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This morning we had the call that they were going to come and spray the weeds and over seed for us. This meant that we had to keep the chickens in and under cover but more importantly, even though we are using animal friendly weed killer, we want to move our precious Alpacas out to the bottom field.

Let the fun commence – first the girls, make a smaller enclosure then then to coax them in. Grab the first one put the new halter on her – much better style its called an X halter and I will add a link and a picture later. Now the second then walk them to the bottom field – Sounds easy !!! Actually it was not too bad after a little bit of trepidation they walked down for us. No spitting, Yeay!

Now to the boys that involved a whole lot more running around but we got them moved in just under the hour 🙂

Well it has been wet this spring. We have had over 13.5″ of rain since the beginning of March. We had nearly 4″ of that last weekend. All that wet weather has delayed the work  to improve the pasture. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that rain holds off this week end so that we can get the spraying and over-seeding completed.

I’ve been trying avoid outside work so I concentrated on getting my barn workshop organised. It’s been a bit of a tip from the moment I unloaded the truck. The first job was to clear a space to work and construct a bench along one wall. Nothing fancy. It’s just a simple wooden construction screwed together with a ply top and shelf. It’s immediately been put to good use and is currently supporting the weed whacker (strimmer) with a carburetor in pieces.

Thursday was finally sunny enough to dry the grass, which has been growing like Topsy. We have lots of grass to cut here and lots of weeds too – hence the need to spray. I didn’t want to spread the seed heads all over the place so I opted to collect the cuttings and dump them – not in the compost heap. The dampness of the cut grass made the collection problematic but, by the end of the day, it was all done ……. for this week.

I find grass cutting quite relaxing (I know it’s odd) and you get to spot all manner of wildlife hurrying to escape the monster machine. Frogs, giant beetles and of course snakes. This week I only saw a couple of very small snakes. Miss Lynne, on the other hand, saw something much larger from her office window.  Oh dear, this is going to be trouble.

 

New girls are settling in and enjoying their new surroundings. Still pretty skittish around us but getting better. Best of all they are laying eggs already. Gave them a quick treat of some cooked oatmeal just to make sure they realize it will be good to stay close.

Just to show they are still around here are the cats on their way for their afternoon snack. Mr Rob tells me I  spoil all of them too much but I think I spoil them just enough.

 

 

Yesterday we added 6 new chickens to the ever growing family. We have a Jersey Giant, 3 Morans and 2 Amerercunas. They are already exhibiting some very different personality traits, the Jersey is a typical gentle giant and the Amerercunas are hilarious, they are very skittish constantly on the move.

No pictures yet as we need to keep them in the coop for a few days while they settle in. We should now be adding blue, giant and very dark brown eggs to the daily hoard.

There is always something unexpected to divert my attention around here. This morning, I opened the front door to be confronted by what usually is a sign that Miss Lynne has been gardening. But she is away so I can’t blame her. How on earth did all that shrubbery get on the front porch?

Looking up I quickly had an answer to my question. An opportunist little bird had decided that the porch light fitting would make a great nesting box. Sadly for that little bird, I had to disagree. Back to square one then.

 

 

 

The alpacas are loving this warmer weather and green grass. I thought it would be good to get a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

I’ve been busy, on and off over the last couple of weeks, building a house for our next batch of chickens. I made my usual error of flinching at the price of a new one and foolishly say … nah, I can do that. Well, yes I can, but it always takes twice as long as I think and lots of trips into town for the bits and pieces I forgot the last time.

Anyroad, here it is. A luxury accommodation for 6 birds with nesting for 3 simultaneous egg laying. This open plan space has forest fresh, multi level roosting and fine views over the Georgia countryside.

 

Last night I decided to treat the old bloke as it was his last day at ?? years old. So we fired up the new Kamado grill and had home made pizza followed by BBQ bananas with nutella. He said it was his best meal for a long time but I think he was just merry from the beer he drank!

I decided to follow up with French toast for breakfast this morning, made with home made fruit bread and our own fresh eggs. yum !!! I like this change of pace.

Who knew that eggs grew in the wild …….. Well not really. Rocky the runaway chicken; the one that just won’t stay confined, has been laying her eggs in her own secret place. It’s a pity I didn’t find them until this morning. It feels wrong to throw so many eggs away.

A walk around the garden is nearly always rewarded with wildlife of one sort or another. Firstly there’s Rocky the runaway. She loves to get out of the pasture and away from the other chickens. Perhaps she is escaping the attentions of Roger Rooster.

We have lots of Cardinals coming to the feeders and the ground beneath them.

We always had these in NY. One new bird to us was this little Indigo Bunting. Nice plumage as the pythons would say.

We really enjoy seeing the birds in out garden and Miss Lynne has a full time job keeping the feeders topped up. Not all the wild life is welcomed though.

It’s amazing the difference a week makes. Just a few days of warm weather and the trees are humming with activity.

The warm weather also answered the question about having turtles in the lake. We spotted at least three. That might not be good news for the recently added fish!