OH BOY!

We've seperated the chicken run and built a new ramp for the little chicks.  They need to get a little bit bigger before they can go out and free-range with the ladies.  Today is their first day outside.  The first outside are of course the Barred Rocks... they fear nothing....

And after quite a while, an Americana finally came out...

And finally, the most skitterish of all, a Buff Orphington came out...

Egg count

27 eggs this week.

Making progress

Today Dan and Brian worked on the front of the house... we're getting there.

1st Quarter, 2010 Egg Count

From Jan 1 - March 31, the ladies laid a total of 358 eggs!

LIFE!!!

I LOVE signs that spring is here, such as....

And I'm very excited about this little find!  Purple Coral Bells... the very same ones that the ladies snacked on all last fall.  I was sure they had eaten them down to the roots, but after digging away some of the fall leaves, I still have 4 little plants.  Granted, I had 6 last summer, but still, 4 is better than none!

Projects. Oh, do we have projects....

We are VERY good at starting projects.  Finishing them seems to be harder.  Here are a few that we've started that we need to finish. 

These first two photos are all about the trees.  No, not the song by Rush.  I'm referring to the felled forest in our yard.  Felling trees is one of Dan's favorite things to do.  And who blames him?  It's quite a thrill to watch a giant tree fall exactly where you planned for it to fall.  The ear-numbing sound and power of the chainsaw is exilarating.  The trees in the photos below have been laying right where they are for about a month now.  Why you ask?  Because it has rained EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND for the past month.  I was hoping this weekend would be the weekend to cut them up into usable logs, but it's not looking very promising.  Although it's only Tuesday, the weather eight-ball is calling for rain, yet again.

This next project was all my idea.  The actual work, of course, was mostly done by Dan.  We don't have a proper entrance to the house.  It's really kind of an odd layout.  So we decided it would look nice if we gave the front of the house a proper entrance, with stone steps leading to a walkway that leads to the driveway. 

You can see in the below picture the small dent I made trying to shovel up the dirt by hand.  I didn't get very far.  Then Dan had the idea of using the tractor bucket to scoop up all of the dirt at once and deposit it where ever I choose.  Ingenious!  At that suggestion, I proceeded to put my shovel away.  But, again, rain appears to be in our weekend future, so it will likely have to wait another week to see completion.

Goin' broody...

One of the 'ladies' is going broody on us.  She's been sitting in the same spot in the coop for three days now.  Everything we read online says you just need to leave them alone and they'll get over it.  However, I so badly want to go out there, kick her out of the coop and tell her not to come back until she shapes up!

The lady in the upper nesting box is Coq Au Vin.  She is not broody.  She is in the coop simply to lay an egg.  I image she bawked at Blackie in chicken language that sounded something like this "Hey, LADY... can't I get some privacy around here!?!" 

The lady sitting on the floor is Blackie.  She is broody.  I imagine her response to Coq Au Vin went something like this, "Mind your own business LADY!  This is my coop too and I can lay here if I want to!!!". 

As you can see, both have valid points.

Doin' their thang...

Here are a few of the ladies out foraging for food in the woods.  And boy, do they LOVE foraging!

Tractor is running

After several weeks of working on the tractor, she's finally running.  I say 'she' because I for some reason associate all tractors as feminine.  Considering the masculine work they do, one would think they'd be more closely assoicated with 'he', but such is not the case.

Anyway, the tractor is running.  She ain't pretty, yet, and she needs a new clutch, but it will work for the current purposes we have.  1) lifting pigs for butchering 2) moving around smaller amounts of dirt and 3) moving cut down trees.  For this, she'll be just fine. 

Here's our beauty..... please, please, don't send offers to purchase this beast of a machine... she's all ours!

Egg count

29 eggs this week.  I think the ladies are enjoying the warm, wet weather so much, they're forgetting to head back to the coop to lay their eggs.  Can't really blame them, I guess.

