Cock and bull story

Here's something to crow about. Mother Hen was feeling a little empty nest syndrome having neither chick nor child and hatched an idea. She now maintains a strict pecking order. Hey, you gotta find some way to scratch out a living and we wouldn't want to put all of our eggs in one basket, right? She may be walking on eggs shells however, the sow really rules the roost around here. Mother Hen probably thinks she signed up for a pig in a poke with this job. She doesn't have time to brood over it though and may want to make herself as scarce as hens teeth before she ruffles the sow's tail feathers and her chickens come home to roost! The sow doesn't play chicken, she'd be all over her like a banty on a Junebug! Well if that don't beat a pig a pecking! This story is all a little bird brained but I hope it left you sunny side up.

February Snow

 

 

 

We're gettin' bees

We've wanted to add bees to to farm since we moved in. After attending the Mother Earth News Fair last Oct. in Lawrence and getting a little bit more in depth about the whole process, I came home and set to work finding out more about food sources in our area and care and housing, etc. Jeremiah asked of one of the building construction instructors at school about building hives and they were on board!

I contated a few local people about obtaining some "nuc" (nucleus) colonies. Bee colonies are split in the spring. The hives should be ready to go just before we're ready to pick up the bees which will be just before the black locust trees bloom and that should give them a perfect start to the year. After October's seminars I wondered if would have a good enough food source for them. Country settings aren't always ideal as much of what grows are grasses and grasses don't flower. However, I remembered that a good majority of the trees around here are black locust and those DO bloom, a lot. Just once a year (when late ice storms don't zap them) and there are good years and better years for pollen production but that should be a good source. I found out a bee's radius for foraging is about 1.5 miles. I plan to take a drive as best we can on mostly perfectly grid-squared roads as the crow flies and see what's in that radius. I know there are alfalfa fields and we have some clover, fruit trees, etc. What we grow wouldn't be enough to sustain a colony I wouldn't think but the thought of feeding bees opens up a new world as far as what could be beneficial to plant in addition to what's regularly in the garden.

We'll have the school build the langstroth hives (traditional white box hives that are stacked) and Jeremiah and I will tackle some "top bar hives". Top bar hives are  like wooden v-shaped troughs. I'd like a few of each to see which we'll like working with the best. I also hope some friends who live in town wouldn't mind us placing some baited bee hives to catch a swarm or two. Cities are actually supposed to be great places to bait in swarms. Bees swarm usually when the colony gets to be too big, they choose a second queen and the (soon to be queen) takes off with her new entourage. I imagine most people who keep bees (apiaries) aren't too happy when their swarms take off and they do things to ensure they don't but anyway, it's not uncommon to catch bee swarms and that's why swarm removers exist, often times the swarm removers are bee keepers themselves.

Anyhow, I'll post more on that as time progresses and we've made progress there. It was important to find someone to sell us nuc colonies as nuc colonies aren't normally shipped. Packaged bees can be shipped. Rachel asked what a package of bees was. I told her it was like taking a lot of different people from a lot of different families (and in a package of bees they throw in a newly mated queen that was not chosen by the hive members), throwing them together and telling them to figure it out. Eventually they usually do but die affects numbers before the newly mated queen is ready lay eggs and then there' time for the eggs to hatch and yadda yadda yadda. It takes a lot longer for a hive to learn to work together, expand, etc. A nuc colony is a colony that has lived together, worked together, chosen their own queen and there is little stress in shipment because the bees aren't going far, etc. And because bees are such a wanted/needed commodity, getting on a waiting list for a spring colony is vital to whether or not one will have bees for that year. I contacted a lot of people that said the waiting list for last year spilt over to this year so I would be on a waiting list for the waiting list.


It's all very exciting and the whole bee life has really been very interesting to read up on. Busy week ahead. Have a great Tuesday.

