hatching chicks

On a recent trip to visit the farm, the girls all scurried out of the van immediately upon our arrival and ran with their friends to the barn to collect eggs. It's their favorite job on the farm and they came back with a huge bucket of eggs. They put them in cartons and put them in the fridge. A bit later, I caught up with Rosie and her pockets were bulging and she was cradling something in the front of her shirt. She backed away from me defensively when I approached her and I saw that she had half a dozen eggs. I said, "Rosie we need to put those in the refridgerator, they are going to get broken." She looked at me with wide eyes and exclaimed, "But Mommy, these ones are not food!!!" I didn't really know how to respond, but I convinced her to at least put them in a carton and we set them aside and brainstormed how to handle the delicate situation. Jenna suggested we bring home the incubator and hatch them. The chickens on the farm free range with a couple of roosters so they were fertile eggs. Being the brave Momma that I am, I figured we'd give it a try. It'd be a good educational experience, right?

So we brought 15 eggs home. The first thing we learned was that the eggs don't start to develope until they have the right temperature of 102 degrees. So in the meantime they can be stored at room temperature on their sides. We did a little research and made up this calendar with the guidelines of how incubate the eggs, to hang by the incubator.

The incubation period was 21 days and since we didn't have the luxury of a self turning incubator, we (mom) had to turn the eggs a half turn, 3 times per day. We marked one side with an * and the other side with a number, 1-15 so we could keep track of the turning.

Exactly 21 days later, the hatching began! we just saw a little piping on most of the eggs (I guess that's what you call the little cracks they make with their egg tooth) I had started spraying the eggs with water a few days earlier to keep the shells moist, and when I sprayed them that morning, I jumped with surprise when I heard them peep in response from inside their shells! I called the girls downstairs and they sat next to the incubator in silence listening for the tiny little peeps! It was Memorial Day, so it was perfect, nobody had to go to school or work and we had no plans, so we just hung out and watched the eggs all day!

Lily made a book and sat at the kitchen table taking notes and documenting the whole process. She recorded which chicks hatched, what number they were and what color egg they came out of.

She awarded the first little chick to make his way out of it's egg with a blue ribbon:

It was so amazing to watch how hard they had to work to get out. They were so weak when they first hatched, it was hard to believe they would make it.

But they fluffed up in no time and began pecking around.

Thanks to Rosie the egg collector (as she signed her name on a gift carton of food eggs for grandma) these eggs were not food, they are little chicks and she got to be a part of the whole process!

There were 5 eggs that didn't ever begin to hatch. One of which was a full grown chick. One chick made significant progress pecking thru the shell and died sometime during the process. There was one poor little chick with deformed legs who didn't make it and another that never seemed to grow and died within a few days. The girls handled it very well. We had tried to prepare them for this reality from the beginning, another very hard, but valuable life lesson. I think we would have done much better if we had a self turning incubator and could have kept the temperature more constant. It seemed to fluctuate a lot and that can cause a lot of problems as the embryos develop.

In the end we have 7 healthy chicks who are growing sooo fast! We'll ship the roosters back to farmer Brian. If all goes well, we hope to keep a few hens in the backyard. The motion to change the city ordinance to allow chickens goes before the city this month and we're hoping and praying it gets approved.

Seed Starting party!

It's Spring!! (I know, I heard it's still going to snow, I don't care!)

Click on the pic to see the event on Facebook.

Come celebrate with us! Saturday, we are going to start some seeds for the Midtown Community Garden, but you are welcome to come out and get your hands dirty with us! We are going to do some indoor seed starting and some winter sowing. Bring some milk jugs or other plastic containers and seeds if you've got them, we've got dirt and some seeds to share. You don't have to be a Midtown neighborhood resident or commit to working in the garden. If your excited about spring and gardening, even if you've never done it before, come on over and let's get our hands dirty together! If you want to help us start the plants for the garden that's great, or if you want to take some starts home, that's fine too. We'll be working inside, so don't worry about the weather report!

We went out to the farm last night for the first time and saw all the brand new baby sheep! I love spring! There are something like 17 baby lambs so far this spring, 7 lambs born yesterday alone!

This is Percy! Her momma isn't doing a very good job at nursing her so we fed her a bottle. She is soooo sweet! Her name is short for persistent, because in spite of her mom's (sheep are not very smart) head butts she doesn't give up trying to nurse.

Remember Pìo?She's big now!!

HAPPY SPRING!

Apples

I wasn't much of a fan of applesauce until I made it myself. It has been an amazing addition to our winter meals and tastes nothing like that stuff you buy in the store. These are the four very special cans of chunky cinnamon applesauce I made (the chunky is a little more work because you have to peel the apples). We just finished off the last one the other night, so sad. We still have regular applesauce and applebutter in the pantry though to get us thru the rest of the winter.

Making and preserving applesauce is so easy! If I can do it in an outdoor kitchen while living in a camper trailer with three kids, you can too!! I promised I'd show you how so here it is:

First gather your supplies:

*apples - its good to have a mixture of different apples, some sweet and some tart.

