One year

This month marks the one year anniversary of buying my (our) cozy little homestead in the woods.

This realization hit me earlier this month.  It's gone by so fast and I am in awe of all that has taken place over the year.

I also think back to all the stuff I wanted to do and it was months ago when I decided to do X and Y and either I haven't started or ran out of steam.  Oh well.

Things have been busy around the homestead.  Mostly outside stuff.  We figured we had better take advantage of what nice weather we had.  That is why I've been so quiet the last couple months.  The weather has gotten colder.  Time to start hunkering down.

Let's see if I can recreate what we've been up to.

Back in September my DH ordered 20 yards of dirt for the garden.  It was decided that the best place for a garden was in the meadow to the left of the house.  It's not really a meadow but a open side yard that doesn't get used.  It gets plenty of sun (we hope). 

 All three of us moved dirt that weekend.  A raised bed frame was built by DH while my son and I moved dirt.

Twenty yards of dirt is a LOT of dirt.

To keep from feeling overwhelmed I didn't look too much at the pile that seemed never-ending.  After DH finished the frame he helped my son and I move dirt.

A view to see how deep the dirt was being spread out.   It rained a bit that day and we still moved dirt.  The truck had quite the workout that weekend.  Some friends had railroad ties and said we could have them.  Then a trip or two to town to Menard*s.

Completed size is 22 x 32. The depth is one foot.  Now we are all ready for next spring. After this project was complete I immediately began dreaming of what things to plant next year. 

September we realized that a mama deer was including our back yard in her "rounds." She also has a set of twins that look to be about a year old.  She's pretty tame. She has gotten as close as five feet to us when we toss bread out to her.

October we decided to get serious about snow removal and purchased a snow plow for the ATV.

Bring on old man winter! Rawr!

We have had some snow already, but none of it stuck.  For now, this beauty is resting in the garage.

On October 3 my sweet little baby roo did his first crow.  I loved it!

A few days later I stood out in the rain and got a little video of him doing his song and dance.  I enjoy seeing him. I joke that he looks like he's doing a drunking Irish jig.

On October 11, 2013 the first egg was laid.

One of the most perfect things I've ever seen

I am in awe of this egg and each egg we have received since.  It was confirmed that our "Red" was the first to start laying.

In October we also lost a few Wynadottes.  Very sad. :-(  It's not easy to lose chickens.  It's accepted that it's going to happen but it's still not easy.

We also added four adults to the flock.  Saw and ad on craigslist for one year olds for sale.  I'll admit, they are a motley group but they've integrated into the flock very nicely and everyone gets along.  I have some pictures from when we first got them but nothing recent.

The grey one is "grandma/grandma pucker/big fat mama." She's a riot to see run.   The other one is "No Tailed Red."

This girl is "Blackie"  She lays pretty blue eggs. 

This is "Red with a tail" and the Barred Rock is "Junior"

I know, real imaginative with the names. It works.

The end of October we purchased 14 Guinea Fowl.

*sigh*

It really is a funny story when I think back on it.

We got them Oct. 30 and brought them home.  The next day when DH got home he opened the pen to pull out one of the chickens and he closed the pen.  The Roo and one of the guineas tussled and managed to pop the pen door open.  The Roo and one of the little ladies ran around for a bit but we caught them.  The guinea, on the other hand ... we chased the guinea for more than an hour before giving up and going trick or treating.  When we got home the guinea was up on the roof of the coop.  DH snatched him/her and got it in the coop.

The next day right before DH came home from work, the guineas managed to pop the door to the pen -- AGAIN -- and made a jail break. They were out in the woods heading for where ever.  There was no way we were going to catch them.

Yeah ... twelve of those guineas are now in my freezer.  Made for an interesting Friday night. Yes, I'm laughing as I think about this.

The remaining two are over at my neighbor's.  She has a flock of guineas and what were we going to do with just two guineas?

Another outdoor project is done but I'm going to save that for another post.  I think this has done a fairly good catch up.  Also, I have a loaf of bread in the oven and I don't want to forget it!

Update on chicken stuff

Almost as if on cue the weather switched on Sept. 1 and got colder.  Fortunately my sweet guy decided he wanted to spend his birthday insulating the chicken coop so they won't freeze this winter.

