Meet

One beautiful thing about blogging is the people you meet. Grace is no exception. We came together in a rather roundabout way...a mutual read, Leah, decided February was so droll, we needed to have a swap. All the interested readers threw their names in a hat, and Leah paired us up. There was a list of possibilities to include in your box; we simply chose 4 and went from there.

Grace is from Georgia...yet another cool person from a state I know so little about I'm embarassed...

This was in my box:

She is crafty beyond my abilities - she made the t-shirt (can't wait to wear it to the Farmer's Market) and the bags and the horse...it was all really neat. The book is one of her favorites - I have never read it, so I am waiting for the first rainy day to curl up with a cup of tea and off we go...(Anyone else read it?)

And she finished with chocolate. Chocolate!!!! She's crafty and smart.

Go check out her blog. (link above)

I'm off to make "lemonade." (Tell you tomorrow)

Meat

It's never been a priority for me; in fact you could call me a vegetarian for most of my life, and it is still my preferred way to eat. But my outlook on meat has definitely changed.

I committed to eating as a vegetarian in college as a way to make a conscious choice about how I eat and what I eat. When I had that epiphany in Freshman Bio about the food chain, energy, and resources I just simply could not go on eating at the top of the food "pile". I didn't feel any more entitled to greater than "my share" of the Earth's energy than the next person.

But this year we raised Tamworth pigs. Pasture raised, and nut-mast and fruit finished. (With a bit of commercial grain to cover us). And suddenly it was my energy raising them, my efforts to provide drops and nuts, those were leftovers from my organic garden. I was hauling water, and moving fences and chasing them when they got out. And for the first time, I wasn't looking at meat that had been raised in a commercial operation with petro-fuel feed that my consumerist American culture had thrust upon me - I was raising quality, heritage-breed stock that had been a key part of my whole cycle of living, growing, working and family.

So, I now eat pork. My pork. Our pork. (And, it's not half bad!) I'll still take chickpeas over ham anyday...but it's growing on me...

This summer we are going to try meat chickens. Stay tuned...

Careful what you wish for

(How many times have I heard THAT before??)

We'd been having a pretty snow-light winter. Cold, windy, but pretty dry. So, we were kind of excited when the weatherperson predicted snow. (You know where this is going already, don't you?)

We got 18 inches of super-wet, heavy snow.

(No, that is not winter sculpture. It was our secure chicken yard.)

(That's a magnolia that used to be much more lofty and vertical and I could walk beneath it...)

Trees began snapping from the weight of the snow around 8:00 a.m., and we couldn't get to them fast enough - apple trees, magnolia, fruit bushes, hydrangea, quince and on and on...

Four hours of clearing and cleaning till we salvaged what we could...

Perfect day to stay inside and knit - (I was too tired!)

And then 8 more inches the next day...an inch today...

Enough already!!

I am SOOOOO ready for Spring.

One start...

and one finish...

Trying to set an example...

Shame on me if I pester the girls about laying and don't keep busy myself...so I have to post about my efforts...

It's the Pretty Thing cowl by the Yarn Harlot. It's actually the second one I made; the first was for my sister for Christmas, and I was so enamored with the easy lace knit and the yarn itself - I had to make a second.

But truthfully, it goes beyond love of yarn and knitting. It goes to frugality and thrift. Because the story of the yarn goes like this: I bought it back when money was MUCH easier. (Like when I had a paying job...) It is Mongolian cashmere, and I had never paid that much for so little yarn before in my life. When I went to cast on, I discovered that "something" had happened to the yarn causing multiple breaks throughout the whole skein. In some past life of mine, I might have thrown up my hands, boo-hooed a little, and tossed the yarn in the trash. Not in THIS life...

I gingerly wound the ball and kept every little piece. As I knit, I patiently tied end to end as I came upon the multiple pieces and kept working. (Talk about having a lot of ends to weave in!) When I finished the gift, there was no way I could simply toss the remainder in my stash bin...it had to be used. Just as we try to use every little scrap around here that might have any use beyond its first assignment...

