Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[Ribh]

I now just leave the island or hunker down in the trailer for the “big event” I will attend pre-event work bees though, if asked.

though they manage to get even more wrong when it comes to early Celtic history/mythology in the new one. And the fire department apparently had a blast putting it out.

And that is why my children will not watch anything remotely *historical* with me. I will spend the entire movie whinging about all the things they got wrong!

My little niece, 10 years old now, is amazingly well adjusted

She is gorgeous. Have just been informed middle son & family are moving in with us come Jan. Huge push on now to get the house actually livable rather than the shack around a kitchen we've had...well, not quite that bad but it's never been finished so no doors, missing wall ~ the sort of things that create child traps. So I will be doing egg hunts & bee watches & sitting on our beach with paddlers again.

 

[BY Bob]

I know what I think about debeaking ~ but it would probably get me banned.

I agree.

 

[BY Bob]

Hey, Bob ~ & Kris, ByBob, WhoDat, aart

Hey

I'm not getting alerts on this string any longer or I would have responded sooner.

 

[BY Bob]

Hi again! It’s been a busy few days lately... Hay and all, just two more fields to go, and they are fairly decent ones, though thankfully not too large. We are at 1688 square bales so far, last year we only pulled in 800, so it’s looking much better this year! More hay means we will buy less alfalfa, and the alfalfa bales are easily twice as heavy so that makes me happy, even if the alfalfa is better nutritionally. (I’d rather deal with 50# feed bags than 100#. Bales any day!)

Of course being gone most of the day Saturday, Sunday, Monday... I have practically no eggs. Saturday was maket and Tedding, Sunday was cleaning the slaughterhouse and Swathing, then bringing in Bales. Monday was finishing parting the Chickens, dishes and Slaughterhouse linens for me, Andrew had Bloodwork in town, then cryovaccing the chicken, tedding angain for Andrew, pricing chicken and final slaughterhouse floor cleaning when I was done pricing (8:30am-9:30pm gone from the trailer/chickens, chicken chores of course happening before and after the other work) 10 chickens...Saturday 1 egg, Sunday 1 egg, Monday no eggs! What are they doing with them? Snacking of course

So, this morning my project was bait eggs, so we will see if this egg eating “cure” will work. I expect it to get more messy than it already has been. Yummy breakfast! I blew out and filled these eggs with German mustard, hot pepper sauce (pungent, I know they don’t have the same capsaicin reaction as us) and lemon juice concentrate. Here’s hoping they don’t like the flavor.

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Andrew is down at the Abbatoir, we are processing 26 lambs for the Annual Lamb BBQ. I can’t remember if I’ve shared this one before. @Ribh please forgive me for all the meat posts lately! They are humanely Raised and processed though. As a fellow I was talking about my chickens with near the store recently said to me “lots of people think I’m a vegetarian, but I’m not... it’s just that I only eat animals I knew personally” which seems kind of strange, but it means I know what their life and death was like. My niece at the BBQ.
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I don’t know how to do the graphic content edit thing... I’m going to clean this trailer one way or the other today... and catch up on some chicken chores. Clean the brooder, chicken pedicures, and what not. Separate out my definite cockerels from my meat pullets before someone gets hurt.. oh and my little helper will be with us full time today and tomorrow (outside of school hours, thankfully) so that will make things extra interesting

Here are some pics of my meat birds that didn’t make the one way trip to the freezer. View attachment 1824514
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And Goose, one of the CX girls... none of these chickens are particularly fond of being held...View attachment 1824522

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I absolutley love the photos. Especially the one trying to break free and fly off, lol.

Hay almost done. What a job that is but it is definately going to pay dividends. Stay safe out there as you wrap it up.

 

[BY Bob]

I forgot! Here’s a picture of the main garden down at the house...
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And how you probably shouldn’t load a truck with hay, especially with our really rough road... it’s a miracle this load made it to the barn! At times the two sides had about a foot wide gap at the top between the bales. Our German WWOOFer is an amazing stacker... we had his brother last year and so was he. His brother was the first person to help me with chicken bathing, when I found out that that is NOT what a chicken leg is “supposed” to look like.

Those must be overloaded but as long they get to the barn almost nothing else matters.

