Spring Time In January

The calendar may say January but Mother Nature is making everyone and everything think spring is here.
Flowers are blooming. My butterfly bush is getting leaves on it and some of my herbs are starting to pop up outta the ground.

Momma hens are showing up everywhere with babies. Here are the latest two. We still have another sitting on eggs and two other hens with chicks that are a couple weeks old.

 Sorry first one had her back to the camera. She was clucking and gathering her little ones under her. She had 8.

This momma has 7 little ones that though they are only a few days old get into everything and keep momma and me on our toes.
Since spring like weather is here love is in the air. Tessa is still being a cougar and chasing her cabana boy E.J. around her pen.

And Fred is still upset and staying over with Elvis in his pen till Tessa comes to her senses and wants him back. Or so he hopes she will when the desire to make baby turkey hits her.

Elvis remembers when Tessa had the hots for him and flirted through the fence at him. He keeps telling Fred to go home and I use to take Fred back to his pen every morning only to have him fly back over so gave up. He and Tessa will hopefully make up before the real spring gets here and by summer have baby turkey running around the homestead. This is whats going on around Hidden Haven. How are things in your part of the world?

More Family Photos

This is my son in law Brannon with Little Elizabeth. She is the foster girl that my daughter Melody has had since she was just a few weeks old. There has been a couple times that "Sissy" has gone back to her mom's but she has always been able to back home to her Nana Melody and Poppy Joe. Her brother Jonathan spends a lot of time with my daughter Megan. In fact he spent Christmas with her and I was able to watch his excitement over seeing what Santa had left. (He is wearing one of Quintin's tees for a sleep shirt. He thinks Quintin is awesome)

And this is Baby Lily. She is Jonathan and Elizabeth's baby sister. She stays with her mom but Melody was able to bring her over for our family dinner. Of course daughter Maggie was quick to be first to hold her. It was so fun being with all 3 girls and the grands. We laughed, teased, talked, and just treasured our time since we aren't all together very often. And we evened worked on the jigsaw puzzle together without fighting over it! Christmas in the mountains was wonderful but being with family was truly a blessing!

It has been another few days of warm weather with a little bit of rain. Tomorrow is suppose to bring in heavy rain. I plan on getting lots of inside chores done as well as catch up some reading. I got several good books for Christmas just waiting for me to read. Hope you are having a great week and counting those blessings!!

Around the Homestead

Inside the homestead Rusty and Whiskers are eating their supper and I am enjoying a nice cup of pumpkin spice tea and listening to the news on TV. For supper I plan on having leftover ham and blackeyed peas from New Years dinner. William will be home tomorrow so am planning what I will cook for our supper then. Finally got all the Christmas decorations down and packed. I need to put them in the storage building in the morning. Did some vacuuming and sweeping earlier and will mop the floors before going to bed. Have the firewood carried in for the night though I will only keep a small fire as tonight will be much warmer than the past few. Tomorrow will be in the 60's. My daughter Maggie called on her way home from work and had a nice chat with her. I love getting calls from the girls. I feel like I am actually sharing part of their day. Tonight I plan on cleaning my bedroom. I still have my suitcase sitting in the middle of the floor. Most of it is unpacked but there are still some gifts, books, and things I picked up at thriftstores in the mountains to put away . With William gone all week I have just closed the door and forgotten about it while catching up on other chores. Now that its the only room left to clean I have no excuse.

