More Chickens!

Dern you, Murray McMurray Hatchery! Why do you tempt me with your sales in my inbox! Yes, I am weak when it comes to chickens. Especially since we have the brooder built. I have 25 heavy straight run coming September 13. I ordered those about three months ago to ensure I would have everything ready and cleaned up. And last week, there was a special. Duke's Mix they called it. A plethora of variety. You know, my mother chastised me for just ordering all one breed of white chickens last year; she called them "boring." So, now I have gone to the other extreme. Yes, I clicked order now! And they will be here in two weeks. Oh dear, what have I done. I will have 25 more three weeks after that. Guess, I better divide the brooder. At least I know the ones I ordered in the past will be useful for eating and eggs. I guess even if I get fancy ones I can still eat them and their eggs. I will just call them gourmet.

Laundry Soap

I made my first batch of laundry soap today. I hope that it works well. I had read one recipe that was just shaved soap, 1/2 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax. And you use it just like that. Well, it sounded like a lot of shaved soap, so I looked up a few other recipes and ended up making a batch that is in my 5-gallon bucket. I will find out tomorrow how it works. Can't wait...what, wait, can't wait to do laundry, really??? Did I hit my head :)

Still Regretting

Oh how wonderful the cooler air felt as I opened up the greenhouse and walked to the mailbox. The humidity is so much lower. And it is only supposed to be 90 degrees today. On my 0.6 of a mile walk to mail my package, I looked around the place. I have not been doing anything to "beautify" the place this summer. I didn't plant any flowers or have any hanging baskets out. I didn't even feed the hummingbirds. I feel horrible. Of course, I had a few veggies in the garden, and even picked three cucumbers from the plants around the porch this morning, but have pretty well let the rest of it go. It had been so dry and hot. That is no excuse. I will be sorry when my few bags of frozen corn and cans of green beans are gone before Christmas! Now that the reality of the end of the growing season is here, I am feeling regret for my lack of perseverance. I guess that is why I am now, in the heat of the summer, trying to make up for lost time by making sure this fall and early winter are different. When I have a menu and grocery list for the week and spend over $120, it irks me, especially knowing that some of these things should be in my garden! Although there is regret, there is still hope.

When I opened the greenhouse today I was so happy to see several trays have sprouted; cabbage, collards, beets, lettuces, kale and basil. Especially with the fact that I have been at war with a mouse in the greenhouse. I saw him running into the fuse box a few weesk ago. He destroyed my first batch of sown seeds. He even decimated this batch of spinach and brussels sprouts (much to my husband's joy-he hates brussels sprouts, even swallowed one whole to avoid tasting it-ouch!) I am seriously considering a greenhouse cat! First, I will try some good old fashion traps. I can only dream of the morning I find him in the trap...ahhh, the joy it brings my heart. Sorry if that offends, but he offends me by eating my seeds that are supposed to provide food for my family this fall and winter! I am sure there are more lovely things he could find besides digging in my seed trays!!

I am hoping to get back into the overgrown garden soon and redig some of the old beds to put some of the vegetables in. If I have enough energy, I would like to make some tunnels for fall and early winter to save the greenhouse bed for other experiments. I will be putting a few in the greenhouse bed nonetheless. I also need to put another bed in the greenhouse to make sure we have plenty of winter growing space. There is a whole other compost pile to dig and use for that purpose.

Still so much to do. Thank goodness I am re-motivated everytime I come home from the grocery store!

At Least I Had a Good Weekend

I am giving this weekend a B...for me. I got my package mailed out for my paying job, I got 12 trays of seeds in the greenhouse (fingers crossed), the semi-permanent brooder is up and ready, the kids' school supplies and a good start of clothes is bought and paid for, the animal food is in the containers (I will explain in a second), the fire ants have somewhat abated from the kitchen, Penny and Cherry free-ranged a bit, and my office is finally painted, partially cleared out and ready for organization. I am content with what we got done.

Bruce and the kids, on the other hand, probably graded a bit lower. Jake got several ant bites and cuts. Sarah got a lot of ant bites on her feet, and every time I turned around she had hiccups. And then there is Bruce...poor, poor Bruce. Right now he is lying on the couch in a Benadryl/Ibuprofen coma. He got stung in the eyelid while feeding the bees. No, he didn't wear any veil and had on a sweaty black T-shirt. He looks like he was in a boxing match with a gorilla. He also has ant bites up to his knees. And last, but not least, he stepped on a stick that went through his shoe and stuck into his foot. Very rough day, indeed. Bless their hearts.

Okay, I am trying a new animal food system so I am not taken unawares when the kids say they have been out of food since last night. I have started using, and will be buying more, those 18-gallon totes you can get for $4 at the dollar store. I lined them with trashbags and dumped a bag of food in it. My goal is to have two totes per animal feed/type (two goat chow, two sweet feed, two chick starter, etc.) stacked on each other. When the top one is full the last person to feed the animal is to bring the empty container to the porch so I know what we need when I make a trip to the feed store. Theoretically it will work; however, I know the day will come when the new container is not rotated or left somewhere between the feed shed and the porch, but hopefully those moments will be few and far between. I also think this will keep the food fresher and not waste as much. But, time will tell.

I'm Back!

Not that I have been gone per se. Over the last six months, I have been posting on Facebook. Social Media is great, but I miss the simplicity of the blog. It is not intertwined with all these other things that can make you lose focus, which I have a tendency to do. Okay, the past six months. Spring was an absolute disaster! We lost so many animals. I was almost afraid to try anything. Our chickens were massacred. They were destroyed by dogs that had been running rabbits across the pond. The man got ill and left, leaving behind one dog who found his way to the chicken pen. Our dogs had been trained and did not bother the chickens, thus we free-ranged. I have one hen left. That very same day Snow White, our NZ rabbit had 10 dead bunnies that I had to dispose of. And I had left the cage door open and she got out and our chow did get her. At that point, I came in, sat down, cried like a baby, called my mommy and then put my big girl panties back on and grabbed a shovel. Not one of my best days, ever!

