A Few Residents of Laughing Dove Farm

A few of my Jacob Sheep grazing in the front pasture between the house and the gravel road.

A mama hen with chicks she hatched out and tends.

One of my ewe lambs. I had 19 healthy lambs born here this year , doubling my flock of sheep !

 This little curly mama hen hatched out her brood of chicks under our new chicken house. They are tiny bantams and will be tiny when grown up. She and her rooster are very protective of their chicks. The rooster / father of the chicks is a self-blue d'uccle I got from my oldest grandson a few years ago

Whimsy, one of our 4 dogs. She is my constant companion and protector.

Life is so good here, especially because I am blessed to share it with people and animals I love.

"Some people go through life trying to find out what the world holds for them only to find out too late that it's what they bring to the world that really counts." L.M. Montgomery ~ ' Anne of Green Gables'

Silly-Frilly Chicken Is Wearing the Green !

 Of course chickens don't wear clothes, so what's a chick to do to put on the green for St. Patrick's Day ?

 

 Dye her frilly feathers !

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you !

* This little frizzled hen had large mud clumps stuck to her feet and I needed to give her a bath. After shampooing her I rinsed her in warm water with green food coloring added to it.The food coloring will not harm her or her feathers.

Shoveling Poo , Spinning, and Packing

 Look at the late winter sun shining on and through the bottles in my Blue Bottle Garden. Some herbs are just beginning to poke through the soil, the rosemary is going strong, the lilac in this garden is budding. The temperature has been in the low 60's for several afternoons now, and the sunshine is making my animals very happy and busy about all the activities spring brings on in the animal world.

 My free-range chickens spend their nights and mornings in the shed in the left of this picture. I release them after noon to do what they love to do. Scratch the earth for bugs and seeds, interact with each other creating some very interesting chicken drama , nap in the sunshine. A few motherly hens stay indoors to incubate clutches of eggs.

 The chickens are scratching through piles of manure placed here for future plantings. These piles are from my sheep pen. My oldest grandson shoveled all the sheep poo for me. Over the past 20-some years my husband has built up the soil in our gardens using the many, many loads of manure from our sheep, goats, chickens, and rabbits. You know of course, there is a lot of hard work involved in shoveling all that poo. We don't have a tractor , shoveling is done by one of us ( me, husband, or grandson) requiring a shovel ,a wheelbarrow, and a lot of hard physical work.

 Sheep enjoying the warmth of the sun as they snuggle into a downed tree and stump.

 This is a flower bed on the shady side of our home. I dumped 2 wheelbarrows of mostly composted chicken poo into it yesterday. Two of the twenty-five overloaded wheelbarrows of chicken poo I cleaned out of a chicken pen over a period of 3 days. All by myself, just me and my shovel and wheelbarrow. Shovel, load, dump.Shovel, load, dump...25 times. That is a lot of poo. I have been so tired after shoveling so much poo that I have been unable to stay awake late , very unlike me.

In preparing to sell our home we have been taking down poultry pens and reducing the number of chickens I have. We are down to 2 pens of laying chickens, and my silly frillies ( frizzled bantam chickens ) inhabit the old shed and free-range. No more breeding pens for show chickens. I don't think I'll ever show chickens again but I will keep them for eggs and entertainment.

I cleared out my craft room. Last weekend my husband and I carried all the shelving out to the garage, along with many boxes and bins packed and labeled for the move. The craft room is ready to be painted and re-carpeted . After painting and re-carpeting I'll keep in my craft room only my sewing machine and all supplies necessary to work on a quilt I want to finish before we move. The supplies can all be contained in a big basket.

I have a lot of wool to be spun up into yarn. The 2-ply yarn in the picture above is some of my handspun Jacob sheep wool blended with Wensleydale wool  (500 yards of yarn ) spun up in the last few days. I spin most evenings while I watch television with my husband. I can get a lot of yarn spun up and don't feel like I've completely wasted my time when I watch t.v.

My past few days were spent spinning wool, shoveling poo, and packing. I need a nap.

