This is why I put a wire cage over my new watermelon seedlings, Poppy. You can see he is rolling in the fresh dirt as close to melon destruction as possible. I lost the battle last year to no rain, chickens and the cat. This year the melons are on the well head, caged and safe.
Here is my neighbors red bull. He is a young proven breeding bull. This bull is the size of our car and is over 2,000 lbs. He is waiting for his turn at the heifers in the other pasture. It is neat to just watch such a calm giant.
I few months ago I was offered a free newborn filly an owner did not want. I had just raised my two foals and did not have the time for another. But my good friend offered to take this filly and raise her. At only 2 months off her mother, this hand raised filly is growing well. She gets handled and is now halter broke. Though my friend is over the age of 60 she is still willing to put in her time and energy to raise this horse. She owns 3 other horses as well. This is one lucky little filly.
We saw this exhibitor driving his team along the farm festival roads. He was hauling an antique manure spreader.
With all the heavy rains we have gotten this month, our driveway washed away. We hired our towns cement mix company to drop several yards of limestone in our path. It was neat watching how the driver, Rich, pulled up, rose and drove off leaving an even spread. This is a skill in time saving and labor saving. No need to blade the rocks nor shovel out the load. The dump truck does all the work. I have lived all over the states and have never seen this kind roadwork skill. I thought this would be an all day ordeal with our tractor. There was no need. Rich saved us all from time out in the heat moving rocks. We are expecting more loads to raise the level of our overworked drive. Nothing is more neat than a fresh driveway of gravel.
This Monday we went to Van Buren, MO to our dentist. We saw the Current river moving fast, cold and clear. Even though it had risen and left tree debris everywhere, there was no trash anywhere. No empty cans, styrofoam cups, clothes, shoes, boxes. We saw just water, trees, sand, fish and rocks. It was beautiful to see just nature and not others peoples garbage. Missouri works hard to keep its rivers clean. We love living here in the Ozarks.
Here are our 4 ducklings inside the house in a plastic tub with a 100 watt bulb to keep warm. The tan one is a Khaki Campbell and the blacks ones are Cayugas. The runt is the one with the scar on her head. We call her Shelley since the breeder said her head must have stuck to the shell too long. I think of Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein is a more fitting. But Shelley has a personality and is unafraid. We have moved the ducklings to our outside brooder box for now. Baby ducks are messy and smelly and are happier outside. They love the water and get water all over the place. Our next step is to allow them time in a shallow pool to swim in.
While riding our horse through the pasture my husband spotted a snapper close to the coop. So he moved the turtle far away from the horses and the chickens. You can see she was not happy to be moved.
We attended a Farm Fest in Cabool, MO this past weekend. Along with horses, tractors, plants there were baby ducks and chicks for sale. I always stop to see what varieties are for sale from other farmers. These are 2 Khaki Campbells and 3 Black Cayuga ducklings we bought at the end of the hot day for cheap. The breeder put them in the fried chester chicken boxes as an inexpensive way to hold these babies. We ended up with a runt since she had so much personality among the 60+ mixed ducklings in the box.
For two days I have been building a brooder cage for my broody hens inside the coop. To keep them on their nest with their chicks away from the flock in peace. Sometimes hens hatch 1 chick and abandon the rest of the eggs. I want maximum chicks hatched without me resorting to an incubator. My game hen hatched 2 chicks in winter but abandoned her last 2 sets this spring. Very frustrating to lose eggs and chicks from a flaky hen. The broody cage idea was recommended by the old timers to force the hen to sit on her nest.
One of the not so wonderful aspects of farm life, mice, rats and voles nesting in our cars. A vole decided to place our car Kleenex in a shredded pile under the trunk by the spare tire. We discovered this as we were needing a tool for the car and found the white pile. We had noticed the Kleenex box look mangled earlier. We did not find the vole but think our cat dispatched it last week seen here wounded in the grass near our cars. And in my vintage Volvo wasps have tried making a nest in my door jam and in our mailbox too. Fun never ends out here in nesting season.
It has been raining here for almost a solid month in the Ozarks. We needed the rain after the dry summer last year. But this had me doing heavy wet chores outside and I got worn out, crampy and partially deaf. I took aspirin and it did nothing. So my husband took me to our small town doctors office. Turns out our well water is high in Ca but low in Mg. I drink only tea and coffee from our well water. Low Mg in the water causes fatigue and cramping. My husband drinks store bought drinks like OJ, milk and soda so he was not affected. I was drinking to city water before this and not used to well water.