Chicken Update

I currently have five live and healthy looking chicks. These are out in the brooder-box I had set up for them and they are chirping, eating and drinking. There is another one that looks sickly, so I am reserving judgement on him. This morning there were two dead in the incubator, and one egg had pipped but the chicken was dead. I still have four eggs that are not pipped, but whether or not they will hatch I don't know. I will give them another couple of days but if they don't hatch by tomorrow night I will throw them out and get the incubator cleaned up.

All in all this was an interesting and rewarding experience, despite the disappointments. These were not "hatching eggs" per se. I just wanted to see if I could do it so I collected up eggs where I could find them - the chickens are masters of the art of hiding nests - so some were probably already old with low viability. The next batch will be collected more carefully.

Just as an aside - there is a hen decided to set in a planter on the back deck. When I was out there this morning she eyed me with that "Don't even think about it" look and an air of smug satisfaction. She is probably thinking "I'll show that amateur how it's done"

Hatchlings - not good news

Well, the hatching is NOT going as planned. The chicks are hatching, all right. But I have already lost three. Two drowned themselves as soon as the opportunity presented. The other just died - I have no idea why. There are still seven in the incubator (and still more to hatch) but I am feeling pretty inadequate right now.

I guess I sort of expected that if they hatched they would be fine and dandy. I am pretty good at raising chicks I get from the hatchery. I lose only a very small percentage, and those I can pretty well figure out why.

This does not deter me from wanting to try again - I will keep hatching till I get it right. My goal is to be able to incubate eggs from the Red Freedom Rangers I have next year, as well as turkey eggs from my Narragansetts and perhaps eggs from my Pekin ducks. My daughter has geese, and we were thinking that perhaps a hatch or so of them per year would be a Good Thing.

Surprise!!!

I am really, really new to hatching eggs. In fact the ones in the incubator are my very first batch. I was supposed to take the turners out tomorrow, and I was supposed to see my first home-hatched chickies on Monday.

Well - I guess those eggs didn't read the manual. I did my usual peek throught the lid about noon, and was sure I heard a "peep, peep". As I still have turkey poults in the house, I shrugged and thought nothing of it.

Well, I heard it again - so lifted the top a bit, and YES!!!! There is a chickie struggling to get out of the shell. Now I am on pins and needles to know if s/he is going to make it OK.

I took the turners out, raised the humidity and lowered the temp a tad so now I am just waiting. More on this exciting development when there is "Breaking News"

Best-Laid Plans

Well, we did NOT start building the Piggy Pen around the hoophouse today. Reconcilable differences delayed the project. However, I think we have it sorted out now. I only hope that by the time the pigs have done their thing there will still be time to plant some winter crops. I doubt the hoophouse will be plantable before mid-September, but if we have a mild fall/winter I may get carrots, parsnips, brussels sprouts, maybe peas but that is pushing it. I will definitely get spinach and some other salad type greens to keep us going through the winter.

Let it be known that this is NOT how the hoophouse looks today. It is sadly overgrown with weeds and crabgrass. Hence the need for Pig Power.

I need to find my copy of Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest for more ideas of what I may be able to do over the winter period.

Weird Weather

It has been an unseasonably cool August. I am not complaining. If there is one thing I hate with a purple passion it is heat combined with high humidity. I just cannot function under these conditions. We are having a pretty hot day today, but then it's back to the 80s. I say hurrah. It will mean that Ken and I will be able to start building the cage around the hoophouse/garden in the morning.

We measured everything out today and (sort of) planned where everything is supposed to go. I am still not decided between raised beds and simple pig-tilled mounded beds for the summer garden, but I can decide that when I see how well they work. It will be a work in progress until I find something that works for me.

One thing is for sure - I will need to really get down to planting. I haven't got a single thing to can or freeze out of the garden this year. I usually at least have some beans and tomatoes if nothing else.

Rainy Days and Mondays...

Well, we have started making Plans. With a capital P. We decided that the first order of business is to get the Piggies to work on the hoophouse/garden so that we (I) can plant some fall/winter vegetables. So Ken is "planning". You have to know Ken to know that is not necessarily a Good Thing. I want a fence around the hoophouse to keep piggies in, he wants a miniature Fort Knox to keep everything else out. What can I say? He's an engineer.

He wants to make a TALL fence to keep the chickens out. It is not that I want chickens IN exactly - but I am not sure that I want to garden inside a 6' chain link fence. I am thinking it will feel like the exercise yard at Riker's. On the other hand, I am not sure we would keep chickens out if the fence were any shorter, and I know from this Spring that any hint of succulent new plants is like a magnet to the Feathered Hordes. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble growing something green and pretty up that fence. Actually, if I can it may be really peaceful in there shut off from the world.

Now I am trying to press-gang my DD Amanda and DSIL Jim to help with the critter moving. If we are lucky we will get the goats and the Dexter, Shay, down to the south field and the sheep up to the north field at the same time as we do the Great Pig March.

