Highs and Lows May 29th

Another post from my phone, so bear with me here...

Highs
This morning I had to bring 4 foster pups to the vet about half an hour away for a spay appointment. After we dropped them off, we decided to explore the area a little bit since we aren't usually up that way. We came across a gorgeous newly built park with an awesome playground and more bench swings than I've ever seen in my life (I've been wanting one for a long time). We hung out and played there for a while until it got too hot, then drove home in the air conditioned car and had a lazy day watching Star Wars.

The hen that was sitting in the barn whose eggs started hatching last night hatched 9 adorable chicks. Unfortunately one didn't live long after it hatched and I'm not really sure why.

Lows
When I got home tonight after picking up the dogs from the vet, I went in the barn to feed. I remembered that I had let the ducks out to free range for the first time today. I checked in their stall, expecting (hoping) to see all three of them, since it was dark out already. Only Ducky was in the stall. Crap. So I finished feeding and looked around, expecting to find two duck carcasses somewhere (since Millie had been outside while I was gone). I found some white feathers in front of the barn and was sure that meant Sprinkles was gone for good. Shortly after, I found Oakley hiding in a corner of the barn behind a board. I picked him up, and though he seemed to be in mild shock, he was able to walk and appeared fine when I put him in the stall with Ducky. I made my way back to the house, casually keeping half an eye out for Sprinkles. I saw her laying about 10 feet off the back step, not moving and peeping/quacking softly. I slowly walked over and picked her up, looked her over, and quickly noticed that her back was bald, raw, and covered with ants. I brought her inside, put her in the bathtub, and started filling it. I eventually got her cleaned up well enough that the ants were off her and I could get a closer look at the damage. She has four puncture wounds on her back and significant feather loss off her left wing, but all of the damage seems superficial. I put some antibiotic ointment on the puncture wounds. She can swim, drink, and sit up fine, but won't walk. As I'm typing this I have a bag of mixed vegetables defrosting in the microwave to try to get her to eat. Hopefully she'll pull through, but right now I'm super worried about infection. She'll be staying in a kennel in the house at least until she can walk and the wounds start to heal. I dont want her to end up having flies lay eggs in them *gag*.

Anywho, the veggies are done. Goodnight!

Highs and Lows May 28th

I'm writing this one from my phone, so we'll see how the formatting works out...

Highs
Since its been hot, we've been trying to spend time inside during the day and be outside while it's dark. We made an impromptu Wal-mart trip this morning and bought the game Clue. We spent a few hours playing that and a few other games (dominoes and checkers). Olivia is actually really good at checkers.

Another hen sitting on eggs in the barn started hatching her chicks this morning. As of about two hours ago, she had six chicks and at least one more was starting to hatch.

Lows
So the other day we discovered that the reason our HVAC system doesn't work is because a skunk had gotten itself stuck in the blower and fried the motor. We're in the process of fixing the HVAC, but we had tossed the mummified skunk aside and Millie has been having a ball with it. No matter where we move it, she finds it again. I gave her a bath tonight because I couldn't stand the smell anymore, but it just won't go away. I'm not sure what to try next. Maybe I'll bring her for a swim in the pond tomorrow and see if that helps.

Highs and Lows May 25th

Gonna keep this one short and sweet. I'm tired, it's hot, and today was fairly uneventful.

Highs

I spent three hours today bathing and grooming the kittens. They look and feel so much
better, and they’re so much more fun to snuggle with now. The one that was acting a little
strange yesterday is doing great today, and they all took their medicine like pros. My hands
are clawed and scratched to shreds and super itchy, but it was worth it.

Olivia and I were sitting around most of the morning complaining about the heat, when I
decided that we should put our swimsuits on and spray each other with the hose. We spent
about an hour playing like that, and then relaxed with some ice cream and took a nap on
the couch.

Olivia says her best part of today was the Easter egg hunt she set up for me. From Easter
to about Halloween the past two years, Olivia has been stuffing plastic eggs with her little toys
and notes and hiding them. She asks everyone who walks into the house if they want to go on
an Easter egg hunt. I swear I do it at least six times a day, but it makes her happy. She's
actually getting really good at hiding the eggs in inventive places, too. I told her the Easter
Bunny might ask to hire her for help next year.

Lows

The foster puppies and their sister were out playing for a bit today and found the mama hen
with her chicks. She got overwhelmed trying to keep her chicks safe from seven dogs, and
one of the chicks ended up seperated from the rest. I picked it up and tried to put it down near
the others, but it didn’t seem at all interested in keeping up or even following at all. I’m not sure
if it got injured, but it looks okay superficially. I put it in with the chicks we incubated so we’ll
see how it’s doing in the morning.

Also, we're covered in mosquito bites. Enough said.

Highs and Lows May 23rd & 24th

I didn't get a chance to post last night, mainly because I couldn't think of much to write about. I guess I'll just wrap it into tonight's post.

May 23rd Highs
The rescue I foster for contacted me about a kitten emergency. Eight five-ish-week-old kittens were urgently in need of a place to stay for about a week, and of course I said I would take them, because who wouldn't want eight kittens to play with? My daughter (Olivia) and fiance (Justin) did point out to me that I am in fact allergic to cats, but I figure I'll just load up on antihistamines and eye drops and the kitten snuggles will make it all worth it :)

One of the hens sitting on eggs in our barn hatched out seven or eight chicks today! In addition to the 14 that we hatched in the incubator, we have two more hens sitting on nests. One has about a dozen eggs and the other has about eighteen. We definitely won't have a chicken or egg shortage around here anytime soon.

