out of town

I'm away from the farm, so sorry for the lack of blog posts! But in my travels I have passed many coal powered electric plants. I understand that those plants provide many jobs for the people in the Midwest, that have suffered the most from the economy job loss. But I can't help to be sickened at the sight of the nasty smoke pouring out of the multiple smoke stacks and who knows what kind of toxins are ending up in the river that these plants sit on. The employees surly suffer from the effects from working with coal and high levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Makes me so sad that us Americans won't stand up against it, there are far too many clean ways to produce electricity now.... Why are we as a people poisoning ourselves???? Makes absolutely no sense. Please if your electricity comes from coal.... Conserve, conserve, conserve.

heartbroken

after 4 days of nursing my poor sick calf "the situation" he died yesterday of unknown causes. He has been eating well the whole time, and his manure looked normal. Had antibiotics. Was kept warm through the chilly nights. The ranchers next door had looked at him just the day before and said that he looked good, no signs of pneumonia. I just wonder what went wrong :( makes me so sad, I tried everything to make him better! Rip "the situation".

sick cow

so there was a bump on "the situation" about the size of a marble on his side. For a bit I thought it was an infected spot where he got caught up in the barbed wire. But through research I discovered it was a cattle grub! The feed store guy had advised me to squirt hydrogen peroxide in the hole, and the bubbles would pop it out. Well that did not work. But the grub did come up for air when I did that, which allowed me to see that there was really one in there. Ewwww totally gross!! So I tried to squeeze it out. That did not work either. So I ended up reaching in the hole with tweezers and was able to grab it to pull it out. That thing was huge and one of the nastiest things I have done to date!!!! I'm not sure if the grub has caused "the situation" to be sick, or if there is something else wrong with him. But he is very weak and can't stand right now. So I gave him a bottle last night, and expected to have a dead cow on my hands this morning. As of now he is still in the same spot, but is hanging on so far. I have a farmer coming over this morning to help me give both calves vaccines, hopefully that will kick whatever is ailing him and make "guido" even stronger. We'll see how it turns out, I really hope he pulls through!!!

wormer time

I've been a little concerned lately about the animals having "worms". Which is very common in free ranging and grass fed animals because they are haphazardly eating whatever is on the ground with their grass. So I have found a homemade natural recipe for worming animals. This will be my first time using this method, i have real high hopes this will work!!!

So for like a goat to calf sized animal

1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon molasses
1 to 2 tablespoons of warm water (just enough to dissolve everything together)


i used a kitchen injector syringe to squirt it in their mouths (just the plastic part). I seriously didn't think the calves would take it, but they actually LOVED it. I bet the would drink a whole bottle of that stuff!!

fall leaves

we have many large oak trees on the property, and I had imagined huge piles of leaves everywhere. I'm not sure if the goats are eating the fallen ones, or the trees have many more leaves to shed.

wrapping up my second season garden

well it's almost the end of my second season garden. My okra is going strong. Actually I have so much picked that I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it, either freeze or pickle. My peppers finally have little babies and should be coming on heavy in about a week. I'm still getting a few squash, but that's about all my garden left. I have to get my winter stuff in before it gets too late, I need to make it my project for the week, we'll see how that goes.

cowboy up

the donkey had breached the fence last night, so we awoke to all the horses loose in the front yard. Rounding up 7 horses that can run super fast, was harder than I had originally thought! I'm sure we looked pretty funny running after them with a rope. Since the only thing we had successfully roped is a kids bike....lol good news though, we got them all in safe and sound. We did a great job!

sustainable meal

we ate our first 100% farm meal. Roasted veggies, fried okra, and our very first fried chicken. (plus some chicken stock for the freezer. ) What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment!

horses on the farm

we are lending our pasture to 7 beautiful horses. I've always had a fear of horses, mainly because of their sheer size and cunning mental capabilities. So this morning we went out and fed them some carrots and treats to start to make friends. They were actually very sweet and took the food very gently. A good start in overcoming my fears.

harvest time

we harvest all the pumpkins, all the butternut squash, the remainder of the corn, a bag full of okra, and 6 large watermelon! The corn was full of earworms, so I had been letting it dry on the stock, it will be perfect to feed the animals during the winter months. And we will have plenty of husks to make a corn husk doll craft with my daughters scout troop. What a night! I can't believe how much we have gotten in just a few short months.

glad the chicken's enjoyed

caught the chickens in the garden today, they had pecked into several melons. Little stinkers... I wanted those melons!!!

birthday fun

now that we have some land, it's nice to be able to utilize it all for our get togethers. We placed pirate flags all along our trails, and hid goodies at each flag. It was perfect for the youngsters that couldn't read, and allowed them to get some cake energy out. Fun times!

