Baby Guinea Keets

We have had our guinea fowl about four years and the first couple of years were excited that we would have babies.  We never got any babies.  The only thing I got was jealous when I heard of other people who's guineas were having successful hatchings.  We started with eight birds and this fall are down to two, thankfully a male and female.  To our surprise they came out of the swamp the other day with, as far as we can count, 17 baby keets.  It's been three days and it looks like they still have all of them.  They are a crazier, more aggressive bird than a chicken, and they co-parent unlike a chicken, so maybe they will manage to get a couple of them to adulthood.  The keets are so tiny though they look like peanuts running through the grass after their parents.  There has also been an eagle circling the house so they better keep them close or they will go on the raptor buffet. 

We Visited A Zoo

 Last week we took a day trip up north for our last big hurrah of the summer before Dancer started school this week.  Truth be told it was one of our only hurrahs of the summer, seems no one has the same days available anymore. We went to a zoo/wildlife/petting zoo place.

Dancer and I posed sweetly on the bear's lap for a picture.  

And then realized, what are we doing, we're sitting on a bear's lap!

Dancer ain't afraid of no bear!

Dad is so hard core he flossed the bear's teeth. 

My picture with Spark.  I guess this is all you get with a 15 year old.

 I did get a picture of both the kids and Paul Bunyan.

On to the petting zoo.  This camel knows where the treats come from and he wanted Dancer to feed him.

Dancer with Mother Goose

The parakeet house was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  It is a large, screened building with about 75 parakeets in it. All the birds fly from one side of the building to the other in a big swoop.  If you stood with your arms out a bunch of them would land on arm.

They also loved my shoes for some reason.  I don't have any food on them so not sure what the attraction was.  I had to shake them off to get them to leave because they were starting to creep me out.

Not sure why there was a table in there, but as soon as Spark sat down the table filled up with birds.

The cutest thing we saw there was a mom kangaroo giving her little joey a bath in her pouch.

We finished the day off with a Chinese buffet and now we are back to the grind.

New Mother Fail

New chicks are so adorable!!! and fragile we found out this year.

This mother, who was all get any closer and I'll peck both your eyes out, hatched four eggs.  By the time she got done being the mom, usually about three or four weeks, she had one that survived.  That will happen when your favorite place to hang out is in front of the llama and goat feeder.

The chick rearing antics of this mother made us ecstatic when another mother hen came proudly strutting out of the wood pile with about 16 chicks.  Little did we know that she was going to be an even worse mother.  She hauled her chicks on the road where the traffic roars by at 55 mph, through the garden where they couldn't figure out how to get through the fencing, back by the pine trees where the raccoons live and anywhere else perilous she could find.   Two of her chicks are still alive, amazingly, because even though she isn't mothering them anymore, they are still dare devils.  When they are at their regular stomping grounds down by the swamp, where who knows what could jump out and eat them, I hear them laughing in the face of danger.

Chickens - not the sharpest tools in the shed.  That must be why it only takes 21 days for an egg to hatch, any longer and chickens would be extinct. 

Fourth of July

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a burger supper.  I like the way Dancer's shirt makes a rainbow behind her from their camper.

A pileated woodpecker has a nest way up in a tree.  People said you can see them feeding their babies, but we only saw one stick its head out to look around. 

They also have a par 3 golf course so the kids went out and hit a few balls.  Spark keeping his eye on the ball.

Dancer working on her putting, she didn't have a putter with so she is using the back of a iron.

It Was So Wet in June...

How wet was it?

The wettest it has ever been since 1847!

Wet enough for this little crayfish to be able to crawl out of the creek, through the swamp and up to our patio - a long way from his home.

And when the rain came, it came.  We had one storm where our electricity went out.  After the electric company came and cut down a big portion of our tree down, the lights came back on.

A couple of the branches were charred, no good!  

Five truck loads of branches and lots of logs later we had most of it cleaned up.  The sun set before we were able to finish that night.  

