I found it

Here is a pic of a raised bed garden using bricks/cinder blocks :) She has a great blog, check it out. :)

Meet Judd

Friday I went to the chicken auction in Yoder, but bought nothing, turns out they were not selling any chicks only full grown chickens. There were pigeons, peacocks, rabbits etc, the cages were so tiny and it was really cold. They really do need to consider holding these types of events indoors. Anywho, the evening was not lost as dh was following behind with the trailer to pick up AR's new jersey bull calf. He named him Judd, not quite sure why but hey.

Judd is a friendly little fella and really is a joy to feed. He is playful and very eager to explore everything and everyone. He is a week old now and having him home gives us a better idea of what the vet was talking about with Valentine. She was never able to get her balance even at 9 days old, and she never did quite figure out that whole nursing the bottle quite right. In retrospect, this maybe why Lot responded the way he did when she was born, and why Marian didn't try to stop him.:(

I expect that Judd will join the herd soon, he is still just a little thing and I want him to be able to strong enough to handle the hazing ritual that they seem to require for acceptance. I'm sure Treva will be happy to have a face like her own in the crowd, he's her future suitor :) In the meantime he is rooming with the chicks and enjoying all of their noises.

Chickens are weird

So I sent dh to pick up a few (25) more chicks yesterday from Atwoods, I got 2 huge boxes from work and I joined them together to create a very spacious brooder for the group. We decided to combine the original 10 with the new guys. The have 2 heat lamps, 2 feeders and a huge waterer. The boxes are covered by a fitted sheet made for a toddler bed (I don't own one of those nor a crib so it was perfect). When you open up the lid to do anything it feels like the tropics in there, I am very tempted to live with them instead. :) I noticed last night that some of the chicks like to sleep by the waterer, it's odd really because they are actually standing in the water, attempting to sleep. Now if it was just 1 I would think nothing of it but there was a group of them.

This morning we woke up to find that there was still a group in and around the waterer sleeping, then we noticed a black mass in the waterer which we naturally assumed that they had pooped in the water. Turned out to be the body of one of the chicks, then there were 2 more :( As I said they are weird. All the rest have been accounted for, I am glad the bigger ones have adopted the smaller guys. Though I am always a bit worried the way they huddled on them. It is amazing how big the original 10 are, babies sure don't grow that fast in that short a time (though it feels like they do sometimes). I highly recommend picking up a copy of Sue Weaver's book on raising chickens if your new to it and/or thinking about it.