Life is a vapor...

The little duckling died last night. Finley was heartbroken. We got up this morning and buried it under a tree near the rock where she likes to sit.

Another Addition

Yesterday evening, our neighbor stopped to chat as she was checking her fence line for stuck goats. "Do you want another baby duck?" She didn't know how big it was. Her daughter had called from work and had found the baby duck in the parking lot where she worked in the middle of Murfreesboro.

Sure.

We went to pick it up today. It has to be only a day or two old, it is so tiny.

 Here it is napping in my hand. I didn't realize it had peed on me, but who cares?

I can't get over this girl.

I don't know too many little girls that wear Lightning McQueen shirts and prefer camouflage pants and fall asleep with swords in their hands, but this one is mine.

I recently went through a bin of summer clothes that were hand-me-downs from Finley and her cousin. About 75% of the clothes in there were pink. I started to ask Z item by item if she liked the clothes. The first two things she rejected, and then she decided she liked them all. As I tucked the frilly, pink skort into the drawer, I doubted that I would ever see it on her bum. Sure enough, none of those clothes have seen the light of day since, but the soccer shirt that Joe decided was too small for him today was immediately claimed and worn by Z.

Her most recent favorite toys? A snake, a gun, and a Jeff Gordon car. Oh, she makes me smile...

She's at it again...

A Note for the Tooth Fairy

Having learned by multiple experiences that the tooth fairy is not reliable, Finley is doing her best to make sure the t-f comes through for her tonight.

Egg Pondering

Every once in a while, I get an egg that has an odd shape like this one:

A bit out of focus... sorry.

I can't help but wonder what might have been going on as the shell was being formed around the egg. Did something happen to disturb the hen that made her tense up?  Maybe another hen walked in just at the right moment and said, "Why don't you hurry up, Gladys?" For a while, I was getting some really long, pointy eggs, and I have a suspicion that they were my Polish hen's first eggs. She is a bit slighter than your typical layer, and I can imagine that she was nervous that laying an egg might not be too pleasant, which might cause that egg-forming-laying part to tighten up a bit. I may be wrong, but it's kind of fun to think about...

And for the last two days, one of my Americaunas has been laying in the sandbox. Nevermind that the first day, Zivah chased her out right after she layed it. She decided to risk it again. This is the same hen that was laying in the big ficus pot on the deck last year. I wonder if she'll keep it up.

Tomatoes, Take 2

I have just finished planting tomatoes. Again.

With this strange spring weather, I gambled and planted my tomatoes a couple weeks ahead of the April 15th frost date for this area. Most of the tomatoes were beautiful plants that my brother had started from seeds he had saved from last year's tomatoes or seeds of heirloom varieties we wanted to try this year. And one week before the frost date, in spite of the 5 gallon buckets covering each plant, they got bit by frost and shriveled up to nothing. Who would have thought that near-ninety degrees temps would be followed by the low 30's? (Not me.)

This time, I just grabbed some plants from the local farmer's co-op. I have learned my lesson. No tomatoes in the ground before April 15th, no matter what.

I'm trying something new this year... I put down some newspaper under the tomato cages in hopes to reduce some weeds. We'll see how it works.

I planted the last of the tomatoes as a light rain started falling. We had a little rain yesterday, but the soil was so dry, it soaked it right up, and by the end of the day, you couldn't tell it had rained at all. It's been strange to see patches of grass already turning brown with lack of rain this early in the year. I'm hoping it rains like this all day. One benefit to the sparse rain, though, is that I haven' really seen any mosquitoes.

And now for an update on that broody hen... She didn't seem too serious about staying on her nest, and other hens kept jumping onto it when she was gone and laying more eggs. What started out as a clutch of seven eggs turned into ten in just a few days. I didn't want to keep losing eggs to her, I wasn't sure if any of those eggs would really be viable, and I sure didn't want to accidentally give someone an egg to eat with a little embryo growing inside, so I kicked her off the nest.

