cleaning the wool

We started our first ever attempt at processing wool. I can’t guarantee the results will be pretty, correct, or that we did things the way it should have been done. We did read a book, a web-site, and talk to some people. It seems to be one of those things you just have jump in and try. So here goes a journaling of our attempts.

We had the sheep sheared in March. It has taken us until this week to get started. For the first few days we let the wool air so that the extra moisture would evaporate. Then we stored the wool in 30 gallon plastic trash sacks. We kept the tops open for another couple of weeks and then folded the bags over. It stayed in those bags until Monday.

Monday we sat on the front deck and opened the bags. Whew . . . the smell was still a bit strong. We dumped the wool on the porch and picked out the big stuff. There was a lot. I suppose if we were “high tech” homesteaders we could have used special sheep blankets, but not us. Therefore, there was a lot of burrs, twigs, and dirt in that wool. By the way, lanolin can make you really itchy. It is like rolling in a tub of cheap, oil-based, crap!

Today we washed the wool. We used three buckets with warmish water. The first bucket was for washing, the other two for rinsing. The water immediately turned brown. It was not pretty. The rinse water did stay pretty clean. We used a sheet and an old dishwasher tray to dry the wool. Right now it is dripping away. When it is done, we’ll spread it out on a clean sheet and let it dry a little longer.

I’ve learned three things already today. 1. I don’t like slimy stuff on my hands. 2. Wool is dirty and smells when it is wet. 3. Next time we’ll sort the wool into smaller sections prior to washing.

Coming up in a few day . . . . carding!

***I wrote this post Tuesday, but couldn’t get the pictures uploaded. Wednesday morning we washed the next batch and I sorted it into smaller sections. It was much easier to handle that way.

18th birthday celebration

HM turns 18 on June 17. Since family was in town to celebrate her graduation, we decided to go ahead and do her birthday celebration on Friday night. We cooked out and visited with my Mom and Dad, younger sister (KA) , her husband, and my two nephews! It was blast!

We did miss my middle sister and her husband, but they are enjoying a well-deserved rest and writing a book in Sante Fe. A bit too far to make the trip! They have sent some beautiful pictures though.

Your’s truly is in the bottom picture. White capris with a dark blue shirt.

homestead wisdom

Guest post by CK (my husband).  He’s been a little overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that has to be done RIGHT NOW.  These are his tidbits of wisdom to pass on to our son.

1. Use big muscles rather than small muscles while working with gravity (put your butt behind it).

2. Measure twice; cut once and then tack it all the way up before you permanently attach it.

3. Temporary should be permanent and permanent should be eternal.

4. More nails, glue, screws or tape does not make it stronger: Straight lines, parallel lines, right angles, supports and proper planning will.

5. When containing animals, try to cover corners and edges with the middle of the piece rather than try to secure edges together at the corners and edges.

6. Do a hard task then do an easy task. When working from an eternal list, doing lots of easy or quick tasks is more rewarding at the end of the day.

7. Mental boredom breeds complacency. Change jobs or take a break before you don’t care.

8. Things take longer than they do unless a woman is ‘helping’.

9. Build it before they come.

10. Build it with ease of use in mind, not ease of construction.

may on the homestead

I really like looking back and seeing the pictures of April here on the homestead. So I am going to start doing that monthly.

Here is May. You can tell we’ve had a lot of rain.

Here are some of new orchard. The first one happens to be an apple tree. These came looking like tiny little sticks. They have grown quite a bit and all of them have leaves now. The second picture is of one of the new grape vines. The next picture is a three year old grape vine. Finally the strawberry bed.

The bantams are enjoying their new home. They love the space and have learned to fly up to the nest boxes. They are 11 weeks old. In another 11 weeks we could have eggs. I can’t decide how much larger these girls will get.

Lizzy and Libby (5 weeks) and Elsy (3 weeks). They are getting quite fluffy. All the sheep are looking fuzzier again. The goats are currently spending their days tethered in wild places around the property. They enjoy keeping everything trimmed. It keeps me from needing to mow so much grass too.