Accomplished This Week~

1. Poultry pens cleaned and taken down.
2. Goat pen cleaned.
3. Craft room packed , ready for painting and re-carpeting.
4. Tea-cups packed.
5. 3 skeins 2-ply yarn ( 500 yards ) spun up and ready for sale.

Hanging Out, Giving Thanks

I spent last week bathing and prepping chickens for a poultry show. This is Lil' Blue , a bantam ( small ) self-blue mottled d'Uccle hen. I entered her and her mama in a show mostly because I love hanging out with the people who raise and show poultry. A few of those people are related to me or are long time friends. I have a lot of fun hanging out with chickens and the people who keep them.

 

I will be spending the next 10 days hanging out with family because my daughter and her kids want me around with them on a major holiday experience. My goodness, they want to hang out with me ! Well, I want to hang out with them too. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. When I am done having so much fun with my daughter and her kids I will be posting a give-away for the holiday season.

 

Thanksgiving = giving thanks ! "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Come unto the Lord with Thanksgiving." Psalm 100

Tea Time Tuesday ~ Prudence Olive-Egger

 I featured Prudence and her brother Cheepers in a blog post* awhile ago. There she is , a cute little chick sitting in one of my teacups.

 Prudence is all grown up now, and at almost 7 months of age she is a sleek black hen whose feathers give off a beautiful metallic green shine when the sun lights on them. Her mother is an Americauna hen who lays minty green colored eggs. Her father is a Marans , a breed of chicken noted for their dark chocolate brown colored eggs. I was excited to see the color eggs Prudence would lay. Last month she laid her first egg...

... and I am so happy to say she is Prudence the olive-egger ! Yes, she laid the olive egg in the center of the eggs I gathered on her first day of laying. I don't think I'll be bringing her indoors to sit in a teacup for any more Tea Time Tuesdays ,but I will give her a special treat of cracked corn and maybe some of the pumpkin left over from our fall decorating. I think she'd appreciate that more, but not as much as I appreciate her olive eggs.

Linking up to a new Tuesday parties ~

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage ~ No Place Like Home*

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party *

 

 ~Thankful today for a warm home , abundant food, and my husband's love.



Chicken Stitchin'

 I love to embroider but my stitching skills are adequate. Just adequate. Unlike this exquisite piece of stitchery done by Kathleen  , many of you read her blog Eggs In My Pocket*. I bought this on her Etsy * site a few years ago and love this towel . I only display it because I can't bear to dirty it . I've considered framing this piece but it looks very nice accompanying my chicken teapot on the tea tray.

 This embroidered rooster struts on a table cloth I found at a thrift store. I couldn't pass up the embroidered chickens and hand crocheted edging on this piece in perfect shape at a good price. ( cheap ! )

 Isn't it a perfect table topper for autumn ?

 Here's another rooster stitched on the table topper.

 This rooster was embroidered on a dish towel and given to me as a Christmas gift a few years ago from my friend also named Kathleen. My friend has embroidered a few lovely things for me and her stitching is so tiny and precise and beautiful.

I have quite a few linens I have saved over the years that were embroidered by family and friends. I also have a few things I embroidered, but my embroidery is lacking and I hesitate to give it as a gift. I do keep a small embroidery project in my purse ( along with letter-writing stuff ) to work on when I find I have time on my hands. Time on my hands means stitchin' or writin' . I am going to include a few more flour sack towels with chicken transfer patterns ironed onto them for some more chicken stitchin' because I do love my chickens , inside and outside !

 

Chicks Just Make Me Happy

 Two granddaughters spent a few days here with us and of course they loved holding and playing with my new chicks ( as in baby chickens ).

 How can you not love holding such tiny softness , such fragile beauty ?

You just try keeping these two out of the chick pen , no way... these two returned as often as I allowed to hold the baby chickens. Oh my, am I blessed ! Granddaughters to play with and baby chicks too. I hope you have special joys in your life, and I know you do. Just look around, see how your life has been blessed. No matter your set -backs , the tragedy and chaos you have suffered and maybe suffer even now, you can find even a small glint of light, of hope, of blessing. Bless you today as you travel on this journey of life and appreciate the every day things so many take for granted...a bit of food, a place to sleep, something lovely to look at and somebody who cares for you. You truly are blessed !

