Category Archives: Chickens

The Last Days of Spring

Cherries, Cherry Tree, Chickens, Dogs, garden, Killdeer, Nature, Pond, Power Outage, Rain, Reflections, spring, The Farm, Tomato Weaving, Tomatoes, Weather, , , ,

The Pond

Hot weather moved in before summer actually arrived. It was time to make the pond more welcoming, so on Monday, June 16 I started by raking some of the weeds and leaves out of the beach area before rototilling the beach.

My husband brought out the beach chairs and I cleaned them up. Then we set up the chairs with the umbrella and a small table on the beach.

Ruby enjoys the pond as much as I do. She brings her ball the beach so we will throw it in the water for her to retrieve.

And Ranger, AKA our beagle fish, goes for regular swims just to cool off.

I’m not really a swimmer. I like to be in the water, but I don’t like my head under water..

I use this floating ring as my watercraft. With my upper body floating on the ring and my legs kicking in the water I find I can get a good lower body workout. Probably as good as the recumbent or stationary bike. So, my goal, as often as possible this summer, is 30-60 minutes in the pond each day.

My first time in the pond this year. In spite of my objections my husband took my picture. At least he didn’t figure out how to use the zoom.

Chickens

My husband gave the chickens a mound of fresh topsoil to bathe in. We had a very happy flock.

Prayer Garden

Abundant color.

So pretty.

Killdeer Update

I didn’t get any pictures, but on Tuesday afternoon we saw our young killdeers take flight. They are still hanging around the garden area which is fine with us because they do eat a lot of bugs.

Despite the storms that brought high winds and torrential rain both of the other killdeer are still dutifully sitting on their nests.

Sweet Cherries

The second sweet cherry tree that we planted last year was more productive than the first. I harvested these on Wednesday morning. Enough to have with lunch. And that concludes our sweet cherry harvest for the year.

Except for this lone cherry that my husband discovered on our youngest tree (third tree). I never even saw any blossoms on that tree this year. I did pick and eat this last sweet cherry.

Before The Storms

With heavy storms in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon we wanted to make sure the tomato plants were supported. Last year my husband discovered a method called tomato weaving. No more cages or staking each tomato to keep them upright.

To weave tomatoes, you need a stake at each end of the row. You also need a spool of twine or heavy string. You tie the twine/string to the stake at one end of the row then string it out weaving it in and out of the tomato plants. (On the right side of one plant then the left side of the next all the way down the row.) Make sure that the string is up against the main stem of each tomato plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight, wrap it around the stake a couple times, then weave it back down the row in the opposite direction, making sure that the string is on the opposite side of each plant and up against the stem of each plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight wrap it around the stake and tie it off.

As the plants grow taller you can add another layer of weaving higher up on the stake.

Once we were done with the tomatoes I spent about an hour pulling weeds in the garden.

Here are some views from when I was on my knees in the garden.

This storm went to the north of us. It was after we went home for lunch that the storms hit our place.

A baby tomato, I would not have noticed had I not been on my knees in the dirt. 🙂

Sweet Peas

In April I planted sweet peas in two planter boxes on our deck.

This week’s harvest.

After hulling. We normally don’t grow peas because you have to grow a lot to get a decent yield. I ate these raw with my lunch. 🙂

After The Storms

On Wednesday the storms dumped three inches (7.62 cm) of rain on us. We didn’t have any flooding, but the ground was saturated with standing water in areas. We got more rain Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Our gardens that were doing so well are now struggling. We will likely lose some tomato plants – hopefully not all.

The water level in the pond is up. It is littered with cottonwood seeds but the water is refreshing.

We are currently in the middle of a heat wave, experiencing record high temperatures and intermittent power outages but that’s a story for another day.

Thanks for visiting.

Planting Potatoes and Happy Chickens

Chickens, Eggs, Planting, potatoes, Reflections,

We planted potatoes on Tuesday. It was a beautiful spring day.

The chickens love the freshly worked soil. Lots of bugs, grubs and worms. Yum!

My husband tilled the area then measured, marked and dug the furrows. Then I placed the potatoes in the rows. He came back later and covered the potatoes with soil. Before leaving we fenced in the area so the chickens couldn’t scratch up the seedlings. There are plenty of other things around to keep the chickens happy. We planted about 160 row feet of potatoes.

