Tuna

So in previous posts I had mentioned that I tried my luck at incubating and hatching guinea fowl eggs back in May. I put in 5 eggs and 2.5 hatched. You're asking yourself how half an egg hatches? Well let me tell you. Two of the eggs hatched normally on the day they were supposed to hatch (day 26). I was hopeful for the other three and waited rather impatiently for them to hatch. The days went by and my hope faded. Then on day 30 one of the remaining eggs started to hatch. It sat like this for a day and a half.

My research told me not to intervene unless you really know what you are doing, which I didn't. So I kept the humidity up to help keep the membranes moist and watched it struggle. I finally couldn't take it anymore and opened up the incubator and helped him out of the shell. There are many sites online that tell you to dump the eggs that don't hatch after day 28. They will be stunted or have leg issues. Also many that need help getting out of their shells don't make it because they are so weak. So here we have this little guinea that is weak with curled toes and mis shaped legs. I didn't hold out much hope for him. He was noticeably smaller than his hatch-mates and about half the size of the chicks that hatched just a week before him.

He's the little guy at the top on the white towel.

 I told the kids not to get too attached as I wasn't sure he'd make it but he did. Wesley was watching The Office reruns at the time and we decided to name him "Big Tuna". Ironic since he was indeed not big or a fish. But the name stuck. He walked around on his elbows instead of his feet and didn't let the bigger chicks pick on him.

While the older chicks and guineas got bigger he grew slowly and struggled to get around. I knew he wouldn't be making the transition to the outdoor nursery coop with the others which led to the question of "What to do with Big Tuna?".

Well get more chicks of course! I decided to pick up 5 bantam chicks so Tuna could have his own little flock of similar sized birds. Bantam chickens are miniature chickens and since I'm fairly certain he will be a miniature guinea I thought it would suit him well.

He took to his new (much smaller than him) friends and now acts as a mother to them, letting them snuggle up under his feathers.

Here are two of the newest additions, silkie chicks.

Summer 2020

So what can I say about summer 2020? It's been a pretty typical summer. Lots of swimming, trips to the snow cone place, bike rides, trips in the convertible to get ice cream cones. We've tried to make it fun for the kids but for the most part we are still socially distancing ourselves from people. This is the first year we haven't taken a summer vacation. Why? The coronavirus is still wrecking havoc on our country and I have no desire to expose myself or my family to it while driving or flying around the country. So we stay home and wear masks in public and try to make it as normal of a summer as possible.

Part of making it feel normal is having my pal Jessica and her kids over to swim each week. The local public pool has been packed full because it is one of the few pools in the area that decided to open this year. People from all over have made the trip out to swim in our little town and at one point it had a 100+ kids a day in it. It made me very thankful that we purchased our above ground pool last year (we bought it for $300 used off of craigslist). Jessica didn't want her kids exposed to that many kids at the public pool so we invited them over to swim every week. It's been fun sitting in the shade on the deck while the kids have fun together.

We will continue to have fun and stay home as long as possible.....or until school starts. That's a whole different post for another day.

Summer Garden

There was something about this spring that made me plant a big garden. Was it the pandemic with limited food supply? Probably. I wasn't alone, many people have decided to grow gardens this year. Seeds were in limited supply, I was happy to have found some early on at our local feed store.

I couldn't plant in my normal plot as it had been taken over by Johnson grass and I decided I wasn't going to battle that horrible weed another year. I moved it across the yard near the tortoise pen. The ground was hard and not that great quality. Since there was no planning involved I didn't cover it last fall with mulch, which is a great way to turn crappy soil into nice soil. We do have a small electric tiller and I was able to scrape up the top few inches and get some seeds planted.

It's growing well now. We had a large round hay bale that got too wet when our tarp failed this spring so Sean used the skid steer to take it over to the garden for me to mulch it with. It was probably 700 pounds of hay I put down around the plants and walkways. Hay does a wonderful job of mulching the plants and keeping the moisture in the ground and keeping the roots cool and happy. I've had great luck with the deep mulching method of gardening. No weeds, very little watering and happy productive plants. It's a win win.

I'm not real great about remembering where I planted everything. I tend to draw up a garden plan and then make changes on the fly and not write them down. So this giant mass of vines came up and I assumed they were one of the three varieties of melon I planted (we LOVE melon). The vine kept growing and producing about 20 of these "melons". Finally I had to get on YouTube to figure out they are spaghetti squash and not melons. That was kind of a let down. I like spaghetti squash just not 20 of them. I've read that they store well, so maybe I can eat them all winter.

The vine in this picture is one of the other melon varieties: Early Silver Line Melon

No garden is complete, in my mind, without at least a small plot of zinnias. They are so beautiful and bring in so many good pollinators.

We've had a great haul so far with zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, blackberries and spaghetti squash. The early melons are almost there and there are no less than 20 little watermelons growing, the kids are particularly excited about those (which makes me happy). Happy gardening y'all!

We have a teenager!

It's crazy to think my first born is now a teenager! Happy 13th birthday to Wesley! Since these times are a bit strange and gatherings are frowned upon we decided to rent out the local swimming pool for two hours in the evening and invite just a few people to swim and celebrate his birthday. It was sure fun!