luvinlife offthegrid- will winter ever arrive?

[BarredBuff]

I have gotten a few wind eggs and they were half that size! Teeny tiny!

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

I'm loving raising chickens much more than I thought I would. I really want to have meat chickens some day. Hubby says he doesn't want to. I figure if he can do venison, why not chickens? I'll even do them in and butcher them. But neither of us have done birds before. I have helped field dress some deer in the past, but never done the killing. I haven't even killed a fish. But I really want to do chickens someday. My main issue right now is no hose outside. Well- we have a solar panel and battery hooked up to a little dc pump, but it's hooked to the rain tank. Can't use that for cleaning birds.

Note to self- figure out why my email notification to subscribed posts is only working a third of the time...

 

[BarredBuff]

He will change his mind when gets a hold of that tasty, fresh meat

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

He will change his mind when gets a hold of that tasty, fresh meat

He's done it before! He told me that he was completely turned off by the whole thing. Not from butchering a few birds here and there on the farm when he lived in England, but when he worked for a butcher. His job was to clean up when the butcher was done with the chickens. He said he'll never get that smell out of his nose. Worse- he said the same feeling is starting with venison.

 

[BarredBuff]

Hmmm, Ah you'll persuade him some way! It does stink!

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Ha! It can't be any worse than deer!

 

[pinkfox]

well worse comes to worse you could always have an outside source process them for you if its just the deed thats the problem for him....

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

well worse comes to worse you could always have an outside source process them for you if its just the deed thats the problem for him....

Well, just saw this. I didn't get a notification that this thread was updated, but got tons for the other threads? Anyway... I would like to avoid having them processed elsewhere, because I would rather do it myself. I will have any number of my acquaintances who do their own chickens help me with the first batch, or maybe go to their place on "chicken" day.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

The winter routine is as follows. Wake up, start coffee, put on various layers of stuff, feed the fire-breathing dragon (outdoor wood boiler), then feed and water the chickens. Come back inside, consume caffeinated beverages while making my son's breakfast and packing his lunch for school.

There has been little to ZERO snow removal/shoveling/plowing this year. The only snow we got was over Thanksgiving. We got 9 inches of heavy wet snow which broke all kinds of tree limbs and my gutter/rain collection system, then melted the next 2 days when the temps got up into the 50's. We got one more snow event with a whole 2 inches, then various light dustings.

Somehow we ended up with about 2 inches of ice, which melted and refroze. My nearly mile-long driveway was a veritable bobsled run. My husband was out of town, so I had to get 5 gallon pails for the trunk of my car, and sand/salt the dang thing by HAND on the hills and corners. It was even slippery walking with the yak tracks. If I tried to stop the car on a hill, it just wasn't happening. The wheels were locked and sliding. My nice little metal studs on the tires were leaving little gouges in the ice, exciting stuff!

My friend fell and broke her wrist on the same day doing chores on her farm. She was carrying a 5 gallon pail of water for the sheep, and slipped and fell. Of course, the bucket dumped all over her. She was alone, wet, and freezing, and scooted back to the farmhouse to call someone. I guess it's better to break your wrist than your tailbone. She's now got a bit more hardware in her arm, but is doing well, and she woke up to 2 new lambs on her farm this morning- twins!

I'm irritated because I haven't been cross-country skiing in the woods (or at all) this winter. I have been hiking, but I want the SNOW. For the water table, if nothing else.

My son is having a hard time in school. It is driving me nuts. If I didn't have such a remote house and no friends with kids my son's age, I'd home school him. Living in a rural area is tough for social interaction outside of school hours. The only thing we have here is a few clubs like boy scouts and 4-H, which my son just started this past year.

I may lose my job come June of this year. But you know, it's a very stressful one. So at least for a time between jobs, I will have time to do some things around the house that need to get done. I have lots of painting and molding work to do. and GARDENING! I have nearly 200 hours of vacation time to use up before then, so I'll be taking lots of time off. I am looking forward to relaxing. To be honest, I'd rather get the check on my last day, but my agency can't afford to do that.

The chicks arrive the week April 9th, I can't wait!

This photo is of the "big snow" last month. We now have no snow at all.