So, I knit a second one for me. (Really, no selfishness here - Christmas is over and nobody on my list has a birthday for months...so of course I was the logical recipient...denial is such a lovely river...)

And do you know, there's still yarn left over!

And it's going into a special stash bin - because I'm using every last inch of that stuff if it's the last thing I do!

Next project...

P.S. The girls have squeezed out three eggs. I am still giving them stern looks as I pass by...

The Memo

To: The Chickens

From: The management

Re: Production & expenses

Date: 2/14/10

We realize that in these difficult times, it may be challenging for you to put forth an egg on your usual summer schedule. In fact, to demonstrate our commitment to an improved workplace, we have reduced the quota to a reasonable 4 or 5 eggs total per day. You have so far been able to meet this production quota throughout the winter days, despite lack of adequate daylight hours. For reasons unexplained, your current production has dropped to an unacceptable 0 eggs per day. According to farm legend, "Even a dead chicken lays an egg in February".

As you know, expenses have not dropped accordingly. Eggs are a direct offset for the costs of feed, housing, and care. Not that we don't love you in your own right, mind, but momma wants some scrambled eggs.

The Brown Leghorn got the memo. She is hard at work.

The Barred Plymouth Rock got the memo. She is also hard at work.

What the Bantam rooster thinks he is doing? We have no idea. But we appreciate the show of support.

Connectivity

The Internet was innocent enough at the beginning. Extensive, informative and a pretty good resource. Through it, I found seed sources, equipment, tips and like-minded folk to launch me on my farm adventure. Wildly entertaining, a daily surprise, and more enjoyable than I thought possible. (Kind of like raising chickens.) Then it got sticky...

There was the blog. Amazing fun, fantastic friends, and connections I never dreamed of with fellow shepherds and farmers all over the country, uh, actually the world. As we delved further into our farm efforts, the blog sometimes became difficult to manage, but we did our best. (Kind of like raising sheep.)

Next, there was the web page for the side business. Then, a site called Ravelry popped up to bring together fiber nuts, knitters, and crocheters. And I had(?) to become a part of that. Besides hours of fibertastic fun, it was "good" for the business I was told. So, we even got a forum group over there to grow the business and exchange with fellow fiberholics about the richness and diversity of our passion. Different tastes and colors, all beautiful, all desirable. (Kind of like growing vegetables.)

And then there was Twitter, and Facebook, and it got more complicated. Platforms to tell the world was I was doing now, what I liked and disliked, find friends from ages ago, and a little bit of how it is to struggle to be an organic farmer in the United States. Postings, tweets, walls, and updates now coming at me from all directions. Difficult to stay one step ahead, never knowing about the next contact or what to do. A roller coaster ride ... (Kind of like raising goats.)

I love connecting with people over the things we share...and meeting new ideas, old traditions, common threads, and fresh perspectives. My only question: Am I the spider or the fly?

NOFA served with catch up

(Even things of somewhat "current events" come late these days...)

The weekend of January 22-24, the Northeast Organic Farmers Assoc. held it's winter conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. It was an overall excellent conference - lots of interesting speakers, good displays and vendors, and of course it's always nice to hang out with farmers...

I was able to attend with a New Farmer Scholarship (Thanks, NOFA!) and tried to diversify my participation to fit the myriad of things that go on around here.

On Friday, I attended a workshop on growing cut flowers. (Madison has ideas about growing gladiolas and perhaps zinnias this year) I was hoping to at least get some good sources for glad bulbs - but wasn't able to find that out. Anyone got some good sources for healthy, inexpensive bulbs so she can try her hands at it? Interestingly, the speaker did use pigs in her land rotation, and I was pleased to hear that. I am gaining new appreciation for the little porkers after our experience this past Fall...not many notes or "take aways" from that lecture besides the idea of adding Cosmos as another good Market flower (beyond Zinnias and Sunflowers) and reminding me of Dainthus (Sweet William). In the past, we've grown this for decoration (and the smarmy reference to my DH) but it also makes a good cut flower, although you won't get blooms till year 2...

