How about a post of good events in our lives?

I see the post of unfortunate events happening and I am sorry for those who have posted there. It is never nice to lose animals or have other events that are bothering us.
I thought about my events lately and I am only able to report good things, so maybe others are in the same situation?

My pilgrim pair of geese came off with a gosling about 2 weeks ago now, it is loving the attention mom and dad give it and they are protective but not aggressive to the kids and us. We are just thrilled with this new addition. I think it is a boy by the coloring but we will see once it starts to feather out.
We had a buff duck come off with 10 little ducklings,we sold some but she is doing well with her 4 remaining ducklings.
I have a blue slate hen that hatched 5 little babies last week and went missing when we went away for the weekend, but she was located in the sheep pen today and still has 3 babies.
Then we went out to let the ewes out this am and heard another turkey doing the momma talk, and sure enough there was a bourbon red in the weeds with 1 black slate baby and 1 Russian Orloff baby. Not sure how she managed to hatch 2 different gestation birds in one hatch but she did and she is very protective of them both.
So lots of new babies on our farm and it is so nice to go out and see them all ranging around!

On a personal front I have located a nice couple that is so happy to come farm sit for us, they are older retired couple that just want to hang out at the farm. So we can comfortably go visit our friends in cranbrook now and not worry about the animals.

Ahh great stories/news, and good idea.

My broody, "Big Momma," has set on her second batch of the year (and, thank goodness, my last batch). I was down to an egg a day for a while (between the turkeys and mysterious hiding spots) and then found a large clutch of eggs. I didn't know how old they were so I moved them to a nesting box, curious to see if I could get another hen to go broody or if I only had one. A couple nights later, I moved the nesting boxes around to prepare for the younger hatch to come out and surprised myself when I grabbed one of the crates and heard an angry roar from within the darkness of it. Sure enough, Big Momma had set again. Of course, my best layer LOL. So she started puffing and cwuck cwucking, growling and hissing, so I moved her into the empty breeding pen and let her be.

She's due tomorrow. I realized late last week the babies wouldn't be able to get out of the milk crate nest and I took a risk and moved her into the dog kennel, nest and all (minus the milk crate, of course). She was unsure about it, walked around, tried to get in the side and realized she was protected from all but the front. She settled back in, so some new chicks should be arriving soon. I'm absolutely over-run, but will be offloading a few to Shadowridge very soon. Then... I await the October Moose Jaw poultry auction.

Well I have a lot of good stuff too. We paid off our mortgage so we have extra $$$ to go towards the debts we built making sure our mortgage payment was always on time. Hopefully in a couple of years that debt will be reduced or gone.

My Houdan 2.0 project partner hatched their first houdan / dorking cross chicks with the help of a lovely person who lent us their wonderful Dorking roo. So far it looks as if the hatch is a success. Several beautiful black chicks with NICE 4th & 5th toes. Hopefully they will also have the benefit of being hybreds and have better health to be passed when they are in turn bred back to houdans.

In my own houdan patch, I had 4 runts in a hatchery order that I am confinced have RSS [Runting, Stunting, Syndrome] as all seemed to stop developing in size. 3 of the 4 died. The 4th seems to be hanging in there and is starting to put weight back on.

Finally, my dear old man loves me. 'nuff said

toybarons wrote:Well I have a lot of good stuff too. We paid off our mortgage so we have extra $$$ to go towards the debts we built making sure our mortgage payment was always on time. Hopefully in a couple of years that debt will be reduced or gone.

*APPLAUSE IN ORDER*

How vindicating. Congratulations.

My Schipperke, Ch. Jet's High Fidelity of Majekin (Bryston) is in the running for #1 Schipperke in Canada this year with limited showing. I am looking forward to four more shows this year. Next weekend I will be going to Edmonton, the week after I will be in Castlegar, then in the fall I will head off to Camrose and Red Deer.

Ok, so this is a bit of a brag, but it is a wonderful thing in my life right now.

Here he is:

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Great Job Sue as I know how hard that is with a breed that does not win very often.
Are you doing the Calgary shows this weekend?
Good Luck at the shows you are going to and as you know I always check on how the Group placements are.
with Luck We will be back in the Rings next year I have a Great Litter Of Chihuahua's (2)here we are going to show and Hopefuly the Maltese that Darwin is getting will grow coat fast LOL
anyway
CONGRATULATIONS

I had a wicked ride on my young horse this afternoon. Inspired by the Olympic dressage today hauled my self out in the heat of the day to ride! He was such a good boy. I had brief mmoments where I thought oh this is what it must be like to ride a GP dressage horse..who am I kidding he's still a baby! But still fun.

