Ben and Brindle Update

Yes, I'm back and writing again.  It's been a long, cold, hard winter.  I've wanted to write, to share the farm with everyone, but time was short.  Days and nights flew by, weeks got jumbled together, and before I knew it, spring is here!  And not soon enough!

The animals hated the long cold winter.  It snowed so many times.  Let me tell you right from the beginning, I'm not a cold-weather kind of gal.  I like it hot and sunny.  You can keep the snow!  But this winter it certainly snowed a whole lot!

The two outside cats, Benjamin and Brindle, were C-O-L-D outside.  Since we put up heatlamps for the chickens in the coop, we got the bright idea to setup a heatlamp for the outside cats.  So the cats got a heatlamp.  They sleep on a piece of rug which sits on a wooden bench on the front porch.  We aimed the heatlamp on the bench, and they both cuddled up every night under the lamp.

After a few extremely cold and blustery snowy nights, we realized the heatlamp really wasn't helping much.  The snow was blowing sideways up onto the cats and soaking their bed and the cats, too.  And the thought occurred to me - we DO have an empty guestroom...  And these stray cats ARE guests...

And so Ben and Brindle moved inside to the guestroom.  I know, I'm a sucker for animals.  My husband puts up with me...  Just so you know, they both had already been taken to the vet, been dewormed, deflead, deticked, had all their shots, and were fixed.  Also they were tested and found to be negative for all feline diseases.  Yes, they used to be strays, Brindle even was feral - you can see she has a clipped ear.  Any outside cat here has to go thru that routine, and even still, I dare to call them a stray cat.  I should just call them an "outside cat", not a stray.

The two formerly "stray" cats absolutely LOVED the guest bed.  They loved being inside.  They both became extremely friendly, and love to be pet and hugged and held.  We never thought that wild Brindle could become such a lovebug.  They both even like their bellies rubbed!  And most of all, they love stretching out to sleep on the soft guest bed.

Benjamin especially loves to be held on Randy's shoulder.  Ben sits up on the bed and begs, stretching his front legs up in the air, waiting to be picked up.  Brindle loves to cuddle and then lick us, which is quite annoying when you don't want to be licked, which is, well, always.

We kept Ben and Brindle separate from the inside cats.  It was easier that way - no cat fights.  The inside cats weren't too fond of the guest cats.  So we kept the guestroom door closed at all times.  Sometimes Jack, the Houdini cat who can open doors, snuck in to visit.  Jack's very accepting and friendly.  If only everyone could be as sweet as Jack...  

When the cold winter nights passed, we opened the window (the guest room is on the first floor) and Ben and Brindle went back outside.  They were so happy to be out again.  But it seems they miss their bed.  If we open the guest room window again they will come right back inside and curl up on the bed.  Randy sometimes sleeps in the guest room during the day when he's working the crazy night shift.  When he does, he opens the window, within minutes Ben and Brindle are cuddled up with him on the bed, and they all sleep the day away.

I guess they aren't outdoor cats anymore, they've become indoor-outdoor cats.  They both are great farm cats - they love to help us with our outside chores.  They always walk us to the barn, stand guard while we work in the chicken coop.  Once a chicken escaped out the coop door and Ben stood and watched, helping me to catch it.  The chicken was terrified of the cat and just froze, making it easy to catch.  Brindle loves to run with the guineas.  When I throw bread for the guineas she's right out there with them - she loves to catch pieces of bread and eat it, just like the guineas.  Both cats, but especially Brindle, are always mouse and bird hunting.  Any little bird that comes near her, and any mouse on the property, will meet it's end if Brindle has her way.

Recently a fox moved into our front yard, of all places, and before that a raccoon was acting very strange, falling over when standing, extremely friendly, etc.  When those animals were around at nighttime we ushered Ben and Brindle into the house to keep them safe.  I didn't want little Brindle to be fox food, nor did I want either cat to get rabies from a possible infected coon. The cats didn't know what was going on, all they knew was they had access to their beautiful guest bed again, and they loved it and slept soundly all night. 

So that's the update on Ben and Brindle, the indoor-outdoor cats.  It was a good winter for them.  Next up I'll discuss either the chickens or the guineas, and will tell you how they made it thru the long cold winter months.   

Razzberry Corner is back!!!

Wow!!!  A lot of time has passed since my last post!  So much has been going on here at Razzberry Corner!  ...Where to begin????

Let's start with the humans...  What's going on with us?

