BeccaOH: Update of just STUFF

[keljonma]

Thanks, Becca! That sounds like a keeper. I wish I had that one last autumn - when I was up to my neck in green tomatoes! Don't forget to post it in the recipe section.

Glad to hear the hoop chicks are doing fine. Are you still leaving the tarp/plastic up at night? I agree- it feels more like fall than late summer here too.

That hoop house looked pretty sturdy. I was surprised to read that you intended to move it.

How are the garage babies doing today?


edited for typos

 

[BeccaOH]

Thanks, Becca! That sounds like a keeper. I wish I had that one last autumn - when I was up to my neck in green tomatoes! Don't forget to post it in the recipe section.

Glad to hear the hoop chicks are doing fine. Are you still leaving the tarp/plastic up at night? I agree- it feels more like fall than late summer here too.

That hoop house looked pretty sturdy. I was surprised to read that you intended to move it.

How are the garage babies doing today?


edited for typos

The hoop is going to be harder to move than I thought. Moves okay on the gravel driveway, but not in the grass. Moving it would just get the chicks on new grass. I'll probably put some straw or pine shavings in there soon as they cover up the grass with poo. :/

I added tarp to cover up all sides, but left openings at the top of door at at the back for vent. That way on the ground level there shouldn't be a draft. I didn't open up the sides any this morning, but my mom might go out and open it at noon for more air flow.

Two garage brooders are going well. Thanks! Time to do more cleaning in the bantam area.

 

[Dace]

Fall already? 43 degrees? Nice, we are Hot Hot Hot!
We usually are hot during the day thru November but at least out nights start to cool down around mid October. So we still have a ways to go until we start to feel that brisk fall weather. Regardless of the weather....when the kids head back to school next week, I will bust out my fall decor to surprise them

 

[BeccaOH]

I'm tired. Been putting in long days, starting with taking my niece and nephew to school, then 8 hours at my desk job, then home to poultry and canning. I even fell asleep at my desk yesterday.

Last night I had to end up re-tarping the hoop coop. My dog that lives on a run line got loose and spent over an hour tearing at the plastic and tarp on the coop. But the fencing held him out. Not sure what he would have done to the chicks if he'd have gotten in. He did kill a young turkey that wandered into his run a while back, so I'm afraid to let any poultry free range. I like an outside dog for the alarm factor, but I don't like not trusting them with my weaker animals.

My broody BO hatched one chick a week ago and was setting 12 pheasant eggs. Well, I think a BO is too heavy and rough for little pheasants. I know I had at least one viable egg in there. Buffy crushed the shell, and I could see the chick moving under the membrane, but it died. Yesterday Buffy was prancing in her broody cage, and I couldn't find one egg, just some shells. So I sent her back to the flock and put her chick in with my bantam babies.

Hatched out my first Partridge Rock in the incubator. Still have 3 more eggs that I hope will give me chicks.

Mom has put up lots of tomatoes. I want to work with some oversized zucchini that were given to us, then I have local peaches I bought at a store we want to can.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend, but I have more projects than even this weekend will allow me to get to.

Planning a Sunday evening bonfire with friends. Wish you were all close enough to come.

 

[keljonma]

Sounds like the hoop house was built well enough to keep a "predator" out. That must have been pretty stressful for the birds....I hope they are doing well.

Was the chick your BO hatched one of hers? Sorry to hear about the pheasant eggs. Ohhhh - Partridge Rocks are sooo beautiful! Good luck on the hatch! Will you be keeping any of these?

Don't forget to take some time to relax and rest this week-end; it sounds like you need your battery recharged.

 

[BeccaOH]

Sounds like the hoop house was built well enough to keep a "predator" out. That must have been pretty stressful for the birds....I hope they are doing well.

There are some higher areas I'm not sure would keep our a determined coon, but overall I'm pleased. The chicks appeared fine.

Was the chick your BO hatched one of hers? Sorry to hear about the pheasant eggs. Ohhhh - Partridge Rocks are sooo beautiful! Good luck on the hatch! Will you be keeping any of these?

I thought I was letting the BO keep her own egg, which would have been pure, but alas it hatched with brown markings that look like the other BO/Welsummer crosses I got. They make pretty chicks, but not pure.

I do plan to keep the PRs and am hoping for mainly pullets. But if I don't, Aly will take them. LOL

Don't forget to take some time to relax and rest this week-end; it sounds like you need your battery recharged.

I'll try.

I'd like to go back to the farmer's market tomorrow for more yummy plums, but that means getting up early. Monday the plan is to attend the local farm auction with Aly and another friend.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I do plan to keep the PRs and am hoping for mainly pullets. But if I don't, Aly will take them. LOL

Well just listen to that, will ya! What am I? A rooster rescue???

 

[BeccaOH]

It was a good 3-day weekend.

My last hatch ended and gave me only 1 Partridge Rock (from 14 eggs), 2 BLRW (100% from QA's stock), and 4 turkey (from my BRs).

Saturday, Mom and I did another farmer's market run. Came home with plums and ended up canning 5 pints of them (whole). Also bought homemade bread, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, a nut roll, and apples.

Then I went home and finished my watermelon rind pickles. Got only 5 pints, and if they are as good as my aunt's, they won't last long.

Sunday I baked 2 pans of zucchini brownies and a pan of chocolate chip bars. I've gotta lay off the sweets! Took one pan to the auction to sell and don't know what it went for.

I also made up a dish of Calico Beans for the bonfire party. Three families came, and we had an enjoyable evening. I burned a pile of limbs in my yard from cuttings my brother did a month ago. I scrounged a few pieces of wood from my cousin's house, but we are pretty much out of wood around my place.

Saw a snake while gathering wood. Tiny with orange, black, and white stripes. I left it quickly!

I met friends at 9 am Monday, we got coffee and headed to the neighboring county livestock auction for the day. I took my brownies and 2 Red Star chicks (went for $1.50 each). I had a hard time following the one auctioneer or I may have bid on some cabbage and canning jars.

Friends got some hay and straw, and I'll buy a bit from them, though I'm likely to need more straw than that if I bank my hoop coop and house the turkey in there for winter.

Saw several friends at the auction. One couple who work with 4-H may have straw left over after Halloween to offer me that will be weathered but fine for banking the hoop coop.

Saw another couple I know who are into SS farming. I've been talking to them about dairy shares, and something there might soon work out.

I really enjoyed the day -- except for seeing how low many animals went for. I would have bought that horse QA wrote about if I knew how dirt cheap it was going to go for. I already have the tack, and I'd have rented my neighbor's empty barn for it.

It was fun seeing Q&A win her Welsummers, though I was sitting back holding her youngest. He was teething, and though not really fussy, he was fevered and slept most of the day.

QA and I stopped at a house on the roundabout way to her place to ask about chickens I had been admiring. They have that Columbian feathered look. I was thinking Columbian Wyandotte, but they are Light Brahmas. The farm also does Boer goats and had 3 beautiful Great Pyrenees. I'd rehome my 2 outside dogs to have one GP.

Mom has put up several pints of whole tomatoes. Last night I peeled all the tomatoes we had left, and tonight I plan to make a spaghetti sauce, though I've had trouble finding a good recipe. Even the Blue Ball Canning book calls for using canned tomatoes instead of fresh. :/

Raining today. Guess there is no excuse for not focusing on work inside. :/

 

[BeccaOH]

Put up 5 pints of spaghetti sauce and 5 quarts of whole tomatoes last night between cleaning out the bantam brooder and numerous other chores. Didn't get to bed until midnight.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Yikes, you had a late night!

I also want to add, I'm quite appalled at your most recent request!