Chicken related we are getting ready to go the the chilliwack fair next week! SHould be fun!

Great to hear the good news stories! My "happy moment" in my chicken day is going to the pen each day and collecting my newest bc marans egg. My new pullet lays the darkest egg I have seen yet. Two more pullets to come into lay so I can't wait to see what colour egg they lay.+

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Hi,I too have had my share of misfortune the past 2 months but decided to post the good news here.

After almost putting Stew (barred rock rooster I got from the sale last
Sept) in the pot I decided to give him one more chance. He has been
with Rocky (oldest barred rock hen) and they have had batches of clear
eggs after batches of clear eggs. My lone hatchery Buff Orpington hen,
Buffy has never been with a rooster so i decided to see if she
would go broody so I left all her eggs with her and when she did i took
all her eggs away and last weekend she hatched out 7 out of 7 barred
rock chicks. Mom and dad are Rocky and Stew. So far they are all doing
good.
Henny had hatched out 7 chicks and they are just getting to the
ugly pteradoctyl (yeah I had to look it up) looking stage but
otherwise are doing great. Puffy my other partridge silkie had 9 of her
own eggs and one Rocky/Stew egg and I thought she went broody the
other day but she has 13 of her own eggs now and has not sat back on
the nest. Hope she does.
My lone hatchling (out of 19 shipped in eggs)buff orpington has turned
out to be a rooster. He is called Hagrid because he is so much bigger
than the rest of the orp chicks. Of the 10 orps that hatched I have 7
roosters and 4 hens. My Little Bucket, the lone buckeye that hatched is
a hen. So i finally have babies around the place and i am happy with
them so far.They are so funny out in the grass . They think they
can fly lolol I also have a litter of boxers due August 10th. So
that is my good news for the day . Thanks for reading Geri

Father-in-law had a bypass yesterday and came through very well.

On the bird front, I have managed to hatch 5 chanteclers out of my aging hens' torpedo eggs.

So many good things, it would take to long, but I am going to focus on health, smiling, yes, health.

We have good health, we are blessed.

Its about our garden, our alien garden. I am serious!! I have not seen anything EVER grow as it has this year, not even on the wet west coast. I know it is the rains that have come long and hard enough, that I haven't had to water the veggie gardens since they were planted. The hot days, warm nights and sunshine, lots o' sunshine. Gardens that are too big. I had to cut back the squashes by about 3/4 and they are still too out of control. go figure that. Never in my life have I seen squash plants grow like this!! Well, and everything else too, enough rain, enough sun. Amazing.

So eating dinner the night before last:

Home made Caesar dressing, made with my own mayonnaise from my chicken eggs, garlic from the garden (yes, monster garlic bulbs too, things are scaring me here)
Beautiful 3 person sized heads of lettuce, the romaine is cut but need to use this first (need to plant more) this particular lettuce is rather soft for me, like a buttercrunch, but oh so nice
Potatoes, the pretty purple skinned ones with white flesh, volunteers from last years potatoes, wherein some must have stayed in the ground, lots of them!!! The others are coming ready too
Long English style cucumbers, called Sweeter yet, a hybrid, but oh so worth it
Swiss chard, rainbow, yellow, red, white (well, green white)
Beets, lots of beets, already froze a whack of them, those were just the thinnings
Celery, yep, grew celery and the big stalks are not bitter, nice for salads, gonna take the greens and dehydrate to make celery salt, yummmmeeee
The pickling cukes are having the first picking today, gonna have pickles soon, hee ha!!
Tomatoes are beginning to think about turning
Thousands of little sweet 100 (go figure, they are 100s not 1,000s) beginning to ripe in the tall cylinder planters right outside my door
Carrots, baby carrots, galore

We had a veggie dinner (I needed protein, so cooked a smokie, ya, sure set off the healthy thing with all garden veggies, I know)

so, that was my joy. Picking food for our table, wherein I only had to use the store bought stuff for very little...this is joy, growing what we eat. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

(do chickens like the pickling cucumbers? I think some got away on me and they are too big, eeks, matured so quickly I just never woulda thunk)

My joy is having my beloved 1986 Jimmy back under my butt after a 5 month wait for a transmission rebuild. Hubby rebuilt it once, rebuilt it wrong and went on an 'upset mechanics' strike and let it sit a few more months before a second attempt. The first day I had it out and about town, EVERYBODY I passed waved at me. In a small town, you are what you drive. In the truck I have been driving for 5 months, no one waved at me. But I have been driving my Jimmy for 17 years now and it's almost a landmark around town.

