Yes, I am bad about writing in my blog...I was talked into starting it, remember? I stay busy and the past several months have been busier than normal. I did have a good garden this past Spring and Summer, canned and froze a lot of vegetables. But on top of that I fought my property appraisal, which took some time to prepare for and some running around. I also refinanced our house, which also took a lot of time, finding a lender, having to go to the tax office more, having to get a new appraisal, but having to split my property back the way it was before. It Texas, most lenders will not lend you money on your house if you have an agricultural exemption on the property...so I changed it. The house and one acre is homesteaded now, and the rest of the property is agricultural. I have to pay taxes separately on the 18.58 acres now, but we own that part outright now. It also required to have a new survey done, which also meant more time and money. Lenders are different when you try and do a cash out refinance in Texas, many turn you down flat. We wanted some extra cash to make some repairs and get a new HVAC system installed. I did not get enough money!
The past several weeks, OK, maybe getting close to two months...my house has been a construction zone. All we wanted to do was to remodel the Master Bath and take out the huge jetted tub and put a shower in it's place, well and new flooring, a new light, sink and vanity. Get the toilets seated properly and move the old vanity in the Master Bath to the Office Bath. But, because of discoveries it has lead to having to have plumbing redone completely in all three bathrooms! I still have no walls in the Master Bath, but I did get insulation put in the outer wall, because...well it has gotten rather cold. It is suppose to get down in the teens tonight too...and stay below freezing the next couple of days. It will be pretty cold all week. I am afraid that if I didn't get the insulation put into the outer wall, how cold would it be in my bathroom...and attached bedroom? A good friend is helping me out n this project, my Surrogate Son Mark. He knows how to do most of this stuff, thank god. There have been setbacks though, and now Holidays...and I watch his son while he works. I have been wanting to paint and lay flooring, but I am trying to wait, trying to be patient (which is hard for me) until the plumbing part is complete. I don't wan to have to redo anything, I can't afford to first off...I should have asked for more money on the refinance, but I really didn't know how bad things would be in the walls. You would have thought, as much HGTV as I have watched, I would have known to double it! Something happened and my kitchen floor is messed up too, I have to put down flooring in at least one more bathroom, a toilet got broken and with the new one being attached to the floor now...you can tell how terribly unlevel the floor is, in the office bathroom. The floor needs to be leveled out before flooring can be laid...but it is the only fully functioning bathroom at the moment. The Master Bath only has the toilet and the guest Bath is functioning only as a powder room with just the sink and toilet. The Master and Guest bathtub/shower plumbing is hooked together and it was all leaking inside the wall...good thing is, there was a big hole in he slab that the water dripped into.
We have discovered that the slab is probably hydrolic cement, but not very thick in spots. After Mark gets the plumbing soldered up we will have to fill in the holes and still have to set the shower pan and plumb the drain for it. I didn't know you had to cement them in...lol, I am learning about what it takes though. Oh and the foot thick walls have insulation with a plastic over them on the outer wall, and then the walls we have opened do have something like R-13 in addition to that. The metal beams inside the walls seem to transfer the cold though, and there is a great big one that runs up and down through the shower wall, and another smaller one horizontally running against that beam. Gonna have to insulate around them better, maybe with foam board or something. I don't like taking a shower in the winter in there at least not when it is below freezing outside. I put R-30 insulation in the outside shower wall and Mark put the old R-13 in the wall between the rooms, but it has been getting down in the low sixties in there even with that, but, I haven't covered the beams yet either. There is also no cement board up yet and no vapor barrier either. Not yet...I need to build my shower niche before I do that and maybe spray foam that. This has turned into a do it yourself project, I am thankful for Mark and his plumbing expertise. I called several people for bids on the project, two did not show up and Mark graciously offered his help. I will watch his son when he is ready to get the ball rolling on his home remodel, maybe help when I can too. Oh, I forgot to mention he and his family moved out in this area too! They are only about 12 miles away now. Now, if I could only get my son's and their families out here, that would be great!
I must go out and feed my poultry and let them out now. That is just a fraction of what has been happening around here! Lol, and I still have my chicken chores, laundry, shopping and regular home maintenance too...on top of it all!
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Wacky Weather and Winds
Texas is known for "Big" things...sometimes our weather is one of those things. A common saying is "Go big or go home!"...well this last week a lot of people have no home to go to. East Texas was hit by tornados, lots of tornados. We were fortunate not to have any bad damage here, the day before they hit, we had high winds that caused about an 8-1/2 hour power outage...I lost some eggs that were developing in my incubators, but that is about it. I put some of the Hot Hands body warmers in with the eggs and in with the chicks that were in the brooders...all but one chick made it, I had hatching going on and it just got too cold. I took the rest out that did hatch, as they hatched and put them in the brooders with the older chicks for additional warmth. I even carried the one that died around in my shirt for awhile trying to warm it up before putting it in with the other chicks.
I think the last count on tornados was 9. One of them traveled for over fifty miles on the ground and I believe it was rated at an F-4. Lots of buildings and homes were destroyed and people died. The storms came within 11 miles or so of us, but we mainly had high winds and heavy rain. I had a hen that didn't make it into a coop that died during the night, my husband found her in the mud hunkered down the next morning. Please say a little prayer for all those affected by the tornados, and if you can help in any way, one of the hardest hit areas was Canton, Texas. They are still trying to determine how many tornados spawned and based on damage, what categories they were. It is time like these that I wish we had a tornado shelter. I am sure all those in the paths of the tornados are probably thinking the same thing.
We were under a lot of weather warnings yesterday, high wind, thunderstorms, tornados to the north and south of us, there was hail and tornadic conditions 50 miles from us...I kept a watch on the weather yesterday, the thunder was awful and scaring the animals...but there isn't anything I can do about that. When the rains hit us it was extremely heavy, but fairly brief. It sounded like I had a stampede going over my roof...but by the evening it was over and the skies started to clear. We are suppose to have a bit of a reprieve, until next week. With the storms came a cold front and it dropped our temperatures down to about 50 last night. It is cloudy here this morning and windy again today, and rather cool outside. It is suppose to be decent weather the next several days, so I have some work to get done outside.
