Country Girls

Internet is back! Here are some shots of my youngest girls taken by my oldest!

Friday Read and Write

High Protector of Books- King George!

Well, it's that time of the month again when our internet time is used up and I have to go to coffee or the library to access the internet.  Unfortunately for me my budget is tight and there is no coffee house $$.  This means the librarians get to see my shiny face almost daily!  It's a good thing that the library is only a  couple of miles away from home. None-the-less I have kids and homeschool and pets and chickens and farming and writing my own book etc., etc., etc. to keep me busy so running to the library to blog every day is a little difficult.   This is to warn you that I may only have a couple of posts until the 11th of June when I receive the next allotment of precious internet time.  But I'm not just being lazy.

While I'm not online I will be perusing: Wild Mind- Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg, Fresh From the Garden by Sarah Raven, and Stocking up III by Carol Hupping.  (Strawberry season is almost here and I can't wait to replenish my freezer with smoothie berries, make jam - I brought up the last jar from the larder a couple of days ago- and try some other preservation and regular recipes as well as strawberry shortcake galore!)

I'm slowly progressing in my current draft of my book- The Follower.  My girls like it so far.  I will probably put a little blurb of it up one of these days but I am only on first draft.  My problem with writing on my book is I need undisturbed time to get "in the zone" and as a mother of 5... yeah, doesn't happen often.  Even when blogging my mind is never quite all "here" as usually someone needs something or has something to share with me.  It is a blessing, yet a day to myself would be luxurious!

Okay, I've got to get home and contemplate dinner. Burgers and watermelon sound good! Fire up the grill!

Chicken Education

You know when you read books on chickens and the experts say not to buy them off craigslist or just any Joe Schmoe.  Yah... don't.

We went ahead and bought 8 chickens from an ad on craigslist.  At the time we thought we'd just work them and then stew pot them but now their work in the garden areas is done and my DH likes the 4 or 5 eggs we get a day from them (Or used to- more coming on that.) so we made a new home for them and won't butcher them until our chicks are laying.  But they are... well... they're not well behaved toward each other.

I believe they were cramped and bored and not managed well at their previous home.  They are very cannibalistic!  The 6 hens are missing massive amounts of feather everywhere  (they were like that when we picked them up) and the tiniest hen (lowest in the pecking order) is always trying to hide and get away from the others.  Today I went out to find her with her neck and most of her body through the fence barrier in the barn.  (A couple times she has made it through)  She was trying to hide but of course the others knew where she was and just kept pecking on her.  I pulled her out from the fence twice but she just would return to the same position and when I pulled her from the area and put her down on the other side of the pen (safe from the others) she immediately found something to hide behind.  Then when I pulled her from hiding I noticed a large puncture on her back under her wing.  Not a bloody peck but an actual puncture.  That's it!  She is now being housed alone in the brooder until we decide what to do.  Well, until we do what needs to be done.  She is going to have to be butchered.  I don't trust her with my chicks and I don't trust my chickens with her. 

I think it would be most compassionate to put her out of her misery.  I'd rather do the deed quickly then have her be pecked to death in the hen house. (This wound may heal but they'll just keep on her and she'll get another.) I'd be happy to keep her alone but I've read that chickens don't like to be alone so looks like we are butchering sooner than later. The rest of the flock seems fine with her gone. I'm watching the next one on the pecking order closely.  Hrummph!

Next issue:  Since we moved the chickens from the chicken tractor to the barn we have only gotten one egg for two days and finally today... a whopping TWO eggs.  I've started leaving the light on during the day to lighten the barn and keeping the big door wide open and have moved the nesting boxes around and filled them with nesting material (like in the tractor) instead of dry grass. I also threw a lot of cracked corn out in their yard to encourage them to hang out in the yard instead of in the barn. I'm hoping this gets us back to our 4 or 5 eggs daily.  If it doesn't I'll have to do more research or more butchering.

My baby chicks... the only problem with them is they haven't figured out to go inside the tractor house at night by themselves yet.   We have to pick them up and put them in.  I hope they figure it out on their own soon! My little one, Samantha, the one the bigs pecked on is doing fine even with her bald head. I do hope her feathers come back.

Ahhh.... the joys of continuing education in chicken raising!

Anyone got any input for me and my chickens?

Warning: Greenhorns Moving Chickens!

My family really should have its own reality TV show!  We spent Sunday prepping a home for our big chickens in the barn and then it came time to move them.  Two roosters and three hens got caught and moved individually and three more got moved in a box all at once.  The comical thing was the little peepers were out and about while we were doing the round up of the bigs.   It was so funny trying to catch them and keep them away from the peepers at the same time.

The best moment was when I was transporting a hen I had caught and I looked back at my son and husband who were trying to herd the big chickens into a corner.  The big chickens flew over the little piece of fence my hubby had set up as a corral, immediately started chasing the chicks and the chicks ran around the fencing and flowed out of the garden area into our yard.  It was one mass exodus of chickens and my husband and son standing flabbergasted.

Since I was already half-way to the barn I just shrugged and kept going.  By the time I got back, my daughters had been called over and the last of the chicks were being put back into the garden area.  Oh, to have had video of that.  Duck Dynasty doesn't have anything on us!

 Corner of the barn with makeshift roost of a 2 x4- they love it!

 Old "milk" crates being used as nesting boxes.  They don't really like those.

 Another 2 x 4 roost set up across the nesting boxes.  They don't really like that one either. I wonder if they smell remains of skunk odor from earlier this year?

 Their new yard!

 

Their grand doorway to and from the barn!  I was glad the previous owners had it already put in.

