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Thanksgiving is always held at Mama and Daddys house. Sometimes Mama invites a friend or two that doesn't really have family in the area. This year it was just family though. She invited them as always, but had other plans.
I really missed having Ians dad and Christi there. I think it would have been nice to have them there too, but they stayed home. I know Mama would have loved to have seen Darby. Darby is Johns big lap dog. When I say big, I mean BIG. He is an irish wolfhound, but thinks he is a teacup chihuahua. ;)
John and Christi, I know you will read this, so just wanted to let y'all know you were VERY missed. :)
My older sister Patti has never had a Thanksgiving with our Daddy. We got to talking one day on the phone, and before we knew it, we were making plans for her to come up for Thanksgiving. Originally she was going to stay for a couple of days at my house, but, fate would not have it as my niece Ashley got a new job at a local novelty toy store and had to work the next day so they had to go home that evening.
We had a really nice turnout this Thanksgiving. There was Erin and her boyfriend DJ, which is practically family, we REALLY love him! :) Mama and Daddy of course. Ian, Shelby and myself. Patti, Ashley, and her boyfriend Davey. Davey has been a fixture in Ashleys life for several years now and we like him pretty good too. ;)
This was also a first Thanksgiving for me to have with my older sister. It was just so nice to have all of us together.
There was plenty of food of course. Everyone cooked and brought dishes. I only wish it hadnt ended so soon. Before we knew it Patti, Ashley and Davey were having to hit the road to go home. Patti is like me, we don't see too well after dark, and on unfamiliar roads, it is even scarier for us.
Well, here are some great pictures of our family together at Thankgiving. I hope yours was as wonderful as ours was. :)
This morning I went out to feed...and one of the birds I was going to show, was dead as a doornail. It was this young fellows Daddy. My one and only Silver Spangled Hamburg bantam breeding rooster. This guy has two brothers, but they have minor defects that prevents them from being show quality, so he is my star man for this breed. I am hoping to find a show quality rooster to replace the one that died, hopefully by Spring and hatching season.
His three sisters here above.
One of the two hens above is his mom...these were the two in with the Daddy rooster that died.
The two barred rock bantam pairs, all under one year old.
These are the boxes I made to keep them in for the show season. This will keep them out of the mud and muck out in the yard. I will change their shavings often and keep them clean.
Today they have been spritzed with Frontline spray. I didnt see any mites, but just making sure. Mites will get you disqualified and it is shameful, to me anyway. I put just a tiny bit under the wing in the wingpit, on the skin. Its like when you put it on your dog or cat, it doesnt do a lot of good if its not applied to the skin and falls onto the fur, or in this case, the feathers.
Tomorrow and Wednesday will be bath and blowdry days. I got to fit in cooking my contributions to the Thanksgiving meal at Mama and Daddys house. Stuffed celery, Potato salad, and two smoked turkey breasts. I am going to bring some tea sweetened with Splenda too, a couple of jugs. One green tea, and one regular tea.
So today is just a waiting day for the birds. They will relax in the living room and enjoy the comfort of indoors. After show they will go out onto the porch with the chicks and Seramas.
I am also showing my two brown red modern bantam hens, but they are in a suitable enclosure on the porch already, so they can stay where they are. I will just take extra care to make sure their house stays very clean so they don't get dirty. After a bath and blowdry I will have to keep a heat lamp on them for a couple of nights, just in case they are a little damp under the wing, or maybe just keep them in a carrier inside. Either one. Its just that their man will be left all alone outside if I keep them inside. I guess I could just bring him in too, so he won't be lonely.
I know I still have to post the llamas from the fair, and I will. I didnt forget. :) Good Monday to all!
