Homestead Ways Archives - Page 3 of 3 - A Country Girl's Heart -Beats that Matter

August 15, 2019August 16, 2019

Homestead Diary ~ Week 2

0 Shares

Picking up from where I left off last week. If you recall, I had been up late to catch Prince Charming. He is a sweetheart, but such a sneaky boy!

Thursday, August 8, 2019

I woke up at 3:30 am. I felt horrible and knew a low sugar level was the cause. I grabbed candy I keep near the bed and ate 4 to 5 pieces several times until I felt my body begin to no longer feel like I was going to pass out. Next time I was coherently awake was 10 am. My head hurt. But nothing like when I had a Traumatic Brain Injury. That headache hurt on a whole different level. Now I have to stop and pay attention to notice a head ache. I ached. A combination of a short night and bad sugar low told me I would have a slow day today. After caring for animals, I headed into town to work online. I noticed Sage had stayed in her dog house each time I had looked her way and when I checked on her she lifted her head. Sage, a blue healer and terrier mix, at 18 years old would not be with me much longer. I prepared for taking her in the following day to end her suffering.

Friday, August 9, 2019

The dreaded chore awaited me the following morning. I took her water and she drank. As the day progressed, I processed if this was the best thing to do. I struggle with these decisions. Once done they cannot be undone. I value human life and that of animals as well. I took care to spend time praying for others, my decision and praising God throughout the morning. I have been nose to the grindstone, but this morning I sat and watched inspirational messages and teachings from the Bible. I gathered emotional strength. Making sure all the chickens had water I had 2 tasks at hand: picking up chicken and horse feed, which for some reason I do not enjoy, and the final decision about Sage. I noticed it looked like she had vomited. To give you her history, she has had a mass under her belly for 4 years and up until 2 days ago has had normal body functions, eating and drinking. When I seen she had vomited I knew it was time. Making the appointment I teared up a little. In less than an hour she was no longer suffering. I drove her home and I took off to pick up chicken feed.

I write this and still will be unloading chicken feed and doing PM chores. I know Brian will be helping me say the final good byes to Sage this evening. I want to share a bit about her as she brought much joy and laughter to my life. The first time I met her she barked at me when I left as if to tell me, don’t leave me here. I suppose the telling of Sage will be another blog post in the future cause as I think about my memories of her, I see 1000 words in my mind. She was about as bossy as a dog could be, and had a mind of her own. I was right there by her petting her head and talking to her. It was about as peaceful as it could be.

I believe the Lord has shown me that I have created a habit of avoiding or ignoring painful or uncomfortable situations. Today I faced it head on, even if I took 6 hours to prepare.

It wouldn’t hurt as bad if I did not love as deeply.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Off to Culver Farmer’s Market where I sold eggs and garlic. Here I had several wonderful conversations with friends and market patrons. At the close of market, I hurried on to have a late lunch with family. I felt wore out emotionally. I grieved noticing how Sage did not bark at me. I heard her bossy bark in my head. Prince Charming escaped Saturday evening again as I headed out to do late chores. I had been resting reading, Betty Zane, a good part of the evening. I decided to sit out on the porch and read waiting for Prince Charming to show himself and be caught. At first, I felt frustrated and angry, a product of my grieving process, but as I sat out in the night air, my heart began to feel peaceful. I enjoyed the story about Betty a frontier girl living along the Ohio river. Her settlement was the first in the area. The story, written in the 1920’s and based on diary entries from the 1700’s of her brothers. Zane Grey, a descendant of the Zane family authored the story surrounding her historic act. As I understand in the town of Wheeling, West Virginia there stands a monument commemorating the siege of Fort Henry September 1782. This book was one of several that I picked up at the Culver Farmer’s Market. Reading stories of heroes who settled our country revives the pioneer/homestead spirit in me.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

A longed-for day of rest, which is what I did, while caring for the animals of course. A late evening visit at friends, where I took a quick picture of a couple of the pullets, she has from CG Heartbeats Farm stock. After catching up I watched her husband ride one of her horses tracking the hot heels. Hot heels are a training/practice tool for rope horses. They are usually pulled by a 4-wheeler and imitate a roping steer. Monday morning as I write this, I again feel a longing to ride. My work awaits to be completed first.

Monday, August 12, 2019

A hot, humid day with rain in the forecast, but it was after noon, evening and overnight until we happily received 3/4ths of an inch of rain. I feel deeply thankful for the rain. I felt super excited to find a Silver-Gray Dorking hen (with a red tag) sitting on the eggs this morning. To this point, I am always excited for a broody hen. They make my life easier as I have shared.