Outside around the homestead things are going good. No new baby chicks today and all the chicks we do have are doing really well. I got the rabbit pens and cages cleaned out today and all the poo raked and put on the mulch pile. Got some boxes and things burnt in the firepit while I was raking. Tomorrow I plan on raking the chicken and goat pens. Also have some leaf piles I will gather up and put in the pig pen. They love munching on the leaves and all the acorns. Going to start listing rabbits for sale this weekend. We really need to downsize as we have way too many. I actually would like to get down to no rabbits but don't see that happening. Next I need to get William to agree to find homes for some of our dogs. We do not need 4 guard dogs for our goats. I am sure I could find good homes for a couple of them but also sure we won't agree on which two should be the ones to go. Such is life around the homestead. My goal for the New Year is get everything downsized so it doesn't get overwhelming at times. To just 3 or 4 goats and a a few chickens would be a dream. Sure it will never get that small but its nice to dream. I want to get in the herb garden tomorrow and mulch the plants starting to come back in this warm winter weather. I still have lavender, rosemary, and pineapple sage growing. I will cut them back tomorrow and put them in the dehydrator. Make sure the whole herb garden is mulched in for the rest of winter. We are suppose to get extended cold winter temps in two weeks or so the weatherman says. We shall see. I still have some garlic and onion buttons I want to set out tomorrow. Will mulch them well too.  The daffodils next to the house are about to bloom. With the warm temps of the next few days I bet them will open up. This really has been a warm winter. Tonight all the animals are settled in their beds. Bella and Tinker are awake and guarding the goats. Hillary is sound asleep. She does her guardian during the day. I swear anyone could walk in the goat yard and actually pick Hillary up and carry her off without her waking up. I have never seen a dog sleep such a deep sleep as she does. Gypsy is in the pen with Andy and Petro. She hardly ever sleeps. Being a puppy she is always on the move or into something. It's nice knowing they are watching over the homestead and will sound the alarm if anyone or anything that doesn't belong shows up. Rusty is guarding the house and can wake the dead with his shrill barking when anyone or anything moves outside near the house. Kuma and Rusty are in their pen near the house and let me know if anyone pulls up in the drive or walks up. Even my neighbors feel safe at night with the dogs keeping watch. They will call and tell me which way the dogs are barking and if they see what it is they are barking at so I don't have to go outside. We have some deer that have been coming up  near the back of the property at night. Bella and Tinker don't think they should be there and stand and bark at them till they leave. The deer seem to know the dogs can't get to them so take their time eating and checking things out before they go back down to the swamp and woods. It's a dogs life around this homestead. Hope you are having a blessed week and counting all your blessings!

This is grandson Zack. He is a teenager that sometimes thinks he is a adult. Sometimes we have awesome conversations and sometimes we have major disagreements. Whatever we have we both have lots of love for each other and have lots of fun hanging out.

More Babies

This morning as I headed out for morning feeding chores it was a nice chilly 20F. I was planning in my mind what I was going to give as treats along with the usual feed to the animals. Then my planning was interrupted by the cry of baby chicks. ANOTHER hen had hid her eggs. She picked this cold morning to bring 8 baby chicks out for breakfast. Feeding was put on hold while I tried to figure out where to put her and the chicks. All the nice warm houses we keep momma hens and chicks in already have momma hens and chicks in them. None of them were planned either! I grabbed a rabbit cage and set it under a heat lamp inside a roosting house. That will do for a couple of days till I can move hens and chicks around and give them their own little house and yard  to scratch in. This is the 4th hen to hatch chicks this month. Crazy winter weather has the animals thinking its spring. This weekend is suppose to bring back high 60 weather again so no telling who will have babies next. I even have daffodils budding in the flower beds next to the house. Surely winter will come to its senses and bring back the cold weather and keep it for awhile. I did finally get the feeding done though I waited till mid morning to water as the waterhose was frozen. I forgot to drain it. Everyone had water to drink till then as I broke the ice off for them. I chopped up collards for the goats as a treat and they ate like pigs. Gave the rabbits apple slices, chickens, turkey, duck, and geese got chopped up spinach. Dogs got a rawhide bone to chew on. I feel sorry for them being out in the cold even with warm beds so I give them a treat to make me feel better. Haven't let the fire in the stove go out all week. Have 2 kettles keeping water nice and hot on the stove top so when I come in I can make a cuppa tea and sit by the fire for a few minutes. Fill the stove and bank the fire before heading to bed each night so when I get up the house is still nice and warm and I just need to throw on a stick of wood to keep it going. I just love winter (when its actually winter temps) and look forward to a couple weeks from now for a extend period of winter temps the local weatherman has promised. I have a huge pot of rice,oats, and barley simmering on the stove to give the chickens as a treat in the morning. Will warm their tummies and hopefully there will be no new babies to greet me. Have a very blessed night everyone!

 This is a picture of my granddaughter Hope. She was here with her mom visiting for a few days when I came back from the mountains. Had so much fun with her at the mall even though she didn't like my taste in clothes.

