Chicken Math...But Not The Fun Kind

It's been a rough couple of days on the farm.  While the temps were brutally cold and the ground was snow covered I started leaving the walk through door open on the chicken coop during the day so the chickens could hang out in the hay shed next to their coop and not just be stuck in the coop all day.

As the days started getting longer (because this has stretched on for weeks) they weren't always ready to go back in at the normal feeding time, but I didn't worry.  I just left the door open for them and closed it when I came back up for the night check.  

Sunday night, before I came back up, a team of possums walked right in and ransacked the coop.  Tim heard the ruckus when he opened the kitchen door to see if Possum (the cat) was ready to come in and we rushed up to save what we could.  If he hadn't opened the door, we'd have lost every one I'm sure.

Clarice and Goldilocks are dead, The Bald Eagle and Air Fryer are missing chunks of feathers and everyone is terribly traumatized.  Air Fryer hid outside Sunday night and I found her Monday morning, cold and shaken, but still alive.  Pecky Becky made it to the house somehow and I found her under the porch in the afternoon.  Smart, brave birds...and lucky.

I kept them locked in all day on Monday and did what I could to assess injuries and provide supportive care.  As night fell they were all panicked trying to figure out where to safely sleep.  Air Fryer tried repeatedly to crawl under the wing one of the other hens.  As they all grew up in a hatchery and not with a mother hen I thought this instinct was interesting...and sad that she was so scared.

On Tuesday I opened just the chicken door so they could venture out to the front field and horse stalls during the day if they wanted.  No one wanted to and I didn't blame them.  They were really rattled.  I kept checking in to make sure nothing was bothering them and to let whoever might want to bother them know I was around and finally, by late afternoon, they tentatively stepped out.  

I stayed out with them and then herded them back in before evening chores.  This morning they are still hiding in the coop, but I'm hoping they'll start to feel more comfortable soon.  I feel awful that I let this happen to them.

My gang of remaining tough girls last night.  Clarice was always the bravest of all and I wonder if she got caught because she was trying to defend the rest.  Goldilocks is an extra sad loss because she was one of the "sister chickens" and I know The Bald Eagle is missing her.  Don't ever think chickens don't have feelings and aren't family.

We were able to trap and relocate two possums Sunday night.  Another was dispatched the next afternoon and I trapped another one just before the night check last night.  I set the game camera back up and did not have another sighting the rest of the night.  I'll keep the trap and camera up for a few more nights just to make sure.

I like this picture of me and Bea heading over to pull the memory card out of the trail camera this morning.  Bea is always by my side.  And if she wants to catch a possum from now on, I might not try to stop her.  

Wolf Moon

Yesterday was depressing with all the slushy melting snow that I knew was just going to melt enough to turn to very slick ice as the temps dropped back down last night, but we've had a nice inch or so of fresh snow this morning that has brightened things up a bit and provided just enough traction that I can once again walk to and from the barn without as much trouble so I can revisit this picture from the other night and turn it into a fun new puzzle.

I've enjoyed the snow.  Even yesterday was a bit fun driving out on a errand.  I know the animals are really struggling and that's depressing.  The horses were finally able to go out into the field yesterday and that surely cheered them up and the chickens made it around the corner and were able to hang out with the sheep in the afternoon.  Everyone is tired of being cooped up.

The tracks in the snow in the picture are where Lancelot did make an effort to go dig through to find some grass last week.  That's how you could tell the Krista was the sheep who'd been eating grass in the last post.  If you look closely you can see the snow on her forehead where she'd dug through and buried her nose deep into the snow.  Ellie's just been hanging out in the barn eating hay ;-).

The Breakfast Bar

One thing you can never say about Maisie is that she's a chicken...unless there is chicken scratch grain on the ground and then she is totally a chicken ;-).  Makes for a good new puzzle.

All Treats This Year...Big Treats

We were trying to work around some (too minor) rain showers so I didn't get the pictures I'd hoped for, but Maisie's costume this year was one of our best.  Odd sort of noteworthy fact, this is the first costume we didn't assemble with hot glue.  We upgraded to duct tape ;-D.

Clarice Cluck, running off with one of Maisie's cookies, is maybe my favorite part of this picture.

Hopefully you can biggify to see her "expiration date".

