A triplet was born to the twin chicks the next day.  The triplet was a double yolk egg, as well, but it’s shell mate didn’t make it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuJPNAfuG3s

Today, a fellow member of www.backyardchickens.com/forum successfully
hatched a double yolk egg….twin baby chicks.

Here’s her post at 9:23pm CST

“Here it is…
warning…it is a long video….I had to put it on youtube because
photobucket errored out on me…

Enjoy….DH says chickies are up walking around!!!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZeEY-kt7A

Here’s the thread if you would like the entire day’s worth of events.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=104245&p=1

This is just so amazing and she did such an awesome job “mid-wifing”
the chicks into the world. I just had to share.

When we got the Buff Orpington chicks (full story to come), I had no intentions of keeping a Buff Orpington rooster.  I planned on only keeping the hens out of the 5 we got, for yummy fresh eggs.

Well this handsome guy, we call him Hank, has totally won all our hearts. He is the sweetest thing since sweet cream

He’s about 8 weeks in the above photo. It was taken on Sunday.

Katie (my grown daughter) is living with us for now.  She’s quite smitten with Hank (and all the chickens, for that matter).  She, Felicity and I are partners in crime with planning for our new chickens, turkeys and guineas.

As I have read and heard, Buff Orpingtons are absolutely the most docile, friendly and loving chickens!  We love them! 

Monday, I totally messed up.  We had the chickens out loose in the backyard “free ranging”.  Well, Margo and Bailey were at the door wanting out.  I didn’t even think!!!  I just let them out and told them I’d be coming right out with them.

About five minutes later, I opened the sliding glass door to see Margo with Becky, dead, in her mouth.

I know better!  I just was totally not thinking. I feel awful.  Becky was so sweet.

Margo has always “watched” the chickens, ever since we got the first ones.  Ugh.  Who’d have thought my timid, shy little poodle would be a chicken killer?

Thank goodness, Felicity handled it very well.  Of course, she’s all for re-homing Margo, which we will not do.  Margo just cannot be allowed outside when the chickens are out of their cages.

This was the last photo we had taken of her, Sunday evening.

Rest in Peace, Becky. You were truly loved by our family.

Well, after Mike pushed to get through his training (at the request of his District Supervisor) for promotion with TSC to Store Manager, now we’re told, there’s no place we could transfer until maybe next spring. UGH. 

So we’re here, in Amarillo, indefinitely.  It’s fine, though. A great opportunity has opened up for Gregory through the place he goes for all of his therapies, so we have decided staying here as long as necessary is a good thing. He will be attending preschool, as well as all of his therapies. Four days a week, 9-12.  It’s really good for Gregory.

We will continue to homeschool Felicity.  She will be participating in 4-H, soccer, and Girl Scouts.  There’s even a Girl Scout troop in each level here that is mainly homeschooled girls.  She’ll be able to make all kinds of new homeschooled friends!

There’s an equine rescue about 5 minutes from our house that Felicity and Katie (my grown daughter) are going to volunteer.  They are thrilled!  They both adore horses!

We FINALLY found a Catholic church where we are comfortable.  It took 2 years, but the Parish in Canyon, TX, is about 10 minutes from us and it’s a very comfortable place. Lots of “country folk” there and not “hoity-toity” as we have felt the others we attended here in the Amarillo area were.

Katie has decided she wants to finish her Senior year of school (finally).  We are researching an online high school that’s specialty is helping kids finish high school online. She will be able to get an actual diploma, not having to take the GED.

Gregory was approved for his MDCP program, which provides paid respite care for him to give me a break to work, clean house, etc.  Katie has been hired to be his care provider. She’s making really good money, paid through Gregory’s program, but technically, she works for me, I am her employer, but she’s paid through the agency.  She’s living with us again, as well.  It’s working out well.

We plan to add to our little farm soon.  We will be getting more chickens in the next few weeks.  We will also be adding guinea to our brood. Guinea are excellent at keeping away snakes, mice and bugs. Turkeys will also be coming along soon, too.

