It's 40 degrees !!

Cold nights and cool mornings

 It is getting to be that time of year again. It seems just like yesterday that we quit using our wood stove for heat, but here we are again. We had started a fire a few weeks ago, but the past few nights we have had one almost every night to get the chill out of the house. I haven't even gotten all the wood into the wood shed yet and we are burning wood, such is life I guess. 

The kids and I decided that the Guinea Pigs needed their baths and since we have had so much rain it, was a good time to do such a thing. You would think washing a Guinea Pig would be pretty simple, but no. They need special bath soaps so their skin doesn't rash and to top it off you blow dry them. Yes I said blow dry a Guinea Pig! I don't even blow dry my hair and I am blow drying a Guinea Pig. So Mr. Guinea 

and 

Mr. Dumbo got their baths on a cold and rainy day. We now have very clean and pampered pigs.

Oh with all this rain I thought we were all going to float away. The front of the barn became a mushy and stinky mud pit. The girls wanted nothing to do with it and would fight us when trying to get them in the barn. I have decided that I may do some gravel next year in front of the barn to cut down on the mud pit, but for now I have used large cut pine shavings to help with the moisture. Just plain yucky!

Last weekend, The Matthews Living Farm Museum, had an Oxen workshop, so Ms. Ayla was able to go and learn a little more on leading a team of oxen. She was able to lead this little guy which she has before and also she was able to lead this beautiful team.

A pair of Jersey Oxen. She said she absolutely loved the Jerseys. One disadvantage of having an One Acre Farm, is you really can't have many grass grazers, so there is no cow in the future here at Cranberry Acre, unless we buy an acre or two somewhere around us. Which is not out of the question, just not in the plans anytime soon. We are just really lucky to have friends who have cows.

we have talked about teaching Luther the goat to do this. We will see how that goes next year.

Oh boy, if you have ever had chickens I'm sure at least one time you have had a broody hen. Well I have had a couple in the years but this little girl...... Oh she is something. Ms. Copper has been a broody hen for about 2 weeks now and has been driving me mad! All attitude early in the morning, through out the whole day. At night we put are small girls in their night time cages, so I remove her from her broody nest every night and remove her eggs, but she is back to the nest the min. you let her out again. To top it off at first the kids were a little frightened of her almost Eagle Scream as they approached her on her nest, so I would go to the hay loft and remove her for them. This is now on the 2nd week of Ms. Grumpy pants roaming the pasture and hayloft, she keeps this up I've heard they are a tasty bird! 

Just kidding.

This past weekend my sister and her husband hit the jackpot, some nice colored glass dishes. New bird feeders are to come from this stuff. Just so pretty. I find it hard to find colored glass, so it's nice when I get a surprise on my doorstep of some very pretty pieces.

Oh yes and my love for everything chicken, has grown. My step Mother and I went to a yard sale and found this complete set from the 30's. Early Christmas present for this girl!

I also found some very cool salt and pepper shakers to add to the ceramic flock.

They didn't have a partner so I took them home. 

Also found this cool hen that has two egg salt and pepper shakers inside the basket.

My Christmas cactus never blooms at Christmas!

It always blooms around Thanksgiving, but this time it is blooming at Halloween. If anyone has any ideas on how to get this thing to bloom around Christmas, please share. It's the only house plant I have, due to not enough windows with sunshine, but I would love for it to bloom on or around Christmas.

We have a big girl !

Ms. Fudge is officially a grown up. I was so excited to see a small blue egg in a nest she had made yesterday. I knew she was getting ready to lay, it was just a matter of when. She is the first of this years babies to start laying. We will have eggs soon, so excited.

I also spent this weekend getting their coop ready for Winter. It's so hard to imagine that it's coming. I am making a chicken water heater for the girls this year. I went to the Farm Supply to find the warmers were $40, I'm going to try something first to see how it does. If it seems to be doing well I will share. Changed out the old bedding in the coop and put new pine shavings in and got their nest boxes ready. Was a busy weekend in the barn.

We had such a pretty Fall afternoon yesterday that I took some shots of the girls under the Chestnut tree. Fall has some of the prettiest colors and lighting. 

Ms. Silver, Ms. Red and Short Stuff all nosing around in the leaves. This has been the most fun for them. Silver loves to play in the leaves and has taught these two in the past year to do the same.

Curly and Larry have been doing well with Mo being gone. They hang out with Ms. Red and Lovey the duck most of the time, so they are not lonely. It amazes me on how well they have adjusted to the change.

Camera hog Ms. Bella, while taking pictures she followed me around and kept tugging on my sweatshirt. She just wanted her picture taken, because after this photo she left my side. 

The sweetest little bird in the world! Ms. Puffy cheeks with not a care in the world. Talking to who ever will listen. Love this bird, always has something to say and quick to great you when you come out to the yard.

I couldn't imagine my world without my critters, they bring me a lot of joy, they are our family in some ways. Cranberry Acre with it's critters is my little piece of Heaven!

Well my crafting Season is slowing down, Thank God! I still have a couple of shows but they are spread out enough that I am not stressing so much, but soon I will be getting all my stuff on my Etsy store, so keep a look out on my store to see what is coming.

( Christmas Burlap Banners)

These guys are coming very soon to the store, along with new aprons and new bird feeders.