May 7, 2019
Last week a neighbor offered us 13 one year old chickens (12 hens and a rooster). We like the idea of younger hens, but did not necessarily want that many. We offered to split them with a friend, and give her the rooster. We just gave away 6 of our hens on Craigslist. Maybe we did not chose the wisest way, but we picked 3 that were Barred Rocks, 2 that never fit in well that we got from a friend last fall, and the Silver Wyandotte that fights with the rooster. We kept two Buff Orphingtons, a Rex Sexlink, 2 ISA Browns, and 2 Australorps. Only one is young enough to likely lay much. It will be interesting the next day or two, to see how many eggs we get, but we have high hopes the 1 year olds will lay a lot so we will be fine, but might choose to give away a few more, or at least put them in the separate coop and test their egg laying prowess.
I also just saw a thing about saving eggs in a "water bottle" solution. One lady online says she kept hers for 8 months. I want to try it. Using Pickling lime or Calcium hydroxide in a water solution. Eggs all winter would be cool!
May 9, 2019
Tonight we picked up the chickens.
We got a Rooster, 2 Barred Rocks, a Black Sex link, A Wyandotte, a Red Sex Link, and a Buff Orphington for our Friends that gave us our Rooster and an Australorp.
We got for us: A Red Sex link, A Buff Orphington, A Black Sexlink, 2 white ones we are not sure about -- one might be Might be a Austra White or a Columbian Wyandotte, the other might be the Autra White or a white leghorn.. not sure, then one that looks like a golden and white Wyandotte.
The smallest white one escaped as we were putting her in the coop, we had to catch her and put her back. That was exciting... I feel bad for her, she was scared, but they are all settled down for the night. We all (Matt, Me, Tober, Wyle, Emma and Avi) went to get them. Matt and I put them in boxes and the children loaded them into the car. ...
We have 13 chickens again and a rooster. I hope that this was a good choice and that they all settle into their new homes well.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Sunday, May 5, 2019
May
April showers Bring May flowers
It is now May 5th --Cinco de Mayo -- Who needs an excuse to eat Mexican food? I love it anyway
May the 4th Star Wars Day
We worked together on a variety of projects. Put tin on the new Hay/Straw shed, Moved composted straw from the floor of the old Hay Shed to the garden area, worked on the fencing around the Broody coop, dug thistles, took apart pallets for the flood bed...
Earlier in the week our eldest son mowed, and mowed and mowed some more while I puttered on other projects. I was really grateful! He also helped put up and build sections of the flood bed. We are now at 44 of the 100-150 feet we are looking to build!!! Not bad since this is our summer goal and it is almost 1/2-1/3 complete before summer vacation begins.
It is great seeing the green grass, trees and shrubs grow new leaves...
This week we might be getting some new chickens. A neighbor up the road offered us his younger chickens. We are splitting them with a friend who gave us the rooster in the first place, then later gave us one of their hens. We hope to give away a few of our older, less appreciated hens so we can keep the younger ones to lay for the next couple years. We have been getting 6-8 eggs a day, not bad for a mostly older flock. We are so blessed!
It is now May 5th --Cinco de Mayo -- Who needs an excuse to eat Mexican food? I love it anyway
May the 4th Star Wars Day
We worked together on a variety of projects. Put tin on the new Hay/Straw shed, Moved composted straw from the floor of the old Hay Shed to the garden area, worked on the fencing around the Broody coop, dug thistles, took apart pallets for the flood bed...
Earlier in the week our eldest son mowed, and mowed and mowed some more while I puttered on other projects. I was really grateful! He also helped put up and build sections of the flood bed. We are now at 44 of the 100-150 feet we are looking to build!!! Not bad since this is our summer goal and it is almost 1/2-1/3 complete before summer vacation begins.
It is great seeing the green grass, trees and shrubs grow new leaves...
This week we might be getting some new chickens. A neighbor up the road offered us his younger chickens. We are splitting them with a friend who gave us the rooster in the first place, then later gave us one of their hens. We hope to give away a few of our older, less appreciated hens so we can keep the younger ones to lay for the next couple years. We have been getting 6-8 eggs a day, not bad for a mostly older flock. We are so blessed!
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Plants
April 13th
Yesterday I moved our pea starts outside and planted some carrots, rainbow carrots and radishes in the raised beds we built last year. I hope they do ok. The compost is not as broken down as I hoped...
I have tomatoes, assorted peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, onions, eggplant, marigolds, assorted herbs, kale and lettuce started inside. I hope to start squash, yellow squash, pumpkin, zuchini, cucumbers and pickling cucumbers inside soon.
I built two plant lights -- one from a light I pulled from under a kitchen cabinet we moved into the laundry room, and the other from a second hand light. I bought LED daylight bulbs for the plants. They are growing in small red solo type cups with a couple holes drilled in the bottom, in plastic hospital tubs I got cheap second hand, some are up on boxes to keep them closer to the lights until they get bigger... It is fun to play with the plants.
For projects they are doing two of our children are going to plan and tend their own raised beds. One for a school project is going to build another raised bed.
I saw a video about a trellis system using fishing line I want to try for the beds. My sweetheart had
some fishing line already. I need to get more wood then set it up... hopefully in the next week or so.
I have been digging thistles in the chicken yard. The birds follow me around to get worms out of the holes as I move to another one. One of the Buff Orphingtons (Nuggets) and a ISA Brown (KFC) are the bravest and stay close the others follow. One of the newest birds an Australorp (Stir-fry) was almost accidentally hit with a flying thistle as my bad aim missed the wheelbarrow. She stayed farther away after that. Oops.
I have slowing been wacking down dried weeds from last year and pulling rocks out. We would love to burn the weeds but we are afraid of the fire getting out of control so we have not tried it yet.
Today we hope to put of the first section of the "Flood bed". A hundred plus foot long, 2.5 foot high raised bed by the creek. We hope to plan perrinial foods in it and also have an extra barrier from the creek spring melts.
We hope to built up a wall/dike/burm on the North side where the water drains from the field behind us in the spring. We are pulling rubble from the creek bed that previous owners left there, then will bury that with dirt from "run" to make that part deeper and the wall next to it higher at the same time.
Lots of work ,but it feels good to be productive and see progress on our land.
PS the chickens are laying so well I have 3 dozen eggs in the fridge all from them. I have not bought eggs for at least a month, I think maybe two, and I have given some away and have plans to bring some to family in a week or so....
Yesterday I moved our pea starts outside and planted some carrots, rainbow carrots and radishes in the raised beds we built last year. I hope they do ok. The compost is not as broken down as I hoped...
I have tomatoes, assorted peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, onions, eggplant, marigolds, assorted herbs, kale and lettuce started inside. I hope to start squash, yellow squash, pumpkin, zuchini, cucumbers and pickling cucumbers inside soon.
I built two plant lights -- one from a light I pulled from under a kitchen cabinet we moved into the laundry room, and the other from a second hand light. I bought LED daylight bulbs for the plants. They are growing in small red solo type cups with a couple holes drilled in the bottom, in plastic hospital tubs I got cheap second hand, some are up on boxes to keep them closer to the lights until they get bigger... It is fun to play with the plants.
For projects they are doing two of our children are going to plan and tend their own raised beds. One for a school project is going to build another raised bed.
I saw a video about a trellis system using fishing line I want to try for the beds. My sweetheart had
some fishing line already. I need to get more wood then set it up... hopefully in the next week or so.
I have been digging thistles in the chicken yard. The birds follow me around to get worms out of the holes as I move to another one. One of the Buff Orphingtons (Nuggets) and a ISA Brown (KFC) are the bravest and stay close the others follow. One of the newest birds an Australorp (Stir-fry) was almost accidentally hit with a flying thistle as my bad aim missed the wheelbarrow. She stayed farther away after that. Oops.
I have slowing been wacking down dried weeds from last year and pulling rocks out. We would love to burn the weeds but we are afraid of the fire getting out of control so we have not tried it yet.
Today we hope to put of the first section of the "Flood bed". A hundred plus foot long, 2.5 foot high raised bed by the creek. We hope to plan perrinial foods in it and also have an extra barrier from the creek spring melts.
We hope to built up a wall/dike/burm on the North side where the water drains from the field behind us in the spring. We are pulling rubble from the creek bed that previous owners left there, then will bury that with dirt from "run" to make that part deeper and the wall next to it higher at the same time.
Lots of work ,but it feels good to be productive and see progress on our land.
PS the chickens are laying so well I have 3 dozen eggs in the fridge all from them. I have not bought eggs for at least a month, I think maybe two, and I have given some away and have plans to bring some to family in a week or so....
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
New Experience
March 26, 2019
The weather is nicer and I have been enjoying "working" in the yard in the afternoons. Adding dirt and compost to the raised beds, improving the dirt (hopefully towards soil) in the beds by the house by adding compost...
Along the creek bank I noticed some largish rocks that I knew would be an issue when we go to mow so I decided to move them. I noticed something else in the creek bank and went down to investigate...
It was a toilet seat, with a full one toilet, broken into many, many pieces.
I know some "country" people pick somewhere and create their own "dump." We have found what we think was the remnants from a box spring, full on bags of garbage partly buried, tons of contributions to our tetanus bucket (a metal bucket we put random metal stuff that we don't plan to use but want contained until we are ready to take it to a recycling place), many, many items that one of our daughters named "treasures" last summer.