Freezers, floods and spelling bees

This weekend's chore was to get more wood split and fix the greenhouse. It didn't weather a spring storm so well. We went to Lowes and ran some other errands Saturday and by the time we got home around noon we were done. Sears in Hutchinson is closing its doors so everything is 10-40% off. We nearly came home with a new fridge but I found it online from a Sears outlet cheaper including shipping for a new floor model. So, if and when we decide there's a budget for a new fridge, we'll look there. Ours still works, it's just massively obese for our small mouse-sized kitchen.

Saturday the high was 50 something and it rained Friday night, couple all that with the snow melt and there's a small lake in front of the greenhouse on the way out to the barn. It collects there unfortunately and there hasn't been a plan yet on what to do to fix it so working on the greenhouse was out of the question as was splitting wood because that was still covered in snow so, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing odd jobs like cleaning the house!

Sunday we got the 2x4's ripped for the greenhouse door and it's a mighty nice door! Friends of ours helped put up a high tunnel (hoop style greenhouse) over Christmas break in another state and showed us the plans. I don't intend to need anything that large but I did take some queues as to what to do about attaching the plastic to the frame. They used thin molding strips (we used ripped 2x4's) and folded the plastic around it and then attached the strips to the frame. it looks really really nice and hopefully the stress the wind creates on the plastic will better hold with a whole strip of wood than just staples every so often.

Last year I didn't have a window on the west side. It was sort of framed for one so I decided while we were ripping boards and a nice door, a nice window might be in order too so I build the window...well, I cut all the boards for the window, even figured out how to miter the diagonal brace board and at what angles.

I have some serious spring fever with this weather we've been having but I am sure it is short lived...the weather that is, not spring the spring fever. Athough, it is almost time to get ready to start seeds. I am thinking about expanding the garden to put corn and melons elsewhere which should give more room in the main garden for the main crops.

I am also thinking about doing a little straw bale gardening up by the house. If you'd like to read up on straw bale gardening, go here: http://strawbalegardens.com/ . A friend planted all of her 'taters in straw bales which made harvesting them a cinch! She just busted open the bales and there her huge crop of taters were then she had the straw for compost. It's hard for me to get the early crops in the garden because the the ground isn't always workable when the cabbage and things are ready to go in so I am thinking the straw bales may be a better option. The new wheat harvest (and subsequent straw) won't be ready to pick up until June or so which will be too late for this years garden but I have a good source for inexpensive straw. I keep saying I'll stock up when the new harvest comes in and bales can be had for something like $1 a bale! Anyway...

The pigs have done a good job rooting up their pasture area they are on and I was looking at the location next to the orchard yesterday for corn and melons. I'd have to do something about keeping the chickens out but we've also talked about fencing them in too. There is a netting product that is moveable and electrified so I could put them on new ground every week or so. I am tired of loosing them to foxes and we have a REALLY nice group of hens this year. I hatched out a good crop last Sept. and plan to put another batch in the incubator in a couple days and they'll be ready by mid-summer to lay.

We expect another litter of piglets in mid-Feb. I hope the weather is decent. The first goat babies are due in a couple of weeks and we'll be kidding until May.

We have 2 chest freezers that needed to be washed out well. We bought a new (to us) upright that's in the house now and have no need for the ones in the garage. We never did get to splitting the wood but the temps have been nice and look like they will continue to be at least until next weekend so we won't go through as much so what we have will last.

Rachel's birthday is Thursday. Wednesday evening she and I are meeting up with some friend for cocoa and coffee. She wants potato soup for dinner and home made bread Thursday evening and I think we'll try to fit in a movie next weekend. Jeremiah will be in Mo. for a competition on the weekend of the 25th of Jan. and mentioned maybe being out of town Valentine's Day weekend for a competition and then he'll be gone for training the week of St. Patrick's Day to Cleveland. Over the summer a robotic welder was purchased for the shop and it requires training to operate it. It's been sitting there since it was delivered because the 2 other people who are potential operators haven't been able to all schedule a time to be away to do the training. Jeremiah has also picked up a Tuesday evening teaching class for the college. He'll be teaching Machining 1&2 from tomorrow until some time in May when the semester is over.

