Chicks! Yea! - Chicks? Oh no!

I posted a couple of weeks ago that Houdini the Easter Egger had gone broody.  We let her sit on three eggs: one of her own and two others.  Last week she hatched out hers and one others.  We love the idea of having chicks and these are our first, but we discovered we were less than prepared "parents".

First she was sitting on her eggs in one of the next boxes, which are about 18" off the floor of the coop. The nest boxes were great for sitting, not so good for new chicks, so we know we had to move her.  Despite the fact we had 21 days to get ready, we didn't.  That sounds a bit sluggardly, and I suppose it is, but that's the way it was.  We found our solution in an old pet carrier.

The duct tape wall is to keep wood chips and chicks in.

In place in the coop before putting the chick feeder, waterer and 'family' in.

All loaded up!  It was just the thing... for a couple of days.

After a couple of days the chicks were able jump right over the wall, so we took it out.  The carrier is still in the coop to hold the chick food and the chick waterer.

Mama and chicks settle for the night in the corner of the coop rather than in the box.

With the basic shelter, food, and water problems resolved, the next problem was security.  Our fencing around the run was fine for adult and even young birds, but not for chicks.  They ran in and out as they pleased, which would had been fine were it not for the host of local predators, include all manner of neighborhood cats, in the area.  We had to seal it up!

To complicate matters (my fault - all my fault) I let Houdini and the chicks out for a supervised stroll in the grass.  They all enjoyed a few minutes of wandering in the grass around the stroll before Mama took her babies under the coop and settled in for the night.  It took a bit of doing, but we got her out and back in the coop.  The new top of the to-do list was to close up the run and the space under the coop.

Wire tying 12"chicken wire to the existing fence "chick proofed" the run.

The challenge is getting the fence to cover the places where the girls take their dust baths.

Fixing the coop meant taking the step off and sealing off the path to the 'underworld'.

All done with the step still off...

And all back together.

We were feeling pretty good about the work done so far when the little chicks zipped out from under the door and into the grassy yard.  Mama had a chicken fit and the babies needed some help to find their back in.  Next up:  Fix the gap under the door.  We found some rubber mat and made a loop under the door to act as a door sweep.  We also sealed up the area at the end of the 'veranda'.

The door sweep seals up the gap pretty well

Done!

We still want to add a row of landscaping bricks around the edge, but we think the improvements put us in pretty good shape for chicks.

Mama and babies enjoying the run.  Hers is the dark one, the other is from an Orpington.

It's been a busy few days, but other than a getting a better brooding area in place, I think we could handle more chicks if another hen goes broody.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Catch up #1 - Goodbye to Wilma

We lost our first hen.  We know it happens to pretty much everyone, but it's still a bummer. 

Wilma was kind of the 'odd girl out' in the flock.  She was a Golden Polish we bought "just for looks" with the feathery crown on her head.  The crown was large enough that if we didn't give her a semi-regular "haircut" she would have trouble seeing. She was at the bottom of the pecking order and therefor a pretty solitary bird.  She was also the smallest, about the size of a pheasant hen, and at around 14 months old had not laid her first egg.  LESSON #1 - "Mark, unless you plan to show your birds, don't get an odd bird just for looks.  It's really not good for the bird, and therefore not good for you."

Wilma had not been an escape problem, but had gotten out a couple times before.  We're still not sure if she flew out, or shinnied under the gate to the run.  She was the only one still small enough to do either, and they free range a lot anyway so we didn't worry about it.  LESSON #2 - "Mark, escapes are problem even if it's just one hen.  Get on it!!"

The fence between our yard and the neighbor's is essentially a cattle fence:  Woven wire with openings that something between 6" x 6" and 8" x 8".  Fine for cattle.  Fine to just mark the property line.  Fine for dogs, although the dogs go around it play together in both yards.  Not fine for chickens.  The larger birds could juuuuust squeeze through most days.  Wilma just waltzed through anytime she pleased.  We knew that was something that needed to be addressed, but the neighbor was fine with the birds her yard and seemed to enjoy watching them.  LESSON #3 - "Mark, a fence is supposed to do the job of a fence.  If it doesn't, get on it!"

On the day of her demise, Wilma got out however she was getting out and went for a stroll though the fence and into the neighbor's yard.  There she met the neighbor's dog.  Not a mean dog, or a troublesome dog, but a dog who acts like a dog.  This dog is a Black Lab mix (bird dog - strike 1), is still a big puppy, sweet and friendly to the core and loves to play (Whatever that is, is a playmate right? - strike 2).  She is also excellent with children and very protective of the grandkids that are living with there.  (Is that thing a kid risk? - strike 3).  In any case, the dog acted like a dog and Wilma ended up with a broken neck.  They felt bad and we have no hard feelings whatsoever: Our bird was in their yard, so was their dog, and the dog just acted like a dog.

