No more chickens on our Chicken Farm....

I guess since I wrote in here, all the chickens have been stolen by our predator. We now think it is a bobcat that has taken them. So we w ill spend the rest of the winter finishing the chicken coop, and making the chicken yard very secure. We will then buy baby chicks next spring and start all over again. Matthew and Joshua started to finish the back yard fence, but they got distracted, and we will keep on working on it. The dogs are looking great now! I am glad we started feeding them Purina Healthy choice, and that is the best formula for Lily. She is looking so pretty now. Boomer eats a lot more than Chowderhead did though... probably cause he is younger and has more energy. Joshua and Terry are cutting up Joshua's deer today, and then we are going to eat lunch at Kristi and Joshua's before Terry has to head back to KC. We got our church directory picture done yesterday afternoon, and so this week Terry really did not have any time to work on the property. Some weeks (most) go like that around here anymore...

I need a man to finish my coop and help me fence my chicken yard....

IT is a shame, but predators (or a predator has almost totally depleted the chicken population on our property. I fear Nicole will have no hens or roosters to take home to Nebraska with her. My barred rock disappeared yesterday ( or night before last) she was a nice bird. Micah thinks maybe it is a raccoon getting them (I think that is what he said.)

The Chickens lived through the night...

I got up bright and early, and the chickens all survived the night! The ones in the coop seemed happy and still glad to stay inside the coop. I hope the other three get used to going in there too. Terry suggested I pen the two little ones in their little coop tonight if they do not go into the big coop,give them plenty of feed and water, and try to gentle them down over the next week or so. Hopefully the big hens will go back into the coop tonight on their own, and if they do, maybe Mr RIR and the little ones will go in too.

More Chicken stuff.

Well, I had hoped I could herd all the chickens into the coop for the night. They used to roost in there every night, but after the dog terrorized them, they have been afraid to go in there. Finally yesterday two of the big hens went in, and so I thought we might be getting closer to getting them all in, if one goes maybe the rest will follow... SO I went out with two folded cardboard boxes, hoping I could herd them all in. Well all the big hens, and the littlest rooster went in after about three tries, but the little banty hen flew over the fence off into the forest, and I could not get the big and middle roosters in no matter what I tried. The big one is the one that has no tail feathers left. He has been a rather changed personality bird since the dog got hold of his feathers and left him naked. He used to be a very friendly bird. I finally decided to drop the door on the ones that are inside, and let them get nice and warm and toasty, and hopefully maybe when Mr Big guy gets back up on his perch for the night I can actually grab him and toss him in the coop where he will not freeze to death. The smaller ones roost together; the hen and middle rooster; so hopefully they will not freeze. I think I might just lock them in their little coop tonight and pray for them to keep each other warm since both are so wild. I guess that is the biggest problem with letting your chickens run loose, they never learn to love humans. That poor little hen was terrified when I tried to herd her into the bigger coop. I partiularly want them to stay alive until Nicole can get them and take them home with her. But if they refuse to roost in the big coop, I do not see how they will survive this cold weather. I just wish they had brians... LOL

Pray for a President Who Takes God’s Perspective on Justice and Righteousness

Presidential Prayer Team
For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
--Isaiah 61:8
Pray for a President Who Takes God’s Perspective on Justice and Righteousness

Holy Lord God, Your judgments are perfect and all Your ways are true. You love justice and You exercise mercy, even when we do not deserve them. You made provision to cleanse our world from sin, and You desire that we are holy and pure in You.

As I pray for this year’s elections, I pray that You will give us a president who will take Your view of justice and will act justly, implementing justice in ways that please and honor You. Lord, I pray that the injustices inherent in our government will be righted in Your time and in Your will. In Jesus' righteous name, Amen.

Chicken Stuff...

Terry spent a good portion of the time he had off working on trying to keep our chickens (the ones that are left) safer. He put a door on the coop Micah made, and a little entry way for the chickens. He put up a good gate so I can easily get into the yard. He put a heat lamp in the coop, and made the yard a bit bigger. Meanwhile he also, with Joshua's help, welded the A frame for the big coop. It is 12 by 8 at the bottom. Hopefully there will be enough in the bank next pay to get the siding for it, and a window. We will then finish the back yard fence for the dogs, and turn the now dog yard into the chicken yard where they will be very very safe.

A dog came into our place in the middle of the night. We heard the dogs barking but alas did not bother to get up and find out why. WE sure should have! The dog killed all but two of our small breed chickens, and ran all the rest off. They finally came back in the afternoon of the next day. The dog's paw prints are all over in the back yard. It looks like he jumped up on our front screen door, and also the basement door has a paw print on it. So he is a problem. I will go lock the chickens up for the night in a few minutes...

Once the hens and roosters are safe and secure, we will start on the sheep shed. I have the blue print drawn, and look forward to getting it done before spring, so Isaac can get his lambs when they come available in the spring. Hopefully I can get some of my Babydoll Southdowns at that time too. I think I will get Asher and Levi each a little Dorsett ewe too. I am not sure yet. The baby dolls would be for Noah, Isaiah, Caedmon and Micaiah.

If only I had a camera to take pictures for you all to see how things are progressing!

I am almost done moving into the house. I still need to get my dining room table out of storage, and still need to redo a few things, but it is getting closer.

Plans for inside the house... and out..

OK I cheated (for those who follow all my blogs, and did the same post here as I did on Home on the Farm... Just in case some of you read one and not the other) and I am adding on this one a little about my buffet.
Some of my dining room furniture is antique stuff. It is almost all oak. And I am asking my son Mark to make a topper for my buffet and do it as close to original, yet functional for me as we can go. The original topper had a beveled mirror in the center, and was pretty tall if I remember. But other than that, I just don't know. Probably the parts are still up in the old barn...

We have some major change plans as well as some not so major change plans for inside the house.
We are going to start in the master bedroom.When we are finished, it is our desire to have the entire house look like a turn of the century (1899-1900) style house. So we are going to replace the windows in the master bed and bath with that style of windows, remove the seam caps and fill in the seams in the walls, then we will be doing trim around doors, windows and ceiling and floors. This week I am going to go get estimates on the supplies. We have to turn two doors around so they swing out of the room instead of into it. I want to do hard wood, but that is not in the plans for about two years. So we will just keep the carpet in the bedroom, and do something else in the bathroom.

Out doors, we are going to use the trailer parts from the trailers that the double wide arrived here on to build the chicken coop.It will be an A frame, using three trailer tongues for the frame work. We have to get it built really soon, and that is going to take some welding, cement pouring, and then walls, (or are they roofs?) and hopefully we can get it finished before the snow starts to fly around here. . We got the cement mixer from John when we picked up Boomer's dog house., So other than getting the PVC pipe for the drain in the floor, and the cement and gravel, we are ready to go with this project. Hopefully I can get my diggi cam before we get started, so we can do pictures of it as we go.

I am getting 4 eggs a day, two brown and 2 green. SO I think I will make a quiche for Kristi and William today