Lessons from the Chicken Coop!

So it has been a crazy few months.....where blogging didn't happen.  But that's ok.   This morning I learned a lesson while taking care of my "critters" and I thought I would share.

We have a small flock of chickens (7 hens and a rooster plus 3 guineas), 2 goats and a pig.  We also have a cow who lives across the road with my uncle's donkey and a shared miniature horse.  One of the reasons we have a little farm is so that we can grow/raise the food that we eat.  So most of the critters are expected to "earn their keep."  The pig and the cow live full, well fed lives and will be butchered for their meat.  The goats are both expecting and will provide milk for us once they freshen and the babies are weaned (I am SO excited about goat babies).  The donkey is not mine although he does provide much entertainment and the miniature pony was given to us and the kids love him (so they kinda get by on their looks-HA!)

And then we come to the chickens....their "job" is to provide eggs.  And they've been slacking.  Hens need daylight to lay so a decrease in egg production isn't unexpected but its like they've mutinied.  Recently, I've been lucky to get an egg a day... not cool ladies.  I've increased their feed (they free range but this time of year there is less to find) and offered them homemade suet.  I'm considering starting a meal worm farm to give them as protein filled treats.  They are happy about these developments.  But I've not seen any increase in egg production.

And then this morning while I was outside I decided to move the goats hay feeder.  It was a little close the door to the barn and with all the rain the last few days it was getting damp (not cool!).  And there mixed in with all that hay was a STASH of eggs.  I've collected them all and I'll check the for freshness with the "float test," and then mark them so I know to crack the in a separate bowl to make sure they are good before using them.  So the hens have paid their debts!

As I was finishing up the chores and enjoying the morning quiet, I was thinking (sometimes dangerous I'll admit).  How often do we wonder why God is not giving us a desire of our heart?  How often do we think "Why won't __________ happen for me?"  Why can't I find a better job?  Why does that other person get all the luck?  Why can't I have a new house or better car?  When the entire time its not that it isn't happening....its that we are looking for the answer in the WRONG place.  My chickens were not slacking....I was looking in the wrong place.

And my God is WAY better than my chickens.  He provides an abundance of what we need if we look in the right place.  A new job, a bigger house, and better car,  better "luck" can all be found if we look for it in Him!

Peaches, peaches, peaches

I was able to buy a bushel of peaches for a decent price last week and have them all used up now....Since I want a record of what I was able to "put up" this year....I thought I'd just do this here too

1 bushel of peaches yielded....

7 quarts canned peach slices
7 half pints peach preserves
5 half pints peach butter
2 pints, 2 odd jelly jars (between half pint and pint size), and 3 half pints peach jelly.
1 big cobbler
several fresh to eat and gift a few.

The peach slices are beautiful but I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer them frozen in the future.  The preserves and butter are perfection itself.  The jelly tastes more like slightly peach flavored sugar to me so we'll see what everyone else thinks.

The cobbler was great and the fresh peaches in our oatmeal so so yummy!

Still finished up with the tomatoes although I'm almost ready to just mow them down.  I'm so tired of canning and my cabinets are FULL.  And I know I have apples and pumpkin to do in a few weeks.  

MIA!

I've been MIA for a while.  I've been on facebook because I can do that in 30 seconds or less.  But I've not blogged and I've not really seen many people in the last few weeks.

We finally made it to a homeschool hangout yesterday and people were like "Woah!  You are out in public"  yep, we've been a bit reclusive for a while...but not without reason.

In the last 4 weeks or so I've canned

40 quarts of green beans
24 pints of pickles
21 pints of salsa
7 pints of pizza sauce
5 pints of pickled tomatoes
7 pints of pickle relish

and frozen

45 or so quarts of corn.
And a few bags of shredded zuchinni
and some chopped green peppers (I chop these and add them to a big freezer bag...and use them for soups and stuff-just busting off the bits I need)

I wish I had double or so the green beans and corn.  I wish I had a few more bags of zuchinni.  And I'm hoping for at least 24 pints of pizza/pasta sauce.  Next year, I'll know how to plant and plan differently.

