This moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 

Inspired by www.soulemama.com

The corporate world and chickens

Such a contrast but a wonderfully fun contrast.  My friends at work can hardly believe I come home, put on rubber boots and tromp around an old farm.  Or that we have chickens.

The little peepers are doing well.  

I commute 4 hours a day for work.  When I tell people that they recoil.  "That's a long commute!" And my response is "It's worth it."  It is.  It helps that I love my job, I look forward to going into the city and I get a lot of reading (and sometimes sleeping) done on that commute.  I am blessed to have what I feel is the best of both worlds, work and play.  It's not easy or glamorous at times but at my age, it's what gives life it's extra little kick.  Have a great week everyone!

Blog, Blogger, Blogging

I've been thinking a lot about this blog lately.  About it's format, how frequently to update it, whether I want to try to make money with it, how personal I should get, if anyone reads it and how long I should do it.  I started it so I could share my experiences working a full time corporate job in the city and being a full time mother and part time farmer.  A few months after we got the farm I was drafting blog posts in my head and taking pics to share online.  I enjoy writing and there's a certain satisfaction with completing a post, like I've accomplished more in a day.  I want this blog to be about life and experiences on High Hill.  It really is it's own little village of animals and people living together - far from the city.  I commute an average of 12 hours a week on top of working 40.  I am not out to make money from this blog (I'm still contemplating AdSense) or to promote myself.  I know of a couple of blogs where the authors are literally asking for money from their readers - to start a project or to buy something they want.  That is never going to be me.  Sometimes I need advice or guidance and I hope to get that here.  Some camaraderie from the farming folks out there would be nice.  For right now, I'm not going to make the commitment to write everyday.  I'm going to write when I'm inspired to write.  My life is much to full right now to spend a lot of time scheduling posts and finding advertisers.  If you take the time to read my blog, welcome.

Weekend warrior

What a lovely weekend!  It was cold but we had lots of sunshine and our new BBQ was delivered so I had a smile plastered on my face all weekend.  We had steak Saturday night which is rare in my house and then steak and eggs Sunday.

The double yolk isn't from our girls - grocery bought.

The chickens are starting to produce more eggs everyday so I will soon be able to stop buying them again.  With 19 hens I'm sure we'll have more than enough for friends and neighbors as well.  We integrated the 10 new hens into the existing 9.  So far the new ones are steering clear of the older ladies.  We've all been out checking on them over the weekend and everyone still has all their feathers.  

This girl "escaped" from our temporary pen in the coop and stayed well away from the others.

"This is my turf"

Our little group of baby chicks are doing well.  Their current mission is to escape the rubbermaid bin.  The girls and I are having fun collecting the lady bugs and flies we find and feeding to the troop.  They tear them apart in seconds, it's quite funny how excited they get.  

"Got bugs?"

And last but not least an update on my Sugar Snap peas - they are doing well!  I am so glad they sprouted as this gave me confidence to start my tomatoes and peppers.  

Other than a couple of hair cuts and getting a room painted, that was my weekend.  Can I just say, I'm so glad the sun is out later in the evenings?  I don't mind leaving for work while it's still dark when I get to look forward to coming home to the light.  

I will never tire of this view.

Back to the grind!  

This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 

Inspired by www.soulemama.com

On this first day of spring

Welcome spring!  Welcome chicks and chickens!  Welcome pea sprouts!  Yes there is still snow on the ground and the seasonal temperatures are well below normal but the Farmers Almanac is calling for a warm spring and a hot summer - and that's good enough for now.  The weather is something my husband and I are always watching and talking about on the farm.  Thankfully it's been warm and sunny enough that my pea's finally sprouted and this makes me very happy ...(edited to mention that I'm growing peas inspired by Jenna at www.ColdAntlerFarm.blogspot.com.)

I'm also happy to share a pic of the new chicks.  My girls are in love with them, how could they not be?  We've been singing to them, holding them and watching them run around.  They are so fluffy and make the cutest peeping noises.  I asked Donny what kind of chicks they are and he has no idea!  Next year I'm ordering the chickens if we get more.  I think they are Brahmas.  

We made a temporary run for the new chickens inside our current coop.  We are hoping this will cut down on the stress for all of them when the time comes to integrate them.  We will do this Saturday night and I'm really hoping there is minimal impact to the new girls.  Happy first day of spring!

March break and getting ready for the hens and chicks

What a wonderfully busy week last week.  It was March Break for my girls.  We had my nephews for 4 nights and a good friend and her two amazing kids overnight too.  Lots of great memories were made last week.  When my friend is over she always insists that we continue with our farm work and not save it for another day.  So on Saturday I asked them if they wanted to help clean out the chicken coop.  I am always pleasantly surprised at a child's willingness to do manual work.  I had 4 kids and my friend helping and not one complaint.  Afterwards I bought them all hot chocolate at the local coffee shop to thank them for their hard work.  It made me happy.  Oh and we did get away from the farm for a show and lunch in the big city.

I planted my sugar snap (grocery store) peas for the sugar snap pea challenge from Jenna at Cold Antler Farm (soaked and put into planting mix in the window in indirect sunlight) and I received my little Marvel Pea's from Annie's Heirloom Seeds.  Planted March 12, no sprouts yet.

And Wednesday we are picking up 10 ready to lay chickens and 5 chicks.  We are reading a lot about integrating them into our existing brood of 9 chickens.  If anyone reading this blog has any advice, I'd be happy to hear it.  We are getting the new 10 from the same breeder and we've talked about quarantining them but have decided against it.

What we've decided to do is:
1.  Create a space in the coop where the new chickens can hang out and our current chickens can see and smell them on the day they arrive but they are separated.
2.  Hang a cabbage from the ceiling of the coop to distract the hens.
3.  Create hiding spaces for the new chickens so they can get away from any excessive bullying.
4.  Let the new chickens into the full coop at night.

Our chicken coop is not an outdoor space, it's indoors right now with a run to the outside of the barn.  The run outside needs to be secured and have some work done to it so coyote's can't get near the chickens since we have a lot in our area.  We figure our current coop can hold 30 chickens so the 24 we will have after the chicks have grown and we fix the outdoor space should be more than enough room for all of them.  The chicks I'm not so worried about.  Keep them dry / warm / fed / clean and with lots of fresh water and we should be fine.  We don't have a brooder for them and instead are going to keep them in the downstairs bathroom until they mature and then integrate them as well.  I just hope our home raised chickens don't get hurt or upset the pecking order too much.  Wish us luck!