Fall Has Finally Arrived

Fall came in with a thunderstorm and I have been enjoying every minute and raindrop. Well Rusty hasn't. He hates getting his feet wet! I have to carry him outside and find a dry spot under something so he can potty. Then I have to carry him back inside. Yeah, he has me trained very well. He comes and looks at me with those big brown eyes and I get up and take him to potty.  The windows and doors are all open with the scent of rain filling the rooms. We may be having lots of rain and flooding but we also have cooler temps that feel wonderful. This weekend bring nighttime lows in the 40's which will be cool enough for a small fire. I just love sitting by the woodstove reading, drinking a cup of hot tea, and listening to the crackle of the fire. Winter will be here soon! Despite the rain we have been raking pens, cleaning cages, moving things around to get the animals all settled in for cold weather. I don't like to even think they might be chilled or wet so we made sure all the stalls, houses, cages, etc were draft free and dry. Have been finishing up with the herb garden. Got a few more to put in the dehydrator and then all the herbs will be done for the year. Have a few more peppers to pick from the garden along with the last of the cherry tomatoes. Still have carrots and leeks and that will be it for the summer garden. The broccoli, brussel sprouts, turnip greens, and green beans are doing good in the fall garden. This rain came at the right time for them. We have about 5 or 6 loads of wood to split and stack. Several loads of logs to cut up before splitting and stacking. I believe the old saying that firewood heats you twice. Once cutting and the other burning. I have one bucket of pears left to put up and ketchup to make. Since we will be having rain tomorrow will spend the day in the kitchen getting those done. The chores that seemed to drain my energy this summer are going  smoothly and fast now. Fall just brings more energy when it arrives. I spent some time this afternoon mending. That has me back in the mood to stitch on my projects so I got out my needlework basket and will be stitching, knitting, and crocheting some each evening. The one thing about farm life is it does slow down a little bit in cold weather. Leaving more time and energy for fun projects. Been keeping several blog friends and their families in my prayers. My heart goes out to them. As you go about your evening count your blessings and say a prayer for your blog friend or neighbor. It really does help. Have a blessed evening!

Miracle at Hidden Haven

For those that don't know the story of the Sister and her eggs you can go here. The two chicks have been doing great. They have been eating, drinking, chasing each other and just being adorable. The other three eggs just sat there for days doing nothing. I thought I had made a mistake in not putting them in the incubator. Saturday night we decided we would toss the eggs Sunday morning. Sunday morning we saw this

Another chick was hatching! I was so excited and glad we hadn't tossed the eggs earlier. One of the eggs was bad though. As we lifted each egg to listen for peeps and pecks you could tell by the smell. We made a tiny hole to be sure and it was just a rotten egg. But  if this one was hatching we had hope for the last one.

And a mini me Sister was hatched!

Last night we saw this.

A tiny peck that soon turned into this

So all night we kept checking and so did its siblings

And this morning at 6:30AM it hatched!

Another mini me Sister! The first two chicks aren't from Sister's eggs. She took another hens but the last two are truly hers. I am so happy to have a part of her live on and hope at least one of them is going to be a hen like Sister. What a miracle! After losing Sister to have her eggs go on and hatch without her or the help of a incubator. A true blessing.

Breakfast At Hidden Haven

Buttons eating breakfast while sharing her sweet delightful milk.

Tinker has her bowl of dogfood mixed with milk and egg every morning.

 Precious waiting on Tinker and Butttons before eating her breakfast.

Chicken Little and the White gang chowing down.

Dudley Do Right and his hens having breakfast. Yes, that is a white rooster. He thought theirs looked better than his.

Elvis, Priscilla, Lisa Marie, and Ann Margret enjoying the morning. Demi and Dolly kinda stick to theirselves in the back lot.

Fred and Tessa sharing their meal.

John Henry Jr. watching over his ladies as they dine. The white rooster followed me on down to their pen and John Henry knows he doesn't belong.

