ducks like broccoli

wintertime has settled in, and things have been pretty slow with the farm life. between Christmas and jobs and such we haven't had as much time to work outside as much as we'd like. we thinned out the chicken herd, since they aren't laying as well . in winter the hens lay less unless you put a light on them. the length of daylight affects how often they lay.
We are set to have a butchering day for the hog soon. The hubby says she weighs around 400lbs now. I'm going to miss her . But she was always supposed to be BBQ .
The boxer doggies are set to have puppies within the next few weeks, I have to say. I'm excited about that.


We had planted a winter garden back before Halloween. Planted broccoli , Brussels sprouts, greens and cabbage to start. However now we just have some greens growing.......apparently ducks enjoy little broccoli and cabbage plants immensely. And now that we have run out of garden to destroy,all of the mallard ducks have flown away.


So we have 2 Peking ducks, a flock of guiena birds, a brood of bunnies ,a very chunky pig, chickens, and the doggies l rambling around the yard. Im very ready for the springtime .

I've been thinking of sharing some of my old-timey cooking skills here during the winter, then getting back into the garden and animals as it gets warm again.  what does everyone think ? leave comments ?

pictures....

Round one finishing up.....
   Next we plant beans, peas, and such, then its time for greens and more cabbage.

Basil

Sage

I`m going to dry some of my herbs to use over the winter, I used some of the oregano and basil in our homemade spaghetti sauce, it was great.

These  are the hubby`s guinea birds. they still bunch all up when you walk by, but are warming up to us some. An unfortunate cricket came by while I was feeding them the other day....Ive never seen such a ruckus like these birds made over that poor bug.

Ol BBQ here is really enjoying all the garden scraps and is getting rather hefty. She really likes the mud hole we made for her.

                          Let a kid hold your phone......you end up with 15 pictures of the cats hehe

               

The bad side to keeping animals and a little bit of me ranting...

So a few weeks ago we had some rough weather. We had a heat wave come through and for a few days it was about 106 degrees give or take. We had some trouble with the bunnies. The first day of the heat, we lost my California buck, so the hubby put up fans at each side of the pens and gave everybody extra water and such. The next evening, we lost 4 more bunnies. So at this point I made him take all the rest of them into the house. Messy and smelly, but we managed to save the rest. I wish everyone couldv`e seen how he was so worried and even bathing the last one to pass in cool water trying to save it.

We raise them for meat and to sell, but we love our animals, and respect what they give us. We try to be kind and loving even if (like with the pig ) we got them to raise for food.
The hubby started me on the path to raising and growing our own food by making me watch a documentary about how animals are raised and how food is grown for us by big companies. I recommend everyone watch that . It made me open my eyes, and look at my fast food a little differently. I had a family member say that we were mean for raising animals for food, so I thought I would make sure that everyone who knows us, or reads this knows how and why we do it.
If you go to a chicken house for example, they are stacked up so tight they can hardly move, and suffocate and live in their own excrement. Our chickens get to run around the yard, or at least have large cages that are on the ground, so that they can have bugs, grass and such. Our bunnies are given grass, hay, and rabbit food, and are routinely loved on by us all. Our piggie is on the grass, with a nice big mud hole for it to play in. In fact, I never knew pigs were so silly and comical, this one runs and plays like a puppy. If you see how hogs are raised for meat like for the grocery stores, they are given medications to keep them alive because their living conditions are so poor and they cant even turn around they are so packed in their fences. 

Basically, I just want everyone to know that even though we do hunt, and fish , and raise our own meat. We do it for the health of our children, and to know that our children see that even though an animal has a purpose of meat, or eggs, or even guard dog, it should be loved and cared for.

 When hubby decides to try the chicken tractor idea, we had no clue it would be such a success. We had to buy a whole new chest freezer to put up all the groceries this man keeps hauling into the house. He is on a roll. So far ......

• over 50 quarts of stewed tomatoes
• 40 some odd bags of sliced squash
• 6 qts spaghetti sauce
• 10 qts of hash
• 7 or so qts sliced zucchini
• 5 or so gallons of stewed cabbage

 The okra and corn will be coming in soon, and he is planning a round of green beans, peas, and such to plant next. I`m excited to see him having so much fun, and it fun to make homemade spaghetti sauce. Here's how we did it.

