Sister Olympia has decided her favorite napping spot is in the doe pen feed bowl.

I sure love those little baby cuddle moment!  Now that Bailey and Wyatt are almost as tall as me, I sure look forward to the baby livestock for my baby fixes.  Unlike Bailey, though, you will not find me with her sweet cuddly market doe on my lap!

I spread compost out in the big garden, since Charlie volunteered to till it for me this weekend.  He even said he would bring home more chicken wire so that I can finish enclosing it this week.  Guess I have my farm chores cut out for me!

The rest of the day and evening was spent on Science Fair posters.  Charlie and I believe in the kids doing their own work, as we wish more folks did, but that can be painfully slow when dealing with a fourth grader with an intensive project.  It is nice, though, to compare his more limited instructions geared for simpler projects with Bailey’s High School instructions to help him lay out the larger project and keep it from getting jumbled.

Now that everyone is off to bed, with snoring coming from several directions, and the coyotes in the wash having noise-making competitions with the roosters in the northernmost trees, I think it is time for me to head for bed too!  I will hope to add some photos to this tomorrow- they are always far more interesting!  Have a great night, world.  Sleep well, and allow your spirit to mend and take flight.

Happy Friday!

Friday morning!  YAY!

It has, thus far, been a week of ups and downs.  But the weekend is almost here, and it should be a productive one with less driving than most (now that’s a big upside already!) 

I had my last day for the spring in the lab with the other jewelry folks.  While I love getting to go play in there, the Spring will be too busy to get to continue with my weekly playtime, so I will look forward to seeing them all soon.  I was able to finish a neat little shadow box heart; set with a locally mined Azurite on a winding copper collar which I am excited will be displayed at the gem show next week.  I didn’t get a chance to photograph it before submitting it, but will get a photo up once I get it back after the show.

I am making slow but steady progress on my class for this semester, and learning how the tests will go so that I can perform better.  One foot in front of the other, life is never dull!!!

It has been a week of missing y Remdog, too.  Remington was my partner and buddy, and when life is stressful, her gentle ability to just be and accept me is so missed.  Old man Vegas and goofy Hopper Spark are trying to fill the gap, but they missed a predator visit, and we lost a young hen again, despite their efforts to fill in for the missing guardian.

CRUSH has almost made it through week four of the build season.  The kids are working so hard, and it has been a truly positive learning experience for Bailey, learning animation, CAD, and other programs and expanding her welding and machining skills.  Still, we are down to two more weeks of build before competition, and I am looking forward to less driving!

Well, off to see what Friday will bring!  Have a great day, everyone!

Chickens hiding behind dogs?

Hopper was busy on guard dog duty yesterday, and I thought I should check on Vegas.  I found him watching the Eastern end of the property from the shade of the palm tree by the house, surrounded by chickens.  The Phoenix chickens were poking around, hiding behind Vegas in case Hopper was onto something scary.  Silly group!

A Tiny Green Egg

Had this cute little egg appear in the nesting boxes today!  I would have thought a random wild bird had snuck in to the chicken nesting area, but it was so perfectly shaped and just the right color of green.  Yep, it is what some call a “practice egg”- an egg from a new layer.  Their eggs start small, and increase in size as their laying time goes on.  The new layer- one of the pretty little white Americaunas which hatched last spring.  We had a number of beautiful young ladies hatch this spring, especially the white Americaunas from Muffy the blue ribbon Americauna rooster.

Around here, eggs come in a number of sizes and colors.  From tiny as the hens begin to lay, to extra-large ones which we cannot close the cartons over.  Officially, the standard only recognizes colors in white, brown and tinted, but we see speckles, pinks, and green, blue green and olive.  It all makes for a beautiful egg basket, though the actual nutrition of the egg is determined not by the color of the egg but by the quality of the feed we provide our hens.  (The color is determined by breed and has no effect on nutrition or flavor.)

Nevertheless, any chicken owner can understand the excitement when a hen begins to lay, and the joy of those silly little eggs.  Thought you all might enjoy the photos, and the little joys from here.  Have a great weekend!

