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Everything’s an Adventure When You’re a Puppy

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the homestead and we celebrated it by doing absolutely nothing more than enjoying the sunshine and mild temperature.

I take the dogs with me when I walk down to get mail each day, and although it is only 1/4 mile to our mailbox, the pups always manage to take me on an adventure before we get there.

Diesel likes to stop and smell the flowers along the way.

Our walk involves very little of the driveway. We need to do a bit of exploring through the woods. Look what we found off the beaten path.

It’s in the upper left, hanging from that skinny little branch. Last year’s home to a bunch of wasps. (Correction: My father informs me, and rightly so, that this is actually a hornet nest, not a wasp nest) We’re glad we didn’t run into that LAST year!

And what’s this?

Heaven only knows how long that has been propped against the tree. The cedar has actually split, and grown around the top of it.

The first recording of this property was in 1904. Some of the descendants of the first owners still live in this area and we’ve met a couple of them. They tell us this land was home to a lot of livestock at one time, which we can tell by all the fencing we’ve found throughout the property. It was farmed as well. The old timey way. Any ideas what that piece of equipment is? Some sort of hitch for a horse or two, I suspect. I’d love to remove it and display it somehow, but the wood pieces in it are very rotten, and it is securely wrapped in that tree right now.

But no time to dwell on that. The next stop is the cabin. There’s always something to sniff up at the cabin, and the yard is wide open and the perfect place to soak in some rays.

And now it’s time for our favorite part of the mail fetching extravaganza. The creek!

After a good rain, the creek is filled with running water. It’s not very full right now, but there’s still enough water to make a splash.

Dolly loves splashing.

Diesel ….. not so much.

But he is a genuine boy, and just loves being muddy.

And he loves to bark. Especially when Dolly insists on jumping at him.

And as the mail fetching draws to an end, we need to stop for a little rest sometimes.

And we all go home, content that a little of the property has been sniffed up and explored, and the puppies have gotten a good mud bath.

As beautiful as the day was, the poor chickens could only enjoy it from their chicken run. They spent the day penned up, safe from the raptors that are craving an easy chicken meal. That did not prevent a chicken hawk from stopping by to torment them through the run fencing, though. Poor babies. They’ll be penned up again today. We’re all hoping the hawks find an easier meal and move on. I’m not sure how long I can keep my chickens penned. They complain loudly. I’m resigned to accept the fact that I will lose a couple of chickens to predators – but I am NOT resigned to losing the entire flock. The frequency of the hawks’ visits really worries me right now.

Bee Free,
Penny

Tags: hornet nest
Posted in basic living, homestead, homesteading, puppies | 3 Comments »

Getting Ready for the Greenhouse

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

This past weekend we leveled the ground for the greenhouse and began putting it together. I had planned to post pictures right away, but between the arrival of the new babies and the coop room brawl, I had to put it off for a few days. Thankfully things have calmed down enough for me to post those pictures now.

Leveling the ground took a little bit of time. This is where we started:

Thank goodness for Bernie’s backhoe! It did the majority of the work for us, even though there was a fair amount of manual shoveling we had to do to get it completely level.

Once everything was level, Diesel and Dolly conducted a thorough inspection.

Dolly approved of the depth of the hole.

Then they took a break to watch chickens for a few minutes.

With the inspection complete, it was time to unpack the boxes containing the greenhouse parts.

Then it was break time.

We managed to get the front and back of the greenhouse put together. As I mentioned earlier, this is certainly a two person job. It is not difficult, it just requires some you-hold-this-together-while-I-adjust-that. I didn’t take pictures, because nothing is standing yet. We assembled the front and back and they are laying on the ground. The next step is to assemble the sides and then we can put them all together. We had hoped to complete the project over one weekend, and someone that has a fairly level ground to begin with probably could. The leveling took up a good chunk of the first day, so we didn’t get as far along as we had hoped. If the weather cooperates, we should complete this project next weekend. I’ll be sure to post more pictures.

With the new biddies peeping, my garlic starting to break ground, and the unusually warm weather we’ve been having, I am beginning to really yearn for spring. I’m excited to get this greenhouse up and get busy preparing for the vegetable garden. Spring and summer are the most productive on the homestead. We need a productive spring and summer in this economy.

Bee Free,
Penny

Tags: greenhouse
Posted in basic living, homestead, homesteading, puppies | 6 Comments »

Homesteading and Puppies

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

I think you would get as many definitions of homesteading as people who were asked. I’ve participated in several forum conversations about the definition of homesteading and it always ends the same – it depends on who you ask. Originally, homesteading was the act of claiming public land and farming it. After a certain period of time, the person occupying that land could legally become the owner of it. This is no longer the case in the United States. As a result, I don’t think there really are any “official” homesteaders left in this country – at least not in the sense of claiming public land for farming. But homesteading does exists in the spirit, heart, and daily lives of many in this country.

If a single definition of homesteading can not be agreed upon, I think everyone would agree, at the very least, that homesteading involves claiming your small section of this earth and using it to provide a level of self-sufficiency. Whether that small section is an apartment, a home in town, or acreage in a rural area. Self-sufficiency is key to homesteading. It’s the comfort of knowing that no matter what happens in this world, a person can take care of and provide for her/him self.

I don’t mean to go all “Websters” on you. I’ve gotten several emails lately from people wanting to know how they can get started in homesteading. That’s a really tough question – it very much depends on a person’s individual situation and circumstances. So I thought I’d just throw out there that I believe anyone can homestead, anywhere. Learn to be as self-sufficient as possible. Spend some time considering those things you can not live without, and then figure out how you can provide them for yourself. I don’t mean to over simplify this. This is simply the best advice I can give.

And speaking of homesteading…. what homestead is complete without a dog or two to protect it? Just look at this vicious puppy:

And how about this one?

They are even well trained, and wait by the gate to go on their daily walk through the woods

And when mommy lags behind, this ferocious pup will wait until she catches up

And then he’ll zip across the log and blaze a trail

But everyone deserves a break now and then – even if it involves taking a moment to just look too darn pretty

But then it’s back to business and making sure daddy knows he’s being well protected

Ahhhhh. Homesteading. It helps not to take yourself too seriously.

Bee free,
Penny

Posted in basic living, dogs, homestead, homesteading, puppies | 2 Comments »

Big Dogs and Sneaky Chickens

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been wanting to get pictures of the pups to show how big they are getting, but for some reason the only time I think about the camera is when they are sleeping. I’ll work on that this week. In the meantime, I’ve heard from enough of you to know that I should bring you up to date on what’s been happening on the homestead.

We took the pups to the vet for booster shots this afternoon. Dolly is now 20 pounds, and Diesel is 18! Not bad for a little runt. He’s really catching up with Dolly. These little puppies are a source of constant joy to us. It’s hard to be in a bad mood around them. Diesel and Dolly can make everything all better.

And I really needed Diesel and Dolly last night. I went out to candle the eggs under my second broody and I dropped one and cracked it. And it bled. And I cried. I am so upset with myself. I just can’t tell you how badly I feel. I’m not touching those eggs again. But on an up-note, I do believe the three eggs I candled before that were all fertile and filled with baby chick beginnings. They were mostly dark as I peered through them. I guess we’ll know in about two more weeks…..

Bernie found a nest in the far corner of the garage with fifteen eggs in it. Sneaky little hens. Most of the eggs had frozen and cracked. I’m pretty sure they’ve got another nest somewhere. Ten eggs a day just doesn’t add up when I’ve got 20 hens. I guess I’m going to have to do a little chicken stalking and find their secret hiding place.

Bernie somehow managed to hurt his shoulder. He actually injured it several months ago, but it’s gotten worse over time and it’s now to the point where he can hardly sleep through the night. I believe I can count on one hand the number of times he’s been to the doctor in the past 10 years for any type of illness or injury, but he actually agreed to go to one about his shoulder. And he was referred to an orthopedic specialist. His appointment is next week. In the meantime, he hasn’t really been able to do a whole lot, and he’s actually doing more than he probably should. He’s still chopping, splitting, and stacking wood several times a week. We kind of underestimated how much wood it was going to take to get us through the winter. This is the first winter we’ve had our wood burning stove and heated exclusively with it. The good news is that the wood is free. The bad news is that it takes A LOT of wood to get through a winter! Especially when the weather has been so unusually cold for so incredibly long. But have no fear. My man can handle it. With one arm tied behind his back – or flopping uselessly by his side.

In closing, I’m going to include a recipe for a Chicken Potato Bake that is super fast and super good. I found it one evening when I just could not think of what to fix for supper and I decided to search for something quick and easy. This one fit the bill. The original recipe wasn’t quite creamy enough for us, so I modified it a bit. I’m sure a lot of you I-Always-Make-Everything-from-Scratch people will get the shivers reading this, but hey – sometimes a person just feels a little lazy and wants a calorie laden meal for comfort. This is the meal for that person. And it only takes about ten minutes to assemble.

Chicken Potato Bake

Ingredients:
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg, beaten

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halved

1/2 package frozen potatoes O’Brian, thawed (about 12 ounces)
10 ounce can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup grated Pepper Jack cheese

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper on plate.

Place egg in small shallow bowl; beat well.

In a medium sized bowl, combine potatoes, soup, milk, sour cream, and Pepper Jack cheese; mix well. Pour into a 13×9″ glass baking dish or something similar.

One at a time, dip the smooth side of a chicken breast in egg, then in bread crumb mixture to coat. Place, coated side up, on the potato mixture. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.

Bake for 45 – 60 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and potato mixture is bubbling and brown around the edges.

Bee Free,

Penny

Tags: egg hiding chickens
Posted in basic living, chickens, fresh eggs, hens, homestead, homesteading, puppies, recipe | 5 Comments »

It’s Actually Warm on the Homestead

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Diesel and Dolly are really enjoying the warm weather we’ve had the past few days. They really love their daily walk through the woods when it’s so nice outside.

And they really love the leaves!

Digging in leaves is their favorite thing to do.

You just never know what you might find in those leaves.

Sometimes you don’t even have to dig too much to find that golden leaf.

This weather is just too good to last. But we’re going to enjoy it while it’s here.

Bee Free,

Penny

Posted in basic living, homestead, homesteading, puppies | 2 Comments »

You Can Still Have Fun When it’s Cold Outside

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Even when it’s 27 degrees and the wind is blowing, you can still have fun.

You can run around through the woods and sniff through some leaves

You can find a stick and tear through the woods with it

You can take a break and chew on a twig

You can wrestle in the leaves with your best buddy

And when you start losing, you can run off and play Tag

You can play Follow the Leader

And then you can come inside where it’s warm and snuggle up to your other best buddy

You can still have fun when it’s cold outside. Your owner may not agree with that, but if you run around acting cute, she’ll let you stay outside anyway.

Posted in puppies, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Of Dogs and Chickens

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

I had planned to take the pups out to romp in the woods this afternoon and take a few pictures of them. But it’s snowing and cold right now, so I settled for snapping a few shots of them in the house. I have to tell you, that was not easy. Getting on the floor around here results in being bombarded in puppies. I did manage to get a few shots of them when they didn’t have their faces right in the camera.

Everything is a chew toy to them – especially to Dolly.

Diesel likes to chew on Dolly best of all.

And I included this last picture so you can see Diesel’s eyes – they are really pretty, and depending on the lighting they can be blue, green, or hazel. Mostly their just adorable though and this picture doesn’t do them justice.

Last night the pups slept all night long. Unfortunately, we didn’t sleep much at all because we woke up every hour on the hour thinking “They’re going to want to go out any moment now.” When we got up at 5:30AM we had to wake them up to go outside and potty. They are really doing great with the potty training. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that sleeping through the night wasn’t just a fluke.

Just a quick update on Duke’s frostbitten comb – the smaller back points have fallen off and that portion looks extremely healthy right now. He still has three larger points that are black, and they look to me as if they will fall off very shortly. But don’t feel bad for Duke. He has a heaping pile of self confidence and isn’t even slightly fazed that his comb is messed up, or that he has black backhoe grease all down his neck, or that his tail feathers look funky. Duke is nothing, if not self confident.

You may remember that I’ve mentioned I thought six of my hens were in molt. Well, I talked to my cousin Julie (who has had chickens forever) and then emailed her some pictures of them, and she informed me that my hens are not molting. They have “rooster tracks”. In other words, my roosters are pulling/ripping their feathers out during mating. It really breaks my heart. My little Phoenix hens are bald as apples right now. They all look just awful. After talking with Julie and reading her email, it doesn’t sound like there’s much I can do about. I can trim the roosters’ spurs so they are not so rough on the girls’ backs, and I probably will, but it won’t help with the bald heads. If chickens are in your future and you plan to get roosters, you may be interested in learning with me. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

It’s snowing like crazy right now. The chickens are in their coop, the puppies are sleeping like babies, the cats are still pouting, the woodstove is pumping out heat like crazy, and Bernie and I are happy to be living here on our homestead.

Bee Free,
Penny

Tags: hens losing feathers, rooster tracks
Posted in basic living, chickens, puppies, rooster | 7 Comments »

Egg-cessive Obsession and Puppy Treats

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

I really love collecting eggs from my hens. It makes me smile. Every single time. From the smallest, to the largest, I just love finding those little gems in the nest boxes.

I keep a daily count of the eggs I’ve collected. In January, I collected a total of 274 eggs. Not bad for a bunch of new layers, with six of them in the middle of molt. Especially considering it’s winter, when most hens decrease production, or do not lay at all. That’s an average of 8.84 eggs a day. I need to work on that one laying the .84 egg.

Not only do I count my eggs, I weigh them. I don’t weigh every single one of them, but I take a sample of each day’s collection and put them on my nifty egg scale, just for the fun of it:

I keep that baby on the counter, right next to the refrigerator.

Here are the minimum for egg weights as defined by the USDA:

Fascinating, isn’t it? OK, not really, but it does help you understand the terminology on my nifty egg scale.

Most of the eggs around here weigh in at almost medium

Some of them weigh in at small

And I still get the occassional peewee

Every one of them just tickles me. Just absolutely tickles me to death.

Today Bernie is chopping wood and I have puppy duty. These little buggers are growing like crazy. And they keep us hopping. They are doing great on their potty training and we’ve had no accidents in the house for two days. They’re even learning to walk to the door when they have to go potty.

And for those of you with pups of any age, I’m including a recipe for some tail-wagging, puppy pleasing cookie treats. I used to make these for our other dogs and they just loved them. I wish I could remember where I got this recipe so I could give the appropriate attribution. I think I got it out of a dog food recipe book I can no longer find – I’m sure it’s packed in one of those boxes somewhere….

Peanut Butter Doggie Biscuits

Ingredients:
3 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (you can use oatmeal – but NOT the instant type)
1/2 cup fine cornmeal

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Beat together peanut butter and eggs. Gradually beat in oil and water until well mixed.
3. In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine flour, oats, and cornmeal.
4. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and blend well to form a dough.
5. Roll out the dough to approximately 1/4″ thickness and cut into shapes, or just slice them into squares if you don’t have cookie cutters.
6. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet, leaving about 1/2 between biscuits. Bake for 20 minutes until browned. Turn off the oven, but leave the biscuits inside to “crisp”. (NOTE: If you are using a smaller cookie sheet and have several batches to cook, you can place the finished biscuits in a single layer on a plate and leave them on the counter to “crisp” as you bake the rest.) Once the biscuits have hardened, treat your dogs! Store the remianing biscuits in an airtight container.

This recipe makes a fair amount of doggie biscuits, so I keep a few in a cookie jar, and freeze the remaining in a freezer bag.

Bon Appetite, Fido!

Bee Free,
Penny

Tags: dog treat recipe, puppy treat recipe
Posted in basic living, fresh eggs, homestead, homesteading, puppies, recipe | 5 Comments »

I Could Learn to Like Snow With These Puppies

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Diesel and Dolly haven’t been allowed outside without being on a leash until today. Today was a big day for them. They have finally learned to come back to us when we call them, so they were finally allowed to run around without being on a leash. And it was the perfect day for it. It snowed! And Diesel and Dolly LOVE snow. But before they were allowed to take off on their own, Bernie had a little chat with them and they promised to mind us. Diesel shook on it.

Diesel is so tiny, he has a hard time keeping up with Dolly. At first, she spent time with him and kept him close by.

He followed her around for a while, but kept looking over his shoulder to make sure we were following.

Before too long Dolly ran off without Diesel.

I don’t think I have one picture of Dolly without snow on her nose.

They played for quite a while, but it was quite evident when they got cold and decided it was time to go inside. Diesel sat in the snow, shivering, and looking up at us. Bernie had to pick him up and cuddle him to make sure he got warm.

And when Dolly had enough she simply hauled tail straight to the house. She even climbed the stairs for the first time ever!

Diesel and Dolly really love the snow, but I’m not sure they’ll care for the ice we’re supposed to get tonight. I am absolutely positive that Bernie and I won’t care for it – especially at midnight when we do the puppy poop run with them. And the poor chickens don’t care for any of this weather. They haven’t left the coop all day. I took them a few special treats during the day, but even that didn’t seem to help their mood. Puppies aren’t as moody about the weather as chickens.

Diesel and Dolly ended up getting sick over the weekend. By Sunday night they had pretty bad diarreha and we were a little worried about them. We took them to the vet Monday morning and learned they have a bacterial infection in their intestines. The good news is, the antibiotics the vet gave us for them started working right away. They slept so well last night that we actually had to wake them up to go potty at midnight and again when we got up at 5AM.

These little pups are doing great. I’m sure everyone thinks they have the smartest, sweetest, cutest pups in the world, but we really do. Seriously. You’d think so too, if you met them. They wouldn’t let you leave until you agreed. Diesel and Dolly are like that.

Bee Free,
Penny

Posted in basic living, chickens, homestead, homesteading, puppies, snow | 7 Comments »

Awww, the Cuteness

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Cute: Waking up at 6AM to two puppies gently whining, realizing they only woke up once during the night, and being able to smile that the babies gave you a good night’s sleep.

Not cute: Waking up at 6AM to two puppies who couldn’t “hold it” after sleeping mostly through the night, have pooped in their crate, and are now covered from head to toe in that poop and are waggling their poop covered tails in their excitement to see your horrified face first thing in the morning.

Enough said.

Bee free,
Penny

Posted in basic living, homestead, homesteading, puppies | 2 Comments »

Back to Basic Living

Archive for the ‘puppies’ Category

Everything’s an Adventure When You’re a Puppy

Getting Ready for the Greenhouse

Homesteading and Puppies

Big Dogs and Sneaky Chickens

It’s Actually Warm on the Homestead

You Can Still Have Fun When it’s Cold Outside

Of Dogs and Chickens

Egg-cessive Obsession and Puppy Treats

I Could Learn to Like Snow With These Puppies

Awww, the Cuteness

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