The Bachelors

The bachelors are two red roosters we bought to protect our incoming pullets this April. All pullets means all hens. We need roosters to make baby chicks. So until the chicks come of age these two roosters keep together on the farm, eating bugs.

Snake Season

This evening we put our free range chickens back in their coop for the night. We had an extra visitor, a garter snake waiting for us. It was on the chickens perch still as stone. Until we netted it and took it outside. It became a fast moving black ribbon of go. It was put in the meadow where I am sure it will be happier than spending the night with two angry roosters. We also had a wounded ring neck snake with an orange belly show up thanks to my cat, Poppy. He was very proud to have caught a snake. Who knew a cat would love to hunt snakes? With all this warm weather it is snake season out here in the Ozarks.

Flowery

Peaches, apples, pears and Red Buds in bloom, Oh My!

Pretty Horses

We are looking to buy two horses for our farm and to ride. The fun part is going to see what is for sale in our area. There are so many various breeds of horses in the Ozarks. I thought I'd share some of the neat photos of what we have seen thus far.

Tuesday Chickens

Here is my first rooster and his two hens. The rooster watches the hens all day long and makes sure they come into the coop at night. The hens have provided us a dozen eggs this week. They enjoy being free all day long on our farm eating bugs and small frogs.

Spring Snapper

Today we heard our shepherd, Osa, barking up a storm when we came home. She was barking at a large snapping turtle she had cornered. That turtle was hissing and snapping at both our dogs. It bit Hickory on the nose. The snapper was about 18 inches long and wide. It had long claws and moved fast in the grass. We did not want it in our big "soon to be stocked" pond where it was headed. So my husband picked it up and walked it to our smaller uphill pond. There he set it free; a whole pond to itself.

First Chickens for us

We have had the wonderful gift of being given adult chickens. A rooster and two hens for our coop on our farm. They are half Ameraucana . And this morning they gave us two small light tan eggs.

We have them "cooped up" until they learn that is their new home. Then we will let them into the yard to test our dogs. Only after we are 100% certain the dogs will not harm the chickens, they will be come free range. These adult chickens are to get our dogs trained so the incoming chicks will be safe.

Roses

It is that time of year and planting has begun. I am nose deep in rose catalogs and compost. Both you need in quantity and quality. Good roses sources and good organic compost. I adore David Austin roses and have bought from them many times. They sell high quality roses that thrive and smell divine. Any color or scent you want, they have in some form. And now we have the room and space for Constance Spry a repeat bloomer and climber. So when I am not quilting I am outside in the mud making room for Constance and her beloved other English Roses in the Ozarks.

Fish Day

If you want fish in your pond then you can't miss FISH DAY. We missed that day in February so we can't miss this one. A truck will show up full of fish you can pick from, like an ice cream truck type of deal. They put the live fish in baggies and fill with air for the trip home. We are hoping to get some catfish, bass and blue gill for our ponds.

Poppy Morning

Poppy is enjoying his morning walk to our mailbox with Hickory, Osa and me.

Black Gold

Our wonderful farmer/neighbor came by and told us about planting time in the Ozarks. In the spring we should be getting the ground clear and the soil amended to grow our crops. He used to raise goats and he had "black gold" where his goat barn used to be. Old dark composted manure all we wanted if we came over before the rains started. So we drove our trailer to his barn and started shoveling. Then my dog Hickory showed up, he had followed us to the farm. The farmer owns two large dogs that would eat my city dog in a second; so I tossed Hick into the trailer for his own protection. Now we are ready for growing season with our share of black gold full of fat red worms.

A Fish Tale

Since we have some ponds on our property we wanted to have some fish in them. A next door neighbor offered us some blue gill from his pond to feed the larger fish. He let us borrow his fish trap and he placed it for us. We checked the trap two times but each time it was empty. We discovered his blue gill were too large to fit in his trap. So we are going to use fishing poles and worms and catch them that way. In the meantime we saw a clutch of bull frog eggs in the shallows. Very healthy ponds around here in the Ozarks!

The Woodshed

This weekend we got more knowledge from a neighbor about firewood. After you cut your trees and logs you need to let the wood dry out for burning. Stacking wood in a lean to or garage is not a good idea. The wood needs airflow to dry out and a roof to keep out the rain. We stacked our wood in a lean to and it does not get dry enough to burn in our wood stove. These photos are of our neighbors woodshed. It is uphill, close to the house and open with a tin roof. His wood is dry and ready to burn or "seasoned". So we are going to have to build one like this for our property. Now we are leaning why people have so many small buildings on their land. Each one has a special purpose; especially the woodshed.