Here are some shots of the garden. We’re at 3000 square feet of planting beds. The list of what we have planted is up in the garden tab. I’m still thinking about filling in the blank area with more beds yet this summer. We really need the growing space.

Now for the herb/flower beds. Some of the herbs are nearly ready for harvest.

Have great day today. I’m off to watch HM carry more stuff out of the barn. I’ll get a rake and start flattening the new compost heap so that we can add a layer of green then a layer of dirt and then start all over again. Such fun.

Kim

it’s raining again

It is raining again.  We’ve had a wonderful Spring with plenty of precipitation.  My gardens and orchard are growing really well.  The pastures are in excellent condition.    The woods are a deep emerald green.  So what is my problem?  Why am I complaining?

No gutters on the chicken house.  I stand there and watch all that wonderful water pour off the roof, hit the ground, and run away down to the neighbor’s pond.  I want to keep it all for myself.

Does that make me selfish?

One thing I have noticed is that as we implement new/greener ways of doing things my whole perspective changes.  Last year I complained that it rained too much in the Spring.  I complained about all the water squishing under my shoes.  This year my complaint is . . . I can’t keep it.

Ah. . .  changes.

In other news (or enough whining for now) and in list form (because you know how I love lists):

• We are still picking flowers of the strawberries.  The plants are about 5 inches tall now and show no signs of dying.
• The orchard is also showing some good growth.  Not as measurable as the strawberries, but lots of leaves and some vertical growth.
• The garden is doing splendidly.  We have every available space planted (except the sweet potato bed — those come in the mail this weekend).  I am thinking about adding another couple of beds yet this spring.  It isn’t too late and I could use more space for pumpkins and winter squashes.
• My hull-less oat seed finally came.  Too late to plant it this year so I stuck it in an old ice cream bucket in the freezer.  Early next spring we’ll be in the grain business.
• The prairie sunflowers will be planted next to the Balfour yard sometime this week.  They don’t have terrific germination rates, but I am hopeful.
• The bunny barn has posts; the bunny yard has a post (needs 2 more).  The materials are here for the roof and the framing.  I just need to order some concrete for the floor and get the men to work on it this weekend.  It might even be ready for occupants by HM’s High School graduation.
• Speaking of . . . HM’s is coming up very soon.  June 14 to be exact.  The only thing left on my to-do list is shade tents.  Gotta get some shade tents rounded up and in place.
• The lambs are getting enormous.  They are all eating grass, grain, alfalfa pellets, and minerals.  They know where the water is, where the barn is, and who I am.

Off to do the inside chores.

Kim

FEMA, you and a disaster

In the wake of a disaster (like our earthquake or yesterday’s severe weather) I tend to review the FEMA booklet “Are You Really Ready?” This 216 page booklet contains some very practical advise for weathering a variety of storms. Some of the recommendations are really easy to do.

• store enough familiar foods for 2 weeks
• store foods that don’t need to be cooked (for some of the meals)
• In a disaster eat at least one good meal a day, take a multivitamin, drink 1/2 gallon of water, eat enough calories.
• store 1 gallon of water/person/day. That gives you 1/2 gallon for drinking, 1/2 gallon for cooking and hygiene.

They also have guidelines for 72 hour kits. We don’t have these in place, but after completing our 2 weeks of food and water, that will be my goal. We have all the components, just not in one place, not handy, and not ready to walk out the door.

Again from FEMA — In the event you need to leave your home here is what they recommend.

• Three-day supply of nonperishable food and manual can opener.

• Three-day supply of water (one gallon of water per person, per day).

• Portable, battery-powered radio or television, and extra batteries.

• Flashlight and extra batteries.

• First aid kit and manual.

• Sanitation and hygiene items (hand sanitizer, moist towelettes, and toilet paper).

• Matches in waterproof container.

• Whistle.

• Extra clothing and blankets.

• Kitchen accessories and cooking utensils.

• Photocopies of identification and credit cards.

• Cash and coins.

