Heat and chickens

Heat and chickens are not a good combination. And it was really hot today. I have some Cornish cross that I am raising for meat birds. They do not tolerate the heat well at all. They have a really high metabolism and create a lot of body heat. I have 2 fans on them all the time. I had to be gone this afternoon to take Gene, my friend, to speech therapy. When I got home it was quite late and the guys had not been home yet because I had ask them to go pick up a truck load of oat straw to use for bedding and mulch. I checked on the birds and had 2 dead and 4 more not doing well at all. I got the water tank filled and added the vitamin/electrolyte solution to it and forced them to take drink. I might save 2 or 3 of those. Dang I hate losing birds like that. But such is life on the farm. I will add another water tank in the building tomorrow to make sure they have plenty of water. I should have known this would be a problem as I have had it happen before.
We have had another 100 degree day here. With high humidity. Kinda been a yucky day all the way around. I learned today that one of my classmates was dead when he was taken by some friends to the hospital. Not sure of the details but I really feel bad for his family. Then when I took Gene to therapy he tole me he wasn't feeling well and this really concerned me because we are taking him to therapy because he had a stroke. I kinda insisted that he go to the ER after his therapy and he did. They did another CT scan to make sure he wasn't having another stroke. Good news is he was not having a stroke. The ER doc seems to think it is where his brain is healing from the stroke and the nerve pathways are re-routing that is causing these symptoms. He said it kinda freaked him out when all of a sudden he could feel heat on his right side and before today it alas felt cold to him. We think this is a good thing. Needless to say I was so relieved to know he was OK.
I have not done anything here on the farm today other than check on my chicken and feed Slinky's babies. They are big enough to eat canned cat food now. So I put a can on a plate and gave it to them. They sounded like lil pigs eatin slop. The 5 of em cleaned the plate. They are so cute.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Working in the garden

Seems like I have been in dirt all day. Started out early today and went to the garden to better check my onion crop and decide if I wanted to go ahead and pull them or let them grow a while. Well I decided to let them be for another week or so to grow. They are a little bigger than I first thought but nothing to write home about. I set about pulling all the weeds away from them so they would stay dry and not rot. We have gotten so far behind with plowing and hoeing the garden its not funny. So I got the whole row of onions weeded and the carrots as well. As I pulled some big weeds I had onion bulbs come out too, so those are now in the dehydrator. Had a few mishaps with carrots too. Just sliced them and added them to the dehydrator tray to dry.
I got my new vacuum sealer in the mail today and tinkered with it some. I think I will like it to seal my jars of dried stuff for storage. It was kinda free thanks to Rob and the nice gift card he won from Bass Pro shops. And I got an email to let me know my dehydrator trays have shipped.

After supper we went back to the garden to hoe the tomatoes and get the mulch under them. I need about 6

 more bags of shredded paper to finish this lil project. It was getting really late when I got this much done. 

By time Rodger got the most of the garden plowed out it was almost too dark to see what he was plowing. We still need to go finish up tomorrow night after supper.

     

Some of the stuff still needs to be hoed out. But it sure looked nice with what we did get done. This is what happens when it rains and you get behind.

Our bread corn (Boone county white) is way over my head now and looks really good. I planted a row of Kentucky Wonder bush beans half the way down the side of this field of corn. They will be  a little later than the rest of the beans we have.There are also some cushaws, pumpkins and sunflowers planted on the row as well.  They get fertilize tomorrow night as well. 

The hay is raked and it will be rolled tomorrow. With the humidity it has been hard to cure hay. But it is doing OK now with today not being so humid.

So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Canning beets, fussin in the garden

I finally got to moving around good today and got to the garden about noon and pulled my beets. I had almost 2 5 gallon buckets of them. Washed em good outside and got them on to cook so I could peel and slice em up to can. Well to make pickled beets from, I don't like beets just canned. I think I ended up with 14 pints and 2 quarts of beet pickles.

And all the jars have sealed. I still have the dehydrator running out in the summer kitchen. So those should be done in the morning.
Went to the garden after I finished with the beets to see how the tater bugs were doing. They seemed rather hungry, so I gave them another dose of nicotine spray. The beans look really good, some are blooming. The tomatoes are blooming and setting tomatoes now. I simply must get in there tomorrow evening and mulch the tomatoes to keep them off the ground.
The fellow that cuts our hay has most of it raked and some baled today. He is also gonna bale the hay that was cut in the orchard. The guys got in there this evening at nearly dark and put up metal fence post beside each of  the fruit trees so they don't get baled. So now we will have some good roll baled hay to feed goats and sheep if we have some this winter.
Tomorrow is a new day, and I start over. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Too hot to be out

It has been more than hot today. The nice rain we had just makes the humidity that much higher. I took Gene, my buddy to therapy today, and on the way home the bank thermometer said 100 degrees. I do believe it was right. I dont normally have breathing problems but today the heat made it really hard. Kinda make ya run for cover of the nearest shade tree.
Back on the farm, the neighbors that usually cut the hay got it all on the ground today. He should start baling it tomorrow if we dont get more rain. Instead of paying us for the hay we are keeping some of the roll bales to use this winter for possibly goats and sheep. Some will also be used as bedding for the chickens. The hay looks thin in the picture but there is a lot on the ground when you walk thru it.

Earlier this evening I was on my way to the summer kitchen to check on the dried onions that are in the dehydrator and found a snake by the back steps. Not sure what kind it was but any kind scares the heck out of me. I killed it with a shovel that was near by and disposed of it. It was headed under the deck I guess to keep Luna company under there.

Not a rattler or a copperhead, my only other guess was a viper that is very common around here. Maybe he was like all other critters out looking for a cool spot. Did I mention I hate snakes. Well I do.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella