First, we took my two big heifers to meet their bull friend. They will stay and play with him until about the first of the year. The excellent thing is that they are just a mile away and I can go see them anytime I want. And if all goes well, by next Fall I will have two great calves on the ground. The first one will be named Cherokee.
While I was working on my school work Mom was busy but I didn't know doing what. I took time this afternoon and drenched all the goats with am Electrilyte, vitamin and mineral mixture. Everyone should now have a good dose of everything they need to be healthy. I even gave Chief one just because he is so little. I have noticed that the animals that have been born and raised in the Oklahoma heat seem to handle it so much better then the ones raised in a different part of the country. Just goes to show you, moving is hard on everyone not just people.
When I came in from my check of everything at the barn Mom said it was time to get to work. I thought she was nuts. I had just scrubbed two water troths and drenched all the goats. I had been working but Mom had other plans. While I had been working so had she. She had plans for a Duck Center, as she calls it. And she wasn't stopping until we got to work on it. Dad wasn't happy about it but he learned real quick Mom was not playing. We were going to make today positive.
I know I blogged about my plans for after this fair season but I also know I didn't explain to much about it either. So here is a better run down of my plans. I am going to cut back on my show birds. I am going to sell off all but a select few pairs of Chickens that I really love and my Laying flock. The laying flock is my Black Australorps and they will be here forever. They were my first breed and are now my own bloodline. I have breed show chickens in with my Commercial flock and made a good Flock better. I plan on showing them as well as using them for eggs. I am, however, moving in a new direction with my poultry. I am going to Breed my ducks. We seem to love to watch the ducks more and Mom loves to hear them "talk" as she calls it.
Anyway back to Mom and her "get to work" plan. Mom had been working on a plan to help me get a better set up for my Ducks. I am scared now that I can't keep them safe or that I can't keep them alive, let alone get them to breed and hatch eggs. Well, Mom says with the right tools I can do anything. And she set out to get me the right tools. First she told us she had decided her yard is just to big and she didn't want to have to mow so much. Then she asked Dad and Me if we knew we lived on a farm. At this point we had thought she had lost it. She hadn't. She explained that when you live on a farm you don't have to live by city rules. Mom is a city girl and worse a European. She has always had a clean yard. Prim and proper she would say. A place she was proud to say she lived. But that was just looks. She then told us that since we live in the country that means we can have things in our yard and not everything has to be at the barnyard. She then started saying that the garden was all dried up because of the drought and it was perfect for wildlife to hide in. You know what? She is right. So she then explained her plan to us. She said if we want to keep things safe we have to be able to see them. So she set out to make it happen.
On our way to clean up for the night, Mom saw a God Wink again. This time in the form of a baby bird. The nest had been blown from the tree it was in by the winds of change and all the babies but one were Dead. How can a baby that small survive such a long fall? Mom took it in to the incubator and it will be staying warm all night. In the morning if it is still with us Mom says she will puree some worms and eyedropper them to it. If it works she will be hand raising this little guy/gal until it can fly away .... She says she just knows that it has to work.... She says it was a sign from God to keep trying everything we can until the devil turns loose. Then when I went to put up the chickens for the night I couldn't find Daisy. She is my Duck you know? Well, I found her on a nest. She has 11 eggs and since it isn't safe for her to stay where she put the nest all night we put her in the coop and took the eggs to the incubator with the baby bird. Tomorrow we will sneek the eggs back and then turn Daisy loose and see if because they are still warm if she will still sit on them. If not they will come back into the incubator ... Either way ... more ducks on the way!!! Did I mention that yesterday three eggs hatched in the coop? I am telling you we have been so busy with the bad we have failed to see the good. There is good going on it is just being over shadowed by the bad and it took Mom saying we would see more good for us to see it ... sometimes Mom amazes me....