Crooked Creek Farm

A Crooked Creek Christmas

In continuing a tradition that we started last year, we took all the animals their special Christmas treat.

The chickens loved theirs, but of course, they eat anything we dump in there! lol

The goats were so impatient! They came to the end of their pasture by the chickens to see if they could get something extra! lol

 The cats, Coonie (short for Coon Butt, because her tail looks like a racoons) on the left, and Baby on the right enjoying their turkey.

Shadow, the Australian Sheperd, gobbled his turkey so fast the camera couldn't even catch it in the bowl! lol

The goats getting feed their treat of celery and apple peels by Zachary 7, Calen 13, and D.

Look at all the good little goaties, all lined up nice like and eating their treat. They were on their best behavior, it being Christmas and all!  

A Merry Christmas was had by all on Crooked Creek Farm.

FOUND:Crazy Country Woman

In case anyone was looking for her, I found her....in my yard.

The neighbor's dog, who is a known chicken thief, is running around loose today. Chasing our chickens. It was spotted in our front yard again so I threw off my slippers, donned D's shoes that he keeps by the back door. And off I went. I was walking around the yard, in the rain, wearing D's shoes, that are like clown shoes on me, with a loaded gun, (Ok, it was a bb gun) in the rain. Oh, the dog was nowhere to be found.

So if anyone was indeed looking for Crazy Country Woman, You now know where she is.

Hot Chocolate soothes everything, even wet, crazy, gun toting, dog chasing country woman.

Rain!!

Egg Poison??!!

We've been having eggs for breakfast everyday for a  few weeks now. The chickens have been very, very nice to us, and have supplied us with an abundance of eggs. Well, the 4 youngest kids have started complaining about having eggs every day. "groan" "moan" "can't we even have toast?" But this morning Calen said "You know, if you keep serving us eggs, there going to become poison to us!" ROFLOL I've never heard that one before!  Did he still have an egg for breakfast? YEP!

Christmas on the Farm

Yes, I realize that Christmas has come and gone.

This year, we decided to put the Nativity scene out by the barn, instead of in the side  yard by the house.

Yes, the Angels are on the roof, lol, held on by screws. We had the Wise Men up the hill by the fence, until it was time for them to come. We used a spotlight at night to light it up. Our neighbors commented on how nice it looked.   All the mud from the hill being cut out, is the subject for another post.

We started a Christmas tradition on the farm this year. We took all the animals a special snack so they could celebrate the birth of their Creator, also.

The chickens got the left over homemade cinnamon rolls from Christmas Breakfast (a family tradition) and celery. The cats got milk, and some meat off the turkey neck. The dog got the turkey neck. And the goats got apples and pears cut into chunks. They all seemed to appreciate their special treats. And we plan on continuing the tradition.

a little goat humor.....

The Building - Almost done

D & K hanging the door. They took the wooden door that was on the old building, rebuilt it, and covered it with the same metal as the building.

Hannah likes to help Dad.

It Works! We are all amazed at how much lighter this door is. We are still yanking it open, like we had to do with the heavy wooden door. It's really funny, as we almost fall over it's so light. lol

You can see how big the old building was by looking on the back left of the building, at the old wood. It is so much bigger now!

All that's left now is trim and paint!

Our Storage Building - Before

This is our storage building. We built it in May 2000. In June of 2000, we had a tornado go through our town. It didn't come down in our little valley, but it stayed up at the top of the hill. Not the hill with the fence in the pic below, the big hill doesn't crest until beyond the trees at the top left of the pic. But while the tornado didn't hit down here, the winds did. D had  80 or so bags of cement in the building, so the building stayed put. But the winds twisted the building, so it was no longer square. But at least our building was still standing!  It holds a TON of stuff. Christmas decorations, bikes, car parts, even car parts for cars we don't own!!, hay, animal feed, garden tools, D's tools, and many many more items. We've definitely outgrown this building! So we're going to add on!

