Good Morning!

[Killerbunny]

Well Miss Tweeps presented me with fuzzies this am. Gave her 6 eggs because she insisted and at least 3 healthy little poults. a couple of days early but Beltsville often do that.

Update - 6 out of 6!

[Happy]

Congrats KB!

[Ontario Chick]

Nice, new life always so much fun...and work

[WLLady]

Yay miss tweeps!!!!congrats! (my turkey needs some help.....she was sitting on 3.....2 rotted....the 3rd not fertile.....she's still sitting LOL).

[Kbr42]

Congratulations !

[baronrenfrew]

Well good day eh! I'm glad to see you are all ok (more or less). I am still kicking around, and just got a few bantams but I am trying to keep the bird math under control. I don't care to raise anything until I know what we are doing next summer as Carla has a sabbatical and we might travel far for a month or two. My knee got messed up last year so I sat around a looong recovery and weight went up over 300 lbs so now working at turning the tide there. I have a crazy backlog of stuff to do so picking away at it. This heat and smoke does keep me from exercising in any big way. Have a good day eh!

[Ontario Chick]

Good morning,
Good to hear you are recovering @baronrenfrew in this heat any effort to move counts as exercising...at least thats what I say to myself :)
We are still without any rain, I think @Killerbunny has been getting ours :)
how it rains downtown and we aren't getting a drop boggles the mind.
Raspberries are blooming again so I guess it's the everbearing variety, so If I manage to keep the birds of them should have some when the grandchildren arrive.

[Killerbunny]

Our raspberries have been great so far. Next lot just blooming.

[WLLady]

Morning all! Happy friday! Glad it's almost the weekend....
it's not really stopped raining down here. we get storms and then a break and then more storms. and it's HOT and muggy and just gross. So much for seeing any shooting stars this week too! been cloudy. argh! always happens to us....
Starting to make the changes we were discussing for once the livestock are scaled back. All the hatching is done for this year, with the exception of blue duck mom that is sitting on 20 more eggs (give or take) in the empty horse stall in the barn. Yep, same duck as the photo this month. Those 2 babies are all grown up now (and one is a beautiful white with blue, hoping it's a girl, but thinking she's likely a he because of the sheer size of those flippers). I'm going to sort out chickens this weekend-boys to freezer camp, others to replace old boys for breeding, and get the young girls into their final flocks. Garden is starting to wind down thanks to the blight and mildew that we just cannot keep at bay with the rain and humidity. Last cucumber picking this weekend likely, and the last of the potatoes to come out. Broccoli that was harvested has resprouted and i'm leaving it for the bees. They LOVE the flowers! corn is ready for the freezer, but i have to clean out and reorganize the freezers! haha. so that will happen too, likely today while it's stinking hot outside. Trees to plant in the fall, and i MUST do something about the mint as soon as it's done flowering. the bees love it, but it's taking over! have herbs to dry and all that stuff....busy weekend coming up! and bees to check too. and hopefully honey to extract! yay! my raspberries were a total bust this year, sigh. but i think the rhubarb did them in. or something. i really do need a dedicated bed for the raspberries. hope y'all have a great weekend!

[Bayvistafarm]

Good day everyone! I see you've all been busy this summer, its so hard to believe that it will soon be fall... but there are of course, signs. The geese have been on the move... (although some do stay... maybe not this year? Heard its going to be a wet/snowy/brutally cold at times winter). A lot of the swallows have left, although there ARE a couple stragglers in nests in the barn.

It was a very busy summer for me. Trying to keep up with the garden... but cutting grass kept me the most busy. Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach, and I usually don't mind pulling on the headset radio thingy, and driving around. Babysitting occasionally and stuff. Tomatoes are now just starting to get underway more, but I find myself doing them in fits and starts.... 4-5 jars at a time....I guess it all adds up. Cucumbers (pickling) were given away the first 3 picks.... before I decided I'd better do some. Good thing I did... almost right after I did 18 jars of mostly sliced dills for burgers/sandwiches... and a few whole dills... my plants started showing signs of that stupid blight. Ugh.

I did a few bags of green beans, but right now, with everything else on the go... they are like filled with bullets... so I picked most of them off the pole... and am hoping for a fresh flush of beans. There are flowers, they are 8 feet high or so, lol.

So many sunflowers came up by themselves in the garden, and I left them. The finches and such are enjoying the seeds now. A lot of them, have many flowers.... small... must be the black oil. I have been pulling out the odd empty stalk. The perennial beds have been amazing with all the rain this year!! But a couple days ago, had to water the garden against the south side of the house, and the west. Hasn't rained for awhile, and things are dry!! Never thought I would say that this summer, ha ha. Peppers have the pepper maggot... but I got my onions and garlic thru the leek moth. I spent a lot of money on the poles and the floating row cover... but idiot me, planted the pepper patch on the same plastic with holes 3 across. Too wide for the poles... the peppers would have been touching the fabric, and I would only have 1.5 feet height, lol. Heres an interesting new pest on its way. I swear I hate China for their invasive bastard bugs/virus's.

https://www.tvo.org/article/this-is-a-s ... lanternfly

Maybe when they land... they will eat all the wild grapes we have... there are SO many vines, as big around as my leg pulling down trees/shrubs around here. And they come up in the gardens/fields... thanks to the birds that eat and drop the seeds.

Can anyone tell me what breed of chicken this is? A friend got eggs from a friend.. and for the longest time she thought this was a hen. I told her I would take him.... thinking hes ameracauna?