It seems hard to believe but the kids only have 3.5 months of school left. They are out early again this year on April 30th where other districts are out some time toward the end of May. I don't know how much further the new school's progress has come but as of Oct. it was said to still be sitting as an empty lot so who knows if it will be ready in time. I know I am tired of the extended days. This year it's even longer going from 7:50 to 3:25. Last year it was 7:50 to 3:20. The kids don't get home until after 4 on the bus, though lately I have been picking them up. Jeremiah drops them off on his way to work.

Snoozing Snow

King

I'll end for now. Have a great week. Oh, and last minute last week (it seemed) there was a spelling bee at school for the 4-6th graders. Of the 6 students who participated (2 from each grade all against  one another), Rachel was 2nd behind a 6th grader. We were very pleased. She finished her last Harry Potter book last night of the entire series. She says she's going on to Percy Jackson books next. She'll run out of books at the school's library if she stays there for many more grades =).  

Ann Curry (left) & Earl of Sandwich (right)

 

Moab & chickens

New Year's Eve and the roads were super quiet. We blasted through Salt Lake after getting diesel and, oddly enough, a PIZZA of all things and headed south. I don't know why we thought taking I70 would be the better option but we figured if we could drive for another hour or so, going south toward Grand Junction would give us more hotel options than going toward Park City, Utah and No-mans-land Wyoming. As it turns out, conditions were good, the road was still quiet (with all the traffic out of Salt Lake going toward Nevada to gamble I assume) and then south of Salt Lake traffic was flowing in. So, we practically had the road to ourselves all the way to Price. On the way, however, I thought it might be kind of fun to take a detour and go SEE something for a change. Not that we don't see a lot while traveling, we see a lot! But, to take a break and head off the beaten path route might be kind of fun. Not to mention doing something with the family would be a great way to start the new year.

So, we high tailed it through price, made it down to I70 and headed to Moab where we'd slide in to town just before midnight to watch the fireworks going off over the city. After a good night's rest, we got up early to hike in Arches National Park. I never would have thought that being there in temperatures below freezing with snow on the ground would be an ideal time to visit, but it really was!

We spent the better part of the morning hiking. "Delicate Arch" was (said) a 1.5 mile hike but given the terrain it was more like 3 Jeremiah said. I only went part of the way. The kids wore jackets, I happily designated myself to take them back when it got to about 40 degrees out and chances are it wouldn't have been too much further that I would have tucked tail and run anyway as Jeremiah said "the height and sheer wall cliffs along the trail" would have finished it for me. I am deathly afraid of them, beautiful view or not. He and the kids went though, I went back to the truck and took an hour snooze in the sunshine.  
   
   

Last fall when we butchered our broiler chickens 6 were spared freezer camp. We wanted to see how they'd do as layers. We got home to find SUPER large eggs from these birds! Three of them made a nice omelet perfect for sharing.

 

It's back to the old grind- laundry, chores and cleaning. We spend a day going through old paperwork. I am organizing, cleaning and finishing long over due to be done sewing projects in the sewing room. The Christmas tree has been taken down and ornaments put away. There's too much snow to bother taking out the tree to the pile so it's sitting on the ground, someone threw it off the porch.

Yesterday the temp was over 40 so there was a lot of melting snow. Friday we're supposed to get rain and freezing rain and this weekend looks like it will be in the 50's which we are really looking forward to!

Our "polar vortex" was experienced, it seemed, a day before anyone elses. Sunday felt so much worse than Monday by far even though the still temp on Monday was below zero degrees. Sunday's wind however was just awful. The animals are just fine, plenty of extra bedding and feed and no one seems worse for the wear. I don't know what the final reading was Monday morning but it was something like -17 to -20 with windchill. It honestly didn't feel that bad but then again, there was hardly any wind.

