Friday on the Miller Farm Archives - Page 11 of 33

6 08, 2021

Animal Phases

By judythemorgan|2021-08-04T17:25:36-05:00August 6th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

When I was growing up, we had cats. There was Snowball who gave birth to Cinnamon who gave birth to Otnot. Otnot is Tonto spelled backward. She was also named because we “ought not” to have kept her.

I remember one of the cats having her kittens in the vacant lot next door. Then there were several nights of feeding kittens with an eyedropper so they would not succumb to distemper.

When I was in high school, my family moved to Texas, and we became exclusively dog people.

Fast forward many years to a new generation and my husband and I have had a veritable zoo at our house. We started with one dog as promised to our three children. That became two dogs when a puppy needed a home.

Then Rachel’s teacher gave her a guinea pig. That became a herd of guinea pigs that numbered close to thirty.

We then adopted my niece’s leopard gecko which quickly became a breeding colony complete with an incubator in the closet. During the reptile period, we also had a bearded dragon and several snakes. This required a steady supply of mice.

Somewhere in there, we started collecting dachshunds with six being the maximum.

After selling the leopard gecko setup, we began our current chicken phase which has included turkeys and ducks.

The next generation – our daughter and son-in-law, have two cats. When I stayed with them last week, Minnie adopted me.

She sat on my lap while I was working.

Then she climbed into the box I brought.

She might have thought I would bring her home.

However, the “cat phase” of my family ended many years ago. We’ve moved on to chickens, ducks, and dogs.

I don’t think a cat would fit.

30 07, 2021

Through the Magic Gate

By judythemorgan|2021-07-29T09:36:57-05:00July 30th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The morning glories are doing really well this year. In fact, they are once again taking over everything in their path.

I suppose I could try to contain them to the side fence, but I am inspired by their tenacity. Our back gate is covered.

Every time I walk to the back yard, I feel like I am going through a magic gate. It is much more fun to think of it that way than to think about the reason I am going – to mow the grass, check on the chickens, fill the duck pond, or any other number of farm chores.

I’ll trade my mundane tasks for an imaginary magic kingdom any day.

23 07, 2021

Messy Food

By judythemorgan|2021-07-21T09:15:21-05:00July 23rd, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

This seems to be a very good year for blueberries – they have been on sale for several weeks in a row and they are very tasty. It just so happens that while perusing a magazine passed on to me by my mother, I stumbled upon a section of blueberry recipes. One of them was a triple-layer blueberry lemon cake. It looked delicious.

Beekeeper Brian and I have no business eating an entire triple-layer blueberry cake regardless of how wonderful it may be. I decided to make the cake for our Community Group meeting. I did tell them it was a new recipe.

I bought fresh lemons and grated the peel before squeezing the juice from them. I took the butter and eggs out to bring to room temperature and carefully measured out all the ingredients. The three layers came out beautiful.

Then I made the frosting. That was not so beautiful. In fact, it was quite slippery, and I had to use skewers to keep the layers from sliding around. It was a disaster.

I have always said that the bigger the mess, the better the taste.

This cake proved my point – it was delicious!

9 07, 2021

Paths

By judythemorgan|2021-07-06T12:13:16-05:00July 9th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The unusual weather in Texas has continued with damp mornings leaving the grass-covered in dew. This means there are several paths in the backyard when I go to feed the chickens.

One is my path, and the others are made by the dogs.

I assume the straightest path is the one I made walking to the shed.

However, I do have a tendency to wander at times.

Perhaps my path is not always the most direct one. But I get where I’m going and usually have fun along the way.

That is what is important.

18 06, 2021

Oops

By judythemorgan|2021-06-17T10:11:56-05:00June 18th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Feeding the birds this morning was interesting. They always rush to get their food as if they had not eaten in days.

Some of the chickens are convinced what the ducks are eating is better. It is a case of “the feed is better in the other pen” when actually it is the same. Nevertheless, every morning at least one chicken flies over the fence to get a closer look at the duck feed.

This morning, the chicken got stuck.

It remained remarkably calm while I took a picture. Then I carefully untangled its foot from the chicken wire and tossed it back where it belongs.

There doesn’t seem to be any damage from the acrobatic endeavor, and I am hoping it will be cured of its curiosity and stay on the chicken side of the pen.

11 06, 2021

Ducken

By judythemorgan|2021-06-09T09:04:19-05:00June 11th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

One of the school chickens we adopted into our flock of chicks seems to be tired of the littles.

When I opened the top of the brooder to put grass in, she flew out. I attempted to catch her, but she was determined to join the flock of big girls. She isn’t that much smaller, so I let her stay.

