Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Wednesday update

When the hubbins has to work nothing much really goes on around here besides the normal feeding and babying of the animals and I compile my honey do list for his days off. I'm sure he really enjoys that. We have picked out the two chicken coops we are building; now we just have to get the supplies and find a location for them. Seems like a constants battle trying to find the right place for everything.

Monday the bunnies turned three weeks old. They have already been sold we are just waiting for them to get old enough to go to their new forever homes. Here's their updated photos.


They are growing so fast. Jinny wasn't too happy with me because I was pulling the babies out and trying to sex them and not paying attention to me. So I didn't distrub her to much. I'm the only that hasn't been bitten and I do want to keep it that way.



Well I think that about does it for now. Have a wondeful week.

~ Farm Girl


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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Progress...

It was such a wonderful and warm day out that some progress has been made around the yard and garden. I'm super happy as long as the weather stays nice. First my DH lightly tilled up the place where we were parking all winter in the yard and reseeded it.
Patch #1
Then he preceeded to keep on working on the yard and by my suprise he hauled away the old barn wood we were using for underpinning. Then he tilled up that bare area and yes he reseeded it also.
Patch #2
As you can see it don't take to much to excite me when it comes to things getting done. So I thought he was done but there's more. We had been cleaning up where we had a swimming pool for the past 5 years. We have decided that we want to locate a new one elsewhere when we get it next year. So you guessed it he lightly tilled it and reseeded it also.
Patch # 3
Great now the only places that need to be reseeded now are infront of the outbuilding and then when he finishes up making my yard larger and the garden smaller. Okay that don't sound right considering we like a large garden. Well, we had alot of wasted space in our garden so we have decided to make it more compact and try to gain some extra yard. Partically because we are going to add on our porch and we need some space between it and the garden. I can't wait until that project gets finished.
Plowing to fix the yard up
Everything that is plowed in this picture will soon be my new yard but he plowed over to where the tractor is sitting. I'll have yard all the way over there. Yeah! I'm really excited about that. We'll still have plenty of garden.
Progress

You might also notice the yard is mowed. Yes, mowed in March. March?! I think this is the first time we have ever mowed this early. Oh, well I'll enjoy this weather. It's making me want to get out in the garden and start planting. I however do know its still a little early for our area. Soon, really soon!

~ Farm Girl





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Finger-Lickin' Chicken Marinade

You just can't put any other name to this marinade than that. I just wasn't digging the ole regular fried chicken or just plain grilled chicken so I went to my favorite recipe spot. I did a quick search then narrowed down my choices. This particular one stood out, of course you know it was the name. Who can pass up Finger-Lickin' Chicken or maybe I have watched to much Lizard Lick on TV, what ever the case was it sure was a crowd pleaser at my home.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup oil (olive)
1/2 cup vinegar (cider)
2 tablespoons Miracle Whip (lite)
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoon Lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt (I used sea salt)
1 tablespoon pepper
2 tablespoons thyme
1 tablespoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS
Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl.
Marinate chicken pieces at least 30 minutes and then to baste the meat as it cooks in the over or on the grill. 

YIELDS
2 Cups

NOTE
I like to marinate my chicken at least and hour. Yields a better flavor. 
You can find the original recipe at http://www.food.com/recipe/finger-licking-chicken-marinade-88939 

I served this with the salad pictured.


Enjoy!

~ Farm Girl



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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Photo of the day

Nothing to report as nothing much happened yesterday. I thought I would just share a photo of one of the babies. They are a nice handful already. Here in West Virginia we are enjoying the 80 degree weather. Hoping today is going to be another good day.



~ Farm Girl

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Spring has sprung

... but unfortunately my back has other ideas still. Everything I wanted to do, need to do, and have to do is going to have to be done in a very slow manner.

Here was our plan:
"The Barn"
Project 1: The Barn or should I say what's left of it. Came crashing down after a snow storm and in the spring a wind storm hit it a few years ago. The barn was no match for the wind. Last spring the kids and I took out the front corner of the barn because it was sticking out over the access road to the field. We hauled a lot of wood to this side of the creek. Some we burned and some we kept for a project we were doing. It all lasted most of the day until I saw a "SNAKE"! Then, I was done. Since timber rattlers are common here and I was not sure what it was nor was I sticking around to find out, I called it a wrap for us. So this leads me to another project.

