Planting the Winter Patch.

After tilling up the pumpkin patch earlier this month, we finally decided what to plant for our Winter garden (a.k.a. the "Winter Patch")... While we were in south Georgia a couple of weeks ago, a friend gave us a small bunch of vidalia onion seedlings... After researching these seedlings and seeing what their growth time table was, we picked up more seedling bunches and wound up planting around 700-800 total in the Winter Patch. Of course, the Patch is so big that the onions only filled up about 4 of the 11 rows... so we planted more winter veggies like cabbage, collards, kale, broccoli, and romaine lettuce.

Hopefully the deer do not think this is a wildlife buffet.

Guess What Started This Week...?

New Farm Page.

Did you know we are on Facebook now? Check out our farm page at: Wilsons Farms Just click the name and it will take you there!

"Like" our farm page and get up-to-date notices of our farm happenings...

Moving the Coop de Ville.

We did move the coop this past week as a part of the whole "mobile chicken coop" idea that we are doing in order to fertilize the gardening areas with the chicken poo that falls onto the ground from the coop. Hubby hooked the coop up to the tractor and moved it to the other end of the raised beds while orientating it about 45 degrees so that the front door now faces the barn. New hay inside and out... and scraped all of the poo out of the coop makes for a nice clean home for our two-legged babies.

Tragedy.

We lost a soldier in the battle of hen vs. bird dog this week.... An unfortunate incident happened on Friday afternoon when our Pointer managed to escape from Hubby and took off after the hens. Hubby took off after her, but I am sad to say we lost one of our Aracaunas, Ruby Grace in the end. Poor little Henrietta, one of our Penedesencas was also injured in the incident. She was no where to be found afterward, but managed to slowly make it back to the coop a few hours later at sunset. And as of yesterday, Saturday, poor Henrietta is still moving slowly around, not clucking very much and resting in one of the hay-filled nesting boxes most of the day. She has lost a lot of feathers and seems to favor one of her legs. She isn't scratching very much when she is let out of the coop in the afternoons either. We are hopeful she will heal quick and be back to her chicken ways.

RIP Ruby Grace Wilson.

P.S. The Pointer is now affectionately referred to as "Col-Blooded Chicken Killer".

Treats for the Girls.

Do you ever buy "treats" for your farm animals???

Hubby texted me this photo at work while he was in town picking up supplies. The caption stated "The girls are going to eat good tonight". Yuck! Hope the two-legged girls enjoyed their "treats"!!

Our Ironworker.

Working on a farm does not always mean growing crops or raising animals... Sometimes you have to be a painter or an electrician or a plumber.... or an Ironworker:

Hubby has been busy this week honing his welding skills. The new tractor attachment we purchased last week needed a few modifications (according to Hubby)... so I got some great shots of him taking care of business.

Some of his artwork.

Finished product.

Ready to cut rows in the front 40!

Meet the Girls.

Meet the new two-legged "girls" that is...

Meet the most dominant hen in the bunch.... Thelma Gertrude. She is large beautiful Rhode Island Red hen. She is the biggest in the group and she is at the top of the pecking order.

Our two Penedensencas are Henrietta, the skinnier one on the left and Hester on right.

Our two Aracaunas are the meanest hens in the bunch... this photo was taken of them "wallowing or rooting" in the garden dirt. The upper standing hen with the browner head is Ruby Grace and the yellow headed hen (who is the meanest of the two meanies) is Bertha Ann.

And finally, our two little Dominicker hens... the smallest of the bunch that seems to get pecked on the most... That's Frances on the left and little Roberta on the right.... hopefully she grows her back feathers back sooner than later!

Our First Farm Show.

We took a couple days off from farm duty this week to make the trip southbound to the Sunbelt Agriculture Expo in Moultrie, Georgia. We left early Wednesday morning... made it to the show about mid-morning... spent all day browsing the many exhibitors and all of their goodies. We found the seed company that we've bought seeds from online and talked to them about our crops. We looked at so many of the latest and greatest farm tractors, ATV's, farm attachments, tools, crop seeds, livestock, poultry, gimmicks, tricks, tips.... the list goes on and on. You name it, they had it. And we had a blast walking around seeing so many cool things and picking up brochures to bring home to read.

