JUST DAILY STUFF! ***GRAPHIC

I think with the cold and clouds not many of us feel like doing much. Blogging is one of them. Besides-having slow internet doesn't help. I took tons of pictures, so there was no shortage there. It has been cold, cloudy, and we have just hung out mostly in the garage by the wood stove. Lots of hanging out with the girls. Taking care of puppies. Three of them are keeping us busy. 
Enough said!!

The only thing growing right now is them puppies!

It's funny how we have three kennels for them and they choose to lay in one.

Cuddles gets her own bed.

She is the special dog!

Tim was hauling some firewood that was already cut last year.

We are just now getting around to moving it.

Tim and Kaitlin are hand splitting the wood.

It was just way to cold to try and start the log spliter.

We had a couple of wagon fulls to cut.

On a little nicer day,

Tim split the rest of the wood and got it all stacked up.

He even cleaned up the small pieces.

Now we have a great start on next winters wood.

I like how the clouds look!

We put fresh straw out for the birds. No need to spread it out. They will have more fun doing that job!

Mr. Celebrity is getting so big.

We are talking about butchering him real soon. I don't know if he will fit in our roaster pan. I cooked up one at Thanksgiving weighing 25 lbs. and barely fit. We thought we would have to cut it in half and cook it in two pans. It was tight, but managed it in one pan.

I have a broody hen!

So I gave her some eggs. I know that looks like a lot but they are really small, they are silky/banty eggs.

Ms. Boss is gonna do the job.

We need rain!!!!

Our pond is drying up.

Me with Willow

Isn't she getting big?

I look at her today and she is bigger than in the picture.

She is such a big baby.

Here are a few pictures from around the farm on different times and days.

Before long those trees will have buds on them

I welcome SPRING!

I was in the barn the other day and noticed something out of the corner of my eye. What is that?

Everyday this box is on the ground with a egg either in it or around it. Who lays this egg in this box??

My sassy Rhode Island Red!

Of course she jumps out once she sees me and breaks her egg.

Darn chickens!

We seem to say that a lot around here.

Look what we have...

A male stud for our female rabbit.

He (they call him Daddy) is on loan for a couple of weeks.

I will say it has taken Amber about a week to warm up to him.

Now they are great together.

(I know the cage has Aspen on it, she passed away. We haven't wanted to take her name off of it. She was a great rabbit and we miss her)

See that Guinea??

With the temperatures really low and into negative temperatures, two of the guineas decided to stay outside. I tried every night to get them off of the roofs. One decided she had enough and went in the hen house. A little frost bite on her toes and was missing a few of the tips of them.About six nights later the other one got caught by Tim and Skylar. She was bleeding from her face and missing some of her toes/claws/feet (not sure what you call them). I call them toes. She had frostbite. Them guineas are hard to raise.

We have been giving her medicine in her water and a shot for 5 days. She is doing really good and seems to be getting her strength back. She is gonna loose one foot and is missing most of her toes on the other side. Not sure yet if she can handle going back in with the flock. Time will tell.

You can see the guinea in the back. She is with another injured hen.

Keeping each other company.


This is what her feet look like. She is doing much better.
She will loose her foot but not her leg.


Her face has healed.

I am not sure what her story is.

All I know is that she got her neck stuck in something and when she was found her neck was ripped open to the bone. WHAT! I am saying they all need to stop getting hurt. So we put some medicine on her neck and in her water. We honestly didn't think she would make it through the night. Next morning she is still alive and her comb bright red. She is doing great now and her neck is almost healed. Not enough to put her back with the flock. She has started laying eggs. So I will keep her back from the roosters for now.

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Another one is injured! All I see is meat and bones. Skin ripped clean away.

Got her in the cage with the other three. I put some medicine on her wound and some in her water. Now we wait.

The rest of the hens are doing great.

I got the ducks moved back to the front of property. 

Back at the pond, where they belong.

Kaitlin and Scout

Me with Willow

Skylar with Shadow

Thanks for coming along on our journey!

WEEKEND HAPPENINGS!

It sure has been a long and cold winter. With the cows being sold last year and just caring for the chickens/ducks and lets not forget the dogs/new puppies, we had a really relaxing time on the farm. Leaving us to get some much need projects done.

But, spring is just around the corner. We have been planning out our gardens for the summer. We placed our seed order and it's coming in this week. So plenty of work will need to get done.

But, for the last several weeks we worked on a project in the garage. Goal is to insulate and hang OSB on the wall to cover up the insulation. With doing that we will get the garage organized. This will allow us to use the garage for wood working, working on our vehicles or just simple stuff.

Tim and I worked on one corner of the garage.

I don't have before pictures.

We sorted through things and piled up other things.

Basically, making a mess to clean up a mess.

We have piles to get rid of, trash, recycle, go to the container, go to the barn. It's the little things that just keep piling up. All else fails take it to the garage. We have to change that. This is the year to get organized. We are gonna have a place for everything. You think the garage looks bad, you should see our barn. That will wait for warmer weather.