Over the winter I joined an awesome online weight-loss group called Lose It! (www.loseit.com).  It's a great support group that encourages you to eat less and exercise more, and teaches you how to count calories.  They have workout challenges, groups where discussions take place, and endless possibilities to make friends with similar exercise and weight-loss goals.  With this app I lost about 20 pounds.  I highly recommend it to everyone!  Best thing is, Lose It! is free.  Costs nothing to join the basic service, and $39.95 for a year of premium membership.  With the basic membership you can set only one weight loss goal, with the premium membership the number of goals you can set are almost endless, from weight goals to blood pressure, exercise minutes, steps taken, hydration (to encourage you to drink more water), nutritional goals are available, such as sodium, carbs, protein, fiber, you can even set a goal to sleep a certain number of hours every night.  Anyway, it's a pretty cool group and has motivated me to be healthy and happier.  Check it out if you want to lose weight.

I've been traveling a lot for my work, and am still putting in a lot of hours at work.  What else is new?

My husband has been working shiftwork for his job, often working nights with days off.  This means I have to take care of the animals most of the time, leaving me little to no free time to do things I enjoy, like write.

I have been very sick this year.  It's crazy because I believe that I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life. I got the flu in January, then the Norovirus in March, and now have an upper respiratory infection in April.  The Norovirus was no fun - I've never been that sick, ever.  It seems everyone is catching it - very contagious. If someone you know has it - run away as fast as you can!

Next post I'll move on to the interesting stuff - we'll discuss the farm critters and tell you how they all survived the long cold winter.  Lot's of craziness going on.  Wasn't that winter just the worst ever?

Chick & Guinea update

The chicks are doing fine.  They are all running around their coop, they are as active and hyper as chicks can be.  The foster mama hen is a great mother and is showing them what to eat and how to scratch.  Soon they will be able to go outside with the other chickens.  We want to make sure the mama hen will protect them and the babies will stay with their mother before we let them loose.  Plus the babies have to be big enough to survive a peck or two from the other chickens before going outside.  The foster mama is getting anxious to get out of the coop.  I can tell she's tired of being inside cooped up when spring is starting outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The guineas are all separating into pairs.  I guess over the winter they were dating one another and now they decided who is going to be mated.  I thought they were just surviving the winter, who knew they were actually flirting and dating one another!  During the day they separate all around the house.  Before they used to stay in one big flock.  Now there's groups of guineas everywhere you can see, and there's guinea calls coming from everywhere.  Every now and then a few of the pairs will join into a small group.  I cannot figure out how many males and females we have.  In the evening, they all join back into one big flock again in front of our house.

I'm assuming the female guineas will start laying eggs in their nests all around the house, if they're not already laying.  We'll have to start looking for their eggs again.  We are now ready for the guineas to become broody - Randy acquired some small cages to put over the female guinea at nighttime to protect her from fox and raccoon when she's sitting on her eggs.  The females become broody after they get about 20 eggs in a nest, and they constantly sit on the eggs to hatch them.  The wild animals are sure to kill her overnight if she's sitting blind on the ground in the woods.  There's a better possibility that she will not be killed when she's sitting during the day as the fox and raccoons are not that active during the day.  It's always very tough to separate a broody guinea hen from her eggs, I've gotten in fights with hens trying to separate them from the eggs, trying to encourage her to go fly up into a tree and roost at nighttime to protect herself.  The hens attacks me, hissing at me and biting me.  The fights get bad because the male guinea comes to protect his mate and fights me, too.  The male will fight me, but he still leaves his wife alone on the ground in the woods overnight to fend for herself.  But now we are ready to help her, protecting her with a cage.  We'll see if this tactic works if/when we get broody guinea hens.

We are already dealing with fox issues this spring.  A couple weeks ago I heard the guineas screaming and looked out back behind the house and saw all the guineas running as fast as they could run, and there was a fox galloping alongside them!  I flew out the back door and started running after the fox.  If anyone could have seen they'd have laughed - a flock of guineas running, followed by a galloping fox, followed by a running human!  The fox took off, there was too much commotion that day for a guinea dinner.

