Summers bring heat and humidity to northern Indiana. While I enjoy warm sun on my skin, I do not like the sweat, dripping days of high humidity. I have high expectations for summer 2020 homestead goals I want to complete no matter how I try not to.
My biggest health challenge in summer involves drinking enough water, napping and resting when I need to in order to feel good enough to work hard. Perhaps I need to define good enough. I need to be able to function with out getting light headed every time I squat down and stand up or running out of breath after only working for 30 min.
To complete a task, I must not be exhausted when I begin. If I am exhausted after, well now, I joyfully see a job complete and happily rest. I bring you my list of hopeful goals for the summer of 2020 at CG Heartbeats Farm.
Animals in Summer 2020
Chicken Goals
Work projects for the chickens involves cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Here is the list:
- Pen cleaning
- Deep clean incubators
- Clean empty brooders
Continue reading to learn where I moved roosters, hens and grow outs into new pens. I have a few Swedish Flower Hen chickens who I will be moving in the coming weeks.
Hatching plans are limited to am going to setting a few Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner eggs and Silver Gray Dorking eggs through the month of August. I may make a few exceptions, but I will be cutting back on the number of chicks I hatch until September
Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiners
Sadly, I lost 2 of my 3 remaining hens leaving only one hen here with Cisco and Clinch. I added the 2 cross bred hens to their pen for at least the next couple months. The crossbred hens lay a completely different egg to make keeping the eggs separate easy. Knowing which egg a hen lays preserves the breed integrity.
Combining the pens reduces chore time. I took a planned trip the beginning of July and wanted to make chores easier for those kind people caring for the animals and gardens while I was away.
Silver Gray Dorkings
The Silver Gray Dorkings have shown little fertility this year so I switched up the rooster with the Silver Gray Dorking hens. I have not updated the web page yet, but here is the new pens info.
Rooster Cogburn joined his daughter who hatched in January 2019. A younger son of his joined the SGD hens of Pen # 1. I lost both Mr. and Mrs. McLintock earlier this year. I am excited about testing the eggs in a few weeks.
Did you know I wait 6 weeks after switching roosters to incubate the eggs? Unless a hen or hens did not have a rooster with them for the previous 6 weeks, in that case, I do not wait.
Swedish Flower Hens
I am excited to announce a new pen of Swedish Flower Hens here at CG Heartbeats Farm. I am currently deciding on a name for the rooster and the web page is only started. Check out the video showing the pretty flock of blue based Swedish Flower Hens making up pen # 11
Apache, the rooster of pen # 8 passed earlier in 2020, but not before I hatched a son to take his place. At the moment I am unable to offer crested Swedish Flower hens until Apache’s son grows up enough to cover the hens. I hatched and raised an additional hen from Pen # 7 to join pen # 8. She is a pretty black based hen with sno leopard highlights on her neck.
Aneta
My Great Pyrenees puppy brings joy to my life. She rarely is unhappy, wagging her tail, appearing to smile broadly in welcome. Her puppy behavior includes chewing on anything in her reach, but she barks deeply, as if already an adult.
Aneta is not allowed to run unattended, but on a couple occasions her collar came loose. I walked outside to find her hanging out on the farm. I am happy to say she did not run off. At 4 months old she is still a young pup. Behaviors may change and I continue to learn and enjoy her.
She is not especially fond of a bath. Ah, it looks like we will be training for bath time this summer. She certainly needs them after her digging exploits. The first bath removed much of the hidden dirt. A week later she appears to be in need of bath number 2.
Horses
Drifter, Bo, Cider, Rosie, and Dusty continue to enjoy life living a horse’s life out to pasture. I desire to ride again this summer, but I have not figured out how to fit horse time into my schedule.
Gardening Summer 2020
As the Black raspberries began to ripen, I have enjoyed picking and depositing directly into my mouth, thus far. When I had enough picked, I froze all I did not eat for later use.
Garlic Scapes
Raising food in summertime requires watering, weed pulling, and monitoring plants as the grow and produce. Harvest and food preservation happen during summer months too. I almost daily inspect the gardens for plant development, and of course pull weeds. I do not seem to ever pull all the weeds, but I celebrate those I do.
For the first time you may order garlic online to be shipped in September. Click on a variety of your choice to begin the process.
Spanish Rojo Garlic smaller in size has an earthy flavor.
Montana Garlic has a mild flavor and 6 cloves per bulb.
Click on the garlic of your choice to pre-order your selection.
Music Garlic is mild similar to Montana in flavor.
German Garlic provides a strong flavor for stews and other cooking projects.
Limited availibility of all varieties.
Grapes
I watched tiny grapes appear and disappear on the grape plants this past spring. Something removed them. An insect? What ever the culprit, I only have 3 grapes ripening on the largest of the grape plants. I am disappointed as I crave those delicious Concord Grapes. You can bet I am going to savor the 3 I hopefully eat.
I know I want to make the task of setting up a trellis a high priority this fall. The grape seedlings I planted are currently leafless. I hope the roots are growing and will survive. I plan to continue working with the grapes for a future harvest. In the mean time I will also eat the wild grapes growing around the farm.
General Farm Work and Area Clean Up
There are always areas around the farm that need to be cleaned up. The heat of summer does not lend to daylong outside work for me. While I desire to tackle these projects, truthfully, they may get put on the backburner for the pressing jobs like weeding, watering, harvesting and preserving. Fence building and pasture maintenance fall into this time slot as well.
Transplanting Trees
I had a few crab apple trees pop up around the current tree. I want to transplant a couple one to the center of the circle portion of our driveway.
Online
Because a part of my homesteading journey includes sharing my journey homesteading with a chonic illness, I want to tell you about my website summer 2020 homestead goals.
Chick Hatching Practices
In the coming 2 months I plan to complete the finishing touches on the digital course Chick Hatching Practices teaching folks new to hatching chickens how simple and easy the process can be.
Updating to breed and pen page info
Changes to the different pens of Swedish Flower Hens, Silver Gray Dorkings, and Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner create a needed update to the differnet website pages.
You Tube videos
I want to continue adding a weekly video to the CG Heartbeats Farm You Tube Channel. Use the link below to subscribe so you do not miss a video. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vCR-u2f0ucynCHJWylqVw