Never, Have I Ever...

Gotten a catalog for living creatures - poultry to be more specific.

A couple of weeks ago I was pokin' around on the Meyer Hatchery website and decided to have a catalog sent. Sure I can look at the catalog online, but this way I can add this to my sad farm library. Also, it's fun to thumb through a catalog...or magazine as I like to call it. 

If I were to do a mail order I might consider Meyer Hatchery as they have a large variety of poultry to choose from. From the various brown egg layers to white and "olive eggers" and "easter eggers." There are some even mor exotic birds available as well like Egyptian Fayoumi and White Sultan

Turkey for the holidays - Yep! Ducks & Geese - Yep & Yep! Game birds, hatching eggs and all sorts of accessories and supplies to get your chicken operation set up.

A couple of my favorite listings:

Leann's "Adopt Me" Bargain - 

These are basically the runts that were "hiding" in the incubators after a hatch. The catch with this collection - they could be anything including bantams or turkeys. Could you imagine? The chick that keeps growing turning into your holiday dinner centerpiece?

Personally, if I were to order a special collection/pack it would be the Production Pack. This option is all female and all excellent layers. The breeds that might be in this one would be: Golden Buff, Barred Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red, Buff Orpington, Black Australorp or White Leghorn. An order of 15 will set you back $50.42 which really isn't that bad of a deal actually. 

Here's a bonus:

The Fry Pan Bargain (meat bird section). This is a ALL-ROOSTER assortment. According to the catalog:

"This all-rooster assortment may include one or more of any large rooster in our catalog."

If you were inclined to go this route it is VERY affordable! 

• 1-5 $1.10
• 6-15 $0.99
• 16-25 $0.83
• 26-49 $0.66
• 50-99 $0.50
• 100+ $0.34

As much as I would like to order this pack...I think I will stick with a different broiler breed for my first batch of meat chickens.

Order yourself some chicks! Well, maybe get a place for them to live first...then place an order!

Imperfect

Last summer I grew carrots! Which was great because I tried the year before and didn't get anything!
Anyway, there were a few odd shaped carrots that came up...

I don't think that we had many, but the ones that we did get...they were pretty cool.

I was checking out Facebook and came across an ad on the newsfeed (why is this even a thing)? I usually don't pay attention to the ads, but this one was for a company called Imperfect Produce...ummm...what?

Well, I gotta check this out right? As you can see from my carrots above, I'm not opposed to weird looking produce. So, what is this Imperfect Produce? Well, according to the website, it's the produce that would never meet the standards for local stores to offer/display for sale. Kind of sad right? The people at Imperfect Produce take those weird looking fruits and veggies and make up boxes in 4 different sizes and different types of fruits and veggies (conventional or organic) and make it totally customizeable by the customer.

First I had to find out if this would be available in our area...it is. Alright...let's do this!! I just happened to get my order in at the right time for delivery this coming Thursday. I can cancel future orders or add to my account anytime - so convenient, maybe too convenient.

I opted for the Organic box and this is what will be in my first shipment:

The BEST part, I can totally ask for more of one item or less or add something that wasn't added, but available. Example: The list included a pound of parsnips - who eats parsnips?! I decided to add the avocados instead. I suppose I could have added all of the items, but seriously, what would I do with the parsnips? I was originally going to receive beets as well, but again, those avocados were calling out to me :)

Okay, so I realize that what will be in the box might not look great, I've looked at some videos on the YouTubes and there were some articles on google. I know what I'm getting into, so there will be NO SURPRISES. My hope is that I will be surprised in a good way. So much so that I will continue to order maybe every other week until the growing season.

Another nice thing about ordering is that the imperfection of each item is listed as well as where the produce was grown. Since we are in SW Washington our produce will be coming from a warehouse located in Clackamas. That's as local as it gets! Most of the items on my list will be from Washington/Oregon, but the citrus and the avocados are from California. That's local enough for me!

Who needs perfect fruits and veggies anyway? Well, usually I do, but if I can save money...

