I ALMOST KILLED HER!

The Title said it all!!
I am so STUPID! And I hate this! I almost killed Daisy on Saturday!
I have written about Daisy in the past and she has been my constant companion for the past 10 years or so!
When we moved here to the Homestead, She was given 3 acres to run around in and she loves to be outside with me. I take her out when I work on outside projects and she sticks pretty close most of the time.
Because she is black, she can get over heated pretty fast and she  finds a shady place to lay down and watch me work!
Well that is what she did Saturday, While I was removing the potato tires from the garden and taking them to the storage area. I have loaded them up and had made my first move to the storage area and was going back for more. And as I pulled the truck forward I ran over Daisy! Stupid, Stupid, STUPID!!!!
I normally check to see if she is under there, But not this time! And she did not hear the truck start and get out of the way.
The right rear tire rolled over her and she Screamed and was trashing around on the ground. Elie (Terri's dog was out there too!) ran to her side and at first would not me near Daisy! But when she saw that I was trying to help and calm Daisy down, She just sat and watched.
I called the Vet and met her at her office and she said that Daisy's left front leg was broken pretty badly. She gave her a shot of morphine for the pain and waited for that to kick in. She wanted to get X-RAY'S, But wanted staff there to help with that, So she gave me some med's for Daisy and we came home.
I placed her on a pillow in my room and made her as comfortable as I could. She was pretty drunk on the morphine and slept for the next few hours.
Around midnight she was awake and in a lot of pain, So I got her to take some water and got the first of the pain med's in her. I sat with her until they kicked in and she went back to sleep.
Sunday morning, I got up and she was awake and thumping the floor with her tail (I guess she was telling me that it was OK and that she did not blame me!). I got med's into her and she even had a half can of dog food. I got some water for her and she took that .
I had to work last night and I try to get a few hours sleep in the afternoon. But Daisy started to cry and I though it was because the med's had worn off, But she let me know that she wanted to go outside, By hobbling to the back door. So I took her out and carried her down the steps and put her down in the grass and she put her head in my lap (I think she was forgiving me!). She did her think and wanted back in the house.
 Jump to Monday....
I got off work and came home and took Daisy to the vet's for the X-RAYS. Came home and got a few hours sleep and called the vet around 1430. The vet said that the leg is broken 3 ways and because it was so high up the leg she could not splint it.
She talked about surgery and the cost of that started at $2,200.00! And there was no guaranty that it would heal right. So we decided to bind her leg to her chest and let nature take its time to heal the bones.
I will be taking Daisy in to see the Vet each Monday so she can rebind the leg and monitor the healing. She told me that Daisy could still loose the leg. We just have to wait and see.
Like I said, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!!!
TOM

Egg Hunt

Hey All,
Remember when you were a Kid and on Easter Morning, You would get up and be all excited to get out there and find all the Eggs the Easter Bunny would leave for You?
Well I have that to look forward to each day! As I allow the Chickens Free Range, They do not always lay Eggs in the Coop. I recently found  clutch of 11 Eggs behind the Heat Pump and today I found a clutch of 18 under some Fence we had recently removed to move to another location!
I only find 2 or 3 Eggs in the Coop each and I knew that they were laying somewhere else in the yard. I just had to keep looking and hopefully would find the the Eggs before they went bad! The Temps have been very low the past few days (Lows at night have been getting into the 60's!) and The Eggs I found are in a cool place in the deep grass.
But that's what I get for allowing them to Rome all over the place! They seem a lot happier that way and they help to feed themselves!
The "Golden Comets" are working out very well and that Egg production is crazy! 160 Eggs to date! I have even sold my first dozen the other day! I have 4 dozen in my fridge right now and Terri has 2 1/2 dozen in hers! Good thing we all like Eggs!
Tom

And here they are

As stated in my last post.....Pictures of the new GIRLS!

As you can see, They are about the same age as my other girls...5 months? And tail feathers are missing on most of them. They were raised in a small pen and that was fine when they were small Chicks, but as they got bigger and overcrowded, pecking of tail feathers became the norm.

