Shelter

If you have animals you are going to need some type of shelter for them. It can come in many forms.  Our main cost with our animals has been fencing and shelters.  Here are a few from around this area:      
                            Adobe style using tires on the bottom.

                                                  Shelter using tires  and dirt.

 

Barn style

Country living

I stayed in the city last night with family.  One of the first things you notice is how close the houses are to each other and then think, I never noticed that before.  The streets are full late at night and finding parking on the street can be a little tricky. Everyone and their friends have a car. Heading to bed after the late news  people are slamming car doors, there are street lights shining in the bedroom window, and muffled conversations can be heard across the street.

 

I remember when I first moved to the country. I didn't think I would get used to the quiet, the absolute darkness and the remoteness of the house. Our nearest neighbor is a half mile away and "town" is a mile and a half down the road. It took about three months before I got used to living out here. Right after we moved in there was a terrific snow storm and we were stuck here for three days. I now pray that I am home for a snow storm and find comfort in the silence of the snow.

Life on the prairie has a way of healing and bringing peace in a way the busy life of the city doesn't.

 

 

 

Now, as I head  the 55 miles to work each day, I dread leaving our land. I love it out here. I crave the quiet.  You begin to feel a connection to the earth and can almost hear those who have come before us.  This time of year you can hear the Canadian geese flying over during the evening feed. The goats and chickens ignore them but we know that means winter can't be far behind.  At night you can hear owls and you can see  a million stars stretch across the sky. You can't help but want to go outside even on a cold night and watch the night go by.

These are our traffic jams now and these are the neighbors we hear.

I don't know how long we live here but I intend to enjoy and live in the moment as much as I can.

Greenhouse

We have always dreamed of having a greenhouse. We thought it would only be that, a dream.  We looked up different ideas - PVC pipe, a greenhouse made from recycled windows and doors, or full-blown drawings of a brand new one. Dude was looking for tractors on Craig's List  and found a large greenhouse for sale. It seemed almost unbelievable.  It was advertised for only $500.  The price included  the greenhouse, all tables, fans, and hook ups for water along with the hanging baskets for anyone willing to come take it down and haul it off.  Dude called immediately. The day he went to pick it up it snowed but that didn't slow him down. Too many times we have called someone only to get there and whatever item it was, it was already sold. 

 

Sold!

 

The greenhouse ended up being a gem! It is 20x24x9"6', two layers of plastic and a  Tuff Greenhouse.  We called Tuff Greenhouse to get directions to put it together. I can't say enough about these folks. They were awesome. We purchased nothing but they helped us, answered any questions we had, were genuinely excited for us and told us we had an almost $5,000 custom greenhouse!

This greenhouse has been through snow, microbursts, and the hailstorm that is causing us to replace our siding and roof! It stood the test with only 2 dents in the top plastic.

We are learning a lot about growing with a greenhouse. It is not as easy as it looks. We recently just pulled up our first growing, okay, second growing... the first failed - it burned up, it just got too hot in there. We learned to use the fans and vents.  We ran a waterline from the house to the greenhouse. There are lights and Dude has been seen working late nights in the greenhouse. You can't help it. Working with plants and soil tends to cause you to forget about anything else.

Next goal is a drip or sprinkler system. 

Recently I pulled up everything we had in there - peppers, collards, lettuces, flowers and sunflowers. Here it is this morning with tomatoes still going strong after last night's frost. I am hoping to plant this weekend.

I use K-cups for my seedlings. I hate not recycling those things.

 

I can't wait to see what grows in the winter!

 

Fermenting and drying

Today I set out to make a small batch of sauerkraut .  I had two cabbages in the frig screaming, "Pick me, pick me" .  I have been ignoring them for the past week  but decide today was the day.  They were pretty excited about becoming fermenting beings. I think they squealed with delight when I pulled them out of the crisper.  I got going on chopping them up. (note to self....invest in a mandolin and save on blisters from chopping).

