Hatching babies, battling bugs, harvesting and preserving food, and a "Tater" update!

Wow! The past two weeks have flown by!  We have been quite busy here on and off the farm.

Last week we started our last planned hatch of the season. We had set 42 eggs, and 37 were viable, fertile eggs. Out of those 37 we hatched 17 little keets! Not a great hatch, but everyone of them are already spoken for. We were thrilled to have two little buffs in this hatch. Unfortunately, one of the little buffs didn't make it so we are down to 16.  They are so cute, but crazy little birds!

I'm not sure we are completely done with this years hatches, but I cleaned and sanitized the incubators and turners and tucked them away...for now.  If I can collect enough guinea eggs we might, just might have one more hatch.  I have a new friend who is looking to add a few more Royal Purple guineas to her flock....hmmm....might just have to do one more hatch!

Just got word the hatch it on!  Pulled out the incubators and have eggs ready to set. Twenty eight days from now we will be hatching once again!

The garden is doing well....for the most part. We are harvesting yellow squash, zucchini squash, spaghetti squash, Roma tomatoes, Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes, green beans, wax beans, a few carrots, peaches, and plums. Two little Cinderella pumpkins were harvested due to the vines being damaged.

One of the issues we are battling in the garden are bad insects. We have been battling the squash bug and the vine borer. Both have taken their toll on our pumpkin and squash plants.  We have been hand picking them and well...squashing them!  Apparently, we didn't get them all and didn't get them quick enough.  We are still finding adults, nymphs and eggs and will continue to be diligent in removing them, but they have done some damage.

Squash Bug Eggs

Adult Squash Bug

Damage from Vine Borers

 On The Old Five Notch Farm we use natural controls to manage pests.  We have two bee hives and do not use pesticides to protect our bees.  Here are two links to organic/natural means to help manage and control these two pests.

Mother Earth News -Organic Vine Borer Controls

Mother Earth News - Organic Squash Bug Controls

We will continue to battle these pesky bugs, but we are fortunate that our plants are strong and can withstand the attacks so far. Despite the attacks from the bad bugs we are harvesting quite a bit of produce!  Here are some of the veggies being preserved for later use.

Roma tomatoes

More Roma tomatoes!

I am so very happy with our new gas cook top!  The caner is full of tomatoes and the other pot is full of tomatoes to help remove their skins....notice MORE tomatoes still on the counter!

Tomatoes!  That will make Four batches of Scott's famous spaghetti sauce.

Summer Squash - Zucchini and Yellow Straight Neck - future casseroles.

All of the critters on the farm are tolerating the hot temperatures fairly well.  We continue to keep plenty of water available not only to drink, but to stand their feet in and misters spraying in the air to help keep everyone comfortable.  We free range as much as possible as long as someone is home to keep an eye out for predators.  Everyone was out and about all day yesterday and today.

My newest little buddy. A little Golden Laced Wyandotte Roo. He and his sixteen siblings will be five weeks old Tuesday. He is a mess!  He follows me all around and if I don't pay attention to him, he flies up my leg trying to get to my arm for a perch. Such a great, friendly breed!

"Mama Broodie" she is all done with raising the guinea keets and back with the rest of the adults...much to the dismay of the keets.  They still follow her around and try to hid under her only to get pecked by mom!

"Tommy"...My handsome, but hot turkey boy! It doesn't help any that he struts ALL the time.

"Rudy" He is the BEST rooster.  He is great with all the babies both keets and chicks. He does a great job of protecting his ladies and taking care of business with his girls too. He comes running anytime I go out to see about them and drops a wing and courts me...I'm one of his girls too apparently!

Front: "Baby Girl" Middle: "Diva" and in the Back...the big man himself: "Tommy" <3

Our little buff keet....aka "Buffy" She is starting to get some of her color AND she is getting spots!  I believe she is a Buff Dundotte!  A rare color!

We were blessed yesterday with a visit from my son and his sweet girlfriend.  They came over to have Scott help Matt make a corn hole game for a friend of Matt's birthday.  It does this moms heart good to see the two men I love working side by side, chatting away.

Scott and Matt putting the corn hole boards together.

Of course, they needed supervision!  "Diva" was glad to help out.

We had some other visitors to the farm yesterday too. My nephew Gideon and his girlfriend Amber came over to visit.  They took a trip to Like Fork Lake to check out the sites and then came back for supper.  Nothing like having family all around for a meal!  We were so blessed to have each one of them visit and then share a meal together.  Time with family is so precious.

All of the critters at The Old Five Notch Farm are well taken care of and spoiled rotten.  Our special needs chicken is no exception. "Tater" is now three months old and has adjusted well to her/his new house and pen.  My sweet Farmer Man added a table for Tater's house and pen to sit up on so she could see outside and have better airflow.

I thought it was only fitting to include a picture of my sweetie sporting his Izzie's Pond T-shirt while working on a rescued chickens pen! Sorry it's a little blurry...I had to make him stop working for a minute just to snap the photo!

Measure Twice...Cut Once!

"Tater" enjoying her new high rise house!  She had a ceiling fan on the porch for air circulation, and screens all around.

"Tater" also has her very own redneck a/c......a fan and a frozen bottle of water!

I'd like to leave you with a few more of our rescued friends here at The Old Five Notch Farm.  I would encourage you to consider checking out Izzie's Pond or any other rescue for animals for your farm.  We are so blessed to be a release site for wild ducks and geese.  This momma duck and her twelve, yes 12! babies were released on our site awhile back.  They have made themselves at home and have become part of the wild duck family that call our place home.  We enjoy watching them and hearing them on our pond and the small expense of their feed is worth all the beauty and enjoyment we receive having them here.

Eleven of the twelve babies...making themselves right at home <3

Momma Duck and one more baby...getting really hard to tell Momma from the babies!

Happy little duckies...yes, that is a trap, not for the ducks, but for predators. We do all we can do keep everyone safe!

Thank you for taking the time to check in with us at our little farm.  I hope you have enjoyed your visit and maybe even learned a little something.  God bless and keep looking for updates!