Homestead Update #4

Friends! How are you? The past couple of weeks have been really busy thus my lack of updates. But I'm here today to give you a big update on the state of affairs with the homestead. I've got an update on the to-do list, the chickens, business plans, classes, and more! Let's get to it.

Chickens

Let's start with the chickens. I have a whole post on how they're doing coming up next week, but I wanted to update you on a couple of things. The weather has been rather nasty here over the past week or so. Thankfully it hasn't been prolonged, but rather a couple of days of below freezing, then it warms up for a couple of days, and then back to below freezing. The freezing temps are hard on chickens so I keep them locked in the coop with oatmeal, meal worms, and the such. I don't have a heater for their water so I have to change it frequently. I hate opening up the coop for any length of time, but at least I get to check in on them. Our coldest night is coming up tomorrow night and I'm hoping that they will be okay. I put salve on their combs and wattles at night to help stave off frostbite. We had an issue with frostbite a couple of weeks ago and the salve helps prevent it. Chickens us their body heat to keep warm by 'fluffing' up. This takes the warmth from their 'extremities' such as their feet, combs, and wattles. It also leaves those areas exposed to frostbite. If you feel a chicken's comb in the cold and the comb is cold, it means they are using their body heat to stay warm.

Anyway, I think our rooster will be joining the girls next week. Our friend has an extra barred rock rooster and I really want to add him to our flock. I've been keeping my eye on the weather and next week looks like a good week to do it. They will be able to free range and get to know one another. We've also decided on how we are going to expand the chicken run and do all the little things that need to be done to it. Where it sits isn't an ideal location for expanding (there are concrete pads in front of and behind the coop. I think they were old shuffleboard courts from when the fly fishing lodge was a resort back in the '60s. And the coop sits in between two big maple trees. So we are going to push the coop back to the other side of the concrete pad and then build a big run off of it. It will be an extension of the current run, just longer. It's going where we had the meat birds this past summer. You can see the meat bird set up here.

And I have some other exciting news! Friends! I bought an incubator! We are going to hatch out some chicks. I can't wait for the rooster to get here and then give him a week or so to settle in and then we're going to collect eggs and put them in the incubator. My friend is also saving some eggs for me too. The incubator will hold up to 22 eggs and does all the fancy stuff of checking the temp, humidity, and even has a built in candler and egg turner.

And let's not forget to check our egg count for the past two weeks. So for the week of 1/16-1/22/2021, I collected 13 eggs. Which is exactly the same as the week before. It's also the last time Maran, the Black Copper Maran, has laid an egg. I'm not sure why. I think there's some sort of dominance thing that's going on and the lead hen must have started laying again. Hopefully the rooster and the expanded run will help curb all of this. Anyway, for the week of 1/23-1/29/2021, I collected 13 eggs (plus 3 so far today for a total of 16 update: 4 eggs on 1/29 for a total of 17 eggs for the week!). That's surprises me since I've had a couple of days with no eggs. And Maran not laying. Huh.

The List

I found another list y'all! It's from this post and I think I'm about halfway finished with it:
1. can venison broth (I harvested a deer this year. More details on that in a different post)
2. turn blueberries into something (blueberry chipotle compote? blueberry port compote?)
3. turn cranberries into something (I have bags of cranberries from last year. Cranberry ketchup? cranberry bread?)
4. turn cherries into something
5. render lard
6. process leftover fall pumpkins
7. make soap with frozen goats milk
8. what to do with ham hocks? stock? something else? must do research

The Final List

So now my lists looks something like this:
1. finish business plan
2. clean out chicken coop and run
3. garden: finish moving to new location, plant garden and flowers
4. make soap
5. render lard
6. restock spices
7. inventory first aid kit and emergency kit supplies
8. test smoke detectors
9. wax wood furniture
10. add a rooster to the flock
11. chicken coop expansion: expand chicken run, put metal roof on current run, expand roosts in run, fix door between coop and run
12. finish chicken coop curtains (I’ve only been working on them for about 5 years!)
13. Do something with blueberries
14. Do something with cherries
15. Ham hocks: find a recipe and use them!
That's not too bad. I only added three more things.

Business

Moving on. Business has been good. I've spent a lot of time working behind the scenes with getting classes set up at various places. In case you don't follow me on social media or you don't subscribe to my newsletter (why you wouldn't want to subscribe is a mystery to me, but still. I suppose you have your reasons), I was a guest co-hostess on a local radio station this past week. Back in my days as a library director I did this sort of thing on the regular but I haven't had an opportunity until now. It was nice to be back in the guest chair, even if it was from home.

In other exciting news, I was in the Cornell Small Farms newsletter that went out last week. It was one of my pictures that I posted on Instagram, but hey! A mention is a mention. I also have some more things in the works so stay tuned. If you ever wonder where I'm at or what I've been up to, just know that I am over here busting it trying to make the homesteading dream happen...for me and for others.

I do have my next book set for the book group and the next facebook live is, well, live! I'm excited to be doing these smaller, live group events. You can always find out what I'm up to by visiting my 2021 events page (did you notice anything different about it?).

And finally, in between all this other fun stuff, I've been practicing manual mode on my camera (can you tell which photos are shot in manual? There are 4 throughout this post). I don't think I'll shoot most of my pics in manual, but I thought it was time to step up my photography game and learn more. Next up is shooting long exposure. So if you have any tips let me know.

And for real finally, there was lots of yummy food cooked on the homestead. I even gave my sourdough starter a new home. I made those blueberry muffins you see above, but sadly, I didn't write down the recipe. I'll have to experiment with the recipe I used (I switched out flours but didn't write down how much of each one I used). I'm sure I can figure it out. But there was so much fun stuff happening these past two weeks that I can't remember it all! It's a blur. I'll leave us here...

'til next time
-k
xoxo