Monday, February 24, 2014

Lucky They Let Us Live Here

Sure, we pay all the bills, and do all the chores, but let's face it - it's really up to them whether we get to live here. The dogs, the cats, the goats, and especially the chickens, they KNOW they're in control. Today, they've decided to take over the front porch. They're chickens, and they do whatever the 'cluck' they want. Hens gone wild.


But if they know whats good for them, they'll stay out of the raspberry patch when there are actual berries in there. I've got plans for all of those raspberries, Clover! You better not eat them!

Speaking of homegrown food, there are broccoli seedlings in the greenhouse!

Remember The Quackshire Family? When it warms up, this will be their new playground. I'm dreaming of a warm summer day when we stroll outside to see six beautiful duckies floating peacefully on the pond. Hopefully one day, there will be babies following my babies. But I'm getting ahead of myself - for now, they're still covered in yellow fuzz, peeping up a storm, and making a mess in their brooder. 

My new wind chimes make beautiful music. No country home is complete without wind chimes.

The Sunday before last we cut down several trees to make posts for an enormous backyard dog-fence. On Saturday we buried the posts, and put up the fence (holy sore arms). Lucky for us we had experts on hand to oversee the project, and gobble up any unearthed worms.

Our fence! Its even more beautiful than I imagined. I'm so proud of what we made together - from cutting down trees, hauling logs from the woods up to the yard on our shoulders, to digging countless two-foot deep holes, and what do ya know? A fence! We used random scraps of wood for a make-shift door, so it's only temporary, but it works for the moment. I'm well aware that the logs won't last near as long as pressure treated lumber, but these posts were free, and I like free. I also love the look, its so rustic. The fence our goats are in right now was here when we bought the house, and it too was constructed with raw wood. It looks rather old, and is still very sturdy. If I couldn't be considered a homesteader before, I'm definitely one now!

Success!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

DIY Farm Sign Using Any Font


Our new place has tons of random pieces of wood lying around in the barn. I knew once I stacked them up that they'd be getting a few coats of paint, some distressing, and would adorn random places throughout our farm. I've made a few wooden hand painted signs before, but drawing out the lettering myself takes FOREVER. I draw it out on the sign, realize its off center, or crooked... then I have to erase all of my hard work. Total bummer. The idea struck me the other day to try something a little different, and it worked out perfectly!

Supplies Needed:
Piece of Wood, cut to size
Sawtooth Picture Hanger
Acrylic Paint (I used Indoor and sealed it with a clear coat)
Wax
Sand Paper
Clear Coat Spray Paint (I used Rustoleum)
Printer
Printer Paper
Paint Brushes
Pen

Apply a dark coat of paint only around the edges of the board, and wherever you want the dark paint to show through in the distressing. One coat should do. Once dry, coat painted edges of wood (and any other areas you painted dark) with a thin layer of wax. Apply two coats of light colored paint on entire board, drying in between. Using sandpaper, sand down edges of board, and any other wax coated areas until the darker paint shows through. Continue distressing until you get your desired effect.

Now for the exciting part - the lettering!

I downloaded a few fonts I liked, measured the piece of wood I was using, and how big of an area I wanted the lettering to cover, and printed out the words and my chicken symbol sized accordingly. To save my beloved black ink, I printed in a light pink color. Cut the words out, and place them wherever you want the wording to go on your sign. Applying pressure, trace over the words - you'll notice there will be an indent where you were tracing.

To make it easier to see when painting, outline the indent of your letters or symbols with your pen.


Finally, paint the outlined letters and symbols. I did two coats of black paint for the letters. Then finished off the entire sign with a coat of clear coat, and attached a sawtooth picture hanger to the back . How easy was that?!

