The Homestead

Thanks to a couple of friends of Brian's he is once again keeping pigeons.  Brian has kept pigeons almost continuously since 2001 taking only about three years off while he started his journey into falconry.   The pigeons we currently have at the Hersom Farm are homing pigeons.  The babies from these foundation birds will be able to fly back to our farm from great distances. 

The odds have been against this baby pigeon since the day the egg was laid.  The first egg came on one of the coldest days of the year.  With this baby hatching out during another major cold snap.  This baby was provided an insulated nest to give it better odds.  

Our oldest daughter has always taken after her dad in her love of birds.  Her favorite birds are pigeons, and she is so excited to finally have some again that she can barely contain herself.  In this picture she is waiting for the pigeons to come down to the feeder to eat so she can get closer to them.  It took quite a bit of convincing to get her to go back in the house.  

Noel is taking on the task this year of keeping her first chickens.  These little ladies are Rode Island Reds and just started laying their first brown eggs. 

Brian and Jennifer have been keeping jumping spiders this summer, working on helping get everyone  more comfortable with the 8 legged critters. 

Noel's vegetable garden is doing well this year.  Maybe not as well as last year, but we have buckets of beans, and adequate, tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers.   

Pepper is our 3 legged house cat.  Jennifer claims her as her own and she is well loved. 

Mackenzie is our Greenwing Macaw.  She turns 25 years old this year.  She is Brian's, but Jennifer and Timmy love chatting her up each day. 

Each summer we have a squatter on our porch in the form of this wren.  It was determined to nest on our porch so we put up a little house and in it moved! This little thing kept us entertained as we came in and out of our home all summer.