Closing this chapter . . . .

The farm chapter of my life story has been written, and it is time to move to the next chapter.

We love living here and having farm animals and a garden, but life throws you a curve sometimes and you have to make adjustments. With the closing of Colonial Bank (Monty's job), we re-opened our computer repair business The Nerd Guy and lost all our time and energy for the farm. Now that chapter (The Nerd Guy) is closed too, and Monty is working at the Air Force base in Montgomery and I'm teaching again.

I found out that one of my students in Maplesville is a chicken enthusiast and has lots of the same breeds I had, so he agreed to come and gather up my remaining few precious chickens and give them a new home. Spencer the goat passed away 2 weeks ago and we are trying to place Nellie his companion before she gets too lonely.

Then we'll have 2 dogs and 3 outdoor kitties. NO farm, no chickens, no quails, no rabbits, no goaties, and - so far - no garden.

I may be able to pull off a garden yet - we'll see. I'll definitely post about that, but probably on a new blog. Look for it - I'll send out notices on fb.

Hatching Baby Quails (Quail?) . . . .

My friend Caleb (an 8th grader at CMS) has been raising quails now for over a year now. He has about 15 mature adults, and he has over 40 in the incubator due to hatch next week! If you've never seen pictures of these babies, look through my older posts. They are the size of a big piece of popcorn with legs. SO CUTE!!! If you've ever thought about raising your own quail (quails?), let me know and I'll get you in contact with Caleb.

News on the Farm

I haven't posted in some time, because sometimes I let my perfectionist notions get in my way. If I don't have ALL those chickens, am I really doing anything special?

YES! Every morning when I get up I open my blinds to see my happy chickens grazing around in the yard, and it makes me happy. I see the little goaties milling around in their pen and it makes me smile. Then I look out the other window to see the remaining Silkie Bantam and his companion - a blue cochin bantam hen - and make sure they are doing well. I get 5 or 6 eggs every day, and that is plenty for the seven of us in my house!

I know the chickens would be safer in their pens, but they are SO happy scratching around freely in the grass, under the trees, in my front flower bed. Daniel is my Buff Orpington Rooster, and he is VERY friendly. He would intimidate anyone who didn't know him, because he not only approaches you, he won't really go on and mind his own business until you PET him, yes . . . pet him like a dog. He prefers to eat out of the bucket you are holding or out of your hand to eating out of the feeders in the pen.

I named the Rhode Island Red rooster Cap'n Barbosa (Annie thought that was the best choice for him, and he IS the boss of the entire flock). So, I named the bantam rooster Jack Sparrow. The gorgeous Silver-laced Wyandotte rooster is named Scutt Farcus, because his personality is as pleasing as that character on "A Christmas Story" who bullies all the nice kids. However, Cap'n Barbosa, Daniel, and the Barred Rock rooster (that I haven't yet named) keep ol' Scutt on the run most of the time - especially if he gets to close to me! I don't ever turn my back on that one, though.

As for hens, I have 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Gold-laced Wyandottes, 2 Silver-laced Wyandottes, and 7 Aracaunas (blue-green egg layers.) I have male and female French Black/Copper Marans, and 2 mixed bantam hens (black with some gold feathers) who are my best setters.

I've allowed the hens to hatch 2 sets of eggs, and although their hatching percentage(30 - 40%) isn't nearly as high as mine in the incubator (80 - 90%), it is SO sweet to watch those hens with the babies! I've lost 4 of babies that were out with the hens to predators - probably hawks, so their brooding success rate is low.

Right now, I'm not interested in raising more baby chicks - last winter was very harsh for this neck of the woods, and I can't take the heartbreak of finding "deadies" in with the babies. :-(

Thank you!

Thank you to my special blog readers who have ordered soaps! They will ship out today (mocha latte) and tomorrow (lemon verbena). Thanks to you, I have $32.50 to sent to the Verbena Historical Society!

The Chicken Plan: fresh eggs & pure-breed chicks

We have implemented the plan we "hatched" for the farm. Through advertising in the Mule Trader and The Bulletin Board, I have sold many pullets to happy fresh-egg-wanting "chickeners." Through other means . . . (don't forget that even though we are very "green" and animal-loving - these are EDIBLE creatures) I've pared down the chicken population on our farm (while filling the freezer). (Oh, STOP IT! I didn't do it myself!) I have now 2 hens and 1 rooster of each of the following breeds: Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, Silver-laced Wyandotte, and mixed-breed bantams. I'm getting an Aracauna rooster (for my 6 original hens) and a Gold-laced Wyandotte rooster. Now I can hatch my own pure breed chickens whenever, and have fresh eggs all year round. I also have a breeding pair of White Silky Bantams and French Black Copper Marans that should begin laying soon. WHEW! That was a long 7 months with all those chickens - over 300! It feels good to know where we're headed with this!

The farm is going commercial!

It's been 3 months exactly since I posted here on Pioneer Stock. Monty and I are very busy working at our computer repair company in Clanton - The Nerd Guy. Also, I've been substitute-teaching in hopes of landing a job at some point in my chosen career.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the chickens and goats still need to be fed. So, we are selling lots of fresh, vegetarian-fed eggs. As soon as I'm sure the dog fence is secure, I'm going to allow them to range every other day and they'll be laying GRASS-FED eggs! (Otherwise, the dogs will be chicken-fed dogs!) These eggs are healthier than eggs at the grocery store. Here is a link to an article on the nutritional value of grass-fed eggs: www.grassfedeggs.com and look WAY down the article for nutrition info. I reuse people's styrofoam egg cartons to keep them out of landfills, only buying paper ones from the feed store when I'm out. The eggs are $3 dozen and we keep them in the fridge at The Nerd Guy. The eggs are delicious and the farmer is trying to be a good, "green" farmer. ;-)

We are (once again) selling pullets locally and selling hatch-able chicken eggs, too.

Seemingly off-topic, I enjoy making soap. I'm selling that now, too. My favorite recipe up until a few weeks ago is "Mocha Latte" with coffee grounds and cocoa. Made from oatmeal-base soap with lots of added moisturizers, it is a wonderful soap! Guys - it looks manly, but it's rich, un-perfumey smell and exfoliating texture make it a favorite of ladies, too. It's also great for sensitive skin!

Recently, in honor of an upcoming musical festival in my hometown of Verbena, Alabama, I decided to make "Lemon Verbena Soap." This is a wonderful combination of the same oatmeal-base soap with lemon essential oil and crushed Lemon Verbena. It's delightfully light citrus smell combined with ultra-moisturizing ingredients makes this a wonderful soap for every bath! Through the festival on May 1st, all proceeds go directly to the Verbena Historical Society.

Check out my event announcement on this page, or look up Verbena on Facebook!

This concludes all commercial announcements for today.

19 eggs a day . . . .

6 aquas, 10 dark tans, and 3 ecru eggs, freshly laid by my lovely hens, await me every day in the nesting boxes! Even lovelier is a dozen eggs in a carton, a nice mix of colors, all polished and ready for sale to those organic egg connoisseurs. It is a marvel!

My hens are not "pasturing" during these cold/rainy spells. They are in a LARGE open space with roosting limbs and nesting boxes and a dirt floor covered with clean straw. They can be called "free range" because of all that space. When the weather is better, I let them out in the pasture to forage and I can call them "pastured" or "grass-fed" chickens/eggs. MotherEarth News says there is evidence that this changes the nutritional value of the eggs. Click here to read the article and be SURE to click on their graphic of the nutritional differences they found. Therefore, during this weather, my eggs are PRETTIER than store-bought, but I wouldn't claim that they are nutritionally better. My hens are treated QUITE well in their shelter, and they're safe from predators there, but they seem even happier when they get to roam and scratch and peck and chase flying bugs. BTW, they eat LOTS of bugs and I have NO more grub problem in the garden or the yard!

The funny aside is now - with all these eggs - I sound a bit like Bubba talking to Forrest Gump: "We're gonna make fried eggs, boiled eggs, egg salad, deviled eggs, eggs Benedict, Egg Foo Yung, egg-drop soup, egg custard, . . . . " (how many things can I think of to make with eggs?!) I boiled 19 eggs last night and made egg salad for us all for lunch. Delicious! By the way, fresh eggs don't peel well when boiled. You need to let the eggs sit for 2 weeks or more so that the insides have shrunken a bit away from the shell. I boiled those fresh eggs yesterday, and peeled away about 1/8" to 1/4" of white with every eggshell! So buy your Easter eggs in advance so they'll peel well.

Right now I'm collecting the bantam eggs to put into the incubator. I need some regular bantam hens to accompany my roosters. I only get one egg every other day or so from my two hens, but I'm hoping they are fertile and will make cutie baby chicks.

The silkies, two white and one grey, are just gorgeous. And I was right - the wire-bottom cage is PERFECT for them in that it helps their foot-feathers stay clean and fluffy like the rest of them. The French Black Copper Marans are very big birds - one rooster and one hen! I couldn't have asked for better. The six Aracauna's are doing great, but are showing no signs of maleness or femaleness yet. I'm going to have to just PRAY I got hens that will lay blue-green eggs.

Thinking about the garden . . .

I've begun putting thought into what I'll be putting in and when in the garden. I think I'll chat with Rachel and see what her Master Gardener inlaws are doing and just copy them! They seem to have this whole timing thing worked out pretty well.

For now, I just need to amend, amend, and amend my soil with composted chicken and rabbit poo. I'm also sure the worm bins are rich in goodies!!

I'm definitely going to devote a goodly area to arugula and a few variety of lettuces. I'm going to try Swiss Chard - AGAIN - and hope it does better in the cold. Potatoes - a must - and my seed potatoes are a-sprouting away and ready to be planted right now.

Broccoli and brussels sprouts are still doing well. I've had one full harvesting of broccoli and I'm seeing if I'll get another. If not, I'm just going to take the leaves and make those "grass patties" that I love so much. I must think of a better name for them, but they look like you stepped in a mound of freshly mown grass and a hunk of it got stuck on the bottom of your shoe. They taste GREAT, but they look like grass patties. Here's the recipe:

A big bunch of radish leaves (a large mixing bowl full) I used Swiss Chard and Broccoli leaves
an onion
several carrots
an egg
some cornmeal
garlic
salt & pepper

Finely chop all the veggies. The leaves will need to be held together with the egg/cornmeal mixture, so the finer the better. Break the egg into the veggies and beat the yolk and stir together. Add 1/4 cup of cornmeal or more as needed to make it hold together. Salt and pepper can be added now or later.

Take heaping spoonfuls and drop them into an oiled skillet and mash into a patty shape. Fry on both sides. Serve hot with salsa or not. They are SO delicious!

Freeze-proofing the Chickens

Yesterday, upon confirming news of a bad cold-weather front hitting the area and STAYING, we decided we had to do a few things to get the chickens ready to hunker down and ride out the cold.

When we went out to feed on Sunday, we had discovered the hose and everything about our water supply had frozen. There is no permanent damage that we know of, but there isn't any easy supply of water either. Our temporary method is carting 5 of our 5-gal buckets full of warm water from the basement laundry sink out there. That gets the goats and the three chicken pens taken care of.

Yesterday, we decided that we might need to install lights for heat in all three pens, not just the hen house where our layers are. The great news is this: because we are using a "deep litter system" in the pens, the deep litter is producing heat all on its own! (ewwwwww!) It was about 15 degrees warmer in the chicken coop than it was outside.

We simply put in a layer of good, clean straw, fed them about half again as much as normal, and they were good to go.

I moved the bantams (in their chicken tractors) from the garden to a less windy place up against the south face of our brick basement. I figured the house would keep the wind down, and they are directly under one of the bathroom vents - so there'd be hot air coming out a few different times during the day. I didn't think about the fact that they are RIGHT outside mine and Jessica's window!! This morning at 5:30 AM - ER! ER! ER! ERRRRRRRRRR! A trio of bantam roosters serenaded me awake! I really love hearing them, but usually the volume is much lower from 50 ft away in the garden. YIKES.

Their water keeps freezing really quickly because it is just a 16 oz coke bottle turned upside down in a little trough thingy. I'm having to give them fresh warm water daily.

The "buzzards" as I have nicknamed the 6-wk old hatchlings, are happily pecking and pooping in the hutches that formerly belonged to our rabbits. This is a perfect housing setup for the silkies and the marans, because they have feathers down their legs and on their feet. Having them walking on any kind of litter is just GROSS. I'm absolutely positive that I have a hen and a rooster of the French Black Copper Marans! That is great news if they make it through this cold snap ok.

Also, of the 250 pullets purchased in September, I have at least one buff rooster, one barred rock rooster, and I already had one Rhode Island Red rooster. Here's the "Chicken Business Plan" for 2010: I'm going to keep 3 or 4 hens of each breed I have a rooster for, and I'm going to order roosters for the Aracaunas and Black Australorps (and the wyandottes if I don't have any). Then, Monty and I will build a small pen (or section off the big ones) so that each breed is kept separate and I'll just hatch my own pure-breed chicks. I'm sure I'll be running in and out of Jones' and buying pullets when they have a buyer fall-through, too, but I don't know that I'll buy from the hatchery much this year. My costs on this last batch was SIGNIFICANT due to losses, and feeding them for 5 months (they'll probably start selling WELL in February) costs a great deal. However, if I sell them as laying hens in February, they will be around $20 each and that will make up for that cost. We'll see how it goes.

Puppies attacked a chicken . . . .

OK, it finally happened. The puppies killed a chicken - well, they injured it to the point it's not moving much. Monty checked it and there are no visible flesh wounds, but I think she's got broken bones. He wants to see if it'll perk up after the shock wears off. It's a Rhode Island Red pullet - one of the babies. I'm very upset.

I knew it was coming, but I kept kidding myself that they were just being rough and hyper and playful. The would put their mouths on the chickens and hold them down and come away with a few feathers. Today they escalated. Now I have to pen the chickens back up. Tomorrow.

Everybody's ranging!

The pens are open, and the "baby" chicks are out. These babies are the ones who arrived in August, so they are 23 weeks old or so. I've been letting everyone out of the hen pen, and then rounding them back up at night, but today I've decided to let 'em all RANGE the pasture at all times.

I'm hoping we won't get any predators. Yikes. They are VERY happy chickens!

Baby Chicks are doing well!

6 Americauna mixes, 2 French Black Copper Marans, and 3 Silkie Bantams are all doing GREAT!! They produce more poop than imaginable, and they are growing like CRAZY. I love how they chirp really loudly down in the basement until I get down there and feed them in the morning, and then they are quiet and contented the rest of the day. ;-)

Today, a soggy, long-dead tree fell on the goat fence and took it down. We saw Billy and Betty go racing by the front windows like a couple of happy little puppies, and we're all like, "What the HECK??" Then we found the fence broken and had to move Betty and Billy to the old duck fence. Unfortunately there is no warm, water-proofed, straw-lined shelter out there, and it's going to get really cold tonight. Let's hope for their safety.

The Baby Chicks

I have 3 silkie babies, 2 white and 1 grey. I got 2 Marans to hatch, and all 6 of my Americauna eggs hatched - some look like reds and some look like Americaunas. It will be interesting to see if I get blue egg-layers out of them. They are SO cute, and they are just eating and pooping up a storm! CUTE! Here is a pic of what a baby silkie looks like.

They are EXTRA fuzzy! I'm enjoying this batch of chicks so much!

The watched egg . . .

Lots of action in the incubator!! 3 baby quail have hatched and dried and been moved to the brooder (a 10-gal aquarium lined with shop paper towels with a waterer and feed and a shop light to warm the babies). There are 2 more quail babies on their way out of the eggs - it takes them HOURS to peck their little perf pattern around the entire egg and push open the end to come out.

Several of the chicken eggs have little peck marks from the inside cracking the perfect shells. One of my Americauna blue eggs has two holes totally pecked out, and I can hear the baby chick PEEPING!

In this day and age, it is so wonderful to be awed by anything. I am amazed at the child-like excitement and wonder I feel when we have eggs in the incubator. I can only relate it to the feeling on Christmas Eve when you try to do all the right "time for bed" stuff, and you still can't possibly sleep with the anticipation of Santa's visit!! Then when you wake up, and you realize it's Christmas, and you know that when you walk into the living room you're going to have WONDERFUL surprises - you're just about to EXPLODE with excitement!

I think that I'll be so nervous and particular about these little babies tomorrow! It'll seem like forever before they've dried out enough to move to the brooder. It's going to be great! Any of these Americaunas that are female will be laying eggs in May! I'm so excited!

Anxiously watching the incubator . . . .

I ordered fertile hatching eggs from Ebay - YES - Ebay!

I have 6 French Black Copper Maran eggs,
6 Blue Cochin Bantam eggs,
6 Silkie Bantam eggs, and then I added
6 of my Americauna eggs that may be fertile.

They should begin to hatch tomorrow or Thursday, and we are SO excited about it!

I'll post pics of the babies when they hatch.

Getting the animals prepped for winter . . .

Yesterday, I went out with the children to feed the animals. I spent a good deal of time watching the bantams in the garden. During the hideous weather we had on Tuesday with strong wind and rain, the metal "roofs" had blown off two of the three cages. I felt so sorry for those tough little birds. I put the metal back on and replaced the brick to keep it in place. I gave them new ground to forage, and lots of feed to help them keep warm. I know they are doing well, though, because every morning I am awakened by the squeaky little crows of the roosters. I like when I can take some real time just to look at them. They are absolutely gorgeous, with many colors of feathers on each bird. The roosters have rich, firm, red combs, and all are curious about the people who feed them.

The laying hens are my most prized "pets" with their bountiful production of eggs. I have a wire basket full of beautiful, fresh, clean eggs - aqua and light brown - drying in the sink. I'm going to boil a batch for the girls to snack on after school, and I may bake a cake, too. Quiche - I need to make a quiche! I love watching how happily the hens scratch around when they are ranging in the shady woods of the large goat pen. The 3 roosters I traded for have made a wonderful addition to our flock. They have rich, deep crowing voices, and they are so majestic with their beautiful feathers and huge, bright red combs and waddles. I have a few (hopefully) fertile eggs in the incubator now just to see what little lovely babies I can get. I want a few more blue-green egg layers.

The goats are exactly what we wanted for our farm. We have Billy and Betty in one pen, and Nellie and Spencer in the other. All are pygmy goats; Billy and Nellie are cream-colored with a long, shaggy coat now that weather is getting cooler. Spencer and Betty are shorter-haired and black with some white markings. Betty has gorgeous ice-blue eyes! They all have very sweet, gentle dispositions, and I can let them out of the fence to forage, and they just come back in. These sweet, little, puppy-like babies are JUST right for our family.

Most surprising to me is my affection for the cats! Because of Mom's and my allergies, I never had a cat until this past summer. We got 2 kittens, 6-weeks old, tortoise-shell colored - both female, and sisters. They spent the first few weeks indoors to give them time to get big and fast enough to escape from predators. Then they went to the shed out front with high-stacked bales of hay. In the last 3 weeks, a new kitten showed up - another tortoise-shell female! She is smaller than our first cats - somewhat scrawny - and just as sweet as can be! The first two cats are starting to accept her into the group. They are all chasing chipmunks, and I've found a couple of dead rodents. That's why we got them - with all the animal feed in the garage, we knew we'd get mice. They are serving their purpose and much more! I spent about a half-hour yesterday just petting and scratching, and receiving nuzzles and purrs from Simba. Rosie is more of a hunter, and less of a snuggler. The new girl, Ginny, is very affectionate, but still too skiddish to be held for very long. She's coming along.

The garden is doing very well! I have arugula, buttercrunch lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots, brussels sprouts, and broccoli. I still have some rattlesnake beans coming in, and the superset squash have a surprising number of blossoms and baby squash. This is an experiment - if I can keep the frost off them, I may get some squash!

Sunshine!! It was WONDERFUL!!

Although it was outrageously chilly today, the sunshine was so gorgeous it was a great day!! I was out with the animals and enjoying the garden a bit today for the first time in a week or so.

The garden is fabulous with rattlesnake beans and yard long green beans still putting out good quantities, old purple hull peas dying off and new ones growing strong, broccoli and brussels sprouts plants doing well! I picked a nice 3 quarts of rattlesnake beans today, washed and snapped them, and fixed them for supper with potatoes and spicy Conecuh sausage, mmmmmmm!!!

A caller who'd seen our ad in the Bulletin Board came to buy chickens. He mentioned that he had 3 roosters (he was supposed to have all pullets) and I offered to trade him. He brought 3 GORGEOUS, humongous roosters, 2 Dominickers and 1 RIR - I traded him 3 yet-to-lay pullets for those, and he bought 5 golden buff orpingtons.

A new kitty showed up today! She's very scrawny, but SO sweet and lovey. She is a tortoise-shell colored cat like our other two, and the children named her Ginny (as in Weasley on Harry Potter). More later.

The monsoon makes my garden GROW!!!

Last weekend I took down my bamboo tepees with what was left of my summer tomato plants after having been ravaged by tomato hornworms (see earlier post with pic of Gozer, the destructor) and stinkbugs. I couldn't do any spraying because of the ducks and bantams in the garden.

In discussing our tomato plants, Jeff Moore (who bought his plants at the trade school nursery, too) and I decided that the variety of large tomato plants we bought didn't produce as much as we wanted and expected them to. The grape tomatoes did fine, but the others were smallish and none too plentiful. I think they were called "Amelia". The heirlooms I planted in August have made nice plants, but aren't fruiting as much as I expected. I need to fertilize.

I harvested tons of basil of different varieties and trimmed my rosemary plants saving those sticky, delicious-smelling cuttings, too. The basil plants are rebounding nicely from such a harsh cutting because of the rain, and the okra has gone NUTS with the tall tomato structures (which had been shading them) gone.

The rattlesnake beans I planted in August are producing like crazy! I'm getting a half pound to a pound a day! This is DEFINITELY the variety to plant! They grow from seed quickly, produce VOLUMES, and the purple striping on the beans make them easy to see and pick. Also, they don't have that "fuzz" on them, so they are easy to wash. Delicious and hearty, they'll be great for canning, too. I had planted more yardlong green beans, and they are coming along, too. They are even more delicious, but too delicate for canning. GREAT for stir frying. I've planted more of each for a great fall harvest (if the frost holds off.)

I've planted tons more purple hull cowpeas, too. I just LOVE these peas. I have put up quart after quart of them. I love the way they grow, but I just hadn't planted enough for our crew until now.

I planted some "superset" squash, too. I planted much earlier, but the ducks enjoyed eating the small plants and they were gone. Hubby bought broccoli and brussels sprouts plants - a whole flat each! We planted them beside the purple hull peas. I also planted beets, radishes, spinach, swiss chard, leeks, and carrots from seed. I'm so excited to see how this will do as time goes by.

I am going to spray now that the ducks and bantams are out of the garden, and add fertilizer to hedge my bets. I know some of these plantings don't match the "you should plant now" dates, but obviously, the rattlesnake beans don't know any better than to just grow and produce any way. I hope the other stuff is that way, too.

Things we've learned about farming and gardening this summer . . .

