Chickens to the Outdoor Pen

We have been extremely busy of late during this glorious spring. We have plowed, gardened, gotten our seed starts going, landscaped, fenced....,you name it. And our chickens have now graduated from the basement to the outdoor coop. They really have enormous individual personality and I highly recommend them to anyone who likes animals. Now days even most suburban neighborhoods allow a few chickens and I wish we had done this when our kids were young.

We ended up with two roosters and this guy is named Carmine. He is the smaller of the two but way more agressive and he comes right up to you with his skinny neck, puffs up his chest and tries to crow which comes out almost like a crow but strangled. I named him Carmine because in almost every unit I was assigned to when I was in the Marine Corps we had a scrawny Italian kid from Brooklyn or there abouts who thought he was a gift to women, was always getting into fights, wore a gold chain with the Italian horn...and generally was a great guy to hang out with. This rooster has a big personality and reminds me of those guys from long ago. 

They have settled into their outdoor coop quite nicely but they still havent roosted on the roosts. Holly talks to them and they respond which is not surprising to anyone who knows her as she is just an animal person like me. She really, really, has gotten into the whole chicken thing and I actually feel kind of bad for not making this a priority sooner.

It took a day or so before they ventured to the outdoor pen but they seem to really enjoy it. We have watched them eat bugs, take dust baths, and display their individual personalities. So we have a new hobby...chicken watching!!

One of the things we need to do this year is submit soil samples to the University of Missouri Cooperative Extension to test for PH level, Potassium, Phosphorous, Manganese etc.and they will send you a report advising on the appropriate amounts of lime to spread for Ph levels, nitrogen and other mineral requirements etc. You then can have a specific blend brewed up by the feed store and rent one of their giant spreaders which you tow behind your truck.

We dug down 6 to 8 inches in 18 different holes around our pastures and put them into this bucket and mixed it well then took about a cup and a half and submitted it. I know our Ph is going towards acidic and we want about a 6 - 6.5 so we will have to spread lime this year and my plan is to go with a mostly Nitrogen based fertilizer mix but we will see what the sample tests out as (I will post a scan of the results if I can to show you what we look at). Bottom line though, no matter what the results are it will involve lots of $$$$. And for those wondering....no our pastures are not going to be organic. We are developing a small lab at the farm and can determine the Ph levels of the soil and run other tests (some of the stuff we need to test on our own is vey pricey) but we dont have a centrifuge which limits us somewhat (looking for one on Craigslist but so far...) and the price of the testing from the University is very low so we use them. Frankly, the only reason we want to do some of this ourselves is because we like self sufficiency and we are interested in it.

We had already tilled the garden beds and added what we wanted to incorporate and we decided to get smart this year and use the tractor to make the planting furrows rather than doing it by hand. We tried the middle buster on the Kubota but the furrows were too close together so we switched to the IH and it was just the right spacing.

We made furrows in three of our plots while the fourth will be mounded for mellons. Our 5 year plan is to greatly expand based on what we have learned so we can focus on commercially viable plantings.  

The IH performed well but the lack of power steering sure gave me a workout. There is nothing more satisfying than spending a day on an old piece of machinery, hearing the sound of the old engine, smelling the freshly turned earth, feeling the sun, and just enjoying all that we have been blessed with.

There is so much chaos and acrimony (elections anyone?) being pumped into our homes 24/7 that I think a lot of folks have lost sight of what is important and what is not. We look at the drivel that passes as journalism now or the morally and intellectually vacant offerings of network TV and we just reject them. Can anyone actually respect an elected politician once they have been dragged through the mud on prime time during an election? When I was a young Officer of Marines it was constantly drummed into us that familiarity breeds contempt...in other words, dont act a fool in front of your Marines and never let them catch you in a lie...too bad most politicians never learned those lessons. So we focus on local issues, we mostly ignore what is happening on the national stage and though some say we shouldnt bury our heads in the sand..I firmly believe we are happier and better off for it. I think we were born a couple generations too late!

 

Ahhh Life is Good in the Spring

Flowers are blooming, winter is but a mere wisp of memory and we are already working on the tan. To our Alaska friends and family.......sorry. Seriously. I am just a couple weeks from my last day of employment with the Sheriff's dept, we pick up our pullets from Cackle Hatchery on Thursday and its supposed to be in the mid 70s to low 80s all week.

This is a time of frenetic activity and we are busy plowing, starting seed in the green house, and getting projects done. Tonnes (yes thats how its supposed to be spelled thanks for asking) of fencing, window replacement, renovation of the out buildings, etc have been started and we are enjoying the start of spring activities in this part of the world. We have been to Baker Seed where we bought seed and had a great vegan lunch, we went to Cackle Hatchery and took a tour and ordered our chicks, the trout season just started and the Wild Turkey spring hunting season is soon to start. We have seen hundreds...withbout exageration, of wild turkeys running all over and strutting...the mild winter seems to have been to their liking. I have also seen recently a big increase in the number of quail flying about and road runners...bet you didnt know we had road runners eh?