Last week I looked out back and saw the guineas way behind the house, about 250 yards out.  And there was the beautiful red fox crouching low, getting ready to ambush the guinea fowl.  It was drizzling and freezing cold outside that day.  Before I could even open the door, the fox started it's crouching dash at the birds, mouth open ready to bite a grey guinea on the outside edge of the flock.  I just knew that bird was a goner.  I flew outside, barefoot, into the freezing rain, screaming at the top of my lungs, my arms swinging overhead trying to make myself bigger.  The fox was running at the birds, the guineas all stood looking at me like I was insane, all their heads were up and their necks were long with surprise.  I screamed "Nooooooooooo!  Stoppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!" and ran as fast as my bare feet would take me.  The fox looked right at me and then back at the guineas, still running for the grey bird, mouth open, ready to bite.  The fox must have been hungry.  I screamed again, getting close to the fox and guineas.  The guineas were all frozen in place, terrified of me, thinking I was nuts, not even realizing that there was certain death so close for one of them.  At the very last second the fox swerved to the left and took off bounding away, jumping in high leaps, leaving the guineas after all.  I was still screaming at the top of my lungs.  I had acted on reflex, I didn't take the time to get a weapon, or even shoes or a coat.  I quickly ran back inside, got a gun, shoes, a coat and hat, and dashed back out.  I herded all the guineas up to the chicken coop and hunted for hours until the sun set for that fox, but he was long gone.  I don't think I could have killed him, but I would have shot near him, scaring him for sure.  I think that if he actually had a screaming guinea in his mouth that I could shoot him to save the bird.  I have never actually killed a fox, I'm not a hunter, or even a real farm girl, for that matter.  My husband is the farmer, I'm just getting by here on the farm figuring it out as I go.  But I don't want my farm animals, the livestock, to suffer and die, and I know that fox will kill every single guinea and chicken in my flock if they have the opportunity.

Since then, for the rest of the week, there have been no fox sightings. 

Hike in the woods

Spring has finally arrived at Razzberry Corner!  The weather was very nice, and so today I took a hike by myself in the woods.  Come along, it was just a short walk, but still interesting...

Not far from my house, down past the chicken coop and the big pine tree, deep along beside the fields, is a natural spring.  I like to check it out when I start my walks.  It is just amazing how water comes from underground and forms into a stream.  And that stream joins other streams from distant places and they make a little river.

And even cooler than that, there are what I call underground caves here.  The caves are not really caves, as to me real caves are made out of rock, and my caves are formed in hollow areas of dirt and mud, but not rock.  But it's still amazing to see caves underground, where the ground wells up and there's space underground.  This cave goes under the roots of a tree.  I climbed under the roots to see how deep it went.  There are other caves, too, but I only photographed this one.  I have always wanted to discover a cave, so I guess this is one thing on my bucket-list that I can check off.  I felt like a groundhog when I was investigating the caves.

Funny thing was that I saw cat footprints in the mud outside the caves.  I don't know what cat comes down here, evidently one of the stray cats.  There were also coon prints and of course deer hoof prints in the mud.

After the caves I checked out the little white house, which is an empty historic house on the property.  A huge flock of black vultures circled overhead, keeping an eye on me.  They must have a nest nearby, probably in the brown house.  There's another historic house not too far from the white house.  I call it the brown house, and it has no glass in the windows.  I bet the vultures chose the upstairs of the brown house for a nest this year.

The little white house has an outhouse, which I walked by.  It's all falling apart, but is still interesting to see.

I walked down past the little white house in the woods and started up a group of deer.  They bounded away snorting.  The song birds were scratching in the leaves for bugs, making a lot of noise in the dried leaves.  I found the remains of a raccoon.  I don't know what killed it.  I found it's tail and some fur.  The vultures probably cleaned up the rest of it.  Near the raccoon I found some old red bricks.  I wondered about the people who made those bricks, and how they ended up in my woods.  Was there once a house there?

I continued to climb through trees and vines in the deep woods.  I followed deer paths.  A hawk screamed overhead, and a pack of crows called to each other.  Eventually I came upon part of an old hunting stand.  It's all falling down now.

I even found an old broken shell from a box turtle. 

The walk in the woods was very peaceful, but I have chores to do before the day is over.  Thanks for coming along.  Springtime and warmer temps will be here soon and I always do more hikes in the summertime.  Next time I'll check out the brown house and will look for the vulture nest...

Peeps

Peeps - who doesn't love them?!

You know, those sugar-coated marshmallows that just melt in your mouth?

I could eat the whole box in 3 minutes.  

I try not to even buy them because I know I cannot say no to them.  And my waist is continually expanding from eating junk food.  I am working on my sugar addiction...

Right now it's Easter time, and so the store shelves are lined with such wonders, just begging to come home with me.  I try to avoid the junk food isles of the CVS like the plague. 

Last week my darling, caring husband went against my will and brought home some Peeps to me, thinking he was being kind.  Or maybe he was trying to be evil, I don't know.  It didn't matter, there were Peeps... 

You can't just eat one - I dare you!

I ate them all, of course.  I was in the middle of painting my nails and got the Peep sugar stuck to the wet nailpolish.  It didn't matter. Nom nom nom... 

There will be no more Peeps in this house!

The Guinea and the Hawks, the Appletree and the Weed

Today I went out to check the wild asparagus.  I decided to document what I saw along the way.

