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| My reluctant farmer held off till the last minute but did make it out by 9:00 this morning to start our long day of farm work. Aww. Poor baby. A real farmer would have been out there by dawn....Just sayin'. |
First, We checked on the new chicks in the nursery. There is a whole new set of meat chickens waiting their turn in the pasture pen. We've also got some laying hen chicks and 6 turkeys.
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| Poultry Nursery |
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| ClaireAnna with a young turkey. |
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| 23 Cornish Rock meat chicks, several buff Orpingtons and some barred Rocks. |
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| Young Turkey's |
Then we fed the always voraciously hungry meat chickens in the pasture pen. They are doing great and will be ready to butcher in a couple of weeks.
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| The pasture chickens. Getting big! |
We spent most of our day out in the horse pasture, moving, piling and burning logs and debris from several fallen trees that has accumulated over the last couple of years. We've still got one big section to do, but were very happy to get a lot accomplished and leave the pasture looking good! The horses were so curious and hung around us all day, sticking their noses in the truck and piles of wood. Weirdos. (Should have gotten a photo of that.)
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| This pile is all that's left of one of our favorite giant oaks. It fell during a big storm a couple of years ago. The loss of it changed the entire look of the horse pasture. |
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| Before the fall. This favorite tree will be missed! |
So while we were picking up branches from a woodpile, Claire and I came upon two baby snakes. One was a green garter snake. The other a black rat snake. Ted caught them both with his bare hands while Claire and I picked out jaws up off the ground. (Okay, he was wearing gloves, but when it comes to picking up snakes, that's the same as bare hands.) Considering Ted is petrified of snakes, we were both shocked. Way to go, honey! This is the baby garter snake.
ClaireAnna picked up a log and noticed the earth beneath heaving slightly up and down.
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| The center part of this divot was rising and falling in a very odd way. |
With a little scraping of the area with a stick, she unearthed this guy, still enjoying his hibernation. Sorry, toad. It's time to get up!
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| Sleepy Toad |
And the icing on the cake of creatures unearthed in the brush pile.....A huge tarantula! Ted actually picked this thing up too, but he dropped it before I could capture it on film. You'll just have to trust me. He was having a particularly fearless day!
We spent a little time today, caring for Ruby and Bell, who are getting some training time tied in the milk barn shed. This is in preparation for the county fair. Claire will be taking them both.
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| Ted is moving out some manure as the cows adjust to being tied. The dogs are trying to lend an air of calm to the situation. |
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| For some reason, Elsa likes to interact with the cows and had just finished nuzzling their faces before she lied down here. They seem to like her too. Joey just wanted to be in the photo! |
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| Belle, the Jersey dairy heifer, is used to being haltered and is taking to standing tied very well. |
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| She loves her scratches and cuddles from CliareAnna. |
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| Ruby, the Angus cross commercial heifer, was just haltered yesterday for the first time and is not happy about it! |
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| "Get this thing off of me! Let me go!" |