We sliced the tops off the tomatoes, squeezed out all the seeds and juice, trimmed the other end off, and just threw them into the food processor. One you have enough, just cook on very low heat, add spices and we added some onions and bell peppers chopped up in the food processor. It didn`t take very long, and we had fresh sauce for our spaghetti that night. Best part is I knew exactly what was in it......no preservatives or anything.







We had to trim the tomato plants and spruce up the garden after an incident in the garden. Apparently critters were enjoying our very lush little garden spot. Me and hubby were picking tomatoes by the laundry basket fulls one day and suddenly he says woman, go get the gun.....run.... so of course my silly butt says "why? did you find a snake? " Needless to say he looks at me funny and says heck yeah i found a snake....run woman.....
So I tear off into the house, find a gun, and bullets..... run back to hubby who is looking kind of intimidated......and with my bare feet and shorts on run and throw everything at him. He says he found a copperhead.....a big one. so after he shoots the poor thing, about twice .... he looses it, cant find it anywhere......then I hear him almost shriek, its had done crawled over his shoe......So the snake is dead, hubby didn't get bitten, and he declares we are done in the garden for the day.  I wasn't as worried about the snake......I had more problems with the big wasp that flew up my shirt and the big  spider that I had on my arm.  Bugs just freak me out.....

Rooster chorus line

Well it has come to my attention we may have quite a few little bantam roosters. These past few evenings have been quite noisy, as the little ones try their hardest to learn how to crow. It`s really kinda cute how they sound.It seems more like a croak than a crow, but its cute all the same. Now I`ve got to start making little pens to put them in though so they wont start fighting.  We let one little pair of bantams out on the yard, and they walk around with the ducks, and roost on top of another cage. I love how they like to follow us around the yard , and just be silly.

We have moved the guinea bird babies out of the brooder into a cage in the yard. They are cute little buggers, and have started to make that weird noise all guinea birds make. They still seem a little skittish, but I'm sure if we keep at it they will warm up to us good.

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Gardening

The garden is getting into full swing now, with tomatoes, squash, and zucchini literally flying off the vines. I`m running trying to keep up with putting everything up, thank goodness the hubby enjoys freezing stuff too. Yet the freezer is full already , so we are going to try drying some of it in the dehydrator, and start canning what we can too.

I have been getting creative and trying to find different ways to prepare squash, and have tried stewing them , baking them, grilling them, casseroles.....you name it. My favorite way yet has been to slice them in half longways, sprinkle them with salt, pepper,butter,  and garlic powder, bake them until tender, then put cheese on top, and bake until the cheese has melted .

We had quite a few cabbages to get ready all at the same time, so we looked it up, and found out you can freeze them. Just cut them into quarters, blanch in boiling water for about 3 to 5 minutes, then cool in ice water. Put into freezer bags and freeze. Since the leaves are still large, when you go to use them you can even have stuffed cabbage, or just cut them up and have boiled or fried cabbage, or add to soups.


We have cucumbers, okra, corn, and watermelons that should be getting ready to start making soon.

For the love of bunnies

Baby bunnies have arrived on the scene, and the girls couldn't be happier.

One of my favorite pictures of miss Willow.....

I caught her !

After a while this poor puppy needed a break, so hubby made the dog pen.....

Now they have room to run and be messy, and hide from the child who makes them dress up...

Here's what happens when I give over the care of my flowers to hubby , mums in June (still don't know how he got them to come back from the dead little sticks they were after last fall)

It`s been a while....

I can`t believe it`s been so long since I`ve posted . It has been really busy around here lately with work and such, but now that it`s officially summertime I should have some free time on hand. The pig is growing like you wouldn`t believe,and has turned into a source of laughs almost every day. I never have seen a pig frolic and play, it`s really cute. The ducks are full grown now and have started to fly some. The hubby hatched out another batch of baby chicks. We acquired some baby guinea birds and are anxiously awaiting their help with the tick situation. The garden is starting to produce now, and the chicken tractor seems to have done its job well....the garden grew faster than I`ve ever seen. We also have been growing cabbage, never tried before, but it has worked great, and we`ve already harvested 2 heads. Still waiting on the tomatoes. The plants are loaded down, but they haven't turned red yet. It`s ok though, because while we`ve been waiting Ive been able to get some fried green tomatoes for my patience.

The hubby got creative and built a dog pen out of cattle panels, so we got a much sturdier and cheaper spot for my doggies than we would've`e gotten if we had bought a dog kennel. Most dog kennels are 10x10 and cost $270 or more. We have about 40x40 for roughly $120. 

