Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

Went to bed last night & before I fell asleep, Mom came in to tell me the electricity had just gone out. And she asked if I'd need any help with anything, such as bringing in the chicks. Usually, if the power goes out, it's only for a short time & I would have just left everyone as is. But, it was already -8*F and 4 week old chicks even with a broody hen may not survive all night without additional heat. So, out we went with out headlamps & multiple layers. I first emptied the heated water bowls & unplugged them, because without power they'd freeze solid in no time & make morning chores even more difficult. Then, we rescued the chicks & broody hen, putting them in a plastic bin. I also grabbed Uno & Dos, the two chicks hatched by Matilda in December.  We brought them all inside, and Mom asked, "Do you have a second bin to put them in?" I confidently replied, "Oh, they'll be ok." Yes, they were "sardines" but ...

A quick Sunday morning photo blog post. On my iPhone I took some photos of that pullet who was checking out the nesting box yesterday.  My regular camera doesn't like the cold temperatures, so the batteries will go dead. But I found that if I carry the iPhone, I can take photos with that & at least capture the moment even if my preference is still a digital camera. The chicks were waisting so much feed, so I used some welded wire to prevent them from scratching through the feed . It's not pretty but it works. Now, this chick is one of the suspected roosters - I can even see little wattles forming! And this one looks to be a pullet; see the difference in comb size & both have single combs?  No wattles either The following are of this "camera hog" that has this out-stretched neck pose! Finally, I was able to capture a precious broody hen moment with the chicks snuggled up!  Last but not least, these chicks are busy scratching & digging through the hay pellet...

As I first sat down here to write a blog post, I found myself not knowing what to write or where to begin. Perhaps it was because there's so much "uncertain" at this moment. I know what I was originally hoping to do this year - as one week ago I shared "my ideas" with the family. Then, another opportunity came up, but at this point we're not sure if it's going to work out or not. If it does, all those original "ideas" and "plans" will be changed, but hopefully for the better. I'm not going to say what that is, until I know if it's moving forward or not, which we won't know any more until next Friday.    Through it all, the Lord is teaching me some absolutely incredible life lessons. While I'm certainly not "there yet", I'm beginning to see more clearly that "God's Got This", and I can be perfectly at peace in not knowing what's around the next bend in the road. Why should I not be? He k...

As I was searching for a specific photo that's one of my favorites, to make into a more simplified "logo" for my website, I found the photo's file name was "IMG_0370". So, I did a search in "My Pictures" folder, and below are the results. The first one is the photo I was looking for originally: "Rainbow" - one of 2014's Catskill Homesteader pullets - photo taken 1/15/15 More Catskill Homesteaders grazing on the grass paddocks - "Joshua", "Dahlia", "Lilac" & "Lavender" - photo taken 5/6/15 "Alix" - a Black Sex Link hen who went broody & raised chicks; at our previous home on a "supervised free-range" outing - photo taken 8/14/14 Now, I'm not sure where this photo was taken, but most likely it was taken by my dad on one of my parent's walks. Taken 6-23-12 Our vegetable garden freshly mulched with hay - at our previous home - taken 5-26...

1/21/16 - A Day in the Life: Photographic Journey through Winter Chores at Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm In the 45 days since I last posted here on my blog, winter has officially arrived. This past week (1-17 to 1-22), it hasn't gotten above 30*F, and we've had light snow flurries on almost a daily basis. This makes daily "critter chores", as I call them, more of a challenge than in the summer months. The garden hose is frozen, so I fill up 2 water buckets in the shower. Even though I have 4 heated water bowls, they need to be topped off, plus the rooster's and main flock's water rubber dishes need to be filled. But before I can go outside, I put on snow pants, coat, gloves and/or mittens, and heavy winter boots. Because last weekend, it did get above freezing, the snow started to melt, then re-froze, coating all the high-traffic paths with ice! Therefore, I have to wear ice cleats or else I would have fallen many times. The winter mode of transport ...