As soon as we get the pen built, we will be getting a few goats.  Not only for companionship, but Felicity will be able to show them in 4H competition, and also to help with the grass/weed mowing lol.

Felicity is talking about wanting a pig to raise/show.  Not sure if we’re there yet.

So…that’s some updates for now.

Have a great Sunday!

The owner of one of my favorite online forums, Backyard Chickens (everybody’s doing it!), has started 2 new, great forums.

The Easy Garden

Sufficient Self

Visit and join today! Make new friends, learn lots of new info, or just “hang out”!

Mike and I have been discussing getting another dog for the family.  We have been strongly leaning toward a Boxer.  But we had decided no new dogs until we make our move with his job later in the fall.

Our poodle, Margo, we got through rescue two years ago.  She apparently had a very bad experience before we got her and she is very skittish with anyone in the family except me. So Margo is “my” dog.  Thus being the reason we want another dog.  One that likes everyone!

Katie (my grown daughter) got this little Maltese mix puppy from someone on FreeCycle about a month ago.  She’s just as cute as she can be, but Katie, as usual, keeps getting dogs when she doesn’t need them. 

Katie called me night before last asking if we wanted to have Bailey (the Maltese mix). I told her no, and just quickly “double checked” with Mike to confirm that no was our answer. (I asked Mike because I knew he kinda liked Bailey). He confirmed no. So we hung up the phone. Done deal, no biggie.

About 10 minutes later Mike started asking me questions about Bailey.  Well, long story short, he decided that we, in fact, would like to have Bailey and add her to our family.  I didn’t really care either way. She’s cute and great with all of us, but as I said, we had been discussing getting a Boxer later down the road.

So, may I introduce the newest addition to our family…

She is +/- 4 months old. Her mother is full blood Maltese, but they had no idea what the father was.  She’s cute as can be, minds really well and loves the kids to death!

Last night was her first night with us. She slept well in her kennel and only cried for a few short minutes when we first put her in there.  Margo is now sleeping in a kennel next to Bailey at night.

For those outside of our family, here’s “big sis”, Margo.

I picked up our Silkie trio this morning!  Felicity wanted to name them. Their names (from top to bottom in this photo) are: Becky, Bonnie and Benny.

I’ve never been around Silkies before, but the make the neatest noises. Becky is the largest and is covered in her new soft feathers, though they are still on the thin side.  Bonnie and Benny have skin showing (yes, their skin is black) but they are feathering in nicely.

As soon as I put them in their coop, they started scratching around. They haven’t even explored their entire coop yet, they have been busy in the back part, which is the coop.  The front 2/3 is the run.  We sill have to put the lattice top on the run.  Can’t leave it open because of hawks.  We will finish that up this weekend.

Here’s the almost finished coop we built. We decided, since bantams are small, to keep it short, and make a combination coop/tractor.  It has all the luxuries of a regular coop, with the ease of movement of a chicken tractor.

We created a track on the front of the coop end, so in winter, we can slide a “wall” with a door cutout over the front, to keep it warmer in the coop.  The roof portion over the back of the coop is on hinges and opens for ease of collecting eggs.  The top lattice will work much the same way over the run.

The windows will be finished with wood around them and will have attached shutters that will open and close, depending on the needs and weather. The nest boxes are along this back wall.

One more shot of the Silkies!

They are quite adorable and sweet!  Bonnie will fall asleep in your lap while she’s being petted!

We have another coop like this to build and then we will be getting our Old English Game Creles from a friend of ours.  This should happen within a week to a week and a half!

Have a great Saturday!

We’re just loving living in the country!

Tomorrow we get our new Silkie chicks.

Be sure to watch tomorrow for photos of the new babies!

Here’s a photo of Mike and Felicity working on the coop yesterday.

We are all so excited!

This was shared by a fellow forum member over at www.homesteadingtoday.com ! 

Household Cyclopedia, published in 1881. The file is LARGE, 15mb.  Over 800 pages with illustrations!

This is a rare find!  It is LEGALLY downloadable!