• Special needs items such as prescription medications, eye glasses, contact lens solution, and hearing aid batteries.

• Items for infants, such as formula, diapers, bottles, and pacifiers.

• Tools, pet supplies, a map of the local area, and other items to meet your unique family needs.

Kim

food independence

They’re all saying it.  Now Sharon’s challenging us to do it.

You all know that I am a huge believer in personal responsibility in food production.  We do our best.   Each year we try to do better.  We learn new skills that allow us to remove ourselves just a little further from the industrial food supply.

I’ve been keeping up with Sharon’s food group.  Each week there is a check-in.  We do planted, harvested, preserved, stored, and prepped.  It is a great way to encourage one another to keep up the good work.  Now Sharon is inviting the world-at-large to participate.  So come on, join the fun, and free yourself from the tyranny of the supermarket shelves.

A few quotes from some of my favorite authors/thinkers.

Carla Emery:

All spring I try to plant something every day - from late February, when the early peas and spinach and garlic can go in, on up to midsummer, when the main potato crop and the late beans and lettuce go in.  Then I switch over and make it my rule to try and get something put away for the winter every single day.  That lasts until the pumpkins and sunflowers and late squash and green tomatoes are in.  Then comes the struggle to get the most out of the stored food - all winter long.  It has to be checked regularly, and you’ll need to add to that day’s menu anything that’s on the verge of spoiling, wilting or otherwise becoming useless.

People have to choose what they are going to struggle for.  Life is always a struggle, whether or not you’re struggling for anything worthwhile, so it might as well be for something worthwhile.  Independence days are worth struggling for.  they’re good for me, good for the country and good for growing children.

Sharon Astyk

Now there’s a Declaration of Independence for you.  Or perhaps the Constitution of the United Food Sovereign People of the World.  It is so desperately needed that we do declare our independence from the globalizing, totalitarian, destructive, toxic, dangerous agriculture that destroys our future and our power and pays to destroy democracy.  And so, when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to divorce themselves from a system that has become destructive, and thus:

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union of human and nature, establish justice and ensure food sovreignty, provide for the common nutrition, promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of liberty, for ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution for the United Food Sovereign People of the World.

Wendell Berry

Most urban shoppers would tell you that food is produced on farms.  But most of them do not know what farms, or what kind of farms, or where farms are, or what knowledge and skills are involved in farming. . . The industrial eater is, in fact, one who does not know that eating is an agricultural act, who no longer knows or imagines teh connections between eating and the land, and who is therefore necessarily passive and uncritical — in short, a victim. . . . There is, then, a politics of fod that, like any politics, involves our freedom.  We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else.  But we  have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else.  The condition of the passive consumer of food isnot a democratic condition.  One reason to eat responsibly is to live free.

What can we one do?

1. Participate in food production
2. Prepare your own food
3. Learn the origins of the food you buy, and buy the food that is produced closest to your home
4. Whenever possible, deal directly with a local farmer, gardener, or orchardist
5. Learn, in self-defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of industrial food production
6. Learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening
7. Learn as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if possible, of the life histories of the food species.

Michael Pollan:

But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

Yet the sun still shines down on your yard, and photosynthesis still works so abundantly that in a thoughtfully organized vegetable garden (one planted from seed, nourished by compost from the kitchen and involving not too many drives to the garden center), you can grow the proverbial free lunch — CO2-free and dollar-free.

ta-da!

Hey, the internet connection is still strong. So . . . I give you the chicken coop!

The Balfour yard.

The interior feeding station. I can open a gate and get to the food and water quite easily. The chicks are on a combination of chicken mash, cracked grains, and greens. The water is still getting a dose of apple cider vinegar.

Here we have a close up of a nest box. These are accessible from outside the chicken area. CK rigged up a hinge that opens up the back of all the boxes for easy access.

Now you can see the row of nest boxes and the ingenious hinged door!

