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| Finally our chicks from April have begun to lay... |
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| and no sooner than after we got the first one, the Americana's aka Easter Eggers began to lay too! It has been a long wait for them to begin laying. I don't ever remember it taking this long, damn fancy chickens!! |
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| What a beautiful day it was to get the babies out in the fresh air. They had a snack and then explored their environment. They are 8 weeks old now, it has gone so fast and they are preparing to head off to their new homes. |
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| The little chestnut agouti buck even stood up to get a better look... |
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| This baby is such a sweetheart and has already done her first program at a school! She did so good and was so calm. |
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| Here's a shoot of the fawn who also did the program and did really well too! |
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| Tawny, their mom has been away from them since weaning so it was a day of beauty for her. She got a full clip down, this is before... |
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| taking a break from grooming with her kids. She really enjoyed spending time with them. |
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| and this was after, a groomer I am not! But she is clipped down, cool and comfortable. |
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| I am so excited about my new loom!!! A friend gave me a heads up that a woman who was a former colonial re-enactor was moving and had to unload a lot of things. Among them was this Structo Artcraft Loom! |
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| It is more of a table loom than a floor loom which pleased me. The pedals are up on the side for changing the warp as you weave. These looms were made in the early 20th century and are all different. Some come in metal and some in wood. They evolved over time but I like this one the best! |
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| What I love is it came already warped and ready to go! This loom is known as "the work horse of looms"! I have been on the search for the manual that goes with the loom. So far I have found it in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C....road trip maybe??? |
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| Have you grown those herbs and just don't know what to do with them? Especially those mints that are out of control?! Well let's make some iced tea! First take some spearmint... |
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| some peppermint... |
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| some apple mint... |
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| some lemon balm... |
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| and maybe some lemon verbena or what ever you might have! |
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| Give them a nice little rinse with cold water... |
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| put them into a large pitcher and pack them in really well! |
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| Add some water and bruise the leaves well with a wooden spoon. I then place it in the fridge for a couple days so the flavor will seep out. |
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| I then take some iced tea mix, lemon is really better. You can also use tea bags and make sun tea as well. Add the required powdered mix to the bottom of a pitcher. Add 1/4 of your herbal mixture and fill the rest with water... |
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| and there you go! An iced tea that will impress your friends, taste divine and puts those herbs to use too! Enjoy!!! |
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| My friend AJ and I were in a dollar store a month ago and came across rolls of burlap for a dollar! I bought two rolls because who can pass up rolls of burlap?! We needed a new sign for our booth when we do fairs so I got started... |
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| with a set of stencils, some elmers glue, a sponge brush and a black sharpie... |
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| a sign was born! This sign will give us the country message we are always trying for! |
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| Well the little hive that has been struggling to be has finally materialized a queen! Evidence was in the cells at my last inspection, if you look you can see eggs and different stages of larvae! This means she took a little break from her mating flight and must have started laying right after my last inspection! |
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| The added brood did not net a new queen so I wondered and there it was down in the lower hive body! So away we go, this hive is off and running! |
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| The baby English Angora bunnies are now 3 weeks old! They are gone from adorable little innocent babies to escape artists! We have mom and babies in a huge dog crate. They have learned to scale the 8 inch nesting box and get out of the cage, over night this has happened! Here is the runt, still tiny but thriving! |
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| Tawny is enjoying her time out from them. Here she is with them cuddling. |
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| A look of all their colors... |
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| A chocolate... |
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| A tort or fawn, the jury is still out on this one... |
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| the runt is an broken chocolate... |
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| an agouti (my favorite!) |
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| a light black... |
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| a baby bunny photo bomb!!! I have held these guys everyday since they were born. They all greet me when I open their cage. I am in love with these sweet little souls! I may have to keep them all! |
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| Our littles angora babies are now 2 1/2 weeks old and I was watching them nibbling here and there. I gave them some pellets and hay and they went right over and checked out the pellets, but the hay was for playing and hiding! Can you find the 4 bunnies in there? |
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| They heard the dog bark downstairs and went right into hiding mode! |
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| Here is the runt on the right next to one of the other babies. It is gaining and growing fast but still not quite caught up. |
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| I work in a Nature Center and am lucky to be able to take care of an Observation Hive there. It often needs to be controlled because it only has 3 1/2 frames of bees. Yesterday I removed 2 frames of bees, brood and brought them home. |
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| So, we will add them to the hive that seems to be fumbling. They raised a queen but she did not return from her breeding flight and even after giving them a frame of brood, they did not rear another queen. |
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| To do this we need to separate the bees from each other for a few days by adding a few sheets of newspaper... |
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| place another hive body on top... |
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| and add the new bees. And then I noticed it! A queen cell with a larvae in it!? Seems like I got this frame out just in time! |
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| So we step back, the bees will chew through the newspaper and unite with each other. By this time the new bees will loose the pheromone that they hold from their previous queen. Hoping for success with this hive one way or another. The one thing this hive has been successful with is drawing out all the frames and producing a lot of honey! |
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| Here they are! Tawny and Fluffer's new little additions! Sadly she lost her first litter a few months ago so at the advice of my breeder friends we tried again with my better success! She had 7 but one was still born. They are 2 weeks old today! |
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| Here they are at 3 days old! It was all I could do to kiss each and every one of them! |
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| At one week old they are getting their colors. Sadly the white one at the bottom passed away and we were not sure why. The runt at the top has had quite a struggle. Tawny would let me hold her twice a day to nurse him sepearatley. |
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| Here they are at 10 days old, look at the one down at the bottom, he's a mutant! It is twice the size of the runt! |
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| Ah matey! We have eyes opening at the 10th day! So cute! |
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| And here they are at two weeks old! They are moving about and being really jumpy when you go in. I am holding them everyday and Tawny is fine with that. She like to get out and run around the room. |
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| The runt is at the top, rallying and doing well. Getting bigger everyday and nursing on it's own too! |
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| They are too cute for words! They get kisses everyday!!! |