Here’s the Table of Contents so you can see how extensive the information is: (download link is below the TOC).

Contents
1 AGRICULTURE 11
11 The Modern Theory Of Agriculture 11
12 Wheat 35
13 Drainage 65
14 Sugar 69
15 Cotton And Tobacco 70
16 Directions For The Rearing Of Silk Worms 71
2 HORTICULTURE 81
21 Budding And Grafting 84
22 Keeping Fruit 117
23 Flower Gardening 120
24 Insects 123
25 Illustrations 124
3 RURAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY 131
31 To Manage A Dairy 132
32 Bees And Their Management 141
33 Insects 151
34 Illustrations 155
4 FARRIERY 157
41 Dogs 174
42 Cattle 175
43 Hogs 178
44 Sheep 178
45 Illustrations 184
5 MEDICINE 189
51 Diseases 189
52 Accidents 219
53 Wounds 219
9
10 CONTENTS
54 Fractures 223
55 Dislocations 226
56 Amputation 228
57 Poisons 230
58 Miscellaneous Articles 234
59 Medicines For Indigestion 243
510 Cholera 247
511 Diseases Peculiar To Females 250
512 Management And Diseases Of Children 256
513 Useful Domestic Medicines 262
514 Hygiene - Salutary Cautions 270
515 Preservation From Drowning And Shipwreck 272
516 General Rules For Preserving Life And Health 277
517 The Teeth 282
518 Illustrations 284
6 CULINARY ARTS 311
61 Plain Cookery 311
62 Cookery 334
63 Confectionery 374
64 Pickling 383
65 Carving 387
66 Qualities of Food 398
7 BREWING 403
71 Fermentation 403
72 To Make Cider 420
73 Wines 422
8 DISTILLATION 441
81 Essential Oils 459
82 Waters 463
83 Vinegar And Acid Liquors 469
84 Artificial Waters 473
85 Fixed Oils 476
86 Animal Oils And Fats 477
9 PERFUMERY 481
10 BLEACHING AND SCOURING 491
CONTENTS 11
11 DYING 501
111 Staining 515
12 PAINTS AND COLORS 521
13 VARNISHES 539
14 INKS 567
15 METALLURGY 575
151 Assaying Of Metallic Ores 575
152 Parting 582
153 Alloys, Or Compound Metals 583
154 Foils 590
155 Electro-Metallurgy 592
156 Gilding, Silvering, And Tinning 595
157 Iron And Steel 602
158 Illustrations 606
16 PYROTECHNY 609
161 Matches for Instantaneous Light 612
17 TANNING 615
18 ENAMELLING 621
19 POTTERY 627
20 GLASS 637
21 PHOTOGRAPHY 651
211 Photolithography 664
22 ENGRAVING 667
221 Lithography 673
23 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 679
231 Specific Gravity 685
232 Gas Meters 686
233 Value Of Coins 689
24 CHEMICAL RECEIPTS 693
241 Preventing And Removing Boiler Incrustations 695
242 Artificial Cold 696
243 Antiseptics And Disinfectants 697
12 CONTENTS
25 WEATHER PROGNOSTICS 705
26 ANGLING 711
261 The Culture Of Fish 714
262 Illustrations 716
27 MISCELLANEOUS 719
271 To Tie Knots 719
272 Knitting 721
273 Management Of Canary Birds 722
274 Dogs 722
275 To Destroy Insects 723
276 Petroleum 725
277 Electro-Magnetic Telegraph 726
278 Book-Keeping 727
279 On Preparing Copy And Marking Proof 727
2710The Art Of Rowing 729
2711Macadamized Roads 730
2712Miscellaneous Medical Receipts 738
2713Dialysis 743
2714Riding 744
2715Decalcomania 745
2716The Cattle Plague, Or Rinderpest 748
2717Miscellaneous Illustrations 753
2718Illustrations of Ellectrical Machines 762
2719Illustrations of Military Weapons 765
28 IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 769

Household Cyclopedia 1881

 ENJOY!