Sunday Scribbles, #99

Sundays at this farmish place are reserved for Scribbles - short, random musings that collect while my mind has time to wander on this day of (supposed) rest. Enjoy, and feel free to add your own in the comments.


1: Clucky Dickens Farm went from the longest winter ever to 15 minutes of spring to full on summer,  so we've been busy busy busy around the farm. We literally went from piles of snow to oh-my-God-it-is-90-degrees in just a few days. Man, when the farm wakes up, she bolts right out of bed!

2: We've been checking on broilers who honestly don't do anything other than eat, poop, and try to act tough when they see you. We've been moving pigs. We've been moving hay. We've messed around with a new tractor. We've tilled a garden and plowed a field. We've looked at the roof in the Pig Palace and assessed it needs to be reshingled...like now. Yesterday would even be better. We've fallen into bed complaining about the ache in muscles we somehow forgot we had.

3: We've also parked our butt in the chair with a laptop and put the finishing touches on our third book (Found: One Craving For Everything) that will be released in print and on Kindle May 22nd. (Ok, so that wasn't a we thing, that was an I thing. But other people were doing some we things so I could have time to finish the I thing. So I guess that really does make it a we thing, doesn't it?)

4: All of that makes me think about how completely and totally blessed I am to live at this super sweet farm with this totally kick ass family who all work together to do anything it takes to get whatever done. I'm pretty spoiled. Sometimes I'm even jealous of myself.

4 1/2: It's ok if you hate me.

4 3/4: But I hope you don't.

5: Because I really like y'all...which reminds me that next week is my 100th Sunday Scribble. One hundred!! Yes, there will be a giveaway. Mostly because my kids say that's why you do when you make it to a hundred of anything. ;)

Sunday Scribbles, #98

Sundays at this farmish place are reserved for Scribbles - short, random musings that collect while my mind has time to wander on this day of (supposed) rest. Enjoy, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

1. If you live on a farm you'd best know how to back up a trailer. If you don't know how, ask your husband to teach you. Or your nine and ten-year-old sons. You can't be whining for someone to come back your trailer up every time you need to reload it because girlfriend, everyone else is on the other side of the farm raking the round pen and picking rock. Put your big girl panties on and back that thing up yourself.

2. Ok. I just realized that "put your big girl panties on and back that thing up" sounds like some really disturbing version of a rap song. I apologize.

3. My outdoor wood boiler should no longer be in use by this time of year, friends...but it still is!  Last year at this time we were fencing the first pasture and dealing with thunderstorms that flooded the yard. This year we have highs of 40s and still work in our winter hats. Who was it again that was going to deliver that spanking to Mother Nature?

4. The meat ball broilers continue to grow and are almost four weeks old. You know that old Sylvester and Tweety Bird "Hyde and Go Tweet" cartoon where Tweety Bird keeps changing from a cute little bird into that giant monster looking bird? That cartoon used to scare the bajeezus out of me. And that's what I'm afraid is going to greet me one of these days when I open the coop door - a giant monster looking bird.

5.  Can you believe I'm almost to my hundredth Sunday Scribble? That's a whole lot of babbling scribblin' going on. The farmboys are pretty sure I should have a giveaway because "a hundred is a big deal". Hmmmm......

a farmboy brings home the food

There's something awfully wonderful about the ten year old bringing home food for the family. Makes a farmish kind of mama get a bit misty eyed.

Farmboy Iggy went out turkey hunting for the first time and got himself this lovely looking bird. To hear him tell the story is hilarious because he's sure to point out it was a perfect shot at 35 yards...and that Dad, Grandpa, and Farmboy Ooky came home empty handed.

Yeah. I'd be sure to point that out, too. I think he earned it. ;)

Holy Pig Barn, Batman

Pigs are awesome.

Here at Clucky Dickens Farm, pigs deserve their own special building. Our plan always was to turn the original farrowing house into our Pig Palace.

And that would have been done before Red had her babies...if she was actually was due when we thought. Or...you know, if weren't coming off of the longest winter ever..

Here's the inside of the original farrowing house.

Piggies are such a bright sunny part of Clucky Dickens Farm, we thought they shouldn't be in a cave. So we painted the inside white and then joked it looked like a little church.

Or maybe it was just us. We could envision walking down the aisle to the front, pews along both sides...anyone else see it?

Alrighty then, moving on. The menfolk added a stall...

...and a closer look towards the back of the Pig Palace shows they built a little room we can heat (kind of like the creep feeder in their old spot). The menfolk also secured some hog panels that will guide the piggies out the back door if they care to catch some rays.

Out the backdoor they have a temporary small outside spot to hang out and root up...

...which will soon be expanded once the ground thaws completely and we can fix fencing. (Trees give you an idea of the fence line).

And there you have it. Pig Perfection...or at least that's what we call it here.

Now the only issue is...um, getting the pigs from the big red barn to their new palace.

Hmmmm. Perhaps we need to build a special chariot? ;)

pigs, pulling fences

Pigs grow fast. They like mud.

They also like grass and they are strong. So when they get tired of playing in the mud and realize there is grass right outside their pen...

...they pull on the fence to make a hole.

 Yeah. "Super cute", I know.

Actually, the Queen Fence Puller is Big Red.

Who...me? I didn't do anything.

 You can't blame a gal for being excited about green grass. Heck, I'm excited to finally see green grass!

Thanks mama for making that hole so I could nibble on the grass...

 I'm just glad we found the hole and fixed it before it got too big. I'm not the most patient person when it comes to chasing pigs. ;)

the meat bird experiment

We've never had "meat birds" before. We've always just butchered our laying hens after a couple years, or any roosters we happened to get in our straight run of chicks.

This year we decided we'd try the almighty "meat bird" and ordered 25 Cornish Rock chicks from our creamery.

The day we got them - "day old" 4/9

One week old 4/16

Two weeks old 4/23

So here is the thing about "meat birds. They're a totally different...thing. They eat like you wouldn't believe and they don't do much.  They have a whole coop to run around in and they just hang out by the feeders.

"What are YOU waiting for? Bring me some food!"

The only consolation is that in 6-8 weeks they will be big enough to put in my freezer.

I call them my little meat balls because they are solid. I told them that as roosters they should really try to stand up to me or at least try to get away from me when I try to pick them up. They really didn't see the point of that.

"You will be so tasty on the grill," I tell them everyday.

I know. I'm terrible. I hope you don't think less of me. ;)

Sunday Scribbles, #97

Sundays at this farmish place are reserved for Scribbles - short, random musings that collect while my mind has time to wander on this day of (supposed) rest. Enjoy, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

 1. Ridiculous. Pure ridiculous is this weather. As if the Minnesota growing season isn't short enough, now we're buried under snow again. Mother Nature, you need a spanking.

2. I was informed by a couple more awesome authors that if I'm going to be an author, I probably shouldn't "waste my time" blogging anymore. You know, because it takes time away from working on actual books. If you want to read my sassy response to that, head over to this post.

3. We got 28 meat bird chicks last Tuesday, so now we tell people we have chicken nuggets and bacon bits in the barn. And you know what? There are only certain people who find that funny.

4. I found out the best way to get your sons to become proficient at math is to tie all possible fun to math facts. As in "You want to play video games? Here's this sheet of multiplication facts." or "You want to eat this yummy brownie sundae that I'm holding in front of you? Here's a multi-step word problem to figure out." Yeah, I'm mean. But you know what? They are improving  in math. ;)

 5. Last night my supper was chocolate covered bacon. Bacon from last year's pigs and chocolate sauce that we made from scratch.  Life. Is. Good. :)