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.