"The Shed, Outhouse and Chicken Coop"

Project 2: The Shed, Outhouse and Chicken Coop. Well let me say this: this pile was much much bigger. A few years ago I was bored to death while the DH, DD and DS were at school so I went a digging. Back then the trailer and mowers weren't there nor was some of the other equipment that is just out of sight of this photo. What is there between those and the shed is an electric fence. Ouch! I know I touched it a few times while working on that darn shed only because I didn't know where the connection was to turn it off. Any how, I tore out the upper section, the outhouse and part of the old chicken coop. I threw the wood over the fence and when the kids got home we put it in the burn pile and for several nights we had a pretty good fire. We are going to have to do that again really soon since its been wet. You wouldn't believe some of the items that we had to bag up and send in the trash and other items that I wanted to cry about that were just left out there to rot. I found an old old singer sewing machine that if it was salvageable was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, other things were chicken crates. You know the ones you see in the old movies that were full of chickens for transporting. They were all busted from where the building initially had fallen on them. There was countless other things in there also. A few items that I did save from in there was the base of that sewing machine. I'm hoping to get it cleaned up and painted for my porch or just maybe as a stand in my living room. 
"Mess"
Project 3: Is the mess around what was the garage. The garage is gone but the stuff that was around it still remains. We will be cleaning that up. We did a lot of it already and took it to the recyclers and dump. Thankfully in may is the free tire disposal. We do that every year. As you can see we have some piled up already. I know where there's a few more that we need to get.

Then we have this:
"The Cellar and smoke house"
Project 4: The cellar and smoke house. I so wanted to save it but as we were cleaning out the smoke house part we discovered it wasn't worth it. Then the bottom, I thought man we could save that.. Umm I was so wrong again. What I can save are the rocks and reuse them on another project. Some are sandstone and some are just rocks. Nonetheless they are all hand layed by my DH ancestors and I want to use them in my flower gardens and such to keep a part of them near. There's books, magazines and jars still in there. We got out a lot of the stuff in there but there is so much more.

This has been the plan for the past few years. But since gas prices have been sky rocketing and we are wanting to add more animals to the farm. We better stay home and get this place cleaned up and suitable for the animals. Don't get me wrong the whole farm is not a mess. Actually, considering at one time there was over 7 homesteads on this farm all of them have been cleared away except these few structures and one more hay shed up the holler. Which we took most of the wood off it for our project since it had fallen also. It won't take a half day to clean up the remains of that building. I have one more important structure to talk about but I will leave that for another post. My DH will be home for the next four days starting tomorrow and it's suppose to be gorgeous out. I'm going to try to talk him into cleaning up the one right behind our house. Who knows I just may get a little work out of him. I may have to bribe him with his favorite meal though. Fingers crossed. 

~ Farm Girl




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Monday, March 19, 2012

Baby Bunny Report

The baby bunnies (Flemish Giants) are two weeks old today. Seems like they should be older than that thou.. I just checked on them which I don't normally do I let DD do it usually, but she's at school and it rained really hard last night thought I should make sure they were dry which they were, thankfully!

The good news with us handling them fairly often and with DD checking on them a lot and I mean a lot they are doing great. All babies finally have their eyes open and while I was over there one actually hopped out of the nesting box. I don't know if momma would of put it back in or not but I did it for her.

DD will be happy when she gets home to see them so active and with their eyes open.Pin It

Friday, March 16, 2012

Clyde....

A lot has been going on here this week. Maybe its because the weather has been so nice so we've gotten a lot done who really knows. Any ways, we got Jumpin' "Jack" Flash not to long ago and after watching him for what seemed like forever trying to breed Dolly we decided that he just wasn't the right match for our rabbits at this time. He's considerably smaller than our females and it was just so sad seeing him  having such difficulties. He may have gotten the deed done we don't know but soon will find out.

