Dogs And Cats Living Together!

I guess when it's 23 degrees , we can all put aside our differences!  Can't we all just get along??

New Batch Of Piglets.

 The old momma sow has done it again, this time the offspring are a cross with a Large Black Hog.  She gave birth to 9 healthy little black pigs, If your in need of a pig, they should be ready in a few months!

New Chicks And A New Dexter.

 Well another December Dexter is here. its almost like clockwork huh?  Looks like a heifer this time, seems like its been bulls for the last three or four!  Yay !!

I just went out and checked , and momma and baby are fine, in fact the baby is up and walking all over the pasture, with or without mamma's permission.

Here is the last calf born in July I think, checking out the new friend.  Not the size on him, he will be one of the mini -sized Dexters, his mama has had nothing but smaller sized calves.  This heifer was borm this morning and she is almost as tall as him, curious indeed.

And of course Tanner in the background, he's mad because I won't let him in the back pasture to get stomped, how cruel I am.
 Anyway stay tuned I will get better pics when the other camera gets home, lol.


The New Chicks!

We got a new batch of chicks this week , all the old hens are running out of eggs hehehhe, so time for a new set of layers.

So in about four or five months, more eggs!  Can't beat that!

The only trick now will be keeping these little jokers warm enough, they are in the barn with two heat lamps on them, hope that's enough!    As always , I'll keep you posted!

Veterans Day 2010

 I remember all my brothers and sister who served ,and those who serve now! Thank you for you sacrifice and service to keep us free!  

Pullet Eggs, Ever See One?

 The last batch of chicks are grown, and out of the twenty that I bought, six were hens, just our luck! So they are getting ready to start laying.  The first egg from a pullet is small, I guess its a practice run, but when you see em you know eggs are on the way.....the last eggs from a hen are small too! I guess it could go either way..lol.

 The Egg on the right is the pullet egg, on the left a normal size chicken egg!  This hen should be pumping out large eggs soon, Can't wait!

The Goose From Nowhere.

We wake up this morning and my step-daughter Julie asks, "when did we get a goose?" I thought she was looney, we don't have a goose.  Well look who the looney one is!!!

New Chicks, Again!

The latest edition to the chicken population arrived a week ago, and the still hid under momma chicken!
 They aren't so shy that they can't take a peep, I mean peek!

Wow, 2 Months what a slacker!

 I just noticed I haven't posted anything in 2 months, I knew I was busy, but I didn't think I was that busy! 
We have been fixin hog pens, fixin water issues, mostly fixin stuff!  Garden did really well this year, the fall garden, not as well but its getting that way, we still haven't had enough rain since the last time the burn ban was on.  So in the interest of no real subject for a post, how bout some more pixs?!  Glad ypou asked lol.


 

Hope you'll bear with me , more to come I swear , see ya next time!

No Rain...Wait , What?

 I was about to write a little about the long stretch of rainless weather we have had, and on the way home I saw this sign that the county put up last Friday.

 So I'm about to tell you how hot it is and what do I see, look there in the back ground, stormclouds! Yep it's gettin dark on the horizon.

So after I was gonna tell you of the 100 + degrees heat indexes we have had for weeks now, it's gonna start raining!!  Can you believe it?!?! 

It rained for about two hours, nothing big, just a slow steady rain... just what we needed!
I guess I should keep writing about the heat, maybe we'll get some more!

Never Any Spare Time On The Farm.

 With the garden going full tilt this year and all the canning and that I haven't had too much time to post, and that is still the case, so instead a picture montage for your viewing pleasure!
 My sister got a nice DSLR camera a while back and she lets me use it now and again, until I can get one of my own! I took some Photography back in high school, but that don't make me Ansel Adams then does it??  lol!

So tell me what you think, go ahead, I can take it!!  And Enjoy!

Well there you go, and I will see ya soon !

Pickin and Canning!

