Sad Days at the Farm

October was a sad month at the farm.  We were traveling in Maine.  I usually teach at a photo seminar either on Cape Cod or in Maine.  This year it was cancelled at the last minute but we already had plane tickets so we went ahead to Maine to photograph fall leaves and eat lobster.  Laura was coming out to the farm every day to feed the birds.  One day when she came out she found the bodies of two roosters, one hen, and one duck.  We decided they had probably been killed by a stray dog and that Laura should keep the chickens penned up until we got back.  The next week the dog was back.  Laura discovered a Pit Bull who had gotten into the chicken house but could not get back out.  He had killed 14 hens, Rooster Cogburn, and one guinea inside the house.  Two hens survived by roosting near the roof.  The sheriff and Animal Control came out and got the dog who will not kill any more chickens.

Rest in Peace my brave and beautiful Rooster Cogburn

And Grandma, Petunia, Agnes, Claudette, Lucille, Olivia, Bart, Rockie, and all of my other sweet hens.

We did have some good days at the farm in October.  Our son and family from Portland, Oregon, came to visit and we quickly turned our granddaughter Taran into a farm girl.

All of our children and all of their children got together for a meal in Columbia.

Jenn, Taran, Kip, Ryan, Sophie, Sadie, Cathy, Bennett, Jess, Tim, Laura, Gypsy

We finally got gutters installed on the house.  The next step will be landscaping the yard to get the water away from the house!

We harvested the last of the peppers from the garden and canned, froze and dried them.

We probably won't get more chickens until spring but we couldn't resist a breeding pair of peafowl a few miles from us that were advertised on Craigs List.

Hira and Hansi are very tame and eat out of our hands.  We hope to turn them loose to free-range when they get used to their new home.

Fall at the farm is so beautiful.  Next time I'll think twice before leaving to take fall photos somewhere else!!

White House

We now have a white house, with a red roof and red doors.

Philip and Ricky, working only afternoons and week-ends, finished painting the whole house this week.

We decided on a traditional gray porch floor with a "haint" blue porch ceiling.  It's supposed to keep wasps and ghosts away and be a calm, cooling ceiling for a porch.

The other BIG step this month was in my laundry room.  Tom finished the plumbing and wiring

and spent a week chiseling a hole through the 10" concrete wall for the exhaust for the dryer.  I now have a functioning washer and dryer in the laundry room!  No more laundromats!

Tom is now getting my office ready for the cabinets that will be installed on Monday.

He's really handy to have around!

The end of summer means Summerfest in York, SC, with lots of fattening fair food (deep fried butter on a stick!) and car shows and people watching.

Summer is not quite over yet.  It was 110 degrees on September 2nd.

But now that we have air-conditioning, it was only 77 in the kitchen!

On the critter scene, the guinea keets that hatched under the two broody hens are still following their two mommies around and learning to scratch.  The moms, Gertrude and Tia Maria, are very protective and haven't seemed to notice that their chicks are different.

Jasmine is making great strides learning not to chase chickens or eat chicken poop.  She's still a BIG puppy and climbs in our laps whenever she can.

She's very jealous of computers and acts out to get our attention when we work too long.  She's in the doghouse now for chewing off the corner of the bottom step into the basement!

The weather has changed dramatically this week.  We finally got some rain from the last hurricane and the weather has been in the 50's at night.  I hope we have a nice long fall before winter sets in!

Summertime!

Summertime and the work on the farmhouse has come to a halt.  We spent a week in California at Golden Trout in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, hiking and camping in the ice and snow!

Then we spent another week at Yosemite National Park where we had beautiful weather, rainbows and more snow!

Back home at the farm the garden suffered from extreme heat and no rain, but we still got plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit to eat, can and dry.  Someday I'll have a freezer!

Critter activity at the farm has not slowed down.  A mockingbird built a nest in the fig bush and raised three babies who have now left the nest.

Tom saved my life by finding a seven-foot black snake curled in the nest box in the chicken house.  He carried the snake way out in the pasture to let him go.  Hopefully, it will take a long time for the snake to get back to the chicken house!

We found three female Pekin ducks on Craig's List and bought them to keep our males company.  Petunia, Pamela, and Priscilla made themselves right at home and give us three duck eggs a day.  The male ducks, Oscar and Felix, are very, very happy.

One of our guineas made a nest on the ground near the chicken house and sat on 10 eggs for about two weeks.  Something, probably a stray cat, got into the nest and broke most of the eggs.  The guinea abandoned the rest so we got the eggs and put them under a broody hen.  The hen sat for another two weeks and three guinea eggs hatched!  Gertrude is so proud of her chicks and is teaching them to scratch.  It will be interesting to see what happens when they grow up to be guineas instead of hens!

We have done a little shopping on Craig's List and found old doors for the basement and an already refinished tub for the bathroom.  We got bids in for painting the outside of the house and should begin that next week.

Our big news for July was the addition of Jasmine, also found on Craig's List.  She is a five-month old German Shepherd puppy and is learning to get along with ducks, chickens, and guineas.  She's such a sweet girl and is learning fast.  I think she'll be a great farm dog.

The storms keep breaking up and going around York so we have had almost no rain in June and July.  Temperatures have been near 100 F almost every day.  I'm ready for Fall and some rain and cooler temperatures!  At least this year we have running water, a bathroom, and air-conditioning.  Progress.

Rocks and More Rocks

We debated a long time about what to do with the concrete on the basement level.  We finally decided that only rocks would do for Finca de las Piedras.  These rocks have to be flat, not like our rocks all over the farm, so we bought them.  Our wonderful brick masons, Steve and James, came back to install the rock facing.

It was like a giant puzzle and turned out much better than I ever expected!

Tom continues to clean up.  While the brick mason's little skid loader was here, Tom used it to move some big, dead trees.

One of my old hens became egg-bound and the suggested remedy is to hold her in warm water for 20 minutes.  I was afraid she would freak out, but she actually liked it and went to sleep.  I think she's better.

The broody hen did such a good job with the first chicks that we bought some more but she refused to have anything to do with them.  We put them under a brooder light and they've made themselves at home.

The county has been grinding up trees, clearing for widening the road near us, and they are giving away the mulch for free.  We have gotten two wagon loads so far and used it to mulch the fruit trees and grapes.

It's a lot of work, but it does make everything look neater.  Now we have to replant the garden!  Late, unexpected frosts have killed the tomatoes once and the peppers twice.  We're not supposed to have frost in May!

Spring

With the contractors gone, Tom and I worked on our own for awhile.  I was so glad to help move Tom's temporary office from the side porch to the basement!

It's still temporary because this is not the room that will actually be his office.  We have to paint and put down baseboards before we move everything again.

It turned out that the neighbor who cuts our hay is also a preacher and a contractor!  Marshall and Ricky started work finishing the siding.  

Tom is the cut-man and works all day cutting the siding and handing it up.

We shopped for rocks for our next project and selected Desert Sand.

Spring in the mountains means Ramps.  They don't grow here so I ordered some on the internet.

We ate most of them but also planted some by the creek in the woods.  I hope they will grow!

If I eat ramps, have a camouflaged dump truck, gun and baseball hat, does that make me a Redneck?

Our mama hen is teaching her babies to take a dust bath.

Our big news for April was the arrival of our new grandbaby!

Welcome, Sadie, and congratulations, Cathy and Ryan!

She's beautiful.