Peppers Mansion - The Hen House

Finally!!!!! Construction has begun on the Chicken Coop! After 3 years of dreaming Peppers mansion is being built! (Brangelina eat your heart out!) She is already talking about red gingham curtains and a chair on the porch (what porch I told her???? Crazy bird!) wind chimes, and she is trying to figure out what to put around her mansion that will attract more bugs. She is driving me nuts with all her plans! I can't blame her tho', I mean really coming from where she has been, a barn to a mansion? Really! She deserves to brag...and feel the chicken-joy she is feeling. She is begging me to help her pack (pack what???!!!!) running around like a chicken - uh never mind....I just let her squawk about and chatter happily telling all of her new friends. I havent yet told her how she is going to have to share the mansion with the new chicks yet...I doubt she'll mind, she'll just think they are her servants and maidens and put them right to work. Train them while they are young!
So this is Day 2 of Construction:

Day One: I nailed in a pole barn nail into the floor joist My Hammer welding-victory lifting-I'm the queen-ceremonial picture was really terrible cause as usual I was talking and wouldnt keep my mouth shut and just smile so - bummer - no good picture of the nail driving ceremony!

The Frame is filled in with rock, they added more rock after they finished nailing all the floor-joist together.

This is Al, he is one of the neighbors, who is a carpenter by trade, who is building Peppers Mansion.

So....to wrap it up...I'm excited as all get out! Even more than Pepper is! I mean really! I've been waiting for this day for over 3 years now.......no...over 30 years! I've ALWAYS wanted chickens! No farm is complete without chickens! There is no greater satisfaction than growing/raising your own food! NOW - there are the birds that will be permanent flock that stay for eggs, entertainment, and lovin' like Pepper gives us! Somewhere between 20 - 30 - less or more...all depends. Right now we have like 40 birds and will cull down to birds that are gentle and sweet and all get along. The others......in my and Mari's the freezer to feed us for the next year, then do start over again in the spring and hatch our own chicks to raise for that purpose. My plan is to sell eggs this spring...we also planted an acre of sweet corn...and hopefully tomatoes at the local farmers market....Really looking forward to it! Next year baby chicks in the spring! So The only thing I need are some Coop Names, none are coming to mind, gonna hang a sign on the door...Oh yeah I didnt even describe it did I? I guess I'll do that as it starts looking more like a building! So if you think of anything...let me know what sounds good to ya!
Peace out!

Lots Going On....

Seems like its been busy around the farm and the world the past few days!
First Ed McMahn dies, then Farrah Fawcett & Micheal Jackson. Okay I must admit I'm really not feeling anything for Micheal, except maybe what comes around goes around. Then I found out about what these purple boxes are hanging from trees along the roads. Kentucky has quarantined 20 counties to contain Emerald Ash Boer's. Read More Here. Then Kentucky has limited cattle imported from Nebraska, Texas due to tuberculosis. Read More Here. Both information on the Emerald Ash Boer and the cattle are on the same blog, COSDA.
We have been busy on the farm as well. Norm has been raking hay this week, and will begin re-planting the parts of the soy bean fields that flooded out the soy beans. The warm humid weather has dried up those low area's quickly!
I've been working on the garden tilling out the weeds that are prospering with all the rain. A real job in this heat. Right about now I'm wishing we had a pool to jump in!!! I worked in the house re-arraigning furniture and got quite fed up with it all cause its just not suiting me one bit! Our office area and the living room are combined a long room and hard to make it all fit just right. usually I can decorate my house and fix all the furniture well and cute...NOT today! So Douglas, Gin and I went to town to Wal-Mart (I HATE THAT STORE!!). I didn't want to go there but Gin needed some yarn to finish a quilt she is making for the fair and I needed to pick up a few groceries. We made it to the mall so Douglas could trade in his games for a new one. I'm really lucky, he doesnt play much at all, but in the winter it keeps him occupied. He would rather be outside than anywhere else. We ate Arby's at the mall, which wasnt that great, but all of us needed something to eat.
Then I went to work in the barn. I actually cleaned cages, the rabbit, the dove (the baby one that cannot fly), and the chicken. I had so much sweat dripping from me I thought I was gonna drip away...it was like a sauna in that barn. I moved the chicken back to the barn and fixed her smaller coop she used in the winter back up and going to put her up there at night while she roost's. I'm going to let her free range during the day. She usually stays in the barn and not venturing too far out into the yard. Last fall and all winter she was housed there with my bottle calves and thought she was one of them! Her temporary coop we fashioned last summer when we got her (if you don't know - I found her in the parking lot of Doug's school. No owner could be found so we took her in). I was planning on a coop and getting chickens this year anyway, so the dog pen was converted for her. But the ice storm we got in January all but demolished it. Still was up but looks terrible. And I need the pen for Levi, my dog, to put in when we are working cattle and at night. He has done fine at night and keeps an eye on everything, but after Norm saw a BIG coyote this morning not far from the house I decided to put him up. It wasnt a normal coyote, it was taller than Levi, and moving through the day in the open. It is probably a Coy Dog. We have several of those around and they arent shy like a wild Coyote is. The are much bolder and pose a bigger risk for animals and humans alike. In case you dont know a Coy Dog is a mix between a coyote and a domesticated dog. They are MUCH bigger.
So I'm putting him there for the night since we often have the coyote's close to the house. A coyote usually dont come up to a house, but we did have several pay a visit last fall and we have seen them in the back yard about 10 feet from the porch. So I'm playing it safe. We probable wont have a problem, but since my dog is not aggressive at all and thinks every canine is a friend, he wouldnt fair well with a pack of them. Well he is like that during the day, but he does guard his territory at night and I wouldnt want to be someone coming into the yard. I've been working on my design plan for my coop though. Amy at Twelve Acres has given me some ideas with the chicken and the coop. And a Duck recipe for the one Douglas got. (I really need to cook it for him). He also has this squirrel he got a few weeks ago. Yeah only one, so a special supper for him alone! So if anyone has a good recipe for squirrel let me know!!! I'm hoping to work more in the barn tomorrow. It needs a lot of cleaning up. I've neglected spending time with the horses lately, so many other things that take precedent over them. I've been working on Buck (our Rocky Mtn.) coming up to me, he is shy with me (though he adores Norm, knowing him all his life) . Feeding time has become a time to try to get him more acquainted with me. I really need to get him out and groom him to improve our "relationship" but I just havent had the time. I hope to start that next week. I was really making progress with him until the two of us found out the hot wire fence was grounded and when his poor little nose touched the metal trough I was putting his food in shocked him he has not come up to eat. Rather when its feeding time he snorts around unhappily telling me "I am not under any circumstance going near that trough!". Poor guy, really set back all I'd done. I think he relates me to the shock! I hate that! I've been putting his food closer each night to the trough for him and he is getting close, about 5" away now, but I think it will take awhile to come any closer. he eyes that trough like its a monster and gonna reach out and grab him any second. (Yes I'm unplugging the hot box so they wont get shocked while they eat). Well as you can imagine I'm pooped and after moving around some concrete blocks into the barn to put the cages on my back is killing me! So I'm gonna head for the night....I'll have to catch up with everyone tomorrow if I get some time. I've got a lot to fit in tomorrow before the weekend, we are going to the lake for the weekend. So good night all! I hope all is going good, sleep well!
~*~ Rae~*~