So in the spirit of "better late then never" we set off to deal with the fence issue.  We bought a couple of 150' foot rolls of 24" chicken wire fence and started lashing it up to the cattle fence.  That seems to have done the job. 

The "new and improved" fence from about fence-top height

It looks a bit more imposing from chicken head height

After stapling the new fence to the wooden endpost, we simply lashed the new chicken wire to the cattle fence with wire ties.  This worked great, but you want to be sure get the "outdoor" wire ties as the "indoor" type are less robust to sunlight (UV) exposure.  We'll clip the leftover ends off in the next week or so.

De and I worked several hours on a couple evenings to get this in so we felt we could let the birds out of the run and have them be safe(er).

As usual, the girls are not far when I'm out working.

And I always have an entourage when I go back and forth to the barn for anything.

We still have the gate to deal with but right now we have a hog panel keeping everyone in their own corner.   All in all, we lost 1 hen; It could have been more.  We've addressed the problem and can let girls out again with some sense of confidence they'll all be back in the coop when it gets dark.

Next up will Houdini and our two new chicks!

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

I'm still here!!

Hi Folks!! I wanted to get a quick post out to let you all know we're still here.  It turns out that's not as flippant as it sounds.

De and a friend and I were involved in an auto accident last Saturday, in the middle of a funeral procession of all things.  Long story short we were rear-ended by another vehicle in the procession and got pushed into a third.  We were stopped and he was doing around 30 MPH, so we got quite a jolt.  No one went to the hospital (at least right away), and we were all able to walk away.  His mid-sized car was impressively 'totaled', my mid-size SUV has about $5000 in damages (we think, more on that later) and is 'drivable', the third - a beefy Jeep Wrangler - suffered no real damage.

We got off so 'cheap' (in the grand scheme of things) because when he finally hit the brakes his nose went down and his bumper lined up squarely with the Reese hitch receiver that is bolted directly to my frame.  That means he hit the most solid piece of my whole vehicle, which accounts for the extensive damages to his car.  The adjuster came out and looked over my SUV and figured the bill at just under $5k with a rather sizable "but".  Because my hitch bolts directly to the frame, the extent of the frame damage won't be fully understood until they get the rear bumper (and rear fenders, and lift gate, and front bumper and hood) off.  It might be $5000 and it might be more.

Everyone involved has been great.  We had a message from his insurance company before we got home.  They'll pay to fix my SUV and for a rental while it's in the shop.  They'll also pay the bill for my seeing the Doc a couple day's after the accident.  (No - I don't have much of a concussion, No - My shoulder doesn't need surgery or even physical therapy, Yes - You will likely hurt for weeks, No - You can't run your chainsaw anytime soon {I asked}, Yes - Ibuprofen and your heating pad are going to be your two best friends for a good long while.)  De is stiff and sore but seems to have fared the best of the three of us.  Good friend Susan is in between with stiff and sore, and also has a bruise on her kiester {so she tells us, I haven't and don't intend to see it} where a clip intended to lock down a child seat sticks out between the seat and back cushions.  We've all been going to work, but not moving very fast.  Fortunately we all have jobs that can accommodate that.

Now that I'm moving and sleeping a little better I'll have some energy at the end the of the day to catch up on your posts and get several of my own out.  We've have some interesting things happen I want to share with everyone.

• We lost a chicken when she wandered into the neighbor's yard and met their big puppy.
• We put up a barrier to keep the rest of them 'to home'.
• Broody hen Houdini hatched out two chicks and we're all learning how to deal with that.
• That garden is doing pretty well, as are the weeds.   I still have more to plant which requires some tilling.  Not sure how that's going to work yet.

Look for posts on all that in the near future. 

As I consider the whole last week, as sore as we are, everyone involved could have been injured so much worse.  God was clearly looking out for all of us!  Once again, we are blessed.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Progress on the Homestead!

We've made a bit of progress towards getting the spring work caught up, but we didn't get competely there.

Friday evening:
A valiant attempt to come home from the day job early fell flat, but it was a beautiful evening even if it started late.  Friday is usually date night but De and I had several mini-dates through the week, and decided we'd had enough of eating out for the week.