But, the best part of the trip was that we found our new seeder for a discounted price (plus no shipping!) and a new attachment for the tractor that Hubby has been wanting that builds your garden rows and cultivate weeds from between your garden rows. Did you know that you can break down a tractor attachment into small enough pieces that they can fit into the trunk of a Honda? Yep, we managed to bring home both pieces of equipment without a truck or trailer!

We had a blast for the past two days seeing all the latest farming and agriculture techniques and toys. Now it's back to the farm...

The new seeder on display!

And the new garden row builder/cultivator on display!

Set Them Free!

After 8 days of "acclimating" to their new coop (a.k.a. "the taj mahal"), the hens were set free... we opened the big door to invite them out into the big world of endless things to scratch. And they just stayed inside... so after 20 minutes of waiting on the girls to walk out, we finally helped one bird out and the others followed. And what fun we had watching the fun they had! They scratched and dug and rooted and pecked for over three hours this afternoon! Such funny girls to watch and observe their movements... They ventured all throughout the big garden, around the raised beds, up and down the driveway, on the edge of the woods.... you name it, they scratched it!

We do have one loner hen though... she is a social girl. Her name is "Roberta" and she comes right up to us... Probably because the much bigger birds won't mess with her right around us. She is one of the two smallest hens in the group being a Dominique (or a.k.a Dominicker hen). She and "Frances" the other Dominicker hen are beautiful black and white colored girls... Only they are the smallest so they get "pecked" on quite a bit by the bigger girls in the coop. We really enjoy hanging out with Roberta and Frances.

Here's Hubby making the changes to the roosting area in the penthouse section of the coop... Since they don't seem to like the round bars, we are converting them to flat roosting planks up high.

First Egg!

I have been out of town for the better part of the week on a business trip. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... We had a banner day on Friday at the farm! Hubby discovered the first egg from the new hens... So exciting! Now if we could just squeeze one more out of them so we can actually make an omelet big enough for both of us to enjoy...

Pumpkin Distribution.

We have had the best week having all of the pumpkins picked up at the farm or delivering while in Columbus for work. We had roughly 30 decent sellable pumpkins and all 30 of them were sold/reserved within 2 days of posting online the first photo of them in the tractor loader bucket. Wow is all we can say... The first eight pumpkins were reserved for a wedding this Saturday. After that, the folks that came by the farm throughout the day Friday got to pick out their pumpkin. The rest were chosen by us and delivered to individuals along the way since yesterday. Here are a few of the happy buyers that walked away with one of our beautiful "babies"...

Spreading Wilsons Farms love of all things homegrown one pumpkin at a time!!

And finally tonight we delivered the last eight of the chosen few for the wedding this Saturday... Happy Groom to be!

The Girls Are Here!!!

The newest addition to Wilsons Farms arrived this past Friday! Yep, seven beautiful full-grown hens were delivered to our new Coop deVille just after lunch on Friday... right after the concrete pour and during all the chaos of folks picking out and up their pumpkins. Which is the reason I totally MISSED the transfer of the hens to the coop... Say what??! Yep, and NO ONE took a single picture... Boo hoo. So all I can do is tell you what I heard secondhand and only offer pictures of the girls in the coop afterward.

But, I will tell you that we have: 1 - Rhode Island Red, 2 - Dominiquers, 2 - Araucanas, and 2 - Penedesencas... and all seven of them are beautiful! All seven are named and we will reveal those later... ;)

Concrete Apron Project!

The next project was underway early this past week... Hubby and "BJ" were hard at work preparing for a huge concrete apron to be poured on the front/side of the barn and another on the rear entrance. Hubby worked on the in-slab plumbing for our vegetable/dog washing station to the left of the front roll-up door... complete with all sorts of hose and water connections plus water and drains for the stainless table sink.

All the while "BJ" was on the tractor grading out the front, sides and rear of the barn.

Hubby grinding my handmade hose reel fabricated for me by an old friend from years past.

Concrete arrived on Friday!