Contract terminated

Unfortunatley, we had to terminate the contract on our farm property.  Long story short... the value of the land was equal to the house, which causes lending nightmares.  So, we're back to square one. 

Happy pigs!

Our pigs have had a nice life since we brought them home last fall.  They've enjoyed romping around their pen, eating to their hearts content and their favorite activity, if I had to guess, basking in the sun. 

However, it's time to face the fact that they're not pets - their fate since the day we got them has been dinner.  We're guessing they weigh somewhere around 300 lbs, so Dan had to devise a plan to be able to pick the pigs up to bleed out after he kills them.  The plan is that we'll lift the pigs up with the bucket on the tractor.  No human effort involved.  My kind of plan!  I'll be sure to post pics of the event... tentatively planned for next weekend as long as the weather stays nice.  For now though, here are our tubby, not-so-little pigs....

Bacon

Sausage... doing her favorite thing!

New boys and girls

Our new chicks aren't so little anymore.  They just turned 8 weeks old this week.  We're finally sure how to distinguish the Cockerels from the Pullets, so here is what we have:

11 Cockerels (boys)
20 Pullets (girls)

When the boys get to 18 weeks old, they'll be butchered and lovingly placed in our freezer.  Dan & I gave up eating factory raised chicken about a year ago.  It's been ONE LONG YEAR without chicken.  We are as giddy as school kids about having fresh, naturally raised chicken very soon!

We haven't decided if we're going to keep 1 to become a Rooster or not.  We'll have to wait and see...............

The "ladies"

Here are our "ladies" - 6 hens that are 1 year old.

2 Rhode Island Reds
2 New Hampshire Reds
2 Black Sex Links

Egg count

Eggs this week are down a little... 29.

What the heck?!?

1 stinkin' egg today.  We have 6 hens and a gorgeous spring-like day and 1 egg is all we get?  Hmm.

HOLY COW!

They ACCEPTED our offer!!!!  Holy cow!  No matter how badly a person wants a certain response, when they get it, they still get butterflies in their stomach.

BUT, along with the signed counter offer email, I got a voicemail from the realtor.  The owner just told her something about the house that neither she (nor we) knew.  This could throw a wrench in things.  Why oh why do things have to be difficult?  One more thing to work around.  I'm going to wait until we have this worked through before I start to get excited.

Counter offer #2

Bright and early this mornning, we sent our counter offer to the counter offer.  We think this is a solid offer - we up'd our price, but asked for some farm equipment to stay.  That will really help us in the long run!  We'll wait and see.......................

Counter offer #1

We expected a counter offer.  We started with a really low offer.  But the seller only came down $3000 from the list price.  We weren't expecting that.  We'll have to think about what we want to counter with.  Did I mention this is the part I hate about buying a house? 

Decision is made

After lots of thought and prayer, we decided to put in an offer on the farm.  As nerve-wracking as it is, we think it's the right decision.  The realtor filled out the paperwork, we've signed and emailed it back.  The ball is in their court.  Now the waiting game.

Property #2

Today after church we made the trek back down to the house.  The land was just as pretty as we remembered.  This time I could envision our wall colors and our furniture in the house.  I think it would be pretty nice.  Granted, it's not as nice as our current house, but again, it's about the land.  We can change the house over time.  The owner was really friendly and told us a lot about the property.  We spent almost 2 hours wandering around the house and property.  We told the realtor we'd think about it more and get back to her in a couple of days.

Sigh.  So many decisions to make.  This is making it easier.... here is a picture I snapped today from the front porch...

Egg count

This week: 31 eggs.

Looking at farm #2 again

We've decided that we want to see farm #2 from last week again.  I've made arragements with the realtor to head back down this coming Sunday to look around again and even speak with the owner this time.  Hoping he can give us an inside scoop on the property and land.

Although the house isn't quite what we want, we both can't stop thinking about the land.  It is so pretty.  It's almost 50 acres.  It's already fenced and cross fenced.  It has 3 ponds.  It has well pumps throughout the yard.  It has an auto-waterer attached to one of the pastures.  The whole perimeter of the property is lined with big, mature trees.  A house you can change.... land you cannot. 

Pig heart attacks?

Can pigs die of a heart attack due to being overweight?  If so, I think ours might be close.  They're so heavy it takes all their energy just to move from the hut to their food bowl (to eat and get fatter).  I think we really need to butcher them soon, but it's rained just about every weekend for the past few weeks.  I'm not even entirely sure how we will butcher these two.  They have to weigh every bit of 300 lbs.  It will probably take 3-4 of us to hoist them up.  Dunno.  I'll just cross my fingers that they don't have a heart attack in the meantime.

1 potential farm

We had fun going farm hunting on Friday.  It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive south from our house.  Beautiful trees in the small town we're looking in.  Very small town, friendly feel. 

The first property was too close to the road and the house way too small.

The second property was nice!  Gorgeous land with rolling pastures.  The house was nice - nothing special.  Just your standard ranch and kind of small.  But it could work.

The third property was just scary!  Ratty looking mobile home and a funky land layout.

We'll have to think more about the pros and cons of the second house......................

Egg count

This weeks total is 35.  Good girls!

Finding a farm

Dan and I took off work today so we can go farm hunting.  We found three farms online that could potentially work.  We scheduled a meeting time with a local realtor to go look at them all today.  How exciting!  We're even more inclined to find a farm soon since the baby is getting closer and closer.  At least now, I'd be somewhat helpful during a move.  I'll post an update tomorrow as to how it went.

Egg count

Total for the week is 33.

Chicks-a-growin

The chicks are 4 weeks old and boy have they grown!  One more week and we'll be able to take down their cardboard wall, so they can roam free in the coop.  They're not big enough to go outside yet though.

This little gal is a Barred Rock.  Very pretty when they grow up - almost zebra striped.

Another Barred Rock, but we think this one is a cockerel (rooster)...

Six rototillers!

If you've ever wanted loose, airy soil to plant your flowers in, you don't need to get a rototiller.  You just need to get chickens.  There is one small drawback.  After you've planted your flowers, your chickens will continue to rototill and very shortly you will have no flowers left!

Last spring/summer, I had some beautiful begonia's and peony's in this bed.  By late summer, the rototillers discovered they liked eating my flowers.  About 1 day later, they were all gone.  I wasn't too heart broken - at least I had enjoyed them all summer long.  And, I still had 6 Purple Coral Bells in this bed.  Since they're perennials, I would have even bigger plants come next spring. 

Take a closer look at the picture.  Do you see any Purple Coral Bells?  No. Thanks to the rototillers scratching and pecking away at them all winter long.  I have multiple plant beds around the house and they have all had the same fate.  Well, one exception.  I do have a hanging planter that the chickens haven't figure out how to fly up into yet.  Just give them time though!

Say Cheese!

1 gallon of whole milk.  Check.
1/2 cup lemon juice.  Check.
Muslin.  Check.

What will this make you ask?  CHEESE!  Yup, today was our first cheese making experience.  What else do you need in order to make cheese?  You guessed it, a book!  For Christmas I gave Dan 'Home Cheese Making' so we looked through the basic cheese recipes and decided on Panir.  The book says Panir is an Indian cheese, one of the simplest types of unripened cheese, is mild and readily absorbs the flavors of the herbs and spices.  Sounds good to me!

Step 1 - bring milk to a boil
Step 2 - drizzle in lemon juice
Step 3 - remove from heat and stir until curds form and let set for 10 min
Step 4 - laddle curds into a colander lined with muslin.
Step 5 - let drain for 2-3 hours
Step 5 - eat or store cheese.