Currently, I have Cherry, she is a registered Nubian (disbudded) goat, whom we will have bred next month. Suzy was given to a wonderful family who love her and treat her as a pet. I have Bucky, the white New Zeland buck. My one hen, whom I have named Henny Penny.

So, we are at the building stage again, starting over. Maybe I am trying to do too much. Maybe I should slow down, but in my gut I have this urgency to get the farm up and running quickly.

What am I up to now. As I mentioned, Cherry will be bred next month and we will be getting the milk house ready, which means rebuilding it. We have 25 more chicks on the way-brown layer straight run. Some to eat, some to keep. With that, we are also going to be building a chicken tractor so that they can free-range...safely. (Lesson learned). I am not actively looking for rabbits at this point, but I do scan the Market Bulletin if something is close and reasonably priced. I expect it will be March or so before we get any more.

The garden is so dry that I have let it go. I will be removing the fencing and trellises and posts next month as well. I have put a small raised bed (yes, it is a redneck bed, but it was free) in the greenhouse to try and grow throughout the winter. I am not sure how this will work out, but as everything else, it will be lessons learned until I perfect it. We have several trays of fall/winter crops started.

The yard has not been mown for quite a while now. First, our lawn mower is down and I am waiting to get that fixed. Luckily it is so hot and dry that the grass is not really growing anyway.

We have two beehives. I am feeding them now with sugar water and a supplement of essential oils to keep them healthy while there is nothing blooming on our land anyway.

That catches us up, yet, it seems I am further behind than I was.

Taking Care of Business Day

Today was a long day on the road, but productive. Bruce and I drove to Pickens today to order a package of bees. We decided to just get one this year. We have two strong hives and will probably split one if not both, depending on the equipment we can afford. It is not a cheap endeavor, but it is so worth it to see nature at its core, and the honey. We use honey for tea, lemonade, hot cereal such as oats, and cornbread regularly. I made a loaf of bread with it a few months ago. I really haven't tried other recipes lately. I have given away two very, very small jars to a couple of friends who are suffering from allergies already. Of course, any further honey will cost them. I have not bought any white granulated sugar in months! I have bought a bag of raw cane sugar for those in the family who have to have a little sweetener now and then.
We found an "oops" paint at a local home improvement store for $5. It was a beautiful pale green. That saved us about $25 (it was a more expensive brand).

We are getting ready to order some more hens, yes, hens only. I am waiting until late summer to order the broilers / freezer fodder. I have ordered 25 brown egg layers. The company will be sending five each of five different breeds. Please don't let them send any turkens...seriously those things scare me! They look like they have a horrible disease. Of course, they would be easy aim for butchering-sorry. (This picture is from polishfarms.com.)

We bought our rabbit wire so that Bruce and Jake can finish the cages. There are several advertisements online for New Zealands for sale. I will be calling on those next week. The boys better finish the cages soon. If I waited for the cages to be finished first...I have, and that was over a year ago. Time for a new strategy, don't you think? Besides, poor Rebel really needs to be up with everybody else. Bless his little lonely heart.

We also stopped at a local feed store and got some Kennebec seed potatoes. We will be tilling the "secret garden," as my mother calls it, and get those in the ground soon.

The only thing that did not get done, that we really needed to do, was get the part for the greenhouse waterline. We need to make sure the water heater elements are working too, but I have my doubts. Yes, my mother asked us to make sure we turned off the power supply to the water heater in the greenhouse, and Bruce said he did, and being an adult I didn't double check him...my bad...

All in all it was a productive day, getting supplies and taking care of errands.

Is Spring Coming?

I must suffer from SAD...you know, the label we give people who are grouchy and reclusive in the winter...seasonal affective disorder...now the days are getting a little longer, the sun is getting a little warmer and I am feeling a bit more alive.

It has been a nice winter really. We had two good snowy spells, one actually on Christmas. There has been a good number of rainy days. Now, of course, I have to find some rock for the driveway, soon!

Okay, catch up time. The farm still has one goat, Suzy...I am still contemplating her residency though. We still have Rebel and the one angora rabbit, who is nameless. We have 14 hens and the one rooster we kept around is the "rare" breed McMurray sent us, which is the dominique (the black and white striped/checked looking one). We really thought it was a hen too because it's comb was so small, well, he is so small, no wonder the other roosters were so mean to him. Then we heard him crow. Nice surprise. We aren't getting many eggs, but I have not used the artifical light or anything, just let nature do what it does. And we do have an egg eater...she will be found and dealt with harshly. We did sell a total of 4 dozen eggs over the last few months. Hopefully production will pick up now.

I am just now beginning to get outside and work a bit. I pulled some of the weeds out of the asparagus bed and around the garden fence row. I have my garden plan and most of my seeds ready and waiting. I have few to get. But I still have quite a bit of cleaning up to do, as you can see. Fence posts ready to put up and all those weeds where my cucumbers are going.

Bruce and Jake folded back the shade cloth (just halfway) to allow some sun in the greenhouse. It was 80 degrees in there shortly after they did that. YES! We moved some tables around to open it up a bit and now it is time for the cleaning of pots, cleaning of tables...well, once Bruce repairs the broken water line...This year I will just be growing our food, including vegetables and herbs, and a few neighbor's requests in the greenhouse. This is my true first trial year. I might try to sneak in a few flowers just because.

That is where we stand as of today, Valentine's Day 2011. I am sorry that I have not posted anything for five months. I am guessing the next few months will make up for it; I feel a lot of energy in the air.