I did cut out of that class early, and scooted into one on organic beekeeping. The speaker, Russ Condrad, was great. You couldn't help but learn something as you listened, even if it was about the life of the bee (rather than care tips) and it got me all excited to see our hive wake up this Spring. I purchased his book , and it's a very good read.
I was really encouraged to hear so many ideas and tips for organic beekeeping, since we are an organic operation. I understand that man has taken the honeybee to its current spot on the brink of collapse and sometimes it is negligence not to apply supportive measures even if they are chemical, but I want to be doing everything I can in a natural way before that...

I cruised the vendor /shopping area and picked up a few seed samples, reading materials, and my prize purchase was my new hand tool, by Holdredge Enterprises, the Hummingbird. Can't wait to be able to get out in the dirt and play...

Saturday morning I first attended a workshop on growing sunflowers for oil and fuel. Even though the speaker, Samuel Yoder, was addressing an audience way beyond my scope of mechanization and understanding, he was such an energetic speaker and so knowledgeable that I couldn't help but learn something. I feel much more knowledgeable about the soil preparation for our flowers, and am excited to try field peas in several areas of our farm as a short-term fertilizer...

The next workshop was by Michael Phillips. His workshop was entitled Home Orchard basics. (He also has a good book - just more than I can digest this year with everything else we are trying to pull together)

Again, a very good speaker and had way too much material for such a short workshop, but he focused on soil biology and that was a good infusion of information for me. We have a dozen or so apple trees on our property still producing, but struggling with less-than-optimum growing conditions. I learned a lot about what I can do to support them, as well as tips for our new stock coming in the Spring. The hardest part about attending all these great workshops was wanting to run right home and get going...and forgetting about the fact that it's January and 4 degrees outside...(sigh)

Saturday afternoon was spent learning how to sharpen hand tools (Mama wants a sharpening stone and some new bastard files now...) and ended the day learning about shared-use kitchens.

Sunday morning brought an additional surprise (beyond the excellent workshop on organic blueberries!) - a friend from high school and college plunked her butt down right next to us...(it wasn't till after the lecture that I caught up with her) - what an excellent way to end the conference by re-connecting with someone I have not seen in 25 years - and to find out she is only a few miles up the road. Add to that the fact that she raises alpacas...and, aahhh...fiber bliss. Can't wait to go up for shearing in a few weeks....

The conference was really excellent - and I am brimming with ideas for the Spring...now if Spring would only get here!

So there's this project...

Project. That's how you refer to a breed that's in development. It's not a "real" breed yet, but you're working on it. Like these Mille Fleur Cochins:

This beauty was from Nancy's site (don't go here unless you are prepared to be smitten...) and I hope she doesn't mind too terribly if I borrow this pic to show you what I'm working on...

It was she, in fact, that got me going on this. (Little does she know!) She discovered the beautiful little breed, started posting pictures on her sheep blog, and the rest was history. But here's the hitch - everyone on our farm has to make money or they can't stay. That pretty much rules out bantam chickens, as their eggs are not in demand for sale. We only have one set of bantams on the farm - they are Madison's pets and they won Best in Show at the local fair a few years back. They pay for themselves in chicks, as we hatch and raise a dozen or so of them each year to sell to the local poultry enthusiasts who want show quality Buff Brahma bantams.

So, that being said, I knew if I wanted those amazing chickens at our place, I would have to find some standard Mille Fleur Cochins. Not as easy as it sounds...so it developed like so many other projects around here - "I'll make it myself!" (She announces with naive confidence...)

You soon learn that there is no documented, direct path to get such a chicken. Many start with a Mottled Cochin roo over Buff, Red, or Columbian Cochin pullets. While these may all be recognized variants in Bantam Cochins, they are not recognized in Standard Cochins. Finding a standard Mottled Cochin roo meant $75 and over 6 hours in the car...not in the budget! Ordering the chicks to start our project meant waiting till Spring, raising them over the summer, and possibly getting some breeding in before short Fall days shut them down...not in my ability to be that patient!

