This post was accidentally sitting in my draft queue for the last three weeks. Here it is, the end of May. Look who decided it was time to sit on her nest. She's been laying eggs since the beginning of March, but not sitting on them. We stopped taking the eggs at the beginning of… Continue reading Bye Bye Geese
Category: Gardening and Homesteading
New Sheepies!
The last sheep were so easy to raise, and so tasty, that we decided to get some more sheep. This time, we want to get ewes so we can breed our own sheep instead of buying feeder rams every year. The initial expense is greater, but over the next 2 years they should pay for… Continue reading New Sheepies!
Welcome to the Jungle
The neighbor to the south is not really able to maintain his property anymore, so there is a little cottonwood forest grown up in it. That is, when you look at it from a distance it appears to be mostly cottonwood, but when you look at it up close... Before Boom! Poison hemlock. Not to… Continue reading Welcome to the Jungle
Processing the Meat Ducks.
Caution. This post is about where food comes from. Proceed accordingly. The meat ducks reached a healthy (and hefty) 8 weeks old, averaging 8.4 Lbs (this might be a slight overestimation, as they sometimes bounce around in the bucket while being weighed). We ordered 20 ducks from Meyer hatchery, they shipped 21 on April 7th.… Continue reading Processing the Meat Ducks.
Garden and Orchard work
Last Tuesday, we managed to get into the garden a little bit during the day. Winnie and Daddy put twine on the bean trellis. They beans are starting to come in quite nicely, but we actually ran out of twine with two trellises left to go. We have more twine now, but haven't gotten to… Continue reading Garden and Orchard work
Moving the Egg Ducks
Our egg ducklings are now three weeks old, and the weather is nice and warm. We are moving them out of the brooder! By the bucketload! They will be locked in the duck-mobile for the next couple of weeks, though. They are too small to be running around without overhead cover. They are just snack-sized… Continue reading Moving the Egg Ducks
Radish lacto-ferment
We are coming to the end of the radish season. Most of the ones we picked this week were woody and just starting to bolt. This bucket from late last week was the last good harvest, except for the Runder-schwarzers, which haven't really come into their own yet. Radishes are one of Daddy's favorite vegetables,… Continue reading Radish lacto-ferment
Meat Ducks: Getting big!
We are moving into the last week of raising this crop of meat ducks. They are averaging over seven pounds now. God willing we will be butchering some of them on Thursday and the rest on Saturday. Why is Ellie so cranky? "Because you made it too hot out here!" Ellie is not the only… Continue reading Meat Ducks: Getting big!
Garden odd jobs
We are a bit behind on the garden this year. The weather has not been cooperating. It is cold at night, cold enough to keep the soil from being warm enough to germinate the seeds for warmer season crops, but hot and dry enough during the day to keep the cooler season crops from growing… Continue reading Garden odd jobs
Meat Ducks: Update
Pekins are getting pretty big. The average weight is about 3.2 kg, or just about 7 Lbs. One of the downsides of their size is that they are now too big to spend all day in the bird-mobile. By the end of the day the grass is all trampled down and matted with poop. So… Continue reading Meat Ducks: Update