It wasn't exactly what I was envisioning.  I was thinking of a nice soft cheese to be eaten with crackers.  It's more of a feta consistency though and has very little taste.  I'm not exactly sure what I thought it would taste like considering the only ingredients are milk and lemon juice.  Dan has been eating it on his salads and enjoys it a great deal.  I don't really care for it.  The good thing about making foods at home is that you can try, try again!

Take two!

Unfortunately, between nightly chores, errands and dinner, we never got around to mating Jasper and Bunny #1 again. 

So on Sunday morning, we figured better late than never.  We put Bunny #1 in with Jasper again and this time she seemed to know what she was doing.  She propped her tail up so he could do his business.  He mounted several times, but didn't fall over sideways today.  Hopefully he did his business.  Assuming he did and assuming she's fertile (does are fertile 365 days per year) we should have some baby bunnies in 31 days. 

From what our book tells us, we should be able to feel around her belly in 10 days to see if we feel hard marble-like balls.  If so, she's pregnant!  Twenty-one days later she should have a litter of 8-10 kits.

Egg count

28 eggs this week.

Mating season

We're hoping a month from now the weather will be pretty nice.  At least not freezing.  And as long as it's not freezing, that means baby bunnies can survive.  That of course, means we need to mate our does and buck to make little babies.

As with most of our homesteading adventures, we turn to a book.  Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits contains everything one needs to know about rabbits, including how to breed them.  Turns out, it's quite simple!

Saturday morning, Dan took doe Bunny #1 and put her in with our Buck (Jasper).  Jasper immediately knew what to do.  He started chasing her round and round.  Dan watched their dance for a bit and came back inside.  It wasn't until later that he told me he put them together.  Holy cow!  He mated the rabbits without telling me!?!  Sheesh.  I stormed around the house getting my coat, scarf, hat, gloves, etc and went out to see what's going on.  Jasper started chasing again, mounted for a few seconds and then fell over.  I guess with this being his first time, he wasn't sure what to do. I went back inside and read the book again.  Sure enough it says "don't blink or you'll miss it" and "when the buck is 'done' he will fall over on his side".  Holy cow again!  They did mate while I was out there, I just didn't realize it.  I read this to Dan and he said 'he did that while I was out there too!'.  Apparently Jasper DOES know what he's doing.  Now I call him Stud Muffin.

We kept reading the book and it says that 8-10 hours after the first mating session that we should put them back together to mate again to increase her chances of fertility.  So, we'll put them together around 6pm tonight.

Here is Jasper (aka Stud Muffin)...

And here are our does.  Bunny #1 is the one on the far right...

Snuggling pigs

Thought this was way too cute to not snap a pic and post. Bacon and Sausage aren't very fond of cold days. They tend to stay in their hut and snuggle up.

Egg count

36 eggs this week.

Moving day!

The air under the brooder is heated up and it's time to move the chicks in. Dan transported them via a plastic tub into their new home. We have a cardboard box around their brooder to keep them confined until they get a little bit bigger. Hope they like it!

New home

Here is a pic of the chicks new brooder right after Dan finished constructing it (it's upside down in the pic). One socket has a regular heat lamp in it and the other has an infared bulb. We placed it in the coop and are waiting for the temp to heat up. The chicks will be moving soon!

Movin' on up

The chicks are growing like crazy! They've just about outgrown their first home (aka... a large cardboard box in our basement).

This weekend, we need to move them out to the coop, but we need to do some work first. Dan's going to building a brooder box that will hover about 8 inches off the ground with 2 light bulbs under it. If the chicks are cold, they can go under it, if they're hot they can step out for some fresh air.

We're looking forward to moving them to their permanent home. Will post pics of their new home.

Egg count

35 eggs for the week.

Down to 31...

This morning when Dan went to check on the chicks he found Chicken Little dead. Sigh. Hopefully at least he didn't suffer any longer than necessary. It's so sad... he was such a cute little fella... we were hoping he'd pull through.