The baby chicks eat so fast they don't even taste what they are eating.

Hickory Doo and his friends are very well mannered.

Tramp had his biscuit and is watching Wizard, Daniel, and the rose combs eat. He is happier with his feathered friends sharing his pen.

Polly has already buried her biscuit but is eating the slice of bread I gave her.

Smokey is pregnant and just nibbles in the mornings. She prefers eating around lunchtime.

Pandora prefers to eat her bread first then her rabbit food.

Porky is pregnant and think she is eating for 15 I guess as she always grabs the bread from my hand before I can place it in the cage. She eats the bread and her food in a matter of minutes.

Jack Sparrow likes his bread broken up for him and saves his rabbit food for later.

Oreo loves his bread and would eat it all day if given to him.

Rocky wants his morning head scratch before he dines.

What? you never seen a pig eat before? I get into my food.

Precious wondering whats so special about the pig food that makes everyone want to get into it.

Buttons stealing bread from my hand as I was trying to give it to a rabbit.

Dotty's baby piglets getting right into the food bowl as they eat breakfast. Dotty always saves them some of hers even though they have their own and still nurse.
That is some of what goes on around here at breakfast time. The noise is loud as each one calls to you to feed them first though they know the feed order and that it never changes. On the weekend its like they are more laid back and quiet. They wait patiently their turn without calling out to me. They seem to talk to me as I feed them and listen as I talk back to them. Breakfast for humans is more like a brunch since its so late but I love serving breakfast to my animal family and wouldn't have it any other way.

The Reason I Fill The Birdfeeders Everyday

Look real close inside the blue feeder. Mr. Squirrel and his friends had already partied down on the other ones. Notice on the back of the center post is a squirrel feeder. They eat on that when the birdfeeders are empty. I have several of those around in different places along with ears of corn for them and even peanuts! As I eat breakfast I watch the feeders. The birds come early, then the squirrels, then I refill and the birds and the squirrels chase each other off the rest of the day. I now have 19 feeders to fill each day. I don't mind though as I sure get enjoyment out of watching.
Edited to add that all the bird and squirrel food was free. Tractor Supply had bags of outdated feed and found bugs in a couple bags so was going to throw all of it out. I asked the manager if I could have it and now I have plenty of food for the birds and squirrels.

Just A Simple Homesteader

Years ago I lived in Florida for 5 years. I was a city girl and the only gardens I had were flower ones. I didn't have a single pet believe it or not. I was too busy. I had the perfect job. I traveled around Brevard County doing labwork for the nursing homes and drug treatment centers. I was driving down the highways at 4:30AM to get all my early morning labs done and was back home by 9AM or 10AM at the latest. Unless I was paged I was done for the day. The pay was fantastic. The job wonderful and I got to spend most of my free time on a boat or in the water scuba diving. During this time I had 15 different foreign exchange students stay with me. Sometimes there was only one and others as many as 3. I traveled to Cancun with my dive club. I was either at West Palm Beach diving or spending the weekend on a houseboat relaxing down one of Florida's many rivers. I had a beautiful home, a convertible, and lots of fun hobbies. It was a good 5 years. Now I am a country girl with a few flower gardens, lots of veggie and herb gardens. I have way too many animals though I am still too busy. I don't have a job per say but I work way more hours and every weekend. I don't do much traveling. I don't spend anytime on a boat except for the occasional canoe ride. I haven't been scuba diving in forever. Haven't had any exchange students though we do have Kuma staying with us till her owners come back from Germany. My home is now a small 3 bedroom farm cottage. The convertible is now a pickup truck and my hobbies are down to sewing and reading. Yes, I liked my life in Florida but I love my homesteading life. There are days when one of my animal family is sick, hurt, or even dies. It breaks my heart and makes me feel like I failed in someway. There are days when I wish I could sleep in and not take care of the animals or anything relating to homesteading for the day. Those days are far and few between and all I have to do is get out of bed. The dogs are ready to greet me. The cats are waiting on the porch for their breakfast and time with me. The other animals are calling good morning to me. With the sad or bad days that happen I still wouldn't trade this life for city fun life ever. There are far too many good days. Never being caught up on chores around here is just something to look forward to the next day.I'll take raking and shoveling animal poo over scuba diving any day. I am a homesteader and proud of it!

