As usual I haven't written in forever. Since the last time we've moved to Tennessee, both sadly and happily. Sadly because I've had to leave so much behind. Happily because of the GROWING SEASON down here, and also the beauty of the land. This is some of what I had to leave behind.

It's iris time and almost chicken time

My husband and I took a quick walk around the gardens today (before it got too hot to work) and I counted 11 (I think!) different kinds of iris. I don't know their names. I just go by their color and their smell...mmm! I love iris time. I think it's one of my favorite times in the garden.

Black-purple iris

Maroon and white iris

Purple 'pez' iris

Light blue iris

Two-tone white and blue iris

Maroon with yellow tongue

White iris

Yellow iris

Heirloom peach, yellow and pink iris

Heirloom white and purple

Siberian iris

This is a few of them and it's not counting the ones that haven't bloomed yet. Still waiting on those.

I'm also waiting for our new babies that are supposed to come on Wednesday (15 chicks and 15 guineas). How exciting it will be to see them.

Feeding the birds

Normally I don't put much birdseed out in summer, mainly just thistle seed for the finches. But since I did not get out to feed the birds this winter as much as I should have-could have-wanted to, I ended up with a lot of extra food this spring. So 'what-the-heck' it's taking up space in my cabinet, why not feed them.
Wow, what a difference from the normal winter birds that visit my feeders. Here are a few.

Rose-breasted grosbeak pair

Sparrows

Goldfinch pair

Red and gold finches

Gray Catbirds 

Brown-headed cowbirds

(By the way... cowbirds are lazy, they let others raise their young.)

Male cardinal and house sparrows

Male goldfinch in a maple tree

And look at the maple buds. This was taken yesterday. Usually by now we have leaves on the trees.

Getting things done, doubtful

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. We did. We spent it with some of the family down at Camp Brandenburg near Madison, an awesome girlscout camp. And now its back home again and hopefully back to work. I don't mean work as in 'go to work and get paid'. I mean work as in 'get some things done around the yard that haven't been touched since last fall'.
We finally had a decent day to work outside and since I had it off, I spent all of it outside. Sometimes though, I feel like little Billy from Family Circus. I begin out in the front flower bed, the weeds are already past my ankles. Where is the garden fork...? Aha! Up by the porch. After retrieving it I head back down to the front bed again, only to realize I forgot the wheelbarrow. So where's the wheelbarrow? Oh, yeah...lying broken behind the garage...! But it can be fixed. An hour later I wheel it outside the garage again, but not before I swept the entire garage floor.
On the way back to find my misplaced fork again, I notice that the nettles and burrs are beginning to take over the banks of the creek. Well that won't do, give them an inch.... where's that hoe?!  And so the rest of the day goes.
Everywhere I look, every direction high or low... I see something that needs attention. Needless to say, I didn't get much done today. But I did have time to take a few pictures of the animals. There is always time for that.

The cowbirds are back. They're funny to watch. Here they are following Timmy around.

That's Duncan, our bull grazin behind the birdhouse.

My husband made the birdhouse for me last year. The colors match our house.

I see that Erin is losing her winter black color. Her coat always turns red in summer.

Here, the hens are enjoying the warm day but I see they've already dug a hole. Knowing how chickens like to eat (A.K.A. kill) grass, I put a divider in their pen so I can rotate them. Its not quite finished yet (it still needs the dividing gate put on) but it looks like I'll be needing it soon.

Bad girls!

Yay, spring!

Beautiful blue sky day, perfect for working outside

I've been so busy this past week (ever since the last of the snow melted and I finally got to dig my garden fork into the soil) that I haven't had time to sit down and write. All I want is be outside because there is always something to do everywhere I look. It was a busy fall. Winter came on quick and with me being gone in PA for a few weeks to see the grandbabies, not much of the fall yard clean-up got done. I'm paying for it now with this spring clean-up.

At least the chicken house got cleaned out last week and now we have happy (and much better smelling) chickens. We ordered 15 new silky chicks and also 15 guineas this week too, so I've been working on getting the old chicken house and pen straightened up.
I started on the pen yesterday. Can you believe the dead weeds in there were taller than me! And the new ones, nettles included, already had a pretty good start at six inches high. After removing the weeds, the washout holes still needed fixing from a downpour last fall, which ran underneath the shed's concrete floor.