This is my mom's crock that she used to make sauerkraut in.  I used to sneak kraut as it was fermenting when I was a kid.  I know, it sound horrid now but then it was fantastic. Maybe it was the sneaking part more than the eating that made it so much fun? smile.

Press and salt after each layer. Press and salt, press and salt .

Place a plate on top and some kind of weight. I used a big bottle of oil.

 

There you have it, yes, so far, it is that simple. Now we wait.  I am sure, as excited as the cabbage was there will be burping and farting going on in the crock. Don't worry. It's normal for cabbage as it matures into kraut.  -wink-  Six weeks is marked on the calendar.  I will keep you updated on their progress.

 

I did pull some carrots from the garden. I was going to dry them all but when Dude saw them he got all excited, hoping they were for our lunches. So I ended up cutting most for our lunches for the week and drying the rest. Since I have limited time before heading to work, more will need to be put in the dehydrator later on in the week.

I have about 30mins before I have to get ready for work. So I  am making veggie roll ups using cream cheese, a bit of sour cream, chopped yellow peppers, a little bit of chopped fine carrot (had to, they were out), spinach, chopped dried tomato, garlic powder, and onion powder. Spread on a tortilla and roll.   You can slice them after refrigerating or leave them whole.  ...or...... make a grilled cheese sandwich out of them. Now that would be something.

Have a great day.
~Peace~

 

 

 

The Coop

I wanted share my chicken coop with you .  There are all kinds of coops out there and here is ours. Dude built it from what we had around. I asked that it be big enough for me stand up in so I could get in there and really clean it out. 
Take a look.

I had help cleaning the coop.

The floor is made with shower vinyl. This makes it extremely easy to clean, just rake and sweep. The container in the back right is for calcium.  

I use wood chips on the bottom and like to use straw in the laying boxes.

We have more than enough boxes for them to lay eggs, but they usually on use 2 of them. I like that the boxes face the house. This way I just walk out at night and get them, instead of going inside a hen house and possibly getting dirty.

We put a lean-to on so they had shade in the summer. The plug is for a heat lamp for the chickens and a heat stand for their water so it doesn't freeze in the winter.

Used house vents to air out in the summer.

 We usually keep around 15-20 hens. They are molting right now and not laying much. We do have one rooster. If you go out when they are young and talk to them every day, they will ride on your shoulder.  Mine love to come running when they see me. 

Craft time

Due to our water situation we had cancelled our Halloween Craft Party.  Every year we have a party for kids and families to come and have some fun on the homestead and create.  This year we cancelled.  My son and Cleo  wasn't going to hear of it and showed up with water and time to craft.  We had limited time since we had to get to the gym to shower before it closed and over to a friend's to pick up hay before they went to church.  No problem.

We gathered all our Dollar Store supplies and got to work.

Here is what we came up with ...

All in all a time well spent and much needed.

Sunday - there are still chores and work to be done.

Not sure if it is all the stress of the well being out and hauling water but we overslept this morning.  Our bedroom window was cracked open and our morning alarm became Running Water, our Nubian goat screaming in the window.  Every time Dude said “what”, Running Water would yell back, well, more like scream.  We looked at the clock and freaked out!  It was after 8am.  We are usually those types of people that will sleep 5hours, get up for one hour to do paperwork or whatever and go back to bed for 3 more hours.  We fell asleep early last night and woke up very late. 

We hit the ground running this morning.  We drove over to a friend's house who generously let us borrow their water tank, trailer AND water! It is always fun to head over to Sunny's place but it was the first time Dude was able to go too.

Of course, I had to introduce him to the animals around the place too...

Alpaca kisses all around.

That's Sunny with one of her little boys.

 

Still can’t say enough about farm neighbors.  I hope your neighbors are there for you when you need them like ours are.

We did go get hay tonight as well.  We don't usually feed our goats at night but when they saw us coming home with a fresh batch they came running.

Angelo likes the bits at the bottom of the bowl.

All in all a busy day and we did squeeze in some craft time as well. Plus the gym for shower, hot tub, pool, and steam room....ahhh.

Oh and this... a beautiful moon.