I KNEW IT!!

I looked outside and guess what I saw?!?! 4 Red-Breasted Robins!!

SO it is official. It is SPRING!!

The Signs This year of Spring

So even though there is still an average of a foot of snow every where in our yard. There are Still some Sure signs that spring is actually here.

1. The sure smell that spring is here... .Skunk! Yep, the poor skunks are coming out of hibernation and in their sleepy hazy filled brains are not avoiding the cars. So we have on more then one occasion had the privilege of smelling skunk.

1A. The Smell of spring! There has been in the air that very distinguishable smell of spring. Hard to pin down but Anyone who has lived more then a couple years with winter turning into spring knows that smell. It can smell different depending on if you are in the city or country side, but it is there nonetheless.

2. The sounds of spring such birds chirping me awake. This is something that I actually don't mind being awaken by. And today I heard a crane! Yes a crane!! (I also saw one flying) SO That means they are back and spring is here!

There is also the Awesome sound of snow melting and water

3. The Sight of Spring!! I Saw a bald Eagle!! Yes a Bald Eagle and I saw it like 3 or 4 weeks ago. I expect to see a Red Breasted Robin hopping around Any Time Now lol

4. The Temperature of Spring! It is 50 degrees outside and in the spring that means shorts and sandals :D (In the fall that means sweat pants and layers)

Trinity will now go outside and spend 2 or 3 hours outside before she gets cold. I am thinking of sitting on the deck to drink my morning coffee... Yep, it getting warmer outside.

5. The taste of spring is Very similar to the smell of spring... you can't quite put your finger on it, but everything just tastes better. Of course it could be because we just happier in general.

6. And last but not least is the work of spring. We laid out some chicken manure on the lower garden. Stirred the compost pile and started our first seedlings! Cherry tomatoes first in the hopes that they will come first and we can enjoy them before the large tomatoes. Also started the peppers with the longest growing season. Daryl set up a Great lil "green house" in the basement. Basically he wrapped plastic on around a table with 2 lamps in the basement. It 4 sides and a roof. Plastic goes all the way to the floor. Heat pad under the seedlings to keep the roots warm and a small heater inside the plastic to help keep the humidity up. It perfect for small seedlings.

LONG winters

As the end of Jan draws near I realize that I am SICK of winter.... :(

The other day there was a tiny warm up.. the snow was melting a bit, there was sunshine & I heard that wonderful sound of melting snow! I look forward to the real melt & promise of spring. In the mean time...

Trinity still bundles up everyday to go out and play with the "Chicken Kittens" as we call them, Daisy & Iris. I have made an "executive" decision to name all our future cats a plant or flower name in honor of my cat Flower, who died here tragically on the farm our 1st spring. Pretty flower names for the girls and fun names like, Dandelion or Thistle for the boy kitties...

Daisy & Iris were free kittens that came from an “unwanted” litter. They were tiny lil cats and SO friendly. We put them in the back part of the chicken coop separated from the chickens. There was lots of space to explore, run around and this way the chickens could also get used to them without pecking their eyes out. Our rooster jumped high to watch these new invaders. After a day or two, he decided they were no threat to him nor his hens.

The kittens were allowed to go outside after about 4 days. They went into the yard we use in the spring time for the meat birds. After a few days it didn’t take long before the kittens found ways out of that yard. They were exploring their new world.

We locked them up in the coop every night to protect them from the wild tom cats that roam the area and would see the new kittens as a threat to their territory. We also let the kittens roam freely among the chickens when they were about 2 months old. Every once in a while you would hear a funny sort of “Bah Boock” from a hen as a kitten rubbed up against them.

They caught their first mouse while Trinity watched. She proudly brought it to the house to show us!! We explained that the next time she should just leave the mouse for the cats to eat and NOT pick it up. :D

Since they have arrived, they have been a source of great entertainment for Trinity. They have done their job. Caught mice & given us all laughs as they play in the snow. They like to chase us around when sledding and the greet any & all who come to our house. We were SO fortunate to get such Great tempered cats. Here is to a LONG healthy & happy life.


