June on the homestead

[firegirl969]

The blackberries are ripening very fast. DH and I picked Sunday afternoon. We ended up with 2 cups for a cobbler for supper and 6 pints canned. I picked again today and got 7 pints. There are many red berries on the vines now. I will probably pick more on Friday. DH wants me to can some quarts for large family gatherings. We still have one hen setting on eggs. The five biddies that hatched in May are up and doing well. We will probably take them away from the hen next week when we remove the other chicks, which are about 10 weeks old now, from the pen they are in and turn them out into the big pen. I cut our grass, which got ahead of me with all the rain. I had DD rake it up. I let it dry real good, and DS bagged it up and we are storing it in the hay loft to feed the rabbits in the winter. The young buck I brought back from Illinois last month is almost old enough to breed. I plan to put him with the oldest doe next week when I take her babies from her. This will be her third litter this season. I did pick snap beans on Sunday and cooked some and canned two quarts. I picked enough today for supper. They are really good. We put up a large frame for the pole beans today. They are really sprawling as is the watermelons and cantelopes and cucumbers. I got up some gourds for birdhouses for next year. Hopefully we will get some Martins to eat some misquitoes.

[MrsL]

The weather here is very hot at the moment, so having to keep an eye on the watering and water butts. have one little chick so far, with two broodies sitting on more. Rest of hens more or less off lay because of the heat. Teh bees swarmed, but the rest still flying OK. Lots starting to get ready in the garden, gearing up for the big preserving push. Constant seed sowing and weeding needed. Continuing experiments with oil lamps and home made creams, soaps, etc. Getting into drying foods over the stove too, all succesful so far.

[WileyCoyote]

June has dawned cool and cloudy here. Very little rain; it has all gone north and south of us, so we're watering every other day. Highs all this week in the 70's, 40's at night.

The rows of potatoes are up. The radishes, carrots, greens, spinach, lettuce, and onions are up, as are the green beans planted from seed. The potted plants grown inside - the ones I started in Feb - some died of course, but the rest are toddling along in the garden. When I was planting them I discovered that some had made little green beans already!

The chickens are almost a month old. We bought 11 pullets and 11 cockerels (actually 10 but they threw in one each for free). *We moved them outside last week into a 'holding pen' til we can separate them into chicken tractors. *I planned on putting 5 hens and one rooster in each tractor, and put the other roosters in the holding pen to fatten for butchering. *I was a little worried about the cold weather, but that is the reason I bought Barred Rocks - good resistance. The cold doesn't seem to bother them much. We lost one pullet; she wasn't doing well the last day in the brooder. She looked as though she was malformed, as if her breastbone was sticking 'way too far out. She wouldn't eat and would only drink when I dipped her beak. I separated her from the rest and she passed the next day. None of the others show any signs of feeling ill; in fact, they are all chipper and cheerful, scratching and pecking and snatching at bugs that invade their territory. We think we are finally going to be able to tell them apart to separate them for the chicken tractors; the males seem to have lighter colors and their beginning combs are larger and a brighter red than the hens. I am watching to determine which roosters will be the most aggressive; those will be the ones I save for the hens' protection and breeding in the tractors. *Between snakes, the occasional dog and rumored mountain lion, badgers, skunks, and other creatures; even though I trust the tractors' construction, you just never know how wily those sorts of animals can be.

Paul at the dump told us he'd already killed a rabid skunk at the dump last week.

There was a desert king snake coiled around one of the small trees in our garden; DH nudged it with his cane but it barely moved. We left it - they kill rattlers and gophers and are not poisonous (even though they WILL bite). As long as s/he isn't inclined to go after eggs, s/he is welcome to stay!

Our oven died two months ago and we had to get a new one. It is now installed. When we looked at the old one, it was apparent that there had been a huge fire in the oven before we bought the place; the electronics were melted. It was a wonder it worked for a year, actually.

I have to go out and start weeding; I hate weeding even though I know it is necessary. *The walking onions came back after their fall planting and are doing well, but they are weedy. The strawberries are weedy too.

I feel like kind of an idiot because I planted wheat and oats and am afraid to weed the plots because I can't tell the grasses apart!

Everything I bought - seeds and plants and fruit trees and chickens - is now in place and starting to grow and become. I am secretly terrified - will this work? This is the test; the culmination of everything I wanted to do and become and create, and will it work, will it be destroyed by hail or flood or drought, have I really learned enough over the years to make this happen the way I want it to? Deep breaths, deep breaths.

I feel like Everyone is watching the crazy Southerner who moved into ranch country to start a huge garden; who mulches with hay, who composts, who uses water barrels under her water spouts and who planted things last year that everyone said wouldn't survive but did. MY neighbor told his wife (my new friend) that we didn't have room for chickens; he thought we would get 200 or more and start a chicken farm! They were surprised when I said no, only 20 to start. They do things in such a big way here, that it is inconceivable that someone would start so small...

[Cil]

Firegirl, not knowing anything about rabbit breeding, I was wondering if you shouldn't let your older doe take a break? Isn't three litters a lot? I read in a Jackie Clay article that she only breeds her does twice per season? Being pregnant and giving birth is hard on any kind of a body.

[cwatson]

Everything is bursting with color here right now. We got a little rain again last night but not near as much to make up for all the noise the storm made, lots of thunder.

Someone down the road asked me if I wanted a couple hundred feet of chainlink fencing along with poles and rails and the works. What a boon. I was going to go and buy the stuff because we are ready now to start fencing off the goat area (all holes dug now). Spent the afternoon getting all the fencing and parts.

This morning I got my garden tools from the shed and gave them all a much needed sharpening as the hoe was so dull it practically bounced off the ground when trying to use it. Once that was done I was able to get all the rouge chuncks of grass that have been trying to take over my walking paths in the garden. Following that I cleaned out the tool shed and then took it apart to move it to the front part of the yard out of the area where the goats will be housed. Man that was a chore. (obviously a small tool shed) I got it moved and put back together and all the tools neatly inside again. I did leave the 3 bags of rock hard concrete out this time. :D

Started harvesting peas today and more squash of course. I will be canning carrots again this weekend. The beans are all blooming and I am anxiously awaiting the first beans of the year :) This year I planted Kentucky Pole beans, blue Lake bush beans, tiger's eye, hutterite, scarlett runner, Lima and Jacobs cattle. The Kentucky, Lima and Jacobs are all from our own seeds. DH is trying his hand at growing beans and tomatoes in "grow boxes". Half of all his plants have already died and he is quite frustrated. I am not sure what got some of them but I did see he had some spider mites on a couple of the remaining plants. Good thing we have a long growning season so he can replant.

[Southerngirl]

I'm with WileyCoyote, some of the things that I've never seen grown before I have to really look things over to determine what is weeds and what are our plants???
But it's a learning process I am enjoying. *:)
The radishes are done, we have huge squash plants starting to produce, by the time we get back home they'll be ready.... we are out of town for a week and have a good friend taking care of the place for us :) *Was nice to get away with the hubby for a week while he works away from home.
Snakes are coming out more but haven't killed any yet this year. *As long as the cotton mouths stay out of the yard this year then we'll let things be as they are...
Temps for May/June have been pretty mild here, enjoying it!
Had someone offer us a calf, figured it was too good to be true which it was, it was sick, had PI, and after the quick reading I did online I told them we didn't want it and decided to just start out with healthy calves when we get some funds set up for it. *
Southerngirl *

[TNDadx4]

For us, we've had a lot of rain, so there's weeds and grass that we have to contend with, but our garden is doing well. We have corn (already knee high and it's not the 4th of July), squash and beans emerging nicely as well as tomato and pepper plants growing too. :)

We've had some success with our sunflowers (about 6 out of 14 have broken the ground.)

[firegirl969]

The okra is up and doing real well. I picked blackberries this morning and canned 9 quarts and 1 pint. There are plenty of red ones still on the bushes, so I will pick again on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. Then I will can them. I also put 4 1/2 quarts of onions in the freezer. I am growing pole beans for the first time. They are up on the trellis about 2 feet now. We have another hen setting on 8 eggs. I hope to get at least 5 biddies out of them. That will give us 15 new hens for next year. Our young does are about breeding age, so I plan to put the buck in the pen with them. The pig is really growing as is the steer. I got a total of 87 quart jars last month some a gift from a friend and some from the thrift store. I hope to fill them up this year in addition to all the other jars I have. I found a 12 LED lantern at the dollar general store on 1/2 price table. It cost me $5. It has 5 different settings. DH really liked it. It uses 4 "D" size batteries, so I am hoping to get some rechargable ones along with my solar battery charger I want from Emergency Essentials this month. I got 4 more icing buckets from the bakery. I plan to order some barley to put in one of them. One of my seniors made a veggie soup and added barley to it, and it was delicious. So, I am adding barley to my LTS foods. The apple tree has alot of apples on it. I hope to be able to put a bunch of them up to make apple tarts this winter.

[B00kW0rm]

I have been helping my parents with their garden this year. It's the first time they've had one in many, many years. This time last year I wasn't sure my Dad was going to live, so it's amazing to see him out in the garden :D.

Today we picked snow peas. I love how crunchy they are! We also brought in lettuce, squash and onions....which I will use for supper tomorrow night.

The squash plants are full of blooms and the cucumbers are beginning to bloom as well. So are the green beans and the watermelons. The corn is coming along very well and is already taller than my daughter. Our potatoes are doing so well that the leaves in one row of plants are growing into the leaves of the potato row beside it.

