This is RE-DIK-YOU-LUS!

   Cold again! 50 degrees this morning. It is almost JUNE!!
   And, where have I been? The farm is very busy right now with babies and more babies and planting and hoeing and cultivating and harvesting and all that other stuff. I started my summer schedule of getting up early and working outside from 7 to 10, inside from 10 to 5 and outside again from 5 to 9. But, today I would've loved to just stay under the covers where it was WARM!



Still waiting to be planted in the field...too cold and wet!

    Actually I haven't written due to a virus on Marty's computer that sabotaged our amount of GB for our internet mi-fi. Meaning - in my real world words...no internet at home. I'm sitting at the library now. And, since the library is in town and I work at home, that means I haven't been able to get in to do the blogging. Sorry folks!
  
   We had a nice visit on Sunday with the staff members from Gilt Bar and Restaruant and Maude's Restaurant, both from Chicago. They came down for a tour, provided a delicious lunch, and we had a great time with them. After lunch we sat in the 1860 schoolhouse talking as it hailed and 3/4 inch of rain came down. Then it cleared up again and was nice out. Weird weather. We were really glad they could all come. They are great supporters of local farmers, including us. Look up their websites and see what kind of great foods they have...then go for a fantastic dinner!

   Here's the latest animal news...no calf yet. She has her back legs clinched together and isn't letting it out. We'll keep you posted on that tho. Baby chicks and duckies and piggies are good. One little piggie got stuck under the cage fence and smooshed. We put her in the 'ever ready dog crate' for a day and then she was fine again. Almost can't tell which one she was. Didi piggy has been getting out and going for farm tours. She grunts really deep, sounds like a little boy. She hates being picked up, tummy touched, but we keep putting her back in and fixing the places where she gets out.


Didi and Marty having a chat about getting out.

   Didi is having a story written about her by my mama. It is "Grandma Who and the Amazing Radiator Pig" complete with hand drawn pictures. Soon she will be famous! Or more famous anyway.

   I have another story of an amazing animal...the Miracle Chicken.


Brahmama chicken

   This is Brahmama chicken. She was named that because she is a Brahma breed and a mama to the others. If anyone is hurt, she takes care of them. If we get babies, she is right there to check on them. She is also dumb as a box of rocks. Slow and not too bright. And that is how it happened. The big accident. 

  This is the Villian of the story, the D15 tractor and the driver (without the piece on the back thank goodness). I was putting equipment away, using the D15 tractor and with Will to help guide my backing up and help unhook the equipment. We were almost done.
   Brahmama has the bad habit of being around the tractors, cars, whatever mechanical, and not paying attention or walking too slow. We usually yell at her a few times to get her to move and then she lumbers out of the way. You are starting to get the picture, right?
   I pulled forward and heard Will yell "You ran over Brahm!". I stopped, shut off the tractor, jumped down, and came around the back, and there she was flopping around. AH!!! I got down on the ground next to her and started to coo and talk to her to calm her down. Will went to get the gun to put her down. It didn't look good. In fact, it looked really bad. Her eye was closed, just one and the other was open, she was stopping the flopping but was breathing heavy.
   I kept talking and cooing and patting her lightly. Then I rested my hand on her back, just a little to let her know I was there. Her eye started to open. The other chickens had high-tailed it with all the yelling. She looked around trying to figure out where they were, where she was, WHO she was maybe. I waited.
   Will came back with the gun, Marty came to look. I told them wait just a minute. And, sure enough, when I leaned back, up she popped. She was a little disoriented. (You would be too if a tractor had run over you!) We watched her walk slowly, shaking her head some, back to the chicken house. She went in and rested. Later she was better and then the next day she was fine. Still shakes her head a little sometimes.
   The place where she had gotten run over has a divet in it, a detention or hole that was already there. The hole was NOT caused by her being squashed, but she was squashed into it. Apparently the wheel pressed her into the hole. Basically went over her. What a lucky chicken!
  
   That is why we call her our Miracle Chicken now. She has defied death! She has been run over and lives to tell about it (or lets me tell about it). NO...it did NOT make her smarter!

   I have to say that farming and having animals has helped my structured type A personality change to a laid back type whatever. Nothing surprises me anymore. Usually I adopt the "wait and see" attitude and the "shit happens" attitude and the "whatever" attitude, to mention a few. I don't get all whigged out like I used to. Maybe it is just that I'm older. But I like to think it is a valuable life lesson that my animals have taught me.
   Relax and enjoy it and just go with the flow...farming.