This was a very busy week. I started out trying to get the new garden space ready for planting. It had been cold, but I figured that it will eventually warm up enough to get seeds in the ground. I went out after watering the chickens, ducks and goats to fire up the rototiller and as I was tilling the pumpkin patch the snow started falling.
I eventually quit tilling and went in the house to warm up and have lunch. After lunch I went out to the yard and started raking up the small winter deadfall from the trees. This is not my favorite activity, but I managed to get about half of the yard done. I then went and cleaned up the clutter from constructing the isolation pen. It may have been monday that I skipped milking. As long as there are babies to keep the mamas caught up I don’t worry about it too much.
Tuesday I was trying to get things cleaned up and ready for company. I had my parents arriving, and a weekly meeting with some friends that got switched to my house, and my daughter was also getting into town with her boyfriend. I was just about to go into town to buy goat feed when Adam and Angela dropped by to visit their goat and feed the girls some apples. I did manage to buy feed and make it back out in time to milk and clear the parking space for my parent’s motor home. They arrived, the guys showed up for the meeting, and just after the guys left, my daughter and her boyfriend showed up.
It was still windy and quite cold, but we decided to have a fire in the firepit and cook hot dogs to go with dinner. I had made a slow cooker batch of my mom’s “Calico Beans” earlier that morning. I started the fire and when it was ready Jenni, and I taught Stephan how to cook hot dogs over and open fire. We had a good meal with good conversation and afterwards Jenni and Stephan took the last of our marshmallows out to roast them over the remaining coals.
Wednesday was my birthday. Your choices to fill in the blank in the title are 1) debt, 2) doodoo, or 3) we could just leave it blank. Dad and I got up early and went to breakfast with some friends from church. My wife had a Dr. appointment early and so she took the 6 million dollar dog in to daycare while she was in town. When we got back from breakfast, I had to feed the critters and release the “quackens” and gather eggs. when Jenni and Stephan came out, she started baking my birthday pie, and I retreated outside because the kitchen is too small for all of us to be in there at the same time. All of the chores got done in my usual extremely efficient manner and then we went out to my favorite roadhouse for dinner. Jenni surprised us all by picking up the check for all 6 of us. I got all of the animals put to bed and was ready to go to bed myself when my son called to wish me a happy birthday.
Zoey and Gracie
Thursday morning Jenni and Stephan continued on their road trip down to Las Vegas. Mom and Dad stayed for a while to have coffee with me and just talk, then they went back home to Fruitland. I started cleaning up the firepit area and began raking the other half of the yard. Late in the afternoon I got a text from the rodeo queen down the road asking if I could check whether her little goat was in labor. I checked, she was, I trimmed her hooves while we were there. Then we came home to have dinner. While eating we talked about how tired we were and should we go to choir practice. That is when I got another text saying the goat was really in labor and could I come down to make sure everything went OK? About 9:30 Zoey had one kid and was done. Gracie was on her feet within about 5 minutes. I waited until Zoey had her baby cleaned off and we saw the kid nurse. I left mama and baby to sleep and came home by 10:30.
I’m not sure I got anything much done on Friday, I did make it down the road to check on the new baby and made sure she is fully functioning. I got caught up in a conversation about irrigation with the two neighbors there as they were installing a new 6 inch run from the existing pump. I think I got more yard cleanup done, but that may be a figment of my fevered imagination. we went to a concert at the church that night.
Saturday I finally got enough cleaned up that I could run the weapons of grass destruction. The lawn looks halfway decent when it is cleared of debris and mowed. Next up is irrigation. I need to clear the ditch all the way back to the main canal. That will be fun, I already walked it and saw the weeds and gopher damage from this winter.
So on to the egg count for the week and month:
Week of 4/27/2014 thru 5/3/2014:
- Eggs: chicken – 69, ducks – 12
- Sold: 4 dozen (chicken)
- Cartons filled: chickens – 4, ducks – 1
For the month of April (3/30/2014 thru 5/3/2014)
- Eggs: chickens – 323, ducks – 46
- Sold: chickens – 19 dozen, ducks – 0
- Cartons filled: chickens – 23, ducks – 3
I should probably note that last weeks totals should count 2 dozen chicken eggs and 1&1/2 dozen duck eggs used for meals while company were here .
Foot note: the first duck egg in the incubator just “pipped”
The eggs are hatching!