So much to tell…where to start?

We have had a lot going on since the last blog post. The Farmer has a serious case of writer’s block, and the FarmWyfe has been busy with the Facebook page…lol…I know, that is no excuse…but it is the best I can offer. 🙂

We were plagued with vehicle issues that began in late April and were only resolved within the last couple of weeks. So the majority of our attention was focused there, but I’m happy to say the issues were resolved without us having to give up any limbs or necessary pieces of clothing.
Now on to the more interesting stuff…

We have added five little bunnies to the backyard menagerie…they are Flemish Giant X (?). They were so sweet lookin’ I gave ’em “sweet” names…Marshmallow, Butterscotch, Caramel, Toffee, and Cadbury (he/she is chocolate colored)…can y’all guess what colors the others are? lol

We have also added some more ducks, barnyard crosses, hatched from eggs laid by the two ducks (girls) from our original paddling of five (yes that is a correct term for a group of ducks…I looked it up), which consists of a pair of Rouens, a pair of Runners, and a lone Peking drake. We also added some guinea keets and a bakers’ dozen of baby pullets, purchased from a hatchery down south of us.

We have a new addition to our canine family, too…a Ratchi princess named Cupcake. Sadly, we lost her mommy, our little black Chihuahua named Minnie, when Cupcake and her 2 sisters were only 3 weeks old. So they were bottle babies for a little while. But they adjusted well, and the other 2 little girls have gone to their fur-ever homes with good and loving families.

I am in the process of adding more chickens to the ever-growing flock that roams the little piece of rural Texas acreage we call Caddo Critter Farm. But these will be indoor chickens…yes, you read that right. I will be keeping (some) of these in the house. In a large parrot cage. In the spare room. But it’s okay…these are little chickens. Serama Bantams, to be exact. Maximum weight is usually about a pound, give or take a couple ounces…some only top out at half that size. They come in all sizes in between, and a wide variety of plumage colors and patterns. I’ll be posting more about this in another post.

The Farmer has recently become a snake-killer, out of necessity…he was protecting our flock. We lost 5 young chickens and 2 of the newest ducklings to 2 of the slithering predators…Texas Rat Snakes. Not venomous, but deadly nonetheless, at least to our flock. The Farmer now does nightly “coop checks” armed with a good flashlight and his .22 pistol. Blasted snakes need to stick to eating rats and mice (they are RAT snakes, after all!) and leave our feather-babies alone! Hopefully, the moth balls we scattered liberally in and around the coops and in the feed room will be as effective a repellant this summer as they have proven to be in the past.

Remember all those baby chicks & baby ducklings the Farmer wrote about early on? Well, they are now 4 & 5 month old adolescents, teenage chickens & ducks, if you will (you know the age)… The boys are crowin’ and quackin’, struttin’ their stuff and chasin’ the girls with only one thing on their minds. Girls are still a bit shy, their hormones haven’t quite kicked in all the way. Most are still playing hard to get, although a few of the more precocious young lady chickens have started laying now and then. And so a whole new generation is coming of age in the barnyard…it a a pleasure to watch and a sight to behold.

‘Til next time, y’all take care. I pray your lives are as blessed, and your hearts are as happy and content as ours are…