This week we dug underneath one plant and enjoyed buttered baby potatoes for supper...yum! I'm learning a lot and enjoying every minute of it!

Ohhh, I almost forgot the apple trees :D They seem as though they're going to bear a lot of fruit this year and I'm already thinking of putting up some apple butter.

[bee_pipes]

5/31
Well summer is certainly on the way. We have come out of the rains and were enjoying some clear, mild days. The leaves have filled in, providing ample shade, and now the Tennessee weather is getting down to business. After a few days in the 80’s – sort of a “get acquainted” period – we have jumped into 90 degree weather. Today we reached 92 and the weather was oppressive. By the time it is all done – October or so, we will be acclimated and a 90 degree day will be tolerable for work. Rough weather in the summer is when we hit triple digits and the nighttime low doesn’t get below 80 degrees.

The ticks are out, but they have been very mild so far. A typical tick season is when we see ten a day or more in the house. We will find these critters moving – or nestled in for a meal – on dogs, people or furnishings. It is a matter of a few weeks – generally less than a month - then they are an occasional sight. Chiggers have not made themselves an obvious problem yet – a major blessing. They, like ticks, seem to have a season of a few weeks where they are a real problem, then dissipate to a minor inconvenience. The hot weather and bugs all serve a purpose – if Tennessee was too nice and welcoming we would be overrun with people, like Southern California.

We ran a sizeable pile of brush through the chipper today. While we are not producing tremendous volumes of mulch, we are gaining the upper hand on brush at the edge of the woods. Generally the edge of the woods is an impenetrable curtain of green; this year we can see well into the woods in a number of places around the house. This is denying predators with the cover they need to move in close to the poultry and make their ambush. This does change the conditions at the edge of the woods and within. There could be penalties for introducing these changes – dense underbrush within the woods, prevented in the past from the brush at the edge of the woods screening out the light – just a guess. When I lived in Southern Maryland opening up a wooded area by removing brush or cutting down trees would allow additional light in and spur the growth of poison ivy. That would be an undesirable consequence.

6/1
Moved guineas from the brooder to the portable pen outside. This is a small chicken tractor and is roughly triple the space of the brooder. Enough room for two feeders and two waterers. The small roofed structures are just wooden holders for the feeder troughs to keep the feed out of the weather.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/chicken_pen.jpg

6/5

This morning we lost two keets. I knew guineas were sensitive to cold and damp when they are small, but was surprised the find any in distress. I figured more likely to have losses from trampling and piling up. Last night’s temperatures plunged down to 53, a wonderful break from the warm muggy weather we have been having. Each keet was found separately. After the revival of the newborn I figured some time under a heat lamp in the brooder would bring it back around. Apparently they get a little dainty between growing feathers and adulthood. The adults have weathered some pretty nasty storms and made it through the winter roosting in trees. These little fellows were down and still alive – moving and eyes open. They just expired under the heat lamp.

We got on a roll today. I started working on the floor joists for the loft in the shed and had the first ten boards in place by noon. After lunch we went back at it and got the entire loft done (34 boards). Now we need spacers in between the joists to hold them up, but they are stable enough to throw two sheets of plywood on them for a working platform and haul lumber and a saw up to this working area. Should be able to put the spacers in and slide the plywood deck across as we make progress. We can also start working on the rafters.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk217/patandkaren/sm_joists.jpg

Regards,
Pat

[firegirl969]

Today I canned 4 quarts of green beans and 10 quarts and 1 pint of blackberries. We put the buck in with the 3 young does. They should all be about 12-13 weeks old now. We should have some rabbit to can before winter. DH got 2 horses yesterday. He picked up the tack that came with them this morning. A lady gave him the tack and one of the horses and he paid $500 for the other. Both are registered. He is hoping to barrel race the younger one that he bought. We are looking at riding them to town on Saturday's on occasion as well. It will be an all day affair as it is 7.5 miles one way. I ordered my barley and some more honey and wheat berries from the Breadbeckers co-op. The cucumbers are really blooming. I should be able to start making the dill pickles in a couple of weeks. The tomato bushes are loaded and the okra has jumped up some 6 inches in the last few days. I hope to can okra and tomatoes together so that we can enjoy them over rice this winter. DH planted more green beans and butter beans last week. The 1 1/2 rows of butter beans are already up. DH said he would pick them if I would shell and can them. That is a deal! DS continues to dig the root cellar. He said it is cooler working down there than anywhere else. These 90 degree days are really scorchers with the humitidy added in.

[rideaway]

Been watching the weeds grow. It's been raining pretty constantly for a few weeks. I need to get out to the garden soon. It's early in the season for us and those weeds can get out of control in a hurry. Bubba, the baby calf we brought home two months ago, is doing well and watching the two 4-H lambs and him play tag is hilarious. The lambs and 3 pigs are growing right on schedule. Our fair is July 9-12 this year, and we will be down to just the calf and my chickens. It will ease the workload a bit, which is good as my youngest daughter will be having surgery at Shriners in August and will be wheelchair bound for 6 weeks or so. I'm dreading it!

Trying to get some late spring cleaning done. We've been in our new manufactured for two years now, and looking in the corners and window sills, I'm amazed at how awful it looks. All just surface, but still! Time to get busy.

Supposed to rain yet again, so wondering if summer-type weather will ever arrive!

[bookwormom]

good to read what other homesteaders are doing. I feel like saying 'howdy neighbors'.
Two days ago Blackhen ( we are so imaginative with names) was surrounded by 10 doodles. Feathertoes chicks are getting quite a nice size. we hardly had to feed them, they have been so busy in the pasture, but soon now they will be too big to slip through the fence. . I am so glad we moved the henlot down into the orchard. but housing is getting crowded. i looked at the greenhouse and told sweet hubby, doesn't that look like an instant chicken house? It will we nice on rainy days, too, and we get some use out of it for more than a few weeks in spring. I was going to move the cattle panel fence along the garden anyway, so the greenhouse is going to stick it's hind end out into the calf pasture and I just keep the front door to the garden closed.

I am actually resting a spell. milking Brownie wears me out. she is the sweetest cow in the world, you all would love her. it takes me a half hr to milk her, that is one side of her. she comes to my waist and I get more than a gallon of milk from her per day. The calf takes the other side. Last night I got three full quarts. For her little size I think she is a fantastic cow. but is she ever hard to milk. We made butter three times so far. I do have a way too big wooden churn, but the hand mixer does a good job.

we broke down and hired a highschooler to dig a ditch for a french drain. It makes me feel bad, I used to do stuff like that myself. maybe I did not have quite as much to do then. I can't admit that maybe the old gray mare she aint what she used to be.
Enough asparagus seedlings came up last year and are nice sized now to extend the bed to the edge of the garden and give some to the neighbor, who has never tried asparagus. I noticed there are a lot of volunteer ground cherries, so as soon as I am done resting here I want to plant me a row of them and give them a little extra manure so they do well. It just pains me to throw a plant away, still had a dishpan full of sweet potatoe slips, the neighbor took half and I planted two more rows and the rest I have to find takers.
the other day I made me two herb beds ten feet from the kitchen door. just got tired to run over to the garden when I needed something while cooking. There is no sense in sending someone, I once asked hubby to fetch me a handful of parsley and he brought me carrot greens.

[WileyCoyote]

Still cool and rainy here. A Tornado passed 20 miles south of us on Sunday, and today another one went south as well. The sky has been alternating with bright sun and dark rolling threats all day. This morning I got out on the first hill and finished putting in my juniper windbreak seedlings; 50 now all told. June may seem late for planting but the lows at night are still in the 40s here!

Yesterday hail threatened so I went out and put the month-old Barred Rocks in their coop. Rain they are starting to understand, but I didn't want a surprise hail to knock one of them out! We will have to switch from starter to mash, they are eating so much now that they are out of the brooder and running around! They come to the fence now inquiringly when I come out and sit on the cement block nearby. They want me to pull them some grass; it's like I am the Salad Bar caretaker at the buffet! I am watching them to determine which two roosters will get to be the breeding stock, and which will just be fattened for later. It's getting easier to tell them apart; the one that comes right up to the fence and cocks his eye up at me expectantly, the two who just hate each other and will not only chase each other around the pen but knock each other off of the top of the waterer and feeders. There are two hens that break up their little fights; like little moms or cops! Funny. I don't name them; it makes them easier to eat later.

So I went up on the first hill to put in my windbreak trees. I put them in the wheelbarrow with my SeaRich fertilizer in a lot of water. They were packed in shredded paper and so were stll green and damp. I put in the posthole digger, and a bag of sunflower seeds from the flowers last year - about 5 pounds of seed as well, and a bucket. I seem to take a bucket with me wherever I go now! The ones I planted before - about one-third were parched, windblown, and not doing so well. After I put in the remaining trees, I took the soaked-in-fertilizer shredded paper out of the bottom of the wheelbarrow, and padded the first trees with it, then covered that with the sandy soil. I threw handfuls of the sunflower seeds all over the hill around them. Sure enough, as I finished, the rains came up and started patting the seeds into the soil.

The clover and silage seed that I strewed all over the hill in February is coming up at last; bright green silage, cool green red clover, already with starting 'heads' on top. The 'honeybee' feed clover is already trying to bloom. Wild indigo is everywhere too, and some bright yellow flowers in clumps that I don't recognize, but the leaves are too flat and rounded for leafy spurge.

