A Few Pictures To Share.

Little Miss Gennie is always getting up in a tree and then deciding she does not want to be there. She finally got down when she somehow ended up in another tree in the front yard. I got the ladder and helped her down. She was very happy. I was too.

"Tara Mi' Sue" is my new Corgi puppy. She is adorable. She is very playful. She will have puppies when she is about a year old. We welcome her to our family.

Kittens again at the farm. The kittens are so precious. They have just gotten to where they like to run around and play. This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago.

These are my" Fan Tail Dove" They are sitting on several eggs. I read where the male and female take part in the incubation of the eggs. They work together as one. That is awsome.

Exciting Times

I am so excited that my horses April and Fancy are due in April. April who was born on April 1st is due the first week of April. Then Fancy is due two weeks later. I will have two new babies on the farm.
I am getting the gardens ready. The one below the house is for flowers and the one behind the barn is for vegies and Sunflowers. (I have help from Barry-- a very hard worker)
I have planted seeds that include... gourd, sweet peas, morning glories and others in containers around the house.

I am having the front porch done with a railing and replacing the colums with a different type of support. Then the back porch will be enclosed with heavy screen or wire and that will be a patio area. The contractor is working on the details for me. It will be beautiful. Then he will build a building for the cats to live and be fed in. There will be a regular door at the porch where the little swing gate is now. It will be pressure washed and painted. It will look just like the picture I found in a magazine. I will post pictures when it all gets done.

I am so glad to see daffodils blooming They are one of my favorites.
I am also making Artisan bread. It takes 6 days for the bread to cure. then on the seventh day you remove some of the bread to make loaves and continue with your "mother" base for the bread. It is a lot of fun and all natural.

I will post pictures soon.

It is exciting at the farm and I am just loving it.

I have a friend move up here from Florida. It s wonderful, Pictures will follow.

I am tired and way past my bedtime.
God has surely blessed me and may His blessings come to you as well.

COLD on the way

Hearing a lot about the weather today. Supposed to be very cold. I have to make sure all the animals are as warm as they can be. I will put extra blankets out for the cats and young cats. I have hay for the horses. I will have to feed extra corn to the chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guennies, who ever else flies by. I have my bird feeders full. I love watching the wild birds feed. I give extra corn when it is very cold becasue corn creates warmth in birds or what ever else eats it. It is a carb and turn into surger I think. I an not too good at the break down I just learned working at the feed store --more corn in winter to keep them warm.

Here you see my friend, Celine Young, she came to visit the farm. She loves the animals. She is dressed warm with her ear muffs on. When it is Summer time she comes by a lot and plays with the kittens that live here. Celine is a very special friend of ours. We like her visits.

Faqncy the horse in the picture is going to have a baby in April. She is a very kind and gentle horse. She is easy to get a long with. She has her moments though. She was a baby when she came to live in TN two years ago. She is three now. She will be a great mom.

We are all just going to try to stay warm as we can. We will get another round bale and maybe an additional one making it three here at the farm. What ever we can do.

More about the barn

Here is Summer and her baby Diliah and Ruby my dog. Ruby is curious as to who the new face is at the farm. Diliah is not a bit worried about Ruby because her mother takes care of her and would not let anything happen to her. You can see the gate to the stall in the barn open for Summer and Diliah to go in when they want to.

I just love the barn. It just says so much and has so much personality. My barn sits on a hill and it is an eye catcher for anyone coming up the road. You can see Lad grazing on the green grass there by the road that leads to the barn. I use the road to drive on to take bags of feed, hay and other things to the barn.
I store my 4-wheeler in the barn. I use the 4-wheeler for quick trips around the pasture to check for damage to the fence after a storm. Sometimes if all the horses do not come up to the barn to eat I take the 4-wheeler to go and find them, It is handy to have one of these on the farm. I always drive very slow because I do not want to scare the horses or make one of them hurt themselves. I do not want to get hurt either. I have to store the 4-wheeler away from the horses. Horses are naturally curious. They get into a lot of things and some things they should not. Here you see Lad at the 4-wheeler. I be he wants to take it for a spin...no way Lad. I love you but it's not happening!!

