Water Everywhere, Yet Not A Drop To Drink....

Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration. :) We have been under a boil order for several days now. We are lucky enough to still have running water...people to the south of us have no running water at all. We are to conserve what we do have though, which we have been. Today they were getting the water main break fixed...and then there was the report that yet another main broke! May be be a loooong waterless weekend. :)

Makes one think though. We are fortunate that we have a well at the bottom of our driveway. I planted a few more tomato plants today and watered them in with water from that well since we need to conserve the tower water. Put put up a 16ft pool over Memorial Day weekend...filled it with well water. Last year we only watered the garden with well water. If we loose water all together we'll still be able to flush the toilet easily. That thing comes in handy!

I have been boiling a big pot of tap water in the morning and then using it in the evening to wash dishes. Honestly, it is a little exciting, this water situation- finding alternate ways to do things. Hubby has been coming home from work and going for a swim instead of a shower. One thing though, tea made with bottled water is not nearly as good as tea made with tap water!

Our anniversary is Monday...we are thinking of escaping from the kids and taking a weekend trip in alone. Hubby's birthday is Monday as well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING AND I AM HAPPY TO BE YOUR WIFE!! THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU ARE AND ALL THAT YOU DO. YOU ARE THE BEST! :)

We moved the 9 Guinea babies (3 weeks old now) to the little coop today. So far so good. I have about 34 eggs in the incubator. Wow. We may have Keets coming out of our ears!

Really, things are just very content around here right now. :)

Guinea Update....We have babies!!!

I am happy to report that 10 out of the 15 eggs hatched! One did die, so we have 9 keets. They are a week old now and growing like weeds! Our other hen is sitting on a nest of 30 eggs! We just got home from a weekend of camping, so I think I might move them to the incubator. I hate to take the eggs away from the momma...she is doing so well with them....but I think they will have a better shot if we take them.

Anyway, super busy here! Bet it is at your place too. Whatcha up to?? :)

Guinea Egg Incubating Update....

Thanks you so much to all of you who chimed in with advice!! :)

I candled tonight and I am happy to report that all 15 babies are developing, alive, and wiggling around in there! All air sacks are present and accounted for, blood vessels look good and healthy! WOO HOO!! :)

I still am not sure on their hatch date. They have been in the incubator for 17 days now. One of them I labeled in crayon with a number 1...he looked bigger or further along than the others. The rest all looked about the same.

I am sad to report that we are missing 5 ducks! Gone without a trace. The creek had gone up due to rain and flooding, so I am hoping they got swept down stream and are living happily ever after. Maybe they'll come back! I am not getting my hopes up, but it still doesn't hurt to hope!

School is just about over for the summer, my middle child will be a teenager as of next weekend, we are car shopping for my oldest, my new carpet gets here next Thursday, and yes, the Guineas will be hatching! The garden is in, save for the melons, squash, and green beans. Kittens are 3 weeks old tomorrow and are beginning to act like toddlers, starting to walk around the house already! Life is good. :) How's it going in your neck of the woods?

Guinea Fiasco: Part Deaux....

Well, we never did catch that mama Guinea. Not even with the help of a net duct taped to the end of a long pole tree pruner! That was Hubby's idea. I kid you not, we are the King and Queen of "Good in Theory". :) So, we are now the proud owners of this....


An incubator. Just a basic no frills incubator.

Last night made the 6th day they had been in there. I made a candler using a round oatmeal box and a lamp. I candled and 15 looked good, 2 were iffy, and 4 looked clear and infertile. So I returned the 15 to the incubator and went about cracking open the infertile and the two iffy ones. The two iffy ones were in fact viable embryos! Whoops. :( I have since read (and now know first hand) that if you are iffy about any eggs, to leave them be and check again in a week or so. 3 out of the 4 infertile were in fact infertile. The fourth had an embryo, but it did not look like the two iffy ones...so it was either at an earlier stage or it was what is known as a "quitter" - one that started development and then stopped. Sorry I didn't get pictures. It was a super busy weekend and I did this last night right before bed and I was beat!