Just so you don't think I'm slackin, we have been busy in the garden for the last month or so picking all manner of goodness. This week I wanted ya'll to see some of the final product.

This is just a sample, my last entry showed the purple hull peas, we also got a good deal of corn, and the cucumbers are rolling in too.  the top shelf is a load of canning we did, jalapeno jelly, pickled banana peppers, dill pickles and what-have-you!

The tomatoes are mostly green because of a chicken massacre, the tomatoes got it, not the chickens...
So in order to salvage some of this round we had to pick em greenish, that's ok chow chow, fried green tomatoes, relish, you get the idea!

Here you can see a boat load of cucumbers, some strait neck squash, green bell peppers, oh and that butternut squash, my nephew Gavin picked that one, he was on a pickin roll!

So anyway that's where we have been, its tough work makin your own way thru life, eatin of the fatta the land, but we like it.

See ya Later

Busy In The Garden!

 Well it has been a busy couple weeks around here, the purple hull peas have been picked and shelled, corn is coming in, cucumbers are getting ripe and everything is hot, hot, hot!
Sorry for the lack of updates , its been awful busy around here.  We'll talk to ya after the harvest!

Take it easy!

New Dairy Calf and Large Black Hogs!!

Last Sunday we went to pick up a Large Black boar hog from a local breeder here in the area, on the way back with the hog, my sister called and said one of the dairy heifers was in labor.  We got home and found Sweetpea, who was born here two years ago, already in labor with hooves coming out!

Sweetpea, the new Momma

  In about the fastest labor i have seen, she had the calf delivered in about an hour!  And sweet Lilly came into the world!

Sweet Lilly

 After cleanup its time for a nap, here she is catching some shut eye!

Sleepy time

 And with all the excitement, we didnt get any picture of the hog, we'll thats another post anyway!!

UPDATE!!!

Here is a picture of the Large Black Hog, His name is Sammy, or Sam or Samuel, don't matter he don't come to ya anyway! 

Large Black Hog

The Piglets Arrived Today!!

 Any of you who work with animals know that they wait to have the youngins' on the worst weather days, this pig is no exception, it's cool and rainy this morning and what do we wake up to, 9 new piglets!  If you saw my last update just three days ago I mentioned that I thought she was real close, looks like I was right!

This was a first for us , as far as pigs go, and she seemed to work faster than the goats do, I mean one push and a pig was born! Goats seem to drag it on forever!  But overall I think it went pretty well, the final count so far is three brown and six pinkies, and they are cute.   Momma and babies look like they are doing well!

I am amazed how fast they are up and walking looking for the milk, and the momma doesn't do anything to help them, they find it all on they're own... just amazing!

Here is the last born, fresh out and still messy, but in about a minute he was up and had crawled to the belly and started nursing!  I'll say it again, Amazing!

Hope you enjoyed the  The pix, I'll try to get a video up too, nothing to graphic lol!!

Update! 
Another one born for a total of 10 piglets!! 

Spring Time Is The Busy Time!

  When the weather gets warmer, and the days longer , the work really starts!  Ever since the first week of March it has been non stop here, we built a working pen for the cows and goats, started the big garden, got a new batch of layer hens started, the list goes on and on.  Well lets get started then shall we?

New Layers 

 Trying something new this year, we usually order replacement layers from Ideal Hatchery since they are pretty close, but this year they had a long back order, so we got a few from the local Tractor Supply store, so far they are looking good.

 They have all feathered out and we only lost one, and it drowned in the waterer within 10 minutes of going in the brooder, so overall I'm happy with em, I wasn't really sure they would make it.

Speaking of layers, Spring has brought the eggs back, I can't tell ya how bad I hated buying eggs over the winter, but they are paying off in spades now!

Other News
 
The Piglet watch is on, the big sow is looking very pregnant, so we are keepin a close eye out on the pig pen.

I can still remember when she was just a cute little piggy herself!  Aww!!  My how she has Grown heheheh.

