"Release the quacken!" Welcome back to the farm, everyone! It's an unusually balmy morning here in November, and the farm chores are calling. Abby dog, what are you up to? Oh, Abby dog's happily gnawing on some leftover cauliflower scraps. Abby dog, is this your new favorite chew toy? Alright, take it easy there, sweetie. I don't know about you, Toby dog, but it seems like Abby has a serious case of the zoomies this morning. Yes, I'm talking to you, Miss! You've got a lot of pent-up energy today.
My farm chore schedule is a bit off this morning, as we're still in the thick of deer hunting season. I spent some time in my deer blind – still no luck on bagging a buck. Over the past week or so, my mornings have followed a similar pattern: up before sunrise, out to the deer blind, ready and perfectly positioned to start hunting right at sunrise. I'll sit out there for about an hour, maybe two, then come back down and tackle the farm duties for the rest of the day. Sometimes, I'll even venture out again in the evening, a little before sundown, to try my luck once more. But alas, the elusive buck remains just that – elusive. It's a bit disappointing, as I truly hoped to have some venison in the freezer this fall, but sometimes, life just doesn't unfold as planned. I guess.
One of my projects for today is to rig up a new hose attachment that will streamline the bird watering process. I'm tired of standing here each morning, individually filling up all the buckets. My vision is a system where I can simply turn on the hydrant, and it will evenly distribute the water to all the containers. I can set it up, let it run for five minutes, and then turn it off, freeing me from the manual labor of holding the hose and filling each bucket one by one. So, that's on the agenda for this morning as well. Alright, let's get to it! I know we have some hungry birds waiting. Excuse me, Mr. Toby dog. For some reason this morning, the geese were all present and accounted for, eagerly awaiting their breakfast, but the ducks… well, the ducks seem to have vanished into thin air. In case you're curious, that's Ron Swanson over there, the duck who firmly believes she's a goose. She was the sole duckling that hatched alongside a gaggle of goslings a few years back – four years ago now, I believe. Consequently, she prefers the company of the "Parks and Recreation" crew, which is my current nickname for the geese, a definite upgrade from the rather Slytherin-esque "Greta and the Geese." It looks like Greta and one of my runner ducks have figured out the location of the food, but the rest of the ducks are likely somewhere in the back, their favorite haunt for insect foraging. Ah, here's another fan-favorite duck – Bean. Bean is blind, and her method of navigation is… unique. You'll often see her bumping into things. I usually try not to follow her too closely, as I almost feel a pang of sympathy, but she's actually quite adept at getting around the farm. She's learned to follow the sounds and movements of the other ducks and geese to locate food and water. So, as long as I keep a watchful eye and ensure her safety, she generally manages just fine. Another task on my list for this morning is to finish sealing off the wall of the bird's hoop coop for the winter. The goal is to make their winter quarters nice and toasty, even though the ten-day forecast indicates an unseasonably warm November, with lows only dipping to around 32°F. This is quite the mild late autumn we're experiencing. Would you look at that! A fresh duck egg this morning. This right here is the bonus byproduct of having the "quacken." This egg is still warm and wet, indicating it was just laid. I had this stale gluten-free roll from Allison's kitchen scraps this morning, so I'm going to let the dogs have it. Here you go, Toby, that's for you. Abby gets the smaller piece, as she'll inevitably come back for the other smaller piece. Toby often likes to take his food, observe it, savor it, and take his sweet time. Abby, on the other hand, devours things as if they were the most fleeting of communion wafers. "Awww, you're such a good girl!" she's not really a good girl at the moment, but I'm trying some positive affirmations to encourage a more virtuous mindset. As of yesterday, we also have some new residents in the hoop coop. I finally moved my chicken flock inside. It was yesterday morning that I rounded them up and relocated them, so today is their first full day here on the farm, inside their winter home. "Good morning, chickens! Rise and grind!" It's actually quite interesting to watch the chickens wander around and do their thing. They're pecking at some of the seeds that have fallen on the ground. You can see that many of the plants, the stalkier ones, are being crushed down and essentially turning into a natural straw mulch on the ground. Over the next few days, I'll begin layering down bedding, as part of my usual winter bird care routine. Typically, I add layers of bedding every other day or so. This builds up over the course of the winter and transforms into incredibly rich compost, making it ideal for growing things inside this space during the summer months. Eventually, in about a year or so, it will mature into outstanding compost that can be used in the garden, around the trees, and pretty much anywhere I desire on the farm. I'm fairly certain there's a synergistic benefit to having multiple species cohabitating in this space. I've noticed that the work the ducks and geese do is different from the chickens, and having the combination of all three wandering around, each performing their unique ecological roles, is just pretty cool to observe. "Well, good morning, my goatie otis!" You've been singing your little hello song. How are you guys doing? And for those wondering, I'm still thoroughly enjoying the company of Baracus, Telemachus, and Linus. I've introduced something new to their feeding setup. I've always seen people use these feed bags – essentially large totes with holes on the sides – for hay, but I never really had a use for them until now. With the goats, I decided to give it a try, and that's what I've been using to dispense their hay. It's remarkably easy to use, and the goats genuinely seem to appreciate it. Looks like there's even a little branch of cedar in here. I'm still diligently scouring Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, hoping