Wherein We Set Up Outdoor "TV"

Yesterday we finished building and installing our "big screen" outdoor TV.  It gets one channel.  The chicken channel. It's our fave!

 

We can also change the channel by picking up our chairs and moving across the street to the big green barn (in the background) they get the cow channel!

Sunshiny Sundays Are Restful

Sunshine on a Sunday means this...

 

Sunshine on any other day of the week means this...

Aslan Is On The Move!

There is this strange thing appearing all over my yard.  It is brown and matted but I do believe it is ground!  I could be wrong, though, since it has been so long since I've seen said item.

We've managed to have a few daytime temps above freezing and the snow is gradually shrinking away.  It is possible that spring may actually arrive.

The chickens are enjoying getting to be out and about after being cooped up all winter.  (Keeping chickens really brings that saying to reality.)

The Compost area and cold frame are peeking out.

Bulbs are sprouting everywhere the snow has melted.

And we have tapped a couple of trees to experiment with maple syrup making.

While I enjoyed my winter reading sabbatical (knocking off a good portion off my reading list) it is good to be able to get moving again.  Planting isn't too far off- as long as the weather cooperates!

Well, I'm off to make some cheesy potato soup for dinner, empty my sap buckets and collect eggs! It is good to be back in the blogging world and it is good that Aslan has returned to Narnia... er... Michigan!

Homestead What Is It?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you all guess what this is a picture of?

It gave me great joy to see.

Here is another shot to help you guess.

Comment with your guess.  Enjoy your day and the new year!

What Is It?

Well, it's my birthday gift from my husband...

Bet you can't guess what it is!  I don't have any nifty prizes or anything but if you guess it correctly you have the satisfaction of knowing more than I did.  I had to ask after I had opened it.  "I know it's a chicken but "what" is it?"

My nine year-old thinks it's a Barbie "Chicken-Horse".  What do you all think?

Slip Sliding Away

I love snow.  Blizzards? Bring 'em on. I love to watch it fall, I love to see piles of it everywhere.  I have been known to throw a snow ball, build a fort or snowman, sled down a hill or go for a walk in the silence that snow brings.  However, I have to admit, I'm really a snow bunny.  I prefer the lodge or in my case the living room couch where I can cocoon in a blanket and sip hot cocoa.

One thing I don't like to do in the snow? Drive!  I'm native to Seattle.  The PNW city gets some snow but not a whole bunch.  I never really had to drive in it.  By the time I was driving my dad was retired and able to give me a ride if the roads looked bad.  Then he passed the honor on to my husband.  When we moved to Idaho we only had one car so I never drove in the snow there.  When we moved to Texas... ha.... it snowed once and was gone in a few hours.  But here in Michigan... it snows and this year it started early.  I have teens who have to go to the dentist and the doctor and church play practice and guitar lessons and any number of social events.  And since Dad is usually either at work or in bed for these lovely errands guess who gets to drive them.  Me!  It is so not good.

Tuesday I had to drop off and pick up my eldest at a babysitting gig.  Of course this family has a long, steep, curving driveway up to the house. (With tons of trees lining the drive.)  I generally choose to stop at the bottom and let my daughter walk up to the house and down also.  But Tuesday, oh Tuesday, I forgot my phone at home whilst going to pick her up.  I didn't want to walk up to get her so I drove to the top.  I am an adult after all. This backing down a long, curvy, steep, tree-lined drive shouldn't be a problem.  Never mind that it is covered in snow.

Half way down the drive and "thunk".  In avoiding a tree, I failed to see the utility pole and backed right into it.  No big deal.  I was going slow. No damage.  I just put the vehicle in 4 wheel drive and drove forward. Of course what I couldn't see because of snow was the slope away from the driveway towards the tree I had missed.  The car moved forward and promptly slid down the slope and met the tree most intimately.  Okay, I'll just back up and be on my way.  NOOOOO... I end up digging the wheels down, down, down.  Now I am stuck and parallel parked between the tree and the pole. (Apparently the only time I can successfully parallel park is when I'm not trying to.)

Long story short, it took the grandfather of the kids my daughter was sitting, and my husband about an hour to dig and pull the car out.  Sigh... why do these things always happen to me.  Now I have a nice little dent in the front passenger fender and a busted tail light. Perhaps a move to Key West might not be a bad idea.

Now for the praises!  No one was hurt, the damage is small, both my husband and the grandfather were available to help, it was still light out and there was a break in the weather, they got the car out.  Big picture time. Big picture. Thank you Heavenly Father.