I now have an official herb garden (thank you dear ) and have planted oregano, parsley, dill, sage and rosemary. I also have some basil that the munchkin started at school.  Plans are going to plant more, and mulch the plants already in.

Here`s some of our squash, the very first batch, Willow decided we needed to document this occasion. She`s too young to remember us doing this before so she thinks it has been awesome to eat our own garden food.  It was funny to see her run around hunting for squash with a basket. Little squeals of joy every time she`d see one. When the tomatoes start getting ripe this may be a problem. I foresee her in the garden with pieces of tomato everywhere, a bottle of ranch dressing and a big tummy ache. Tomatoes are her passion.

Daddy`s fix everything....

So after the funfilled day of chasing the piggy, and creating the piles of junk to fortify the pen, Hubby comes home, laughs at my handiwork, but says he`s proud of me for keeping up with the pig. He zipped up the road and came home with hog panels and posts, said he would fix piggy a more siutable home, one he shouldn`t be able to get loose from. Im rejoicing.

I haven`t been feeling good the past two days, so the munchkins have been helping with chores. I think the little one got into it a little too much. :)

The baby chickens are growing fast, and we have started the incubator back up for another batch of chicks.

All in all a good week, although maybe a bit tiring to some.

What was I thinking.......

We were sitting at the table last night looking at the latest ads for animals and such, when one in particular caught my eye. I show it to hubby, he thinks about it for a minute, then yep, we decide its time for a baby piggie. I call the man, and he`s still got them, so I tell him what time I`ll be there. I run and tell the girls to get in the car we going to get a baby piggie. So here goes the little one hollering and singing all the way to the car about cute little baby piggy wiggy. The man lives in Newberry so its going to be a long hour of hearing the awwws.

We get there right on time, and go to the backyard to see them, and he`s also got baby goats, so the awws start from everybody, but I have to say no to the very adorable baby goat that willow is already chasing around. He just wont fit in the little car since we already are putting the pig in. We get to the pig area, and willow sees them and goes eww, that's what we getting? I tell her yes ma`m, she looks back at the baby goat, looks at me and says "mom your nuts " .   Maybe she was right, but I really thought the pig was a good deal.

I had brought a dog crate with me, because I figured a two month old pig couldn't`t be very big, and he should fit nicely inside. We tried to put him in it and immediately he busted out. So theres hubby and the man running after the pig .... After a few minutes , we finally get him settled into the car, and away we go. The pig is now voicing how mad he is, and the girls are complaining about the smell, and its going to be a long ride home.

We  get home, and get the piggy settled into a pen, feed him, and go in for the evening thinking we did a good job.

I had to take the oldest child to school this morning, and was headed out to the car, when we see the piggy.....in the flowers.....not in his cage. Somehow I lure him back into the pen, and reinforce where he got out, and still made it to school on time.

I get just a half a mile from the house on the way back home, when guess what runs out in front of the car.....piggy. I slam on the brakes, look back , back the car up, and start calling out 'here piggy'. I'm sure the neighbors got a good laugh at watching me drive by hollering here piggy, with a baby pig running behind the car. So we get home, and lure him back into the pen.  I go in with intentions to clean and have some coffee, when I look out the window and piggy is in the garden.

To make it shorter, I finally after 5 total escapes and reinforcing the pen with whatever I could find, have gotten the pig to stay in the pen for a bit. I ran through poison oak, twisted my ankle, got attacked by said piggy, got covered in ticks and unmentionable mess from the pen, but I did it, all by myself. I handled it . :)   I just hope hubby isn`t mad at how I had to reinforce it.........

HOMEMADE CHICKEN TRACTOR

We needed a new home for our little speckled Sussex chickens, so we decided to build them one. Hubby got some 2x4`s , chicken wire, and 2 sheets of tin. He wanted it to measure 4ft by 8ft when he was finished. So after spending a bit of time on it for a couple of evenings we now have a nice, although a bit heavy chicken pen. Here's how we did it :

first we built a 4x8 frame ( take two 2x4`s and cut to size)

then make another one just like that, then trim 2x4`s to height of wire (in our case that was 38 inches) then attach them at corners.......