This would actually be a nice picture if the gate wasn't in the way.  I need to remember this lighting option.

Any other time a sheep wearing a costume tried to walk into a barn full of sheep, there'd have been a stampede to get away.  

Apparently they can either read or have a strong association with the color yellow ;-D.

Happy Halloween!  Nilla Wafers for all :-D.

The Woodworking Olympics

Here's the plan.  

Decide to get a rabbit.  

Do a bunch of research on how to house and care for said rabbit.  

Build a temporary house for the rabbit on top of the drying tables in the Wool House because you assume it will take a couple of weeks to get comfortable with each other and it might go quicker if you are on eye level.

Adopt a super sweet bunny from the Lexington Humane Society and realize it won't take much time at all for everyone to settle in, but that's okay, it's fun to have him up high every time you walk in the door.

For exercise and socialization, you install a fence around the lower half of the Wool House porch so the super sweet bunny can go out in the mornings while it's cool and run around while you do a little work and drink coffee.

The sides with the wide railing are fairly cat proof, but the front is completely calling "Hey, kitty kitty" and while Possum won't try to breach it while I'm sitting there, Archie is pretty much "Here, hold my beer."

The bigger issue is what happens if you need to pee.  Figuring it would be easier to screen the porch in than build a bathroom on it we decide to build the screens.  We maybe should have rethought the plumbing idea. 

Mixed in with all the porch work was a water leak in and then under the sink in the washroom which was an olympics all it's own, but no one really wants to think about plumbing problems, even if it's on someone else's blog.

Insert (only a small amount of) blood, (lots and lots of) sweat, (only thoughts of crying, surprisingly) tears and (a few) bruises...

Well, the chickens might have done some crying.  Added benefit of screening in the porch is the lack of chicken traffic up there.  We should have screened it in years ago.

That far end is higher up than you'd guess :-o.

This is a work in progress picture before the door frame was finished, but I love Pinot hopping around enjoying his safety porch :-).  The newly added roll down blinds made a huge difference in temperature on the porch and I have no idea why I never thought to add them before.  Slow learner...

Once the porch was finished we moved onto Pinot's permanent house.  I thought I could do most of this by myself and I probably could have, but it quickly became apparent it would be much easier if I had help.  Poor Saint Tim...

The move from the fun upper level to the almost as fun middle shelf is so Pinot can come out and run around the wash room if he wants. I also was using the middle shelf mostly for storage, but used the top shelf for almost everything including, but not limited to, drying wool.

I did build Pinot's ramp by myself.  Not a hard job, but I'm sharing it because I salvaged a scrap of carpet from the garage to give him traction.  Not just any carpet, but old wool carpet from our house.  It had been living in the garage under mowers and weedeaters and muddy feet and...chicken parties.

I scrubbed it with Dawn and some carpet cleaner and while it's not spotless, it did clean up better than a piece of synthetic carpet would have, especially as many years old as it is.  I loved having that wool carpet in the house years ago and I'm happy to see it still working hard in the Wool House now.

While the tools were still out I finally built a better sun filter for the night blooming cereus.  I have the best luck getting it to bloom by putting it in the bright sun, but it always sunburns so badly that I feel awful for it.  I decided to try a filtering the sun this year and some of the contraptions I'd set up were pretty hillbilly.  This is much better.  I hope it helps.

And thus extinguishes the flame for the Woodworking Olympics...I hope.

March

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September

Lots of cats, sheep, horses and of course, Bea.  And some wool, a few chickens, some wildflowers, a big fish, a cool spider and some sparkly stars.

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On A Wool Farm

Storing wool, raw or finished items, is an ongoing job that should never be taken lightly.  Well, it should be taken lightly...but I'll come back to that and add a few more wool storage tips in a minute.  

Most people storing wool are concerned about moths.  Opening a bag of wool to find a clump of moths inside is a terrible feeling.  As I finished skirting (finally) this spring's fleeces and started sorting through the saved fleeces from past years, I found...chicken eggs :-o.

Broken chicken eggs.

In three bags...including my last Petunia fleece.

Next pandemic I'm just going to starve to death. 

As I was picking out chunks of egg mess I came up with a better plan to keep the chickens from having access to their favorite nesting [bags].  The previous plan of a horribly annoying and apparently not effective piece of cattle panel precariously hooked across the front of the area was just as annoying as the stupid chickens.  