I don't get to get out in the pasture much; too much to do here down around the house with the garden and chickens starting. So today I wanted to look at an old tree that was laying down in the pasture. When we moved here with the overgrown pasture in the summer, I didn't see it, but with the winter die-off it was there, a grey-black length on the brown and yellowed grasses. So I went up to look at it. I pulled on the closest end, and it broke off. Red Cedar! What a heavenly smell! Not big enough to cut into boards any wider than 2 inches, and only as big around at the root as my two hands spread. I couldn't drag it back to the house today, but may tomorrow. Nothing rots here, just dries out, so the wood freed of the accumulated dirt and bark is just as sweet and fresh as it can be.

This afternoon was stormy and dark, thundery and gloomy. A neighbor dropped by with an old iron gopher trap for us to use. It springs up when tripped and drives two iron hooks into the gopher; doesn't even have to be baited. 'Way cool and 'way organic! LOL Look out you little furry demons...

[LeatherneckPA]

Aaaa-a-a-a-ah, I'm back home.

I've been gone for a while. allowed life to get a little too busy. Can't be all things to all people and still live my own life.

I see from the opening page that someone twisted Oliver's tail, BUT GOOD from the looks of things. Sure glad it's most likely none of us.

Substitute teaching was keeping me going 3-4 days a week, every week, all year long. Except for back in March, which is when I think I fell off the Earth. Had to go give Mom some convalescent care for a month or so and never got back into posting. Anyway, she came through fine, and by the time I left I think we both needed a break from each other.

Back here I began a bold experiment around a month ago. Finally got the entire back yard fenced in so I started letting the hens out free in the afternoons. Whoo-whee are they funny!! And I think, just maybe, they are growing back the missing feathers on their backs. Cindy says they did it to themselves out of boredom. With as little snow as we get in a winter anymore I guess they'll be able to run free every afternoon from now on.

Boru, my Airedale, had to be put to sleep a month or so ago, pancreatic cancer. Now we only have Buddy (think highly energetic, very eager to please, not terribly bright Chocolate Lab). For the time being I am content to have just one dog.

That's all for now. Be seein' ya.

[AzLoneRider]

God home from work tonight and the wife was outside touching up a couple of spots on the 12X16 workshop that we painted this weekend. Now I have to finish cutting the trim then I can paint the facia and the trim white, should get this done this weekend.
In the garden our tomato's are all starting to ripen. right now we have about 50 tomato fruit of varied varieties on the vine. I think we will get 2 harvests out of them before it will be too hot for the summer. In the fall we should get more probably all the way past Thanksgiving, maybe into early December..... the heat of summer is tough on them though. We harvested 4 big head of brocolli steamed them for dinner, they are delicious. If anyone knows a sure fire way to keep birds out of the garden please enlighten me.
Got under the house into the crawl space to check the duct work. My wife said she thought she felt a draft coming from a vent when the ac wasn't on so I decided I needed to check it. No leaks. Although this week we have not used the central AC at all. We usually only have it on during the heat of the day when the heat is extreme.

[CapeCMom]

It has been too cold and rainy here to plant much of anything. It has barely reached 70 for a day or two here and there. Mostly been in the low 60's. People who I know who have planted have regretted it. Crops are rotting or just sitting there. We haven't had a Spring like this in many years. Hopefully things will warm up soon, or we'll be harvesting in October! Even the fishing has been bad. The ocean is still 55 degrees and only a few "Stripers" have made their way up-none of the warm water fish are here yet. So much for putting up some "Chowdah"!

[sbemt456]

We have had more rain here this weekend. We did get some butchering done. 25 cornish cross fryers in the freezer. Cleaned and disinfected brooder house and move the 21 black australorp chicks in there. They are not liking the wide open spaces. And today received 35 dark cornish chicks that have been on order for a few months. They are so cute.
Am getting some onions dehydrated for onion flakes. Have about 10 more lb to go. Love onions but they sure do smell up the house from the dehydrator. Have more herbs to cut and dry also today.
We have had some broccoli from the garden and have mustard and turnip greens to can. Not long till the beets will be ready also. Still having problems with the colorado potato beetles on the potatoes. The wet weather sure dont help that situation.

Have a great day!

stella

[B00kW0rm]

We picked the first of the green beans today. Lifting the vine up from the ground and looking underneath (into the center) of the plant often revealed clusters of perfect sized beans. We could literally reach in pick a handful at a time. The vines are loaded with baby beans and blossoms. They will be ready to pick again by the end of the week. Today we put up 39 quarts:-).

[firegirl969]

Today I put up 7 quarts of squash and onions to make casseroles or squash fritters. I also purchased 20 boxes of wide mouth canning lids at our IGA today. I spotted them a few weeks ago for $1.45 a box, but I just got the money to purchase them. I have seen them everywhere else for $2.99 a box or higher so, YIPEE!!

[Catalpa]

Good find on the lids! I picked up some the other day, and thought I was doing well at 2.19 a box.

Can't believe some folks are getting veggies already. We had frosts here through the last week of May. I bought some 'mater plants, but haven't put them in the ground yet, I can't get my tiller started. Hopefully my brother will come over and help me tomorrow.

Saturday was a good day, I rented the log splitter and the neighbor boy, and split up and stacked all of the wood I hauled home last fall before my trailer broke. What a feeling of accomplishment, to look in the back yard and see a neat double stack of split wood where a sloppy pile of logs had laid.

Stella, your poultry adventures seem to be paying off, all those birds in the freezer sounds good!

[rideaway]

Went and picked a quart full of raspberrys tonight. Not a great crop, but then again, my fall crop is always better than my spring crop. Still needing to get some weeds out of the garden, but if the sun will keep appearing now and then the garden may actually outgrow the weeds. The summer seems to be going very fast. Our county fair, which is usually in the last week or so of July, is the weekend after then 4th of July, so lots to get ready for the 4-H projects with my daughter and the club we lead, but not much to do for open class entries.

Just got done bathing the idiot dog who grabbed a skunk's butt not just once, but twice last night! I think he smells worse after the bath! He just won't learn. Drives me nuts. I just splurged big time and got the carpet cleaned professionally today so he won't be sleeping inside for a few nights.

Other than that, just the usual stuff!

[TNDadx4]

Waiting for tomatoes and bell peppers to mature... Lots of tomatoes are coming soon, so we are getting ready for canning. I can't wait!

Corn is doing pretty well. Everything else is sprouted and growing :)

I'll try to post some pictures soon.

[rideaway]

It's been off and on gloomy for us still. Garden isn't doing much, it may be one of those years of low production. Since we've had a few great years, I guess it's to be expected. Hens are laying regularly and I'm selling enough eggs to pay for most of feed. The animals are growing and our fair is around the corner. Yikes, summer is going too fast. The ewe lamb managed to get over the fence yesterday and tried to get back in and got her head stuck. Luckily she was unharmed. I just "love" animal antics, don't you? Hubby had to stand in 4 feet of very prickly himalayan blackberries to get her out.

We got given a "free" two-horse straight load trailer and are driving up hill 3 miles to pick it up. Hope its in good enough shape for us to repair and use safely. I won't transport my animals in unsafe rigs, but it will sure be nice to have our own and not have to borrow anymore.

Take care all, and happy "homesteading"...

[bee_pipes]

6/6

I should know better than to trust TV weather. The lows for today and yesterday were predicted for the 50’s – unusually cool, but I’ll take it. Yesterday I never got around to checking the thermometer, but this morning I noticed the front porch was 46º. No wonder those poor keets had such a rough time of it yesterday. Last night, at my bride’s insistence, we put down straw and dropped a tarp over the entire pen to protect them from the chill. Good thing. The rabbits do better with cool weather than hot weather. As temperatures during the day reached the 80’s and 90’s, I noticed the new litters crawled out from under the litter and fur the mothers had made the nest with and were lying out on top. Normally you would not see the litters this soon. The kits still have their eyes closed and not enough fur to mention, but are quite capable of movement and have enough sense to deal with heat using the meager resources available to them. These chilly nights are freebees. Windows open all night catch the chill; closing the windows as the day warms up keeps the cool air inside and may just be enough to make it through the heat of the day. With a little luck we won’t need to turn on the air conditioner – a small victory against the power company.

This morning we found a scorpion on the kitchen floor. I had seen one on the wood pile last night when I was covering it back up for the night. There was a time where I considered these exotic and never saw one before moving to California. They get mighty big in the Mojave Dessert. When we started seeing them around here – a year or two ago, I was surprised to find that there are species native to the Eastern US that range from Canada to Florida. Seventeen years growing up in Virginia and I never saw one.

Today is my natal birthday. My dear sainted bride took me out to dinner at a restaurant in Jackson, the large city an hour and a half west of us. It is a large enough town to have all the chain stores and chain restaurants. We went to Outback, using some gift cards we were given for Christmas and had a fine meal. After dinner we stopped by Lowe’s for a few small items and headed home. One of the items was a set of knee pads for working on the shed. They were fairly inexpensive - $10 – and not the best pair the store carried, but the difference they make in work is worth much more than the price. I have seen people using them – most notably carpet installers. I have had occasion to use them on odd jobs for Tony and another neighbor and was much impressed by the relief they provide. It’s just one of those things you never think of until you are in the middle of a job that requires working on your knees on a hard surface. Without my smart wife I would have doubtless gone through life thinking what a fine idea it would be to own a pair of knee pads while working jobs like the one described.

