This ending of another month is when I try to reflect on all of the happenings around the homestead during the past 30 days or so. Actually, this reflection and these numbers will not include the last two days of the month, but I don’t think I will get to post on Saturday (the last day of the month).
The numbers might bore readers out there in blogland, but I am trying to keep track of them for our own records so I can have a better picture of how expensive and/or successful our homesteading "hobby" is being. We are a one income family and do not have unlimited financial resources, so I feel the need to keep account of the costs.
Of course you can’t really measure the value of the experiences my family is having. We have spent a lot of money this month, but I think it will be worth it. We are making memories and discovering much about life and God. I am thankful He has given me a good job. I am also thankful for the windfall that most Americans share in called “income tax refund”. I really do not want to rely on the generosity of our government to achieve a successful homesteading life, but I will be thankful for what comes our way!
Wow, what a month March has been for us at Pure Water Hollow! Much has been going on and it has been difficult to find the time to get everything done that we want to do. God has been blessing us greatly and it feels like our cup is running over right now! I will begin with the chickens, as I have not posted about them lately but they continue to make a daily impact on our activities here.
Chickens:
We have seven former free-range hens now getting assimilated to the coop and the rest of the flock. We made the big move on the 16th and this class of freshmen hens has made the move more successfully than any we had tried in the past.
We go through a gradual process with the pullets/hens that seems to work pretty well. We put the new-comers into an adjoining lot to the big lot for several weeks to let them get used to the other chickens with out any fights. Then we clip their wings and put them in the coop on the roosts one evening with the other chickens. We keep all of the chickens in the lot together for a couple of days if the fighting isn’t too severe. Then we begin letting them out of the lot in the evening like usual, and watch to see if the new hens go back into the lot and coop voluntarily. They almost never do on the first night, but we watch them to see where they go to roost. Since their wings are clipped, they can’t go very high up in a tree, (but they can get into some tough places sometimes). We then pick them out of the trees or thorns or wherever they tried to hide and put them in the coop on the roosts where they should be happier and definitely safer. After repeating this for several nights, they get the idea that the trees are not the best place to roost and begin to follow the others into the lot and eventually the coop.
We rounded up three of the hens back in February, so they spent a full month in the enclosed side lot getting used to being near the coop chickens but the other four spent only 10 days in an enclosed lot next to the main lot. On the 16th the seven moved to the coop and there was almost no fighting on the 17th. A couple of the hens even went to the lot that evening, but most wanted to try their luck in the trees for a couple of weeks. By the end of the month, they all are going into the lot or else they stop just next to the coop. 4 of them are consistently going into the coop on their own, but I am still waiting for all of them to make it into the coop automatically. If you count up the days, it has taken 2 full weeks of monitoring them every night to help them decide to come into the coop for safety. It has worn on us, but it will be worth it to have them safe in the coop when a coon or fox or opossum comes looking for a chicken dinner!
So, now at the end of March, we have 28 hens in the coop with one rooster. We have another rooster near by, but Big Daddy Dommer does not let him stay in the coop. Instead, Roy (named after Roy Rogers because he has a much better sounding crow than Big Daddy) roosts in the tree next to the coop and stays by the lot all day, waiting patiently to greet his ladies when we let them out of the coop in the evening. We were also keeping another Dommer looking rooster we named Gene (after Gene Autry). Gene was the rooster that stayed with 4 of our new hens when they were free range, but now we don’t see him very much. He still comes back and roosts in the trees in front of our house with one of the other free-range hens that we did not catch, but during the day they go across the hill. We wanted to have 1 rooster for every 10 hens, but Big Daddy won’t let Roy and Gene stay around, even though they are his sons and look almost just like him. Oh well, the arrangement Big Daddy and Roy have made seems to be working and there are always certain hens that pair off more with Roy when they free range in the evening.
March 2007 saw some of our egg records break. The old weekly egg record was 55 eggs from the week of 5/28/06-6/3/06. Our hens broke the record on March 2nd as we gathered 67 eggs the week of 2/25/07-3/3/07! And then that record fell the next week of 3/4/07 – 3/10/07 when we gathered 69 eggs! Wow, back to back record weeks.
Three of our hens kept going broody and tried setting on eggs and when they do that they stop laying, so the next two weeks we got 41 eggs and 54 eggs. We are on a pace for this last week of March to be another record-breaking week. As of last night, the 29th we have had 56 eggs this week and need only 14 between today and tomorrow to break the record of 69. This month also saw our monthly record for eggs fall way back on the 21st when we surpassed the January of 2007 record of 165 eggs. As of March 29th we have had 254 eggs this month! It may be time to start asking some people if they would be interested in buying some farm fresh eggs…
Our expenses for the chickens were down for this month. We have not needed to feed them any in the evenings with the grass growing and bugs being out. I did buy a 100lb bag of cracked corn, and the price is now up to $10.10. (I am still amazed at the jump from $7.30 this time last year.) But still, $10.10 is not much to pay for over 22 dozen farm fresh eggs! Plus we sold 3 dozen for a dollar a dozen, so that would lower the cost to $7.10. We do have 4 more roosters caged up that we did not get around to butchering in March, so that meat supply has gained a little more weight and value, also!