So we started the process with what we had on hand - (Barred Rock over a Red Cochin)

Meet Step #1:

A pretty, little chick hatched just before Christmas with nice, fluffy Cochin-type fuzz, the striping which usually promises future color, and light feathering on the feet.

Here she (I'm guessing) is at around 6 weeks:

Pretty good Cochin body shape, mottling on feathers around head, neck, and wing. I expect the next generation will only enhance the chevrons and coloring. And we'll see how she changes as she ages.

Best part? - She can be bred in 10 weeks and we can be hatching 2nd generation project chicks around the same time we are raising the new foundation flock for Fall breeding. OK, second best part? - no cash investment so far, and I get a little more instant gratification. Third best part? - fun genetics lessons for the DD...

FO spotted...

Yippee!!! an actual, real, live, honest-to-goodness finished object! One down, seventy million (or so) to go.

This is the famous Farm Sweater. I got a hold of neck-down, raglan-sleeve, all-in-one piece (mostly) sweater directions and was so excited I had to do it. (Note: I started this months ago. Excitement is apparently a fleeting and fickle thing.) Used yarn I had bought long ago when employed and relatively stupid about yarn, so it was screaming to be used in something.

I came up with this one round, stripey idea to ease the blending...

And used the easiest cabling ever to make it look pretty. Viola!

I updated the knitting widget below, posted on Ravelry, and am moving on! Next?

Getting Ready

In order for us to feel comfortable about bringing new stock onto the farm, we want to make sure we are prepared (or as prepared as we can be...) so this Fall we put new fencing and storage on the top of the project list. As well as a medical preparation. (Supplies, health check, etc.) Luckily for us, the large animal practice we use was offering free fecal checks (we love free!) and so even though the sponsor of the clinic was one of those large animal pharmaceutical operations (hoping to push their wormers, of course).

So all I had to do was get samples from everyone, label them, and get to the vet's office on the appointed Friday. I started a week in advance; good thing since most of what I got when I went to visit was this:

What's in the baggies? Snacks? Yummies? Food? Baggies mean goodies, I know it. Therefore I'm not taking my eyes off you...I want to be first when the cookies appear...

This is Angel - just multiply the photo by four more - they all solidly refused to follow their normal routine or show their butts so I could positively identify which chocolate drops came from which sheep. (Sigh)

It took the entire week to gather what I needed, but finally got the five sheep and one goat to produce what I was looking for. Luckily for me, I arrived late enough in the day that the company rep was backed up (no pun intended) and so full of poop samples that he could not do the fecal test right then and there. (That saved me having to explain to the eager salesman about raising animals organically and my lack of faith in their miracle concoctions...)

We worm with Spring and Fall applications of garlic ( three or four cloves each over three days) and in the Fall they get all the pumpkins they can eat.

As you can see, nobody (especially Hattie) has a problem with this regimen.

We also rotate pasture every few days with our Electronet and they don't double back on the same area for around two weeks, if possible. The only drawback to Electronet is that a few of them have figured out how to use their fleece to absorb the shock just enough to tolerate slipping under the fence if the flower garden looks especially tasty. So faces/polls/ears are kept well clipped.

So - this years results? (Drum roll, please...)

0.

No, not a typo. The sheep showed zero. Zip. Nada. And Cicero, the lone goat, showed 1.

Realistically, they usually carry a small, bearable few as that is normal for ruminants. So I'm sure they are in there somewhere. But we felt a lot better about our Fall arrival, knowing he was coming into a healthy flock and pasture.

Our only planned changes for 2010 are the addition of a few more poultry to free-range the pasture (We had a flock of turkeys this year) and the usual enhancement of pasture areas with a liberal sprinkling of orchard grass seed in the Spring. And if I get REALLY motivated, perhaps a little clearing of scrub to create a wee bit more grass area. Maybe...

It's that time...

One of my favorite winter milestones: time to order the seeds! Even though the process is one we've been perfecting for a few years, there's always fresh research and thought that goes into each year's selection.

