Comings and Goings

 I've been super busy the past few weeks...my newest batch of chicks came this past Wednesday, and I was hoping to get the new coop ready before they arrived. Even with a couple days of help from Dad, I didn't succeed, but they're happily ensconced in a whipped-together brooder pen with their adoptive mother for now. They'll be fine in there until we get the coop done.

Here's Snow White and her brood of 26 Icelandic chicks, who came to Maine all the way from Wisconsin...in the mail! Getting one of my broody girls to accept the chicks was a bit harrowing - it went very smoothly last year with Buffy, and I was counting on her to be the mama again this year, but she was kind of grouchy about these new arrivals. Thankfully, Snow White stepped in, and she seems very proud of her little flock, lol. 

My blog post is titled "Comings and Goings..." the chicks represent the "coming," and the "going" is Henry. That's right...my sweet, goofy boy is traveling to South Carolina next week. He's going to do a board and train on a friend's farm, and will likely sire a couple farm Collie litters. In fact, I may even get a pup back from him. I don't know whether he will make his way back to me....Thane would probably not accept him back here once he's gone, sadly. I'm sure I'll cry buckets when he leaves, but I'm also excited to see how he does in a real working home. 💗

In other news, the cats are doing well. Bartholomew continues to rule the homestead. He's being awesome with the new kitten - they play with each other whenever I give Purrcy time to run around. 

Well, time for me to head off to work. It's going to be a crazy summer...in fact, I have to update Breeze's puppy waiting list, because I've determined that my work schedule won't permit me to breed her for a fall litter...I will plan to breed her next winter/spring. 

Anyway...here's a sweet little Strawberry flower in closing! I hope everyone has an awesome weekend! :)

It's May Already??

 Wow, time is flying, isn't it?? I can't believe we're already almost done with the first week of May! 

Things have been bonkers here at Butterscotch Farm...here are some of the things that have happened since the last time I wrote:

1. Tons of site cleanup.

2. I spent two solid days working super hard to clear a section of forest for new chicken coops... and then decided I want the coops somewhere else. 🙄

3. Tick season and black fly season have begun - ick!!

4. I lost a hen to health issues, and both ducks to a predator. 😭 

5. Two other hens have gone broody, which is good because I'm counting on them to raise the 25 chicks arriving in a couple weeks!!

6. I got a new kitten - Purrcy. He's super cute!! 😍

7. Dad installed another window for me today, up in the front gable end of the cottage. I love having lots of light!!

I think that's most everything that has happened... it's been awesome having more time to work on my land lately. 

Here are a bunch of photos from the last week or so: 

This is the "before" picture of one section I cleared. I decided not to put the chickens here, but it's still a satisfying transformation... here's the "after": 

Below is the general area I DID decide will be for the chickens. This is also a "before" picture. I didn't think to get an "after" picture yet, but I'm happy to report that it is looking much better!

The coops will be a little behind where that red piece of roofing was in the above photo. Here's a possible layout... the gravel shows the potential footprint of one coop, with the run extending out beyond it: 

This also shows a little of the clearing I've done. Some of the stumps will need to come out, but some will stay - if I leave some in the chicken runs, the birds will enjoy perching on them.

Here's the window Dad put in for me today:

I think it'll really help to show off the neat rafters!

And last but not least... here's Purrcy! He's living up to his name so far, and Bartholomew really seems to like him - yay!!

Anyway... it's past my bedtime. :P 

I hope everyone is having an awesome spring!! 😊 

Happenings

 I've been busy here on the homestead... we're finally in the slow season at work, so I have some extra time off to get stuff done - yay!! :D 

So far it's mostly been cleanup - I have oodles of construction debris and supplies everywhere. Some of it is usable... and some of it I am piling up to burn, or bringing it to the dump. 

Here are a few pictures from today.

Thane on "his" rock. He likes to perch up there and keep an eye on the homestead.

Bartholomew just being handsome. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks he's a dog...he often hangs out near me while I'm working.

Neat textures:

Breeze being photo bombed by Henry.

After taking the winter off, my hens (and ducks) are back on track with laying. I'm getting anywhere from 6-9 chicken eggs a day, and 2 duck eggs. I'm getting more chicks in about a month, and possibly more ducks this summer, so I may actually have eggs available for sale by fall. (Please ignore how dirty my hands are... I've been working outside today!! :P )

And... here's the reason my hands are dirty! My goal today was to clean up this mess:

Here's the "after" photo!! :D 

The rectangles on the left are my future garden and two future chicken coops with runs. Here's another view of the garden:

I definitely want a nice big garden. 😊 

And here are the footprints of the coops and runs. What I've laid out will actually end up being four small coops, as each rectangle is a coop and run split down the middle. 

Now I need to figure out where to put the ducks. I might be getting turkeys too... 😳

Here's a cute group photo of the dogs from the other day. It's really hard to get them all to stand still for a picture, lol. 

Happy Monday!!!!!!!

One Year Old!!

 The very first litter of Butterscotch Farm Scottish Collies is a year old today! 

The reports I've had from owners indicate that each of the pups is a beloved family member, and it sounds like they all have tons of personality, lol! I know that's certainly true of Henry! 😂

Here's a picture of the whole litter when they were about 3 weeks old. Left to right: Mary Jane, JuJu, Rolo (now Rangeley), Abba Zabba (now Henry), Bullseye (now McGruff/Gruffy), Zagnut (now Ziggy), Honey and Astro (now Ty). 

And here's what Henry looks like now: 

And Ty, who is probably the closest in appearance and build to his mama. I don't have current photos of any of the others. 

Happy Birthday, puppies!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Courage & Brains

 When I bred my first litter of Scottish Collies, I was hoping to produce dogs that would be confident, intelligent and athletic. 

