livestock – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

Wild Turkeys

Wild Turkeys! And other wildlife that crosses into our yard…

December 14, 2018

Wild Turkeys!

We live in a slightly rural area. There is an apartment complex across the street, but our backyard is taken up with half of a pond. To our right is a gorgeous undeveloped swampy forest that the girls love to explore and the escapee chickens always disappear into if given the chance. Well, it is swampy if it has been raining.

Because of our neighboring forest and pond, we end up with a myriad of wild creatures in our yard. One morning we had seven deer in our driveway! Colorful birds love our trees. Majestic hawks eye the chickens. Huge owls show up at night to prey on the rodents and feral cats that are attracted to the chicken pen. (These guys are giant! The biggest guy we’ve seen has a head larger than ours! But we’ve never been able to get a picture of the owls.) We’ve moved (from the driveway) and examined several varieties of turtles, lizards, frogs, and toads.

One day a lost rooster decided to claim our hens. No one claimed him, so Red has been a part of our flock for almost a year now. A beautiful peacock thought he should join our chicken flock too, but I hope he made it back to his farm (several farms are down the road past the forest).

Then we had the wild turkeys! They showed up and in our chicken-farm-mentality way, Jaquline shrieks, “Mom! We don’t have to buy a Christmas turkey! We can just eat one of them!” (Of course, you can’t hunt wild turkeys without a license, so no, we didn’t get a wild Christmas turkey.)

Becky tried to sneak up on them and get some close up camera shots.

Aren’t these turkeys beautiful? I love watching wildlife!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

The Rumble of Life

How I love the blessing of carrying life!

November 14, 2018

The Rumble of Life

Today I’m very thankful for life.

My little unborn angel is rolling around and kicking, punching, or whatever inside me with such force Lucas and Jillian keep giggling at my stomach bouncing!

What an honor it is to be able to carry a new life!

From the first flutter-kicks I felt of Christina’s 15 years ago, I have been awed by the honor of being pregnant.

So, maybe my body isn’t always so happy about it, but that’s fixed. With Christina it was routine, wake up, eat, attempt a prenatal vitamin, upchuck said prenatal, get to work, run to the bathroom, there goes breakfast, and snack on some grapes or tuna salad very slowly throughout the day praying for no puking.

When I was pregnant with Becky I was under a midwife’s care and learned a ton about how nutrition affects pregnancy – then I managed to only upchuck every prenatal vitamin, mix, or powder I tried. So I stopped trying new supplements and simply focused on very healthy foods.

Just as Kimberly started along, my sister introduced me to Shakeology (a meal replacement nutrition drink) and the nausea with every successive pregnancy was gone! Great nutrition and my body tolerated it! I was over that hurdle.

Today, as our baby entertains older siblings, I’m answering standard questions: “How big is my baby?” (Lucas says this baby is HIS baby) “What color will baby’s hair be?” “When will my baby come out?” “How can baby be so strong already?” (This as Jillian’s hand was kicked off my belly.)

Their curiosity about new life reminds me of how fascinated I am by the whole process. I have general answers to give: “about this big,” (thanks to our scientific knowledge) “only God knows,” “when Baby is ready,” and “because Baby is strong like his big sisters and brother.” (I don’t like to say “it” when referring to the Baby, so if I have to use a pronoun, it’s going to be a masculine one – most of the time I can manage to just use “Baby” instead. The kids pick the one they want to use.)

My favorite question comes from Jaquline today (and I know she’s a veteran of two water births and about ready for a deeper explanation, but for now she’s still just eight): “How did Baby get inside you?”

“God took a bit of Daddy and put it in Mommy and mixed it together and He started Baby growing.” (Very simple, but literally truth. God set up everything and if He doesn’t choose to give the spark of life, the other stuff doesn’t matter. That has been my standard answer to that question for 14 years.)

This makes Jillian giggle while Lucas lays his head, ear down, on my tummy and says, “I love you, Baby! Thank you God for my baby!”

I wish I could pause that moment for a while.

Seconds later, they have raced back about daily things: Jillian is outside helping with morning chores, Lucas is vrooming a vehicle (I think it’s a wooden car) up the side of the couch, Jaquline is doing her schoolwork at the big table where Kimberly and Christina already have work laid out (although they popped up to take a break and feed livestock and pets) and Becky is lumbering about as she slowly wakes up. Life.

