Pests

Living out in this beautiful area I have discovered the down side of nature living so close to me. First it was the black snake eating my first guinea chicks to hatch from the brooding hens. Then we discovered huge (1.5 inch long) horse flies with in hours of bringing Tini and Izzy home.



(Note: the reins are .5" in width and the fly is wider across then the reins are.)

And finally I have lost my entire corn crop to the squirrels. They made my corn patch appear as if a mini tornado had come through.


(Note: the corn in the foreground was 5+' tall two days ago. It's now maybe 18". The corn in the back part of the picture (where the ground looks barren), was maybe 4+' tall and now is a few inches off the ground. The squirrels decimated the corn, stalks and all.)

Children in Common Socks

These are the socks that I knitted up over the past 3 days to ship off tomorrow for Children in Common. They are knit with donated tapestry yarn using about 120 yards for each sock. The sizes range from 6-7" in length. I'll be shipping them out priority mail tomorrow.

Now back to my regular knitting.

-Myrtle

Multiple 'M's

Margotlotta and Manchego


Manchego guarding the yarn



Montague and Magnolia
















My daughter decided that since I have the blog ID of Mavis that the other members of the family needed blog IDs beginning with the letter M as well. Introducing daughter Margotlotta, son Montague, dog Manchego, cat Magnolia, degu Moonstruck (and her deceased sister MisStella), and fish Marauder-of-the-deep.

-Mavis

pet photos by Margotlotta
human + pet photos by Mavis

Lots of Babies

Well, I'm feeling better today. Yesterday we had a few babies which had hatched after the unfortunate black snake incident. Today we have LOTS of new babies. I have absolutely no idea how many because mama guineas don't let you near and it's been a challenge just to make sure the little ones have constant access to food and water, much less trying to count. I do know they don't like me picking the little ones that get too far astray up to put back with them. And the mamas have VERY sharp beaks.

So today I'm feeling less stressed by the black snake, although I don't want him to return. And excited about so much new life in the coop.

-Myrtle

Frustration with Wildlife

I love living here. I enjoy watching the wildlife on our property and feel it's where I belong. However, when the wildlife invades my animal space I feel totally at loss and frustrated with what is their natural behavior.

Last night we had a 6-8' black snake invade our coop. It ate the newly hatched guinea(s), upset the birds, and wanted to stay around for another snack or two. DH removed the snake (not far enough away for me), righted the turned over feeding and watering containers, and tried to calm the birds down as he locked things tighter down to keep the snake out.

Now I know snakes eat baby birds. It's just the way life is and I accept it. I have no problem with keeping this snake alive to eat mice, baby rabbits and squirrels, and even wild birds. But I DO NOT want it in my hen house attacking MY birds, especially my newly hatched ones that had no fighting chance.

This morning life in the coop has calmed down, but the broodie guinea hens are still agitated although back on their nest. I continue to hope for more chicks to hatch for them. But now to figure out how to keep the black snake from returning for further snacks without killing it. I'd much prefer the black snake to copperheads, but personally I'd like them all to stay out of my sight. I'm just not a snake person.

-Myrtle

Brooding Guineas

I discovered a new baby in the coop today. The first of the brooding Guinea chicks has hatched. I will admit I was surprised because he was under the hanging feeder and I thought at first I had a mouse in the hen house only to discover a newly hatched chick. I maneuvered her back to the moms, without getting my hand pecked to shreds and she was immediately put back under one of the broodies, so I couldn't get a picture of her. Now I get to wait and see how many more eggs hatch and if any of them end up being the chicken eggs that were laid in their nests.

-Myrtle

Two New Blessings

After multiple delays and a very long day, DS2 and I arrived home from Oklahoma with two new blessings at 4:50 am for our homestead. We like to introduce you all to Tini and Izzy. They are 3 year old Palomino Quarter Horses, who happen to also be half sisters.

First is a picture of Tini. She has several large with patches and appears as if a painter accidentally spilled a can of paint on her. At this point she also is the more out going of the girls and enjoys coming to her name and getting her head rubbed.
And then there is Izzy. She is a little more shy, but has a gorgeous white diamond on her pink nose.


DS4 had fun today as he was lead around the pasture multiple times on Izzy. DS4 definitely was enjoying himself and seems to have a nature ability to ride with the horses gait.



Not to be out done by his youngest brother, DS1 took multiple loops around the pasture on Tini. As you can see even I can handle the idea of leading two horses at once and Cibola enjoyed her new friends.


