WE HAVE AN EGGGG!!!

I know this is terribly random and silly, BUT WE HAVE A REAL LIVE CHICKEN EGG!  My little stray chicken at the farm has left me this beautiful light greenish egg to say THANK YOU for feeding her and taking her in!

I didn't know if she'd lay or not. She was kinda skinny-lookin' and VERY hungry. She comes running when she sees me now, but she won't let me get close enough to touch her. OR catch her.  I wanted to catch her because it's so cold right now and I was going to put her in the garden shed. BUT she evades me every time. I need a fishin' net.  I fixed her a nice thick box with hay and some fresh water, and chicken food on the front porch where it's definitely the warmest, and I hope she'll get in her box this week. It's supposed to be in the 20's and maybe even the teens come the later part of the week.  All you chicken people out there, do you think she'll make it in the cold temps?  She's been getting up under the front hedge on the south side of the house and making her  little nesty places with hay and leaves. I hope she'll be ok.

Here's another picture for comparison with a store-bought egg. It's supposed to be a large egg, so my little hen did okay. I guess she's probably a mongrel chicken, maybe? Maybe some Araucana in her to make the green eggs, whadaya'll think? I'm still learning about chickens...

Ok, I promise no more silly hen tacky.  I'm just so excited. I'm talking about getting me some more and building me a coop now, and Tony says, "no, Vickie, get the chickens off your mind." Sorry, dude - Not off my mind. I gotta have me some chickens.  It's probably cheaper to just buy eggs from the store or the lady down the road. But I want my own. Tony don't know even know he's beat yet...

Christmas Shootin'

Here's what we did Christmas afternoon .... We Texans know how to have fun!  Actually, this is a regular occurance here in Texas especially, and in most Southern states - don't tangle with us Southerners - we're loaded for bear.  We're BUBBAS and proud of it!!!  If ya don't got guns, trucks with a gun-rack, four-wheelers and a turkey fryer, you ain't got nuttin'!  Oh yeah - AND a big chaw!

Here's my guys, Adam, Daddy and Tony.  Don't they look menacing?  Don't let these sweet faces kid you - you cross one of 'em, all three turn into raging bulls! You don't mess with them or their family.  If you look in the dictionary under the term, "bubba", you'll see one or more of these guys.  I'm proud of every fightin' pound of 'em.   Daddy threw together this little shootin' table a few weeks so they could practice with their rifles, pistols and shotguns.  My Dad used to be a sharpshooter. I remember when I was a kid, he'd load up the family and we'd go to these tournaments and watch all these guys like Daddy compete in shootin'.  He had trophies and medals galore on the shelves at home.  Guess that's where my other son Josh gets his eagle eye from.  He can shoot stuff so far off with such deadly accuracy that it cannot be seen with the naked eye.  When he was a little kid, he said he wanted to be a sniper...

Safety first, of course   ---  we gotta wear  the "ear muffs" ya know...  here's Dad going first. Oh cool, I just notice that I caught his little puff of smoke as he fired. Cool!

Here's Tony going second...

And of course, my oldest - Adam.  Then I get my turn, too. I like shootin'.  It's good to get familiar with a gun and how it works.   It's good NOT to be scared of them, but to respect them.  Nowadays, you can't be too careful in having protection for you and your family - especially if you live out in the country.

Now here's me.  Look at that superior stance.  Look at the legs braced exactly  the right distance apart. Look at the right arm locked into position so as to control the kick - let your shoulder take the impact - otherwise if you're elbow's not locked, the gun tip can shoot UP a bit.  Look at the left hand helping brace the right shootin' hand on the butt of the pistol  - the concentration - the determination - the frizzy hair.  I'M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE.  You think some "hoodlum" fixing to mug me is going to think I'm "packin" ?  I DON'T THINK SO!

Now we get the rifles out. I actually like shootin' with rifles more than pistols.  I'm much deadlier with a 30 aught 6  or a 12 guage or a 243 (which is my favorite).

Here's Dad - if you see him in any pictures he always holds up the "Gig 'Em Aggies" thumb - unless it's a quick candid shot.

All kidding aside - I don't mean to be flip about guns.  We are VERY safe. We've been taught gun safety since birth.  There's nothing wrong with guns or owning guns or hunting for food.  It's only when you don't know what you're doing with them or they fall into the wrong hands that they become dangerous.  We've been taught to hunt and eat what we kill, not to kill just for sport. 