Pigs:
The pigs have continued to grow. I am having some trouble keeping the ground in front of their trough solid enough for them to stand on. I am amazed at how much dirt is now gone. They have dug down a good couple of feet from where the ground used to be so that now their trough is too high for them. They usually have to put their feet up in the trough to get to their food, especially when the ground is muddy. I need to remedy this soon.
I was pleased that we got the trough finally fastened down good enough that they could not turn it over or make it too crooked. Now we just have to make it easier for them to eat out of it.
I bought a total of 7 – 100 pound sacks of corn meal for them this month to mix with the free milk from the milk distributor in town. We have used 6 bags already. Each bag cost $9.10 now so that is a total of $54.60 in corn meal for them this month! I also bought one bag of Pig and Hog chow for $14.20 and have used half of it so far. Porky is getting close to butchering time, so when we transform him into meat it should cut the feeding costs by a fourth.
I would love to be able to fence in a pasture for the pigs. We have the perfect spot, but not the perfect amount of time to do it with everything else that needs to be done. I’m not sure where this will fall on our priority list, but perhaps some day we will start it. We need to get something done before piglet time comes, anyway. Right now the two potential sows are in the same lot with the boar, and I want to make three separate places for them eventually.
Goats:
This has been an exciting month for us concerning our new venture into the world of goats. I finished the gate on the goat lot the beginning of the month so we have had Little Joe in the lot for most of the month during the days. I dusted Little Joe for lice on the 11th with the Insectrin dust I had used for the pigs before. On the 22nd, 23rd and 24th we got the goat house finished and brought Mama Belle, Little Lulu, Tiny Tim, and Big Jim home on that same day.
We would like to try milking Mama Belle, but have not yet made the time. We do not have a good place to separate her away from her kids, but when we get the time…
Hopefully she will not dry up before we get a chance to try some goat milk for ourselves. We are thinking we should make Big Jim and Tiny Tim wethers like Little Joe because we are just not yet ready for any “bucky” actions and will not have a good buck pen fenced for some time yet.
Our initial expenses for the goat start-up this month included $50 plus the junked car to trade for the goats, $9.50 for a goat mineral block, and $9.20 for a 50-pound bag of goat feed. $17.25 for three bales of hay, $30 for the hay rack I put on the house, a goat bottle and nipple for $4.95, and 3 cow bells for $14.00. That is a total of $134.90. Most of these expenses will not need to be repeated in the future.
We are looking forward to learning more about goats and getting used to raising them.
Fruit Trees/Garden:
Sadly there has been little activity this month in this area except for planning and dreaming. We have not re-tilled the garden spot and we have not improved the garden fence yet. (Maybe this weekend?) I also have not pruned the fruit trees like planned. The peach trees started blooming so pretty that I didn’t have the heart to start clipping, especially after seeing how happy they were making our honeybees. I pruned them pretty good last year, so maybe they will be ok.
On the other hand, I have not done anything about the brown rot fungus that hit our peaches so hard last year, except to remove all of the diseased fruit. I had hoped to do some type of treatment since most people say that once it hits it will continue to be a plague. I don’t want to use any chemicals now, especially since it could endanger our honeybees! We will have to keep a close watch on our peaches to see what happens. The four trees across the road on the river bank are hopefully far enough away that the fungus won’t reach them and we can still have a peach crop even if the brown rot appears on the trees near our house.
Our apricot tree is blooming at the very top, which I was going to cut off had I gotten the chance. The cherry tree looks good. You are not supposed to prune them much, anyway. The little cherry tree we started from seed is still living, too. The wild plum trees are all beginning to bud out, and I did not prune them either, but they seem to do fine as wild trees so maybe we don’t need to prune them much. I still want to prune those apple towers and our big apple trees need some big attention.
Our strawberry patch is perking up but I need to re-do the fence around them quickly. (Will try to get some materials today) I still want to make the raspberry stand nicer by clearing all the weeds and other thorns out and maybe give them a sort of a trellis or fence to grow on. Also need to prune the grape vines still… (sigh)
Honeybees:
This is a new category for my Homestead Happenings! We bought our first hive of bees on March 9th and called it the Genesis Colony. Our peach trees were a buzz with the sweet little honeybees this month, and it seems that they are finding plenty of flowers now. We fed them two-quart jars of sugar water before things started blooming. We spent $100 for the working hive including the bees and one hive body, and $30 for a super with frames.
