Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Gosh.

The weather has been killing me here.

Depressing, really.

We would have three or four warm days in a row, and then snow, and cold. Mother Nature has, apparently, not been a happy Goddess. I'm not sure which one of you pissed her off, but, really, it's time to apologize.

We do, finally, have a nice run of warm weather, although I'm stuck inside today due to thunder and lightning. I spent the last several days putting some goodness from Mother Nature back into our soil.

Egg shells, for calcium, from the eggs She gave us for  nourishment.
Chicken manure and hay, to make the soil more fertile, from the chickens She gave us, both for food and entertainment.
Wood ash, for potassium, from the trees we took from Her to warm our home.

There is a connection built, I believe, when you are giving back to the Earth. A realization that the whole relationship is very much give and take. And that when we give, the Earth gives back-far more than we take. We will take so much of our food straight from the Earth this year, so it's important to give back what we can, to help heal Her, to make her whole.

Pretty philosophical today, I guess. I have some pictures to share with you, since I finally got a camera phone. I hope you love them!

To me, the first tulip popping always signifies the arrival of Spring. It's pretty late for tulips.

The chickens were curious when I was out working in the garden area. They're right next to the garden. Eventually their run will include a way into the garden so they can go in after harvest and eat the leavings and help with turning the soil and fertilizing for the following season. Can you see the barn cats keeping watch? They like to share the household scraps I take out to the chickens. They are especially fond of bread.

Rocky got tired after a long day of playing with Bellatrix, chasing chickens, sniffing chicken poo, and barking at, well, whatever it is he barks at. Which is usually nothing.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Photo Credit: Ken_Mayer

I'm sitting here in the living room, having accomplished absolutely nothing except getting the kids fed, dressed, and out the door for school, and a single load of laundry into the washer. There's a fire going in the wood stove, the dogs are sleeping, and the cats are mostly being lazy, and trying to get to the remains of the cornbread we had with breakfast.

Well, the lazy won't last for long. I'll enjoy it while it's here.

Our warm weather continues. High 50s today. I'm hoping to get dirty outside this afternoon, although, by the looks of things, it's still pretty chilly outside. It looks cold and gray right now. I'm hoping that improves quickly, as it's almost time to feed the chickens and take the dogs outside.

Yesterday the three youngest and I got a new bale of straw put into the chicken coop. The kids had a blast spreading the straw around, finding themselves covered in it. There was much giggling and grinning. Perfect way to spend a late winter afternoon, if you ask me. We threw some scratch down and let the chickens go at it, to get the straw a little more spread out.

We also got strawberries and apples into the dehydrator. I'll be checking the strawberries in a bit, they should be done at this point. I have about twelve more pounds of apples to do, so there will be lots of time spent in the kitchen today! I'm also planning on making granola, so it will be awesome to be able to do some batches with the dried fruit.

Monday, March 4, 2013

I hate Mondays.

Photo Credit: DeusXFlorida

Between being gone most of the day on Sunday for grocery shopping, and the results of said grocery shopping, I always have a lot to do on Mondays. Add to that, I didn't have hot water on Saturday. For some reason, the pilot light on my hot water heater randomly decides to go out, and I can never manage to get it relit.

Today's list includes seventeen loads of laundry (not really), twelve pounds of cheese to grate (really) and freeze, six pounds of strawberries to do something with, and twenty pounds of apples to core and slice for the dehydrator. The chickens will be happy today, with all of the scraps.

We're getting about six eggs a day now.

I bought bins this weekend to get all of the chicken stuff, except feed, stored in, and the materials to build the hanging chicken feeder. We lost a lot of feed this winter because the feed bowl is down on the ground in the coop, so the chickens walk in it, and poop in it. We have the same issue with the water, but I ordered these waterers, and I'm hoping that solves the poop  problem entirely. While we're not losing anything with the poopy water, it's a giant PITA to bleach out the water bowl when it's 17 degrees outside.

Today I will also be adding a bale of straw to the chicken coop. I do the deep litter method, so I add a bale every 3-4 weeks. I may be adding more often in summer, depending on the smell and bug count. I'll be buying twenty or so bales next week to have on hand. That should get me through the next year, depending on how much I end up adding over the summer.

Dinner tonight is carnitas. I love it when I can put almost everything for dinner into the crockpot and leave it all day.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Some days...

...when it hasn't been above freezing in a week and you just want to stay inside and watch the Law and Order: SVU marathon, but spend an hour outside working with the dogs...

Photo Credit: mmarcotte51

...when the wind takes your breath away and you tell yourself that the chickens will be okay even though the coop door isn't shut and it's supposed to snow tonight so you go out anyway, refill the feeder and waterer, and shut the door...

...when you can't feel your toes and you have to go reset the circuit breaker for the back of the house, again, because you're trying to warm it up for your shower, finally...

...when the snow starts to fly again and you still haven't gotten to take a shower and the dogs need outside again and you need to take your cold meds and....


you wonder why you do it.


Then you watch the deer moving through your yard, as they do almost every afternoon, checking to see if you've dropped any goodies on the way to the chicken coop.

Then the barn cat sneaks inside because he's cold and you sit down after your shower and he curls up in your lap.

Then you have your lunch-toast, and eggs that didn't exist twelve hours before.

Then your kids come home and there's laughs and giggles in a room heated by fire.

And you remember...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

It's been cold, so I've been cleaning.

Everyone was sick with a nasty cold. My seven year old had croup. So I decided it was time for some old fashioned Spring Cleaning.

Taking apart every single room. Cleaning top to bottom. Exhausting. I went through almost a gallon and a half of vinegar last week, although, to be honest, some of it went to pickle cucumbers and onions. That's one of Mr. S.'s favorite treats, and I always pickle some right away when the cucumbers first go on sale in late winter.

