Good Morning

This is what greeted me when I walked outside yesterday morning.  We slept in a bit, and Max and Maurine were at the door waiting for their bottles.  Sheila and Mary Jane came along to investigate.

I attempted to pet Mary Jane, and she ran off to the add a room.  And jumped on the table.  Don't mind the mess- it's under construction.

I went and got Minuet, and let her walk the path to the turkey pen.  She was still in the yard when I let the birds out.  Goose and Gackle could hear her chirping away, and were eager to get outside.  Gackle didn't even stop to eat.  She ran straight to Minuet.

Goose caught up a few minutes later, and the little family headed into the garden.  (That's a turkey on the right.)  After I finished picking weeds I fed the birds and penned them back up.  The geese all went back in the pen.  I watched them for awhile, and figured Minuet was safe in their care.  No turkey attacks, and any bird that got too close was hissed away. 

Everything was fine until bed time, when I scooped up Minuet to take her back to the brooder.  Goose stood up, hissing, and flapped his wings at me.  If I saw them set over her, I'd leave her with them overnight.  Our nights are too cool to not have her under heat.  They'll just have to wait until morning.

Attack of the Turks

Holy Moly!

 I took Minuet out to the turkey pen yesterday morning.  I held her until after the birds were fed and all munching away, and then set her on the ground near Goose.  Goose didn't even look up!  The turkeys did though.  Some of the chickens cackled and pecked at her as she ran off, but the turkeys attacked her.  Two of them ran at her and jumped - STOMPED!- on her back and pecked her head.  I scooped her back up and got her out of there!

Outside the turkey pen she was wriggling about, so I set her down and let her walk.  She followed me for a few steps, chirping away.  That got Goose and Gackle's attention.  They both came to the gate honking.  I let them out into the yard, and Gackle went right to Minuet and snuggled her neck.  Goose held back a bit, surveying the situation.  He doesn't like to get too close to me. 

After a few minutes I opened the garden gate and attempted to usher them in.  No luck.  Finally, I picked up Minuet and took her in.  Gackle rushed in behind her.  Goose took his time, stood up and flapped his wings, but followed along as well.  I left the three of them in the garden alone for the rest of the day.

Minuet went back to the brooder overnight. 

Garden Update and New Arrivals

I guess because there just wasn't enough going wrong in the garden this year, sweet Mother Earth decided I needed to be plagued by potato bugs as well.  I dusted the plants twice with diatomaceous earth.  It may have killed some of the little buggers, but not nearly enough, and not quickly enough.  Serves me right, I guess, for bragging that the potatoes were doing well.

I resorted to pulling the bugs off the plants and feeding them to the birds.  The chickens do not mind at all!  After a couple of weeks the plants are recuperating well.  I'm still picking a dozen or so potato bugs off every day, but a big improvement over the hundreds I was picking off in the beginning.

My stunted little beets.

 I'm not sure what is going on with them, they just don't seem to have grown at all in the last month.  We've had a good mix of rain and sun lately, they're planted about where the beans started last year, and I've been keeping up well with the weeds.  They started off well, and then just seemed to quit.  I hope they get a second wind, with only 1 month to go.

The few surviving bean plants are just about to flower.  We might get a meal or two yet.

We went to the auction yesterday, where some people were standing in the parking lot with a couple of cages of kittens to give away.  Their barn cat population had gotten out of control.  I told them I wanted a barn cat, a female, and they handed me this adorable little calico kitten, probably not more than 7 or 8 weeks old.

It tried to kill me.

I know that sounds hilarious, but I'm really not kidding.  It hit me with the claws on contact, started hissing. I brought it to my chest trying to sooth it,  it spun around, still clawing and went for my jugular.  Luckily??!!  I brought my chin down in time to save my throat, so I only had to pull the cat off my face, with one hand firmly around her neck.  She was still clawing and hissing as I stuffed her back in the cage.

On the one hand, I'd have really liked to bring her home.  I'm sure that kitty would have taken care of all the mice, voles, squirrels and chipmunks around here, and given the weasels and minks a good fight.  On the other hand, the Littles would have wanted to play with the kitty, and I'm not sure they would fare so well.

The second kitten he handed me, a total sweetheart, fluffball.  She cuddled up and started purring instantaneously.  One extreme to the other.  I figured he'd have no problem finding her a cushy indoor home.

In the end, we chose an older kitten.  She's about four months old, and quite sweet.  Hopefully still young enough to not be pregnant!  #1 named her Mouser.  Hopefully she'll grow into her name.

For now she's in a cage in the chicken coop, until she gets familiar with us and her new surroundings.  #3 dropped her last night, outside, and it took over an hour to find her and catch her again.  #1 gave her a squirt of fresh milk before bed.  Mildred was not amused, lol.  We'll give her a squirt every morning for the next few days, hopefully teaching her to come and say hello at milking time.