Olivia decided about two weeks ago that she wanted to make homemade pizzas as a family for dinner sometime. I got the stuff while I was shopping the other day and we finally made them tonight. She made a delicious black olive pizza with extra cheese, and I made a taco pizza. Seeing how excited and proud she was that she made dinner made me so happy.

May 23rd Lows
It's freaking hot. Its only May and its already in the nineties with around 75% humidity. It makes it hard to want to do anything productive. Olivia had been asking for two days to go for a night ride on the horses, but we were just so exhausted that we called it a night. We had been putting off making the pizzas because I didn't want to turn the oven on. This is my first year living in the south and I was not prepared for spring to end and summer to begin so soon.


May 24th Highs
This morning we got up around 6:30 to go riding, figuring we could be back before it started getting too hot. We set out around 8:15 and rode to the water tower to pay our water bill. We made it back to the barn around two and a half hours later, but it was already getting close to 90 degrees. We hosed the horses down, put them away, and came inside for lunch and a nap.

May 24th Lows
One of the kittens made a downhill turn and wasn't looking so good, but after some TLC is doing better. Hopefully he'll keep improving from here.

When I went out to the barn tonight, I opened the tack room door and spotted the rear eight inches of a copperhead behind the grain bin. Of course, I was wearing flip flops and hadn't grabbed my gun, since I was just running out to feed the animals and give the kittens their medicine. I ran back inside, changed into my boots, and grabbed my gun and a flashlight. By the time I got back out to the barn, the snake had disappeared. I moved stuff around with a long stick but didn't end up finding it. I was pretty disappointed, since I haven't gotten to shoot a snake with my new gun yet. Maybe he'll be back in the morning. At least I learned my lesson and I'll know to bring my gun next time. This is the second time I've gone out to the barn wearing flip flops without my gun and nearly stepped on a copperhead.


This weekend is supposed to bring record heat for Memorial Day weekend. Wish us luck.

Highs and Lows May 21, 2018

Well it was a long, hot day and I wasn't planning on blogging tonight, but our best and worst parts of today were pretty significant, so I figured I'd share.

Highs
This morning around 7:15, we got to spend some time with a moments-old foal. Our neighbor breeds Standardbred horses and as we drove past his barn, he flagged us down. We stopped and met Goober, who had been born no more than ten minutes earlier. He's already full of personality and is doing well.

Lows
Yesterday, I had met a woman via Facebook who had an orphaned newborn kitten. Its young, inattentive mother had given birth to five babies on the concrete and all but this one had died. I offered to take it, knowing I had more than an abundance of fresh goat milk in the fridge and a little extra time on my hands. I find it extremely hard to turn away an animal in need; its just in my nature. I was sure my fiance would be mad if I brought home another rescue. My head was telling me no, but I couldn't ignore the feeling in my heart. While my fiance was at work I drove half an hour to meet the woman and brought the kitten home. I didn't tell him until a little bit later, and his reaction wasn't nearly as bad as I expected;
"How could I be mad about such a cute little thing?"
So the next eighteen hours were filled with feeding her every two hours and keeping her warm. She was doing so much better this morning. She seemed stronger and was eating more. Maybe there was more hope than I thought.
Unfortunately, when I went to check on her and feed her at about 6pm tonight, she had passed away. I'm fairly certain that it was because she hadn't had any of her mother's colostrum and was weak and immunocompromised.
Sadly, things like this happen in farming and rescue. Not every animal makes it, but at least I gave her a fighting chance.

About Me

Welcome to my first Fulk Family Farm blog post! I'm so excited to share all of the excitement that goes on in our daily lives with you. If you love baby animals, interesting farming experiences, and family, look no further. This will be the blog for you!

I'm Rose. I'm a twenty year old mom of one living with my little family in northern Mississippi. Since we moved here at the end of 2018, we've been busy starting our life together and building our farm. I recently started a blog to document my garden-related happenings, but since I haven't started my garden quite yet, we currently have a lot more going on in the animal department. I figured it would be interesting and entertaining for me to share what goes on in our daily lives with you. Almost every day, something noteworthy is happening on the farm. I'll start with events from the past week just to give you an idea.

• We had 14 chicks hatch in our incubator.
• I took on a litter of five husky mix puppies and their older sister. I foster for a rescue here in town. These guys will be staying with me until June first. 
• We bought two goats at auction, loaded them into the back of my SUV, drove them home, and one proceeded to try to jump through my windshield, breaking it with her horns in the process.  Then later that same day, she escaped and took off on our 40+ acre property. We went for a walk in the rain, leading our three other goats to try to lure her back. We eventually got her to come close enough to the barn that we herded her into a stall and shut the door behind her. We ended up selling her the next day.
• I took on an orphaned two day old kitten.
• Our three year old daughter got her first pony, a miniature horse named Lucky.
• My fiance built me a milking stand with cedars he cut from around the property.
• We went riding late at night and didn't get back until 1am. Needless to say, our daughter fell asleep on the horse and I had to hold her up the whole way back. 

And the events of this week haven't even been that out-of-the-ordinary.

Farming is the most rewarding experience of all. There are so many highs and so many lows, but the good times make it all worth it. We invite you to join our family in celebrating the highs and reflecting on the lows. I plan to post nightly about each day's ups and downs, and I promise there will be some pictures and funny stories along the way.

Our dog Millie with the goats (Sacagawea, Lewis, Clark)