Container Gardens

G & I finally got some flowers in today!

Alyssum by the phone box

A start on the roof garden

Hatch-22

Final tally from the second round in the incubator: 22. New colors and patterns this time. A third round is going in tonight.

A noisy brood, this group

Second Batch

Tomorrow our second batch of chicks should be busting out of their shells. We had two "early birds" this afternoon and one tonight. The first batch is still under a heat lamp in our milkhouse, safe from cats, coyotes and raccoons for the time being.



Afternoon arrivals

First batch, at the awkward between-peep-fluff-and-adult-feathers stage

Bees in Trees

It's a late spring this year because it was so cool for so long. The apple trees are just shy of full bloom right now. The bees from our hive were busy pollinating them today. Hope this means fruit-laden trees in the fall.

Dan, G & Maike stroll through the orchard toward the hives

Looking up an apple tree

Doing her job

Bella Update

After a rough few days, Bella is up and doing well. We've been letting her wander around instead of putting her back in with the other cows. She hasn't strayed too far since behind the silo there's a flatbed with three large round hay bales on it. We've been letting her feed at will there.

Bella and her all-you-can-eat buffet

Mistress Doolittle

In general, newborn calves don't come when you call them. But Honeysuckle's calf seemed curious about G as soon as she approached. Against the mooed advice of his mama, he went right to her.

"Come here Baby"

"It's OK Mama"

"Hello Baby"

Whew!

Three calves today: normal births, all healthy.

This shorthorn heifer was born in the morning and was disrespecting fences by the afternoon. She snuck in with the yearlings, who found her a curiosity

Sassy & bull calf

Honeysuckle & bull calf

Spears Out Our Ears

We cannot stay ahead of the asparagus. We've been eating it every night and giving it away, and there's still some that starts to go to seed before we get to it. Luckily the goats think it's a big treat.

Cosmo, Lily & Iris wait impatiently for asparagus

One of Those Years

High drama on the farm again today. Princess had a big, sturdy bull calf. When Dan & G went to check on them after dinner, to their dismay they discovered that she was still in labor. Unlike a lot of other mammals, twins in cows is not good news. The even worse news was that the second calf was breech, or coming out backwards. For the second time in three days, Dan had to pull a calf. There was no resuscitating it, as it had most likely been dead for a while. Unlike Bella, Princess hopped right back up and she and the calf seem to be doing well.

G with Princess and her calf

Dan carrying the calf in an effort to get Princess to follow him into the barn

Almost there

Not a Happy Day

One of the downsides to living on a farm is that at times things go wrong, and sometimes they go horribly wrong. We've had 24 hours of that this weekend. My favorite cow, Bella (so named because she is half Piedmontese and gorgeous), went into labor yesterday. After dinner it became apparent that even though she'd never had trouble calving before, she was having a hard time. Dan decided he'd have to pull the calf. Fortunately for him, our friends Chris & Beth were here and they wanted to help. Even with three of them, they had a really hard time doing it. Usually getting the shoulders out is the hardest part, but this calf's hind quarters were huge. It was the largest bull calf Dan has ever seen.

The calf was having difficulty breathing, so Dan & Beth massaged his chest, and he seemed to be doing much better. Dan fed him colostrum before he went to bed, and was up several times throughout the night to check on him. He seemed okay this morning, so Dan started feeding him milk replacer, because Bella was still exhausted from the delivery and not her usual attentive self. When Dan went out after dinner tonight, however, he discovered that the calf had not made it after all. We are hoping Bella makes a full recovery.




Bella, in happier times

Horicon Marsh Bird Festival

This weekend was the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival. G & I went up on Saturday with some friends and did a pontoon ride into the marsh as well as a tour around it. It was overcast and cool; we saw a lot more birders than birds. At the education center we sat in on a presentation about raptors, which was great because we got to see kestrels, a barred owl, a falcon and a snowy owl up close.