 

 

Now the peepers have the stylish chicken tractor all to themselves!

New Project? Me A Cookbook Author?

I just found out that one of my sister-in law's families has a family cookbook.  My niece just turned 19 and was gifted one.  What!?  How come my family doesn't have a family cookbook?  Oh... cause I'm the only girl and I haven't put one together yet.  Sigh.  New project!  But it will be a fun one and a good one to pass down to my kids and my brother's kids.

I'm thinking of not only putting in recipes but stories and pictures too. Hmmm... who knew my first "published" work would be a cook book.  I wish I would have realized to do this when my grandmother's were alive.  I hope my mom is able to share some of their recipes.  I remember Norwegian things from my mom's mom and wonderful potato pancakes from my dad's mom (German ancestry).  Both sets of my Grandparent's parents immigrated to the USA so I hope there are some recipes that go back to their "motherlands".

I guess while I'm at it I should get with my mother-in-law and my husband's sister and work on a Lewis family cookbook too.  Ohhh for more time in the day.

Have any of you put out a family cookbook?  What did you include and who did you "publish" it through? How much did it cost?

 

I imagine that a Schuh family cookbook would look similar to this.

My Babies Are Growing Up!

 

My little chicks are heading into their teen years.  They love being out of their brooder as long as the big chickens are kept away from them.

The older chickens we acquired have pre-developed habits that are bad. In order to protect our little ones we keep them separate.  I tried to introduce them and it didn't go well.

We are in the process of creating a permanent home for the big chickens and the little ones will move into the chicken tractor.  Once the little ones have grown (11 ladies and 1 cockerel) and are laying then we will bid farewell to the older chickens.

 This is "Snowball" our cockerel.  Our four year-old named him before we knew it was a him.

 This is Samantha, "Sam".  She is the only other chick we can tell apart from the others at this stage.  The first day we tried the big and little chickens together she got attacked and all the feathers on the top of her head were pulled off and she was bloody.  She was clearly traumatized and I thought we might lose her.  But I pulled her out and cleansed her wound with witch hazel and lavender essential oil (1 Tbsp. of witch hazel and a couple drops of lavender eo) dabbed on her head lightly with cue tips.  Then I put her back in the brooder with food and water and pulled out another chick to be her companion .  Later that evening I collected the rest of the chicks and put them all back in the brooder because I wasn't going to risk putting the chicks in the tractor with the big guys.

I had nightmares that night.  I thought for sure I would go out and find her dead in the morning.  I felt so guilty and was ready to throw in the towel with the animals because I really felt it was my fault for forcing the chickens together and expecting harmony.  Next morning I went out and she was doing much better.  And now, a week later, she is totally back to normal except for her bald head.  Poor thing.

 Here are Sam and Snowball together.  They seem to have a strong bond.

Taylor enjoys the chicks while the big chickens look on from the locked chicken tractor.  We just haul out the chicks in a cardboard box and corral them up in the evening and take them back to the brooder.

5 Years of Leaves Moved In One Day

This homesteading thing... whew... it's a lot of work.  It may be a simpler life but it isn't easy.  We had an opportunity to help out our pastor recently.  He had been saving his very ample supply of yearly leaves in an ever growing compost heap... for five years.  This heap was a breathing, growing monster in the back corner of his yard.  He had dreams of setting up a great system but the time to work on it escaped him and it was apparent that it was time for the dream and the pile to go.  His fence and neighbor relations on the other side of the fence were falling down.  Enter the Lewis clan.

Would we like to have all that compost and leaves for free if we would haul it out of there?  Why yes, free stuff for compost, we will most assuredly come get it.  Little did I know that when my husband and I said yes to this that I would be required to come along and help along with all the kids.  My understanding of the situation was that it would be good father/son bonding time. 

So last Saturday morning all of us slumped out the door early with tools in tow; shovels, pitch forks and rakes. We arrived at Pastor's home around 10:00 am and didn't pull out until around 2:00pm.  We shoveled, forked, raked and hauled load after load into our be-tarped trailer and then traveled the 30 minutes back to our property very carefully as the trailer was riding low because of the weight of the leaves.

Then of course we had to decide what to do with all of it.  Do we dump it in a heap somewhere on the property, do we run it through the chipper and shred it so that we can mulch our fence lines or do we start new garden beds with it?  Secretly I was hoping for dumping it in a heap.  That seemed like the quick fix and I was exhausted.  But dumping it in the back forty would mean hauling it by wheel barrow to where we would need it thus actually creating more work.

We decided to make garden beds for next year.  We were able to back up the trailer to the general area where we wanted the beds.  We laid the leaves down for one and then remembered that we have a lot of cardboard left over from moving here last year.  So for the second bed we laid down cardboard and then covered it with leaves.  Then we called it a day.  We still have more leaves sitting in the trailer waiting for us to make at least one more if not two beds.  This way we will kill the grass, create more topsoil and not have to till or if we do till we won't be fighting growing grass which is a bugger to weed.

I came to two conclusions while doing all this work.  1. Farmers don't need to go to the gym. 2. Large families and farm work go hand in hand!  Without the help and hard work of our children we wouldn't have stood a chance getting those leaves moved.  Thanks kids!  I love working together as a family.

A special thank you to Pastor Sam and Miss Jill for giving us the leaves and to Pastor for helping us move them and to Jill for providing tasty refreshments and lunch!  We look forward to sharing yummy produce from our gardens with them!

 The start: 10 feet long and three feet high

 

 From the pile to the tarp

 

 Across the yard

 

Into the trailer

 

Finally full!

 

 A new home and more tarp filling and pulling

 

 The first bed done!