Catching up

Once again, I have been a bad blogger!  Time sure can get away from you when you're having fun and being busy!

Breeding season started a bit earlier this year.  Niles went in with the girls in October & will stay there through December at least, maybe January.  This means that we could, hopefully have babies as early as March.  It was a tough decision for us.  I like the April babies that we've had before because the weather is so much nicer & reliable.  March here in Missouri can be very up & down & we've had late March snowstorms.  BUT, I chose Shetlands because they are very hearty & good mothers.  I also felt this would be better for the showing lambs, letting them have a little extra time to grow & such before going to the fairs in the summer.  Last year, being a learning experience, we weaned our lambs at 10 weeks, right about.  They only had 3 weeks before they went to their first fair & it would have been less if we had hit the first fairs in our area.  Now, they were well weaned, etc.  But I wondered if it would be better for them to have a bit more time to grow & get worked with away from mommas.  So, we're trying March lambs.  IF somebody didn't take the first time, well that's why we're leaving Niles in there longer.  If for whatever reason one of the ewes didn't stick until later, that's ok. Better to have a late baby than no baby.

The other exciting thing was our end of the year
county wide 4H recognition banquet.  We are so proud to say that Fluffy Girl was the county top 8 year old girl, as well as winning the quality of life award!  She had to write a short essay on her 4H projects & how they incorporated into our lives & making them better.  Naturally, our sheep helped. LOL.  The top 8 year old was chosen based on 4H involvement throughout the first year.  She received the beautiful doll with her award, name & year embroidered on it for the top 8 year girl and a lovely 4H cookbook with a clover cookie cutter for quality of living award.

Our 4H club was chosen the outstanding club and Randolph county received special recognition as being the top county in Missouri during the state fair in sheep.  The county received a nice plaque & all the sheep kids were given a nice feed bag sack.  We had several other winners & mentions from our club.  Very proud of our kids & the families supporting them!



I had my black pochin decide to be broody last month so I let her sit thinking she would break with the cold weather approaching.  But to be on the safe side I put my last 5 silkie eggs under her from my black pen.  I lost my lovely splash silkie hen just before this. :(  I also bought 3 NICE young chicks from a good breeder just a few weeks ago.  They were still a bit young to be outside so up the brooder went again.  Good thing because just as the weather finally decided to get cold last weekend I had chicks start hatching!  I hated to do it, but with cold weather here I took them away from my hens & brought them in.  3 little silkies & 1 cochin & I think we're done.  We'll now have chicks in the house for the winter. LOL.
  Big happening on the nature front!  Fluffy Girl's first deer!!!  A nice button-buck taken with 1 shot at 100 yards!  Our family motto growing up was, "You kill it, you clean it."  However Camo Dad and I don't quite trust her with a knife yet.  So he did the cutting & she did the gutting!  I'm happy to report it didn't bother her a bit.  She was a little concerned about that before the hunt, as a boy at school got a deer & reported the gutting as "disgusting"  LOL.

Just in time

Looks like I baby proofed the chicken pen just in time!

3 pochins & 1 cochin so far.  Momma is still sitting on a few eggs & the other aunt should be due in about 2 more weeks.

Baby proofing

Baby chickens that is.  As you know, in the spring I let a hen hatch out 3 pochin chicks. Unfortunately they managed to find a hole that had been torn in the netting previously surrounding my chicken pen to prevent younger chicks from getting out.  My barn cats quickly decided that since these where not in the pen they were fair game for dinner during hunting lessons. 

In the last 2 weeks i had both my black pochin & black polish decide to sit. So it was time to re-baby proof the pen. 

This time with some good chicken wire zip tied along the fence & stapled into the house.  Hopefully this will keep the future hatch safe. I'm pretty hopeful about this hatch of mostly pochins as i plan on  keeping them for replacement layers. 

Busy time

Whew! We've been busy getting ready for our county fair. It seems like we've done so much, but I don't have many pictures to show for it.  LOL.  Achievement night is tomorrow night and we're all ready with our projects.  Fluffy Girl made a travel chicken pen, a hay bag from old jeans, and a poster showing horse colors & some markings.  I'll post pictures with our results in a few days. The important thing is she had very little help & did her best.

We washed our 2 white silkies yesterday so they would be clean & fluffy for the show Tuesday morning.

On a note about chickens, my lovely little cochin hatched 3 blue silkie chicks! 

We worked on more halter training with the lambs. 

We also did a bit of blackberry picking.  We got a nice gallon with easy picking, but haven't had a chance to go again yet.  

That's it for now.  I'll have a post of Fluffy Girl's leadline outfit.  I spun & crocheted her skirt from Loretta's fleece. But I'm going to wait until I can get a picture of her & Loretta together at the show. 

Weekly update

So no good pictures from the last week.  The whole family has been running around with softball, 4h, and the other things life throws at you.  LOL. We've had a few games going on.  I'm glad I've only got 1 kid playing instead of 2 or 3. I have friends who live at the ballpark.  We had a 4h meeting & are busy getting ready for show season.

Saturday found Fluffy Girl & I at MU vet school for state poultry day.  A good seminar on eggs including safety & nutrition and other information was presented. We learned about USDA grading on chicken carcasses. The rest of the morning was spent with junior & senior judging of eggs, live chickens, & carcasses. Fluffy Girl being a first year, spent that time learning about judging those things.  They provided a nice lunch followed by a quiz bowl. Fluffy Girl did compete on a junior team with 2 friends.  They lost,  but we were proud that they even tried.  I think they were the youngest team.  She also lost a tooth right before their turn.  LOL.

We spent Sunday at a family reunion for Camo Dad's grandfather's family.  Fluffy Girl enjoyed playing with her cousins until we had to go home to rest a bit before softball practice.

We've spent a lot of time trying to keep cool in this Missouri heat & humidity. It's so true when they say "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." I spent some time in Oklahoma when I was younger.  The temperatures were similar, but Missouri is sooo much more humid!  I, personally love heat but sweating through your shirt when you haven't done anything is hard.

My big concern has been the rabbits.  Angora rabbits are cold weather animals & can heat stroke  easily. They're in open cages & are in the shade all day and have plenty of water available.  The sheep are actually pretty ok as long as they have shade & plenty of water.

The heat wave continues this week.  We have 3 whole evenings at home this week before our next game on Friday. Hopefully I can get some ongoing projects finished.  LOL.

I almost forgot my other big news!  Stay Fluffed Farm is on Instagram as of yesterday! Don't forget to follow us for instant updates! Here's the few pictures I do have.

 Mama cat, Ruby continues to hold hunting lessons.  This is the 2nd bird & 2 frogs that have been brought to my porch. I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have to get rid of the leftovers.  LOL. 

 I cut the last of our heirloom lettuce.  It's so hot now that until fall lettuce tastes bitter.  

 Here's a good picture of the kids learning how to judge a class of post production hens. 

Chicks!

Remember the sign of spring picture showing my little broody cochin?

This is what i found tonight.  About a week or so ago the black pochin decided to brood with my little buff.

This is what was underneath my buff. The little guy must have gotten out of the box so she decided to be the floor mother.  

I didn't get a picture but there's another under the black pochin dying off! I wonder how many we'll have?