It has continued to rain here, we have had about 10 inches of rain in a little over a week. Louisana has been hammered with a lot and flooding...historic amounts of rain, some are saying it ended up being around 30 inches! I have seen pictures of the devestation...so many houses flooded, coffins floating in the streets, highways underwater. People with no place to call home any more. They speak of the Cajun Navy helping rescue so many people from their flooded homes, these are people with boats, just helping to save lives. I think the death toll is up to thirteen now. It is sad to watch, but the people helping each other is amazing.
We had been dry for quite awhile, so no flooding here. Even though we have gotten a lot of rain the earth has absorbed most of it now. The creek was dry and I can here it running from the house, but it has not left it's banks. The lower part of the yard has had a little standing water, not much. I got the yard mowed yesterday before the rain started up again. It had gotten pretty high and the younger chickens were hard to see in the tall grass. When I was done with the mower, the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys were having a field day...running after grasshoppers! It is funny to watch them taking them away from each other and running with them.
All the rain has been bad for my garden, my watermelons were starting to rot, I picked most of them. My Brussel Sprouts have pretty much been eaten by ants and started turning black. My pepper plants have gotten out of control, my Habanero plant is probably four feet tall and at least that wide. My Bell Peppers have gotten so heavy that they have been breaking the branches, as is my Broccoli...most is split and some has died. My tomatoes are pretty much just vines laying everywhere now. The rain came down so hard it basically beat up the plants. I need a break from gardening...changed my mind about a Fall garden. I have so much to do before winter I need to concentrate on getting the poultry yard ready for it. The Farmers Almanac is predicting a cold wet winter for us, so I have to prepare for it early. We already have cooler than normal temperatures and more rain...August is generally the driest month here and we already have ten inches of rain for the month...it is not over yet either.
I have several chickens with fowl pox now too. It is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, it causes little scabby raised bumps on the chickens combs, waddles, ear lobes and around the eyes. Some of my chickens have them bad and I have no be hen you n the house that can't see out of either eye because of them. I have been having to force feed her, she will drink on her own if I set her in front of the water bowl and push her head down to it and wet her beak. She won't eat if I do that though, so I have been prying her mouth open and feeding her boiled eggs. I am not sure if she will make it, she is a sweet little hen and I am trying my best. The pox on her eyes is awful, I have been putting a Vasoline and Sulphur mix on her and tried putting Teramycin in her eyes, but you can't really tell she has eyes any more. The eye area is very swollen and the pox are black scabby looking spots...I am hoping to dry them out enough to scrape them off and get at least one eye open, so she can see to eat.
Wish me luck, I have several more chickens on the porch that have a more minor case of fowl pox...but it seems I notice more popping up on chickens in the yard, the more it rains.
Friday, August 26, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Big Surprise
We have been so hot and humid that it has been making me feel bad to be outside for very long, heat indexes of 107-115 pretty much every day..until yesterday. We have had a lot of pop up showers that will dump rain on us, a lot of rain in five minutes time. These are accompanied by a lot of thunder and lightening...that part usually lasts longer than the rain. Yesterday was different.
The temperature dropped, we had a gust front hit and it rained without all the thunder and lightening. It is a big surprise to have temperatures only in the 80's in Texas, in August. August is generally the hottest month of the year here...in bad years it is July and August, sometimes having weeks of over 100 degree temperatures and not a drop of rain. We are suppose to be getting rain every day this week...and it is not suppose to hit even 90! I know we have gotten 2-1/2 inches of rain so far this month, but that came with high temperatures following the rain...it made it very humid too...but it helped my trees and garden, and the grass is pretty green now. It was raining when I got up this morning, a slow gentle rain and all week the lows will be in the 70's with highs in the 80's! But, we also have a good chance of rain every day too.
I worked in the garden a little bit yesterday, it is a mess. Weeds are overtaking it since I have not been going out every day and pulling them. I just haven't felt well, not sure what it is, maybe allergies? I have had frequent headaches and shooting pains that move around. Here lately I have felt like someone hit me across the shoulders with a big stick and having sharp pains in my wrists and elbows. I haven't been taking Aleve every day though...so it could just be arthritis I suppose. I don't like the feeling though, maybe I will take some aspirin today. I have things I need to do, canning wise. If I don't do it soon...the chickens will be getting my crops. I want to plant a Fall garden, I wanted green beans and corn to freeze or can and I didn't get enough out of my garden before a lot of it fried to a crisp. I need to put composted chicken manure on the garden and till it in still too...can't do it when it is wet though, so I may start seeds in pots while it is rainy and then transplant them when I get it tilled again. I pulled up all my corn plants and may pull up my cantaloupe and watermelon plants too.