Luckily my friend Ed was bored enough to come out here and make the plan work.  He built a frame around the back of the left side and covered it with wire and plastic netting.  The fronts are easily removed to access the wool. The whole thing looks so neat and tidy and now I feel confident it will stay neat and tidy...and egg free.  

Side note: when I posted this picture on IG, several people commented that it looked like the fleeces were in jail.  Three people in our neighborhood have seen it and all three said it looked like either a liquor store in downtown Chicago or when they used to block off the beer aisle at the grocery on Sundays.  I'm not sure what that says about us...well, I guess I do ;-).

Moving on to the Wool House.  Twice a year I pull everything out and check each bag and basket for any sign of trouble.  This year I found lots of tiny holes in quite a few of the roving bags up in the loft.  

Nothing amiss with the wool...just tiny holes everywhere.

What on earth...

ARCHIE!!!

I'm not going to add plastic netting to the inside of the Wool House and if I try to limit his access to the ladder he'll just try to do something heroic like jump up there from the loom and then rack up a vet bill to add insult to injury so I'm going to just keep adding tape to cover his needle sharp claw holes.

Don't even think about it, Pecky Becky!

* * * * *

Here are some wool storage tips that have worked well for me.  This is going to be heavy on the plastic, sadly, but this is one application where I just hold my nose...

Keep everything in clear bags.  Moths are looking for dark so a black plastic bag is exactly where they are hoping you'll stash your stash.

Keep your fleeces where the light hits them. Don't store wool in your dark garage or basement.

Do not store raw wool in the house.  Get it washed as quickly as you can.  

If you aren't actively using a wool item (sweaters, coats, blankets, yarn, roving...) keep it secure in a clear plastic bag and give everything a quick check a couple times a year.

I add bay leaves to all my yarn and roving baskets.  I may not be actively using the baskets of handspun yarn or roving I have stashed around the Wool House, but I love seeing them sitting there.  Scattering bay leaves into the baskets seems to be helping keep them safe.  Definitely doesn't hurt.  

I use clear plastic tubs to store my sweaters.  I have concerns about the holes where the handles clip the lids on so I toss bay leaves in there as well.

Moths don't like to be disturbed...so disturb things as often as you can.  More knitting, weaving, spinning!  

When I'm doing my spring and fall 'clean up and check everything', I take my open yarn baskets outside in the sun and shake each skein out, turn the baskets upside down and refresh the bay leaves.  You can get bulk bay leaves at a good grocery or find a friend in California with them growing in their front yard ;-).

Another way I shake things up is by tossing finished items (sweaters, blankets...) in the dryer a couple of times a year, especially in the summer.  The tumbling and heat has never affected the fit of anything.  Don't do that with wet wool items though as, yes, they would shrink right up.  

Be vigilant!  Keep an eye on everything and if you find a problem, remove the item immediately and check everything else nearby.  You don't need to throw out your yarn, roving, sweater...  Just get it away from your stash and out into the sun and shake it out.  Washing it is never a bad idea either.  

I don't like using chemicals and would only use them if there was a crisis situation.  There is an aerosol dairy spray you can get at the farm store that you can spray into a plastic bag and immediately close up and hopefully not much gets out into the air.

Don't be so hard on those hard working spiders in your corners.  They may be helping keep your wool safe :-).

Blondie

I don't know how old she was.  She'd been here for probably at least ten years and she was already full grown when she arrived.  Full grown, but incredibly small...about half the size of the Crowing Hen...who isn't big either.  I never figured out what breed(s) she was. 

She was terribly scared any time I picked her up and just shook like a leaf, but she always knew I was helping and bravely let me gather her up every night. She'd been sleeping in the Wool House every night for the past couple of months.  I didn't mind it at all. 

As The Way Most Things End...

A couple of weeks ago I had a decent sized pumpkin starting to grow from one of the Big Moose pumpkins.  Most of the rest of the plants have died off.  While I had my hands full hauling out some potentially diseased vines I left the gate unlatched...got sidetracked...sheep got in...pumpkin got eaten.  

That one was completely on me.