Oh and yes, those ARE tree trunks you see in one of the pictures above...yes, we do have a giant TREE in our living room. It is a pygmy date palm we bought a few weeks ago from Burgers Market in Cartersville. It was on sale, and we had been looking at it for a long time, so we got it. It will be our Christmas tree, yes, thats right. I am going to wrap the trunks in lights and hang little silver balls and such off the tops. :) Here is a full picture of it...
and yes, I know I am crazy, and I dont care. I have trees and chickens in my living room, and I like it that way. ;)
Every year we never miss the Georgia National Fair. It is one of the things we always do. Shelby, Ian and I enjoy it so much. Today are some pictures from the fair. Tomorrow I will post all the pictures of the beautiful llamas that were there to be shown. I am going to post all the pictures first, then at the bottom I will have a description of each. Its easier than trying to refigure the font in between every picture, every time. Yes, I guess I am lazy like that. So here we go...
The first three pictures are of Robinsons Racing Pigs. They never disappoint and we always love the pig races! They had miniature pot bellies and regular size pot bellies racing...and swimming!
Picture 4 was sweet, one was licking the other, grooming I suppose.
Picture 5...well, she just was too tired to care that her head was resting in the food dish...being a show cow is just so exhausting! ;)
Picture 6...someone getting their cow ready for show.
Picture 7...some dairy show cows. There were rows and rows of many different breeds of cows. If you look back a year ago in October you can see I always take picture of the cattle.
Picture 8 is in one of the three buildings they have where you can go in and see what people are peddling, be it the latest cookware, getting some of those dots...you know that icecream, dippin' dots or something like that, the latest in bed sleep technology, to all the FFA and 4H exhibits from local schools. SO much to look at. We always go to this area to buy our honey.
Picture 9...the Christmas tree competition. This year was not as good as last years. They had some really wild stuff last year.
Picture 10..Shelby holding one of the chicks at the Tyson display. They have a see through incubator of eggs hatching, some plastic adult mechanical chickens moving in a display, maps of all the chicken processing plants and farms, cookbooks, videos running of how they process chicken (skipped that taste treat).
Picture 11 is all the chicks. Kids get to come by and hold a chick here.
Picture 12...a junior show of their pigs.
Picture 13-15...a few pictures of the draft horse show with carts. It goes on all day with various shows, from riders, to teams, etc...very neat to watch them come clopping by...very powerful thumps to the ground if you are right there at the ring.
Picture 16 and 17...Dewey is still doing the stockdog demonstrations. When his star border collie and revered pet champion died he was not into his shows for awhile, but he has a renewed interest in that now he is using Kelpies. He still has a few border collies, but in the show has gone strictly to Kelpies. They are a fast and furious breed compared to the border collie. You can see they take on those longhorn cows like nobodys business.
Picture 18 and 19...Shelby getting her picture taken with a young bobcat. They had a wild cat show there...the last of the pictures are of some of the other cats they had there. They were not ones you could take your picture with though. ;)
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the highlights of the fair we love to go to every year. There was much more to see than this throughout the week the fair was there, but we can't go every day so we missed out on sheep and goat shows, and there are horse shows of various breeds from miniatures to draft horses throughout the week. Just have to pick a day that has what you want to see most and go that day..this year, it was the llamas, and I will have lots of pictures in tomorrows post from that.
Have a wonderful Saturday!
Yes....yes yes yes yes...YES! This is what I need! There is going to be a show in Dalton, Georgia on November 28th. This is my FUN thing. This is what I do, and I have the trophies and ribbons to prove I am getting good at it, or at least getting good at having an eye for good birds and owning said birds!
So far, I have fifteen birds on my list to show, if they are showing Seramas, if not, then I have 13. Lucky 13? Yeah...Lucky 13. ;)
4 Barred Rock Bantams...2 cockerals (this is what they are called if under a year old but must be at least six months old to show) and 2 pullets (same rules apply here too)
My trio of Silver Spangled Hamburgs...one cock and two hens.
The above mentioned has fine looking offspring I hatched that is of show age..so three Silver Spangled Hamburg pullets, and I have one good looking Silver Spangled Hamburg cockeral.
