Weather:
Looking back, I see that we had some significant weather in April here at Pure Water Hollow. April always gives Kentucky a wonderful variety of weather but the great "April Freeze of 07" was a bit unusual. The first three days of the month were beautiful with temps in the 70s and 80s and on Tuesday, April 3rd we even saw 88 degrees! That made the sudden fall in temperature even more pronounced as the next night got down to freezing! That was followed by 3 days of off and on snow flurries and was the start of 6 straight nights of below freezing temperatures!
It was certainly hard on our fruit trees, but I believe that God works everything out for good in His own way. Perhaps the freeze will have taken care of the brown rot problem we had on our peaches and plums last year? Maybe next year’s crop will be even more bountiful and without the brown rot? And I had not gotten around to doing any pruning this season, which now I am grateful. Our trees were probably able to withstand the freeze better since they had not been pruned recently?
The two weeks following the freeze saw us record almost 4 inches of rain amongst some otherwise beautiful days, but it was the 2.7 inches of rain that fell during the 36 hour period during the weekend of the 13th, 14th, and 15th that caused some flash flooding, damage to our pond dam up in the hollow, and the river to overflow its banks, almost uprooting the peach trees down there! We also had rain on the 19th, 24th, 26th, and the 28th. Altogether it looks like we had a total of 4.4 inches of rain and about .8 inches of snow for the month of April.
Our temperatures for the month were a mixed bag. We saw 16 days in the 70s and 80s, 8 days in the 50s and 60s and 6 days only in the 30s and 40s. I guess that is fairly typical of a Kentucky April.
Chickens:
We are excited about what the Lord is doing in this department. April has been another record-breaking month for Pure Water Hollow Homestead egg production of 330 eggs, (not counting today). That broke last month’s record of 283 eggs. If you divide 330 by the 29 days you find that we have averaged 11.3 eggs per day! The first week of April went down as the new record total for weekly output of 91 eggs, beating the previous weeks record of 85 eggs! (I gathered the eggs later today. This last day of April saw a record number of eggs for one day: 22 eggs all laid in the coop! That makes 352 for the month!)
We have 27 hens now, but we started the month with 28. On April 10th 2 hens did not come back to the coop. One of them did return later, but one never did. We think she probably went to setting on a nest in the woods, which would have been fine, if she could have stayed safe. Sadly, Matthew found a pile of feathers in a rock crevice up on the hill yesterday. We think it must be from the missing hen.
We never really planned on going into the egg selling business, but people are now buying fresh farm eggs from the Pure Water Farm! We have made $23.50 selling eggs in April. We only started marketing them just over a week ago and we have sold 9 1/2 dozen during these first 11 days. All I did was put one flier up on the bulletin board at work and mentioned it to a few people and God is doing the rest. I have made some fliers to put up at some local stores and the post office, but we have to wait to see if we have any extra eggs. So far we are selling all we have here at my work!
I decided that it would be best if we used new cartons so we ordered 200 for about $50. I got them from the same place that pcsmom got hers. (Thanks for the tip). We got our cartons in on April 18th and had my flier up by the 20th. These 200 should be more than enough for this season and I think we will have many left over for next year. Here is a picture of what they look like:
One reason they may be selling so well is that we only priced them for $1.50 a dozen. I didn’t want to go too high since there are people around here who still sell eggs for only $1 a dozen, but they don’t sell them in attractive, sterile, new cartons!
Our cost for keeping the chickens this month has been just one 100 pound bag of cracked corn for $10.10. The price of corn continues to rise here…
Pigs:
Our pigs are costing us a bit more to keep, but we are still enjoying them. They are such loveable creatures! I bought 400 pounds of corn feed meal at the start of the month for $36.50. We mix this with the free milk we get from the distributors in town. This lasted for over three weeks but I did have to buy another bag on the 26th for $9.10 and we have gone through it already. I also bought a 100 pound bag of hog feed for $12.25 from one feed store and another 100pound bag of hog chow for $14.10 from another feed store. The difference is the amount of protein in the feed. The more expensive one has 16% protein, I think, while the other has 12%. I get them just to try and give the pigs a more balanced diet. The grand total for feeding the 4 now rather big hogs comes to $71.95 for the month of April.
