Category: Homesteading

Sore Muscles, Stink buds, Silly puppies and Showers

Our beautiful 3 days are over and rain is expected for the next two days followed by cooler weather for a week, maybe winter cold weather. It is probably good that it is too wet to work outdoors today, my sore achy muscles need a recovery period. Though we have a treadmill and hand weights in the basement rec room, I am much too sedentary during the cold months, enjoying walks in the snow or on a crisp clear day, but certainly not getting the exercise that I get during the growing season.

We have had the chickens for just over a year now and it has been about a year since we put the coop in place, unleveled and poorly fenced. Late last spring, eldest son came to do some work with us and he helped me level the coop the best we could using car jacks and a 6 foot pry bar to raise it up on blocks. The fencing has evolved from a small square of poorly erected garden fence to the present design of a much larger rectangle with 4 foot wide runs that extend down two sides of the garden, forming a large L at the end of the rectangle, welded wire fence on heavy T posts. After the coop was in place, I saw a design that ran a 3 foot wide run all the way around a garden with the coop and the compost bins at one edge. Unfortunately, the coop couldn’t be placed where that would work at the time and now that the area is leveled near the bins, the coop can’t be moved, so it will have to be as it is, though that design also serves to keep deer out of the garden.

Every fall we are invaded by these nasty pests and a few wasps. They manage to get inside in spite of the windows being shut and locked and all winter I capture and destroy them until I think that most are gone, then April arrives and they crawl out from under window sills, behind baseboards and who know where else and again we are over run. They are a major pest in SW Virginia and seem to be getting worse. You can’t squash them and vacuuming them can only be done with a vacuum with a disposable bag as they live up to their name, Stink bug. Last night I must have captured at least 20 and several more this morning. They don’t fare well in soapy water and can easily be knocked into a paper cup of it to be flushed away. They are an invasive species and seem to have no natural predators here.

This is our 210 pound puppy’s favorite position. His breeder says that his father does the same thing. Such a silly dog. Surprisingly, the German Shepherd in the background chose to gnaw on a bone instead of attacking him as she usually does when he rolls over like this and she can get the upper hand.

Today is going to be a quiet day of rest and recovery. The dog hair needs to be vacuumed, but other than that I am going to read, go to my spinning group and fix dinner. After 3 long days of hard labor, I think that is enough.

April 3, 2014
Spring productivity

A record, 3 days in a row of sunshine and temperatures that are late springlike and it is showing around the farm. The grass is greening and by August I will wish it weren’t as I mow and mow, but it is a welcome sight. The lilac leaves are bursting forth and the forsythia has a yellowish hint of flowers soon to come. The peach trees have swelling buds as do the Asian pears.

The beautiful weather has sparked the energy that the winter sapped and much as been accomplished. The garage clean-up is about half done, the chicken run is complete except for the two wooden posts for the gate and I need the neighbor’s post driver for that, Jim and I hauled the chicken tractor over in front of the unused side of the compost bins and I erected fencing to create a pen for the cull birds this spring and the meat birds this fall.

Between the coop and the compost bins there used to be two more compost bins that eldest son and I took down when we put the coop in place. There was plenty of good compost still there so a tractor bucket full was moved to the garden and spread around. My 4 x 4 wooden boxes in the garden are rotting away, so I pulled several of them out and will just revert to long 4′ wide rows. After the scoop of compost was removed, I realized that the spot would be a perfect potato bed, so some raking to smooth the surface and try to level it some was done, then weeding and planting of peas. The garden has a good healthy crop of garlic up, the grapes and all but one berry bush are leafing out and the peas are finally in the ground. There is more weeding to do in preparation for planting in a few weeks, but after three days of work, I’m spent.

I’m cleaned up, vegging out until time to go pick up my car from the shop and go socialize and knit with my friends.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

April 2, 2014
Spring Cleaning Day 2

On a farm, raising animals, spring cleaning doesn’t just include the house. The house will wait for a rainy day. Today, the babychicks had their first”outing” while I cleaned their brooder bin.