My other new arrival- Minuet.

She's an Emden Goose.  Well, we're calling her a she, though honestly, we have no idea.  She's sleeping in the brooder with the new chicks for now, but she'll be spending her days in the turkey pen with Goose and Gackle.  Or at least, that's the plan.  They haven't met yet.

I took 10 of my meat chickens to the auction with me to sell, but ended up bringing them all back home.  The highest bid was $3.  Unbelievable!  It cost me $9 just to run them through the auction and bring them back home.  A learning experience, I guess.  If I try it again, I think I'll put fewer birds in cardboard boxes.  They seem to sell better that way. 

Round Four

Eight little hatchlings this time, and I think it was because I screwed up.  I didn't write down the date I started the eggs in the incubator, and therefore wasn't sure when they would be hatching.  Oops. 

Sunday morning, sitting here in front of the computer, I heard the first little cheeps.  Usually the cheeps do not begin until a day or two after I remove the egg turner.  This time the egg turner was still running.  Uh oh...  I quickly pulled the egg turner out and set the eggs back in the incubator. 

The next morning, I was greeted by the first four little peeps.

In my previous hatches, it's been nearly 24 hours between the first and second chicks, and sometimes two or three days before the last one makes it out of his shell.  By Tuesday morning, all eight were out and chirping loudly, no latecomers on Wednesday or Thursday.  There was one who didn't quite make it out of his shell on Wednesday, but I'm afraid I may have drowned him.  I refilled the water pan Wednesday morning, a little too full I think, and the way the shell was turned, chips toward the bottom, it might have wicked water up inside.

Otherwise, this has been the loudest, most active, and largest hatch so far.  My plan is to wait until I hear the first cheeps from the eggs before removing the egg turner from now on.  Four of these were my eggs, and four were from the neighbour who washes and refrigerates.  The other neighbour had agreed to save me a dozen unwashed, but lost her rooster before she got the chance. :(

I have no eggs saved right now for another batch- since I wasn't paying attention to when the last batch was supposed to hatch.  The incubator will be taking a little break.

In the meantime, I need to catch the last batch while I can still identify them, and band their feet.  The first two batches are all about the same size as my meat birds now, and since I'm raising Frey's dual purpose, their colours are a bit of a mix and I'm not sure who's who.  The male meats are supposed to be white, and the females are supposed to be red.  Most of my hatchlings had a reddish tinge to them, and there are far more whites with black than I could have hatched.

Since the meat birds grow faster than the layers though, I should be able to tell again in the next few weeks.  The whites (males) far out number the reds (female) though, so likely I'll be keeping all of the hens to over winter and incubate their eggs next spring.  Provided of course, that I don't get too overzealous and screw things up.

 

Because I've decided to free range the birds a bit.  They are so hungry all the time, and not really interested in the raspberry bushes and few weeds that are still growing in their pen.  I let them out into the yard in the morning now, water them, and go to the garden.  They have complete freedom to wander, eat bugs, and forage for greens while I'm in the garden picking their weeds for the day.  When I'm done I take the weeds back to the turkey pen, and most of them follow me to see what I've got.  The rest are soon lured in by the sound of grain and happy munching sounds.  A couple get caught outside the fence, but are easy to catch and toss in, as they're eager to get to the food. 

It's only an hour or two in the morning, but still, it seems to make them happy, and hopefully will cut down on the feed bill a bit.  They're up to four bags a week now, two each of turkey grower and scratch grain.  I also mixed in a bag of whole corn yesterday, as I think the ducks and geese can handle it, and maybe it'll entertain the chicks for a bit while they work at pecking it out.

I am seriously regretting not planting a row or two of mangels for the birds this spring.  The turkeys seemed to enjoy them last fall, and I think they'd make an easy fodder crop for them as well.  I am tossing buckwheat and clover seed between my rows as I weed- growing weeds on purpose for the birds.  I figure I have to pull weeds there anyway, it might as well be something a bit more nutritious for the birds.

Smoking

A couple of years ago my brother and sister-in-law gave me their smoker.  It's been sitting on a shelf in the garage ever since.  Until this week, that is.  I kept meaning to try it out, but when I'm butchering, well, I'm busy butchering.  And after butchering all day, it was easier to just make jerky in the oven, rather than pulling out the smoker and figuring out how to use it.

So, of course, I did it all wrong.  It's a charcoal/water smoker.  Charcoal...  not my thing.  I mean, I suppose I could make a batch of charcoal, but really, why can't this thing run on wood?  So I filled up the fire pit and lit it, and waited an awfully long time for all of that wood to burn down to a nice bed of hot coals.

