Goat Grandma Again ...

We have 2 new baby goats born to Naomi! She had a false pregnancy early this spring (think February). Then Freddie got hold of her again, and wa-la! Out pop two kids today! I can't wait to go home this evening after work and see them! This is all so exciting! I told Chris she was preggers! He didn't believe it. Last night he finally conceded that she might actually be pregnant. Well, she's not anymore! Pictures WILL follow tomorrow!

The Final Summit - Andy Andrews

I finished reading The Final Summit, courtesy of Booksneeze, a week and a half ago. It has taken me a bit of time to decide what kind of review to write for this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think it was my cup of tea. I enjoyed the historical content and the ideas that were gained to try to solve the riddle that would save humanity, but I just didn't care much for the overall storyline. I suppose I expected more adventure. However, the main character, David Ponder, is seventy-four years young, and he is a very successful businessman, well-liked by his employees and peers. The arch-angel Gabriel then asks David to help save humanity, and he joins with a multitude of characters from history as they strive to answer the question on what will save the world. Apparently, this is a sequel, but I was able to read this book without ever having read the previous. I did feel that I missed out on a little of information, but this book covers that well. I did feel that as the story progressed, it was a bit predictable. I mean, if you are half-way through, you know that the answer they've come up with at this point isn't going to be correct. I did learn a few things about some of the historical figures that are highlighted in the book such as Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Eric Erickson. In that, this kept my interest. Without those stories of the historical characters, however, I don't think I'd have read much further than the first couple of chapters. A worthy read for anyone who likes snippets of history peppered through a fictional book.

Strawberry Jam

I don't know if I over boiled the sugar and strawberries, but I guess we'll find out later this week. I only came away with 3 pints, when according to the recipe, I should have been able to get four. Oh, well. The jam is a dark red, rather than the lighter red. I just hope the jam doesn't end up getting totally hard! It was really hard to tell if I'd reached the gelling point, and I don't have a candy thermometer.

Baby Chickies Over the Weekend!

Chickies started bursting forth out of their shells Saturday morning at 3:17am! Chris and I heard tweets at midnight when we went to bed Friday night, but we didn't see anything. At around 3am, the tweets seemed to have gotten louder! A dark little Ameracauna was greeting us! Then another at just after 5am! How exciting! By 9am Saturday, we hadn't received any more visitors, but knew that more would be coming. We had to leave for the U.P. for a wedding at 2pm in St. Ignace. We spent a wonderful two days traveling, visiting 7 State Parks and deciding on two that we would check out online for reservability. My friend, Michelle, who was farm-sitting for us, kept us abreast of what was going on in the incubator. Saturday evening we had four more. By the time we arrived home there were nine total. Eight were ready for their new temporary home in a bin out in the chicken coop. Chris is so smart - he just put the bin right in the brooder box with the marans and wellsummers. I had stopped to pick up some paper towel to line the bottom of the bin with, and we set eight chickies up with a dish of water and some food put in a plastic lid. This morning I put the ninth one in. There was a tenth one all wet and just hatched in the incubator yet, and I heard more chirping coming! Exciting times!

I also took a couple pictures of the marans and the welsummers - you can see just how fast they've grown!

Look what I built!

I finished the brooder box last night. We now have happy, not overly hot chickies! And they have 5'x2' to run around in! I suppose if you are in the market for a brooder box, I could take an order, and in a week's time, I could have one built for you! It would only cost you $100. Anyway, take a look at my box and my chickies (we lost one yesterday - a wellsummer - he/she was found drowned in the waterer. Bleh! Hopefully this box will keep the chickies happier and healthier. They are definitely not overcrowded. Oh, and at Alex's house, they successfully hatched eighteen chickies! Woo Hoo!

Wow!

I didn't tell you what transpired on Sunday! Church was great! Then after, Kellie and I picked up some Chinese food, watched a Little House, made an Angel Food Cake and went outdoors to work on the back garden. I think it is finally pretty much finished. I was able to till out quite a bit. Kellie was instructed to use a shovel and square off my corners and shore up the edges, which she did on Monday, while I was at work. She got that done and so much more! I'm so happy! I'm going to have to give her next week off! We'll see. When I got out of work, I got gas, stopped at Menards and walked around the outside of the place before I found two 2"x4"x10' pieces of pre-treated lumber. I stopped by GFS and said hi to Chris and picked up salsa and chicken. It was even on sale! Then I hurried home and planted my squash, cucumber pickles, pumpkins and even four rows of corn! Kellie agreed that we had a bit of time to work on the brooder box and we got the entire bottom done and the whole frame! Tonight I'm going to add chicken wire and build the lid and get our chickies into it. I also have to make a little brace on the inside for a separator to keep the smallest chickies that should hatch this weekend away from the bigger chickies for a few days. Then they can all be together in a nice, roomy space!

Below are pictures of my back garden. By the end of summer I should have it tilled to the hill way in the background. We're moving the entire garden out there, and it will be huge! Probably the biggest garden I've had in my life! I'll have to mow down the tall grass. It's a real pain to till that. It should be three times what it is now, at least twice the size of my regular garden by the coop and the back garden combined. The teepees are for the squash and the pickling cucumbers to climb up. I'm trying to conserve some room here. Of course the pumpkins are planted by the corn (learned that tip from something Abraham Lincoln wrote), and they will sprawl and crawl everywhere.

New Chickies!!!

No, my incubator eggs didn't hatch in a week's time - they are still sitting perfectly still in the incubator. Saturday was way too wet to rototill the back garden ... no, that's not done yet! ... so I headed down to the auction. They even had pot-bellied pigs for sale this day! They had a couple of boxes of turkey chicks, so I stuck around. Chris had wanted me to bid on a huge roll of chicken wire, but when the price went over $20, I stopped. I did place a $1 bid on a small roll of 2x4" welded wire, and "won" that. No one else bid against me. I seem to do well when I open the bid. There were a variety of maran chicks and even a box of wellsummer chicks. A guy was bidding on every variety of dark brown egg layer there, but I won the wellsummer chicks at $1 apiece. I then asked the guy if I could trade six of my wellsummers for six of his cuckoo marans, and he said sure - so now, under a light in a big bin in the newly cleaned out chicken coop, I have six wellsummers and six cuckoo marans. I hope I get a at least half in hens. It would be nice if they all were, but I'm sure they haven't yet been sexed and are straight run. I also think the marans are older.