Poor Aoife. She has turned into a couch and bed for Padraig and Ciaran!
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Our Wee Flock
Poor Aoife. She has turned into a couch and bed for Padraig and Ciaran!
These are a few of my (least) favorite things...
When the EWE kicks
When the bee stings
And when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things (see below) and then I don't feel so bad!
My Favorite Things:
Caramel Apples
Growing our own pumpkins and gourds
Watching all my kids (goat and human) have fun playing with each other in the crunching leaves
Petting Aoife and Beatrix on their head and touching their soft nuzzle nose
The idea of having baby lambs in the spring
In regards to the above reference to my "least" favorite things:
-Aoife kicked Farmer J (accidently) "in the balls" (as JJ puts it) when she was anxiously waiting for goat/sheep treats. He has since recovered.
-We have a bee problem upstairs (where we sleep). Early Saturday morning (4:00 a.m. to be exact), I was stung by a bee on my chubby cheek. Before the sting, I was awoken slightly by the buzzing sound of the nearby insect. Then, a few seconds later...came the scream, followed by me shouting, "I was stung". I tend to be dramatic when it comes to matters such as these. Farmer J and JJ (who has sneaked into our bed an hour or so earlier) quickly jumped out of the bed. J turned on the light and spotted the bee on the wall closest to my side of the bed. Whack! Dead bee. This was my first bee sting ever. And it hurt. The ice cube on my cheek helped but the pain lasted far into the next day. Since then, I have probably killed another 20 bees from our upstairs area (and two just while writing this blog entry). And before the bee sting, I had probably killed over 25 more bees. So... maybe my sting was karma's response to my bee killings. Regardless, the mama bear in me doesn't want the bees stinging my boys, so they have to go. We are hoping the frost will kill off the bees but even after a few frost advisories in the last few days, the bees are still holding strong. Maybe time for plan B! (Pun totally intended.)
When the bee stings
And when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things (see below) and then I don't feel so bad!
My Favorite Things:
Caramel Apples
Growing our own pumpkins and gourds
Watching all my kids (goat and human) have fun playing with each other in the crunching leaves
Petting Aoife and Beatrix on their head and touching their soft nuzzle nose
The idea of having baby lambs in the spring
In regards to the above reference to my "least" favorite things:
-Aoife kicked Farmer J (accidently) "in the balls" (as JJ puts it) when she was anxiously waiting for goat/sheep treats. He has since recovered.
-We have a bee problem upstairs (where we sleep). Early Saturday morning (4:00 a.m. to be exact), I was stung by a bee on my chubby cheek. Before the sting, I was awoken slightly by the buzzing sound of the nearby insect. Then, a few seconds later...came the scream, followed by me shouting, "I was stung". I tend to be dramatic when it comes to matters such as these. Farmer J and JJ (who has sneaked into our bed an hour or so earlier) quickly jumped out of the bed. J turned on the light and spotted the bee on the wall closest to my side of the bed. Whack! Dead bee. This was my first bee sting ever. And it hurt. The ice cube on my cheek helped but the pain lasted far into the next day. Since then, I have probably killed another 20 bees from our upstairs area (and two just while writing this blog entry). And before the bee sting, I had probably killed over 25 more bees. So... maybe my sting was karma's response to my bee killings. Regardless, the mama bear in me doesn't want the bees stinging my boys, so they have to go. We are hoping the frost will kill off the bees but even after a few frost advisories in the last few days, the bees are still holding strong. Maybe time for plan B! (Pun totally intended.)
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Fall
3 Benefits of the Cool, Fall Weather When You Live on a Farm:
1.) The cooler weather dries up the chicken poop faster which equals less poop on your nice shoes when you are trying to hop your way to the car (on your way to work or school) without stepping in a chicken-pie.
2.) The leaves cover up some of the chichen poop which equals... (see above)
3.) The days are longer and the hens find their own way into the coop much earlier (which decreases the time the wary farmwife needs to do the chicken round-up (when still in her work shoes with fear of getting aforementioned chicken poop on the soles of her work shoes))
1.) The cooler weather dries up the chicken poop faster which equals less poop on your nice shoes when you are trying to hop your way to the car (on your way to work or school) without stepping in a chicken-pie.
2.) The leaves cover up some of the chichen poop which equals... (see above)
3.) The days are longer and the hens find their own way into the coop much earlier (which decreases the time the wary farmwife needs to do the chicken round-up (when still in her work shoes with fear of getting aforementioned chicken poop on the soles of her work shoes))
Monday, October 7, 2013
Coming soon to a farm blog near you...
