CHRISTMAS TIME 2009

Our babies with Santa and Frances and Alex made their first Gingerbread House. Thought they did a great job.

they have been moved to a new temporary home. end of a long day for them.
the little white bit at the end of their beaks are used to crack the eggs to get out and then that part drops off.

TRADITIONS

most traditions weren't followed this year but tonight i made my hot cranberry punch and we watched national lampoons christmas vacation. always enjoy the movie and the punch was really good.

LATER SAME DAY

the first little one decided to climb into a small container of water that we had in the incubator for humidity so clay got it reasonably dry and now we are up to 4 baby chicks. no turkeys yet.

it was funny, after the first little chick had been hatched for awhile there was one still struggling to get out of its shell so the first one went over and was pecking on the shell. don't know if it really helped the other one get out or not.

NEW CHICKS UPDATE

the sight that awaited us this morning. the new little one can sure cheep loudly.

INCUBATED EGGS STARTING TO HATCH

first attempt at hatching eggs.
clay borrowed an incubator and wanted to hatch some turkey eggs. the speckled ones are the turkey ones and the others are chicken eggs. he went in to turn the eggs and found these 2 chicken eggs "pipped" so there should be 2 new chicks by tomorrow morning. exciting. we didn't expect them to start hatching until the 27th of this month. we are really hoping to be able to hatch the turkey eggs because to buy them as day old chicks they are almost $10.00 a piece. we have sold, eaten and frozen turkeys and are going to grind some so that we can have fresh ground turkey. it tastes so much better than hamburger and lots less fat.

ANOTHER DEER, SAME DAY

There were the 4 does around back this morning, eating and eating in one spot. Then Clay took his shotgun and killed one from our back deck. No sitting in the woods in the cold for this one. It was a really clean shot, went straight through, one side of the chest to the other, right through the heart. Our neighbors came over and helped him dress it. We got 4 really good big tenderloins and the extra we will be taking to a processing place run by the Amish and they will make it into sausage rolls and jerky.

Then this afternoon, almost dark Drew and Frances spot this young buck in our front yard. Got really good video of him grazing for a long time then he finally wondered off into the woods.

I guess the word was out to come over and eat at the Crawford's.

DEER UPDATE

Yes he shot at it, yes he killed it. Now working on putting venison in the freezer.

DEER IN THE BACKYARD

Horrible picture. Taken through our kitchen window. I see beauty and wonder of the wild and Clay sees something to shoot at. We watched them for a long time. About 50 feet from our back door.

SNOW

First snow of the season. The ground is too warm for it to stick but it is still nice to watch it snow. When looking for a place to live I believed that here, there was a lot more snow each season than they actually get. I would have tried to find a place that got a lot more snow.