March 31...10:10 PM Long day, short list..No Maybe's

Today was a waste, yet it wasn’t. Vicki had her appointment in Tannersville at 1:00 in the afternoon and we made that. Since we were so close to Richie’s house, we decided to drop the edited prints for the big barn off so he could re-scale and redraw it for us. I think I can create the lumber list from the drawing I did that isn’t scaled, but I will definitely wait for the footprint dimensions to actually start the final construction. We can get the 6x6x12’ ground contact type treated posts here in the mean time.

Went to Hilltown Agway and placed our order for 52 chicken pullets, 3 turkeys and 6 ducks.(wanted to get a picture of the ducklings & chicks, but there were none there today) All 63 of them will occupy the new brooding house for the first 2 month at least. Until then we will have the new barn up and the chickens and turkeys will then occupy the fowl room. In may, we will pick up the guinea hens and they will have a top shelf in the brooding house with the young runner ducks on the bottom. Finally all should be old enough to start free ranging and using the barn. The new runner ducks should then be indoctrinated into the duckie community……..We hope.

Here is a really nice drive way with a lot of appeal as it appears along the Schoharie Turnpike. Wouldn’t you like to live here? (don’t ask where the house is, for I couldn‘t answer that)

 

I can never find the house as we drive by???????

Here are a few pictures of Casey Mae, who is growing in leaps and bounds!

Casey Mae and Snavely Mill

 

This would be the long and short of it! Casey Mae & Puppy D. Pooh Bear (a.k.a. Bear) seems to be warming up a little to Casey Mae.

I shot a few pictures of the barn where we did the preliminary stake-out of the poles. It gives you an idea where it will be in reference to the house and duck house.

Facing North...toward the house.

Facing Toward the duck house. As you cansee, it lays a little wet here too. I know there isn't much you can see here now, but in the very near future, you will see a lot on this site, so stay tuned!

March 31st…Cold…34 degrees…Cloudy with a frigid Wind.

Where in God’s name is Spring??? If March comes in like a Lion, as it did, It should be going out as a Lamb… but it is not. We're tired of trying to do the necessary work on the farm with gloves and still end up with frozen fingers… numb toes and stinging ears. We need some relief…some of the sun’s warmth. We want so to see the type of beauty below in the warmth of summer when you can concentrate on all God’s efforts in creating such beauty for us to behold. It’s hard to appreciate things when you are shivering like a flag shuttering in a 60 mile per hour wind. You shake so that your eyeballs rattle and you can’t see straight. It’s so nice to relax in 70-80 degree temperatures when you can gaze upon such beauty for as long as it moves you to linger. "Sweet Vicki" took some nice pictures on the road yesterday which is almost like you're riding along with us to see what we are privileged to behold on a daily basis. Look what lies below...

Geese feeding near a lake on the Schoharie Turnpike near Athens.

Another Beautiful Lake on the same road going toward Catskill.

So beautiful... like pictures from a calendar.

Like a reflective mirror.

Getting closer to home... still watching.. still seeing.

Today, due to the frigid wind, I guess Sweet Vicki and I will work in the Brooding House to finish the chickie shelves. We’ll shoot a few pictures of the inside when it’s ready. This will probably be done after a “thunder run” to Agway to place the “Fowl order”. We’ll see……

Even in God's beauty, there is a little humor. Posted!

We heard a muffled cry from here..."help..I'm gonna fall over"

Finally… perhaps I’ll cover the changes on the barn with Rich on the phone to double check that what I’m thinking is correct and if so, I’ll re-generate the lumber list and head for Cooksburg Lumber tomorrow. (maybe… life here on the farm is full of maybe’s or could be’s and we just take em’ as they come… Maybe!)

When we got home, we finally saw our expected seasonal visitors. They nested here last year and raised 8 Goslings in the eastern field behind where we are building the barn later. We expect they will do the same this year also.

Yowl.......Too BIG, so we Sized her down some!!!

Well, today we made our trek to the Agway to find that they close early. No chickie, duckie or turkey orders placed today. We'll have to run over and do it tomorrow.

