Turkey’s, llamas, and kitties, oh my!

On By stefrobrtsIn farm, mighty, pets, turkeys3 Comments

The turkeys survived their first day. Last night when I went to check on them before bed one was laying on it’s side and didn’t look good at all! I picked it up and saw it’s butt was ‘pasted up’ with dried poo. So I tucked it under my shirt and took it inside and washed the poop off with a warm wet tissue, then took it back out to the brooder. I didn’t think it would make it, but sure enough this morning everyone was walking around eating and drinking, and I couldn’t even tell which one was so miserable last night.


Today was the 4H llama area show, and afterwards I invited our club leader to bring the club llamas and drop them off in our pasture for a few weeks. We have lots of grass for them to eat, and her pasture is getting a little tired after being grazed all winter. So now we have six llamas, well four llamas and two alpacas actually. Jack went nuts when he saw them, baying and barking LOUD and non-stop like we’d been invaded! Barclay wanted to go play with them, but I wouldn’t let him. He doesn’t know not all llamas want to play with him like Houdini did, these llamas might just trample him!

Lastly, Mighty took a moment to pose for me in front of the spring flowers, and the orange sunset light seemed to make her glow! Pretty Kitty!

Chickens and soon..Turkeys!

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens, turkeysLeave a comment

For my friends who get eggs from us, here’s our happy flock hanging out in the pen 🙂

I set that chair out there so I could sit out there and enjoy the chickens, but they like to perch on it, and from the amount of poop on it, I have to admit that chair is pretty much theirs forever now – ew! I go in and hose it off every now and then.

Lots of grass and trees in our orchard for the chickens to hang around in and scratch around hunting for buggies and stuff. Of course their favorite area is right by the gate, so they have that scratched down to mud.

Nice shot of Penny


Big Red and her happy chicks in the ‘maternity ward’ enjoying a warm afternoon. It was just starting to get chilly as the sun went down, and the chicks snuggled up under her to stay warm.

Big Bird and I have established an uneasy truce. When I tell him to leave the coop so I can pick up eggs, he does, and he will eat out of my hands and let me pet him and pick him up. I still don’t turn my back on him though. The other day I told him to get out of the coop and he looked right at me, pecked my foot, and then ran out as fast as he could – sneaky bird!

And this is the brooder box with a heat lamp I set up today for the turkeys! Yep, I said turkeys. This weekend hopefully we’ll be getting a few Bourbon Red Turkey babies. I talked to the breeder this morning and he said they were just starting to hatch today. I intend for these turkeys to be food – holiday turkeys. He said they should be close to 20lbs by Thanksgiving. But knowing us by the time the holidays roll around they’ll have turned into pets. Unlike my hen-raised chicks, the turkeys will be in a brooder box getting attention from me every day, which should help make them extra tame, and that’s important with a bird as big as a turkey! But that also will make them harder to eat when the time comes. These are the first animals on our ‘farm’ that are intended to be food, so we’ll see how that goes.

Chick update

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized2 Comments


Little Red and her 7 chicks are doing great. She’s very protective still, but the chicks are starting to figure out that I bring treats, and that I might be ok despite Mom’s warnings!

These are Big Red’s chicks, and they are getting much bigger, and starting to get real feathers on their wings!

And this one is starting to get feathers on her legs too! That means she is one of Penny’s babies, part Cochin. I hope it’s a girl 🙂

Little Red and the chicks

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Little Red is the most skittish of all my hens, so if she even sees us looking at her from the window of the house she goes on alert, and if we go outside she takes the chicks back into the dog carrier and hides them. If we want the chicks to grow up to be friendly chickens I should probably take them away from her and raise them ourselves, but that’s a lot of work and she’s doing a good job with them so far. I think I’ll just let her keep at it for now.

Went for a hike

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Without my camera, again! I promise to take it along next time. I took Barclay and walked across the street to the park and hiked the horse trail up to horse camp. It gets pretty steep in a short distance, so it’s a bit of a trudge. At the top we stopped for a bit and sat under a tree and enjoyed the view of Yacolt Mtn in the distance, with threatening grey clouds interspersed with blue sky. Then we continued along the horse trail to the small meadow and cut over to the upper rim trail. About then I was regretting not bringing any water along because Barclay’s tounge was hanging out pretty good. So I saw a trail down to the lake and figured it looked like a pretty good trail, even if it was a little steep. Well, my mistake, it was VERY steep, and longer than I expected, even though the lake looks like it’s not very far down there, it’s actually quite a ways when you’re trying not to slide or fall on your butt! So we got to the lake without incident and he tromped around in the water and had a drink, and we continued on around the lake trail back to the beach, and then up to the parking lot.

The thing about Battl Ground Lake is that it’s a lake in a crater, and surrounded by ridges. So walking to horse camp takes you up to the top of the ridge, coming down to the lake level takes you back down it, going up to the parking lot takes you back up it. They aren’t particularly tall, but they’re steep. It’s a bit of walking. Good exercise though. From the parking lot it’s back downhill to the horse trail again at road level, and then it’s just a short walk home. We were out for an hour and a half or so. Apparently this did not wear Barclay out, because he’s been wrestling with Jack since we got home.

Before our little afternoon hike I rode my bike from work over to Burgerville for lunch. I was curious about the asparagus – they are selling asparagus now, but of course it’s battered and deep fried! I wondered how a fast food joint would sell a veggie. So I picked up a salad and an ice water instead and rode back to the shop with my lunch. So I got a bit of exercise there too.

Mowing the lawn

On By stefrobrtsIn lawnmowerLeave a comment

I have spent the last couple weeks fighting with the lawnmower. I think I mentioned last year how much I hate my lawnmower. I still hate it. This year the bearings the blades ride on wouldn’t turn (same as last year). Once we beat those into working we had to change the belt, and the new belts we bought online that were supposed to be an exact exchange, and cost a lot less than the OEM belt ($12 vs $50) didn’t fit. Luckily I had a spare OEM belt that was only partly worn out which I had taken off and hung in the garage last year, so I put that on. Replaced the battery and gas. Cleaned the gas filter. Took a flat tire to the tire place. Finally got it running last night. It makes some clanking noises it didn’t used to, and the steering and brakes need some work still, but it goes forwards and backwards and cuts the grass, so that’s all we can ask for right now. Can’t afford a new one, and without the sheep we have the whole 3 acres to maintain, so I’m glad we got this one working for one more season (I hope)!

I felt like I was running a race to get the mower running before the grass got too high to cut. It was close! We have a deal – I work on it, Dave mows with it. Works for me.