It's one thing to support someone you know when they are raising funds for a mission trip or a project or a community group. It's especially easy when you believe in the cause. However, when it comes to supporting someone you don't know...that's something a little different.
We watch several different YouTube channels regularly: Justin Rhodes, Art & Bri, Sow the Land and John Suscovich to name a few. I don't know any of these people personally. Sure I've sent emails or commented on their videos, but that's as far as the relationship goes.
Many of these YouTuber's have different ways of making a buck whether it's by people watching their videos or offering literature of sorts that is related to farming in one way or another on their personal websites. Or if you are particularly business savvy, by setting up a nifty online store and offering things like Apparel, Books, Mugs etc.
Stepping outside of the box that we live in - we supported The Great American Farm Tour on Kickstarter and by doing so we received a stainless steel mug as well as a GAFT sticker. In addition to those two things, we'll also get the GAFT documentary that will be released next month. Fun Stuff!!
Another YouTuber that we have supported would be John Suscovich and his hashtag one million chickens project -
Tom is modeling the latest of Farm Marketing Solutions
More recently I have supported The Elliot Homestead by buying a "How To" book:
If you don't care to do an actual farm get this book for the photos alone!
In an effort to continue supporting the Elliott Homestead I have preordered her next cookbook...
This will release on April 1
This book will be a good one. She uses a lot of food that she and her family grow on their farm...in the Wenatchee, Washington area - she's a local for me! Which really means being in the same state!
My latest purchase in support of a YouTuber is this sweet handmade kitchen spoon made out of walnut -
This measures just about 13.5"
Check out Sow the Land - Jason, Lorraine and daughter Penelope - they left Southern California to follow their dreams to live a better life through self sufficiency. They are living out their dream in North Carolina. Check out their website HERE. You can get to their store, blog and YouTube channel via the website.
It's a beautiful day in the Pacific NW - time to get outside!
Well, so far, I have researched and figured out where I'm going to get my little magpie girls. Went and prepaid for them yesterday and the wait is on. They are due to arrive the middle of April. Perfect! Orchards Feed Store...they're alright.
The littlest pullets are just over two weeks old and are doing quite well. It's kind of weird to think that they are just over two weeks old, they are growing so fast! Maybe the Jersey's grew fast too, I don't remember.
Don't grow so fast!
We don't have a suitable little outside pen for them to hang out in, so I had to plop them into a big ol' tub and set them right outside the garage so they could at least feel the fresh air and see the sky. These littles are quite fast! While trying to catch them, they were jumping just about as high as the brooder wall which is oh I don't know 2' tall? Those little wings are now helping them jump higher now that they have some feathers! They are thriving though and that makes me happy. We'll have 6 more egg layers by mid-summer!
This month I'll be taking a week off of work to do some projects around the house and prep for meat chickens later this season. That means we'll be building this chicken tractor:
This will be so much easier to build than the Justin Rhodes chick shaw that was last year's project. It works great and we love that it is mobile. This design appears to be less involved - we'll see. Check out the video - John Suscovich was featured on the Great American Farm Tour:
We have yet to figure out when our chicken processing will happen this year...more on that later. This will be a good transition for the littles when it comes to that. We won't be able to put them with the big girls until they are much bigger so this will be the perfect solution! By the time June rolls around they might be big enough to hang with the main flock. We'll see though, we might have to keep them separate for a little while. Either way, they will have a home for a little while - then we can get the meat chickens in there for a late summer harvest.
John Suscovich is a big reason why I'm wanting to raise meat chickens. I had the thought to do it last year, but it wasn't meant to be. So why not this year...we have a little bit of experience and as time goes on we are finding out that there are some people who are interested in helping on processing day...YAY! There are more people who are freaked out and don't want anything to do with processing. That's fine, just don't spread negativity. Especially if great tasting chicken is the end result! Keeping it short - I could go on and on. Check out Farm Marketing Solutions HERE. If you do, you can get all sorts of cool stuff...
