Favorite Things - Part 1

There are several items that are my go to while doing chores. Everyone has their favorites so I'm going to share mine here...

We have had this particular cart for a few years. Originally we got it because it is easier for me to handle as there are four wheels which makes it an "Easy Roller" as this one is called. Unlike the wheelbarrow I can pull this along instead of having to push it. And hey...four wheels! I used this cart for gardening purposes for almost as long as we have had it. The tray near the handle made it easy to carry small tools and seed packets and a beverage for myself. The plants and other items would go into the bucket part.

Once the hoop house was built I would put a bin of potting soil and haul it around. That made transplanting seedlings into pots much easier. Some times I would mix up my potting soil with compost in this cart and then transfer to a bin. It was a great for gardening for sure.

This cart was mainly used during the spring and summer months - the main gardening season. Then it would be stored in one of the outbuildings at the end of the season. When the next gardening season rolled around this would also be rolled out. It never occurred to me that gardening could happen during other times of the year.

Things changed a little when we started up the chicken operation. In the last year we went from just growing a garden to raising chickens in addition to the garden. The focus shifted and while I was still using the roller cart for the garden - that purpose didn't last long. 

Once the chickens were out on pasture full-time we were carrying feed containers back and for them from the garage to their pen. That was getting old pretty fast. One day I decided to load up the cart and there was no turning back. All of the supplies are kept in the cart which makes chore time more efficient. In the last week I have begun to prepare the chicken feed the night before by soaking the pellets in water in another favorite thing known as the 5-gallon bucket. By doing this I don't HAVE to lug the bin of feed out to the chicken pen. Just the bucket and a couple of other items. This leave room to haul out the feed for the pigs and ducklings as well as the bread for the piggies. 

I sometimes think that having two of this cart would be ideal, but then I don't want to spend the money on another one. If things get more challenging, then I might have to consider my options. For now it works for the chicken chores and it easily can be used for gardening purposes if it's REALLY necessary.

Farm Life Is the Best Life!

Could have been...

a Farm Cat?

Maybe, but almost 14 years ago when this little fuzzy kitkat came into our life and made a place in our hearts we did not have a farm.

The one reason that we got him at all was because at the time Mr. Decaf joined us as I was going through chemotherapy for an Anaplastic Astrocytoma - the fancy scientific term for badass brain tumor and I wanted another cat.

We even had a name for him long before he came to us. One afternoon we were at Starbucks with some friends and we were going through the menu and commenting what coffee drink names would make a good pet name...you know - mocha, latte...frappaccino. Naaah...then I said DECAF! Oh yeah...that was it! Since I had a name and I wanted another cat we just needed to figure out where the cat or cat baby would come from.

Fortunately for us, our good friends wanted to let one of their cats get preggers and have babies. Score! The only thing that I was insistent on was that the kitten needed to be a boy. Later in the year there were kittens and ONE boy! Oh yeah...there we go!!

It was several weeks until all the kittens were weaned and we brought Decaf home on New Year's Eve (2004).

Since then he had been the best cat...EVER! Once we introduced Riley to him, Decaf decided that Riley would be easy to dominate. And boy did he ever. Constantly attacking the big orange puff ball. That lasted for a little while, they eventually were able to coexist - although I don't think that Riley truly accepted having to share his home with an unruly younger "brother."

Here we are thirteen and a half years later. This week we thought that he was just suffering from another UTI - granted it had been quite a while since his last infection. He started meowing and howling not long after and Tom was able to get him into the doc this morning. The doctor determined that it didn't look good for Decaf and he would not have much time left. The bottom line - his kidneys had shut down. At that point it was a no brainer - to not let him suffer anymore than he already had.

I am heartbroken because of the joy that our little buddy brought to everyday life, even with all of the pippish things that he would do like barf now and then and pee and poo far away from his litter box.

Overall, he was the most fun cat we could have ever hoped for and was quite the little clown. He had favorite things, his most favorite was a blanket that Tom has had since forever and it was ratty and had holes in it. It had the perfect texture that made it fun for playing while on the couch on his bed etc. He also especially loved playing with his feather toys while that blanket was out. He was also quite fond of paper - he would chew on whatever newspaper we might have been reading and tear it to bits. When Tom would get the fireplace ready for a fire Decaf would help out by charging the paper that was sitting on the floor and try to get underneath it. 

We have so many more memories of this little dude. Memories that definitely bring a smile while we feel so low. I will definitely miss every little thing about Mr. Decaf, but feel fortunate that we got to be his "parents."

