Poultry Update - Cattle Panel Shelter - Pics

Well, the eggmobile sits empty. Part of the reason we finished it when we did was because the rooster was getting so mean I could hardly get the eggs anymore. Once the birds were out on pasture I could easily gather them at least once a day. Sadly, the hens must have learned to eat their eggs during that week when I wasn't collecting them very often. I first culled the rooster and one hen that I suspected as being the culprit. Unfortunately, the eating continued and we were forced to cull the remaining 5 hens. I am very glad that this happened with such a small flock and not the large one that I hope to have in the future. Lesson learned here: no matter what - get those eggs!!

So, now we have around 121 chickens and no eggs! I haven't decided yet if I'm going to buy a few layers to get us by or just get our eggs from a friend for now. If I bring in new layers now I'll have to mix them with the heritage breed flock when they start laying. If I don't get any now then I'll have to stop trying to build a future client base by handing out free eggs.

The heritage birds moved from our basement to a small brooder in the garage to the old laying flocks quarters in the garage. The colored rangers went directly from the basement to the laying flock quarters then to the cattle panel shelter just in time for the heritage birds to follow. We could have turned one of the two brooding lights off by now except two of the colored rangers have developed pretty nasty sores on their tails so I have them in the small brooder as sort of a hospital pen. The one with the worst sore died this morning, I'm hoping the other pulls through.



The heritage breed chicks are doing great. We had a power outage last week so I brought them in the house to keep warm. Despite my efforts they all piled up and one of the Buff Chanteclers was dead in the morning. The remaining birds are thriving in their new, spacious quarters. You can read more about the breeds I selected and why in my post about that.

I took out some dry straw for the colored rangers in the cattle panel shelter. They've been out there about a week but I only let them out of the shelter and in to the fence this weekend. The electric net has to be working well in order to contain them. Otherwise they can put their head through and push right out.

See the one sprawled out there in the middle? They sure are good at making me think something is wrong. He was just relaxing, of course.

This morning's rain showers tore part of the roof off. I secured it with more baling twine. Pretty fancy! :)

Happily lounging on the fresh, dry straw after I repaired the roof.

I need to have a better feeding and watering system in place for next time. This big feeder from the eggmobile is the only way I can keep food in front of these buggers.

Some prefer to scratch around and explore.

Napping peacefully.

He's trouble, can't you tell!

Here you can see the different colors. Most are dark red but there are some light, almost buff, and some with this neat pattern.

The turkeys are right at home in this small chicken tractor. We found two of these on craigslist and paid $15 total for them.

Aren't they cute!? They really are the sweetest birds I've had.

How are your birds doing? Have you ever tried pasture raised chicken? I am so excited to taste it, although I am really worried about preparing it and working with whole chicken since that will be new to me.

Are You A Twit?

LoL, I just had to pose my question like that. If you've listened to the Dave Ramsey show lately you'll get it. Anyway, what I mean to say is "Do you Twitter?" or Tweet or whatever? I decided that I would not get in to that because Lord knows I don't need another reason to sit in front of this blasted computer. However, since I'm staying up later for summer I find myself craving communication. Blogging is great but it doesn't really supply an immediate fix like AIM used to do back when I used that. Then I think how nerdy I would sound, "Oh yeah, I heard on Twitter the other day that blah blah blah". I already mention my blog way too much in real life.

"Seriously, I found the best recipe on this woman's site that I blog with..."

or...

"Well, I don't care if you think eggmobiles are weird. Everyone that I blog with thought it was a great idea!"

or...

"Honey, look what so-and-so's husband built (showing him pics on blog). Do you think you could build one of those for me?"

or...

"Gosh, do you have your pumpkins planted yet? Okay good, neither do I. I was getting worried because all the people who have blogs that I read have theirs planted already."

