Down Home in June

The world is lush and green
from all of the rain. Enjoy it now..
in August the yard is usually brown and crispy.
Above you will see a tiny segment of
the Barn.
I love our barn... today.
Some days I hate our barn
10,000 square feet of barn is a lot of barn.
Yep.. I said it.. 10,000 square feet.
250 ft long by almost 50 ft wide.
Wow. I still can't believe it.


My Great Grandfather's bee balm is starting to get
it's bloom on. I wish the computer came with
a smell function so that you all could experience
the musky, heady and deep fragrance.
It is wonderful.


And critters!!!
The ducks are getting huge
and so are the turkeys.
They move together in a strange flock
along with a varied group of chicks.
Oh, speaking of which I have to run out and herd
them inside. They stay out too late now that the days
are so very hot and the evenings are pleasant.
They wait until the shed is too dark and they are scared to go in...
silly fowl. Be right back....
It is so annoying to have to hunt the little clumps of
birds that are snuggled down in various parts
of the yard and herd them all into the potting shed.
And it is not like they huddle next to stuff.
They just pick a spot in the lawn and lie down
all together. I hope I got them all....
Sometime in the next few days we are doing
the Big Summer Chicken Shift.
We will suspend our breeding program,
put all of the hens together and pull out the roos.
That way all the girls can be out all of the time.
We will also separate all of the wee ones into
'sell and keep' pens.
The turkeys will all go together and the ducks
will go somewhere....
I bought the Premier One poultry netting stuff..
what crap.
It bags and sags and won't even stop a duck.
Forget about it stopping a dog or anything else.
I am sorely disappointed and out a lot of money too.
I will try to find a way to make it functional
since I own it now. But, I do not reccomend the stuff.

Though I have got to say

I love having the ducks and turkeys roaming around.

They are not destructive like chickens

and they are pretty to look at and eat a ton of bugs!

Those turkeys just snap flies right out of the air and

strip bugs right off of blades of grass. It is awesome.

And no scratching or digging.

I jokingly speak of getting rid of all of my chickens

and just going for turkeys and ducks.

I do believe that we will sell down the chickens a bit and we will definitely increase our

turkey and duck population, but I can't totally get rid of all chickens.

However, I did get rid of a bunch last week.

I butchered a group and sold several groups. Cool.

Birds off the payroll (feedroll, really)

Aaah. Turkeys. What's not to love?

And the lambs are still in the barn.
But, we are getting closer to pasture day.
As it stands I hand cut pasture and bring it to them twice a day.
They are not as skittish and I can touch them.
They have FINALLY agreed to eat some grain
and act excited about it. I practice getting them to follow me
and the grain tub.
I am so terrified of herding them out of the big, long barn
and having them bolt right through/over the electric fence
and just be gone forever. That would suck. Hard.
So, I keep working them and waiting for the great day.
I like the lambs though and get satisfaction at how far they have come.
They almost like being touched now and will lean into the skritches.