Lessons learned: Remember the phone so I can text my arrival to my daughter and not have to drive up to the house and if the phone is forgotten, don't be lazy. Park the beast and walk up to the house!

Respect The Farmer Who Puts Food On Your Table!

 

I am by no means a real farmer.  We grow a large garden every year and are working toward the goal of feeding ourselves without depending on a grocery store and then eventually we hope to have extra to sell, but we aren't there yet.

Our entire animal contingent is made up of two cats, 17 hens and one rooster.  In Michigan, where we live, it is illegal to sell raw milk except under the guise of a "herd share" program.  Since our family goes through 4 or 5 gallons a week that puts "herd share" out of our current price range so we want to add a couple of milk goats.

Sounds great, right?

Well, it did up until a couple of days ago when it our temps plummeted into the little ball on the thermometer never to be seen again and the winds started chewing at my bare skin and the snow drifts organized themselves into a knee-deep wall that blocks my path to the barn.

Right now all I have to do is feed and water the chickens and collect eggs.  I bundle up and its not too bad but I really have no desire to get up at the pre-crack of dawn, daily, to milk animals in a heatless barn.  I am a wuss!

But it also makes me appreciate all the real farmers that are out there taking care of their animals day in and day out- leaving the comfort and warmth of their beds and homes to trek to the milking parlor or elsewhere.  Their dedication to keeping the food I take for granted on my table is starting to really hit home.

When I'm opening my drapes, my neighboring dairy farmer is out feeding and checking on his calves.  They milk at 4:00am and 4:00pm.  Uhhh... I'm up with my Costco managing husband at that time and I'm barely able to hold a thought.  I have gained nothing but respect for farmers since moving to the country. 

Never take for granted the food that is raised for you and the work that went into getting it to your table.  Farmers FEED us!  Farmer's are my rockstars!

Snowing and Blowing

It's that time of year again.  The time when the tractor stops being a mower and starts being a blower.

Last year we couldn't use the tractor for blowing because it was broken down. But it was a light snow year and we made do.

This year Farmer John was chomping at the bit to test it out so yesterday he got it out (even though we only had an inch or so and began to plow our drive. Five minutes into it and the blades stopped rotating. Ugghhh!

 

If I had $$ for every time I've seen Farmer John in this position with our beast we could own our own tropical island.  We bought it used.  Hey, buy used and save the difference is the motto the Duggars use.  It seems to work great for them.  Not so much for us.  With all the time and $ we've spent getting this thing to work, it would have been worth it to purchase the shiny green tractor that comes with yellow words. Alas, this was the one we could afford and, really, having a tractor payment is kind of silly no matter how shiny and new.

 

Lucky for us, this time, the problem was an old stretched out belt.  Easy to fix and not too pricey.

 

Today we got a few more inches of "Lake Effect" snow. (Not a storm, just something Lake Michigan whips up for us.)  Farmer John had our drive cleared in no time at all.  And as we are supposed to get more tomorrow, he'll get to do it again.

 

He was even nice enough to plow me a path from the back garage door to the barn!

 

Of course he could have just been trying to make up for nearly backing the beast over me in the barn.  Lucky for me I was by the chicken enclosure so he didn't knock me down.  I just got a face full of chicken wire mesh. Good times indeed!

 

How do you all handle winter weather?

 

 

Let Frozen Egg Season Commence!

 

Yum! Found this little beauty yesterday morning by the pecking block on the barn floor.  My first frozen egg.  I'm wondering if it was because it wasn't in a nesting box which are probably more insulated. 

 

Good thing I have lots of kids to send out to collect eggs all through the day!  Love me the warmth of a fresh laid egg.  Hand warmers the natural way!

The Number One Fall Homestead Chore!

For us at least....

LEAVES!

We have a dozen or so trees that drop their leaves in the front "yard" part of our property.  They drop a heck of a lot of compostable material that we use as mulch for the flower beds and fence line (to keep weeds down) as well as compost for garden beds.

This year farmer John blew the leaves away from objects like the house, trees, decking etc. and then took a leaf vacuum to them.  The sad thing is that tomorrow you won't be able to tell that he did anything.  The ground will be covered again.

 

What is your number one fall chore?

Free Foraged Food & Turning 9

I love nothing more than getting something for free.  It gives me great satisfaction.  My husband surprised me on Labor Day.  He was one of a few managers that had to go to the warehouse to "walk" it and make sure everything was okay since it was closed for the day.  He asked me to come along because there was a lone apple tree on the edge of the property and the apples just fall to the ground each year.  We were gonna pick those apples and make use of them. (We had permission.)