It's a terrible photo, but it shows all the stuff that we got from FMS.
I have the hoodie in red!
If you want to see the evolution of the meat chicken go HERE. We are going to be meat chicken farmers. #onemillionchickens
Other happenings this month: The girls and dudes will be moved again this coming Saturday - we have decided to get them back onto the garden one last time before the big planting in a couple of months.
We have noticed that in the last month that the boys across the street didn't come over as often to give our feathered creatures treats. Maybe the move to the garden will make them more comfortable with coming over again. We'll have to use both fences to get the entire area fenced in as well giving them grassy area to poop and scratch up too.
As time allows during this week, I'll be hanging out in my hoop house in the evenings getting my seed trays ready. We went to Freddy's earlier today and bought a couple of bags of potting soil and two bags of mushroom compost. It's time to get my soil blocker out and pick out the seeds I want to get started. Seriously - it's March...planting season will be here in no time flat!
It's time to stop goofing off and get down to business!!
Yesterday I ended the day with the hope that we would be able to order half a dozen female Magpie ducklings. I was so excited...I didn't want to jinx our luck.
Today, I had a couple of things to occupy my mind at work so the possibility of the ducklings didn't really come up - until lunchtime. As soon as lunch rolled around I wondered when would be an appropriate time to start bing-bonging the feed store.
The fortunate thing is that Orchards Feed contacted me via Facebook. Gotta love social media!
Good news/Bad news situation (?)
Good News: They placed an order for me.
Bad News: All of the Magpie ducklings that the hatchery had for the March 30th shipment...All spoken for.
Plan B: Wait for the April 20th shipment.
Wahoooo!
Actually, this will work out great! The baby Javas should be closer to being old enough to stay outside. Which would free up the broader for the ducklings.
The Mottled Javas at two weeks old - which was last weekend
All we need to do is go and pre-pay for the babies and set up an account. You know, be all official and stuff.
This is so exciting, I can hardly stand it!! By the time May rolls around we should have all of the new creatures that we are planning for on the farm.
We might have a problem on our hands. Yesterday we made a trip out to Wilco to see if there would be any Magpie Ducklings arriving this spring. NOPE.
WHAT?!
They had pretty much EVERY other breed arriving at some point this spring, but no Magpies.
Our plan for this spring is to add a few girls for Mr. Sheldon. Not only so that he could have some of his own kind to be friendly with, but also for the eggs. Also, I just like ducks. They have great personalities! And our little Magpie is a NUT! A little spazzy, but totally fun. He is so willing to just goof around with us and that just irritates the big guy (Lenny). A small flock of Shelly's is sure to drive Mr. Lenny crazy!
Back when these two were probably less than a week old
I did a search of the local feed store in our area and the other farm supply stores also, and nothing. It would figure that I would pick a duck that is rare. In fact according to the Livestock Conservancy website our little Sheldon's breed is on the "Threatened" list. Swell.
So, the next best thing is to find a place online where I can order these little girls. The only problem with that is that there is a minimum order - which I understand. Even if the minimum for any one breed is 5 that doesn't mean that would be considered a full order. Most places want at least 15 or 20 and up. So, there is the other problem. I am not in the market for adding a lot of ducklings or adding different breed. Let's face it there aren't many people in my circle of friends who want ducks...so I couldn't order for other people.
We are already pretty much a spectacle. We are a novelty as far as the "neighborhood" goes. It's bad enough that Lenny is SUPER loud, but he is just doing his job really. It would be hard to imagine a few breeds of ducks running around.
Not sure how we got them to stand still long enough for a photo shoot - this was their "homecoming"
As I write this I have been in contact with another feed store in our area - they are checking into maybe...possibly adding a small order of magpie babies for one of their shipments.
I'm hoping it will be possible...please oh please oh please. The final answer will come tomorrow!
This duck would be so happy with his own kind to play with!
Who wouldn't want a small flock of these cutie ducks running around?