The toilet was different for me for a different reason. For years I have lamented that I wish I was strong enough to move a toilet. The few times we have needed to pull up our toilet over the years I have to wait for my husband to be available. This time I was able to move it myself, though it filled 3 boxes, and they were heavy, I could move them by myself. I have now moved a toilet and don't have a strong desire to ever do it again :)
The weather is nicer and I have been enjoying "working" in the yard in the afternoons. Adding dirt and compost to the raised beds, improving the dirt (hopefully towards soil) in the beds by the house by adding compost...
Along the creek bank I noticed some largish rocks that I knew would be an issue when we go to mow so I decided to move them. I noticed something else in the creek bank and went down to investigate...
It was a toilet seat, with a full one toilet, broken into many, many pieces.
I know some "country" people pick somewhere and create their own "dump." We have found what we think was the remnants from a box spring, full on bags of garbage partly buried, tons of contributions to our tetanus bucket (a metal bucket we put random metal stuff that we don't plan to use but want contained until we are ready to take it to a recycling place), many, many items that one of our daughters named "treasures" last summer.
The toilet was different for me for a different reason. For years I have lamented that I wish I was strong enough to move a toilet. The few times we have needed to pull up our toilet over the years I have to wait for my husband to be available. This time I was able to move it myself, though it filled 3 boxes, and they were heavy, I could move them by myself. I have now moved a toilet and don't have a strong desire to ever do it again :)
Monday, March 18, 2019
Spring Break Kick off
March 18, 2019
Today Spring Break had a great start.
Today Spring Break had a great start.
The snow is receding
There is still an iceberg wall in the creek bank
My Awesome brother took the old metal door that we had on sawhorses and
turned it into a great work table/bench
Panther is hunting mice and found several :)
My Awesome brother made the bunny an amazing hutch and run.
Two levels, hiding places to get out of the weather and space to run and dig
The bunny already made a couple holes to snuggle in.
Hopefully she won't decide to get out, but if she does, she is in the chicken field
Inside the lower part
The "floor" on the left covers the lower hiding place, the cover/roof comes down
to give her an upper hiding place.
What is left of the thistle pile after winter broken them down some...
This is our two Australorps. Teriyaki is on the right and the new one, Stir-fry is on the left.
Chickens checking out the bunny in their field.
They spent time together last fall when the bunny escaped,
and hid under some bushes with the chickens,
so we think they are safe together...
We built a couple plant lights, a couple weeks ago and started our garden plants inside, and have plans to do more as the weeks head closer to frost free nights
Some of the salad greens
Tomato and cucumber starts...
A look back, where we were just a month ago, and for the past 4 months...
It was fun, but I am grateful for spring!!!!
Monday, March 4, 2019
Flock
March 4, 2019
The Flock seems to have made it through the winter with no electricity run to the coop. It was a milder winter as far as temperatures. Very few nights below zero. There was a significant amount of snow. They all actually look better. The one in particular that we worried because she was still missing feathers on her neck has filled out. Some were molting late in the year but have all recovered well.
We added a Black Australorp to the flock this past weekend when a friend has problem with raccoons getting to their birds. She has integrated surprisingly well into the flock. I was concerned about pecking order and adding a single bird, but she is doing ok. The two we added in the late fall still keep themselves apart from the rest of the flock.
I am hoping and praying for a hen or two to go broody and raise us a few babies.
We will see what happens....
The Flock seems to have made it through the winter with no electricity run to the coop. It was a milder winter as far as temperatures. Very few nights below zero. There was a significant amount of snow. They all actually look better. The one in particular that we worried because she was still missing feathers on her neck has filled out. Some were molting late in the year but have all recovered well.
We added a Black Australorp to the flock this past weekend when a friend has problem with raccoons getting to their birds. She has integrated surprisingly well into the flock. I was concerned about pecking order and adding a single bird, but she is doing ok. The two we added in the late fall still keep themselves apart from the rest of the flock.
I am hoping and praying for a hen or two to go broody and raise us a few babies.
We will see what happens....
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Snow
February 17, 2019
Today we woke to several inches of snow. It is interesting because we had several storm predictions recently, but none proved to be as much as we got today. I love how fresh snow looks. Yes, I am anxious for spring and grass and planting, but fresh snow just looks like a nicely made bed ;)
Today we woke to several inches of snow. It is interesting because we had several storm predictions recently, but none proved to be as much as we got today. I love how fresh snow looks. Yes, I am anxious for spring and grass and planting, but fresh snow just looks like a nicely made bed ;)
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