After The Ice Came

Here are some pics of what our place looked like after last Wednesday's ice storm. As you see, it was just under 30 degrees. For us, this is cold.

Just under 30!

Here is part of what we got on Tuesday night.It was icy rain, sleet and some snowflakes. It was more icy rain than anything else. It was enough to shut down three major bridges, cancel schools and work and a lot of other things came to a standstill. There are no winter treads here. Everyone thinks they can drive on the ice. Well, I hate to say, I stayed home from work because I'm VERY familiar with trying to drive on ice.

Porch on Tuesday Night

Here is what we woke up to.  Here is a picture of what we had. Everything has about 1/4 inch of ice on it. Everything is crunchy.

Doesn't Look Bad.

 Here are the chickens.

Clueless Chickens

The chickens don't really care too much about what is going on as long as they get their feed. I made them a special treat of plain oatmeal while it was warm. They weren't too sure at first, but they finished it all off. Their waterers are frozen solid, so I had another waterer in the coop under the heat lamp. These are all of the chickens I have left at this time. Loren is coming out of the door. (Sophia just died a few days before) She's a Buttercup. Tigger is the roo. He's the color of Tigger on Winnie the Pooh. I don't know his breed, but he's a good rooster. Ethel is the big brown leghorn. (Lucy died last year) Ooma is the white Lakenvelder. Don't ask how I got that name. It just came to me.

Trixie in the Back 40

I had to go and check out the Back 40. Of course, it's not 40 acres, but it is a haul to go back and forth from the barn or house to here. Especially to the garden which is by that big plastic container way in the back of the picture. I'm afraid my worm farm probably solidified this night. Maybe not. It was protected from the elements pretty well. We'll see when I change out their container for a new one.

Lovely, wasn't it? It was a nice mid-week day off for me. I did laundry, cooked, read and watched a marathon of one of my favorite shows...Haunted Collector.

Right now, at 6:56 pm, I hear a hooting owl outside of my window. I don't usually hear them this early. But it's out there. I just got the measurements for a Screech Owl box. We have at least four of them screeching at 2 am every night during the summer. Good for another post, ain't it?

Take care.

Worms!

Yay! We went out this morning and got my worms! Ain't cheap to buy them from a bait shop. The guy waiting on me probably thought I was goofy examining them. I pulled off the top and poked at them. They weren't too lively. They were on a shelf and not in the fridge so they should be more lively. I asked him if he'd get me another pack and another until I got some wiggly ones. Hubby gets so annoyed with me when I shop. He said "They're probably mad at you for poking at them." I know what I want and I'll get it. I'm not paying for dead worms when my whole deal is to get live ones for composting. Right? At $3.55 for a couple dozen each pack, they better dance a jig when I say so. I bought two packs.

What's even worse, is I decided to get some meal worms for my chickens. They didn't look too lively, either. So I figured "What the heck! They're going to get eaten in a little while, anyways." The young kid behind the counter said "$14.14, please." What the heck! I looked at a little sign on the register that said "Wax Worms...$5.99" I paid $6 for a treat for my chickens!!! OK. Who's loco here?!!! (pointing at self) At least Hubby didn't ask why it was so expensive. I think he figured that everything else in the shop that he was browsing through was expensive, so it wasn't a surprise to him. Whew!

I brought the babies home and wet down the shredded paper and wrung it dry. We added some of our compost that I just sifted last week to the paper. Layer by layer for a couple of layers. Then I gave it a turn and put some veggie scraps in there. I let the babies loose and they made their way into the mulched paper. I guess they liked it. Anything would be better than a small container with a bunch of your buddies wiggling around you. Well...not so much wiggling was going on at the time I bought them. I checked on them and they are still under the mulch. I'll check to see if they've started eating tomorrow. It will be a while until we get enough worms bred for composting.

My Worm Farm

What My Worm Farm with Food Looks Like to Start

 Ah! The life of a homesteader...sort of. LOL!

Take care.

Stuff Around The House

Today was an eclectic day for us on our little homestead. First thing, we went to Tractor Supply for chicken feed and such. Next, we went to WalMart for some plastic containers. Then, we went to Lowe's for a valve. Then, we went to the flea market to buy veggies and fruits. Then, we stopped for a lottery ticket (can't hurt once in a while). Then, we went home.Woo Hoo! Home!

After lunch, we went outside to feed the chickens. They were pretty hungry by now. And we built a worm farm. Yes! I did it! A worm farm. That's what the plastic containers were for. We put a valve on the bottom one for the wee wee to come out of. We drilled holes in the bottom of another which fits inside the bottom one. Then we drilled some holes in the top for ventilation. Then, we built a stand and put it out of the way in a cool dry place. Now, we have to go worm shopping! They say Red Wigglers are a good variety to buy. The ones from the ground are not. Otherwise, we could use the ones in the compost heap. That should be fun to explain to people. Mr. Store Owner: Why do you need so many worms? Are you going to throw them in the lake and wait for the fish to come up so you can scoop them out? Har! Har!  Me: Well. If you must know...(pregnant pause)...I'm going to farm worms for compost and fertilizer. This way I won't have to come back to your fine establishment for fertilizer and fishing worms. Ha! Ha! (ka-ching!...saving money)

I fixed some soup with potatoes, ham, cabbage and dumplings for dinner tonight. It turned out pretty good considering I've never had anything like it before. Yes. I like to make up dinners. I also baked a pound cake from scratch. It goes well with the next item.

We went outside and picked about a pint of strawberries. I had some left over from last night's picking. We pick them just as they've turned red and they ripen over night. I sliced last night's up and put some sweetener to them. It's just about time for STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

Then, we went outside to pick off some rats. Missed them tonight. I guess I'm not that good today.

I hope you had a great day.

Take care.

Night Walk

Tonight I asked Hubby to go on a night walk with me. I just finished baking a batch of double chocolate cookies and felt like taking a walk. It is hot inside and cool and windy outside. The temperature is about 75 degrees F, so it is really nice out. We took small flashlights and the dogs came too. We visited our back garden with the strawberry plants in it and our side garden with all of our tomatoes in it. We checked our driveway solar lights and replaced a couple that had fallen over. It is really neat to see how different everything looks at night. Our 'Eywa' is beautiful and swaying in the breeze. I wish I could get a good picture of it to show you! We checked our peach trees and oak trees that we transplanted a couple of months ago. The peach trees are in bloom. The oak trees are blooming and coming to leaf. We checked the chicken yard for rats...none there tonight. The chickens heard us talking and a couple of them gave out a little coo.

It sure is nice to live in the country. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else! If I HAD to live in the city, I'd make sure I had the whole yard in gardens and bird feeders. Luckily I don't HAVE to live in the city. No offense intended to anyone. I just don't see myself living in the city any more. I'm a country girl and love it!

Take care.

No More Poopy Coop!

Today is the funnest day of the month! Not really!

Coop cleaning is one of the messiest, stinkiest and dirtiest things I do. Top that off with an escapee chicken and nosy dogs, then you have a day of learning how to do many things at one time. Mainly, watching lots of animals at one time so no one gets hurt or eats stuff they shouldn't. (Yuk!)

However, it's a very quiet job. Raise hands to show how many would want to do this job? Thought so. These are my babies and I take care of them.

Lola

 Around the house, if you want something, you do it. This has been my job for about the past 10 years. They are so cute! All of my pet chickens have gone to the great farmyard in the sky. I used to be able to hold them or let them ride on my shoulder. Lola was the last pet chicken to go. She was really funny and a holding chicken. She liked jewelry and always pecked at my earrings and rings. That was the easiest way to catch her. Flash her some bling, and she'd come running!

Well. I have to go for the day.

Take care.

Rain, Rain. Go Away!

Beginning Thursday afternoon, we've had rain. Lots of rain! We were shin-deep in water on our property. Where we live, we are pretty much at sea level...maybe 1 foot above. If we dig a hole, we get water at about 1 foot. Sometimes a little more. This means we have to have a deep ditch around the perimeter of the property in order to grow things. Well, sometimes it still floods, but the ditches make the water clear off quicker. Needless to say, Thursday, Friday and Saturday our strawberry patch was pretty much flooded. One low end was under water along with our mustard greens and onion sets, which is planted in front of the last row. This is not good because the strawberry plants grow from the crown. Those shouldn't get soaked like that. I may lose part of the strawberry patch. As soon as I can figure out why I can't post pics, I'll get pics to show you the strawberry patch and part of the food garden so you can see what I mean.