 About a month ago he put a ceiling in and over Labor Day weekend we went to Menard*s and got some sheeting and rolls of insulation. It's even been wired so that we can have a light on in the winter and even put in a small heater, if necessary.

 There used to be more perches but the girls decided that they only liked one so when the boxes and perches were re-installed it was decided to just keep one.  The girls hop up onto the nesting boxes and then hop up onto the perch.  

 We've also had these nesting boxes installed for a while.  There is some interest in the boxes but not much.  The babies have spent a few nights in there though.  I think it's because it's enclosed and when the four of them cram themselves in it stays pretty toasty.  Hard to believe that those little bodies generate so much heat.

Artsy photo of the coop

 Probably about a week after we got the babies we knew we couldn't keep them in the house for very long.  Being the capable man that he is, my DH build a "nursing/brooder" coop for the babies.  He did it without any plans and had it done under eight hours. He is so smart that way.  I love how he can think something and make it come to life.

Here are the babies jumping out of the pen after being let out when we get home from work and school.  All the chickens free range together in the evenings and the weekends now.  They still haven't formed a cohesive group but they are getting used to each other.  Since it's starting to get colder out at nights we've been having the babies sleep in the coop. But putting them in their pen during the day.  The big girls still chase and harass the little girls and I don't think they can be enclosed together just yet. 

We are pumped that we will have this for next spring when we get a new group of chicks. 

 My guy built this almost all from scraps we had around the house from building the big coop and pen.

Here's an inside view of the coop part.  Yup, we put windows in on the sides.  The babies spend some time in there during the day.  They even have a perch to sit on. 

I'm debating on whether the coop part should be painted to match the big coop, which matches the exterior color of the house.  Yes, we are cute that way. 



Beets were planted in these two containers and they didn't really do anything.  I'm sure it's because of the cooler temps we had this year.  So we let the chickens have at the foliage. They loved it.

 Thankfully, the chickens have no interest in the lone two tomatoes we have.

They would rather eat the moss off the birch in the back yard. 

Weekend project

A few weeks ago my guy was able to get some kitchen cabinets that were in need of some TLC and rehab work.  This week the cabinets were delivered to the homestead and this weekend my DH set them up in the garage.

Don't they look great?  Now my guy has got himself a work bench, a place for tools, storage space and a place for processing any deer that may be harvest this year and the years down the road.

We purchased the counter this weekend at Menard's for a great price and he installed this a.m.

The cabinets completely change the personality of the garage. It's a bit brighter and the garage doesn't feel as cluttered as it used to. 

Just like that, summer is over (Or, school is back in session)

My son started the new school year Tuesday this week. My little man is now in third grade.  That just seems so surreal.  *I* have a third grader.  Before I know it, he'll be driving. (yikes).

Tuesday started with a power outage. We woke at 5 a.m. and I thought a light was burned out until my DH said that all the power was out.  I told him "This is not a good start to the first day of school"  Thankfully, the local power company found the problem within an hour of us waking up.  One of the power company's trucks was going up and down the road, flashing their spot light.  I can only assume they found the "issue" on the power pole across the road from us, in the neighbor's yard.
 

First day of school 2013.  Look at that smile!

Despite any protests that my son may have put up, I think he really was eager to get back to school and some sort of schedule. We are four days in and he still seems eager to get up and get going.   He's also on the other side of the elementary school and it has thrown me each time I've gone to the school.

This summer flew by.  I feel like there was so much stuff that I wanted to do.  But for one reason or another, it didn't happen.  I was certainly busy enough, especially the last few weeks with all the blackberry picking. I really should take a picture of the blackberry jam jars together.  I think we still have over 100 jars.  I still have so many pictures of things that I want to share on the blog. And memories, but now that so many things have past I worry that half of it won't make sense. ... Like when we had family our for a picnic and we all had such a good time.  Oh well ... This just shows me that my life is "full" not necessarily "busy" and that I'm out actually doing something instead of life passing me by.

The weather has really cooled down.  Though I guess we are in for a hot one today.  But I think that for the most part, we are on the cool down til winter.  The county next to me already had a frost advisory.  All in all, it's been a cold summer.  I do see some color in the trees already.