On a good note... the 31 remaining chicks appear to be in great health. We've learned that in the chick world, apparently only the strong do survive.

Chicken Little

We've moved our chicks to a larger box and have had to replace their 'baby' feeder with a much larger feeder. The chicks are growing at lightning speeds. However, one chick isn't growing. He's almost the same size as when he arrived almost two weeks ago. We've affectionately named him Chicken Little. We thought perhaps the other chicks aren't letting him eat, so Dan put a smaller box inside their big box and put Chicken Little in it with his own food and water. He seems to breath very heavy and is almost dazed. He's also had a pretty bad bout of pasty butt. I check on him a few times a day and clean his behind and dip his beak in his water and food so he knows it's there. I've also been giving him yogurt in case he hasn't developed enough good bacteria in his system. Hope he'll pull through so we don't have to cull him. :(

January 2010 Egg Count

93 eggs for the month. Not too bad for a COLD January.

The tally is in!

A couple of weeks ago we butchered our first two pigs- both miniature pigs. They are regular pigs, but bred so that they are much smaller. Each one weighed probably 60-70 lbs (versus our other two are at 150-200 lbs). Here's how much meat we got from the two and it's estimated worth:

Ribs = 7 lbs
Back = 11 lbs
Front Hock = 13 lbs
Back Hock = 13.5 lbs
Total: 44.5 lbs of meat

Estimated retail value = $264
Cost to purchase/raise the pigs = $87
Net Profit = $177
Total estimated time to care for the pigs = 8.75 hours

Not to bad for two miniature pigs. Can't wait to see how much we get from the big pigs!

Egg count

Yeah - now we're talkin'! 36 eggs. But the weather is starting to get cold again. Hope it warms back up soon.

New farmer

Well, it's official.  We have another edition to the farmstead crew.  We went to the doctor today to confirm I that I am 7-weeks pregnant and the baby looks healthy! 

On or around Sept 16th, we'll have a major culture shift around our house, but how exciting!  We are both so excited at the prospect of raising a child that appreciates where his/her food comes from, how to grow it with their own hands (chemical free of course) and hopefully will want to carry on this way of life.

Yet another chick!

This morning all of the chicks looked fine. I checked them around lunchtime and one is really weak and looked nearly dead. I checked his bum and it looked just fine. I tried dipping his beak in water and tried to get him to eat. A few minutes later he died in my hand. I have no idea why. Sigh.

2 more chicks...

Two more of our baby chicks died today. We think the culprit is 'pasty butt'. We've been diligently watching and wiping behinds now.

Egg count

Much better this week - 29! The warmer weather seems to be helping.

Lost a chick :(

One of the chicks was very sick and weak looking when we opened the box. We were hoping for the best, but he didn't make it. So sad! :(

Awe.... baby chicks....

Here is the new gang!

The chicks are here! The chicks are here!

The post office just called to tell us our chicks arrived. Dan's on the way to pick them up now...

Chicks are born!

Today is the day that Ideal Poultry says our chicks are supposed to be hatched and shipped. YAY!

Butchering Day

Today is the day to butcher our two miniature pigs. They're about as big as they're going to get AND they keep escaping from their pen. Here is the process...

Egg count

Well, it hasn't gotten any worse. In fact, more than double of last week - 11 total.

Awaiting our new arrival!

Last month Dan ordered a straight run of 36 chickens. We also ordered 2 Buff Orphingtons and 4 Ameraucanas - the Easter egg chicken. Can't wait until they arrive next week! Hopefully we'll have eggs from them by late June of this year!

Egg count

Can it get any worse? 5 eggs for the WHOLE week!

Tiny egg!

Look our tiny little egg we got today. We assumed it wouldn't have a yolk, but we cracked it open and it did... it was just a tiny version of a regular egg.

Egg count

For our first week of 2010 (only 2 days) we got 2 eggs. Sigh.

Year-end egg count

Total eggs for 2009, since they started laying 9/18, is 424 eggs. Not too shabby!