6/9
Sold a dozen guinea keets to a fellow working at the CoOp for $20. Quite the trauma for the birds. We needed to move the pen anyway so we took out all the birds, moved the coop and returned the birds we wanted to keep. Catching little keets is difficult under the best of conditions. We used a minnow net somebody gave us and that did make the process a little easier, but we still had a few escapees. Fortunately for us the birds are drawn back to the coop and the cries of their siblings. Nothing is more difficult to catch than a small bird that can weave its way though plants and shrubs. If it was a bug and you were trying to step on it, that would be easy enough, but trying to catch the frightened critter without causing it any harm is quite another matter.

Seem to have a problem with something grazing on the apple trees. Deer are my guess. I had heard somewhere that they don’t care for the smell of deodorant soap, so I tried shaving a bar of Irish Spring soap and put the shavings in cheese cloth and hanging it around the trees. We’ll see if we can grow and keep leaves on the trees now.

6/10
Chicks arrived today. We received 10 dark Cornish and 5 silver laced Wyandotte. The hatchery threw in one extra of each variety to account for attrition in shipping but they all arrived healthy and active.

continued next post...

[bee_pipes]

6/12
A good amount of rain in the last two days. Yesterday was early morning showers of almost an inch. Late in the evening we received more rain and early in the AM today we received another good shower adding up to an additional ¾ inch. Of course, the grass is growing like crazy and weeds in the garden are thriving. We put a dent in the weeds this morning, Karen working on tomatoes, peppers and beans while I worked on the peanuts. The recent mulching is paying dividends. We laid down sheets of old newspaper over weeds and then buried it in mulch. I think those weeds have gotten the message and are well on the way to becoming topsoil.

The last few days we have been cutting brush and running it through the chipper. It does take a lot of brush to make a pile of mulch, but the woods have never looked better in a summer.

6/15
We broke up the turkey hen today. She has been broody for more than 4 weeks, with enough safety margin to ensure fertile eggs should have hatched by now. She smelled really bad. Sitting on eggs for more than a month would no doubt cause personal hygiene to suffer. We blocked access to her nest and forced her outside to stretch, eat and drink. It never ceases to amaze me that these creatures can go into a trance and require little in the way of food and water for such a long period of time. I have noticed that a bird freshly off of a nest and coming out of a brood trance will evacuate their bowels. The size of this evacuation would indicate that the volume has been accumulating for some time. It would seem that most of the activities normally associated with a healthy, active bird shut down and the focus of all activity becomes maintaining life through respiration and maintaining body heat for egg incubation. We still have two chickens occupying the same nest box, brooding duck eggs I placed in the box. The duck seems to have settled down to incubating her eggs in another nest also. She continued to lay before she went solid broody (she was sitting in fits and starts before) and has accumulated a surprising number of eggs. The nest is shaped like a cone – an egg filled volcano. I don’t know that she can hatch all these eggs, but I am reluctant to interfere and will watch as the situation takes its own course.

The turkey hen, no doubt in a foul mood from being pulled off of her nest, seems to have decided the rooster is a likely candidate for her wrath. The rooster, no great shakes as roosters go, does not seem to have the sense to realize he is completely outclassed by the turkey hen. Where as any creature with a lick of sense would put distance between itself and such an aggressor, the rooster seems to want the fight even though he comes out on the bottom every time. The fighting showed no signs of winding down, so I picked up the turkey hen and returned her to her cage where she could have access to food and water. That is when I realized the foul odor was coming from the turkey hen and not from the nesting location. I washed my hands and arms, but could still smell the stench the remainder of the day. The rooster, considering himself the victor in the altercation, paced up and down the length of the turkey pen to aggravate the turkey hen. Rooster does not realize his days are growing short and his replacement is in the brooder.

Today we strung wire on the posts over the grape vines and along the top of the garden fence. The wire over the grapes will become the trellis and we used a heavier gauge of wire. The fence for the garden used a smaller gauge. The chore was fairly simple and required no exertion, but in the matter of a single hour we were so drenched in sweat that neither Karen nor I could see through our glasses. The temperature was only 80 degrees or so, but the humidity was through the roof. In that kind of weather just breathing will break a sweat. After stringing wire and pounding staples we called it quits.

6/16
Turkey hen and rooster got into it again today. I don’t know what the problem is, but something about that rooster just pisses her off.

This morning I put J-clips on the fence and wire we strung yesterday. We noticed last year that climbing plants pull down the fencing and a wire strung between posts and clipped to the fence would support the plants. Last year it was gourds, which placed a considerable amount of weight on the fence.

During lunch we made a run to the feed store and stocked up on feed. We had seven 50 lb bags – not a major ordeal to unload and store. The weather was again humid and I was drenched with sweat when the chore was finished.

continued next post....

[bee_pipes]

6/19
Today I set about weeding the carrots. It is an ongoing project of the last week or so. If you have never had the pleasure of planting carrots, they come from very tiny seeds. Accuracy and discretion are not an option when planting carrots. Since they are primarily a root crop, you can’s start them in a bedding tray and transplant them. Life with carrots would be much simpler if they could be planted as slips. Well, the miniscule seed turns into a miniscule sprout. They took some time to germinate too. We wanted a deep bed for the plants so the roots would have ample room, but the soil here is not the best. Our method was to till the entire bed, move the dirt to expose trenches, then till the trenches and replace the fill dirt mounded up on either side. The mounds are the deepest loose soil, so the carrot seed was planted on the top of the mounds. When sprouts finally did appear, some time and many other activities later, I remember thinking to myself “It is impossible to tell a carrot from a weed at this point, I will have to let them get a little bigger so I do not remove carrots by accident when weeding.” That was a number of weeks ago. Since then I have gotten distracted with mulching, beans, peanuts and other chores. When I next looked at the carrot bed, it was noteworthy in that it was the tallest patch of weeds in the garden. The weeds must have been 12-18 inches tall. With a keen eye and much concentration, you could see a few carrots poking out of the weeds. You’d think that a fellow that does not enjoy weeding would go to more trouble to avoid weeds. Apparently not. I set about weeding these plants over a week ago and found it to be quite the job. Carrots grow tops that must be described more as a frond, rather than a stem with leaves. All credit must be given to the plant – when surrounded by other plants, growing briskly and competing for sunlight, the lowly carrot is up to the challenge. The fronds were growing along with the surrounding vegetation and hat reached the canopy. This made weeding a tricky proposition. Reaching down and pulling a hand full of vegetation would result in carrots being pulled also.

My weed patch was a jungle on a microcosmic scale. With the 12-18 inches of height, there was quite a bit of diversity in that small forest. On the top there were flying insects, patrolling for the meager blossoms available or hunting the unwary pollinator. Below the upper canopy was all manner of nits and gnats. On the forest floor were salamanders or newts, bull earthworms, and the ever present risk of encountering a snake. I have reached an uneasy agreement with snakes – I make all the noise I can and they do their best to get out of my way. This arrangement has worked well for me and the snakes have likewise prospered. I did not encounter any snakes, so I have to assume that our agreement is still in force. I did, however, come across some reptile eggs. I immediately thought of snakes, but there were a number of salamanders or newts running around. I debated collecting the eggs and feeding them to the chickens, and then thought better of it. Best not to teach them tasty food can be found inside of round white objects. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t make the connection with their eggs, but they did not need any encouragement. The reptile eggs were white, but the shells were soft and leathery. This is a fact I have gotten from nature shows on TV, but encountering them in the world is so much more gratifying than seeing it on a TV screen. We tilled rabbit manure into the patch when we made preparations for planting. The growth of weeds attest to the fact that the soil is quite welcoming. But on the animal side of things, the worms seem to be thriving. We have some of the largest worms in that patch that I have ever seen. Fast too! The first glimpse I got of a worm, as I was removing weeds, surprised me and made me think I had found a snake. It darted out of sight, under other growth. I have seen worms all my life and as a child was known to play with them, but the word “dart” is not one I have ever associated with earthworms.

continued next post....

[bee_pipes]

The weeds themselves had some tricks of their own. I don’t know why, but it seems that plants being cultivated are much easier to kill than the plants being removed. While pulling weeds, you have to wonder about that. Why aren’t the more tenacious and invasive plants prized for their greens, roots or seeds? It would seem that if we ate weeds, gardening would be a much simpler project. But no, it seems we want to encourage only the most fragile and easily destroyed plants. The carrots would to well to take a few lessons from the surrounding weeds. It has already mastered the use of a large root underground. This is a trick that the dandelion, thistle and other plants have learned. They all have a large root that permits them to store enough energy to grow the upper plant a number of times. Your basic turf grass is likewise well endowed with roots that can grow the blade again and again, making them near immune to the effects of hungry cattle. One particular plant – I have no idea of the name or heritage, produces a woody stem populated with leaves. The stem is supple, like a vine, and the plant manages to intertwine itself through the entire mass of weeds. I noticed that the stem breaks off easily at arbitrary points, ensuring the plant will survive with the loss of an extremity. I don’t know it for a fact, but I’d wager that the part broken off would not take much encouragement to root in another location. Following the vine down to the soil, it emerges from its roots with no less than four stems/vines – each heading in a direction different from that of its brothers. In order to remove the majority of the plant one must follow the stem down to the ground and grasp it at this junction where the vines emerge from the soil. They seemed to be successful and hardy plants, making up the bulk of the population in the weed patch. Since the dirt had been tilled in the last month or so, the soil was fairly loose and the weeds were easily worried loose from the soil, pulling the bulk of the root out. No doubt some are missed and will need to be removed later. Also some new weed seed in the soil has now been granted favorable conditions in which to grow, or seeds will be carried in by the wind or birds. We will be back to the carrot patch again someday soon. You can’t get angry at the weeds, they are fighting for their very survival with every trick they can muster. I’m sure the knowledge that they will be getting composted in the potato bed would not satisfy them any more than me receiving the news that my body would keep a village of cannibals from being hungry.