 
The Garden!

 We went bigger this year what with the new tractor and tiller , so we opened up a few bigger garden plots.
And with the help of an Earthway Garden Seeder, we have already put in sweet corn, purple hull peas, okra, yellow and zucchini squash and I'm still working on the tomatoes and peppers , can you see why we've been busy?  If you wanna keep up with the Gardening check out my other site Home-Grown-Vegetables.com.

Well Its time to get back to it, hope ya'll can check back and keep up with the goings on around here!

Until then, Have a great day!!

Some Fence Work

 Now that it's warming up around here, we can get out and work some fence in relative comfort,So that's just what I did.  We have a stretch of old fence that need replacing and we are going to put a loading chute in also. So I got busy today clearing the brush from the fence line, and also setting another post in to make an H post to hold the end of the fence.  

 Clearing the brush was pretty easy, there wasn't that much of it, maybe ten feet of real trouble bushy spots total, and alot of vines growing up thru the wires, I need to mention that its field fence , not barbed wire, so that's where the vines cause problems!

So like I said , it wasn't to bad, and with a chain saw, it was short work! It actually took more time to pick up all the brush and move it to the burn pile than cut it off the fence.

 Next came sinking the other post to make an H post for the gate end of this stretch of fence, again not to hard , just a little manual labor!

 I dug a hole with the post hole digger, the most evil tool ever devised by man..IMHO, well it really wasn't that bad, we just had some rain yesterday so the ground was pretty soft, next drop a 5 inch treated post in the hole, fill in the void with concrete, mix with water and let it set up.  I'll let this set up for a day before I do anymore work on it, to make sure its in good and solid.  That cross board up top is just to keep it from wiggling until it sets up good.
 Next I'll put in the permanent cross brace, pull out the old fence and roll it up , then hang the new fence!
I'll keep you posted!

The New Kubota L5740

Well it finally happened, we all got tired of having to beg, borrow and ...uh borrow the neighbor's tractor, so we went out and got us one! The old Ford 8n just didn't have the juice anymore, not that it ever did, but that's a whole nuther story!

My mom, bless her soul, one day came in and said "pull up the web, we need a tractor" , so after many hours of hand ringing, calling dealers , fighting amongst ourselves, and discussing in a civilized manner... yea right! We narrowed it down to Kubota brand, all that just to get there ! ..yikes. So after a few more talks, and my mom's boss recommending His dealer, Which is Allied Power Mart , Talk to Calvin at the Splendora Store, he is great ....And no that is not a paid endorsement!, We made the deal, An L5740 , with front end loader and a tiller, and a front bale spear, so we are pretty much set for anything now.

The tractor was delivered on Wednesday but i'm just now getting around to posting this on Sunday, Its been non stop on this thing, It is great!! We have already tilled up the garden in about ten minutes, that usually takes all day. Moved three round bales, and cut some drainage ditches to get some of the rain water that hasn't left yet to fianlly make its way to a local bar ditch!

So that's it for now, except for some pix, I'm off to run this tractor some more! Stay tuned for more stories from Kubota country lol!
Be safe out there!

Texas Indepenence Day!

Happy Texas Independence Day!!

Goat Kidding Time!

With the cold of February comes the Dairy Goat kidding season, and this year is no different, Except I think they are cuter this time! No really Take a look for yourself. The goat above is spanish/alpine cross, she was the first one to come along! Thursdy night/Friday morning some time.






These little goats are Lamancha Crosses, they have all their ears, the buck was an Alpine.
One boy and one girl, the girl is the black spotted model! They are getting the legs working and they are jumping around every where, every goat and everthing!!



Here is another view of the little doe, she's has a very nice pattern almost like a Holstein Cow



This one is pure Alpine, She came along Saturday morning to one of the biggest Alpines we have!
Her mamma is down right now and its touch and go, she may end up being a bottle baby.