For now they are still sleeping in the coop at night and fed 2 times a day. Spring time will bring a lil change for them, less food from us & they will be allowed to roam at night. Oh.. and since they both girls, a spading is in their future...




Here are some more pics of our kittens ~ Enjoy

Butchering Time

First I would like to apologize for how long it has taken to get another post up. I am officially taking over so it shouldn't be so long between posts.

This post is about butchering egglayers. The 2 other times we butchered chickens, they were meat birds. They were younger, bigger and tender. These were about a year old Rhode Island Reds. We gave them a good life, feed them good food and Trinity gave them lots of love.

This time we had some help from 3 friends. There were only 11 birds to do. Next spring we will be ordering 24 meat bird and hopefully have more friends help. The hardest part is the plucking! But ironically the feathers on these birds came off rather easy so that helped the process along.

Of the 5 of us doing the work, 3 of us were amazed at the whole biology of the bird. We took apart the gizzard, liver and anything else that took our fancy. One of the things I found facinating was the development of the eggs. I guess it makes sense, but I never thought about it before, but the egg is created yolk first in a tiny lil orange dot that grows large, then is surrounded with the egg white. Lastly the egg shell is developed over it all. We found that each chicken had varying stages of egg development from the tiny bit of orange to an almost fully completed egg.

2 members of our party thought we were crazy and just wanted to get the job done!! After all was said and done, everyone went home with chicken meat. We found that the meat, though flavorful, it was a lil tough to eat baked. In chicken soup though, it is Very yummy!

Thanks to Aaron, Kristopher & Holly for helping us! Here are the pics from that day.

Holly is taking pics... She wasn't too sure about helping with the gross part.

I am showing Aaron the gizzard and Kristopher and I couldn't help but poke at the egg yolk we found.

I am instructing Aaron & Kristopher on how to butcher... Not sure what I'm pointing out here. The ironic thing is, all I know is what I figured out the first 2 times we did this. I really have NO idea what I'm doing and think I need to find a class on how to butcher.

Here are the different stages of egg...

Proof that Holly actually Touched a dead bird! Arron & Daryl are getting down to the last part.

"There comes a point in the spring when winter is finally over and one can dream of things to come. Making plans for the garden, ordering seeds, the spring air is refreshing, birds are singing announcing to all who will listen that there are good things to come, warmer weather, spring rains & flower blossoms. Here the often caprices and unpredictable Mother Nature has sworn an oath to thoughtless alliance with those who are best able to serve her. They apply themselves year after year, to extract the perfection from the potential which she provides.” ~
Haut-Brion The Film

This means having the patience and wisdom to wait when others are planting, tilling & fertilizing. Knowing when is the right time for you and your land. Even more important is being ready to act when the time is right.

The warmer weather in early April brought a relief and a opportunity to get some soil prep work done much earlier than last year. We have started our seedlings at this time and have had some good results so far. Mostly tomatoes and peppers as seedlings but I’ve already planted some peas and potato. They went into the ground after lots of amending to the soil.

I’ve tilled the ground after the frost was over. Then added manure and tilled again. Added compost and tilled again. And just to make sure I’ve tilled the gardens about a dozen times. We get our manure from a great farm that uses the manure to fuel their methane powered farm. The manure is cooked at such a high degree that virtually all the weed seeds are destroyed.

The plan for this year is not much different than last year. To put it simply, the idea is to grow organically & healthy food and preserve as much food as possible by either freezing or canning. Oh and this year we plan on installing a windmill for “homemade” electric energy.

This year we will be more prepared for the apple & pear harvest. (At least that is our hope) We plan on making apple cider in addition to apple/pear sauce, jams & jelly's, pies and anything else my lovely wife comes up with.

The Signs of Spring

Well 2 weeks ago our farm looked like this...

Snow and muck and then mud...

Frost in the morning. You cold still see your breath and we were (ok I was. Trinity was just as happy to go out and make a snowman or snow angels as she always ways) REALLY really REALLY ready for spring.

Now... the snow has melted and I'm seeing the signs that spring is here.

First sign that spring is here...

A caterpillar crawling across the brown grass.

