Farm Bullies

Spring is a dynamic time at the farm.

Everything is growing and changing constantly.

It is challenging enough just keeping up with it,

let alone dealing with bullying.

That's right folks,

it happens in schools, the workplace

and on the farm.

This is the pecking order at the farm:

1. Male guineas

2. Buff Orpington rooster

3. Male goose

4. Female guinea

5. Buff Orpington hens

6.. Bantam roosters

7. Tom turkey

8. Sparkle and Shyne

In order to let the hens free-range this summer,

I had to do something with the Buff rooster

or the free-ranging male guineas would have stolen all his lunch money.

So, the rooster, the goose and the Tom all got moved

together into a new pen (remember our lesson on how well

confusion works in the bird world?)

So far, so good.

Next, we let the one female guinea, who had lived with the chickens all winter,

out to be with the two male guineas.  

We are hoping they live happily ever after and don't start bothering the hens

and stop chasing the bantam roosters around.

Then we let the hens out.

They immediately went to work on the grass they had been eyeing for weeks.

Look who thinks he just won the lottery.

Like the heavens opened up and shined right down on him.

Hens everywhere and not another rooster in sight.

Much to his dismay

they paid his dancing and high-stepping

no mind at all.

In fact, they reacted quite the opposite.

This particular hen challenged him

eyeball to eyeball

and then proceeded to beat the crap out of him.

Despite his impressive moves.

She got the best of him.

What part of NO do you not understand?

Just so you know,

I do not consider the hen to be a bully in this instance.

We also had to combine two sets of bantam chicks today.

One set is a couple weeks older.

Look who thinks they are being bullied here.

Yep, the older ones are hiding in the corner

even though this is a completely  new cage to all of them.

The little ones are like "What's their problem?"

The older ones are like "Why can't you just leave well enough alone?"

Because I can't.

And by next week you will have outgrown this cage too

and it will be time to change again.

That's life on Sprout N Wings Farm.

Better get used to it.

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Finally Friday

My Yukon Gold seed potatoes came in the mail today.

The sweet potatoes should be here any time now.

More chicks today also.

I swear This might be the last of them.

These are the meat chicks.

Speckled Sussex and White Rock cockerels.

I was happy to see they had marked the males.

I really don't need any more laying hens.

The lilacs are blooming.

I love how they smell

and how they wall of the backyard from the

next door neighbors (in town).

Tess wants to know when we are going to the farm.

Not tonight Tess.

We have to babysit.

This little girl is 5 years old

and smarter than I have ever been or ever will be.

She intimidates me.

Looks like Tess is dreaming of the farm.

Once again, I am welcoming the weekend with open arms.

Can't wait to get out there and get tired, dirty and hungry.

Bring it on  : )

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Besties

“If you live to be a hundred, 

I want to live to be a hundred minus one day 

so I never have to live without you.”

a.a. milne - Winnie The Pooh

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Hug Like That

The human condition is filled with suffering.  Most of our suffering is due to us not accepting what is.  We try to hold on, to deny, to control and to resist.  We often don't know how to begin to accept that we are all of a nature to grow old, have ill health, suffer and die.  It takes so much bravery and presence of mind to accept our “temporariness”.  How many of us are willing to hug our loved ones as Thich Nhat Hanh teaches?  As you hug someone, think like this; First, I am here and you are not.  Second, you are here and I am not.  Third, we are both here right now.  What a powerful realization that can be the first time you try it.  Does the sadness and pain outweigh the real point of the process?  I certainly did for me.  Try hugging your child that way and not feeling intense emotion.  That emotion is exactly what we need to bring up and deal with.  Let it come.  Let the tears, the fear, the anger come.  Accept what is.  Let it come up, look at it, welcome it and then let it go gently.  Then, go back to the most important part of the process – we are both here right now.  Know that right now is everything. Cherish this moment and hug like that - every time.

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Which Would You Rather Eat?

A Good Weekend

On Saturday

we mowed,

both in town 

and at the farm,

and planted

frost tolerant crops 

in the garden;

peas, spinach, lettuces, turnips, parsnips

and lots of carrots   : 0 )

Come to think of it,

not all of us worked.

Some of us were kicked back

or downright lazy

to the point I was afraid rigor mortis had set in.

That's okay - only those of us who worked
got to go see the Hunger Games.


On Sunday
we trimmed goat hooves,
and got the snow tires switched out on the car,
which never needed put on in the first place.

We were also blessed with a visit from Sara.
which is always a hoot  :  )

She cut the twins bangs while she was here.
There might have been a tear or two involved
but it happens with haircuts and sisters it seems.

Actually, by now, it's all good and that happens with sisters too.

Amongst all this drama,

I manged to get my herb seedlings re-potted

so I would have room now to start the veggie seeds.

When Rylee saw this, she said it looked like something 

that should go on Pinterest. 

I am taking that as a complement from her.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

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Taking Interest

Young Mr Rooster

spends a lot of time

primping and preening

in front of a particular pen 

at the farm.

Why?

Because Tom

has taken an interest in him.

We've just got to get more females around here.

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Upside Down

The upside is

the farmers are in the fields.

 The downside is

they are spraying Roundup.

The upside is

my flowers have bloomed.

 The downside is

prospective buyers will

see them as weeds.

The upside is

I got (more) bantam chicks.

The downside is

I already had enough.

(check out that eyeliner)

The upside is

I got a living, breathing contractor

to call me back about the roof.

His name is Kevin.

I may ask him to leave his wife for me.

