Saturday Chickens

Patsy asked if we had any chickens left.  I don't think we lost any to the raccoon.  I saw feathers but no chicken remains.  Last night, I counted 12 big red hens, the rooster, the little brown banty with feathers on her legs, 2 big hens patsy gave us last year, one white banty and one dark banty we got last year, plus one black and one white chicken that hatched out this year.  The snakes got all the other baby chicks, but I think they have killed all the snakes for now. Anyway, the kids have not reported any new snake sightings since last week.  I think that accounts for all the chickens.

Robert the rooster and some hens.

They like to gather under Junior's house during the day.

The dark colored banty.

The two original red hens and the white one that hatched out this year.

Light colored banty.  Her legs are completely healed from the bugs last fall.

Feather legged banty.

White chick with top knot.

Black chicken with top knot.

Deer.

The mocking birds in the yard have been harassing the crows.  It is fun to watch them.

This is where the big chickens roost now.  They will not go in their house since the wild animal scare.

The first batch of chickens do not mix much with the big hens.  And, they want to roost around front.  I keep the all run off the deck, but they keep trying.

Still no new babies from Big Red.

Big Red and Half-N-Half

Summer

is here.  The Snyders cut the hay a couple of days ago, but have not been back to bale it.  I like the pasture much better with the grass cut.  We can see the deer and goats much better now.

We see the occasional deer now, but not like we did last summer.  They were already hungry and searching for green stuff by this time last year.  This year, so far they have abundance in the fields and woods.

Big Red should be having kids within the next week or two.  It might even be this weekend.

Hot Rod is looking good.

The little Grey Goat is way in the rear.

Here is Big Sandy.  Clayton says she is going to kid also, but she sure is not making any kind of bag.  She has slicked up and looks good.

Patsy of the big ears.

Big Red and Half-N-Half, Little Sister's baby.  All the kids take to Big Red.

Black Jack.

Tomorrow is GHED.

T R O U B L E . . .

I was the only one here with the kids and they wanted to ride the 4 wheeler.  They got it started by themselves, even if it did take both of them to do it.

We will have to hide the key for sure now.

Hannah doing her rain dance.

It worked cause it is still raining a little.  Light drizzle, but it will soak in and do the garden lots of good if it keeps it up much longer.

And, see that smudge in the upper left of this pic.  The lens in my new little camera has a defect that shows up when you take pictures into the bright sun.  Mostly you would not want to take pictures directly into the sun, so it has not been much of a bother, until this last weekend when all my pics came out with a bad smudge in that corner.  It was raining here, no sun shine at all.  Well, I finally looked at the lens after looking at these pics tonight.  It has something gooey on the outside of the lens.  I cleaned it and I think now it will work a bit better.

The little black goat did not make it.  So, we are one less goat now, but we still have plenty.  Big Red should have babies in about a week or maybe two.  So it goes.

Happy Father's day

To everyone.

I bought a new gas BBQ grill for all the fathers here.  It is a Char-Broil Infrared and is really nice.  Now, if I don't want to heat up the house, I can always grill hamburgers outside without having to plan ahead to get charcoal and start a fire an hour before cook time.  It was a little hard to clean the first time, but I read the instructions and put oil on it a couple of times and heated it up.  Then Helen said to turn it up on high and burn everything off. It worked pretty good that way.

Still no goats at 6 pm.  She is definitely trying to have them, but is taking her time.

Back to work tomorrow.