SHAYTARDS garden issue....

so I was watching the Shaytards youtube vlog, and they had found tomatoes stuck up in high branches. Actually it was really funny to actually see that on film!! But here's my suggestion on the matter of squirrels getting into your garden. First you could build a floating row cover. By using pvc pipe and bending it like a half circle, and placing several over the row. Then cover that with a bird netting. Second (which this is what I think the Shaytards should try out) you could build a small primitive structure. About 6' high x 6' wide x 6' long. By placing wood posts in the ground around your garden, and cross posts over the top. You can staple chicken wire to the structure. One one of the sides, use posts and make square and attach only one side to the frame with some bits of wire or twine, for the door. You veggies will be safe from all the critters!!

new goats

Someone gave us two new goats!! They are both male, and super stinky...lol they are slightly smaller than blondie & blackie with huge wide horns and a beard. I think we have decided to sell one for a profit, and keep the other to stud our females. But as soon as we know they are bred, we are moving that thing as far away from the house as possible! Musky goat smells slightly like a dirty men's locker room.

hummmmmm...

Chillaxin outside, i hear what i think is a killer bee swarming me. But luckily it wasn't, but it WAS a beautiful little hummingbird. I do see them out here often. I wish i had a camera with a fast enough shutter speed to catch one of these butes in flight. Sometimes they get caught in the garage, and i try to take a photo, but it just looks like a black smudge on the ceiling. So just trust me, they are super cute :)

a leaf blew in

fall is officially here! We had a gorgeous harvest moon the other night, the weather is perfect, and leaves are starting to fall off the trees. Fall is my favorite season, and I'm really enjoying it for the first time on the farm! It's really great... I can't wait for the kids to jump and play in a huge pile of leaves!

The First Episode in my NEW VLOG!!!! Check it out!

Check it out & become a follower!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ8BLCemUbE

Donkey the llama

a beautiful black llama is the new addition to the farm!! My son named it "donkey" ... But you have to say it with a strong Scottish accent...lol we put it in with the cows, and it's eating up all the weeds already. We roped it and rode it! Lol... Ok, so we just sat on it, but it was really funny watching my hubby run after it with a rope. And the best news... No one was spit on!!!

no impact man

just watched "no impact man" last night. Although a little extreme I hope more people out there feel the need to better our earth. I definitely feel like I make efforts in preserving nature. Recycling has been a huge part of my life for many years. Also buying used is one of my favorite things to do!! If you have never been to a thrift store before, you are totally missing out on all the fabulous things out there. Buying local produce or growing your own has great benefits on the environment as well as the increased nutritional value! Finding ways to organically fertilize and pesticide are easier and cheaper than stuff you buy in the store. You can see in my blog that some things work great, while others... Well don't, but I figure it's trial and error. I would say the areas in my life that need improvement are... Juice and milk containers, although recycled, I would like to cut them out of my buying altogether. Any ideas? I want to plant an orchard with many fruits to juice myself, but trees are expensive and it may be a while before that dream is a reality. Also, as soon as my goats kid, it will open opportunity to milk them. So I guess I'm on the right path, but for now... I may switch to frozen juice to reduce packaging and look for a local dairy to buy milk from.

organic pesticide success!

so after spraying the bulls with vinegar/water/soap mixture everyday for a week. They showed less and less horn flies everyday, until they weren't present over a 48 hour period of no spray! I'll just continue to spray them every day, and we shouldn't have any more problems. I have read that horn flies can effect the beef growth up to 20 lbs. Plus, I keep joking my beef will be pre- marinated with all the spraying...lol

the sweet life...