I've spent a lot of time doing online training for driving a school bus for a new company this fall. They won out the contract for the next 10 years or so. 15 hours of courses.... most geared to teachers? Except for the WHIMIS pain in the butt... shoved down our throats so much.... bullying/sabrina's law etc.... had to do a police check.. did that online... a drivers abstract... went in and got that.... went for a driver evaluation..... and just went back again for an Air brake refresher on the buses. Driven an old truck with air brakes.. but not a brand spanking new bus. 5 feet longer than the normal hydraulic buses I'm used to... AND has staggered seats, AND a windshield that has NO post down the middle!! Radio.. NO air conditioning, lol.

So... I wanted to drive my old run I've had for 11 years... and although NO guarantee, I did get it. But with the driver shortage all over, they've (School board) has doubled up on runs... and so.... even tho I swore I would NEVER DO ELEMENTARY ... especially at night.... too many times I've heard on the radio.. parents not showing up... either a JK to grade 2 kid... and then having to drive all the way back to the school with them. Ugh. And they are noisy etc. Guess I'm doing elementary MORNING AND NIGHT after my highschool.

My highschool started 7:09 last year. This year, 6:40am. Get to the school before 8am.. which the bell rings. THEN go start a greensville run. Thinking this will be my grandkids run, right here thru the village... because I'm home by 8:30am.... will be good, because I'm babysitting Melissa's daughter Maren 3 x a week... and she will be the LAST bus baby I will have. I've babysat all the others... and had them on the bus. Melissa's daycare lady (from just down the road in Greensville... right close to her job (would/has been 5 minutes, but the bridge is being replaced at the bottom of the Dundas hill... and have to come up to Weirs lane (beside me) to go to Dundas. Or the Sydenham hill... which is brutal in the winter. So is weirs lane, LOL. Which I will be taking.. again. After my highschool at night... pick the kids up at 2:30, or 2:15pm.. not sure, can't remember... I go to an elementary in Rockton... and that route ends at 5:30pm. Sooooo, guess buses will be out and about dropping kids during rush hour, and I really feel for the drivers doing #6 hwy!! Cars run the reds on that road on a normal time day. (I sure hope I do NOT have a greensville route up that way.. but its possible!! Ugh.

I guess we will see how everything goes. And hope the 4th wave doesn't get any worse, etc. Course, sitting at home collecting bus pay, wasn't too bad either, lol.. although I'd much rather be driving and seeing whats going on out and about. I've been at home (other than the bi-weekly trip to see my mom in the 'home', and shopping/cleaning/visiting for dad)... and thats getting tedious!! I must admit... the trip to Paisley and Walkerton seems to take less time, now that I've done it repeatedly.

I hatched quite a few chicks this spring, and took the cockerels to Hagersville. I think I have about 25 or so pullets. I kept back a real nice Euskual Oila roo... all the babies dad is an EO. They should lay really well. The moms were diluted EE's... (most with an EO dad already)... and pure EO hens. Don't know how many will carry over the coloured egg Gene. They are doing well/getting big. I caught a bunch of keets when they hatched and ran outside/fell thru the barn floor pig wire covered holes to the downstairs for straw, and kept them in the barn until they were 2 months old. If they weren't so friggen hell bent of killing them selves off... they were doing just fine. Most days... there is one less or so. I'm down to 7 as of today. Wonder how many tonight? Currently, I've pulled three out of the cow water.. (they WERE roosting in the pen they lived in/and left door/food/water open and in there), but lately have been rooster above the cows... and jumping/flapping from rafter to rafter. Then fall down with the cows, who go crazy to kill them, and end up in the trough. Last night I took the last lavender one, and my old Royal Palm turkey to the bush, and flung them over a hill. Anything I bury in the manure pit... the coyotes come up and dig out. They come up and eat our compost/dumping ground for garden refuse.. and they especially love corn cobs. My old Tom passed also earlier, did the same thing. As far from the barn as I could drive in the bush, down into the ravine. I only have the red palm girl I got from Brebis left... and shes quite good!! I will miss the palms.. I may have to get some more!! WLLADY? lol.

The ducks I got from WLLADY, are doing well, but other than one lone hatchling (who did not stay with the ladies and died) the eggs are not fertile. I've been collecting them and using them for baking/eating them. They made a WONDERFUL pound cake the other day. More fat to add to my ass. The peacock has lost his train... and while HE also likes to roost above the cows.. hes never fallen down there, but his feathers rained down on the cows, lol. I did manage to grab a few.

I was babysitting sawyer today, and a short little rain shower fell.. enough to keep stuff wet.. as in there was a heavy dew that never did dry. Sun didn't snow either. Steve wants me to put the bee escape thingy on the hive... so they leave the honey supers he put on for them to clean out... but I'm not doing THAT in this brutal heat/no sun/muggy. The bees would fatally wound me, lol. I mentioned on the bee group I'm in for women, that bees HATE this kind of weather, and then got the lecture that bees have NO feelings, and cannot feel hate/stuff like that. OMG... well, I have that feeling for HER... why do people NEED to bring that up... it wasn't even HER thread that was started. Hmmmm.

Well, while Sawyer was here, I cleaned my whole entire downstairs/bathroom/vacuumed/washed floors. Feels good to have that done. Last week, I cleaned out the pullet barn too. And where the guinea's were raised up. Nice and bright and smells better too.

Well, I've rambled enough... guess its time to go outside. Sawyer went home, Dave was home early... too hot out on a roof I guess.

Hope everyones last days of summer are great, and I hope WLLADY that your surgery comes thru, and you can put that behind you!