Monthly Archives: September 2010

our first farm casualty

Photo-19

We had our first farm casualty today :(

When I went out to say good morning to the chickens, I discovered that one of our beloved, endangered Russians had died sometime in the night.  Poor little Russian hen – one of her fellow hens was cuddled up beside her body.  It was very sad.  We have no idea why she died, but she didn’t seem to have anything visually wrong with her (no wounds, bugs, etc).  We’re hoping it wasn’t a disease that could infect our other chickens…

We buried our little Russian beneath this mound of earth and plants.  Bye bye little chicken.  We thought you were pretty swell.

the backyard homestead

51fn36j7jdl

It was my birthday yesterday and my dad gave me this book, ‘The Backyard Homestead’.  It looks AWESOME and I can’t wait to start reading it!  The subtitle and other front cover text reads, “Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! Eat from the garden year-round with fresh veggies and homemade preserves. Make omelets from eggs laid by your own chickens. Pick fruits and berries from your back door”. Perfect!


It’s pretty much a how-to on everything you’d want to know about food self-sufficiency in your back yard, including making dandelion wine and brewing your own beer.  Oh! And I just noticed it includes how to make fresh mozzarella… Yum!  (I love how I gravitate straight towards the alcohol and cheese ;) It contains great looking drawings and diagrams and if you don’t have a quarter acre, it includes a diagram and how to on how to live off of one-tenth of an acre too.  Loving it!  Thanks Dad!  

 

Autumn farm plans

Matt_farm_meeting16130659174

Yesterday afternoon, we had our first official farm meeting now that everyone is back from holidays and settling into life on the farm. Matt (pictured) sketched up a visual birds-eye view of the farm and we began brainstorming about what we want to do with the land and where we want to put things (plants, animals, greenhouse, compost, etc).

The meeting resulted in a long to-do list that included:

Autumn farm neccessities:

  • reading through parts of John Seymour’s Self Sufficient Gardener book;
  • planning gardens and inviting gardening mentors over for advise and consulting;
  • rototilling the land we want to plant on;
  • fixing fences;
  • completing the chicken coop and building two additional chicken run areas;
  • scanning craigslist for materials and usable freebies;
  • digging out the weedy drainage ditch;
  • researching, buying and planting winter vegetables;
  • fix up composts;

Autumn farm dreams:

  • building a duck shelter, digging a duck pond and buying ducks;
  • building a fence and shelter for pigs;
  • building a greenhouse;

Autumn family neccessities:

  • figure out weekly chores (garbage & recycling);
  • fix lean of feed bin and propane tank;
  • fix gable siding;
  • paint house;

And making a plan for a big work party for a weekend in late September. Work party invite coming soon for those of you interested in getting your hands dirty and helping us out!