POTO makes my Friday complete

Rocking out to the Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary soundtrack today. Ramin Karimloo is a god. That man sure has an incredible voice.

I highly recommend the DVD (or bluray) of the 25th anniversary performance. Outfreakinstanding. In the top 3 of my favorite flicks EVER, and very possibly takes the number one spot. If you have Netflix, it's currently available as watch instantly. Check it out.

The soundtrack sure does make my Friday move a bit more quickly.

Big weekend ahead. Taking some chickens to my buddy Paula tomorrow. Looking forward to both thinning the flock AND getting Paula started with her first hens. Yay!


Happy Friday, all!

Hubby's weakness strikes again. Chicks!

LJ's weakness for cute little baby critters, and the simple fact that I didn't say no (though truthfully, I like em too!), and we have new chicks.

Instead of allowing the gals to set this spring, we're replacing culls, given away, and sold hens with new stock. Still gonna end up with fewer birds, which is the end goal, after all.

The little lady in the pic is, if I remember correctly, a blue laced red wyandotte. Also have two more marans (for the darker egg colors), two jersey giants (because LJ wanted them) and two egyptian fayoumi chicks (because they're tiny and weird, and thus hubby couldn't resist). Reading about fayoumis, I found this quote on Wikipedia... "...if left to their own devices on a free range basis they can fend for themselves in a nearly feral manner." Great. That could be good, or very bad. *sigh* So, once again, there are chickens in my bathtub. 

Upside of buying instead of letting the ladies hatch eggs... We know what we're getting, we don't have to feed useless roosters until they're up to some sort of butcher weight, and hand raising will get us new hens that aren't completely feral like the several of ones hatched last year. No joke, last year's gals are INSANE. If we have to catch them (because they're out AGAIN), they scream bloody murder and a couple of them BITE! Not pecking... I'm talking bite and twist. Stupid birds. 

Anyhoo, it's kinda nice to have babies in the house again. Feels like spring. :)

Duck duck duck goose... gander

Soaking up a little sun last weekend. From left to right, Crusty, Olga, Sven, Broccoli, and Beef(y). Goose Chalet and the new Duck Hut in the background. (My new duck hut is AWESOME... More on that later).

What happened to my goose babies

Bobcat. 

Gone are Affie, Baby Girl, and my big bitey jerky gander Bitor. I really loved him, for all that he was a bitey jerk. He had one hell of a personality. Sweet Girl passed a couple months ago, and we couldn't find a mark on her.  We figured there must have just been something wrong with her, but perhaps that had been a bobcat too.

Took precautions, weren't good enough. Damn cat came within 30 yards of our house. Don't know why it went after the geese instead of the ducks.  We ended up moving what fowl were left (the 3 ducks) to the pen next to the house.

Hubby went out and bought a furtaker's license and a bobcat card.  We'd determined it was a bobcat due to pics on game cams we'd set out.  Over the first weekend he had it, he got not one... but TWO freaking bobcats.  Both females.  @$#%@#$%#$  A friend of ours is a rather good hobby taxidermist, and we're gonna get his help to cure the pelts. 

I've decided that I won't have any more farm critters that are "pets".  We can't make our critter areas absolutely impenetrable.  Don't ask why or berate that I don't.  It's just not currently feasible, and I'll leave it at that. 


RIP my little goose babies.

 

 

We HAVE to get rid of some chickens!

Too many chickens. The ladies are really ramping up, and we're getting anywhere from 8-14 eggs a day. Craziness, and it's only gonna get worse as the days get longer.

Planning on culling a several of the poor producers and escape artists, and will be giving a few more to my pal Paula. That should take us down to nice small(er) number, and we'll be able to let Bellina and perhaps another hen hatch a couple batches of replacements this year. We're even considering buying some good dark maran eggs to pop under Belly when she goes broody. Fun fun fun!

Oh, and Paula... LJ will be on a new shift here soon, and I'll have some weekend time free. Totally willing to come help you dig your ditch. :)

Happy Friday, all!

Update: more to come

We're busy. Busy busy busy. Hubby is changing jobs, we're trying to get the other house ready to go on the market, balancing farm and work and sleep, new critters, heartbreak over lost feathered friends, and on and on. I'm going to make a real effort to get a few posts up over the next week. I've even been catching up on the blog lives of blogging buddies and finding a few new blogs of interest.

Hope everyone out in the blogging world is doing well!

I leave you, for now, with a pic of our two new geese (because all of my goose babies are gone... More on that later) and our ducks.

RIP Affie Girl

LJ found Affie dead in the pen this morning. Apparently she was next to the fence, all curled up like she'd normally be for sleep, but missing her head. :( She was my darling girl, and the only one of our original geese that I considered a pet. The very same goose that nearly committed suicide the day we brought her home as a gosling, horking down a piece of shaving that we managed to dislodge before she could choke to death.

Gotta love breaking into tears while at work. Not awkward at all.

I'm heartbroken.

We'll bury her tonight, and I will be beefing up the goose pen by headlamp and putting out game cams to see if we can figure what did it. :(

We'll miss you sweetie pie.