Wow. Times flies. Since my last blog post, JJ and Farmer J are back in school (one student; one teacher) and Pickle has started pre-school. We have had two birthdays and one more next week. J has been helping out with a farm education program (with his trusty sidekick, Pickle) on the farm as well. We also had a farm to plate dinner on the land and hosted an antique sale. So these are my reasons for the lack of blog posts recently. Not great reasons... but I'm sticking with them nonetheless.
As most writers need to stick to deadlines... I am going to try something new. From hence forth...I will be posting one blog entry every Sunday (with some sprinklings of here and there postings at different times in the week as bonus material). For my readers that need a necessary break from the "Mondays", The Wary Farmwife blog's "got your back, dawg."
Until Sunday...here is a brief update on the animals-
Cheeks (a.k.a., "the hurt chicken") is doing great!
Beatrix and Aoife are great (the sheep).
Their new boyfriend ("Ace") will arrive tonight. He is our "loaner ram" who will be living with us for the next 5 weeks. Another mini-van animal transport!!!
Padraig and Ciaran have found a nice and warm place to sleep at night (on top of Beatrix and Aoife). No joke. Maybe the cutest thing ever.
The Rooster is gone; his last day on this Earth was yesterday. J "converted" or "harvested" (pick your favorite term) the rooster while the boys and I were at church. When I picked up the boys from Sunday School, it was obviously that they told their teacher all about their daddy's morning plans. That poor teacher. This morning, I slept til 7 with no pre-dawn wake up 'crow' coming through my window before the sun shone in. Ahhhhhh. Peace has once again been restored to the farm. I think we are good on hens, even for next summer, so there is no chance of a rooster back on the property for quite awhile!!!
The hens are doing fabulously well. The 'pullets' (or hens less than one year old) are now laying eggs as well. We are getting close to a dozen eggs a day.
Only one bat in the house this summer!!!! But, we seem to have some trouble keeping the bees (not the honeybees) outside and not inside the house, especially around one particular window upstairs by our bedrooms! Thankfully, the weather is getting cooler every day which means less and less bees. Did you know that playdough helps plug up nooks and crannies in windows to keep bees out??? A temporary fix but it does the job (and our window looks quite colorful). Thank you Pickle for sharing your birthday playdough!
The Japanese Beetles are back in the house and the random chipmunk sneaks through our mudroom door! Never a dull moment on the farm or in the farmhouse (picture me jumping on top of various mudroom furniture as I'm scared of a tiny, little chipmunk). Oh how I'm letting down all the previous pioneer woman who have lived in this home before me!
That's it until Sunday...Pick Pick just woke up from his nap!
As most writers need to stick to deadlines... I am going to try something new. From hence forth...I will be posting one blog entry every Sunday (with some sprinklings of here and there postings at different times in the week as bonus material). For my readers that need a necessary break from the "Mondays", The Wary Farmwife blog's "got your back, dawg."
Until Sunday...here is a brief update on the animals-
Cheeks (a.k.a., "the hurt chicken") is doing great!
Beatrix and Aoife are great (the sheep).
Their new boyfriend ("Ace") will arrive tonight. He is our "loaner ram" who will be living with us for the next 5 weeks. Another mini-van animal transport!!!
Padraig and Ciaran have found a nice and warm place to sleep at night (on top of Beatrix and Aoife). No joke. Maybe the cutest thing ever.
The Rooster is gone; his last day on this Earth was yesterday. J "converted" or "harvested" (pick your favorite term) the rooster while the boys and I were at church. When I picked up the boys from Sunday School, it was obviously that they told their teacher all about their daddy's morning plans. That poor teacher. This morning, I slept til 7 with no pre-dawn wake up 'crow' coming through my window before the sun shone in. Ahhhhhh. Peace has once again been restored to the farm. I think we are good on hens, even for next summer, so there is no chance of a rooster back on the property for quite awhile!!!
The hens are doing fabulously well. The 'pullets' (or hens less than one year old) are now laying eggs as well. We are getting close to a dozen eggs a day.
Only one bat in the house this summer!!!! But, we seem to have some trouble keeping the bees (not the honeybees) outside and not inside the house, especially around one particular window upstairs by our bedrooms! Thankfully, the weather is getting cooler every day which means less and less bees. Did you know that playdough helps plug up nooks and crannies in windows to keep bees out??? A temporary fix but it does the job (and our window looks quite colorful). Thank you Pickle for sharing your birthday playdough!
The Japanese Beetles are back in the house and the random chipmunk sneaks through our mudroom door! Never a dull moment on the farm or in the farmhouse (picture me jumping on top of various mudroom furniture as I'm scared of a tiny, little chipmunk). Oh how I'm letting down all the previous pioneer woman who have lived in this home before me!
That's it until Sunday...Pick Pick just woke up from his nap!
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