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. 

In The Last Week

So I'm going to try to recap this last week for you.  We were pretty busy!

I did some cleaning under my chicken & rabbit pens.  Above is one of the nice wagon loads that I spread on the garden. Below is a shot of some of our pens. 

 Below are some pictures of our 2 new angora bucks.  A fawn named Buck who's super friendly.  And a blue named Blue, original I know.  LOL.

Below are some nice pictures of the yearling ewe pen that we built.  The shelter is made from pallets & old feed bags. 

A few more signs of spring. . . My lilac, wild plum, & apple trees are blooming. 

One of my bantum cochins has decided to be broody. 

 And I managed to get my mother's 2 angora goats sheared. This is the only picture I was able to take as I did have my hands full.  Fluffy Girl was supposed to be taking pictures but she was distracted by hay bales & my parents 2 miniature Aussies. LOL.

Around the farm

I thought I would share some around the farm pictures.  It's not as pretty as i would sometimes like to be but it's ours. :) We do what we can with what we've got which often means a humble beginning.  Also I'm a farm girl at heart with very little landscaping skills.  LOL. Seriously, I work hard at making a garden grow instead of die.

 Some random flowers growing in a fenceline. I hope we don't kill them when we redo fencing. 

 This is a shot of my ram pen.  It's got 2 stalls reinforced with metal panels on the inside.  Many people do run rams together in the off season, however we decided to separate our 2 due to size & age.  Kenny,  pictured below before shearing, is only a yearling & going to be shown this year.  Niles, who will be pictured in a later post is a strapping older & bigger ram. They have already destroyed parts of the wood between them.  So while this seems small & closed, until we get something way more heavy duty, permanent, & separate; this is the safest pen for them.  Also we aren't sure that we are keeping more than 1 ram at least for now. Kenny will probably be for sale after showing. 

 Here's the start of a little shelter/pen for my yearling ewes.  We'll get them out of the big pen so the pregnant ewes can lamb soon. 

 And my garden.  Doesn't look like much right now, but early spring seeds are going in tomorrow! I love fresh lettuce & we are trying some organic heirloom varieties this year.  I prefer heirloom items to grow & try to grow as naturally as possible. We're also putting in snow peas, spinach, and trying kale.

In 2 or 3 more weeks we'll plant some green beans for canning and I'm going to try some northern & kidney beans for drying. Probably some sweet corn, watermelon, & pumpkin going in as well.