Have fun making a sign for everything in your yard! :)

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Philly Cheesesteak Pasta

Believe me when I tell you that this is one of the best dishes I've ever made IN MY LIFE. Its incredible. Seriously. I had planned on making beef stroganoff, but used up all of my cream of mushroom soup on last nights chicken and dumplings (I'll post that recipe soon). So I had ground steak, I had mushrooms, I had plenty of onions, and I had green peppers that I knew I wanted to use in tonights dinner. Hmm, what to make? Of course, philly cheesesteaks came to mind. But I wanted pasta. What a conundrum. So I did what I always do when I'm about to make something amazing - I poured myself a glass of wine, and started tossing stuff together. A dash of this. A pinch of that - and voila! Philly Cheesesteak Pasta was born. I will be making this approximately once a week for the rest of my life. My god.

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Philly Cheeseteak Pasta
1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Large Onion, sliced thinly
1 Large Green Pepper, sliced thinly
1 Tsp. Seasoned Salt
1 Tsp. Garlic Powder
1/2 Tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 Pkg White Mushroom, sliced
1 Lb. Ground Steak, or Ground Beef
1 Lb. Pasta, cooked to al dente, and drained
1/2 C. Beef Broth
1 C. Shredded Mozzarella

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, combine olive oil, onion, green pepper, season salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Saute over medium-high heat until tender. Add sliced mushrooms. Cook an additional five minutes. Transfer to a bowl. In the same skillet, cook ground steak, or beef until done. Drain if necessary. Combine cooked veggies to ground beef. Add beef broth, and stir. Add beef/veggie mixture to cooked, and drained pasta. Add cheese. Stir until melted. Serve, and enjoy!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

We Welcome The Quackshire Family

In some very exciting, and surprise news - we have ducklings! Yesterday on our way home from work, my husband took a different, and very long route home... all to get me my last in a series of Valentines Day presents. Other women may want flowers, or jewelry for Valentines Day, but my husband knows me better. He knows that a blackberry bush, or a box of ducklings is the way to this girls heart. I'm calling them 'The Quackshire Family' until I figure out the boys from the girls. 

I've never raised ducklings before, so this will be an entirely new experience for me. I couldn't be more excited! They're SO CUTE.  

My husband and I took them into the bathroom today, laid down a towel, gave them a bowl of water, and they went WILD. How many ducklings can fit into a dog food bowl? 



After about fifteen minutes of making an absolute mess, the ducklings were flat tuckered out. We tucked them back in their brooder, and went off to do farmer business - measure for a fence! We've been here three months, and one of the absolute musts for this spring is installing a fence for the dogs. Our dogs are wanderers, and believe me, there's plenty of acreage to wander off into - over one hundred acres of woods surround our house. Not to mention the hawks, coyotes, wild dogs, and from what I've read, even mountain lions that roam/fly around these parts. The last thing I want to do is wrestle a mountain lion in the dark over a Chiweenie. Don't worry, I don't like to kill things, so if it happens I'll go easy on the mountain lion. 

Juju, and Otis had a long afternoon of eating, and pooping. They took a much needed nap. 

It's been a month or so since I've made a batch of soap. Which is crazy - I love making soap! For reasons unknown (maybe it was that second jug of coffee?) I had an unusual burst of energy for a Saturday afternoon, and started a batch of soap. Wanna learn how to make your own homemade soap? I thought so! Find my easy to follow tutorial here.

While the soap was cooking, I cracked open a jar of my favorite pickles in the whole world - my very own Garlic Dill Cucumber Pickles. Thank sweet baby jesus for canning, its a much needed reminder of the garden. Seriously winter, enough.

After I plopped the hot soap into its mold to cool, I remembered it was time to start a few more seeds! Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Lettuce this evening. Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant towards the end of the month. There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

I marked my seeds with these little toothpick flags, They're not pretty, but they get the job done with black containers.

I set my soap outside to cool a little faster. What can I say? I'm impatient. Normally it takes eight hours to cool. I usually can't wait that long. I wanna slice up some beautiful bars of soap, and marvel at my handy work! Basil Mint Sage with French Green Clay on the left, and Honey Spearmint on the right. Gawgeous.