From this view you can see two of my flower gardens and the barn in the background. It is a lot of work on a farm to keep everything looking nice, I like it that way. Everything looks like it all belongs together. I like that!!! It is like one big flowing work in progress all the time.

The Barn

The barn is the largest building on my farm. Yes, it is bigger than my house. It would be nice to make the barn into a house. The barn is very important because it is a place to store things used on the farm. Some of the tools stored are for my garden and yard work. I also store my saddles and tack there. Tack is what I use on and for the horses. I have a room just for tack and feed. I have my saddles, bits, heas stalls, halters and all sorts of things I may use with the horses. In the "tack room' I have two feed barrels for the horses grain and other containers for chicken, geese , duck and guennie food. They all enjoy corn. In the winter the corn helps them keep warm. Corn produces sugar and carbohydrates and in turn keeps their body heat up. The chickens lay fewer eggs in the winter. The days are shorter as they require a certain amount of sunlight for laying eggs. The ducks do not seem to care if the days are shorter. I found a nest of duck eggs in the horse stall. I have stalls to keep horses in. Sometimes I may put another kind of animal in one if the need arises. Right now I have the two baby horses each in their own stall. They are in there to be out of the harsh weather we have been having. It has been colder than usual. Right now it is snowing. It is really cold. If kept in a stall they are assured of getting the proper amount of feed they need for growth. They are growing like weeds. I brush and work with the babies in the stalls and in that confined area makes it much easier. One time Delaney my riding mare got her hooves trimmed and it was cut too close. Much like trimming your fingernails. Anyhow she could hardly walk so I bought large bags of pine shavings to make a thick layer on the floor of her stall so she would not put pressuer on the sore hoof. I worked out just fine. She got well in a few days and was back out in the pasture like new again. In the barn I hand up old tools used in the barn over 50 years ago. The barn was used to store hay. At other times it had tobacco hanging in the rafters to dry. In the spring when I do not have hay in the loft I have it set up like a living room with a couch and rockers. It is a great place to be in the spring or any time of year. I do a lof of self expression in my barn. I am a patrotic person as well.

I brought in one of my female goats when she was about to have a baby and put her in a small stall. I kept food, water and hay for her. There is a certain sound a goat makes when she has a baby. I know it when I hear it. I have helped deliver many goats and love being there to help the baby come into the world. Here is Julie with Cesar right after he was born. When he got bigger he went into the pasture with his mom and other goats.
Here I am in the loft of my barn. You can see the may bales of hay in here. It is very important to buy good hay. Bad hay can make your animals sick or kill them. Horses are very sentive to hay and any mold that may be there. I use my old hay for bedding for other animals in the winter. Sometimes I put the hay in my garden for keeping weeks down and keeping moisture in.

At the holidays I put a tree in the barn with lights on it. Last year I hung the icecicle lights in the barn too. It is a pretty scene at night and the people who drive up my road like seeing the lighted tree at night. I was at the fruit market and was talking to a lady there and another lady spoke up and said "you are the lady with the tree lit up in the barn" I said yes. She told me how she and her grandchildren loved seeing it. That makes me very happy.

Here you see Delaney with her head over the gate when she had to stay in here becaue of her hooves. She did not like it but she had to recover so she would be able to walk on her sore hoof.

She got well and was out in not time at all.

Snow at my farm

Snow Pictures Dec 01,08

I just love the way the snow settles on the limbs.

These girls know how to have fun. We had a blast today just being kids--all of us.

Cannot forget our furry friends. They had a lot of fun too. Here are Lucy(black), Napolean(Lucys son-Sorrel) and Marshmallow.

This is a very cool picture. I have it as my screen saver. It is just a different angle.

Yes I had a great time. I got smacked right in the face with a snowball and loved every minute of it.