And Just like that its FALL...(1 Peter 1:5)

 WOW, blink your eyes and fall is already in full swing.  Leaves have turned in Tennessee and already falling off the trees.  I am so glad to say goodby to the mosquitoes and chiggers.  If no one else loved me this summer, they did!!!  The drive to and from Alabama hasn't been too bad and the fall scenery has been amazing!!! 

I have seen some gorgeous sunrises and actually a few sunsets on the way home.  Brantlee has transferred back to Hartselle High School, so now I have some company on the journey to and from school.  It's been nice spending time with her every morning and afternoon.  She usually retreats to her room, but now she is stuck with me 3 hours everyday.  Some days I just look at her and can't believe how much she has grown up.  Where does the time go? 

 Not much has been done on the inside of the house.  The weather has been so nice we have been concentrating on getting some outdoor projects done before winter hits.  I was really hoping everything would be complete inside by the holidays, but that's not going to happen.  Now I'm just praying for the doors to be painted so we can put doorknobs on all the doors!!  I've have learned to appreciate those little things we take for granted...like door knobs!!😂. 

We have been working on my chicken coop and Paul started working on his smokehouse.  He closed in part of the lean on the left side of the smokehouse.  It is going to be his workshop.  He has to get all his tools organized, so they are not strewn around the house and outside.  He will have a working area this winter and maybe I will have a carport I can use.  

We have all the siding up on the coop.  We still need to put up the batten strips and paint.  The coop run was built, wire installed and black metal roof put on.  We still have to face and trim out some areas on the run and then of course paint.  We found a chicken weathervain at one of our favorite antique shops close to Columbia.  That was pretty funny watching Paul install.  He ripped his pants while trying to get off the top of the roof.🤭  Paul also added a little deck on front of the coop!!!  I've been working on the flooring inside the storage part of the coop.  I have taken old scrap wood that bucked up in the house or was left over and mod podged paper to some wood pieces  I've installed about 3/4 of the floor.  I ran out of wood, so now its back to clipping old nails out of  more leftover wood and putting paper on the wood before I can finish.  We found an old metal cabinet in the smokehouse when we first bought the place.  It has a white Porcelain top with red edge.  I sprayed the base hot pink and plan on using it for storage in the coop.  The main thing we have left on the chicken coop is building the nesting boxes.

The Animals

I love my chickens.  They are so much fun to watch.  My neighbor describes it as Chicken TV.  They are pretty entertaining.  I have been trying to figure out the most efficient ways to care for them, because they have been very time consuming and messy!!  I've been watering them everyday or at least every other day.  They poop in their water or knock it over🤪.  So I had to find a better way to keep the water clean and not have to refill as often.  A neighbor told me she uses the nipples and they had been working well.  I ordered some and found a 5 gallon bucket and two 3.5 gallon buckets.  I installed the nipples and the chickens figured it out really quick.  Now the water stays clean and I refill once a week.  

I saw on Facebook a post about letting chickens carve pumpkins.  It sounded pretty neat, so I thought I would give it a try.  It would be a contest between the hens vs the roosters.  Hens won hands down and their prize was they got to finish off the roosters’ pumpkin.  Roosters obviously did not have the fall spirit of competition in them.  

Speaking of roosters, we have a new rooster.  He is a Tolbunt Polish.  I saw one on Facebook and started a massive search to fine one.  I finally found one in Vinemont at Snead Farm.  We named him King Tut. He is a handsome little fellow!!

I have a chicken story that has only become funny to me as time has past.  One Saturday evening I was out refilling chicken feeders.  My silkies were pigging out like they had never eaten before.  A little later I noticed one of my silkie roosters, or I think it was a rooster, was acting weird.  He was standing in a corner opening and closing his mouth.  He looked like he was choking.  I grabbed him up and ran to the house yelling for Paul, telling him something is wrong with my chick.  Paul gives me his go to line when I tell him something is wrong with any animal, "He's fine, just go put him back."  I said, "No I think he is choking."  So I look up on my phone "what's wrong with a chicken that is opening and closing its mouth".  Sure enough, it was choking.  So I yell to Paul, "It is CHOKING."  What I haven't mentioned is that this all was happening in the last 5 min of the Alabama vs Tennessee football game.  Paul yells, "I don't know what to do, just google it!"   So, now I'm trying to hold a squirming chicken that's choking and trying to google what to do for it.  I found a video that was explaining, in the slowest fashion possibly, how to massage the crop and hold the chick upside down to help it vomit.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I yelled for Paul again.  His response again was "Tricia, I am sure that chicken is fine, just go put it back up."  I then yelled back, "The chick is most definitely not fine. Its dead!!".  Paul says, 'Wait, What?"  After, all that, he then finally comes over to verify the chicken was actually dead and then tells me Alabama just lost.  I was just a little miffed with him.

The cows are all doing good.  At different times I put Izzy and Lita in the maternity ward.  Apparently, neither wanted to be in the maternity ward, so they escaped.  I thought Izzy might be pregnant, but I'm not sure.  I have not put her back in the maternity ward.  I did capture Lita again, and this time put her in lock down in the birthing stall.  

Sometime Friday morning she had a beautiful silvery/creamy little heifer.  We have named her Sadie.  It is so exciting to come home to a new healthy baby.  They all absolutely refuse to give birth if I'm at the farm.

PJ found a new home and left on October 19th.  I was so sad to see him leave.  He is the sweetest little calf we have had.  He will be happy at his new home and they have a friend for him.  The family that bought him was the sweetest couple and just wanted a couple of pet cows.

Now that PJ is gone it was really good that Lita had her baby so there is someone in the implement area to hang out with Heidi.  The problem we are having is that even though Heidi will be 1 year old in November, she still thinks she is a baby and wants to nurse also.  She nursed Britta when Pj was born and now has been trying to Nurse Lita since Sadie was born.  I don't know what we are going to do with her.

In the last 9-10 days, I’ve lost 2 chickens, Paul worked in Atlanta for a week, 2 cows got out, car battery died, PJ went to a new home, and we ended the week with a flat tire on the interstate and a new calf. Oh and Alabama lost to Tennessee😂. Life is hard.  Being human is hard.  Sometimes we all find ourselves in situations where we feel hopeless, helpless and powerless.  Rick Warren gives 4 reasons for hope:

• God chose us before we chose Him
• God always treats us with grace and mercy
• God has secured our future
• God’s power will protect us.

1 Peter 1:5 says, “And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation.”  We are continuously guarded by God’s power. He watches over us every moment of the day.  In my, not so great week, the cows got out on Tuesday afternoon.  I jump out of the car as soon as I got home, leaving everything in it, including keys in the ignition, to catch cows.  When I got the cows up, I went back to get my stuff from the car and the car battery was dead.  You cannot leave keys in the ignition of a Subaru!!!  I had to drive the truck to work on Wednesday.  Through conversations with Paul and my dad I was able to jump the car off the next day.  I was able to drive the car on Thursday.  Friday I had the flat.   I guess it turned out to be blessing the car battery died on Tuesday, because had the flat happened on Thursday, Brantlee would have been with me and probably driving. That would have been traumatizing for all parties involved.  Paul was still in Atlanta and no one would have been around to rescue me!!!!   I had to sale PJ, but ended the week with a new calf.   Even in our frustrations, sadnesses, and inconvenience of life, trust God is working things out for the good.  We are surrounded by an all loving, all powerful God.  We can always trust His power for help, protection, and mercy..... even on our worst days.