Processing day… it’s a day that we both dread and look forward to. It’s always hard to part with animals that you’ve spent time with and taken care of, but at the same time it’s nice to get them done and have the freezer stocked for winter. One of our chickens had fluid around it’s heart. It’s the first time we’ve ran into something like this so we’re having to do a little research to fine out if the meat will be safe to eat. While the processing was going on, Dylan and Miley got the porch painted and Dylan’s pickup cleaned up. We’re now reaching the end of having most of the food we’ve grown put up for winter.
Category Archives: Chickens
Oh no, we have to skip Friday!
Oh dear, I got days mixed up and it affected the whole week. So here it is Friday and we’re doing all the stuff we planned on doing Thursday. I guess we’ll have to skip Friday so that we get back on track.
“Help! The turkeys keep following me!”
We started out the day with our usual chores. Got a batch of apple butter started and chicken canned. The turkeys keep following Miley around and she’s a little weirded out by it because she’s not sure of their intentions.
We Switched Things Up a Bit
One day over the weekend the kids were gone and it was just my husband and I home. So we had us a little date scooping poop, cleaning things up and doing some much needed fixing up to a few things. Now that everything is all switched up we have a whole new morning chore routine.
We also picked beans and the kids have been keeping busy with a few projects they came up with on their own. Who needs toys when you have sticks, paint, string and a bog box to play with?
Freezing Tomatoes and Harvesting Sunflowers
It’s a busy time right now. We’ve had lots of stuff going on and we’ve been away from home a lot so I’m having to try to get caught up on a lot of stuff. Then on top of that, I have jury duty this week and have to prepare for the possibility of being gone for 5 days. The sunflowers are ready to harvest plus more tomatoes are also ready. No time to make sauce or roast sunflower seeds now so I’m freezing the tomatoes to make sauce out of another time and we’re picking the sunflowers so Miley can take the seeds off and have them ready to roast when we have the time.
So much to do, so little time… it’s just another day on the homestead.
Our Broody Hen Hatched Guinea Keets
We had a fun surprise in the barn when we went out to do chores. The nest of guinea eggs that our hen has been faithfully sitting on for the last several weeks finally started hatching. We ended up with 5 baby keets. Since they hatched, we had to move the the meat chicks into the coop so that we could use the tote for the keets. We didn’t plan for it to take all that long but it kept us busy for most of the afternoon.
Labor Day, Chicks and More Chicks!
Had a fun labor day weekend but it was so windy out that we weren’t able to do much outside. We got our fall meat birds and now the guinea keets are hatching, so we’re having to figure out where to put them all.
Moved Turkeys To the Coop
It was long over due, we finally cleaned out the coop and moved the turkeys out of the house. I think they’re happy to finally have more room to run around.
It was actually a fun day of work. Work doesn’t really seem like work when you have a little helper that provides good conversation. 😉
Building a Rabbit Run & Dramatic Chickens
We got our rabbit run built… now we’re ready for a rabbit. We let our turkeys out in the run for a while and boy did that stir up some drama with the chickens.
New projects, chicken drama… there’s never a dull moment on the homestead.
Just Another Day On the Homestead
Around here, most days start out with the usual morning chores and end with the usual evening chores. What goes on between those times varies greatly from day to day. Here’s a little glimpse into what one day here was like.