Last Weight and New Surroundings

Many of you know about Wyatt's Science Fair project for the coming school year, especially those of you who have followed his meat pen project for this past county fair and his interest in sustainable heritage meat poultry.  The meat birds he raised peaked at around county fair.  The red broilers took another six weeks, and they ended up the size of the white broiler hens rather than the same size as the meaty males.  The Delawares, which are standard bred poultry of a traditional dual purpose breed, and this was when their weights seemed to finally plateau at a size around the same as the red broilers

This is the cockerel.  He is very striking and rather mild mannered, though he really doesn't care for being held for long periods.

This is one of the hens in the bucket being weighed.

Then Wyatt gave her a ride- atop his head- to her new home in the big pen.

Here is another of the hens.  They did fill out beautifully, with nice large breasts and beautiful conformation.  Wyatt selected these, as they were also dual purpose, and he could watch their development over time.  This way he could decide what direction he wanted to go with them, and they would still make an excellent addition to the laying flock.

Here they are getting acclimated to the big pen.  It is larger than the pen they have had to themselves, and they have a big tree to sleep in.  Several of the hens in this pen have learned to open and close the gate to their pen, so they sneak out to forage but return just ahead of Wyatt for meals! (I keep saying I am going to get it on video, but they are faster than me!)

Here are two of the fluffy ladies pecking around beneath the tall Mesquite tree.

The ladies of this pen are getting their first roo protector in a little while.  This should be interesting to watch!

The other fun thing- Wyatt is ready to write out his results for his project now!  Or as soon as football season is over, anyway!

Last Hurrah

Bailey and I had a good time at the goat show.  Lots of nice people, always fun trying to guess where the judges will place the animals, including those you brought and others.

It was late when we finally headed out of Cottonwood, and when Bailey called the boys to check in, they said we had just had a really big storm at home that was hard and crazy.  So we took the highway instead of the back way from Marana, just in case the roads weren't passable.

This morning, I got up and got ready to head out to work.  The rain gauge out front showed a full inch!

I was tired and wanting to upload the photos for friends to share, so I only took little Shadow out front.  I looked out the back door, and saw my greenhouse.  Cacti knocked over, panels out, the roof separating.  There is little left to the front, and not much more left to the back.  There had been some damage I had put temporary redneck repair into, while waiting for the monsoon season to finish out for the total list of parts I would have to order. 

Well, the list did get longer, so I suppose I should be glad I waited on the order.  I am really looking forward to my upcoming class on water harvesting, because I really want to save all the water I can in the future.  I can only imagine how many gallons I would have gotten from a storm such as this.

Well, putting the pieces back together and keeping going.  Just another day at our house!  Hope you all got lots of rain at your house, too, and that you enjoy the rest of your long weekend...

Getting Ready for the Show

Charlie was out helping Bailey tattoo her goats that are going to the show this weekend.

Not sure who is presently sporting more ink- Obediah's and Olympia's ears, or Bailey's face and hands!

Sunday Projects

Sunday was fun!  When I swept before breakfast, I found a leak in the sink- the seal on the drain basket had worn out, and let the water from the sink, where I was soaking dishes, to leak down under the sink.  With that out of commission and waiting for parts, I headed off to teach Pilates and work out.

When I got home from town in the early afternoon, the gentleman working on Rattlesnake and Chicken Avoidance with Shadow came over to work with her.  The rattlesnake avoidance seems to have gone well, but the chickens are still a big challenge for her.

The Charlie headed off to town, and the kids and I got to work outside.  They were working on pens, I needed to do more laundry and work on my projects to shore up the doe barn, as well as the hen house in the big pen.  This will also strengthen the fencing connections at the barns. If I ever finish, that is!

I measured and cut the poles for Wyatt's pen.

Bailey measured for hers, I cut.

Love power tools!  They make things much faster!

The storms were coming in.  We were trying to work quickly and efficiently, but ran into a big scorpion over four inches long- and it was MAD!  Wyatt got Shadow safely out of the way, and Bailey and I got shovels.  Bailey went to work chopping it into tiny pieces.  I would have taken a photo of the crazy thing, but was more interested in getting rid of it!

The sky was getting more beautiful as we worked.  I wish I could say we got it all done, but the wind came in, and we filled the trailer again.  So we put away our tools for the night in time to have the rain begin falling. Sure hope to get more of those done in the next couple days.

The monsoon sky is just so beautiful!  Bailey and Vegas love the wind and lightning.  But sights like this really make me want to curl up in the rocking chair on the porch.

Shadow is a puppy who really needs to chew, so she has LOTS of bones stashed around the house.  But last night, she found this horn outside.  I think it is a ram's horn.  She looks really funny when chewing on the end, because the other end sits up bu her eye.  But she loves it!  And when she chews on those things, she isn't chewing on anything else, sooo...

