April 1 - 6, 2019

We just love these two pigs!

This week was Washington's Spring Break. So my week at work was pretty slow and kinda tiring in a way. I would much rather be at home doing my farm stuff than sitting at work trying to get to the end of the day. Here are some of the happenings from the last week.

The Freedom Rangers:

The Freedom Rangers have been doing quite well out in the Chicken Tractor and have had a few opportunities to forage in their fenced area - which is new this year. Last Sunday - after we returned from church I relocated the two chicks that were injured to the outside area. They spent a full week apart from the others, but blended right in pretty quickly. So that's a happy thing.

Today was their first move while in the tractor and we are heading out toward the field now. This spot will be so much better for them - they started their first week on the spot where the ducks were before we moved them out near the pigs. So there was a lot of straw and nearly bare lawn ready for them to poop it up.

As of today we are at nine weeks to go. The time will go by quickly and before we know it we'll be off to pick up the poultry kit at the Conservation District in Battle Ground and getting ready to set up the processing area. We will move part of the processing into the garage - the evisceration area. I doubt that it will keep the Yellow Jackets away more, but I think it will be a cleaner area overall. I have a couple of people who have already said that they will help and I might have one more person. I really want to make sure that we get this done efficiently and more hands will help in that area. We'll see. In the end we need to be flexible and just go with the flow.

The PIGS:

Well, we had hoped that Fiona would be bred again, but she had a heat cycle toward the end of March. We don't know if Rex was able to get the deed done, so we are watching to see if she has another cycle this month. However just earlier this afternoon I was observing the pigs and Fiona has a look about her than might suggest that she is pregnant. Her teats are starting to look elongated and her belly is starting to sag.

Now, I don't know if pigs are like humans in that their bodies go into pregnancy mode after a few weeks in anticipation of starting to carry a baby or piglets in this case. So, as we are unsure of her status we'll just have to wait and see if she goes into heat again this month. Hope, Hope...

The Shelter:

We have a plan to revamp the old parking structure into a pig/storage shelter. With all of the other projects that has been put on hold. So Fiona could wait on being pregnant again so that there will be time to get a more appropriate area ready for her and Rex.

Here is the structure in all of it's dilapidated glory - this was in February. At some point we'll be able to circle back around to this project and get it going again. Like how I said "we'll?" hahahahaha. I'm only qualified to pass tools or hold the ladder or whatever. My hope is to turn the left part of the structure into a swine condo along with a farrowing room for Fiona. We have no idea what the room was used for, but it is perfect for our princess pig to give birth in. I also have a vision to incorporate a couple of stalls to try to keep the adults separated from the littles. They would also have easy access to pasture behind the shed to get out and graze a bit. There are a couple of other things that are happening that actually is more important and this project will be on hold for the rest of the month - most likely. That and it is April and the rains have started up this past week. Welcome Spring...Indeed.

The Garden:

Last weekend I thought I would broadfork the big garden. After a couple of passes I was over it and decided that the rototiller would be best. The garden is very compacted right now for some reason and it was difficult getting the broadfork to go very deep at all. Tom was planning to rototill anyway so he started with the garden and I dragged the silage tarp out and it is now covering the garden until it's time to plant.

In going through and ditching some of my old seeds I found an old package of peas that are the bush variety. They were from 2017 and unopened. I decided to see if they would germinate and now that it is nearly two  weeks later and still nothing. Okay, I'll have to figure something else out and plant the seeds that I saved from last years pea crop. They are one of the first seeds that I decided to save so I'm excited. In fact I'll plant the bean seeds that I saved from last year's beans as well. Both seeds came from Seed Savers Exchange.

Tomorrow I will be working on starting seeds again. The flower seeds that I sowed several weeks ago are doing alright so that's a good thing. There is one tray in which nothing germinated - which in itself is a frustrating thing. I think the soil that I chose wasn't a good choice as some of the seeds were from last year and should still have been viable. Other things did okay, but not great. So, I think I will be coming up with a new plan and see how it goes. There are a two or three other veggies that I want to grow, but I need to get the seeds first. I will probably spend some time in the hoop house tomorrow afternoon and maybe start a few extra tomato seeds and get some lettuce seeds sowed somewhere else in the hoop house bed. Maybe April will be a better month.

I always look forward to the days that I can spend time at home working on projects. One day this will be my everyday thing. One day.

Farm Life is My Favorite Life!

Then There Were Twenty-Four

Over the weekend we got the Meaties out into the yard and within the new Premier 1 Shock or Not fence. They actually had two field trips out of the garage!

On Saturday we transferred them by carrying the brooder out - it needed to be dumped of the shavings anyway - and then grabbed them and plopped them in the yard. They didn't know what to do of course and there was some peeping, but within a couple of minutes they started getting active and started poking around.

It didn't take long for them to start spreading out

These two were not convinced

After about 3 hours in the morning we gathered them up again and returned them to the brooder. Only then did they realize that they were tired and needed to rest.

On Sunday after we returned from church we promptly got them out again and let them have some more outside time. The fresh air was really what I wanted them to have. They stink up their brooder pretty quick. This time they got busy right away and were running around and looking for natural treats in the grass. There is a good sized divot near the far corner and most of the them were crowded in it looking for bugs and such.

Things were going pretty well and I was in and out of the house several time. I think after about an hour I was coming back outside when I looked to the chicks and they were not moving and in complete high alert mode. As I walked over I noticed a couple that were sitting together on one side and then across from them on the other side one of the chicks was dead. Just like that...I don't think that I was in the house all that long a few minutes at most.