I got rid of 42 roosters in the last week and a half, but I need to get rid of more...I just need to try and get the ones I want to get rid of penned and call the man who took most the others, to come get more. He is trying to sell them and said he would split the money with me. I need the money, but I need the roosters gone more than anything else. I always thought it was cruel for hatcheries to kill the male chicks after they sexed them...but, I am starting to think differently now that half of my grown chickens are males! They can be mean, they can gang up on a hen and hurt or kill her, the hens try and stay up high and away from them and don't eat as much as they should...so they have to go. I have been hurt several times by roosters, when I tried to get them off of a hen...there may be six or seven on one hen...the more I can get rid of the better. I only need so many for breeding purposes. I have also been spurred and had a hole in my arm at least a quarter of an inch deep because of one rooster.
On a bright note, I did get some fencing put up for tomato plant supports and got most of the plants that survived the greenhouse roll-over planted. I started some more seeds a few days ago, but they haven't sprouted yet. I have a ton of work to do, but wanted to update my blog at least once this month. We decided to try and make a batch of Dewberry wine this year instead of jelly...but I need to go pick more berries. I think some of my blueberries may be ripe too...and I also have lot of strawberry roots to plant! Lol, I think I have sixty to plant...so I need to get busy!
I think the last count on tornados was 9. One of them traveled for over fifty miles on the ground and I believe it was rated at an F-4. Lots of buildings and homes were destroyed and people died. The storms came within 11 miles or so of us, but we mainly had high winds and heavy rain. I had a hen that didn't make it into a coop that died during the night, my husband found her in the mud hunkered down the next morning. Please say a little prayer for all those affected by the tornados, and if you can help in any way, one of the hardest hit areas was Canton, Texas. They are still trying to determine how many tornados spawned and based on damage, what categories they were. It is time like these that I wish we had a tornado shelter. I am sure all those in the paths of the tornados are probably thinking the same thing.
We were under a lot of weather warnings yesterday, high wind, thunderstorms, tornados to the north and south of us, there was hail and tornadic conditions 50 miles from us...I kept a watch on the weather yesterday, the thunder was awful and scaring the animals...but there isn't anything I can do about that. When the rains hit us it was extremely heavy, but fairly brief. It sounded like I had a stampede going over my roof...but by the evening it was over and the skies started to clear. We are suppose to have a bit of a reprieve, until next week. With the storms came a cold front and it dropped our temperatures down to about 50 last night. It is cloudy here this morning and windy again today, and rather cool outside. It is suppose to be decent weather the next several days, so I have some work to get done outside.
I got rid of 42 roosters in the last week and a half, but I need to get rid of more...I just need to try and get the ones I want to get rid of penned and call the man who took most the others, to come get more. He is trying to sell them and said he would split the money with me. I need the money, but I need the roosters gone more than anything else. I always thought it was cruel for hatcheries to kill the male chicks after they sexed them...but, I am starting to think differently now that half of my grown chickens are males! They can be mean, they can gang up on a hen and hurt or kill her, the hens try and stay up high and away from them and don't eat as much as they should...so they have to go. I have been hurt several times by roosters, when I tried to get them off of a hen...there may be six or seven on one hen...the more I can get rid of the better. I only need so many for breeding purposes. I have also been spurred and had a hole in my arm at least a quarter of an inch deep because of one rooster.
On a bright note, I did get some fencing put up for tomato plant supports and got most of the plants that survived the greenhouse roll-over planted. I started some more seeds a few days ago, but they haven't sprouted yet. I have a ton of work to do, but wanted to update my blog at least once this month. We decided to try and make a batch of Dewberry wine this year instead of jelly...but I need to go pick more berries. I think some of my blueberries may be ripe too...and I also have lot of strawberry roots to plant! Lol, I think I have sixty to plant...so I need to get busy!
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Crazy Days!
I can always tell when Spring is in full swing by the number of broody hens I have...it has been crazy around here lately! My biggest chicken coop has broody hens in every nest box, some two or three in a nest box and sometimes a turkey in one with them...the corner under the nest boxes has at least two broody turkeys, but I find three in there a lot lately. I have a goose that will go in the corner and add an egg to the pile too. I have another broody turkey on my back porch, she was injured in what may have been a mating accident. I go outside and find a hen sitting on eggs in a dog house used by my ducks...and another hen sitting on eggs in the chicken tractor. I am not sure exactly how many broody hens I have...but I have 23 nest boxes in the big coop, and several of them contain more than one hen. I will estimate close to thirty.
After finding a chick that was pretty much pecked to death, I went in and took a five gallon bucket and collected all of the eggs from the top nest boxes on one set of ten. I candled them and stuck the viable eggs in incubators...I had a couple hatch during the night. I woke up to new peeping in two incubators. I moved five week old chicks to my back porch brooder day before yesterday so I would have more space in the house brooders. I will have to do the same thing with the baby geese and turkeys today I think, they are outgrowing the brooder totes I have them in very quickly...except for the runt goose. I have to clean the house brooders a few times a day too. The babies get to a certain point that they poop a lot more and just make a terrible mess. I may have to try sand as a bedding material soon, or make more wire bottomed brooders. Baby ducks and geese are super messy...they play in their water so much, and the mix of water, food and poop gets all ovr the place.
Enough about babies. I have been trying to get my garden planted too! I was doing so good...had all my seeds sprouting in my popup greenhouse...had tilled and was about ready to plant my veggies...then we had a pretty severe storm and it tossed everything with some pretty heavy wind gusts. Some survived though. I have maybe 8 broccoli plants, maybe 12 green bean plants, about the same on Romaine lettuce. I lost a tray and a half of corn and not sure what is left on a few...but need to get them in the ground too. Pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe and maybe squash...it is hard to tell on some of the vining plants...I will have to direct sow some seeds. I have sunflowers too...and a few herb plants survived. I have tomato plants too...lost a bunch, but still have a bunch. I just don't know what type they are. I will plant them anyway, and start some more just in case. I may have a fall garden started and do several plantings this year if I can fit them in my schedule.