Also, the chickens were partially under water. On days like this, I call them duckies because they sometimes have to wade through water. Luckily there is a large portion of their run which is high and dry. I'm sure they get upset when they get water like this. I'm thankful it only happens a couple of times a year.

Today, we have no rain. It is sunny! Yay! I went outside and got my potting soil and compost mix so I can transplant seedlings from indoors. Right now, I have red peppers, yellow peppers, eggplants and summer squash transplanted. They are sitting outside under the picnic pavilion hardening off for a bit. It's a little over 60 degrees F outside, so they'll be getting a little bit of air. Hopefully they will get good stalks from being outside. They're a bit spindly right now.

I've sunk the summer squash stems about 2" into their new pots. Some say that the squash won't transplant well and they'll die. I've wondered why this is? They sell the squash starts at the garden centers. I've always sown the squash seeds directly into the garden. So this is one of my experiments for this year.

In a couple of weeks, I'll be transplanting all into the garden after the frost has finished. Wish me luck!

Good luck to all of you with your gardens this year!!!

He's got...

Clint Eastwood eyes. I call him Eyes. Look at that stare he gives you! Chills you to the bone.

He's a Cornish Rock we got from Tractor supply as a chick. NEVER get this kind of chicken unless you're going to eat them. I didn't know to give them a special feed during their growth otherwise their legs get bad because they can't hold their weight. This guy doesn't have a problem with his legs. 4 out of the 6 chicks I bought did. I have two of these chickens left since I got them in May.

They are amusing, though. Eyes, here, sounds like an ooga-horn. His brother, Arnold, has a bad leg and favors it a bit. I don't expect him to be around much longer because of it. This is a no-kill-zone, so, no. I'm not going to do him in. They're pretty much tame and you can handle them.

Eyes goes about 10 pounds, if you can catch him. He doesn't move too fast, but he's slick. Arnold goes about 8 pounds.

Way far in the back, you can see Boris, my Polish Crested. He's a trip, too. Yeah. All of them have names.

Have a great day!

The Wild Life

 I guess I should say wildlife. This guy is about as wild as it gets on our property. Except for a few rats, snakes and an occasional stray dog or deer. I don't know what kind of spider he is, but he made a home on hubby's work bench. I couldn't get too close so I zoomed in on him. The pic is pretty bad, but hubby was amazed at his size. Yeah. He's pretty big. About a half-dollar size. Maybe bigger.

Here's Angel waiting for Daddy who's in the barn. He's doing something and she waits patiently for him. She LOVES her Daddy! 

Here's Angel being a good girl with Nuts. We taught all of our dogs to leave the chickens alone. I used to have four dogs watching over my chickens when we let them out. This used to freak out our visitors. People think dogs will chase and eat them. Maybe someone else's dogs would. Mine are really good with chickens. Bunnies, too!

 Nuts has a hard time walking. Rightly so...she was beaten up pretty bad by her sisters and brothers and the other chickens shortly after we introduced them to the flock. She may have brain damage because of the lump on her head and the amount of blood that was on her. She doesn't act quite right.

She has her own 'condo' outside. This is what we used for a chick brooder. Hubby and I made this from scraps. If you look through the back of the condo, you'll see Nuts vegging out in the yard. She loves it out there. When we get home from work, we let her out to graze. On weekends, she has full days of grazing and lazing outside. We have a few hawks hanging around so she needs supervision. Otherwise, I'd let her out all day. She's getting around pretty good now. 

I think the other chickens are jealous of her because she's outside so often. They line up at the fence and stare me down to let them out. LOL! Chickens aren't stupid!

Later, everyone. Have a great day!

Sunday Musings

It's been a while since I've posted. We've been busy here.

First of all, we're trying to keep our gardens alive. We haven't had a productive rain in a long while. Last week, we had 5 minutes of rain one day. Then we had a short thunderstorm one night. A guy who I work with lives about 3 miles away. He only got the thunder.

