This is an exciting time of the year: getting to harvest our first produce from the garden. Although, it didn’t go exactly as planned. A week ago I had checked one section of the garden where I thought I had planted radishes, but when testing, I pulled up long, tiny threads. Then I assumed it was […]
chickens
June on the homestead
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks to start off this month. I’m looking forward to a relaxing Father’s Day weekend at home. Maybe I’ll even get ambitious and cook instead of having Papa do it :-). We’ve been blessed with beautiful weather this month. There has been quite a bit of rain but most […]
Dr. Seuss and critters on the homestead
I’ve been torn lately between wanting to shout from the rooftops that we have a READER in the house and crying because my baby is growing up too fast. I know I’ve been telling our family that we have a Reader for several weeks now, but this week she picked up a book she was […]
#firstworldproblems
The hash tag #firstworldproblems is a pet-peeve of mine. For most people it seems an “out” for the complaining and lack of thankfulness that they should even have problems of the kind. Just looking at twitter today I see things like Falling asleep at my desk. Want.. to…go..home.. #office #work #computerscience #life #firstworldproblems But you have employment. […]
Homestead update – July
I’m finding it hard to believe it’s almost the middle of July already! It seems like we just put the garden in a couple of weeks ago and I should still be planting. Actually, our garden is looking a little sparse right now. We’ve already harvested the 1st crop of peas that were […]
June on the Homestead
I have a confession. I have been meaning to write about what’s going on at home for almost 2 months now. I took pictures of the strawberries and rhubarb growing… … of the seeds I started indoors… … and of the flower blossoms on our fruit trees… … but they never got posted. The apple […]
October on the Homestead
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted about activities on our little homestead. Even though we had plenty of rain in the spring and early summer (too much?) our garden didn’t do so great. We had some green beans to freeze but not many. We had peas to eat but most of them ended up […]
How to Raise Chickens: #8 Other things to know about chickens
Chickens raised in a non-commercial environment can live 8-10 years. We have yet to see that as either ours have expired due to predators, cold, mysterious diseases, or “lead poisoning”. The one hen we have left from our original batch, Opal, is now 4 years old and going strong. Chickens start to lay eggs around […]
How to Raise Chickens: #7 What to do with all those eggs?
Did you know it takes approximately 25 hours to create an egg? That’s why most hens lay one egg every 1 to 2 days. But when you have multiple hens, that can lead to a lot of eggs! Don’t scrub your eggs. This will remove the protective coating on the eggs the helps maintain freshness. […]
How to Raise Chickens: #6 Preparing for emergencies
Sadly, you need to be prepared to handle situations where your girls are sick or have been injured. Had we had a first aid kit with some wound treatment medicines, Henrietta might have survived past a couple of days. But her wounds from that raccoon turned out to be fatal because we didn’t know how […]