I am upset that ants are eating my Brussel sprouts, gotta find a solution to fix that too. I just have a lot to get done. I have still not finished the run on the breeding pens I built either. Just too hot and too much other work to do. I will enjoy the cooler temperatures and I am sure my critters will too. I need to put a couple of new tarps on today and move some roosters around. My rooster population has gone down some and I need to try to put some in coops instead of pens, I just don't want them to fight. I have some repairs to make too all of the feed sacks I put on the pallet coop to keep the rain out have deteriorated and the chickens are ripping them up, I need to clean it off and do something different I suppose. So, if you ever use feed sacks as a siding material to block wind and rain...you only have about six months in a really sunny environment until they start falling apart, maybe a little longer...but to get them off in one piece...six is about max. I touch these and they crumble in my hand unless the part was double layered. I have a big mess to clean up.
Friday, August 5, 2016
Sweaty Work
Summers in Texas can be brutal, I keep hoping that I will get use to the humidity out here but I am just not so sure that will happen. I worked out in the garden some yesterday and started cleaning up after the chickens and turkeys I have on the porch. I don't think I had a dry spot on me when I called it a day. Today was pretty much the same, taking care of pools and cleaning things, doing some Bumblefoot procedures and cutting Spurs off some of my Polish roosters. I had sweat running down my arms, my shirt was soaked and even the top of my jeans were wet, down to my knees. I really need to power wash my porch and the cages the chickens are in, but can't do that with them inside of the cages. Finding places for 50 plus chickens while you clean is not easy, neither is catching them all and moving them...so it will have to wait.
Since I hatched so late into the year, I have a garden and canning to do at the same time as everything else, some things get put on hold for periods of time...too long sometimes, like cleaning under everything on the porch and moving everything and scrubbing down the porch. I have been doing it twice a week, it takes me at least four hours, sometimes longer...way longer. Like when it is 100 degrees in the shade. Yesterday and the day before were like that. I don't mind sweating, not really...the part I don't care for is the chafing if I do a lot of work. I found something called a Friction Stick, it reminds me of a stick of deodorant, same shape and size and looks like deodorant too. I wish I had remembered to use it yesterday. I have slightly sensitive skin...and I cannot have any kind of rubber touching my skin for very long. I had to switch to wearing cotton Sports bras in the warmer months, otherwise the bottom band of a t-shirt bra rubbed me raw, well...now sports bras are doing it if I forget to rub some of the Friction Stick on my skin. One thing I did not count on was chafing under my arms from a wet t-shirt and chafing were my jeans fold at my inner thigh...or at my waist.
A lot of the time I work with wire, or around wire, and things that are super dirty...I am talking about dirt, poop, large quantities of thick dust, spider webs and flies/maggots. I have been wearing men's jeans with no stretch to them, at all...and men's t-shirts. Why? Well...I can get a pair of men's work jeans for $12, and a mans t-shirt for about $3.50 or so....they offer more protection than the women's versions and are several dollars cheaper. I can lean over a cage to try and catch a juvenile chick and get caught on the wire and rip holes in a woman's t-shirt...they are thinner and very lightweight compared to mens t-shirts. Pretty much the same thing with jeans, I got some cheap women's jeans from Walmart, Riders I believe...although they are more comfortable with the stretch in them they do not hold up well when working with fence wire or hardware cloth, or even construction...carrying wood...I have several pairs with holes in them or the thighs have "pills"...those little balls that form when the material wears out. They are Ok for sitting here n the lawnmower and cutting the lawn, and just general cleaning...I have to be careful though, first time I brush up against a fence, or squat down to clean and fill a chicken waterer, if they are worn at all they rip. I was walking around with a good sized rip in the butt of one pair of jeans and I didn't even know it...my husband told me. No telling when it happened, hopefully not when I went to buy feed. I squatted down the other day and two holes popped open on one leg in a different pair of jeans...so, after not being able to find any non-stretchy women's jeans anyware...I guessed at my size in men's and bought a couple pair to try out. So far so good, except the chafing part. I guess I found a couple more areas to try to remember to rub the friction stick onto. I never had an issue with chafing and jeans before, but I got these a little big so I could bend and stretch and they are not skin tight like some of my other jeans.