We need to get on wood splitting this weekend and it should be a dandy time for it...unless everything is covered in ice that is! We're working out way through the wood quick but on that note, Sunday night with the cold temps, the wood stove did well! I didn't set the thermostat or turn on the furnace. I wanted to see how the stove did with as cold a night as it was. We stocked it well before going to bed. The rest of the house was sitting at about 68 in the hall -with the living room being much warmer of course- and by 6 AM it had fallen to 58 (which is about where I have the furnace kick on). So, even with the bitterly cold outside, the stove is a fine job keeping the house reasonably comfortable for sleeping, for us. It took a while to warm it back up Monday but our old stove would have failed pretty miserably unless stocked several times in the night.

Time to get out and do chores. Happy Wednesday.

New Stove

Finally got the new stove hooked up. We had ordered the wrong parts from the manufacturer and had to order a different part from a company in Northern Kansas. A 3 week delay due to the manufacturer being on back order for the wrong parts and then waiting a couple days for what we needed to be shipped down we were finally able to put a fire in her last night. Boy is it nice to have a wood stove back and boy is she a nice one! Our last stove was "Thomas", he was the little stove that could. This stove is entirely too purdy to be considered a he so maybe we should call this one "Thomasina".  Jeremiah says it's too powerful to be a girl and he says he's purdy...stalemate, ha ha.

At any rate, burning in it is different, it heats up slower, which isn't a bad thing...the stone takes a while to get hot. Saturday night I put a decent size log in at 8 and there was a good amount of well burned coals in it it this morning to put another good size log in and have it catch this morning. The damper was all the way down, the end of the hall was 72 degrees, living room was neither blazing last night or cold like normal with the other stove at 7 AM. The temp. outside was 44. Not freezing but not warm either.

We're happy!

We went and got a piece of plywood and some tile it for a backer. The stove should be 24" away from the wall. The last stove only needed to be 16" away as it had a deflector. Don't need the timbers in the wall drying out and breaking so the chore this week is to tile the plywood and grout it. We lucked out because as we were pulling the plywood off the shelf an employee was walking by with a piece of 3/8" that he had cut for a customer that was going into the scrap because the guy didn't need it that was the perfect size for or project so it was free!!! Can't beat that. 

Halloween came and went. Last week Saturday we joined some friends at their lot on a local lake for a party/get together. Last week I spent prepping for a craft fair on Saturday for our county 4-H. Thursday I spent the afternoon with the kids at school for their Halloween parties and by Saturday night I was exhausted.

Jeremiah had a student over Saturday morning while Rachel and I were gone to help him clean up the wood pile. They had every intention of splitting all the wood as a surprise for me when I got home but the tractor has been acting up so that was a no go. There was water in the hydraulic lines so Jeremiah drained and refilled 2 times and it's working much better now. The truck has been acting up, the relay on the glow plugs was going out so he changed that and it seems like in this never ending circle of things needing to be done, other chores fall to the wayside.

I have been after Jeremiah for a year to get that shop cleaned up and little by little we make progress and then after all the chores and fixing, it's a disaster again. The garage is cleaned and I appreciate that because it's imperative in the winter not to be falling over things nearly killing ourselves dressing and undressing from barn chores. I cannot tell you the huge load of stuff we took off to the Goodwill! I try to give this stuff away for free and people say they'll come and get it and never do. So much of it is auction "throw in" stuff that follows us home. Meaning, we didn't really want it but to get the item(s) that were being auction we did want, we had to take the throw in stuff. Some of it, you just wouldn't believe...brand new in the box <insert item here> and people just won't come and get it so we've gotten wise and the chore when we get home from the auction is to sort it right then and there and whatever we don't want or need, it goes directly to the give away. 

Oddly enough, the whole auction thing has become a little bit of a side job. We enjoy the auctions very much and bring home some really nice things that we can either use or need. Some of it is by chance we pick it up and re-sell the large items and pay for everything we bought for the day so it works out! The kids HATE the auctions, oh how they hate them.