Today our first duckling hatched. A chicken hatched it. It seems to have crawled out of the nest box and was huddled against the wall in some straw, near another broody hen. I picked it up and placed it back under the hen that hatched it. Don’t know how the adult chickens would view this newcomer, but it could get hurt badly if they decide it is some sort of food.

The tobacco slips are getting big enough to put outside. My book says they are ready to go when leaves reach two inches across. Karen suggested I plant it across the creek. We are not using the land for anything at the moment and it would be close to the creek for watering. For the most part, the soil over there is rocky, but it lies at the bottom of a wooded hill and gets frequent washes from the rains. The soil filling the gaps between the rocks is quite rich and grows trees and grass readily. That side of the creek is late to get sun in the morning but is the last part of the hollow to lose sun in the evening. Tobacco can handle hot sunny weather, so long as it receives ample water when first getting established. The test plants we grew last year did extremely well with little water after the first week or two. The rabbit cages were cleaned and emptied yesterday and the manure was sitting in a lidded plastic tub, so the plan was to set the manure aside and till it into the bed for the tobacco. Today’s temperatures are in the high 90’s and humidity is really up there – about 89% according to the weather man. Preparing the bed was a matter of working for 15-30 minutes, returning to the house to cool off and drink tea, then returning for another period of work. I went on like that through the afternoon until I had the bed tilled – about three widths of the tiller and enough passes to get 8 inches into the ground. Man, there was enough stone in the soil to build a wall. The bed is actually kind of low compared to the surrounding soil after removing all the rocks. At the end of the tilling I was pretty much done in for the day and left the manure and tools there for the night.

continued next post...

[bee_pipes]

6/20
Today we are going to Tony’s place to help with laying tile so I ate breakfast and got right on feeding and watering animals and finished tobacco bed. The plastic tub had about 50 lbs of manure in it and had been sitting out in the sun with a lid on it. When I opened the tub the smell just about knocked me on my heels. For a minute I thought I was going to add the contents of my stomach to the fertilizer. Rabbit manure doesn’t have a strong aroma, like cow or horse manure. Usually the smell coming from the rabbit hootch is caused by the urine. Cooking out under the sun had caused the mild smell of the manure to become really strong. The bed was empty of soil, I had removed it after the last pass on the tiller the night before. The rabbit manure was shoveled into the trench and covered with the fill dirt removed last night. Funny thing about rocks – no matter how many you remove from rock soil, every time you touch the dirt it seems like a dozen more are there. After burying the manure I ran the tiller through a few more passes to mix the dirt and manure. That was all we had time for and my book recommends planting tobacco in the evening or on a cloudy day.

We spent the rest of the morning at Tony’s putting down tile. Karen and Kay hit a yard sale and picked up lunch for us. It was another 90+ degree day, but the location Tony has for the house is in the woods over a creek and always quite cool and comfortable. We had one fan blowing into the bathroom and that was enough to be comfortable. We got the bathroom done by noon or so and took a break for lunch. The house had a wonderful deck and again, the shade and creek kept the place cool enough to be quite comfortable. All the while it was unbelievably hot out in the sun. I have never laid tile before so the project was an education. This is all old routine to Tony but his knees are not what they used to be. While I am no spring chicken, I can get up off the floor a lot easier than he can. So, he supplied all the materials and know-how and I got to learn how to lay tile. I could do the physical part for him and he can watch what I’m doing and catch any problems before I manage to get the tiles running in diagonals across the floor. Tony and Kay have been great friends. Tony is a real jack of all trades and has provided me with a lot of help in the past – we have done well trading experiences and work back and forth.

When we got home we started making arrangements to get the duckling in from the chicken house. The hen is sitting on six duck eggs, so the siblings aught to be following soon. Here we hit a problem. The second pen is full of meat birds and they won’t be ready to slaughter until next Tuesday, at the earliest. The portable pen has ten guineas and a chicken that are also about 6 weeks old. The brooder has 17 chicks in it that are not quite two weeks old, and we have nowhere to put the ducklings. I don’t trust the older guineas with the new chicks or the meat birds, so we have set up a tub on the table to hold the ducklings. Turkeys will also be in at the end of next week. Raising ducklings in a brooder with chickens or turkeys is not a good idea. We have been giving the chicks, guineas and turkeys medicated starter, which is not good for ducklings. The ducklings are also quite messy and could trash a brooder in short order. Fortunately the ducklings can be moved outside earlier than chickens or turkeys. We’re going to have to keep the ducklings in the tub for another week until we can clear out the meat birds and move the guineas and new chickens into the second pen. Then the ducklings can be moved to the small portable pen. The turkeys will have to be brooded for at least two or three weeks. They grow pretty fast and we may be able to move them into the second pen. That should hold us until the broody duck begins to hatch her pile of eggs. We’ll be eating guinea and duck this year!

This evening (after a dandy nap) I went back to planting the tobacco. A day in the sun mixed with dirt had done nothing to cut the smell of the manure. The dogs were with me while I was working and I had to keep chasing them out of the bed – they were mighty interested in the smell and kept trying to eat the manure in the dirt. My book recommends planting tobacco two feet apart in rows three feet apart. I got eleven slips planted and cages over the top to keep the guineas from digging the plants up. So far they seem to have no interest in the bed, just the activity. We couldn’t start working until 6 PM, the time the sun finally went behind the trees and the bank was in the shade. The plants went in well and it wasn’t too much trouble to build berms around them to hold water. The storms of the spring had washed a lot of gravel into the creek, so some time spent with a garden rake hollowed out a deep pool large enough for a bucket. It took about four trips or so to get enough water to set the plants well in their new bed.

continued next post...

[bee_pipes]

After the work was done it was time to guzzle sweet tea and cool off. I only found four ticks on me today, so that’s not too bad. It doesn’t take long to get soaked with sweat in this sort of weather. If I were to put on fresh clothes every day it wouldn’t take long to run through every stitch I own. The best compromise I have come up with is to wear the sweaty duds until work is done for the day. The work duds get hung over the tub to dry overnight and after a shower I get into clean clothes. In the morning the work duds are dry and can be used again. I try to get at least three or four days out of a set of work clothes. The clean clothes I change into only get worn for a few hours a day right after a shower. When the work duds are too grungy to wear any more (usually after cleaning the rabbit shed) they get thrown in the wash and the clean clothes become work duds. That’s pretty much life during a Tennessee summer.

Regards,
Pat

[rideaway]

The horse trailer wasn't bad, did need a new floor which we are finishing tomorrow. It needs a paint job, but that won't get done before fair. It will sure be nice to have our own transportation for the livestock and not have to borrow and rush to get it back.

Weeded almost half the garden and am sure sore tonight. Cooked a london broil on the grill and did half-baked potatoes and carrots for dinner for "the dad" and will have a cake for dessert later.

Planted the odds and ends of rose bushes that we've accumulated. I don't like to have a lot of pots of plants around the house anymore. Too hard to have time to water them all, so almost everything is in beds.

Work tomorrow, then a potluck for all of the livestock 4-H members to learn how to show their animals. Lyndsey (youngest daughter) is in her fourth year of sheep and swine, but will be helping a friend show a extra steer this year so she needs to spend some time watching and learning. Will be a late night, I'm sure...

[bee_pipes]

6/21
Yesterday I checked on the new hatchling a number of times before going inside for the night. At last check it was still wet and somewhat doubled over. Experiences with guineas have shown us that hatchlings are better off spending their first day under a broody hen. There they will have the opportunity to dry out, straighten out and get their legs under them. This strategy seems to be working for the ducklings also. They do have a grace period where they can subsist on their yolk, so food and water are not a crucial concern the first day or two. Warmth is more of a concern, and with two broody hens in the chicken house there are ample opportunities to stay warm. This morning I found the latest hatchling dry, active and ready to bring in. This is a good thing as I would prefer the other duckling to have the company of another of its species, rather than being by itself.

I stepped outside on the porch with a cup of coffee later and saw a deer back by the fruit trees. I did startle the animal by coming out the door, but held still and it returned to its business. I saw it examine the apple trees but not graze on them, so hopefully the bags of soap shavings are doing their job. Later in the morning I went back and examined the trees. The do not show signs of nibbling/browsing by deer, but Japanese beetles seem to have a fondness for ample leaves.

This morning Karen put up some more green beans. She has been going out and picking every morning since Monday. So far she has put up about 20 quarts.

Today was another hot one. I was lazy and Karen did all the work with the beans and whipped up a batch of peanut butter cookies. Later in the evening, after the heat of the day had passed I cut six wooden floor boards for nesting boxes for the rabbits. This is a chore that needed doing and with three does possibly getting ready to kindle I don’t think it could have been put off another day. Nest boxes were placed in the cages with the three does that may be pregnant. We should know in a day or two. Afterwards I cut wire cages for the tobacco and blueberry plants. They are not so much to contain the plants or hold them up as much to keep the chickens from scratching the loose dirt around the roots. Deer, walking through the place at night or startled during the day and running to the woods are quite capable of running through the plants and trampling them. The wires strung between the posts for the grape trellis would suffer badly from a deer running through the wire and getting caught on it. The dogs, blasting around the place and chasing each other, pay little attention to where they are going and would likewise trample the plants. Tapes made from cutting up plastic grocery bags were tied to the cages and wires to attract attention to them. My neighbor told me that the tapes, rustling in the slightest of breezes, would do well to make deer steer clear of the area. I do not know this for a fact but it takes such little effort to make and tie the tapes that it is worth the extra effort. These tapes serve well on all wire barriers. People can accidentally stumble into them if distracted while walking. The guineas seem to wind up on the wrong side of the garden fence and the incidence of this is reduced when tapes are tied to the fence. The heat and plentiful rainfall of May and early June have all the weeds growing like they have been fertilized. The beds for the fruit trees and grape vines are getting taken over by weeds and will need a good cleaning out soon. As we continue to cut brush and make mulch, we will eventually dress all the beds and reduce the weeds.

