Burger's Horns and New Turkey Chick

The flower beds in the front yard look beautiful at this time of year. The vegetable garden is growing well, too.

The puffy pink flowers were given to me by my mother-in-law. She took them from her mother's flower bed, who got them from her mother, who brought them from another country to America when they immigrated.

I love remembering people who came to America from so far away. It helps me to feel a part of their lives even though I never met some of them.

I have things passed down from my parents and grandparents inside my home, too. They all come with stories. Some are long stories, some are very short stories because I wasn't given much history.

Our little farm is also a bit of history. My mother-in-law and father-in-law both grew up on farms in Idaho. They were the first generation off the farm. They moved further and further east as their family grew and as my father-in-laws jobs changed.

I think it's interesting that we ended up back in the west where they started, and that we live on a small hobby farm doing some of the same things that they grew up doing.

The corn is growing. It was in the ground for only 4 days
before it sprouted. The corn seed came from my friend who
saves seed corn every year.

These 2 beds have cabbages (the bigger green plants in the middle of the beds)
and carrots (the long green row of plants towards the front of the bottom bed)
and some celery (small plants on the left side of the top bed)

I think its a little bit funny that we call wooden boxes 'beds.' It's almost like the plants are supposed to be sleeping instead of growing.

We are hoping to put in a greenhouse this year so we moved the garden to a different spot, and built the raised beds.

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It was time to take care of Burger King's
horns, and neuter him.

I was able to get him down and tie him up before others came to help hold him. It's not a fun job, but it keeps the animals safer and humans safer if they don't have horns. I was proud of myself! This is the first time I was able to get a calf down and tied all by myself!

Does it look a little sad? It's not really. He stays still while we are working on him which means he is safer and so are we.

He's running around and playing in the pasture now. He acts as if nothing happened. If fact, he is more friendly now than he was last week!

We took care of Sadie's horns during the winter. It has to be done when the cows are still fairly young. 

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The hen who was sitting on turkey eggs hatched out two chicks. She was so careful about taking good care of the eggs!

There was something wrong with this chick so the hen wouldn't take care of it.

We kept it warm and our neighbor took it to her house
to try to see if it would live.

It didn't live. It couldn't walk, and it had some trouble seeing. Hens usually know if a chick will survive or if it won't. Sometimes people can work with an animal and help it live, and sometimes there is nothing we can do.

The second chick that hatched was healthy and the hen
was willing to take care of it.

Turkeys are not very smart. They don't know how to follow their mama and stay safe. We took the turkey chick away and it's being raised with some other turkey chicks that we bought. It will be very safe in a brooder. It can't get lost, and it has food and water and heat all in one area.

The duck is still sitting on her nest under the
rabbit cage. It's safe under there.
I think we'll have new ducklings in 2 weeks! 

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Millie, the new goat kid, doesn't have any other goat kids to play with. She likes to play with Sadie, and Sadie is patient enough that she lets Millie jump all over her!

Sadie is such a sweet, gentle cow! I love her!

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We're still burning the foxtail in the barn yard. There isn't as much this year as there was last year. Foxtail is awful! It gets in the dogs fur, it gets in the barnyard animals fur, and none of the animals will eat it.

The best way to get rid of it is to burn it.

We've had a lot of thistle this year, too. The animals won't eat thistle, either so we're working on digging it out, and spraying it with a special weed killer that won't hurt the animals.

Thistles grow big, and they have spines!
They are too poky to eat!

None of the animals will eat the grass if it's close to
the thistle. No one wants to be poked in the nose when
they are trying to have lunch!

I hope you've enjoyed your first week of summer vacation!