Being a farmer is not glamorous or easy, it is tough, dirty, sweaty work...easpecially in the summer. I use to wonder why a lot of farmers looked such a mess most of the time, or why people's yards were such a mess, full of rusty metal and old things laying around...now I know. When you get up early, work pretty much non-stop all day trying to get all of your necessary tasks completed, are not eating dinner until 9 at night, if you have an appetite at all and still have to go secure the animals for the night once you finish...you get tired, you start not sweating the small stuff, you spend more time with animals and plants than people and you get to the point that everything you own may have some rip or stain on it, but you haven't sold enough of your critters or crops to feed them, or you...so you just don't buy new stuff...I guess that is where the term "Sunday Best" came from...you save back at least one outfit to wear to church on Sundays...so it is not stained or torn, so you look presentable...but ya know what? Animals don't care what you wear or if that feeder you accidentally left sitting on top of a table is rusted out...they just want you to bring them food and water and love on them for a few minutes out of your day...and it doesn't matter if you are sweaty or dirty and have wood shavings in your hair either. I love it though...
So, next time you see a farmer or rancher...thank them. If they didn't love doing what they do, you would not have food on your table...yeah, the majority of people don't think about why that steak costs so much, or the butter, eggs or bread...you just go to the store and buy it, not how much work goes into getting it to the consumer...I use to be one of them. I have found timing is everything too...wait too long to pick your fruit or veggies and they are gone, all that work is eaten by the bugs or birds too...gather those eggs twice a day or they get broken or a snake might eat some. I am learning the hard way...but you know what, when it happens...and you have fresh homegrown tomatoes canned, salsa and sauces made, pickles and watermelon and fresh green beans, corn or broccoli...and have enough to last a good while, it makes you proud that your hard work pays off...now to go cook myself an omelette with my farm fresh eggs and peppers from my garden!
Since I hatched so late into the year, I have a garden and canning to do at the same time as everything else, some things get put on hold for periods of time...too long sometimes, like cleaning under everything on the porch and moving everything and scrubbing down the porch. I have been doing it twice a week, it takes me at least four hours, sometimes longer...way longer. Like when it is 100 degrees in the shade. Yesterday and the day before were like that. I don't mind sweating, not really...the part I don't care for is the chafing if I do a lot of work. I found something called a Friction Stick, it reminds me of a stick of deodorant, same shape and size and looks like deodorant too. I wish I had remembered to use it yesterday. I have slightly sensitive skin...and I cannot have any kind of rubber touching my skin for very long. I had to switch to wearing cotton Sports bras in the warmer months, otherwise the bottom band of a t-shirt bra rubbed me raw, well...now sports bras are doing it if I forget to rub some of the Friction Stick on my skin. One thing I did not count on was chafing under my arms from a wet t-shirt and chafing were my jeans fold at my inner thigh...or at my waist.
A lot of the time I work with wire, or around wire, and things that are super dirty...I am talking about dirt, poop, large quantities of thick dust, spider webs and flies/maggots. I have been wearing men's jeans with no stretch to them, at all...and men's t-shirts. Why? Well...I can get a pair of men's work jeans for $12, and a mans t-shirt for about $3.50 or so....they offer more protection than the women's versions and are several dollars cheaper. I can lean over a cage to try and catch a juvenile chick and get caught on the wire and rip holes in a woman's t-shirt...they are thinner and very lightweight compared to mens t-shirts. Pretty much the same thing with jeans, I got some cheap women's jeans from Walmart, Riders I believe...although they are more comfortable with the stretch in them they do not hold up well when working with fence wire or hardware cloth, or even construction...carrying wood...I have several pairs with holes in them or the thighs have "pills"...those little balls that form when the material wears out. They are Ok for sitting here n the lawnmower and cutting the lawn, and just general cleaning...I have to be careful though, first time I brush up against a fence, or squat down to clean and fill a chicken waterer, if they are worn at all they rip. I was walking around with a good sized rip in the butt of one pair of jeans and I didn't even know it...my husband told me. No telling when it happened, hopefully not when I went to buy feed. I squatted down the other day and two holes popped open on one leg in a different pair of jeans...so, after not being able to find any non-stretchy women's jeans anyware...I guessed at my size in men's and bought a couple pair to try out. So far so good, except the chafing part. I guess I found a couple more areas to try to remember to rub the friction stick onto. I never had an issue with chafing and jeans before, but I got these a little big so I could bend and stretch and they are not skin tight like some of my other jeans.
