old sneakers are a good thing

My nephew came down for a visit to the farm, this is him here. I don't know what it is about boys, frog, swamps, mud and water that all just seem to go together, it's like magnets. They cannot help themselves they just need to go into it. Well this is the result, he came up out of the swamp with many of these peepers, but this is the only one I got a picture of. It's a good thing he had is old shoes on too, between the swamp, helping to clean out the barn and just stinky sneakers in general you cannot imagine a more aromatic funk wafting up from those shoes. I'm sure it was a long ride home with those in the car.

good quote

"At some point you've got to stop being worried about what might, and be part of what is."

Jamie Oliver
Jamie Olivers Food Revolution

It's not everyday we get mail from Mali

This past Christmas we participated in Operation Christmas Child as we have in years past, it's a wonderful program and we enjoy doing it. (To read more about that program click here.)As we pack the shoe boxes we always wonder where they go, and this year Samaritan Purse offered tracking for the shoe boxes, which was very cool, as I blogged about here. Today a letter from a recipient arrived in our mail box from a 10 year old girl in Mali! The kids and I are thrilled!!! What a beautiful young lady! We never expect to hear from the recipients, we just put a letter to the child in the shoebox to tell a little about us and sometimes they write back, it's a beautiful thing, life changing!

We have movement!

It's official! I just went out to do barn chores and took a heavy duty flashlight with me; and candled a couple eggs, again, only to find that we have movement! In at least three of the eggs I saw what I believe to be movement of the chick embryos! Soon, I should be announcing that we have chicks if everything continues as anticipated.

low tech ultrasound

I am the very definition of impatient, one of those people who when gifts are under the Christmas tree just has to pick them up and shake them, who cannot wait for the entire pot of coffee to brew with out helping myself to a cup, you know, impatient. (Drives Ron crazy.) So when I've got now two broody hens on nests I need to see what's happening inside the eggs. I read about candling online and had to try it. This was my second attempt and this time I remembered the camera! Maybe it's because I wanted to see something in the egg or maybe it was actually developing I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that in a couple eggs I did see the veining and dark spot that I read about! All I know is that I'm pretty excited about it and expect to have some chicks if all goes well soon! The other hen just started sitting on the nest yesterday so it'll be a while if she continues to sit, so we'll see how that goes.

we have a visitor

This is little bugger that got one of my hens the other night.

Red Wiggler Update # 2

A local greenhouse is offering a vermicomposting seminar this weekend and I'd love to go, but lately I've been busier than a one armed paper hanger and my schedule will not allow it. I'm pretty sure that what I'm doing is working though. I checked on them yesterday and gave them some more food, (potato peelings) and this is what I saw. I'm pretty impressed with what they've accomplished thus far, in fact I find it quite delightful! After seeing this I knew I needed to add more bedding, we we ripped up some more newspaper and tossed it in, wet it down and covered it back up. This is the easiest thing ever! In case you're new to the blog and wonder what I'm doing with a worm bin in my house I blogged about it here and here in case you've got an overwhelming desire to read about it! lol!