In the picture above, the creek goes behind the building, and then the goat pen goes all the way up the hill.

The work has started! That's Grandpa sawing. :)

It's now almost finished. D and Grandpa are out there now finishing the door. More pics to come!

Picking Strawberries

We recently went strawberry picking. The first day, we met D at work and went. It was SOOOOO hot. I could only pick on basket full before I had to go sit in the shade. Mel lasted a little longer, but soon joined me.

We got 2 flats the first night, Tuesday May 30th, and 4 the following Saturday, June 3rd.

I just LOVE this picture of Zachary!!!  He insisted he had to wear that shirt. You can see how much his head is sweating!

We ate LOTS of the berries fresh, had strawberry shortcake a few times and had LOTS chocolate covered. YUM!! I also made jam. I canned 4 pints and 10 1/2 pints, and froze 1 pint and 6 1/2 pints. Not counting the 2 1/2 pints we have eaten already! So that's a total of 5 pints and18 1/2 pints that I made. We also have 5 quart bags FULL of berries in the freezer.

Baby Barn Swallows

Here are 3 of the babies. There were 4, but one didn't want it's pic taken, so it hid.

When they flew away from the nest, one didn't fly very far. So the kids picked it up to protect it from the cat. They put it back in the nest a couple of times, before it actually flew away.

This picture was taken a little over a month ago. We thought is was funny that we kept seeing Barn Swallows hanging out around the barn. But then D found some more eggs in the nest! Another pair must have made the nest home.  We haven't checked on them in a couple of weeks. We need to do that. There could be more babies up there!

I Survived!

On the way to the people door of the chicken house, there is a hole. A big hole. Well, my foot fits into the hole, so that makes it a big hole. Although, it's only a couple of inches deep. Every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, when I pass this hole on the way to the chicken house, I tell myself I need to fill it in. "I'll add that to my to do list"  I, in fact, often trip on said hole. This has been going on for like a month. So that's a lot of times that I was supposed to add it to my list. And I didn't.

Yesterday morning, while feeding the chickens, I stepped in this hole, and fell. Yep, sprawled right out in the grass, chicken food flying! The only good thing was no one was around to see this! lol I knew as soon as I got up that I had sprained my ankle. I had it wrapped all day in an ace bandage. Today, it's still sore, and I still have it wrapped. The surprise that I woke up to this morning was I am now sore all over from the fall! Arms, elbows, knees, back, Just about everything!

So the moral to this hole story is to actually write things on the to do list, not just think about them!

After the fall, I dropped the scrap bucket off on the porch and went to walk around and look at all the gardens. Guess what I saw? C'mon, guess! Ok, here's what I saw. Bet you didn't guess it!

That's right. A BIG black bull. He walked right over the fence seperating the neighbors field from our yard. So I RAN in and called the neighbor. He came over right away and chased him home, then fixed the fence!

Then, while cooking supper, I found out our oven had died.  That's why food hasn't been coming out right the last couple of days. I thought it was just me! lol So we carried 8 pizza's across the street to my mothers to cook them. Yeah, that was fun!

But I did, in fact, survive the day yesterday! Amazing...

Barn Swallow

Our first Barn Swallow in the barn!

Spring Pictures

Our snowy goat barn, on the first day of spring. The cow is not really standing on the barn roof, lol, it's on a hill behind the barn. The goats don't like the snow., so they're staying under the overhang.

And the firepit, where we were supposed to roast hot dogs and marshmallows tonight. Guess we're not going to, even though the 4 little kids said we should anyway. lol

Spring??

We went to feed the animals about 30 minutes ago. We had to do it in the sleet. Yes, I said sleet. The kids were complaining that it hurt. Yes, it does! We are now in eating out lunch, mac and cheese that Hannah, 10, made, And as I look out the window it's snowing!

So much for putting up the volleyball net and having a cookout on the first day of spring!