A Bit of This and That

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Momzoo

This past weekend was very busy for our little zoo, we didn’t spend much time on the farm, instead we enjoyed visiting our family.

Saturday we awoke early and headed off to the Ogden Temple open house. We toured it with my parents and sibling, my sister and her family even traveled from South Dakota, it was so good to see them. We then spent the rest of the day visiting while the zoolings played with the cousins.

Sunday we went to my uncle’s ward (the name of an LDS congregation determined by geographical location) to hear my cousin speak. She just returned from an eighteen month long mission in Atlanta, Georgia. It was so good to see her again. We then went to their house for dinner. Most of my family were there, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was great to see everyone, I love my family so much.

After dinner and a good long visit we had a little birthday party for Dadzoo’s mother, who turned 29 this year…..

Monday, the kids and I went on our usually Monday swimming outing with the family, for almost 25 years we have met Monday afternoon to swim with the kids.My aunts, cousins and their children are all there. Everyone has such a great time, swimming in the summer it very much looked forward to.

The very best of all our weekend activities: a visit to my midwife, where it was determined our little guy is growing big, strong, and healthy. I love midwifery care all of my concerns were addressed fully and “natural” or “crunchy” solutions given. I’m starting to feel as if I can relax, like this baby is really going to come. Its a good feeling.

This weekend was packed with fun and family, but now I must turn my attentions back to the farm and get things tied up before school starts in a week and I lose my helpers!

A summer thunder cloud rolling across our valley.

Those Little Turkeys!

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Momzoo

We have had a lot of fun raising different types of fowl on the farm, they all come with unique traits and challenges. Recently we added turkeys to the flock, they are funny little things and they can be pretty absent minded at times. About two weeks ago the graduated from the brooder to their new digs in a newly remodeled shed. After about a week of being cooped up we allowed them to free range, figuring they had homed to the shed.

I need to stop doing that, figuring on birds and their tiny brains.

Those turkeys love to range, they go all over and forage like champs, I love watching them. But something happens at dusk, those turkeys forget where “home” is and bed down wherever they feel like it, the potato patch is a favorite, a cozy corner by some fences, under an old sage brush. So about dusk Dadzoo and I take a stroll down to the turkey shed and look for our lost birdies. Dadzoo has become quite the expert at herding turkey with two long bamboo poles, I think it comes from his years if experience being a dad to a whole bunch of kids. Have you ever herded 7 children down a crowded church hall after services? Dadzoo has! Dadzoo, he’s a man of many trades, and turkey herder has been added to the list.

Fun fact: did you know that turkeys make the sweetest chirping sound and they will call until every last bird from the flock is safely together.

Christmas is a Craft

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Momzoo

I’ve talked a lot in past years about simplifying Christmas and focasing on the true meaning and all that. I truly believe it, as a family we’ve done different things and over the years I have scaled back, somewhat. I have a confession though I love to spoil my kids at Christmas time. We dont buy them toys, or clothes, unless needed, at other times of the year, and I like to shower them with gifts once a year. I enjoy it so much.

“Little Man’s” afghan, he wanted dark red.

However,

this year, Christmas is going to have to be a craft. I’m cutting back like I never have before. Finances aren’t shaking out like we would like or had planned on for various reasons that I don’t want to go into right now, and things are a bit…tight. I’m a crafty girl, I totally got this. Last month I mentioned in passing I was thinking of crocheting all the big kids a blanket, and what colors would they like, if that’s what I did. I was shocked at the responce. You would think I had given them the moon! Since then I’ve been asked several times if I would PLEASE make blankets. So here I am, in August rushing to finish five afghans before December. I think I’m as excited as they are!

Baby Eggs

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Momzoo

It’s always so exciting to me to find the first pullet eggs in the nest boxes, our little chicks we got in February are now laying quite regularly. Our new little girls lay three different colors of eggs: white, brown, green and dark brown. Dark brown is a new color for us and I’m excited about it.

You can tell a pullet egg by the size, they are new little hens and lay cute little eggs, as you can see in the picture below, gradually the eggs will get bigger as the hens mature.

After some losses, a hard molt, too many roosters messing up my ladies I’m glad to see egg production on the upswing, I’m thinking I will have extra to sell soon!

Oh Saturday

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Momzoo

Oh Saturday! That very special day where we work like crazy to get all the big projects done that we don’t have time for on the week days. Our Saturday staple, of course, is weeding, lots and lots of weeding. Seems I am an expert at growing all sorts of noxious weeds, my speciality: bind weed, AKA morning glory. That is one wicked weed!

this Saturday was particularly busy, we worked from sun up until sun down with a small siesta during the peak heat of the day. Along with a few hours weeding, which was tough work in the long neglected areas we took care of, we also harvested 30 pounds of new potatoes (digging potatoes is as fun as it is exhausting) and slaughtered and processed eight roosters. Eight roosters may not sound like a lot, but since scalding and plucking are new to us (usually we just skin them) it was a long, educational process, a prelude to the 11 turkeys that are fattening up in the middle pasture.

My body was so sore by the end of the day. Oh the homestead life, only for the brave or insane, I’m afraid I’m starting to view myself in the latter category.

To top it all off, Dadzoo hung out in the chicken yard with his trusty shot gun until 2 am, waiting for our friend Pat the raccoon, who was a no-show for the first time in weeks! So rude. Now a normal woman, heavy with child, would have kissed her hunter goodbye and gone to sleep, but since we’ve established I fall into the “insane” category, I instead lay awake waiting for the sound of a shot gun, ready to call 911, because surly he would miss the raccoon and hit his foot instead.

Fortunately, this insane, pregnant gal was wrong, instead I got a tired frustrated man dragging himself, safely to bed. I guess I won in that regard. Raccoon-1, Momzoo-1, Dazoo-0, incase we are keeping score.

And that, my friends was our Saturday.

(This funny contraption is our solution to needing lots of boiling water to scald chickens, it takes about 4 hours to bring 55 gallons of cold water to a boil over a fire. BTW wet chicken feathers stink. Another fun fact, pulling feathers aren’t really that hard, just messy)