My Homestead this Week.

Good Friday to you, my friends!

I fully expect this Friday the 13th to be an abundantly blessed day!

I've been wrestling (and losing) with technology this week, 

as I have tried to get up to speed on the latest photo storage and clouds and poofs of smoke...

whatever.

All I know is, it took me multiple days to get just a few ding-dang pictures/video

onto this little blog.

SO....enjoy...make postcards out of them...print them on t-shirts!!

My homestead this week:

Wynona, my window chicken, in her therapy session with me

as I washed dishes.

Have a super great weekend!

Love ya,

Lori

Bad Chicken Mama

  I may have gone down a dark path with one of my hens, friends.

The deal is, one of my old girls has been so broody lately and I always feel bad taking her eggs

from beneath her, even though I remind her that, ummm, "honey, there's no rooster here, so ummm,

your eggs can't possibly be fertilized.  Do we need to have the birds and bees talk again?"

Apparently so.

But instead I did what any chicken Mom would do, I put a golf ball under her.

But now she won't leave her golf ball.  She sits on it day and night, day and night.

So now I am thinking I need to take it from her, because I'm basically lying to her.

I'm such a horrible mother!!

And look, even her friends won't tell her.  They just look at her like she's crazy.

Anyway, that's the latest drama going on here.

Everything else is just normal, mundane summertime stuff:

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Our Recent Goings-On (not at all exciting!)

Hello, all four or five of you who are still reading my blog!

Here I am for my weekly blog post.

Don't expect much because my brain is pretty mushy these days and I am doing nothing

amusing that is worth reporting to you.  What a surprise!

In other words, I am surviving and coping the best I can because summer break has begun.

(The last of my kids will be done with school by Friday.)

(It's completely ridiculously early for this nonsense!)

Here's my pictorial of our recent goings-on:

Brenden is home and working full-time and often studying for his actuary exam that he will take next summer.

He asks me to help him all the time.

I try my best not to him all the answers.

Isaiah continues to wear every article of clothing backwards.  

And usually inside out.

Along with Brenden's basic math equations, he saved up and bought a telescope.

A crazy-big telescope.

Astronomy is his first love!

Look at this awesome pic of the moon that he took!

Wowie!!!

Kiddos and kitties.

Lucy in our freshly plowed and planted garden.

Cattle on the beautiful prairie next to our house.

Well, that's about it, folks.

See, I told you we were up to nothing amusing!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest-of-the week!

Day-Date with K-Man! {and a great weekend}

Well, hot-diggity-dog!  K-Man has the day off and we are going on a day-long date all by ourselves, ALL DAY LONG!  By ourselves!  Alone!  I don't care if we do nothing but sit in the parking lot of a convenience store and eat nothing but roller-food the entire day, it will be completely glorious!

But first, here's a few snid-bits from our weekend:

 My kitty-cat sitting in my window-flower-box, watching chickens invade her space.

Isaiah, my most photogenic child, during his "workout."  In the barn, next to the tractor.

I started some projects!  And by that I mean, I took a picture of my supplies.  And that's it.

More on that later.

And I took a picture of this hen.  Because she seemed to want me to.  Isn't she lovely?  Actually, she's one of my more homely hens.  But it's her time in the limelight, so let's celebrate her!

It was THE most beautiful Kansas day yesterday...and I would pay millions of dollars to have every single day to be exactly like it, for the rest of my life.


And that's that, folks.  I hope you have a great day today!

Snowy-Snowy Sunday

This was our Sunday on the homestead yesterday.

Our first snowfall of the year!  

Not a ton, but enough that the Littles got out and enjoyed it thoroughly. 

*********

A Moment of Reflection...

Last Sunday:

YESTERDAY.

That concludes my Moment of Reflection.

*******

What a difference a week can make in Kansas, I tell ya!

The kids had such a blast!

And so did Zeke.

Oh my.  He looooooves the snow so much!

And K-Man was all excited, too.

Sure was!

So frigid outside!

But warm, cozy, and all set for Christmas inside.

LOVE.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an ugly Christmas sweater to make.

Glad tidings, my friends. 

Sunday on our Homestead [chickens, kitty-cats, and a big scary dog]

What a splendidly beautiful December day it was today!

And we took full advantage niceness.

And by we, I really mean all the ones who did outdoor chores,

hence, no photos of the younger quad of children.

Our kitty cat, Dino, disappeared for a few days...

and we thought for sure he had become brunch for a coyote or two.

Wahhhh.

But, no!  He showed up today, all hungry and happy to see us.  And we were equally as happy.

And the chickens were loving getting out of their coop, where they're been cooped up!

The temps really dropped low recently, and I'm here to tell you that these

feathered females do not like the coldness one bit.

But they sure loved today!

Lunchtime!

Remember back when I told you my suspicions of Zeke giving one of my hens a heart attack,

but I had zero evidence except a dead chicken buried in my mulch?

Well, looky here:

He didn't hurt THIS one...but he sure did scare the dickens out of her.

And this concludes my investigation of the Poultry Murder Mystery.

Poor Zeke, he really needs a friend.

"Midge, are you okay under there?"

This is Betty, my teeny tiny feather-footed hen.  She's the sweetest little thing.

And can she ever FLY.  When Zeke heads towards her, she just takes off up into the nearest tree.

Awesome!  Way to go, Betty!

Oh, and we had loads of fun when one of our lateral lines got clogged and sewer

water backed up into our basement (AGAIN).  Grossssss.

So glad I have a handy-man husband who can fix such things.

And look, here he is dressed up as a tree riding a tractor. Hahaha.

That's Nick supervising the project.

Manly men doing manly chores.

I love that.

And that concludes the bulk of the excitement for this Sunday on our homestead!

 I hope you all enjoyed your day of rest as well!

Dog vs. Chicken

This is VERY disturbing.

And sad.

And very VERY disturbing!!!

If you are sensitive, please don't read this.

DO NOT!!!

(I don't want a single email about how awful I am to post this.  I WARNED you, okay?!)

So, my dearest dog Zeke loves my chickens.

He loves to ignore them eating his food.

He loves to herd them all out of their hen houses, just because.

And he loves to chase them all over the yard.

He really does *love* them in so many ways.

And never EVER once has he tried to hurt them.

However.

Yesterday he was chasing them about and I tried to stop him, as usual.

But he didn't listen to me, as usual.

So I did my chores and came in the house.

Then, I couldn't believe my eyes, but out my kitchen window I saw him carrying

a limp chicken in his mouth.

I was SHOCKED.

I finished what I was doing, then went outside to see the heck was going on.

He sat and just looked at me...with a VERY apologetic look on his face.

Really, he did.

Then I went back inside and a little bit later, looked out the kitchen window AGAIN,

only to see Zeke burying the dang chicken in the mulch in my flower garden, 

right outside my kitchen window!  

REALLY?!

I never did find out exactly what happened, of course.

But I will tell you this, I don't think that dog killed that chicken.

I really think he gave it a heart attack chasing it and he felt so guilty about it,

he tried his best to hide the evidence. 

And that's the end of my dog vs. chicken story.

That's life in the country, folks!

hello, fall!

It has been so blasted hot here in the last couple weeks, until the other day!

A fall chill actually came upon us.  

Perfectly warmish temps during the day, perfectly cozy cold-ish at night.

Now really, let's stop right here because THIS is my perfect weather.

And my chickens think so, too.

The heat really stresses them out, man!

But THIS, this is perfect for them.

We are all living in a ridiculous harmonious state right now.

Goodbye, summer.

Hello, fall!!

And as for you, winter, you can just stay away for a good long time.

Thank you very much!

The End.