The downside is

he hasn't seen the house and

I haven't seen the estimate.

The upside is

Rylee landed her first job

as a hostess at a steakhouse.

And, other than the fact that

 she doesn't have her license yet,

there really is no downside to that.

I am SO HAPPY IT'S FRIDAY.

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A Bad Case Of The Heebie Jeebies

I am way too squeamish for this business.

It’s kind of like car sickness. Once I get a case of the heebie jeebies, it doesn’t just go away any time soon.

It started with the chinchilla.  Rylee is usually the one who handles Sophie, but this time I was alone.  It’s not that I am terribly afraid of her.  It’s that I don’t like to handle an animal that I am not familiar with.  And this cannot be hid from the animal.  I had to pick her up and carry her and this caused a lot of insecurity for both of us. 

Still a little shaky, I then had to go into the basement to plug in the well pump.  I had seen a snake down there last time I went down, but it wasn’t in my way, so I stayed out of it’s way too.  I told Rikki I had seen it and she wanted to see, but when we went down again it was gone.  I asked her to clean up some boxes that were in the corner and bring one upstairs.  She wouldn’t do it because she said it could be a rattle snake and might be by the boxes.  Heebie jeebies run in our family.  I moved the boxes myself, and if you would have snuck up behind me and touched me while I was doing it, I am sure I would have gone through the ceiling.  Anyway, when I went down yesterday, there the snake was again, right between me and the water pump.  Dang.  Now I had to deal with it.  I looked around for something to poke it with.  I spied a pole about the size of a broom stick across the room.  As I walked over to get the pole, spider webs stuck to my face.  I immediately began flailing my arms about my head as if being attacked by hornets.  Heebie jeebies were running amuck in that basement. 

Pole in hand, I poked at the snake from a safe distance and it didn’t do much, so, feeling braver, I shoved it across the floor with the pole.  Now it was safe to plug in the pump and I could have just walked away again, but I knew the problem was not going to go away.  Getting as far back as I could on my end of the pole, I picked up the snake with the very tip of the other end of the pole and we began our trek up the basement stairs.  This was not the smartest way to go about this, since the pole had to be held at an angle to get up the stairs.  If the snake had been the least bit slippery, it would have ended up on my end of the pole in a matter of seconds.  Luckily, the snake wasn’t slippery and it just hung there in the shape of a W and glared at me the whole time.  Once up the stairs, I had to make it out the back door.  Again a problem.  The snake-end of the pole was in front of me so I couldn’t open the door.  I wasn’t feeling confident enough to back up and make a 180 in the kitchen, with a snake on the end of a long pole, so I was hoping to use the snake-end to push the thumb button on the screen door latch and open the door.  Again, not smart.  If the pole slipped, the snake would likely drop off onto the kitchen floor and somehow I knew that would just scare me 10 times as much as it did seeing it in the basement.  But lady luck stayed with me and the snake-end of the pole opened the latch without incident.  Once out the door, I flung that snake as far as I could.  I know this wasn’t very nice but it was my only release of the heebie jeebies and I needed a release.  I am not proud to say, it landed with a thud, on its back and did not move.  I decided to check on it later.

Adrenaline was still running high when I went down to feed the cats who can come and go from the big shop.  Normally this would be no big deal, but yesterday it was freaky.  I don’t know if the cats were sensing my heightened fear or if I was sensing theirs, but we all kept thinking we saw or heard things.  They would take one bite of food and then stop and look around quickly to see what was there.  I stood there, not breathing, trying to hear or see what they saw.  On my way out of the huge, poorly lit shop, I must have turned around 3 times to see what might be coming after me.

Next it was time to feed the chickens.  On my way to the barn with their feed, I stopped to pick handfuls of green grass for them to enjoy, since they aren’t free-ranging yet.  I filled their feeders, gathered the eggs and then walked over to their entrance and exit hole to show them the grass.  Just as I got the door, I saw it.  A dead rat. A big dead rat, with a big fat tail.  And it was a she-rat, with nipples.  I just had to show the girls.  Besides, I don’t like to leave dead things lying around in the chicken coop.  I had no gloves and one hand held the egg basket and eggs.  I had no choice but to pick it up by the very tippy tip of its tail and try to carry it out of the barn.  I made it about three steps, which was enough time to start thinking about the lice that these rats carry and wondering if they would be crawling onto me, when the very tippy tip of this rat’s tail moved.  Seriously it did move.  It felt just like a snake trying to get out of my fingers.  I jerked and dropped that thing so quick I nearly cracked all the eggs in the basket.  The heebie jeebies were crawling all over me by then.  I wanted to come right out of my skin.  I kicked the dead rat to the exit door of the barn and kicked it outside and got as far away from that thing as quickly as I could.

I calmed myself as best I could on the walk back to the house.  When I got there, I decided to see if the snake had moved on or if I had killed it.  It apparently slithered off into the bushes, because in its place, staring into the bushes were two cats, who, by the look in their eyes and their body language, also had a bad case of the heebie jeebies.

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Its Officially Spring

These are the things that will be going

on our Spring and Easter display 

at Kuper Farms.

I know, I know

I need to get the etsy store back up.

It's on my list,

promise.

Happy Spring : )

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Favorite Weekend Photos

Check out the shadow on this little guy.

Sage looking at me over her baby bump.

The high school cheerleaders put on a cheer camp for

the younger kids on Saturday. 

Happy dawg.

Taking wing.

The cats have been moved to the farm for the summer.

No more cat box - yea!

Egg production kicked into high gear.

Just happy to say it's done.