After the girls had been lead around numerous times by different humans inhabitant, they were bridled and had some learning time with bareback riders. Izzy, who feels fairly comfortable with the bridle and how it works, spent time with DS2 riding her around the pasture. At times she was uncertain about what was happening and decided it was time to practice backing up with DS2 really was trying to turn her, but over all she did well for her first time exposure here. However, Tini is still learning about bridle etiquette and especially that humans are truly suppose to be on you and not only nest to you. Hence, DS1 worked on having Tini feel the appropriate rein directions, while I listened to his directions and used the lead rope to ensure she listened to his directions.

Both Tini and Izzy will spend numerous more hours learning appropriate responses to their human leaders over the next year, but it was a good end to a long journey for today.

-Myrtle

whole lot of knitting...

There is a whole lot of knitting going on here - at least if you look at the list of projects I have going on. 3 shawls, 2 scarves, 3 sweaters, 2 pairs of socks. If you look at the actual progress on the projects wellll...

Two of the shawls are for friends of mine - twins who will be 50 in September. One is in fingering weight wool and one is in lace weight silk. One twin in Washington state and one in Hawaii. I let you figure out which shawl goes where. :-)

One sweater is for a baby due in September. Just the hems and the button band to go on this one, but it has been stalled out for the last 6 weeks. The other two sweaters are very long term projects. Let's just say it is a good thing my children have stopped growing.

The rest of the projects don't have due dates so no urgency is going into the knitting. Pick up and knit one of them when I get tired of the birthday shawls.

I have spinning on the wheel. Same roving that has been there for the last month. This too is a bit by bit project without a time line.

On the work front - still two jobs. Lots of overtime and additional responsibilities in one. Becoming an FTO (field training officer) has severely cut into my daily knitting time/moments.

It is hotter than heck here in the Pacific Northwest. As I work outside for much of the week I don't have energy left to do much of anything at the end of the day. No A/C in our house. Most years we don't need it more than 6 days out of the summer. This month alone it would have been nice for at least 14 days so far.

-- Mavis

Sign of Love

DS4 made me a pipe cleaner tulip last night and put it behind my ear. I told him I loved it and he asked if I wanted real flowers. I said they are nice and I always love flowers. He ran off to pick flowers. I wondered where he was getting them from because the only thing I could think of blooming in our yard right now are hibiscus.

He came in a little while later with a beautiful arrangement and had even put it in a vase for me. I absolutely loved it. The flowers are various weeds growing in our yard which I haven't gotten around to pulling yet. He took those weeds, which I would never seen as pretty, and created a gorgeous flower arrangement. He had seen the weeds for what they really are, God's beautiful creation, and not something obnoxious that needed to be removed.

I am thankful for his showing me true love, by creating something for me from God's glorious nature.

-Myrtle

Surprise

Late last night we noticed a new guinea chick hatching. After several hours and only getting his beak out, DH and I helped him escape his shell. The membrane around him was starting to dry onto him, so he was not able to free himself. I felt bad and helped, even though I knew I wasn't suppose to. DH and DS3 are hoping for a few more chick hatchings. I personally don't think there will be, but then again I did not expect these to be born either.

I add a second chick from the first batch back to the incubator so he would have a friend and hopefully recover from the stress of the hatch. Well he must have and this must have helped another hatch because this morning there was another new hatchling in the incubator.

In the above picture the one with the white chest is two days older than the other two.


These are the ones that hatched two days ago. You'll notice a second chick with even more white then the one above. We believe these are crosses between our one white guinea (male) and one of our pearl guinea (female). They are the only two which are easily distinguished from the rest. What's funny is none will look like they do here when they are adults. The pearls will have white heads, which in the sunlight appear blue. But they are cute here. Later they become so ugly that they are cute and obnoxious with the noise they make. It makes you wonder about my sanity because I've added 22 new ones to my mix now and have more under 4 broodie guinea hens and one broodie chicken in the coop.



And here is a photo of the lavender guinea chicks I purchased. They have grown a lot and are starting to get the long, thin necks like the adults. However, they are still cute.

-Myrtle

7 Guinea Chicks So Far

So far there are 7 live guinea fowl chicks in the incubator. We are now approaching our 25% hatch rate when the one I allowed to die is included. I just need 1 more chick out to have 25% hatched. I started with 35 eggs, I was tossed because it had broken and gone bad, so only 34 could possibly hatch from what I started with.

I love watching them hatch. It takes over 2 hours from when we first see a shell starting to crack before the chick emerges. When it finally starts pushing the shell apart, it can still take 15-20 minutes before it's ultimately out. They look so exhausted from the process and just lay there as they start to dry up.

