New additions, new addition?

My last ewe of the season, Alice's Big Daughter (yes, that's really her name) had her lambs - a ram and a ewe:


For some reason she wasn't 'caught' by our Katahdin ram, Steve:

and is the only one to be bred by our baby ram, Domino, a Katahdin/Dorper cross. I'm using him exclusively this season and I'm really pleased by this 'preview'!

ABD is easily one of my best ewes and if this little ram of her's looks nice I'll be keeping him.

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Here's a pic of my mystery dibs that came in with my turkeys - you can see a turkey poult there at the bottom for comparison:

As you can see, they're a mixed bag mystery. Those two tiniest black ones (above and below the spotted chick on the left) are actually from my yard bantams. I discovered a nest that had been abandoned just as the eggs were hatching and these two were orphaned so they went in with these.

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gratuitous shot of Turkish:

He's made himself a nest in a pile of hay. It's right next to one of the water buckets. He is such a water dog! He'll submerge his whole snout up to his eyes in the water, and that's, like, eight inches of dog nose.

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Please don't forget that I'm seriously needing advice on the kitchen. I need your help!! Hopefully I'm getting the pantry added soon and they'll have to remove a window to make the door and make a bit of a mess. I might as well be working on the kitchen at the same time.

So ... paint the beams and trim dark? Paint the walls dark? Bright? How can I get the sheetrock walls to look like old, hand-applied plaster?

Remember, I'm going for an English country cottage look!


This lady has her house just like she wants it. A Carolina Wren (state bird of South Carolina) decided that one of my 3lb coffee can feed scoops would make an excellent nest site. She built this lovely construction in one day - right on top of a half a can of chick starter!

The kitchen ... hmmm ...

OK, here's my latest idea for the kitchen. (Go here if you're not familiar with the debacle project in question.)

Number one, I guess it would help if I shared with you my decorating style (duh!).

Well, the house is 120-140 years old ( a Victorian) and I'm going for an English Country style (not to be confused with American Country wooden-gingham-ducks-and-rag-doll-shelf-sitters style), sometimes called English country cottage or cottage style. Basically a lot of older hand-me-down pieces, rich dark colours, some intentional clutter - a comforting and welcoming look.

I want my house to be elegant but also seem like it's alright to come through my parlour in your wellies with all the dogs in tow after a nice walk, ya know? (Yes, I want my life to be an episode of All Creatures Great and Small.)



I don't want my kitchen and dining room (those pics are really the north wall of the dining room) to be bright. I want it to be dark. It originally had huge dark beams across the ceiling and at the tops of the walls until some moron painted over them. What I really want is those dark wood accents back and deep red or evergreen or cinnamon coloured walls.

Rather like this:

But, alas, I can't get those back so I'll have to make do.

I could paint all the 'wood' dark (like dark brown) but I'm afraid that would look naff.

Bugger it. I don't know what to do!

I will tell you my idea for the walls, though. I was watching the British telly series Ballykissangel (which takes place in Ireland) and I always keep my eyes peeled for decorating ideas while watching these shows. I noticed that many of the interior walls appeared to be rough plaster painted over. I LOVE this look. That's what I want my walls to look like.

Here's an example (NOT that colour mind! holy cow! Just the texture I'm looking for.)

So what would YOU do? I don't have much cash or time (two big problems here) and it's v. hard doing any sort of work with four small curious children about. This was why I suggested the sanding-of-the-doorjambs. It'd be a quick fix.

Well. I'm gonna go be peeling wallpaper while y'all are thinking about it.

Ahh, spring!

With the advent of warm weather I've now got 25 projects started - at various stages of completion - and virtually nothing finished. Just as I'm completing one, I begin two more. *sigh*

So here's what I've gotten done:

Turkey pen before:

and after:

I still have to put a door on it (opposite side), cover those gaps with wire, and that roof is not nailed down yet, that's why it looks weird. The poults won't be able to go in just yet, anyway. They're still in the brooder:

That's nine Bourbon Red turkey poults (originally ten) and ... and I don't know what. These wee fluffy biddies were in with the poults when they arrived. What are they, live padding? Were there a few leftover chicks from other hatches and the hatchery just says: "Oh, just drop a few in each box as bonus prizes!"

I'm NOT complaining, mind you. I think it's cool and can't wait to see what turns out. I know that they're bantams and I have a few Cochins in there. It's a nice mystery!

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The rest of the chicks are doing well in their new pen and the two remaining goslings are in excellent health and growing v. well. I was going to take a pic of them for you last night but they decided to bathe in their drinking water and, since they still have down they looked like those poor birds they rescue from oil slicks! Not exactly photogenic.

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My one pigeon squab is getting hard to tell from her flock-mates AND she looks as if she's solid red (and so breed standard), so that bloke was telling the truth about them breeding true.

[update] I have a NEW squab!! I think she had two or three eggs but I know at least one squab has hatched out! I'm so excited! They're almost impossible to photograph, the parents keep them well tucked under unless they're being fed. I'll try though.

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Turkish has been doing well and the whole place is refreshingly free of varmints. Despite his being in a different pen altogether, I haven't had one egg eaten or lost one fowl since his arrival.

He has got some strange thing in his head about wanting the goats and sheep to be in a certain part of the feedlot - the back bit where the hay is. He not aggressive about it, he's just determined. He patiently gets up from his position by the gate and moves them back if they come around.
This is no problem except that 1) the water is in the front part, so they're not really getting to drink freely, and 2) they ARE in a feedlot with limited space and I'd like for them to be able to move about.

I'm putting him in the bachelor pad (with the buck and the ram) temporarily until school's out and Evil Genius Husband can work with him a bit. He's an excellent dog but has clearly never been trained, which is a pity.

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I'll try to get more pics in the next post! Plus I need to tell you about my kitchen ... (cue ominous music)

Mine! All mine!

So we had the power company on our property.



The cut (right-of-way or easement) runs right along our left hand property line - on our side. They've had huge trucks with bucket arms, the Turbo Chipper and it's accompanying truck into which it spits the remains, and that cool thingy with the strange spiked scoop on the front that is hinged in the middle (v. v. cool!)
Well, I do as I always do with county, state, and federal types, I am ultra polite, friendly, really earth-mother-crossed-with-aunt-Bea sort of thing. You catch more flies with honey, and all.

So it occurred to me, about mid morning, that while most of the trees being cut were pines, a good few were hardwoods (this crossed my brain as I watched some little twit-worker-ant chainsaw down my pecan tree that I'd been nursing for 3 years which was nowhere NEAR the cut)

I pulled on my wellies, told the kids I'd be right back and marched my large self determinedly out there.

Nothing like a vast, frowning, full-bosomed, gumboot-wearing female appearing at your elbow to shake you out of your reverie.

I smiled sweetly and commenced my spiel (note: I never mentioned the pecan tree. It was gone. No use crying over chainsawed wood.) I told them that since they were cutting hardwood that I'd like any branches bigger around than my wrist tossed aside so that I could scavenge them for firewood.

The slightly stunned Twit-Worker-Ant nodded quickly and we were joined by another worker ant Nice-Worker-Ant. I restated my plea, sweetly, and NWA agreed that it would be good for me and make things easier for them - they'd just cut the wood and throw it, not having to mess with it again.

Then Crabby Old Boss Worker Ant arrived.

"We can't do that", he huffed.
"Why not?" I asked, and this convo ensued:

Crabby Old Boss Worker Ant: "We have to remove all the wood..."

Me: "... from the right-of-way."

COBWA: "We have to put it on the trucks or chip it ..."

Me: " ... normally. I'm trying to save you some work. Just leave it to the side."

COBWA: (inflating himself) "Can't do that. This wood belongs to the [name of power company]."

Me: (dangerously) "Excuse me? This wood is mine that you're cutting."

COBWA: "Lady, this cut belongs to the [name of power company] and these trees ..."

Me: "... are mine. This is MY land, sir, and the trees on it! The [name of power company] has a right-of-way through MY land, they don't own the land. They simply have the right to come this way to maintain the power lines!"

His mouth opened and closed a few times, then he gave the two worker ants an exaggerated Jeez-women-these-days shrug and eyeroll and stomped off.

The next day I went down the cut and Nice Worker Ant had carefully piled up the wood, cut into about six foot lengths, in batches all down the side of the right-of-way.

Wasn' t that sweet?