Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.
The Lord graciously granted another hen to go broody this 2019, and graciously allowed 7 new chicks to be hatched out!
All are still doing well and continue to grow…
And here’s their video:
We try to never take these things for granted, nor anything for that matter, and we are very thankful to God for granting these new farm provisions!
— David
We recently had one of our young hens from last year go broody early this year. Usually if they go broody late in the year or during winter, we just pull the eggs so we don’t have to deal with trying to keep a place warm for new chicks during very cold weather.
But I decided to let her go this year, and she hatched out 7 new chicks! And they are all still alive today and doing well, thanks to the Lord!
We did run the heater in the summer kitchen a couple of nights where they were when it got down to 20 degrees F outside, and it all worked out just fine.
On an aside, this mama had a pal hen that was part of the clutch she came from, and these two hung around together. Her friend was white colored, and I called her Nilli (for Vanilla). And so with this one being grey, and them being friends, I call her Granoli (for grey-Nilli 😀 ). Sadly though, Nilli was killed by a predator late last year, but God is granting her friend make up for her loss with the new chicks. 🙂
And here they are:
And here’s their video:
We are very grateful to God for His graciousness in granting these new chicks! We pray they, and our entire homestead and community, are used by Him for His glory and the benefit of others!
— David
The Lord graciously granted another hen get broody this 2018, and she hatched out our 5th set of the year! She hatched out 4 with 1 sadly not making it more than a day, but the other 3 are still doing well as of today!
And then one day, Sue was taking the dogs up to their goat field for their evening running around, and lo and behold, there was a hen walking around with 5 chicks following her! Wow! We eventually tracked down that she had been sitting in a pecan tree fenced-in area. Thanks to God for allowing her to sit out there for at least 3 weeks without being eaten herself!
We gathered them up and got them into the summer kitchen brooder building, and here they are. She had 5 with her, and they also are still all going as of today!
And here is the video for both groups:
As always, we are grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions, and His extra graciousness in preserving the mama and eggs outdoors for all that time!
— David
With us not really having a great way to manage the turkey flock we have now, after a rogue Black Turkey heritage breed hen just showed up at our homestead one day, it becomes difficult when the females start getting broody. They often find quite remote places to nest, and sometimes just hide in the grass somewhere in a field. Although we have lost one to that situation, the Lord’s been gracious to allow us to usually track them down as they perhaps come back in the morning to eat or drink or what have you before returning to their nest, and then we can follow them.
Now though, we try to make sure to collect any turkey eggs we find, and then, if we find a turkey on a nest, haul her in and any eggs in the nest, and put them in the summer kitchen, and add any other eggs we have.
Well, we did that this year with Olivia, the female from last year’s hatching, who had quite a few of her own eggs.
And while she had 5-6 under her, only one hatched out, but by God’s graciousness, this little turklet (I call them “turklets”, like “chicklets”) 😉 made it all along, is still going today, and is almost adult size! We believe now it is a “she” turkey, and she is our first grand-turklet!
Here she is with her mommy back in August, obviously a little older than just a hatchling by this time:
As you can see, the turklet liked to walk all over Olivia 🙂 :
One sad note: we did the same “grab and put in the summer kitchen” with one of our other hens, Tasha, and she hatched out 2 turklets, but not long after they were born, each disappeared. We assume a snake got them, but I never found the culprit in there, and often we do. It’s still a mystery, but it was not the Lord’s will they continue, and we agree whole-heartedly with Him in His sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness!
And here is the video of Olivia and her hatchling, which progresses from the pictures above to when we permanently let them out of the summer kitchen to just this week! The video does include the other mama and one tiny little turklet that was left at the time:
And as always, we are very thankful to the Lord for His graces and mercies and the perpetuation of the animals!
— David
The Lord has graciously continued the 2018 orchard bounty through Summer, with mostly nectarines and pears!
Looking good!
God’s gracious bounty!
Ripening…
And then cut up ready for the solar food drier:
Here they are on the dehydrator:
And showing dried vs. new. Sue did a great job of monitoring this and getting them off the drier before they were too far done…good job, Honey! 😀
These things taste great…it’s tough to stop eating them! 😀
God was so gracious, we had to pressure can some of the fruit to keep up. And with the pears, because their ripening schedule is difficult to guess (they don’t ripen on the tree, and the ripe period of time is a small window and hard to detect), we just canned them as well.
