The Tales of Pheasant Farming Continue!

So - no picture - but there should have been because we'd all be laughing right about now - maybe a video would be better!  I'll let you decide after reading my story!

Last night I go to D's to mow lawn, he had to be at work late so he tells me I should let the pheasants out they won't bite! 

 I'm like yeah I know they won't....(note the sarcasm).... but they'll peck my eyes out & fly in my hair!  I need a "bat hat." 

But I know it's true, they need to get outside - it's probably close to 100 in the shed & they need to get some fresh air. 

 So I do it! 

I enter slowly into the pen trying to keep them from flying at me. 

 I'm sure they can smell my fear!

I pull the door closed behind me as far as I can get it - now there's no latch on the inside which I've come to realize is the biggest problem of all!

Oh & i've opened up our shed service door and the BIG door that you drive vehicles in and out of - so the shed is wide open!!!!!!

So I creep over to the door that let's them outside & slowly start to open it when the little suckers realize they can get out the door I came in!!! 

 AHHHHH  - 2 escaped on me!!!!!!  So I go running out of the pen - praying no more get out and I'm sure I was squaking or squeeling too while chasing these suckers!

The both go around the corner of the pen where we have a pile of wood and I see a cardboard box so I throw that on top of them!  No I don't have a plan here - just irrational thinking!

I have one under the little tiny box & the other is creeping out!  I grab him up against the pen &YES I caught him in my bare hands.  However in doing so I slit my thumb open so during all this I am now bleeding as well.  But what to do about the other one?!  I somehow managed to grab him with the other hand so now here I am with a pheasant in each hand & wondering how the heck am I going to open the pen door & get them back in there.  While holding them one is flapping it's wings like crazy - I'm sure pretty mad at me!!!!!!  Or petrifed - let's be honest I think I was more scared then the pheasants.

I managed to open the pen door with my elbow and toss them in.

Thank goodness they didn't escape and I was the only one injured!!!!

Pheasant Farming!

Our pheasants are 5 weeks old this week! 

I haven't taken this weeks picture yet but here is the 4 week picture.

4 WEEKS OLD



Outside Pen


Because the pheasants were getting old enought to go outside we had to build an outside pen for them - so here it is!

You wouldn't think this took very long to build but let me tell you it was quite the ordeal!  We started off with fence posts that we had and put the outside ones in - which was a bit interesting for me!  D had me hold the post while he pounded them in with a sledge hammer.  Well everytime he would pound on it I flinched!  I eventually had to squat down towards the bottom of the post and close my eyes and hold on tight! 
At one point the posts were so tall D got out a 3 step, step stool and stood not on the top step but the top handle and was pounding on the post.  I survived but wasn't overly thrilled with the situation.

So after we got all the outside posts pounded in - we realized if we put chicken wire across the top without any supports it would just sink in.  So back to the shed we went for 3 more posts!

Once we got all the posts in we started adding the chicken wire to the outside.  This went along smoothly until we realized our ground is so uneven we had to do something about that - that is why you see the straw bails!

We got the outside done & then proceeded to work on the top.  We had to climb in the pen & then I would hold one end of the chicken wire with my hands and on my head while D unrolled it to the other end and cut it.  Then we attached it with zip ties.  We did this 4 times!

Finally we had the outside done!  We had, had enough for the night so we went in for supper at 9:00 at night!

The next day we still had to cut a door out for them to get from the inside to the outside.   This all started out quite smoothly with Dave on the inside of the pen (in the shed with the pheasants) and me on the outdie handing him tools and closing the door behind him.   This was smooth until we realized the whole was cut taller then where the chicken wire was attached on the outside!  So D tried to shoo the pheasant to the outside pen and while doing so at least one flew away! 

Then I had to get in the pen to help attach the chicken wire to the shed & cover the hole we now had.  This meant there were pheasants around our feet and the door couldn't be shut tight.  This led to 3 pheasants escaping in the shed!

So we quickly got out of the pen

D got both shed doors shut & we had to catch 3 pheasants with our hands. 

Ok, ok so really D caught them with his hands, I just helped move them closer and open & close the pen door! 

Finally we caught all 3 and closed up the hole and got them all outside!

They now can go in and out and are very happy!!!!

How do people learn these things?!

I am a town girl at heart!!!  Lesson learned again today!!!

Did you know that when you live in the country & your power goes out you have to call someone?!  I had no idea!!!!!!!

I wake up this morning to find the power is out.  So I text D and ask if it was out when he went to work (much earlier than when I get up).  He says no and asks if I  called the electric company.  I'm like - "no" don't they just know?!  Apparently not!  He says you have to call them, how else would they know we are without power!!!!!!

Another country life lesson learned!!!!