"Jack"
Well we decided that we needed to get another buck to make sure that we could breed our New Zeland's for our DD's 4H project. Luckily we found one pretty quick. So yesterday we took off on another mini trip. I'm wondering why we can't find any rabbits closer to home it's not because I haven't been looking because I have been everywhere possible. We've traveled anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours to get rabbits. We'll with one exception we did find some a few towns over but they were brother and sisters and we couldn't breed them. That's why we have been looking for more.

Anyways to make a long story short we went to Weston to pick up our new "Stud" and we have named him Clyde. So without further ado.
"Clyde"
The young lady we got him from said his father is twice his size. That's so hard to believe because he's a pretty good chunk. I can't wait to see how he does with our ladies. We shall find out soon because we need a litter soon for 4H. 

If you can't tell I'm excited about the rabbits. I really do feel like that were doing something productive and that everything is going to work out. We've prepared ourselves as much as possible. DD isn't liking the fact that she has to get up earlier to take care of all the animals but she'll manage. Probably be much better as soon as they have daylight to get the feeding done in. 

So that's what's bee happening here at the farm.

~ Farmgirl

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Farm happenings

Even though we bought many cages for our rabbits we just didn't have enough that suited our needs. So the DH and DS spent the day building a cage similar to one that we got with our Flemish giants and made it slightly bigger and better air flow. My DH is no carpenter but I think he done a wonderful job. I missed getting some photos because I was in the kitchen preparing dinner. We had the in-laws over.

Beginning frame work
More frame work.
Cutting the back piece out
Time for some wire
More wire
Finished rabbit duplex

I was out there a little bit ago and we have a very happy Linny and Snowball. We also moved Jumpin "Jack" Flash from his rickety ole home to Linny's old home. He wasn't very happy but I think by tomorrow he will enjoy his new home. He'll be moved next week when DH and DS build one more duplex and Jack will find himself in a new home.


~ Farmgirl

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Baby bunnies

Just a quick bunny report we went out to check on the kits and boy have they grown alot in just a few days. We had to do a clean out of the nesting box. Thought it would be a great opportunity to snap a few photos. Flemish Giants...

One sandy colored one.
9 days old

One of the three black ones. Look at those big feet!

As you can see it don't take much to excite us around this farm. We are learning alot and everyday is a new experience.

~ Farmgirl

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Saturday, March 10, 2012

Newest Farm Babies

After doing a little research (since were new at this) I found out that it was okay for me to reach in and check on the newest babies. I gave momma Jinny some attention before I peeked in on her babies. We found 4 kits. We placed them back really quickly so that she wouldn't get to mad at us. Soon as I covered them up and shut the door she was rearranging them to suit her.
Momma Jinny



Later DD went out and slightly uncovered them to make sure they were just fine. Snapped this picture and then left them all alone. I'm glad they are all doing just fine. 

4 Days old

~Farmgirl


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Friday, March 9, 2012

Meet our newest "STUD"

We have been on the search for a buck for our ladies that we got in early February. Finally, someone had answered my call and my DH and I took a long ride and purchased our newest "STUD." I'm just calling him a stud because he's a cutie. So without further ado

Meet Jumpin' Jack Flash


"I smell you!" 
Jumpin' "Jack" Flash is in a temporary home for now. I'm not very happy with it but the guy sold it to me for cheap. Today Jack got out of it and I had to chase him around. Capture in record time I think. LOL I had to mend the metal hole that none of us really knew was in the side. I used a piece of old grill grate to cover it. I used a piece of wire to tie the front up where i'm pretty sure that's how he got out. 

Jack devising a plan for his next escape.
This is what $10 housing looks like. LOL Great idea but its poorly constructed in the case of the wire. We will be reworking it next week thats for sure.

~Farmgirl


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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Rabbit News....

We bred Jinny at the beginning of February and we wasn't sure if it took. I guessed when it was time to put in the birthing box and just like clock work Jinny started pulling out her fur little by little. I thought she was just pulling my leg and doing it to make me happy but in the past 36 hours she really got busy pulling her fur. I had my husband go out and check on her and low and be hold there were a box of babies. We are not sure how many but there are some in them. I just hope that they make it.
I see one ear

I see an ear and an eye. But, we could feel several moving around in there.

I will keep ya'll posted as they we continue to learn from this. The kids are going to be very very excited when they find out.

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