Vacation!

Last week was vacation for us! We went to Cape Hatteras on the Outer Banks and we had a blast. This is the second year we have gone and will probably go again for many years to come. You see Hatteras is like going away, far away, to a place where time stands still. There's no rush, it seems you are in a world of your own then sometime late in the week you realize that have to go home and wow you think "Did a week really fly by that fast"?   

Thelma and Isabella on the ferry.

The Outer Banks are a chain of islands on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. Now some of you may be thinking "Well duh" but I said that for the person who is not familiar with southern geography. There are 2 ways to get to them. Either you can drive across a big bridge on the north end of the islands or you can take the ferry from the southern end. Both ways have there perks but I think taking the ferry is just cool. How often do you take a ferry any where? That's what I thought probably doesn't happen very often (at least not for me). It makes you feel like you are really going someplace special. 

 

Waves, big ones!

Hurricane Igor was way out in the ocean and was turning up some really big waves. They got bigger and bigger as the week went on and the under toe was really strong. But all that made for good body boarding.

Family pic 1

Part of the family pic 2

This picture is cool because we were sitting in the shade of the very top of a light house.

Double monopoly!

And yes the game did last forever.

This is at Kill Devil Hills where the Wright Brothers conquered the impossible... flying back in 1903 this monument is on top of the hill. This use to be just a big sand dune but since the dune was moving from the affects of the wind they planted grass. The next picture is of a sign at the park which does a much better job explaining the situation.

This guy was kind enough to snap a photo of us.

But watch out for his friend.....

Paddles and Poultry

Today we decided we needed to go do something. So we went canoeing! Down on the Saluda river there is a nice spot where the river opens up and it doesn't flow to fast so that's where we put in at. Its more like a lake than a river in this spot.

I'm cheering because we made it up the old washed out road to the edge of the river. Especially when you consider that I have 4 bald tires. The baby and Thelma did not mind getting bumped around a bit.

An Island.

Someones old dock.

Here is a nice scrunchy eyed, sun in the face picture of me and Isabella.

Poultry

This is the brooder the chicks are staying in. Its a pretty simple structure made of scrap wood. There is a thick layer of pine shavings in the bottom that I add to every 2 or 3 days to keep everything clean and smelling fresh. The white bucket on the top left is filled with water that runs thru a small tube into the red waterer inside the brooder. The other bucket on the right is what their feed is in. They get fresh feed twice a day once in the morning and then again in the evening. They stay in the brooder until they are 2 weeks old, then they are moved out into a bigger cage on the pasture.

Getting older and uglier. All their wing feathers are coming in now. The chicks will be 2 weeks old on Thursday so they will not be in the brooder much longer. 

Wow, my first post!

This is it, I finally have my own blog! It's something I've thought about doing for years but never got around to starting one. Thanks to my dear wife Thelma, who really encouraged me to do this, I'm now online. Hopefully I'll get the whole blog thing figured out before to long.

Well as the name implies this is all about our farm. We aren't a big farm we grow enough for ourselves and have some left over. But our plan for the future is that someday (hopefully in the next few years) we could make a living off the farm.

I'm not going to limit this blog to just farming but want to include whats going on in our life plus whatever else may be going on. Here are some pictures from this last week.
   

This is Me, Thelma, and Isabella.

I think Isabella picked her own clothes out on this day.

Mr. Winston the cat and Missy the dog have a strange relationship which involves fighting most of the time.

Isabella likes to help you with whatever you are doing. 

We just got 100 chicks on Friday. They are a meat chicken called Cornish Cross. They grow really fast so in 7 to 8 weeks they will be ready to eat. You will be hearing more about these in the future.

This is what it would be like to be the size of a chick.