Check out Imperfect Produce HERE.

Seed Savers Exchange

In all the years that I have been gardening, it had never occurred to me to save the seeds. Most of the time, if I had grown flowers I would just let those seeds drop and then they might come up the following season. Vegetables? Forget it, we just pulled the plants up at the end of the season and heaped them into the compost.

A couple of years ago I grew some beans for drying and that worked out pretty well, although I didn't have enough to make a meal let alone store in the pantry. However, I saved what I harvested, let them cure out a little and stored them. I thought I would try planting them last season, but the garden really sucked last year so they didn't make it into the garden. There is always this year I guess. Here is what killsme...Tom's mother gave him some seeds that she saved from her favorite tomatoes - seeds she saved! I guess these seeds came from tomatoes that she grew 8+ years ago. She been saving seeds for these tomatoes for the past eight years?! What the WHAT?! We never KNEW that she saved seeds.

Okay, so I'm getting a sense that seed saving really isn't a big dealio...just gotta do it!

Enter Seed Savers Exchange.

A couple of weeks ago I was checking out the catalog and the website. Then on a whim I joined SSE on Thursday...now I am a paid up member! Somehow I landed on the Member Grower Club page. This is where they list a few seeds for members for FREE (just pay shipping). Today, those seeds arrived and I got a bonus pack of seeds. This must be a fluke to have received my order so quickly. I don't think it's nearly as quick from Johnny's - another favorite actually. In a couple of weeks or so I'll be placing a real order for a couple of collections to get started this season. I've narrowed the selection down to the Seed Savers Favorites and the Cut Flowers Collection. As a member I will receive a 10% discount. So that's another nice little perk for joining up. Check it out...

FREE SEEDS!

The Nasturtium is a bonus and will be a nice addition to my garden this year...and for years to come! It's time to get intentional and start saving seeds. Go HERE to check out the benefits of saving seeds...

Then join up and order some seeds to save!

Craigslist Deals

Craigslist...it's fun to check for pretty much anything for sale or trade or free.

Several times a week I look around for a variety of things that might be useful on our farm. Yesterday I hit the jackpot!

Since we are planning for the Guinea Hogs I started looking for things that we possibly could use. Most of the time I look at the free stuff in Clark County. There is a lot of furniture...which I would NEVER bring into my home no matter how new or clean it might look.

Yesterday an ad popped up mid-afternoon with no photos...the text said:

"6x 275gal IBC totes & 1 steel drum" 

WHAT?! I knew exactly what this item was after reading the title...

FREE?! Oh...I jumped on this deal almost immediately, I replied to the ad and by the time I got home, we went from going to pick up two totes this morning to going after I got home from work last night and picking up one tote. Two totes in the bed of the pick-up would have worked, but the drive back home would have been nerve-wracking. Also, 275 gallons is A LOT...and one tote will work fine for the two pigs that we'll be getting at the first of spring.

Before heading out for the day I did a quick search on the Google pants and the same tote from Uline would have been $499 - this was worth the drive to nearly the other side of town. FREE!!

Arriving home last night

This is a thing of beauty!

The tote was used to store mineral oil so we only need to clean it out before using it for our piggies. The only other thing I want to do to it is get a pig waterer nipple and install it. 

With this for a waterer we won't have thirsty pigs! 

Throwback Thursday - to January 24, 2017

Happy Thursday! One more day after today and it will be the weekend!! I am currently contemplating taking a vacation day tomorrow - however, the weather is looking rather wet, so I may as well just be at work...although being indoors at work is not nearly as fun as being indoors at home where I have all sorts of things I could do. Like PLAN! I don't know...we'll see.

Back to what was happening a year ago. My low tunnels were disheveled after the snow that we had the first couple of weeks in January. Snow that is mostly unusal for the Pacific Northwest. I like snow and all, but I would rather go someplace to play in it rather than have to deal with it at home.

The backyard

That's a lot of snow for us!

Go HERE to check out last year's post.

What Are We Doing?

