The life of LilyD

[Marianne]

I made a greenhouse from an old glass bus stop.... We bought a mechanism at Harbor Freight that opens and closes our windows, without electricity. They are filled with wax, when the inside temp gets warm the wax melts and the lever opens the window. As it gets cooler, and the wax hardens, it closes the windows...They were pretty cheap- I think maybe 17.00 a piece. They are really a necessity. No matter how much you think you can stay up on it, one day of forgetting to open windows and you will have roasted plants! Happy planting!

Lesa! That is just too cool!! Start another thread ...where...the solar area maybe? Construction? I dunno. But some place where all of us will see it and be able to find the thread later.

So many good ideas get lost in the journals.

 

[Marianne]

It depends on the year. This year we have exceeded the rain fall all summer and fall so I am expecting above average snow fall as well. Stormwise that could mean 2 or 3 feet at a time or more. The biggest we have had recently was 4 feet of snowfall in one storm. That one took about 3 days to dig out from. Thank goodness for the tractor.

OMG. I'll stop whining about the 9" we get once in a while. Here it's not so much the snow that's the problem as it is the 30+ MPH wind that's blowing it.

 

[LilyD]

Been a while since I added to my journal but I have been so busy I haven't had time to breathe let alone post. Where should I start.

I left my job as a teaching assistant for behaviorally challenged kids and did my student teaching back in 2010 only to find out that when I got my degree and teaching license that there were no jobs as teachers and right now teachers are being treated rather poorly in my neck of the woods. This brought about a career change and right now I am really enjoying it and the extra income. It's nothing amazing (I am working at IBM in manufacturing) but the schedule can't be beat. I only work for 2 or 3 days at a time then have two or three days off before I work again. What it boils down to is that I have tons more time off and about twice the pay check.

Okay that covers the job at the homestead I am working on trying to bring in heritage crops slowly but surely for everything and to collect seeds from the things I grow in the garden so I can grow again next year without buying things. It's hard to do because I do love the seed catalogs and all the wonderful things they hide inside.

I have gained 26 chickens since I started posting. I started out with just 12 layers and a rooster. Then came the hatching eggs and that was fun. Now I am working on projects with the chickens. I was raising meat and egg chickens but after a few batches of Cornish X I decided I really don't like them. No offense to the chickens they were exactly as advertised but I still flinch thinking about shipping chicks through the mail and the cost of doing it.

I decided I wanted to work on making a DP bird that would work for us and have what we were looking for as a meat bird as well as laying a large egg. I bought hatching eggs and hatched out some light brahma eggs and from those birds I hatched out babies this spring and those babies are amazing looking. Their only flaw is they lack breast meat. So I am going to try to add Silver Gray Dorking into the mix to see if that will improve the amount of breast meat. It's all a work in progress.

Other than the chickens we have 4 pigs, 4 sheep, and 4 goats.

I hired a person to cut down my acre of trees in the back yard and slowly am converting it to more pasture. The trees are down and we are adding fill to raise it up and prevent it from being too wet and then it will be added to the yard so the chickens and my horse have more area to roam on.

My garden is all in and put to bed and I am just canning up the last of the veggies and collecting seeds for next year. I still have to get my garlic in before we get a hard freeze and till the garden one more time but other than that I think I am ready for things to slow down for winter. My husband is doing well at his job and enjoying it and my young son has grown up and has gotten his license and is planning what he wants to do after school is no longer his focus. They grow up way to quick.

That's about it. Sorry for being so long winded lol.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Enjoyed hearing from you. You've got me thinking about a cross for a more DP bird also. I've got Silver Grey and Red Dorkings,but right now my reds are years ahead of my SG's. I've got some Sussex that are good size birds - so I'm wondering about a Dorking/Sussex cross...might give that a try. Thanks for the idea! Hope your son is doing well.

 

[LilyD]

Enjoyed hearing from you. You've got me thinking about a cross for a more DP bird also. I've got Silver Grey and Red Dorkings,but right now my reds are years ahead of my SG's. I've got some Sussex that are good size birds - so I'm wondering about a Dorking/Sussex cross...might give that a try. Thanks for the idea! Hope your son is doing well.

My thoughts are SGD over Brahma and SGE over austrolorp. My son has been researching and really likes the Austrolorps so we lined up some eggs to hatch for next year. We will keep the girls and process the boys. My layers will be 2 years in April and they are not really laying well so I am thinking we will need some fresh blood in the coops next spring. My SGD roo looks amazing and is very heavy which gave me the idea.

I do like the sussex as well and they were runner up when I got the Brahma eggs last year. I went with proximity and there are more brahma people up here than sussex lol.

My son is doing amazing. No rejection at all and he has grown almost 2 feet since his transplant. Right now he is just enjoying being a teen and dealing with normal problems like pimples and girls. He is always willing to help out and do things for me and is a wonderful soul. I am so proud of him.

I forgot in my last post we also were able to get a pellet stove. Not the wood stove I wanted but it is so nice and the large beast (furnace) downstairs doesn't eat as much fuel as it used to. I can still cook on top of it too which is nice.

How are things with you?

 

[Denim Deb]

I have one bird, she's a cross between an Ameraucana rooster and a BR hen. She lays very large eggs and looks to be a nice size for meat. But, she ain't going any place soon! I'd love to get some chicks from her, but have had no luck hatching any out. I have no luck w/an incubator, and don't have a broody hen.

 

[LilyD]

The incubator I use is pretty self running I only have to increase the humidity right before hatching and take out the turner and it does all the rest itself.

I have two hens that make pretty good broodies but they tend to go broody right around when I take my 1 week vacation in the summer lol. Not fair. Last year she hatched out 10 out of 14 chicks all of which were sold except the 4 boys. I think she would have had a better hatching but once there was 10 of them she had a hard time keeping up with the hatched ones and sitting on the eggs lol.

My grandmother is is 96 this year and she has been an amazing asset to us starting chickens. She said "Don't you know silly girl it doesn't matter what type of chicken it is they all taste like chicken" lol. She is definitely right. We have eaten Gold comets and production reds and Easter Eggers and they all taste good just have less breast meat. So that is why I am trying to make a cross myself. We'll see how it goes but just like grammy says it will all taste like chicken.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's a real good point, Lily! I've got a bunch of extra roos that are headed to the freezer, hopefully soon! I'm just waiting for a little cool down - I don't like to butcher in the heat. There are Red Dorkings, Marans, and Barred Hollands in the group that will get the axe. And I'll bet they all taste just like chicken, lol. I have heard that Dorkings are supposed to be extra tasty. Knowing how hard I am to convince about those kind of things - I'll probably set up a blind taste test.

Dontcha just love having the 'oldsters' around - its so great to be able to draw from their wisdom.

 

[LilyD]

That's a real good point, Lily! I've got a bunch of extra roos that are headed to the freezer, hopefully soon! I'm just waiting for a little cool down - I don't like to butcher in the heat. There are Red Dorkings, Marans, and Barred Hollands in the group that will get the axe. And I'll bet they all taste just like chicken, lol. I have heard that Dorkings are supposed to be extra tasty. Knowing how hard I am to convince about those kind of things - I'll probably set up a blind taste test.

Dontcha just love having the 'oldsters' around - its so great to be able to draw from their wisdom.

The dorkings won't work for a blind taste test lol their dark meat is supposed to be so dark that it's almost purple instead of red and the white meat is supposed to be very white. I hear that their taste is amazing though. I have three but can't eat them because they are going to breed me babies for next year.

 

[Marianne]

What's a DP bird?