Anyway, with the mild winter we had the berries are ripening early...so I need to pick them today...well, every few days. I need to check my blueberries too! The wild plums will be ripening soon too. This time of year is always super crazy for me. Just lots and lots to get done and keep an eye on. I just thought I would let you know, in case I don't write again for awhile. I just woke up early today...and it rained last night so today may be too messy to accomplish much outside. But, I have to try and finish building the supports for my tomatoes and get them planted...I am glad I started them in bigger pots this year, maybe next year I need to go ever larger? This is our rainy season...it is hard for me to walk in squishy mud and do much of anything. After having foot surgery on both feet several years ago, I have to be careful...and rest a lot doing much work on soft ground. I do try and wear my heavy boots to till and use the shovel...but it still makes my feet hurt doing it. I don't sleep very well when my feet feel like they are on fire either...so I try to keep from doing too much, most of the time. Ok...I am not good...I press through to get the job done and pay for it later. But, that is what us Capricorns do...we don't like to admit defeat! So yeah, it is a bit crazy right now.
After finding a chick that was pretty much pecked to death, I went in and took a five gallon bucket and collected all of the eggs from the top nest boxes on one set of ten. I candled them and stuck the viable eggs in incubators...I had a couple hatch during the night. I woke up to new peeping in two incubators. I moved five week old chicks to my back porch brooder day before yesterday so I would have more space in the house brooders. I will have to do the same thing with the baby geese and turkeys today I think, they are outgrowing the brooder totes I have them in very quickly...except for the runt goose. I have to clean the house brooders a few times a day too. The babies get to a certain point that they poop a lot more and just make a terrible mess. I may have to try sand as a bedding material soon, or make more wire bottomed brooders. Baby ducks and geese are super messy...they play in their water so much, and the mix of water, food and poop gets all ovr the place.
Enough about babies. I have been trying to get my garden planted too! I was doing so good...had all my seeds sprouting in my popup greenhouse...had tilled and was about ready to plant my veggies...then we had a pretty severe storm and it tossed everything with some pretty heavy wind gusts. Some survived though. I have maybe 8 broccoli plants, maybe 12 green bean plants, about the same on Romaine lettuce. I lost a tray and a half of corn and not sure what is left on a few...but need to get them in the ground too. Pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe and maybe squash...it is hard to tell on some of the vining plants...I will have to direct sow some seeds. I have sunflowers too...and a few herb plants survived. I have tomato plants too...lost a bunch, but still have a bunch. I just don't know what type they are. I will plant them anyway, and start some more just in case. I may have a fall garden started and do several plantings this year if I can fit them in my schedule.
Anyway, with the mild winter we had the berries are ripening early...so I need to pick them today...well, every few days. I need to check my blueberries too! The wild plums will be ripening soon too. This time of year is always super crazy for me. Just lots and lots to get done and keep an eye on. I just thought I would let you know, in case I don't write again for awhile. I just woke up early today...and it rained last night so today may be too messy to accomplish much outside. But, I have to try and finish building the supports for my tomatoes and get them planted...I am glad I started them in bigger pots this year, maybe next year I need to go ever larger? This is our rainy season...it is hard for me to walk in squishy mud and do much of anything. After having foot surgery on both feet several years ago, I have to be careful...and rest a lot doing much work on soft ground. I do try and wear my heavy boots to till and use the shovel...but it still makes my feet hurt doing it. I don't sleep very well when my feet feel like they are on fire either...so I try to keep from doing too much, most of the time. Ok...I am not good...I press through to get the job done and pay for it later. But, that is what us Capricorns do...we don't like to admit defeat! So yeah, it is a bit crazy right now.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Hard Work Makes For Rich Rewards, Not Always!
It may take me awhile, but I get things done eventually. I have been incubating and hatching chicks, ducks, turkeys and geese...but, not very many. Well not as many as you might expect with a poultry farm. Right now I just have three turkey poults, four goslings and about 9 chicks. I sold a few goslings and ten chicks, but I have more chicks starting to hatch. One of my incubators broke, it wouldn't heat up, my husband replaced the element...it still will not heat up. I bought another incubator, but ended up sending it back...the turner was missing parts and it didn't reset like it was suppose to. I have not purchased another one. I really just need to make a cabinet incubator. A man I sell eggs to, that hatches them, is hatching some turkeys and ducks for me. They should be hatching by next week, if I remember right. I gave him 47 duck eggs and 43 turkey eggs to hatch and offered a female turkey in return of the newly hatched turkeys, and to grow another one up for him for the ducks. We shall see what happens.
I still need to create the dividers on my breeding pens, I am trying not to hatch many, if any mixed breed chicks. I have a handful of Salmon Favorelles in my back porch brooder and set some of their eggs and I have some Jubilee Orpington's also separated out to start hatching their eggs too, my Dominiques have always been separated...those are the majority of chicks I have at the moment.
I have been rather busy as usual. I have two garden areas this year! My garden in front of the house, I have been adding composted chicken manure into it, crushed eggshells and need to sprinkle some Epsom salts...but I have tilled it multiple times and planted some of my plant starts...at least the ones that survived my green house blowing over. About that...we had some pretty bad storms a few weeks a go...tornados within 12 miles or so of us, we experienced some very strong wind gusts. Well, this greenhouse is basically like a tent made out of a kind of milky white translucent reinforced plastic. The wind picked it up and rolled it over, it broke one of the stakes off and the ropes broke or came loose on the others. I had a shelf full of plants I had started from seeds, some of them from seeds I saved from my last years harvest...I guess I did them right, most of them...including the corn, sprouted. They were tossed around and mixed up, some destroyed...well a lot destroyed. But, I salvaged what I could and got a lot of the non-vining plants in the ground yesterday. I will have to start some more from seed. It was rather disappointing, but I planted more than I really needed anyway...but, I was hoping to sell some of the plants. Not going to happen now, I could sell tomato plants, but I don't know which ones are which.
I was doing so good this year...the past few years I didn't get anything planted until late May or early June. I am ahead of the game this year at least. I may have some tomatoes by the time the Farmers Market starts, I will have to restart some cucumbers...I can't tell at this point what the vining plants are...except the watermelons. Not sure if what I have left is pumpkins, squash, cantaloupe or cucumbers...but, I have more seeds...so, I will plant more and stick these plants in the area my neighbor tilled for me. I still need to build my potato towers, so far I have only been able to produce a few tiny potatoes...most have died or rotted because of too much rain. It is a learning process for me...that is for sure!
Monday, March 6, 2017
Spring is Springing...