So life is pretty good right now, we are shutting down the outside wood boiler as of tonight, and its amazing how your attitude improves with warmth and sunshine.

Spring plowing....we turn this earth because we are still building the tilth and trying to kill bugs. For the tractor purists...no the rear tires dont exactly match but they both hold air and if you have priced the price of agricultural tires recently (even Chinese) you understand.

I have sure enjoyed this International Harvester tractor. No power steering or anything fancy but the sound of an older tractor cant be beat and it is a lot heavier than the Kubota so it plows a lot smoother. A little red tractor just seems right on an old fashioned farm and its kind of a fullfillment of a dream for me.

It gets the job done just fine but it is old (not as old as me but close) and you have to have an understanding of older machinery and its ideosynchrocies to actually operate it which somehow pleases me.

Go to YouTube and listen to the old tractors like this one and then imagine the smell of newly turned earth and the crisp smell of spring and you might begin to understand how satisfying this is. We are using a middle buster plow to break the ground, then we will add amendments to the soil, and till it with the Kubota and rear tiller. Its a lot easier this year now that we are in the third year of this and picking rocks.

This was the site of our corn patch last year and since we will be rotating crops I am thinking this will be some sort of nitrogen fixing crop...

The upper gourd and pumpkin patch got the same treatment and here we are picking rocks and putting them into some field fencing we have made into round cages to hold the rock. They make nice corner posts and are common in the Ozarks.

The workout routine is coming along nicely but I am personally disproportionately developing my back and upper body due to all the physical labor around the old farmstead. I dont really know of a solution since physical labor is what I enjoy and these things need to be done..but...

Judy dug up the overwintered carrots we had missed and got a nice bunch

I am not a fan of carrots from the store but these are sweet

We continue to eat off the spinach patch...also overwintered

And some of the onion sets have been put out.

One of our projects this year is renovation of the out buldings; specifically the well house, rock garage, and dairy barn. This well house is the first step. New windows, re-tuck pointing the mortar, and a roof redo.

The new windows and tuck pointing is done....

This back window was original to the structure and was redone but was in so bad of shape it will likely need to be replaced in a couple years.

Redoing the mortar and windows made a big difference. Unseen but equally important was the re-fastening of the roof tin and patching the concrete interior. You see Whiskers the cat in this picture....he is Judy's cat that we rescued from the vet and he is a real character.

Both wondows of the stone garage have been replaced and the double doors will be worked on next.

But one day last week I looked at the pasture and it just looked bad because of all the cow manure in piles around the pasture...it needed to be dragged with a harrow or pasture drag...but they want hundreds for them. So I took a cattle pannel ($18.50)....tied some old tires from the barn to the top...and then chained it to the back of the tractor 3 point and Viola'....a cheap pasture drag that worked great.

Cheap or free is good and this old tractor is a blast to operate.

If you have pasture and manure you will relate..this was simple and cheap

This is in front of the pole barn shop and is only included because I like it. The girls like to be nosey and follow us around when we are in the pasture like we are celebrities.

And we finally started replacing the windows in the house garage. Last years project delayed by back surgery and weather. We took out the old window (pictures will be included in a followon post) and I found I had to re-frame the entire window opening.

This is just the start..pressure treated lumber, concrete,......way more complicated than it had to be but we only have 2 windows to do.

And to end this long tome....Whiskers likes to help out in the green house...as long as he doesnt have to exert much energy...and you feed him catnip....

Fall is Here...Gardening and Halloween Decorating

Hauling the hay for the front Halloween decorations Holly wanted.

Hay from our pasture, corn and sorghum stalks from our garden and pumpkins from our pumpkin patch...the scarecrow from Walmart!!

We started plowing the lower garden for next years croips and we plan on planting winter weat next week.

It looks cold in this photo but it was about 75 degrees...but it does look like fall which is my favorite time of the year.

It was time to knock down the corn field and plant winter wheat.

Throughly enjoyable task; brought back memories of the great corn harvest we had this year.

The sorghum patch in the background will remain for a bit longer. We have been cutting stalks and sucking on them like you would sugar cane..very sweet. Once we cut it down we will use it for silage for the horses.

We have composted regularly and have several good piles that actually steam when you turn them. Next week we are going to pick up a truck load of manure we were offered to add to some of our piles and to spread in the garden...prepping for next spring.

The supervisor

The boss with some of her carrots. She planted a variety of colors and though they look cool, I cant tell the difference. We still have a lot of carrots in the ground yet to harvest.

The bell peppers, turnips, beets, and carrots are all still doing well (we use row covers when frost is possible). We also have broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach in another garden and a bunch of herbs, tomatoes, lettuce and raddishes in the greenhouse.

The old corn patch ready for winter wheat sowing.

The new plot, less grass to mow, prepping for the spring, and ready for winter wheat.

The oaks are really changing colors too.

The new patch from the barn, the grass on this side of the big tree is where the leach field is so we cant plant there....I will have to continue to mow it.

We had a huge crops of persimmons off of our two persimmon trees. Once the frost hit them they went from bitter to sweet almost overnight but we had so many we couldnt give them away.