I saw two more deer throughout the day. Zeb, the young male dog, was with me while I was caging the tobacco plants. He caught a scent of the deer and followed the trail. He seemed really excited and happy, like he had discovered his purpose in life – chasing deer. He ran the trail with his nose to the ground, hoping to catch sight of the deer. He has seen them from the dog pen, but I don’t think he has ever had a chance to chase one. The older dogs love to chase deer and seem to enjoy that more than harassing snakes.

Regards,
Pat

[WileyCoyote]

Friday was our trip to town to stock up. I also got the protest form from the tax assessor's office as everyone's taxes in our town have gone up incredibly in one year. Everyone in town is protesting. So we'll see. I have a LIST of why they shouldn't go up - and pictures. Fruit - from California, not Mexico or Guatemala - was on sale, and I got some blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and red raspberries. The nice thing about living here is we don't get the SA stuff - we get produce from our own state (NE), CA, SD, or ID.

Got sick on the way home, and had to spend the afternoon and evening sitting very very quietly after I took my meds.

Saturday was better. I got up early and started working on cleaning and freezing the fruit. Not one rotted or moldy one in the bunch. Very rare when you consider I used to shop at Wal Mart, all of their fruit was imported, and usually the bottom and 'inside' fruit was rotten. I drug out the ice cream maker and went to work, and made two gallons of strawberry-banana ice cream. It was a lot of work and I used a lot of bowls but it was worth it to have fresh cold ice cream, especially now that the temps - from two weeks ago frost warnings - have climbed into the 90's and are supposed to stay there. Just glad the humidity is down.

It rained Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night long after we went to bed, but I noticed Sunday that the plants were looking peaked.

Sunday I took DH to the falls. The water was cold, but the sun was hot. We took Phydeaux and Sasha, and DH was hesitant to take them in the water. Sasha got thirsty and plunged in to drink, then stood in the stream laughing. She is an Afghan and very hot in this weather - she likes it cool. She hates baths but sure seemed to like that icy stream on her paws and face! Phydeaux was too scared of it to even get close enough to drink.

We got home and I made Tuna melt sandwiches for supper. That and fish sticks are the only "seafood" DH eats!

So this AM I was up at 4:30; I wanted to get the watering started early while it was still cool. Since the chickens are in their tractors between the rows, I wanted to feed them inside their 'coop' areas before I turned on the water. Then I hooked up the hydrants to the hoses and let them go. I wheeled out the whellbarrow into the corral and scraped up some more spoiled hay and manure from the barn. Then I cleaned out the "rooster coop" where the boys live and threw that in. Then I added more dirt, and mixed it all up with water into a nasty muddy slurry. Then I rolled some tires from the corner of the garden where we had saved them, put them around the potatoes, and packed the tires with the mud. Every few seconds the sprinkler would go across my back; even that early in the AM it felt GOOD! The chickens in the tractors were hysterical - coming out to eat and scratch, then scurrying for cover every few seconds as the sprinkler passed over, then back out again. Meanwhile, the roosters in the rooster coop are trying to learn to crow - they almost have it down!

I ran out of tires and now have to go into the east garden to get more, and keep mixing up the 'tire filler' for my potatoes. When I first put them in the soil, they got the same stuff put in their hills, and they really seem to like it!

[firegirl969]

DH and I bought the following preps today: clothespins and a clothespin bag, 2 gallons of 2-cycle engine oil, 2 oil lanterns, 4 pkgs of 5 oil-lamp wicks, a heavy-duty shelf for food preps, sewing thread, sewing needles, clothes patches (were on clearance for 73 cents a pkg), 12 more boxes of wide-mouth jar lids for $1.45 each, 2 jars of pickling lime, various pickling spices, 5 pkgs of baby wipes, 2 large boxes of Borax, and we paid off a sizeable debt and got back titles to a spare car that DD drove and our camper. One of the hens has hatched four more biddies. DH says the cow is up over 800 lbs now. If the pig continues to dig out of her pen, we will have pork chops a little sooner than expected. The repeated planting of beans and peas are beginning to bloom. The pole beans are really doing well. Most of the blackberries are gone now. The young does may be bred. We will know in a couple more weeks. We put the young buck in the community pen with them, so hopefully they are bred now.

[bee_pipes]

A good heavy dew this morning. I got my dead butt out of bed early enough to help Karen with picking beans. She has set two rows aside for seed. While picking I found a shed snake skin, which really did a lot to make Karen feel better. I should have kept this find to myself. After picking we collected old newspaper from the house and set about weeding the peppers. After pulling the weeds we laid down newspaper between the pepper plants to smother the weeds and buried it in mulch from running the chipper the night before. It is only a temporary delay in the weeds, they will be back, but future weeds will be easier to pull with their roots anchored in mulch. Next will be the beans. They have already been mulched, but the weeds are getting out of hand again. Nine o’clock is about as late in the morning as you can do this type of work. Even with a hat on, the sun starts cooking your brains and it is difficult to remember what you are doing or why. The air is thick with humidity, but it is tolerable before the sun starts warming things up. Even so, you are drenched with sweat by the time you have had enough.

A quick trip to town to get the gauge checked on the pressure cooker – a service provided for free by the county extension agent (already paid for by taxes, that is), picking up a few cases of canning jars and a hand riveter and pop rivets. We had problems last year with the meat birds breaking their wings while bleeding out. These were nasty compound fractures in which the bone protruded from the skin. This year we are going to try making a killing cone from sheet metal for keeping the birds from flapping and bruising the meat.

When we got home we found problems in the dog pen. All four dogs had been left in the pen, something we normally do. The youngest female, Zuzu, seems to be particularly aggressive. She is a small dog, and it is difficult to tell when she is getting aggressive. Her and her brother, Zeb, play roughly – they sound like two dogs in a pit fighting to the death. Zeb, who has a tan coat and dark skin, is all marked up with scars from the rough housing. The older dogs generally keep the younger dogs in check, but lately Zuzu has been getting aggressive with the older female, Zoey. When we got back from town today we found Zoey missing her collar – something that normally gets torn off during horseplay. Well, Zoey also had a bunch of bites too. One of her ears was bleeding and she had puncture marks high up on one of the front legs. This is getting out of hand. The two younger dogs were found abandoned on our road almost two years ago. The vet guessed that they were mountain curs, a hunting dog. So long as the roughhousing was confined to each other and didn’t get too far out of hand, we could live with it. Zuzu has given Zeb a number of nasty bites and his face is covered with scars. Individually, they are great little dogs. Quite affectionate and pretty well behaved. But now the order of things is upset – the dominant female is no longer the dominant female. This is a case for the dog whisperer. We can no longer leave all four of the dogs unattended in the pen because we can’t trust the youngest female. The youngest male is not too much of a problem – he’s pretty mellow and just wants to get along. If it was just a matter of the youngest female reaching the dominant position, that wouldn’t be a big deal either. But we have no assurances that she will not “play rough” with the other dogs, inflicting additional injuries.

Joey left his tractor with me again. There are a number of project in which a backhoe and front end loader would make quick work of things, but this afternoon I went to the neighbor’s house and pulled some stumps. This not only sews a little good will, I have a project I need a hand with and we are swapping labor. He’s coming over on Saturday to help me drop two trees. He’s a cagey fellow that has been around and has a good handle on getting trees to fall where he wants them. These are not posing an immediate danger to the house, but they are a little close to the well for my comfort. These two trees need to come down and are the last thing that needs to be done before the goat area can be started. I would also like to dig out a low area around one of the trees where it adjoins the creek and create a small pool for the ducks (and us).

Regards,
Pat

[WileyCoyote]

Yesterday morning I got started VERY early, before the sun was up. I mixed up chicken coop scrapings with straw, old horse manure, spoiled hay, and dirt in the wheelbarrow. I got the tires from the west garden and took them to the east garden where the remaining potato plants are. I put the tires around the potato plants, and filled the tires with my wheelbarrow mix. Then I mixed up my spray and sprayed the east garden.

While I was doing that, DH was expanding the 'rooster coop'. It was too small especially in this heat. So he measured and cut, then I crawled into the rooster yard and snagged the chickens one by one. He had wire-tied some iron fencing together and made a temporary yard for them to stay in while he redid their coop. At first he didn't slide the last piece of fence over the top, but the first rooster fooled him and immediately leaped up and flew out! After a few seconds of screeching and squalling - mostly by the rooster - he went back in and we got the rest of them.

Halfway through the day I stopped and got a bucket of Icy water from the hydrant, and went around refilling everyone's waterers. The chickens were panting. I poured some water over the edge of the temporary yard and the chickens immediately started digging into it for the coolness. Today is supposed to be very hot again - and then we are supposed to get vicious thunderstorms tomorrow that should bring the temps back down to the 70's-80's instead of the 90's for another week.

