We have a few acres of questionably fenced pasture, that our neighbor had used to run beef cattle on an irregular basis. Because the grass can get quite long if it is not grazed, we occasionally consider additional animals to help manage that pasture. Cows are a little large for us, goats are a challenge to fence, and pigs generally do not graze. That leaves sheep. Last year had a little bit of a sheep theme to it. We traveled to Lafarge to attend the Ewetopia woolen mill's o

We have two large black walnut yard trees, and every year they drop dozens of walnuts onto our lawn. Last year, one broke a windshield on our car. On a bit of a lark, I thought I would try harvesting walnuts this year. They literally fall out of the tree, so how hard can it be? As it turns out, it is a process. The walnut, which is what we are probably all familiar with from holiday nutcrackers, starts out encased in a green sticky hull. This hull turns black over time, creat

Canning on a Rainy Day In our family, Sunday morning is typically reserved for cleaning the house; however, it will have to wait until...

Three And A Half Week Old Chicks in New Outdoor Chicken Coop. The new coop Ed built for giving our new pullets more room, for acclimating...

This week I finished building and painting frames for the windows and doors of the new coop. Some hardware cloth and hinges and the coop...

This weekend I made more progress on the mobile coop. The sides got added and painted. I held off on the roof until the paint dried, and...

One of my goals for this year was to try and raise broiler chickens or ducks. To do that, I needed to build another chicken coop. Many...

Baby Chicks In New Home (Tub) With Heat Plates, Etc. When Ed and I placed our order for egg laying pullets in February at the local feed...

Two 250 Gallon Covered Totes By Barn For Future Animals Two 40 Gallon Barrels Used To Water Chickens While recently on Craigslist, I...

Two Black Cats On White Bedspread I don't know why but when I saw the two sets of eyes coming from the pile of black fur - it just made...

Regular Large Brown Egg, Smaller Blue/Green Egg (sort of pullet sized; from a small chicken), and Our First Fairy Egg All of our chickens...

Old Pickup Truck with Old Pallets We paid $5 per used pallet; I went and got them today. Ed wants to start building a chicken tractor...

Old Garden Shed Made of Tin Garage Side Porch - Screened In Much of what was in our garage side porch has been and will continue to be...

Tuff's Super-Duty 110 Gallon Stock Tank Last weekend we made a trip to Tractor Supply to see if we could find a better alternative to the...

Several years ago, we successfully grew shiitake mushrooms using oak logs. Ironwood is also used to grow these mushrooms, so 2 years ago...

After years of harvesting honey, we have accumulated a considerable amount of beeswax. While looking through a bee supply catalogue, I...

While not always possible, we're trying to build out our remaining projects using recycled / repurposed items. Ed recently had a couple...

Being relatively new to canning and storing food from our garden, we've now realized that we've been over canning each season (despite...

We are in the midst of mite treatment for our three beehives, so it seems like a good time to summarize our 2024 honey season. To start,...

Time to start thinking about winter. We use straw as bedding for our chicken coop and for the nesting boxes. During the spring and...

Pretty sure there's just one of my new hens that's laying blue/green eggs - but it's fun to see!

I've gathered eggs using my shirt as a "pouch"; I've gathered eggs using the pockets in my sweaters and jackets (which can be dangerous...

Last week, we harvested our garlic. We succession-plant bush beans, which was one of this weekend's tasks. The variety we plant mature in...

On Wednesday of this week, I traveled an hour plus to get our last three pullets of the season: a Russian Orloff (front), a Blue Maran...

The second time was the charm. The first attempt at trying to integrate new pullets to our existing flock was terrible (all kinds of...

I'm in the process of learning about all of the medicinal benefits of herbs and other greens. I've bought reference books that outline...

Boy - did I make a series of mistakes in judgement! Thank goodness I was able to course correct and all is well (at least for now)....

Ed and I've been talking about getting a couple of pullets again this spring so that we'll have eggs over the winter. (Only first year...

It took nearly 3 months, but the 2024 version of our garden is finally completed. The extra time this year was spent installing a fence...

Unfortunately, all three of our hives failed to make it through the winter. I pulled all three apart last weekend to look for clues and...