A very good site to check out: Say No...

If that doesn't give you plenty to think about, then try a different train of thought: How much?

Actually, since we are playing ketchup, the order has already gone out. We kept the total well under the usual $200 with lots of seed saving and keeping an eye out for free seeds (lots of friends at Cooperative Extension and Master Gardeners).

Now all we need is Spring....

A resolution, of sorts...

I don't know about you, but I start thinking about New Year's resolutions weeks before I actually have to. Not that I settle on one, mind, but at least the thoughts start to percolate...

I finally settled on one when I was in the midst of a semi-frantic search for my size 9 circular needles. As I rifled through tote after tote, project after project, corner after corner...I was hit smack in the face with the reality of my startitis...I have too many projects.

So 2010 is going to be the year of the Finished Objects. I dedicate myself to finishing more projects than I start. Especially those of the knitting variety. ESPECIALLY those...

I won't bother you with the gory details; the knitters amongst you can run right over to Ravelry and get all the latest scoop. (I'm rugbplayr).

Here's to 2010: it's gotta be better than 2009. Please.

Of Which There Are 57 Varieties...

Let's play ketchup, shall we?

No, I am not sick, dead, or tired of y'all.

I have been wildly distracted by knitting, dyeing, holidays, world events, winter, and Facebook.

(And let's just mention the frustration of not being able to get a photo from the camera to the Mac without fourteen intervening steps and contraptions.)

Exactly how disappointed are you going to be with me when you learn I haven't even finished my Christmas, er, holiday cards?

And don't even think about making any kind of snarky remark about the yet unmailed Christmas packages under the office futon...

I was going to wait to introduce you to our latest little addition to the farm, because technically the "ink isn't dry", as his previous shepherd hasn't gotten us the paperwork, but I can at least let you take a peak...

Handsome, no?

Outraged

My favorite catalog came in the mail yesterday. While I can't paint myself a true, radical, left-oriented person (I have those occasional flashes of conservatism) I can certainly enjoy most of what the catalog has to offer, and definitely enjoy having a laugh. (Wit is appealing, no matter your politics)

Each year, I prowl the pages looking for my "must have" t-shirt. This one was my first choice:

After a summer of trying to eat exclusively off the farm, struggling with the worst gardening season in recent memory, and actually having outright arguments with people who are convinced it is impossible to feed oneself without the heavy use of groceries and processed food, I liked this one.

But a close second was this:

I mean, it's been practically non-stop Wall Street greed, force-feeding of the "national health plan", and a bogus Peace Prize nomination just to touch on the highlights...but I was trying to remain positive and limit my spending.

That's over.

This is something everyone should know about. The government is fully involved in telling us what we can put in our mouths. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, what you put in your mouths, what you CHOOSE to consume, is now under the purview of Washington. Because, lord knows, you can't be trusted to recognize actual food when you see (or taste) it.

It was freaky when the Corn Refiners Association began stalking a flower farmer in Iowa who happens to make and promote salsa WITHOUT high-fructose corn syrup, it was frustrating that the government allows such rampant deception when it comes to food in our stores, but I have to tell you, it's FRIGHTENING when the government can step in, confiscate and destroy something already paid for through a private transaction, (purchased in the name of healthier living) and determine it is only fit for animal consumption. That's comforting.

Growing food, saving seeds, supporting organic agriculture, eating for health is becoming more of a radical act every day.

There's going to be a revolution in this country soon...and just remember:

It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

Downsizing

Usually this means cutting back, laying off, and generally not good news...but we have a new twist on that phrase -

We've gone small (er)!

Introducing our Coturnix quail:

Ivory - the daddy, and Topaz, the mommy.

And now we have

Babies! The laying flock is on its way...although it will be 4 weeks till this little guy is feathered, and a few weeks after that we shall see if it's a boy or girl (Coturnix quail start laying around 6 wks.) A second baby hatched soon afterwards - you can see it's relative size

Their eggs sell for gourmet cooking, sushi, bento boxes and just the fun of itty, bitty omelets. And they sell for the same price as a dozen of our free-range chicken eggs. So no one can say these guys are slackers - they'll pay for themselves!

