Canning Season Love

Nothing a cat loves more than warmth. Phineus  has a great fondness for canning season and warm jars and especially the dehydrator.  He is convinced that God has placed this heavenly invention on earth just for him. CATS! 
Blessings from The HollerThe Canned Quilter

Caught Ya!

We have been picking up corn cobs out of the yard all week and could not figure out what was in the corn. No sign of the usual coons and deer. Until I walked out to take pictures of the garden and caught him red handed! It seems Marlowe has an appetite for sweet corn....

We also figured out what was eating the tomatoes. 

What happened to dogs eating dog food?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

The Barnyard

The barnyard is full again this year. Lots of rabbits to butcher for the freezer and jars. 

Some roosters from the neighboring farm that they did not want to deal with. Destined for jars.

Mama and chicks. A friend brought me these eggs and I have no idea what cross they are. I have always pretty well raised Buff Orphingtons and it seems strange to have a bunch of little black chicks pecking around. 

The puppies aren't puppies anymore! Seems like just yesterday we were bottle feeding these guys.

The young turkeys are growing like bad weeds.

These young buff hens are really pretty though. They will make great additions to my egg production.

And Moxie's favorite place to sneak to on a late summer day.

Not quite a year old yet and still quite the hand full.

She's come a long way!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Playing Catch Up

We are losing our minds with this weather. I don't think we will ever get our mowing done. We mow awhile and pick up limbs awhile. What a spring snow storm. Bought some hot dogs and we should have a heck of a roast one day.

This limb went through the top of one of the brooders. It will have to be cut out and the roof replaced before our baby chicks hatch that are in the incubator. 

I slowly get a bed or two weeded a day. This day it was the grapes. As I weed, the weeds go into a wheel barrow and then into the chickens. I then put down newspaper that I have stockpiled all winter. On top of the newspaper go the mower trimmings to rot and enrich the soil.  The worms love the paper and cardboard and it helps to suppress the weeds.

While I weed O Wise One mows. We both remain under the watchful eyes of 2 pairs of little black ears sticking straight up guarding the driveway to the farm. Ever watchful and guarding. We are rarely out of their sight. Unless a bunny runs out of the tall grass then all bets are off. The big puppies have to be shut up right now. They chase the mower of all things! Never in my life seen such.......anyone got any ideas of how to break that?

Love those little black flags sticking straight up!!

They move with the mower. Half way between the mower and the beds so they can see both.

Certain critters on this farm are loving all the grass and weeds from all this rain.

Anyone miss us we'll be on the mowers, or the shovel, wheel barrow, or tiller. Chicken coop needs cleaning out. Rabbit poop needs shoveling. Big garden needs tilling. Will we ever catch up? I hate it when we have these kind of springs. Seems like we work ourselves to death always playing catchup. We are both nursing sore muscles and sleep with heating pads, Bengay and Advil are our best friends right now. 

Rain again yesterday afternoon. About July we will probably be wishing for this rain but right now it is a pain in the posterior! Warning... my grass may never be all mowed at the same time this year. Sure am glad that I live in the middle of nowhere and NOBODY cares : )  As long as I can keep it short around the house, gardens, sheds and such to keep the ticks/chiggers/snakes.....at bay I am happy. No neighbors or homeowners associations to fuss. Some years when it rains daily like this that is just the way it is. My nearest neighbor has a really small yard and mowed 3 times last week. Not me I just think I'll get the tractor out and fill the compost bins and I absolutely refuse to mow more than once a week! It is against my philosophy of life and my gas budget. Maybe I'll get some sheep : )

 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Mama I'm Waiting

I walked into the dining room yesterday to this scene!

I used to sit in this rocking chair and bottle feed her and rock her just like a baby and pray to the lord that she would survive...Lord will I ever convince her she is not human?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

My Little Orphans

Marlowe and Moxie came home from the veterinarian after the death of their mother, tiny with their eyes closed and less than a day old. Able to fit into a small plastic dishpan, totally helpless and requiring feeding with a bottle around the clock they were hard and time consuming work. But a labor of love.  

Lots of bottles and midnight feedings.

Seems like the next thing you knew they were the cutest little butterballs toddling around my house leaving little surprises and chewing on EVERYTHING!

And now they are giant babies who think they are still lap dogs. Moxie (the lighter female) has a thing about always touching you. Notice in the picture she is touching O Wise Ones' foot. Some part of her body always has to be touching! They spend most of their time outside these days weather permitting and even in the kennel. They have already discovered that there are bunnies in the fields and woods and venture into the wilds to investigate. But their favorite place is laid out on the kitchen rug in front of a warm oven hoping something good will hit the ground as we come through the kitchen. 

Just to be thorough Moxie guards the refrigerator door regularly. That magic box has good stuff in it and you are not getting in there without her.

They definitely are not babies any longer but rather long legged, droopy eared hound dogs. Marlowe is definitely a porch dog in the making. He practices his porch sleeping techniques regularly. Looking at them you would never know that they were orphan puppies and never once had their mothers milk. 