The evening was spent getting some 2' tall chicken wire in place along the bottom of the woven wire cattle fence between us and the neighbor.  Some of the girls have been squeezing through the weave and roaming around the neighbor's yard.  They are wonderful neighbors (He's a cousin) and really don't care if the birds are there or not, but they have a relatively new young dog who is still very "puppy" and are not sure she is "chicken safe" yet.  Before I got home, one of the Red Stars had gotten stuck in the in fence and managed to rub off a patch of feathers under her wing, putting up a noisy fuss the whole time.  De and K (the neighbor lady) came to the aid of our avian damsel in distress.  Then somewhere along the line the puppy apparently got worked up with the chicken squawking and K's grandkids yelling, and took an obligatory nip at the bird.  We think she broke the skin, but there wasn't much damage.  De and K freed the bird, sprayed some Blu-Kote on her injuries, and held on to her until things quieted down.  The bird seems to be just fine, and K the neighbor is recovering nicely.  She felt so bad for the bird, we got texts over the weekend asked how the bird was doing.  In any case, we had the chicken wire and we got down to doing the job.

Saturday:
Saturday AM we cleaned out some more garden beds along with pitching the coop and starting another compost pile.  It was kind of one of 'those' mornings.  I had hoped to do a bit more mowing but the  tractor had a charging system warning light on and needed some 'love' it wasn't going to get that day.  I needed to do some tilling, but the tiller had a flat and I could not for the life of me find the tire inflation attachment for the compressor (I now have three and a desire to find a manual pump) so that section of the garden got worked up with the hoe.

Saturday afternoon we went into town to pick up chicken feed, a bale of pine shavings, and garden plants.  Sadly, late May is early for us to get the plants in.  Usually it's mid-June and finding just the varieties we want can be challenging, so we often settle for "that ought to be fine".  The good news is, at least this year, the other folks in the county are worse slackers than I am and we got all the varieties of all the plants we wanted.  We came home and got the plants in their newly 'made' beds, and also the opportunity to feel every last muscle we had that evening and the next morning.

That means we have in the ground:

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Peas
• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Egg Plant
• Brocholli
• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Sweet Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Brussels Sprouts
• Green Beans
• Strawberries
• A bunch of herbs

To go are:

• Corn
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Beets
• Zucchini
• Yellow summer squash
• Stripetti Squash
• Butternut Squash
• Cantelope
• Maybe kale

Never seem to have a problem getting a team to fall out for bed clearing duty!!

Our first year for sweet potatoes.  We haven't a clue what we're doing.  Six starts (slips? plants?) in the ground.

Getting the tomatoes in!

The 'ol man taking a "breather"

Sunday:
An 'off' day spent worshiping in the morning and enjoying time with family.  No garden work got done, but we're both ok with that.  Family time is great and we need a day to 'heal' anyway.

Monday (today):
The tractor got fixed, the tiller got fixed, we got a few more seeds it the ground, and some of the garden tilled up before we got rained out.  We used the day to go a local Amish/Mennonite dry goods (and cheese and some produce) store where we stocked up on some need grocery items.  Then we went to an Amish/Mennonite hardware store and picked up a combined Mother's Day/ Father's Day gift to each other.  We bought a 'hand powered' reel mower.  Not real as is 'actually exists' (or the 'real' apposed to 'imaginary' for all you math and science folks).  Reel as in the blades are curved reel instead of flat.  We wanted something to mow a bit of the lawn near the house without having deal with a pull starting push mower or the tractor with the 60" deck.  Odd I know, but its a wonderful thing and we love it!

De with out new "Power Tool" - People power,  that is!

In other homestead news, Houdini (our escape artist) the Easter Egger has gone broody!  We're letting her set on three eggs, one of hers and two Red Star eggs, and will see how it all works out.  We haven't had a chance to candle them yet.  We see Fred (yes - he's still among the living) doing his rooster thing with the Red Stars and Orps, but not so much with the Easter Eggers.  I'm scrambling to get something around for her to hatch her eggs out in, since the nesting boxes sit about 18 inches off the floor of the coop.

Houdini all puffed out and doing the Mother Hen thing

With all the garden work and shopping and all, I still took a few quiet moments to remember friends from the Corps who never made it home, and all those gave all for the country and the rest of us who stood shoulder to shoulder with them.  Semper Fi, my Brothers and Sisters, from all branches!!

All in all it was a good weekend.  I'm looking forward to the time when the homestead can be my full time endeavor.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Not gettin' it all done!

It's like this every year, but I just never get used to it.  I never get all (or most, or a respectable "also ran" amount) of the spring work done in the spring when it needs to be done.  This year is no exception, but some reason I feel worse about this year than most.

There are some excuses, which I'll share with you, but excuses or not there's a lot of work to do to get caught up with the season.