I moved chicks and grow-outs that are living in tanks outside in cages and began the process of cleaning the tanks. I first drag to the manure pile and dump, next drag to the side of the chicken barn where I spray out with the hose. This part of the process looks different each time. It varies how long I soak the tanks, if I use apple cider vinegar to clean, or if I scrub them with a brush. When they are clean, I drag them near-by, tip on their side, leaving them until they dry. If I don’t want to use them right away, I store them tipped upside down. I drag them back into the barn when I use them. On occasion I will have someone help me carry them which is much easier. Usually as I am solo, I drag them. These are plastic 100-gallon stock tanks and not terribly heavy. My cell phone was on the verge of complete shutdown due is age of 6 to 8 years. At times the screen would go white and I could see nothing. The evening was spent shopping for a new phone. I did finally against by wishes, end up with a smart phone. This is my first. I suppose it will have its benefits, but I like a phone to be a phone…

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Caring for animals, prepping for the evening market, and working on a blog post took up most of my day.

I thoroughly enjoyed Culver Market chatting with other vendors and friends. I gathered the remaining information I needed to complete the upcoming blog post on this market. Look for it to post on the coming Monday.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

This day has been an almost repeat of yesterday in the fact that I cared for animals, worked on a blog post and prepared for market. Feeling tired, I tried to stay focused on only what I needed to do. Do you have days like that? As drove into Bremen, I was watching the sky (and the radar). It sure looked like we were going to get hit with rain. I opted to wait to set until it past. The rain took its sweet time and it was almost 5 pm before I set up my table. People started trickling in. Tonight was FREE cupcake night for school students. I am certain all were given away. A cooler air settled in for the night. Upon arriving home, I seen we had been given ½ inch of rain. I feel blessed to have 1 ¼ inch of rain this week. The ground has been getting pretty dry and now I will be relieved of the duty of watering garden and pots. I had just settled into bed when I heard the chickens carrying on. NOW WHAT?!? I felt tired!!!! Dressed and armed out I went to see what was going on…. OH, the pen that has been eating their eggs, had laid an egg and had started to eat it. To tell the truth, I felt relieved, a bit happy and my rather irritated attitude left. I felt like laughing. I could to back to bed and sleep with no worries of a predator tonight.

A quick word to chickens eating eggs: based on my observations, this act lasts for a season and then seems to resolve itself. I am not fond of it, but I have yet to have a hen that does not stop such behavior on her own over time.

Wow, this ends the 2^nd week of August. Did you read the first week? Thank you for sharing in this journey via my diary entries.

0 Shares

March 25, 2019March 25, 2019

Spring 2019

0 Shares

I recently sat down and came up with a list of projects to do on the homestead for the next 3 months. Truth be told there are probably a few more I would like to get started. In fact, I intend to add to this list as I write. I often feel that I my lists look impossible to finish. Do you? I remind myself that is no reason to give up. All that I do accomplish will be steps ahead of what I had done before.

Prepare area for container gardens

One area of the homestead that grabbed my attention was where an older part of the chicken barn once stood. It was torn down shortly after we purchased this property and the remaining barn roof repaired and shingled. The cement flooring remained. While it has cracked and shifted over the last few years, it is still cement covering the ground. Inspiration hit on one of my walks around the property and I decided to clean this area up and turn it into several container gardens. More on the project in a coming post when the project is completed. For now, it is one of my main projects in the coming 2 to 3 months.

That looks like a lot of work to me, to be honest. I have a vision for what I want in this area. Vision + hard work = dream come true and goal accomplished!

Prune Raspberries

Black raspberries abound on our 11 + acres. A couple years ago my Dad and I transplanted them to an actual row in what I want to be a garden. However, I since learned this may not be the best spot for them so I am going to work with them in their current locations around the farm. Non the less I am going to prune them and make them a bit easier to get to. That is the goal for this year for the black raspberries. Look for a coming post on the process.

I am excited to prune these in the near future along with other patches on CG Heartbeats Farm.

Decide where 2019 Garlic will be planted

I have planted garlic the last 3 years. Every year I have increased the amount planted. I am considering converting a section of the yard into an additional garlic plot.

Move portable chicken pens

I have 3 portable chicken pens made up of dog kennel panels and netting. These serve as a great way to work up the sod and convert land to a garden.

In the bottom right of this picture you can see where one of the garlic patches are for this year. Last year (2018) this 5 ft. x 5 ft. area was a chicken pen. The chickens did a great job of removing the soil and fertilizing.

Research Tiller

I have a strong desire to own a tiller for working the ground up in my gardens. I might settle for one of those old time push one. You know the ones with 3 speared tips, a wheel in the front, and two handles from which to push from. I used one of those as a kid growing up in our garden at home. I remember wishing to be stronger. The adults made it look so easy!! I know it would make my job much easier to have a tiller with its own motor (instead of mine). Thus, one of my goals for the next 3 months is to have my own tiller preferable with a motor.