I'm sitting here watching the goats nap under a big oak tree. Scratching their backs on the lush green grass. They snack on the fallen leaves they are using as a pillow. Then it struck me. If I was a goat, it would be like sleeping on a bed of marshmallows, walking on a candy coated ground. Kinda like willy wonka's factory. So I guess goats have it pretty good, I wouldn't mind hanging out in an eatable world!!

soil

many people are asking "how much should I water?" but the main concern should be the soil. The type of soil you have dictates the amount of watering you should do. If your soil is 100% sand you won't be able to water enough. If your soil is clay, well you should dig it up...lol Clay does not give your soil the proper drainage. If you are using a bagged soil you won't have to water very much, because for the most part it is dense and hard for the water to drain fast enough. From my experience the best possible combination is about 50% sand (good fine sand) and 50% other. Your plants love water, but they hate to sit in it. You want the kind of soil that water just sits there for a bit, then drains through. If your plants sit in water the will get root rot and be susceptible to fungus disease. I think I've lost more plant from those two things. Don't have the right soil, that's ok, you can fix it! Compost is a great way to amend any type of soil. It can be as easy as turning your beds over. Meaning when the planting season is over you just till up everything, letting the vines and stems naturally decompose and become dirt again. (this is the method I used this year, mostly because we are new here, and I planted where it looked like a garden once was.) Another solution is top your soil with about 2" of compost and turn all that under. If you have clay, sadly you are going to have to dig up as much of that as possible and replace with your own special mixture, your plants will surly get root rot. So moral of the story... Let your soil decide how much you water.

corn harvest

we picked about 1/2 our corn today. Every corn had at least one worm in it! We trimmed off the good parts and composted the rest. I decobbed the remainder (with a handy pampered chef tool) and ended up with about 1/3 gallon of kernels. Not too bad for our first try.
corn from the garden to the freezer in about an hour.

flies

the bulls have had flies on them for the past few days. Yesterday I hosed them down, the flies just hopped back on. So I shampooed them off ... Seemed to work for a bit. Then this morning the flies were back, not quite as bad, but still very bothersome to the boys. So I made a homemade spray of 3 parts water, 1 part vinegar, and a squirt of blue dawn. I hope it works, the boys were mad at me and ran away to the barn...lol. Hoping this homemade concoction works!

hot calf

so snookie died suddenly today. Definitely the sad part of farm life. She was fine for her afternoon feeding, then we found her on her side later gasping for air and a lifeless body. I've read that sometimes cows can be born "hot" and have no chance for survival. Cows are meant to eat grass, but many cows are fed grain. Grain is hard on a cows tummy, kinda like us eating pepperoni pizza everyday. The lining for their stomach becomes weak and loses all it's good bacteria, causing the cattle to get sick easily. Hints the reason for antibiotics in all our beef. While a full grown cow can live like that, a calf in the womb can not form correctly, and is born with many internal defects. I came to this conclusion with snookie because she had whitish spots on her eyes. At first I thought she might be blind, but then I realised she had more symptoms. Bleeding gums and slept curled up in fetal position. Pretty much all the symptoms of a hot calf. Could have been the reason her mom rejected her. She also never got the colostrum milk, so that can cause serious problems, but I don't think it would have saved her. She was doomed from the start. RIP snookie the cow.

green thumb ....????

OK, so I hear all the time how green my thumb is, which to me is pretty laughable! So when I was 16, I got a job as a floral clerk, which turned into a career as a floral designer. I learned loads about cut flowers ,and Part of my job was taking care of the plants in the shop.... Oh my I can't count how many plants I've killed in my lifetime, but it sparked my interest in gardening. When we bought our first house, I focused on landscape gardening mostly, planting a few tomatoes in pots on the back patio. Being that we were pretty much on zero lot lines, I didn't have too much room to work with. As the years went by, I learned alot about growing veggies through square foot gardening. Be aware I was still killing much more than I was growing. Now that we've moved to the farm, my gardening hobby has exploded into a journey of self sufficiency. Years and years of trial and error, I am getting loads of fresh fruit and veggies.... But I'm still killing plants too. So moral of the story.... Once your thumb is so black it's about to fall off... It will start turning green!! RIP to all the millions of plants I've killed over the years..lol

snookie has arrived

the cattle ranch that surrounds our property called my husband today, and one of their cows had rejected her calf. They don't really have the time to take care of it, so they gave her to us!! That's right, it's a girl!! She doesn't look so good right now. But I'm going to make a bovine colostrum replacement using the milk replacement, a raw egg, some honey, and maybe some fish oil supplement if I have some up in the cabinet. Although she will not be receiving the antibodies. I'll work it out.... Just going to take it one day at a time with her. But really I'm super excited!!

