Chickens and Rainy days

    I ordered 50 Freedom Ranger chicks today from www.freedomrangerhatchery.com in Pennsylvania. I spoke with Lisa. She was so nice and helped with a lot of questions. The chicks will be shipped July 25th and will be here probably the 27th. I went to the co-op while I was in town to see if the had unmedicated chick starter and vitamins for their water. They do sell Purina feed that is not medicated so I can keep all that junk away from them. I want basically a free range bird that can feed itself and only need a little supplemental feed. I have a whole yard for them to range in that's fenced in. It sure needs some chickens over there because the sheep have been in that yard. Lots of poop that needs to be spread around!

    I have a friend who gave us a wooden box that will be perfect for a brooder. I hope all 50 will fit. It's about 5x4. I'll be getting another one so I can put them both together. And then use them outside too. I plan to keep them in for about 2-3 weeks. So we'll have at least 4 weeks to make a chicken tractor for when they are small. I want them big enough before I let them loose so they won't go through fencing.

    So I am excited to be getting these chickens. I have heard a lot of good things about them. We shall see how good they are about the end of October.

    It's been raining for the past 2 days now!  It's been so nice. And cool too. I can actually see the trees and grass turning green again and looking very happy. We so needed this rain.I am very thankful for it. I only wish I could have gotten the garden tilled and planted with more things. This would have been perfect. But I still have plenty of time to do that.

Got Milk?

 This is what goes on here every morning and evening. Usually there are about 4 cats in here too but I made feta cheese yesterday so the cats and chickens got whey this morning. This is how the dogs get their milk. Stella, as you can see in this video, likes her straight from the goat's udder, please! They are so funny. And you can see Bubba looking at the teat, like he's saying he's finished and needs some more, please.

 Sophie is a lady and will have hers in a bowl. Plus she's too small and old to get up on the stanchion.

These 2 dogs are great at cleaning the stanchion, too.

 They all say thank you when they are done.

 Abby, finishing up her breakfast. She's such a good old goat. 10 years old and still the best milker ever. She's been a little droopy with this heat so I gave her a shot of Thiamine yesterday. Also mixing the goats up a bucket of brown sugar, mineral salt and baking soda in water. They suck that stuff up. I'm sure it helps them in this heat.

I tried to get a good shot of Sandy, but she's more interested in eating here.



Just a typical morning here at Outback Farm. What's it like at your farms in the morning?

Rain!!

 This is from the front porch. You can see the water coming off the roof. I think our gutters need fixed or cleaned out, ya think?

 Looking towards Pigeon Mt. Where is it? Behind the clouds and rain!

 Looking North from the front porch. Water just pouring off the roof to water the bushes and flowers.

 Looking out the kitchen door. Nice and wet out there. And it cooled off so much. I am so thankful for this little bit of rain. It has stopped but what we did get was much needed and very appreciated for sure. My sheep are happy!

I hope everyone who needs rain gets some soon. This was wonderful, if only for 15 minutes. It helped. It's been about a month since we have had rain here. All around us has had rain at some time but it's missed up by about a mile each time.