Day of Rest

One of the things I have retained from the "normal" world is the habit of keeping Sunday light on work. I really do feel the need to recharge the batteries at least once a week. So I do the chores then try and do something relaxing such as reading or just sitting and watching the critters. I don't really have any favorite authors. It's all grist to this mill. I am not that into great literature. My reading is generally fluff stuff. Tales of improbable high adventure or grisly crime scenes determined to hide their secrets.

I rarely read about "real people" but I have just finished "Take Big Bites" by Linda Ellerbee, a former CNN anchor and a person I think I would like as a friend. She has traveled a lot and enjoys good food - what's not to like? The book is basically a memoir, giving glimpses into her life and relating her visits to far flung places, giving recipes that she particularly enjoyed in those areas. I found it hard to put the book down. And I will try some of the recipes. I might even post some.

I have never understood travelers that go thousands of miles to a foreign country, then are disappointed when it isn't just like home. My parents are like that. They visit Spain fairly frequently and are bitterly disappointed if the hotel doesn't have roast beef and mashed potatoes.

When Ken and I visited Spain we searched out the small tapas bars, and the restaurants that served local produce and local recipes. My most memorable meal ever was at a tiny (three tables) restaurant that was a half mile hike up a steep hill but had the most spectacular view of the town and the sea from the tiny balcony that was the "dining room". We had a simple salad which was unceremoniously whisked away when the paella was ready - you don't wait around keeping it warm. This was followed by a goat cheese and sugar confection served with oranges soaked in liqueur. We drank local wine and afterwards were invited to join the owner and his family in their home (behind the restaurant) for brandy. I have eaten at some great restaurants in Paris and London, but this is the one I remember...

I think these expectations run through our lives. When I decided I wanted to homestead, I searched out people who were doing it. I needed to know how it was actually achieved not how someone sitting in an office in New York thinks it might be done. I have read prodigiously about most aspects of homesteading - but the books I read are the "Been there, done that" type. I came to it with more or less down to earth expectations, and a knowledge of my own limitations and weaknesses. I was prepared for the hard work, the dirt under my manicured fingernails. I was prepared for - and enjoy - the roosters crowing at 3 am, the dogs barking if there is something around that shouldn't be.

I wasn't prepared for losing animals because I didn't know enough to save them. I wasn't prepared for the down and dirty fight with Mother Nature to drag a few pitiful vegetables out of the ground when she had sent rain to drown them and then drought to scorch them. But I am trying. I am learning more about the animals I care for and about. I am starting over with a new garden, and tell myself that this time it will be better because I am better prepared.

I really wasn't prepared for the MacMansions a couple of miles down the road where every inch of the 5 acres is perfect lawn. People who want to be "in the country" and then want to turn it into a sprawling rural city. A couple of days ago one of the "Lords of the Mansion" complained to another neighbor about their roosters... I am glad there is no chance of anyone building any closer to me than the houses that are already there and that we are surrounded by Corps of Engineer land. Some people should just stay home, and should choose their home in a place that meets their comfort level instead of being disappointed when they find that other places are not what they expected.

Lagniappe

I love the Farmer's Market. I have a choice of two - one local and the other not so far away. The local one is smaller, with not as much variety but the prices are a bit better and the people seem more willing to give you a bit extra - what is known in Louisiana as "lagniappe". I got a couple of extra tomatoes, at least a pound of extra baby red potatoes, an extra little patty pan squash and an extra cucumber... and I know they will all taste wonderful. Match that, Wal Mart.

For just under $8 I have my vegetables for next week. I have my meat in the freezer, so everything is good.

I have been trying to sit Ken down and discuss how we can make this place more efficient. Everything has been done reactively instead of proactively. So there have been mistakes made. I now want to get things streamlined so that it isn't as much work. I am not getting any younger and need to work smarter instead of harder. I need to reduce my sheep and goats, I need to move the cow down to the larger field before she calves, I need to get the north area fenced and the pigs in to till it up for a garden...

There are times when I think I need a fairy Godmother. LOL

Cheep, Cheep

6:20 am and the phone rings. "This is Angela at the Post Office. We have your chickies". They are actually turkey poults - Narragansetts to be precise - but I see no reason to correct her assumption.

I get them home and put them in their new box - everything is already set up for them. I will set them up a bigger place in a couple of days when they have learned to eat and drink properly. Meanwhile, I think it better that they have their food and water close at hand. I think turkeys were hiding behind the door when brains were given out. They are pecking everything BUT the food and stumbling into the water like little drunkards.

This is only my second attempt with turkeys. My first attempt was a resounding failure. I started out with 9 and ended up with 4. Those four are almost certainly Toms. Two White Broad Breasteds (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and two Narragansetts whose fate is yet to be determined. Eventually I would like to raise some of the rare Breeds and color varieties, but until I am more experienced I will practice with the Hatchery variety.