I took the ten eggs and broke them open to see if any had started to develop. Sure enough, there were a few that showed signs of some blood vessels. I gathered a few more fresh eggs for her to sit on, put them in the little coop and run we no longer use, then locked her up inside. She didn't take it well. Instead of sitting on the eggs, she just paced the fence looking for a way out. When it got dark, she still hadn't gone into the coop, so I coaxed her inside with a flashlight. The next morning, she was out again, the eggs were cold, and she had pooped on them: a clear sign she didn't intend to sit on them.

Before I let her out, I made sure to gather all the eggs I could find. She soon made her way back to the nesting boxes and sat in the empty box for most of the day. Then she gave it up, and I haven't seen her brooding since. I'm glad, because we really don't need any more chickens. I've been letting the chicks and duck out of their pen during the day, and yesterday, as I went to get some water from the spigot, they ALL came running and gathered around my feet. I think at least half of them need to destined for the oven, even if they aren't roosters.

Baby Chickadees!

Finley check on her birdhouse today, and the baby chickadees have hatched!

It is really hard to get a photo of baby chickadees deep down inside a birdhouse, so this is the best I could do.They are so very tiny! (What you can see is a beak pointed straight up on the air.) Next time we need to put up a birdhouse with a hinged roof... or maybe install cameras.

(More) Tractor Drama and other things

I have this problem. I get really attached to things. Especially if they are a bit old and function in spite of the odds. My attachment grows exponentially if I have done any work on said thing to keep it functional. Consider my first car: a 1980 Honda Accord hatchback. It was green and ugly, and among the things I had to do to keep it running was plaster the rusted bottom of the gas tank with J. B. Weld to stop the leaks. I still wish I had that car.

And now, I find that the bond I have with our little International 254 is growing. Great. We've bought it new front tires, and I've replaced the water pump and had the radiator repaired. It has had a tendency to overheat (probably because it is so small and we work it too hard) and now the temp light is on permanently. We don't know if this an electrical or other problem... Add to all this the fact that it was basically free (I think the previous owners probably thought it wasn't worth the hassle), and I'm a goner. There is something crazy fun about popping it into high and 3rd and bouncing along. A sort of manic euphoria grips me.

Anyway, a 4 ft. Bush Hog came with the tractor, and part of my therapy around here was to get on the tractor and do some bush hogging. Lately, though, it has become apparent with the addition of the other 14 acres to take care of that, unless we want to spend a couple hours ever day on the tractor (which, if I had the time, I might not mind...) this little setup is not quite enough to keep on top of the bush hogging.

And now the Bush Hog just broke. Our fault. Chris and I failed to check to see if there was any oil in the gearbox. So now what to do? Do we just pay some one to bush hog for us? Or should we sell the 254 and put the money toward a bigger tractor? Of course I can't see the situation clearly and am finding a lot of reasons why we should keep the thing...

So when everything seems out of control and I can't bush hog, I wash eggs. Something about laying the eggs out in nice orderly rows to dry help me feel sane.

 Speaking of eggs, you forget to gather eggs for one day, and a hen decides to follow that brooding instinct. She's been sitting since Monday, I think... gotten up a couple of times to stretch her legs and eat, but she looks pretty serious about sitting on her clutch. We'll see how it goes.

Blueberries For...

Sal Us. I'd love it if some bears showed up one day while Z and I were out picking blueberries, but I don't think that will happen. Maybe if we lived closer to the mountains.

Yesterday, I got my berry patch planted. After tilling in peat moss and compost earlier this spring, I decided to till in some more since the soil there is rather hard and a bit high on the pH scale. I also tilled in some sulfur, as I doubt the peat alone could bring the pH down to ideal levels. So these blueberries better be happy. I've worked hard for them.

 I also managed to plant my blackberries (below) and raspberries...

 I know I must have walked over a mile today. Z wasn't exactly content to sit out in the sun and watch or help much, so I have no idea how many trips I made between the patch and the trailer...

I am trying to be a good girl and keep the sunblock on, so inspite of the hours and hours I spent exposed to the sun yesterday, the only burn I got was a little horizontal strip on my lower back where I tend to (ahem) crack. (Am I the only non-plumber with this problem?)

On days like this when all I want to do is work outside, this is a glimpse of what happens inside:

I did resist the temptation to shove all that mess on the floor and folded enough clothes so that Chris and I could go to bed last night.

Today I plant tomatoes.