Today is full of impending activity: midwife appointment, college classes for Becky, college field trip for Becky (Louis will drive everyone to the park and make a fun day out of it; perks of big sister in a marine biology class), work (coaching) for me, work for Louis, normal stuff.

I’m swiping a few minutes just sitting here relishing this rumble in my tummy and thanking God for allowed me to hold His little child. Baby seems to realize the audience is gone and slowly curls up to rest. Baby is always most active with Lucas comes and explains something (why cars roll, what the sky looks like, how the big rooster is scary to snakes, how an orange tastes, how excited he is for “Baby to finally come out so I can see you”).

I love you, Baby Tart! Thank you, God, for my baby! (All of them!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Asian Blacks

Such beautiful new chicks to add to our flock!

September 20, 2018

Asian Blacks

About two weeks ago, we happened into Tractor Supply for feed when the girls spied the “cutest little chicks ever!”

Kimberly says, “Mom, they are on clearance!”

Since it was nearing the end of chick days, they had brought their money just in case. We had just moved our latest toddler bunch into the small chicken run and were planning to start another batch of eggs. When the chicks are at or below a dollar each, they cost less than us incubating our own.

Becky had $4, Kimberly had $8, and the little ones excitedly counted their money while the lady watched, rather amused. Jaquline and Jillian each had a dollar and change. The original count said 14 but a 15^th was hiding in with the white ones. Lucas hopped in his seat, “I have 1-2-3-4-5 quarters, I can buy him!”

So we brought home fifteen beautiful almost two-week-old Asian Black chickens.

Since each chicken was a dollar plus tax, they are mostly Kimberly’s to care for, but even Lucas spends time with his little one.

Jillian and Jaquline have been helping with food and care.

Jaquline poses with her chicken.

Jillian likes to tote hers in the egg basket!

I have no idea how they find “their chicken” in all these look-alikes, but they seem to always be carting around “their” chicken.

What a beautiful addition to our flock! (And a way to keep Kimberly occupied!)

*Note: the pen they are in is the PVC “Daytime Run” we built about ten years ago. In our yard, this is not predator-proof and the chicks need a heat lamp (or 85 degrees plus) so although the original design had a rabbit-wire floor and the lids were locked with hinges and a clasp (which was predator-proof), it has been modified for easy grazing. The chicks are put in a smaller cage in the shed to keep them safe at night.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Red n Rex Company

June 28, 2018

Red n Rex Company

So I just discovered the name of our chicken flock: Red n Rex Company

This is Red (Rhode Island Red Rooster)

This is Rex (Plymouth Barred Rock Rooster)

And this is Company (all the other hens, but all the colorful ones like our Buff Orpingtons, Pheonix, and an Easter Egger are not in this picture).

Red is a newcomer who has claimed Prissy and the red hens as his. Rex didn’t like that, but we love it because Red will make full blooded Rhode Island Red babies!

These are some of Rex’s baby brood, notice the full-blooded Plymouth Barred Rocks. Next batch will have some of Red’s full-blooded Rhode Island Reds!

A cock-fight (the two roosters stare at each other and fluff up their feathers until one backs down) erupts.

Red is the dark side. (He’s red)

Rex is the light side. (He’s got some bluish feathers)

I’m listening to the girls narrate Jedi battles as they watch the roosters negotiate over hens.

I am inspired by their vivid imaginations. And, yes, we are a nerdy family… who else sees lightsaber battles when roosters are doing the wing thing?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Crafting Cages

June 5, 2018

Crafting Cages

Last month we built two big mobile cages for our livestock

One is for the “teenager” chickens (those between just feathered and adult, about 6 weeks to 24 weeks). Rebeccah bought the clearance Buff Orpington straight run (mixed males and females) from Tractor Supply at the end of their chick days and they are now a little over 12 weeks old – time for selling the males before we eat them at 24 weeks!

The other was for Rebeccah, Kimberly, and Christina’s newest project: Guinea Pigs. They had one named Jack, who, just like his namesake, was adept at getting out of cages (starting with a two-day excursion on the day she brought him home!). On one of his excursions, he decided to disappear into the wild for good (I think he’d heard some Wild Kratts: free and in the wild!).

But TobyMac stayed with his two girls, Taylor and Avery.

The bright orange is TobyMac and the pretty one below is Avery. Taylor is camera shy.