*sugar and cinnamon and spices
*canning jars and new lids - you can't reuse the lids, just the bands.
*water bath canner*big pot for sterilizing jars*pot for sterilizing lids
*jar lifter, hot pads, thermometer and timer, a magnetic wand to pick up the lids is helpful too.
*crock pot or two
*food mill

Cook up the apples. I used a mix of apples from the farm, which were very tart, and some big sweet apples from Rich's Grandad's orchard. We buy their seconds for applesauce. They are much cheaper, they are just irregular in shape or have some blemishes.

I love using the slow cooker and letting them cook on low over night.

Next, run the apples thru the food mill to get out all the skins.

then add your cinnamon and sugar for applesauce, and nutmeg and allspice for apple butter. Cook a little longer then can it!

Here's a good article with step by step canning instructions.

I am looking forward to lot's more preserving this growing season! I was thinking it would be very fun to form a local canning co-op. We could get together and bring all our produce and work together. We could have a pickle party when the cucumbers start coming in. When the peaches are ripe we could get together and peel peaches together, making a very monotonous task a little more fun. What do you think?

My crazy Kids

First fruits

The growing season has flown by and all of our hard work is beginning to pay off! We have an abundance of food on the farm! It is an exciting time! I am scrambling to find ways to prepare and preserve all the food from the garden, but it feels like such a blessing! We have lots of eggs and both cow's milk and goats milk. The other day I made a big omlette and was very happy when I realized that the whole thing came from the farm except the mushrooms! We also processed out 4 roosters and put them in the freezer. They were funny creatures and they will be missed a little though.

Zucchini and hot peppers

Lily and I took a walk out to the apples trees the other day to check on their ripeness. We were excited to discover that there are a couple varieties of apples that seem perfectly ready and a another that isn't far off. We spent the rest of the day mowing and clearing around the tress so that we could get to the fruit. As with everything on this farm, there is alot of work to do to bring things back to working order. The orchard is horribly overgrown after so many years of neglect. In all there are 5 apple trees and 1 pear tree. The pears are still very green and hard though.

The apples are a beautiful variegated red and green and have a crisp sour taste. They will be great for pies, applesauce and cider.

Lily lost her front tooth last week, can you see? It has changed the way she talks a little, it's so funny!


I love this photo, but I am a little embarrased about her fingernails! They are so dirty. I guess, she is a farm kid!


This is Radio Calendula, and yes it really is that orange!


Won't be long before I am going to have to learn to make Sour Kraut!

There is a row of Sunflowers along the fence of the garden that have gotten to be 7 or 8 feet tall and they are stunning! Especially at sunset.


I will be honest with you though, all of this beautiful stuff came from this weed infested and overgrown garden:


I love to show off the stuff I pick, but I am a little embarrased to show off the garden because for the most part the weeds are larger than the plants! You kind of have to hunt thru the weeds to find the produce. That's ok, we'll do better next year!


My favorite cow ever, Foxy.

Please pray for us as we continue to look for a place to live. We are feeling torn about leaving the country and returning to the city, and confused about whether to rent or purchase a home and I am feeling very anxious to know where we are going. I never imagined we still wouldn't know at this point, especially with school starting next week!

Where oh where do we go?

So we thought we'd be moving today. We had planned on renting a house about a mile from the farm and we were supposed to start moving in today, but we found out on Monday that it all feel thru. This is a very hard readjustment for us and we are struggling with it and confused about what to do now. We are grateful though because as disappointed as we are about the major change in plans, we did pray specifically that it wouldn't work out if it wasn't the right thing for our family. So please pray for us, everything seems a little uncertain right now, and we are desperate for God's guidance in our decisions. As much as we love living at the farm, we are ready to have our own house and our own routine. We had our hearts set on being close enough to still be involved on a daily basis, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out.

If you know of anyone who is renting a 4 bedroom house for a reasonable price or needs a house sitter for the winter let us know!

As for the farm, things are going very well. The number of animals seems to be increasing exponentially. We have three new goats, two new sheep, and more chickens than I can count. It is so fun to see the babies following their mommas around the farm. There are 40 chickens of which the females are being raised into new laying hens and the roosters will become dinner. There are 100 brand new little chicks that are being raised for meat and another batch to be ordered in the next week or so.

Three of the hens that went broody successfully hatched 8 chicks and are doing well.

This chicken made a nest behind an old sewing machine in the upper part of the barn and hatched 4 chicks all on her own. One poor little chick was stuck in his shell and Jenna helped it along a little. It was very weak and we didn't think it would make it, but after a couple hours in an incubator we returned it to it's mother and it is doing fine!



We are looking forward to harvesting apples and pears soon and we have been eating tomatoes, broccoli and herbs from the garden. I am not really looking forward to the digging to harvest the potatoes but we are going to have lots of them! Stay tuned, we are planning a harvest party for the fall, but in the meantime let me know if you want to come out and visit!

update

The new Rich and Jen. We are farmers now. What do you think? Do we look it?

