Just another day ...

I threw out two incubating eggs after candling them again last night (two weeks in, one week left before hatching!), and, I am pleased to report that neither was developing at all.  Well, I am not pleased that they were not developing, but I AM pleased that I correctly identified them as plain old eggs and did not disrupt the development of two baby chicks.  So, I now have sixteen eggs in the incubator.  Our hatch rate isn't very good, we may have to invest in a better (read, "more expensive") incubator.  Cross your fingers for these sixteen!!

It has been SO humid here all summer.  I have been picking blackberries, trying to get enough to have blackberry wine made for B (I, personally, am not a wine drinker), and my process has been as follows:  don jeans and long-sleeve shirt; wear visor; remove glasses (they fog up); spray pants, shirt, visor with mosquito spray; grab bucket and go to patch; pick berries until cannot take sweat dripping down face anymore AND/OR cannot take constant buzz of gnats and mosquitoes and other flying insects; come back to house; strip off hot, sticky, mosquito-spray smelling clothes; take cool shower and drink lots of water!  After three days, I collected two full buckets of berries.  (It is the end of the season; early on, I was able to pick a full bucket in less than an hour, but now I have to search a little harder.)  I delivered the berries to the wine-maker today; I hope B appreciates the wine!

Especially since he moved the steers into the far pasture, and so now, to feed them (which must be done daily), I have to haul two big buckets of grain from the barn out to the road and up the road to the pasture.  I have been just dumping the feed over the fence from the road, but I realize this is probably not a good idea.  In their constant quest for food, they might start nosing around this fence and knock it over, giving them full access to ... many, many acres of food, including our pumpkin patch and the neighbor's corn!

Last weekend B bought more pheasants (after the untimely demise of the chicks I hatched out).  Their pen is in the same pasture as the steers - we are hoping the steers will have a "keep-away" effect on any weasels/minks that might still be in the area.  Anyway, since I need to check on their food/water supply today, I will have to find a way in.  Some fences have gates that I can open, and some ... do not.  I have a feeling that this is going to be a two-shower day!

Weasels attack ...

Very, very sad day. Two days ago we had over forty pheasants in the coop, and today we have none. NONE. We have always had raccoon problems on this farm; the chickens will be merrily rambling about and then one day I will notice a pile of feathers and the next day another pile of feathers, so B sets traps, catches the 'coon, and the chickens are safe for another bit of time.

But, weasels??? Evidently weasels are great to have around, they eat rats and mice and other annoying things. Until the rats and mice are all gone; then they will raid poultry barns. And kill everything off in one night.

So, the good news is we have no more rats or mice. The bad news is we have no more pheasants.