Monday, April 30, 2012

Pictures of my dog, Cheyenne!

For all the Cheyenne Fans out there. Here are some awesome pictures of my awesome dog!

Welcome to the Farm!

This is one of the areas I like to gather ticks at!

My buddy built this!


This is Cheyennes Domain! (Yard by he firepit)

My buddy built this awesome big fire pit too!

Wanna see some tricks and facial expressions?!?!? Scroll down!

Rolling around on my back!

Looking "Sad"

Looking "Tired"

Looking "Happy"
Looking "Stoned"

But not really :P These were all just poses! ;P

This dog can wag a tail!

The stick never had a chance in the mouth of Cheyenne

Grrrrrrr... (she is killing a scary stick)

Cheyenne- Destruction queen of... well... anything you let her destroy

OK... not Cheyenne, But Cheyenne found it! (Box Turtle, named "Crush")

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Update on the chicks and random farm photos!

One Perched! I had given up trying to see that tonight...
So far, all of our little chicks are doing very well. The first few days have been nothing but a blast. I am trying to make them really used to being handled and hopefully one day they will come when called. We shall see.  I went out to get some shots of the chicks and to show off my brand new perch I put in the brooder, but couldn't get any of the chicks to even go near the perch so I was just about to give up and leave (I already had the camera put away) then one of the little chicks suddenly hopped on. I was able to get my camera out and clicked one photo before the little gal decided she wanted off.
1 of 4 wheel barrel loads of rock I pulled out today

 Today I am just working out in the garden till whenever, doing the little things to keep it somewhat healthy, so basically just watering, and the never ending weeding and pulling tons of rock out.

Few more Wheel barrel loads, and it'll be rocken! (get it?)


Cornish Hens are getting bigger than their brood mates!

Snapshot of the entire flock!


No, seriously, there is a garden in there... seriously, no really.

My new "Potato Box" experiment
Already have growth on day 2 of the Potato Box
The farm and feed store were giving away unsold seed potatoes, so I got a fifty pound bag. There was an existing 4'x4' wood box on the property so I grabbed it and put potatoes right on the ground (I worked the ground a bit) and threw dirt on it. Only cost of this side project for more potatoes is the dirt, which is $1.24 a bag right now, and it only took six to cover them up and put a few inches of soil over them. As they grow, (just like the tire idea) I am going to add more dirt, and maybe even another box and I hope to have so many potatoes by harvest time, I will not be able to eat them all! 
Tonight's sunset




The chicks were quick to start giving me mulch and fertilizer!

Stage 1 of operation Potato Tire!

Romain chugging along

Hornet carrying a inchworm!
I'd like to live beneath the dirt
A tiny space to move and breathe
Is all that I would ever need

I wanna live beneath the dirt
Where I'd be free from push and shove
Like all those swarming up above

Beneath their heels I'll spend my time
I'll wriggle in the earth and dew
And sometimes I will think of you

And if you ever think of me
Kneel down and kiss the earth
And show me what this thought is worth
"Dirt"
By Phish
(Trey Anastasio)
For: you know who you are. :-)


Friday, April 27, 2012

Some more pics of the baby chicks!

They were all eating, (before I took the camera out)
All of the chicks have had water, and all are eating. The Cornish Hens are eating like crazy and we will probably have to limit their food intake soon. But the good news is that they all seem to be healthy and really active. They have adapted quite nicely to their brood, and they have no idea whats coming for them when they get to step into their chicken palace for the first time. But for right now, they are falling asleep one by one, stretching and acting cute and stuff like that.

They look drunk, and kinda wobble before they pass out





Growing a little bit of everything... hmm he took my idea!
Check out this Garden! Yeah, its not mine. It is part of the community garden in Cherokee Village down the road about 20 minutes through nice twisty hilly curvy roads.... then of course a deer is standing in the middle of the road, just looking at you. Luckily I was going pretty slow, but she was in no hurry to get her doe butt out of my way. Back to my new friends garden, don't judge mine from his... he is working established fields with lots of turned in compost and manure... I am working with rocks!

BABY CHICKS HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Baby chicks arrived in this lil box, all huddled together!
YES! They are here! We ordered 15 baby chicks, but the hatchery throws in at least one extra to insure all your chicks arrive alive! It seems they threw in an extra Buff Orpington, which is what I wanted an extra of anyway, they are a very beautiful and "fluffy" hen, and the leg feathers go all the way down to the claw, vs having bare legs like most other chickens. :)

Checking out the camera
Hey get me out of this box!
Don't think they grasp there is more than one food hole!
Rhode Island Red baby chick










So, I am now fathering 5- Rhode Island Red Hens, 6- Buff Orpington Hens, and 5 straight run Jumbo Cornish Cross chicks. The Rhode Island Reds, and Buff Orpingtons are, at this time, pets and Egg Layers. Unfortunately the five Cornish chicks are destined for the table. The Cornish chicks are actually bred to get large quick and will actually die from heart attacks or leg failure if you don't butcher them at around 8-10 weeks. This is true Farm life, they are cute, but are the exact same breed of chicken you see in the super market in the frozen section. But for my animal lover friends, please realize, they will have a happy life (albeit short), will experience life outside a very small cage, will be free range and will definitely be slaughtered humanely and with respect to the animal.