He came a knockin'

One moment I was sitting at the computer doing some work, and the next I heard a banging and a rustling in the back hall. Normally that means the chickens have gotten into the cat's food again, but this sounded a bit too rambunctious to be greedy poulty...

Isn't he regal looking? I was amazed that he flew into the back hall in the first place; I can't imagine what he was chasing...

I knew from the beak and the talons he was a raptor, but I had no idea what he could be (he was smaller than our banty rooster). It took some searching on the internet, but the views I got of his markings helped - here he is "resting" after another round of crashing into the windows -

He is a Sparrow hawk. How lucky I am to live here and be able to experience this kind of thing during my "work day"...

It knocked me backwards...

Last time I was here, I had been tagged with an award. Not just any award, but the Bella Sinclair Award. The tagging literally stopped me in my tracks.

First, I took time to find out what the award was about and in who's honor it was given. I spent a lot of time thinking about Bella's circumstances and the artful community she is a part of. (Grammar be damned...) I was sincerely flattered, but also touched by her story - would I, could I, manage in her shoes? How would I be whole again if half of me was gone? What would my art become?

I stopped to think about it a great deal.

And it gave me reason to think about a lot of other stuff this last month. It turns out, when you are thinking, you don't do much talking. That gives you plenty of time for listening. Which, in turn, means you hear more. What you hear, provokes more thought, and so on...

So, yes, I have been here all along. Lurking, mostly. But commenting when I could. And listening.

Now, the goal of the creator of this award was to have it spread across the Web as an honor to Bella. But I don't feel qualified to "nominate" blogs to carry on; there are so many and how do you choose just a few? So I am leaving that up to all of you. Feel free, if you know of a blog that embodies the ideals of being "gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best" then I look to you for help.

Tag, you're it. Pass it on.

Pull up a chair...

I'll catch you up.

(sigh) Where to begin?  

After much consultation, we concluded that a raccoon attacked the bantam hen and took her wing.  We haven't reduced the raccoon population around here; but there hasn't been any more problems.  Thank goodness.

Now, voting weighed heavily for either snakes or rats in the barn.  If there was really a snake of that size, then there would certainly be a limit to the rat population.  After seeing a few in the barn, we decided it was most likely rats.  We caved, and put out poison blocks.  (I hate putting anything chemically harmful on our property, but this was serious.)  We found 10 rats.  Of disturbing size.  That is seriously disgusting to me.  Glad they were dead, of course, but really creeped out.

(DH re-affirmed his special place in my heart because he did the actual "cleaning up" of the bodies.  Ick.)

So, we have totally restructured the chicken housing and made sure babies (especially) are safe.

I've made a Mama Hen, so our chicklets can go outside sooner and survive without the usual heat lamp.

It's a box, with fringes of clean rags hanging down where they can hang out and conserve body heat while they snuggle and sleep.   The idea came to us from Sue, who had a friend in the Peace Corp who used to use these in areas that had no electricity or frequently lost the power to traditional heat lamps.

The current crop of babies seems to love it.  Here they are playing Hide-n-Go-Seek.

                                                              (See the little one peeking out on the left?) 

 These guys are housed in a small dog crate, attached to the upper wall of the large coop.  It was designed as a safe spot to house various chickens, safe from pecking or bother, but still in the same coop so they become/stay familiar with the flock.

It was also the start of our last story about chicken adventures - just yesterday I thought we lost another one.