Once the Jimmy was running I decided to wash it. Did this in the sun. It got horrible water spots on the black paint. Hubby rushed over with some new fangled spray on wax cleaner, fizzed this junk all over the hood and left streaky, hazy waxy mess. No amount of polishing would clena this up. It did NOT remove water spots. So I furiously re-washed the entire truck, which is now water proof, thanks to the wax guck. I got the wax off with much soap and scrubbing, but once again had the bad water spots. In desperation grabbed my GUNK window cleaner and guess what? Got those water spots off lickety split AND put one heck of a shine on my aging paint job!

SO..I am happy to have my truck back, have people waving at me again and have one more use for one of my fave products, GUNK window cleaner! It's all good!

I'm with you Cynthia - my favourite meal of the year is as much home garden produce as I can get into one meal, though I need the protein, too. Maybe next year that will be homegrown, too, but at they moment they are still growing I am delighted with some of my pullet/cockerel ratios, not so much with others. Out of five silver ameraucanas, 3 pullets. From 5 brown leghorns, again 3 pullets. For the partridge chantecler, 4 pullets, 4 cockerels. The other numbers aren't so favourable, but I will end up with 20 new hens to add to my 11, and 10 roosters in the freezer, something both good and sad . We will finally be egg independent come autumn, and that is a very good thing And how can I forget those adorable bantams My son's mille fleur d'uccles are favourite with all who see them, and act like little lovers - they are so cute. And my partridge wyandotte trio are so tiny and sweet, as are their eggs. Bantams are a must on every farm, just for their attractiveness and appeal.

Ran over a Magpie with my truck, only the second one I have been able to kill with a vehicle in my life. That was a good day.

How about this!

I didn't think Gladiolus would grow here but on a lark this spring I bought some and threw them in. After all the picture on the package looked so lovely! Well, believe it or not, I have 5 flower spikes out there right now and one is starting to blossom! Gorgeous! I will take some pictures in full bloom.

Now, can I leave them in the ground over winter?

No you cannot leave them over winter! They turn to mush if they freeze. Even here in milder BC they do not survive the winter in the ground.

After blooming cut the greens back to 5 or 6 inches above the ground. Leave them where they are until just before frost. Then lift, shake off excess dirt and store them in a cool place until next spring.

I think a bouquet of glads on the kitchen table is a truly regal sight! Enjoy them, they are so beautiful!

(if you felt prickly, it was totally due to my awesome psychic powers! )

Schipperkesue wrote:How about this!

I didn't think
Gladiolus would grow here but on a lark this spring I bought some and
threw them in. After all the picture on the package looked so lovely!
Well, believe it or not, I have 5 flower spikes out there right now and
one is starting to blossom! Gorgeous! I will take some pictures in full
bloom.

Now, can I leave them in the ground over winter?

Hi I have grown glads for years here. I have even used them in
place of spikes in my planters. Just plant the bulbs befoer putting in
the bedding plants and they will bloom nicely, once the bloooms are
finished you still have the green leaves in the center of the pot. Its
easy to bring the whole pot in for the winter.

Geri

Oh gladiolus are the most beautiful of beautiful. I see them blooming now all over gardens. We don't have any, sigh...maybe next year. Ours are the canna lilies. Now those are something that should go in about good posts. Some are beginning to have the beautiful orange flowers. We have the bronze leaf, think they are called King Humbert. Gladiolus are like the cannas, they must be lifted in the fall and replanted in spring, but well worth the effort. Back on the coast we didn't lift the gladiolus, they remained in the soil and came back year after year, gads, left so many of those behind when we moved. I had forgotten about them until now, nice walk down a memory lane, thanks for that Sue, it was beautiful.

Good things. This is a most wonderful thread, about good things. I am so happy that my garlic is so bountiful and that all the little bulbils I planted last year made bigger bulbils, those will go in the ground in late September, along with the cloves from some of my biggest bulbs. next year will be the year of garlic, with hopefully hundreds upon hundreds of garlic bulbs. I have about 120 of them thar bulbs this year, so big, plump and juicy! A long keeper too, the Fish Lake #3 cultivar, good flavour and medium heat and lasts almost until the next years garlic harvest, if there is enough planted to last. Viva the garlic!! Have a most beautiful day, CynthiaM.