{"id":778,"date":"2018-06-28T07:15:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T14:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/?p=778"},"modified":"2018-06-28T07:15:46","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T14:15:46","slug":"farm-chores-with-our-scaredy-cat-aka-chicken-kitty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/?p=778","title":{"rendered":"Farm Chores with our Scaredy-Cat (aka Chicken Kitty)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, after I got the kids to sleep, I headed out for my nightly chores… I remembered to bring my fancy camera!\u00a0 I always start with watering… then I realize I should have harvested first… tomorrow, I say… every day!\u00a0 \u00a0Things are really growing (even the weeds! – again, tomorrow!).\u00a0 Look how pretty the lettuce is!!<\/p>\n

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I think I’ve mentioned before that our kitty, Buster, is a city kitty, king of the neighborhood and quite the hunter when we lived in Seattle.\u00a0 He’s become quite the scaredy cat since we moved to the country, and doesn’t venture far from the deck and his favorite pooping spots.\u00a0 This spring, he started coming with me to water the garden. He acts all relaxed and cocky, and gets into his ol’ hunting stances with the bunnies and birds, but then doesn’t do anything about it.<\/p>\n

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Our tomatoes really struggled this year!\u00a0 They hardly grew for the whole first month… and they looked really sad.\u00a0 Our neighbor recommended that we get lime – she said that it totally turned her tomatoes around a few years ago.\u00a0 I went to the Country Store in town and asked about lime and they only had a 25 lb bag – way too much for my 9 plants!\u00a0 They recommended a few different fertilizers and the one I ended up buying didn’t even have lime in it, but it had a bunch of other things.\u00a0 The company is called FoxFarms and the product is Grow Big!\u00a0 I added it to my tomatoes every other day as recommended and within five days, there was a night and day difference!\u00a0 And now, two weeks later, there are tomatoes on a few of the plants! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!<\/p>\n

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There’s kitty again!<\/p>\n

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I had to take a few shots of the alpaca fence on my way down to check on the chickens!\u00a0 Isn’t it awesome?\u00a0 Looks so farmy around here now!<\/p>\n

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Kitty followed me down to the lower part of the yard.\u00a0 He’s a little hesitant but as long as I’m going, he’s going.\u00a0 It’s been a fun part of the evening to see him branching out!<\/p>\n

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We’re (Carson is!) building the alpaca shelter off of this cool old building on our property and, in that process, we’re going to shore up the old building so that we can store hay and other things in it.\u00a0 Another day, another project! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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The chickies were running low on food, and Carson made a new setup for them so we don’t have to reach way into the coop part to grab the food bucket.\u00a0 I like it… we’ll see how it is in the winter – we’re hoping the food stays dry.<\/p>\n

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This is Buffarina, the broody hen.\u00a0 She rarely – if ever – leaves the nesting box.\u00a0 And last night, she had a feather stuck to her beak… hmmm, I wonder if she was pecking one of her sisters?<\/p>\n

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Nolan the Rooster needed food and water, too, but he came over to pose for some pictures!\u00a0 He’s such a nice boy.\u00a0 We have heard about roosters not being so nice and we were worried that he would be a meany, but he’s such a love!\u00a0 It took him awhile to feel safe around us, but now he comes right out to greet us and he’ll let us know if something’s wrong with the girls.\u00a0 If they are out of food, he’s crowing a lot more and then he’ll run back and forth from the gate to the girls to alert us!\u00a0 It’s been so fun to have him around.<\/p>\n

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Kitty has discovered the chickens and I hope he doesn’t figure out how to get over that fence.\u00a0 The hens are all protected from above with chicken wire, but Nolan’s enclosure is open on top.\u00a0 Buster was definitely scanning to see if he could get up there.\u00a0 Then when I went back to the hen side, he laid right down and was flicking his tail.<\/p>\n

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Luckily, when I headed back to the house, he was very close behind me!\u00a0 Chicken kitty! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Our apple trees have little baby apples on them!\u00a0 TONS OF LITTLE BABY APPLES!\u00a0 Summer is here!<\/p>\n