solar turd

so my daughter isn't a huge fan of tomatoes. So like a good mom I say to her, " it's good and from the earth." My husband, who's in the other room thinks I say, "it's good and a solar turd." lol... I guess it is, in a weird silly way.

free as a goat

the goats are doing great! We have let them free range all day, all week. They are staying close to home, and come running when I shake a little food in a bucket. They are climbing on everything! I have seen them up on the storm shelter, lounging on the lawn chairs, and even up on the picnic table. I catch Blondie from time to time sharpening a horn on the cinder block well house. I probably should figure out how to trim those before she makes it all sharp and pointy. They aren't getting quite as big as I thought they would, but their udders look pretty good for a goat that has never kidded before.

visitors

we had some visitors at the farm today. It was cool to share the joys of a farm with our "city" friends. And a much needed break from all the projects we have going here. FUN TIMES! If you would like a day at the farm too, make a comment and we can schedule the date.

ready for eggs

my husband pieced together some reclaimed material and built a nesting box for our chickens. We painted it electric blue and I wrote "fresh eggs" across the front. It may be a month or so before the chicken's start laying, but we wanted to be prepared. I also took out the old store fixture and redid the roosts with some pipe and slid it through the chicken wire. The coop looks really fantastic!!

ear worms .... Yuck!

ear worms sure does sound like a creepy medical condition. But really they are attacking my corn!! It's really no wonder people just spray pesticides all over their food, cause all the bugs eating my crops is enough for a woman to go insane! I'm going to try my best to save my corn in an organic like manner, but the outlook is grim for my corn crop this year.

I'm a cheater

OK so I made about 9 big jars of pickles today with the cucumbers from the garden. I recycled some old glass jars from sauce and such. Just washed and sanitized them. Sliced the cucumber into spears & packed into jars. I used 1 package of kosher dill pickle mix, 3 cups vinegar, 7 cups water, heat until dissolved. Poor into packed jars. Process in canner for 5 to 10 minutes. (i use a big pot of boiling water). I always let my canned goods cool upside down on a wire rack, then after it's cool, flip them over, and the bump on the lid will suck in so you know it's sealed good. If you end up with one or two that don't seal, just stick them in the fridge and eat them first. Can't wait to eat my cheater pickles :)

zhu.ki.ni

every time I pick my first pick of the season on any plant, I just get excited. Picked the first zucchini from the garden today. It's from the earth :)

money saving tip

we just hung curtains all upstairs today. Instant change in temperature, long term savings on heat and air!!

the master plan

we have ideas for the farm flowing out the ears!! Tonight I made 2 blank maps of the property and both of us are going to sketch out our ideas and we will put them together to make a master plan. What can we not live without???

buds

just noticed that "guido" has a horn bud.

yum yum yum

I'm picking sooooo many squash everyday! Which has lead me to find new and exciting recipes ... Omg these were awesome, and my kids gobbled them up. They kinda reminded me of a cross between a hush puppy and a potato pancake.

4 med squash
1 med onion
2 eggs
box of corn muffin mix
1 t baking powder
2/3 c flour
1/2 t salt
oil for frying

boil squash til soft (about 10 min). Drain then mash. You should have about 2 cups. Grate the onion. Mix everything together. At this point you may need to adjust your batter so it's like a little thinner than drop biscuits, but thicker than a waffle batter. Scoop out balls and fry in hot oil til golden brown. Mine looked more like a thick pancake than balls, but they were delish. I think my 3 year old ate 6!! Enjoy.

mealy bugs

yesterday I found tiny white fuzzy bugs all over my watermelon vines. The vines we turning yellow and dying. After some research, I discovered I had a mealy bug infestation!! So sadly I had to pull out several vines, then I sprayed the garden with a solution of 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol, 2 tablespoons of dish soap, and 2 quarts of water. They seemed to die instantly when I sprayed them, so hopefully I can get them under control before they destroy my beautiful garden! I'm thinking I'll spray again tomorrow for good measure.

where are all the guineas gone

yesterday there was one less guenia fowl in the coop when I let them in for the night. Tonight there was another missing. No feathers. No body. Just gone.

time for two

the calves fight so much over their bottle, I think it takes twice as long to feed them. I may run to the feed store in the morning and pick up a second bottle.

pickles

going to try my hand at canning some pickles this week. We are picking lots of cucumber from the garden. The hard part will be waiting a few months before the pickles are ready. Anyone have a good pickle recipe?

looking good

one of the old farmers in town mentioned how wonderful my garden looks to his son. What a complement!! It does look pretty darn good though ;)

running of the bulls

we let the bulls run around in the pasture for a few minutes this evening. They were so cute charging around with their heads down. I just needed a red scarf & I would have felt like a matador.