This is in the shade. This is what we've been having for weeks! This was taken around 5pm yesterday. By 8pm, it was still in the 80's. Right now, it's 78 on my thermometer.

 The weatherman says that we have temperatures in the 90's F. The weatherman lives 35 miles away and closer to the ocean where they have breezes. I think they should live where I do. We pray for rain.

Here's a plant that is doing really well. It's Joe Pye Weed. It is really invasive and needs planted in a 5 gallon bucket to keep under control. I didn't control it, so I have to pull out the shoots from all over. On the right of the picture is why I even have this plant. Butterflies and hummingbirds love it! The flowers smell like concord grape juice, to me. The leaves are a bit stinky, though.

Here's Nuts! She got her name when she was a chick, about a month ago. Yes! A month ago. I have never seen a chicken grow this fast. She's a Cornish Rock, which is a fast growing chicken. She was acting goofy one day, playing. So I called her nuts. For some reason, the other chickens pick on her something fierce. They bloodied her comb and head around the comb. She's always been healthy, but she was the runt of the batch I bought. That may have something to do with it. Right now, she's segregated from the rest because she can't walk really well. I know that's from the beatings she's received. I don't know if anything is broken, but she can stand a bit. Her appetite is good. She drinks. She does chicken things. Oh, well. Here's another pet for me!

Here's our experimental garden in the 'back 40'. It is doing really well for not having amended soil. We were a little late planting this year. Closest plants are watermelons and cucumbers. You can barely see the cuke plants because they intertwined with the melons. Next are the squash. I have summer and patty pan. Yummy! Then green beans. Then corn. All is doing well. We are watering this enough to keep it alive.

Here's a watermelon in my hand, for reference.

Here's one of my crafts. I make crappy bird feeders. The birds love them. Probably for the food, but I have them all over the back yard. I make them once every few years because they are not pressure treated and they rot. I don't use pressure treated lumber so I don't kill the birds with chemicals. We have bits of wood laying around from other projects and my hubby gets a kick out of me using power tools, air guns and the like to make yard trinkets. Quite a few years ago, I made a pretty nice potting bench. That was a large project for me. It turned out well. It's rotting and will need replacing.

That little red building in the background was our first chicken coop. We started with 12 and went up from there. We only have twenty-some right now. Now this shed is our wood shed. We store hardwood in there to burn indoors in the winter. Yes. It does get that cold in South Carolina.

Take care, everyone. Have a nice simple life.

Recycle!!!

The last post showed the new washcloths I made for the shower. I used one last night and they are a scrubby with a nice lather. It worked! Hooray!

In my last post I complained about the terrycloth ones I buy in the store. Well, instead of just complaining, I started doing something about them.

As you see, the one on the right is what I started with. Yuk! The one on the left is the finished product. I crocheted around the edge after I trimmed and blanket stitched around the edge. I hope this lasts a while and doesn't fray any more. If I remember, I'll keep you updated on this one. I'd hate to put so much time into these for them not to last. I have two more to go.

Update!

The babies are huge! Look at all of the feathers they have! This will be my third week of them being with me. They've eaten 15 lbs of crumbles in two weeks time. I just bought a 50 lb bag of crumbles. Let's see how long this lasts with these little eating machines!

The three on the right and the one in the middle forefront have learned to take a dust bath. That's what they're doing now. It's so funny to watch. There's no dust, just grass. I have to move this pen tonight so they don't wear out the grass. This is just a playpen for them. They are outside in this for about an hour, right now. I have to watch them because we have hawks.

I hope all of you have a great day!

Babies!

Last week we went to our favorite feed store. There were these cuties there...on sale.

They are the Cornish breed. Aren't they sweet?

As you can see, their wings are half feathered out. However, they were all a bunch of fuzz when we got them. So, in 4 days time, we have chicks with wing feathers. In exactly one week, as of yesterday, their wings are fully feathered, they have larger tail feather tufts, and their bodies are feathering out a little. Their feet are huge for their size!

If this is any sign, they are going to be whopping-sized chickens!

They've already gone through two sets of increasingly large boxes. And, this past weekend, my hubby and I built them a large wooden cage which should hold them until they get ready for introduction to the flock. They are enjoying exploring their new home.