It is almost the end of January and honestly, there isn't a lot going on at our little farmstead. The chickens are starting to lay more as well as preparing a the other half of the garden for the next garden season. The waterfowl...well, Shelly is a goof and Lenny is like the responsible older sibling, always serious. So nothing new there.

Indoor Projects

So what is happening at our home? Well, since our visit to the Cedar Creek Grist Mill the weekend after Thanksgiving, I have decided to learn how to bake bread and be all domestic-like. I tried a whole wheat bread a couple of times and it was okay. It had excellent flavor, but it was really dense. THEN while I was looking at the Red Star Yeast website I came across Easy Egg Bread and decided to try it out. On Christmas day I made this egg bread.

OMG....SO GOOD!

I'm sticking with this bread recipe. I have made it several times now and it has been good every single time. The original recipe calls for the dough to be braided. Which is nice and all, but it's not very uniform and doesn't work well for sandwiches. The reality is that we haven't done much in the way of sandwiches...just TOAST. Toasted egg bread? Yes, PLEASE!

The first loaf I made

A couple of weeks ago I decided to shape it into a loaf and see how it turns out. Well, looky below...not too bad. One time instead of using the Kitchenaid to do all the mixing, I did it by hand. It was a little slower - especially incorporating the rest of the flower, but it worked out. The only problem I really had was that I didn't knead in enough flour into the dough. When I went to shape it after the first rising it was still quite sticky. I was concerned, but it turned out anyway. I now realize that this recipe is very forgiving, you have to mess up pretty good for it to not work. Every loaf has been nearly perfect and so good. What I have been thinking of doing is making this into rolls - maybe smaller hamburger buns. That would be so good! Maybe next time.

This would be a nice homemade gift for friends and family!

The Library

I have added another book to my very sad little library of farm-related type books.

Shaye Elliott is a homesteader in North Central Washington and has a couple of books out, with another cookbook coming soon! This book is filled with a lot of information. Mainly I like the book because of all of the photographs! Those photos...her family's farm...oh my. I swoon!

Community

We are getting ready to invite the neighbors across the street from us, to grow their own little garden on our property. With 2.7 acres we have some space to spare. I already have a friend gardening in the "inner sanctum" of the yard. The neighbors would be in the space that is between our "free range" garden and the road. We haven't used hardly any of the property for anything and we don't plan to add other livestock other than the pigs. Also, this will give the chickens plenty to do at the end of the garden season. I am hopeful that we'll have some neighbors take us up on our offer. There are details that have not been determined other than they will be responsible for constructing some sort of raised bed and they will have access to some things like water and basic hand tools. If I have interested people, I will come up with an agreement of some sort. I have it in my mind to us our property as ministry and this is a good place to start. We are all about making connections.

Farm Visit

On MLK Jr. Day we went to visit Cascade Meadows Farm near Sandy, OR to learn about the American Guinea Hog. We are very excited to have found a farm that has been breeding them. They are willing to share information and have breeding pairs, young feeder pigs and will even teach people how to process the pigs! What a great find! Visit their website HERE. 

Healing

I was sick earlier this month and had to take a few days off of work. This week I have been feeling not so great again. The congestion just won't go away. I'm going to make an effort to get to bed at a reasonable if not kind of early time. Hoping that this crud will go away soon!

It's hump day...the weekend is almost here!

Sheldon the Duck

This duck.

He is the goofiest little duck ever!

In Tom's coat pocket when he was only a few days old.

Enjoying the sun in early spring.

For the longest time this little guy was a little stand-offish. However, in the last few months he has gotten to be a little clown. When we go out early in the morning to run he greets us and runs along the fence in hopes of some "outside" time. When I come home from work he's ready to leave the chicken paddock and take a swim in the pool or race Tom up and down the driveway. When we walk away, he just turns around and goes back to whatever it was he was doing. It's like he thought he would try to get us to let him out I guess. At least he tries.