And finally an exterior shot. We still have to finish the sides where the roof meets the wall, and put plywood on the interior, hinge the wood pieces above the windows (for ventilation), put the front door on permanently, and then the gutters! That should all be done soon. The chicks don’t mind living in a construction zone and the important thing is the chicks are not in the house, they are safe, warm, and dry!

Oh yes, we also need to clean up the construction mess.

Kim

our simple life

A collection of posts and pictures for Rhonda Jean about our simple life here on the Hedges Homestead.

I’m headed outside right now to take pictures of the chicks and chicken coop.  I’ll have them up tomorrow — God willing and the internet connection stays up!

A riotous day

Getting the work done.

Pictures from our life, and here, and here.

abby’s turn

Abby finally had her lamb. Lamb. Just one. As big as she was I figured she had 3 or 4, but no just one.

That one is as big as out 2 week old lambs though. Not as tubby, but every bit as tall.  This little girl will be called Elsy.

I have no idea about lamb gender percentages, but we had 3 lambs and they are all girls.  Whoohoo!

In other news: The chicks have moved out of the house and into their coop. They really seem to appreciate the extra room. They moved in Saturday. Yesterday was their first day in the Balfour yard. It was a smashing success.  I’ll have some pictures of the completed chicken coop by the weekend.

Kim

I did it

I did it. I finally used my new pressure canner. I didn’t blow up the house, set the kitchen on fire, or have a panic attack.

I almost did though. I was walking into the kitchen from the living room to check the pressure and heard a loud “pop.” I jumped, yelled, and squeaked. Then I noticed that it was the ginger beer popping its cork, not the pressure canner exploding.

So now I have 7 pints of canned beans.   The next time I forget to get the beans started early in the day, we’ll have a back-up plan.

Kim

why bother

Why bother?

My sister sent me the link above.  It is from one of my favorite authors — Michael Pollan.  And guess who he quotes in his article.  One of my other very favorite authors — Wendell Berry!

Great Quote from the Article:  Going personally green is a bet, nothing more or less, though it’s one we probably all should make, even if the odds of it paying off aren’t great. Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will.

If  you haven’t read Michael Pollan’s books you are missing a real treat.  If you haven’t read Wendell Berry you are missing a real meal.  He is a great thinker, a great writer, and a great man.

Kim

april on the homestead–2

The strawberry bed is 400 square feet.  Right now it has 50 strawberry plants in it.  They are filling out nicely, but we noticed we really need about 30 more in there.

Here they are.  Lizzy and Livy at 10 days.  They are so fun to watch.  They bounce all over the pasture.  Frolic and play all day, except for the serious business of nursing and napping.  These little bundles of energy have also discovered that they are small enough to sip through the fence for some fun in the garden, on the lumber pile by the chicken coop, and on some old hay.  HM is constantly putting them back in the fence.   Soon they’ll be too big to fit through the holes.

I tried to take a picture of the orchard, but all you could see were the blue flags that show us where we planted or where to plant the last order.  There are 5 apple trees, 1 peach, 2 plum, 2 cherry, 6 blueberry, 6 currant, 2 elderberry, 2 gooseberry, and 3 grapes already planted.  Coming in today will be 4 elderberry, 4 gooseberry, and 6 blackberry, and 6 grape.

Kim

April on the Homestead

I am posting a collection of pictures from this morning on the homestead. I’ll probably do a couple of posts instead of one HUGE post!

Here is Abby. Still waiting on babies, but you can see how big she is getting. Abby is 50% Shetland and 50% Finn. Her babies will be 5/8 Shetland and 3/8 Finn. If she EVER has them.

Betty nursing Lizzy and Livy Giselle. Betty is 50% Shetland/25% Finn/25% NC. The babies are 10 days old today. They are 5/8 Shetland, 2/8 Finn, and 1/8 NC. There will be another picture of them in just a minute. I absolutely love my sheep.

Bantam chicks at 7 weeks. 13 pullets and 2 roosters. We’re naming them after Audrey Hepburn roles (plus David and Linus from Sabrina). That is Eliza standing right in the center of the picture. They are spending the days outside in a “playpen” and the come in for the night.

