New hens and nesters.

 Chickens are hilarious! I just spent a few hours this morning cleaning out the sheep shelters and putting up a new chickens nester. I put this one up in the next stall. The coop is to the right. I had this old wire nester out back in the goat barn, so got it cleaned out and brought it up here. I have 34 hens now, so thought I might need a few more nest boxes. But do I really?

The white hen jumped right up and started getting her nest all nice and fluffed up.


Then this other white hen jumped up and decided this was a great nest box so she got in too. They love each other so much they have to lay eggs together. Silly chickens!

Even over here in the coop. Togetherness is the key. Why mess up a whole other nest box, right?

These are the new girls. I picked them up after the market last night. One of the other vendors went to a 4H auction last weekend and got these for me. They are Black Sex Link and 3 of them look like Black Austrolourpe. 3 of them have had their beaks clipped. I hate that! Why? But they all look good. One has a crooked foot but seems fine.

They will stay in this tractor a few days til they all get to know one another. Then I'll let them out after I put the others back in. Then eventually they all need to go in the big coop. Right now, the 4 black hens and Black Bart the rooster, still go in their little chicken tractor at night and the others go in the coop. I'll just have to take that one away and get the black ones to go in the coop.

Some of the others coming to say hello. Black Bart was doing his thing earlier. Introducing himself to them. It was kind of cute.

So now I have 34 hens and a rooster. And he has not crowed yet. He's about 5 months old I think. When will he start crowing? I really miss that. He's a handsome boy too. So hopefully I'll start getting more eggs. There were a lot of hens in several nesters awhile ago.

Alpacas?

The past 2 days I have had my booth set up down at the community center for this re-enactment. It was totally not what I was expecting at all. It was a little disappointing for me. Not near the traffic or throngs of people I was thinking would be here. But most of the traffic was routed down Hog Jowl Rd to the East of us, over the ridge. And we had signs up too. Anyway, it was fun and I did sell a lot of soap.

So I was next to an alpaca person. Her name is Susan Darling and she had My Little Darling's Alpaca farm. She sells alpaca wool and also knitted  and felted items. She also has her spinning wheel with her. Anyway, we talked the whole time we were there. I have met her before so had talked to her before this a few times. She has about 60 alpacas right now. She had taken in 10 from a couple who had to give them up due to health reasons. She can't seem to find people to sell them to so is going to give them up to a rescue group in a few weeks. She has a vet coming to castrate all the males.

As we were talking about this, I asked her if she was just giving them away. She said she would give me 2 of them if I wanted them. I have NEVER wanted an alpaca. Ever. Nor a llama. Nor a donkey. Always said I would never have any of these animals. They scare me. And llamas and alpacas are ugly. And they spit! BUT their wool is amazing! I love alpaca wool.

SO, I have about 1 1/2 weeks to think about it and make up my mind. I told my husband and asked him what he thought about it. He really could care less, as long as it's not pigs. So I will go to her farm this week and look at them. If they spit at me I will not get them. If not, I will consider it. I would love a brown one. I think the 2 she said I could have are white and a tan color.

Does anyone have alpacas? What do you think about them? I would love to hear more about them. And there are 2 different kinds. She did say the Suri's she has are a bit high-strung, so I know I don't need them. Big decision for me. I also need to buy a hair ram and a Boer buck in the next few weeks too.

Help for a fellow blogger

http://mysticmud.blogspot.com/

I have been reading this blog for some time now. She had her 11th baby a few weeks ago very premature. They are at Vanderbilt in Nashville. I just feel like I need to share this with you all. She needs all the help she can get right now. Please help if you can or just pray for them. I'm sure it's all appreciated.

Beautiful morning here in the cove.

 What a beautiful morning! The sky was just amazing.

This leaf has been hanging from this web for days now. Finally got the camera and took lots of pictures. This one looks like a sea horse floating on a boat. So pretty with the clouds behind it.

The sunrise was awesome. Again. I just love the view across the road. Can you see the horses over to the right in front of that little tree?

                                                                  Just beautiful!

I saw Stella looking in while the sheep were munching on some old bread. I thought she just wanted to come say hello to the sheep...

But her and Bubba had something else they wanted. They love bread too! Leelah came to check them out. She was stomping her feet too.

And here's Sandy, the pig goat. This is so funny. Here she is, munching away at this hard roll I gave here, with Zarah and Zeeboo head butting. And she doesn't even notice. I do believe I have a few goats in heat. But I am waiting til next month. No more early kids for me.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

150th Civil War re-enactment Sept. 21st and 22nd.