We added a new metal feed trough for them the beginning of this month. Now we have a large trough outside and a large one inside. This has helped by giving them more room and a better variety. This new feed trough is actually half of some type of cylindrical tank, like a water heater but larger. Matthew dug it up from the ravine so we have no money in it and it is working so good! The outside feeding area was greatly improved on April 3rd when we built up the ground in front of the trough using free slabs from a local saw mill. We stacked them and nailed them together and covered the platform with dirt so it would not be too hard on their feet. The pigs love it and it has helped them be able to eat out of the trough tremendously!
We still have Porky, although he looks like he is definitely ready to process. He turned 6 months old on April 4th. I really need to get on the ball and decide where to take him. There are a few butchers to choose from, but the one I want to find more about is one in a neighboring community run by some Mennonites. If they are in business for the general public it might be worth it to drive further for some quality service by people I can trust.
I see that I have also spent money on straw for the pigs. It just seems that they enjoy having straw for their beds so much that I hate to let them do without it. Maybe I am pampering them too much, but I have given them 6 bales of straw during April. This also helps with the mud some, and they seem to use the straw in their stalls to clean the mud off of them. They do seem cleaner and happier when they have straw to play with. But we have to weigh in the cost factor. Straw here sells for $4.75 a bale so I have used about $30 of straw just to make them comfortable this month.
I also wormed them this month, on April 10th, just to be on the safe side. I went back and forth on whether or not it would be a good thing if they did not show any signs of having worms, and I finally decided to do it just in case. I actually bought the worm medicine back in January for $4.95. It was called Atguard Worm medication. It was the kind you mix in the dry feed and was enough medicine to do all four pigs.
Goats:
Our 5 goats continue to do well. They have never escaped from our fence, so I am glad that we must have done something right. We desperately need to continue fencing however, and give them access to all the plants and thorns and trees that are out now. They have picked their lot pretty clean, and they love it when the children take them on walks with a leash where they can get to other plants. I think we will be able to cut back quite a bit on their feed after they have a bigger area to graze.
This month we have gone through 2 bags of 100 pound goat feed that cost a total of $27.50 and they have started on another 100 pound bag of sweet feed that I bought for $13. I also bought 10 bales of hay for $30 on April 19th and we have already used several of the bales.
The kudzu has not yet greened out, so we still do not know how well they will like it. I surely hope it will be one of their favorites!
Bees:
As far as we know, our Genesis Colony of honeybees is doing well.
We went ahead and invested in all the bee keeping equipment we think we will need in the foreseeable future and it was delivered on April 14th in two 45 pound boxes. I think it was like Christmas for Lisa, and she has enjoyed going through it all and assembling the hives and supers and frames. We got a complete hive, another hive body, two more supers, all the frames we need, all the foundation we could use, a beekeeping outfit with the gloves, helmet, overalls, an extra helmet and veil, a smoker, a feeder, a book. and other little things I am forgetting. We are planning very soon to add a hive body and super to the Genesis Colony.
Trees and Plants:
We were able to plant 6 blueberry bushes, 12 cherry bushes, 3 pecan trees, and 6 coffee trees this month. We have a number of other pecan, chestnut, coffee, and dogwood trees to still plant. We have those extra trees heeled in in our garden, so they must find a home soon. Our garden is still awaiting our tender loving care.
In surveying my calendars, I don’t see much else I should mention here concerning April, except for the company we have had. It is neat that we started the month with a visit from my brother and his family and we have ended the month with a visit from my mom and step-dad. (I am hoping to share pictures that Mom took in my next post.) It has been fun to visit with family and share with them how God has been blessing our homestead.
Overall, I think we have had a good April, even though it did go by rather quickly! We operate in continual thanksgiving unto our Lord for the goodness he bestows upon us.
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