I have to walk out to the asparagus patch, past the old historic fence that still stands,

Past the wild apple tree.

And past these bizarre large-leafed plants that have taken over the area where my garden used to grow.  There are dozens of them growing wild.  Something, I think the woodchucks, have been eating their leaves.  Any idea what they are?

As I walked, a pair of hawks circled above.  They screamed at me as I photographed them, and then they were gone.

It's an overcast day, but the sky is beautiful to me.

I found a single guinea out by himself in my backyard.  He was deep in guinea thoughts.

It is a peaceful day here at Razzberry Corner.  Can you feel the solitude and quietness in these photos?  It's nice to slow down and be quiet sometimes.

I had a surprise when I got to the asparagus patch, and of course I took photos!

I'll post those photos tomorrow!

I like to keep up the anticipation!

Wild Asparagus

It's springtime, so yesterday I decided I'd better check the wild asparagus.  If you have asparagus, you know it grows super-fast and needs to be picked before the stalks get too large.

And so, I put on some shorts.

Our asparagus patch is way out back, in the middle of a field.  The field is high with grass, and I wanted to be able to see and remove any ticks that may get on me.  Every day I see deer out in that field; I know they carry deer ticks.  Luckily, I got no ticks on me.  I love my guineas (who eat ticks)!!!

Here I am - almost!  Hi everyone!

Ok, here we go, out into the backyard.  We have to go through that gate and off to the right.  See all the high grass?  We'll walk out of this photo range to the right.

Aww, thanks, Randy.  He's mowed a path through the high grass for us to get to the asparagus patch.  The sun was shining bright, but there are these odd white shadows in this photo below.  I guess it's just the light.  Many people say my historic house and property are haunted...  Could these be ghosts???

Here's the asparagus patch.  Yes, it's just part of the field, covered with grass.  We didn't choose this area, this asparagus has been growing here for many a decade before we came here.  We just found it growing wild.  We also planted some new asparagus in the same area, but it wont be ready to be eaten for many years.

 

Let's look closely.  Right in the center of this photo is an asparagus sprout.

Here's another.

And another.

All in all, there was quite a few asparagus sprouting, but none were ready yet.  A few more good sunny days and they'll be ready for picking.  They grow fast.  I couldn't even find the baby asparagus we planted last year.  The stalks are fine and look like grass.

While I was out in the back fields I couldn't help but notice the iris blooming.  My mother gave us some old dead iris roots.  Well, she thought they were dead.  We planted them all around the fields.  We didn't know if moles or squirrels or woodchucks would eat the roots, but figured we'd try.  Many flowers here are eaten by animals before they have a chance to grow.  But the iris are doing fine - the roots must be too bitter for the wild animal palates.

Out by the asparagus there's a huge active woodchuck hole.

Here's our old horse barn.  We're not using it.  It has a dirt floor, old wooden walls, and a roof that's barely hanging on.  We keep the door open in case any wild animals want to use it for shelter.  Sometimes Jerry, the outside cat, goes in, and once last winter some deer found shelter from the cold here.  Many birds live inside in the roof beams.

The vines just take over every year.  These vines are covering a fence and are moving to a nearby tree.  They need to be cut back again.  When time permits...

And now we're coming back to the house.  Here's the weather vane on the back side of the house.

Happy Easter!

I'll bring you along when I check the asparagus later in the week!

I'm baaack!

Sorry everyone, I needed a break from the blogging world!  But now I'm back!  And it's gonna be great!  Spring is here, the weather is great so much is going on, my only problem will be finding the time to write it all all!  So get ready and hold onto your seats, it's gonna be an awesome year!

Our winter egg production was down to 7 or 8 eggs a day, from 16 hens.  Still more than I'll ever eat!  Thanks ladies!!!!  Egg production is already starting to rise since the weather's been so nice.










Muffin the rooster has been feeling his oats and has started chasing me and attacking me when I enter the chicken pen.  Silly boy.  I remember from my lessons learned in the past to carry a broom, and he remembers getting swatted with the broom a few times, so he leaves me alone as long as I carry my broom friend.  It's funny that he looks to see if I have the broom or now.  He's too smart...

A baby deer spent a few months in our back yard this winter.  I assume her mother was killed by hunters.  This seems to happen every year.  I guess the mothers bring their babies to our backyard before hunting season a lot.  We have good grass and brush for deers to eat and provide a salt block.  When the mother's are killed, the babies seem to come back here, where they remember.  Luckily, a large number of deer travel through, and the babies join another herd.  If they're lucky, there's another baby deer in that herd so they have a playmate.