Now I'm starting to wonder if we'll get any out of the newest clutch of guinea eggs which are being brooded by 4 guinea hens and 1 chicken hen. There are several (possibly a dozen chicken eggs) mixed with the guinea eggs and divided between the 5 hens. They are now about 2 weeks into their brooding. The last two times they quit brooding around 23 days and need to sit for 28 to hatch the guinea eggs. Chicken eggs actually take only 21 days so who knows, we might get those even if the others ultimately leave their nesting site.

-Myrtle, who is excited about being home for all these births. Imagine me when I have goats.

First Guinea Fowl Hatched

We had our first guinea fowl chick hatch last night. Unfortunately I was stupid and had tuna cans of water in the incubator to try and keep the humidity levels up, so the chick ultimately died of drowning. However, we've had 2 more chicks hatch since there.

I'm happy because this time I'm finally getting to watch the hatching process. If my cell phone ever starts getting it's act together, then I can send you the hatching sequence of the 3rd chick. It was great to watch.

When we did the chicken eggs we had 1/4 of them hatch. At that point the incubator was still air and no automatic egg turning. With the guineas I had installed a fan and automatic egg turner, so I'm hoping for a higher hatch rate.

-Myrtle

Scarves

I'm knitting on a lace scarf and I keep wondering why people like knitting scarves. I'm about 2/3rds finished with it now and am totally bored with it. I love the design and will probably take the pattern and incorporate it into the front pattern on some socks. But I can't wait to be done with this scarf. I'm starting to believe it's the fact that I'm constantly feeling like I'm going back and forth on it. It's only 29 stitches wide, so really takes no time to do a row. But there is a break in my thoughts every time I have to turn the work and purl back. Maybe that's why people learn to knit rows backwards. :)

(Note: the scarf pattern is from the Summer 2009 Pieceworks magazine and the yarn is Knitpicks Gloss Lace in the Sterling Colorway.)


I finished these lace wrist warmers and I enjoyed that project although the lace pattern was much easier. The only thing that would have made them more enjoyable is if I'd knit them both at the same time. The pattern is out of the Summer 2009 Pieceworks magazine and I used some of the extra Knitpicks yarn from my classic cardigan in the midnight colorway.

The other project that I finished this past week was the Glynis socks from the Sock Innovations book. However, I really don't remember the yarn brand. Now I just need to find the label so I can credit the right company. The colors in this sock remind me of grandma's table cloth that was blues and greens with just a little gold to it. I finished knitting them about her birthday, so maybe they are my Grandma Mac socks. :)

-Myrtle

Lavender Guinea Chicks

I really should quit taking DS4 shopping with me. While at the farm supply store today DS4 saw the lavender guinea chicks. We currently have pearl and white guinea fowl. I looked at them and decided we didn't really need them although it would be nice to have another color to our flock.

I came home and told DH about the chicks and he asked why I didn't get them and I told him I didn't think we needed them since we were trying to hatch our our own eggs. (I have 36 in the incubator and the guineas are sitting on another clutch in the hen house.) He still thought I should get them.

I ended up harvesting the onions and watching our guineas as they foraged the forest around my smaller garden. Boy was that a mistake. With DH's permission and then thinking about these birds, I decided to call the farm store to see if they still had any. They did and I'm now the proud owner of 10 lavender guinea fowl.

-Myrtle

Harvest Time and Pasture Update

This week has been spent weeding, and weeding, and weeding some more. But I finally have all my gardens weeded. In fact, as I was weeding I decided to do my first harvest and pulled up all my onions that were planted months ago. I have about half of one of my recycling bins full of onions. They are now sitting out back under the screened in porch to finish drying the outside skin.

I have to admit weeding is still not one of my favorite jobs, especially when you have to decide which tomato volunteers to pull up and which are actually the plants you intentionally planted. I'm sure there are some of both out there now. I just hoping that I didn't leave too many cherry tomato volunteers.

Where I pulled the onions is now ready for me to decide what to plant next. Hopefully tomorrow I can take more chick compost out and rota til it into the soil and plant something before traveling for the next several weeks.

Other things I've accomplished this week is finishing pulling/stretching the fence around the horse/goat pasture. It's done and I will say once we figured out what to attach to the fence so we could stretch it, things got much easier. In the end we used a metal fence post down the center of the fencing material. We hooked a chain around the top and bottom of the metal fence post. To this we attached the come along which was also attached to one of the corner posts (10' cedar posts sunk 3-4' into the ground). This ended up working out really well.

DH put up the gates and is putting fencing material on them to keep small goats from going through the gates. We'll still have to come up with a latch system, but for the time being it will be chains.