Have you ever been attacked by a rooster or turkey? It is not fun. When, what I will call Spring fever hits, they can get a bit frisky and rowdy. You have to be on guard sometimes, well, a lot of the time around here...I have a lot of males. When the weather warms up, it is mating season. No, they didn't try and mate me...but I did have a rooster try and attack me when I went into his pen to feed the batch in there. Pompadour is a gold laced Polish, he usually does a little stutter step and runs at me... But I got in a hurry, and was not watching him closely and if he did it prior to flying at me, I didn't see it. The pen he is in is about 8'x8' and I know he was in the corner across from me when I went in there, he flew across the pen and spurred me in the arm while I was dumping feed in to the feed pan. He made good contact with me too, I will estimate the spur went into my arm at least 1/4 of an inch if not 1/2 inch. Puncture wounds hurt, his Spurs were sharp and pointy. I had a hole in my arm and blood was running down and dripping off of my fingers within seconds. The hole was probably about 1/4 inch across too...and I could see down in my arm a little ways. I tried to finish feeding but, thought maybe I should go wash up and bandage it, before I did anything else...I was getting drips of blood all over everything and I had on a blue jean long sleeve shirt. Rooster Spurs can be needle sharp, I have picked up a rooster before and a spur went through the webbing next to my thumb. I usually cut and blunt the Spurs of any rooster over a year old when I doctor on them now. A Dremel tool goes through the spur fairly quickly with a cutoff wheel attached. I used a diamond cut off wheel on him the next day, my husband caught him and put him in a cage on the porch for me. I smoothed them off and did his beak too. He is an older rooster and I have cut his Spurs before, but never the beak, I smoothed it up so if he bit me maybe it wouldn't break the skin.
Then there are the turkeys, I have 11 males. They are all sparing with each other...or were. One by one they have been separated into different pens. Two of them I caught trying to mate chicken hens. I still have a Blue Splash Marans hen in a cage on my back porch from one incident. She is finally putting weight on her leg and walking around again. My Tom turkeys are pretty heavy weight, around 35 pounds I think for the biggest ones, I have 12 turkey hens but I guess a few of the turkeys just jump at the opportunity to try and mate just about anything they can. Even the n the pens they strut and fight through the fencing. I have been bitten when I got to close to a pen and not paid attention. I am glad I had on my blue jean jacket, one got me on the outside of my inner elbow through the fence when I was locking up the pen next to him. I still have a knot under my skin and a bruise a week later, he scraped me and I have a bit of a scab too, but at least I didn't drip blood on that wound. Yeah, I am a bit of a mess...scratches and scars on my hands and arms most of the time now. I get them healed and it starts all over again.
I have a few hens starting to get broody too, I am going to have to remember to wear gloves when gathering eggs now too. I separated a bunch of roosters into the back section of the chicken yard because they were literally attacking my hens, five or six on one hen! I would reach down to help the hen and a couple of the boys didn't like that I grabbed a rooster off of the hen and bit me on the back of my hand...yep, need to remember to put on gloves and wear a long sleeve blue jean jacket for a bit of protection. It hurts when they grab a mouthful of skin and pinch you...it swells up and makes a weird almost triangle looking bruise with a V-shaped mark or cut/scrape.
Enough about all that. There are other more pleasant signs of Spring, I have plum, peach, apple and pear trees blooming and leafing out. It smells wonderful. We have gotten up in the 80's a few times and it has been in the sixties pretty regularly this "winter". I am not sure we are done with freezing temperatures yet though...my pecan trees have done nothing yet...people around here say when the pecan starts to leaf out, then there will be no more frost and you can plant your garden. My husband got my pop up greenhouse out of storage for me last weekend, or was it the weekend before? We had a heck of a time getting it set up, kind of a comedy of errors...it is in my front fenced area at the side of the house and anchored down. Anyway, I put my lime tree, my pineapple plants and a jalapeño pepper plant in it, then some plastic shelving and finally got some seeds started this week. I also got garlic and onions planted in my garden...after hauling a ton of spent bedding and chicken manure out there and tilling it in...it looks pretty good. I have a bit more work to do to get it ready to plant. I sprinkled crushed eggshells out there and tilled them in too. I am going to put some Epsom salt out and hopefully my garden will do very well this year too...even better than last year hopefully. I need to check on my plants and water them today, see if anything is sprouting yet. It was cloudy and rainy the past two days so I didn't open it up. We have still been getting down in the thirties here and there at night, so I must remember to close it up before dark. I also need to plant some more seeds in starter pots. I want to build raised beds for asparagus, strawberry and herb gardens too. Alas...there are only so many hours in the day.
I can hear that it has been raining, that tell, tell sound when a car drives by...the sun is just starting to come up and I can see light through the curtains. I guess I better get busy. My hens are laying like gangbusters and I have eggs all ovr my kitchen that need to be washed. Oh, and I did get eggs set in three incubators, but one of them is not working...it will not heat up, I got a new heating element for it and still nothing (my husband was kind enough to install it for me)...so I guess I had better get to work on my cabinet incubator soon. I have been researching parts for one...I may have to learn some wiring and more about heater coils, PID controllers, fans and hygrometers...and maybe making an egg turner too. I still have not made my top bar hive either and saw an article that bees are starting to swarm in this area...dang it! Yes, I am a busy woman...stay that way too.
Then there are the turkeys, I have 11 males. They are all sparing with each other...or were. One by one they have been separated into different pens. Two of them I caught trying to mate chicken hens. I still have a Blue Splash Marans hen in a cage on my back porch from one incident. She is finally putting weight on her leg and walking around again. My Tom turkeys are pretty heavy weight, around 35 pounds I think for the biggest ones, I have 12 turkey hens but I guess a few of the turkeys just jump at the opportunity to try and mate just about anything they can. Even the n the pens they strut and fight through the fencing. I have been bitten when I got to close to a pen and not paid attention. I am glad I had on my blue jean jacket, one got me on the outside of my inner elbow through the fence when I was locking up the pen next to him. I still have a knot under my skin and a bruise a week later, he scraped me and I have a bit of a scab too, but at least I didn't drip blood on that wound. Yeah, I am a bit of a mess...scratches and scars on my hands and arms most of the time now. I get them healed and it starts all over again.
I have a few hens starting to get broody too, I am going to have to remember to wear gloves when gathering eggs now too. I separated a bunch of roosters into the back section of the chicken yard because they were literally attacking my hens, five or six on one hen! I would reach down to help the hen and a couple of the boys didn't like that I grabbed a rooster off of the hen and bit me on the back of my hand...yep, need to remember to put on gloves and wear a long sleeve blue jean jacket for a bit of protection. It hurts when they grab a mouthful of skin and pinch you...it swells up and makes a weird almost triangle looking bruise with a V-shaped mark or cut/scrape.
