Candy Corn ......................................

Was busy pulling the other rabbits fur out yesterday morning when I went to feed. I was planning to get a male bunny to breed her with this Spring . I had also planned to separate the small rabbits from her , but never did and oops , I guess the small rabbits are males.
I was just telling my sister the other night that I thought they were all females , since I had not got them separated and we hadn't had any babies. I haven't checked their sexes , but the man told me the small rabbits were male , I was begining to think otherwise. But yesterday I found out for sure , Candy Corn was trying to build her nest. I gathered some soft dried grass for her and she began building her nest right away.


She was busy as could be , stuffing the nesting box .........


and Checking it .............



and resting in between all that hard work.

Sometime between 2:45 and 4:30 pm yesterday she gave birth to 6 kits and she appears to be taking good care of them.

Linking up to Farmchick's ~ Farm Photo Friday ~

( Click Button on Left Sidebar to see more Farm Photos )

Farm Blessings

JoyceAnn

Confusing Weather ........................

This past Saturday as Little Froggy and I headed out the door I noticed that the daffodils were budding. The weather around here has been milder than usual this winter.



Little Froggy enjoyed a little tree climbing while we were outside.
He would climb up and walk out on the climb while holding onto the limb above until it started bending , then he would sit down and and try to slide down (LOL).


As we were walking around the yard , I noticed the dogwoods and the pink magnolia were budding also. It's much to early for them to be budding and blooming , I'm sure they'll be hurt by the cold weather before winter is over.

Yesterday I saw that the daffodils have bloomed even though it's been below freezing the last few nights. The weather man is predicting temps in the 60's this Sat. and the high for Sun in the low 40's. It's been a roller-coaster ride this winter , confusing weather indeed.

Many Blessings

JoyceAnn

A Huge Time Capsule ....... The Attic

I've been up to my elbows in boxes this week , we decided to clean the attic. We've lived here almost 27 years and have never removed anything , only added more stuff each year. We've only been through about half of the stuff. I'm trying to recycle as much as I can , some of it will go to the recycle hut at our waste management facility. The better items will go to our local thrift store that supports our schools. The cardboard and paper stuff will be used for starting fires in the furnace. But unfortunately we still have some that has to been trashed , I've tried to lessen our ecological footprint over the last 5 years , so I really don't like sending stuff to the landfill.

There are a lot of memories stashed up there ....... sport plaques ....... brownie /girl scout sashes , school work ............



and magazines ........ I kept asking myself ..... Why did I keep all of these magazines ?


The kids art work , birthday cards and postcards ............

Cute art .......... girl with a upside down umbrella and the arm to hold it was added as an after thought ( LOL ).

Lot's of books ................

and a few toys .........................

but we haven't got to the toy dept. yet ,

as my Dh told my Mom yesterday ( LOL ).

We also found a few old items that were stashed away up there too. It's been a walk down memory lane for sure. I just can't part with the sentimental items , so I plan to buy 4 totes, one for myself , Dh and my 2 daughters to put all of our keepsakes in. They'll be like gaint time capsules in the attic.

Attic Blessings

JoyceAnn

The Weather ...........................

was really nice Tues. and I couldn't hold myself back from the garden any longer. I was going to move my asparagus back in the Fall and never got around to it. So I decided to move it and hope there wouldn't be any problem with moving it at this time of the year. We have mild winters , so hopefully it will be o.k. The stalks were filled with asparagus seeds , so I stripped those little red berries to plant.

I dug up the asparagus roots and planted some of them in the two raised beds near Dh's garage. I also planted a couple near the chicken coop , plan to see were it grows best.



I've been peeling , chopping , drying garlic ..........

and grinding the garlic into .........

garlic powder this week too. I haven't tried it yet , but it smells really good. Have you ever made homemade garlic powder ?

Garden Blessings

JoyceAnn

Looks Like ............................

the perfect spot to soak up some sunrays !

Farm Blessings

JoyceAnn

Check-out Farm Photos at ~ http://farmchickskitchen.blogspot.com/ !

Feathers ..................

Little Missy made this collage a few months ago here , but last week she decided to gift the collage to me. I guess she found it somewhere and she told her Mom that she had to bring it to Nana because Nana loved feathers (LOL). I'm planning to redecorate the Grands bedroom soon and this feather collage will look perfect with a jungle theme.

Many Blessings

JoyceAnn

May Your .............................

Sky be Blue and Your Day be Colorful !

Be Blessed

JoyceAnn

2011 ~ 2012 Garlic Planting

A couple of months ago as I was preparing to plant the garlic .....

I had a new helper , Mojo ( more of a supervisor .... look at those eyes ... LOL ) that took over Ms. Fern's job. Ms . Fern was the rhode island red hen I lost back in the Spring that was always by my side the past two years as I separated the bulbs into cloves to plant.



I planted 2 rows about the middle of November , but it was the week before Christmas that we mulched the garlic.

The weather has been mild , so it's about 2 inches tall and already popping out from under the deep layer of leaves we used as mulch. It was cold the first 3 days of this week , but it's been in the 60's yesterday and today. This weather makes me want to get in the garden , maybe I'll start planning the Spring garden instead.

Happy Gardening

JoyceAnn

Saying Goodbye .................

Last night I went out to shut the coop door and found Ms. Arlene had passed. She was one of my first hens , I originally named her Jolene. But Curious J started calling her Arlene and it soon became her new name.

Good-Bye Ms. Arlene , Have a Safe Crossover !

Many Blessings

JoyceAnn

I Finally Made ................

the black walnut cake I was planning to make last year , this year for Christmas. About two weeks before Christmas I was in the basement looking for something when I spotted the box of black walnuts I had picked up last year. So I decided to check them and see if they were still good. I laid one in between a towel and hit it with a hammer , they were easy to crack since they were so dried out. The nut inside was just fine , so I cracked them and picked out the nuts.
Christmas Eve I made a black walnut pound cake with cream cheese icing , it was delicious but dangerous (LOL) due to some hull in the cake. Fortunately no one broke a tooth and we had a good laugh , but I'll be more careful with picking the nut out next time.

~ Many Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

A Fun Idea for our Feathered Friends .........

Build them a Ginger-bird House

Check-out it out at Backyard Farming .............
http://backyardfarming.blogspot.com/2011/12/ginger-bird-house.html



We've had a very mild winter , so no snow as of yet. But this would be a fun activity for a snowy day or just a blustery winter day. I plan to make one soon to feed my feathered friends.





Winter Blessings
JoyceAnn

Happy New Year !!!

Wishing Everyone .........

A Happy , Healthy and Wonderous

New Year !!

Blessings , JoyceAnn