This one has some, But not what they should be!

I love the color and the way the white shows around the neck!

This is a better picture of her.

So now all I have to do is get the two flocks together and wait for the Eggs to start flowing from all the birds!
As it is, I'm almost at 100 now! With the 14 I got yesterday and the 3 I got today........96! I have 4 1/2 dozen in my fridge and Terri has two more at her house! That's a good thing...Right?
I was told that I will soon have to put a sign in the yard to try and sell some. But that's the idea! Maybe I can sell enough to at least pay for feed!
But the flock is at 12 now and it looks like I do not have any Roosters. And for now that's OK. I will think about adding one or two later so that They can hatch some babies next year!

This was one of the biggest dreams I had for the Homestead! Before I got this place and was still in the planing stage (Back many years ago), Chickens were at the top of the list of animals I wanted to raise. And I think that 12 is the number for right now!
So I can cross them off the wish list and start thinking about Ducks!
Tom

Meet the new Girls

I know that I promised a DVD Review on this post, But life always seem to get in the way!
Today was no exception! I found an add on Crag's List the other night and I had to go pick up my new "GIRLS" today
Yep the Chicken Flock has been increased by 6! 6 "Golden Comets"! I did some research on them and was surprised to find that they are a Hybrid and if allowed to breed together, they will not produce another "Golden Comet". But that's OK, because I got them for the Egg production! 200 - 250 Eggs per bird per year (If on the low side, That's 1200 Eggs!).  I think I see selling Eggs in the future.
The six I got are about 5 months old and are all Hens. And they just started laying!
Speaking of.....I have been getting 3 - 4 Eggs a day from the other 6 for almost a month. But last week I could only find 1 or 2 in the coop each day. I though that because they are Free Range, that they had found a better place to lay. And today I found it! Right behind the Heat Pump! I had cut the grass and weeds down the other day and they though that it made a perfect place to nest. I found 11 Eggs in that nest and 3 more in the coop! That makes a grand total of 96 Eggs from the RIR and the Brown Leg Horns!

I will be taking pictures tomorrow and posting them, So you can "Meet The new Girls"!
Tom

Of Tomatoes, Butter and Eggs

Hey Everyone,
Because of work, overtime and rain, Outside work has come to a stand still. This was suppose to be my 3 day week-end ( Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). But I was asked to work overtime Sunday, and yesterday and today RAIN! A lot of rain and because my land does not drain very well, Lots of pond size puddles!
I have been doing a lot of research to see if I can correct that problem without doing a lot of digging and found a device called a SUBSOILER.
Ever hear of this and has anybody used one before? It is a device that hooks up to a tractor on the 3 point hitch and using the hydraulics, It digs a 2 inch trench 14 inches below the surface in areas that water has a hard time getting into hard packed soil (witch is the problem I have on all 3 acres here!). The price is not to bad ($130.00) and my compact tractor has the HP required to operate it (22 - 50 HP). The cutting blade is mounted on a narrow beam that cuts the surface very little, as the blade cuts a 2 inch trench 14 inches down. And that surface cut can be closed by running back over it with the tractor tires. That 2 inch trench stays open to give the water someplace to go.

But title of this post has to do with other things!

Tomatoes:
We have been able to keep the Deer out of the paste tomatoes (San Mariano) and have been getting quite a few each day. I have been putting them into gallon zip-lock bags and into the freezer until we get enough to do something with.
And that time came yesterday! We took 5 bags out of the freezer and cut them in half. Put them in baking pans with garlic, olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and roasted them in a 400 degree oven for 20 min.

The first 4 pans of tomatoes in the oven!

And the next 4

Two bowls waiting their turn.

And the garlic (That's from the garden too!

Once we got the roasting done we ran all of them Thu a food mill and ended up with a crock pot full of sauce. We set it on low and let it cook down all night with the lid opened at one end to allow to allow the steam out.

That's a full crock pot!