Tim and I took a trip into the city to a big box store and picked up more supplies. After walking out of the garage and noticing the door is taking some finagling to get it shut for awhile. A new door to the garage would be great. Picking up some more OSB and insulation and other such items. Back to the farm to get started again.

This door that has been giving us some problems. It needed to be replaced years before we moved in. It has seen better days.

Look how messed up the bottom of this is.

And you can see outside too.

Tim is removing the door jam after removing the door off of the hinges.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this we went to do our evening chores with the animals.

We are used to doing things in the dark.

Check out the new door!

It looks GREAT!

Before we can start this wall......

and after we add more wood to the fire....

Tim needs to work on the brake lines on my truck.

Got that done!

Now we can get started on moving more stuff.

The garage just keeps getting smaller.

We got all the old peg board and insulation off.

The bad part of peg board is hornets can go into the holes and make their nest. The other thing is all the insulation has many holes in and not doing the job anymore.This is why we are putting the OSB on the walls to protect the insulation and it looks nicer.

It's starting to come together.

Getting the walls up.

It's looking awesome!

We are only going to this point.

One, We are putting in another outside outlet.

Two, Tim plans on replacing the fuse box to a breaker box.

Three, We need to do something with the front part of the garage and we don't want the boards in the way.

Tim and Willow put a new shelf together.

Willow instructed while Tim did the labor.

Tim got the wall done that was by his work bench.

I was gone for this part.

Taking the stuff off of the shelves.

This will be done in sections. Too much to do in one day/evening.

Again, removing the peg board and old insulation.

As you can see in this photo, 

Big chunks of insulation gone. Some areas we can feel the cold air blowing in. Tim took care of those areas with the spray foam insulation.

Got the walls all cleaned up.

Tim added a outside outlet.

It isn't wired in yet.

Here is a extension cord running out of the wall.

This was done by the previous owners. We are putting a outside outlet here too.

Tim did get the extension cord out and got the new outlet hooked up.

In this photo you can see the orange spray foam insulation around the outside outlet. Getting the new insulation put in.

Putting the new wall boards in.

Almost done with this section.

Tim is screwing them in.

 We got that section done!

We did pull out one of the shelves. The end of the boards went a little into the next shelving unit.

Before moving on looks like my truck needs some more work done it.

Now on to the next section of the wall.

Tim worked on this part by himself. I was busy with grand-kids.

That is a lot of stuff. We just keep moving it from one side to the other and re-stacking the stuff. In the meantime, we are keeping things away from the wood stove. Its been so cold almost the whole time we have been working on this. The wood stove has been going day and night.

He got all the old stuff off and cleaned up.

 On to the making that cabinet.

Tim is getting all the pieces cut to start assembling the cabinet together.

 Tim is making another one of these cabinets.

This is nice. It holds his tools. The drawers are deep and deep shelves.

Tim got cabinet all put together. Now he will still need to cut the boards for the shelves and drawers.

The other cabinet will help organize most of this stuff.

Willow hanging out with Tim while he was cutting the rest of the boards for his cabinet.

 Tim got the wood cut out for the drawers.

He is working fast on this project.

 Willow and Scout just hanging out.

They aren't locked in the kennel, they are in by choice.

 Tim is putting the drawers together. There is a total of four.

 Two drawers put together.

 Tim got the drawers done and the drawer guides installed.

 This is where the new cabinet is going.

As you can see we are needing this cabinet to help get some things organized. Having the garage better organized will allow for Tim to do more wood working projects.

 The cabinet fits nicely.

Before he put the cabinet in place he did stain both sides so he didn't need to pull it back out. He can stain the cabinet doors and fronts for the drawers before he installs them.

 Tim has already filled it up.

 The cabinet is done!

All Tim needs is the handles for it.

It's already looking organized.

 The next thing Tim is doing on the garage is: straightening up the front part of the garage. It isn't level. Plan is with this cable it to crank it over a period of time to level it back up.

Tim added another cable on it for safety.

I don't like being around when he is cranking it.

You can hear the wood creak. I think it is very scary.

Just want to note Tim doesn't allow any of us in garage during the process. We have to stand on the outside of the garage. I can still hear it.

 What a beautiful day!

Everything looks good and level.

Today is the day that Tim will get the boards put on and screwed up. He plans on putting liquid nails on the back side of the board. He doesn't plan on removing the straps until everything is good and dried.

 Tim just finished with the insulation and getting ready to hang the last board on this side of the garage.

 Now we wait until everything dries.

Beautiful colored sky tonight!

 Got the cables off. It looks good!

We waited 2 days later to remove the cables.

We got this corner organized.

 This corner is not done yet. Remember I mentioned he wants to put another outside outlet in and a different breaker box. 

 We decided to go with two shelves on this side. We still need to move the light.

 Tim hung up the brooms, chairs and got the big ladder put up.

This corner is done. We do want to hang upper cabinets above Tim's work bench, hang a light above mine. We still need to organize what we are planning on doing with the stuff in the middle. Right now Tim has been using most of it when he is building. Right now we just need to see what will work for him the best.