This morning I butchered the last 12 Freedom Ranger chickens!!!! I am so glad that's done. And they are ALL sold too. I also put an ad on Craig's list last night for my laying hens that aren't laying. I had a guy call this morning about them. He came out this afternoon with his oldest daughter and they bought 4 Barred Rock hens and Russell Crowe the rooster. So it's a little quieter here now. The Americana roo has not crowed yet. Maybe he will now that Russell is gone.

So I took all the fence and fence posts down and cleaned up the lot where the FR were. Buried all the guts and burned the feathers in a big brush pile. I am going to use the fence to divide the front pasture for the sheep. I think I'll have enough fence to do that. I have plenty of fence posts.

And I need another milk goat! Abby, my older LaMancha doe, is drying herself up. She has nothing. So I am just milking Sandy, my Nubian. I have 2 other young does that are pregnant, but will not freshen til about the middle of February. I have never bred goats this early before. I hope we don't have a blizzard about then. So if anyone close by has a milk goat in milk right now, please let me know.

We bought a brand new Wonderlux wood stove a few days ago. Had to have it delivered. Plus had to have a piece of metal special made for the front of the fireplace. My husband was just trying to get the pipe to go into the back of the stove and has decided we will have to have an adapter for the back of the wood stove. So yet another day before we can use the stove.

We also bought lumber and tin roofing to build a wood shed to keep all that wood dry. I guess we will be doing that tomorrow since husband has to leave Monday morning. Sometimes our weekends are nonstop busy.

I hope you all are having a great weekend and enjoying this beautiful fall so far.

Just thinkin'.

I try to see the humor in everything. Even when someone I love gets hurt, I laugh. Not mean laughing, and I hate they get hurt, but it is kinda funny sometimes.  I guess it runs in my family, but we have a dry sense of humor too. My brother and my nephew are the same way.

So when I saw that the people of Colorado had spoken and they now have legalized recreational marijuana, I thought about maybe moving out there and starting a marijuana and hemp farm. Some people don't think it's funny or a good thing at all. But some people see how this could be a boost to the economy and to farmers. Hemp is a plant that can be used for several different things. One being great clothes. Another being food. It's great fiber. I could see this being a good business. And I think the picture of a city in Colorado shrouded in what looks like a fog, and the caption says something like the people of Colorado have spoken and are very happy about the law passing for legalized pot, I think that's funny.

But when I saw a picture on FB yesterday of Obama standing at an open door holding an eagle with a caption that said "Knock knock. Who's there. America." I just did not see the humor at all. America? Really?? I just thought that was scary. Maybe half of America saw the humor in it, but the other half? I would love to hear their opinion.

So here we go, another 4 years. Are we all ready? I have no idea what's going to happen. Or if it will change very much in 4 years. I really didn't see too much change in the last 4 years. Not for the better, anyway. So he says he has 4 more years, lets see what he will do with it this time.

In the meantime, lets all try to see the humor in our world. There is a lot if we just look and not take things too seriously. I'm sure St. Francis saw humor in God's creatures.

Cameras?

My little camera is dead. For a long time now I was not able to look back at the pictures I had just taken. Then a few weeks ago the bottom that held the batteries in broke and fell off. I had black electrical tape holding the batteries in after that and it worked fine. Then last night I dropped it on the pavement and the top part where I turn it on was raised up. It still turned on and I took a few pictures. Well, then I dropped the darn thing again and that was all the poor thing could take. It's dead now for sure.

So I need a new camera. I would love to hear all the good things about the cameras you all use so I can start looking for another one. I love taking pictures and already feel lost without mine. So any help would be great! Thanks.

From 50 to 12

I started out with 50 fluffy cute little Freedom Ranger chicks 14 weeks ago. I am down to just 12 now. I just got done butchering 10 more. today. So far of the 38 I have done, none have weighed over 4 pounds. They are just under 4 pounds and up to a little over 2 1/2 pounds. Not big birds at all. And they are 14 weeks old today.

I think they just had too much room to roam in and run off the fat. I have spent way too much money on these guys too. With starter-grower and grower-finisher at $17.00 a 50 pound bag, and they went through 17 bags since I've had them, these are really expensive birds. I don't think I can do this again. I'll have to see if I will break even. Probably not. But they are all sold!

It'll be quiet around here without them all. I do still have my non egg layers. I say non egg layers because I might get 2 eggs a day from 17 less than a year old hens. I am lucky to be getting 2 a day right now, I guess. I am just not very happy with chickens these days. It's so much cheaper to buy eggs from someone else than feed these guys. And I could sell them for $10 each and make a little money that way. But them what would I do with all the sheep and goat poop? The chickens are good at scratching it up and mulching too. So I will probably keep the layers awhile more.