Purchase Additional Silver Gray Dorking

I have added a few different lines (birds from different farms) to the Swedish Flower Hen pens. I want to focus on Silver Gray Dorkings this year, adding to them from another farm.

Decide what will be planted where chicken pens were

The chickens that have been outside in pens killed off most of the sod. In the next month I am going to move those pens and use that ground to plant vegetables for the coming season. I need to decide what I am going to plant there. I am still tossing ideas around. Maybe I will plant cherry tomatoes, maybe watermelons and cantaloupe, or perhaps some of the fun little decorative squashes.

Ground Plowed

A neighbor is willing to come plow up some ground as well. Using the chickens only to prep ground for planting is taking longer than I would like. That is a given of course. But the chickens do a great job in smaller areas. I need to decide where a larger plot of garlic will go, and space for other vegetables I would like to eat fresh.

Woods harvested

The woods have several trees large enough to harvest. Now it is a matter of getting the best price for them.

Clean up area East of Chicken Barns

I have decided to “move” the manure pile. I am not going to move what I have, but rather start dumping in another area. As we were cleaning up some brush around there a few weeks ago, I realized it would not take much more work to completely turn that area into a part of the lawn. Eventually the pile will break down enough to provide excellent fertile soil for growing in buckets and pots or filling container gardens. Down the road a year or two or three this spot may prove to be useful for other homestead purposes.

I have a vision for this spot too. More work followed by maintenance.

Move wood chips to garlic

I planted about 4 times more garlic this year in comparison to last year (2017 to 2018 for 2018 harvest and 2019 harvest). This means 4 times more ground to cover with wood chips. I covered all with chaff last fall, but I have not covered it all with wood chips. I have more available as winter is coming to a close, but I will need to be careful when adding it now. The garlic is already starting to poke through.

Additional projects

As I was writing this post, I realized there are more projects that could use my attention in the coming 3 months. I will notice more. I always do, but here are the ones I am adding to the list. Some of these I rely on the help of others. But effort will be made to get these done

Fencing between south and middle pasture
Cut down 4-6 scrub trees near horse shelter
Dig up and pot Walnut tree seedlings
Re-arrange inside chicken barn

0 Shares

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

Catskill Homesteader Chickens

0 Shares

This is a guest post by Maria from Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm about how she came up with her own chicken breed for her homestead. Her breed is not official in any books, but rather this is the story of a lady breeding for traits that are important to her. Read one way she has made homesteading her own. Be sure to check her bio at the end of this post.

I met Maria of Country Girl Heart Beats Farm on Instagram due to a #catskillhomesteaderchickens hashtag that I use to tag photos of the “landrace type” chickens I’ve been breeding for over 5 years. A conversation started and she invited me to write on her blog about my chickens.

This journey to create a landrace started in 2012 with a broody Easter Egger hen named Daisy and a nest of eggs. One of the resulting chicks grew up to be a handsome rooster I named Michael Jessie. I had wanted to try breeding my own red & black sexlinks with pea or rose combs for our cold winters in Upstate New York, but Michael Jessie and his father, a Blue Andalusian, changed those “plans”.

I realized that while I loved trying all different breeds, each one had pros/cons. And it seemed like the plain looking ones laid the best and the prettiest ones were slackers in the egg department. Through trial and error, plus “research” on Back Yard Chickens forum, I learned the basics of breeding, even though much information was pertaining to pure breeds.

In 2013, I purchased a Genesis 1588 incubator, more broody hens hatched chicks & I quickly become hooked on incubating eggs! “Chicken math” became a reality as my chicken population doubled during that summer, though many were roosters which ended up in our freezer.

It wasn’t until the spring 2014 that I began to formulate goals for breeding. Eye appeal was at the top of the list, along with good egg and meat production. Not only did I want colorful chickens, but colorful eggs too! It was also important that they be excellent foragers and not just stand by the feeder all day or constantly preening to look perfect. The other goal was the produce winter hardy chickens that didn’t need heat, weren’t afraid to go outside in the snow and continued laying through winter (except for when molting). I wanted hardy, independent chickens that didn’t need to be “pampered”, but were self-sufficient, adapting to their environment and reproducing on their own, hatching and raising offspring like they were created to do. Basically, I wanted to create the “perfect chicken” or at least what I considered to be “perfect”!
Things like uniform feather color, leg color, comb type, body type, consistent egg color, clean or feathered shanks – they weren’t a factor. Thus, Catskill Homesteaders could never be a recognized “breed”.