The chicken coop that is still being built. Really we are almost done. You can see the windows for letting in light. The chicken door on the left (by the window). Still to be added: the front siding, the front door, the metal roof, and the fencing.

The front flower bed that also has chocolate mint and lemon mint. We have baby’s breath, borage, cornflowers, cosmos, lantana, iris, zinnia and violets planted there.

Here is the garden. It isn’t completely fenced in yet since we are still building beds and hauling dirt into it. You can kind of see that we have some goats picketed in the back of the garden. They are keeping the grass short until we can get it sheet mulched and covered. We have two dairy does and one wether. They aren’t producing milk because we didn’t breed them. The Garden tab above tells you what is currently happening in my garden.

Moving on the herb/flower bed. This is 1200 square feet. We have hosta, quince, burning bush, forsythia, daisy, spiderwort, chamomile, monarda, spearmint, peppermint, horehound, wormwood, St. John’s wort, flax, lupines, viola, scabiosa, pansy, forget-me-nots, delphinium, foxglove, hollyhock, butterfly flower, cardoon, parsley, echinacea, calendula, anise, hyssop, alyssum, thyme, oregano, chives, lilac and basil planted in there. It is a mass of green when everything is up.

Kim H

what’s in my garden now

As part of the 100 foot challenge I am keeping a running tab of what I am planting, watching grow, harvesting and preserving up in the tab called Garden and Pantry. My goal is to plant something everyday from mid-April through June and to put back something everyday from June to October.

Can it be done? How much will we end up with? We’ll see.

March 20–Yellow onion sets (80) and red onion sets (80) went into the garden today. Indoor seeds are doing well.

April 5 — potatoes (3 beds), arugula, artichokes, brussels sprouts. Rhubarb is up and looking pretty good. No asparagus yet (wondering if it didn’t survive the winter), onion set shoots barely above ground. Finished topping up all garden beds, filled 5×30 bed, built and filled 10×10 bed

April 8 — viola, pansy, scabiosa, alyssum, butterfly flower, forget-me-not, flax, foxglove, delphinium, hollyhock.

April 9– dill, cardoon, parsley, chives, oregano, hyssop, echinacea, thyme, anise, calendula, sweet basil. Coming up from last year: 3 kinds of mints, chamomile, horehound, mondara, comfrey, boneset, wormwood, mullein, rhubarb,

April 10– kale, broccoli, fava beans

April 11– lettuce, chard, spinach

Lambs!

Brown Betty had her babies! Two beautiful little lambs–and they are both girls. Introducing Miss Lizzy (black with white on her head) and Miss Livy Giselle (white). Betty did great. We didn’t know she was in labor until we heard Abby screaming her head off. So I sent HM back to see what the problem was. Babies! By the time we got back there Betty had them clean, dry, and nursing.

This morning they are scampering all about.

Oh yes, you can click on the picture to make it larger.

Kim

weekend of work

This past Saturday we got a lot of garden work done. We planted 3 beds of potatoes (245 square feet), one bed (32 square feet) of arugula, artichokes, and brussels sprouts. The rhubarb is up and looking pretty good. We’ll probably have enough to can a few jars. I need to add more to that bed since I have finally found some good recipes. The horseradish isn’t up yet, no asparagus yet either. I’m wondering if it didn’t survive the winter. The onion set shoots are barely above ground. We finished topping up all garden beds, filled 5×30 bed, built and filled 10×10 bed. So far we have moved 8 cubic yards of compost into the garden.

I still need to build 2 10×10 beds for vegetables, and several 2×2 beds for sweet potatoes. We also need a 20×30 bed for our grain patch. The sweet potato beds will be done by the end of this month. The garden beds by the middle of May. The grain patch bed will probably be built this summer, filled as we can afford to haul in dirt, and planted in the fall with wheat. I hoped to start with hull-less oats, but I don’t think we can get the bed done in time. Shoot!

