Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Screw count, I day dream of these chicks. I can already see and hear them slough there is no sign of hatching. She's been sitting on them for about 3 weeks...hatch already!

Piglets tomorrow!

13 weeks old, asking $60 each. Perhaps she'll go for $150...buy 2 and throw in a runt 1/2 price?

Raking in the Rain

My office dwelling 9-5ers therapy of choice tonight. 

Cover crops werent a top priority this fall so I'm blanketing the garden with leaves.  I hope the chickens will use it as a midwinter blues buster by frolicking and scratching through the deep piles before the garden catches up to the already snow covered yard.  It will also be nice to recover the ground of the chicken kennels with fresh leaves through the winter.

Perhaps the pigs will root through the deep pile of leaves on a cold sunny sunday afternoon? Yes, I must make sure that happens.

mountain rain

When it rains I have a routine inner dialog:

1. When's the last time each dog was outside? I should probably let them out pronto before it pours.  Three of my dogs boycott going outside in the rain, that battle is easier won in a light rain or sprinkle.

2. pull the towels and bathmat off the deck railing. confession...towels and bathmat alike are currently rain soaked and flopping in the wind. I didn't feel like folding the items in the dryer and they quickly became too saturated to hang in the house. They'll get a good post washing machine rinse and dry smelling as if the cloth was infused with mountain air.  Granted the first few times I use the stiff line dried towels ill yearn for a fluffy machine dried replacement. My dryer often runs to unwrinkle clothes before I fold or hang them, to counter that extra usage I line (or deck, over a door) dry all blankets, towels, pillow cases etc. I haven't yet embraced the way clothes fit and feel when line dried, there must be a technique I'm not privy to.

3. Are my car Windows shut? Did i think it felt like rain enough earlier to plan ahead or are all windows down as low as they can go without cali being able to jump out?  I'm sure my car has been rained in more than most. I was once the recepient of a note taped to the door of my rental house senior year of college with the following scribbled 'white corolla windows down' and have commuted to work sitting on a plastic bag over a wet seat more times than id care to admit.

4. Do I have any frozen marrow bones for the dogs? Marrow bones are the perfect pacifier for pent up dogs stuck in a one bedroom tenant house.

5. Organize, read, sleep, or clean?

Rainy days are the only times my house feels cozy.  I need to find a solution before spending a long winter in a home I don't enjoy. Suggestions? How does one make a space their comfort zone?

Pig pen progress

It's getting there.  Pallets make for mucho painting, so many boards!

Sadie kept me company through the last sliver of sunlight.

pallet pig pen

Broody!

Novembers Full Moon

Know to the Algonquians as the Beaver Moon and Hunters Moon to the English.

Easy to understand why.

Tasks requiring light were accomplished under this mighty moons illumination

Bluemont has its fair share of black stary skies, but tonight...not one of them, the Blue Ridge met a blue night.

Much was done under this moonlight tonight.

coop relocation
brooder coop created
9 eggs candled

A majority of the eggs appear to contain chicks. This first year layer buff orpington has been sitting on 10 eggs for about 2 weeks now. Nervous about winter brooding but so excited at the possibility of home grown chicks!,