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I want to thank each of you personally for all the kind words. But I can’t. Every time I try my eyes fill with tears and I can no longer see what I’m typing. Thank you - each and every one. And forgive me if it seems impersonal. It truly is not. I just can’t get past the emotion.

I suspect I’ll never get over losing sweet little Hope. Especially since I’ve learned what I could have done to prevent it. And even what I could have done to save her. It would have been hard. But I could have done it. That will haunt me forever I’m sure. But now I know. I won’t lose another to bloat. At least not without saying I did my dead level best to save her. But honestly? I did my best with Hope. I just didn’t know……

Georgia is doing GREAT. She is already running to me when I go into the goat barn. I’m not surprised that she is showing dominance. She is the Queen, and I am respecting that. Mirrie? Not so much. Mirrie couldn’t care less about the Queen. When I enter the goat barn Mirrie runs up to me screaming bloody murder. Georgia is right behind her, and butts Mirrie out of the way. I understand that Georgia is Queen. I reach down and pet her first. If I’m feeding Mirrie a bottle, I make sure I offer some sweet feed to Georgia first, and then feed Mirrie. I’m trying to teach Mirrie, but she is too danged sweet, cute, and stubborn. And before it’s all said and done I am on my knees kissing Mirrie and loving on her. Georgia comes right up, and I’m sure to show her as much attention as she will allow.

It’s going to be ok. I don’t think I’ll ever really get over this experience, but it’s going to be ok. We’re building a milking stand this weekend. It will hold goats while they are milked, and while they are worked on (trimming hooves, etc.) I’m excited to get that finished.

Please allow me to also quickly bring you up to date on the pups….We had to take them to the vet for booster shots this afternoon. Diesel weighs 77 pounds. Dolly weights 70 pounds. The vet wants to see Diesel at 70 pounds, and Dolly at 65 pounds. This will not be easy. These pups exercise daily - a lot. They also enjoy their treats - a lot. The vet asked what they get treats for and Bernie said “Breathing.” And the vet reached down and petted both of them and said “You are wonderful pups - but breathing just isn’t that special”. *sigh* Now the pups are on a diet. The good news is that the surgery Diesel is certain to have due to hip dysplasia may be prolonged if he loses weight. That’s worth is to all of us. At just over one year old, Diesel has a fair amount of issues with his hips and legs…..

Thank all of you. Not only for following my blog, but being such sweet friends. Spring is springing - and soon I’ll be posting about planting in the garden, preserving, canning, baby chicks, pregnant does, and all the wonderful things that this time of year brings. Thank you for sticking with me during the hard times. Because there are always hard times. No matter what you dream about living in the country, you must accept that there will be hard times. It’s not easy, but you can get past it. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes. In the end, that really is why I started this blog in the first place.

XXXOOO

Hey, Mom. I think Diesel has something for you.

Um, well, I’m not sure what you mean. Isn’t Diesel sleeping?

I think he’s waking up, Mommy.

Hey, Diesel - did you want to tell me something?

Awwwwww. You smiling for mommy??? Dolly - look at Diesel smiling! Isn’t that the cutest thing?

Diesel is boring, Mommy. But I’m happy you sat up and started typing on that computer.

Welcome home, Mommy. We missed you.

It’s rainy and cold. I can’t get warm.

Wait! I know where I can go to get warm.

Maybe I can just sneak up there with them.

Uh, oh. I think they see me.

Hey! Where’d everyone go?????

Well, maybe dad will get the fireplace going.

When my hens started going broody back in March, it caught me by surprise. I really did not expect to have broody hens because I intentionally bought what I believed were non-broody breeds. I quickly built a couple of brooders in the coop out of hardware wire. I disliked those brooders immensely. They had sharp wires poking up everywhere and, as a result, I have had scratches and torn clothing all summer. And I always worried that the chickens would get hurt on that wire. I actually suspect that may be where Duke got the foot injury that resulted in the Battle-of-the-Bumblefoot we’ve been going through around here.

So this past Friday, I took the day off work and Bernie and I rebuilt the brooders. I’m much happier with them.

We also put a much steeper slope on the top of the nest boxes to keep the chickens off of it. And we moved one of the roosts to keep the poop away from the brooder area.

