Amateur homesteading

So this happened...  oh oh 


Things we’ve learned so far


Chopping wood by hand SUCKS. We are saving up for a log splitter.  I’ve heard a few people saying they loved chopping wood by hand, I think they’re nuts


If you think you want chickens, but aren’t 100% sure because you have no experience, you can actually rent them so you can see how well you do without the commitment 


If your property used to be a working farm, then when you mow the “lawn” it doesn’t smell like normal grass (Kentucky blue, tall fescue, etc) but instead smells sweet like freshly mowed hay (we think Timothy but aren’t 100% sure)


And I almost forgot to add, all of you who have PSE&G for your electric, you don’t know how lucky you are.  JCP&L are the worst. Don’t even get me started on them


The key to splitting wood is to do a little every day. That and steel toe boots. 


when is all of this going to be showing on TLC?


Why don't you get some bees? I've always wanted bees but have been afraid of the commitment/responsibility.


kthnry said:
Why don't you get some bees? I've always wanted bees but have been afraid of the commitment/responsibility.

If someone else wanted to use my property for a beehive I wouldn’t mind, but I know beyond any doubt that I would not be getting up close and personal with bees to take care of them.  


mrincredible said:
when is all of this going to be showing on TLC?

 Day to day it really isn’t all that interesting. But that’s fine by me.  


spontaneous said:


mrincredible said:
when is all of this going to be showing on TLC?
 Day to day it really isn’t all that interesting. But that’s fine by me.  

 They only need a couple dozen hours of interesting footage.  question 


This house isn't on Firehouse Lane, is it?


Are you the person on the Kingwood FB page?


re the woodchopping: thought you might smile at this timely article on school sports 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-13/junior-axemen-resurgence-bid-national-sporting-recognition/9985984

(Yes, really)


I had hoped that someone had finally decided to fix up the house on Firehouse Ln (and it's had renters in it for a long time, so I thought just maybe it was the same house)


I'm not on the Kingwood page, but my mother is (I think). I know that she recently was seeking recommendations for some work she needs to have done & I believe it was on that page.


@bella do you mean the large white house with the very large red barn next to it? If I looked at the correct house, then wow, that barn looks like half of it is about to collapse in on itself. Thankfully our house and barns weren't in anywhere near as bad condition 


Thought you might find this article interesting, especially the fierce competition for old ‘junk’ from the sheds. 

Jondaryn had been a popular stop for tourists to visit, seeing a working station with shearing-sheds, relatively close to big towns.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-29/jondaryan-station-clearance-sale-signals-end-of-era/10047360


Chicken weirdness. Same pen, same food, different color yolks.  They do get a lot of outside time, however, so one may be leaning towards more bugs or more leaves or something of that sort. 


Apparently it’s something to do with hormones, and where they are in breeding cycles.  (Age, breed, if those eggs would have been better candidates for real chooks, etc) Or so I’ve been told by chicken fanciers. 

If they’re a little stressed due to hear or foxes, they won’t be such a vibrant yellow. 

Congratulations on such a wonderful achievement!!


I'm sure my neighbors think I'm nuts.  If you look at our chicken coop it's covered in locks.  Each door to the coop has a lock.  The two doors to their outside pen has TWO locks each (one top, one bottom).  They're probably looking at me and thinking I'm paranoid about someone stealing my chickens.  Nope, that's not the case.  I'm just at my wits end as how to keep my three year old out of the coop.  Not only does he manhandle the chickens, but he also climbs INSIDE the coop itself.  I think of the episode of Doc Martin where you find out that his aunt used to lock him in the chicken coop for punishment.  And then there is my son who climbs inside there any chance he gets.  angry 


I'm sure there's a kids' game you could invent out of Old MacDonald and chooks laying eggs, that would keep him happy with a 'nest' of cushions inside the kitchen or living room...

cheese


Unfortunately, the allure of live chickens and their kid sized coop is too strong, a pretend coop won't cut it with this boy.

We started with four chickens, Chicky, General Tso, White Butt, and Penelope.  We recently got two more, same mixed breeds.  The new ones, Henny and Penny, are younger, but they are 13 weeks old so are almost the same size as the four originals, though their combs and wattles are much smaller.  We placed them in a small portable coop next to the original four so they could see each other, but not touch each other.  A few attempts at putting them together met with failure.  White Butt does the normal chasing and pecking thing of teaching the new kids their place, Chicky pecks at them once in awhile.  Penelope just ignores them.  But General Tso is not having any part of this.  She flies at them, lands on top of them, kicks them with her claws, pulls out feathers.  I swear, that bird has murder on her mind.

So for today we took General Tso, who my husband said deserves to be demoted to Colonel, and we put HER in the small portable coop by herself, and put Henny and Penny in with the other girls. Both coops are still right next to each other.  There was a little bit of the normal pecking order going on with White Butt and the new girls, but overall they were pretty good together, and when the sun went down they all happily went into the coop together without any drama


After a day of being separated, General Tso was put back with the other chickens.  Now there is normal "pecking order" stuff going on, which is to be expected.  The new girls sit up on the outside perch a lot to avoid being bullied, but overall the major drama seems to have passed.


Does Major Tso now get her rank restored to General? I point out that when the Courts Martial was held, she was not allowed representation nor the opportunity to mount a defense.


Formerlyjerseyjack said:
Does Major Tso now get her rank restored to General? I point out that when the Courts Martial was held, she was not allowed representation nor the opportunity to mount a defense.

 She's been allowed back with the rest of the flock, but while her behavior has much improved, she still isn't the nicest bird.  Yesterday I was in their pen cleaning up when I heard a loud squawk and looked up to see one of the new girls running away.  I then looked over at Major Tso and see her standing there with a feather in her mouth, looking at me like nothing had happened.  It might be awhile before she gets her rank restored.

In other news, one of the new girls just laid her first egg.  The picture doesn't do it justice for how small it is.  I'm surprised, since right now they are about 13 weeks old, give or take, and on the chicken forums I've seen people complaining that their 6 month old chickens haven't started laying yet.  On the other hand, these are Rhode Island Reds mixed with White Rocks, which are known for being prolific egg layers


The pulley egg compared to the eggs of the big girls


I assume you mean a pullet egg?


wedjet said:
I assume you mean a pullet egg?

 Yes, but autocorrect had other ideas


that's quite a decent size. Well done! 


Simple cleaning solution. Keep an empty jar on hand. When you eat an orange, take the peels and put them in the jar, add one cinnamon stick.  Add enough vinegar to cover the orange peels. If your orange peel doesn’t come to the top of the jar, just cover the peels with vinegar, and add more when you get more orange peels. Let the vinegar mixture steep for at least two weeks, shaking the jar(s) once every few days.  When the vinegar turns light brown and smells of orange and cinnamon you can strain it out and pour the liquid into a spray bottle. 


The pictures posted out of order, the SECOND picture shows a bottle that has been steeping for about two weeks.


Just like at Seth Boyden, the kids take the bus to school. But now the stop is right in front of our house, so I decided to be lazy and my husband and I built a bench to put at the end of the driveway so we don’t have to stand when waiting.  It was actually a pretty simple and fun project. It took us less than a day to build it, though it still needs another coat of paint. Supplies came to less than $40*


I’ll try to post the link to the plans later


*supplies for the bench, not including the paint, since paint is expensive as all hell


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