We are planning on renting a house very near the farm for the next year. I really thought this would just be a summer adventure and that we would end up back in the city, but we have fallen in love with farming. We even have a couple of our very own goats. We are making some major decisions right now about housing and school, so please pray for our family and our community as we sort things out. I'll let you know as soon as I do what we'll be doing.

If you'd like to come out and visit the farm and see what we've been up to, let me know! There are lots of animals out here now and the garden is growing. It's been an amazing transformation over the last few months. If you were out last fall or early this spring, you'll be amazed.

Peace and Blessings!

my hillbilly husband

A day of celebration!

We are learning about the important balance between work and rest out here on the farm and also learning the importance of celebration. We had a great on the 4th. we worked hard all day cleaning up the farm and in the evening had a crazy parade and did some sparklers.

The big blue Ford

crazy little Daisy

Rich lead the parade in style.

We hope that you are finding time to celebrate this summer!

New Life

It is an exciting time at the farm. There seems to be new life everywhere. This old farm is slowly coming back to life.

The chickens have gone broody! Which in case you didn't know, like I didn't know, means that they are sitting on their fertilized eggs. We are experimenting with letting them hatch and raise their own chicks instead of the modern method of using incubators. This chick is the first one, see her nestled in her mother's wing peaking out just her little head? The mother is very protective.

They are the sweetest little pair foraging around the farmyard together.

The kids have some tadpoles from the pond in a big bucket that they are keeping an eye on.


...and last week Sunday, Brian brought their cow here from the farm where it had been living. The day he went to move her, he discovered she had given birth to her calf. Her name is Sunday and she is so sweet and playful. The cow must be milked every 12 hours and it is a very time consuming job, one which would be much easier with a milking machine. There are many things that make sense to do the old fashion way, but some that become such a burden without modern tools.

Solaya is 12 weeks now and growing so fast! All of our children are growing and learning so much. It is so exciting to see them having so much fun.

Farm Life

...is very busy. I have not had time to spend in front of the computer. I have been busy cleaning up things, building fence, cooking meals, and planting the garden. It is very hard work living out here, but today is rainy and since I can't work in the garden like I had planned (I am very grateful today for the rain actually, it is just what the garden needs and it offers me rest) I thought I would share a little bit of our farm experiences so far. Our family is learning so much and really enjoying being out here. I hate to think about how fast summer is going to go by. I am already amazed by how spring has slipped so quickly into summer. Time seems different out here, it moves in a strange slow and yet so fast kind of way, one I have never experienced before.

This tree is the first thing I see when I look out the window from my bed in the morning and every day it has changes. Now it has all it's leaves.

The lilacs are already gone. I am so glad I took some photos. The smell was so sweet and beautiful. There are many large trees out here and many bees buzzed around them. Now that I am growing I appreciate the bees in a new way realizing how necessary they are to the plants. Farmer Brian also keeps bees here on the property.

When the sheep first arrived here the lambs were so small. Now they seem almost as big as their mothers.

We also measure time by the growth of sweet little Solaya. A baby growing happens in the most amazingly fast way. She is 8 weeks now I believe.

We have been working ground that has not been worked in years, and praying that our hard work will bear fruit this season. First we had to pull trees and overgrown bushes out with the tractor, then we used this plow to begin to break up the earth.

It is a strong ancient looking thing and when I look at it I think of how old it is and how amazing it is that it is being used all these years later for the same purpose that is was created. It has been resurrected. I think of how God promises to resurrect all things and I feel a little closer to understanding.

Next we used this disc to break up the soil even more.

In all I think that we plowed the garden twice and went over it with the disc at least 4 times. There are so many roots that after all this we still had to rototill each bed before we could begin planting anything, and there are still big clods of dirt to work around. So far we have planted more than 50 pounds of potatos, oinions, lettuce and spinach, and tomato, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and bean transplants from David's greenhouse. This week we need to plant our pumpkins and hopefully some grains. We are going to expierament with gluten free grains such as quinoa, millet and teff and see if they not only work for food, but also as mulch for next years garden.

This is the outhouse that Rich built. He is really developing the handyman skills out here!

Here is Rich and his new toy... I mean "farm implement". He sold his motorcycle and used some of his profit to buy it. I sure like it better than the motorcycle though! He has been using is to haul dirt and things for the garden, but he sure does enjoy riding it on the trails too.


Amy was out this week helping in the garden and she has put together a great blog post about it. She takes such beautiful photographs, it makes everything look so romantic. She also has some photos of Rich and I hard at work. She also posted about our trip to the farmer's market so take a look at that too.

We are planning to head to the Fulton Street market again this Saturday, so come on out and buy some plants! Amy and I are also baking some gluten free goodies to sell. MMMmmmmm, penut butter cookies!