Sister

The day started out sadly.Sister decided to lay and sit on eggs in the goat stall. I fixed a little house over her nest so Tinker, Buttons and Precious wouldn't bother her. They never even seemed to know she was there. That is until this morning when one of the chicks hatched and started peeping. Tinker heard and knocked the house over to get to the hen that was trespassing on goat property. Before we could get to her she had Sister by the neck trying to take her back to where she thought she belonged. Sister is a tiny little hen that I have had for years because she loves hatching eggs and was such a good mom. Tinker didn't mean to hurt her but she did and Sister died. We brought the newly hatched chick and the other 4 eggs into the house. We put them in a box with a heat lamp over them and thermometer in the box to keep temp regulated. I didn't want to put them in the incubator as I wanted to keep them all together. (yeah, I am overly sensitive like that). A couple hours later another egg started to hatch and by lunchtime we had another baby chick. Rusty is wanting to mother them so badly. He made a good mommy for one of our baby pigs.

We shall see if the other ones hatch or not in a few days. The two are doing very well right now.

I am so sad about Sister. I had her, Sister Sister, and Sister Sister Sister that I could always count on to hatch and care for chicks. I let a FFA student have Sister Sister so he could hatch eggs and I sold Sister Sister Sister to a farmer that needed a broody hen. Sister was my favorite of the 3 and was the sweetest little hen. she would sit on and hatch anything for me.

Tinker spent the day away from her beloved goats and in a pen with some chickens. We want to teach her they are part of her family too. She never bothered them at all but then again they weren't around the goats. This evening I am going to bring a hen in the goat pen and watch to see what Tinker does. Somehow we have to train her not to hurt the other animals while guarding the goats. Goodbye Sweet Sister and I am so sorry I wasn't able to save you so you could hatch and raise your chicks.

Fall Babies

Henny Penny has a habit of getting out of her pen after breakfast. She spends the day roaming around the farm and meeting me back at the gate to the pen  to be let in for supper. I noticed she stopped meeting me and figured she had decided to stay out with the hens that rather roam around the farm then be in the chicken pens. Well yesterday she greeted me with 9 baby chicks following along behind her. Seems she had been secretly laying and sitting on eggs. Now she and babies are happy to be safely in a pen just for them.

Dotty's baby piglets are fat and fun to watch. That is when they aren't napping. They love to stir up dust running in circles chasing each other.

Frugal Livingroom Redo

For those that don't know we live in a small home made from a 1940's Army building. The livingroom use to be pale yellow with green and rose slip covers.

It was a cozy but cluttered livingroom. Now the walls are a goldish tan color, painted with paint William's daughter didn't want to use on her house. The sofa and love seat are blue/white and tiny bits of gold plaid. They are the reason we went to Raleigh. They were given to William because his friend was getting new furniture. They are lazy boy with the sofa having a queen size hidden bed and the love seat having a double. I had white shears already. Kept my braided room size rug. Painted the old plank floor with some of the paint given to us by a lawn care customer. Kept my flower pictures but rearranged. I collected them over the years from yardsales, thriftstores, and flea markets. They are all part of a set but none were bought at the same time. Moved my mother's quilt to the corner behind the recliner which was given to us by a friend. My lamps I purchased several years ago at a auction. The computer desk is one of our old office desks. The antique secretary desk I use alot was purchased at a estate sale 5 years ago. The bookshelf is a yardsale purchase from 2 years ago and everything else in the room has been here for years. Just fresh paint and a rearrange and tada!

Sorry the photos are dark. I was so busy today I didn't get a chance to take pictures till tonight.