brief update

Sorry Guys I got a new job and it takes most of all my free time.  Along with all the animals and the kids I dont' have much time to blog. I'm going to try harder but can't make any guarantees.  I may not be able to keep my personal site going but I've just started a new website to try to get more traffic on the animal breeding side of things.  Check it out and give me lots of feedback so I can make it better. www.summerssanctuary.com

FLOOD!!!!!!!

We woke up this morning and it was a whole new ball game when it came to taking care of the animals.  The entire back of our yard and 3/4 of pasture is flooded.  Two ducks escaped their enclosure and 1 tiny hen drowned (sounds stupid I know but ducks do drown they become water logged and she couldn't get to dry land.  She was washed up as the "tide" started to recede. I will post updated pictures later on.  I am going to try harder to blog better than I have been but this was a shocker to us.  1 night of rain and we got everyone elses run off and are under water to my knees. Also duck taping your muck boots to keep water out worked fairly well but after being in the water for a while it started leaking not a ton but enough to freeze your feet.  It did not come lose from my legs though! we need hip boots cuz it's getting deep!

 This is the front.  we have lumber floating throughout the yard from the stacks of deck lumber to build deck all the way around the pool.

 Notice neighboring yards that drain toward ours.

 This is the sight I saw from the deck this morning. I was shocked and clueless as to what to do for the animals. We did the best we could. 

 The turkeys are out seeing how everyone else faired but the horses are staying in the barn.  I don't blame them!

 The chickens are locked in their coop for the first time ever.  the water went in the front door but the building is higher by the run so as the water goes down it runs out. the fresh sawdust I put in there yesterday after I cleaned the coop is soaked though.  We moved their floating water bucket inside.

 The above pic is of our khaki campbell drake that escaped and survived.

The duck shed has 2 inches of water inside the ducks are using straw and piling it in a corner so there is a place that is somewhat dry to lay.  Hopefully they will make it.

Didnt have to sell yet!

We didnt have to sell livestock after all! I did sell some ducks though since my younger full bloods started laying. I needed to get rid of some drakes and the only way to do that is to sell hens also. Turkeys dressed for thanksgiving between the 2 weighed a whopping 95 pounds! One was 50 the other 45! They were good turkeys though and really didn't eat much. I liked that they couldn't fly :) the 2 blue slates we have can fly and may prove to be a problem yet or accidentally become dog food if they don't stop leaving the pasture :) I also want to ask everyone to pray for donna in her fight with cancer she is taking it rough right now and needs all our prayers! we love her dearly and want her fight to be a successful one. Her transplant had to be postponed due to complications. That is all the update for now will try to post more farm pictures soon!

Sad day

Today is a sad day on the farm. We have to sell off our livestock. Im going to try to keep the horses at least but we will cease to be a farm. Im also getting rid of the little dogs. Im sure most of you are "happy" that i've finally come to my senses but my heart is breaking as I have always wanted a farm. We tried and failed so unfortunately there will be no more eggs no more fresh food. I pray that we will be able to keep the horses though otherwise trevon will not be able to continue with 4-h.  The kids skill be terribly dissappointed but they have to go for lack of food this week. If we can't sell them we will have to butcher them and as much as we need the money I sincerely hope they sell. Hard times have come once again but we will survive we have before. I sure will miss the meat though because prices are getting ready to skyrocket! Hope evetyone is well and has wonderful holidays.

Ducklings and pool

We hatched 4 golden hybrid duck eggs out of 23. We also have hatched 7 khaki campbells out of 18 not a very good hatch rate but our room temperatures change frequently. The golden hybrids are twice the size of their parents at 2 months and already start laying! They are all black with blue wing feathers. They are gorgeous!  We also finally got the pool up! It's going to take a while to fill though due to well and drought we dont want to run well dry we let it rest all day yesterday.
Our garden had also come in nicely I canned 3 qts green beans and 13 qts potatoes. We had spaghetti squash for dinner and we also have zucchini.

Forever Busy

I'm trying to look for work and or a career.  Would prefer a career so I applied to 6 state jobs today and was trying to apply for a 7th but something is wrong with the website apparently.  I'll keep looking.  I'm sure I will find something I just hope it will be worth the money I will have to spend in Child care and gas now.  Wednesday we took the horses to a 4-h meeting for Trevon.  He had a blast the horses did well.  Rose did excellent with another 4-her that was wanting to try all the horses.  She got on Rose and never got off for the whole meeting so that is great for us because she got her workout.  I ended up riding whoever didn't have a rider and of Donna's 4 horses only 2 didn't get ridden.  One that I wouldn't call broke and another that is just green but all around a good horse.  We will be looking for more hay for the winter soon so I HAVE to find something (work) so that we will have something at least I don't think that the grass around the pond will be enough to feed them all winter long. I wish we could cut the neighbors grass and just pile it in the barn that would be enough for the winter I'm sure. Of course if we had a sicle bar to mow with also and for that much a tractor.  Airiana had the flu last weekend then I got it the other day and Jeff had it a couple days ago apparently Trevon is right as rain because he never did get it.  Dad also got all the trusses on his building this week.  This weekend we are going to get Jeff's dad's pool and set it up here.  I only pray that we will be able to afford it but I guess they aren't as expensive as the in ground pools so that will help a lot.  He also maintains it all summer long with the el cheapo chemicals at walmart and meijer too I guess so that will help a lot! I hope we will figure something out with our finances soon though.  I'm dreading not making any money at all.  Well that's all for now!

This month must be out with the old in with the new

Today I got laid off from help. So I'm searching for another job although I hope I can go back to work at the law office but don't know.