This little deer spent a few months with us, she was wasn't afraid to come up to the house, as long as we were inside.  Herds passed through, some even spending a few days out back with her, but she refused to go with them and leave the backyard.  Guess she was waiting for her mother.  Too sad!  Eventually she left with a herd, and we haven't seen her since.

The guineas have been feeling their oats, too.  They've been chasing each other and are pairing up and going off alone in pairs to make nests and lay eggs.  The only prob is that we don't have enough females to go around, so quite a few males don't have mates, and they aren't happy about that.  It seems that each female picks a mate for that season (maybe longer) and they stay together as a couple.  When the weather gets cold again then they all stay together as one flock to deal with winter.  We have a group of guineas that we raised from eggs from the last parent guinea flock.  The parent guineas, all except for 2 males, were killed off by a monster that lived in the woods.  I don't know about these guineas mating, because they all may be related, father and daughter, brother and sister, and these ones aren't that bright, so I can only imagine their children will really not be too bright.  Or maybe it doesn't matter if birds inbreed???  Let me know! 

The guineas are very friendly to us, and greet us every time we are outside.  They hate and attack chickens.  If a chicken gets outside the chicken pen they will eventually kill it by pecking it to death.  Even if I'm out there with it, beside it, they still attack it.  They don't attack cats or people. They love people, people sometimes have treats.  They do attack deer and woodchuck and especially love to chase cars.  Strange birds, these guineas are.  But I love them still.

I could go on and on, but theis is getting long, so I'll save the rest for later!

Come Run With Me

I've been getting into jogging recently.  I started jogging inside on the treadmill, as it was still cold outside.  But now that Spring has officially arrived and the weather is suddenly warmer, I've moved my running outside.  And now that I'm outside, I've left my iPod behind.  Who needs an iPod when they have the sounds of nature all around?

Running outside on the hills is much more challenging than running on a treadmill.  The first few times I ran outside I swore that my chosen path was all uphill, and I wondered how that could be.  My legs were much more sore after the first time running outside than they were when I would run inside. 

Most of the time I startle up some sleeping deer on my path.  They then run, too, but I haven't talked them into running with me yet.  Wouldn't that be nice, to run with the deer?  Maybe one day...

Besides the deer, I notice the birds, the bugs, the nature around.  It's quite relaxing.  The first few times I ran outside I brought a camera, but then I continually stopped to take pictures, which defeated the purpose of running.  These photos were taken on my second run.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the run.

I start on what I used to call the dirt road.  Randy's been putting down millings, so now it looks more like a paved road.  This is a easy path to start the daily run.

Let's go!

We pass the cemetery on the left.  I love the cemetery!

We run beside my favorite field, all dressed up in it's winter grass.

By now the road has turned into a dirt road.  We're coming up to the firewood work area on the left.

Here we are going to turn left off the road and move on past the firewood.  Look out for Randy or one of his friends, they may be there splitting and stacking firewood.

Stay to the left around all the logs!

Now we're moving along a grass path beside young trees on the right.  Deer often sleep in those young trees and may bound up into our path.  The path is going downhill at a steep grade and we are moving fast now!

Spring is here, the bushes are all budding.  Soon everything will be green.  The air is still crisp and cool, enjoy it before it's blistering hot this summer.

Now there's young trees on the left, and more mature trees on the right.  The path is starting to climb uphill and your legs may be feeling it.

We've made a left turn around the young trees.  We just passed the old barn on the right.  There's remnants of a very old paved road underneath the grass.  The grade is very steep uphill and your legs notice it, although it's not noticeable in the pictures!

Listen, I just heard a hawk cry.  And a bluejay is chasing the hawk!  There's always so much to see and hear in the woods.

We're almost done.  We're making good progress.  My green wine bottle collection is on the right. No one has shown any interest in my online bottle sales, and so the bottles still sit beside the woods.

Behind the bottles is the trash dump from where I pulled the bottles.  I still need to finish picking up all that trash.  Add that to my mental to-do list this summer.  The work truly never ends on this farm.

Keep going, no stopping now!

We're almost back to where we began the run.  Turn and look back behind you, and you will see the photo below.  We just ran up the green grassy area, beside the field and around the young trees.

One more really steep hill and we completed a mile run!

Good job!

Don't you feel better now?

You up for another mile?

Let's go!!!

I'll race you to the woodpiles!

Thanks for keeping me company!!!

The Daffodils are Here

Daffodils are my favorite flower.

Lucky for me, we have a hillside beside our house covered in wild daffodils.

They were planted long ago, and it seems they have taken over the entire hillside.

They are gorgeous, even though they have just begun to bloom.

They signify a new beginning.  Spring is coming!