In a more sad note, we lost probably our biggest tree that had lots of peaches on it, but in God’s plan, it was time for it to be done. Like last time, it’ll go to firewood:
But, we are so very grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions directly off of the land! It is always our prayer that we bear much spiritual fruit by abiding in Christ deriving nourishment from Him for His graces to grow in us and outwardly for His glory!
— David
Back in November last year, we put bucks and nannies together for 2017 goat breeding time.
Sadly, our multi-colored buck Rocky was too injured to do the job, and so eventually we had to put Shakespeare with the younger nannies as well, which ended up spreading out the birthing over a couple of months.
But Shakespeare did the job, and here are some of the results! Interestingly, it was 3 to 1 bucklings to doelings:
Earlier:
(What a great picture, IMO: 😀 ):
And then on the day they went to their new home:
Sadly at the end of one day, one of the little bucklings was stammering around, and couldn’t keep his balance. With the extreme heat, we thought maybe he had a sun stroke. We got him into the barn to try to help, but over a few days, he got worse and worse, and eventually, when it sounded like fluid was building up in his lungs and I didn’t want him to drown, I gave him the coup de gras. Sigh…that’s always hard to do, especially when all your efforts are to try to keep the animal alive. But, death is a reminder of sin, and something I believe should help us understand a little as to how much God hates it.
But, we are thankful also that there were no other issues with mama’s giving birth or kids dying…thanks to God!
But, sadly also, over the winter we lost Gracie, and then Winnie. We’re not sure what the reasons were, but we are thankful to the Lord for all of the provisions He granted from them.
Winnie started it all way back when. She was always the queen goat…I called her “your highness”. 🙂 Goodbye Winnie…
And here is Gracie. Goodbye Gracie…
And sadly as well, Rocky ended up maybe too injured to do much, and after moving him into the barn to take care of him, he eventually succumbed to something, and we lost him too. We thank the Lord for all of the kids He granted from him as well. Goodbye Rock…
However, another buck that had been used by others in the fellowship became more available for us to take over care for, and so he and Shakespeare have been pals ever since, and we look forward to him going to work with our younger does this November, Lord willing:
Finally, here’s this year’s 2018 kid provisions video:
We are always grateful to God for His provisions, and try to never take them for granted. We deserve none of them, and so every one is a gracious blessing! And we now thank Him for the milk He is supplying from them!
— David
We are very thankful for the continued perpetuation of the chickens God has graciously granted us, with 3 more hatchings this 2018!
This is group 2 — 11 of them she hatched out! I thought it was 10 originally, but when I moved them into the summer kitchen later, to give them more room, there was a bonus one! 😀
And here they are at night all tucked in with their mommy (I have this in the video as well below):
And here is group 3 — 6 for this hen!
Two sad notes though…
These groups are about the same age, and now about 1/3 the size of the normal chickens. I had somewhat recently moved both groups out into our pen area under some oak trees, and one morning as I lifted the lid on the coup, there were 2 dead ones, 1 with its head and neck slicked down. Arg…that usually means a snake tried to swallow it but couldn’t get it down so quit. I figure the other one just got trampled in the the commotion. So, we’re down 2 from these 2 groups.
And then just last night, I found what I’m pretty sure is one of the blonde mommies from one of these groups basically dead (body completely limp but just hadn’t finished dying, which it did not long after) in the main chicken tractor. Sigh. But, we are thankful to the Lord for any eggs and the hatched chicks He granted from her.
Finally, this is group 4. This one has a sad story too. She originally hatched out 9, but one died within 24 hours. Then one morning I walked in, and one was laying there dead, and one was missing. Arg…snake! Sure enough, I found it in the corner of the room with a lump in its midsection. So, I dispatched it to the compost pile. But the next morning, I walked in, and now 2 were dead, with one having its head and neck slicked down…sigh. I think they were getting in from the corner of the room as the outside siding of the summer kitchen is not complete. So, I put a cinder block inside against the corner, and that has seemed to stop the “bleeding”.
Still, we are thankful for the little 4-pack of chicks God has graciously allowed us to continue to have!
And here is a video of all 3 groups:
Again, we are grateful to the Lord for the provisions of these new chicks! We always pray for the right attitude toward them, that they are not ours but His, to dispense with as He pleases, just as I believe we ourselves are. May we trust His perfect will and give thanks in all things!
— David
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