Tomorrows agenda: cut down cedar trees with the hubby to make posts for the dog fence. Chainsaw time!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Raising Chicks 101


I am no expert, but I have raised a few chicks in my day. And I've learned something new with each one. My husband and I had talked about getting chicks, but until the fall of last year, we had lived in town our whole lives. Chickens in town just weren't an option - or were they? Where we lived, keeping chickens in town was 'frowned upon'. A sassy neighbor complaining about a clucking chicken would have been enough to shut the whole bootleg chicken operation down, and ruin the fun for everyone. In preparation, I read blog after blog trying to grasp the basics of chick care for myself,  for years in the future when we would finally be able to have feathery hooligans running amok in the yard, giving us gorgeous egg presents every morning.

Finally after not being able to resist the adorable chicks at our local farm supply store, we threw caution to the wind. We had a fenced in yard, and decided to raise chickens in our backyard in secret. We purchased five barred rock chickies. We brought home our box of joy and that's when my addiction began.

I'll be honest, despite having read about chickens, I had zero idea what I was doing. The stuff I had read made it sound so complicated, and scary. Was I or was I not supposed to feed them something addition to bagged chick food? Do they need grit at a young age? Am I going to contract a crazy contagious disease?? Don't laugh, I'd maybe been around a chicken twice in my life... okay, maybe you can laugh. I was a newbie, and I had a long, joyous journey ahead of me. 

Below is what you'll need to get started, guidelines for basic chick care, how to introduce your other animals to your chicks, and what to do to ensure a friendly flock. 

Brooder - Almost anything can be used as a brooder: cardboard boxes, wooden crate, birdcage (what we raised our first ever batch of chicks in), child playpen, or a pet playpen (which is what we're using now). As long as it is ventilated, sturdy, and has sides tall enough to keep the little ones from escaping, it'll do just fine. Keep in mind that though they may be small at a few days old, chicks grow fast. If it won't be warm enough to put them outside for two months or so, you'll need to get a brooder big enough to accommodate older chicks.   

Heat - Heat lamps are the least inexpensive option for heating a brooder. I think we paid $8 for ours, and purchased it at your local farm supply store. Clip the heat lamp on the side of your brooder, and make sure the bulb points away from the side of your brooder. A heat lamp in direct contact, or close contact with a surface could cause a fire. I've read several blogs about raising chicks that stated chick brooders HAD to be measured with a thermometer and kept at a certain degree at all times, and slowly lowered in temp as the chicks age. If you want to do that, great, but I never have. I judge the correct temp of the brooder, by how the chicks are dispersed. If they're ALL huddled tightly together directly underneath the brooder, the heat lamp probably needs to be lowered to raise the temp. If they're ALL out of the direct light of the heat lamp, its too hot, and the heat lamp needs to be raised up to cool off the brooder. The ideal chick disbursement in a brooder is some underneath the light, and some meandering around outside of it. We've had great success with heat lamps, and will continue to use them. 

Feeder/Waterer - Trying to save a buck when we bought our first batch, I used shallow bowls from the kitchen. They worked, but trust me, shelling out a few bucks at your tractor supply store for actual chick feeders/waterers is soooo worth it. Our kitchen bowls sufficed, but they kicked cedar chips in them constantly, meaning I had to dump out and refill them several times a day. They also loved pooping the in the bowls. Do you want to drink out of a bowl that has poop in it? Yeah, me either. 

Bedding  - Sand, straw, hay, and pine shavings (what we prefer) are all suitable options for chick brooder bedding. I do not recommend plain newspaper solely for bedding. The chicks feet don't have much traction when they're young, and slippery newspaper or other flooring can lead to spraddle leg. I've only ever used pine shavings, and can attest that its very absorbing, and inexpensive for a large bag. 

Feed - We've been feeding our four full grown barred rock girls basic chicken feed from the tractor supply since we got them. As chicks, they got 'chick grower' feed, and as adults, they get 'egg layer' feed. Our current batch of chicks are on the same basic chick feed, and they are growing like weeds!

Vaccinations - I can't really say too much on this subject, other than I do not have my chicks vaccinated. Our very first batch of chicks we bought from the tractor supply may or may not have been vaccinated, but I've chosen not to order vaccinated chicks from this point on. With basic common sense care - fresh food, clean water, clean coop, not introducing a new sickly chick into a healthy flock - outbreaks among the flock can be avoided. If you would like to vaccinate your chicks, vaccinations are available through hatcheries prior to shipping your chicks. 

