What's happening...???

...check out what has been going on at Spring Lake Farm!

"Warning: Long pictorial post ahead"

Chaz:

• Our new little buckling! Cher was very accommodating (proving me wrong after all the bad things I said about her) and she gave birth Saturday afternoon about 5:30pm. It was warm and the kiddos were over and all got to watch. It always amazing to me to watch a life being born! And since he is officially out of Sonny and Cher, of course, his name is.....Chaz. (If it had been a girl, the name would have been "Chastity" so it was covered both ways.) ;)

Sweet Pea, HB & Chaz:

The Hippie Chik and Her House:

"Mammy, I can see just fine...!"

"Can you see how dirty your hands are...???"

"That's my house...!"




"It's a great place to put your feet up..."

Rabbits:

• We lost Charley the night of our big snow! It was really hard for me to come to grips with and I just couldn't blog about it. I've never had rabbits before and they are not like any other animal I've had. They seem fragile. Although I have totally loved having them. They are sweet, affectionate and inquisitive. So....while we will miss Charley, as he was a very special boy, I'm not ready to give up yet. I found a breeder on Craigs List and we took Blossom to be bred by her buck. I also came home with a young doe.....so meet Cauliflower (Cali for short)....she's two months old and just a beautiful girl. (I'll get some better pictures soon.)

Cauliflower "Cali"

Check out these "airplane" ears...


Squash "Blossom"

And for those things that make you say...hmmm......ever since we took Blossom to be bred she has developed an unnatural affection for the rooster.






Annie getting in on the conga line...












Has anyone seen anything like this????

Lil Miss Annie:

Other News:

• Dogs - Took Maggie and Maybel in to be spayed two weeks ago. My cheap spay ($55.00) for Maybel turned into a three hour emergency surgery to remove the impacted shreds of a tennis ball. Lucky for us we had her scheduled for the spay but unlucky for my wallet! She's doing well but she thinks we are starving her as she can only eat small amounts of food (multiple times per day) until her stomach heals. Pictures of Ms Staple Belly to follow later.
  
• Chickens - Mama Silkie has done a marvelous job of raising her one hatched chick (a Barred Rock mix) and her 5 surrogate chicks (Silkies). They will be 4 weeks old this weekend. The BR is about 3x the size of the Silkie chicks and will be closing in on Mama over the next several weeks.
  

Sorry about the ultra long post but wanted to share our recent news. Hope everyone is enjoying some spring-like weather and has lots of blessings in there life to smile about!

So much to share......so little time.....

......but I just had to post a couple of pictures (with more to come later).

Look what we found last Friday morning!


HB was feeding one of the dogs and thought he heard something. Sure enough....she had just been born. I went out and toweled her dry, held her while she nursed and got a heat lamp set up for her in the stall.

Lil "Annie" Oakley


Her favorite place.


"I see you!"


My friend, Christy from Whistling Wind Farm came by for a visit and to help me give copper to the goats. (Thanks, Christy!)


Bonnie and Annie


What a precious girl!

Now if Cher will just hurry up.....

We've had a lot going on the past couple of weeks so I'll post an update and some more pictures soon.

Enough, already...

...let's get rid of that old depressing post. It's time for......

What made you smile this week???

Here's what made me smile over the last week.

I know, I know......I'm always late but......snow, beautiful snow.
(Please remember that I live in Georgia and we just don't get to see it that often.)






...little small snow birds....


...and beautiful blue skies...




...also we hatched our first chicks on the farm. ("We" being a relative term.)

"Mama" being very diligent...






"MaMa" started out on eight eggs (let me preface by saying this is was my first broody and I know that I did several things wrong). She ended up hatching two of the eight, two more were viable but died in the shell and 4 were quitters or not fertile. One of the two that she hatched died, so....I bought five Silkie chicks from a friend that were a couple of days old and stuck them under her! We now have 6 healthy chicks and she is being a great Mom!


Maybel growing....and Georgia being the sweet Mom and letting Maybe sit on her.


Snuggling....


Self Portrait, by Sweet Pea....


Naptime...


"Sam" the garden serpent...


"Sam" with a snow cap.....


A man, a phone and his goat...


a big snow bird...


Leopold and his ladies...


And...

"No way, No how, are we walking out in that stuff!"


Have an awesome weekend and don't forget to "SMILE".

Sandy

Awwww...sad times...

....we lost two girls last night to our mystery marauder! ;(

We are feeling rather guilty as we had plans last night with friends in Atlanta and we needed to leave about 6:00pm. HB went out to feed and put everyone to bed for the night but he said the chickens were still out and about and he decided to wait until we got home last night. We've done this a few times before with no tragic consequences. Not this time...one hen was gone completely and the other HB found "most" of. We lost one of the Black Sex Links (at least that's what I have decided to call her) and a Silver Laced Wyandotte (Christy - it was not one of your girls but one of the "probies" as HB refers to our latest additions).

RIP Girls! I'm sorry we didn't keep you safe.

Name that chicken (part 3)....???

Ok, last unknown chicken pictures...

My two lovely black ladies. Black with green sheen, large but not huge (as in my Buff Orp's), friendly....

Any guesses???








Are they Black Australorps?