It took forever to get the pen clean and I'm still not done... there are a few more washout places beneath the fence where predators could get in. But in spite of all the things that need to be done, I'm getting very excited about this new spring growth. I just love the surprise of seeing a new crocus or daffodil that wasn't there yesterday.



                                                                                                            

The cattle seemed to be enjoying the warm spring day as much as I was

Angel with the calves (the light one on the left is hers)

Erin and Rocky (our baby bull)



No good luck; but at least spring is finally on the way

It has been a rough and very sad two weeks. We lost the white calf before she was a week old and sadder yet, we lost Leah on the Wednesday before she was two weeks old. We tried hard to keep her going (many, many hours worth) but I guess it was not meant to be. Out of the 42 calves we've had so far, this makes only 4 losses, and I'm still wondering what went wrong with these two.
On the day before Leah died, a thought came to me. Perhaps they had a selenium deficiency. This deficiency is very common in our area, and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. We try to keep a selenium block out for the cattle at all times but we haven't checked it lately, and the vet hadn't mentioned it either. Unfortunately my husband was on his way home from the vet with 3 shots for Leah when she died.

This has been a long, sad winter for us but at least spring is starting to show itself. Our valley only has mere traces of snow left in the woods and ditches. The fields are starting to turn green--well, at least they're trying to. My tulips and daffodils are already 3 and 4 inches high, and of course the Johnny-jump-ups are blooming. I think they bloom underneath the snow! How encouraging it is to see all of this green going on.
Of course the chicken yard is still half-full of snow. Yesterday I took a walk in it and some spots are at least 6 inches deep. I've been opening up the coop door so they can go outside if they want to.

These next pictures were taken on March 6th. The snow is over a foot deep here.



It was the first time I let the chickens out this winter and of course no one wanted to venture out into the... eww, ick... deep snow! I was on my way back inside the coop to chase the others out when I noticed that my brave little silky, Snowflake was out in the snow all by herself (She's my favorite by the way).

When I put the other chickens out in it, they were afraid to walk on it. They stood in place. No one can dispute that my chickens hate snow!

                                                                                                              

Another sure sign of spring: the goldfinches are starting to turn gold





Oh no, not again....

Sometimes I ask myself why I want to have animals.

I also want to ask Mother Nature why she can be so nasty at times too. The temperature dropped into the low teens two nights ago so yesterday we thought we better go check up on Buttercup's new white calf. We hadn't seen her since the day before and Buttercup was standing way up near the edge of the woods.

Buttercup's calf was one day old here. It was raining but the snow came later that night.

After we fed the cows a round bale, my husband headed out into the woods on the ATV and found the calf lying in the snow, alive but not looking good. Usually after they're a few days old, the calves will stand up when we come near and shy away. This one wouldn't stand at all, even after her mother came down to the feeder, leaving her behind.
After getting the completely limp calf down to the cowyard later, we decided she was too weak and chilled to stay out with the herd. She could not even lift her head by then. Oh no, I thought. Not another one. Except that this one was much weaker than her older sister in the basement. Off to the basement we went with another one.
Since this calf was much bigger (and we only have one crate) we decided to dig out the chicken tractor that was stuffed in one of the sheds and use it for the calves. After warming and drying her with the heat gun we piled her high with warm blankets.

More penicillin and electrolytes later, the little white girl finally stopped shaking and started to lift her head. Later that afternoon when we gave her some milk-replacer she actually began to suck. Wow, that was encouraging. By evening she was standing on her own and we hoped everything was going to be okay.
But then morning came and surprisingly the older calf had taken a turn for the worse. I actually didn't think she was going to make it through the day. Since it had been somewhat warm in the sun yesterday, we had put her out with Erin and she stayed out there most of the day following mama around and looking like she was doing well. We tried to keep an eye on her while we were taking care of the white calf but I still couldn't tell if she was nursing. By the time the sun was starting to go down, she was lying down in the snow and mud, and we brought her back inside for the night. Apparently she had not nursed.
As bad as she looked this morning, I almost gave up on her. But no, we had to try something. More electrolytes, another shot and more milk-replacer was poured in. Luckily it didn't take long for her to start looking better. Right now she's up and standing and eating fairly well, although neither of the calves seem to like the taste of the milk-replacer. The white calf was listless all day and that wasn't too encouraging, but tomorrow is another day. We will see what happens then.