Being a farmer is not glamorous or easy, it is tough, dirty, sweaty work...easpecially in the summer. I use to wonder why a lot of farmers looked such a mess most of the time, or why people's yards were such a mess, full of rusty metal and old things laying around...now I know. When you get up early, work pretty much non-stop all day trying to get all of your necessary tasks completed, are not eating dinner until 9 at night, if you have an appetite at all and still have to go secure the animals for the night once you finish...you get tired, you start not sweating the small stuff, you spend more time with animals and plants than people and you get to the point that everything you own may have some rip or stain on it, but you haven't sold enough of your critters or crops to feed them, or you...so you just don't buy new stuff...I guess that is where the term "Sunday Best" came from...you save back at least one outfit to wear to church on Sundays...so it is not stained or torn, so you look presentable...but ya know what? Animals don't care what you wear or if that feeder you accidentally left sitting on top of a table is rusted out...they just want you to bring them food and water and love on them for a few minutes out of your day...and it doesn't matter if you are sweaty or dirty and have wood shavings in your hair either. I love it though...
So, next time you see a farmer or rancher...thank them. If they didn't love doing what they do, you would not have food on your table...yeah, the majority of people don't think about why that steak costs so much, or the butter, eggs or bread...you just go to the store and buy it, not how much work goes into getting it to the consumer...I use to be one of them. I have found timing is everything too...wait too long to pick your fruit or veggies and they are gone, all that work is eaten by the bugs or birds too...gather those eggs twice a day or they get broken or a snake might eat some. I am learning the hard way...but you know what, when it happens...and you have fresh homegrown tomatoes canned, salsa and sauces made, pickles and watermelon and fresh green beans, corn or broccoli...and have enough to last a good while, it makes you proud that your hard work pays off...now to go cook myself an omelette with my farm fresh eggs and peppers from my garden!
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Dog Days Of Summer
August has arrived now, the hottest month of the year for us. The actual temperature may only be 98, but we received a few inches of rainfall in the last week and the heat index has made it feel about 115! It is hard for me to work outside when it is that hot, but I must.
The heat is slowing my garden way down, I have lost some green bean plants and my corn plants crispified...is that even a word? I pulled them all out yesterday, I just have a couple of piles of dead plants. My plan is to clean out more of the composted manure from my big chicken coop and run and till it into the soil before it rains again. I had added it to half of my garden, now it is time for the other half. I should have done it all at once...but, I wanted to get my garden planted and I just had a window of opportunity in the Spring and hoped for the best. Most of the time Winter and Spring are very wet months...and since I moved my garden, and had to erect a fence that rabbits could not breach, it took me awhile, it had to be dry to till and I am not fond of working in the rain. I only have a small hand tiller, no tractor so I have to walk behind it and it takes me awhile to break up the grassy weeds. We have a lot of crab grass and grass called Bahia, it has very large roots and sends out shoots so I get really large clumps caught up in the blades of the tiller. I have to stop and unwind them or cut them off the blades fairly frequently.
Everyone who stops by and looks at my garden is amazed at the size of my plants, and asks how I grew them so large...all I can tell them really is that I used composted chicken manure. I have a lot of chickens, therefore I have an unlimited supply! I will have to find the right balance though, otherwise I will have to put more space between the rows when I plant next time. I want to expand my garden too. I still have much to learn about farming, because if I am ever going to make any money off of it, I must do it at the right time of the year...when I can sell things at the farmers market. One of my egg customers has been stopping by and buying some of my tomatoes and peppers to sell. I have a good amount canned so I have been selling them pretty cheap, he picks them himself and it keeps them from going bad while I am busy doing other things.
I need to clean out my largest chicken coop and run to get the manure for my garden, I will probably do that today. I may just pile it up by the garden until I am ready to till it into the garden...I need to start some seeds too so they can be transplanted into the garden for a Fall harvest. We usually don't have our first freeze in Texas until Thanksgiving, if not later...it may get really cool prior to that, but I should be able to get another crop this year. I also got something called a plot spike, it is winter crops like peas and radishes or something for my poultry to munch on. I just have to plant it and some perineal rye grass seed. Hopefully we will get some more rain after I plant it so I don't have to water it every day.
I still have broody hens and a broody goose, they drive me crazy! Lol, I let them sit on eggs, but so far...only a few of the hens had babies hatch. I have to get to them pretty quickly or other hens kill them, I have taken away chicks and eggs in those cases...so I still have chicks in the house! I hatched longer than planned and was hoping to get finished up before my garden had crops I needed to pick, that did not happen. I have one last (I hope) batch of chicks in the house, I am going to give them another week in the house, then move them to the porch brooder. They have to be able to stand the nighttime temperatures and the last one hatched is not yet two weeks old. So, once they can handle down to 80, I think they should be fine. I had a few chicks get Coccidiosis on the porch too, two died but I got Corid in the waterers and I think the rest of them will be fine. I was canning and not paying as much attention to them as usual, I missed the symptoms. It has been so hot anyway, I am not sure I would have been able to tell until I saw blood in their poop. I have fans running 24/7 out there, but it is still very hot.