All that produce has been grown, picked, cleaned, prepped and processed by little ole me.  The family has helped a bit.  We all plant together.  The King helps with the tilling some and so did A.  But I do most of it. The kids snapped 8 gallons of green beans one afternoon.

We were supposed to start school on Monday.  But I have at least 3 more canners of tomatoes to run thru (they'll be pizza sauce) not including the tomatoes still left to pick on the plants (which will likely be unseasoned tomato sauce or BBQ sauce).  And I have a crisper drawer in my fridge full of green beans I have to decide what to do with (eat fresh or can).  So school is being pushed back one week.  I have the boys first week of lessons all laid out but I still need to get L's preschool work figured out (that takes more planning from me).

If i can get my hands on peaches, I'll can/freeze those and make peach jelly and later in the fall we'll be doing applesauce and apple butter and pumpkin puree and butter.

Sometime this fall, the pig will be ready to butcher (which we'll pay to have done so we can have bacon, ham, and lard) and deer season will be rolling around.  We process all of our own venison.  By December or January, we'll also have a cow to butcher.  And we'll be borrowing a billy goat so we can have baby goats in the spring....when gardening starts again.

Although it is a never ending cycle, which has never been more apparent than when typing this out, the few weeks of canning and freezing the garden's produce are crazy.  I hide out.  Frankly, I neglect my house and the kids watch too much tv/play too much wii so they aren't in the kitchen with all the hot/boiling stuff.  But it always feels so great to have a pantry full of food knowing that if the winter is like it was last year (which is being predicted), that we will have plenty to eat without leaving the house.  :)


(PS- Although I totally enjoy sharing things like this about our lives, I am also sharing so that next year I can remember how much of each thing I had in the cabinet so I know how to change up my plans and have enough to last the year without much leftover-I don't anticipate any leftovers this year.  If I write it on a paper I will, without a doubt, lose the paper HA!)

Science Heavy week!

We have been on "summer break" since the start of June but that doesn't mean I don't take advantage of "teachable moments."  This week we have learned a LOT of science.

We have 2 goats and are hoping to have babies this spring.  They have to reach a certain weight in order to be bred this fall....they are getting close.  And prompted a conversation something like this.

Me: I think Betty and Lois will be ready to have babies this fall.  And goats commonly have twins.  Yay.
M: That's awesome.  We could have 4 baby goats.
Me: Yep.
M: who will the daddy be?
Me: Well, we will borrow a billy goat.
M:  If we want 4 babies though we need to get 2 billies, Mom.
Me: well, honey, we can just borrow 1 billy and he can be the daddy for both.  It isn't like with people.
M:  cool.  So we can have a bunch of girl goats and borrow and billy and he can just mate and mate and mate and we can have a bunch of babies?
Me:  Yes, I guess that would be true.  (Not going any further down that path just now)

little while later.

M:  how are baby goats born?
Me: well, they grow inside the mama for about 150 days.  Then the muscles in her belly start to cramp and she pushes the baby out.  It looks like the baby comes out of her butt, but it doesn't.  People babies are born the same way.
M: Will we have boy or girl babies?
Me: I don't know.  But if we have boy babies, we won't be able to keep them boys.
M: Why not?  What will we do?
Me: well, a boy baby can't make more babies with his mama and goats don't know that.  Plus boy goats get mean and stink really bad.  Remember Andy (the donkey) and Ben (the mini horse) and how they were mean and the vet came out and did surgery (the boys all watched as much of this as they wanted-which was all of it).  We will do it differently but that keeps them from being mean.  We will use a special rubberband on his testicles and they will come off.
M:  On his testicles?  You mean his balls mom?
Me: yes.
G: (piping in from the back of the van) Can we stop talking about this please?
Me: SURE!

Whew!

