Our Very First....SILVER PIED!

This week's peafowl hatch consisted of 4 eggs, 3 from the India Blue Pen and 1 from the White Pen.  The first 3 are all India Blue chicks...the 4th hatched today...an India Blue Silver Pied!  Now, I know, some don't think this is exciting...but I do.  I am a fanatic about genetics and am facinated by the differences in all the birds that mom is hatching this summer.  In the pen that this egg comes from is a white peacock, white peahen, midnight peahen and a silver pied peahen.  Genetically, there is somewhere around a 25% chance that the silver pied will hatch a silver pied chick when bred to a white peacock.  Honestly, I didn't think it would happen this year since out of the 47 chicks hatched...only 14 even came from that pen and the 13 hatched before were all solid white birds. What's so special?  This chick will be mostly white except for a dot of color on its head, tail and a tiny patch on its back.  If it turns out to be a male, it's entire tail will be white except for a very few colored feathers.  I'm guessing he would turn a few heads....he will be a beautiful bird.  However, with our luck, it will be a hen...still beautiful...but we already have one of those!

Still damp from hatching...

First Day of Homeschool 2011

Our first day of homeschool started this morning.  I'm impressed with how things went.  Zack is taking auto technology at Franklin Tech again this year, so he is gone during the morning.  We are almost moved into the new school room Troy built last year.  It is much more peaceful than trying to concentrate in the middle of things in the house.  Most of our curriculum  is in place, but we do still have a few holes to fill in before we get too far into the year.  Caitlyn and Kyle do most of their classes during the morning time and Zack will fill in his during the evening.  The most popular class this year?  Rosetta Stone Spanish!  The kids race to get to the computer first.  I'm assuming we will fly through this course and will have to order the next one.  Troy and I are trying to do the course also, but the kids are going at a much quicker rate that we are.  It's hard to believe I have a Senior, Junior and 6th Grader this year...time flies so fast!

I am so blessed to live where I do.  We live about 3 miles from one town and 2 miles from another.  Still close enough to run in when we need something, but far enough away that we don't have all the commotion bombarding us all the time.  Our little 1/2 acre plot sits on the edge of an 80 acre field belonging to one neighbor and the acreage across the road belongs to another neighbor.  We can see both neighbors' houses, but they aren't close enough to even yell to the neighbors.  We hope one day to own some of the land around us, but for now, the owner has no plans of selling it to us.  It seems that we are in his way and the quicker that we move on the better.  We've been there 17 years this past May, and rebuilt after the tornado in 2003...we have no intentions of ever leaving.  I'm not sure why, but it seems that we have always been the outcasts there.  I'm guessing it is because we aren't true "farmers."  We don't raise cattle and we don't plant crops.  We don't have a fancy house, big barn or any huge farm machinery.  We do love animals, the smell of fresh plowed fields and the sound of field grasses blowing in the wind.  We love to watch the cranes and geese at the ponds on the land around us, and nothing beats the sounds of bull frogs, crickets and locusts as night falls. If you've never seen millions of fireflies dancing in an open field you are missing something that money will never be able to buy.  Even if we never get to be "real" farmers...I'm gonna be here until I die.

The gun arrives...

Zack has been searching for just the right gun for Kyle to start target shooting.  Last week he found one.  They have been not so patiently waiting for it to get here.  Today, we went to pick it up at the gun shop.  Tonight, our back porch became a rifle range.  The boys spent forever in the heat getting things "just right" for a competition this coming weekend in Topeka, KS.  Kyle has another year before he is old enough to shoot at our local youth rifle club, so Zack has decided he'll teach him at home.  There are benefits to having a expert ranked marksman in your home...you get a private teacher!  

Real Rain!

Oh my goodness, I am getting to go to bed to the sound of rain hitting the windows, thunder in the distance and flashes of lightening. I couldn't ask for a better sleep aid!

The heat continues...

Sometimes I wish I could just go back to bed and start the day over.  Everything went normally until I went to open the barns and let the chickens out.  It seems that the temperatures in the barn overnight were hot enough to kill one chicken and bring three others to the brink of death.  Of course, just as usual....I panic.  I had Kyle help get the top off the barn had had him run to get his dad.  I grabbed the 3 half dead chickens, turned the hose on and dunked them in the water tub.  Two were aware enough to try and get out, the third just hung limp.  After a few minutes, we had decided there wasn't much more we could do.  Troy buried the hen that didn't make it.  The first 2 staggered to the shade by themselves.  The third, a rooster, wasn't able to stand or lift his head.  I layed him soaking wet in the shade hoping the light breeze would cool him more.  I expected none of them to make it through another day of temperatures in the 100's.  I realized I had forgotten to take care of my sisters dogs...and panicked even more.  I had to leave the chickens, take care of her dogs and get on to work.  Troy called me as he left for work.  He said he didn't see the chickens laying anymore and that the looked to be doing fine.  To my surprise, when I got home at 6:30, I couldn't even tell which chickens had been down this morning.  It looks like I'll be making some changes to the pen tonight and leaving them out of the barn.  I can only pray that by saving them from the heat, I don't set them up to be a raccoon's meal.

Just one of those days..

I've spent most of the day back in bed. I woke up before 6am and just stayed in bed hoping to fall back asleep...no luck. I did my chores, let Stacy's dogs out and came back home...all before 7:45 this morning. By 10, I was sinking fast...went back to bed. Here it is almost 5:30 pm, I'm awake, but wish I wasn't. It's just one of those days. I have no idea what I wrong...I just can't seem to pull myself out of it.