Shop day had us designing and building the cages. They are night-time predator proof and easy to move. We discovered that Guinea Pigs are a perfect lawn mower: one day and they graze the grass to ½ inch height. (Formula = 3 adult pigs to 32 square feet of grass.)

Kimberly and Jaquline using the portable drill to make pilot holes and drive screws.

Rebeccah tacking on the chicken wire.

Notice the painted guinea pig on the door when it’s open.

Even Lucas was helping! He painted, held screws, fetched tools, and helped measure boards to cut.

The best drill ever! Plus wire cutters for the chicken wire.

Three different lengths of screws and our poultry staples

We precut all of the lumber for the second cage!

The girls learned and practiced using power tools, critical thinking (this looked good on paper, but in reality it will cause this problem, how can we fix it?), planning, budgeting (looking prices up online and estimating our actual cost before we went), and applying this knowledge in a practical way to create a final product. We painted the walls to help keep them from rotting, but Rebeccah, who is never satisfied with leaving something plain and functional, turned them into a work of bi-colored art. (I only had white, so she had to mix dyes to get another color!)

Although this was a “day off” from school, the girls learned and used various practical skills and developed two products for our family livestock. They had a blast! They learned a lot. They had a very successful and memorable day creating and a huge surge of pride when they look out there now – something they made is being used everyday by cute little animals!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Understanding and Choosing Forgiveness

April 23, 2018

Understanding and Choosing Forgiveness

Sometimes things make us irritated. Loss, waste, and destruction of life are hot spots for me.

We have livestock.

Honestly, I can shrug off an owl or hawk picking off a young chicken. I can understand the predators are getting food and my unguarded (or less than perfectly guarded) animals become easy prey. We learn how to build a better pen or protect our animals better for the environment we have. But I hate waste.

I had never faced a human killing animals indiscriminately. Until yesterday, neither had the girls. They love to show off their animals and share their experiences: from soft, fluffy biddies to newly laying vibrantly colored pullets to nuzzling Guinea Pigs. The girls love animals and wouldn’t think of hurting them just because. Even the “mean” cockerels (young chickens we will eat or sell, sometimes a rooster just has a mean disposition and they stay locked in the pen for protection!) are treated with respect. They will be grilled chicken dinner or traded for feed money, anyway, so they serve a purpose.

Once, we had a child swipe a biddie because it was “so cute and I wanted it,” but her brother returned it the next day because it “looked sick.” (Unfeathered baby chicks have to stay under a heat lamp at about 100^o and yes, without that heat, they get sick.) We could understand that but the girls kept explaining to this little child that if she wanted to hold them and play with them, she could come to our yard and ask, but the biddie needed to stay with her “sisters.” (The other chicks.)

Recently, a child came to the house, systematically killed several hens, stole most of the young chickens to bait a dog, and took eggs. We didn’t want to believe it was true. His family returned the two live ones that managed to make it and graciously paid money to replace the lost animals. One of the accomplices was one of the girls’ friends. The girls went through many emotions: devastation, betrayal, anger, sadness, joy (when discovering the one rescued young chicken was the last female Buff!), compassion (when they decided they needed to pray for him), and forgiveness.

It took a while to process. We discussed trust, honesty, betrayal, sin in the world, fallen man, how we shouldn’t be bitter, how Jesus calls us to love regardless of how people hurt us, and eventually the anger and sadness turned to compassion and forgiveness.

For me, I went through the same emotions. It was hard to swallow and move on because of how hurt the girls were. I wanted to protect my children from these emotions. I didn’t want them to feel betrayal – they had allowed “friends” over and shared their animals with them and at least one of these children were part of the attack and theft.

Instead, I chose to help coach them through the emotions. It was right to feel betrayal, anger, and sadness. Those emotions are normal. They had to understand how sometimes good people choose to follow evil and are sad about what they did. (Case with their friends.) The girls had to forgive.

And by the end of the next day, they were laughing and playing in the yard with their reconciled friends. True forgiveness means forgetting and moving on. That, despite the loss and hurt of the morning, made my heart happy. Of course, I hope they never feel betrayal, but – reality check! – in this fallen world, it is likely that someone else later in life will hurt their hearts – and they will have to forgive to keep their heart from bitterness.

Yes, I found that if I allow God to move on my children’s hearts, He can turn their hurts into joy.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: livestock

Wild Turkeys

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The Rumble of Life

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Asian Blacks

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Red n Rex Company

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Crafting Cages

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Understanding and Choosing Forgiveness

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