Enough about all that. There are other more pleasant signs of Spring, I have plum, peach, apple and pear trees blooming and leafing out. It smells wonderful. We have gotten up in the 80's a few times and it has been in the sixties pretty regularly this "winter". I am not sure we are done with freezing temperatures yet though...my pecan trees have done nothing yet...people around here say when the pecan starts to leaf out, then there will be no more frost and you can plant your garden. My husband got my pop up greenhouse out of storage for me last weekend, or was it the weekend before? We had a heck of a time getting it set up, kind of a comedy of errors...it is in my front fenced area at the side of the house and anchored down. Anyway, I put my lime tree, my pineapple plants and a jalapeño pepper plant in it, then some plastic shelving and finally got some seeds started this week. I also got garlic and onions planted in my garden...after hauling a ton of spent bedding and chicken manure out there and tilling it in...it looks pretty good. I have a bit more work to do to get it ready to plant. I sprinkled crushed eggshells out there and tilled them in too. I am going to put some Epsom salt out and hopefully my garden will do very well this year too...even better than last year hopefully. I need to check on my plants and water them today, see if anything is sprouting yet. It was cloudy and rainy the past two days so I didn't open it up. We have still been getting down in the thirties here and there at night, so I must remember to close it up before dark. I also need to plant some more seeds in starter pots. I want to build raised beds for asparagus, strawberry and herb gardens too. Alas...there are only so many hours in the day.
I can hear that it has been raining, that tell, tell sound when a car drives by...the sun is just starting to come up and I can see light through the curtains. I guess I better get busy. My hens are laying like gangbusters and I have eggs all ovr my kitchen that need to be washed. Oh, and I did get eggs set in three incubators, but one of them is not working...it will not heat up, I got a new heating element for it and still nothing (my husband was kind enough to install it for me)...so I guess I had better get to work on my cabinet incubator soon. I have been researching parts for one...I may have to learn some wiring and more about heater coils, PID controllers, fans and hygrometers...and maybe making an egg turner too. I still have not made my top bar hive either and saw an article that bees are starting to swarm in this area...dang it! Yes, I am a busy woman...stay that way too.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Winter, Where Art Thou?
This year, so far at least...it has been a mild winter. We have had numerous days that were in the mid sixties to mid Seventies, quite a few weeks it was cloudy and rainy so kind of nasty out in that regard but fairly nice temperature wise. After being sick for a month I have been rather busy playing catch up...I have a lot more to catch up on though.
I did finally get the outer portion of the walls on the chicken run done on my breeding pens I started over the summer. I put quite a few roosters in it, but still need to get dividers done and separate four breeds in it to get some pure breed chicks one of these days. I need to start on another set too. I finally did a head count on my female chickens, if I counted decently I currently have about 175 hens. I am going to guess about 80 roosters, but that is just an estimate. I culled three roosters the past few weeks, they were mixed breed roosters that had been beat up pretty bad and with injuries I didn't want to take the time to doctor them again. Yes, I said again...I healed them up and put them back out and they got ganged up on, smashed into the mud and the one I did yesterday could barely stand up, it was his second stint on the porch...he was given the opportunity, but even though he was treated for worms and I could not see anything wrong with him, he was very thin. After another month on the porch, he kept loosing weight, his comb yesterday was practically white along with his waddles. He had zero meat on his bones! It is hard to tell on chickens unless you pick them up...all the feathers give the illusion of weight. The rooster that was in with him gained weight and looked good...so I put him and three other out in a pen with a turkey that keeps getting picked on back in the yard.
My porch chickens are generally checked on several times a day (doctored on, if needed) for usually a month or more, some just need a break because of a small injury, or things like an eye infection or a mouth canker, sometimes because they feel too light weight to me...so, I feed them well and get their strength up. I have six females and one male out there now. One Marans hen was stepped on by a big male turkey and was holding her leg up, another was being over mated and ganged up on by roosters...not bald on her back...but gonna be there soon if I didn't help her, my little hen Crooked toe had been over mated but her feathers are all back now, she was mostly put into a brooder as company to a Salmon Favorelle hen who is blind in one eye, she gets picked on too...runs around in circles and others peck her on the head to try and make her stop. Two other Salmon Favorelles are now in with her...enjoying a break from the boys. I need to make a small coop for them and fence an area, just for them.
I have been trying to clean pens the past few days, which basically is a maintenance thing. Scraping poop out, turning dirt and evening it up, washing water dishes and refilling them. It is an ongoing thing, but when I was sick I got behind on it. So basically a lot more poop than normal, I can only do a few pens a day with all the other chores. I need to muck out my largest coop, the duck house and breeding pens today and spread fresh straw and pine shavings. It doesn't take long for the duck house to get nasty with 30 ducks sleeping in it at night...if I have time I need to get the chicken tractor cleaned out too...I may do it first. I need to change out the pine shavings in nest boxes too...I don't like dirty eggs and when it rains feet get muddy around here. I bought some nest box pads and those may need cleaning too...my experiment using rubber door mats was unsuccessful...I cut them in two and lined the bottom of the nest box with them...none of my hens would go into the nest boxes. I put pine shavings on top...still only a few will use them. I may order some more of the washable nest box pads...at least they can't kick those out!
I have been baking a lot of cookies and pies lately, I never should have started! Lol...it doesn't take long for them to disappear...and my jeans have gotten tight. I need to start getting outside an working more, out of site, out of mind? It is either that or my husband needs to take them all to work with him. I made several Custard Pies, two Lemon Chess Pies and dozens and dozens of Oatmeal, pecan/or walnut and raisin cookies and bars. Who doesn't like cookies for breakfast? Hey, at least they had some good stuff in them!
I have also been working on improving my soil in my front garden, gotta do something with all that chicken poop and spent bedding. Hopefully my garden will be really good this year. I need to start seeds soon too. I got a bit larger pots to start plants in this year, the small seed starter pots don't really allow for much growth and when we get a lot of rain or a late snow, I can't put the plants in the ground when they are ready. I still need to make a greenhouse too. I have a popup greenhouse in storage...I am not sure I can get it out by myself, but I may try.