1. Busy at the day job: I am very blessed to have a day job I enjoy, that pays well, and will leave me with a reasonable retirement, barring the economic fizzledown we all worry about.  (Being a geezer in training, I'm old enough, and blessed enough to work for a company that still has a pension plan.)  That being said I work 9 1/2 to 10 hour days plus a 45-50 minute commute each way.  All that takes a big chunk out of the day.
2. Friday evening is date night where De and I usually go out, have dinner, and enjoy being a couple.  Takes an evening away from the homestead, but we're sure not giving that up.  
3. Busy with the public service events.  Regular readers will know I run my county's Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES).  In addition to training to provide disaster relief and emergency communications, we work a lot of public service events.  Most of them are benefit bike rides, runs, and that sort of thing that are spread out over large areas.  The organizers of those events like to run them in the spring when its not too hot and not too cold.  The result is that more that 1/2 of the Saturdays in April and May are committed to service events.  That takes a big chunk out of the weekends.  We just finished the last scheduled event for this spring yesterday.
4. Lesson Planning for Church.  I teach classes at our Church about every other quarter.  I do my own lesson planning and generation rather than teach out of study guide one might buy at a Christian bookstore.  It makes for far better classes, but takes 3-4 hours per week, usually Saturday afternoon.  I've been on a spring and fall rotation lately.
5. Haven't been the poster child for good health over the winter.  I'm much better now, but am still building up the endurance.

All that being said, it's not like nothing gets done.  The most important things get the attention they require - like the septic system in my last post - and everything else gets done later.  Usually.  Most of the time.  (Remember that 'later' is a relative term...)

Here's some of the good and the bad over the last few days:

Got the lawn mowed.  I've always considered the bulk of my lawn to be a pasture that doesn't have critters grazing on it yet, so it never looks pristine.  I do mow it though, and this week I got it done. We'll... most of it... part of it.... OK, maybe 20% of it... sorta.  I finally got the deck on the tractor this week but its slow going because the grass is a bit long.  Well... quite long...  Ok, at about 18 inches it's the envy of the friends who DO have critters on pasture.  I'll get it all done soon...  eventually... one day... yeah....

At least we can get around the coop, barn and gardens.

Some of the bad:  The garden still needs "a little work".  On the plus side, there are stinging nettles and dandelions that can be harvested for teas along the way.

Zyla the Dog finds a cool place amongst the beds to rest.

We did get a bit more of the garden planted this weekend!  Yes, yes... It was the lettuce, spinach, and strawberries that should have been in a month ago, but at least it's in.  Next weekend we should get the rest in.  And the lawn mowed...  And the trees worked up...  Yeah.....  (sigh....)

I have my usual crew of helpers as I work in some compost.

It was a bit of challenge, but De kept the "help" away as she planted.

If you look close, you can see the bird netting we put over the beds to keep the girls from scarfing down the seed

And we got out first harvest of the year!  De grabbed some rhubarb and made us a rhubarb-apple custard desert.  She is a most excellent cook, especially when she has fresh ingredients to work with.  It was great!

I had about given up on the rhubarb plot, but we got just enough let it go another year where it is now.

Strawberries in but... Um...  Still more work to do in the field stone rock garden, too.  Herbs mostly.

Finally, A couple of detail shots of the decorations in the strawberry bed. They were Mother's day gifts from Daughter#2 and the granddaughters, are made of materials meant for outdoor use.

From Heaven at 6 years old

Harmony at 4 years old

All in all,  we are making progress and still feel blessed that we have a homestead to care for.  More to come soon.  Sooner than last time....  I hope...  Yeah...

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Not Really What I Had In Mind

Saturday morning broke through sunny, clear and beautiful.  An absolutely perfect day for gardening!  Just cool enough a long sleeve shirt felt good until you started working, then the short sleeves under it were just right. 

I had big plans! Get the whole garden cleared (two open patches and all the beds), and get the peas in, and the potatoes, and the lettuce and the spinach, and get the tree I took down worked up, and get the mower deck on, and clean out the barn, and get my fruit trees in, and solve the baryon asymmetry problem (oh, just look it up if you really care), and get my tower up, and extend the mission life of the Hubble, and translate the entire Bible into Minoan - including concordance (once again, you know the drill - Google it if you don't get it.), weed the strawberry bed, and have another cup of coffee.  It was one of those mornings!  I was feeling about as good as I've felt since December and was going to make the best of it. 

Fred and 'the girls' being somewhat helpful..

...mostly.

I was well on my way to actually accomplishing two or three of the things on my list (not the baryon, Hubble, and Minoan bits) when I got a text from De: "Water Emergency". Getting a text like that is never good.  It's especially not good on a beautiful spring day, and hugely not good when you know that likely means there is water where it does not belong in disturbing quantities, which is just what I found. 

