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.

Pickles!

To say we have a few cucumbers is an understatement. We have a lot of cucumbers and we need to find something to do to preserve them... pronto.

Dan's parent came up a few weeks ago with all of his Mom's old canning supplies in tow. It's time to crack the boxes open to see what we have. Large pot? Check. Rack to immerse jars in pot? Check. Jars, lids and rings? Check. It's time to make us some pickles.

We thought it would be fun to have a pickling date night. We'd get our cukes ready to go together and put the pot on a hot fire on the fire pit. Seemed like a good plan. Although we had fun, our fire pit proved not to be hot enough to to keep the water boiling. The pickles are tasty, but not very crunchy. Oh well, you live and you learn. Dan has another idea... but that's for another post.

Freeze! You're surrounded!

By a fence, that is.

As Dan said, we started sinking fence posts and we have the ENTIRE garden surrounded by 7-foot high deer fencing. Granted, we haven't had a problem with deer, but since we were taking the time to put up a fence, we decided we might as well protect it from as many creatures as possible.

As you'll see in the pictures, we didn't use store bought fence posts. We used small cedar trees from the property. Dan, a true Yankee, is always looking for a way to use things we already have.

After we had two sides of the fence up, Dan saw a small bunny in the garden and went about his usual tactics to shoo it out. Deer fencing, if you've never seen it, is practically invisible. The bunny proceeded to run straight into the fence, bounce back and sit on it's behind shaking it's head wondering what just happened. It made another go at it, but to no avail. It finally figured out to root at the bottom of the fence to make it's way out. We've since staked the bottom so no bunnies will make it in or out.

Humans = 1 point
Bunnies = zero

Good fences make good corn.

It seems that every time I told somebody new about my plans for a garden one of their first questions was always “Are you going to put up a fence?” Then they would go on to explain how the deer would devastate our garden if we didn’t. My response was always that I would wait and see, as there had been very few deer sightings on our property.

Fast forward several months. The garden had been doing great, with nary a nibble from any critters, deer or otherwise (some insect issues, but that’s a different post). Our peas came and went; the tomatoes and cucumbers started producing like crazy, and still no bothersome animals. We also survived several heavy rain/windstorms that literally leveled every corn stalk in the garden. After each storm we stood each stalk up and hilled around the bases; very time-consuming, but the thought of that fresh, delicious, super-sweet corn made it worthwhile. In time the corn started putting on ears and it looked like we would have a bumper crop.
Then one morning I went out to the garden as usual and found one of our almost-ready-for-picking ears of corn lying on the ground, half eaten. The stalk it had been attached to was still upright, none the worse for wear. I was puzzled, but didn’t find any evidence pointing to the culprit. The next day, there were three half eaten ears; the next day, about eight more. Now I was beginning to be upset. On day four when I went out, there was even more damage, and right in the middle of it were two fluffy brown bunny rabbits chewing on ears of corn. As I stood there speechless, one of the rabbits calmly reached up to the nearest corn stalk and nipped off yet another ear of corn. Apparently the quarter eaten one at his feet was no longer satisfying.
That was the last straw, so I grabbed a handful of stones, and yelling some garbled, angry nonsense, began hurling stones at the marauding bunnies. Incredibly, they didn’t stop eating, even as I began moving toward them, still shouting and throwing stones. Finally a rock whizzed close enough to one of them that they decided it would be beneficial to them if they moved on. They darted away from me and scrambled through the fence that separates our property from the land next door.

It was on.

Here the dilemma though: I have to sleep at night, and I work a full time job 30 miles away from home, leaving me precious little time to stake out my corn patch waiting for thieving bunnies. In addition, we have neighbors living fairly close on one side so shooting bunnies with any type of firearm was out of the question. This meant that every morning when I went out there was more and more devastation, leaving fewer and fewer ears of corn that might mature enough to be harvested by the humans that planted them.

Last weekend my parents drove the 6 hours from their home to ours for a long weekend visit. My fervent wish was that we would at least have enough mature corn to cook for one meal while they were here. So, Sunday afternoon, my mother and I went to the garden to take a look. The scene was heartbreaking. After taking a quick inventory, I decided to pick every single remaining ear of corn, in the hopes that some would be mature enough to eat. Out of 450 linear feet of corn stalks we harvested 2 dozen ears. Of that 2 dozen maybe 10 were mature, with the rest somewhere between “throw it away” to “you might get a mouthful of corn off that one”. So, we cooked up what we had, and it was delicious.

This week I’ve started sinking fence posts.

Our first carrots!

Cute little guys aren't they? The little one on the left looks like it could get up and walk away. It turns out carrots need very moist and very loose, loamy soil. Unfortunately, this patch didn't get tilled nearly as deeply as it should have, and we also neglected to run a soaker hose down this row. So in other words, even though we're going to get a boat-load of carrots this year, they'll mostly be stumpy and woody like these two. Oh well, one more item for our live and learn list for next year!

Serves you right!

Remember the lovely hornworms I told you about? I did some more research on them and found out that a type of wasp exists only to lay it's eggs in hornworms. Ecosystems are a funny world. I showed Dan a picture of what an 'infected' hormworm looks like in case he ever sees one. Well... sure enough... we have a hornworm sitting on one of our tomato plants with wasp cocoons just waiting to hatch. Serves him right for noshing on our tomatoes, if you ask me! Anyhoo, the research advised that if not infected, you need to get the worm off pronto, otherwise you provide an all day smorgasbord. However, if it IS infected to leave it alone. What?? Leave it alone? The website proceeded to say that the worm will be immobilized (therefore not doing any more damage to your plant) and you want the wasps to hatch, grow up and go lay eggs in another hornworm, immobilize it, and so on. Hmm... this is a good thing. Interesting. Now we watch for the cocoons to hatch. They haven't as of this morning. We'll keep watching!

Cukes, cukes and more cukes!

Some things in the garden aren't doing as well as we'd hoped. Some are doing ok. Others are doing great! Cucumbers are in the 'great' category. We have no shortage of cukes this year! However, you can only make so many dinner salads and tomato & cucumber salad before you have to start looking for new recipes. That's when pickles popped into Dan's head. He went online and found a couple of recipes. We spent Friday night, our 'date night', making pickles. We had a blast! Turns out it they are beyond easy to make and delicious - better than any pickle you'd find in a store. I can't wait for more cukes to make more pickles!

Does the farm wait?

Today I am finally confident I'm getting a cold. I don't get colds very often, but when I do, they are usually 'doozies'. It's rainy and blah today, so I don't particularly have much to do outside. All of the plants were watered by mother nature. Everything that 'had' to be picked was early this morning.

However, my progressing cold has me thinking - a farm can't wait. It can't wait to be watered, harvested, chickens fed and eggs collected. Nor will it wait for an extended vacation. Or a short vacation for that matter. Once we have sheep or goats, they can't wait to be milked and fed and watered. Fences won't wait to be repaired. The larger the farm gets, the more that won't be able to wait.

Sigh. This doesn't particularly sound fun or relaxing to me. Part of the reason we moved back to the country is because we wanted a slower pace of life. A simpler life. Room to breath. We will be able to breath acreage-wise, but what about workload-wise? I'm not so sure. There's no conclusion to this post - just a thought being typed out. I suppose I will just have to either 'wait it out and see' or adapt. I foresee adapting in my future.

If I could only get to those birds!

Dan calls Buddy 'the BEST cat EVER!'. He is very cute, but sometimes his 'bossiness' is a bit much. "King Biscuit" we call him. This morning though, was one of his cuter days.

Over the weekend, Dan installed a new storm/screen door on the back of the house so we can have a cross-breeze blowing through the house. However, Buddy thinks the door was installed so he can see the chickens even better (as this is now the best vantage point from inside the house).

This morning I went out to take some pics for the blog and when I turned around, Buddy was tirelessly trying to get out to the chickens (aka 'his girlfriends'). He doesn't seem to understand why he can see them and now even hear them(thanks to the screen), but not get to them! Buddy is all the entertainment a person needs.

Grow, Garden, Grow!

Some of our veggies are doing great! Others, not so much. Cukes and tomatoes are growing like crazy, but green beans are just kind of sitting there not doing much of anything. Lettuce is doing pretty well, but aren't getting as big as I thought they would. And even with all our poor corn has been through, it still seems to be healthy and is getting tiny little cobs on it.