Better picture.

Ended up with 3 jars of sauce. I will freeze them. Not enough to fire up the Caner!

While the tomatoes were roasting,

The Butter:
I have read several posts about making butter from store bought Heavy Cream and decided to give it a try!

A quart of Heavy Cream from Wally- World!

A Stand mixer, covered with a towel. It went faster then I though it would! 10 - 12 min

12 OZ of salt free Butter

And about 8 OZ of Butter milk. We used it to make a salad dressing with plan Yogurt and spices. It was really good!

And here are two Kohlrabi that I got out of the garden. Believe it or not, the big one was sweeter and more tender then the smaller one!

And last the EGGS

The Chickens are 22 weeks old now and I got the first Egg on 16 July and then nothing until Aug 2. And I got just one Egg for the next 5 days. Now I average 3 Eggs a day, One of witch is a Brown one. As you know I have two RIR's and I though that they both were Roo's! But Knuckle Head has decided to be a girl and she is always sitting on the Eggs when I go collect them. So to date, 34 Eggs!!

 Last night we have grilled Pork Chops, Hash Browns and Farm Fresh Eggs for dinner. I fried the Eggs in the Butter we made and they were Wonderful! Mark was surprised at the color of the yoke and the flavor (That's a city Boy for you!).

So I think this is about enough for one post. The next one will be a review of a new DVD I just got. It's called "Back to Eden" and is a gardening film. But you will have to wait until the next post!

Have a great rest of the week everyone!
Tom

Sunflower Harvest

The birds have been having a hay day on the Sunflowers and if I wanted to get any seeds to save for next year, I needed to get some heads cut! Some of them were already empty and not worth cutting.

A tote full of Heads!  4 types of seed here.

As you can see, they are pretty full! I took them upstairs and layed them out on a table to finish drying. I a few weeks, I will rub the heads over a wire mesh to dislodge the seeds. Flowers for next year!

also harvested more Paste Tomatoes. We have been getting them for a couple weeks now.

And the first of the eggplant I talked about in the last post. Still not sure what to do with them. Look like Eggs don't they?

First of the carrots. Not very sweet tho!

And speaking of Eggs. I got two more this morning and another this afternoon! Can you see it in all the Eggplant?

Some of the Eggplant is bigger then the Egg! The Egg is the one without the green hat!

Tonight, work and off tomorrow. More to harvest I hope !

TOM

Annie

Carolyn over at karazoacres.blofspot.com asked for an update on "Annie". As you may know I rescued  Deer Hound back in late June and borough her home. Her and I have gotten into a retinue where after I get out of bed (day sleeper!), I let her into the house.
She first checks out Daisy's food bowl to see if there is anything left for her and then a drink of water. And then the Race is On to see who can get into my bedroom first! She jumps up on the bed and after a few turns, It's time for a nap!

So, Carolyn, here she is!

Just look at that face! She is really sweet! And happy that she is in her favorite place, MY BED!

I do not think she had much human contact before. She will be all tail wagging and dancing when I first get near her, But as soon as I place my hands on her, the tail go's between her legs and she drops her head. And she never looks me in the eye. But I'm working on that with her. I do not raise my voice around her and I talk to her a lot.

And not to be left out! Here is a very bad picture of Daisy. She knows that she is "THE BIG DOG" of the family and tolerates ANNIE for the most part.

This payday I will be taking ANNIE to the Vet for a check up. I believe she will have to be wormed and maybe put on some meds for what ever she might have picked up from the ticks she was covered with when I first got her. Hopefully the Vet can get her right and she will be a part of the family for years to come!

So another request answered.
As I'm finishing this post, Annie was asleep on the floor next to the AC outlet and all of a sudden she let out with a cry of pain and tried to get under the bed! A nightmare? It sounded like she had gotten her foot  in a trap! I picked her up and placed her on the bed and petted her and told her it was alright. She seems fine now and is going back to sleep. But that cry was one of PAIN and Fright! It scared me!

TOM