While I had the camera out, I remembered to take a picture of a volunteer flower that came up in the strawberry bed. That area had previously been a wildflower bed and this flower is apparently the result of a seed that was left in there:

I honestly don’t remember seeing a flower like that in the wildflower bed. I’m sure I would have remembered such a beautiful bloom! OK, all you flower-name-knowing people, any idea what kind of flower that is? I plan to keep the seeds. That’s one of the prettiest flowers I’ve ever seen! It’s like a bouquet of flowers in one bloom.

I’m not very good at remembering to take pictures so, since I had my camera handy, I took it along when the pups and I went on the mail run this afternoon.

Diesel is obsessed with tall grass and weeds. He absolutely loves laying in it and playing in it. Can you see him in this picture?

Look right slap, dab in the middle. Here’s a closer view:

He finally poked his head out

Which is just what Dolly was waiting for. She immediately pounced on him

And then she ran around with reckless abandon

Until she spotted a bug on the driveway

Hey good lookin’

Dang, I never even knew the boy could move this fast!

Lordy, I do love these pups. And my flower. And my new brooders.

I am so dad-gum easy to please.

We spent a few hours yesterday scouring the woods on our property for morel mushrooms. We may have been a week late or, depending on what you read on the internet, a week early. Either way, we didn’t see hide nor hair of a moral mushroom. Darnit. We’ll head out again later in the week and see if we have any better luck.

We took the pups out with us while we were searching through the woods. I had hoped to show you pictures of morel mushrooms but, since that’s not going to happen this weekend, I am going to show you pictures of Diesel and Dolly instead.

Dolly managed to find a deer skull pretty quickly, and she toted it around, playing keep-away from Diesel for quite some time.

Yea, I know. You’re probably grossed out that we let her play with a deer skull. But, hey - these are country dogs and it’s cheap entertainment. They’ve got to find fun where they can.

Soon Diesel lost interest in chasing Dolly with the skull, and decided loving on daddy was more his speed.

We walked for several hours, and the pups spent most of it running around ahead of us. As the day wore on, they wore out. Soon they were staying right with us.

And when Diesel started sitting down, we figured it was time to get home.

Even though we got skunked looking for morels, we had a great time watching the pups romp and enjoying our walk through the woods.

It’s been raining here all day. I made some egg noodles for a batch of home made chicken noodle soup I’m making for supper. I also started making some more polymer clay eggs. Here are two I finished this afternoon:

I baked two more, but will leave them to sand another day. Sanding those bad boys takes a little bit of work and time, and I’m ready to just chill for a bit before getting after supper.

The chickens are doing great and we are averaging about a dozen eggs a day. The babies are really getting big, and I’m 99.9% positive I’ve got two roosters out of the five of them. I should get rid of both of them. I don’t have enough hens to keep up with all four roosters. I’m really struggling with the whole thing. I’ll probably end up getting rid of one of the cockerels, and keeping the other for a while to see how keeping three roosters works out. I suspect I’ll end up having to get rid of the other cockerel as well. It makes me sad to even think about it. So I’m not going to - I’ll think about it later.

It wasn’t the most productive weekend we’ve ever had on the homestead, but it was a nice and relaxing one. Sometimes it’s nice to take a day or two and do little more than just enjoy the homestead.

Bee Free,
Penny

For each person that keeps chickens, there is probably just as many variations in chicken coop designs and management techniques. When we built our coop, we based the design on one that would be as predator proof as possible from the many predators in this area and one that would provide adequate protection from the elements that are typical for our area. Our coop sits above the ground, with about a foot or so between the floor of it and the earth underneath. The coop flooring is treated OSB, and I chose the “Deep Litter Method” (DLM from here on out) for coop poop management.

The idea behind the DLM is really quite simple. You start with a clean coop floor, cover it with about four to six inches of litter, and then about once a week or so, sprinkle litter over the top of that to cover the poop as it accumulates. I use pine chips that Bernie chips up for me from fallen pine trees around here. Once a month or so I use a garden rake and stir all that litter around in the coop, just to keep the poop from clumping. On days when we have snow or a lot of rain and the chickens hang out inside the coop, I sprinkle some scratch all through the litter on the coop floor and the chickens stir it for me.  If done correctly, there will be virtually no offensive smell in the coop, and  the litter only needs to be completely removed once a year. If the coop is kept dry, the litter remains dry, as does the flooring beneath it.

