Maybe Frost Tonight

We have a widespread frost advisory tonight, from 2 a.m. – 9 a.m. Sigh. The low is supposed to be 33. It’s another early first frost year. (We had an early frost last year, too; even earlier, as I recall. I think the average is mid-October.) What am I, a newbie gardener, to do with [...]

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Garden and Chicken Update 9/14/09

School is back in swing, and I’m crazy busy. But there are things I don’t want to forget to record:

Blight. All the tomato plants are blighted. Yes, all 40 of them. It spreads fast. We are in the process of hand picking the green ones to ripen or turn into green tomato salsa, and burning [...]

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Farm Update 8/17/09

After our first egg last week, Jason found a very thin-shelled egg the next day. It had a hole in it, and it broke as he picked it up. (First eggs can be weird, like thin-shelled or even shell-less.) We were gone for the weekend, and returned to two eggs last night. (They are all [...]

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First Egg!

I couldn’t be more excited to announce that WE HAVE OUR FIRST PULLET EGG! Isn’t it darling? You can’t tell very well from the picture, but it’s teeny. My hand is quite small, if that helps.
The chickens are 19 weeks old now, but since they’re a heritage breed (Buff Orpington), we figured we might not [...]

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Chicken Processing

Slightly graphic, perhaps, but I really skipped photographing most of the gore. Plus, I kept the photos small.
First, we packed 12 15-week-old Buff Orpington cockerels into cardboard boxes lined with newspaper in the van (3-5 per box, three boxes):

The first step was to hang them in these cones. The processor (our friend Brian) would then [...]

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First Chicken

We ate our first homegrown (pastured heritage) chicken yesterday for supper. Oh, man. It was good. Quite possibly the best chicken I have ever eaten. I think we butchered at the perfect time (15ish weeks) – most of the chickens are about 3 pounds after processing, give or take, and so very tender and flavorful. [...]

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Well, Garlic, Chickens

Well Update

We have water again, praise God! We are so thankful. The well pump died, so we had it replaced. It was the original from over 30 years ago! I am currently doing dishes by hand and machine, doing laundry, cleaning toilets, etc.
Unfortunately, our home warranty company only covers $400 for well pumps. So the [...]

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Crowing

Our chicks are now 12 weeks old. (They are as many weeks old as I am pregnant; isn’t that handy?) They look like chickens. They’re very pretty. I’m still working on the pictures, promise.
Anyway, we’ve heard feeble teenage crowing attempts for weeks. It sounds like a chicken with a head cold. “Er…er…ERRRRRR!” And we don’t [...]

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Chicks Growing Up

The chicks are amazingly huge now.  (I totally know that pictures are due. You won’t believe the difference.) They are six weeks old and look like chickens, not chicks. Only they’re smaller than adults, obviously. We took out the cardboard and pine shavings from their coop last week, so now they’re on the 1/2″ hardware [...]

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Ticks

I love lurking at garden/homestead/small-scale farming blogs. I especially love seeing pictures of farm kids running through fields, wearing dresses or shorts, and nothing but the grass between their feet and the dirt.
But. Do none of y’all have ticks? None of you? Seriously, I want to know how your dress-clad little girls are not coming [...]

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