Well, that is all I have for now. I have at least one goose laying now and got my first turkey egg yesterday...I may try and clean up incubators and set eggs soon too. But, I need to get my chickens off the porch and clean it well before I do too. I have people calling me already wanting chicks, ducks and geese.
I did finally get the outer portion of the walls on the chicken run done on my breeding pens I started over the summer. I put quite a few roosters in it, but still need to get dividers done and separate four breeds in it to get some pure breed chicks one of these days. I need to start on another set too. I finally did a head count on my female chickens, if I counted decently I currently have about 175 hens. I am going to guess about 80 roosters, but that is just an estimate. I culled three roosters the past few weeks, they were mixed breed roosters that had been beat up pretty bad and with injuries I didn't want to take the time to doctor them again. Yes, I said again...I healed them up and put them back out and they got ganged up on, smashed into the mud and the one I did yesterday could barely stand up, it was his second stint on the porch...he was given the opportunity, but even though he was treated for worms and I could not see anything wrong with him, he was very thin. After another month on the porch, he kept loosing weight, his comb yesterday was practically white along with his waddles. He had zero meat on his bones! It is hard to tell on chickens unless you pick them up...all the feathers give the illusion of weight. The rooster that was in with him gained weight and looked good...so I put him and three other out in a pen with a turkey that keeps getting picked on back in the yard.
My porch chickens are generally checked on several times a day (doctored on, if needed) for usually a month or more, some just need a break because of a small injury, or things like an eye infection or a mouth canker, sometimes because they feel too light weight to me...so, I feed them well and get their strength up. I have six females and one male out there now. One Marans hen was stepped on by a big male turkey and was holding her leg up, another was being over mated and ganged up on by roosters...not bald on her back...but gonna be there soon if I didn't help her, my little hen Crooked toe had been over mated but her feathers are all back now, she was mostly put into a brooder as company to a Salmon Favorelle hen who is blind in one eye, she gets picked on too...runs around in circles and others peck her on the head to try and make her stop. Two other Salmon Favorelles are now in with her...enjoying a break from the boys. I need to make a small coop for them and fence an area, just for them.
I have been trying to clean pens the past few days, which basically is a maintenance thing. Scraping poop out, turning dirt and evening it up, washing water dishes and refilling them. It is an ongoing thing, but when I was sick I got behind on it. So basically a lot more poop than normal, I can only do a few pens a day with all the other chores. I need to muck out my largest coop, the duck house and breeding pens today and spread fresh straw and pine shavings. It doesn't take long for the duck house to get nasty with 30 ducks sleeping in it at night...if I have time I need to get the chicken tractor cleaned out too...I may do it first. I need to change out the pine shavings in nest boxes too...I don't like dirty eggs and when it rains feet get muddy around here. I bought some nest box pads and those may need cleaning too...my experiment using rubber door mats was unsuccessful...I cut them in two and lined the bottom of the nest box with them...none of my hens would go into the nest boxes. I put pine shavings on top...still only a few will use them. I may order some more of the washable nest box pads...at least they can't kick those out!
I have been baking a lot of cookies and pies lately, I never should have started! Lol...it doesn't take long for them to disappear...and my jeans have gotten tight. I need to start getting outside an working more, out of site, out of mind? It is either that or my husband needs to take them all to work with him. I made several Custard Pies, two Lemon Chess Pies and dozens and dozens of Oatmeal, pecan/or walnut and raisin cookies and bars. Who doesn't like cookies for breakfast? Hey, at least they had some good stuff in them!
I have also been working on improving my soil in my front garden, gotta do something with all that chicken poop and spent bedding. Hopefully my garden will be really good this year. I need to start seeds soon too. I got a bit larger pots to start plants in this year, the small seed starter pots don't really allow for much growth and when we get a lot of rain or a late snow, I can't put the plants in the ground when they are ready. I still need to make a greenhouse too. I have a popup greenhouse in storage...I am not sure I can get it out by myself, but I may try.
Well, that is all I have for now. I have at least one goose laying now and got my first turkey egg yesterday...I may try and clean up incubators and set eggs soon too. But, I need to get my chickens off the porch and clean it well before I do too. I have people calling me already wanting chicks, ducks and geese.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Today Is My Birthday
It would be nice to sleep late on my birthday, but it didn't happen. I figured since I got up so early I may as well write a little. My mind clicked on this morning and I was laying there thinking of all of the things I need to do...or want to accomplish in the next week or so. We are due to have some pretty bad storms in a few hours, but since it is pitch black outside, I don't want to attempt chores outside yet.
Our owl is back, and they like to hunt early...usually, and I have already lost one rooster to the owl, or a feral cat that has been hanging around in the yard. I could go outside and put feed out, but since it is going to rain, I prefer to put the feeders in the coops so the food doesn't get watered down...they won't eat it then and if I open the doors they will come pouring outside. I will have to wait until the sun rises...be patient and just have some coffee I guess. I have already had one mug of coffee, about to go get a second one...I will probably need it today. Today I will more than likely get wet, about the time I go outside we are supposed to have an 80% chance of rain and it increases to 100% by 9:00am. It will be a rain coat and rubber boots kind of day. I am glad I got straw spread yesterday and a few of the smaller coops mucked out. I did not have my garden cart to haul the muck away though...so I made a couple of piles and need to get it into a muck bucket and hauled off. Not exactly a glamorous or fun thing to do on your birthday...but neither is falling into the muck which gets rather slick when it rains.
This past year was kind of tough, my husbands business has dropped off some which is not a good sign. I sold some turkeys, ducks, chickens and geese this year...but not near enough to make up the difference. I need to get my breeding pens finished and get rid of a ton of excess roosters...OK, maybe 50 roosters or so, they are eating machines and they gang up on my hens and the egg production is way down to his time of year anyway. They need to go. I have one coop with 13, one coop with 21 and three pens with about 22, but need to select a few to keep. Then I need to pen up some others that I want to keep to thin the numbers down...who am I kidding, I probably need to get rid of 100 roosters or more! At least it was just a mixed breed rooster that got eaten last week, my Double Laced Blue Barnvelder just disappeared...but he may have jumped the fence and got picked off by something, I just didn't find any of his feathers.
