Bulls being bulls

I just have to share this picture of BTAP Thor, this year's herd bull.  He was born in an ice storm the last day of January 2011 back in the woods. His mother would not bring him to the barn but kept him under a big cedar tree. I checked on them everyday, bringing them hay and grain. I was sure he would die that first week, but he is one tough guy.

Yesterday morning he broke open a gate following all the strong female smells left over from artificially breeding nine cows this past Sunday.  He spied the younger bull whom I call Bobby across the driveway in the bull pen and let him know with bellering and foot pawing and fence scraping that Bobby was going to die if Thor ever got to him!

Bobby stayed very quiet, just watched Thor through the fence boards. Finally Thor got tired of the whole thing and went back to the pasture with his small herd of cows and heifers. He's been out with that group about a month and it's remarkable the change in his appearance. He's become a real bully bull! His neck is thickening and his overall muscle tone is really good. Hormones at work!

BTAP Thor telling Bobby to keep away from his women!

Baby Chick Explores its World

Wait for me Mom!

If you remember in mid April several of the hens went broody, ie: they wanted to sit on nests and hatch eggs into chicks.  I let one of the hens keep a days worth of eggs and two weeks ago one egg hatched.  Mom is a big white hen, chick is probably a Rhode Island Red cross with Booster Rooster. In other words, baby chick is not the biological off spring of the big white hen.  She cares not at all that her chick is not her chick however, so all is well.  I do worry about the cats getting hold of it. They are major hunters. This week alone they have killed a red cardinal, a meadow lark, a sparrow, and a half grown rabbit.  Other times they bring mice, voles, moles, frogs and small snakes to the back porch.  I feed these cats well, but cats are hunters by nature and no matter how much I feed them they will still have the need to hunt.

The chick is two weeks old today. It's very active and is peeping all the time.  When I open the chicken house door each morning, its the first one to hop outside.  From the looks of it, I think it might be a rooster, but time will tell for sure.  It's very active and has the sprouting of a little rooster like tail , so looks like Booster Rooster and Big Chicky might have more competition.

Mom chicken stayed on the nest sitting on the remaining eggs. I let he stay for five more days, then took the eggs and broke them. There were no chicks in side, they were just rotten eggs. For whatever reason only one egg was fertile.  That's probably because Big Chicky, who is at least seven years old which is very old for a rooster, spends most his time knocking Booster off the hens. In the process I don't think many eggs get fertilized. 

Peas and Gardening Weather

I'm taking advantage of this great weather to get the last of my spring plants in the ground. Then I can take a break until early July when garden number two gets planted.  I planted out the seedlings I'd grown indoors - Siam basil, sweet red peppers, broccoli and tomatoes. The tomatoes are still pretty small but I put out small plants last summer and since they matured late I had tomatoes all through September when everyone else's August tomatoes were gone.

65 day peas just about on time.

The peas I planted in mid March are producing well. Unfortunately I planted only one packet. I love eating the new asparagus raw in the garden, but I love eating fresh peas even more! I like to pick the peas when the pods are plump but before the peas get too big.  Eaten fresh from the pod, raw, they are sweet as sugar.  With only about 10 row feet of plants however, I only get enough from each picking for one good serving.  Oh well, I'll try them again in the fall.

Asparagus gone to fern.

Speaking of asparagus, I've let mine go to fern. I started picking in April (which was about a month early) and picked on and off for two months, so its time to let it flower.  The ferns will get over six feet tall and form a dense barrier to all kinds of critters who might invade the garden.

Wild blackberries beginning to form.

Wild blackberries are one of my family's favorite things. Jam and jelly is good made from them but the best thing in the middle of winter is a blackberry pie made from frozen wild blackberries. Looks like a bumper crop is on the way this year.