The Garden

On April 14 I sowed a bunch of Spring crops in the garden boxes. One box is filled with radishes, beans and borage. Almost all of the seeds germinated which is very encouraging to me since last year was a big fat losing year! 

Radishes have been good to go since the weekend and I have a nice bunch in the fridge ready to add to something like a salad or ??? 

Seriously, I have two rows nearly 4 feet long of these tasty crunchy treats. 

One variety is called English Breakfast which came in veggie collection of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. The other is the everyday, buy from the store Ed Hume. There is nothing wrong with Ed Hume, I have purchased my fair share of Ed Hume seeds in the past. These days, especially since, learning about Seed Savers on the Great American Farm Tour, I like catalog or online ordering. There's a lot of neat varieties that we just can't find at the local garden center or Freddy's, Walmart, Target...etc.

The other boxes have leafy greens, green peas, green beans - beets (seeds free from Freddy's) and a few carrots. There are only a few because I didn't have pelleted seeds like I had last year. Crazily enough, most of the carrots actually came up last year - we had lots of carrots. 

Anyway, I'm very excited about all of the success that we have so far. That is because I did not want to lose anything to critters which seemed to be the biggest problem last year. Last year we had a couple of bunnies, this year I have seen at least 4 adult bunnies and maybe a juvenile. Nooooo!!!! I had row cover cloth over the boxes for weeks and that offered the protection we needed, but the plants didn't get direct sunlight and watering was more of a chore than necessary. 

A couple of weeks ago I started to research the different options of fencing to use to keep critters out. I finally decided to go with a fence that is specifically designeed to keep the bunnies out. I placed an order on Amazon and it was delivered by the end of the week. By the end of the weekend it was installed around the four boxes.

This system is working so far, the bunnies are being deterred as well as a certain goose. Lenny is able to reach through the upper parts of the fence, but he can't get to a lot of stuff, but if I catch him he gets a quick scolding and he is good and stops and moves on. You wouldn't think that a goose understands, but he does. Good boy!

Once the chickens are moved out into the field I hope to get the "free range" garden planted. I'm curious to see what volunteer veggies might come up as the chickens have been given all sorts of whole veggies and pooped out seeds in different places. 

I've said it before - this year's garden will be epic! Hoping for food that we can freeze and/or can and store for later. 

Farm Life Is the Best Life!

Adjusting

Now that we have even more critters to look after we have been busy! Chores start early - as soon as it is light out which is currently around 5:30 AM. I'm up early, so it's not that huge of a shock, but it does make the morning go quickly. I've figured out a good routine though, we'll see how long it works out.

Just this week I have learned that I need to let the two hooligans out otherwise Mr. Lenny will fly over the fence. He hasn't done that before and maybe he didn't realize what exactly he was doing, but I HAVE to get them out before I start working my way around the pens. In fact, when he popped over the fence and landed he just stood there somewhat dumbfounded - as if he were asking why didn't Sheldon follow him. I'm not sure that Shelly could actually make it. He's a duck and all, but he rarely gets his little squatty body off the ground and mainly uses his wings to run faster when he is playing with Tom.

ANYWAY

Boys come out and off to feed the pigs - they are super easy! I distract them with some bread and then quickly dump some of their feed onto the ground. Once they finish their appetizer they happily start munching away on the feed which then turns into a little grazing at the same time.

Rex is on the left...then girly Fiona with her cute pink nose and feet!

Next on the list would be the Magpie Squad...

We are still unsure what is going thru Lenny's head when he looks at the girls.

The little Magpies are just over three weeks old and growing like crazy! They definitely know where the food comes from and will stand at the end of their little courtyard and scream at the top of their lungs until I get over there to feed them. These 7 ducklings can make a lot of noise! That's okay - they are super cute!

As they grow I am noticing that most of them are quite large, there is one runt in the group. So I am hopeful that they are all female, just as I requested. The only thing about that is how does anyone know for sure. Man, I hope they're mostly girls...Sheldon is already pretty spazzy, what if we have one or two more drakes to deal with?

OYE!

Also, I'm not sure if we'll be housing these littles with the rest of the flock when it comes to that point. They might need their own home. Oh My Goodness...Lenny and 8 ducks?! We'll figure that out later.

Then at last the main chicken pen. The Javas are still not roosting in the coop at night so they are free ranging when I finally get to them. This is actually perfect though. Because they are new to the flock they still get bullied by the big girls when it's food time. So they get to eat before the others are released. While they get to eat, the hooligans are out foraging  so the Javas have a chance to eat in peace. As soon as a couple of the Javas are done eating and start wandering around I let the rest of the girls out and chaos ensues! 

Time to make my exit! 

Depending on the day, sometimes it is a chore to get the two dudes back in with the girls. They are usually pretty good though, except for yesterday. Little stinkers! Lenny was unhappy with me...which is fine because I was REALLY unhappy with him. Most of the time they are pretty easy and want to get back in and eat. It seems now that we no longer have a rooster, they don't care so much about going back right away. I don't know if they were trying to protect the girls from Thor, but they were always ready to head back. 

The evening routine is pretty much the same. Getting a second ration of  food to all of the babies and then scratch for the hens. The ducklings are the most work as they mess up the tub that they get to swim in pretty quickly. So sometimes it gets refreshed twice a day sometimes more. They are stinky little peepers for sure! I just don't remember Lenny & Shelly eating so much. Maybe they did...it's hard to say. 

Things will change yet again when we get the Freedom Rangers from the hatchery on July 3rd. We have until about the end of July to figure out what to do with the ducklings. Add them to the flock or give all the waterfowl their own area? 

That's still a ways off, so we'll just enjoy the process until then. 

The best thing from today...

The Kia is truly the All-Haul vehicle

That's a lot of bread! The back seat was folded down too!

 A friend of mine told me about how I could get Franz products at the local outlet for super cheap, so I went and checked it out.

For $10 I can get a Cart of bread that is not sellable to the general public in the outlet. These items are sold as hog & bird food. So last week on Monday I visited the outlet in Hazel Dell and I got onto the list.  Today was pick-up day. We had a lot happening today, so I was really hoping that the bread would be available during my lunch break...SCORE!! We got lucky today - the truck came back early. 

Anyway, the back of my car is filled with hamburger buns! If this is considered a cart - I am not sure that I want to know how much is in a RACK!

What is considered a cart? Well, that would be 10 trays of bread. In this case each tray had 6 packages of hamburger buns and for the heck of it we got a bonus tray. Each package has 12 buns...you do the math!

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

That should last us a while. On top of that the clerk handed Tom a few packages of bear claws and cinnamon rolls...seriously, this is getting ridiculous!

What have I gotten myself into?! Craziness!!

So while we continue to adjust to the changes at home and try to do the regular daily stuff...I believe more than ever that Farm Life is the Best Life!!

I still can't get over this!

All In...

Yep - we are all in with this farm! My dream was and still is to make this property into a farm of some sort. Pigs and Poultry has a nice ring to it. 

Evidently, I am the one who had the idea to raise pigs and that sounds about right. I have to say that the craziness started last year when we watched one of the first Great American Farm Tour videos that featured pigs. In fact, the first farm feature was a farm in Georgia that was getting ready to do a pig harvest. It was quite graphic, but I still watched it and was completely fascinated. Because that's how I roll. It made sense to me  ~ grow your food, know your food. The pigs that were being harvest were  Glouscestershire Old Spots - a very large breed. These dudes can be anywhere from 500 - 600 lbs. Ummm...that's a bit large. 

Time to do research! 

First I looked on Craigslist to see what breeds were available for sale in the area. All I wanted was something that would be close and easy to transport. Also a breed that I would feel comfortable managing. Even just searching in Clark/Cowlitz Counties there were only a handful of ads. Most of them were either Kune Kune or the American Guinea Hog. It was easy to choose between the two - the Kune Kune are spendy! I didn't want to go into this adventure with a lot of cash out of pocket and then figure out that raising pigs was a silly idea. So I looked at the AGH - reasonably priced for piglets, easy to raise, docile, friendly etc. Okay cool, I can get on board with this compact swine.

How did I determine that breeding these dudes would be the way to go? I'm not sure, but visiting a local farm helped a lot! Plus I had read a lot about these pigs on the Livestock Conservancy website - go HERE for that article. This is a heritage breed AND on the threatened list. I'm very much interested in keeping the heritage breeds on our farm. Our Mr. Goosey Pants is the only creature NOT listed on the Livestock Conservancy, but we like him anyway. 

Fiona say "Good Morning!"

Earlier this year we made a visit to Cascade Meadows Farm go HERE. A couple of weeks ago I made contact with Jason at the Farm and got the ball rolling to get our piggies home. After communicating over a couple of days, I was able to get a price range so I could bring the appropriate amount of cash and we borrowed a pet carrier and we were on our way! This past Saturday we made our way out to the Farm and talked pigs with Farmer Jason. He gave us so much information as did his partner. I'm sure that each of us retained a certain amount, but we'll see. They had already chosen a pair for us to take home. Which is great, because they already had an idea of the personalities and their genetics from their parents. I'm hopeful that the two will be productive in the years to come. 

These pigs...SO CUTE!

Fiona was somewhere in this bunch

The kids were loaded up and we completed the transaction and we were off; for an hour drive back home - in a stinky smelly car. One or both immediately pee'd and/or poo'd. We had windows down for much of the drive back home! After about 30 minutes the smell wasn't as bad, but it was still pretty stinky! If we did this all over again I think I would have like to have a pick up that was in good shape to do this activity. At least we had a pet carrier that we borrowed from some friends. 

Once we arrived home, we got them out of the car and set them down on the driveway. While they are small as far as size goes, they are solid which equals hefty! Soon after they were released into a smallish pen to get them acclimated to their new home. Their new home is of a nice lush open space of grass and some clover, chickens and a few ducklings. Oh, we can't forget the dynamic duo...

Lenny & Shelly checking out the latest addition to "their" farm.

We are three days into this pig owning adventure and so far so good. On Sunday afternoon after they had spent a full day in their little shelter we extended their area into  part of the backyard. Rex slipped out underneath the fence that was not energized. Lesson learned...alway energize the fence! Then once he was back in within a couple of minutes he touched his little wet nose on the fence - ZAP! Not just once, but twice. He spent a lot of time near the shelter...poor little dude. He's got to learn to respect the fence. Miss Fiona also has touched the fence, but she is a little more brave and shook that off quickly. In fact, I don't think that she touched it again. It might take some time, but they will get there.

Adding this sweet pair of Guinea Hogs just completes the farm. It also adds to our daily routine, but it will be worth it when they get to breeding age and we have piglets one day in the future. 

Farm Life is the Best Life! 

Flip Of A Switch

And just like that we are super busy with stuff on our pig & poultry farm!

Last weekend the ducklings arrived and OH MY GOODNESS...could they be any cuter?!

These little girls have been spending time in the hoop house during the day

To make the Magpie girls day not so boring we started to put them into the hoop house in the afternoon. That way they get some fresh air and actual sunlight! Up until today they have been confined to a big Rubbermaid type tub with pine shavings, food and water. They have been cruising through the water in their 1 quart waterer. They got a new one today! It might last more than 90 minutes of  duckling playtime. Now that they are getting too big to hang out in the tub, the door is open, but blocked and they get to run around until we return. Pretty soon they will be big enough to run around on the lawn. We'll see. I'm not sure that we would be able to do that and NOT let the original water fowl come out to forage. We would certainly hear about it...LENNY.

They have had a few people coming to look at visit them, so they are getting used to people other than Tom and I checking them out. As they are still pretty little they don't get handled by strangers much. That will change soon enough. Although as they get older they will get a little faster, but they may not wander too far away. I guess we'll find out in the next few days.

This weekend we are going to head over to Cascade Meadows Farm to get pigs for our farm! Having pigs will make what we have going on a real farm - for sure! I spent the earlier part of the week in communication with farmer Jason - who gave us the tour back in January and introduced us to their American Guinea Hogs. The prices start at $150 and up to $190 for juvenile pigs. If we wanted to get a pair that were ready to breed that would set us back about $240. Wowie!

I'm thinking younger...we are total beginners and we need to ease ourselves into this particular adventure. I'm excited though...this is going to be GREAT!

Farmer Jason and his AGH 

One day though, we'll have this down and we'll be raising these guys for some tasty pork. Mmmmm...bacon!

The only thing that I really needed to acquire is some sort of pet carrier to transport them home. I spent a couple of days looking on craigslist for something and everything that I found was either in Portland or on the east side. With everything that we have going on, traveling more than 5 miles for a carrier was not going to happen. Fortunately, I was talking to a friend of ours last Sunday and she said that she had a carrier that would work and that we could borrow it....SCORE!

It's Thursday and the week has been a crazy one! My days at work seem to be going quickly - which is great. However, my time at home to do the things that need to be done is short and as usual I try to pack in more than I probably should. I am happy that the days are getting longer not only into the evening, but the morning has becoming lighter everyday!

This evening will be a little rushed - I've got an appointment with the hair magician and that will take a little bit of time, but that's okay. Sometimes I just need some me time :)

OH...here's a little tidbit from one year ago...

When the Duck and the Goose were babies

Farm Life is the Best Life!