Sassy & Sweet Notes

Life's Busy!

Whoa, it's been a few days since my last post. Sorry for the lack of activity here this past weekend. We've been busy, busy, BUSY!

My parents arrived on June 15th, and we've been having a blast since they arrived. We've been to a Dexter cattle show, taken a few short road trips around the area, and had some of the best grilled dinners! We made a quick trip to Salado, Texas and checked out some of the local shops. There are fun galleries and antique shops there, and even a nice quilt shop, AND a rubber stamp store! What FUN!

White in Salado, we visited a privately owned gallery. The painting above is an image of the framed print Alan bought for me from B. Herd, one of the local painters in Salado. I love it! We enjoyed our visit of the B.Herd Gallery. Thank you, Alan!
Life on the farm continues to stay busy. All of the calves are doing well, and the baby chicks are all growing like weeds. One of our hens has been sitting on a handful of eggs all month and one of the eggs hatched on Saturday. A cute little black and white, itty bitty, Cochin chick. Just a CUTIE! The hen is still sitting on three other eggs, so maybe she'll hatch out a couple others.

Thanks to those of you who sent emails asking if things were ok. It seems a lack of blog activity makes people wonder. Yup, we're all doing well, and keeping busy! Thank you for the concern, and just for checking in. Stay tuned for a bit of creativity shortly ... I have something to post, but need to get a photo taken first.

Enjoy your day!

What? More Chicks?!

Yes, it's true! Another order of 25 baby chicks arrived this morning, bright and EARLY! I wasn't able to order any Guinneas on either of my last two chick orders due to availability, but was able to pre-order for the next hatch (which happened to be this week). So I pre-ordered 10 keets (baby Guineas), along with 10 Cuckoo Maran pullets and 5 Welsummer pullets from Ideal Poultry.

I would have just had the keets sent since we already received two orders of chicks this spring, but it's better for the babies to have more birds included in the shipment not only for warmth, but to keep them all from being too juggled around during shipment. And besides, what's a few (and then some) more chickens to feed?

In the photos, the Cuckoo Maran chicks are black with white bottoms and a bit of white on their wings and heads. When they grow up, they'll be black and white hens. The Welsummer chicks are the brown striped chicks, that have similar markings as chipmonks! They're so FLUFFY!! The white, mostly white, and little silver grey chicks are all various colors of Guineas.

What I love about the Cuckoo Maran and Welsummer hens is that they lay eggs that have a rich chocolate brown colored shell. In 6 or 7 months when these little hens start laying, their eggs will look so fun in our egg boxes!

Congratulations, Princess!

This morning when I went out to feed the goats, I noticed that Princess was laying in the shade of a tree near the barn and had VERY visible signs of being in delivery. I had time to run in and get my camera and by the time I made it back to the barnyard, there were already hooves showing! Moments later and one more push and Princess had delivered her baby!

We're a little bummed that once again, for the second year in a row Princess delivered a little bull calf. Last year she delivered Ribeye, our little polled bull (polled means he's naturally hornless). We were really hoping that she'd deliver a little heifer calf this year, and pass on her sweet disposition, beautiful face, and lack of horns to a GIRL. But, we can cross our fingers that all of those same traits have been passed on to this years calf, as they were to Ribeye last year.

We have decided to call this little fella Chuck, a nickname for Prince Charles. He is healthy, strong, and was standing and eating in less than 30 minutes. Welcome to the world, little Chuck!

Farm Update!

When I posted about my 2 year blogversary, I never expected to have such a fantastic and warm response to the farm updates. Thank you! I am SO glad you enjoy them. It really feels GREAT to know that not only do we love our wacky little farm, but you appreciate our efforts as well. Thank YOU!

With that in mind, yesterday evening I slipped out to the barnyard to see what I could see and I thought I'd give you an update on the goings-on out there!

Dixie Cup and Cleo are growing like weeds! Pictured above is Dixie Cup and here mama, Dixie. Cup is growing up to be a beautiful little heifer. Remember when she was born, she was as black as black can be? The sun has slowly bleached her dark black baby hair to be a beautiful reddish brown color. Her hair will be dark black again after she sheds out her baby summer hair. Too bad too, because both her and Cleo are as pretty as can be with their auburn colored coats.