Canning season is upon us (and jerky making)

The family has spent the last week or so berry picking. We've got a few nice patches on our property and we found a few nice patches elsewhere.

This weekend I dusted off one of the pressure canners and got busy.  But first, I got a new kitchen gadget.  An OXO food mill.  I couldn't wait to try it out. I kept the blackberries and raspberries in the fridge and kept my fingers crossed that the food mill would arrive on Saturday. Thankfully it did because I'm not sure the berries would have lasted much longer. 

Long story short, I really like the food mill.  I can't believe I waited as long as I did get to get one.

Anywho, I had two VERY FULL gallon-sized buckets of berries in the fridge and I got to work on them.  

iPod photo of before-milled and after-milled blackberries.

Canning jam was a bit of an adventure this year.  For whatever reason my jam wasn't setting up at all.  The jam looked like I hadn't added any pectin to it.  But a rebatching (or two) took care of the problem.  My Tattler lids really saved the day since I could just rewash them and use them again.  I use a mixture of Tattlers and single use lids.

 

My son counted all the jars that had processed and the final number of all the jars of jam I've done this year was in the 70s.   I have never made that much jam in one season.  I think I got a little crazy with the "free berries".  This picture doesn't have all the jars showing.

 Isn't it pretty?  I just love the jewel tones that jam has.

In other news.  I talked to my husband about making beef jerky.  He was intrigued by the idea and started doing a bit of research online.

We have a smoker (or two, ... maybe three. Okay at one time, it was four) and he put seasoned meat on the smoker for one or two hours, to get that wonderful, yummy, delicious *drool* smoked flavor and he finished it off by drying it out on the grill.

For making jerky for the first time, he hit a home run with the flavoring.  Oh! It is wonderful. He already got a request from someone to make more.

There is a local place that has a meat counter that includes smoked foods.  Their jerky is nothing compared to what my DH made this weekend. 

This weekend after the jerky was made my son ended up eating about 1.5 lbs of it. Which is amazing to me.



 

Berry picking!

Last night we went blackberry picking for the first time. Um, wow.  There were so many berries

Just look!  And this was just the first wave of berries.  We found an area that is just thick with blackberries.  I'm surprised -- we were the first ones to pick.  Though when we first got there we thought all the berries had been picked.

So many ripe berries on the canes that they were practically on the ground. You could pick all the berries you saw, then lift up the bush and there would be that many berries just hanging below the leaves.

Here's my son with half of what was picked in about 1.5 hours. You can't see it, but his legs got scratched up quite a bit. But the thorns and pickers really didn't stop him from charging into the brambles.
 

 

We ended up with more than 4 pounds of blackberries.  The bright red berries are raspberries that we picked while on our way home. The berries were SO ripe. You just had to look at them and they fell off the bush. 

Tonight there is plans to make some jam. It will be my first time making blackberry jam. I just may have to make some bread to go with it.


 

We lost another one :-(

Saturday DH noticed that our wee-est baby chick wasn't looking so great.  One of her wings was hanging low and she looked sad.


We got her back into the house and set her up in a space where she could be alone while we monitored her. 

Crappy ipod photo of Junior

She exhibited symptoms that were very similar to Little Red before she left our homestead.

I contacted some online friends and they offered ideas.  We ran to town and got some antibiotics to put in the water for ALL the chickens.  Just to be safe.

Saturday night all Junior was doing was sleeping.  She feel asleep on the plastic lid that had food for her.  She had no interest in drinking.  But we were determined to give her a chance to pull through.

Before going to bed I had my son hold her and he whispered endearments to her.  But 10 p.m. she was barely moving.  I didn't expect her to last through the night.

Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013, our sweet little junior, with her punk rocker hair, went to heaven to be with Little Red.

I handled this one much better than the other farewells.  It still stinks though.   My DS thought Junior was back in the coop until last night.  You could see his heart break as it sunk in. 

I told my DH this weekend that I didn't think I ever want to purchase chickens from a private party again. Not only do we have this unknown (to us) illness that could potentially kill all the babies, but I do worry that it's something that could somehow get to the big girls.  The two groups really haven't been together.