August 27, 2014

Farm happenings

So the research I've been doing says the leghorns start laying around 18 weeks. Were almost at 15!!! Three more weeks to go and I'll start obsessively checking the coop every day!! The walls of the coop are concrete so instead of trying to figure out how to put a shelf into that, I found an old entertainment center thingy and put it on the raised part of the coop. Into that went the two milk crates and into then went pine shavings. We'll see if they tear them out. Next, I'll try the newspaper.

I took Peace out today to hose down her wounds and decided I would try to leave them open and unwrapped. After more research, I determined that SWAT, a fly repellant was the way to go for this. It's this gooey sticky pink stuff that you put around wounds to keep flies away and it aids in healing. I'll check her later tonight before lock down to see how it's doing.

 

Yesterday we started them on sweet flakes. Per instructions, after their bottles we shoved a few kernels in their mouths for them to get a taste of it. Today I put a small bucket of it out for them, and they've been going to town! I also have a small bucket of hay that they sniff at and chew on intermittently. We'll continue to give their bottles twice a day in addition to their buffet of goodies in their stall.

And my poor bethel. I went out to visit with her and she seriously had what looked like 80 flies...... on her face. I borrowed a fly mask from a friend but she was having none of it. After 20 minutes she had it ripped off. So fly spray it was, except I didn't have anymore. In this house, we try to adhere to the rule of "no cash no buy". If we don't have the money for it, we try not to put it on credit. So I did some more research and found a recipe for fly spray with ingredients I had on hand- vinegar, water, dish soap and tea tree oil. It's nothing like the commercial sprays, but it kept them away for awhile.

Oh, and we have a new cat that wants to be part of the family. She's still cautious but we've had several sightings of her. Here she is checking me out in the grass

 

 

After digging through weeds down the street to pick tomatoes...the face rash is back..... Ugggghhhhhhh

 

 

Praying about our first safe families need.....

 

Seriously......my poor darling. Half of them flew off when I walked up to her

I am looking at this sunrise, and it is just too much....I can't look at it for more than a few seconds because it's beyond my human brain to comprehend this glory, our God.