So, the only issue I am having at this point is trying to figure out when their hatch date is. This is important to know because you have to turn the eggs several times per day UNTIL the last three days when you do not turn them because, well, it can kill them. Since they are Guineas, they take 28 days to hatch. Chickens take 21 days. So even though I checked this site that contains embryo pictures and our babies (the iffy ones I opened) look like a 6 day chicken embryo, I have yet to figure out what that means in Guinea terms! Do I start the day that we put them in the incubator? Do we count the days that Mama sat on them? And even then, we don't know for sure how long that was so that won't be accurate either. Pardon the pun, but it looks like we'll be winging it. IF YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE, PLEASE GIVE IT!! I have been researching and know some signs to look and listen for when the time gets closer, but I can use all the help I can get. If we go by the date we put them in the incubator, they are due May 24th. I have been hanging out on the Backyard Chickens message boards trying to glean all the info I can!

We do have some happy delivery news...Kitty meow had her babies! Three little cuties...here they are 9 days old. Photos courtesy of my 6 year old...

They have just started opening their eyes! :) And the momma has become a whole new cat...she's nice and lovey now! And has no problem at all with us messing with her littles. And believe me...my youngest wallers and hugs and kisses and loves on them constantly! :)

So that is that for now. I'll keep you updated on the Guinea eggs and please, if you have advice, let me know!! :)

Guinea Nest Moving Fiasco: Part One....

Oh. My. Some things are just way better in theory than they are in real life! The plan...I'll distract her, hubby will grab her from behind, I'll grab the eggs, and they'll immediately be reunited in the nice safe coop where life goes on safely. Simple, right? Keep in mind we have never done anything like this before.

We managed to somehow drop the ball on grabbing her off the nest. While Hubs chased her, I had no doubt in my mind that we'd catch her. Yes, that is the La La Land that I live in, where things go fine even when they don't go fine. Darn that optimism! So I went ahead and gathered the eggs and moved them. Only we didn't catch her! Between the roof, and the trees, and then it got dark...we didn't catch her. Crap! Plan B! Plan B! Oh hell! There was no plan B! And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where we failed.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, plan A SHOULD have been to secure the hen, THEN gather the eggs and move them all happily. Plan B SHOULD have been: if she could not be secured, then leave it alone and try again. That way she would have gone back to sitting on the nest, thus easier to catch (If there is such a thing as easier. Have you ever tried to catch a Guinea?!?!?!) and her eggs would not be too disturbed. Instead she ended up in the tree for the night. Once the eggs had been moved, and it was dark and chilly, and no hen to sit on them...this is what happened....

I didn't know what else to do! She had been sitting on them so wouldn't getting cold overnight kill them? I dunno. I dunno! I dunno!!! So I brought them in the house, kicking myself the whole time, and sprinkled water on the grass and put a heat pad on top to maintain 99ish degrees - with the intention of catching her sometime today and hopefully, HOPEFULLY getting them in the coop together where she'll happily shed a tear over the reunification with her littles-to-be and commence sitting until they hatch, which they will do, because I so ingeniously kept them warm in her absence. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh!

Crap. Crap! Crap!!! I feel horrible. Maybe it will all work out? Please, God, let it all work out!

So, tip of the day....When attempting to move a Guinea Hen and her nest to safety, secure the bird BEFORE going any further! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Brain Dead...

Dinner brain dead that is. Last week's menu was Pizza, Tacos, Spaghetti, Meatloaf. May as well have been Dull, Mundane, Boring, and Not Again!

Truly, I have been so out of ideas. I had been "Ad Shopping", as in, when the weekly ad came out, I made a menu around what was on sale. That got me by for a little while.

So I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan...we used his plan to get out of debt. E-Mealz is advertised on his show and I had thought about signing up. But what spurred me on was talking to a co-worker and hearing she is signed up for a similar menu service and loving it. So I signed up for E-Mealz and we are loving it! For a buck and a quarter a week, the menu is planned and the grocery list made. It is two pages...page 1 is the weekly menu with the recipes right there, and page 2 is the grocery list. All the meals have been good and the amount of prep and time to make pretty easy. Maybe eventually I'll get my dinner mojo back, but for now this has been a life saver!