Also- the hens have stepped up production. The last week or so I've been getting 7-10 eggs per day from 12 hens- none of the breeds being prolific layers, so the girls are doing well. They have been loving not having the snow. As soon as I let them out of the run, they make a bee line for the front porch, under which they LOVE to dustbathe. I dug up some of the dirt from under there and put it in a big plastic bin in their run for when it's too icy for them to be let out of the run. It's sufficient, but no substitute for the real thing. Here they are having their bath.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Soooo! It's been a while. I hope everyone's well. Time for a little update, I guess.

My son is doing better in school. I could write a book about that, but it boils down to: everyone in his classes and specials (gym, art, music, etc) disciplining him in the same manner. Consistency- go figure. He now knows what to expect from everyone, and he's like a different kid. He is even happier at home. I'm VERY thankful for this, because I honestly thought that the next meeting at school was going to be the "Your son needs to be bussed to Special Ed" conversation. The Principal kicked butt, and now everyone is responding exactly the same way and he "gets" it now. All the staff and faculty working with him are great teachers, but with Asperger kids, not everyone knows how to handle it. Traditional discipline strategies have a tendency to backfire and escalate the situation. The results of his Educational assessment came back. The only thing he scored "slightly below average" in was his writing skills and how long it takes him to complete writing tasks. His Matrix Reasoning Skills are in the 99.95 percentile. That means only one half of one percent of other kids his age scored higher than him on that task in the whole state. Everything else was the 95th percentile. He is in 1st grade with a 5th grade reading level. Amazingly smart little boy. But of course, I knew that.



My husband brought home a rooster. Most people call their wives with "honey, there's this puppy/kitten and I'd like to bring it home..." but not MY man! "How old is he?" I asked. "5 months old". "Hm. ok... is he crowing yet? What's his disposition? What breed is he? If he ends up mean, You're going to have to take 'care of it' you know!" "She said she'll take him back if it doesn't work out". "Oh, all RIGHT".

I really didn't want a rooster, the first rooster we had was "meaner than mean" as my grandpa used to say. He turned out to be THE SWEETEST boy- a Gold Laced Wyandotte. He had been in a stock tank in the garage with 4 other hens for the first 5 months of his life. He had the cleanest feet I'd ever seen on a chicken. The first couple days, he thought he was still a chick, he'd fly up onto my husband's shoulder and preen his hair. I'm glad he stopped that quickly. He had so much fun learning how to be a big chicken. He was chased around a bit by the 12 hens at first. Within 2 weeks he had filled out nicely, taken control of the flock, and started crowing. He greeted the visitors by walking with them and clucking and cooing at them from the car to the door.

Last week, I came home and he wasn't there to escort me to the house. "Maybe he's over scratching where we dug up that stump in the woods," I thought. I collected eggs, and still no rooster. I knew he was gone. We found the trail of feathers, and eventually found what was left of him. Poor baby! My husband was very upset. I borrowed an incubator from the 4H office and we have 7 of "his" eggs in the hatcher right now. Wish me luck! whatever chicks hatch, will be crosses between GLW and Dominiques, rose comb brown leghorns, and partridge rocks. These will be my first mixed breeds, they should be an interesting mix.

The chicks arrived April 10th. 4 Easter Eggers, 2 Black Copper Marans, 2 Red Stars, 2 Welsummers, and 1 Barnevelder (1 barnie didn't survive the trip). 3 days before the chicks arrived, 2 of my PR's went broody. On golf balls. I removed said golf balls, and they tried to hatch nothing. One got off the nest right on schedule, but the other one is still there.

Got all my seeds started for the garden, and everything has sprouted nicely. Just two 5 x 15 raised beds, and tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. I planted canteloupe, winter and summer squashes, cucumbers, broccoli, carrots, onions, radishes, green and yellow beans, spinach, and mixed lettuces and other greens. I bought 10 strawberry plants, and the hexagon-shaped bed for those gets built soon. My 2 blueberry bushes need some acid and some epsom salts maybe, they need a little TLC. And I probably need more blueberry bushes. I planted all my annuals in pots and hanging baskets, it's nice to have some color. I dug up a HUGE bed of the really tall wild day lilies, and replaced them with a nice mix of some new perennials. Monarda, Coreopsis, Phlox, Lupines, Asiatic Lilies, Peonies, and some perennial herbs.

Can't wait til my first BLT on homemade bread with fresh tomatoes, pastured bacon, and homemade mayo. But there's still a while before I'll get to taste that...