to snag a relatively inexpensive small trampoline. No luck yet, but my dream of having a goat play scape on the farm is still very much alive. Uh-oh, what are the dogs barking about? Toby dog's over there, and Abby dog is right over there. And in case anyone's wondering, the goats are now completely comfortable with using their door. Since I moved the regular chickens yesterday, I figured it was time to move more chickens today. And yes, it's actually the weird chickens' turn to relocate to their winter quarters. I'm going to go gather them up and transport them to their new home. I've decided to move them into the Bruder house, which is typically the space where I raise newly hatched chicks – baby ducklings, baby chickens, or baby geese all spend their first few weeks there. What's convenient about it is its access to electricity, allowing me to provide warmth with heating plates if needed. The other significant advantage is its proximity to my water source, making winter chores much easier than dealing with the clucky ball space. So, I need to go in there and carefully collect all these birds and move them to their new abode. We have Carmen, we have Deb (say hi, Deb!), and then we have Lavender Brown and her three nearly identical offspring. And off you go! Surprisingly, in the last two days, I don't know if you've seen this chicken running around while I was trying to catch the others – Captain Janeway, also known as Runaway Red, who used to be part of the weird chicken flock but then decided to join the regular chickens, has now decided to rejoin the weird chickens again. I don't even try to make sense of it; I'm just reporting the facts. But yes, it's going to be significantly easier to care for these chickens inside this space. The weird chickens will move back into the clucky ball this spring, but for now, living inside the Bruder house seems like the best possible choice for them, and it will undoubtedly make my winter chores significantly easier. The added bonus is that I can now let the goatie otis run free and explore this part of the farm on a nice warm day like today. Of course, they're immediately curious about what's going on with those chickens. The reason I had to wait for the weird chickens to be safely tucked away before allowing the goats to roam is because the other day, I came out to check on things after a warm afternoon, and I decided to let the goats have a little free-range time. Well, when I came back, they were nowhere to be found – completely missing! I searched high and low and eventually discovered that they had broken into the clucky ball. They had even destroyed the door, which I've already repaired three different times! So, this door is beyond repair. The goats kept getting in there, trying to pilfer the chicken grain. The bottom line is, I really can't let the goats run wild unless I have robust fencing and the bird food is securely behind those fences because they will absolutely go crazy for that bird feed. Isn't that right, boys? But now, you're able to wander all around here and munch on the last of the brush and the remaining grasses, helping me tidy up the farmyard. Yeah, I even put up this extra fencing to try and deter the goats from attempting to break into the hoop coop this winter. You guys are real knuckleheads, you know that? But I like you because you're undeniably entertaining. Now, ordinarily, this would be the point in the day when I'd head up the hill to check on the cattle, but since I was already up there this morning for my hunting excursion and did a quick visual sweep (and I no longer have any fences to move!), I wanted to take a slightly different approach to cow chores this morning. First, let's do a quick check on the heifers. You guys see Alice and baby B? They're both hanging out right here. I actually just moved them to a new grazing lane yesterday. Now, they're going to tackle this patch right here. I'd estimate they'll probably be there for a week or two as well. We're getting down to the final stages of grazing. It'll likely be at least two weeks before I bring the main cattle herd down, based on the current weather forecast. But when I do bring those cattle down, that's when I'll reunite the girls with their mothers. Speaking of the mothers, let's see where they've wandered off to. As you can see, my field is currently quite scattered with cattle. I took down the last of the interior fences, giving the cattle pretty much the entire field to roam and graze as they please. At this late stage of the grazing season, they're mostly just chilling out and loafing. I'm fairly certain that if I need to keep them out here much longer, I'll probably have to resort to bringing hay bales up to them. But I'm perfectly willing to do that because the more time they spend up here grazing, the less time they'll have to spend in their winter yard, which I think will be a positive for them overall. But as I zoom in a bit, you can see there's still some grass to be had, but not a ton. The forage is definitely thinning out. Given that the quality isn't as high as it was even a month ago, they're going to need more volume. So, I don't think it will be very long before the hay bales make their appearance up here, and I begin bail grazing the cattle on this upper pasture. I don't particularly love giving them this much unrestricted space, but it's relatively easy to keep an eye on them, and I do have the exterior perimeter fences to keep them contained. The one minor mishap I did notice is that it looks like they tipped over the happy cow mobile 3.0 yet again. So, that's going to be a messy cleanup task. But other than that, things seem to be in order. And in case anyone was wondering about my hunting location on the farm, typically I'm way back in that area. Now that I have this wide drone shot, I can do a quick headcount of the cattle, and it looks like everyone is accounted for. So yeah, it seems like the drone is a pretty efficient option for checking on the cattle. What did I tell you guys? I turned my back for like five minutes, and these rascal goats already boarded the clucky ball yet again! You know, when I built this structure this past spring, I certainly wasn't anticipating having to implement some sort of goat deterrent system. But here we are. You boys know you're not even supposed to be in there! You know you got busted for…