Snow had her (small) litter of pups 4 weeks ago, a male and a female. The male will be following us to California. A goat friend of mine will be adding him to her farm. The female may stay here locally but I'll start advertising her pretty soon here. They are cute as can be at this age.

November has stayed pretty warm though people are expecting a bad winter. All the weather "experts" are expecting it to be warm this month. We had 2 days of rain last week and got more than an inch of rain between the two. November and Dec. are usually pretty dry.

The colors this fall are simply amazing. I wish we had more orange and red leafed fall trees but the cottonwoods and hedge trees are in full color...though after the wind we had yesterday I am sure all the trees are bare now. Driving to town on 4th is beautiful...all the trees lining the road are so vibrant and as much as I hate poison ivy, it's the only pop of red color so it really does look very beautiful right now.

We're expecting a big storm to roll in tomorrow and temps are dropping into the 50's. I threw out some wheat seed last week into the pastures and the dang turkeys multiplied to about 50 head overnight from the original 20 or so we've had hanging around and I am sure there's probably not a seed left out there! Jer said he's going to thin them one of these days. We need them thinned by about 3 dozen. That would feed the dogs for a while! Stupid turkeys.

The chicken coop is winterized (meaning we replaced the metal roosting poles with wood). The sow is probably bred again for a mid-Feburary littler, most of which I think we'll keep and raise on pasture and goat's milk and sell for those looking to put a half or whole hog in the freezer. I expect to raise another brood of layers in about January from the incubator if our hens will be laying at all. I've learned that fall chicks will molt the following fall where as the spring chicks will go a year and a half so that should ensure eggs more regularly.

This time of year the wind howls almost constantly and it's wearing. I'm still hanging clothes out on the line while it's still nice though tomorrow I'm hoping to process the last of these 3 bushels of apples we bought while it rains outside. I've made some outstanding pie filling and applesauce so far. The garden is kaput. I have some furniture I'd like to refinish that I've bought here and there and I had better get on that before it's too cold in the garage.

It's nearly time to get the kids up for school. I'll end for now. Have a great week.

A fall post

Fall is upon us! Today is overcast and windy and in the 60's, nice fall weather. This past weekend was gorgeous! We took a mini-working vacation up to Lawrence (upper NE corner of the state about half an hour west of Kansas City) to attend the Mother Earth News Fair. Originally we were just going to go up for the day but in the last week the guest speaker line up was finally posted (or that's when I finally saw it!) and both of us wanted to see what was being offered on opposite days so I hurriedly called the neighbors to see if they could feed and we left out early Saturday morning before the break of dawn.

It was a whirlwind weekend, that's for sure! It takes so much just to get ready to go anywhere for an overnight trip and it's difficult to remember that no one knows the inner workings of this place like I do. It's never more apparent than when I have to leave and while I know that there are others perfectly capable, even having to explain which spigot to use for which animal becomes a chore to remember for me. I go out every morning to do chores and it's second nature and writing it all out so that someone else knows to "feed the chickens in the roving coop in the pen closest to the pigs" because there are 2 roving coops with different aged chickens for different purposes along with the free ranging layers!

Anyway, I have complete faith in the few who I leave the farm to while I'm gone and I am so glad we got the opportunity to go! I hadn't started out wanting to go to the bee keeping presentations but oh so glad I did! We met some friends up there who were also staying for the whole weekend and she and I listed to 2 hour-long sessions on bees. Jeremiah and I have talked about bees for a long time, wanted to get them but like everything else, in due time. However, after this weekend, that's our next animal project for next year and I am so super excited! There is a lot to plan for and this winter will be the perfect time to read up here and there so that by spring, the perfect bee-gettin' time, we'll be ready...or as ready as we'll ever be, anyway.

It was pretty amazing, this "fair". It was like Disneyland for me, so much to learn and do and it was nice to get away with the kids and not have to do anything, if we didn't want to!