Eh...Yo... We're from Jersey

we named our jersey calves "Guido" and "The Situation" ... Hoof pump hoof pump !! The situation is, the situation wouldn't take his bottle this morning. Hoping he just got a belly ache from too much milk last night, and not something serious. That could be a real situation.

hey now brown cow

my husband just drove 100 miles home with 2 jersey bull calves in the back seat of his truck. He said his truck reeks, but I think it did before the cows were in it. LOL They are so cute, and only a few days old. They were starved when he finally got here & I warmed them up a warm bottle of milk. They were bucking me and each other fighting for that nipple. And I was so sweaty, they were licking my legs with a little nibble here and there. Overall my first experience feeding a calf was SO fun!!

teas

since we moved out here I have had this strong urge to start an herbal tea garden. For some reason I just think herbal tea is about to take off.?.? Specialty teas, designed for your particular health needs or desires...??? On the subject of tea, but not the drinkable kind. With the more people aware of how harmful pesticides and fertilizers are I also see a huge growth in garden teas. For example specialty manure teas, nettle "fertilizer" tea, tobacco "pesticide" tea, and several other varieties of garden teas. I'll think more on this subject... May be a business idea I may want to pro sue in the future.

gallon o squash

sliced and flash steamed a gallon size baggie of squash today!! A wonderful start on our way to self sustainability!!

butternut

just noticed we have several small butternut squash on the vine. Can't wait to harvest them all!!

organic pest control spray

I boiled a concoction of garlic and hot peppers with a little veggie oil. Strained and put it my sprayer. Smelled like a Chinese buffet for sure. But I'm afraid to report, it didn't seem to deter the grasshoppers at all. An old man in town said he uses tobacco to keep the hoppers off his crops... I'm trying that next.

scarecrow

pieced together a scarecrow from some reclaimed things today. I used a tomato cage for the main structure, that way I can easily move it around the garden from week to week. I put and old shirt over the cage and put a bamboo pole through the arms as the arms. I stuffed a knee high stocking with the hair from our brushes and some used up bars of soap. I strung it up from one of the scarecrow's arms. I strung up several empty soda cans from the other arm to make noise in the wind. We stuffed a paper sack w/ plastic bags for the head, and I stapled one of my husbands stinky hats to it. After we tied several metallic ribbons to it, it is now in the garden. For some added human smell protection, I placed 4 stinky old shoes randomly around the plants. I think I added every element in my garden book... Hopefully it will keep the deer and rabbits at bay.

squash is in!

I've picked squash every night for the past few days. They are SO yellow and tender. My kiddos have never been huge squash fans, but they have gobbled this fresh stuff up! With what I pick tonight, I will have enough to start freezing for the winter! The other garden veggies are growing fast and big. Blooms cover everything, can't wait for it all to be ready to be picked.

"come back"

our guinea fowls are now able to free range safely. They are following around the big rooster like he's mama. Which is funny, because I was worried about protecting them from him. They are able to fly and roost up high in a tree, but they all make it back to the coop at night. I've been told the only way to tell if you have hens or cocks are by the sounds they make. They have just been cheeping up until a few days ago. Now you can hear "come back, come back" from the hens.

it's a bird, it's a plane...

it's guinea fowl flying all around the coop. They are really getting around... And my how big they are getting.

sideways corn

wow, a storm blew in last night, with some seriously hard wind. Now all my corn is growing sideways! Hopefully a couple of sunny days will straiten them back up.

scorpian

found a scorpian in the garage... We put it in a jar. Scary!

get out of my garage!

now when I let the chickens out for the morning, they b-line for the garage. What is so chickentastic about the garage??? GET OUT YOUR POOPING EVERYWHERE!!

roosting school

my guinea fowl are a few weeks old. They have been doing great. I got some sticks and put them in the brooder. The chicks are starting to get on them more and more. Great practice for roosting in the coop.