#1 got out the smoker.  We hosed it all down, cleaned out the cobwebs, tried to figure out where all the parts went, then stuck it in the fire pit to burn off any ickiness that was still on it.  Good thing too, because it stunk really bad.  The smoker was coated with some kind of paint or something.  Yuck.

Then we went in the house to watch youtube videos.  We did find a couple showing how smokers were supposed to be set up and used, but most were videos about how other people had modified their smokers.  They all used charcoal.

Back outside, smelling better, I pulled the smoker out of the pit and brushed off all the ash and scum left behind from the paint.  In the pit, the temperature gage- warm/ideal/hot, no actual temperature- was reading hot.

So we put the grate on over the fire pit and put the smoker on top of it.  We put the bowls and racks in place, filled the water bowl, added mesquite chips (they came with the smoker) to the charcoal/wood chip bowl, and waited for the temperature to reach 'ideal'.

Then we added the meat.  One pork shoulder, and one small beef roast.  I coated them with BBQ sauce.  Experimenting with the smoker was enough for one day, I may try a rub or marinade next time.

With the smoker raised above the fire, it cooled down rather rapidly, so we had to keep adding wood.  Wood under the smoker, adding smoke...  Yeah, I guess this is pine smoked pork and beef.  Hmmm...

4 hours later they looked sort of done, it was after 10pm, dark out, and we were tired (and we ate burgers for supper hours before), so #1 brought them in and stuck them in the fridge.  Husband was going to make a sandwich for work the next morning, so he sliced off the end of the pork- and then went looking for sandwich meat in the fridge.  Not done at all.

I had to go to town that day, so I left #1 in charge of smoking them further.  It was a drizzly, rain off and on kind of day, so I told him to skip the grate and put the smoker right in the fire pit.  At some point in the afternoon he figured the pork was done and brought it back in the house.  He left the roast on all day. 

When I got home I looked at the pork, and although technically, it was probably 'done', it was not overcooked and falling apart the way I like it, so I put it back on again.  I never checked the roast.

At supper time, the pork was still not fall apart done, but it was browned all the way through and smelled delicious.  Yeah- where was the camera then?  Oops.  The roast was well done, with the outer edge so over done it was inedible.  Inside was a bit dry, but very flavourful and tender.

All in all, it was an interesting experience.  I think I'll try it again on our next drizzly rain all day type of day.  We tend not to stick close enough to the house on nice days to do a proper job of managing the fire- there be berries in dem woods! 

I think mostly the smoker is like an outdoor oven, which works well over the fire pit, and the smoke, well, it adds a different flavour than you get from the oven indoors.  I may skip the bottom bowl of the smoker, and just add the wood chips directly over the coals in the fire pit.  I'm also tempted to cut a branch or two from the cherry trees to use rather than the mesquite.  I doubt that I'll attempt to use it for jerky, as I'll still be busy butchering, and I can fit more trays in the oven and leave it on overnight without fear of wildlife looking for a snack.  I will probably just use it to break up the 'summer food' diet without heating the house up.

Elderberry Season

We went out and picked our first batch of elderberries for the year the other day.  I was a couple of days late, as the birds had already eaten more than their share!  Dad found this particular patch of elderberry bushes in the woods last year, and didn't even tell me about them!  Lol.  Mom let the cat out of the bag after I stumbled upon them myself.

These bushes are out in the sun, the area they're in far less overgrown than where I usually pick, and probably a good two weeks ahead of my usual patch.

Red elderberries grow in this area. 

You can still tell that they're ripe when the stems turn from light green to purple.  We snap the stems off the bushes and toss them into a five gallon pail. 

Back at the house the whole pail goes in the freezer.  The bucket gets a good shake a few times a day, which knocks the frozen berries off the stems.  After a few days, cleaning is a breeze.  I'm sure I'll have close to three inches of just berries in the bottom of my bucket, with more to pick soon.  They'll make about double the batch of elderberry wine that I made last fall.

More Fencing

The back field is a bit overgrown this year. All those dry beans I threw out here last year must have done some good, despite not producing for us.  Several attempts to convince Mildred to graze back here have led her to go visiting the neighbours.

A gate across the trail to Mom's place was the first order of business.  Of course, that merely slows her down.  As she wiggles through the trees munching away.

We started nailing poles to the trees, creating a crooked little fence around the clearing.

Meanwhile, Mildred, the calves, and the kids are munching away.  The grass is pretty high here- three calves and two kids in this picture.  If they haven't eaten it all by the time we're done construction, I may bring the horses down for a few days as well. 

And, of course, we're still collecting firewood from the tree tops and dead fall as we work.