Chickens don’t spend all of their time scratching and pecking. They also like to dust bathe as these girls were doing. Dust baths are actually how chickens clean themselves. It sounds counterproductive but it works for them.

Rex is our only rooster – I think that makes him happy.

Chickens, chickens everywhere!

Made From Scratch 🙂

Happy chickens give the best eggs. We are getting about 15 -17 eggs a day right now – that makes me happy.

Thanks for visiting.

Keeping Busy

Aloe Soap, Chickens, crochet, Daffodils, Forsythia, Killdeer, Making Soap, Reflections, Starwberry Jam, , , , , ,

Hello and welcome! Spring has been very gradual in getting here this year. It seems like we go two steps forward then one step back. No quick warm up this year. I suppose the slow warm up is good in some ways – it means that trees and plants are slow to bud thus reducing the chances of fruit trees being hit by late season frost/freeze. We have had some rain as well but so far nothing extreme. There have been a few outdoors chores that I have been able to get done, but while I’m waiting for gardening and grass cutting season to arrive, I have had spring cleaning (indoors) and some other projects to keep me busy.

Making Soap

A few weeks ago, my sister told me that her husband wanted to go back to using natural soap. She asked if I would make them a batch. Of course I was happy to do it. When I asked what kind of soap she wanted, she asked for “the shaving soap” or aloe soap which makes a really nice soap for shaving. So, on April 1st I made a double batch of aloe soap. I want some to keep for us.

The above picture is the soap in the molds after several hours. The outer edges are hardening but the center is still a thick liquid. It was in the mold for about 30 hours before it was hard enough to remove. It will be a couple more weeks before this soap is ready to use but I am looking forward to it. I haven’t made this soap in a few years.

Below is my recipe for any soap makers who might be reading.

Aloe Soap Recipe

This recipe is a large batch – 32 bars of soap. It could be halved or quartered to make smaller a batch.

40 oz. Coconut Oil

70 oz. Sunflower Oil

8 oz. Olive Oil

16.95 oz. Lye (NaOH)

45 oz. Water

about 1/4 cup – Aloe Juice (Scrape out inside of aloe leaves and blend in small blender) added at trace.

For soap making instructions see my Soap Making Page.

Making Jam

When I realized we only had one jar of strawberry jar left in the pantry I decided it was time make some more since strawberry is both my favorite and my husband’s favorite. Fortunately, I still had three packages of strawberries in the freezer.

We should now have more than enough jam to last until this year’s strawberries are ready. My husband has worked hard on the strawberry patch, so we are hoping and praying for a great crop this year.

Crocheting

In a previous post I mentioned that I was making an afghan to donate to the humane society for a raffle.

I completed that project. It’s difficult to see in the photo but the puppy paws print run through the burgundy stripes as well.

I then began a new project.

This is a cat pattern that I have not made before. Can you see the cats? I began making this using some partial skeins of yarn that I have. I really just wanted to learn the pattern. I’m not sure yet if it will be a small blanket or a pillow.

A Few Spring Pics

At last, the daffodils are blooming.

Forsythia just beginning to bloom.

I finally got a picture of a killdeer. Rarely have I seen one stand still long enough to get a photo. This one was unusual because it was all alone. Usually there are a pair in the area. I did a little research and learned that migratory killdeer will generally mate for a season and males usually return to the same area each year. They may mate with the same female as the previous year. Non-migratory killdeer may mate for life. So, I wonder, since I didn’t see it’s mate in the area, if it is yet to find a mate for this season.

Our hens like to roost in the lower branches of the spruce trees. I thought it was a picture worth sharing. 🙂

Looking Ahead

The weather is supposed to be warmer this week, and my husband plans to get potatoes planted. As for me I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself cutting grass for the first time this year.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful week.

Shifting Gears -2025 Update

Chickens, Eggs, Health, Reflections, spring

Hello and welcome!

Vehicle Shopping

In a recent post I told you all that we were car shopping, wanting find a reliable, used vehicle to replace our minivan. After countless hours of searching online, researching different types of vehicles, test driving a few vehicles, and not finding what we are looking for we have decided that having some repairs done on our minivan with the hopes that it will continue to serve us for another year, or more, is the best thing to do.