I went in to feed everyone, and behold!  the door to the upper cage was open, and the fourth chicklet was missing.  I searched all over, even sifting through the pine shavings on the floor for a little body, and nothing.  I combed the barn, looking in every cranny.  No chick.  I looked outside in the chicken yard, expecting to see that the flock had pecked the little thing to death, and no chick.  I double and triple check.  Nothing.  Resigned, I go to tell DH we have somehow lost another baby, and as I begin the tale, I hear a little "peep, peep, peep" from the brambles.   I am stopped mid-story, craning my ears to hear it again.  Sure enough, a "peep, peep, peep" comes again.  I dig through the brambles and weeds and finally find the little guy.  Somehow, he fell out of the cage, down about 5 feet (probably bumping down the laying boxes), got across the coop floor, up over a ledge exit twice as tall as the chick, out the door, across 15 feet of fenced-in chicken yard, and across another 20 feet of lawn to the brambles, all without any predators, cats, or full-grown chickens discovering it.  Not to mention the humans who had been traversing that area all morning!  We've named the chick Marco Polo.

I have been keeping up with my commitment to eat my meals from all that we grow here or I can barter with local folks, and it's been an interesting challenge.  Especially considering we have had rain 39 of the last 43 days, and the warmest day this year was back in April.  I have to have a hot flash just to sweat most days.  If I don't get tomatoes soon, I may make the 6:00 news.  But...

this is what it looks like on most days...eggs, lots of salads and greens, bread, cheese.  Jams and berries fulfill the sweet; pickles and salsa fulfill the savory; and I don't miss soda like I thought I would.  In fact, the thing I yearn for most is pasta.  I just haven't had time to try making it myself...

Some of you know I have been struggling with designing my website - terrified that I would get it together and it wouldn't work - so that has been tapping my time and energy.  But...it's up!  There's been a website before, but now I am solely responsible for it, and actually the business is now all mine.  So I had to start fresh, and here's the new look.  Granted, there are still issues with the shopping cart and there's more content to load, but it's like giving birth - exhausting, joyous, unbelievable, and nerve-wracking.  Now to work on the small stuff...

On one of our rare sunny days, I caught these guys taking a nap on the foundation:

That's a pile of three garter snakes.  Cool, huh?  

And I have 4 WIP's/UFO's on the needles right now, none of them close to being finished,  so pics will have to wait.

That's it for now;

no, wait!  One more thing - I think we are getting a new sheep.  More on that later... 

Something evil this way cometh...

We've had our share of poultry mishaps.  In six years, we've had dogs, rodents, disease, a marten attack, and even human callousness take some of our flock.  But something is plaguing our barnyard this year, and I can't figure out what it is...

I'm pretty sure a skunk took the 14 turkey eggs from their nest.  But they were on the lower property, and we don't monitor that plot for wildlife like we could.  But up near the house is the layer flock and the goose, with housing for chickens, chicks, bantams and the like - all within 25 yards of the house, and all secured - or so we thought.

It started two months ago when something ate the wing off our bantam hen.  Yeah, the whole wing.  I wasn't telling you about this one, because I thought maybe it was too much...but now is the time to come clean.

I went to the bantam house in the morning to open them up, and there was the hen, with a big patch of blood on her side - way too much for the usual pecking or pestering of fellow poultry.  Not actually bleeding anymore, but bloody.  Upon closer inspection, we realized her wing was bitten off.  Gone.  We can only figure that she fell asleep in the laying box and her wing dipped down through the 1" ventilation slot on the side, and something got her.  They left only one small drop of blood on the wood, and nothing else.  At a loss for what to do, I slathered the wound site with Super Salve, and housed her inside the small poultry barn to give her time to heal and be away from the bugs and sun.

This is a picture of her right side, showing the feathers growing back over her stump.  She was posing on the top of her coop, and was actually so "recovered" that she struggled to get free and consequently moved her pretty little head right out of the shot.

As you can see, she has recovered.  Having one less wing doesn't seem to hinder her, and so I have dubbed her "Lefty".  (Madison does not share my dark humor, BTW and still calls her Jelly.)   

As soon as she was recuperated, I returned "Lefty" to the bantam compound, and to lessen the cramping in the house, I moved another broody bantam and her five eggs to the indoor cage.  Everything was fine for a few days, and then I went to check on Ms. Broody, and all the eggs were gone but one.  Gone.  Overnight and they just disappeared.  No shells, no mess.  She was totally over the idea of sitting on the remaining egg unfortunately, and I returned her to the bantam house.