I've pretty much given up on the Great Pumpkin making a showing here.  I'd add "this fall" to that sentence, but at this point I don't think I'll ever give pumpkins another try.  How I could have so much fun last year and so little fun this year...  

I just started to have one more potential pumpkin making an effort to save the day.  This is one of the extension office plants.  As I was checking on it this afternoon I saw a little blemish...looked closer...a stupid chicken had pecked it!  

My last grasp at success...pecked. by. a. chicken.

My first thought was "Well, that's going to be a goner now.  Those little holes will let bacteria in and that will be the end."  

I decided it couldn't hurt to try to cover the hole.  I was thinking masking tape would be the least destructive...but my masking tape has apparently run off with my half empty glass.  The only tape I could find was some vintage sheep duct tape from Auntie Reg.

Maybe the sheep will end up saving the day!

My Favorite Tree...Of The Week...Or All Time

The Crowing Hen and her tiny friend Blondie have been here for almost ten years.  There were originally two tiny hens and the two tinies hung out together and the Crowing Hen, now affectionately called "Yaya" because that's what the bantams sound like when they're talking to me bossing me around, was brave enough to mingle with the big hens.

The two tinies slept each night side by side on one of the beams just over the cart stall in the barn.  Yaya chose the Sheep Chicken's perch in the outside stall.  The big hens are locked securely in the coop.  I've always wished all the chickens would sleep in there, but the bantams have never wanted to do that.

Something happened one night and the two tiny hens moved from their normal perch to way up into the rafters for a few months.  They eventually moved back down and then the silver hen started having trouble getting up into the lower perch.  She let me help her for awhile and then one morning a year or so ago I found her dead.

Blondie continued to sleep over the cart stall for quite a few months and then one night she wasn't there.  I eventually found her sleeping in the rafters over the Easy Breezy stall.  I'm not sure what scared her over there, but she seemed okay with that spot and that's where she's slept for many months.

A month or so ago I found the Crowing Hen with a bare spot on her neck (!).  I'm not sure what happened, but I feel like something had tried to grab her, luckily unsuccessfully.  Because I knew that a. she was pretty comfortable with the big chicken and b. she was in a location I could easily get to, I started picking her up and locking her in the main coop at night.  She still makes me move her each night, but at least she's basically okay with it.

One night last week Blondie moved back over the cart.  There is a nest of fledging barn swallows near where she had been sleeping and I wondered if they'd told her to get lost.  The next night I found her in the tack room.  I made her a perch in there and hoped she'd move in there at night, but the following night I couldn't find her anywhere.

She did show up the next morning (whew!), but that night I again couldn't find her.  That went on for several days.  I tried to be as stealth as I could, watching her every move, trying to clue in to where she was going, but she kept eluding me.  The fifth morning she showed up looking very tired and cold. I really needed to get this figured out.

Tuesday night she walked into the Wool House and looked around, eyeing the loft.  I love this little chicken...but not that much ;-).  I'd seen her poking around a little with the big chickens recently, I think trying to talk herself into moving in to their secure coop, so I tried to stick her in their with them, but she was too scared.  I set up a small cage in the wash room like she'd slept in during the Polar Vortex and she settled right in.

Last night I propped the door open and hoped she'd go in there on her own.  As I walked back up to the barn after dinner I found her heading across the yard.  I stood there quietly, watching, thinking at least now I was going to find out where she'd been sleeping every night.  She headed for the big pine tree and just as she was going to make her big leap, I scooped her up.  

My first thought was how scared she must have been to move out of her long time barn home into the "wilds" and how scared she must have been out there huddled in a tree all night.  No wonder she looked exhausted.  

Then I thought about finding blind Rocky out there after the night he wandered out of the barn and got lost.  And Salt always sleeping under that tree and Ewenice and Renny and Kate and Tilly and sitting out there with bottle lamb after bottle lamb and who knows who else has sought shelter in and under that kind tree.

It's had a rough life.  The top has been ripped out of it time and again by wind and ice and lightning.  Because it's lost it's ability to grow up, it's grown out.  Way too far out.  We've tried pruning it back a few times, but I know it's days are numbered.  It maybe does as well because it's setting a bunch of pine cones this summer.  

I'm hoping I can harvest some seeds from these cones...but I mostly hope I don't need a replacement for a very long time.