My two brown red modern hens. I have a nice rooster, but I refuse to 'dub' him as I think it is cruel and I won't do it. They require this for showing, so he has to stay home. I am sure he will miss his girls terribly that day. He is a good boy. :)
If they are showing Serama...I have a really nice B size solid white cockeral.
I also have Buzzbomb, he is a perfect Serama rooster and I think he would do very well. Here is a picture of him. This picture is old, but he still looks the same pretty much.
I will see about getting some pictures of my show prospects so you can see for yourself how fine looking my selections are. ;)
Until then, here are some pictures I pulled from the internet of the others...
Brown Red Modern Hen here...and then picture number 2 is of a SSH hen, and picture 3 of a SSH rooster.
and...here are examples of bantam barred rock hens and roosters...
I have a secret I haven't shared yet. It all started one day when I saw Seramas for sale on Craigslist. I found out they were about fifteen minutes from me, and reasonably priced. As usual a lot of the roosters were too big. That doesnt seem to matter yet at the shows here as they don't weigh them, so you can show one the size of an elephant...okay, maybe not that big, but you know, they are supposed to be the smallest chickens in the world, and still get away with it.
I bought a little white rooster from her.
But I need to back up. This young lady had about 300 seramas to start with and has slowly sold them off and given them away. She got them from an elderly lady in South Carolina. The elderly lady had failing health (she was in her 80s) and wanted to sell them, but not seperate them, whoever bought them had to buy them all, so Dani did. Dani is a young lady, she is in college and has been breaking and training horses since she was 8 years old. I guess she is pretty good at it because a week from tomorrow they are hosting a Parelli horse class at their home. In light of her busy schedule, she doesnt have time for all her chickens, so she has seen fit to give a lot of them to me, yes GIVE. I feel so fortunate, I feel like I have hit the chicken lottery! :) Some are good show prospects, some are not. Thats just my opinion, I am no expert. I am rehoming about five roosters to Dwain, which is a chickenaholic like me. You may remember he went to two shows with me last year and had a blast.
She also had two pairs of nice barred rock bantams and asked if I wanted them too, so I said yes of course. I also was allowed to relieve her of about a dozen Rhode Island Red chicks and two Buff Orpington chicks. I had neglected my layer population this Spring and Summer because I was concentrating on my Seramas, Silver Spangled Hamburgs and Silver Laced Polish this year for not this show season, but for the next. Have to think ahead...way ahead. There is no telling how many are boys and how many are girls, I am just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope I have a lot of pullets.
She still has some chickens, but not near as many as before, thanks to me. Because one cannot have too many chickens. You can have too many roosters, but never too many hens.
I heard today that the auction barn I had been frequenting will open back up. Remember the guy that I sold those two white baby goats to..for Joe? I saw him at Tractor Supply today, and he said he had been talking to the owner, and there is promise of it reopening sometime in February. They had to close for financial reasons. I was making a good bit of pocket money before they closed selling off some roosters and chicken related items such as metal feeders. You may think it is hard for me to sell off anyone, but the truth is, too many roosters make the hens very upset...for obvious reasons...ahem. I have several locked away that would gang up on my hens and play three way tag all the while the poor hen was screaming in protest. My girls shouldnt have to endure the barbaric practices of young roosters that have no manners, so they get locked up, until they are sold.
So you see, I have been busy with all these new chickens..and I promise, I will have pictures of them all, even the ones going to Dwain, so if your reading this Dwain, you can see what you are getting the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Next up, a show in Hartwell, that will be a trek way out east in Georgia, but way out. That is also an all bantam show. Just have to try and keep everyone clean for that one. May have some bath and blowdry time for some again before the December 12th show.
So how is that for some chicken talk? Tomorrow I will post pictures I took at the Georgia National Fair back in October...got to keep things rolling on the catch up this week. Yesterday and today were busy busy busy so I didnt get a chance to get on at all yesterday. Sorry I missed a day!
Everyone have a great weekend!
