Chickens = Eggs = Cake

I raise chickens. I prefer hens to roosters. I am not interested in raising new generations of chickens. I am interested in eggs. Hens lay eggs, roosters do not. Hens will lay eggs in the absence of a rooster. A rooster is only used to fertilize eggs to make baby chickens. A hen will lay …

The Pool In The Woods…2

This Spring has started out drizzly and windy and cold. It’s a Spring season like this that make me happy we don’t have a swimming pool anymore. And it’s a Spring season like this that remind me of all of the grumbling and extra work that my husband put into that swimming pool. Before he …

A Winter Hobbit

The farm is shifting into winter mode. January and February always prove to be the hardest months to keep things moving along safely for the feathered and furry residents in the barn. There is no heat in the barn. And no water source. During the warmer months, a water hose is hooked up at the …

And Then There Were 2…

We bought our initial flock of ducks from the farm store 4 years ago. Four Indian Runner ducks and two Khaki Campbell ducks. With this group of six we ended up with four drakes (males) and two ducks (females). Ducks are quite different, in my opinion, from chickens. My ducks have been hand raised, starting …

Tough Times

While the world at large has gone through many changes within the last few months, my world on the farm has been dramatically dull. Rural America doesn’t change quickly, as can be seen in how people casually drive around looking at the cows in the field and waiting for the corn to grow towards the …

What are you doing?

The entire planet seems to be on this virus lockdown. Going outside has been looked down upon, our government officials have told us to keep our kids at home and away from school. We have been told to not go to work if at all possible. Yet, I have seen a pretty normal amount of …

A Story About A Bird

If you've been reading my blog for a while or acutally know me personally, you know that I live in a wooded area. My home is surround on three sides by tall trees, lots of invasive honeysuckle (grrrr), wild prairie grasses, and lots of birds. The fourth side of my home has a cornfield and …

Cold

I just finished reading Joan Didion's non-fiction book The Year of Magical Thinking. I had read it a few years ago and while I enjoyed it then, it meant a hell of a lot more to me now. It's about her life after her husband died of a massive heart attack while they were eating …

Fall Farm Update

Fall has arrived...of course it came in with a wham. One day it was warm and summer-like and the next day it was cool and Autumn. The chickens are laying so many eggs that we can't keep up with the demand. I took two 18 packs to my cousins at a family birthday gathering a …

Duck Tails

The ducklings have reached the stage of life that I can now definitively tell whether they are boy or girl ducks. Man-Farmer was hoping for all boy ducks. For one specific reason only...no eggs. No eggs would mean that there would be zero possibility of any more ducks in his future. I had to burst …