We have decided to purchase another hive body to add onto the one we have to let the colony grow instead of swarm. Hopefully we will get it in time, but we still need to place the order.
Weather:
All I can say is WOW! We have had a glorious month of weather. We had 7 days in the mid 80s, 6 days in the 70s, 10 days in the 60s, 2 days in the 50s, 1 day in the 40s and only 3 days in the 30s with snow flurries. (The next two days are supposed to be in the 70s also.) We got .6 inch of rain during the beginning of the month, 1 whole inch of rain the middle week, and another .3 inch of rain the last week, for about 1.9 inches of rain for March. Most of the days were warm, sunny, and absolutely beautiful and almost summer-like!
Misc:
On a very sad note, one of our Pyr/Lab puppies, Princess, was hit and killed on the road in front of our house on Saturday the 24th. We were across the road on our riverbank and the puppies were with us. For some reason, Princess went back up to the road and jumped out right in front of a speeding car. The car put its breaks on after it hit Princess, but they did not even stop to see how she was or say they were sorry.
We are thinking of adopting another puppy from an animal shelter to give Luna another playmate. She has seemed lonely the past week…
This month also saw Matthew out of commission with an emergency appendectomy. We are so thankful to have him back at full strength now and that everything worked out so well.
Yesterday we purchased a pile of 8-inch concrete blocks for $160 to use on various future projects around the homestead. After stacking them we counted 230 blocks with 218 of them being the standard 8-inch type. Most have never been used. We feel that it was a pretty good deal.
Well, after re-reading this lengthy post, I can better understand why my dear wife has been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. She is home all day to see all of the unfinished projects constantly. And I have not even mentioned all of the projects we need to do to fix our old house. And she has to keep up with all the household chores as well as homeschooling a 1st grader, 3rd grader, 7the grader, and 9th grader! Please pray for her, as I do not want any needless stress in her life.
Hopefully we will keep a healthy attitude of being thankful for what we are able to do without bemoaning all of the things we would like to do, but do not get accomplished. There are only so many hours in a day, but there are an infinite number of possible projects to do during a day and an infinite number of possible disappointments in a day if we are not careful. I don’t want my Lisa to think she has to do miracles for me to be happy. No, she just needs to be herself and let the Lord lead her. Everything will fall into place according to His will and plan! If things can’t go according to our every plan, then I am glad we have the Master planner that can make all things work together for good! We do love Him and can do nothing without Him!
{I doubt I will be able to post much throughout next week, if at all. I was hoping to post some sermons for Easter but if I do it looks like it will be after Easter. So if I do not get back here before then, I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! Celebrate His resurrection (not the Easter Bunny!) and His love, grace and mercy (not candy, new clothes, and colored eggs!) and may He be alive in your life!}
3 comments
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~Melissa on March 30, 2007 at 1:51 pm
What a neat idea to categorize every thing. I think that would really help my attitude If I KNEW exactly what things were costing and what was saving us money. I plan to get a loose leaf ledger and do the same thing. My Dad just came for a visit and brought his paper work… he does that… separates each property he owns, each farm department, my brother's house (is on Dad's property as he needs to be home with Dad), etc. all on seperate sheets and He knows where his money is going… even told me he plans to sell two properties (he has lots of rentals) as they don't make any money on them as the location just seems to attract bad tennants. Helps you make wiser decisions.
Sorry about your pup. That must have been sad. We were out for a walk and our puppy ran under a truck and got rolled probably 20-30 feet, but he was ok, just embarrassed. But he never learned. He did get run over by the time he was two… just never learned that those big things with wheels could hurt him…. And it was I that ran him over… I still get sick about it… we were leaving for vacation and he wanted to go with… he chased and chased… I even took him back twice… but the third time he was desperate and even my penning him in didn't help, he got out and ran under the camper wheels. (We had someone to watch him later that day). Just made our trip miserable… the girls still talk about how miserable it was. Anyways, it's still hard to take… never fun to watch our doggies die.
Warmly, ~Melissa
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Chas on April 1, 2007 at 9:38 pm
You inspire me to be more careful about what we take in and what we spend toward the farm. Ours is still in the beginning stages but it excites me to see everything taking shape.
Yes Celebrate!!!
HE IS RISEN!!!!!
God bless you with a beautiful Easter!!
Blessings,
Chas
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HandsNHearts on April 2, 2007 at 10:34 am
"I really do not want to rely on the generosity of our government to achieve a successful homesteading life, but I will be thankful for what comes our way!"
I don't much care for them having free use of my money all year, but it is rather nice to have that little lump sum turn up every May around here )
I love to peek into your homestead month — you spur me on to keep better track of the wonderful things we have here and the plans we have in mind for the future as we continue our stewardship of this homestead for Him.
Deanna
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