I love the Wyandott family and have Silver Lace ladies and my Silver Lace Roosters of the past have always been very mellow when compared to the Auracona of the past. I have had Ameracanas in the past but didn't have as much luck with them for colored eggs either. I have some sweet Speckled...
1. I live in New Mexico at 7,000ft. elevation. It makes for a short growing season.
2. My husband and I live here on the land. All the kids are grown and on their own.
3. I would describe true self-sufficiency as living a sustainable life without any need of retail purchases.
4. If I had...
We didn't get snow but the wind is gusting up to 70mph and the temp. is right at freezing. :th Days like this I feed the horses warm beet pulp and feed the chickens scraps with more protein to keep their bellies warm.
They sound great for my area too. I have a hard time growing tomatoes here because of the cooler spells we get in spring and fall. Can't wait to hear how they do.
Oh wow! Many years ago it was Backwoods Solar who helped us set up our solar system and they were so patient and helpful Now it looks as if they are coming up with a solution to the water trough problem :D That's great. I'm going to look around the site to see what else they have been up to.
Simply painting the trough black can also help by absorbing more heat too. We have automatic water floats one all the troughs but they will freeze or the pipes will freeze up on us. I WISH I could afford a $500 water trough... :gig
This is not a way to heat your trough but it helps. Try putting a board, like a left over piece of 2x4 (untreated) in their trough. They will quickly learn to nose it on one end and breaking the ice where the board is to get a drink. This works for us most of the winter but you have to keep an...
I live off the grid on solar power so the occasional "black out" does occur :lol: I have an oil lamp collection, mainly because I have always liked them but they come in real handy. Auctions are a good place to find them and even Walmart carries them and the oil.
Good LED flash lights and...
Finally get a green house up and running.
Get back into raising turkey along with the chickens (I haven't raised any turkey for a number of years.)
Get back into canning.
Learn how to dry foods.
Move my raised beds from one spot to another that's closer to the house.
I have 21 birds (one rooster) and feed layer pellets as the main feed then mix scraps along with occasional dried crushed egg shells that I cook in the microwave for a short time to kill any possible bacteria. I've been raising chickens on and off most of my life and settled on the heavy...
I have four good horses in my pasture that I can't even ride anymore due to a back injury. Two of them are just about big enough stinkers to ..... oh who am I kidding, I'll just keep feeding them and staying broke for a while longer. :lol:
I painted the outside of one and turned it into a pot for my bamboo that had outgrown it's old pot. It's been growing there for months now and seems perfectly happy :)