Since it is raining today, we may take down the Christmas tree...I usually leave it up until the day after my birthday, but since my husband is home today...maybe we can get it done quicker together and haul the decorations out to the shed between storms or later today. My husband doesn't normally take anything but Christmas Day off, or New Year's Day, but after several days with no customers he decided since everyone else was closed downtown, he would close too. When it rains, he rarely has any customers either. Here lately we have actually been talking about moving to a different area, a town with a bigger population. I imagine if we do, I will be selling off my flocks...or leave them for who ever we sell the house to. We are going to give it another year, but if business keeps dropping...it will be tough going with so many mouths to feed. But, spring will be easier to reduce my flocks numbers too...people just don't normally want non-laying hens over the winter. I started looking at housing prices and what is available more in central Texas around Tyler and Temple, but if he is going to continue with his computer shop we need someplace that has a bigger customer base and high speed internet...not satellite. Since the town he has his shop only has a population of about 5,500 we probably need at least a city of 20,000 or so. I still want to live in an area that has land though, I would love at least five acres so I can have some chickens. I guess we shall see what happens, maybe with a different president things will get better. If not, I will continue to search small towns and see what might work for both of us. I don't have to have chickens, but if I don't...I want a nice workshop/studio space.
Anyway...I hope you are as happy about living another year as I am! I am thankful for every day I have on this earth. I use to take life for granted...things change when you get cancer and live through it. Flowers smell sweeter, the grass looks greener, rainbows look brighter...you enjoy the sound of the rain on the roof more. So, today on my 58th year of life...I want to wish each and every one of you reading this a Happy Birthday! It may not actually be the day of your birth, but I hope you discover the joy of being alive one more year too, because each day we live is full of promise, yet each day is not promised...so make the most of every day you wake up to see!
Our owl is back, and they like to hunt early...usually, and I have already lost one rooster to the owl, or a feral cat that has been hanging around in the yard. I could go outside and put feed out, but since it is going to rain, I prefer to put the feeders in the coops so the food doesn't get watered down...they won't eat it then and if I open the doors they will come pouring outside. I will have to wait until the sun rises...be patient and just have some coffee I guess. I have already had one mug of coffee, about to go get a second one...I will probably need it today. Today I will more than likely get wet, about the time I go outside we are supposed to have an 80% chance of rain and it increases to 100% by 9:00am. It will be a rain coat and rubber boots kind of day. I am glad I got straw spread yesterday and a few of the smaller coops mucked out. I did not have my garden cart to haul the muck away though...so I made a couple of piles and need to get it into a muck bucket and hauled off. Not exactly a glamorous or fun thing to do on your birthday...but neither is falling into the muck which gets rather slick when it rains.
This past year was kind of tough, my husbands business has dropped off some which is not a good sign. I sold some turkeys, ducks, chickens and geese this year...but not near enough to make up the difference. I need to get my breeding pens finished and get rid of a ton of excess roosters...OK, maybe 50 roosters or so, they are eating machines and they gang up on my hens and the egg production is way down to his time of year anyway. They need to go. I have one coop with 13, one coop with 21 and three pens with about 22, but need to select a few to keep. Then I need to pen up some others that I want to keep to thin the numbers down...who am I kidding, I probably need to get rid of 100 roosters or more! At least it was just a mixed breed rooster that got eaten last week, my Double Laced Blue Barnvelder just disappeared...but he may have jumped the fence and got picked off by something, I just didn't find any of his feathers.
Since it is raining today, we may take down the Christmas tree...I usually leave it up until the day after my birthday, but since my husband is home today...maybe we can get it done quicker together and haul the decorations out to the shed between storms or later today. My husband doesn't normally take anything but Christmas Day off, or New Year's Day, but after several days with no customers he decided since everyone else was closed downtown, he would close too. When it rains, he rarely has any customers either. Here lately we have actually been talking about moving to a different area, a town with a bigger population. I imagine if we do, I will be selling off my flocks...or leave them for who ever we sell the house to. We are going to give it another year, but if business keeps dropping...it will be tough going with so many mouths to feed. But, spring will be easier to reduce my flocks numbers too...people just don't normally want non-laying hens over the winter. I started looking at housing prices and what is available more in central Texas around Tyler and Temple, but if he is going to continue with his computer shop we need someplace that has a bigger customer base and high speed internet...not satellite. Since the town he has his shop only has a population of about 5,500 we probably need at least a city of 20,000 or so. I still want to live in an area that has land though, I would love at least five acres so I can have some chickens. I guess we shall see what happens, maybe with a different president things will get better. If not, I will continue to search small towns and see what might work for both of us. I don't have to have chickens, but if I don't...I want a nice workshop/studio space.
Anyway...I hope you are as happy about living another year as I am! I am thankful for every day I have on this earth. I use to take life for granted...things change when you get cancer and live through it. Flowers smell sweeter, the grass looks greener, rainbows look brighter...you enjoy the sound of the rain on the roof more. So, today on my 58th year of life...I want to wish each and every one of you reading this a Happy Birthday! It may not actually be the day of your birth, but I hope you discover the joy of being alive one more year too, because each day we live is full of promise, yet each day is not promised...so make the most of every day you wake up to see!
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Happy New Year!?
Ok, I should have written more last month...but, I was sick and when I felt pretty good I had to play catch up with my chores. It is not much fun mucking out pens and digging drainage ditches and winterizing coops when you have no energy. As long as I took severe cold medication regularly I didn't feel awful, but got a lot of headaches doing my chores...but I just heard about something called Cedar Fever and am wondering if maybe that is why I have been having issues for over a month now. We have a ton of Cedar trees in this area, it seems like every time I go outside I get a headache. But, when you have a farm...you do what you gotta do.
We had company for Christmas and my husband and I managed to get a tree up and decorated, a little shopping done and gifts wrapped before they came. Mainly just stuff for the young grandchildren this year, although I did get my husband a few items of necessary clothing...lol, yep socks and underwear...and some jeans, he has worn holes in favorites. My son got me a new coffee maker, which I really appreciate, my old one had taken to leaking all over the counter when you put water in the tank...I had it sitting in a tray to catch the leaks. I also got a couple of gift cards and will be going shopping soon with those...I am just trying to figure out what I need the most. I may end up buying new tires for my garden cart...I use it a lot and just had a major blowout or rubber rot, I need never flats! My husband got me a Tens unit, I have been trying not to take as many pain killers and the Tens is what they used on me when I went to pain management for my back, he also got me a Truffle kit and a cheese kit...maybe I will make some soon, I needa few gallons of milk which I forgot to get at the store the last time I went. Lol, he also got me some Chicken Poop lip balm...I am an admitted Chapstick-abolic, it will come in handy...and no, it doesn't contain chicken poop!
