Ducklings and Zucchini

Mitchell (11) took this picture of an adorable duckling

Our few attempts at incubating duck eggs did not work out. We had one pip and never open the egg and one hatched but didn't survive. He never walked and passed after one day. My father suggested that I let the momma ducks sit on the eggs because that what they always did when he was a kid on the dairy farm. We went on vacation in the middle of June and this sweet mother duck started sitting on a large nest of eggs. This afternoon I checked on her and saw a duckling! At one point we saw two ducklings playing behind momma and one under her... so at least 3 ducklings. She is very cautious and doesn't want us to see them or come near the nest. 

Duckling in the back of the nest

Earlier we saw two ducklings back in the pallet wall

Momma is mad at me for peeking

Two ducklings in this picture

Yesterday my husband brought in some zucchini from the garden and it is still growing like crazy. I found a bunch of zucchini recipes to try out. What would you make with fresh zucchini?

Surprise at the Flint home Continued...

Far right is our house and chicken house... far left is a giant bull snake.

 The kids came running inside this evening and yelled that they saw a big snake. We all ran outside with Julien leading the way. 20 feet from our house was the bull snake and he wasn't happy that we came close to him.

Check out the bulge in his middle. I am guessing that he had just ate an egg fresh from our chickens. We stood and watched the snake for a while and tried to scare it away. He tried to scare us away by making a rattle sound with his mouth, striking in our direction, and making himself look big and scary. We won't kill or hurt a bull snake because they are basically harmless. We have heard that bull snakes keep rattle snakes away; not because they eat them but because they are bigger and better hunters. The bull snakes get all the good food first so the rattle snakes stay away. So we want the bull snake to stay around but not quite so close. My family ended up carrying him across the road with the broom. I bet he will back for more farm fresh eggs!

Surprise at the Flint home!

My husband Mike is holding a broom and Micheal (14) is on stand by with a t-post. Guess what these men are "sweeping" right behind our house? 

Watch soon for the whole story!

4-H Camp

Mitchell and Josh went to 4-H camp. It was a big moment for me because they have never gone to a camp or even a sleepover without family. They had a blast, learned lots, and made new friends.

http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-local_news/ci_28217940/logan-county-hosts-4-h-camp

baby rabbits

The first born litter: 8 babies

Como and her first litter of 8!

We bred 6 does and the babies have started arriving! Como was the first to give birth; she is a doe that we have raised from birth. She is almost a year old and this is her first litter. Como is smaller and had a surprisingly large litter of 8. Her babies are colorful: brown, black, and white. Storm delivered her small litter the next day. She had 3 babies. We gave her 2 of Como's babies to foster. After a few days the fostering seems to be going great!

Como with her babies

2 brown babies being moved to a foster mom

Babies 2 days old

Como's litter is my favorite because she doesn't cover them much so they are easy to see and watch. Check out the video of the babies today (4 days old).

Natural Dying Fabric for 4-H

Josh is in his first year of 4-H. One of his projects is visual arts. One of the activities he selected is dying fabrics using natural materials. Today we experimented with red cabbage.

1) Fabric soaking with alum

1) We soaked cotton fabric in simmering water with a few spoonfuls of alum. This is to pretreat the fabric so it holds the color better. We did not do this step with all the fabric and we had similar results. (I think it would wash out without this step.)

2) Josh helped chop and tear up on head of red cabbage. The kids thought the inside of cabbage looked like brains! The cabbage was put in a pan with a strainer and covered with water. It simmered on low for over an hour. Occasionally we stirred the cabbage.

2) Red Cabbage simmering 

3) The cabbage liquid was put into 3 different containers. In the first we added a spoonful of baking soda to get a blue color.

3) Blue dye with baking soda

4) Stir occasionally

4) Josh stirred the fabric occasionally and let it soak in the color for a few hours. We did not use heat for this step.

5) We added a few squirts of lemon juice to the original cabbage color to achieve a purple color. We expected to get red but it was definitely purple. Josh wanted to try to make green. We added a few spoonfuls of baking soda until the liquid turned green.

5) Purple and green

6) Josh loves the boy colors (blue and green) and doesn't care for the purple fabric.

6) Josh with his blue and green fabrics

In recent weeks we have dyed fabric yellow by using onion skins. We used wild grass to get a yellow that was a bit darker. Some things we tried but failed: using oranges, orange poppy petals, and whole dandelions. None of these made enough color to dye to fabric. Cabbage is our favorite so far!

Purple, green, blue, and yellow dyed fabric

garden sign

Mrs. Flint's Flowers sign

My little flower garden filled with treasures

I have a flower bed in front of the house. It is eclectic and a gathering place for treasures. My hubby found the metal dress form at the junk yard... we want flowers to climb on it! Hopefully the garden will soon be filled with colorful flowers. I decided the little garden needed a sign. The kids and I are out of school for summer vacation so I enlisted my 10 year old sons help. He used the power drill to screw a piece of scrap wood onto a stake. He spray painted the sign red for me. I used a brush and plain old white paint for the words. Easy project and especially neat for my son to help with.

Guinea Keets!

 Guinea Keets!
We purchased our first 6 guinea keets today. We own one female guinea who we adopted as an adult. She does so well on our farm. Our 6 keets seemed to be dying after a few hours at home. I researched what we might be doing wrong and decided to remove the shaving bedding and add another heat light. My husband put the two dead keets in a box to return to the store. They were in the back of our hot vehicle for two hours during a soccer game. After soccer we heard chirping in our vehicle. My husband quickly checked the keets and this little one was alive and happy! It was jumping around and very much alive. After 24 hours we have 4 healthy keets. Our mircle bird is my favorite.

Rouen Ducks

We have a family of five Rouen Ducks. They free range on the farm and sleep in the chicken house at night. We get two to three eggs a day from the ducks. The incubator is full and we have tried candling the eggs. Seeing veins in the picture is a good sign!

The first egg is beginning to hatch! It was laid on April 18 and the beak is out on May 15th. We will continue to watch and photograph the little duckling's journey into our family! 

Birthday Chicks!

These are my birthday chicks! My husband took me to Boomgars and told me to pick out 6 chicks. Afterwards he said it was my birthday present. The most creative gift I have ever received!  Our brooder was originally a dog kennel with the top half removed. We discovered that the dog could jump in the brooder so we had to switch to a wire cage. We lost one chick because of the dog getting in and loving it. 4 chicks survived and are thriving in our yard. We ended up with a rooster and 3 hens.