Today I miss my Mom

Tomorrow I turn 61.  No, I am not going through some mid life crisis.  61 is a good age.  I certainly don't act my age!!  But, today I miss my Mom.  She has been gone for 26 years and I still miss her terribly.  As my birthday approaches (and I am sure we all do this) - we remember birthdays of the past and how our Moms made them special.  My Mom would always get me a doll cake - you have probably seen the Barbie doll cakes they have in Krogers - these cakes were never that elaborate, but I was always so thrilled to get one.  My husband surprised me with a Barbie doll cake a couple of years ago - God Bless him!!  Made my day!!

But today I miss my Mom and wish she could be here to help me celebrate my 61st birthday.  I think she would be pleased how my life turned out.  You taught me well, Mom!  Job well done!

Time sure flies!!!

Has anyone looked at the calendar lately??  It is almost the end of June and that means the year is almost halfway over - WOW!!!  And next week is the 4th of July and you know what that means . . . on July 5 the Christmas decorations come up in the stores!! (LOL!!)  Probably not, but pretty soon I would think.  But, it does seem like the summer does go by pretty fast after the 4th.

And maybe it is me . . . but I have noticed the stores already have their "Back to School" stuff out already.  Isn't that a tad bit early??  Of course, I have been out of the "school thing" for 3 or 4 years, so this might be normal.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer (particularly after this last wnter!)

Baby Chicks

God is so amazing!  As I have written previously that we lost 10 chickens to raccoon or fox attacks which has really hurt my egg production.   I just don't have the money to buy more replacement chickens at this time.

I have had two hens that have been setting on a small nest of eggs for the last month or two.  Really didn't think much would come of it.  We do have a rooster so I thought there might be a slim chance that one or two of the eggs MIGHT actually hatch, but never had any success with that.  So I just left the two hens alone, figuring if it made them happy setting on the nest, so be it.

Well, lo and behold, two weeks ago what I did find??  A baby chick!!

A couple days later another baby chick followed and another and another and another . . . So in the last two weeks, we have had 11 baby chicks hatch - completely replacing the 10 that I lost.  Of course, I don't know if all these baby chicks are hens.  But, God is so absolutely amazing . . . He gave me my replacements free of charge - LOL!!

Protecting my animals

Sometimes you have to make hard choices on the farm.  But when it comes to protecting my goats and chickens, there is only one decision that needs to be made - protecting them at what ever it takes.

Over the last several weeks, we have lost 10 chickens to brutal attacks and it has not been pretty!   That loss represents 10 eggs that I won't be getting a day or 70 eggs a week or over 5  (almost 6) dozen eggs a week I have lost.  A lost that I could not afford.

So desperate times require desperate measures.  A trap was bought.  Let me state it here . . . I do love animals (well, I do HATE snakes - despise them!!!), but all other animals I love.  I do not try to intentionally harm them if I can.  I am devastated if I accidentally run over a squirrel on the road.  Yes, raccoons look OH  so cute.  BUT they will tear apart a live chicken in matter of minutes.  And, as I said above, it ain't purty!

Since we have put the trap out and "taken" care of 5 raccoons and 1 possum, I have not lost one chicken.  I have too much invested in these animals for them to be "food" for the local wild life.

Predators

Once again, we are a war with the "creatures of the woods" - foxes and raccoons.  So far, the score is fox or raccoon 8 chickens - farmer - 1 raccoon.  I can not afford to lose any more chickens.

Losing the 8 is costing me already when you figure those 8 laid 8 eggs a day - so 8 eggs a day times 7 days a week equals 56 eggs that I am now missing a week - over 4 1/2 dozen eggs that I have now lost.  At $4 a dozen, that is about $18 which is one bag of feed now gone because some stupid fox or raccoon got hungry.

If I were to buy baby chicks to replace those loss, it still won't help out my present day situation because it takes 5 to 6 months to get the baby chicks up to production.

So now we have traps set out.

Gardens

Gardens never cease to amaze me.  Just think about it for a minute . . . You plant a small seed into the soil and water it.  God sends the warm sun and sometimes the rain.  And within a week or two a little seedling appears.  Soon the seedling grows up to produce maybe a beautiful, maybe some type of vegetable or maybe some type of herb.  All from a little tiny seed - simply amazing, don't you think!

I love this time of year because I have been getting my hands dirty in my gardens - oh what fun!!  I have planted all sorts of vegetables, flowers and herbs.  And I know we are going to enjoy these through out the summer.

Update on Licensing Situation

Somehow through the Grace of God we were licensed to sell eggs in the State of Ohio.  We are still not allowed to use coolers (except for transporting the eggs to the market) BUT we must sell them out of a refrigerator once we get them to the market.  AND the refrigerator does not have to be commercial grade.  One small victory for the farmer!!  Once I get to the market, I am not allowed to physically touch the eggs (whatever!!).

At Findlay Market, they have electric outlets for the farmers to use.  At Hyde Park, this will be interesting as they do not want you to use generators.  But the coffee guy uses a generator (and the same generator as the one I have).  So I might have open Pandora's box on this one.

Why isn't life easy???