2 minutes later the water to the downstairs toilet is shut off.  2 hours later the water, which had made its leisurely and meandering way some 20 feet into the living room, was up,  the small rugs were out, and the hardwood floors were being dried by a big fan.  2 minutes later I discovered the toilet was NOT clogged.  2 hours later I had come to the conclusion I was going to be using my shovel for something other than dandelions in the potato patch.  2 minutes later I had resigned myself to the task.  2 hours later it was pretty much done.

Step One:  Locate and dig out the clean-out.  Unfortunately, it did me no good.

Step Two:  Start digging up the tank.  Fortunately, more than 1/2 of this was done with the tractor.

I'll spare you, gentle readers, the indelicacies of a detailed description of what I found when I got the lid off the septic tank, but I was able to get it all working again.  (That was an especially wonderful thing 'cause by then I REALLY needed a shower.)   I will say however, based on a messy bit of forensic evidence and a somewhat more tidy bit of speculation, Granddaughter #2 may be getting a bit more supervision in the bathroom.

I was about as whooped as when I took down that tree, but Sunday was another day and after Church and lunch, with a bit of help from son Adam and De, we did get the peas in, the onions in, and the potatoes in.

Son Adam being very helpful with the peas.  Pics of the hog panel trellis later.

'Girls' being decidedly unhelpful with the potatoes.  Thief!  Thief!  Get back here with that!

 All in all, while it really wasn't what I had in mind, I suppose I have to count it as a productive weekend.  The garden can wait just a bit longer, I'll manage to work around the stuff in the barn, we'll all just have to wonder about the baryon asymmetry thing, the chainsaw will still be there when I'm ready, the Minoans (if you can still find any) will have to hold on for a more worthy translator, the tower can sit on the ground right where its been for two years, the Hubble will have to just hang in there until the James Webb shows up in 2018, the strawberry bed isn't that bad, and it's too late in the evening for more coffee.    

And tomorrow is another day.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Getting the Orchard Underway

A great weekend here on the Hoosier Country Homestead!  Friday evening was warm and sunny, and I had some thoughts about getting a boat load of garden stuff done after I got home from the 'day job' and before sunset.  It turned out that De and I both decided it was also a great evening for a date night, so we picked out a somewhat upscale restaurant and made an evening of it.  We did do some internet research on apple trees together when we got home, so we counted that as productive time in cultivating both our marriage and our homestead.

Saturday morning was the usual list of weekend chores in the coop and yard, along with a bit of shopping on my part.  Saturday afternoon, however....

I've mentioned before that this year's big homestead projects are fruit trees, berry bushes, and getting the boatload of unfinished projects from previous years done. We'd picked out a place for our fruit trees some time ago, with one little fly in the ointment:  There was a non-fruit tree growing right where our new orchard was going to go.

I believe it thought it was a Black Locust.  I simply identified it as "in the way".

After only a little fiddling around I managed to get my chainsaw started.  It was time to clear the way for those fruit trees.

This tree really didn't get the "love" it needed when it went in, and had been allowed to fork six ways from Sunday, which obviously made the job harder.  What made it even more challenging is that Mark has been sick to some degree most of the winter (working on 8th round of antibiotics and 5th round of steroids now) and has gotten woefully out of shape.

Getting a start on the first bit of it.

I decided, since I had tree parts poking out everywhere, to take it down a bit at a time, hoping to get it all to eventually fall to my front and right side from where I am working in the picture above.

After lopping off some branches to get in where I wanted, the chickens and one of De's fingers jumped in to help.

Bingo!  First part fell just where I wanted!

By the time I got this far, the wind was picking up, and I was getting whooped.

Part way through, I realized three things:  1) I was in far worse shape than I had considered myself to be, 2) the tree was actually a bit shorter than I thought which meant the house, wellhead, and fence were safe, and 3) I was more than willing to sacrifice style points for just getting the thing on the ground.  This is supposed to be the easy part!

As is often the case, just when I thought I was near to getting done, a complication arises.  Off pops the chain.  It's not a big job to get it back in place, but I was ready to be done.

Don't forget Mark, the front side of that saw is hot!

With the saw back in shape and branches all over, it was becoming a contest of wills.  The wind was picking up even more and even though I wasn't at much risk of falling the rest of it on any of the homestead infrastructure, I was still kind of keen on keeping it off the homesteader.

Getting down toward the end!

Finally!

Style points: Zilcho.  Manliness points: Maybe 3 out of 10.  Safety points: Probably 8 out of 10.  Just getting the job done:  Nailed it!

I still have to work it up and get it out of the way, but the first step to getting the homestead orchard in is underway!

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark