Of Chickens and Grand Kids and Snow Blowing

 

For the last three weeks things have been pretty busy on the farm. Our old mare, Misty, got her new winter turn out blanket. It is lime green so we can see her anywhere. It matters because she is an escape artist and her muddy brown color blends in with every winter landscape until snow arrives. She is warm and dry, eating well and nickering for treats. So far, so good.

I did indeed get all the flowers planted and all the tools put away. The electrical problem in the hen house was an easy fix, a couple of breaker replacements and we were back in business. There is still a ceiling outlet mystery which we will deal with in the spring, but for now it is disconnected.

For the last few weeks several people have posted on the public poultry forums about keeping chickens warm in the winter. I have always run two 150 watt heat lamps in my hen house not so much for warmth, but to keep the waterers thawed. Most of the time it is not an issue, but that –20 we had last January did freeze the water, so I did need the lamps. However, I am thinking of going a different route this year for two reasons: my hens simply will not stay out of their water pans, and I am sick of cleaning them! So, this year I am moving to heated water pans only accessible by simply walking up and drinking. There will be nothing to climb on, roost on, sit on poop on, or otherwise make my job harder. I might be able to tackle this project after the weekend. Hopefully there will be photos.

In addition to waterer issues some folks have asked if the hen house needs to be heated at all. In general, I would say ‘no’ with a caveat: When and if temperatures do get down to subzero make sure your chickens are NOT roosting near any drafty areas. Their combs and feet can be frostbitten by the cold air. So many folks have said they don’t use any heat, and all the chickens are just fine. While circumstances certainly can vary, I found in my world, this is simply not true. My poor rooster lost about half of his comb last January.

After several days of no precipitation it looks like the valley is finally going to get the snow we so badly need. I did get all the debris cleaned up and made clean passage for the snow blower. I use it to make paths from the farmhouse to the shop, barn, and hen house. No, I don’t have to. There is a backhoe which can clean some of this, but it turns out snow blowing for me, is therapeutic. Who knew?!

Apart from a few random toys and possibly a water sippy cup I think I managed to clean up after the grandkid's orchard play area well. I will make another pass through before the coming snowfall arrives.

This is such a wonderful time of year for the farmer/gardener. He/she just sort of HAS to rest. Everything is under a blanket of snow. The ground is frozen. There is just not much more one can do but maintain until.....January! The month of dreaming and planning.

Happy Holidays everyone. Make it a great holiday season for yourself and by extension, for others. Be blessed.

Getting the Farm Ready for Winter

As I am writing this the weather is cool and gray. We have had quite a bit of rain over the last few days but it is not enough to saturate the ground. When I planted the garlic last week the soil was still dry just a few inches down. Hopefully the rain coming in the next few days will begin to penetrate. After that, we are to see some snow, just in time for Thanksgiving, just as it should be.

So there is still work to do in my garden. Fortunately the soil is not yet frozen. Today I will be cleaning up the space that will be home to sunflowers, sweet peas, and a large 10’ stock trough raised bed. This summer he tank will have some bush summer squash in it and some Nasturtiums. I may even plant a back drop of dill in there. If I get that done today and the rest of my tulips and daffodils in I will be pleased.

I am still cleaning up from the wind storm last October . My husband and brother finished removing the trees themselves but there is a lot of branch debris still on the ground. However, we did get the shop cleaned out so the Ford Tractor and riding mower could be moved in. Next will be moving the quad. At that point everything except the Farm Truck will be under cover for the winter. For me, this is a dream come true. Why? Because if there is a problem with any one of these machines I want (it) to be undercover to be worked on. I still remember watching my dad and brother work on a tractor out in the snow, under a tarp, when there was a perfectly good, HEATED shop available, but it was full of junk. So much junk that they tractor could not fit in it. This is just one aspect of the farm I want to change.

The next big task is cleaning out the hen house, as I have already mentioned. The ladies have begun to lay again after several weeks of molt. They are looking pretty rough and are in need of some extra protein in their diet. We should be up to two dozen eggs each day before too long. There is also a problem with the electricity in the hen house. When I opened the electric box to check the breakers, one fell out into my hand, so, you know, someone with more knowledge than I have is going to have to tackle that one! Luckily I know a guy. The ladies will be much happier once the hen house is clean of all manure from under the roost, fresh shavings are in, and I do a little more insulating.

A couple of years ago the door between the hen’s living space and the front entry (a little work room like a foyer) became damaged. It was a hollow core door and was never intended to last as long as it did. When I removed it I wanted more summer ventilation, so I built a structure with spaced wood planks and overlaid it with cage wire to keep varmints out. The project was finished in early February. The rest of our winter was mild so nothing much happened. It was a great idea and the air flow in the summer was increased. But boy did that change with the next winter!

In 2023 I prepared the hen house for winter as usual but failed to consider I had added 28 new hens to the population. I didn’t completely insulate the interior door and added a very poorly made door to close off the front room entry to protect from bigger external predators. When the sub zero temperatures came in January I had a real moisture problem in the front entry! While the hens living space remained dry and ventilated, a huge amount of moist air came through the interior door into the front entry and the ceiling was literally dripping! I tried running fans but nothing stopped it! I just had to wait until the cold snap ended and leave the new front entry door open.

So this year, the interior door will be properly insulated, and all of the manure from under the roost will be removed which should cut down on the moisture. We will see how that works.

That’s it for now. I will write again when the other issues are tended to and I discover the extent of the hen house electrical problem. Hopefully I can get the rest of the flowers in and the rest of the tanks in place here pretty soon. Until then, take care.

November Seems Like a Good Time to Start

For those of you kind enough to have visited this blog in years past, you will recall it a failure. I didn’t keep up with it in a timely manner and, eventually, I gave up all together. In my defense it was 2021 and the effects of COVID on my circle were pretty rough. I just didn’t do so well. But here we all are, 3 years later and definitely thinking differently about everything.

This blog was intended to be about my journey as a gardener here in Bonner County. But it morphed into something quite different. As I looked at what few garden vlogs there are available it occurred to me that most of them are really about homesteading, which is very exciting, sort of a two for one experience for the viewer. I had been watching Next Level Gardening and Epic Gardening for a few years and felt I had gleaned all I could from guys gardening in California, not Idaho. Most of the basic information about compost, water systems, soil amendments, micro climates and more is about the same. Growing what my family will actually eat, or what to do with the weeds, or are those plants really weeds or are they edible?? That’s a whole other topic.

This time around I want to try a different angle, a view I practiced this past summer and it changed the way I think about the garden space and those I invite into it. The way I think about my vegetable garden, my flower garden and the orchard has for the most part been impacted by how I was brought up. In short, the garden was a place of toil where weed removal was often used as punishment. In her defense, Mom had 6 kids and Dad wasn’t home much so her methods of corralling kids and keeping them occupied were rather limited. She wasn’t really the teach, work, reward kind of Mom. I learned to hate gardening. Fifty years later I learned to love it.

I bought the last 15 acres of my parents land which had been my home growing up. It was becoming more than they wanted to manage and they were happy to live quietly and let someone else take all the responsibility. I quickly started cleaning up around the buildings, planted some potatoes, bought some chickens, build a chicken coop, and added onto the barn. I tilled up a big garden space the second year and within 10 years was doing no till gardening, harvesting fruit and nuts from the orchard, selling eggs and produce, and living the dream of someone desperate to return to a place in time that never really existed, and yet, somehow, did.

Before you think me off the rails, consider what we imagine to be our “dream vacation”, or our “dream house”. When we have these dreams they come from a combination of memory, of imagination, of hopes and a will to manipulate everything to bring that dream to life. Otherwise our dreams remain just that, dreams. A person who succeeds in building a dream property has captured something in their heart and mind that reminds them of something else, only better. Just sitting in a chair beneath the nut trees as the warm afternoon wind comes through the neighbor’s meadow and into my orchard, I am there, in that place. This is my garden. God is my refuge, but the garden is where I meet Him. And lately it is where I meet my grand children, my horse looking for a carrot, my cat nudging me for a bit of attention, and the afternoon breeze.

I would live here if I could but that is not in the cards at the moment. It will be, but not this year.

So last year I included the whimsy element in my garden. I took an old purple bathtub and buried it on three sides to plant dahlias. As the beautiful flowers grew tall and created a back drop the grand kids played in a tub of water, splashing wildly, watering the garden, laughing, and living their best life on a hot summer day. When they were done I simply closed the gate and sat down beneath my beloved nut trees and let the breeze envelope me in the peace God has granted me there.

It is now November 1, 2024 and the garden is harvested awaiting the next fall application of mulch, leaves, and compost. The garlic will go in this weekend along with the tulips and daffodils, right inside the vegetable garden. I have made room for all of it :0).

Snow is in the forecast. My beloved breeze has ceased and one from the northeast will take its place. It will be time to batten down those final hatches and let everything go to sleep. And, it will be time to experience the whimsy of searching for the perfect Christmas tree. November seems like a good time to start many things, and so I will. Thank you for reading. I hope to write every week on Friday. Feel free to comment as you wish. I am just one soul on a journey to experience my garden in a way that both honors my love for the land and honors God for His creation of it.

Until next time, be blessed.

Here I am taking another stab at blogging my garden experience.

2021 was a year of loss and learning for me. I started out well, taking photos and getting my garden pens in order. But we had some setbacks due to COVID and the ensuing heat wave became problematic for not only me but farmers everywhere. Still, there were some valuable learning experiences.

Among the things I learned:

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