Texas rat snake!

this morning by the chicken coop my husband stumbled across, then killed an unknown snake. That thing was huge... 3 feet long at least! After some research, I have discovered that it was a Texas rat snake. Also known as the chicken snake, because it hangs around coops to catch mischievous rats... Go figure. I guess it was trying to do it's job, but snakes give me the willys, so I'm happy it's gone.

oh dear, a deer

we have seen deer tracks littered around the property. And we have actually seen two early in the morning down by the gate. So my husband made a deer feeder out of PVC and mounted it out in the pasture. Not that we really are into venison, but it will be a great learning experience for the kiddos.

goat mountain

we have lots of old tires laying around the property. So we mounded a pile of them (along with an old dogloo) in the goat enclosure. I can see why goats are called kids. They were all over that mountain, climbing, playing & bucking. Fun times.

on a mission for softness

I love hanging my clothes on the line, and I love the energy savings even more. But my laundry comes out stiff and coarse. On my search for the softest line dried clothes, I'm going to try different tips and see how they work for me. Today I tried a small amount of detergent and plain white vinegar in the rinse cycle. Worked good. Not super soft, but not sand paper either. On a scale between 1 to 10, I give this method a 7.

second season garden

it's been raining the past few days, so to take advantage of the cool weather, I planted every warm weather seeds I had stored! Plus we bought 2 packages of pumpkin seeds in hopes to grow enough pumpkins to make seeds for our pumpkin patch next year. We also spoke with a winery about growing wine grapes. The experts said it was perfect vineyard land! They have grafted clones they want to give us to start us off! So exciting... We just need to raise the money for the irrigation and trellis.

ah farm life

well we got our guinea fowl... They are such cute chicks. They are in the garage under a warming light. We are feeding them a high protein chick starter, but they are already pecking at the bugs that are fluttering by the light. We also got a fully grown rooster, he's pretty, and so far he has been nice to our other chickens. We also went back to the goat breeder and got the twin sister to our goat. Blondie is so happy and they are both content with their new home. They have been eating oak leaves from our hands, and letting us pet them. Seems like all is good with the farm animals here!

she loves us

the goat came troting up the driveway shortly before dark. So glad she found her way back home!

aaahhhh the goat!

the goat has learned to free herself from her pen. She hung around the family for a couple of hours. Then she bolted across the lawn, over the fence, and disappeared into the woods.... Come back sweet goat, we love you!

hoofs on a tin roof

Hangin out on the porch swing look over, and our goat was on top of the roof of the chicken coop! I have no clue how she got up there, but what a shock! I'll be laughing at that for a while.

rooster song

I went over to check our on our new goat, blondie, this morning. I thought I heard her bleating to get me attention, but when I went over there I realised it wasn't the goat, but one of our roosters! One of them has finally found his voice. I'm sure the rest will soon follow. It will be nice to finally figure out how many hens we actually ended up with!

blondie

Yesterday I drove to a breeder and picked up our first goat. A little blonde doe, we named blondie. She is a Nigerian / Nubian mix. So cute. My first instinct was to get a male from another breeder, but I've been reading that's not a good idea. That maybe studding is a better way. But blonde needs a buddy. She is super timid and I know it would help for her to have a friend. So my search has changed from a buck to another doe, to be blondie's companion.

come back chickens

we have finally got our chicken able to free range around the property. But this morning the kids forgot to open the gate that leads to our property. So shortly this morning, they had all gone under the fence to the adjoining property. I sure hope they find their way home!

plum jam

If there is one thing my family eats a lot of, it's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was given 2 huge sacks of plums from a lady in town. So I decided to make a freezer full of jam that we could eat on all year. It turned out delish and it's comforting to know that my kids will be eating one less processed food.

grasshoppers

I've been working on growing a few starter plants for my garden. The second I put the fragile seedlings outside, they immediately get eaten by grasshoppers. I put mesh over the pots and dusted with sulfur to no avail. About to try planting number 4. After some research I will try barrier plants of cilantro, as well as a garlic oil spray.... Please please please work.... Btw I love watching my chickens devour those pests by the beak full !!

stove update

just spent 2 days cleaning my vintage propane stove. And all the burners lit, I was so excited. The igniter tried to light the oven, and poof... Electrical fire. Nothing huge, just enough to melt the wires and my heart!

clothes line

everwhere we have ever lived has prohibited clothes lines. I hung my first loads of laundry just now. It feels great to conserve energy!!