I believe this is a Cornish, if not its a Orpington!
With that being said, please check out the pics of my cute little fuzz balls!






After a while of exploring, it was nap time!

Switched to B&W due to red light, but this was too cute.


I'm Stuck! (not really) Cute lil butt sticking up in the air!

My little girls getting water!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Plant update!

Potatoes!
I wanted to do a quick update to tell you what actually looks like may take off in the garden. Again, its a smaller list from the way large one from over a month ago. This list is excluding the fruit trees that have yet to come in the mail.


Potatoes- Doing very well, they have all sprouted up and with three of the plants, I am doing the vertical method with old tires, so far I have one tire down, and will probably put another tire down in the next few weeks pending on how they grow. :)

As stated in the previous post, I scored some starter plants for real cheap, so now I have 23 tomato plants of different varieties including cherry and beef steak. I hope the summer will be nice and I get a plethora of tomatoes to give away!

Tomatoes
Peppers!
My peppers are coming along, I ended up getting a larger starter plant of the banana pepper because it already had peppers on it ready to turn... so I just had to buy it, but at last count I have 5 banana and 3 bell pepper plants... one bell pepper got the wrath of some kind of cutting insect and cut it off at the base... made me sad, and kinda mad, but that's life.

I have around 48 Corn plants give or take, so if I only get one ear of corn per plant, that will still bring me happiness, but I'm rooting for two ears! I also threw in about eight ornamental corn plants too at the end of my row, so Ill even have some fall decorations... maybe.

The Lettuce is coming along slowly but surely, I still have the 4 Romain and 4 Ice burg head lettuce plants, and looks like my other lettuce from seed is going to be ready sometime, but not anytime soon.

The radish crop I had experienced some problems. At first I had over 100 radish plants pop up, over night one night I lost over half and then half again, so I'm down to about 25 radish, and might plant some more soon, maybe it was just too cold when I first seeded. Luckily radish is a fast grower, so I should have plenty for my salad soon!

CORN!!!!
I scored 8 yellow squash plants, so I made little hills and put two to the hill with four feet minimum of space between anything else, so they have lots of room to grow out to grow me some record breaking squash for summer! I also planted the 1 gourd plant I got from a garage sale, it is a birdhouse gourd plant, so hopefully some huge gourds will come from it. We have a bunch of other gourd plants starting right now from seed, so if they take off, we will plant them near that and watch a whole bunch of gourds grow!

The Cantaloupe is still there but not showing much signs of spreading out, just getting thicker, so hopefully that will spread soon and I will be able to see some melons start coming. Speaking about melons, my 4 watermelon plants are doing alright, but I also got 8 more Red Congo Watermelon starters... so now it looks like I will have a pretty big watermelon patch! I hope so anyway, but we will just have to wait and see.
Yellow Squash

My Carrots failed... miserably, not a single carrot came up from seed, not sure if a bird got it or what, but we are retrying and I have a nice size section of the garden reserved for them and will plant some more soon, maybe today!

Two other plants worth mentioning is my 1- sunflower, and my 1 cucumber plant, that were the only things to pop up and survive from the peat moss starters (other than the corn... which really took off). I have them planted and look like they survived the transplant.


So at the end of the day, again, not as huge of a garden as I was hoping for this year, but I really cant complain when I look back and see what is starting to take root and hopefully next month will start producing!

CHANGE OF PACE- Yesterday at 5pm we got an email confirmation that my little chickens have shipped!! As in, I could have them today!!!!!! OMGosh!!! Keep checking back regularly soon as I will be posting often when they come in!  This is me excited... one of my all time dreams of raising some chickens is about to come true, one thing The Common Wealth of Virginia prevented me from doing. Especially Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is a nice place and all, but did you know that you are not allowed to keep any chickens at all? Here is a fun fact, in the City of New York, in every borough, your aloud to have Chickens...

"Female chickens or hens are considered pets by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and therefore are allowed in all districts of the city: residential, commercial and manufacturing. Roosters, geese, ducks, and turkeys are strictly prohibited."(Farm Aid Website)

A place where people are cramped together like sardines, but they are allowed to have chickens. Why not in Virginia Beach? I honestly can not answer that question, but that doesn't matter right now, because this guy is getting his chicks in the next 24 hours!!! (And in a few weeks will be getting his Guineas too!) Till then....
Yet another late sunset in Arkansas

Moon and Venus