Another sign that spring is here is that the snow for the most part has melted. Looking out over our land there is only a few spots of snow left. Last week we had 40 degree weather that was continual over a week. The fog was like pea soup and the mud was gross, but it sure melted the snow in a hurry.

You can see a bit of white in the background.. it is an area that doesn't get much due to the trees.

BUT more exciting is that I can see the garden. We are already planning on this summer's crop.

In fact we have a few seedlings started in the basement already!

Another sign of spring...

Tulips are starting to shoot out. (hope it doesn't snow a foot next week)

One SURE fire way to predict that Spring is TRULY here and not just a quick thaw before we get walloped again.. the birds. I heard the red-wing blackbird today and then I saw it!!

The One thing that makes my heart soar!

The robin!! Not only did I see one, I saw 3!!! I was only able to photograph one, but trust me on this, there was THREE!!

Yep they wouldn't be back unless spring was here to stay.

And one of my favorite things about this year's spring is our rooster Boo-Boo Chicken.

He just loves struting his stuff for the hens in the sunshine and crowing up a storm.

A surprise for us this spring was Bunny. Who is bunny you ask?

Well bunny was a beautiful chicken. We ordered a special breed that lays colored eggs and not the brown you are thinking,,, but they lay greenish or blueish eggs. We hopeed to have a dozen ready by Easter. WELL... she turned out to be a he.

YEP! Bunny is a rooster and he is as twidderpated as the next rooster.

So Trinity asked me why is Bunny jumping on that chicken. I replied that Bunny wanted a piggyback ride. To which she replied... "Well it isn't a very fun piggyback ride. That chicken isn't moving... "

It's ALL my Fault!!

So... last night at about 10:30 pm, Daryl asked me how the babies were.
The "babies" are the newest batch of egg layers that we received about 3 weeks ago. Of course when we got them the weather was pretty darn cold, so we made a makeshift area for them in the basement. Both Trinity & Blossom (our cat) thought that was the neatest thing EVER!!


Trinity would check on them every day. And talked to them constantly, "Baby Chickens it is time to go to bed now!" or "The baby chickens are making noise because they are happy I am home now." Or my favorite, "Baby Chickens stop making all that noise I'm trying to eat my lunch!!" All yelled down the stairs from the kitchen.

Blossom would just sit in the basement watching the little fluff balls and thinking "cat thoughts". She never bothered them, but I'm sure if one had gotten out and started running she would have pounced!

Sunday we cleaned the coop. We took all the nasty sawdust out. Screened it for poop to add to the compost pile and disposed of all the sawdust to be used later this spring after the snow melts. It was a smelly, dusty and icky job (as usual...). Then with the nice new area set up we moved the babies to the coop. They were a little freaked out and I think are still huddled in the corner.

The Rhode Island Reds adjusted to the cleaning of the coop with no problem, but of course this isn't their first time. The Barred Rocks didn't want to come back in the coop. They didn't know what was happening so we had to chase them in. They had been out in the yard and their poor feet were covered with cold mud.

This is Boo-Boo Chicken! He is named after Donald Duck's chicken on the new Micky Mouse Clubhouse cartoon. He is our only rooster at this time. Beautiful isn't he...

Darn hard to catch too. Need to get a "chicken catching tool..." I have no idea what that might be, but I'm sure there is something out there. :-D

SO... back to last night. When Daryl asked me how the babies were I realized that I hadn't been out to the coop all day. (It had been a very busy & stressful day). And I also realized that meant no one had closed up the coop for the night. Now this is not the first time that has happened, but nothing bad has happened before....

Daryl comes back to the house and says, "Kris get your boots on and come out. We have a problem!!" I grabbed my camera and this is what we found in the coop.

Yep a Redtail hawk! Beautiful isn't it?!? The thing didn't make a noise. I went in with a shovel to push or steer it towards the door so it could escape (and YES, Daryl wanted to shoot it first, but I talked him out of it). I approached the bird and it just sat there with its wings expanded. And when I touched it with the shovel.... well... it fell over. Yep, just fell over and lay on its back. We think the bird is young and just over stuffed it self on our chicken.