GARDENING
Next spring, summer, and fall my garden will be a money SAVER, but this past growing season, my garden was a money pit! I also had some other gardening issues that kept my garden from being as productive as possible.
HOSES: I spent over $120 on drip hoses that kept getting big holes in the first few inches and just not working like they should. They are warrantied, so I'm returning some of them to exchange for new ones (that will also leak???).
SEEDS: I have a little spending problem when it comes to seeds. I just like buying them. LOTS of them. Way more than I need of them. I also had a lack of familiarity with what varieties WORK in my own soil (in its current condition) and will not waste money on things I can't grow. (I will experiment, but not PACKETS worth.) I'm also saving seed from lots of varieties that aren't hybrids. I will have my own store of seeds for next year.
WATERING: I'm going to spend the winter months adding gobs of organic material from my compost pile and worm bins to the soil in the garden. By growing season, I hope to have amended my sandy soil with enough stuff to make it hold more moisture. Also, the well is working now and we will be using "free" water from it or from harvested rainwater.
LACK OF SUNLIGHT: This is our first full year on this property, and although I got a full 8 hours of sun (or more) during the winter months, I got 6 or less in some areas of the garden during the summer. We are going to remove 4 trees in different spots surrounding the garden, and that should increase my hours of sunlight. If not, we will take out more. The garden is priority #1.
SOIL QUALITY: I learned that the dark, rich look of soil means nothing. I think there are some spots in that garden that are as empty of nutrients as a sandbox. I'm going to PILE on the compost, mix it in, and plant a cover crop to really get that garden ready. In January, I'm going to take samples of soil and test them for PH and for nutrients and see what I need to add in time for growing season.
With all these changes, I think I'll see a much higher production in the garden next year. For all the crops that still won't grow, I know how to buy those at the cattle sale or at the U-pick farms around here at good prices.

FARMING
We learned that farming is not for the faint of heart or for the weak of body or for the low of cash. At least for now, all animals are a COST center. At some point, there may be some money made, but right now it's just a really expensive hobby.
GOATS: We're ABSOLUTELY sure we only want to raise pygmy goats. Bigger goats eat more food! Pens have to be bigger, they make more poo, take more medication, are harder to handle when you need to move them, etc. . . . .
CHICKENS: The first six plus months of having chickens is all about spending money. Build the pens, buy the feeders, buy the waterers, buy the feed, buy the medications, buy more feed, buy more feed, buy more feed. We ARE getting smarter about it, though. I have 40 some odd 12 week old pullets left from the almost 200 I had over the summer. I am letting them range freely every day after the morning feeding (of other animals) until the evening feeding. They are eating very little feed, and they are consuming tons of bugs!! Luckily, no predators have gotten after them in the daytime. When they are closer to laying age, I will have to figure out what to do about nesting boxes. Meanwhile, I'm still running an ad in the Mule Trader trying to sell them. The laying hens are completely cooped up until their laying habits are well established. Then I will let them range after laying time until evening feedings. Chickens will cost much less to feed then.
DUCKS: The jury is still out on raising ducks. Out of 7 ducks, I think 3 or 4 are male, and the others are female. I only want to keep one drake, and that will be "Spot." Then I want my ducks to lay eggs. They are so messy, and they are a hazard to starter plants in the garden, but they are supposed to be great layers, and I could raise a few more for layers if I like the eggs. They should start laying in November.
RABBITS: It takes lots of cages to "farm" rabbits for meat. (We still haven't slaughtered any.)
QUAILS: These birds are GREAT!! If all we did was sell their eggs, these birds would be worth the time, effort, and costs involved. Hatching the babies is really fun, too.

The Canning Shelves

Hubby built me canning shelves today!! He's so glad to have that wood out of the way, and the canned stuff out of the way, and I'm so glad to have this glorious way to see what I still need to be DOING!!

I could use at least 20 more pints of salsa, 20 more qts of purple hull cowpeas, 20 more squash pickles, and I want some plain squash, corn, and more berry jams.

This is GREAT!!