New blog for my son here his view of the farm

at the fair and walmart

just an idea I had wile hanging peas in the garden

Rabbits and Hot peppers

Well got 5 pints of pickled hot peppers done. The best part is that I didn't burn my hands this year. Turns out gloves are not just for sissies.

In yet another effort to become more self sufficient, we are venturing into rabbits. I found some rabbits on our local radio party-line yesterday. I will be going to get them tomorrow. I have some old rabbit hutches in the pole shed that we have used for chickens and quail that I will be using for the rabbits. My biggest challenge will be the heat. we have has a record hot summer and rabbits don't like the heat. I found alot of information on how to care for rabbits in the heat at this site http://fogcityrabbitry-meatblogs.blogspot.com/.

Canning

12 jars wild plum jelly, 7 quarts bread and butter pickles, 7 quarts dill pickles and 3 trays of plum fruit leather. So what have you done to prepare for winter

Keeping Goats from getting their heads caught in the Fence

The little red head goat is named Godzilla(kids named her).  She know the grass is always greener on the other side so she sticks her head through the fence to get it. The problem with that is her horns are just the wrong size. she can't get her head back through so she stands and hollers until I find her and free her.  This gets old every twenty minutes day and night.










So here is my solution to fix it. I took a 1 1/2 inch pipe and cut it about 12 inches long. just long enough that it will not go through the part of the fence she keeps getting caught in. Then I measured the distance between her horns on top and drill two holes the width of her horns at the proper distance in the center of the pipe. I didn't drill all the way through . Then came the fun part. I put the pipe on the top of her horns and had someone hold her while I duct taped the pipe securely on her horns. She hated this part. I think the sound of the tape coming off the roll scared her.

Well it took a little getting use to and she certainly didn't like me for a while but it has been on her 3 weeks now and I haven't had to get her head out of the fence since.

Can chickens really weed my garden?

Its called mobbing. Putting too many animals in a small space. They eat the grass too nothing and fertilize the ground. I seen where others were using chickens to work in their gardens. Not a weed one is growing in their pen, but when I turn mine in the garden they dig up plants and don't always eat the weeds. I saw a plan for a moveable collapsible chicken tractor here  

http://craftlog.org/craftlog/?p=4175

So I built one. I used plastic bird net so it is lighter I also didn't make a separate side panel because of the plastic net. The chickens can get out the sides if I don't put something in front of the sides. I move them up and down the rows and they weed, loosen soil, fertilize and work it in, and they find and eat all the grub worms. So far I am very pleased.

My only problems are putting the chickens in an taking them out. The garden is a short walk from their pen and I can't open the door and tell them to go and get in the chicken tractor and get to work. For some reason they don't listen to well.

Candleing Eggs

 Thought I would share how I candle eggs. After my eggs have been in the incubator about 10 days or so I candle them. You could do it before but It is hard for me to decide weather something is in them or not at about 10 days there is no mistake.  All you need is a flashlight, roll of toilet paper, a dark room and an egg.

Hold the flashlight between your knees put the roll of toilet paper on the light and the egg on it.  That's all there is to it. If the egg is clear like this one nothing is in it, but if your egg has a dark blob in it, it has a chicken in it. The roll of toilet paper funnels the light and the opening in the roll is just the right size for the chicken egg.  A dark room helps but the toilet paper roll reflects the flash so I had to take this picture during the day

Nancy and Yoda

Nancy had a little billy on Thursday. The kids named him Yoda because of his small head and large ears. They were taken and penned in the barn because of our little coyote problems. I watched them extra carefully since Maisey let her baby die. Nancy seems to be a real good momma. Yoda is growing real good and is always busy jumping around and exploring.

Other news, our little bantam hen just hatched out 10 biddies. One died ,I think it hatched before the others and for some reason she kicked it out the nest. If my hens will hatch their eggs I let them. I prefer they take care of the biddies and not me. I do still have some in the incubator from the big hens. They haven't tried to sit on their eggs yet. Yesterday I had one quail hatch out, about 3 days early. Nothing else has hatched I'm not sure why this one did. I have him in the house in a box with a light waiting on the others.

Two of our beagles are missing.  They went hunting rabbits on Wednesday and haven't been home. Not sure if they just got lost, caught by coyotes, or shot. We miss them very much.

 Got some seed started indoors. I actually find that it doesn't save me much time as far as getting things to harvest faster. Seeds that I sow directly in the garden will usually be ready about the same time as the plants I started in the house but I just have to start planting, I just cannot wait so I start them in the house. This year I did buy a grow light and hung in under my kitchen cabinets so we will see if the plants grow better. I usually just put them in a sunny window and turn them once a day. The plants are usually tall and week and when I put them in the garden they just kinda stay that way for a while before they finally decide to grow.  I have great hopes for this year. I hope I didn't just waste $24.99 on a light.
  My oldest daughter wanted in on the action. She saved all the cantaloupe seeds from last year. I didn't actually plant them last year but some how the seeds got to the garden (I'm not naming names Abigail). Casey loved the cantaloupe so much that she wanted to plant some this year. I let her plant her seeds, I don't know if any will come up but she has planted them. I told her with that many plants she will be able to sell her cantaloupe. I hope her plants do well.

 Got my husband to disc the garden under. I planted winter wheat for the first time at the end of last season as a cover crop and for organic matter in the soil. Of course my hens went to work right away ridding the garden of any grub worm. Whatever my husband didn't get turned under my hens certainly will.

 My new pregnant nanny Maisey wasn't happy in the field with the others.  She is very far along so I put her in the  pen with the pig we decided to fatten out. All his brothers and sister were just sold and he was lonely and scared. They seem to really enjoy each other. The nanny will not let anything close to the little pig and the pig lays with the goat and they eat hay together.


UPDATE: Maisey had one nanny on Friday while still in the pen with the pig. She would nurse the pig but not her baby so I pen them separte in the barn. While I was out there she would nurse the baby but if I wasn't there she would not. I didn't realize she wasn't taking care of it until to late and she died on sunday night after I stayed up most the night trying to bottle feed it and keep it warm.  Maisey was turned back out to the feild where she sits by the hog pen with the baby pig.

Coming soon...March 10, 2012

Got the incubator full of eggs, Chicken and Quail. I don't hatch any during the winter because winters here can sometimes be harsh and I am not going to take care of biddies all winter long.  I am also excited that I have a new broody hen. She is sitting on ten. We haven't had a broody hen since the first year we moved here.  We had always had free range hens at the other place so I didn't have them in a pen and when they went to sit something would get them. So we built the pens for their protection but I had already lost my good broody hens.

Spring is in the air

 My young hens have started laying again and needed nest boxes. I am not good at building so I had to improvise. I had an old box step out of a trailer sitting in the yard so I took it and nailed two nails in each end of the step. I also put a nail at the top of the chickens lean to spaced apart the same length as the step. using a chain, I hung and secured the step at the same height as our other nest box. I nailed a board across the front and put three creats inside that I filled with shredded paper and leaves. The chickens love it and I am rewarded with 3 big brown eggs a day

 I haven't been able to till the garden yet due to rain, but we couldn't wait any longer to get started. Last year my husband built our son a small raised garden bed. He planted tomatoes in it last year but they didn't do very well. This year He is going to try his had at carrots. He planted the seeds then covered with a light layer of leaves to keep the wind from drying them out.

We also transplanted our garlic to a raised bed so the rest of the garden can be tilled to get ready for spring planting.