Getting Ready For Winter- Chicken/Duck/Bunny Barn

 This fall I had to replace some of the winter siding that I add to the covered run area outside the coop. This siding is simply heavy duty, clear shower curtains, Clear Gorilla tape to attach and zip ties through the holes meant for shower curtain hangers to fasten to the posts. I've gotten up to 4 winters with these shower curtains in most cases but this year several need replacing. It's not such a hard job and was done in an afternoon after work. As a few of the still in good shape, just not so see through anymore, I kept those ones and only replaced the ripped curtains. So some parts of the run are mo0re see through than others now!

Getting Ready For Winter- The Rabbits

 In summer the rabbits have a covered dog kennel run for their cage, it's very large and they love it.  In winter though the buns must move into the barn with the chickens and duck and must contend with a much smaller home. I do let them out into the fenced yard from time to time though so it's not all bored bunnies! Now they are old rabbits they don't dig out of the fencing and generally go back into their cage in the barn by dusk all on their own. It was certainly a different story when they were younger, Hayley and Tristan will remember trying to catch the naughty escaped bunnies many a time!

The Wild Garden

 The upper vegetable garden has gotten quite out of control! I needed to do some harvesting today and found it very hard to get to ripe produce without damaging plants. It's all beautiful in it's own way but poorly laid out and overcrowded. Not my best effort! Harvested various types of tomatoes, beans and peppers. A few peas too. There is plenty more to come.

 In the raised beds I've just planted a second crop of carrots and beets. The raised beds near the upper garden have mesh coving them so the chickens don't get in. This morning a baby turkey poult, about 3 weeks old I'd guess, got itself a bit muddled trying to get out of the mesh. I think it saw the greens and got into the raised bed but couldn't get out and panicked. I heard it making a racket and was able to rescue the scared baby. It was nice to hold him or her. I would have liked a picture but didn't have a camera handy. I didn't want the scared baby to have to wait while I got one and it's good mama was nearby calling for it. I let the poult go back to mom and all was well. The turkeys have it all figured out. They do clean up crew in the farmyard when the chickens and ducks aren't out. They were also sending the babies in to get some food today while the chickens were out! The wild turkeys are smart and interesting birds. I like having them around.

Brush clearing helpers

 Last few days I've been clearing brush in the dog's fenced yard. They wanted to "help" I guess. They dug huge holes and uprooted some brush. Pretty efficient method and here I am needing a brush cutter, loppers and a mini chain saw! Of course I was trying to leave the patch of brambly berries for the birds until the fruit was gone but the dogs had other ideas and some of that is what they uprooted!  

Fine weather for ducks

 Generally shutting up the farm animals for the night goes very smoothly. Once in a while there are detours to navigate to get to the goal of getting all chickens, ducks and rabbits to bed. Tonight it's just pouring rain. I was trying to wait for a break in the rain to shut up the farmyard gang. No break came so off I went with my jacket, mud boots and headlamp on. The ducks didn't want to go in, they love the rain. They did head in when I called- after a bit of reluctance. I counted NOOOO only 8 ducks not 9. One of the black birds was still out, Rocky! Rocky is Hayley's duck, I call her Rocky Talky sometimes because she talks a lot. I found her without too much trouble and persuaded Rocky into the barn. I didn't even get to the point of counting the chickens when I heard a noise outside, a chicken noise. One chicken hadn't gone in and was in fact in the adjoining vegetable garden. I don't really know why she didn't make her way in maybe the heavy rain confused her, the chickens like to go in at dusk and often go in early when there's bad weather. This chicken, one of our Polish chickens, named Star (or sometimes Goldie or Goldie Star) looked quite pathetic and clearly needed help. BUT the garden has gone crazy this year with the heat and the rain, it's a jungle. Trying to make my way through it without damaging anything is hard enough in daylight on a nice day, in the dark with pouring, sheeting rain, well not easy. I'm sure I broke plants though I tried very, very hard not to. Finally made my way to where Star the chicken was. I managed to get Star to safety and dry her off, she seemed fine if bedraggled. Then it was indoors for me and a complete change of clothes as I was soaked through. 

It's Wild!

 I was recently asked why I call our little farm "My Wild Homestead". Simply put because, it's wild here! This is true of both the pets and experiences my children had growing up and homeschooling and  also the land where we live. We're not mega rural but the forest always tries to win back any land we clear for play areas, animals areas, orchard and gardens. And since there is forest all around plenty of wild creatures visit. We share our land with turkeys, bears, coyote, bobcats, foxes, wild rabbits and deer. Very occasionally we see a Moose. Endless small creatures are always around, birds, cats, squirrels, chipmunks.... 

This delightful creature, a young buck deer, was watching us garden today. Must be plotting his future meals based on what we're growing, haha. 

A bit later, when I didn't have my camera the deer was peering over the fence into the chicken yard, well those chickens and ducks were in a major uproar! The deer was so curious but the birds did not understand why it was looking at them so much. Never fear their fence is 6 feet tall at that point and anyway I don't think an herbivorous deer wanted them on his menu. He's just curious.

And these hooligans are always around. KitKat's turkey friends. 

When it came to animals in our lives my husband and I generally tried not to say no too often when the kids wanted to learn about, care for or give a home to animals. Sometimes it had to be a no but more often it was a yes. Dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, a chinchilla, assorted lizards, hamsters, gerbils, rats, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, tarantulas, turtles, degus all resided here  at various times over the years. Even goats (for a VERY short time, a friend was giving them up so we offered to try but they weren't a good fit for us at that time) were part of our family. For shorter stays there were always salamanders, tadpoles, frogs, toads, snakes, insects that were kept for a short time and then safely released. Occasionally voles, mice, birds, chipmunk and even a flying squirrel needed a little help to get over shock or a small injury (and yes sometimes our cats were at fault). I've probably missed something but that's a good overview. Current in house animal residents are 3 dogs (ages 9, 9 and 10), 6 cats (ages 4-15-ish) , 3 lizards ( ages 9-11) and farmyard animals- chickens, ducks and rabbits. We aren't adding more animals at this point with kids grown and hopefully someday down the line a travel oriented retirement but I expect we have a fair few more years with what we've got and they really are a lovely bunch of creatures.

As for classes in our homeschooling animals often featured and there was that one brilliant year that the kids did "Zoo School" for a year travelling down to MA. for the super cool classes in which they learned to work with many, many types of animals, everything from alligators to wallaby. At home the kids spent a ton of time outdoors, at the lake, in the woods, growing gardens, exploring, building, imagining. Our homeschool/growing up blogs from those years are called Another Nature Walk (younger years) and My Wild Homeschool (older years). 

It's a pretty wild area and a pretty wild life, we like to live close to nature and share our lives with creatures of all sorts in all different ways. I don't always catch pictures, I got a few of the bobcat once but can't find them. I do love the bear pictures from a few years ago too.

So yes that's why I call our little farm My Wild Homestead!