Two weeks ago, I was doing the evening chores and I spotted a baby grey catbird, hopping about after Candy the goose.  No parents were anywhere around, and it was too young to fly.  I didn't want to leave it to the after dark predators, and it was peeping desperately, so I scooped it up and brought it to the barn.  I locked it away in a small poultry cage with some straw and Candy to watch over it, and thought I would figure out the next steps in the morning.

Well, come morning it was gone.  Gone.  No sign of a struggle, no apparent opening large enough for the thing to escape.  Just gone.  I told myself that it must have squeezed out and found another small way out of the poultry shed overnight.

Now, two nights ago, I "graduated" two of our largest turkey poults (2 and 1/2 weeks) to a cage on the floor with larger mesh, (but none large enough for escape) and put the lone 6-week-old bantam pullet in with them for company.  It was the same set up I had used for the wounded bantam as she was recovering, and for our broody bantam.  They seemed to like the arrangements, and did well for 36 hours.

Last night, it struck again.

All three are gone.  Gone.  No feathers, no bodies, no sign of a struggle.  The littlest Narragansett poult and the Bourbon Red poult next to them in the smaller mesh cage were untouched.

WTF????

I have set the trap in the barn.  But I don't expect we'll get an answer...

Testing, 1, 2, 3...(er..4)

Rose, one of our two Bourbon Red hens, sat diligently on the nest of eggs for over three weeks.   There were 14 in total; mostly hers, but with a few from the Narragansetts snuck in for good measure.  Well, despite what we (humans) felt were adequate security measures, the skunk (s?) got them all.

Having a healthy skepticism for natural hatching, I had tucked away several in the incubator, even though nothing had worked so far.  Over three incubators and four different thermometers, we had failed with almost thirty eggs  - none hatched.

Success at last - thank goodness!  (I was beginning to drag out all my tofurkey recipes that I had accumulated over the years...)

#1 and #4 show the difference in plumage.  #1 (on the right) is a Bourbon Red; the Narragansetts are darker,  duller browns with a bit of black.

Despite the claims by numerous sites that the incubation period is 28 days (don't believe all that you read - it can cause traumatic boo-boos) our poults have widened the hatching window...#1 and #2 came on the 30th day, #3 on day 28, #4 on day 29.

And not to be outdone - precocious #5 is announcing his/her arrival on day #27:

Turkeynomics 101

Last year we bought the poults (11) from the local feed store at a base price of $8.75 each.  Add organic game bird starter, at $16.95 for a 25 lb. bag, and we were starting off pricey.  We lost three to various ailments of baby poults.  

They arrived the third week of May, and we let them free-range for a lot of their lives, with minimal supplementation of organic turkey grower.  The decision to let them range was part kindness - our chickens free-range, and seem much happier and healthier for the experience, and part financial - we had to be able to sell these at the end of the year, and could not afford huge use of organic feed at $21.95 for a 50# bag.

By November, they were not as large as we would have liked, averaging around 8 pounds from the processor.  (Who charges $10 each for processing, BTW.)  This was due, in part to the fact that heritage breeds naturally take longer to put on "Thanksgiving weight", and in part to the leaner range diet.

By Thanksgiving, organic, free-range, heritage turkey was selling for $4 -$7 a pound.  New York City (three hours away) was going for $8 and more, but our customers were local, and we wound up charging $4.  We kept breeding pairs of both Narragansett and Bourbon Reds for this year.  We ate two ourselves, and sold the rest.  It was not a money-making success.

With all the difficulty hatching our own poults, we are getting started three weeks later.  So, like it or not, there has to be more grain supplementation.  We want to exceed 10 pounds for all the birds; hopefully some higher.

Free-range has to be greatly limited, due to the proximity to the enlarging food gardens and my neighbor's reluctance to host turkey pool parties again this year when the poults discover the fun of his yard... (did you know cabana chairs make lovely roosts on hot afternoons?)  

So, we shall see if we can turn this turkey business around this year...