Tomato Killers!

Hornworms are EVIL! We never see them on the ground, nor on anything except our tomatoes! Where do they come from? Straight from hell, that's where! One evening we pulled 15 of the fat suckers off our plants. The next morning 2 more. Tonight we pulled 2 more off. Annoying little buggers!

Just a thought...

Ok, so we've learned a lot since Spring arrived. Who knew sticking some plants in the ground could be so labor intensive and scientific? I'd like to know why weeds grow with no assistance at all.... yet flowers and veggies that you give tender loving care are so resistant to grow?!?

Rain & Corn - not necessarily a good combination!

One thing about summer in the Midwest- weather moves in fast and furiously. A huge rainstorm moves in early afternoon. Well, not much to do outside now. We decide to head to town to do some shopping.

Upon arrival home, our once proud, and vertical, corn is now horizontal. You've got to be kidding me! We chuck our cold grocery store goods in the fridge and head out to try and salvage our 9 rows of corn. First we carefully straighten it up and pack soil around it. It's mostly vertical now. It's late and we need to make dinner. After dinner we head back out to 'hill' the corn. This seems to help give it extra support. I'm curious to see how it holds up during the next rainstorm.

But what did we learn? Planting corn 1 1/2 inches deep is not enough to build a strong root system. Next year, we will plant deeper. Oh also, as a reminder for next year... plant rows 4 feet apart so we can get the tiller in between the rows. Good tip!

What does every farm need? That's right... a big honkin' tractor! In our case, a big honkin' tractor with a loader. Trouble is, tractors are expensive, and even more so with a loader. What we needed was a fixer-upper. And what better place to find a fixer-upper than eBay?!
Our tractor criteria was pretty simple: it must have a 3-point hitch, a loader, be within 100 miles of home, and be under $2,000 dollars. The search began.
4 months later (!) my eye caught a listing for the tractor in the photo above. It was the first one I'd seen that met all of our criteria. So I watched and waited. The starting bid was $1800, and I figured that it would soon ne out of our price range. A day passed with no bids. Another day passed with no bids. And another, and another. Finally the final day arrived, and I checked the listing every hour to see how high the bidding would go. Hour after hour, and still no bids. So, I figured that I was not the only sniper waiting for the last moments. Note: A sniper in eBay world is someone who waits until the last possible moment to place a bid, knowing that other bidders won't have time to react and re-bid. Sneaky? Maybe, but effective. Anyway, at last, with 60 seconds left and no other bidders, I placed my bid for $1801. By the time I clicked "Submit Bid" there was only 30 seconds left, not enough time to bid higher if another sniper bid $1802. On the edge of my seat I refreshed the screen every two seconds, fully expecting to be out bid. With the last refresh I saw the wondrous message "Congratulations, you have won this item!". Huzzah!! We had a tractor. Now we just had to get it home, and that is a story for another post.

Garden's Growing!

The garden is doing quite well! We're very happy that we aren't having too much of an insect or animal problem - which is really exciting considering we are growing completely organically - no nasty pesticides!

What About Bob?

Say hi to Bob.
When our son Danny learned that we had planted corn his response was "Well then we need a scarecrow." Now I'm personally not sure a scarecrow does anything other than give the crows a convenient place to perch after all their corn-eating. Nevertheless, I've always liked the idea of a scarecrow, so I immediately said "Okay!"
Our scarecrow's construction is very simple. First, we stuck a 7-foot long cedar post about a foot into the ground. Next we screwed a 3-foot wide board (the shoulders) across about a foot down from the top, making a cross. Next a 2-foot wide board was screwed across for some hips. An old pair of pants went around the hips and an old shirt (plaid, of course!) went around the shoulders. Two aluminum pie plates formed the head, an old ball cap was tacked on top, and some pieces of aluminum foil were folded and shaped into hands. The pie plates and hands really dance around in the wind, giving our new scarecrow some life.
When we finished I mentioned to Danny "Our new scarecrow needs a name." Without hesitating, Danny replied, "His name's Bob." Okay then.

The Girls are getting big!

The girls are starting to actually look like chickens! It's amazing how fast they grow. Here they are lounging about in their chicken run - eating bugs and grass...