Althea's Acres

08/07/2026

Our horses made us some very expensive dirt for the garden. 😂🤣 Hint, hint: they eat grass hay, alfalfa, and their feed. Plus add in shavings in their stalls.

All the bedding and manure I dumped over the ice behind the barn all winter turned into dirt. I didn't want to risk them slipping and falling so dirty bedding was dumped for safety reasons.

The horses absolutely love rolling in it because it is so soft. And after they dig it up and roll in it, it smells like a fresh load of good quality dirt was dumped behind the barn.

And to think we were going to scrape it all up and haul it off in the spring because of how it looked before.

I've been using loads of it to fill in low spots of the dirt floor in the pole barn. The garden will get some too. 🌱

Talk about recycling some good 🐴💩

Thanks boys for your deposits, and your help with turning the dirt as it composted. 😆🐴

They were having a lot of fun the other night running around and playing. Carah walked out to the barn while I was doing chores and says, "it smells like dirt out here!" 😂😆🙌

07/07/2026

Homemade dog treats are what's cookin' right now. 🐕🦴🐶🫐

Sweet potatoes in several ways to give our three pups and if they decide they don't like the treats, we know the pigs will eat them!

A tray of frozen cubes of baked sweet potato and plain Greek yogurt with strawberries just went into the freezer. When frozen, we will pop the cubes out and store them in a container in the freezer. A yummy, healthy treat for the dogs on those hot summer days.

Sweet potato sticks went into the dehydrator and some thin cuts of sweet potato were tossed in a little olive oil and doggy safe herbs and baked in the oven before they'll finish off in the dehydrator.

A few of the thinnest cuts were already done so my three trusty taste-testers had to perform quality control.

Dilly Pickles gobbled hers down without a thought. Buddy slowly crunched away on his. And Wooster wasn't too sure at first but then quickly ate his piece after giving it a thorough licking. 😆🥰

06/29/2026

We woke up to seven new little faces this morning.

Our broody hen that was relentlessly trying to hatch eggs in the worst places ever was confined and given eight eggs to sit on.

Unfortunately the eighth egg was in process of hatching and it looks like the chick wriggled around and got itself stuck. It passed away before we had a chance to intervene.

But there are seven adorable new chicks that are full of energy and ready to cause chaos.

They'll be moving into a safe brooder in the barn to keep them from becoming critter snacks while mom raises them on her own.

Happy Monday! Stay cool out there, friends!

02/01/2026

My almost 14 year old daughter is hiding under all that winter gear.

She was saying good morning to our resident mini horse, Barleycorn.

♥️

I know lots of us are over winter, but I can say without a doubt that the lightly falling snow was incredibly pretty this morning in the sunlight.

The trick is layers. I think most city folks don't dress like we do when we walk out the door. We know we have tasks to accomplish in order to properly care for the animals so layering up to stay warm for the duration of chores is not optional.

My struggle was always cold hands and I finally found the best combo for me to keep my hands warm and now I can stay outside for over an hour without getting cold.

I truly look forward to doing chores every day and cannot wait for warmer days when spending hours outside doesn't require all the extra layers of clothes to be put on and taken off multiple times a day.

Arctic temps or not, you still couldn't convince me to move back to the city. Farm life is where it's at.

♥️

01/06/2026

I pity the fool that decides to mess with Salem. Look at those spurs!! 😳

Seriously though, this rooster is one of the best roosters we've ever had here on the farm. And the best part is, we hatched him in our incubator a few years ago. 🐣🐥

He is the epitome of what a rooster should be like.

🐓 good with the hens,
🐓 very protective of the flock
🐓 he is on alert at all times
🐓 he's the first one up and on patrol every morning
🐓 he is awesome with humans (this one is very important with kids and visitors)

Salem understood the assignment.

Yes, there are mean roosters out there, we've had a few. I was attacked by one several years back and vowed to never keep the nasty ones around because they can do some serious damage, especially to small humans.

Salem is not one of those roosters, he's one of the good ones. 🙏

And he gets bonus points for being handsome. 😂

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas to all!! 🎄♥️

03/07/2025

I propose a "take your ducklings to work day!" 🤣😂🤷‍♀️🤔🤫🫣🦆💕🥰

How could one not smile at these two!?

Plus, they're runners, so they're extra entertaining with how tall they stand up.

I let them "escape" their pen this morning while I was changing their water to see what they'd do and once they got out of the pen, they just stood as tall as they could about a foot from the pen.

They probably regretted their decision to leave their safe area and froze and didn't know what to do. 😂❤️

Once returned to their pen with fresh water, they took sips and did enough zoomies to warrant another nap.

Ducks (and geese) are probably my favorite over chickens and turkeys, but my gosh, PLEASE don't let their looks fool you, ducks are utterly disgusting.

If there is one tiny spot of mud in the grass, they'll turn it into a HUGE spot of mud in the grass. 🫣💕🦆☠️

03/05/2025

Two new babies joined the farm today.

My husband's coworker got them and a couple weeks later realized that ducks were not the best idea.

Good thing we love our ducks here.

We are not 100% sure, but we are confident that these two are fawn and white runner ducklings. Which would be our first two runners on the farm.

🦆❤️🦆

*the last photo is of what adult runners look like, aren't they cute!?

12/03/2024

10/20/2024

Soaking up the sun on this gorgeous fall day.

🐷☀️❤️🍁🍂