It's a glamorous life...

In my last post I mentioned that chicken keeping always looks so wonderful on Pinterest. Figured I'd do a bit of the "keeping it real".

I do a full cleaning of the coop every Saturday morning. Note the glamour: respirator mask (chicken coops are dusty, dirty, and full of chicken poop); fresh bedding flakes (dusty); cute ladder that's supposed to have climbing flowers on it by now (chickens ate the plants); completely barren pasture area (despite frequent moves of the fencing); muck boots (did I mention the poop?); bug hat (flies???). 

And here I am, hat, coat, muck boots, and sundress (!?) putting away the chickens for the evening when it was raining. Just because the weather is foul doesn't mean the animals don't need care. 

Am I complaining? Only in jest - I fully realize that I've got it easy compared to real farmers (Grandpa was a dairyman). But I also wanted to put it out there that animal keeping isn't all pretty pictures of colorful chickens against a bright green background. It's also cleaning crap, heading out in bad weather (oh boy, can't wait to post photos this winter), and dealing with husbandry and pasture issues. 

Is it worth it? Well, so far I don't have a single egg to show for this, and eggs are cheap at the grocery anyway. Eggs aren't really the purpose - they're a nice bonus. The purpose? Trying something new, experiencing life, having a hobby, and getting entertained by simple creatures who have surprisingly well-developed personalities. So yeah, I guess it's worth it - despite my eggless state. 

Chicken update

Update: the chickens are doing well. 

Thank you.

Okay, so yes, the chickens are growing, clucking, pooping, and exploring. They're getting to explore because we (mainly Chris) spent a good bit of time and effort working with Cooper to get her to realize these things were part of the family, not prey. 

It appears to have worked

Just hanging out. 

She can't quite figure out what they're doing though. They keep pecking the ground so there must be food there, right? But when she checks it out there's nothing there but grass and dirt. 

We're keeping a very close eye on their interactions, but so far so good.

Why are they in a barren area instead of working the garden? Because, chickens.

They're not always out free ranging though. If we're not home they're confined to their pasture. Not because of predators - the fence isn't high enough or tough enough to keep anything determined out - nope, it's because if left out on their own they inevitably end up on my porch. And they poop. A lot. No one ever seems to mention that in all those cute chicken Pinterest photos.

Let us out!

But they are out quite a lot and my feed bill has dropped dramatically now that they are foraging. They still have free access to store-bought food for all it's nutritional completeness, but they simply don't eat as much of it. After all, they're getting grasshoppers, moths, crawling bugs and anything green that seems even remotely edible.

Bugs galore at the edge of the wood

The cat is not impressed

The driveway: a source of grit, cherries, and bugs

They quickly found the nice grass and garden area (after all, it's right near the porch). I've been very pleased with their behavior in the garden. The plants are established so they're not uprooting them when they scratch and they're eating the bugs and weeds around them.

Grazing on the lawn

The new coop is finally done and I'll post pictures of that soon. Really looking forward to working on something other than chicken coops! And also really looking forward to that first egg. Should be late September - woo hoo!

Building the bass case

Chris plays the bass in a band. When he goes to gigs or open mic nights he was always worried about banging up his instrument because he only had a soft case. So he decided to build a new one that would be a bit more durable. 

He used spalted maple from the property as well as some cherry that he had purchased previously. Then he cut foam to perfectly cradle the bass. 

Carefully cut to fit

 Obviously he couldn't have blue foam as his interior so he passed it over to me to cover with fabric.

In the work room

I bought some dark grey fleece with a nice feel to it and started figuring out how to make it adhere to the wood and foam. Glue. Lots of glue.

The cat helped

It took a little while to get it all glued and assembled because I had to weight it down and let it dry before moving on to the next segment.

"Sure it's not a cat bed? No? Okay, I'll help weigh it down."

More glue...

 The interior came out pretty nice and now Chris is doing final fitting on the lid and decorative trim.

Much better than blue foam.

I admit to concern that the glue won't hold up to repeated ins and outs but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Going to the Washington County Fair

We have a fantastic Agricultural Fair near us. We look forward to it every August and do our best to attend on the day they do the antique tractor pulls (also the same day they do the draft horse competitions which are great to watch too).

Not too much weight yet

These tractors are real work horses. Some have been restored, some are still being used in the fields.

One of the few non-John Deere tractors

Taking a break from the tractor pulls, we wandered through the many, many exhibit barns. Chickens, pigs, goats, cows, horses, home goods, wildlife exhibits, and art displays.

A bat house 

Butterfly and Wren houses

Eastern Phoebe - we need some of these

The wildlife exhibit also had a scat display. Strangely fascinating and we learned what was pooping at the edge of the porch - a toad!

Um, poop?

They had a bunch of displays dealing with farming & homestead practices - cheese making, egg separators, looms, fence post digging, and ice harvesting, to name just a few.

So now I know how to figure out my egg size

We always go early, get lunch at the firemen's stall, and head home early afternoon before the crowds get too heavy. This year we even remembered to bring a sun umbrella - an excellent idea in mid-August!

Volunteer Sunflower

While I was mowing I noticed something strange growing in the grass at the edge of the porch. It looked kind of like flower leaves rather than just a random weed so I mowed around it. 

And it started to get bigger and we realized that we had a volunteer sunflower that must of come from the bird feeder.

Once the flower started to open I captured a shot of it, each day, at right about 8am. Here we go...

Once the head was fully mature we chopped it down and attached it to the bird feeder.

Our American Gold Finches loved it. 

Crumble? Crumblet? Who knew...

So, here's a thing I learned. I didn't buy "crumble" even though that's what I was told I was getting at the cashier's desk. What I actually bought was "crumblet" which is pelletized mash. (but somehow not actually a pellet food - confused? me too). And apparently my chickens think that crumblet is nothing even remotely related to food. Unless I feed it to them in a pan and add water. Then they think it's the best stuff ever.

I discovered all this because I went to the local TSC and carefully read the feed bags (that's not an option at my local feed store - they keep their stuff in the back and bring it out to you). When I found a picture of true crumble on a bag I realized the difference between the two forms. And I bought a bag to see if it would actually make a difference to the most important part of this equation - the birds.

Ha! Totally made a difference. They like the crumble (larger, natural-looking pieces of food versus a compressed pellet) just fine. As a bonus, they're significantly neater in their eating of it than they were with the mash. So I'm now a crumble convert. I'm not wasting the crumblet though - they still get that as their morning and evening treat in the pan with water.

A win all the way around.

Gorgeous evening

The sunset turned everything red-orange last night. It was simply beautiful.

We've been building and landscaping and generally making the homestead actually become a home for 3 years now. Still lots to do but it's coming along and nights like this remind us that it's all worth it.