Please, please tell me you guys talk like this too. Maybe we should have kids so I can at least blame it on them that I am so sheltered. It isn't that I don't have friends in real life. I just really don't like going out and sitting at the bar or pretending to have a big social life. I don't like making plans much at all, then I feel like my whole day or weekend is already gone. Hmm, great, now I sound super anti-social. Oh well!

So, back to my original question, do you use Twitter? If so, what do you think about it? Fun? No? Educational? I really don't want to just report what I'm doing all the time but if Dave Ramsey is on there then it must have some potential to be interesting. I'd love your thoughts!

Gone To The Dogs

I started working on curtains for the living room last night. I left the fabric all spread out after getting sidetracked with the frost warning. This morning I found this...


Which quickly turned in to a belly up "I'm sorry Mom but I'm wagging my tail and I'm cute" pose...


I think it is safe to say that this project has officially gone to the dogs!

If you've been around here long you know this is nothing compared to the havoc our dogs can create. What do your dogs (or cats) do to push your buttons!?

If You'd Like It To Frost In June...

Just plant the majority of your tomato plants. Go ahead... sorry I don't have time to help you, I'm too busy covering my garden with a thick layer of straw!! ;)

Canning Rhubarb, and more planting

I'm trying a new theory. Instead of eating within the seasons, how about preserving each season so I can have it all year long. Case in point: last year I made the heck out of rhubarb muffins for a couple months. I've been craving them for about 10 months now. I like to can as much as possible to save freezer space for meat so I thought I'd try canning rhubarb. It was the easiest canning experience ever!!

I had a bag of rhubarb that must have weighed 10 pounds. I could have run it through the food processor like I sometimes do but cut it up by hand instead. It is easier to work with and looks nicer. Plus, I didn't feel good and sitting in front of the TV with the cutting board for 2 hours made me feel like I accomplished something. Anyway, I chopped it in small 1/2-1 inch pieces.

Add 2-4 cups of sugar to each 16 cups of rhubarb. I used only 2 cups because I prefer a very light syrup. Toss together in a big bowl and let sit for at least a few hours. The natural juices will seep out and create it's own syrup.


After setting for awhile it is time to get the canner going and jars ready. Then heat the rhubarb and the juice in a pan until boiling. Boil for 30-60 seconds. Transfer to jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe the rim and seal. Process for 15 minutes.

The Ball canning book says that each 16 cup batch will produce 8 pints. I had about 40 cups but only ended up with 13 pints, not the 20 I expected. The rhubarb must have cooked down quite a bit. There was not a lot of syrup but all the jars sealed and I expect them to store well. I already opened 1 jar to make muffins and I was very happy with the product. I'll share the rhubarb muffin recipe as soon as I find the one I used last year.

In other news, I planted out some more seedlings tonight. 35 Waltham 29 broccoli and 17 more Amish Paste tomatoes, bring the total AP tomatoes up to 25 surviving.

Tomorrow is my early day at work so off to bed I go. Enjoy! :)

Growing Challenge Check-In: Planting

My garden isn't small but I didn't have any room to plant corn. Our neighbor Jeff was kind enough to come by with his tractor and rototiller and make the above long strip of garden for me. It is between the pasture fence and the road. We had to put the fence far off the road to make room for snow in the winter but can still use the space all summer.

I planted 5 different kinds of corn the first day. I still had some room so in went 2 packets of sunflowers, hopefully to use in granola bars this fall. Well, there was still a ton of room left so I just kept planting. All the peas and beans went in. Then watermelon, zucchini, and squash. There is still room so I added eggplant seeds and may stick in some eggplant seedlings to fill it up. I'm trying to plant less valuable crops there since I wouldn't put it past some idiot to drive through it or pick from it. The tomatoes and other crops will stay in the main garden. Plus, now there is room in the main garden for pumpkins!!

Here's the complete running list, new additions in bold, the rest are updated.