Also.....Today was very enlightening! After running to Lowe's and getting plywood, hinges and 2x4's, we grabbed the stakes and started staking out the barn. (again) YOWL..... 70 x 30 feet is way too big! We staggered into the house and redesigned the barn and came up with 24 x 24 feet with the push out office now 12 x 12 feet. We continued to stake that out and it looked a little better. The other one was large enough to play football in. This will make it way more affordable and quicker to build, but we still have the Bazillion stakes to drive where the fence posts go. 

We snapped pictures everywhere we went and even caught "Deer-Deer" in the front yard before leaving. I called to her at the end of the driveway and she came in to the yard to see me. While there, she found an apple we threw out to Bunnice Kay last evening. Bunnice Kay didn't eat it all, so "Deer-Deer" took advantage and did eat it. . as Vicki clicked the shutter and I talked to her as she ate.

 

She came into the driveway as soon as I called to her.

She spied an apple we threw out last evening to Bunnice Kay.

I walked closer and talked to her.

And Closer!

And Closer and Closer!!

And as close as could BE!!!!

But when she finished the apple........she was Outta There!

As we said in the past.....Spring is here. Look at the blossoms here now.

There is no disputing it! SPRING IS HERE!!

March 30th….. COLD! But we have a Pretty Blue Sky!!

The sun is up with a hint of warmth from the sun, but that remains to be seen. The bad thing about being up before sunrise every day is that you still cannot plan your day beyond what the stupid, seldom right, weather reports say. Like right now……..will we be painting the brooding house today? Who knows!…..Will it be warmer than 40 degrees?…..who knows! All we really know is that we can work on the inside of the building and get ready for the chicks. I don’t want to get chicks until the house is painted, due to the fumes, but I think if we can paint today or somewhere during this week, we’ll be ok, because the chicks will take at least a week to come in, once we order them, which we will do today.

We can also measure and drive the bazillion stakes in the ground to mark out the new Barn. That should make the eastern pasture look like an airborne porcupine landed there upside down from 20,000 feet. KERR-SPLAT!!

There will be 32 stakes for the barn covering 70’ x 30’ and then stakes for the fence posts around the perimeter of the east pasture, which should be another ?????? bunch of stakes which I won’t know until we actually run a soft tape around the perimeter today and actually get a measurement.

I suppose we will make another “thunder run” to Lowes or Home Depot if we cannot paint. If we can we will probably fly to GNH Lumber since it’s not quite as far as Catskill. For the price difference in 2x4’s and hinges, it really won’t matter where we grab them. Oh well, at least we will be shooting pictures for ya’ll where ever we go today.

We also finalized and printed our Logo on stickers which we will post on all egg cartons now and anywhere else we can to promote the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm. Below is the Logo sticker we are using. Up till now, all of you reading this were our advertisers and we still need you all to spread the word to friends, neighbors and acquaintances to read the web site and Blog daily. For all who do THANKS and KEEP IT UP!

                             

March 29 - 11:04

Spent the day gathering up materials for the brooding house since it was so cold outside. Got another gallon of barn red stain and the next nice day that it is over 40 degrees, we’ll slap another coat of stain on the brooding house……until then, we will work on the hinged shelves inside.

We’ll probably go to Agway tomorrow to order our chicken poults, Turkeys and ducklings. We will definitely have everything done before they come in and are ready to pickup. We cannot order our guinea hens until May we’re told, so they will have to wait.

Had my birthday dinner at the Mountain View Brassiere Restaurant on route 32 this evening. We all had excellent meals and exquisite desserts afterward. I am Truly Blessed with a great Family!! What a treat!!

I promise we will shoot more pictures tomorrow than today. Here are a few random shots.

 

Bunnice Kay Rabbit helping herself to some bird seed under the bird feeder. 

Picture of the beautiful Big Blue after sunset

Now a daily occurrence overhead as they return from down south.

The end to a Boaring Day and The Better Tomorrow

March 29th......6:47 AM

We are now over the Boring day and moving on....Come on Sun! With a beautiful sunrise such as this, perhaps the sun will melt the snow and give us back our Spring. I hope so......man, I'm tired of the winter weather and all the slop of snow melting. Vick is tired of the mud, and now we'll have that all over again too.