Chicken News

Hubby and I have decided to be nice to our chickens this year.

We live in a temperate zone, so we don't have much snow. Last year was actually the first year we had any kind of snow since we moved to South Carolina. However, it does get really cold here. It freezes at night and gets to a max of 45 degrees during the day over several of the winter months.

Well, last year we bought a torpedo heater to keep the chickens warm in the barn. No...we didn't cook them! The roof is very high in the barn so we really don't know how well it kept them at a decent temperature. Here's the nice part. We bought wood to lower the roof over the inside part of the barn for the chickens. We hope this keeps more heat in their area so they stay warmer. I'm sure it will. We'll set the automatic thermostat to around 40 degrees so they won't freeze. It's actually nice in the barn for humans at 40 degrees when the barn doors are closed.

Yesterday I helped Hubby with the roof framing. Today the yard boy helped with putting the plywood roof over that.

I'll try to remember to keep you posted on how this works.

Take care. Happy farming!

My Noisy Neighbors

This morning I decided to sit outside with my coffee and bagel after my hubby went to work.

At 5:30am, the morning is cool and clear - for a change. The stars are crisp, bright and share the deep black heavens with a little shiny moon which is on it's way to illuminate the next side of the world.

On our porch, I have a black steel dining set...nothing fancy. It's really functional. I put a towel on the damp seat and proceeded to have my coffee and cinnamon/raisin bagel.

NICE! Just me listening to the frogs and crickets chirping. A lone mosquito is buzzing my ear. She should've been in bed!

Then my noisy neighbors started. One after the other they yelled at each other. Don't they have any sense not to make so much noise this early in the morning?! Non-stop they went at it one after the other. In fact, they're still putting up a ruckus out there.

"Ar-a-roo-a-roo!" went my two boys. The farm to the left has a newly crowing rooster, so he was at it real good. The farm to the back had a pretty lazy rooster, young but lazy. He only let go once in a while. The farm to the right rear was going at it pretty good. They have a couple voicing their opinions. Theirs are young, too. The neighbor to my immediate right has two very young roos that crow a little. They weren't even in the picture this morning.

So, I counted. I had 6 noisy neighbors this morning, yelling at each other and trying to wake the world.

I wonder what they say to eachother?

CHICKENS?!

What do we have? Chickens! Twenty-some of them!

Here is a picture of my three hens sharing eggs to hatch. The brown one is Mama-Cup. She's a Buttercup who started the whole setting thing. The white one is Mama-Velder. She's a Lakenvelder who decided to help out. And, the one in back is Lana. She's supposed to be a Dominique. She has two sisters so I decided to give them can-can dancer names. However, I think she's NOT a Dominique because of the way she looks. I think she's a Barred Rock from the description in chicken catalogs.

This was a really fun thing to see! My hubby thought it was funny. The people at work were pretty amused at the sight of this picture (which is my desktop background).

No eggs hatched from the efforts of these three. There was a little bit of a problem one night. It seems something came in and ate 4 of the 5 eggs I marked so I would know which were being set upon. It must've been a snake. My chickens are pretty spaced-out when they set, so not much bothers them. A snake could've slithered into the nest easily and done the deed at night. The last egg was not fertile.

The other problem we had was Lana wasn't feeling too well. I think she just wanted to be near the some chickens. She passed away shortly after this picture was taken. I think she was egg-bound. That would not be the way I'd want to go. Sadly, that ends the life of some chickens.

Happy chicken farming to those of you who do!

First Entry

Welcome to our life!

My husband and I live on a few acres in South Carolina. We are trying to make a nice little life here and we're doing well.

We enjoy making things like our barn, out-buildings, fencing, chicken coops, etc. I like to putter in the barn making small bird feeders and other such things.

We garden and have flower gardens, too. It is very nice and relaxing where we live.

One of our favorite past times is sitting out back at the fire pit and cooking. We linger over the fire and talk for hours. Another thing we do is watch the water sprinklers water the garden. We talk about the happenings of the work day and relax. We'll sit and watch the chickens run around the chicken yard, too. They are so funny to watch.

Yes, we're a little boring, but we like what we do. We put on no airs and don't keep up with the Joneses. I hope you find us a bit interesting in our simple ways.

Later!