They seemed to enjoy some time in the sun. Since the daytime temperatures reached 78ºf and the bin is black, they were plenty warm.

The big chickens got their digs cleaned too.

Forking out the old hay down to the composted layer below and adding it to the garden compost bin.

A different use for the snow shovel, clearing the composted layer off the vinyl floor.

And finally adding a thick layer of clean new hay to the coop and nesting boxes. This is a guarantee that at least one chicken will lay her egg outside of the nesting boxes tomorrow by scooping out a hollow in one of the corners beneath the perches. While the coop was empty, I evaluated how I am going to put a temporary wire and frame barrier inside to separate the chicks from the 3 hens that will be left in the coop once they are ready to be put outside.

The chicken tractor was dragged out of the garage, but not put in place yet, I need help to do that, and the deck furniture was returned to the deck, hoping that we will have more nice days to eat our dinner out there and no more white stuff to decorate the deck. That was the extent of the cleaning today, but prior to those tasks, we went out and purchased a 100 foot roll of welded wire fencing, more posts and a gate. The remainder of the day was spent replacing the cheap garden wire fence that I reused two weeks ago when I realized that 100 feet of welded wire fence was not enough to finish the job. The pen is now much sturdier and will have a real gate as soon as our neighbor can come over with the post driver and set a wooden post upon which the gate will be hung. It will be great to have a real gate into their pen.

I didn’t get the peas planted. Tomorrow is supposed to be another gorgeous day so I will get the peas in the ground and with hubby’s help, move the chicken tractor to the location where the culls will be kept for a few weeks and I will erect a temporary pen with the garden fencing to contain them until freezer camp day. The rest of the week is going to be wet, so perhaps I will finish the garage and start on the house. I have to admit that deep cleaning the house is a task of frustration with two big dogs who reside inside.

Because Jim didn’t get home from his motorcycle ride until nearly 6 p.m. and I still wasn’t quite finished with the fence when he got home and since I had 3 chickens still on the outside of the newly completed run, I finished up, left two of the chicken out, hoping they would settle near the coop at dark and went out for dinner. When we got home, both hens had flown over the fence and were safely cooped up with their buddies.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

April 1, 2014
Sleepless in …

The wind has howled like a freight train plowing through the house all night. I don’t sleep well when it does for fear of it toppling the shed roof over the heatpump and taking out our heat. It woke me at 2 a.m. and that ended my night.

This is what we awoke to find

yes, snow blowing sideways. Note the small flag next to the post.

I went out to put food in the coop and open the pop door and because of the direction, there is a small snowdrift in the coop. Their water bucket is frozen solid. I left if outside as it is supposed to get up to the mid 40s later, so hopefully it will thaw.

I don’t know when the wind is supposed to die down, but the weather gods are telling us we are expecting 2 to 4 inches of white stuff before it does. Not what I expected this morn.

March 30, 2014
A Moment from the week

The chicks are now 3 weeks old and the 50 gallon plastic tote no longer large enough for them. They were starting to escape, requiring more than the pint waterer and the gallon one took up too much of their dwindling space. A piece of screen was put on the top to keep them in, but there was no way to expand the floor space. We have a large wire dog cage and an extra large one. The large one isn’t too difficult to erect, so it was moved to the basement, set up and set inside the larger plastic tray from the extra large one. I know that there will be more mess to clean, but the chicks are getting big. After putting it all together, I threaded two sticks from pruning fruit trees at two heights as perches and the chicks learning to use them is comedic as they tip and rock learning their balance. I think I need to make the perches with 1 x 1″ wood scraps or larger branches to give them more to grasp. We have a warmer week ahead and that hopefully is signalling an end of the cold weather. In another week, I may move them back to the garage and I need to start planning how to divide the coop for their introduction later this spring. That also means that the chicken tractor needs to be moved back outside and a nesting box or two added to it as 6 of the hens will be moved to it until sometime in the summer. My coop was built for 14 and I will have 14 in there when the chicks are moved. The size of the coop is fine during the spring, summer, and fall, but a bit over estimated when they are all inside on a snowy day. We will see how it goes and the flock may have to be reduced back to 10 or 12 after this year.

