A busy week on the farm! Vertical gardening, new babies, "Tater" update, painting rocks....

This week on the farm we have been busy adding trellises to the raised beds. My Farmer Man has installed cattle panels to the raised beds allowing us to grow more veggies vertically.  It is looking quite beautiful! We will add a fence around the gardens, mulch between the beds and add a beautiful pergola with a swing....all in due time. We were blessed with much needed rain Thursday and everything has taken off. It is growing very well and we'll continue to plant veggies so we will have a steady supply for our own use and maybe even some to sell at the Edgefield Farmer's Market.

This week we were also waiting patiently for our foster mom "Broodie" to hatch out some guinea eggs we set under her.  We were so excited when they started hatching and even more excited to find we have a new color to add to our guineas!  We believe it is either a Buff or a Buff Dundotte.

We were counting the babies as they hatched and checking on the eggs to see if anyone needed a little help hatching. 

As of Thursday morning there were seven hatched and one little one that needed some help....at least that was what I thought.  When I checked on them that evening...I only counted seven. Hmmm....maybe I just miscounted. No biggie!  Well Friday evening I checked "Broodie" again and....what! There were only three keets!  I was heart broken!  What could have happened? I called Scott and we talked about it...maybe a snake, maybe "Broodie" ate them?  We were so upset and concerned about the poor babies that were left.  I took them into the house into a brooder to be safe, leaving poor "Broodie" setting on the remaining eggs. 

Scott picked up some hardware cloth so we could rework the nursery area just in case it was a snake. While we were working on the nursery, Scott and I both agreed that the keets are so small that they very possibility could have gone through the chicken wire and into the coop with the big chickens and guineas.  Either way, we were doing what we could to prevent any further losses.We returned the three babies to their "momma" that evening and everyone was happy.

We were very pleased to find that another keet had hatched out the next morning and the other three babies were doing great!

The ups and downs of Farm Life!  This morning I went to check on everyone before church and found that one of the keets had died. Not sure if it died or if "Broodie" crushed it by mistake. We are back to three keets....but these three are doing well! We are still hoping that maybe a few more of the eggs will hatch.  We aren't sure when these are due to hatch since we pulled them from the guineas HUGE pile they had made.

 "Buffy" and his/her siblings, two royal purple keets.

"Broodie" and our little "Buffy" <3

Our Little "Tater". Unfortunately, "Taters" slipped tendons in her legs cannot be repaired. Had we gotten her within 24-48 hrs. of her hatch we would have had a much better chance of popping the tendons back into place.  She is growing quickly and her little elbows/knees have healed from the infection she had when we got her. She manages to get around fairly well "walking" on her elbows and flapping.  She has gotten quite efficient at it actually! 

 This is our little "Tater"....sitting happily on my foot and in my hand! Such a sweet little one.

We took her outside yesterday to get some sunshine and let her sit in the grass.  Every time we would put her down she would peck around just a few times and then start fussing. Cheep, Cheep, Cheep! She would come running/flapping right towards you and try to get up on your lap.  It turns out our little "Tater" doesn't like the grass or the dirt!  She would hush instantly when she was being held!  We brought a bath towel outside, she is kept on a soft towel in her "Tater House", and placed it on the grass.  Put "Tater" down on the towel...and viola!  Happy Chicken :0)  "Tater" will remain a house chicken where we can keep her on a softer surface and keep her elbow/knees from becoming infected, but we will continue to work on getting her used to the grass and dirt. She needs to be outside in the sunshine!  We are hoping to slowly introduce her to pine shavings....very small shavings and see if she can maneuver well on them. It will make for keeping her "Tater House" easier to keep clean....and save on washing towels too.  Here's our little "Tater" in her favorite spot in her "Tater House"....in front of her mirror, next to her lambie, and close or often under her feather mama.  So much personality in such a little chicken!  We love our little "Tater"! <3

I managed to take some time today and work on a project that I have been wanting to get done!  I saw these on Facebook and thought they were really cute. I am please with the way mine turned out :-) I still need to paint some yellow squash, zucchini, winter squash, cucumbers, spinach/swiss chard, onions, carrots, fennel, sweet potatoes....and more!

Well another week has buzzed by, and we are about to start another work week here on the farm.  We were blessed to be invited to some dear friend's home tonight to enjoy wonderful company, an awesome grilled steak dinner, and time to just relax. We are so very blessed!

I am really hoping to post the Friday Farm Updates on FRIDAY, but with all the happenings and work going on it maybe a Saturday or Sunday.  Thanks for checking in on our little farm and all our farm family.  Stay tuned for updates on the bees, the fruit orchard, new plants and gardens, loading the incubators back up with eggs and whatever else we get into!