Our weather has been warm and muggy, very cloudy for the past few weeks and fog on a lot of mornings. It has actually been near 80 a few times and that is unusual for around Christmas. We have had pretty major temperature swings too. It will be cold at night...like in the upper twenties and the next day get up to 78. I did finally get all the tarps and plastic up on my coops and got one door built for the breeding pens, I still have a long way to go getting the four finished. I just haven't had the energy, and have been staying in the house more because of the humidity and damp conditions...I still have a cough too. I need to get them finished, it would probably take me a week if I worked on them every day. I just need a break in the weather. I can build the doors in the shed, but the framing and stuff for the runs is all outside work and I need my garden cart to haul all of the tools out there. It makes it easier because the compressor and the table saw are kind of awkward and heavy to carry and I need a couple of very long extension cords strung out there to operate them too. By the time I hand carried everything, I would probably be kind of tuckered out and not have much time to work before I had to haul it all back. I gotta feed the poultry at least an hour before dark so I can get the turkeys put up. I have also been feeding the ducks and geese after the chickens are mostly roosting, most of the time they will not eat from the same troughs as the chickens and the chickens follow me to each trough as I fill them. I just want to make sure they are getting enough to eat...the male geese I have picked up feel light to me, so do some of the ducks I have managed to pick up. They free range but we have had several freezes and the grass is not really growing any more.
Last night was New Year's Eve, we just watched a movie and didn't even fix dinner...I fixed us a batch of steak nachos for lunch at almost 2:00pm and neither of us was hungry enough to bother. We had a couple of cookies and a piece of banana nut bread later in the evening. We only stayed up until about 10:15...so no midnight happenings here. Our neighbors set off fireworks at around 9:00, it was driving the dogs nuts...some of them sounded like explosions and I could feel the blast waves. I didn't even bother looking out the window. I am sure if I acted alarmed, it would not have helped the dogs anxiety. Bailee tends to jump up on the couch if she hears things and looks out the window, we just had to keep reassuring them it was OK, kinda like when birds set off the driveway alarm. I get up and look to make sure it is not an egg customer...but some days it happens every few minutes and I stop looking after awhile. If someone is out there Bailee will let me know...she barks when necessary. Sophie seems to bark at every sound some days, all three of them together...I know someone or something is outside. It is funny that I can tell now, when they are in the backyard and I am in the chicken yard the difference between their barks and what they are barking at.
I hope and pray that this year is a good year for everyone, family friends acquaintances and customers...even anyone that I don't know personally. May the New Year bring you peace, prosperity and happiness in your lives!
We had company for Christmas and my husband and I managed to get a tree up and decorated, a little shopping done and gifts wrapped before they came. Mainly just stuff for the young grandchildren this year, although I did get my husband a few items of necessary clothing...lol, yep socks and underwear...and some jeans, he has worn holes in favorites. My son got me a new coffee maker, which I really appreciate, my old one had taken to leaking all over the counter when you put water in the tank...I had it sitting in a tray to catch the leaks. I also got a couple of gift cards and will be going shopping soon with those...I am just trying to figure out what I need the most. I may end up buying new tires for my garden cart...I use it a lot and just had a major blowout or rubber rot, I need never flats! My husband got me a Tens unit, I have been trying not to take as many pain killers and the Tens is what they used on me when I went to pain management for my back, he also got me a Truffle kit and a cheese kit...maybe I will make some soon, I needa few gallons of milk which I forgot to get at the store the last time I went. Lol, he also got me some Chicken Poop lip balm...I am an admitted Chapstick-abolic, it will come in handy...and no, it doesn't contain chicken poop!
Our weather has been warm and muggy, very cloudy for the past few weeks and fog on a lot of mornings. It has actually been near 80 a few times and that is unusual for around Christmas. We have had pretty major temperature swings too. It will be cold at night...like in the upper twenties and the next day get up to 78. I did finally get all the tarps and plastic up on my coops and got one door built for the breeding pens, I still have a long way to go getting the four finished. I just haven't had the energy, and have been staying in the house more because of the humidity and damp conditions...I still have a cough too. I need to get them finished, it would probably take me a week if I worked on them every day. I just need a break in the weather. I can build the doors in the shed, but the framing and stuff for the runs is all outside work and I need my garden cart to haul all of the tools out there. It makes it easier because the compressor and the table saw are kind of awkward and heavy to carry and I need a couple of very long extension cords strung out there to operate them too. By the time I hand carried everything, I would probably be kind of tuckered out and not have much time to work before I had to haul it all back. I gotta feed the poultry at least an hour before dark so I can get the turkeys put up. I have also been feeding the ducks and geese after the chickens are mostly roosting, most of the time they will not eat from the same troughs as the chickens and the chickens follow me to each trough as I fill them. I just want to make sure they are getting enough to eat...the male geese I have picked up feel light to me, so do some of the ducks I have managed to pick up. They free range but we have had several freezes and the grass is not really growing any more.
Last night was New Year's Eve, we just watched a movie and didn't even fix dinner...I fixed us a batch of steak nachos for lunch at almost 2:00pm and neither of us was hungry enough to bother. We had a couple of cookies and a piece of banana nut bread later in the evening. We only stayed up until about 10:15...so no midnight happenings here. Our neighbors set off fireworks at around 9:00, it was driving the dogs nuts...some of them sounded like explosions and I could feel the blast waves. I didn't even bother looking out the window. I am sure if I acted alarmed, it would not have helped the dogs anxiety. Bailee tends to jump up on the couch if she hears things and looks out the window, we just had to keep reassuring them it was OK, kinda like when birds set off the driveway alarm. I get up and look to make sure it is not an egg customer...but some days it happens every few minutes and I stop looking after awhile. If someone is out there Bailee will let me know...she barks when necessary. Sophie seems to bark at every sound some days, all three of them together...I know someone or something is outside. It is funny that I can tell now, when they are in the backyard and I am in the chicken yard the difference between their barks and what they are barking at.
I hope and pray that this year is a good year for everyone, family friends acquaintances and customers...even anyone that I don't know personally. May the New Year bring you peace, prosperity and happiness in your lives!
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