March 28, 2014
Finished Objects and UFO’s

I didn’t think it possible to finish Estelle before the cold spring ended, but since we keep getting blocks of frigid days, even some light snow, indeed I did. I really wasn’t too pleased with it right after I finished it, but a good blocking helped immensely. It feels softer and drapier, the sleeves are long enough and I didn’t stretch them, the band up the fronts and around the neckline lay much better. I am glad it doesn’t button, because yet again, I knit up 2 full sizes larger than my bust size and it would pull if it had buttons. Yes, I did a gauge swatch, several actually since I couldn’t get gauge with the recommended needle so I fiddled with several size needles before getting gauge. Estelle is a Quince and Co. pattern, made of Quince and Co. Lark in Delft color.

Yesterday while it was blocking, I sat and moved buttons on the last cardigan I made, the V necked cardi from Ann Budd that also seemed small when complete. I had purchased some very fine Raku fired clay buttons for it and managed to lose one when I took the train to Northern Virginia to babysit during semester break. After carefully moving the top one down to the missing space and putting retaining buttons on the backs, I broke one putting my coat over it last evening. Now instead of 5, I have 3, the broken one can be reglued, but I fear they just aren’t sturdy enough for the sweater. I purchased some different buttons on my way to knitting last night, so I think I will reblock that sweater after I take the pottery buttons off and then put the new ones on tomorrow.

Sorry for the fuzzy shot, I can’t find the original and copied it from my projects folder on Ravelry.

The Honey Cowl has been repaired and I have almost used one skein of the yarn for it. I think using half of the second, which would make it the yardage for which the pattern requires will make it too wide for the circumference. I’m not a fan of bunchy garments around my neck, so I may bind off at the end of this skein in another row or two and use the remaining skein for mitts or a hat.

My Addi Sock Rocket needles came and I went back to work on the never ending socks, Socks for the Plane is the pattern and I can only knit about two rows with the size 1 needle before my hands ache. I think they really will be never ending. I only need a few more inches of cuff to be done with them and I will have completed my first toe up pair, though I have enough yarn left to make them knee hi socks.

I am adjusting to my new spinning wheel and have been spinning the undyed Shetland wool. I’m thinking about folding her up into her backpack and going to the spinning group today, I haven’t been in several weeks.

The only other UFO is a reknit of a shawl that I adored when it was finished, but I carelessly left it on my chair one day when our German Shepherd was younger and she chewed a half dollar size hole right in the middle. I frogged it and started over knowing it will be somewhat smaller due to the loss of the short strands on each side of the hole. I’ll post it when it is finished again, but it is a throw in my bag and take in the car project and we have no trips planned, so it may be a while.

March 27, 2014
A Spring? Morning

The morning sight. Yesterday we awoke to it snowing and quickly providing ground cover, but not so much on the roads. The temperature hovering right around the freezing mark, thick gray clouds and we were driving an hour east to take my Dad who had been visiting for a few days, back to meet my step mom and her cousin who had been in a hotel there for a Garden Club conference. By afternoon, the sun was breaking out, the snow melted, but we continued to have bands of heavier snow that really weren’t accumulating. It was still near freezing at bed time and the mountain wind had picked up. Apparently it decided winter wasn’t quite over yet in spite of the calendar, because this morning we awoke to the snow cover and this

It is supposed to be springlike again by week end with rain and thunderstorms, but today is a winter day. Yesterday the chickens would not come out of their coop until they could see the ground and then they fled back in when it started snowing to come out back out with the sun.

This morning, they were confused and again did not want to leave the coop. I kicked around the straw so they could see it and since their ramp was clear, most of them came out to get food and water. When checking for eggs, I found this

The Delaware on the bottom, trying to lay her egg and a huge Buff Orpington trying to move her over so they could share the box. Maybe she thought they would be warmer that way. There are 5 other boxes, but interestingly, the 9 hens often all use the same box or the one at the opposite end of the row, rarely is there an egg in one of the middle 4. Crazy chickens.

