Sleepy Dog Ranch

The Power of Smell

I really like our chickens.  We finally had rain in Ok.  It rained all weekend.  Which was good cept we had no internet or phone sevice. Oh Well - Dh did manage to find something to do.

We watch our chickens playing in the rain.   We finally merged our Keets and Chickens together and all are a big  happy family.

I found that  I enjoy feeding the chickens.  I could not quite figure out why I got the warm fuzzies but finally it dawned on me. The feed smells like my Granddads barn.  I started to think about how much fun and at home I felt on his place. My granddad passed away 5 years ago this week from lung cancer and I find myself missing him yet some how I know he is happy with our ambitions. 

Yep all that from a bag of chick feed.

Blessing to you all.

Keep Smiling

Grass Feed??

Well it has thuinder and even had a little light show but no rain. 

My Dh and had a nice time this weekend. We went to a Grazing Convention. There was  a speaker named Gerald Fry -  http://www.bovineengineering.com .Man this guy is a wealth of information.  The whole weekend was very informative. I was kinda of leary as we are not quite up to hang  with the big dogs but make no mistake. These Men are passionate about their cowboying and really and truly have the best interst in the Welfare of their cattle and the meat that they put out.  Not to mention that my DH and  sat back and listen to the wealth of wisdom they have. I have not thought of my self as an  Enviromentlist  ( an evil liberal word LOL)  but I do not see how you can not be one if you Goal is  Homesteading.  So When I get my thoughts organized I will share some info on why Grass feed Cattle is best.

After the seminar we stopped by our local cattle acution.  I was horrified.   I am not sure if it is the heat, drought or what but these cattle where not fit for dog food.   It further commited our goal of what we wanted to Produce out of Sleepy Dog Ranch. 

I am excited as well as a little overwhelmed with the Task at hand but I am prayerful  that we will Glorify the Lord in our adventure call Sleepy Dog Ranch.   Blessing to all.

Monday Madness

Chickens

Thanks Carol!

Well our chicks have gotten soo big!!  It is amazing.   It is a littlesad that we can not create a product to end hunger like this chicken feed that has doubled our little chicks.

My littlest dog, umi, has cried and whined wanting  at the chicks. Now we are not concerned this pup because twice we have gotten kittens she has nursed them.  I feel a little guilty that we had her spayed .

So finally DH put her in with the chicks and well my poor dog  the chicks thought she was a giant worm.  They pecked her ears , toes and whiskers.Pretty much Umi stays put and no longer asks to visit the chicks.

They say that people who do not  have kids replace then with dogs. Our animals are  babies too Somedays it a toss up.

Meanwhile it seems the aquatic members of our family aren't happy as our crawdad, turtle and yes even our snails have attemped escape. Luckily all are fine. MMM???? Very Strange

We are currently working on my DD bug and leaf collection as she wants to enter everything fot the fall free fair.   

We are going to grazing confrence tommorow. i am otta here

test

Important For Everyone

I am surfing the blods around here and came acroos this important website about

Nation Id program for animals.  If you have a few minutes check it out

http://www.nonais.org/

PS  I might one day figure out how to put my posts in categories

Chicken and a Rooster.

Our 7 keets are getting big and beautiful.

Our 48 chicks are getting bigger and low and behold we realized we do not have a rooster in the bunch.  ( maybe when I ordered 50 pullets I should have got a clue) . Anyway off the the Feed Store.

We found the rooster we wanted. Rojo was his name according to Red ( who i think is even older that my granddad )  and  off we went.

I know know why the farmer gets up at 5AM .

Ok well the next night  Rojo met the Towel Of Sleep.   Blissfull Sleep!

Our coop is at a stand still as its been just to HOOOTTTTT!

While at the feed store I did get a lead on some piggies for my DS 14 . He really looking forward to raising them. .

Just a few hints for the newbies like me: chicks are messy. Make sure that you raise the food and water a few inches off the ground.

WHAT A week!

Well I now I know why black widows eat their mates.

One would think that a man born and raised in TEXAS could stand a little Oklahoma heat.  My poor baby had to work outside and has spent two days sick.  Why men are babies when they are sick I will never understand.

The chicken coop is almost done.  Man  I can not believe how big the chickens are now.  

 I am still having a time with the concept of caring for something we are going to eat.  Or better yet having to butcher it.   Ok  when we took marine biology in HS  I passed out just from watching the instructional video.

Thats all for now

I

Checking IN

 *** A Note ******

My DS 14 wanted me to tell Ya'll that he is helping his dad with coyote stake out.  Yes my Baby Boy is becoming a Man.

My kids are excited as we begin 4H next week.  Right now we are busy At Sleepy Dog with several projects - rabbit hutch, getting the pen ready for a hog and of course the chicken coop. Which I am happy to report that there have been no more keet deaths.  Hopefully next time we can do better than a 50% death rate.

We are slowly getting back to a normal scheldule after the move and will start back up our homeschooling fulltime. I will probably not post for a few days as I am having several fires burning right now.    Have a Good week all and Be safe!  in all this heat.   

Not because anyone asked.

 But the reason I  choose seekerofhislove as a name is becaue I felt like that this best describes the point I am right now.

It is twofold

I am trying to grow as a Christian-  seeking out His Love and   Guidance in my Life  which lead mebe abetter wife  to seek my DH love - What I mean is that the more I am a better wife  the more my DH is a better , loving romantic husband.