Henry did not disappoint...at 11.5 months of age, he is a 67-pound bundle of muscle, courage, brains, and determination... with a hearty dose of puppy goofiness.

What I didn't think about...was what would happen if the strong, smart, brave puppy discovered that he can get out of my fence. Pretty much this whole winter has been an on-again, off-again battle of the fences with Henry. 

To be fair, it is a rather inferior fence - it's 5 foot high welded wire, and I definitely should have put the posts closer together. Lesson learned - I will be totally redesigning the fencing as soon as the snow is gone. 

In the meantime, I've been getting pretty creative, lol. I covered his escape point from a couple weeks ago with 6 foot chain link panels that were given to me. In another spot, I have boards leaning against the fence. And then today I put together this monstrosity...

Hopefully this will work. 😬😬😬 

I'm definitely getting good use out of my stash of baling twine left over from buying hay for goats!!

And, lol, if there's anyone out there who enjoys working with a crazy-smart, high drive dog, I am open to selling Henry. I love him, but would be thrilled to see him with someone who can bring out his full potential. He needs to stay intact and available for my use as a stud for at least one litter, though (or breed him to your girl and send me a puppy back). 

Here's a picture of the goober (and Thane):

In other news...

Kat made it safely to TX, despite a near disaster on my end, where I mislaid a critical paper that the transport needed...had to dash an hour back home, and then drive 2.5 hours to southern NH to catch back up with the transport van. I managed to turn a 2 hour errand into an 8 hour expedition, lol. But God is good, and we made it!! Sounds like Kat is doing very well in her new home. ❤️ 

The next day, I took Bartholomew in for his neuter. He has recovered well, and seems completely back to himself. Interrupted him eating a chipmunk this morning, lol. No wonder he doesn't go through his kibbles very fast!!

Nothing much is happening on the homestead... I still need to do some finishing on the interior and exterior. I'm hoping to do lots of clearing and fencing this year, as well as redesigning my chicken coops in preparation for 25 new chicks coming the middle of May. There may be other poultry coming later in the summer too, so I have my work cut out for me!! :P 

I did decide on colors for the exterior... you guys will have to wait and see, but I'm excited about it!! 

Revolving Doors and "Lost" Ducks

 I'm starting to think I should be calling this homestead the Revolving Door Farm instead of Butterscotch Farm...

Kat is leaving me (likely tomorrow), and will be traveling via ground transport to her wonderful new family in Texas. 

I'm sad to see her go... she's a truly wonderful and special little dog, and I've quickly become quite attached to her. Unfortunately, Breeze doesn't feel the same way, lol. In fact, things have escalated to the point that I can't have the girls loose together at all any more...Kat has the stitches and the "cone of shame" to prove it.

I feel like I've packed more life lessons into the past year and a half of homesteading than I had in all the previous years. And one big lesson that is beginning to sink in is this: I need to stop trying to bring adult, female intact dogs into an established pack!! 😂😂😂 

That being said, I'm grateful for the time I got with Kat, but looking forward to seeing how she settles in with her new family. I'm hoping that perhaps I'll get a puppy from her in a year or two! 

Other homestead news...we have enough snow on the ground now that I haven't tried to get out to cut more trees... that's going to have to be a spring project. 

Dad and my brother got the last bit of insulation up in the cottage. Next I need to finish the drywall, decide what I'm doing for my ceiling, frame out the bathroom, add trim, and then paint. That should pretty much finish the interior - yay!! 

When warmer weather comes, Dad and I will finish the siding and possibly install a front porch and a back stoop.

Here's how the cottage looks now... the snow makes it look pretty. In reality, I have so much construction debris lying around that it's not even funny....yard cleanup is very high on the priority list for when the snow melts. 

And here's a fun little story for you... about 3 weeks ago, I had to move my ducks from their little pen next to the chicken coop (on the left in the above photo) because the snow was high enough that Henry could get over the fence into their pen. I brought the ducks to the old goat shed. 

A few days after that, I brought a bale of shavings into the duck pen and was spreading it around. The ducks are definitely a bit flighty, and still regard me with considerable suspicion even after all these months, and they found this behavior quite alarming. Both took flight. One ricocheted off the door frame and ended up back in the pen. But the other flew straight out of the open top half of the door (I was only using a pallet as a door at the time). 

I hastily finished spreading the shavings, and then went out to catch the second duck, expecting to find her floundering in the deep snow in front of the pen.

But she was nowhere to be seen. There was blank, fresh snow as far as the eye could see in the field in front of the pen.

I was stymied, to say the least. Under the deepening gloom of a winter dusk, I started plowing through the knee-deep snow, searching along the edge of the field, pausing frequently to listen for a quack or the rustling of branches along the trajectory I imagined she may have taken. It was a cold night, and I hated the thought that she might spend the night freezing in the snow, or be found by a fox or coyote. 

 I searched for a good ten minutes along the edge of the woods before a thought sprang into my mind. I went back into the fence.... and into the chicken and duck pen.... around the corner past the coop... I stooped down and looked into the old duck pen... and there she was. She had flown "home." ❤️

In a straight line, the two pens are probably only 2-300 feet apart. But she likely flew in a curving trajectory of several hundred feet... and this from a bird who typically only flapped her wings a bit for exercise! 

I was enthralled with this demonstration of the incredible homing instinct God has placed in certain animals!

I carried her back to the other pen, where she and her sister were happily reunited. And then I secured the top of the door so that wouldn't happen again!!!

Happy Tuesday!!!

Learning

 "One of these days I will learn to do things in a timely fashion instead of procrastinating and making life harder," she said to herself as she dug her firewood out of the snowbank to haul up to the covered firewood rack. 

"And also... I want a pony to pull the sled for me." 🐎🐎🐎

Happy Monday, everyone!!