The fruit and berry orchard is looking pretty good. Most of the plants already show some growth. The strawberry bed is really starting to look good. We moved 8 cubic yards of compost to create the strawberry bed so it is really rich. The sets are beginning to get leaves and I have hopes that they will all survive. We still have one fairly large order coming in this month.

We’ll get started on the herb/flower bed this week. We’ve been doing a little weeding out there, but not much in the way of preparing the bed for planting. We’re also planting some greens this week. Lettuce, chard, spinach, and kale!

The chicken coop roof will be delivered on Thursday. The framework in finished and the siding is up on the back. We still have to place the windows, build storm shutters, put up the fencing, plus the roof and guttering system. I think it is going to be a pretty building.

CK agreed with my plan to also build a bunny barn that matches the chicken coop. In fact he had the brilliant idea of fencing an area around the two buildings for a dog. That way predators will be kept at bay. I think it is a great idea. Maybe by early fall this will all be done. Maybe.

Kim

time flies?

It seems like I never get everything done. I mean, I get a lot done, but there is always something that gets left behind. I know I’m not the only one who struggles through the day, collapses into bed, and then remembers something important that didn’t get done (or finished).

I’ve had some guests ask how we get it all done. The very simple answer is that we don’t. Homesteading is a time intensive endeavor. Never let anyone tell you differently. April and October seem to be the worst months. Never ending tasks, gardens going in, gardens coming out, food preservation, firewood collection and chopping, and on and on and on.

So enough rambling, back to the topic. How do we get done what we get done? Our homestead has been evolving over the past ten years. At first it was Momma and 2 little ones trying to pound poles, stretch fence, dig gardens, and taking care of the animals. Those were great years. We worked together and it took all three of us to just get through the day. Later MA became a teen and with that came muscles. Teenage boys can go forever. They might be a trifle slow, but they just don’t wear out! He did the majority of the heavy work for the past 6 years.

Now that he is working full-time (and loving every minute of his job) we are trying to find “less muscular” ways of doing things. That’s why the chicken coop is being built. Shortly after its completion I have plans for a bunny barn! Ideally these animals enclosures will allow me to handle day-to-day operations by myself. The last of the garden beds are being built and filled this year. All the big stuff should be in place by September.

HM is the best helper. She works hard. She isn’t strong, but she’s stubborn. If sheer will power alone could get it all done we’d be set. We have a household routine (see A Riotous Day) that works well for us. It doesn’t change much from day to day. But it doesn’t tell us how much time we actually spend taking care of our home and homestead. So I’ve been wearing a watch and noticing where the time actually goes.

We spend about 5 hours on indoor chores. These get done during “school hours.” And they break down like this:

• Riot related tasks (meter reading, stat recording, etc) — 30 minutes daily
• Housekeeping (includes hand washing dishes) — 1 1/2 hour daily
• Laundry — 1 hour daily
• Meal preparation - - 1 hour daily
• Food storage, menu planning, grocery list, coop list, supply storage check) — 30 minutes twice a week
• Bread making and baking — 1 hour three times a week
• Dog, cat and parakeet care — 1 hour (includes walking the dog) daily

Homestead Chores get done first thing in the morning and in the afternoon. As the days warm up more and more time will be spent in the garden and in food preservation. I try to plant something every day mid-April to June and then preserve something everyday from June to October. Of course, some preservation begins earlier — strawberries and greens don’t wait until June!

• Chicks — 30 minutes daily
• Sheep and Goats — 30 minutes daily
• Rabbits — 10 minutes daily
• Yard and Flower Gardens — 1 hour daily
• Orchard and Berry Gardens — 1 hour daily
• Vegetable Gardens — 1 hour daily (steadily rising to 2 hours daily by June)

Then there are those BIG homesteading tasks. Things like barn cleaning. That gets a whole weekend to itself because it is 12 hour job to get all the bedding (3 feet deep by April) out of the barn and carried to the compost pile. Sheep shearing takes all morning, hoof trimming takes and hour to do all 6 adults, cleaning ground cages and moving them takes 3 hours. Firewood has its own timetable too. Our guys try to spend one Saturday morning a month, April through November, putting up our supply of firewood. Fencing repair takes 2 hours a month. Putting in a new fence takes 10 minutes a foot (as best as I can calculate) on average.