Here are some details about Sheldon from the Livestock Conservancy:

Breed:  Magpie
Status:  Threatened
Use:  Meat & Eggs
Egg color & Size:  White, Medium to Large
Market Weight:  4 - 4.5 lbs
Temperment:  Docile, Active, Can be high strung (yes...he is active AND high strung!)

We did not intend to have a duck in the flock....just a goose.  To be a guardian of sorts. However, once we chose our gosling, the lady at the farm supply store said that he would need a buddy. Oh...how about a duckling? Yes? Okay...so we came home with one of each.

Here we are nearly 9 months later and these two dudes...

Summer 2017

Really, nothing else to say. Just a lot of fun!

Uses For...

For the longest time we just threw all of our egg shells into the compost bin. Then we got the chickens and we started giving the shells back to the chickies so that they could have the extra calcium back for nice hard shells. 

One day last week I was pokin' around looking at different garden stuff...could have been a magazine,  might have been on google, I don't remember. Anyway, there was an article about the different ways to use egg shells in the garden. One of the ways was this...

This is not the first time that I have seen a photo like this, but I never really thought about doing this. Especially with the regular store bought eggs. Those shells are WEAK and very brittle! Also, I'm not sure that I would actually do this since I have more garden space to fill than I have the time or patience to prepare the egg shells to do this sort of planting. I can use the eggshells in the garden as a bug deterrent, mulch and fertilizer though. So I may just save a bunch when the weather starts to improve and the garden boxes need to be prepped for spring planting. My garden can always use the soil amendments. 

I landed on a cool website on uses for egg shells - go HERE to check that out. 

Building Up A Library

Books, I have always liked having books...novels, non-fiction, how-to's you name it. For awhile we would go to the local bookstore on Friday night to hang out and thumb through the latest magazines, bargain books...new releases and everything in between. Ever since our two favorites closed - Barnes and Noble and Borders we don't really go out on Friday night anymore - Amazon Prime Video has filled that void now. That in addition to the fact that we are both early risers, which means bedtime comes early too.

The one thing that I have been thinking about is creating a space that would be specifically for researching, planning and looking at a variety of literature on gardening, animals and homesteading. I don't like homesteading per se, but the books I have looked at have excellent information on a variety of farmy things.

Once all evidence of Christmas was packed up and put away, I decided it was time to get my space put together. I've got an okay set up: a couple of easy chairs, the coffee table and my bookcase. The bookcase was emptied of all the books that were not related to gardening, animals and homesteading...and then the few books that I do have were put on the shelves. There are a few special issues of Mother Earth News that could also go into the bookcase instead of in the magazine rack on the floor.

The library is looking sad....

This just makes me want to go and look for more books whether they are instructional or just have a good story...I might have to start checking out the second hand stores for gently used books. At one time I did have more garden books, but eventually got rid of them. For awhile it appeared that my dream to be a flower farmer wasn't going to go anywhere. So anything remotely related to gardening was donated. That also included an early edition of Eliot Coleman's The New Organic Grower book - sadness. 

OOP - just ordered Welcome to the Farm by Shaye Elliott of the Elliott Homestead. She's a "local" living in north central Washington state. She was also featured on the Great American Farm Tour so you can check that out...

While I sit in my new space and dream about the future and what we need to accomplish this year, I'll be waiting for my book to arrive ~ it should be delivered Sunday.

Throwback Thursday

It's time for an old post from a year ago...

Progress - Throwback Thursday

The first summer that we had the hoop house I grew several tomato plants in it and it was great! I also had some cayenne peppers, but I think the tomatoes just crowded them out and they didn't do very well.

Last season I decided to go ahead and grow the tomatoes in the free range garden and it was fairly disappointing. Some of the plants did great (the paste tomatoes), but there was Blossom End Rot and other plants just didn't grow. So, I decided to go back to what was successful, but I also asked for a second hoop house specifically for growing plants in. No potting benches or shelves, just planting beds.

Now that we have one hoop house build under our belts, the second one will be much better!

A girl can hope...right?

Let's Grow A Garden!

Okay, so I have a little problem...