Treats - As a rule, I prefer to wait until the chicks are two weeks of age before spoiling them with treats. Maybe its crazy, but I feel they'll be better prepared to digest treats, once their tiny digestive systems are accustomed to their feed, and environment. Plus, baby chick beaks aren't exactly able to viciously tear into an apple, they're tiny! Acceptable treats for baby chicks are yogurt, apples, lettuce, hard boiled egg, strawberries, grapes, grass clippings, dandelions, squash, melon... the list goes on, and on. Things to NOT give baby chicks, or full grown chickens: avocados, chocolate, junk food, green potato skins, or rotten fruit. 

My girls go crazy for yogurt!

Which inevitably leads to a yogurt 'stache. Uh, Grizelda.... you've got a little something on your beak.

Taming - Chickens are domestic animals. Unless you are mean and cold to your chicks as they grow, they aren't going to act like wild, and crazy birds when they grow up (unless they're sitting on some eggs - in which case, even the tamest of all chickens will terrify you... just kidding... maybe). However, you can do your part to ensure your beautiful girls, or boys are as tame, and sweet as they can be. If you hatched your chickies from eggs, you'll have the chance for them to imprint on you, and they might think you're their mama! If you're like me, and ordered your chicks from a hatchery, your chickies saw someone else other than you fresh out of the egg. Regardless, your time is the BEST thing you can devote to raising chicks, to ensure you have a friendly, and gentle backyard flock. I purchased a forty-inch wide puppy play pen for brooding all future batches of chicks. Its plenty big enough so that me, and eleven chicks fit comfortably in it. I spend several hours a week, sitting in the brooder with them. They are able to inspect me suspiciously (as chicks are wont to do), climb over me, hear my voice, and eat from my hand. Its a pain, my back often hurts from being hunched over, but it will be worth it in the end when I have eleven more full grown lap chickens. If you can't fit into your chick brooder, spend as much time as you can sitting outside of it, talking to them, and holding them.

Nutmeg, roosting on my leg.

Death & Ailments - If you order chicks from a hatchery, there will probably be one or two, or more dead on arrival. Its sad, but its part of the process. Its not the hatcheries fault, they cannot control the weather, or the postal service. Chances are they died from the stress of transit, and not from illness. A common problem of chicks is something called 'pasty butt'. Its when their vent is clogged with dried feces, and it can be deadly. To clear the feces from the vent, hold a warm wet cloth against the are to loosen the dried feces. Soak the chickies butt in warm water if absolutely necessary. Gently remove the feces - being VERY careful to not pull out fuzz, or tear the skin. When a chicken or chick sustains an injury, their brooder mates may peck at the area. Check the chicks daily for pasty butt, as it can develop overnight. I just peek around the brooder once a day as I'm refilling their water. For a more in depth look at chick ailments, and treatments, look here.

Other Pets - We have four dogs, and five cats in the house. Ninety nine point nine percent of cats would kill these baby chicks in an instant. We have one cat that wouldn't lay a paw on them. We know that because we know her. She's a gentle little soul. Even still, we don't even allow her in the room with the chicks. Its just best to keep cats away from the chicks until they are big enough to defend themselves. Our five cats are indoor/outdoor, and they never mess with our full grown girls - they know better. Our barred rock, Daisy, is bigger than the cats are! Of our four dogs, only one would hurt the chickies, and that's our little twelve pound doxie. Our sixty pound husky mix would happily let the chicks trample all over her. She's a gentle giant. You just have to be incredibly selective, and at the ready when introducing other pets to your chicks. I would recommend keeping them on a leash the first few times you introduce them to the chicks. Judge their behavior, and if you see ANY signs of aggression - get them out of there!

The main thing to remember when raising chickens, is that with a little love, anyone can do it. They require very little, and provide you with so much. Don't be afraid, be inspired! I'm so inspired by chickens, that I just ordered TWENTY SIX more -  I think I need an intervention.