guinea fowl

ordered us 4 guinea fowl keets from a local breeder. I've never actually seen one before, but I know they are effective at guarding for snakes and intruders. I can't wait till they hatch and we can pick them up!

propane

so apparently there is a differance between a natural gas stove and a propane one. Lol... I actully found a free one on craigs list. It's like 25 years old. It needs some serious cleaning... Guess what i'm doing today.

one of those days

our injured chicken died this morning shortly after we woke up. The sadest part was we were all there checking on him, then all of a sudden he started flapping his wings furiously. Mind you he hadn't moved a muscle since the attack. Feathers were flying everywhere, then nothing. The look on my daughter's face when she realized he wasn't better, but dead... I will never forget.
Also the egg in the pasture mysteriously was cracked....and a huge rock laying next to it.... But it was a bad egg anyhow, just wonder what laid it... Guess i'll never know.

poor chicken

last night the nieghbors dog got a hold of one of my chickens. My heart dropped as I walked over there to his limp, seemingly dead body. But he was still alive. I picked him up and examened his body and there were no bite marks or blood. But his body still was lifeless like a rag doll. I originally just put him in the coop to recover,but the other chicken started to peck him. So I got a small cage and filled it with hay and made a bed for him. Before I went to bed I used one of my children's medicine seringes to give him water. He seemed very thankful. This morning there was no change. He hadn't moved, just still laying limp on his side. But I gave him a little more water. I even caught a grasshopper for him to eat, but he was uninterested. I'll check on him through out the day. I hope he makes it.

egg discovery

I found an egg in the pasture this morning. It is all white and larger than a chicken egg. It also feels like there is something in it. My first thought was to incubate whatever it is. But then I thought it might hatch a family of snakes or something. So I left it to nature to figure it out. I'll just keep a watchful eye on it... Can't wait to see what kind of animal comes out.

derserving dog

I walked the over grown pasture right at dusk, my dog came with me (as he always does) to protect me. I really do feel safe with him leading the way! When we reached the bottom I told him it was time to head home, he bounced over all the wild flower patches and underbrush, he looked like a deer going through the forest. I didn't even know a dog could move so gracefully through so many obsticles. He sat and waited for me at the gate. And he looked so happy. I thought he really deserves this new found freedom as much as we do!

hand made loading dock

so the front of the property has a small hill down to the road. My husband dug out a loading dock on the side of the hill. It made it so much easier to load up the lawnmower and I'm sure we will need some easy loading in the future. We keep saying we are going to let the land dictate what will be done, and it was like it was always there. Cool.

chicken peck

the chickens peck my diamond ring everytime I go in the coop to feed them. I swear if they eat one off, we'll be eating chicken for dinner! I'll get it back some way or another...lol

stupid lawnmower

my husband took apart the lawnmower last night and replaced the parts he thought was wrong, but it's still not working right. Guess we are going to take it to someone.

chickens were in a mood.

wow. The chickens liked the bugs the kids collected so much, they were practicly attacking! My son was bending down to get a bug out, and one pecked his face. Man I thought it got his eye... Lesson learned... Don't crouch down in the chicken coop!!

fun for the kids!

I got an old coffee can for the kids to catch bugs and save them to feed to the chickens tonight. The kids are happy and busy :)

wow, I can't believe that we moved to the farm a week ago! Moving is no fun!! I think what I miss most is the starbucks! The farm is definitely starting to feel like home. At night we sit on the porch and you can hear a pack of coyotes howling, turkeys, raccoon, and something I don't recognise. Although we are still unpacking a mountain of boxes, we have managed to buy 13 baby bantam chickens to start us on our way of being self sustainable. We converted an old animal shelter into a coop. (the same day we bought them) and then we built a little run for them. I figure once they get to know us we'll let them roam free. We also bought our first lawnmower. Yep you read that right, we kept our lawn short with a weedeater @ our last home. We bought it used, drove about 4 laps around the yard and it died. Guess we will have to learn how to be mechanics too. I've been watching small engine repair videos on you tube... Lol Our future plan is to develop a pick your own pumpkin patch and also have our family be totally self sustained. Thanks for following! Ps- difficulty in finding utility service out here has lead me to use my cell phone for internet. Haven't quite figured out how to post photos yet, but I will post lots once I figure it out!