I moved my batch of Heritage Rhode Island Reds out to the coops yesterday and my last batch of baby turkeys to the grow out brooder they were in, so they are now separated from the chickens still on the porch. I need to finish my set of four breeding pens run area and build more roosts for the big coop too. I am selling some of my older mixed breed roosters today, so hopefully it won't be too long until the wire pens we call the big top will be practically empty. I really need to revamp them too and move them to an area that doesn't have runoff running through the middle of it. The tarps don't seem to last very long on anything out here, so I need to think about replacing them with something different on the four cattle panel coops I built.
Time is flying by...it is hard to believe it has already been three years since I first started my chicken adventure, and three years this month since my husband opened his computer repair shop. We signed the papers on this house in January of 2013, we still have a lot work to do on it...but we have come a long way on whipping this place into shape.
The heat is slowing my garden way down, I have lost some green bean plants and my corn plants crispified...is that even a word? I pulled them all out yesterday, I just have a couple of piles of dead plants. My plan is to clean out more of the composted manure from my big chicken coop and run and till it into the soil before it rains again. I had added it to half of my garden, now it is time for the other half. I should have done it all at once...but, I wanted to get my garden planted and I just had a window of opportunity in the Spring and hoped for the best. Most of the time Winter and Spring are very wet months...and since I moved my garden, and had to erect a fence that rabbits could not breach, it took me awhile, it had to be dry to till and I am not fond of working in the rain. I only have a small hand tiller, no tractor so I have to walk behind it and it takes me awhile to break up the grassy weeds. We have a lot of crab grass and grass called Bahia, it has very large roots and sends out shoots so I get really large clumps caught up in the blades of the tiller. I have to stop and unwind them or cut them off the blades fairly frequently.
Everyone who stops by and looks at my garden is amazed at the size of my plants, and asks how I grew them so large...all I can tell them really is that I used composted chicken manure. I have a lot of chickens, therefore I have an unlimited supply! I will have to find the right balance though, otherwise I will have to put more space between the rows when I plant next time. I want to expand my garden too. I still have much to learn about farming, because if I am ever going to make any money off of it, I must do it at the right time of the year...when I can sell things at the farmers market. One of my egg customers has been stopping by and buying some of my tomatoes and peppers to sell. I have a good amount canned so I have been selling them pretty cheap, he picks them himself and it keeps them from going bad while I am busy doing other things.
I need to clean out my largest chicken coop and run to get the manure for my garden, I will probably do that today. I may just pile it up by the garden until I am ready to till it into the garden...I need to start some seeds too so they can be transplanted into the garden for a Fall harvest. We usually don't have our first freeze in Texas until Thanksgiving, if not later...it may get really cool prior to that, but I should be able to get another crop this year. I also got something called a plot spike, it is winter crops like peas and radishes or something for my poultry to munch on. I just have to plant it and some perineal rye grass seed. Hopefully we will get some more rain after I plant it so I don't have to water it every day.
I still have broody hens and a broody goose, they drive me crazy! Lol, I let them sit on eggs, but so far...only a few of the hens had babies hatch. I have to get to them pretty quickly or other hens kill them, I have taken away chicks and eggs in those cases...so I still have chicks in the house! I hatched longer than planned and was hoping to get finished up before my garden had crops I needed to pick, that did not happen. I have one last (I hope) batch of chicks in the house, I am going to give them another week in the house, then move them to the porch brooder. They have to be able to stand the nighttime temperatures and the last one hatched is not yet two weeks old. So, once they can handle down to 80, I think they should be fine. I had a few chicks get Coccidiosis on the porch too, two died but I got Corid in the waterers and I think the rest of them will be fine. I was canning and not paying as much attention to them as usual, I missed the symptoms. It has been so hot anyway, I am not sure I would have been able to tell until I saw blood in their poop. I have fans running 24/7 out there, but it is still very hot.
I moved my batch of Heritage Rhode Island Reds out to the coops yesterday and my last batch of baby turkeys to the grow out brooder they were in, so they are now separated from the chickens still on the porch. I need to finish my set of four breeding pens run area and build more roosts for the big coop too. I am selling some of my older mixed breed roosters today, so hopefully it won't be too long until the wire pens we call the big top will be practically empty. I really need to revamp them too and move them to an area that doesn't have runoff running through the middle of it. The tarps don't seem to last very long on anything out here, so I need to think about replacing them with something different on the four cattle panel coops I built.
Time is flying by...it is hard to believe it has already been three years since I first started my chicken adventure, and three years this month since my husband opened his computer repair shop. We signed the papers on this house in January of 2013, we still have a lot work to do on it...but we have come a long way on whipping this place into shape.
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