Despite still having water coming in the basement from intense ground saturation and the driveway muddy, the garden, which is about 20 feet behind the house, is dry and we are watering it.  

Beach Day

 

We are at the beach on a week day because we are homeschoolers and we can.  I'm no James Dean but, I love any chance I get to be countercultural, even if it is a small and perfectly legal thing to do. 

 

 

The water is starting to get cold and it took Spark awhile to get use to it.

 

 

Right away he found an agate.  He has an eye for agates but, I was still amazed he found on one the beach that had had hoards of people at it all summer.

 

 

He also found this Sponge Bob silly band, perhaps we were at Bikini Bottom.

Labor Day Picnic

 

Fun day with our homeschool co-op friends.

 

Frosty Peppers

The garden starting to produce fast and furious so it is time to start freezing some of it. These are peppers, cut up, laid on a baking sheet and frozen.  Then we put them in freezer bags and during the winter pull them out for soups etc.

Church Picnic

 

 

 

 

First time Spark ever held a baby :)

And Now, For The Rest Of The Fair

 

To the back of our camper is the horse arena and we have a wonderful view of all that goes on there, either from the camper or we set chairs in the back of the truck and enjoy a few of the shows.  Our favorite is the parade of draft horses and other large animals pulling wagons.  These two ox weight 2700 pounds apiece, that certainly qualifies as a large animal!  It was almost unreal how large they were.  They were in a pen but only because they chose to be there, all they would have had to have done was lean against it and I am sure it would have gone down. 

 

 

Oh, the rocket launch.  Spark had his rocket out there three times before it did anything and then when it did it flew up in the air about three feet and came back down.

 

 

Here he is laughing at how bad it did.  What we think happened was that we had bad glue and when the engine went off it went up in the rocket instead of staying in place and the rocket taking off.   His rocket also had some serious heat damage so it isn't even fixable.  Well, if nothing else he learned not to use that glue any more.

 

Fair hair.  This is Dancer's favorite part of the fair and she was bummed they only did it one day this year.  All the kids couldn't get their schedules to work out to do it more than once.

 

 

Lunch time.  What we save in food costs more than pays for the camping spot, fair food is expensive, especially if you are eating for six days.

 

 

Hanging out with friends on farm equipment. 

 

 

Spark and the llamas waiting in the show arena.  They were part of the showmanship program so other kids could get a chance at working with them a little bit and hopefully we will gain more interest in our county.

 

Share the Fun.  This is the first year Spark was old enough to be in the show and he jumped right in by being the announcer.  People were amazed at how well he did but, Dancer is our shy one, not Spark by any means.  I guess when you are the second kid you have some stereotypes to break down to show that you aren't the same as your older sibling.

 

Dancer is more than happy to be in the background.  Although through different 4-H things she has come a long way in being able to come forward and break out of her shell.

 

 

The four kids from our club that were in the show.

 

 

We also had a llama meet and greet.  Even Grandma Pat came to spend some up close time with them.

This was senior citizens day where the kids hand out lemonade and cookies.  Spark also helped with day care day and gave barn tours.

Now it is time to reflect and start planning for next year!

Raspberry Ice Cream

 

When awesome friends give you beautiful, glorious raspberries, you make homemade raspberry ice cream. 

 

Raspberry Ice Cream - 4 quart recipe

 

2 cups milk

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups half and half

1 T. vanilla

4 cups whipping cream

 

Scald milk until bubbles form around the edges.  Remove from heat and add sugar and salt.  Stir until dissolved.  Stir in half and half, vanilla and whipping cream.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Add raspberries to chilled mixture before starting the freezing process.  Process according to your ice cream makers instructions.

 

 

Spark smashed the ice to put in the ice cream maker and before he opened the ice bag he said, "It sounds like a winter wonderland in there!"

 

Oh, yummy goodness.  You can put it in the freezer to get harder before eating it but, if you sat around the ice cream maker like vultures waiting for it to shut off, you skip that part and dig in with your spoon.