3 Eggs a Day

This morning produced a Jumbo egg!

Another visit later in the morning revealed two more eggs. Breakfast was a treat as well when one of the eggs was a double yolker.

Gas line repair and trees were cut off the fence line today and the fallen apple tree was burned up. The larger pieces of the trunk and bigger limbs will be cut up for firewood.

linehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNx1_cF5vZw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Among all of today's blessings, memories of my Aunt Becky would bring a smile to my face. She gently passed away on July 19. Her life was a blessing to me and I celebrate her life here with thanksgiving!

OH Drought and Yet Abundance

Now experiencing 3 eggs a day!  from the Barred Rocks.  They are my happy cackling hens!  Always happy to see me.  The Buffs are still developing.  Patiently waiting until they can be introduced and join the Barred hens.  The Red Golden chicks are living with the Buffs is a peaceful environment. Looks like I have 5 roos and one hen!  Gonna have to go to market with that many roosters.  I'll more than likely keep the hen.  We are still in need of rain.  Might affect the hay this year.  With the drought going on.  Right now the forecast is calling for rain.  Hopefully that will happen.  The garden is doing okay.  The Ambrosia corn is soooooo sweet this year dispute the lack of rain! 

Still having some opportunity lining up an Amish trainer welling to break the 2 year old fillies here.  it might come down to me, a green horn.  Oh my!

Got Gas?

Now that the Seneca deep horizontal well has been tapped, interest has piqued once again in the volume potential of the surrounding area for wet gas. Geothermal testing lines in the neighboring county were laid this week and now are gone. Will be looking to see the wet/dry lines being updated. Meanwhile, the Barred Rock egg production is on the raise on the farm. Two eggs in one day! The Buffs are still growing along with the still Red Golden pheasants. The rooster has been molting. He doesn't look so handsome these days as he sheds his feathers and they are replaced with new ones that will get him through the Winter and the next breeding season in the Spring of '13.

1-2-3 & 4

Wow, our fourth egg from the only 4 month and some Barred Rocks.  It is a delight finding these gems in the nest box.  The eggs are progressively getting bigger.  Still not quite the size of a Grade A Large just yet. Some of the hens seem to have nice size waddles and combs which makes one think they could be roos, but as of yet I haven't heard any crowing making me wonder now if there even is a roo in the flock.

Reina, the Pinto American Saddlebred is coming along on training.  She and I are both novices with no 'formal' training.  Still attempting to line up an Amish person to break Reina and Flirty.  We tooled around the Amish countryside nearby and went to several houses and eventually left a note at one.  This will require more follow up since the Amish do not use electric, etc and it takes driving out there and finding them.  Reina has a halter on, and can take having the lead rope on her.  She really enjoys the grooming treats, and has had the saddle blanket on her.  This weekend, I'll see how she handles the saddle on her.  All the horses take in the grooming.  They will get fly sprayed today.  Ace the gelding who stands at 17+ hands is the only one that doesn't seem to like the sound of the bottle sprayer.  So he gets wiped down with the repellent.

The red golden pheasant chicks are growing nicely and are flying around more.  Last evening while refreshing their water supply and feed, one of the larger pheasant chicks and one of the smaller ones came up missing.  There are overhead roof rafters that have some tin and pipe up on them.  I hoisted myself up on the ledge to discover both of them had flown and hopped up into them and were standing on the rafters.  The rafters are about 7 feet high and for these little ones it is an amazing feat.  The half wall between them and the chickens is no longer a barrier.  One of the smaller pheasants, again negotiated the wall with no problem and joined the Buffs.  Looking like a mouse with wings, the chickens started clucking and carrying on.  Thankfully they didn't go into attack mode.  I'm sure it would have offered an entertaining sight to anyone watching me try to retrieve this little feathery and flighty cutie.

The Buffs are coming along.  (They are a little more skittish than the Barreds).  Once I pick up one of the Buffs up it will calm down but they don't come to me like the Barreds do, every time.  The Barreds still greet me and enjoy perching on me if they can and break into a chorus of louder 'graah-graah' cackling sounds.   They also follow me around in their yard.

Check out the cackling . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZhP5gsVzos&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Outside of their cheerful chorus heard in the link above, they are typically quiet. 

Independence Day

Yes, that is what it is called here in America.

Freedom, was never meant to be taken for granted.  It has been protected in my lifetime by the lives of many whom I have never meant.  They believed in freedom and were willing to give to preserve it.  For this I am thankful!

Today also marks day 5 of no electric.  Amazing isn't it to think we are in the year 2012 and yet we have no electric unless you have made provision for generated power.  So at $40 bucks a day, we can keep the refrig and freezer from thawing out and get out on the internet.  No a/c with 95+ temps and humidity greater than 69 +.  Hey, life is good! So maybe the electric rate you pay isn't so bad cos at this rate we'll be way over what the normal electric bill would be for the farm.

Not succumbing to the elements a group of us hit the zip lines. 

Thanks to Louise who followed through and made some connects to get us private reservations on a holiday to do some zipping in the Appalachian Hills.  At a tactical reserve rather than a 'resort' atmosphere this was right up everyone's alley.  www.ohiovalleytactical.com/

Derecho Storm Event

Here is a link to the weather event that went through here Friday night. The last slide in the article is pretty graphic as to the nature of this type of storm.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/?n=june_29_derecho


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After the Storm

Today is a more over cast day with high humidity. Got the farm chores done much earlier this morning. Chicken coop is all cleaned out. Thankfully it isn't that big of a job. I haven't been using as much hay so the clean up was just some scraping and sweeping.

Here is Flo checking out the restocked nesting boxes. She was quick to make herself at home and then decided to check out this one.



There is still no electric or phone service since Friday, June 29. The generator has been running enough to keep the refrig & freezer going, satellite Internet does have its advantage although it isn't the fastest.

The baby Red Golden Pheasants are growing and co-habitaing with the Buffs. There are half walls that separate them but on occasion they get in one another's space. The Momma pheasant is protective of her broodlings. She is inclined to fly over the walls and land in with the Buffs who start cackling. It is comical to watch. Momma flys back after I encourage her to do so. In comparison, the pheasants grow at a slower rate then the chickens do. Here are the four week and two week old pheasants who love to use their legs like springs to take off jump flying.



The Buffs at two months.



Friday's rain perked up the garden.

Finally it looks like the Blue Lakes are going to do well! There will be some canning to do.




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