Adventures in Nelsondom

This week has kept me running.  All of us, really.  Between substitute teaching two days, the kids returning to school from winter break, the Crush build season in high gear, preparation for my semester of teaching and attending college to begin next week, and all of the many projects around here- I am tired!  I sure had a good time with my Mom, too, she went home in the beginning of the week.  It feels like it was longer ago, though.  I have seen more of her since Aunt Leanna moved here, and we enjoy the visits.

By the way, for those of you wondering- I was a middle school substitute teacher for two days last week.  I had the please if being with the same class, so I had a better handle on things the second day.  For all of the times that I have joked that feeding for the kids when they are away for some reason is like being a substitute teacher in Junior High- it was.  Only feeding doesn't last as long.  It wasn't terrible, but it was tiring!  And it reminded me why I drive so much, and why I like my community college students. 

Anyhow.  Saturday came with shooting sports day at the range.  Wyatt is shooting pretty well, Charlie needs to fix Bailey's .22 when he comes home.  Wyatt seems to have figured out what to do for his shooting sports poster for fair. 

We came home and got to work with the animals and chores.  Bailey worked on walking goats, scrubbing waters.  Wyatt did waters and one of his pens.  I was working on the cover for the garden ( my seemingly neverending project) when Bailey brought Prissy over for a discussion of her condition and whether she seemed pregnant.  Prissy would still have two months to go, but short of taking her in for an ultrasound, there is no good way to know for sure. 

Every once in a while, it comes up as a question, "Would a home pregnancy test for humans work?"  Once I bought a few, but Bailey was unsuccessful in getting the samples to try it out.  So out of curiosity, Bailey and Prissy headed off to the tack shed, rummaging for the tests in the health box.  Wyatt took a break to pitch in.  Before we knew it, we had one single pink line.

Well moms, we know that means one of a few things, she is either pregnant and the test doesn't work on goats, not pregnant and the test does work on them, or some other combination of the two.  So to the internet Bailey went.  According to the internet, they don't work on goats.  So we will be watching and waiting, just as we were before.  We did take some photos, though, and figure it will make an interesting poster for county fair. 

Watch the blog, or the posters at fair, to find out.  We need to move on to the next chore, and the next adventure.  Have a blessed day!

What We've Been Up To...

We rather needed to circle our wagons and get things done the last week or so. So as the kids are returning to school, and I am preparing for the next semester of teaching and attending Pima, here is a little of what we have been up to...

Playing with growing baby goats while doing chores and teraining the older goats.

Enjoying watching them explore while I work in the greenhouse and on the garden and the kids clean pens...

Wyatt got to deliver his own eggs to the farmers market.  Usually I do this in between teaching classes at Pima...

Wyatt has been perfecting his smoothie making skill...

Wyatt and I attended a woorkshop for poultry.  It was fun, a great discussion on sustainable meat poultry and egg production, and a good 4H day, too.  Wyatt came home charged to redesign his breeding operations and expand his farming capacity.

Wyatt also worked heavily on his science fair project.

Jecks, Bailey's market goat for this year, was weighed in the house, and growing...

The babies went to be disbudded. Olympia was stoic, Fly By Night wanted to hide. But they are both doing great! Especially once mama Glory got them back!

Fly By Night rode back in Wyatt's lap.  They are turning into good friends.

Olympia cuddled down with Bailey for the ride home.

Jecks wasn't too into the car ride.  But on the scale she learned she was light, so maybe she was anxious to get back to her food bowl.  Or maybe she wanted to nestle on someone's lap, too!

And more poultry photos for Wyatt's documenting of this year's hatch.

All in all, we are still moving along.  Vegas and Hopper are trying hard to remember the working dog stuff they had passed on to Remington for so long.  Hopper is doing more of the gurad duty and walks outside on late night checks, Vegas is trying to help with the goats and keeping Bailey company since Hopper prefers the chickens.  One day at a time...  Now that the kids are in school, busy busy busy as we head toward hatching season, Prissy's kidding date, the spring garden, and Pima County Fair!