In other news, the Guineas have started a nest! It is not in the coop...it is between the duck house and creek in a bramble of fallen tree branch. Our plan is to keep an eye on it and when she has a full clutch and starts sitting...move her and the nest to a confined area. Last count she had 13 eggs. And she is not sitting on it yet, so it is not time. Hopefully this will go according to plan and we'll have Guinea Keets someday!

Oh, and we have a pregnant cat. She's not a very friendly cat so all kinds of questions come to mind...like will she be a good mom? Will her babies be friendly? WILL SHE LET ME PLAY WITH HER NEWBORNS?!?!?! I hope so! :) We are getting her spayed after this litter, which is her first litter.

Garden is well under way. Onions are growing, Potatoes should be sprouting any time now, and the first succession of Carrots, Spinach, Chard, and Lettuce seeds are in. My Tomato, Pepper, Ground Cherry, and Broccoli plants are in the process of hardening off. It is a pain in the rear to drag them in at night and out of the house in the morning, but I keep telling myself it won't be long now! We have had an amazingly mild and warm spring. I am getting ready to start Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash seeds. I will start them outdoors in flats - they'll stay outside during the day and come in at night. A lot of people around here are planting warmer season stuff already....I am still leery so I am sticking with my original timing schedule.

That is about it for now! How's it going in your neck of the woods?

A Surprise In The Coop...

And a pleasant surprise at that! The Guineas have laid their first eggs! :)

We have 2 females and one male. They have been roaming the farm and roosting in the trees at night, so we weren't really sure where they'd lay them. We were prepared to start scouting out their nest. But today there are two eggs in the coop! So hopefully they are planning on laying their clutch there. That is where we would have moved the females and the eggs and nest had they laid elsewhere. We are hoping some will hatch!

I'm so excited! :)

The ducks have been enjoying the creek and greening grass and bugs during the day. A few weeks ago hubby opened their gate and let them out of their play yard. Now they play in the creek during the day and they go back to the coop at dusk and we lock them in. They are loving it! We have seen a coyote in the pasture eyeing them. So far our black lab has done an excellent job of scaring him off. And the coyote has not managed to make it through the fence around the pasture. Hopefully he won't!

Gorgeous sunny day here today after a weekend of SNOW! It is pretty much melted off now...hopefully Spring is here to stay now! :)

Three Guineas Down! OH NO!!!!

Two confirmed dead, one unaccounted for but found some feathers with tissue attached in the adjacent barn lot. Not sure what got them, but my main suspicion is raccoons. It rained all day yesterday and got cold, so our black lab was under the carport on the other side of the house last night. He has been sleeping on the deck near the coop and I think he keeps predators away at night. While the Guineas have been sleeping in their coop at night, we have not been locking them in. For sure we will from now on at night. There must have been a ruckus in the coop by whatever got them...their roosting sticks were all knocked down and one bird the only thing remaining was its head and neck.

Ugh. Poor babies!

Guineas on the Loose!!! And What to Name This Flock?

We let them out of their pen! We removed the fence/yard part so they could roam and hopefully stick around! For some odd reason, hubby didn't realize I would want to be part of that process. I called his cell Friday to tell him to come eat dinner, knowing he was around the farm somewhere, and he told me he was right in the yard letting the Guineas out. WHAT? Without me? What on earth would make you think I would NOT want to be part of that? He says 'well, we talked about doing it'. Um, yes, WE did. God bless him, I about strangled him!

So I get out there and NO Guineas. They were all up roosting in the trees, which is exactly what I did not want them to do! Crap. On top of that, he did this at dinner time so then it was dark and we could barely see them. And we could only count 7. Where was #8? Oh dear.

Saturday morning they were in the yard but still only 7 of them. No evidence of any foul play for number 8, it was like he was gone without a trace! I had to be gone Saturday night and part of Sunday for my oldest daughter's sweet 16 party, so hubby texts me Saturday evening and simply says "There's 8!!!" So he found his flock again, or they found him. That made me happy!