After alerting Tom and getting the dead chick out I went to check out the two that were together and one of them moved on, but the other one was extremely still. Upon closer examination I saw that he/she was still alive so I picked it up and there was blood - insert colorful language here - I wanted to cry because now we had an injured chickie on our hands. Tom was still messing around with the dead one when I informed him of the injured one and that we needed to get a bin set up with water and some pine shavings.

A few minutes later as I was observing the chicks some more I noticed one that had some blood on it AND some of its friends were picking its body. Okay - so more than two of the chicks were affected by the attack. 

Long story short we decided the crows that were hanging around tried to get a free meal and tried to make off with a couple of the babies. I think that the one that died must have had a little heart attack or something - that one had no wounds on it. It also seems that the chicks are at a size that makes it difficult for a crow to carry them away in their beaks. If they were a true predator they would swoop down and pick them up using their claws. I learned that crows are opportunistic creatures and will sit and watch until the moment is just right. 

The remainder of the chicks spent the rest of their time out in the yard in their fenced area underneath a bird netting. We may have to install bird netting over their area when they are outside full-time, but I am hoping that they will reach a size that will not be so appealing for a crow to try and get one again. 

As much as this makes me not enjoy having the crows around...they do tend to keep the hawks at a distance by being annoying to them.

The Twenty-Two Healthy Chicks

Our two ICU patients

Overall, getting them out was a success and they really did enjoy getting to stretch their wings and spar with each other along with looking for things in the grass. The fact that we only lost one is amazing...it could have been so much worse. The two chicks will be isolated until they are nearly healed up again - even if they have to stay indoors while we get the rest out of the garage this weekend.

Farm Life Isn't the Easiest.....but Baby Chicks!

Graduation Day #1

The meaties will be moving out of the Brooder and into the Stress Free Chicken Tractor hopefully right before April arrives.

They currently live within a box that is approximately  2' or 3' x 4'. With each passing day they are steadily filling in the space - with growing chickie bodies and poo. We have removed the heating plate and one of the lamps. As their feathers start coming in they need the heat lamp less and less. Last night I took one last look at them and they were all bunched at the opposite end of the brooder away from the lamp. While I would like to take the lamp down, I think I'll let it stay in the event that we have some cooler nights ahead of us still.

Before we can move the meaties out, we have to come up with a new house for the Magpie Squad. They are currently in the Chicken Tractor and have become quite accustomed to the spacious accommodations. They'll have to adjust naturally and they will get a new not as large home, but one that is custom made by Tom!

The beginnings of the new duck condo

Hopefully more work can be done on the duck house and we can get it in place sooner than later. I'm pretty sure that they will protest a bit, but they adapt fairly quickly. They may even like the smaller house rather than the tractor:

The Stress Free Chicken Tractor being put in service

The dimensions of the duck condo is one pallet wide by 2 pallets long...that's all I know. Much smaller than what the duckies are used to.

The twenty-five meaties will have lots of room to experience fresh grass and with the fence - they will even have the opportunity to explore outside of the tractor.

Premier 1 Supplies has a newer poultry netting that is specifically designed for chicks. I first saw this on the Justin Rhodes channel - he and Premier have a pretty good relationship and he is the reason we use Premier for all of our portable fencing needs. This is the video that he published when he put the fence out for the first time:

The first thing Tom commented on is how tall the fence is. I think the regular fence is the same, but maybe those fence are 42" either way this one seems taller.

Tom went to run an errand so I decided to work on getting the fence set up. It was easy, just like the regular fence, but the prongs would get caught up in the small mesh portion of the fence. 

The meaties will get a preview of outdoor life hopefully this weekend. It would be nice to clean out the brooder and freshen it up for their last week or so in the garage. It's hard to say how they will react once they are on grass. However, I'm sure that they will be curious about the grass and maybe even start looking for things to eat in the grass. The trick will be gathering them back up to get them back into the box.

This fence will change the way our chicks grow up - maybe they will be even MORE meaty than last year's bunch. Last year I really enjoyed hanging out with the meaties and taking photos daily and some video here and there. This year will be no different.

Soon enough they will be out of this:

They have space now, but soon they will be totally on top of each other

Last year the meaties had a small courtyard

In eleven weeks we'll be graduating the new batch of Freedom Rangers to the freezer. Until then we'll enjoy watching them grow each and every day while moving them around the field every couple of days to new grass.

Farm Life is the Best Life - with new(ish) chicks.

I Did It

My Facebook Cover Photo collage

I recreated a Facebook account for myself for the intention of keeping up with the Homesteader type people that we follow on YouTube. This account is mainly for farming/homesteading purposes and I have connected with a few "friends" mainly my cousins and other family members as well as the farmers at Cascade Meadows Farm.

So, I went through the list (in my head) of the farmers/homesteaders whose videos we watch regularly and gave them a follow on the Facebook. Also did a search for an American Guinea Hog group to join.

Already I'm enjoying the low drama involved with my new-ish account. I had resurrected it a couple of months ago and then decided not to pursue it after all. I was thinking about how nice it was that I wasn't looking at crap posts all of the time or people who seem to have no life other than playing on facebook. There is good stuff to be had, but there is way too much junk.

AND

I am not going to accept every friend request out there. I don't have to, so no one give me a hard time about that. So, while I will connect with other somewhat like-minded people (and family) I plan to keep moving forward with my dream to have a thriving farm.

Farm Life is the Best...without the junk.