While I was scraping up the horse poop in the barn, I found where some Japanese beetle had gone to town, laying her larvae everywhere. I scooped them out, separated them from my manure, and put them in the rooster yard. They 'went fool' over that!

While I was in the East garden I went over and stared at my wheat patch. HEY! It ISN'T all grass! There's small green wheat heads showing!! I have wheat!

So now the roosters have a nice A frame coop instead of their small box, and all of the potatoes that were big enough are now "tired". Today I have to get into the west garden and get to work. DH is exhausted from yesterday, and has to go in to town today to get his knees shot up anyway, so he's sitting and resting this AM.

[mom2]

All I can say is that it is hot enough to make the devil feel at home.

[Funmommy]

Around here I think there's been a handful of days where it HASN'T rained.
I've had a lot of plants that have either rotted in the ground/pot or never came up. :cry:
I had started some green pepper plants from seed about 3 months ago and they're still only about 2 inches tall.
Luckily we had bought a couple of plants which are doing a bit better but still not as good as they should be.
Everything has been stunted. :(
Hopefully we'll have some sun soon. :unsure:
I've never seen such a wet spring. :blink:

[bee_pipes]

6/24
This is certainly the summer of our discontent. Problems with the dogs, mentioned above, and the turkeys seem to have it in for our rooster. It would be nice to let the turkeys out to graze, but they don’t seem to be able to stick to their side of the playground. They eventually mosey on over to the rooster, who is scurrying about trying to keep his hens herded together, and after much posturing they begin to start fighting. The tom is there mostly for moral support, though he is not above taking a cheap shot if the rooster’s back is to him. The hen seems to be the one that really carries the fight. When I put her up the tom will patrol the ground outside the pen and the rooster will occasionally pace back an forth taunting the confined hen. He’s a brave rooster, picking fights only with females and strutting in front of a caged bird. Thank goodness the bees and weeds are a little more peaceful in their approach to the world.

This morning I found one of the new does had finally kindled. She seems to have dropped 8 kits from my quick count. No sign of the other does kindling, but I’ll leave the nesting boxes in with them for the rest of the week. I wouldn’t say we’re quite into full production, but we have 5 litters in queue for the freezer. Next week is slaughter time for the oldest litter with three litters following in another 8 weeks.

I finally broke down and got a new pair of boots. I found a shoe store across the river, in Parsons, that sells Red Wing boots. They were highly recommended by folks and are some of the last boots still made in the US. The owner of the store mentioned a few other manufacturers that she will soon be carrying which are still made in the US. I have had it with cheap boots made in China and India. They are extremely competitive in price, but do not hold up. Both old pair of boots have holes in the same place. The store owner’s opinion was that the steel toe was causing part of the problem. I do a lot of work crouching and squatting, flexing the toes to an extremity. Since the backs of the steel toes don’t flex, they wear out that leather quicker.

Stella (sbemt456) showed me a low cost alternative to making a sheet metal killing cone. She used an old plastic milk jug to hold the chickens while they bleed out. You're a smart lady Stella. Cheap and practical - elegant. The picture is at McGuire homestead (http://mcguirehomestead.blogspot.com/search?q=killing+cone)

This evening we moved the Cornish and wyandotte chicks outside. We are getting tight on space and I wanted a day to clean the brooder before getting the turkeys. We put them out around 7 PM, after the sun was low enough for the temperature to start dropping. The nights are plenty warm enough for them to get through a night. The real acclimation won’t start until the heat of the day tomorrow.

Tony and Kay came over in the afternoon. I had asked Tony about an underground cable that got snagged when we were working on the storm shelter. I had assumed it was a fat cable, but it turned out to be PVC pipe with three strands (two insulated, one not) of wire in it. This was the electrical supply to the old trailer. We had found it a number of months ago and rerouted it to the shed. Tony checked the wires and we pulled them back to there the snag happened. We’ll put in a new trench while we have the backhoe and bury the wires deeper this time. He looked at the electrical service box in the old trailer and we’ll pull that to make the connections for the shed.

continued next post...

[bee_pipes]

6/25
No dead chicks this morning, they seemed to have made it through the night okay. The small pen is pretty crowded, but better than the brooder. They have not quite yet gotten the routine down, but the older birds know that after the morning disturbances there is food.

I managed to get my dead butt out of bead early this morning. I can’t keep up with Karen, she is the original early riser. Thoughts were on the upcoming slaughter and mulling over what time I will have to get up and when we can start. First light comes around 5:30. That would mean someone like me needs to get up at 4 AM so I can stumble around, drink coffee and scowl at the world for an hour. Another half hour to get prepared (scalding pot, camp stove, knives sharpened, garbage bags over working table) and we’d be ready for the first bird. Past experience has shown that the first bird takes the longest and somewhere in the second bird I find my rhythm. After that it is 15-20 minutes per bird, from bleeding to clean carcass thrown in ice water. Aside from mulling these thoughts over, we went to the garden and picked beans. After the picking Karen returned to the house to snap beans while I stayed in the garden to do some weeding. She is keeping one row of beans unpicked for seed next spring. Some of these seed plants have bull bean pods. The weeding was not too bad, this particular bed was the lesser of the two evils because it had been papered and mulched. The other bed of beans seems to have gotten worse, so far as weeds are concerned, having only been mulched (because we used up our old newspaper). When I start on that patch, I’ll be happy to get two rows done each day. It is not as bad as the carrots, but still pretty bushy.

After coming in from the garden, I helped Karen finish snapping the beans. She fried some potatoes and eggs for our breakfast, and then set about getting ready to can this batch of beans.

I went outside to prepare for the tree felling on Saturday. Some smaller trees were in the way and bound to get broken by the larger trees, to I cut them down. By small, I mean 20-30 foot tall and 6-8 inches in diameter. The first order of business was to put a new chain on the saw. I had been nursing the old chain along, sharpening it and filing it. Most recent use has been cutting cedar poles and notching joints. The chain, in spite of the work, would get hot and start smoking when cutting through cedar hearts. With most of the cedar work done, it was time to put a new chain on. Man, nothing cuts as nicely as a new chain. When the first tree fell, all three of the dogs crowded into their dog house and watched me through the door. The terrain was kind of awkward because they were on the bank of the creek, but other than pinching the chainsaw blade once and opening the cut up with wedges and maul, all went pretty well. When a tree has a severe lean in one direction, it doesn’t matter much how the directional cut is put in. Three of the trees fell where I wanted them to, one had to be felled sideways because the lean away from the desired spot was so bad. The dogs were much relieved when the fourth tree hit the ground and I turned the saw off.

The afternoon was pretty hot and we dozed off after lunch. About 6 PM I got back out side and topped the trees felled this morning. Managed to get two trailer loads of branches run through the chipper. Mowed the slaughtering area in preparation for tomorrow. Tried to get the dog pen mowed before knocking off for the night but the battery on the brush mower is not working. I can jump it from the car but the clutch is electric. As soon as the battery loses enough of a charge to not keep the clutch engaged the blade stops. After jumping it twice to get the blade going again I gave up. There’s enough short grass for the dogs to use. They just lay in the shade of the dog house otherwise.

Regards,
Pat

[sbemt456]

This year the garden is just an uphill battle. With the bugs on the potatoes to the corn tasseling at 2 to 3 ft tall, just seems never ending. We did manage to get the parts of the garden plowed that could be plowed today. Added more fertilizer to the corn and beans to see if we can boost them. The plants are small and surely wont have much on them. We have had some broccoli from the garden. And to our surprise the potatoes have made it to a decent size in spite of bug damage. The squash and cukes are doing well with some fruits setting on them. Beets will be canned next week. Carrots are the size of the pinky finger. After the plowing we had a nice rain. But the lack of sunshine has made it difficult for plants to do as well as they should have.
I have had a abundance of herbs to dry this year. All the rain has made them prolific. So by seasons end I should be well stocked on dried herbs and tea material.
The new chicks (dark cornish) are growing like lil weeds. And are so cute.They give their bigger house mates a run for the money. Some will be layers for next season and some will go to the freezer.
Bee Pipes, the improvised killing cone is a direct result of hillbillie ingenuity. Thanks for the credit and enjoy. :yes4:

Have a great day!

stella

[bee_pipes]

6/26
We got the slaughtering started this morning. We didn’t start the first bird until 6:20, there was enough light to start an hour earlier but we just didn’t get moving fast enough. That’s sort of to be expected on the first day. However, we were able to process 6 birds. The first bird went well and we just kept knocking them down. Karen did the scalding and plucking; I dispatched the birds and did the actual dressing. I was ambitious in pulling 6 birds, but figured we could always put them back if it took longer than planned. We finished off in about 2 hours, an average of 20 minutes per bird. It should go even faster tomorrow. Today’s effort resulted in 22 lbs of meat added to the freezer, an average of a little over 3 ½ lbs per bird – dressed. The birds have reached the end of their growth, there was some fat on the carcasses, but not as much as one might see on an older bird. The killing cone works great – not one broken wing!

We made a quick run to the feed store in Lobelville and picked up four turkeys. This should do us for birds in spring/early summer. There are still ducks on the way and the occasional, unexpected guinea clutch. Man, those guineas are laying eggs everywhere. You have to watch where you step. Walk into a shed that you walk into everyday and one day you will step on a guinea egg if you are not watching where you are going. We have an old wood burning stand, sort of a portable campfire. It sits behind the house and hasn’t been moved in years. The guineas are getting under it and laying eggs – must be 30-50 eggs there. If they can catch a broody hen getting up for a drink or to stretch her legs, guinea hens will run in and drop an egg in her nest.