We didn't get too many because we didn't bring a ladder (I had to stand on the hood of the car) but we did get enough for a pie.

One our way too and from the warehouse I pointed out to him every "stray" apple tree along side the road that didn't look like anyone did anything with.  They were stand alone trees at the edge of fields and had fruit littering the ground. I told him we should go ask permission from all those landowners to access the apples.  I had been thinking this for a couple of weeks and John was surprised that I was thinking along the same lines as he was.  What can I say... the budget is miniscule and free food is enticing.

I also pointed out an apple tree on the road by our house on an abandoned bank owned property.  Again with no ladder we couldn't get the good apples but we got a bag full of apples that had fallen on the ground and we fed those to the chickens with the intent to get more if needed.  It takes so little to make us happy.

Yesterday was a day of celebration. Reagan turned 9!  We cancelled school and she chose to spend the morning at the mall with her big sisters, trying on clothes and then spent the afternoon with her dad and brother shooting air guns and bows/arrows.  Oh to be nine and have so many interests!  She is currently latch hooking away on her birthday gift.  Happy Birthday #4 child. We love you!!!!!

Fall must be on it's way!

Our first pumpkin (and probably our only).

 

We planted our corn, melons, winter squash and pumpkins in another area of our property then our other gardens.  It is amazing how the soil quality can be so different.  Since it was our first year planting we didn't amend the soil.  Most of our gardens did great but the corn, etc. did poorly.  I'm not surprised that the melons didn't do good as our summer was fairly cool and rainy but I'm very disappointed that I didn't get a lot of pie pumpkins. (My husband is sad not to get a lot of corn.)  We picked the beauty above before the chickens could get to it but I'm not seeing many more thriving.  Good thing for farmer's markets.  I will not partake in store canned pumpkin. Yuck!

 

One thing we were very surprised to get was Okra. I didn't think it would grow in Michigan.

 

 

 

 

We also got some broccoli (spelling?). We have never managed to get any before so small victories right?

 

 

Next year we will be laying on the manure and compost and making sure the soil is well amended so everything does well.

 

What victories and set backs did you all have this summer in your garden?

 

 

The Cow Monolith across the street...

You can't really tell from these pictures but the dairy farmer across the street is building a gargantuan barn.  It will house 300+ head of cattle.  I'm getting a little intimidated by the shear size of this thing.  I really hope they keep on top of the manure situation because I can only imagine how much poo will accumulate in this monolith.  We were relieved at first that it wasn't a manure lagoon but how different will this be?  I wonder if they will leave it silver or neutral like most of their other structures or if they'll paint it red?  If they do paint it red I have already decided to call it, "Clifford, The Big Red Barn". Why can't it be Joel Salatin who lives across the street?  Then I wouldn't have a worry in the world.

 

 

 

On a happier note... while traversing the yard to take these photos I found my barred rocks digging in the shredded leaf mulch on the fence line.  They were having a dandy time.

 

Snowball

 

 Chicken butts all lined up!

Bad Surprises!

Yesterday I had good surprises.  Today... not so much.

Bad surprises:

1. All those lovely tomatoes I thought I might harvest?  1/2 of them have blossom rot.

2. My smallest daughter got stung by bees... 4 times.

3. A predatory bird (hawk, falcon, etc.) tried to sweep down and steal one of laying chickens this evening as we were putting them away.


Praises:

1. At least the chickens get to eat well.  Lots of tomatoes went their way.

2. Taylor seems not to have had an allergic reaction any more serious than some nausea and slight swelling around the stings. We are keeping an eye on her.

3.  The bird did not get my hen.  She ran for cover as I ran at the bird.  The bird aborted and landed in a tree on the property line.

Lessons learned:

1. Blossom rot can be caused by lack of calcium in the soil.  High amounts of nitrogen can also cause it. I don't know about the calcium levels but we did have the chickens in that bed before we tilled it and planted.  It is possible that the chicken manure was too "hot" for the plants.

2. Keeping baking soda, topical benedryl and ibuprofen handy is a good thing.  Also learned that nausea is part of an allergic action.

3. Must keep an eye out for predatory birds.  If anyone is gonna eat chicken it's me! Also apparently I will run toward a predator to save a chicken.  Maybe I should start carrying a sling and a stone.

Wow! What will tomorrow bring?! Tomatoes with noses?