Lovely Lady Bugs

I'm thinking these are aphids on this stem and a couple of lady bugs yumming them up!

My Luck Ran Out

It started sleeting late yesterday afternoon and continued even after I went to bed. My last thought before turning out the light at eleven thirty was "I think we are going to be okay and not lose electricity."

At six, when I woke up; no electricity. It went out around four AM. So, I got up and dressed, went out to feed the chickens and open the hen house. Then I went and put out some blocks of hay for the horses. Oh, I forgot to mention, I started my generator first. I could see Poppet and Suki, but they weren't coming. They were afraid of the noisy generator. Poppet came on to get hers, but Suki had to act a fool first. 

First we just eat with Poppet until she said no. 

Then we have to be brave because we are hungry. 

Molly is interested in barking at the horses; Gypsy is interested in pulling Molly's tail. 

Only a few chickens had come out of the hen houses. It was noon before most would come out. They would step on the ice and go right back in the hen house. 

Late this afternoon they found a spot they could scratch around in; a very small spot. 

Miss Houdini

This is culprit. 

This morning Molly woke me up barking at five am. So I get up and let her and Gypsy out. I'm thinking they can go out and get this over with and we will sleep till about seven.  After about five or so minutes, they come back in and we get back in bed. I'm flip-flopping trying to get back to sleep when I hear a horn honking. I go out and a lady is telling me one of my horses is across the road. I see Poppet in the pasture, so I go to the shed to get a few blocks of hay.  I just knew once she sees Poppet eating, she would come back. I come out of the shed and there stands Suki. She follows me to the gate and in she goes. I think I found where she got out. You just never know with Suki.  

Wrens Nesting

This was from last summer; I'm just now posting again. 

One day I noticed dirt on the porch right under the hanging basket and this is what I found. I told the little wrens this was a bad idea. I was going to put this plant in a larger pot. Too bad, she's staying. Okay. This picture was taken on June the 8th. 

June 15th we have a nest of eggs. 

June 29th, hatching out. That's something, isn't it?

July 5th, Momma, I'm hungry. 

July 10th, Okay, I see you. It was amazing they let me get this close for a picture. Of course, it was really crowded in there. The top was getting thin. 

Empty nest syndrome. Then one or two days later they were gone. I was going to get pictures of them leaving the nest, but they left while I was gone. I was gone only a couple of hours that morning. I was sick I didn't get pictures. I knew it was going to be soon because the day before the mother and father were on the railing chattering to the babies. It was fun watching them. 

It's Back On

Saturday I had the tin put back on the barn; yea! They just used the same tin, except one sheet that had a hole ripped in it. I had a sheet in the loft of the barn left over from the original reroofing. It's the one that is discolored. That's Gypsy running for the barn because Molly is there barking at Suki; not good.  That's another story. 

The Big Storm

On December 21st horrible weather was going on because it was so warm and a cold front was coming through. I think the high was around seventy-five degrees. The wind was blowing really hard all afternoon. I checked the radar on my computor every so often. I think it was around four o'clock it got really bad.  I looked out my window and saw my chickens running toward the house just as fast as they could; that's half running and half flying.  Then the wind picked up MORE. You could see leaves and debree just flying across the pasture; then it changed direction and then it started going in a circular motion. Of course, I was about to freak at this time. And it was definitely time to freak. But I did alright. The dogs were also extremely scared. Something banged against the house and I looked out the fronted door and this is what I saw. 

The Lord took care of me. The tornado went over my house but didn't touch down here and the damage could have been a lot worse. It did touch down later about fifteen miles from here and it had touched down about eight miles before it came over my house. Some trees about fifty feet on the north side of my house broke off and fell and two uprooted. Luckily the wind was blowing them the other direction. 

It also ripped a section of my barn roof off. I can't see my barn from house, so I don't know what my horses did when this going on. 

This tree close to the barn broke toward the east, then the wind laid it on the other side of a tree toward the north. 

We're talking bad stuff. But we're okay now and cleaning up, slowly. I've gotten the shingles on my rood fixed and I have someone lined up to fix the barn roof. 

Gypsy hid in the back of my closet for two hours after the storm. I don't know how she will act when we get thunder and lightning again.  I might have to get her some calming medicine. We'll see. 

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a Happy New Years Day and will have a lovely year. I'm starting back slow to see if I can get back into this blogging. I bought me a snowman bird feeder; because it was just too cute. Birds will eat off it' but it seems they like the other bird feeders better (I think). Probably because it is easier to eat at the others. This morning two goldfinches were on it.

Here we can just stand here and eat. That is as long as the sunflower seeds hold out at these.