Can't seem to get those pesky snow flakes....

Reina was having a blast in the snow. She is just like my children getting wound up playing in the snow. She was even trying to catch snowflakes on her tounge.

Snow!!

We got a good 5-6 inches of snow!! We really haven't had much snow this year so this is kinda nice. The cows were hanging out in the front of the chicken coop watching the snow come down. It took some coaxing to get them to come to the barn. I milked and did the usual chores. All the chickens were all huddled up in the coop and the ewes and lambs would NOT come out for breakfast. I tried to get them to follow me in to the milk barn but they would have none of that. I ended up taking a bale of hay over to them. They were happy to see the hay. I put the hay for the cows in the front of the barn on the snow and they were quickly covered in snow. It looked like the black cows were white. It was really coming down!!

Meet Mickey

When we moved here there were a ton on cats. There were several female cats with kittens and a very handsome tom cat. We like cats and just kinda let them be. I guess because we live close to a nice blacktop road it made it easy for people to dump unwanted cats and kittens on our farm. So needless to say we ended up with way too many cats. I had the foolish notion that our farm was pretty much mouse free, I had never seen one. The barn is full of feed and lots of great hiding places for mice. I am in the barn for two hours a day and no mice. I decided that we had a bit of a kitty overload and found homes for all the farm cats. We kept the two that came here with us and found homes for the rest. Well sure enough two days later I go in the barn and a mouse runs across my foot!! I didn't think much of it and went on with the milking. Well over the next few weeks I saw mice almost everyday!! One day I came in the house announcing "we need a cat". My husband just about fell over! ( I think that sometimes I am hard to keep up with LOL) So that very day we had to run to town and pick up a few things and lo and behold there was a person there giving kittens away! We picked one out and brought him home. I put him in the barn and in a few days he had learned to catch mice. He has done a good job and I can now walk through the barn mice free. Now I need to move him over to the chicken coop. It seems that we have a family of rats that has burrowed under the laying boxes! I noticed that something had burrowed but did not know what it was. My awesome husband went out to check chickens one night and saw the rats. EWEEEWWW!! Time for mickey to get to work. I don't think the hens will like a cat in their mist but the rats have to go!! maybe I can dress mickey as a hen??

Meatloaf

We measured Meatloaf and he is a t about 770! He is 7 months old. He is as tall as Gladys and likes to push her around. It will be a bit before he is bigger than his mama but I bet by this summer he outweighs her. He is a sweet bull and loves to be scratched under his chin, he leads like a dream, we will band him probably this weekend. I have noticed him being a bit bullish and just getting into things. He totally destroyed the fence to the chicken pasture, He goes in there and knocks over the water and gets in to the feed. He is like a toddler he is into everything. I hope that after we band him he will not be such a destroying angel and I can put the barn and pasture back in order.

The buffet is open

I went to collect eggs and found that something had gotten in to the chicken coop. The top layer of nesting boxes had two that were broken. I found one dead hen and when I counted it seems that two more are missing. I am not sure it is really hard to count the hens because they keep moving but I counted twice and both times came up two short. This is so frustrating Reina is supposed to keep this from happening. I don't know what went on in the barn but I am worried about the remaining hens. We have lost hundreds of hens to the wildlife and once they know where to get a good hot meal they pretty much clean us out. We will see how things look tomorrow..... just as the girls started laying good Darn it!!!

Eggs!!!!

With the warmer weather and longer days the hens have FINALLY decided to give up some beautiful eggs. I have missed farm fresh eggs. They stopped laying about 7 weeks ago and I have had to resort to bland lifeless store bought eggs. Horrid things!! Three eggs is not much but enough for a custard pie yum yum!! I'm off to the kitchen! Yahoo!

Warm weather in February???

We had 70 degree weather here over the weekend. It was good for getting much needed outside work done like pruning the fruit trees along with the grape vines. I am worried about the fruit crop for this year. As we were pruning I noticed that some of the buds on the trees are swelling.. with these warm temps the trees think that it is spring. Missouri weather is not usually this warm and I bet that it gets cold again. If it does we could loose the fruit.... that is a big drag! I love the warm temps but I do like fresh from the tree peaches better... I know curse me I really want the weather to cool back down before we have any damage.

What's a milkmaid to do??

My awesome hunk of a husband surprised me with a incredible meal Friday evening. My brother in law took all the children for a overnight stay allowing us some time here on the farm kid free!! My man had lobster flown in along with some beautiful clams. He cooked a wonderful meal, bought beautiful flowers, set the table with a table cloth even!!, got a great CD of the ocean and he even remembered dessert... lovely chocolate cheesecake!! What a man!! He still melts my heart after 17 years!!

Pelican Point

This is the beach where we used to live... I miss it a great deal. come on spring!!

Yes I know I am cute!!