That time of year again.  Working on filling the wood shed for the winter.  It's a job not many of us enjoy doing but we all seem to love the benefits of burning wood.  We use oil as back up but wood is our main source of heat.  The wood stove is in the basement and usually we have to shut the door to the upstairs because it gets too warm up there.  Anything over 70* of wood heat is too warm for me.  I tend to sleep with the window in the bed room cracked open all winter long.  I do find that my husband tends to shut the window during the night.  lol 
We used to get our wood by the logging truck full.  A friend of ours is a logger and he and my husband, a mechanic, would barter for services.  My kids used to cry....NO!!!  Not Jake! when he drove into the yard with a monster logging truck full of full length logs that needed to be cut, split and stacked. 
I help stack some and I run the wood splitter.  Because of my emergency hernia surgery  a while back, I'm not supposed to be lifting heavy stuff.  I have been very fortunate also that the guys help me as much as possible when it comes to lifting all the grain bags too.

I just finished locking up the chickens for the night.  I did not have anyone around to lift up the nesting boxes for me to check for skunks so I am praying there are none in there tonight.
While I was waiting for the few stragglers to get in the coop, I sat outside with DJ, our dog.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  The only sounds I heard were the chickens and a few birds talking.  It was just starting to get dark so I sat and watched a bat flying above the house.  I love watching them.  I find it so peaceful.
I was debating on leaving two eggs outside in a spot where some of the girls lay.  I figured I could tell if there was another skunk around if they were missing in the morning but then I thought I shouldn't leave food out for them to get.  I decided to bring the eggs in. 
I asked one of the girls to run down to the barn yesterday and look for eggs.  I know some of the hens are going down there to lay but I couldn't find them.  She came back with a basket of 17 eggs!  lol  They were way up high in the hay bales.  I've sold 7 dozen eggs this week already and have 5 more dozen available.

I have a group of 5 girls that should be starting to lay any day now.  This spring I purchased 6 Brown Leghorns to try.  I have lot of White Leghorns but had never had the brown ones,  I am curious to see if they lay as well as the white ones do.  They are awesome egg layers. 
I only have 5 of these hens now.  The bear got to them.  Because they were new to the group they started sleeping on top of the chicken coop.  They figured they were up high enough no predators would get them.  I looked out one morning to see a bear climbing up on the coop to get to them.  He didn't get them that morning but soon after.  Now, they sleep in the trees WAY up above the roof top of the house.  I have no worries of bears, skunk or coyotes getting them up there but I do worry about the hawks and owls that are around here.

                                                                     Brown Leghorn hen

                                                           Some of today's bounty.

The ducks aren't laying.  Poor things laid and laid on their eggs then the skunk stole them all.  If they are laying they are hiding the eggs really well.  Some days it's like an Easter egg hunt around here.

We have a bee's nest is this barrel.  lol  It's right in the door way of a little shed we have so none of us can get it the shed to get anything out.  Not sure what we are going to do with it.  Wait till it gets colder and then pull it out?  I tried spraying into the barrel but last night I looked into it and it looks like there is a big speaker box inside.  I think the nest must be inside the speaker so the spray wasn't effecting it at all.  I tell ya, it's always something around here.  Haahaa.

Well, I'm off for now.  Tomorrow is another day trip to the ocean with my friend, Sandy.  I love our days out!  Seafood is calling my name!  Oh yum!