Here's Dixie Cup again with an apparent itch on her hiney. I was surprised to see that her tongue is two very different colors on the top and bottom. Who knew!

She found a stick quite interesting and a little bit tasty.

What I find interesting about Dixie Cup is that while she refuses to let us touch her, she finds us completely fascinating. She watches our every move. She's gonna be a wild one for good, I think (just like her mother...).

This is one of my favorite photos from the evening. It started out as Cup (left) investigating some of the weeds in the pasture. It wasn't long before Cleo (right) decided to join her. Cup, who is two weeks older than Cleo, looks to be nearly twice the size of little Cleo. But both of them have the beautiful coloring from the sun, though both of them really are black cows.

Here's Cup again, checking out more weeds. Fascinating weeds...

Cleo must have decided that she was NOT going to cooperate for our little photo session. Here's the only other photo I was able to get of her. Her face is much more feminine than Cup's face. It will be fun to see how pretty she gets as she grows up. I'm hoping she grows up to have her mother's temperament as well.

As for the baby chickens, they're also growing like weeds! Here's one of the Red Frizzle babies, looking every so lovely in her frizzled out feather-do. Even the feathers on her head are frizzled! If you raise chickens, no matter how many, I highly recommend raising a few frizzles. They have so much personality and are so fun to watch! I could spend hours watching them run from one side of the chicken yard to the other - and back again. We purchased our Frizzle chicks as day-old chicks from Ideal Poultry. Very healthy birds, and though 25% of Frizzles won't actually have the flipped, frizzled feathers, 5 of the 6 chicks we received in our order do. The one chick that doesn't have the flipped, frizzled feathers, is still a beautiful chick with unbelievably soft feathers! I'll try and get a photo of her soon... she's a beauty!

Here's one of the Red Silkie chicks. This is the first time I've ever raised Silkies, and they are a bundle of energy! I love how it looks like she's wearing fluffy white slippers on her feet!  In this photo you can see that the skin of Silkie chickens is dark, not white or yellow like most chickens. You can also see in this photo that Silkie chickens have two toes that point backwards, in addition to the three toes that point forward. Other chickens have three toes that point forward, and only one toe that points backwards. How's that for some chicken trivia!

Princess (our fourth Dexter cow expecting a calf this year) is starting to look like she's contemplating having her baby soon. Her baby will for sure be black, but we're hoping that she has a little heifer this year. Last year, she delivered Ribeye, our little (and I'm not joking when I say LITTLE) polled bull (polled means he is naturally horn-less). We're keeping Ribeye for breeding (being polled is a GOOD thing!), as he's quite a charming little fella to have around. Princess is our prettiest cow, and we'd like to see her good looks passed on to a little heifer. Here's hoping!

Life on the farm... good, clean (?) fun.

Happy Friday!

Introducing Pixie Dust!

This little baby is just a cutie! Yes, I know... I say that every time we have a new baby born on the farm, but REALLY! They are!!

This is the first brown calf that's been born on the farm. We have two brown cows (Dixie and Pixie), but Dixie's babies have all been black. We also have little Lucy who's red, but she's young and hasn't had any babies yet.

On Friday's blog post about moving Pixie into the barnyard, Janet Sisk mentioned the name Pixie Dust in a comment. We LOVE it! So, we've decided to go with it! Thanks for the suggestion, Janet!

It's HOT and HUMID here today - so much so that the lens on my camera fogged over within moments of stepping outside. Ugh!

In other news:
After taking photos of Pixie Dust, Alan and I went to feed some of the chickens. I handed my camera to Alan and stepped inside the door of the chicken yard. I'm not sure I even had both feet through the door when HOLY BISCUITS! I threw the chicken food (and scoop) across the yard when a wasp stung me on the NECK!! And let me just say, wasp stings on the neck HURT and cause me to scream and squeal and really carry on! A quick lather of baking soda, a tissue and several hugs to dry my tears, a Benedryl, and I'm good to go. Almost. More tears might be in order for this one. OUCH! Stupid wasp! I suppose I should go back out and check on the chickens...

Congratulations, Pixie!

June 8, 11:45pm:
I was just about to fall asleep on the couch watching Ice Road Truckers when Alan decided to go check on the critters outside before we turned in for the night. After being outside for only a couple of minutes, he came back inside and said that it looked like Pixie was having her baby! YAY! I slipped on some shoes, grabbed the flashlight, and out we went.