I really like using the DLM for several reasons, the least of which is not the fact that it only takes me about 10 minutes each day to clean the coop and replenish feed and water containers. The daily coop cleaning duty is referred to as the “Coop Poop Boogie” here on the homestead, and consists of scraping all poop off the top of nest boxes, nest porches, and roosts, sprinkling new litter on the coop floor as required, filling feeders and changing out water. By the way, the Coop Poop Boogie is not to be confused with the Poop Scoot Boogie, which is performed after stepping in a fresh little pile of chicken poop in the yard on the homestead. Everyday’s a party around here.

Yep, the Coop Poop Boogie is fast and easy, thanks to the DLM. The coop spring cleaning, however, is not. It’s not fast. And it’s not easy. I spent about 4 1/2 hours yesterday spring cleaning the coop, which, among other things, involved shoveling out about two feet of poop encrusted litter. But, with each shovel load, I reminded myself that this one day of pain is what makes the daily Poop Scoop Boogie so tolerable the other 364 days of the year. And I was quite pleased that once all the litter was out of the coop, the floor beneath it and the nest boxes were perfectly dry.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with a mountain of poop encrusted pine shavings which I mixed with straw and leaves and covered in Chicken Poop Tea I’ve been brewing for the past couple of months.   This colossal pile of poop is now soaking in the 3/4 inch of rain we got last night. It’s supposed to rain all day and into tomorrow, and this soaking is just what the poop pile needs. I checked it this morning, and it’s already getting hot. For the next several months I will continue to add straw, grass cuttings, kitchen scraps, chicken poop, and water to this massive pile, and by next spring, I should have a beautiful pile of compost that my garden will enjoy.

That’s the chicken poop pile on the right, and my straw pile on the left.

Composting pine shavings can take quite some time, but by regularly adding chicken poop, straw, and “green” material to it (grass, kitchen scraps, etc.)  and keeping the pile damp, you may be amazed at how much more quickly the composting process occurs. I’ve done this on a much smaller scale and it works beautifully and quickly. Every week or so, rather than wetting with water, I pour a bucket or two of Chicken Poop Tea on it to help keep this compost pile hot. I make this tea by filling a couple of buckets half full with water and then adding in the poop I scoop each day until the buckets are full. I also stir them daily, while holding my nose.  And I keep the buckets covered with a loosely fitting lid.

By the end of the year, I should have a nice, rich mountain of compost. I’ll stop adding chicken poop to the pile and let it “season” until next spring. Chicken poop is extremely strong and will kill plants if applied directly to them without allowing the poop to age and compost. The rule of thumb is: If you can recognized the shape of the poop, it’s probably too “hot” to apply to plants. Allow it to break down completely and NEVER apply Chicken Poop Tea directly on plants or the ground where they are planted. It’s just too strong - but it works great to speed composting in compost piles.

So that’s the scoop on the Coop Poop Boogie. Come to think of it, this all sums up my life beautifully - enriched with poop. Every dad gum day.

While I was out cleaning the coop, Bernie left the dogs in the house to bring me some tools for reconstructing the little chicken hospital in the coop. When I came in for a break he said “Good news! You get to do some shoe shopping!” I immediately looked at the puppies. Neither would make eye contact with me. “I left my sandals by the door when I changed into my rubber boots, didn’t I? How badly did they chew them up?” I asked. “Well, it wasn’t ‘they’, it was ‘him’ and it wasn’t ‘them’, it was ‘it’.” *sigh* “Well, how bad is IT?” Bernie said “You might be able to salvage it. I’m not sure, but I think Dolly stole it and gave it to Diesel. It was in Diesel’s mouth when I found it, but Dolly was looking kinda guilty.”

That doesn’t look very salvageable to me. I realize it looks like something I dug out of the dump, but I LOVE those sandals. I’ve had them for years. They were broken in beautifully and had become the only sandals I wear in the summer on the homestead. Darnit. But it’s my fault for leaving them on the floor and providing a temptation little Dolly and/or Diesel just could not resist. The joy of puppies…….

Bee Free,

Penny

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the homestead and we celebrated it by doing absolutely nothing more than enjoying the sunshine and mild temperature.

I take the dogs with me when I walk down to get mail each day, and although it is only 1/4 mile to our mailbox, the pups always manage to take me on an adventure before we get there.

Diesel likes to stop and smell the flowers along the way.

Our walk involves very little of the driveway. We need to do a bit of exploring through the woods. Look what we found off the beaten path.

It’s in the upper left, hanging from that skinny little branch. Last year’s home to a bunch of wasps. (Correction: My father informs me, and rightly so, that this is actually a hornet nest, not a wasp nest) We’re glad we didn’t run into that LAST year!

And what’s this?

Heaven only knows how long that has been propped against the tree. The cedar has actually split, and grown around the top of it.

The first recording of this property was in 1904. Some of the descendants of the first owners still live in this area and we’ve met a couple of them. They tell us this land was home to a lot of livestock at one time, which we can tell by all the fencing we’ve found throughout the property. It was farmed as well. The old timey way. Any ideas what that piece of equipment is? Some sort of hitch for a horse or two, I suspect. I’d love to remove it and display it somehow, but the wood pieces in it are very rotten, and it is securely wrapped in that tree right now.

But no time to dwell on that. The next stop is the cabin. There’s always something to sniff up at the cabin, and the yard is wide open and the perfect place to soak in some rays.

And now it’s time for our favorite part of the mail fetching extravaganza. The creek!

After a good rain, the creek is filled with running water. It’s not very full right now, but there’s still enough water to make a splash.

Dolly loves splashing.

Diesel ….. not so much.

But he is a genuine boy, and just loves being muddy.

And he loves to bark. Especially when Dolly insists on jumping at him.

And as the mail fetching draws to an end, we need to stop for a little rest sometimes.

And we all go home, content that a little of the property has been sniffed up and explored, and the puppies have gotten a good mud bath.

As beautiful as the day was, the poor chickens could only enjoy it from their chicken run. They spent the day penned up, safe from the raptors that are craving an easy chicken meal. That did not prevent a chicken hawk from stopping by to torment them through the run fencing, though. Poor babies. They’ll be penned up again today. We’re all hoping the hawks find an easier meal and move on. I’m not sure how long I can keep my chickens penned. They complain loudly. I’m resigned to accept the fact that I will lose a couple of chickens to predators - but I am NOT resigned to losing the entire flock. The frequency of the hawks’ visits really worries me right now.

Bee Free,
Penny

This past weekend we leveled the ground for the greenhouse and began putting it together. I had planned to post pictures right away, but between the arrival of the new babies and the coop room brawl, I had to put it off for a few days. Thankfully things have calmed down enough for me to post those pictures now.

Leveling the ground took a little bit of time. This is where we started:

Thank goodness for Bernie’s backhoe! It did the majority of the work for us, even though there was a fair amount of manual shoveling we had to do to get it completely level.

Once everything was level, Diesel and Dolly conducted a thorough inspection.

Dolly approved of the depth of the hole.

Then they took a break to watch chickens for a few minutes.

With the inspection complete, it was time to unpack the boxes containing the greenhouse parts.

Then it was break time.

We managed to get the front and back of the greenhouse put together. As I mentioned earlier, this is certainly a two person job. It is not difficult, it just requires some you-hold-this-together-while-I-adjust-that. I didn’t take pictures, because nothing is standing yet. We assembled the front and back and they are laying on the ground. The next step is to assemble the sides and then we can put them all together. We had hoped to complete the project over one weekend, and someone that has a fairly level ground to begin with probably could. The leveling took up a good chunk of the first day, so we didn’t get as far along as we had hoped. If the weather cooperates, we should complete this project next weekend. I’ll be sure to post more pictures.

With the new biddies peeping, my garlic starting to break ground, and the unusually warm weather we’ve been having, I am beginning to really yearn for spring. I’m excited to get this greenhouse up and get busy preparing for the vegetable garden. Spring and summer are the most productive on the homestead. We need a productive spring and summer in this economy.

Bee Free,
Penny

I think you would get as many definitions of homesteading as people who were asked. I’ve participated in several forum conversations about the definition of homesteading and it always ends the same - it depends on who you ask. Originally, homesteading was the act of claiming public land and farming it. After a certain period of time, the person occupying that land could legally become the owner of it. This is no longer the case in the United States. As a result, I don’t think there really are any “official” homesteaders left in this country - at least not in the sense of claiming public land for farming. But homesteading does exists in the spirit, heart, and daily lives of many in this country.

If a single definition of homesteading can not be agreed upon, I think everyone would agree, at the very least, that homesteading involves claiming your small section of this earth and using it to provide a level of self-sufficiency. Whether that small section is an apartment, a home in town, or acreage in a rural area. Self-sufficiency is key to homesteading. It’s the comfort of knowing that no matter what happens in this world, a person can take care of and provide for her/him self.