Me, my chicks make me happy, and my granddaughters make me happier , I am blessed !

Just Hanging Out With the Chickens

 I have kept chickens for almost 20 years now and have quite an accumulation ( hoard ) of old poultry stuff . The old waterers are rusting out and leak so I have re-cycled them. (Yeah...that's the word ! )

 Right now the tops of the waterers are keeping the fence posts dry , but I have a better use for them later. Um, well, I keep telling my husband that anyway.

 I have filled the bottoms of the waterers with plants, placed them on old benches around a comfortable Adirondack chair , along-side a table and there ya go ! I now have a lovely place to sip my morning coffee or tea while I watch my chickens. Hey....don't laugh, chickens are fun to watch !

My dogs agree, so there !

I am just hanging out with the chickens ...and the dogs. Happy moments for sure.

Spotted Chickens , More Eggs, & A Plan

 Spotted chickens seem meant for me don't you think ? After all I have spotted sheep, spotted ducks, and a blog called Spot on Cedar Pond ! These are my new chickens, Paint Silkies. They are immature half-grown chicks,  and I am pretty excited about them.

My hens are finally laying more eggs . Next month I can begin to expect lambs , order my new chicks, and begin thinking about..... well, check out some of my goals for my poultry here* and tell me what you think !

A New Year Of Possiblities & Blessings

 The Christmas decorations are all put away. The only indication of our festivities are the boxes of Christmas candy and Christmas cookies on the kitchen counter. I love Christmas and all the Christmas decorating that comes with it but by the end of December I crave clear counter-tops and simple, almost bland home adornment. I finally got my thank-you cards and a few very late Christmas cards off in the mail and now am preparing practically  for the new year around here.

 Today I separated my pregnant ewes ( female sheep ) from the ewes I did not have bred this past year. The un-bred ewes will be wormed & vaccinated Sunday, while the bred ewes will have increased rations. I put my ewes in with the rams later this year so am not expecting any lambs before the end of February. Here are a few of my favorite ewes. I can't help myself, I just love their faces and love to watch them.

 I also cleaned poultry pens today. Boy, that was back-breaking work and my husband came home just in time to help. And he was a big help ! He shoveled & carted at least 6 wheelbarrows of poultry poop & built up shavings from their pens to his vegetable garden. I shoveled and carted at least that many to areas in the back of our home needing such precious fill. I also dusted my chickens with the powder that rids them of poultry lice , added hen grit to their pens and contentedly watched them settle in for the night in freshly cleaned pens & nest boxes. I have to admit that all this heavy work takes a toll on me now-a-days and after this much work I need aspirin, hot tea, and rest. But tomorrow I'll be fine.

Now I feel I can begin again to craft with my wool , making more little sheep, weaving more rugs , and spinning up the wool my beloved flock produces into yarn. There is of course the anticipation of new lambs and new chicks in the spring, more special times with my husband of over 40 years, and the joy knowing we are able to spend much time with our grown children and their children. My home is clean, my animal pens are clean, a new year of possibilities lies ahead . My cup of blessings is full to overflowing. God is good, praise Him !

Our grandson is holding his prize Mlle Fleur rooster. Bugs has done very well with his chickens. This rooster is from his breeding program so the award is even more appreciated. What was the award ? Reserve Best feather-Legged Bantam. Bugs writes many of the posts for our chicken blog ~ Just Chickens *.

Rooster Rage

Roseville the Rooster, a pint size bundle of high strung rage when anyone comes near his little hens. Beware, you approach at your peril.

Hot Chocolate With Real Whipping Cream Snow Day

Tea-Time Tuesday has been postponed here at Cedar Pond .We had our first decent snowfall and had a snow day ! Look out my living room window, see all that snow? With 2 grandsons spending the night here, a day playing in the snow is called for.

                                                                                    

 My 3 Amigos huddle up next to the sun-warmed foundation.

 My sheep were seen licking the snow while waiting for their alfalfa.

The ducks warmed up IN the pond, and then scrambled for the crackers our youngest grandson scattered for them.

Today was a hot chocolate with real whipping cream after playing in the snow day ! Yes, it was.