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Change of plans

It's been really windy here the past few days. So windy that I couldn't butcher any chickens yesterday. I had caught 10 and got them in the cage ready for yesterday morning and had to let them out because it was too windy. The grill wouldn't have stayed lit. So they get a few more days of life. I think Thursday will be a warmer day with no wind so I will try again then.

It's so sad to see all the destruction way up in NJ and NY from this massive hurricane. So many lives lost and homes destroyed. But to see the determination and strength in these  people who have lost everything is amazing. I just cannot even imagine what it would be like to lose all I had. My thoughts and prayers are with them all.

Gonna get cold tonight!

Just look at these beautiful veggies! It might freeze tonight, so I went out and picked all the little squash and zucchini. I already had the green beans and radishes and carrots picked. And I went today to the Chattanooga market and found a pretty green cauliflower. Also got a handful of grape leaves and a whole head of garlic and some dill seeds. Opened up my handy Wild Fermentation book and found my recipe for Sour Cucumbers. That is the best way to make pickled cucumbers and it's so easy. The recipe says to add any veggies, so I did.


                                                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                     I can't figure this darn computer out, so there's no telling where all this will be when I'm done. So I started with a layer of garlic cloves then the grape leaves. Then 4 T of dill seeds. It took the whole little container of seeds. Then started layering the veggies.Green beans, radishes, carrots, zucchini, squash, then the cauliflower. That's the only thing I didn't grow here.

I'm supposed to let it sit about a week with the cheesecloth on. I have to check for any strange looking stuff on the top and skim it off. I have never seen that before though. But different times of the year do different things. Forgot to say I then added 6 T sea salt to a half gallon of water and stirred til the salt was dissolved. Then poured that over the veggies til covered.

Hopefully in a week or so, we'll be eating yummy fermented veggies. And I can add new veggies as the jar gets emptied.

 The grape leaves are supposed to keep the veggies crunchy. And they really do.

Has anyone else done this? I love this book and use it a lot. The author was here in Chattanooga a few months ago and I was going to go but something came up and I missed him. He has a new book out now that I want.

 I hope y'all try this with your fall veggies soon.

Busy week

I am so tired.  Husband came home (finally! He's a truck driver and they only let him come home when they want him to) Sunday night, after being out on the road for about a month. He is diabetic. He runs out of his meds out there when they don't let him come home. So now he's forced to get them from Walmart. Which, and I hate to say this, is a blessing because the meds he got the other day were just $26.00 for 4 prescriptions. And there are Walmarts all over this great country of ours, so he can get his meds when he runs out.

He had 2 doctor appointments on Monday. First with his diabetic doctor at 11:00. Then his eye doctor at 2:15. I stayed home and made soap.

Tuesday had some errands to run in town. Delivering milk and getting feed for all these critters here.

Wednesday started off early butchering chickens. Did 12 that morning. I am not really happy about these Freedom Rangers. They are 13 weeks old now. Well, the 22 that are left. The 28 I have done so far are small. They range from 2.5 pounds to 3.14 pounds. Yep, that's all. They were free ranging all day. In a pretty big area. Running around. Having fun. Eating frogs and bugs and grass. Just being chickens like they are supposed to. But they are SMALL. For as much money as I have in these birds, it's definitely NOT worth it for me.

Wednesday ended with my hubby, daughter and grand daughter and I going up on the mountain to a friend's place to get some fire wood he had ready for us. All chopped up and stacked all nice.

Thursday, 16 chickens. Started at 9:30 and finished at 1:00. My hands hurt. My back hurts. My feet hurt. And, what I thought was a paper towel right under my feet when I first started, was NOT a paper towel. It was a SNAKE SKIN! And I had kicked the darn thing under the table. I stood out there for 3 1/2 hours with a snake skin under my feet. No telling where the darn snake was.

And I work all day on Friday. It's really not "real" work. I help a 95 year old lady go shopping, pay bills, take her to the beauty shop, go eat lunch. Fun stuff. And I love her. She is the sweetest lady. We used to live next door. I am going to post a bunch of beautiful pictures of her house and yard soon if it's ok with her daughters.

When I get home on Friday evenings, I have to do chores and milk goats. Also have to pick produce for Saturday market. I only picked peppers and some beans tonight. It might rain sometime soon. Looked like tonight by the big huge black clouds floating around up there. Then it could be in the morning. Who knows? But I don't have a canopy. Still. My friend said I could share with her. So if I go, I'll have to get up early and pick all the greens. Collards, turnip greens, kale and lettuce. Then carrots, radishes and beets. So a busy morning.

And I'll have my 9 year old very energetic grand daughter Kansas this weekend.

So I am tired. I would love to have nothing to do again, like I used to. But I love all that I do. I won't have meat chickens after next week. I won't have 2 of the rams after Jan. 8th. I won't have the Holiday Market to get ready for after Christmas. I will be drying the 2 milk goats up the end of December. So no more milking for 2 whole months. I can rest in February. Well, til the end. Then it all starts over again!