I was raised on wild game - venison, turkey, dove, quail, squirrel, rabbit, pheasant, duck and of course fish.  Wild game meat is my favorite.  I used to tease my dad and my dates that I didn't even know what steak was until I started dating!   

I hope ya'll are having a Fabulous New Year's so far and that the Good Lord blesses 2010 for each one of you with love, joy in Christ, health and much much happiness - all my dear blogging friends!

BLUE MOON!

Remember we have a BLUE MOON New Year's Eve!  Check out the post on this blog:

http://joansastrology.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-years-eve-blue-moon.html

This gives a good description of a Blue Moon!  I'll be out watching for it instead of reveling! 

I STILL have a chicken!

I ran out to the farm this afternoon after work to check on my gopher traps and my little chicken. She's still there!  I was afraid that she'd leave or that some varmint would gobble her up, but she's still there.  I decided if she was, then I would go to the feed store and get some scratch. So I did!  When I got out to the farm today, I think she was glad to see me, OR more than likely, she recognized the scratch sack! Regardless, she came a'runnin' right up to me.  I scattered scratch for her and she started gobbling  it up.

Here she is again eating her scratch.  One of you posted yesterday that she needed a name. I know all of you chicken keepers have named your hens, so I decided she should have a name.  I thought and thought and here's what I came up with -

My niece, who's 16, makes fun of me all the time for my Texas country accent and country ways. She was teasing me mightily over the holidays at mom's house and she gets a real kick out of some of the stuff I say - the words, the phrases and the hick way I talk. SOOOO,  guess what I named my chicken?  JACI !  I think that's very appropriate to name my chicken after my niece after all the grief she gives me!  I sent her a message on her facebook & a picture of her namesake and I'm waiting for her to respond and see what she thinks!

I did get another gopher over the last couple of days - now the count is up to 16.  Found a couple of new mounds in the front yard, so I got my traps out again. I didn't think I'd see any more of them until the weather warmed up a little.  I guess this one was stupid. I told 'em all that they could stay out in the pasture, just don't come in the yard. He can't say I didn't warn him. Must've been a crazy teenage gopher.

I have lots of raking to do. The catalpa trees have finally dropped all their foot-long bean pods and there are thousands of them laying all over the yard. It's quite a job to get them all cleaned up especially when we have 7-8 of these giant trees around the yard at the farmhouse. Oh well - raking's good exercise.

Back to work this week. Been playin' catch-up. I'll probably get my tree down this weekend and get all the Christmas stuff put up.  Ya'll take now, ya hear?  And do keep those gowns down!

I'M OFFICIALLY A CHICKEN FARMER!!!

Well, sort of... 

See, we were out at the farm today shootin'.  Got new guns. Me, Dad, Tony, and Adam.  Dad had to sight in some new scopes on his deer rifles. We had a coupla new handguns to practice on so we set up some targets down towards the pond so we wouldn't shoot anybody over the next hill.

SOOO, anyway I was walking up to the house and I heard some "...paawwwk..." sounds in the front flowerbed where my rose bushes are. I thought it sounded like a chicken. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it WAS a chicken - a cute, scraggly little hen - I don't know what kind, some of you will have to tell me. She was a little shy, she'd come out of the bushes and come near, but I couldn't touch her. I don't know where  she came from.  We have distant farms around but not anywhere near that a chicken would want to venture as far as our farm.

I had some dried corn and lettuce and some dried oatmeal that I threw out for her. She seemed to like it, and she was also scratching around for bugs and stuff and pecking little weeds.  I put out a bowl of water for her and she immediately got herself a drink and went back to scratching.  She looked a little thin to me. She's got a good hiding place in the middle of all the rose bushes, but it might get cold. I figured she was probably a free ranging chicken so she was probably used to being out in the weather somewhat. But I had an old bushel basket which I turned on its side and put a bunch of hay in it for her. She wouldn't let me catch her. I'll go check on her after work tomorrow or the next day. I really hope a hawk or owl or dog doesn't get her. She's far away from home, wherever that is. I don't know what else to do for her. She'll probably be ok if she'll stay up close to the house where she is. If she hangs around for a few days, I'll stop by the feed store and get some scratch and see if there's a better shelter to be had for her at the farm.

Do people drop chickens off at country homes like they do dogs and cats? I wonder.... I hope she makes it! If she does, and if she stays at our farm, then I'm officially in the chicken business!  I've been wanting chickens for so long, but haven't been able to have them since we're not there every single day. Maybe she's telling me that it's time to have chickens or it's time to move out the farm permanently?  Only the chicken knows!