Out Around the Barn

Kennedy with Mr. Purdy                               

Kennedy is getting acquainted with one of the new kittens born this past fall.  The mother being a long-haired calico and his siblings being both white short-hairs, Mr. Purdy is a dark calico long-hair kitten.  From the first day we found him, he has had such a wonderful personality that has made it easy for Kennedy to be able to get

close.  She falls in love with every animal on the farm, especially the newborns.  She is quite the little farmer and with every visit, must go to the barn.  Her favorite chore is feeding the chickens and she does it well.  I give her a bucket of feed, Pen Pals Egg Maker Complete, and she will throw little handfuls on the coup ground and then fill the feeders.  With the kittens she does three scoops of feed, 1 per bowl for all 18 on the farm.  They get their fav cat food as well, Proud Paws Cat Food.

Since I was a little girl I remember my mother teaching us to say a night time prayer,”Now I Lay me down to sleep, I pray dear Lord my soul to keep, if  I should die before I wake, I pray dear Lord my soul to take.”  I remember this as it was yesterday and I taught this same prayer to my children when they were little tykes.  Today you just do not hear the prayer much anymore and it is a real surprise when you hear a child pray these days.  God Bless those parents and grandparents that keep the power of prayer alive in their children.

I suppose you think it is funny for me to talk about prayer on a farm blog but if any one person knows about the power of prayer it is a farmer and his family.  We live by Faith and in order to have faith, prayer goes right along with it.  We look to the Lord our Father for a plentiful crop, for the rain when we need it, the sun when we need it and sometimes even when we don’t.  We depend on our Faith to keep us healthy in order to provide for our families and to tend to our crops and livestock.  We cannot always depend on the market to provide because it fluctuates constantly.  We have to depend on Faith to carry us through easy and happy times as well as the rough and tough times.  Faith is invisible yet we know it is real, we feel it every day just like the wind and through prayer we strengthen our Faith to help us through out our lives by talking to God and Trusting in Him.  God Bless us all.

I am writing about this today just because one of God’s beautiful creatures reminded me that we all have faith even if we aren’t human.  I took this photo of my kitten, Gizzer, while she was sleeping.  It just goes to show that all God’s creatures pray, at least that is what she looks like she is doing.  It was so adorable I had to share it with all of you.

 Just remember to keep your animals healthy and for Cats and Kittens try our Proud Paws Cat and Kitten food for great taste and good nutrition for your felines.

Yahoo!  Baby Chicks are soon to arrive.  The Ladies have been on their nests for 21 days and within the next week we should have little ones.  I have four hens sitting and boy, can they get cranky.  Even when you reach in the nest next to them to gather eggs, they will try to peck at you, cluck like they want to attack and can be extremely mean to the other hens.

We recently built a new chicken coup and put up new nests for all our hens.  I have recently learned that to have happy chickens it is good to have all your daily needs close by.  I keep their feed in a barrel right inside the coup, they have free range to water and have plenty of room to  peck, search and roost.  This keeps them happy and healthy.

My chickens have their own waterers, feeders and nests to complete their home.  They roost off the ground to keep away from country critters.  They are eager to see me when I come to gather the eggs, I know this by them all standing at the coup door.  They just get excited.  By the time we are done they have all calmed down and are ready for a quiet night.

Their daily farm supplies are easy to keep on hand, their food, water, straw for bedding and a bucket or basket to gather the eggs in. One tip I would like to pass on;  if you are like me and spoil your animals, I have found that chickens really like cat food and it is good for them, especially if you have layers.  I give them a treat about once a month by just scattering some on the ground and letting them at it.   I enjoy my chickens and in a few days will have approx. 70 little ones added to my flock.

I consider myself a lover of animals.  I enjoy my animals a lot.  My horse, Blaze, is a beauty but due to health issues, I don’t get to spend as much time with him as I would like.  My goat heard gets more of my attention since I have seven nanny’s getting ready to kid and my dog, Bella, gets her daily time with me.  I really consider myself a dog person over cats but do have a couple of favorites.

On our farm we have had an over abundance of kittens this fall.  Nine litters have arrived and made themselves at home.  Every few months we began to notice a new Tom hanging around and then disappear, then another would show up.  Of course, it wasn’t long before the Mamas started showing and we knew then that we were headed for a lot of kittens.  Now we can officially count 20 plus 0ut around the barn at feeding time.  Out of all of them, I have two that I call mine, a Calico named Fluffy and Black kitten with a white diamond on her neck called Raja.

So, my question is are they considered a farm animal or just pets?  Well, we know a lot of people have cats as pets in their homes, sometimes several.  But on the farm we have more than several, we have twice that many.  And yes, we consider them as farm animals, they keep the rodent population under control.  That is good on a farm. I once had a rat run up my pant leg and let me tell you that was not a happy moment.  I jumped a fence and ran until it fell out of my pant leg.  I was 16 at the time but have never forgotten it.  It was just one of those feelings that you don’t forget.  

So in light of all of this talk about farm animals or pets, I consider them both.  Just as we have working dogs, we have them as pets also.  We take care of our Cats and Kittens just like we do our other animals.  We feed them the best cat food we can and have found that Proud Paws Cat and Kitten food is terrific for our feline herd.  They enjoy the taste and eat it up.  Some can be and have been picky about other cat food but this feed they really like.  They need to have good nutrition to grow and keep healthy just like the horse feed we feed our horses to keep healthy and the rest of the animals.  We love them all the same.

Here we are almost a year on our blog.  We have posted over 70 blogs and would appreciate comments from our readers.  We would like to know your opinions and ideas about our blog.  If there is an article that caught your eye, let me know your thoughts on the subject.  We look forward to hearing from you.

If there is a subject that you would like to know about, we can do our best to find an answer to your question.

We are a farm family and enjoy our animals and farm life.  So talking about the farm and all that it requires is a passion of ours.  From equine supplements to chicken coupes, we will discuss just about anything.  Comments welcome.

If you do not live on a farm or if you have never been on a farm this question is not that silly.  I was always told that no question is silly if you do not know the answer.  To someone like me, the first time I was asked this, I was surprised.  It seemed so funny that y0u wouldn’t know what is around a barn.

I guess the first thing most of us would say is animals.  Whether it be horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or whatever livestock we raise.  Then, of course, there is the feed, horse feed, cattle feed, salt blocks, minerals and cat and dog food.  Also, there is the hay for the animals to eat and straw for their bedding.

Then the next thing would be the equipment, such as, tractors, wagons, combines, disks and maybe plows.

Of course, there would be all the neccessities of farm life such as fencing supplies, shovels, rakes, pitchforks, manure spreaders, buckets, log chains, hammers, wrenches and all other kinds of tools.  

It may be surprising what you find out around the barn.  You might find lumber, where someone has been building something or horse shoes lying on the ground where they have just finished shoeing a horse, halters and bridles hanging and saddles on saddle racks in a tack room.  There will be lead ropes and sorting sticks and sorting paddles used for herding the livestock.  You might even find a skull or two of bulls or deer. 

There is just no telling what you may find.  I do know that a farm is a great place for a treasure hunt. 

Any how, these are just a few of the things you will find on a farm, out around the barn.