Seedlings still under light (they really need to get outside but the weather is poor):
Amish Paste Tomatoes
Green Zebra Tomatoes
Waltham 29 Broccoli
Ping Tung Eggplant
Long Purple Eggplant

In the main garden:
Red pioneer potatoes- 10# - growing well, need straw
Red onions - 8-10" tall
Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas (hybrid) - 1 20' row - 8" tall
Asparagus - mostly gone to seed, some still coming up
Black seeded simpson lettuce - 1 20' row - up
Black seeded simpson lettuce - 1 20' row planted 4/27 - up
Sugar Ann snap pea - 1 20' row planted 4/27 - 4" tall
Victoria Rhubarb - approx. 25 seeds planted 4/27 - didn't come up, disappeared!
Amish Paste Tomato seedlings - 10 planted out 5/25 - 2 died, others holding on

In the long garden:
Country Gentleman sweet corn - 1 packet - planted 5/25
Golden Bantam 8-Row sweet corn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Carousel mini ornamental corn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Strawberry popcorn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Japanese White Hull-less popcorn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Mammoth Grey sunflowers - 1 pkt. - planted 5/30
Buff Valentine (Contender) bush bean - 3 pkts. - planted 5/31
Sugar Ann snap peas - remainder of 1 pkt. - 5/31
Laxton's Progress 9 garden pea - 3 pkts. - 5/31
Tall Telephone garden pea - 1 pkt. - 5/31
Blacktail Mountain watermelon - 1 pkt. = 5 hills - 5/31
Butternut Roosa squash - partial pkt. = 2 hills - 5/31
Black Beauty zucchini - partial pkt. = 2 hills - 5/31
Ping Tung eggplant - partial pkt. = 2 hlls - 5/31

Around the farm:
Heritage Raspberry - 4 canes planted 4/26 - doing great
Strawberries - a few blossoms, only half dozen plants survived winter without mulch
Gooseberry and Currants - 2 of each - planted last year - huge w/ small berries forming!
2 Red Haven Peach trees - planted - all fruit trees are healthy and green
1 Harrow pear tree - planted last year - only tree with blossoms
1 Bartlett pear tree - planted
1 Montmorency Cherry tree - planted
1 Gala apple tree - planted
1 Golden Delicious apple tree - planted
4 blueberry bushes - planted last year - greening up
Mature apple trees - small apples forming!

Here's a pic I snapped from where I sat planting the endless patch.


Also, this is the broken hoe that I've repurposed to help me plant. It makes a great little tool to cut rows in the soil. Then I just drop the seeds in and pat over them with my hand.



I've enjoy reading many of your garden updates and how everyone's plant are flourishing. What's your favorite garden tool? How do you plant your seeds?

Sewing with Mom

My Mom was nice enough to drive out for a visit on Sunday. We spent the day sewing a new scrub top for me. I bought the pattern and the fabric a while ago but wasn't sure how to cut out the pieces. I have made curtains and even pajamas but this top was by far the hardest thing yet. My Mom is an excellent seamstress. She even made my bridesmaids' dresses for the wedding so I knew this top would be a breeze for her. It turned out pretty good. Thanks Mom!


Today is the start of my new work schedule. I only have to work Tuesday - Friday this summer. Yay! That means more free time for all the projects around here. I wanted to spend this first day off out in the garden finishing the planting (expect an update soon). However, Mother Nature decided rain/storms sounded good today. I actually planned ahead and went to Jo-Ann Fabrics yesterday to stock up on supplies for today. On the agenda: cut out a second scrub top and work on curtains for the living room. Those who follow the Git 'Er Done posts will appreciate that once curtains are done the living room will be finished besides rewiring!

I have a couple other things up my sleeve for today as well so if I get that far I'll let you know. I've had a sore throat since about 10:30 PM last night so I'm going to take it easy and see how things go. I've taken some vitamins and will fight my urge to garden in the rain. How are you spending your day? Is it raining? Do you sew much? Any sewing projects you recommend?