I like seeds...

Vegetable seeds, flower seeds, cover crop seeds.

You name it and I probably have got it. Well, not really, but I have a nice variety. Last fall I had intended to start sprouting seeds in trays for chicken fodder, but that hasn't happened. That is a task that I could put on my calendar to do in a couple of weeks maybe. 

Once I get all of that inventory sprouted, I'll be ready to order more from a new place that I learned about via the Great American Farm Tour - Seed Savers Exchange. 

The catalog that I requested a few weeks ago was delivered in the mail yesterday and I am excited! Yeah, I've got a bunch of seeds on my wish list on the website, but this is more fun for me, because I LOVE catalogs! I have already received 9 catalogs so far and there might be another on the way.

I love everything about Seed Savers Exchange though...all heirloom non-hybrid and non-gmo seeds. I have yet to actually sit down and look at the catalog, but I have looked at  a couple of things and it has the history of many (if not all) of the seeds that they have available for purchase.

So, while I thumb through my catalogs, take a look at the video about Seed Savers Exchange...and after you are done with that check out Justin Rhodes YouTube Channel and watch more videos from his epic 2017 tour of the United States!

Bringing Home The Bacon...

Or pigs to become bacon!

This is where I would like to create a paddock for the pigs

Now that we know where we would like to purchase the pigs, we have to get an area ready for them!

We already have invested in the Pig QuikFence Starter kit which, like the poultry netting includes the solar energizer and corner posts. Both kits were purchased from Premier 1 Supplies. We really like how easy the fencing is to move to other parts of our field/garden/yard. I made a minor mistake when I got the 160' netting for the chickens though - I ended up ordering the single spike...ooops. Oh well, it works just as well and we are able to give the girls and dudes a lot of space to forage. The pig netting is 100' and we'll move them maybe on the same schedule as the chickens, which is once a month, we'll see though. We can't be sure until we have them and see how much work they can do in a month. 

We'll need to put together some sort of shelter for them too. That might be as easy as a small hoop house. Although, I would like to have something a little more substantial for them, like a 3 sided shelter - maybe something that we can put a couple of wheels on to make moving it easier. Especially if we could hook it up to the lawn tractor.

Something like this could work for a little while

This is a bit fancy, but I like the idea of it

There are so many possibilities for our little hobby farm. A couple of weeks ago we put together a vision board to keep us motivated. AND to keep us looking forward and not lamenting that we didn't start this dream sooner. Now that Tom is semi-retired working part-time, he can take care of the chores during the winter months.  When spring and summer come around again I'll be out there messing with the chickens and the two hooligans everyday! It's possible that in 3 years or so I'll leave my job and we'll do this farm thing full time. It's a plan that I want to stick to!

Oh yeah...we got vision!

SWINE

Oh. My. Goodness. 

Today was our trip to Cascade Meadows Farm just outside of Sandy, OR. What a nice little 40 acre spot! We went out to learn about American Guinea Hogs and boy howdy, we got a lot of information - well Tom did, I was too busy checking out the piggies. So stinkin' fun! 

These pigs really are quite compact and so personality filled! They love a belly rub and they will come when you call them. When we arrived a couple of the sows came to greet us and stood near us, gave us a sniff and then waited for a little rub on the back side. How fun! The piglets weren't so friendly, but they are still young and haven't been around their farmer people enough yet. 

Our guide, Jason, told us pretty much everything we could ever want to know and more! I like that these are a heritage breed, but still has a status of "Threatened." Without farms like this one, this breed could go extinct as it once did until the 1980s. I like that we'll be able to continue to the Cascade Farm line here in our own back yard. They good job with choosing the traits that they want their pigs to have and culling those whose traits are not desirable.

They do not medicate their stock and the males are not castrated. The pigs are around people quite a bit, so they are used to being handled. 

Farmer Jason and the pigs that will be processed in the near future

The sows and their babies

When these little ones and their momma figured out there wasn't food when they were called...
she plopped down and they started to nurse

This momma is less than a year old and was slated to be processed, until she gave birth to these little ones.