For those who want to be a better wife I suggest  Created to be His Helpmate by Debi Pearl and  Proper Care and Feeding of Husband by Dr. Laura .

As far as being a better Christian - Well that is between you and the Lord.   There are many web stites that offer studies.  I say pray and the Lord will lead you. 

Well My DH is home staked out on the roof to protect his family - He looks like a Kid on Christmas.  MEN!!!

I am going to play around  and study on how to make my little page cooler.  I seen several slide shows and would like to share some recipies and such.  Although if you look at my links you will see all sources.  We are off the the Cattle Auction to scope the in and outs.  I wish you a Blessed Weekend.  Keep the World in your prayers as I will Keelp you in mine.

Little things... July 21 2006

Ok I am up late Dh still out of town.

I picked my first co-op order to night .  I had to drive with a map and no DH to call if I got lost .  I  made it .

I won the mommy of the year becasue I found a splash park near to pick up place and let my kiddos play and play.   I was looking around at the  other kids delight at having water dumped on their head, running thru a mister and sliding and swing drench.   I can not think of the Last time I have experienced complete delight over something so small.. Which brings me to my next thing.

Ask my DD what the best part of living here is and she will tell you its finding cicadas and watching then come out of the shells.  This is something that her and her dad started the first few days  So now at nights she eagerly takes the puppie sout to find a cicada.  Watching that ugly shell turn into a ugly green thing  fills her with such Joy that I can hardly comprhend  it Well Tonight since dad is gone I joined her in her little adventure.

Lesson Learned-  Sometimes Joy is not in yourself but in those around you. I think that sometimes we search so hard to find the things to make us happy .. when it is right there in front of us.  Ok Ok its late so enough but I do urge everyone to  stop and smell the roses.

I have batten down the hatches made a lot of noise before I locked up so hopefully no visitor tonight,

July 20 Scary Night

Our new Home is not quite so new . Our  chicks and gunie hens  currently in our Garage. 

For the last few night there has been a coyote in our yard. My DH wanted to shoot it but I said lets not  , It will go away hopefully before we put our chicks in the coop. 

Now last night  My DH was out of town with my oldest boy.   Around 11:30 pm my dogs start to go crazy then I hear a lot of howling.  I look out my widow in my room which has a shabby door going in to the Garage which has a door ( that my dd left cracked open)    And see 3 coyotes pacing and howling a few feet away. Well  then I hear sqwacking and banging around in the garage . Well the Lord is Good and has blessed me with a wonderful DH which  calmed me down gave 2 option ( one being a shotgun which I will learn this weekend) and the other bang on the door and yell.  Which worked - door secured   and  all chicks are safe.   THE LORD IS AWESOME .

All of us including my DD learned a lesson about carelessness  and I learned that this city girl better get a stronger backbone because I was pertfied and at a total loss of what to do. Not to mention that we may have to shoot a coyote which seems to me wrong.

The guinea hens experiment

Thank You for the Warm Welcome!

Well We have been in our home for a few weeks  and we could not walk out our front door with out ticks crawling up our legs.  So like every good farmer we said " sure we arent quite ready for the big time but surley  a few baby guinie or keets to us farmers ; and while we our at it  50 baby rhode island red and a mystery chick. - ( as soon as I figure out how to downsize my pics to up load I'll see if anyone has a clue);  we can handle. 

 My postmistress call to tell me my keest are in . First stop Feed Store  - what kind of food do we need? Now the last year we read Storey's Guide to Rasing Chickens front  and back so we are prepared. Any way The nice man said we need chick grower. Right!

Now all of our 16 keets seemed warm and happy. Next morning  1 down   My 7yo DD says "Mom that the circle of Life" - Alright then  The next day  another died Uh .....Now what

Now dh says we have the wrong food we stop on our way to pick up medicated chick starter because now our chicks have arrived.   Fast forward to a few more dead keets and the others so stressed that I think some are going to need therapy. We  learned keets are not chickens. So we seperated them  went onto to the world wide web read that we arent ready for our overalls yet . Away I went to get  turkey starter ( high protein) .  So far 72 hrs and our last little 8 keets are doing ok.  

 Lessons  Learned -  Never mix keets with chicks till they are older,  always use  turkey starter and NEVER give keets medicated chick starter.

Upcoming projects -  Building a coop, a bat house. Getting Ready 4H ( oldest is getting a Hog) , Learning to tell boy rabbits from girl since we brought our two bunnies that we thought were both boys and well it been hot outside so we brought them in  and well lets just say we may be in the bunny business

July 17, 2006 Hello

Well this well be something completly new as I have never Blog before.  We have just moved to a small town in Oklahoma and now have 80 acres to figure out what to do with.

On that note We left Texas to escape the Heat (ok DH job had something to do with it)  and well low and behold it was a 102 degree today . Oklahoma is having record breaking heat.. Oh well the best laid plans.   So back to this Blog I have read and enjoyed many so I thought that  I would enjoy doing one to keep up with Family and Friends as our family enjoys this journey , that is sure to have some laughable as well as learnable moments. 

So right now we are a home schooling family of a Proverbs 31 mom, dad, 2 boys and a girl.  Also in the line up are 3 dogs , 2 cats , 2 new rabbits , 48 chicks and 8 guinie hens ( we started with 16 more on that another time). 

So sit back and relax and I will have this off this up in no time .