So, we have suspended our car shopping and are moving on to other things. Forgive me, but I am going to repeat that in hopes that the internet will hear/ see or detect it and stop bombarding me with vehicle advertisements. We are no longer shopping for a vehicle. I doubt that will help but worth a try. 🙂

Spring

There is not much to be done at the farm as we wait for spring to truly get here but we’ve observed a couple of the earliest signs of spring, the buds on the trees are swelling which means the sap is flowing. This is something I learned to watch for several years ago when we were collecting sap and making maple syrup. We haven’t done that in a few years since we no longer have a source of inexpensive wood to burn for boiling the sap into syrup. The process uses a lot of wood and can be quite expensive. 🙂

The other sign is that our hens are laying eggs again. It was back when we were tapping maple trees that I noticed that the chickens begin laying eggs again around the same time that the sap begins flowing. In the past two weeks we have gone from getting one or two eggs every couple of days to getting as many as 13 eggs a day. I am grateful that I was able to get eggs from my sister throughout the winter while our hens were resting. Her flock are first year layers who didn’t take a break. I am even more grateful that our hens are laying again.

Projects

There are projects that need to be done in the house, however. One that we have tackled this past week is painting our kitchen. I had planned on doing this in November, but those plans changed when my dad got sick. It feels good to finally be back on track.

My husband also changed the wax seal in the toilet this week. I love that he is able and willing to do this job, so we don’t have to pay a professional to have it done.

Health

Last year I got into a routine of exercising at least 30 minutes almost every day. Exercise is said to be the best thing a person with Parkison’s Disease can do. I also altered my eating habits, so I was eating less and including more fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet. I ate few desserts and limited them to just a few bites when I did indulge. As a result, I lost 30 pounds and felt good.

In November and December, when I was busy taking care of my dad’s affairs, I had slacked off on my exercise routine and got off track with my diet plan. I gained about 3 pounds back. In January I got back on track with my exercise and I am again to doing at least 30 minutes a day on either the recumbent bike or the stationary bike. I do feel better on the days that I exercise than if I miss a day. I am also working on getting back on track with eating right. If only I didn’t like sweets so much.

Crafting

I completed a few craft projects since the beginning of the year. I’ve made three more of the reusable shopping bags like I had made for my daughters for Christmas. I also made two hoodie style shirts. One for my sister and one for myself. The picture below is the one I made for me. The one I made for my sister went together well and she loved it when I gave it to her. When making mine I apparently wasn’t paying attention when I sewed the hood on backwards. After realizing what I had done I said “OH NO!” shook my head and decided to take a break because it wasn’t worth getting upset over.

I vacuumed the house and after lunch and a nap spent about two hours using a seam ripper to remove all of the stitches that held the hood in place. The next day I pinned the hood in place and held up the shirt to make sure it was right before sewing it on. Believe it or not I again had the hood backwards. Thankful that I checked, I unpinned the hood and repinned it the right way. Lesson learned!

I am also in the process of crocheting a baby afghan. I expect to have that finished in the next few days.

Last week my husband took me to Joann Fabrics to do some shopping. They are in the process of closing their stores and liquidating their stock. It was early in the process, so the sale prices were not great, but I wanted to get some things before they were sold out. We still have two other craft stores in the area that sell fabric and yarn, but their selections are not as good as Joann Fabric. It is sad that they are closing. We will certainly miss shopping there.

Looking Forward

Our weather forecast for the upcoming week shows a dry week with temperatures in the 50’s Fahrenheit most days, so I am looking forward to getting outdoors. I expect to see daffodils and garlic poking up through the ground and that robins and red winged blackbirds have returned to the area. Perhaps I will even hear frogs singing. Just a few of the things I love about spring.

Thanks for visiting.

What are you enjoying about spring?

Happy Thanksgiving and a Surprise

Chickens, Reflections

I want to start by saying that I hope all of my friends/readers here in the US had a great Thanksgiving and wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

Now a quick farm story – Yesterday we had a surprise at the farm when these three chickens showed up.

We don’t know where they came from but since they were inside the fence we can only assume that someone dropped them off. My husband did check with a couple of neighbors who said they did not belong to them. It appears that at least one is a young rooster, but they may all be roosters. Too many roosters can cause problems in a flock. Extra roosters are usually butchered for meat, but these are fancy breeds not meat birds. We are working on identifying their breeds.

They seem pretty friendly, and my husband was able to get them in the coop last night since the temperature was down around freezing. Two of them found their own way in the coop tonight and my husband helped the other one in. Our flock seems to have accepted them so far, so unless they start causing problems, I think they have found a new home.

Thanks for visiting.

How was your Thanksgiving?