Have you ever?!

Hope you had a wonderful Fathers Day weekend!

D & I went to my parents house on Saturday night to celebrate with my Dad.  We had a great evening eating some awesome food and the weather was perfect so we played a few rounds of croquet.  Somehow Dad won both - we must have let him win because it was Fathers Day!!!

Then on Sunday D & I hosted his side!  But let me tell you what happened! 

 So on Friday night D & I did outside work all day & around 8:30 at night we got ready to go get our groceries for both Fathers day events.  I was going to make a cheesecake flavored salad for Sunday and needed cheesecake flavored instant pudding mix along with some misc things.  So we got all our groceries and headed home. 

All was well! 

Then Saturday I had an open house in Atwater so afterwards Dave met me & we parked my car in town & headed to Raymond to my parents. 

We were there until about 9:30!

  We stopped and got my car in Atwater & then Dave followed me to Litchfield.  On the way I almost hit a deer, a fox & a raccoon in about a 7 mile span!!!!!!!! 

We got back to his house, unpacked our vehicles & I started making my salad ( it needed to be made the night ahead of time).  So I start my salad & mix my pudding mix & cool whip together when I realize it seems REALLY thick.  I get out the recipe and read it - all seems fine, then I start to think - Dave told me I needed 4 small boxes of pudding to equal 1 large box - and BING a light goes on!  NO YOU DON"T!!!!!!!!!!  I have now DOUBLED my recipe!  So Dave & I head into Wal-Mart at 11:00 to get the rest of the ingredients.  We pull in to the parking lot at literally 10:59 - get to the door & it closed at 11:00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Did you know Wal-Marts close?!!!   I thought they were all open 24 hours a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I left my salad until morning and D was nice enough to get up at 7:00 and go get my ingredients!!!!  I had enough of that salad to feed about 50 people!

It all worked out but have you ever done that?!!!! 

This is not my salad but was as close to what I made as I could find online!

Adventures in Being A Farm Girl!

So let me tell you about the adventures of being a farm girl last night:

To start things off on Sunday night I look out the window and see a black cat walking around our front sidewalk and I pounded on  the window to scare it off – hopefully cats don’t like pheasant!

Last night I get back to Daves – I get Zoey out and I go turn on all the hoses for watering the trees, which is all I’ve done for the past 3 days and will be doing again tonight!  Trust me you get quite the work out moving hoses -  then I go to feed/water the pheasants when one of those little suckers can almost fly to the top of the cardboard! 

           

So then I think I’ll be nice & mow the ditch & the front piece right off the deck (that area grows really slow & I Dave normally does the ditch).  So I mow the front section & then head to the ditch when the  mower breaks down – it starts, it runs, it has diesel, the arm controls move but the wheels do not!

So I text Dave and go to do some tree trimming – while trimming trees a skunk goes right across the neighbor’s yard!

See that block spot to the left of the big metal shed - that's the skunk!

While trimming trees I wonder why this one bird is so annoying and crabby when I am in the middle of trimming and come across her nest full of baby birds – gross - that I now probably have killed because I trimmed so close to and worked at for about an hour!

Dave finally gets back to me and asks me stupid girl questions – is it out of fuel – is the parking brake off etc.  he decides to call a couple of his buddies to at least see if any of them can get it going or at least tow it to the house.  He calls me back and informs me 2 guys didn’t answer their phones and one is out of state working so he had to call M who is about if not less mechanically inclined (and he admits it himself) than me!  While we are on the phone some BIG man pulls up in a little blue car (think tom Farley – fat man in a little coat) and gets out and asks if I need fuel – does everyone think I’m stupid?!  Anyways he freaked me out first but then come to find out he’s the neighbor!  HE was being nice & going to get his tractor and pull it to the house if M couldn’t get it going.  So finally at about 8 – 8:30 M arrives and first tells me he was shocked Dave can get me out mowing!  Come on I am prissy but not that prissy – how else will I get a tan!  M gets on and does nothing different than I had already done – as a matter of fact he did less than what I had even tried!  But at least it was a guy there to give it a shot so Dave can't say it was me!

At one point Dave started to consider having me get Russ’s truck out and tow it to the house myself!  Now I know I am independent but come on I am a girl – I shouldn’t have to do these things!!!

M calls Dave & Dave tells him over the phone what to do…….I came prepared with the right tool otherwise I’m not sure M would have known what tool we even needed!  He had to lift up the seat – which I had to help with then he had to loosen a bolt and then tow it to the house – but he loosened the seat and then left the wrench under the seat – so I had to ask him if we could lift it back up to get the tool out!  Thank goodness mike had his own tow strap – and could figure out how to hook that up – because otherwise I would have had to do that myself too!