Yesterday a bird fell from a nest. We have been watching a cardinal nest in the mock orange Karen planted in the front yard. We assumed that the bird fell from that nest. Karen took the dogs out in the morning and they found the bird. She was hard pressed to keep them away from it, but managed. When I went out to feed the birds in the tractor I heard something peeping. I had assumed it was one of the chicks and started looking for it – maybe it had gotten a leg caught or something. Last year one of the meat birds got its head caught in a feeder – it had somehow managed to get its head through a hole on the feeder and couldn’t get it back out. Well, after checking the tractor I couldn’t see anything making the noise and thought it was just coming from a tree and the hollow was doing strange things to the noise. As I walked away I could still hear it and it did seem to be coming from the tractor. I looked under a tarp on the tractor and found the baby bird Karen had told me about. It had climbed the wire up under the tarp. When it saw me it opened its mouth, like they do when waiting to be fed. I picked it up and went over to the cardinal nest. All the birds had hatched, but seemed sleeping. I put the little devil back in the nest and it commenced peeping and climbed out of the nest and back onto a branch. I must have put that rascal in three times yesterday and listened to it complain all day long. It would get out of the nest, down out of the tree and make it back over to the chicken tractor. I’m not crazy about the idea of a wild bird hanging out around the chickens – they can have mites and carry all manner of viruses and diseases, so when I’d see it hanging on the wire sides I would pick it up and put it back in the nest, all the time it would be peeping and carrying on. It occurred to me last night that it might have fallen from another nest in the yard and the poor rascal was trying to tell me it didn’t come from that nest – I was putting it back in the wrong nest.

Ended the day by getting the last of the branches topped from the trees cut down yesterday. The trunks were cut to provide 20 foot timbers and skidded to a location out of the way. Tomorrow after we finish another six chickens we will be dropping two large trees. Hopefully all will go well.

Regards,
Pat

[rideaway]

Still picking raspberries, had a few turnips (raw-yummie) and some spinach for snacking. Rest of the garden sllllooowwwwlllly progressing. The county fair is coming fast. Will spend tomorrow washing sheep (sooo much fun) and Sunday shearing and then going to the fairgrounds to help with barn cleanup! We've had bears wandering in and hanging out way tooo much lately, the other night neighbors saw one climbing out of their pig pen with the rubber feed bucket. Last evening neighbor called asking hubby to come over and take care of the problem. We had already been given permission by local fish and game, so a few minutes later, the neighbors had some meat for some salami...small bear, actually in very good shape, a lot of fat on it, which is unusual for this time of year... There are at least two more hanging out that we have seen. I love living in the woods and having the wildlife wander through but when they start making reservations for dinner, that's stepping over then line...

[bee_pipes]

6/27
Six more chickens in the freezer today. Totals were 20 lb 2 oz with an average of a little over 3 ¼ lbs per bird. Only two more days of this. We didn’t get started until 6:30 and the hornets and flies were ready for us. Still, the operation is going smoothly. Our plastic killing cones are a little dinged up – looks like three chickens is a good number to run before replacing them. We have plenty of empty milk jugs. Tonight I put up the feeder, out of reach of the remaining meat birds. This will give them a chance to empty out their digestive tracks by morning. It wasn’t a concern before because there were enough birds to empty the feeder by late afternoon/early evening. Since we are down to 12 birds the feeder doesn’t empty as quickly. Left to their own devices, these devils would eat until there wasn’t enough light to see, then resume as soon as they could find the feeder in the morning.

We didn’t get much done the rest of the day. It was hot, but the decreasing humidity takes the heaviness out of the weather. We received a good shower around 4-5 PM, measured ¾ inch on the rain gauge, which sort of put the kibosh on anything involved outside. Tomorrow we are expecting a cold front to move through, leaving us with weather in the 80’s, rather than the 90’s. That will feel like mild spring weather after the recent weeks.

The neighbor didn’t show up today or call about the trees. I’m not going to chase him. Plans were to use the ATV to tug the tree in the correct direction. That was before Joey dropped off the tractor. I’ll call Tony and see about getting his help. He has a similar tractor and would have no problem driving/tugging.

Karen made a big batch of spaghetti sauce for dinner. We have enough for at least two or three meals with enough left over to freeze for future meals.

My readings recommended not brooding ducks with turkeys or chickens. I can see why. The ducklings seem to enjoy motor-boating the waterer with mouths full of food. This results in dirty water that looks like weak coffee with cream. It has become necessary to change the water twice a day. When the meat birds are done we will clean up their pen and move the group of birds in the chicken tractor to the meat bird pen. There they will have a chance to grow without competing with the adult birds. At that point the tractor will be empty and we can move the ducklings in. They are not supposed to need heat as much as chickens for the first few weeks and could probably go outside now. They are growing quickly and it doesn’t take much food to keep the both of them fed. The turkeys probably have another 2-3 weeks at least in the brooder. With the small number of birds they will be quite comfortable in there for a long time.

6/28
17 lb 8 oz, average 2.9 lbs per bird.

Started weeding other bean patch. Some big beans hiding in those weeds! At first I thought we had horn worms, but they were big green beans.

We have four turkeys and their companion chicken in the brooder. The companion chicken provides the turkeys with an example of how to eat and drink. They are slow learners. The chicken also keeps at the turkleys – keeps them moving and active. After the guineas, chicks and ducks, the turkey poults have a pronounced difference in personality. Their call seems almost and inquiry – like they are asking questions. They are also more curious than fearful. When you reach in the brooder to grab one, they will run up to your hand to get a good look at it. They are not terrified by being picked up. Their most annoying habit is grabbing a toe on other birds in the brooder. It must not feel good because the other bird lets out a terrible cry, like they are being hurt badly. The first few times you hear the cry you go to the brooder to see what the problem is. Usually by the time you arrive the altercation is over. I wouldn’t have known what was causing the ruckus if they had not done it in front of me a number of times.

continued next post...

[bee_pipes]

6/29
14 lb 12 oz, average almost 3 lb per bird. Grand total is 74 lb 6 oz of meat added to the freezer.

Today we were on chicken #22 when we saw something unusual. After scalding and plucking we noticed one of the legs was green. I expected it was just a bad bruise on the way to purple or black & blue, maybe a broken leg from the dying quivers. Well, we continued plucking and got the bird to the table to be dressed, Everything went normally until I got to the abdomen and opened up the skin between the leg and the body. The area was full of a green fluid - green like nyquill. The only thing green like that is bile. The gall bladder was intact and no way it would have that much fluid anyway. The fluid did not have a smell, at least nothing noticeable over the smell of an opened carcass.

I caught the bird, confined its legs and dispatched it. The bird was not acting sickly or favoring the leg, it didn’t seem injured and acted like all the other birds we have been slaughtering.

I put in a post to a livestock forum to see if anyone else has seen this sort of thing or has any idea of what it was. We disposed of the carcass. Hated to lose the meat but didn't want to take any chances. We slaughtered two more birds after that and I'm wondering if we contaminated our work area. We do the work outside, but cleaning between birds is usually a matter of hosing off the knives and work area between birds. Just to be safe, we have marked the birds processed after the weird one so we can dispose of them if necessary.

After finishing up with the meat birds, we cleaned out their pen and moved the guineas, wyandottes and Cornish chicks into the pen. The straw bedding we cleaned out was quite matted with manure and weighed a ton. The bottom layers had begun composting and made a fine cap for all the offal from the meat birds. We have company coming at the end of the week so this was also a fine time to get the compost collection buckets emptied and washed. Once the buckets were emptied, we covered the piles with the bedding from the meat bird pen. It has done a lot to reduce the smell and flies being attracted by all the waste.

With the chicken tractor empty, we moved the ducklings outside to the tractor. They are still quite fearful of people. My experience with ducklings in the past has been anything but this. Most are curious and will follow anybody that moves. Well, they now have plenty of room and plenty of water. They can make as much of a mess with the water as they want.

So, three of the more disagreeable jobs finished today – meat birds, cleaning the meat bird pen, and emptying and washing compost collection buckets. Not a bad day. The rest of the week will be spent cleaning up and getting ready for company.

Regards,
Pat

[TNDadx4]

Stella - We have the same problem with our corn in tasseling at 2-3' tall... sigh.... All, that is except for our 3 sisters garden which seems to be doing well, although the beans are taking their sweet time.

The tomatoes are coming in and we picked some bell peppers last night for fajitas. Even our son who doesn't like peppers had some on his fajitas because we grew them :)

The squash is just starting to appear, so we'll be up to our ears (no corn pun intended) with squash. I need to look for a few good recipes.

I almost forgot that we also saved the pepper seeds which are drying now so we can store them for next year. Our youngest son asked why there were so many seeds from one pepper and I told him that you reap what you sow, more than you sow, and later than you sow. It was a good chance for us to talk about Biblical principles.

[bookwormom]

oh bee pipes, you did not put that green bird into a big freezer bag and froze it? I am curious why in blazes it was green. No scientific chicken institute that would want to check this?

we need to butcher chickens, too. seems this year everything is happening at once and I can only peel one potatoe at a time. Plugging away...

[bee_pipes]

No, the chicken with the problem is in the compost bin right now. I caught Stella in the chat room shortly after posting this:
Help with chicken problem (http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/vb/showthread.php?t=15562)

Regards,
Pat