Daryl came in and picked it up and we carried it outside. Thing never made a noise, but it did poise nicely for the pictures!! We actually set it by the garage first on some bricks. But then we were afraid that if it was their when our house guest returned home, it might get run over. So we put it on the deck and there it stayed all night till this morning when it finally flew away. It flew off when Daryl looked out the door at it.

SO the moral of this story.... Close up the coop at night and hawks (and other predators) can't get in and eat your chickens. But it is still cool. The only thing that would have been cooler... finding a Bald Eagle or an Owl in the coop.

All things organic are NOT created equal!!

If you have been following our blog, you will know that we found a place to buy organic chicken feed, but the drive time is 4 hrs (round trip). SO in an effort to save money, gas and time Daryl has been researching and calling feed mills that are closer to us. Well we found one.

Yeah!! It is only 40 min round trip and the price is actually a little cheaper. It is a win-win situation... Right? Well.. not so much. As soon as we opened the bag we could see that the quality was not as good. And the list of ingredients... "Organic Plant Material" What?!?! Organic plant material? Heck I could grind up grass and say that.

We also noticed a decrease in egg production. Now we did expect some drop in egg production due to the winter lack of light. (Chickens need like 12 hrs of light to help them produce eggs), but even the lack of sun light didn't fully explain the lack of eggs. We went from getting 12 eggs a day from our 12 birds to 7 or 8 eggs a day (and sometimes less).

Our theory is that the feed mill realized that people were asking for organic feed, but really didn't understand the what and why of that request. They probably looked around for something that was similar in price, not realizing that those of us that are serious about organic and natural food are willing to pay more for better quality. So, back to driving 4 hrs for food. We are going to go to this close mill though and see if we can get them to order from the same place as our other guy.
The list of ingredients on the good stuff:
Organic grain, Organic corn, organic soy, etc... Each item listed out

What we learned our first year on the farm

Weather rules your life here. So many things depend on the weather its frustrating when the weather does not do what you want, when you want it! October was very rainy and cold. The late harvest of tomatoes did not work; they just never ripened due to the cold.

The best laid plans can result in nothing. For example my idea of growing my own chicken feed did not work too well. Some of the plants I did grow did not grow well and the ones that did were next to impossible to harvest and use.

My sunflowers turned out good but im’ not sure if I like feeding that to my chickens with the shells on. I'm going to try again next year, but I think I need to go back to do more research. Anybody can plant a seed and make it grow, it's harvesting, drying and storing that is the hard part. I hung a bunch of sunflowers in the work shed to dry and the mice got to them and ate most of it, so the chickens didn’t get most of them.

Our carrots from the garden were great!! I wish we had grown 16 times more of them. So next year we are planting a whole bed of them at different intervals so that we can harvest them through out the year and still have plenty to freeze and use in the winter.

Our compost pile is now doing well. It's 5 ft by 6 ft with some fencing around it. We are sifting thru the bedding in the chicken coop for manure every 5 weeks to keep it active. Chicken poop is one of the best manures you can use, but you can’t put it on the plants directly or it will burn. So using it in the compost is the perfect solution. It is high in nitrates that plants love.

We harvested our last bunch of chickens for meat with a grand total of 11. That was very rewarding, but I’m glad to get it over with. It was getting cold and they were eating a lot of money oh I mean feed every day (little piggies). So it quickly gets to a point where keeping then any longer is just costing money and they aren’t growing any bigger. SO… off with their heads. Next year the plan is to get 24 (enough for the year) all at once and butcher them before it gets cold.

Our canning supply is holding out well. We gave some away for Christmas, but barely put a dent in it. Kris is tired of pear/apple sauce, but I still love it. I have got a good supply of jars already saved and will be keeping a eye out at the thrift stores all winter. I mostly want blue Ball jars. I just love them..

My lovely wife is looking forward to a better tomato harvest and sugar snap peas. We think (hope) that there will be fewer weeds in the garden. And we hope to be more prepared for the apples and pears that we were overwhelmed with this fall I’m sure she will have many wonderful ideas on pies, jams, ect…