It's already starting. The trucks and trailers full of horses and wagons and cannons and who knows what else. Going to the end of my road to Mountain Cove Farm for the 150th Civil War re-enactment this weekend. It's a little exciting now. I was really dreading this whole thing.  I don't like traffic and lots of people. I'm usually the last one driving on my road on the way home, way out here in the middle of no where. But already, I am seeing a lot of traffic. Especially in the mornings, with work trucks and ice trucks and dump trucks.

It's quiet right now.

But soon, this little lane will be bumper to bumper with cars and buses and campers.

Just over this little hill is where it will all happen...

Can you just imagine these hundreds of acres filled with thousands of people and horses? Tents and campfires? Soldiers all over the fields? I  don't know. It's just amazing that all this will be happening way out here in just a few days. Just amazing!

Our little community center , just about 1/4 mile from me, will be a country store. We will have lots of people selling a variety of goodies there. I'll be selling soap and jelly and preserves. And a few other things too. I am excited about that. 2 long days and lots of people.

Y'all think about us way out here. And if anyone is coming, stop by the community center and say hello. I'd love to see you there! Or stop by the farm on the way.

This is how we do it 'round here...

These 2 guys are amazing! This past Sunday, my mother and I were at Baskin Robbins, eating some ice cream. The store is to the left of this picture. This parking lot faces 2 ways. One toward the shops and the other toward the road. This white truck is facing the road.

So we're sitting in the store. I look out the window and see a green truck backing up. Then I see this white truck moving. The green truck just hit the white truck. Well, the driver pulled up and was going to leave, but looked right at me looking right at him. So he pulls up and the passenger gets out and runs across the lot to look at the white truck. He goes back to  the green truck and they start leaving.  It all happened so fast. So when the trucks hit, I asked the girls working if it was their truck. One of the girls looks and about that time, her boyfriend and his friend were coming in the door. She hollers at them to go look at the truck, that it just got hit and the people were leaving.

So the guys ran out the door, across the lot to look at the truck, ran across the other way to their truck. And I saw them flying after the green truck, that was at the road, leaving! These boys followed the guys to their house! They lost them a few times but found them again. They called the cops on the way and told them what happened. They waited at the end of the guys driveway til the police got there.

So the men live in Walker Co. The hit and run is in Catoosa Co. So we waited for a police officer to get there. By the way, the truck is owned by the owners of the Chinese rest. next door to BR. They had called the police too. So he gets there. And since it's on private property, they would normally just do a report and give each person a paper to fill out with each other's info. But since this was a hit and run, IF the driver has any record, like suspended licence or anything, they will arrest them. But they would have to come back to this county. So, a little while later, we see the green truck coming into the parking lot with some police cars. You can see the green truck in the back. And see all the police cars here? Not much happens in Ft. Oglethorpe.

They all get out. Next thing we see is a cop handcuffing the driver. He gets put into the 1st officers car. They also handcuffed the passenger. We don't know why. But we did hear the driver had a suspended licence. Plus he hit the truck and left. He could have other things they found too.

But the whole point to this is, I am just so impressed with these 2 teenagers here! They just went above and beyond what anyone else would have done in a situation like this, I think. Jacob, on the left, is the driver. He wants to be a police officer some day. I think we really need a guy like this. He did so good. And did it all right too. His friend, Aaron, was the caller. They both were awesome! Really makes me think differently about teens now.

It never pays to do anything wrong. Someone is watching and will found out! I don't know how this would have turned out if the green truck driver had gone in to find out who's truck he just hit and tried to do something then. But he probably didn't have insurance either. If my insurance ran out or my licence expired, I'd be the first person to get pulled over.

Just wanted to let people know, there are good kids around! pat some on the back for me!

Pumpkin spice

One more soap last night. I LOVE this one. Smells just like pumpkin pie. And it's pretty too.

So just need to get all this soap cut up and set it on racks to dry.

I get most of my recipes from library books. I think Country Living has one. Can't remember the others. And this recipe I got off the internet. If anyone wants a certain recipe, let me know and I'll print them. They are really easy to make.

I would love an easy goat milk recipe. I have not gotten that perfected yet. It's always too soft. And it does not hold up well outside at markets. I would love to have an easy no-fail recipe that will be hard.