One important lesson I learned in 2013 was I had a handsome Golden Laced Wyandotte rooster, who was a “runt” as a chick, very slow to feather, but was a favorite because he was very docile and handsome. Unfortunately, his offspring either had a deformity, were also runts or failed to thrive before maturity. There was only one pullet that I kept for breeding, though I wouldn’t have if I knew what I know now. Lesson learned: only breed the very best, even if they’re a favorite!

At that time, I also had several Red Sex Link hens which I hatched from, thinking it’d give me great layers. However, every hen crossed with the RSL ended up having reproductive issues, so they were eventually eliminated from the breeding stock.

Breeding group #1

David, rooster of group #1. His father was a Freedom Ranger Rooster

I also experimented with some Freedom Ranger (slower growing meat hybrids) that were raised by Daisy the broody hen and were very active despite their large size. The 3 FRs (1 too, 2 hens) were crossed with other breeds. I got several generations of crosses from their offspring, though their influence in the present stock is very minimal. But again health issues presented themselves due to them not being bred for longevity. The FR rooster began to have trouble walking around 7 months old and was culled & the two hens died of what I think was CHF/ fluid around the heart. The FR rooster’s son also developed leg issues but not until well past a year old. The FRx hens lived several years before being rehomed & didn’t have any issues I was aware of. One of the great-great-granddaughters of the FRs did become an internal layer/ very fatty after she was 18 months old. So while I considered those crosses a success, long-term the resulting Freedom Ranger offering tended to also inherit some of the shorter lifespan and reproductive issues common with “commercial production hybrids”.

My goal wasn’t to produce the best layers or best meat chickens, but ones that could lay eggs over a longer period of time even if not as frequently, while the extra roosters and spent hens would provide meat.

Both Swedish Flower Hens and Icelandic chickens were part of my inspiration for breeding more of a landrace type vs standard breed. I loved all the individual variations within one flock. I had actually considered getting Icelandic chickens, but they didn’t meet two of my most important goals – colorful eggs and decent meat production. I had also found a lady in Arizona who was breeding “Aloha” chickens which I thought were so cool! But she was breeding them to withstand over 100 degrees in the summer, not the below zero temperatures in winter we can have. I even tried breeding pure Swedish Flower Hens and Bielefelders for a few years, thinking they’d be close enough to my goals to satisfy. But I ran into inbreeding issues due to purchasing stock that was unknowingly too closely related. Yet when I crossed them with unrelated chickens, their offspring had great vigor.
Some of the other original breeds I originally used, now have little or no trace in the current flock. They included Rhode Island White, Partridge Rock, Partridge Chantecler and Dominique, with the later two being more instrumental in the original “foundation” stock.

Would I do thing differently if I had to do it over? Oh yes! The main thing is I wouldn’t use hatchery chickens, but purchase the foundation breeds from quality breeders. The only exception being Michael Jessie, as he sired chicks until 2017!

As the years progressed, I outcrossed to better quality, sometimes rare breeds, including Bielefelders, Barnevelders, Buckeye/Buff Orp/EE cross, Swedish Flower Hen and a few others. But, it does takes more work and time to breed for “better quality” than if I’d started with breeder quality chickens at the beginning.

The challenge now is having enough space for all the breeding groups I want to have!

Not only do I have stunningly handsome Catskill Homesteader roosters, but I also have out-cross roosters that I want to use. They include an Olive Egger (Marans/EE), Gold Spangled Spitzhauben, Crested Cream Legbar, Blue Wheaton Ameraucana and a Birchen Marans. Except for a few pure or 2-breed cross hens, the hens are multiple generations from the original chickens or even the previous out-crosses.

Am I pleased with the progress I’ve made in 6 years of “actively” breeding them? Yes. Of course there’s always room for improvement and fine tuning, but any breeder will say that.

But now, when people ask me what their characteristics are, I reply:
Locally adapted, winter hardy, “eye candy” dual purpose chickens who are great foragers, lay a wide variety of colorful eggs and will often hatch and raise their own chicks. To me, that’s what a “perfect” chicken looks like!

About the Author:

Maria lives on 0.6 acres with her brother Joel in Delaware County, New York, where she breeds, hatches and raises Catskill Homesteader Chickens. During summer months she raises meat turkeys. She has a few quail and hopes to add more this year.

She juggles working two part-time jobs at the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society and Mandy’s Farm, which consists of yaks, pigs, sheep, donkeys, poultry & 2 barn cats.

She also has a food waste collection service @delhicommunitycompost, which she is in the process of making into a business. Mix in trying to maintain the house and batch cooking a week’s worth of meals on Tuesday evenings, boredom isn’t in her vocabulary

Maria writes on her own blog titled Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm. She has two Facebook pages Catskill Homestead Chickens and Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm.

0 Shares