Then at dinner the other night we talked about genetics.  That although L is our sister/daughter, her genetics are different from ours.  We drew a family tree on the board and figured it all out.  That cousin Nae has dimples like Nanny.  But L's dimples come from somewhere in her genetic line.  That Cousin Nae is darker skinned like her daddy but Cousin D has our lighter skin and hums while she eats like her mom did and crinkles her nose while she smiles.  (our cousins are visiting so they were good examples-HA!)  Also that although A has some similarity in looks to MY uncle J, that he could not have gotten those characteristics from Uncle J becuase there is no direct line between A and Uncle J on the family tree.

Then this morning at breakfast we learned this....

M: Dad you are awesome but not nearly as awesome as me.
Dad:  Well, that's just not true.  With each generation there are 200 more mistakes in the genetic code....so you can't be more awesome than me.  You have 200 more mistakes in your very make up than I do.  So I am the most awesome.
M:  {crickets chirping} ....I still think that would make a good coffee mug "My dad is awesome.  But not as awesome as his kids".

Science OVER!

Our family is growing......

Meet Betty and Lois.  (l-r).  Our newest "kids"....they are so cute and fun and friendly....and LOUD!  :)  These are a dairy breed so hopefully by next spring we'll have more babies and fresh milk.  I'm sure goat milk will take some adjustment but I'm excited about it.  :)

And "Bacon"....he is also friendly and the kids love chatting with him cause he always snorts back.  But they also know his name determines his destiny....I am sure some people think that is cruel or mean but so many have no awareness of where our food comes from.  Unless a person is 100% vegetarian then everyone eats animals that started out as cute little babies...and many times not in the 5 star lifestyle our animals grow in.  ;)   

And our ducks....One is Donald and another is Aflack but I don't know which ones...the rest are probably named too but I don't know what.  We are looking forward to seeing how many males and females we got here and trying duck eggs....and then hopefully having duck babies....we will not be butchering these cause duck meat is icky....and I'm sure it's similar to butchering chickens which is a job I loathe.... :)

The kids were bummed when they figured out this kiddie pool wasn't for them.
But the ducks LOVE it!  And the kids literally sit out there and watch them play.  Who needs tv?
HA

We also got our garden in.  And they helped a little.  :)

I love spring.  It is such a time of possibilities.  I am always excited to garden and I pray this year that the garden is successful.  I've planted zucchini, cukes, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, green beans, peas, cantelope and watermelon.  Fingers crossed.

Back to work I go!  :D  Happy spring to everyone!

We're so Sappy!

Well, its that time of year and we're hoping its a good one.  Maple Sap Season.  Every couple years we tap a few trees and make our own maple syrup.  It is something I love doing....and the kids have a great time too.  Plus we get awesome homemade syrup.  Here's some pics of the day.  And by some, I mean A LOT!

We started by building lids for the buckets we would be collecting in.  Each of the boys got a chance on the different power tools.  Only one made this mama clench....

A with the circular saw...

M takes a turn with the power saw.

G has a go....

They all did great

 A getting the measurements just right so he can.....

drill the holes in the lids.

A saws off the 1/2 inch PVC to make the stile.

M has his turn  (G was missing for this step)

Since the PVC was half in and we used a slightly smaller drill bit (1/8 of an inch smaller) the boys used a grinder to whittle down the end to a point.....this is the part that made mama clench.

By doing this....the pipe will have a tight seal within the hole in the tree preventing leaks

M was smoothest with the grinder.  Whew....glad that's done.

 And off to the woods we go....

L just sitting on a log supervising.

G taps the first tree.  When I was little we used an old school drill (and did it by hand).  power tools all the way now.

First taste

another taste

drill the hole at a downward angle so the sap can run out more easily....

Hammer in the stile....

getting herself a taste

another kid....another tree

This is our collection method this year.  Tap in the tree with plastic hose running down through a hole in the lid on a 5 gallon bucket.  the block is wedged under the handle keeping the lid down....

Focus is important.

 Work is done....time for play!

slackline fun over the creek.  

Pappy and L take time to chill.  :)