Chicks!!!!!

The babies are arriving!

Chick Alert

It's past Day 21 and the DIY chicks are due any time.  Brady noticed a couple of pips late last night (but no progress this morning) so sometime today we should have at least 2 baby chicks in the incubator.  The brooders are set up in the basement and "Grandpa" and I are ready for the hatching to begin!  More news as it happens ...

Making Plans

The nursery

The year started out a bit hectic here at the farm.  We traveled to visit family in Kentucky over New Year's weekend and got to celebrate the new year twice (Eastern and Central time zones)! 

Now we're just easing through the rest of the winter months.  It's a relatively mild season compared to the past two (and now that I've said that, it will come a blizzard - mark my words) which still gives us plenty of time to look around and think about what we want to accomplish this year.  Which (as always) is a lot.  :) 

DIY Chickens

The incubator has arrived and is filled with chicks-in-progress.  Based on a gestation period of 21 days we should expect our first arrivals around Jan 30th. Yep, one week from day which dawned on us in that eerie "oh no we've got so much to do before then" feeling over the past weekend.  Fortunately we have all our supplies from the last brooder batch and just need to stock up on feed and bedding.

The Garage

At some point in between winter storms and animal jobs we need to finally move in and unpack that forest of boxes that have taken over the garage. Definitely not on the "fun things to do".  This one will take a lot of motivation.  And coffee.

The Barn

Speaking of unfun things, the barn is in the same shape as the garage.  Miscellaneous boxes, buckets, animal cages, and leftovers from Cody's wildlife projects are taking up the spaces designated for animal stalls (which also need walls & gates).  This project may spill over into 2013...

Knitting

The sock pattern is coming along nicely but I'm stumped on how to explain the toe construction.  I also want to make it the base instruction for future designs.  Hopefully that project will be wrapped up soon.  Brady's hinting for a new Steelers cap.  :)

Massie Creek Bluegrass

The website is finished (needs some tweaking but then again don't all websites).  Visit us at massiecreekband.com.  For bookings, you can contact Brady at (937) 371-7816 or bsmith712@yahoo.com. 

Coming Up

Set up chicken brooder, finish sock pattern

Free Pattern

My first knit design - Quick Knit Coasters - is now available as a free PDF download! Enjoy and let me know what you think (and send pics!)

You can download the PDF from my Ravelry store or on our Market page.

Big Spike Hammer

Cody & Brady & the fence

The fence is done.

(let me repeat that ...)

The fence is done.

(the more I say it, the sweeter it sounds)

Yes, it's true.  Brady & Cody finished the last 1/3 of the fence, putting us thismuchcloser to owning a horse or some form of livestock larger than bees or chickens.

Amanda zipping by on the tractor

We're almost finished preparing the farm for winter - all that remains is to wind-shield the hives.  Then we wish them good luck and leave them to fend for themselves in the coming harsh winter days. A cruel reality of farm life.  By comparison the chickens are high-maintenance divas - they have a heater base for their waterers.  You truly can't appreciate the value of this contraption until you've spent a winter thawing out chicken waterers in the bathtub.

DIY Chickens

Speaking of the chickens, egg production is starting to pick up again, which is odd considering that they're supposed to slow down in the winter.  However, we're using this surge in surplus to begin our next grand experiment I've named "DIY Chickens".  Soon after the holidays we'll try our hand at hatching our own batch of Golden Comet chicks.  After some research we've decided that the automatic egg turner is definitely a must-have considering how our schedules get a bit haywire at times.  If all goes well our basement will become a temporary brooder in February shortly after the Super Bowl.

Pattern Testing

The sock pattern is in test mode as we speak, but I have another quick knit pattern to publish within the next few days - stay tuned!

Coming Up

Finish band website, finish sock pattern, winterize hives.

Merry Christmas from
Brady, Selena, Amanda, Cody, Katy & Buddy! 

Cabin Home on the Hill

Brady's gone deer hunting.  Selena's gone knitting.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) jokes about the size of her yarn stash and her insight into stash management (basically, hide it in every nook & cranny of the house and pray to the yarn gods that you don't wind up on one of those hoarding shows on TV).  My stash is miniscule in comparison, but large enough for those times when I feel the urge to "knit something".  Which is most of the time.  At least that's what Brady says.

So, while Brady's gone for deer season and the farm is relatively quiet in late-November, I'm working on various Christmas gifting projects and thinking about all the things I should be doing instead of knitting (which fortunately doesn't bother me so much).

The kids and I will meet up with Brady at the cabin for a few days.  I'm thinking this will be a good time to get serious about that sock pattern I keep threatening promising to post on the blog.  Which means I really need to get serious about taking better pics.  The Droid for all its splendor simply sucks as a camera.  And while "practicing" with the good camera in Nashville I somehow messed up the settings so all the pictures look washed out and fuzzy.  And my little digital cam seems to have an issue with the battery connection.  I'm cursed when it comes to technology.

So, I should soon have a pattern with halfway-decent photos coming soon to the blog.  And the new Massie Creek website will be up and running within the next week or so (don't worry, someone else took the band pics).

Coming Up

Finish band website, work on sock pattern, winterize hives.

The Fields Have Turned Brown

I know what you're thinking.  You're imagining a horrific bee massacre at the hands of one of our nocturnal farm creatures.  No, it's just the aftermath of "consolidation day" in the beeyard.  We combined the weaker colonies and ended up with a total of nine hives with (hopefully) plenty of honey to survive the coming winter.  The bees weren't too receptive to our relocation plan - we had to hide indoors the rest of the day. 

The chickens have nearly stopped laying altogether.  Our neighbor has the same issue with her chickens.  We assume that we have a predator that keeps the hens stressed out.  Brady set out traps but no captives yet. I think they're in the middle of a molt - most of them have bald spots and feathers are scattered everywhere.  If they don't finish their molt within the next couple weeks I'll have to knit up some hen-sweaters!

You probably noticed a new page on the blog.  I'm planning an online farm store in the very near future.  Plus I wanted to see how the blog template would handle it.  Still experimenting with what to offer, how to offer it, etc.  Things like knitting patterns will obviously be downloadables, but tangible wares are a whole different matter.  That's when we gotta start thinking about storefronts, shopping carts, online payments and inventory.  Maybe it will be a short learning curve.   So, in the very near future we'll have a little practice go-round with a pattern download.  It'll be free, of course.  :)

Massie Creek Bluegass Band is now taking bookings for 2012! Please contact us at smithscreekfarm@gmail.com for more information.  Website coming soon!

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Coming Up

Clean coops, band practice, band website & photo shoot, finish Christmas projects