Peak into the Past

When I was searching for pictures of my horse Babe...I got to see a bunch of pictures I hadn't seen in a few years. Some are really funny, or cute, interesting or just us...thought I'd share them with you! Enjoy!The boxer above was my dog Cain...I didn't get him in the divorce...That was terrible to leave him, Cain was an excellent dog! People think boxers are either mean or out of control and bouncing off the wall all the time...Nope just the opposite..very good dogs!Just us!

If you notice in this picture, the bottom left hand corner...that was my Koi Pond I made by myself...I miss it! Some bird pictures...I love birds! The two bottom left are a male hummingbird and a female to the right sitting in my wisteria bush...they got to where they didn't mind me at all and would often land very close!Molly, Buck, Georgia, and the little pony the little boy is with is Chigger...a great and gentle smart little girl! She belongs to my friend Johnny.Pics of some of the cats in my life, Bo when he was little, and a few of my cat Gracie's kittens..who were always in trouble, but as you can see..Like to read and fish!

Today was a really beautiful day! A high of 72f and sunny! We had a storm roll in tonight, but nothing big...tons of rain though! I'm curious to see how many inches we get in all tonight!

Guess What? Nope, Guess again? Nope...I GOT MY HAIR ALL CUT OFF! WOO HOO I love it! I used to wear my hair this way for a long time, I'll get a picture and post it in the next day or two! It feels sooooooo good! I dont look so frumpy anymore! I asked Sarah (my hair dresser) to make me look thin, well that didn't work! LOL Actually my face does look thinner with a shorter cut. I'm happy!

Today was house cleaning day, and I didn't get finished because our friends Donnie and Michele called and asked us to go out with them to dinner (Texas Roadhouse - which we spent WAY too much money just to eat there!). She had stopped on the way home from work to get some scratch off lottery tickets and won $40.00 and didn't want to cook, so we went with them. They are pretty fun to be around. Douglas is spending the night at their house with Neil (his best friend). I'm really excited about tomorrow! I pick Leah up from school and she'll be home for half of her spring break! Saturday we have plans with Mari to go to the Japanese Restaurant and then to a movie! I cant wait, I havent been to eat Japanese or a movie in a long time!

I plan on cleaning the barn this weekend, mucking stalls and such. Neil and Doug are working on the shed I'm turning into a chicken coop and possibly Goat Shed.....Its plenty big enough and will keep the goats here by the house to make milking easy. I'm wanting to till up where I want my flower garden to be, but we have a huge pile of limbs the ice storm brought down, to burn first. *sigh* Its time to plant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm making the garden with paths and a small area smack dab in the center for a wrought iron bench and 2 matching chairs we have! Bird feeders, plants for the birds (humming birds too), and butterflies! I cant wait to get what I have in my mind on the ground!

I know I keep saying this, but I really will email you back, who have emailed me. Kacy I need to re-read yours again before I respond....I dont want any of you to think I'm pushing you to the side. It's just been busy this week! Well...gonna run!

Catch up later!