Sure enough! She was in labor and was very close to delivery. The moon wasn't very big tonight, so it was dark dark DARK in the barnyard where Pixie was. We didn't want to disturb her too much with our bright flashlights, so we just checked her every now and then when it looked like she might be progressing. I was able to get a couple of photos, but since it was so dark they're not "spectacular" photos. But they captured the moment as we watched it.

June 9, 12:01am:
Pixie delivered what looks like a little brown heifer! YAY Pixie!! This little calf is the TINIEST calf we've had born on the farm! I can't wait for morning when the sun's up and I can take better photos! Oh, this is just so EXCITING!! 

The excitement's not over yet either! We're also waiting for Princess to have her baby, too! The fun never seems to end here on the farm! (Of course, neither does the work...*grin*)

Soon to be a Mama!

(Photo taken in late April)
It looks like one of our Dexter cows, Pixie, will be having her baby fairly soon! We've been keeping a close eye on her for the past few days as we've noticed some early signs of calving. Today, she's showing signs of being fairly close so we've moved her into the barnyard away from all the other cows so she has her own space and we can keep a good watch on her. She's 5 years old and has delivered calves in previous years, but this is her first year on our farm and our first time seeing her calve. Since we're not sure of her delivery habits yet, it's even more reason to keep her a bit secluded away from the rest of the herd.

Like the previous deliveries on the farm this year, we're hoping for a little heifer! If we MUST have a little bull calf, something OTHER than black would be nice. We've got two black bulls already...we really don't need another. Cross your fingers and toes in hopes that Pixie delivers a little heifer! We might just have to name the baby Pixie Stix!

Egg Box Gift Tag

Living on a small farm and raising chickens, it's not uncommon to have a few dozen eggs stacked up in the fridge. On more than one occasion, I've even given some of our fresh eggs as little "thank you" gifts to local friends and neighbors.

I thought it would be nice to dress up a carton with a gift tag. I used an image from the recently released Homemade Images & Journal Notes booklet from Crafty Secrets.

I stitched around the edges, and stamped a flourish from one of the Clear Art Stamps (also from Crafty Secrets) onto the base of the tag. I added some hemp twine and coordinating buttons for embellishment.

The carton is one of the new paper pulp recyclable egg cartons we use when we sell eggs. It's filled with big brown farm fresh eggs!

Zippidydoodah!

This is Zippidydoodah, one of the smallest chicks from our McMurray Hatchery chick order. I felt this little one deserved it's time in the blog spotlight. This little chick is sooooo stinkin' CUTE with it's LONG feet feathers (see them sticking way out to the side!) and black and copper colored feathers. In this photo, she (hopefully!) is sitting on Alan's finger. Big time cute factor! This is a Mille Fleur chick, who will grow up to be either an itty bitty bantam sized hen, or itty bitty bantam sized rooster.

Selling Eggs...

Every now and then I sell eggs to local folks. Usually people are happy to give us a few empty egg cartons when they buy the eggs from us, but we don't always have enough cartons on hand for the number of eggs I collect from the lady chickens. I want people to know where they're getting their eggs, and that gets lost when store-bought egg containers are used.
So...... I placed an order for new paper pulp (100% recyclable) egg cartons to use with future egg sales. Because I feel that every egg carton should be properly "embellished", I designed and ordered printed labels for the cartons as well. The labels are similar to business cards that I will adhere to the top of each carton. I think the new cartons will be a hit with our customers! I already think they're just peachy!!

Hopefully, the chickens will start earning at least their feed, eh?

In the photo of the eggs above, there are brown shelled eggs which could have been laid by any number of our hens. The Turken hens lay nice brown eggs, our Cochin hens lay nice brown eggs, and we have some "mixed breed" hens that lay brown eggs as well. There are a couple of small white eggs in the bowl. Those were laid by Peeper, a small golden colored Bantam hen. They're the smallest eggs we get here on the farm. There are also a few green shelled eggs in the bowl! These were laid by the same kind of Bantam hen as Little Brown Hen. Later this fall I'll also have eggs from Cuckoo Maran and Welsummer hens (the day-old chicks will be here June 19th!!). Their egg's shells are a rich, chocolate colored brown. Should be fun!