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I got back to the house, then remembered I forgot to get the eggs from the hens… back down I went.\u00a0 I was a little nervous about my shoe choice – I usually boot up – both to avoid the poop on my feet, and so that they don’t peck me… exposed skin plus red toenails?\u00a0 Not the smartest!\u00a0 Luckily, it was easy and the hens didn’t seem to notice! Phew!<\/p>\n

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Last night, after I got the kids to sleep, I headed out for my nightly chores… I remembered to bring my fancy camera!\u00a0 I always start with watering… then I realize I should have harvested first… tomorrow, I say… every day!\u00a0 \u00a0Things are really growing (even the weeds! – again, tomorrow!).\u00a0 Look how pretty the lettuce is!!   I think I’ve mentioned before that our kitty, Buster, is a city kitty, king of the neighborhood and quite the hunter when we lived in Seattle.\u00a0 He’s become quite the scaredy cat since we moved to the country, and doesn’t venture far from the deck and his favorite pooping spots.\u00a0 This spring, he started coming with me to water the garden. He acts all relaxed and cocky, and gets into his ol’ hunting stances with the bunnies and birds, but then doesn’t do anything about it. Our tomatoes really struggled this year!\u00a0 They hardly grew for the whole first month… and they looked really sad.\u00a0 Our neighbor recommended that we get lime – she said that it totally turned her tomatoes around a few years ago.\u00a0 I went to the Country Store in town and asked about lime and they only had a 25 lb bag – way too much for my 9 plants!\u00a0 They recommended a few different fertilizers and the one I ended up buying didn’t even have lime in it, but it had a bunch of other things.\u00a0 The company is called FoxFarms and the product is Grow Big!\u00a0 I added it to my tomatoes every other day as recommended and within five days, there was a night and day difference!\u00a0 And now, two weeks later, there are tomatoes on a few of the plants! WOOOOOOHOOOOO! There’s kitty again! I had to take a few shots of the alpaca fence on my way down to check on the chickens!\u00a0 Isn’t it awesome?\u00a0 Looks so farmy around here now! Kitty followed me down to the lower part of the yard.\u00a0 He’s a little hesitant but as long as I’m going, he’s going.\u00a0 It’s been a fun part of the evening to see him branching out! We’re (Carson is!) building the alpaca shelter off of this cool old building on our property and, in that process, we’re going to shore up the old building so that we can store hay and other things in it.\u00a0 Another day, another project! \ud83d\ude42 The chickies were running low on food, and Carson made a new setup for them so we don’t have to reach way into the coop part to grab the food bucket.\u00a0 I like it… we’ll see how it is in the winter – we’re hoping the food stays dry. This is Buffarina, the broody hen.\u00a0 She rarely – if ever – leaves the nesting box.\u00a0 And last night, she had a feather stuck to her beak… hmmm, I wonder if she was pecking one of her sisters? Nolan the Rooster needed food and water, too, but he came over to pose for some pictures!\u00a0 He’s such a nice boy.\u00a0 We have heard about roosters not being so nice and we were worried that he would be a meany, but he’s such a love!\u00a0 It took him awhile to feel safe around us, but now he comes right out to greet us and he’ll let us know if something’s wrong with the girls.\u00a0 If they are out of food, he’s crowing a lot more and then he’ll run back and forth from the gate to the girls to alert us!\u00a0 It’s been so fun to have him around. Kitty has discovered the chickens and I hope he doesn’t figure out how to get over that fence.\u00a0 The hens are all protected from above with chicken wire, but Nolan’s enclosure is open on top.\u00a0 Buster was definitely scanning to see if he could get up there.\u00a0 Then when I went back to the hen side, he laid right down and was flicking his tail. Luckily, when I headed back to the house, he was very close behind me!\u00a0 Chicken kitty! \ud83d\ude42 Our apple trees have little baby apples on them!\u00a0 TONS OF LITTLE BABY APPLES!\u00a0 Summer is here! I got back to the house, then remembered I forgot to get the eggs from the hens… back down I went.\u00a0 I was a little nervous about my shoe choice – I usually boot up – both to avoid the poop on my feet, and so that they don’t peck me… exposed skin plus red toenails?\u00a0 Not the smartest!\u00a0 Luckily, it was easy and the hens didn’t seem to notice! Phew!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[8,12,25,27,35,49],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_6752-scaled.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}