December 22, 2022 - Day 25

Today I had my Good Friend Christmas gift exchange and coffee date. 

Every year for many years I have been meeting up with a couple of friends, really good friends, like 20+ years friends to exchange gifts. It took a while before we decided to go out for coffee - and it's been a lot of years before we could do this during the day. This year friend #3 retired, so it was a morning coffee date! This works for me, since I end up waking up so early most days and go to bed early most of the time. So, we met up at Latte Da in Vancouver and spent an hour or so catching up and drinking coffee and enjoying good fellowship. We met up early instead of at lunch which is what sounded like fun to me. Newly retired friend wanted to get a head start on her travel to Southern Oregon for Christmas with her folks and there was a severe weather storm in the forecast. We drank our coffee, opened our gifts and then went our separate ways. 

On my way home I dropped by WinCo to get some treats for the pigs. I scored by finding a 25 pound bag of juicing carrots and some cheap apples. Normally I would look for organic produce, but it's Christmas and I wanted to just grab whatever was available and get the heck out of there. The church food pantry had bags of baby carrots so I grabbed a bag and did a little extra "shopping" and then went home. 

This was the extent of my exciting day - nothing terribly exciting - except my Good Friend Christmas.

This will be the last post until next Monday. I'm going to give myself a break this weekend and enjoy the holiday weekend. 

Merry Christmas! See you next week...

December 21, 2022 - Day 24

It's Winter! 

To celebrate the first day of winter, everyone went crazy preparing for the Severe Winter Storm due to arrive here Thursday evening. I made a trip to Freddy's just to drive through the Jam-Packed parking lot. I figured that if there were that many cars in the parking lot, the store had to be packed!

So the next best thing was to go to Walgreens. I just needed a couple of items from the pharmacy area anyway. I didn't need to be around so many people! My big mistake was to try to go anywhere in the late morning. The only reason I did that was so that I wouldn't be lazing around the house until my appointment with the chiropractor at 1245. 

After I did my running around I arrived back home by 1:30 and continued to be lazy. My motivation level was very low and I was feeling a little down I guess. I think all this holiday stuff is kind of getting to me. Part of me just wants Christmas to be done and over with. Just need to get through the new year and then I can really get back to business as usual. 

As it is right now, it is cold out! With the Severe Weather storm coming our way, things are a bit on the crazy side. Prepping for a day of icy weather on top of Christmas coming this weekend. Oh yeah, that sounds like fun! I'm just happy that I don't need to go anywhere again after my gift exchange with my besties on Thursday. Plus Tom will be home on Friday for the holiday. 

So, I'm waiting for life to move on so I can get back to my real purpose on the farm. Right now I'm thinking of piglets! I am 99.9% sure that Big Momma Fiona is preggers!

I should post daily photos to see a progression as we move into the new year and beyond. My hope is that she and Rex got the deed done within the last month. She was in heat when they first were put together in their space, So I'm hoping that Rex did his thing. This will be the first time in the last couple of years that we have actually taken a part in planning when to breed the sows. Big Momma & Big Daddy offspring are suitable as breeding stock, so I wanted to get her bred first. Big Daddy & Little Momma piglets are generally for feeders. I don't believe that anyone has purchased any of Bridgee's babies for breeding purposes. Anyway, I was thinking of switching out Fiona and Bridgette after this weekend, but I'm going to observe them for the next week and make wait until the New Year to make the switch-a-roo.

December 17, 2022 - Day 20

Saturday! My day started off a little on the lazy side, but then I had to get to work. The plan was for Mr. Tom to go and do some Christmas shopping in the morning and then we would head to the feed store to pick up more Alfalfa bales as well as some pellets. 

So, while Tom was out I got to work getting the space where we store the bales. Over the past five months the garage has just gotten more and more disgusting! We have two ducks that live in the garage, like where they want. There's straw and alfalfa all over the floor, because those things are not the easiest to move. Whenever we get a flake of hay for the pigs we are constantly leaving behind bits of the hay on the garage floor. So, mix the hay/straw with water and duck poo and mud that's been tracked in and we got a very gross stinky carpet. Enough space to store the alfalfa was cleared and then I went on to the next project. 

Around our big shed we've got all sorts of brambles. All over the logs that have been in our driveway for the past few years. I am not a fan of brambles. They grow everywhere on our property! We currently are not able to get through the doors to the shed without being caught up on those stickery ropes all over the pavement in front of the shed. So I spent an hour or so cutting vines and raking them away from the building. 

While I was working on cutting the brambles Tom arrived home. I think it was around lunch time so we had lunch and then ran a couple of errands. 