We went to Richie's house for dinner and Vicki and I were both presented with a very nice Bariloche pocket watch for each of our birthdays. Rich said "If you're gonna be a farmer, ya need a pocket watch!" Looking ahead, maybe we'll get some bib overhauls too. We will celebrate my birthday this evening at a local restaurant since mine was 3/27 and Vick's birthday is on 4/7. We will celebrate hers then and shortly after that is Anita's on April 22 and then Anita and Joe's anniversary in May 1st. We'll have a lot of celebrating in the next month, by-gollie. We snapped a few pictures for you to see until we get back to work on the farm again.

Snavely Mill showing Casey Mae the ropes around the kitchen.

Just before we left for Richie's we were visited at the squirrel feeder.

They come in rather close....even if you're outside.

Scenery along the road to Richie's house.

A very tranquil setting on a lovely lake. One of Vicki's favorite properties to view as we pass by.

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boring day

What an ugly day, nothing to do this morning.  Snow everywhere and Skip and I are beat from the past days work on the brooding house.  It's friday again and I have a chiropractors appointment and from there supper with the family, a friday night ritual.  I'm looking out the window in our office to see the pupskill froze over and my beautiful John Deere covered in snow.  Duckies will be unhappy, no swim today.  Casey Mae had her first experience with snow.  She woke me 2am this morning to go out and discovered the snow.  She definitely likes it since she had me up twice more making me think she had to go but instead just wanted to play in the snow.  I got 4 hours sleep in the early morning after Skip went downstairs for his morning coffee.  Casey is trying to get close to Bear but so far no luck.  See pictures.

Casey Mae trying to get close to Bear

Snavely Mill trying to help out.

A brave attempt.  My camera wasn't fast enough to get the next shot of Bear tossing Casey in the air.  Next picture is where she landed.

notice the mouth full of fur.

She left the room looking disgusted and hurt

She ran to daddy looking for sympathy

Princess got jealous.

Princess really loves her daddy

 

Gone the Spring to Winters Grasp Once Again.....

Again I awake to a beautiful sunrise? No, not today……for I have 2 inches of snow on the ground and more falling between changes to rain and back again to snow. I know it will last but a day, if that long….but I’m tired already! I want warm sunny mornings….soft, warm breezes and beautiful sunsets. We’ve done our time…we’ve endured winter since November of last year and had more than enough snowfall to satisfy winter. I suppose the robins and other summer birds that have recently returned feel like going back to their winter retreats, feeling and wondering if they have returned too soon. Give me warmth….give me sun…….give me full fledged Spring!

Pretty, but not necessary on my behalf!

Again, pretty, but I want no more!

Here are a few pictures of the gut gang members from last evening, late in the game…..just before we went to bed. Then it was mud…not snow.

Mud between my toes....yuk!!!!!

<FONTFACE="COMIC size="4" color="#993300" MS? Sans>Casey Mae is in need of her bed. She is so tired she has to lay down to eat her bedtime snack.

There are some pretty views of the snow after daylight.

Still doesn't look like Spring. So I'll stay inside and do some trim work around a door and window. Also, today, I will finish the lumber list, run errands and other stuff recently neglected due to construction. Pictures at 6:00. (or so)

March 27....Evening......Brooding House Completed

Well, we did it! We finished the outside of the brooding house and got the roof on without any rain. I think it turned out really nice for two old carpenters without a hammer. Most everything is level, square and plumb, which is more than I can say for myself most of the time. It looks like we might need to give it another coat of paint though……so Vicki will follow up on that, but I think she needs to get another gallon of stain.

Finished!

Looks Good I think!!

Nice shed to raise peeps in!!

Nice all the way around.

A little cleanup tomorrow and some more paint!

Ready for peeps next week!

I will now switch my attention to finishing the lumber list for the big barn, so we can get the skid steer in here and I can start digging holes and setting poles. We have a total of 32 poles to locate and dig holes for. Not a bad job if you have a skid steer with a post hole attachment.

There will be a ludicrous number of fence posts to plant around the outer perimeter of the field too.

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