Pigs & chickens get along well...the young pigs weren't far from these chickens

The Weekend Agenda

Saturday

1.  Move the Chickens - we do this once a month to keep things fresh for the girls and dudes. I try to keep the set up mostly the same so their isn't too much interruption with the egg layers, but sometimes they just get excited about a new space. Also, since I don't really get to hang out with Lenny & Shelly during the week I'll get to take care of them during the day and let them out to forage and get into their pool now and then throughout the weekend. Yay!!

Their current location

2.  Replenish the layer feed. There is a great warehouse that is around 4 miles from our house and they have reasonable prices and almost everything that we need to grow healthy chickens and other feathered creatures. Once we get the meat chickens and the guinea hogs we'll be stocking up feed from their warehouse. 

3.  Bake Bread. I have finally found a easy bread recipe that I have made a couple of times. It is Easy Egg Bread from the Red Star Yeast website. It's a reason to get my Kitchenaid out and make a little bit of a mess in the kitchen! I think this time I'll make regular loave instead of braiding the dough. I would like bread that is more sandwich bread shaped. This is seriously good...if you ever wanted to make bread try it! We haven't tried french toast yet, but I think it would be fantastic! 

 

4.  Game night at our friend's house. A little fellowship with our core group and hoping for a win...

Sunday

Worship in the morning and then lounging around in the afternoon and then small group in the evening. I love our church family...and I really appreciate our small group people. I couldn't do life with any other people. We are Blessed.

Monday - It's Martin Luther King Jr. day!! Woo hoo!!!

It's Cascade Meadows Farm visit day!! It looks like it will be a wet day, but maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get to tour their farm without getting too wet. We will be ready with a list of questions about American Guinea Hogs! 

I. Cannot. Wait.

Throwback Thursday

Going back to almost a year ago...

https://ciclogardener.blogspot.com/2017/01/oh-nosnow.html

I'm happy to say that we are in our regular rainy winter season this year. We did get some snow on Christmas eve, but it was short-lived and was gone a couple of days later.

Anyway...enjoy!

#TBT

Escape Artists

These little girls are the BEST egg layers...with a record of 364 eggs in a year by some random Australorp way back when. 

The other thing that these girls are...

ESCAPE ARTISTS!

I don't really know what it is that they are looking to do - besides aggravate us. Every now and then (twice in the last 5 days) they like to escape the confines of their chicken arena. Which means one or both of us need to try to coax them back to the rest of the flock. 

From the time they were just a few weeks old and even now they still escape the chicken run. When it's just one of us it can get tiring and/or frustrating trying to get them to go back in with the rest of the flock. Try getting a little chicken to go INTO the chicken area is bad enough. Imagine the duck and goose who get to free range trying to get out! 

Today this happened to Tom while he was home....alone. When the little girl made her escape Tom had to let the boys out because well, they like to get out too. Then to "help" Tom out, they chased the little girl around the fence while the rest of the flock followed along from inside the fence. I would have loved to see that! In the end, with no help from the hooligan waterfowl, Tom was able to get the girl back in...for now.

They are nice girls though and I'm sure that they aren't trying to be a sneaky...or maybe they are. 

Ducks

Handsome waterfowl

Or Duck...just one. Actually we have a young drake...at one point is a duck mature?

ANYWAY - once these dudes turned 6 or 7 months old I have noticed that Sheldon (duck) has gotten to be a little more assertive and has been bullying Leonard (goose) during their pool time. I didn't think much of it at the time, he's a duck....maybe he has something to prove.

Well, he hasn't let up and he continues to "wrestle" Lenny while they are in the pool. Enough is enough, so I did a little research. According to some forums that I landed on it seems that maybe Mr. Shelly has reached duck puberty. Oh great. Just what we need a duck who needs a cold shower.

I started looking at the Livestock Conservancy to get some information on our little Romeo and among other breed information here is what I found:
   
                                                   "The drakes have high libido"

Oh Fine...looks like we will add a few little girl ducklings for him so he'll leave Lenny alone.