I don’t mean to go all “Websters” on you. I’ve gotten several emails lately from people wanting to know how they can get started in homesteading. That’s a really tough question - it very much depends on a person’s individual situation and circumstances. So I thought I’d just throw out there that I believe anyone can homestead, anywhere. Learn to be as self-sufficient as possible. Spend some time considering those things you can not live without, and then figure out how you can provide them for yourself. I don’t mean to over simplify this. This is simply the best advice I can give.

And speaking of homesteading…. what homestead is complete without a dog or two to protect it? Just look at this vicious puppy:

And how about this one?

They are even well trained, and wait by the gate to go on their daily walk through the woods

And when mommy lags behind, this ferocious pup will wait until she catches up

And then he’ll zip across the log and blaze a trail

But everyone deserves a break now and then - even if it involves taking a moment to just look too darn pretty

But then it’s back to business and making sure daddy knows he’s being well protected

Ahhhhh. Homesteading. It helps not to take yourself too seriously.

Bee free,
Penny

It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been wanting to get pictures of the pups to show how big they are getting, but for some reason the only time I think about the camera is when they are sleeping. I’ll work on that this week. In the meantime, I’ve heard from enough of you to know that I should bring you up to date on what’s been happening on the homestead.

We took the pups to the vet for booster shots this afternoon. Dolly is now 20 pounds, and Diesel is 18! Not bad for a little runt. He’s really catching up with Dolly. These little puppies are a source of constant joy to us. It’s hard to be in a bad mood around them. Diesel and Dolly can make everything all better.

And I really needed Diesel and Dolly last night. I went out to candle the eggs under my second broody and I dropped one and cracked it. And it bled. And I cried. I am so upset with myself. I just can’t tell you how badly I feel. I’m not touching those eggs again. But on an up-note, I do believe the three eggs I candled before that were all fertile and filled with baby chick beginnings. They were mostly dark as I peered through them. I guess we’ll know in about two more weeks…..

Bernie found a nest in the far corner of the garage with fifteen eggs in it. Sneaky little hens. Most of the eggs had frozen and cracked. I’m pretty sure they’ve got another nest somewhere. Ten eggs a day just doesn’t add up when I’ve got 20 hens. I guess I’m going to have to do a little chicken stalking and find their secret hiding place.

Bernie somehow managed to hurt his shoulder. He actually injured it several months ago, but it’s gotten worse over time and it’s now to the point where he can hardly sleep through the night. I believe I can count on one hand the number of times he’s been to the doctor in the past 10 years for any type of illness or injury, but he actually agreed to go to one about his shoulder. And he was referred to an orthopedic specialist. His appointment is next week. In the meantime, he hasn’t really been able to do a whole lot, and he’s actually doing more than he probably should. He’s still chopping, splitting, and stacking wood several times a week. We kind of underestimated how much wood it was going to take to get us through the winter. This is the first winter we’ve had our wood burning stove and heated exclusively with it. The good news is that the wood is free. The bad news is that it takes A LOT of wood to get through a winter! Especially when the weather has been so unusually cold for so incredibly long. But have no fear. My man can handle it. With one arm tied behind his back - or flopping uselessly by his side.

In closing, I’m going to include a recipe for a Chicken Potato Bake that is super fast and super good. I found it one evening when I just could not think of what to fix for supper and I decided to search for something quick and easy. This one fit the bill. The original recipe wasn’t quite creamy enough for us, so I modified it a bit. I’m sure a lot of you I-Always-Make-Everything-from-Scratch people will get the shivers reading this, but hey - sometimes a person just feels a little lazy and wants a calorie laden meal for comfort. This is the meal for that person. And it only takes about ten minutes to assemble.

Chicken Potato Bake

Ingredients:
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg, beaten

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halved

1/2 package frozen potatoes O’Brian, thawed (about 12 ounces)
10 ounce can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup grated Pepper Jack cheese

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper on plate.

Place egg in small shallow bowl; beat well.

In a medium sized bowl, combine potatoes, soup, milk, sour cream, and Pepper Jack cheese; mix well. Pour into a 13×9″ glass baking dish or something similar.

One at a time, dip the smooth side of a chicken breast in egg, then in bread crumb mixture to coat. Place, coated side up, on the potato mixture. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.

Bake for 45 - 60 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and potato mixture is bubbling and brown around the edges.

Bee Free,

Penny