Little Honey Homestead: Workin on the Farm

The List: Nate and I made a pretty long list of all the fall chores (mowing, mulching, painting, garden prep, chipping, checking...) that need to be completed before the snow sticks. We've been making lots of progress which is good and it is also lots of hard work. It keeps me in pretty good shape so I can't complain.

2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 - We finally did it, we bought a truck. It runs natural gas as well as normal gasoline so it is at least half as cheap to fill up, although it still gets pretty bad gas mileage. We have already put it to good use hauling 2 loads of manure so far and taking Betty in to the vet. It seats 6 and has an extended bed which is nice because the CNG tank is in the bed of the truck under a big box thing. It's everything we wanted in a truck!!

Truck all hooked up to the trailer

Hurray for no more borrowing trucks every week for our various farm chores - I unloaded the truck full of manure yesterday and spread it over an area of the garden that I had put cardboard down on. We are hopefully getting more cardboard today so we can use the second load of manure and possibly get more this evening.

And then there was one - we butchered the 3 mean roosters last Saturday. It took about 3 hours from start to finish which isn't much of an improvement, but we had plucker issues again. I caught, coned, and helped pluck. Nate killed, plucked and eviscerated. Things went faster once Avenlea went down for her nap and we worked out a little system with the plucker - Nate would hold and spin while I sprayed. I then plucked the remaining feathers it didn't get while he bled out the next one.

The marans were both 4 lbs 12 oz and honcho came in at 3 lbs 8 oz, a little surprising because the orpington looks so much bigger. I made a pretty good batch of chicken soup with rice per Chloe's request, followed by pillow pockets with the leftover chicken and lentils using the leftover broth. There is still a little bit of chicken left, not bad for one bird.

Lucky Little Honcho will stay until we can find a nicer rooster, but we probably won't go through the effort since he really isn't that bad

Free range chickens who prefer to eat the pig food rather than their own

Sunset is back and laying again! Rainbow has moved her nest about 3 times so I don't know if we will ever get chicks. She is also stealing all the eggs and hiding them under herself. We are having serious egg issues with hidden nests, an egg eater and now rainbow. And they say chickens are supposed to be the easy part of farming!

Betty the Cow: We took Betty in to get preg checked and found out she is 4 months pregnant!!!! and will calve in March. I could not be more excited. Good Job Betty! Chloe was almost as excited as me saying "now we can have fresh milk!" and even more excited when we told her that Betty would have her baby near her birthday!

Yay for a pregnant cow

The last harvest: I picked the last of the broccoli and got a pretty good handful. It didn't even make it to the fridge with the babies eating it all. I also climbed up in the apple tree and picked about 15 good apples. The rest will go to the pigs because they are so bug and squirrel eaten.