 

[BY Bob]

The (IMO mostly unwelcome) hordes come for the meal, beer garden, music and celebrations. It’s Canada Day, after all. The BBQ started as a school fundraiser on our western beach, before the property was sold. It’s now at the ball park on the north side of the island. So at least there’s not even more (often drunk) tourists wandering through our property. I now just leave the island or hunker down in the trailer for the “big event” I will attend pre-event work bees though, if asked.

The movie is one of our little island’s big claims to fame though! Lol, the older movie was better and more far more creepy than the Nick Cage one... though they manage to get even more wrong when it comes to early Celtic history/mythology in the new one. And the fire department apparently had a blast putting it out.

My little niece, 10 years old now, is amazingly well adjusted. She’s been helping cook and clean since she was 6 or 7, and I have some cute knife and tool stories from when she was a toddler. Aka “how Kristen figures out she either needed child locks or to store her knives higher when babysitting...” she’s also really efficient at the bottle depot sorting empties, not to mention all the child labor she provided in my city garden.

I miss spending time with her. Good news is BIL (her father) May have pushed his luck a little too far this time... there was a serious complaint to his aunt (the farm manager/owner) about his behavior, and if he gets booted off the property, then the kidlet can come visit this summer She would just love my chickens! Here she is in an outfit my friend passed onto us for her... such a cute little farmer! And one from when she was younger with Grandpa with the cows (before we moved to the farm)
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Cariboo beer toque provided by uncle Andrew... I just noticed that!

She is adorable.

 

[rjohns39]

Morning Kris

The youngen is adorable

 

[BY Bob]

Morning Kris and @rjohns39.



It is nice to be caught up on all the action again! Lots of happenings in this neighborhood. I need to schedule time to make sure i keep up!

 

[rjohns39]

Morning Kris and @rjohns39.



It is nice to be caught up on all the action again! Lots of happenings in this neighborhood. I need to schedule time to make sure i keep up!

 

[Kris5902]

Morning Kris

Morning Kris and @rjohns39.

Morning Bob and Bob! I have so been waiting on that one .

The youngen is adorable

Thanks, she’s my only “actual” niece (though I kind of count my one cousin’s 2 teenagers as well. I’m not close with the other 3 cousins on my Dads side anymore, and the one on my mom’s is only 14! I’m an only child so...)

It is nice to be caught up on all the action again! Lots of happenings in this neighborhood. I need to schedule time to make sure i keep up!

I’m not getting alerts half the time anymore either, so now I just try to keep up manually.

So the Hay is all in! Over 2300 bales of it. Last night was the hardest field so far, the Hay was beautiful and heavy, and I ended up in the big hayloft stacking it away. And good timing because we had a torrential summer rain at 2:30 am that lasted until morning. Today we are taking a day off. Bare minimum chores. And just enjoying the break from the recent heat. Andrew and I sleep in until 9am! The chickens and cats were very not happy with us.

So, if anyone was wondering how that egg eating “cure” worked, it mostly didn’t. Turns out my girls actually like the taste of lemon juice, mustard, and peri peri peppers. They ate the gross eggs too. Seriously considering roll away nest boxes... the sun is because I have the egg door open, the nest boxes are mostly dark. Here Mrs Maran and my Isbars (Precious, Tiny, and Speckles) are looking for more egg snacks. The White bum in the back is Princess. Speaking of eating gross things the Towels from my Chicks plastic brooder have been awaiting a hand wash before they go to laundry, because well, poop...

Here Sammy is with Bumbles convincing her to try and eat the poo he was Tid Bitting with poop! And it was working...

Mrs Marans new Wardrobe came in the Mail, and now I’m thinking I might need a few more! Luckily I have a spare pair of jeans from last nights Haying, 3 wardrobe malfunctions in two nights working means it’s time for them to retire... or maybe I need to bite the bullet and trim up Mr Marans claws a bit. Here she is looking sharp in her new little cape. She’s not totally impressed with it, but she’s getting used to it. I got a medium and it seems a little large on her. She was already about done with me after getting into it, so you’ll need to excuse the Hardware Cloth in the pictures.

Edited for spelling, spacing & punctuation... did I mention the Hay is finally finished... and we’re so done I can barely type straight