Well, the rain gauge didn't even show enough to pour out, though I did try!  Maybe later this week.  I can hope, anyway!  Here's to a beautiful week for everyone this week.  Hope it brings many blessings to you and your family!

Onward and Upward, Saturday went by too Fast!

Started my day teaching my first step class since the goofy fall this past week.  It went pretty well.  Did a little cardio, picked up some things for dinner, and came home to get busy with chores.

First up: more prickly pear jelly!

I like seeing signs like this.  Sometimes I cannot get specific items made in the USA anymore, but when I can, like in the case of canning jars, I do.

This was part of dinner.  Homegrown chicken, with lemon, garlic and salt and pepper.  No crazy preservatives, or compounds to mess with the body or set off Bailey's headaches and allergies.

Today, I have been working on a workout template for my Pima students, doing a lot of laundry, cleaning and a little work in the garden.  I still love those sunsets, and we have been waiting for the rain they promised for today. (The late news says there are pretty powerful storms heading our way- I need to be careful what I wish for!)

These clouds look puffy and sweet to me...

Down below, though, pretty wild!  Can you see the chickens bedding down for the night?

Bailey was having trouble with a couple sets of hooves, so Charlie pitched in to help while she held them.

This is the Loquat tree I put in the garden today.  I am looking forward to watching it grow!

And this is the fig tree.  They have each grown a good foot while waiting in or near the greenhouse.

Looking forward to see where they go!

Here's to hoping I get even more done on Sunday!

Friday Chore Day

I don't know about the rest of the mamas out there, but the beginning of the school year has me feeling stressed out from the need to do things at home while the kids are needing to be in town at school and at activities and appointments.

Friday, I took the kids to school, ran a couple errands, did a little cardio, dropped some things off at the post office and work, and came home to try to get things done!  Of course, when I got home, the rain began, so I started with laundry!

Above are some of the little young chickens that came home from Phoenix.  They like to cuddle up together.

Above and below are photos of that young roo we have been watching.  He needs to hurry up and pick which color he will be before Labor Day weekend.  Looks like the gene expression has come down to two possibilities.  Funny how the lighter color comes in later.

I needed to tie in the barrier between the bucks and does along their fence.  They manage to loosen it from time to time. I was in the buck pen, and the boys always want attention.  Silly Huey was looking a little redneck.  Despite being an old buck, he is a happy healthy old man.

This little hen hatched this year was wandering around while I was in the garden.  She is beginning to really fill out nicely.

Looks like she decided to stop and pose for me!

Feeding time meant more ear scratching for the bucks.  Charlie picked up the kids so I could work at home. That meant Bailey had to stay at practice with them, so I fed for the kids.

Glory was over in the doe pen wagging her tail for the boys' benefit.  Good grief, that girl!  I told Bailey she was in heat and watch out.  She tends to follow Bailey around biting her when she is in heat, demanding to be bred.  Goofy goat!

Still in the buck pen, the Australorps decided to get a drink.  They have adopted the bucks, and even sleep with them.  Here, they were perched on the water buckets, drinking their water.

Then they decided to share their dinner.  The boys are awfully tolerant of thees little ones!

I raked up the mess the chickens made of the dump cart waiting for Charlie to be home long enough to take it out.  Above me, Muffy was getting ready to settle in for the night.  I decided I had best get more done in the garden before my daylight was gone!

The monsoon sky makes for AMAZING sunsets!  Okay, back to watering hte greenhouse and working on the garden!

Shadow cannot be left alone with the chickens yet.  So she was in the garden keeping me company.  I was ready to put two trees in the garden, and found that the holes where I wanted the trees, since we don't till there, was really hard.  The pitchfork and the water will be coming out today.  I was losing my daylight quickly, and Shadow began taking turns digging with me, wanting to help!

This morning, I got this shot of the monsoon rain gauge from yesterday- 0.15 inches.  Not much, but the rain barrels were full, so cannnot really complain.

The last thing I did outside last night was move this Jasmine plant from the garden to the porch.  Here's to hoping I can do enough to protect the plant fro the chickens who have taken to nesting in these pots!

Well, it is Saturday morning, and time to go teach Step and Yoga.  Hope you all have a great day!

Tuesday Night Storms

The farmers' market this week was really hot!  And rather slow.  Bet still fun.  It did leave me nearly out of grab bags.  For some reason, folks like the random sampling of soaps in one special price.  Nevertheless, it will leave room for other things on the table, like the CocoLime soap that is coming again!

On the way home, you could see the storm that was going through parts of Tucson, even though it was off in the distance.  Some of my students told me they got a lot of rain on the North West side from this one.  We never saw it.  That's jut how the monsoons work.

I enjoy stopping to get photos of the wild side of nature.  The stretch of road n the way home has lots of neat opportunities to stop and take pics of the sky and desert.  Above, I stopped by a feed store near the Marana Municipal Airport for this one.

Just thought you all might enjoy these photos.

I especially love how it can seem almost dark, then light again.

It looks like the storm is taking over here!