The Jared Sweater

If you disregard the fact that I started this very simple raglan sleeve sweater with basically only one technical element all the way back in September, it appears as if I've been very productive lately.  Alas...

I really don't know what to say about why it took so long to get this one right.  It truly should not have been a difficult journey.  I wanted a bulky sweater that looked like bulky Jared, knit from a big squishy yarn spun to resemble big squishy Jared.  Both the heavier weight yarn and the basic design should have equaled a fairly quick knit.

I picked the pattern mostly because I liked the zipper, hence the name Zipper Sweater.  The folded over collar was also interesting and although I didn't know it at the time, the Italian bind off around the cuffs and the bottom has become a new favorite.

I know I posted several IG updates as I knit (and unknit and knit and unknit...), but I just don't have it in me to scroll back through nearly five months of posts to pick them out.  I will share two near the end though.  One because it shows said zipper (with, of course, a mistake I needed to take out and reknit) and the other because of the option to make whatever size yarn you want/need if you spin it yourself.

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The zipper is sewn in by hand.  I'm not a great hand stitcher, but I felt that would give me the best control over exact placement and also between the very close color match of the thread to the yarn and the texture of the yarn, it would be hard for anyone to even see any of the wonky stitches.

I used double sided basting tape instead of straight pins or sewn basting stitches and that was very helpful.  I was a little intimidated at the start of the zipper installation, but would now willingly do a zipper again.  

I was hoping to recreate my Ravatar artwork, but they were both too focused on the cookies to settle down and pose exactly the same.  Still, I love them standing side by side.  Such good buddies.  Both are 13 this spring and I'm glad Tim got this picture.

This is the best view of sweater.

And here I just look like a crazy old woman who never combs her hair, but I love Jared looking at me...or probably just smelling my mouth to see if I have cookie breath.

Major Sled Repair

Saturday started off cold, but turned nice by the afternoon.  I love sitting and knitting in the sun on cold days and my favorite spot is still the old Grahaminator.  20 decided to join me,  Archie jumped up and climbed into my knitting bag and then Zelda walked up the ramp.  Possum was sitting over on the water tank cover, Bea was just under our feet and the sheep were hanging around the barn lot.  

Since we were obviously now having a barn party, we called Auntie Reg.  I half jokingly told her that I hoped I didn't end up in the ER by falling through the very frail wooden stand.  There was one basically solid section in the top, right in the middle.  The two sides and the front corner were "spongy" at best.

The Grahaminator had been built in February of 2012 and had been designed to give Hank a safe place to eat without having to deal with Graham stealing his food.  Luckily Saint Tim built it pretty heavy duty, because I loved sitting up there too.  For the last year or so, when it really started to fall apart, he kept saying we needed to take it down.  So we did :-(.

And then we rebuilt it! :-D

I was able to find enough scrap lumber so we didn't need to buy a single board.  The new top was made from an old shearing board a friend had given me years ago.  They had stopped shearing their own sheep and I sure hope I don't have to start shearing ours, so I gave it a new job.  I think it will be happy. 

I was able to save the old end boards and several of the short boards.  They weren't in great shape, but with the new framework they were no longer structurally needed and I wanted to keep as many of the old boards as possible.  That's where the memories are stored!  Tim had left by this point ;-)

As I worked to fit the face pieces I looked over and saw Bea sitting up on the hill watching the sheep and I immediately thought of Hank.  Was it just because I was already thinking about him as we rebuilt his old "tree fort"...or was he still around, checking in.  That was one of his favorite spots to sit.

Everything was going well until the last two boards.  I'd decided to add a bottom board to cover up all the rotted ends and cut the front one just a hair too short.  I remembered from an earlier barn project that "Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and barn building," but if we've learned nothing from all the knitting rip outs...  It matches perfectly now ;-).

All it needs is a good coat of fence paint!  And maybe the old ramp, just for posterity...or the chickens.

Archie approved.

There are some great posts about the old Grahaminator.  You can follow this link if you'd like to remember some funny stuff.  I love this picture from 2017.  The good old days.  Hank and Comby were still here and the view was uninterrupted up the hill.  I love that I coincidentally took a picture with my old Crazy Creek chair, a new orange cat and the same knitting bag.  

The view from up top last night.  Click to biggify for sheep.