Saturday and Sunday nights they roosted for the night back in their coop. WOO HOO! I was so glad! Their food and water are in the coop, as well as a light for heat and branches to roost on. I think after a night of freedom in the tree (and it was cold that night!) they decided the coop was much cozier.

Today it got really warm so our house is being invaded by those orange and black polk-a-dotted beetles. The Guineas are definitely getting their bellies full between those and the crickets!

Now, what to name them? The first thing that comes to mind is The Search & Rescuers - they all get in a line and peck along eating bugs - it reminds me of a search and rescue team! However, they are on a mission to eat bugs, so how about The Search & Destroyers? One other one though...anyone remember the movie The Lost Boys? The way the Guineas go one at a time when they do fly up in or out of the trees reminds me of the train track scene in that movie when one at a time they drop down and then Michael follows. Man, Michael was a hottie! :) Anyway, The Lost Boys is in the running too. What do you think I should name them?

The Guinea's New Coop.....

My most awesome husband built the Guinea's First Home! THANK YOU SWEETHEART!!!!Everything used to make it was re-purposed stuff we had around.

They aren't quite sure that to make of it all yet! So far (the whole 20 minutes they have been out there!) they spend their time in the corner on a pile of pine shavings....I think because that is what they were used to on the floor of their brooder.

But we ushered them out and they seemed to enjoy it! Just still too new to them...you know, like the first time you let your baby touch grass and they give you that adorable yet confused "WHAT?!?!" look? It's like that.

Their food and water are inside the coop. We also have sticks strategically placed inside and out for them to roost on. That was the signal they were ready to be out of the house...every time we turned around one was up on the edge of the brooder! A time or two they'd make it to the floor and nose around chirping loudly until we put them back in with the flock. Amazingly enough I have both a cat and a dog in the house and neither one bothered or ate the Guineas.

I think I am officially a Poultry Enthusiast. :) I've got big plans for these fellas and plans in the works for some more birds. Like Silkies. Instead of the old lady with a billion cats...I'll be the old lady with chickens everywhere. :) LOL

Some Very Egg-citing News!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Dirty Divas have laid their first eggs! These three were in their house today. They laid them on the floor...not an egg one in the nest boxes.

How many ducks can you fit in a kiddy pool? Sixteen!

We also noticed some interesting duck behavior today...when they were all in the pool one was standing on another one's back and holding onto it's neck feathers with it's beak! Some kind of odd duck surfing? :) These are the three duck eggs on the right and a regular store bought chicken egg on the left. Only fitting that the Dirty Divas lay dirty eggs! :) LOL

And last but certainly not least...the Guineas! Aren't they cute? I should have taken pictures last week...they have more than doubled in size and are getting feathers already! Orschlen had chick days going on last week so I came home with eight of these babies. We lost one to a nasty case of what I think was pasty butt - we tried to save him but it didn't work - luckily they replaced him so we still have 8. We got three Pearls, three Royal Purple, and two Lavender.

They are talkative little fellas! One of the first things I noticed is that they chirp non-stop when they are awake.

A tiny little pumpkin update...the squash bugs got the main vines, but not until after we had harvested a lot. The neat thing is that on the back side of our house in the pasture we have volunteer pumpkin vines growing from pumpkins we tossed out there last year! So this means we WILL have more pumpkins for Halloween! There are a lot on the vines and not one squash bug in sight. I hope those dirty beggars stay away!

To Guinea or Not To Guinea. That is the question...

So I have it in my head that I really want Guinea keets. They are supposed to be relatively easy to care for and are awesome at tick and insect control, which we could really use around here. I think I have it in my head that we'll train them to stay in boundaries, which I have read can be done, and we'll train the dogs to leave them be so they can live fairly freely, which I think is attainable too.

And the hatchery we got the ducks from has a Guinea special going on right now, which would make them a tad bit cheaper. I think I'd like to get them now so they could be in full swing in the spring.

But still, something holds me back from placing that order. Do any of you have Guineas? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

And what do you think...should we do it?