December Egg Count

108 eggs.

Egg count

The girls are killing us! We've gotten so used to fresh eggs and now they're withholding from us. Down to 13 this week!!!

Egg count

Holy cow.... the girls have drastically dropped this week. Only 24 eggs!

Big pigs!

Our potbelly (Sausage) and mixed breed (Bacon) are getting BIG!

Egg count

Slowly but surely decreasing as the weather gets colder. 32 this week.

Egg count

34 this week!

November Egg Count

150 eggs.

Thanksgiving dinner

Notice the beautiful bird on the table. We're hoping next year we'll be able to raise a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner instead of getting a frozen bird from the grocery store. Something to look forward to and work towards.

Egg count

35 this week.

Egg count

39 again!

Growing piggies!

It's amazing how quickly the piglets are growing. They could potentially eat us out of house and home!

Egg count

37 eggs this week.

Egg count

39 eggs again! We are loving our hens!

Animal Swap Day - again

Today is the animal swap again. We're still looking for sheep and anything else that catches our eye. We arrive again at 8am, but this months venue is even smaller than last. What the heck? Anyway we look around and since we have the two cages we bought last time in tow, we're better prepared.

After we look around a bit, we decide on 4 Californian does and 1 Californian buck. Total cost for all 5 was $40 total. Not too shabby. Also, the nice lady that sold us the buck told us that we need to get there right when they open at 6am to get the best selection. She said some people even arrive early around 5:30am to start looking over the animals. Hmm.... who knew?

We stopped at Buchheits to get rabbit feed, waterer, hutch-building supplies, etc.

Egg count

Wow! Big week for the girls! 39 eggs!

October Egg Count

155 eggs.

Egg count

35 eggs

Egg Count

31 eggs

Egg Count

This week: 29

Animal Swap Day

So today we're driving 40 miles southwest to an 'animal swap'. We've never been to one before, so we're not entirely sure what to expect, but it should be fun none-the-less. The flyer says they'll have animals, veggies and flea market items for sale and trade.

We're going looking for sheep. As we drive up around 8am, we realize it's a pretty small venue. But they do have quite a few animals. No sheep though. Well, I hate to leave empty handed, so we start looking at some cute little pigs. We do a little haggling and we leave with 2 miniture pigs, 1 potbelly and 1 mixed breed (and two cages to get them home in.) Cost: $80.

We make a quick stop by Buchheits to get some feed, waterers, etc.

Here are little girls and guys:

Egg count

This weeks production is really ramping up! 21 eggs!

Total Eggs for September

11 eggs.

Egg count

This week: 8

Egg count

Eggs our first week = 3

Eggciting Day!!

Our first egg! Actually 2! We just found our first eggs from our little hens... so exciting!!

Pasta Sauce and Salsa!

This weekend will be spent making jars and jars of pasta sauce and salsa - two things that our family eats a ton of. Besides we have to find something to do with our excess tomatoes. I think we have about 100 sitting on the kitchen counter right now.

Canning... take 2!

After our first attempt at canning not going so well, Dan was determined to get the canning process down. There were several problems that needed to be solved. First, we need to get our giant canning pot full of water up to a boil the in the shortest amount of time, in the most economical fashion. Second, in order to avoid putting all of that hot, humid air into the house in the middle of summer, it has to be outside. Third, and most importantly, the water needs to return to a boil as quickly as possible after we put in our jars of food. That was the downfall of the firepit. It took so long to return the pot to a boil that it way overcooked our pickles.

So, what's our new method of choice?

That right... the turkey fryer!

Incredibly hot, intense, direct heat equals very fast boiling and minimal extra cooking of our canned goods. The bonus is that it comes to a boil, and returns to a boil, so quickly that we end up using very little propane.

Our canning will still be done outside. However, for 'take 2', instead of making more pickles this time will be salsa. Delicious, fresh, tasty salsa.