The only other item to be finished on the pasture fence is installing the electrical fence. I have the connectors attached to the majority of the posts. I still need to purchase another bag to go on the last several posts. Then it's stringing the electric fence through the connectors and installing the solar panel to provide the electricity.

So I guess the boys will be happy when they come home from camp and convention. They'll finally be able to get the horses we've been looking at.

-Myrtle

Remembering "Grandma Granola"

It's Grandma's birthday today. She would be 97 if she was still alive. Have pie and ice cream for dessert if you have any in the house. Visualize doing so if your house is as sadly free of both as mine is.

I intended to post Grandma's Granola recipe today. It is the food I most fondly remember in association with Grandma. I will post it as soon as I find my copy. It is in the recipe box, but just where that box is is the question. So very sadly, I think the last time I made the recipe was in 2003. I've seen the recipe in the recipe box since then so I know I still have it.

The granola was very light in the sugar and oil department. I recall perhaps 1/2 cup of honey and a 1/2 cup of oil for probably 8 cups of rolled oats. In addition there was wheat germ, sunflower seed, bran, and coconut and nuts. After roasting about an hour (stirring every 20 minutes) the granola was removed from the oven and the raisins were added. You only mistakenly added the raisins before roasting once - ugh dry crunchy bits.

I wonder why this granola is so tightly tied with Grandma. I think it might be because she introduced granola to our family. And because we could consistently get it at her house. I wouldn't be surprised if she was eating it as a source of fiber. I believe she liked the ability to customize it to her taste. I have very fond memories of my falling in love with the granola the summer after my 8th grade year. I visited her house for several weeks.

During that time I rose very! early in the morning, ate granola and headed out for an early horse ride with the girl who lived down the road. We would ride for several hours in the early Arizona summer morning. After returning the horses to their stable and caring for them I would head back to Grandma's where I joined Grandma for her breakfast and perhaps a second bowl of granola for me.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

- Mavis

fraternal twins

I've finally done it. I knit my first pair of truly fraternal twin socks. I think I love them, because they aren't identical although they are both knit from stone washed zauberboll sock yarn. I'm not big on the actual yarn because it tends to separate as you knit with it, but I do love the longer color repeats.

The pattern I used is from Cookie A.'s Sock Innovation book and is called Lindsay. Again I modified the socks. I didn't make the garter stitch cuff, garter stitch short row heels, or garter stitch toes. I also moved the seam line (what I'm calling what the area that was designed to go down the side of the socks) to the back of the sock because I liked that better. I also knit them on two size 0, circular needles, two at a time. Hence, I increased the number of pattern repeats to allow me to use 72 stitches.


Here's a better picture of the pattern. It's a very easy, lacy pattern to knit and I'd consider doing it again with my changes.

-Myrtle

Birth of Esther

DS2 was the midwife at the birth of Baby Esther, an Alpaca Cria, on Wednesday. He did a fantastic job and his boss was thankful that he was there when Esther was born. DS2 called me to come up and help and as a family we all went up and had a wonderful as Esther learned to stand up and nurse.

Today I was present at the 2 of 3 expected Cria births. It's another female, as yet un-named. But she's a light fawn color versus Esther's beautiful chocolate brown. Now my neighbor wants the hayer to come back again because he has been on her property for both births so far and she's starting to wonder if his presence was all that was needed to encourage these mom's to give birth.

-Myrtle

Binky's Hatching Photos

It starts with a hole which I work on and work on and work on until finally I crack the shell open.


I thought cracking the shell was hard, but then it's time to wiggle and squirm!


I've got to keep on moving. I'll be out soon.

Ah! I've finally made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now just to rest up, dry off, and maybe later I'll get something to drink.

Introducing Binky, Que, and Bator

The guys have named all 4 chicks. The first is Inky (or as they perfer to spell it Incky). Then came Binky (Bincky) the next morning. Following Binky were Que and Bator. For those who are feeling slow think Incky Que Bator as in where they were born.

The fifth chick who tried to hatch yesterday didn't make it. It wasn't strong enough to get through it's shell. I don't know if any more chicks will hatch from this batch, but it's been fun so far.

So without further ado. Here are Binky, Que, and Bator.
These two are Inky and Binky.


These two are Binky and Que. Que is the traditional yellow looking chick.



This is Bator hatching. Bator has now hatched, but I don't have pictures of that yet.

It appears 4 chicken chicks is all that will be hatching. DH says no more appear to look like they'll hatch. We did have one die in the process of hatching.

-Myrtle