The term “pecking order” must have originated in a chicken yard. The new hen was definitely at the bottom. She wasn’t being harmed but was spending most of her days running away.

I figured they would all work it out eventually. The solution was not at all what I anticipated.

The newest hen flew into the duck pen. You might think, seeing as the ducks are larger and louder than the chickens, that the hen would be less comfortable in this new location.

However, I learned in the past that ducks are really not very brave and in fact, they are scared of the chickens.

They stayed behind her while she ate.

After a week, they were all eating together.

I call the hen my “ducken.”

Perhaps there is something to be learned from this group. Accept those who look different and share the same food bowl.

4 06, 2021

They’re Back!

By judythemorgan|2021-06-02T08:28:23-05:00June 4th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I was stopped on my way to work last week by one of my coworkers from the district office. She asked if I had chickens.

Being accustomed to totally random questions, I said yes, what do you need? She had seen the chickens in the coop in the courtyard and was quite concerned for their safety. She had them moved temporarily to her sister’s house and was wondering if there was a long-term plan.

I explained the goal of having them live on campus so the students could interact with them regularly. I also acknowledged that this was a little more complicated than the principal first realized and assured her I would provide a long-term home if necessary. They had already spent a weekend on Miller Farm and had a standing reservation.

She called me Friday as I was driving home from Beekeeper Brian’s retirement celebration. It seems her sister was hosting a graduation party that evening and the chickens were not invited. She asked if I could move them.

I had taken the whole day off work and was hoping to get a nap, but I agreed to unload my car, grab the chicken travel cage, and go to her sister’s house.

When I arrived, I discovered they were free-ranging in the backyard. Fortunately, it was a fairly small area, and I was able to catch them all within a short time. I loaded them into my car and headed back to Miller Farm.

All in a day’s work for a Chicken Wrangler.

28 05, 2021

Visiting Chicken

By judythemorgan|2021-05-27T10:35:20-05:00May 28th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Last week the 7th grade students discovered a chicken on the playground at school. It was much larger than the chicks we had hatched so they knew it was not one of ours. One of the girls brought it to the front office. I wish I could have been there to see their reaction!

Since there was already a coop put together for the chicks, the principal moved it into the courtyard and put the visiting chicken in it.

Eventually, they moved all the chicks in with the bigger hen and everyone seemed happy.

Until feeding time, that is.

Apparently, the larger hen had not been eating well out in the wild and was quite insistent on getting more than her share of the food. Once she realized she would be fed on a regular basis, she calmed down.

No one knows where she belongs. Maybe she heard that our school was a safe place for chickens and decided to join us. We don’t mind.

The little flock has been temporarily moved to a home in the country. The kids are gone for the summer and one of the teachers was concerned the chicks would not be safe without a hundred little eyes watching them.

I assured her that chickens are quite accustomed to being on their own. Nevertheless, there was not a place for them to live all summer at school and no one is sure when the secure chicken pen will be finished.

Being a chicken wrangler, I volunteered to keep the chickens on Miller Farm if they wore out their welcome in their current home.

After all, we will hardly notice 6 more chickens on our farm.

21 05, 2021

Chick Sitting

By judythemorgan|2021-05-19T08:38:33-05:00May 21st, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The chicks at my school are growing quite nicely. In fact, several of them have gone to their forever homes. There were ten, however, who needed a place to stay last weekend. I checked the schedule and Miller Farm and booked them into the brooder outside in the chicken yard. It is plenty big enough and it is out of the way of any curious chickens or dogs or ducks.

I was a little concerned because their previous lodging had been indoors. They did fine outside and will make the transition to their new outside coop very well.

Monday morning I put them back in the travel cage and set them on the ground while I gathered their bowl and feed. The big chickens came to say goodbye.

I returned them to the grass outside the classroom. Someone else is on chick duty during the week.

I believe one of the students is taking several home. The rest will move into the chicken coop at the school – as soon as we build a raccoon-proof fence. That may take some time. I understand raccoons are pretty smart.

Maybe I should make another reservation for the chicks at Miller Farm.

14 05, 2021

Thanksgiving in May

By judythemorgan|2021-05-13T19:23:21-05:00May 14th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

My mother recently gave us a turkey she had in her freezer. They had gotten it for free at Thanksgiving last year and thought we would be more likely to be feeding a crowd sooner than they would.

I cooked it yesterday and we took it to our Community Group for dinner last night. Other people brought sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing, rolls, cranberry sauce, and we had Thanksgiving in May. It was a huge success! The weather was even unseasonably cool.