Tessa The Bourbon Red Cougar

Tessa when she was being normal and having breakfast with the other turkey

Tessa came to us from Boone, NC. You can read her story here about bringing her to be a mate for Fred but she feel in love with a Rooster named Elvis. This has been a on going love since 2009 until now. Tessa has turned cougar and fallen for a cabana boy, young rooster that is still wet behind his cone. EJ is Elvis son and no matter that we clip his wings, put him in a closed in pen he finds ways to escape and go back to Tessa. Fred has had enough. He decided to make his way over and join Elvis in his pen. The two of them seemed to be sharing Tessa breaking heart stories as they cry over their beer water bowl. I have taken Fred back to his pen the past 3 mornings and he has made his way back to Elvis. I have decided to let him stay for now and hope Tessa grows tired of having a young rooster wooing her. Hopefully spring will find her ready for Fred to move back in and make some babies. Around here you never know what the animals are going to do next. Makes each day something to look forward to!

Around The Homestead

Around the home things are settled down for the night. William is in Lexington, NC helping his son in law so Rusty, Whiskers, and I have the house to ourselves. TV is on and Whiskers seems to be watching somewhat. Rusty has started this bad habit of barking to go outside only to bark to come back in right away. Then barks again to go back out, repeat, repeat, repeat. When I am not opening and closing the door I am enjoying the fire in the woodstove and a second cup of hot chocolate. My nighttime cold medicine is kicking in so I see an early night for me. Winter nights are so peaceful and enjoyable.

Around the barn it was a busy, crazy day. Either hunting or target practice was going on in the woods on the other side of the swamp. Bella and Tinker were going crazy. Tinker tore open the pig gate and tried to go through their pen and out the other side. She only succeeded in getting tangled up. Got her and the gate fixed to find Bella had torn thru the main gate to the goat pen and got tangled up. Freed her up and boarded up the hole she made in the gate. Tinker and Bella are now on runners and not happy but they freak out at gunshots. New Years night was bad enough but today has them stressed out. I finished giving the animals warm fresh bedding. Got the neighbor boys to help me set the rabbit cages that fell over.  Rabbits seemed to not be upset over it and went right back to eating when we got the heavy stand back up. Have wood brought in for the few days of cold weather. I am so looking forward to having a fire going all day and night. Had to spend some time with Andy the goat as he was trying to ram Petro's pen and torment him. Also spent some time with Gypsy. She is all puppy though she is 11 months old. She wants to run, jump, lick, bite, chase, and never tires. Having 4 huge dogs sure takes a lot of energy out of me. But at the end of the day. Bella and Tinker are settled down. Hillary is being Hillary and sleeping through everything. Gypsy is finally sleeping along with the goats all snuggled down in their beds, bunnies snoozing in their nests, chickens and turkey are dozing on their roosts and all is sleeping in heavenly peace around the homestead.

This is my granddaughter Julie taken at Christmas. She has grown into such a sweet young lady. I am so blessed to have her as a granddaughter.

Happy 2012

I welcomed the new year in by sleeping. Still have this horrible chest cold so I snoozed on the sofa while William played on the computer and watched the ball drop on TV. Fixed blackeyed peas, ham, collard greens, fried cabbage and cornbread for our New Years meal and the rest of the day was spent getting the animals ready for the cold weather hitting us tonight. Still have a few more beds that need fresh straw and pine bedding but overall the animals should be nice and warm tonight. Finally winter weather is here or at least will be for a few days before it goes back up to 60's the end of the week. Such a mild winter we are having. We had New Year babies! One of our hens hid her nest and came out New Years morning with 8 chicks. Nice surprise but we caught her and the babies and put them in a pen with a nice warm nest and heat lamp. Was going to put her in the little house we usually keep hens and chicks in but another sneaky hen found the door unlatched and is sitting on eggs. What is it with hens wanting to hatch eggs in the winter time? We now have another Great Pyrenees. Yep, that makes a total of 3 and Tinker who is half Pyrenees and half Antonin Shepherd. Gypsy is 11 months old, full blooded GP and is more playful and into things than Tinker. I am hoping to talk William into to just keeping Hillary and Bella and finding homes for Tinker and Gypsy but will have to play that really slow. Our goal for the new year was to downsize...... don't see that being a fast action plan. LOL  Whatever your plans I wish for you a wonderful, blessed New Year! We have a fresh start to a brand new year and I for one can't wait to see where the adventure leads!