On the marsh watching white pelicans

Looking out onto the marsh from the Visitor Center

Found (The Missing)

G and some friends had a real treat today: Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of the Shadow Children series and books such as Running Out of Time and Just Ella, visited their book group. She was in the area promoting Found, the first book in her new series The Missing. Everyone had already read Found and had lots of questions for her. She was gracious and thorough in her responses. One interesting tidbit she passed on: She initially had a certain identity in mind for Jonah, one of the main characters in the book, but she's since come across some other possible identities for him. She hasn't decided yet who we'll find out he is, but it will most likely happen in the last book of the series (which will have at least four books in it). Unfortunately, the next book isn't going to be published for another year, so everyone will just have to wait to see how things unfold!

Margaret Peterson Haddix (back row, right) with G & her book group

Mystery Amphibian

Dan found a silver-white amphibian in the lawn today. I sent pictures to a guy I know who is a naturalist/guide in the Northwoods ... we're hoping he can tell us who our little interloper is. (Update: He says it is most likely an Eastern gray tree frog, which can change colors like a chameleon. Toads are variations of brown or red, and he can't see evidence of a paratoid gland, which toads have behind their eyes.)



Sunning in the grass

Close up

No-Sew Blankets

The women's group of a church we are nominally associated with gets together with two other ELCA churches on the first Saturday of May each year to make fleece blankets. This was the fourth year G & I spent the afternoon tying away with Lois, as nice a church lady as you will ever find, and Jan, the retired OB nurse who delivered G. The 120+ blankets are going to local EMS and fire departments, as well as women's shelters this year.


G works on our favorite pattern this year

Daisy Chain

Nine

Three more hatched over night. By late afternoon, there was no sign that any of the other eggs would hatch. We'll put a new set in tonight.

The newbies join the day-olds (photo taken while water was being changed)

Half a Dozen

At the end of the day, we have six chicks. The one who had the biggest hole first thing this morning had a hard time making any progress and it finally pushed itself out about a half an hour ago. (It seems exhausted.) We've moved them from the incubator to a box with a heat lamp, where we'll keep them for a few days. We're also going to put 42 more eggs in the incubator tomorrow. These are "fresher," so we should have a better yield in 21 days.





Our little brood

And Another!

Hatchling 3 was a fast worker and still had lots of energy when it freed itself from its shell. (The one I called "determined" in the first post has made no more progress from this morning than sticking its beak out.) It's going to be a beauty ... red with black stripes.

Feisty

Another!

A second chick has liberated itself from its egg. It seemed to take a lot of energy ... we wanted to help the poor thing out a few times. This second hatchling has huge black raptor-like feet. It's not as noisy as its clutch mate (yet anyway).

Cracking the shell

Pushing hard

Almost ...

Freedom!

Hatched!

The first chick is out of its shell! It's a hard-working little bugger, as a few of its mates have more shell broken away but haven't made their way out. (This one came out of the egg with the little white spot and crazing in the last picture.) It is making quite a racket. G & I are wondering if it will imprint on one of us!

Plucky

Incubation

Our "yard hens" lay eggs all over the place, and most of the time Maike finds the nests and eats them. But this year, Dan, Grandpa & G made an effort to find the nests before Maike did. Twenty-one days ago (the incubation period for a chicken egg) they put 42 eggs in an incubator to see what would happen. Lo and behold, this morning there are several eggs with evidence of chicks trying to break out. We are also hearing intermittant peeping. Stay tuned for "The Great Chick Hatch of 2008" news!

This chick is the most determined of the lot! (If you enlarge the photo, you can see a white dot and some crazing on the egg to the right where another one is starting to work its way out)

A Different Perspective

Props to Lying Down, Looking Up


House of Burgesses

Jamestown 350th Anniversary Memorial

Monticello

Day 5: Monticello

At Mr. Jefferson's home

A different view

Jefferson's grave. He wanted to be remembered for the Declaration, the Virginia religious freedom statute and UVA

Day 4: Yorktown & Shirley Plantation

Checking out Continental Army accommodations at the Victory Center

At the battlefield (James River in the background)

Shirley Plantation main house

Won't Do?

Class of 2018?

Day 3: Williamsburg Again

Our wonderful docent Miss Virginia laces G into a corset

At the Governor's Palace

Maze at the Governor's Palace (no blast-ended skrewts in sight)

G and Patrick Henry (a truly inspirational presentation)

Evening 2: African American Music

No cameras were allowed inside at this presentation in Williamsburg, but here's part of the group before this amazing event