Happy Birthday Gramma

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Yes today is Gramma's birthday. Ain't she a cutie? Still is too.

 

As a birthday present I'm getting her some "real" Swiss chocolate, however she has to go there to get it. Here she is packing for the trip.

 

Her she is heading off to the airport. Actually she's going there for work. She just gets to leave on her birthday. Now I have to eat the cake and ice cream myself. She's going to be gone until the 27th. So I'll be here all alone, by myself, with no one to talk to except the dogs, and the cats, and the horses, and the chickens, and the cows. Poor Grampa. Happy Birthday Gramma, come home safe, we love you.

WINNER! Chicken naming contest.

 Well, all the entries are in. I had hoped for more, but it wasn't to be.  Anyway, after much deliberation and an arm wrestling match, we have a WINNER! Congratulations goes to...........Matthew! WOO HOO! Our little hen's name is now Clarabelle. Thank you Matthew. I was leaning a little toward Marshmallow (right Mom?) and Gramma was leaning a bit toward Henrietta (Get it?) but in the end Clarabelle won out. Here's three pics of her and we would like the winner to pick which one he likes best.

#1

 

#2

                                                                              #3

Whichever it is we'll make a print and get it to you. Thanks again, I had fun. In other news Gramma and I separated Le Beef from the other cows today, this will make it easier to get him into the trailer for his appointment next week. Good timing as we're all out of beef from the last one. Anyway th-th-th-th-that's all folks.

The lake, eggs and contest

I went to the lake on Wednesday and came home on Friday. I put four vents in the cabinette to hopefully stop the mildew problem. We would like to put a regular couch back in there, because lawn chairs just don't cut it. Also the last two winters have been hard on the boat launch. there was a log by the shore that the ice has pushed into the shoreline and actually buried into the ground. About three feet of it stuck out into the boat launch. So I had dig it out and dig out rocks so I could cut it off with the chain saw. It was about a foot in diameter. So I didn't even get the boat in until Thursday afternoon. Anyway here's afew pics of the lake for those of you who haven't been there for awhile.

 

This is from where I've been catching fish.

 

 

 

Early morning fog.

 

 

Our place.

 

 

Bucket-O'-Fish.

 

 

 

The new chickens started laying eggs. Small ones of course.

 

  

Here it is in the pan with two regular eggs. One of the hens layed an egg in the hay in the horses bale feeder and I found four today in the barn garbage can on top of the bale twine I throw in there when I put out a bale. Some of them are laying in the nest box, but I think I'm going to leave them in the coop for a few days to see if they all start to lay in the box. Oh yeah, I think I'll put a lid on the garbage can. Now, on to the chicken naming contest. We received ten suggestions so far and since its been over a week I guess there won't be anymore. So we narrowed down to two. We have to decide between the two and Gramma likes one and I like the other. I'll let you know..................Bye.

 

 

 

Woodpeckers, Chickens and a contest

We have a family of Pileated Woodpeckers living in our woods. They like to visit the suet feeder in the front yard. So far, we know there is at least three young ones.

This is the Papa.

This is a young female waiting to be fed.

         Here's Dad feeding her.    

      They just recently started to get the suet themselves.

This female spent all day yesterday flying in and eating and flying back to the woods. It was fun to watch. She would land on the ground and yell at the feeder for a bit and then jump up and feed herself. Their call is loud and reminds me of the old Tarzan movies.

This is the one rooster we have left. We were supposed to get two, but we got four. So far he hasn't shown any aggresiveness. The other three did, so they went bye bye. Since these are Barred Rock chickens, I've decided to call him Rocky. We'll see how long he lasts.

This hen has decided to compete with Lucy for the part of "Farmers Favorite Chicken". She is the only one who lets me pet her and when I spread some grain out for them and sit on a bucket to watch, she likes to hop up on my leg and eat from my hand. Here she is giving me "The Chicken Eye".

Anyway, because she will be kind of a pet, I thought she should have a name. So I want you people, including Grandkids to come up with a name for her. Gramma and I will decide which one we like the best and  the person who came up with it will get a personally autographed picture of her suitable for framing. Whata  ya think? FUN! Let's start now. Don't be shy. I'm waiting and so is she. Bye.

Tower Days

On Saturday, Gramma and I went to the Tower Days parade in Ogilvie.

 Here's Clayton on an F-30 Farmall from 1939.

 This is exactly like the first and I think only tractor my Grampa Berg ever bought.

 Here is my aunt Iona on it at Grampa's farm. Even though he had the tractor he still farmed with horses too. No, I don't know the dogs name. Probably Shep or Sport, very popular farm dog names.

Look at all those "Red" tractors. They all belong to the Bergs. OCD? Maybe. Or it could just be TGB. (Typical Goofy Bergs) Anyway it was fun. Seeeee Ya.

July

Well july is gone. I'm glad. This was our worst year for hay. Too much rain and too many equipment problems. Borrowed Jess' tractor but it wouldn't work the baler end gate, so I had to use our tractor and force the pto in gear. Didn't like doing that cause it can cause more problems, but I didn't have a choice. Finally got the hay baled and Gramma and I got it moved on Sunday. Last year we had 71 bales and this year 43. Rain and problems with the haybine and rake caused this loss. Also my inexperience as a farmer. Well, I won't let this happen again, different equipment and more preperation and diligence will win out next year. I fixed Jess' tractor so at least now it works the baler and won't cause her any problems.

 Here is the hay piles.

 Nothing in the hay shed, but a tractor and a boat. We'll have to buy a bit more hay this year, but what can you do?

 Something is sneaking up behind me.

 Oh, it's just my dog.

Silly dog.


Watch this space! More to come!

Flowers, a contest and a red toad

I thought I would take some pics of Gramma's flowers.

 One of her lillies. That's a bee butt in the middle.

 These are all lillies.

 This is one of her hosta plants.

 And now, here's the contest part. Can anyone tell me what kind of flower this is? If you can you'll win a prize. And no, it's not fair to use the BCA or FBI photo ID program, Ted.

I found this guy outside the front door the other morning. I've never seen a red toad before and he was quite red. He was just a little bigger than a quarter. In haying news, my haybine broke, the hayrake broke and Jess' tractor won't work the baler. We bought a different hay rake and haybine and I was able to rake everything yesterday. At 2:30 this morning we had a thunderstorm, so now all I can do is wait to see if it dries out and try again, as it got rained on once already. Rain is now in the forecast for the next three days. Some of you guys didn't cross your fingers. We'll just let nature do what it does and hope for the best.

Ciao.