Ok now, put the other piece we put together first on top and secure, then we put two boards to brace the roof and bottom on (just measure across inside of frame for length) and hubby went ahead and put a board across for a roost.....

next we put a door on one side with a latch  and two hinges so it will open down like an oven door

then wrap the chicken wire around and secure to the other 3 sides we used some staples we had in the shed for this part, make sure you pull the wire tight as you go, then hubby screwed the tin to the top of the pen......

and that's it, now we have a whole new chicken pen that cost about $80 to build, just make sure you have an assistant to help with the building if you want to try.....

new babies

Yesterday morning we welcomed our first little baby chicken. I kept looking in the incubator to see if anything was happening, and was starting to worry that it didn`t work. After a little while though we had one to hatch. Willow came running at me full speed (I was doing the laundry) tripped over the dog, and landed at my feet, got up and screamed " we got a ugly chicken " . So after an eyebrow raise and a huh? I follow her to the incubator, and yup we had a very wet pitiful looking chicken sitting there. So I told her he`s not ugly, he just has to dry off and get his balance.....so she dutifully watches over him for about 20 minutes, and I hear an "awwwww, he`s adorable" . I go back to see what shes gushing about and another one had hatched. By the end of the day we had 14 to hatch.
 It was getting pretty crowed in the incubator, so we moved the dry ones to the brooder the hubby had got ready for us. Now we are waiting for the rest to hatch. I think if we give them another day or so they should. Theres  alot of eggs with holes or cracks, so we know theres still more to come.
I`m thinking we should do this again soon, maybe with bantam eggs.

homemade dish liquid

We tried our hand at making some dish detergent. This does not make bubbles.....and I found out that bubbles are added to store detergents, and are not even what cleans your dishes. Now at first, this stuff is amazing, it literally cleaned the dishes without scrubbing. After a few days though it separated and just didn`t seem to work as good. Here`s the recipe we used, but note that we will be working to make it better over the next while. 

- 1 tbsp. grated ivory soap
- 1 tbsp. washing soda
- 1 tbsp. white vinegar
- 1and 1/2 cups hot water

stir all together until melted, then stir on and off throughout the day. After it gels some, add a few drops of an essential oil, mix well. We used orange oil. Then pour into an old dish soap bottle.



After doing some research, I found that  mixing vinegar and soap was the problem, the vinegar clumps the soap, and takes away the cleaning power of the soap. So next time I will try it without the vinegar.

Fun in the sun

Its official the youngest child and Cletus the rooster are at war. We had to keep them separated this past weekend after he chased the poor child into the house, and she came back out with the fly swatter and  threatened to fry him.......

The ducks are growing and growing, and have become instant buddies to the children.

We are starting to be able to tell what breeds of bantams we have now, we had bought chicks of various breeds.

The incubating eggs are now on lock down and should be hatching in the next few days if all works out well. Stay tuned for news on them...

Hubby saved the tomato plants from the weird late frost, and they look amazing.

We found baby birds and had fun playing with them until hubby told us the mom was gonna get us...



And now some pictures........

                                                     duckies !

                                                 everybody loves green apples.....

                                                   
                                                       the garden so far........

                                                        baby birds we found in an old birdhouse

mulberry jam coming soon......

the onion and garlic patch

We love a good auction

We spent this past Saturday at the auction sale. Had a great time, and found some good deals. This is always a great way to save money and meet new people. The sale has two parts. First is the junk sale, where people can try to sell or buy anything at all. There were old tools, lawnmowers, animal cages, dishes, furniture, etc. for sale. The second part is the small animal sale. This includes chickens, rabbits, other poultry, and eggs.

We took 2 dozen eggs with us, just to see what they would bring, ended at  $2 each.  The hubby found a whole bunch of animal cages of various sizes for cheap. I got a rabbit hutch with 2 free rabbits in it for $17. Then we went inside to watch the chicken sale......
I got excited, and bought more bantams, and hubby got him a pair of carrier pigeons. What we`re going to do with these very strange looking bantams I don't know. They have really long legs, and boy are they noisy. I just couldn't resit though. I plan on having a pair of a few different breeds of bantams, so that will be my justification. 
Sunday I found California baby girl bunnies for sale, so we went after a pair of those . That way we now have the ability to breed our California buck.....I'm thinking these will be great to sell around Easter time next year.

Here's some photos of our new additions.......


(here are some of the bantams that I bought, they`re called old english game. see how big they are compared to the coffee cups ? They are very small , and see how long their legs are ?)

( here are the other two bantams I bought, they are the same breed as above, just a different color )

When we got the bantams settled in , we went to check on them and these (above) had laid an egg. See how it compares to a regular chicken egg ( rhode island red )

This is the little rabbit hutch I found, it needs a little work, but it was too cheap to pass up.....

finally, here are my 2 new baby California girls