Our little farm is growing.

Oxley saying good morning

 Texas is August is hot! It has been dry and very hot this summer, around 100 most days since the first of August. This week we have had a bit of a cool down.  We have taken advantage of it in a big way. We finished some fencing and moved our chickens from a smaller coop into a larger coop, where they can free range during the day.
 As we finished up the last of it yesterday evening my husband asked me to go let Oxley, our daughters FFA goat, out into the main pasture to explore. He had a blast! and enjoyed meeting the chickens and ducks and even the rabbit he had only seen from a far. He followed us around like a puppy and even played with Remington our Texas Heeler.
 I think Remington thinks Oxley is a weird dog and visa versa!  They are a lot of fun to watch together and think they became fast friends on their exploits
 Last summer Tim started a pond in the pasture and it is still holding water, Not much though, a little over 2 foot in the deepest. We have had a ton of frogs born in it though. Our ducks seem to think they are made for deeper, larger ponds and until we finished this fence we had no way of making sure they didn't wonder. We sadly, even lost two. But now that the fencing is complete we trimmed their wings and now they can either play in the pond of we have a couple of small kiddie pools for them to splash around it. They are not sure about being kept from the woods but love the pool and treats we toss them to keep them happy! One of our roosters even seems to pal around with them more than the hens. We are happy that they are safer.

Stevie, Dot. Squeaks and Clover exploring

An egg laid during the move

 When we first got chickens I had eight total, We are now up to 15 with plans to get more when it cools down. We are hoping to have around 30 at all times.  We eat the eggs and despatch them for our food. We did have the original chickens in a coop behind our house and the others in a coop in the pasture which was larger. We wanted them all in the larger pasture coop and want the one behind the house to be a nursery/hospital for a few at a time. So we started the migration yesterday, as the sun came up we let all of the chickens loose in the pasture, letting them spend the day together. They had all met before, some of the ones in the newer coop being from the first chickens. but after becoming moms, moved with their chicks. Since the day went well we moved most into the larger coop for roosting. All but 5 were happy with the change. They slept on the tractor! Even the horse that lives in the pasture next to us was excited to watch the changes.

Watermelon shoots ( I think!)

Daredevil the Rooster and our neighbor the horse

All in all it was hot, we worked hard but we really enjoyed watching the live here on our little farm! Now to get to work on the garden. I did notice that even though Tim has tilled under the watermelon, we have some trying to come back I sure hope they make it. We didn't get but a couple before they got choked out by weeds and the drought killed off the first vines. We need to get started on a few fall crops though.