Now if I could just convince Baby O that they really are hound dogs and not siblings. If she had her way they would be in the bed with her every night. That girl better find her a husband that likes hound dogs...and goats.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Rocky And Bullwinikle

Remember back in the day when O Wise One told me I couldn't have goats: ) So what do he and Baby O do but go off one day buying pigs and come home with goats. It is hilarious now to see O Wise One go out across the yard with his pigs/goats trailing in his footsteps wherever he goes.   

These two little bucks were on their last leg when he came across them last spring. A good several wormings and regular feed made a whole lot of difference.

He has now created two of the biggest pests to ever roam this farm. Although he stakes them out in the hay pastures and they do a great job of eating the weeds that may come up there. They even eat the poison ivy and blackberry vines. They do have to be watched very closely for these two would make a nice meal for the stray coyote or cougar that roam these woods. Last week our neighbor lost a calf to a cougar attack. They seem to be getting braver especially now that we no longer have a big dog patrolling the place . By next year our pups should be big enough to take over that job.  

O Wise One says these are our practice goats. They are the goats that we are learning how to worm, hoof trim, goat nutrition and such. If we can raise these little wethers then he has committed to trying a milk goat in our future. We are way too old to wrestle with a big milk cow but I think we can handle a nanny goat.  I am dreaming of fresh milk, cheese and butter and the capability of producing it ourselves. Just one more thing that we can produce ourselves and not need to buy off of this farm. These two are pretty darn tame for lawnmowers though. 

Hugs from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

2013 Starts With Snow

2013 has started with a new blanket of snow to Hickery Holler. I am hoping it will bring a promise of adequate moisture in the upcoming year. I brought in this new year curled up under warm quilts with a good book with my youngest grandchild sleeping beside me. Life is pretty quiet these days here. Everyone it seems is in the potty training mode. Baby Hank is now two and a half is being potty trained by his parents so grandma and grandpa get to join in the fun when he is around.  The goal is to get him trained before the new baby comes in April.

Added to that Moxie and Marlowe were 7 weeks old yesterday. So we are introducing them to outside and trying to potty train them as well. 

So it seems our world is revolving around bodily functions these days.

Bitter cold temperatures and snow don't really help matters but we need the moisture badly and will not complain about what form it takes when falling..

The puppies however are convinced this whole potty training in the snow thing is some twisted form of abuse. Absolutely nothing is sadder than a hound dog : )

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

The Terror of The Holler

Most years I look forward to putting up our holiday tree. Of breaking out the stuffed animals, toys and crocheted tree skirt for the bottom. Tis the season of brightly colored packages piled beneath a glowing tree lovingly decorated with the family ornaments. No designer tree for us but rather a mish mash of kindergarten popsicle stick ornaments that have hung on my trees for thirty years mixed with ornaments given to me by family and friends long since gone.  But this year is different from any other because the tree is bare. Not because there are no ornaments. No presents are beneath our bare tree because they are wrapped and hidden in the closet. My beloved ornaments are lovingly wrapped and remain in their plastic storage boxes. Are we boycotting the season this year. Not really! We just have inside guests this year that don't really mix well with brightly colored paper. They LOVE paper.....I mean  REALLY love paper. Love to shred it that is!

    

They love ribbon and bows and yarn also.

And a true treasure is an old nasty shoe. The yarn basket beside mama's chair is their roost of choice these days and all their treasures are stored there.   

Marlowe and Moxie are 5 weeks old today. They are no longer taking the bottle but have grown to solid foods now. They now go outdoors regularly to try to train them to potty.  They hate the dog kennel box and whine constantly when you shut them up. Eventually these babies will be big dogs judging by the size of their bone structure. Eventually they will have to go outside to the dog house. We may have put an extra cot in there for Baby O. 

We will never convince these two they are dogs..

There will be no beautiful pictures of a shiny tree this year from this farm. The tree has already been knocked over....TWICE : ) 

Sweet Jesus give me strength !!!

Hickery Holler Farms has gone to the dogs!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Meet Marlowe and Moxie

We have held our breath for the last two weeks afraid to get too attached to these little guys knowing how the odds were against them. We've heated bottles every two hours around the clock and bottle fed them.  At last we finally feel we are somewhat in the clear for the moment at least.  We would like to introduce you all to Marlowe and Moxie.

Now with their eyes open to see the world these little guys are growing like bad weeds!

They now bark and growl....

They've graduated to a big puppy bottle and are downing almost 2 ounces of milk at a feeding.

They waddle around on shaky little chubby puppy legs. 

Mostly though they still just eat, poop and sleep

And to our sweet Sadie girl who is no longer with us we so want to say.... It's okay ! You did not die in vain to give these puppies life. 

We have decided we will keep both of them. You cannot imagine how attached we all are to these two little pains and we know we could never give them up now. They will grow up on the same farm as their mother and sleep in a box under the stairs on those cold winter nights just as she did. Their puppy noses will give sweet puppy kisses to the same loving humans that she did. We have bid her goodbye and grieved for her while caring for her pups. In some way we almost feel as if she has watched over these two little pups for the past two weeks. Everyday they grow stronger and we hurt less. I still visit the grave daily and talk to her.  But more now I talk to these puppies. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter