Thankful Blessings

Rainbows are Reminders of God's Promises to us.

Good Morning!  While this is not posted ON Thanksgiving, I thought I would write about our blessings this week.  There are so very many, I couldn't possibly tell you all, so I will share some of the biggest ones.

*I am a Christian.  God sent his Son to ensure I had a spot in heaven.  If I had no other blessings in the world, this would be enough. 

*Family - husband, children, granddaughters, sister, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who are like family w/out the blood tie.  I have an incredibly loving, supportive, caring, crazy circle around me.  Going through tough times, my kids and several cousins were my rocks. They sustained me when I felt I had nothing left.  Meeting my husband and deciding to take a chance and share my life once again opened up a whole new world of love, sharing, and compassion as well as the creativity in my life.  He brought along 2 children for me to love and with them, I added granddaughters to my blessings list. 


*Farm Life - I have dreamed of having a self-sustaining lifestyle for most of my adult life.  It has been a progress in my thinking as to what self-sustaining really is, but I always knew I wanted something "more" than the typical idea of the American Dream.  I am well on my way.  We have our little farm and we are working on the self-sustaining part.  Some day, I hope to not only produce 90% of what we need for our food, but have the farm create enough income to actually pay for itself.  I don't know if I'll ever get there as fully as I like, but in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying the journey.


*Creativity - I am creative.  I like to make things.  I like to reuse things.  I like to try to come up with new ideas and take old ideas and redo them to turn them into new ideas.  I prefer to "do it myself" whenever possible.  I like to make things for family and friends (as gifts) that I not only know they'll like, but will use and need for years to come.  I am slowly teaching my husband to reuse things available (read as - use trash to make treasures <grin>) to create new things.  I love the look on his face when I say "oh - don't throw that away".

Pallet Half Wall for the lean to - no "construction" needed....

*Critters - while I know this technically belongs in the farm section, I believe they are more than "farm".  My critters fall into 2 categories.  Pets and not "exactly" pets.  The pets are obvious.  The "not exactly pets", you
 may wonder about.

Our goats are not for eating.  At this point, they are dairy goats and not worth the effort to process unless starvation was a concern.  They are production animals.  However, they are also loving, sweet and totally too cute.  We thoroughly enjoy  our interactions with them and look forward to working with them each day.  We will sell/re-home some of them as necessary (a couple have life homes here since they wormed their way so deep into our hearts), but while they are here, they are an integral part of our lives.

You've heard the phrase "Circle the Wagons", but have you ever heard "Circle the Chickens"??

The chickens are for egg production and meat.  I have a couple that have life homes here, but the rest were purchased or hatched for the sole purpose of egg production (until they no longer produce) or meat.  While they are here, they get all the attention they ask for; they eat chicken foods - bugs, grass, weeds, grains, leftovers from my kitchen etc; they live "chicken lives".

 
Our cats are a source of entertainment and unconditional love.  When we don't feel well or the day has been particularly difficult for whatever reason, a good kitty-hug will make things all better (at least for the moment). 







So - those are a couple of the things I am Thankful for.  What are you Thankful For?

Next week, I'll be posting about our Homemade Holiday coming up as well as sharing what I will be starting for the spring garden.

FALL IS AMAZZZZING!!

Sunrise at the Double S

Where did summer go?  Goodness.  It came in roaring, nary a day to acclimate to the heat and humidity then it left as quickly.  We are having much cooler temperatures – a few nights down into the mid 40s already!  AND - a friend has actually had some frost on her truck.  I adjust well to temperatures, given time to do so.  I am not adjusting yet.  Brrrrr.....
 






As I was outside the other day, I realized the goats' coats are thicker (and oh so soft and snuggly!).  I thoroughly enjoyed giving the girls some extra attention while running my hands over their fuzziness. I wonder what that means, though?  Will we have a cold winter?  

It has been some time since I've updated and for that I truly apologize.  Between keeping up with the farm and market, I was job hunting.  Yes, it was time to find a steady paycheck.  We have a goal to meet that requires a full time paycheck.  Once that is accomplished, we hope to work very hard on not only making the farm self-sufficient (as much as we can), but also have it pay for itself instead of needing the “formal” job.   Sadly, that means I am away from the farm a lot, but Hubby is keeping things going while I am away.  I could gush on about how wonderful, terrific, super, etc., he is, but that would just make you jealous and I won’t do that.  <Grin>

Chicken Stalking

Since I last wrote, many changes have occurred at the Double S.  Where should we start?  How about with the chickens? 

The chickens all continue to do well.  Dundee has turned into a very handsome rooster.  He has mastered the art of crowing (at 4:30 a.m. no less) and has finally figured out how to court the girls properly.  Unfortunately, Mr. Chicken does not think too highly of Dundee's abilities and handsomeness.  Any time Dundee tries to court or service one of the hens, Mr. Chicken comes running and screeching from wherever he was and knocks him off or away.  It is actually comical.  Poor Dundee. Lucky for him Mr. Chicken is destined for the freezer.

2 of the 6 Australorp hens I purchased have turned out to be roosters.  Yep, Sweetie Pie and Fancy Pants are roosters.  Fancy Pants now resides elsewhere.  Sweetie Pie will stay.  I plan on breeding this Heritage Breed and having 2 roosters from different bloodlines will be a very good thing. 

Poof continues to do well after the "Dog Wars".  She still walks with a limp, some days worse than others.  Unfortunately, she can never go back into the big kids' pen.  Currently, she is still in the tractor.  This past weekend, I finished up the walls on a new Special Pen.  All that is left is to build a gate and move the house in.  This pen will house Poof for the rest of her life and any other chickens that cannot be with the general population.  I may also put chicks in this pen until they are old enough to go in with the big girls, but not completely sure yet. 

We have added a new member to the flock.  M&M.  She was not intentional.  I was at a Farmers Market/Animal swap week before last and found her.  Actually, a very conniving, sneaky young man (14 yrs old) was walking around with this amazingly beautiful and seriously spoiled frizzle bantam rooster.  He was talking to everyone trying to entice them into buying chicks.  I humored him (seriously, that's all I was doing!) by going over to take a look at some of these chicks he was selling. I figured if they weren't blue/green egg layers or full size, I was safe.  Wellllllll - this little bird reminded me of one of my pets that was lost in the “Dog Wars”.  She was fluffy and grey and as sweet as can be.  Durn it, I just couldn’t leave her there.  So, she has joined the Double S.  She currently lives with Poof who has taken the roll of Aunt very seriously. 

The rest of the hens are coming back from a serious molt. It looks like a feather bomb has gone off in their pen.  Oh boy.  Eggs were scarce for a while, but the production has come up recently.  As well, having one less rooster has done wonders.  Too many roosters in a hen house is not a good thing.  Once Mr. Chicken moves to the freezer, I expect it to come up even more.  
 
We have added a couple of new goats to our herd and  Peanut, one of our Toggenburg/Nubian twins has moved on to a new home.  Winnie (the other Twin) will move on soon as well.  Unfortunately, they displayed behavioral traits with the new goats we simply cannot allow, nor are we prepared with pens and pastures to deal with.  

Jacob and Rosebud

 Rosebud, a Nubian doeling, joined us first.
She was a gift from a Great Friend, Kat.  We purchased our original herd from Kat. When we lost Orla, Kat very kindly and graciously gave us Rosebud.  She is the sweetest, gentlest and most loving goat in the herd.  She LOVES our attention.  Kisses, hugs and lots of sweet looks came with this little girl.  Rosie Posie was the second to join.  She is a Nubian/Boer mix and another very sweet, somewhat shy but loving goat.  Last on the list is Miss Mollie.  She is a moon spotted Nubian.  She came to us “with kid”.  She should deliver some time in December – unfortunately, we are not sure exactly when in December, so we’ll be stalking her from about the middle of the month until she kids. 

Rosie Posie

Miss Mollie

The bees are amazingly well.  I have sadly neglected them since my original move in 2011.  Short back story – I moved out on my own in Feb 2011; met/married Hubby in the summer and moved again in the summer of 2011.  We found this place and moved the following summer, 2012.  Since the original move, so much went on the poor bees were neglected.  I had 3 swarms from 2 hives this past spring.  Still, all I managed to do was extract a bit of honey to allow room for more bees (which did work, but at the same time didn’t as they simply filled the empty frames with a combination of honey and new brood).  I have created a new hive from the overflow of brood from the original hives and now have 3 hives.  With any luck, hard work from the bees and maintenance from me, I hope to have a good honey harvest in the spring of 2014. 
 

Kitties like to read too

The gardens are morphing this year.  The front spring garden is no more.  We located it in an area that had great exposure to the sun at the right times, but – it was far from water (necessitating a heck of a hose system) and on a drainage path for the property.  Once things died back, we turned it under.  Hubby is letting it go back to pasture (and possibly it will house a critter in the future) and has started a new one in a new location.  He is working this one, with the tractor, every few days until spring.  His hopes are to turn and chew, turn and chew, turn and chew the ground until it is fluffy and mostly weed free by the time spring planting rolls around.  Once he feels the grass/weeds are chopped up and not an issue any more, I will start adding the compost and manure from the chickens and goats for him to turn under. 

I reckon this is all the update I have for this week.  I could go on and on and on and on (as Hubby says I tend to do – not sure I believe him, though <Big Grin>) but I will save my updates for regular weekly updates from here on out.  I will leave you with my Winter To-Do list and update on what I accomplish each week.
Finish “Special Needs” Pen
New Chicken Coop
ReFencing of the old pasture/New Goat Pen
Winter Garden going and growing
Break down free pallets to stacks of useable wood for multiple projects (yes!)
Set up a growing area in the storage trailer to allow for seed starting for the spring
Try to talk Hubby into a proper greenhouse (won’t be hard, as he’s willing – it’s just the materials we need to collect/purchase that are the sticking point here)
Try out new recipes for the market and decide which work well and which are best for home use (labor involved as well as costs are deciding factors)
Work on inventory of baskets and tote bags for the upcoming holiday season (Thanksgiving weekend is a big shopping day, as you know, and I’m sadly under-prepared).

Replanting and Renourishing

It has been a quiet week, mostly, this past week.  Not a whole lot of anything spectacular happening.  The end of July/beginning of August is one of the hottest parts of summer in North Florida.  The vast majority of spring/summer vegetables are harvested.  Some fall seeds are being planted and the weeds are having a field day in the empty beds.  Keeping the animals and ourselves cool becomes the focus.

From this - - -

To This

The gardens are looking very bare.  Since the spring plantings are finished, there are but a few plants remaining.  Tomatoes, okra and cow peas are the only plants I have left that are producing.  The hotter it gets, it seems, the more the okra is putting out.  That is incredible to me.  I think I now know why the dish, “tomatoes and okra”, was invented.  I do have 4 watermelons on the vine which are about ready to pick, so we’ll be enjoying them shortly.  

 While I am out weeding, I get the opportunity to really study nature.  It is amazing how nature works.  I do not use chemicals in the garden - either as pesticides or fertilizer.  Yes, I do sustain damage on occasion, but it is minimal when I pay attention.  There are so many natural ways to combat pests and disease.  Starting with healthy plants definitely helps.  Encouraging nature to do its thing also helps.  I have found predatory wasps many times, as well as lady bugs.  Finds like this make me happy.

 A garden of any type is new to this property.  When we moved here, it was hip high weeds and blackberry bushes, no exaggeration.  Hubby harrowed a garden for me in the fall since he knew I was dying to plant.  He is a wonderful love!  Since we were so new here, it was planted as-is.  Since then, I have had the benefit of “home-grown manure”.  It really has made a difference. 

Goat manure and bedding can go straight from the goat pens into the garden, either as top dressing, or turned into the soil.  It is not hot and will not burn the plants.  With that said, I do need to tell you, I do not top dress any beds that will have lettuce or spinach or any other “leafy” vegetables.  Since it will take longer for the manure to break down when you top dress, it will sit there and water (either from rain or watering) will splash on it then onto the leaves.  ALL manure carries bacteria in some form or another.  When treated properly, it is benign, when not, it can be deadly.  The beds with leafy greens will have the manure turned into the soil and then mulched with plain old hay.  The plain hay and the goat bedding also add a nice layer of mulch, helping the soil retain moisture and keeping it a bit cooler in our hot summer sun. 

The Grass is always greener.....

If she escapes, this is where I always find Peanut.

The chicken manure, however, MUST be composted to some degree.  This means it takes longer for me to accumulate enough to put on the beds.  I am not known for being patient.  I have a method of composting the chicken manure that has worked for me for many years.  I try to be as efficient when working as is possible.  I don’t mind hard work in the least, but the thought of doing more than is necessary seems a waste. 

I have recently started putting the weeds from the garden inside the chicken coop as well as in their pen.  They LOVE digging and scratching through those weeds for bugs and seeds.  They also eat several of the weed leaves.  (I got the idea earlier this summer when I realized the weeds they loved were being left in the pen, wilting, while they hid from the sun inside the coop.)  Typically, I put hay on the floor in their coop.  I figured I could put the weeds in there as easily, saving me the cost of the hay AND giving them their treat in a shaded, cooler area.  They dig through, eating the bugs, shredding the leaves and stems and pooping all over them.  About every other month, I rake all the bedding out of the coop, into their pen.  They think this is another special treat, so they take to scratching and digging in them again, further shredding and dislodging any remaining seeds and bugs.  The next time I rake out their coop, the weeds that were raked out the time before go into the wagon and are taken to the compost pile.  The next time I rake out their coop, I do the same thing, but the weeds that had gone into the compost pile are now ready for the garden.  Does that make sense?  It seems to have cut my chicken-manure composting down from 6 months to about 4 months.  Still sounds like a lot – but 2 months time savings is a lot! 

Dundee enjoying a hand out

Some mornings they just cannot wait

My “new” chickens are coming along.  They are getting friendlier each day.  The Australorps are the friendliest.  I have made a concerted effort to make them social.  Ultimately, we are going to raise only Australorps.  Maybe.  I cannot seem to help myself with chickens – I love the different breeds. However, our focus will be the Aussies.  They are an excellent layer and meat bird.  So, since I’ll have a lot of them, I need to be able to handle them.  The rooster, Dundee, is learning to crow.  He sounds SO bad!  We sit on the porch and laugh at his efforts.  He is now 1 week shy of being 5 months old.  I have not seen him do his "rooster thing" yet with any of the hens, though.  I wonder if he is being careful of the other rooster?  Next week, we are likely going to send said other rooster to freezer camp.  I am hoping with no competition, he’ll take over.  We shall see.

Yogurt - Yummy

Water Hoses are Fun

Dundee

 
There are new things happening at our Farmer’s Market.  I am the “Market Liaison”.  Sounds fancy, huh?  J  That just means I am the loudest at pushing to help make it bigger and I have been given the “ok” to do so.  I constantly contact people to see if they would like to set up a booth.  It is hard right now as the season is at a lull.  But, I am relentless.  On the 17^th, we are moving the market to a spot that will have huge main road frontage.  I am VERY excited about this.  Right now, our location is beautiful, but it is in a hidden spot.  Our signage is not very good.  There are so many people who do not know we even have a farmer’s market, much less where it is.  We are trying to fix that.  Our move comes because of some construction that will be going on in our park.  The city is building a pavilion.  Once it is built, we are supposed to be moving back.  However, if we are doing well in the temporary location, we will petition to stay there.  If that does not work, at least we will have had several months of exposure and will be able to “take” our new customers to the new location with us.  Wish us luck!!

Our Goat Journey

Orla Rose and Winnie

 Many people ask homesteaders and farmers "Why" they choose certain animals for their farms.  I believe there are as many answers as there are people who have animals.

When Hubby and I bought our place, we talked about what we wanted from it. We wanted to LIVE from our own efforts, or as much as we could.  We had several things on that list; chickens, gardens, fruit trees, a workshop (to build what we needed), a home and goats.

Peanut trying to "tell me something".

Goats were at the top of my list.  I wanted fresh milk - without antibiotics, growth hormones, etc, as well as from an animal I knew had been treated and fed properly.  With that milk, I wanted to make yogurt and cheeses.  Perhaps some day, they will also supply meat, but that’s another chapter that has yet to be written.
In November of 2012, the goats arrived; a bred, 3 yr old, Nubian doe, Orla Rose and two 6 month old Toggenburg/Nubian crosses, Winnie Pooh and Peanut Butter.  Right away, they were curious.  They scouted out the whole barn, yet stayed close for a couple of days, venturing only far enough to nibble some grass.  It was nearly a week and required some coaxing from us to get them out into the pasture, but they finally made it.

Once they got used to us, the fun began.  They LOVE attention!!  Goats are VERY social animals.  They thoroughly enjoy human company - as well as most other goats' company.  I can go out to them and nearly always get a great pick me up any time of the day. 

 Orla has many favorite places for me to scratch.  It depends on her mood as to which one is the favorite at which time.  She always stands close to me.  If I have to scold one of the others for something, she gets in the middle and does the scolding for me.  She is protective.  When she looks into my eyes, I feel she is looking into my soul.  What is she seeing?   I hope I measure up.

 In March of 2013, Orla gave us two amazingly beautiful kids.  Hope and Tom.

 

 

Having the experience of being with her while she delivered these kids was breathtaking. Watching a new life

(in this case, 2) enter the world is humbling.  Hubby wasn’t too sure about being there at the birth.  He was in this goat thing for me.  I think curiosity got the better of him.  He arrived home from a service call just barely in the nick of time to see Hope enter the world.  I cleaned her up and handed her to Hubby.  He had tears in his eyes!!!  Oh yea, he was lost. Then, Tom arrived.  I caught him and cleaned him up and handed him to Hubby as well.  What an experience.  We were not going to keep any of the babies.  Everyone who has goats said we would keep one.  They were right.  We kept Hope.  Tom was 3 months old when he was adopted.  I was thrilled when he went to a home where he is as spoiled and loved as he was here.  Knowing you cannot control the destiny of an animal you have loved (for any length of time) when it leaves your home is difficult.  We got lucky.  Had we been set up to keep a buck, we still could not have kept Tom.  He is related to everyone else.  I have had weekly updates from his new Mom.  We miss him greatly though.  I do think the next round with kids will be easier.  We’ll know what we’re in for and we’ll start advertising the kids when they’re younger.  

Winnie and Peanut are twins. They are as different in personality as night and day.  Winnie is the mischievous one.  She sneaks up on you and licks you when you’re not looking!  She puts her foot up on you to say “I’m not getting enough attention”, or to simply get your attention.  She likes to “butt” my hand.  She loves flip flops, too.  She works my foot until she gets it off then runs around with it on her horns.  Peanut is quiet and can be moody.  She will stand and look me in the eyes while I pet her.  She stands close, sometimes, leaning on me as if to say “I really, really love you”.  Other times, she does not want to be bothered and if I do, she’ll try to butt me.  We are working on that – horns and attitude do NOT mix.

Hope, our newest herd member is the most precious looking little goat there is!!!  She has the sweetest little face and the most liquid brown eyes.  She is small and delicate, like a Faerie.  She’s quiet and yet loving.  She comes up to be petted, gives little kisses and basically just makes my heart melt.
It has been quite a journey.  We have learned a lot about goat care.  I did my reading up front, but there is nothing like practical experience.  We have learned what they can and cannot eat, how to keep them healthy and dealt with behavioral issues.

Orla Rose, Winnie Pooh, Peanut Butter and Hope-y Dope-y are a wonderful addition to our farm and our lives.  We made a fantabulous choice, one I am sure we will continue to be happy with for many years to come.