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!

Food for thought...

I have a thing for Ghandi quotes.  I especially like "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."  Intent means so much in terms of your character and your impact in the world you live in. Are you in this life for what you get out of it yourself?  Or your own personal gain?  I feel that we truly achieve when we live a live that brings great joy to others, also bringing great joy to ourselves from our own accomplishments which improve our world, without tearing others down.

 It has been a tough night for me.  Yesterday, Remington was sick.  She got worse in the evening, despite seeming like she had been holding her own.  Charlie help load her in the car, Bailey wanted to come to the emergency vet with me.  I thought she needed more rest, Charlie felt if she wanted to go, it would be good for both of us. 

Remi was still very responsive in the car, trying to connect with us and be pet.  When we got to the vet, they took her from my arms and back to the ICU.  When they had her set up, they let Bailey and I see her for a moment.  She was tired, but wagged her tail and lifted her head to see us.  As the initial tests came, they thought she was a diabetic in crisis.  Then the test results didn't match, they thought Addisons disease.  The docs said they were going to stabilize Remi girl and let the specialist look at her at morning rounds.  When we got to say good night, over three hours after our arrival, she didn't look good to me.

We got home, and Bailey to bed, and I filled Charlie in, crying.  I knew she was getting worse.  We had been worried about the stress of being there on her.  She hates being away from her friends and duties here.  But she had needed to go, and would not have gotten better at home.

Early in the morning, the phone rang, she was deteriorating.  They wanted to get my definition of lines to draw on heroic measures.  Within five minutes they called me to come back.  I had barely had time to fill Charlie in, let alone put shoes on.  I headed for town.

Remington Pups, or as we called her, Remi (among a host of nicknames she answered to)  made the world a better place.  She never let me go outside alone at night, or any other time, for that matter.  She hated when i went out for cardio without her, and would cry.  She helped me get through bottle feeding, and warmed baby chickens which fell into water bowls.  Bad day?  Remi nose in your lap.  Not feeling good?  Gentle kisses and someone right next to you.  Scared, she had your back, front, and everything else.  Stranger at the gate? They had better not reach over or they were losing blood.  Can't find old man Vegas?  She is on it. Goat won't walk?  She will walk behind it. Going for a walk with the kids?  Sure she would love to run with Wyatt, as long as she could still see me.

Remi was also a toad licking stoner dog, who my husband reminds me had more lives than we can count.  One time, while Charlie was away, she had such an awful seizure that Bailey and I were up all night working on her.  With Wyatt checking in on her in intervals hoping we could keep her from dying.  She was a living, breathing example of your brain on drugs, but at the same time coud round up goats or pull baby chickens out of trouble.  And I was never alone.

Remington, as goofy and crazy as she was, was also so much of the best this world has to offer.  The kind of friend we all wish to emulate and be for our friends.  When I came inside from watering the greenhouse, I saw Bailey had some quotes up on the computer screen.  I thought it was a good reminder to me, to go along with giving this life all the energy it deserves, throwing myself all in.  "Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity."  That was Khalil Ghibran.  Friendhip isn't about social climbing or giving you something, but about what the relationship brings as a whole, greater than either of the parts.

Remi, like many in my life, made me a better person, a less frazzled military wife and a more patient Mama.  Now it is for me to honor her memory, and help her friends whi miss her like I do.Remblers, Remsworth Remi-bemi-bo-bemi was an awesone working dog, and better friend and family member.  I will always love you, little goofball, and you will always be a part of me!  And of all of us!

Christmas Eve Goat Walks.

Charlie Brown came up to inspect the Christmas lights Mama and Daddy were putting up.  Then he wanted to nuzzle Bailey.

He says, Hi I am cute!

This is Bailey trying to teach little Jecks Cassia to pose,

And Jecks smiling for the camera

Chrlie Brown heading back to the pens to play with his friends.

Hellos and Goodbyes

With Christmas just a few days away, the celebration of family and friends is at the forefront.  Around here, some of our friends have hooves, feathers and paws.  Farming comes with great joys, and some of the most special work we do tugs hard at the heartstrings.

Bailey is once again participating in the market goat project for 4H.  Last weekend, we met Bonnie at tag-in and brought home this year's market goat.

This little girl rode all the way home cuddled up in Bailey's lap without a protest.  I suppose this is why folks call my little car a clown car of animals.  It took a fews days, but her name is Jecks Cassia.  She likes when she gets to come out of her pen and hang out with Prissy, the pregnant boer goat who now thinks she is Jecks Cassia's mama.  Yes, Prissy is generally confused, but we love her just the same.  By the way, at 2 months old, she weighed in that night at 38.8 pounds to begin her journey.

For those of you who follow us regularly, you know we recently stood by as Glory brought a little buckling and doeling into the world right before the first of our big wonter storms. (This is a relative term, I know.  For our cousins in Colorado, the big winter storm is much different.)  Glory and her little ones were out with the herd a couple days ago while their pen was cleaned.  It didn't last long, Glory was very concerned the others were too close to her kids, so Bailey put them back in their pen, though not before Olympia learned a new trick with riding on her Mama, and Fly By Night ran circles around the spool.

I cannot get the video to upload, so I guess I will put it up on youtube on our channel.  Will have to post a link to that here later.

Anyhow, with all the rewards that come with what we do, the hard part can be saying goodbye.  Wyatt breeds rare colors of Phoenix poultry, and ends up with more than he really wants or needs, especially in the cockerel department.  As goat breeders, Bailey also raises little ones, socializes them and trains little ones to walk in the show ring, knowing that most will move on to new homes. 

Last year, Rose could not get little Nathan to take to nursing.  In the end, Nathan lived in the house for some time, bottle feeding and going around town with Mama to basketball games and keeping up with the two legged kids.  Yesterday, a wonderful family came to look at prospective goats for their family.  As they all sat in the goat pen looking at personalities, little Nathan demanded attention and let his friendship with Remington show in his silliness.  The sweet woman from this family had her heart set on Nathan.  So Bailey said okay, and filled out the transfer of ownership papers and said goodbye to little Nate as she loaded him in the car. 

Sure, we cried a bit.  The dogs and goats really noticed his departure, too.  It is hard to see a good friend go, but Nathan is off to a wonderful new home as the pet goat of a little girl and her Grandma.  His wonderful personality is a testament to the family approach that makes them a part of our hearts.  So welcome to Jecks Cassia, a quick cuddle to the sweet Olympia and speed demon Fly By Night, and best wishes to Nathan and his new family.  You will all be in our hearts!