Life is always an adventure on our mountain farm.

March 26, 2014
Productivity

The short spring of this weekend allowed Jim to take a 175 mile motorcycle ride. While he was out enjoying the weather in a way he enjoys, I got to work outside, which I enjoy. My chickens’ run expanded from 50 linear feet to 175 linear feet. The main body of the run more than doubled and I created a 6 foot wide attached run that goes down one of the long sides of the garden. My hope is that they will help keep the weeds and bugs down from that difficult to mow area.

The main body of the run now also provides a fence half way along one of the shorter sides of the garden and gives them access to a pile of old compost. They spent a good portion of the afternoon dust bathing in that pile and digging for bugs. I wonder how long it will take them to make this area barren of grass too. Putting weeds from the garden will be a much shorter walk now.

After coming in totally worn out, I stopped and unpacked my new spinning wheel. I was so glad to see that as a folding wheel, it came mostly assembled and already packed in its travel bag. There was very little assembly to do and I was soon able to take it for a short spin with a bit of undyed Shetland wool. There are 4 ounces of it to be spun, dyed and turned into something beautiful.

I love life on our mountain farm.

March 22, 2014
Spin cycle

The Vernal Equinox found us yesterday with clear sky, warmer temperatures and wind. It was too windy for Jim to ride, too windy to want to tackle adding ventilation holes higher in my coop, too windy, but so welcome. Today is warmer and calmer. We have three beautiful days as the calm before the next predicted snow event. I get anxious each year to start being outside more, to dig in warm soil, to plant, but truly, it isn’t safe to put much in the ground here other than cold weather crops until Mother’s Day, so I have to wait. I did start my peppers and some of my tomatoes in flats yesterday. I ran out of medium before I ran out of pots and seed.

My new spinning wheel arrived at the shop yesterday, but alas, it isn’t open on Wednesday, so I am meeting the owner in town today to pick it up. I’m excited to put it together and give it a spin.

Today the chicklets are 2 weeks old. I keep waiting to go into the basement and find them everywhere as they are developing feathers and starting to hop and flap higher up the sides of the brooder.

Socialization continues with them, with “The Hand” that appears over the side of the brooder and then teases with wiggling fingers, rings, or a small pile of their food to teach them not to fear me. I don’t handle my birds except when necessary like Wednesday night when 3 got out of the pen while I was out and couldn’t get back in to coop up for the night. When I arrived home around 9 pm and went over to close up the coop, I found Cogburn and two of the hens in a pile huddled together where the fence joins the coop nearest their ramp back inside. Each was picked up, slightly ruffled and put inside on a perch none the worse for wear.

Because of the lack of a spinning wheel and to try to have my sweater finished before the storm next week, I have been knitting only on Estelle. Last night I finished the second sleeve and picked up and knit the first 2 rows of the feather and fan band.

I am pleased that it will probably be finished tonight. Then I have to figure out where the marker goes in my honey cowl and how much of a row I have to tink to get it back on track. My sock needles that I ordered are in route, so I can finish the never ending pair of socks. My yarn came from Quince and Co. to make the Lola Shawl in the issue 9 of taproot magazine and I still have the Unplanned Peacock Botanical dk skein to make into something beautiful that will show off it’s wonderful colors.

We are off to enjoy the spring day, Jim on his motorcycle, me to pick up my wheel then work on the coop and run, maybe get a real gate in so that they can’t escape again unless I let them out. I also need to relocate some of the extra hay that seems to have all worked its way downhill to the end of their run, putting too much mulch around the peach tree and shrub in the run and none up where I enter their pen.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

March 21, 2014
Frozen Fog

We are engulfed in fog. The temperature is still below freezing, the ground still frozen and slick from the sleet storm of day before yesterday, the sky still thick and gray. No more significant precipitation has fallen, some light snow last night, but no more sleet or freezing drizzle.

When the fog thins enough to peek through, you see frosted forests.

This is a pretty sight, but some green buds would be welcome. We are working toward another two day warm up, followed by another potential winter storm. The weather pattern has been strange this year.

March 18, 2014