Oh well, I want duck eggs anyway.

All I Can Think About...

photo: Cascade Meadows Farm, Sandy, Oregon

Meet the American Guinea Hog. There are so many reasons why these pigs are so great.

Here's a few:

• Size - A fully mature hog can weigh from 150 - 300 pounds - that's depending on their sex, body type and their genetics. They can be approximately 22-27 inches tall and 46-56 inches long. That's a pretty compact pig! 
• Temperment - they are very friendly and docile. They like attention from their owner's and people who might be nearby. They like to have a belly rub every now and then too. 
• Excellent breeders! Litters can range from 1 - 14 piglets with the average being 6 in a litter.
• They are excellent foragers. What the what?! A pig that prefers to forage rather than root? Okay...this could work out well. They could be garden clean-up! Well, the big stuff anyway. I see squash in the garden for future pig food.
• They have excellent flavor and produce a lot of lard! 

We are all set to visit a farm in Oregon that raises livestock for small properties - that would be us. With just under two and three-quarter acres, we don't have a lot of space a lot of animals, but we do have room for a couple of these compact swine. So next Monday we'll be taking a little road trip and visiting Cascade Meadows Farm and getting as much information as possible.

Time to get a list of questions put together...

August 4-5, 2018

It's hard to believe that out of the Six Mother Earth News fairs in the US that there is one in Oregon! Albany to be exact - a location that is not terribly far away from where we live.

We have gone to the fair the past two years and have had the opportunity to sit in on a couple of seminars that we have brought to life on our property! The first year (2016) we arrived in time to sit in on the Backyard Chickens talk presented by Jeannette Beranger from the Livestock Conservancy. In April 2017 we got chickens going on the smallholding.

Here it is January 2018 and we are still getting some eggs each day. With 10 layers we'll have plenty of eggs that we need and then some.

At the 2017 Fair we went to two different seminars - one by Rebecca Thistlethwaite which was about raising livestock for profit. I think it may have been specifically about pigs, but I could be wrong. I did buy one of her books and chatted with her for a minute - I wish I could say that I was really engaging with her, but I wasn't. I don't know...I just get all tongue-tied. Meh...Afterwards I made my way over to where the next talk was going to happen and we sat in on talk by Jeannette Beranger about raising PIGS.

You know where this is going...

In a couple of weeks we will be visiting a farm that raises American Guinea Hogs and plan to glean as much information as possible to get ready to add a breeding pair of AGH to our mini-farm. I figure we go now and we'll see how much needs to be done. Maybe we'll add the swine in late spring. We'll see...

We really need to be mindful of the seminars we choose this year...things seem to happen

Happy New Year...

Yeah, yeah, I know...today is the 5th. I've been a little under the weather...

Starting today I am going to post about what I have been thinking about our mini-farm. I'll tell you now...I think a lot of things about our farm!

This morning I was thinking about how blessed we are that we are STILL getting eggs everyday! That's right...eggs. We get a few as 2 and up to 4 every single day. The little Australorps are doing a great job!

On New Year's day we got to use a dozen of those eggs for brunch....and it was so good! We invited a few of our favorite people over for Huevos Rancheros, Refried Beans, Cornbread and other yummies. It was a nice way to start off the New Year, sitting around the table and visiting with friends - long time friends and newer friends too.

Anyway, eggs...baby...we are still getting eggs! Every now and then one of the big girls (Jersey Giant) will lay an egg, but it's usually the little girls. I have read that Australorp chickens are very good layers and that one laid 364 eggs in one year!

The thing about chickens is that they require a minimum of 14 hours of daylight to keep egg production up. So the Jerseys are not keen on laying right now and we'll forgive them. The littles are doing a pretty good job, even 2-4 eggs a day is a lot for us actually. The days are very slowly getting longer, so the Jersey girls will be laying before too long!

Note to self: Always keep a few Australorps in the flock.