I’m still keeping track of chicken coop construction time. I’ll post that with the completed picture as soon as it gets finished. Which I hope is soon. Weather has been a real issue. It has rained almost non-stop since MA put in the first post! The good news is the ponds, lakes, water table, and creeks are full. Bad news . . . I still have chicks in the house!

Kim

mish-mash

Here is a post full of topics. I had a lot of updating to do.

Chicks: The chicks are now almost 5 weeks old. They have feathered out quite nicely so the temperature in their brooder is only 70. They will be making the transition to straight daylight with a night light next week. Shortly after that they’ll be ready for some outdoor time. It is always fun to watch chicks walking on grass for the first time. They are eating most greens, lots of fruit and some cracked grains.

Chicken coop: Almost as soon as MA got the framing cut it started raining. It hasn’t stopped yet. He’s gone out between showers and has managed to get two-thirds of the framing done. It is really going to be nice. We’ve picked out roofing material, but haven’t ordered it yet. The whole roof framework still has to be done. No sense keeping loose metal roofing lying about! As soon as the siding is up we’ll start the Balfour yard. My hope is that the chicks can move out there by next weekend.

Orchard: Since my last post on the orchard we have planted 50 strawberries, 6 currants and 2 elderberries. It is really exciting to look out there and see all the potential food. I just hope we can nurture these plants along. The rest of our orchard ships on April 14.

Lists: I finished beer batch 2. Beer batch 3 will go in the Ale Pail next week. The screens have been cleaned. The whole clothesline is getting moved to a better location and will be bigger! The food storage closet is partially framed. CK and MA will work on that here and there until it is done. Last but certainly not least: HM’s graduation plans are completed. We have everything we need. The invitations are addressed, stamped, and waiting to be mailed in late April.

The final blow: After 10 years of perfect performance my Whisper Mill is beginning to sound bogged down and we’ve seen smoke coming from the engine compartment. I have used this mill 3-4 days a week every week for 10 years. We’ve even dropped the poor thing a time or two. I have certainly gotten my money’s worth. I am sorry to see it aging though. CK let me buy a Country Living Grain Mill as a replacement. (Thank goodness for tax refunds!) Luxury class! It isn’t electric, but it has all the extras a gal could want. It is supposed to last forever and be easy to use. You can even buy replacement parts! I couldn’t do that with the Whisper Mill.

Kim

it begins

Today we began work on the new chicken coop. These little birds are going to have first class accommodations. We are building a tight little coop with an attached Balfour yard. The Balfour yard will lead out into 2 or 3 grassed yards.

We decided on this system for several reasons. First, HM and I are not strong enough to move the portable cages. Second, a neighborhood stray got into our cage, tore the fencing, and ate the hens (not something I want to have repeated). Third, I am raising bantams in the hope that they’ll incubate their own eggs. That means they need a place that doesn’t get moved around all the time.

Our 9 4×4 posts went into the ground and were concreted in place today. The coop area is 8 foot by 8 foot. 4×8 of that is for the hens and will include roosts, nest boxes, feeder and waterer. In the other area we will have room for food storage and supplies. The roof was designed for water collection. The Balfour yard is also 8×8 and will be fenced 8 foot high. That should keep predators out!

I bought some Prairie Sunflower (Helianthus maximillian) seeds to plant around the outside of the Balfour yard. They will provide food for the hens in the fall and a protective barrier to aid the coop fence. These are a perennial sunflower and came highly recommended from Gaia’s Garden.

The best part is that this coop is close to the house. I’ll be able to check the girls easily. The dogs will set up a roar if anything comes near the coop. As CK builds the deck it will go right up to the coop’s door. I can go out and feed the girls without getting knee-deep in mud. Of course that also means I’ll have to keep it really clean. We’ll know if I don’t!

I’ll take some pictures as we go and show you the coop when it is finished.

Kim