Before the day was over put the short string of colored lights on our old Fake Tree that we have had for so many years. As it turns out, the one string wasn't enough to go around the whole tree, so more lights are coming...

This used to be our second inside tree, but we don't have enough room for both trees in the house so I decided to put this one on the deck. Tom found another string of lights that we'll wrap around the tree when the rain has stopped.

December 6, 2022 - Day 9

There are times when I decide to NOT go anywhere, which means I don't shower or do anything that would make me appear presentable should I encounter another person here at home. We all need a "down" day every now and then. However this day was not really a down day, I worked on making Christmas fit in the living room. 

The original fake Christmas tree was in the basement and I thought I would bring it up to see if it would work out. In the end, Tom said that he didn't think it would be necessary, so I think it will go back downstairs...OR...maybe on the deck out back. That would be kind of cool. 

Anyway, the day was truly a do stuff around the house day. Until I get the living room back in order, this will be my main project.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Year In Review

This will be so not interesting...I haven't had many thoughts recently and quite honestly - I've been tired. So let's look back on the highlights of each month of 2018:

JANUARY

A visit to Cascade Meadows Farm! Go HERE to read about our visit to meet the American Guinea Hog. Before we even saw these pigs I was 99% sure that the AGH was the breed that I wanted to go with. It was a very good visit!

Farmer Jason

Hungry Babies

FEBRUARY

Ever since the Jersey Giants and the Aussies started laying I have been thinking about adding more to the flock. Tom was really hoping for a chicken that wasn't black, but we ended up with a Mottle Java which are black & white - we are half way there. That post is HERE.

 Now that we have sixteen layers I am looking to add another half dozen chickies in the spring. There is a purpose for a new mini flock. In addition to a few extra eggs, I am thinking I would like a small flock to move around more than the big girls. To work different parts of the gardens at different times of the season.

Java Girls 3-ish days old

MARCH

Gathering chicken tractor supplies

Apple Trees

We whacked the trees to stay small

This was the month that I took some vacation and we did some work on the Chicken Tractor - we got a lot started on it at least. Go HERE for a post on the tractor build

One of the things I wanted to do is add some apple trees - so we made a trip to Tsugawa's nursery in Woodland and found three different varieties we wanted to try out. The guy at the nursery thought we were nuts because we wanted to whack the stock down to around eighteen inches. Well, the joke's on him because they actually developed blossoms and then leaves. There were even some apples on them (photos later).

APRIL

A HA Apple Blossoms!

Magpie Babies

Java Girls out on grass

The boys turn one year old

It was surprising to see that the apple tree stubs actually blossomed and developed leaves! I wanted to take a photo and send it to the grump at Tsugawa's. What a hater...hahaha...

When Shel-bot started to attack Lenny I did the research and then figured out that Mr. Romeo needed some girls. So I looked and looked for Magpie Ducklings and there were none available. I got lucky and was able to get an order of six ducklings in at Orchard Feed. We ended up with 7 as the hatchery included an extra and one duckling can't live alone. Score!

Since the Magpie's needed a brooder we got the Java's out into the newly finished Chicken Tractor. They seemed pretty happy to be out of the brooder. I kind of didn't pay nearly as much attention to this bunch of chickies and I felt bad about it. Once they were outside, it was easier to spend more time with them. 

The original waterfowl turned ONE year old! 

This POST covers most of the month 

MAY

Rex & Fiona join the farm

After a couple of weeks the Magpies were moved to the Hoop House

After a couple more weeks the Magpies were out in the tractor

We let the chickens do the work

We said good-bye to our buddy

Pigs come home HERE - ducks move out & hoodlums meet ducklings HERE - the chickens do the work and we said good-bye to Mr. Decaf HERE.

We had the happiest thing and the saddest thing happen this month. Both Tom and I were completely excited about the pigs coming home! They added that extra specialness to our farm. Then a couple of weeks later we were devastated when Tom took our buddy cat to the vet only to find out that he was too sick to be treated. He had to be put down. I didn't get to say a proper good-bye to him...which makes me sad. Mr. Decaf was truly the BEST cat anyone could have ever hoped for. Grateful that he was my cancer cat - the creature that made me forget that I had treatments even for just a couple of minutes. 

JUNE

Itty-bitty Apple

Birthday Hair

WHAT?!

We got Apples! I was so happy to see that the severe whacking didn't affect the trees too much!

It had been a couple of years since I last had my hair colored in a funky way, so on my birthday I had the tips of my hair colored BLUE. It was fun, but then I realized that I didn't want to keep up with keeping the color fresh, so I let the color go after a couple of months. Now, after 6 months, I actually like the bleached parts of my hair, but all it is now is damaged hair. Time to figure out what to do next!

She flew the coop...I still can't believe that we had a pullet make her way OUT of the corral, down the driveway and across the street without getting snatched by a predator of some sort or hit by a car or just plain lost. Go HERE to see exactly what happened that day.

JULY

Twenty-Five meaties

The first day I noticed no chaos during feeding time

REALLY?! 

On the 5th Tom and I made our way to Tangent, OR to pick up our very first batch of Freedom Rangers. If anyone is in our area and looking for a hatchery, I highly recommend Jenks Hatchery. They have been in the business for over 100 years and are family owned and operated. Our chicks were very hardy from the beginning and grew to a processing weight of 3.5 to 4.5 pounds in 11 weeks.

The Javas finally integrated into the original flock this month. Not only did they start hanging out together - several of them decided to start laying their eggs underneath the nesting box cart. Not very convenient girls!


AUGUST

Me and a Ranger

Mother Earth News Fair

I just wanted a photo of the new Magpie ducks, but got a photo bomb from Shelly

This dude started hanging around. We call him Blanco

A surprise vine bearing a squash?

Tom and one of the Rangers

August, just like the previous months, was busy. The Mother Earth News fair comes of Albany and this was our third year attending. It's a nice day trip as Albany isn't far from us. The highlight of the fair was going to listen to Meredith Leigh talk about butchering a half a hog. We did attend a couple of other workshops before heading home for the day. My Mother Earth News report is HERE.

We sort of gained a farm cat. This little guy comes and goes and does some pest patrol around the property and leaves all of the birds alone. He is welcome to come and go as he pleases. He might get food now and then. We call him Blanco - not really clever, but at least I know who Tom is talking about when he is talking about a cat...there's more than one cat that cruises through. Blanco actually will hang out long enough to get some attention...and some food if he is interested.

SEPTEMBER

At the Clark Conservation District in Battle Ground

Poultry Processing kit from the Conservation District in Battle Ground

The Freedom Rangers last move

Whole Chicken!

Cantaloupe

Flower Garden gone out of control

Pretty decent vegetable garden

Silly Lenny the Poser

Pickles!

This was a big month! The garden did great this year (thank you very much chickens). We didn't grow any pickling cukes - so off to Wilco during their produce sale - the surprise squash in the garden actually turned out to be surprise cantaloupe (thank you very much chickens).

The BIG project for September - processing the meaties. Doing this one thing alone took our food growing attitude to a whole new level. We now have a few whole chickens in the freezer and some other items that I was able to process over the last few months.

OCTOBER

One of the last photos that I took of Lenny

The Fab Four

This month was a month of loss. It started with Mr. Lenny and then a couple of days later half of the Magpies - including Shelly. Even a couple of months later we miss Mr. Lenny and Mr. Shelly. The four Magpies that are still with us more than make up for the others, but we rather liked our waterfowl gang. That story is HERE.

NOVEMBER

The piggies are happy with their new forage

Our lone Freedom Ranger

This was a great month! I had a lot of time off and spent very little time doing stuff with the critters. However, I did decide to move the Dynamic Duo, all by myself - for that I am pretty darn proud of myself. The netting was all messed up and that took longer than luring Rex & Fiona across the driveway and to the other side of the property.

We decided to keep one of the Rangers. Thankfully this one is a female...she was just so cute as a chick AND very different than the others. She had a racing stripe down her back and the cutest eyes. This girl is laying eggs now. It would be about the right time.

At a couple of weeks old Cleo was already wearing make-up.

DECEMBER

The lucky one

Farmer Kirk getting ready for the shot

Oooh...baby piggy!

The seed catalogs are starting to come in!

Already planning

This month has gone fast and I can't believe that Christmas is just a few days away! A couple of weeks ago Tom and I made our way back to Cascade Meadows to learn about processing a hog - from the kill to cutting the carcass into primal cuts. Seriously, this did not bother me as much as I thought it would. When he shot the pig, I don't think I flinched. When she slumped I though, "Oh, that must have been a good shot"

Anyway, it was a good experience and we got to come home with some pasture raised pork. Tom seems to think that he would be able to process a pig when it comes to it. I guess we'll see.

This month I received my first two seed catalogs. Seed Savers is my favorite with all of the heirloom seeds that they have to choose from. Baker Creek - the only thing that I ordered from them would be the Saffron Crocus from earlier this year. They bloomed by the way.

2018 was full of so many good things and a couple of sad moments, but we are grateful for how God has blessed our year both on and off the farm. 2019 can only get better!

Happy Merry Christmas!!

Live Christmas Tree - Our new thing to do