In other news, the new stove isn't hooked up yet. I have been asked quite a few times if it is. We had to order a couple parts and so for now its just sitting in out living room waiting. We haven't needed it quite yet anyway. We do need to get started on getting wood split here pretty soon.

Three weeks ago I thought I lost my favorite hen to a fox because I didn't see her come out of the coop when I opened it one morning. She hadn't been around all day either. I don't name the chickens but I do have a certain amount of each breed so I keep track of them by how many of each I can count. The next day she showed up and the day after I didn't see her and didn't again for about 4 days. I thought for a while I was crazy in how many of her kind I had counted the day before when I thought I saw her but it sealed the deal when she disappeared and showed back up again and I knew at that point she had a nest she was sitting on, "gone broody" they call it. Last Friday I was picking up some tools that had been left out and finally found her in a stack of tire walls we had piled up (our neighbor takes big tractor tires, cuts off the "walls" and uses the cylinders as raised bed planters). We ended up with the walls for a project. Whether or not we ever get to that project is anyone's guess but she had made herself a nice hidden nest nonetheless.

I didn't expect her to hatch anything out, she's a younger hen, only February born and her first brood. However, this morning at chore time I went out to give her some food so she wouldn't have to get off her nest and she had cheeping coming from underneath her. She hatched out 4-5 of quite a few eggs so I am happy with that! One was dead and one didn't hatch from the egg and there are still a few unhatched eggs so I will leave her be for the time being until she gets up and leaves that nest. I may take the chicks from her too to raise. It's kinda sad but hens don't grieve too much and there are just too many things that can get baby chicks around here, mainly aerial predators and these chicks are all females from what I can tell.

I learned to feather sex chickens earlier this year. Not all breeds can be feather sexed but most can and I am pretty accurate! Rachel wanted some of her own chickens to raise up for 4-H this year and the local farm store gets 2 batches of chicks in the fall to sell so I went down and got her 2 Barred Rocks (black and white sort of speckled chicken) and 3 Buff Orphingtons (big fluffy super docile buff colored chicken). A week later the general manager -who is on a farm site I am on- announced all in stock poultry was half off and so I went back down to pick up some Australorps too (they are an all black bird with a iridescent green sheen to them).

It just so happened they had a whole tub full of "fry pans" -which are generally roosters of the laying breed variety that people raise up for meet. They take a lot longer to raise to butchering age than actual meat bird breeds and there isn't a whole lot of meat but they are cheap so people buy them-. However, these "fry pans" were straight run (meaning not sexed at the hatchery so they could be male or female) and just by looking at wing feathers I cold tell there were an awful lot of pullets in there! So, for 90 cents a piece I picked up another 3 buffs and another 3 barred rocks and which made 9 pullet chicks! Then, I hatched out 13 from the incubator a few days after I picked up the chicks at the farm store and only 3 of them were cockerels (based on feather sexing) and so we've got a lot of pullets and that's never a bad thing!

It's strange that the ratio of males to females that I've gotten out of the 3 good hatches from the incubator have been pullet heavy.  I am not complaining, believe me! With as many as we loose to foxes, I'd just assume be pullet heavy though we do keep several roosters too. Anyway, that's the chick update.

All the piglets have been sold and are off to their new homes. We hadn't planned to breed Snow (the dog) until next spring but I made a slight mistake and let her out of the containment pen too early and there's no such thing as family planning in the dog world so we had new pups a week ago last Friday...just 2 and (fortunately) but unfortunately I have more people wanting them than I have pups! This place never seems to be long without baby animals of some kind!

It rained last night and was fairly windy. Today is clear and cool and it looks like our days of high 70s and 80s are a thing of the past. Time to start remembering morning jackets and no longer are we enjoying warm evenings where it's light until after 9 PM....I'll end this for now. Today is grocery shopping day and there are lots of errands to run. It's not my favorite day by any means but necessary.

Have a great day...