I'm still not done with the cleaning. The boys' room is proving problematic. The carpet in there is nasty, but with cold and snow it's hard to shampoo. I got part of it done, but it needs to be redone, and it's simply been too cold to get it done. Then I tried to move the bed so I could at least clean and vacuum under it, and the leg bent, so I ordered a new bed. We've needed to replace it anyway, but still. Because I can't move it until the new one gets here, I'm kind of stuck. Today I'll be treating the one part with baking soda, and then vinegar. We will be replacing it this spring, but it stinks and I want that fixed, even temporarily.

Photo Credit: emilydicksonridesabmx

We have gotten a LOT of trash out of the house. It's amazing how much trash builds up over the cold winter! You get lazy in front of a warm fire, I think! Of course, cleaning out all the nooks and crannies and under the beds and behind the couches is also a contributing factor!

Two of our chickens are laying now. There are six eggs in the fridge, waiting for us to get enough to have a celebratory breakfast for dinner with our fresh eggs.

We bought fence posts this weekend to build a small yard for the dogs. There's a dog run at the back of the property but the gate is broken and I don't see the point of having the dog run way back there. We were planning to enclose a portion around the front and north side of the house, that is already partially enclosed. Then, yesterday, my 14 year old had the dogs in the dog run so they could play off the leash, while he held the gate closed, and they jumped the fence to chase dogs that had gotten on to our property. So there goes the yard idea.

Today I'm tired and crabby and sick. But the cleaning needs to be finished. The kids are on the mend, but with the schizophrenic weather we've been having, the cleaner the house is, the less sinus and allergy issues we'll have in the coming days.

I also have some onion bottoms to plant. Hopefully I will get that done today too.

Last night, we had tacos for dinner. I made refried beans to go with them using this recipe, and they turned out great. My neighbor, who is from Mexico, swears by adding lard to her beans to make them creamy, so I did add some lard, but it didn't make them creamier. So I'll be skipping that step next time. I doubled the recipe thinking that I would have some left over to freeze, but I ended up just having enough for some leftovers. Maybe we'll have burritos for lunch later this week.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Not much in the way of outdoor chores got done yesterday. While it was, in fact, warmer, the wind was like razor blades. Frozen razor blades. The kind of wind that takes your breath away and you have to turn around so you're facing away from it just to get a quick breath.

So that was fun. I got the chickens fed and watered. I opened their door so they could go outside and they weren't interested at all. I took the dogs outside and dumped our reclaimed water in the gardens. And that was it. The rest of the day was spent inside.

I did get a lot of work done inside, though. I finally got my sprout station set up in the laundry room. It's the best place for indirect sunlight for them. It's not overly warm in there, but I think it will do the job.  I took some pictures of my sprouting so you can see how I do it in case you're interested in starting to sprout for some of your animals or even your family.

This is a temporary set up. I wanted to start sprouting without spending any money, to make sure it was going to work for us. Over time I will buy shoe boxes or some other types of containers to do this on a larger basis next winter. Right now we have 13 chickens. I'm hoping we'll have some new additions by next winter, meaning we'll need more sprouts. And I honestly think that we could grow more sprouts now and they would not go to waste.

What I'm sprouting right now is my scratch mix. Corn, oats, and some assorted bird seed. Again, over the summer, I will be changing that mix to oats, wheat, and black oil sunflower seed. I'll also be changing the scratch mix I'm using, but I will talk about that more in depth at a later time.

This is the tub where I keep the jars. I think it's a sweater box. I have a ton of these boxes lying around. Of course, most of the lids are long since lost, but for this, I don't need the lids. The metal thing in there is something Mr. S. found in the shed. The previous owners left a lot of stuff here and we don't even know what this is for, but we found a way to use it.

The box needs to be tilted to facilitate the draining of the jars. Right now, I'm using an old paper towel tube. I will find something more permanent, as I'm not sure the tube can take the weight of the fully loaded jars.

This is three days worth of sprouts in jars. I use 2/3 cup in each jar. These are lined up to be rinsed. They need to be rinsed two or three times a day. Ignore the basket full of laundry in the background there.

I measure the seeds into a big cup, and fill it with water, so that I can pick out the chaff. This can be difficult as not only does the chaff float, but the black oil sunflower seeds also float. When I set up the system for next winter, the BOSS will be added separately, after I pull out the chaff.

This is the seeds in the jar, about to be rinsed a few more times and then soaked in about that much water, under the sink, for four hours. Some people soak for longer, but I'm finding my sprout production is just fine even with shorter soaking. I'm sure that depends on what you're soaking, and I may need to change that when I change my sprout mix next winter.

Once the water is in the jar, I cover them with a circle of plastic canvas and a canning jar ring. This allows me to rinse and drain them easily.

I did not take a picture of my whole set up. I'll try to include one later. If you're interested in sprouting for your livestock, there is a long discussion of it with tons of information, pictures and even a few videos here. It's primarily about cows, so those folks let their sprouts actually grow into "grass" that looks like sod mats (called biscuits) but without the dirt. I feed the sprouts to my chickens on day four, because that works well for them. We don't need the longer wait for chickens.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

I didn't have time to write yesterday. By the time everything got done in the freezing cold and snow, and I finally got R. down to sleep with his cough under control, I was wiped out. I had planned to write while I waited for the dishwasher to finish but that just wasn't happening.

I got all of the farm chores done, including working the dogs for as long as I could stand to be outside. I brought in some firewood, covered in snow, so it would have time to dry before we needed it, mentally saying unkind things about the kid who lost my winter work gloves. I'll have to do it all over again today, but it's supposed to be at least ten degrees warmer today and I can see the sun is shining. It's amazing the difference that ten degrees can make!

Photo Credit: Watt Publishing

I spent some time doing some research on turkeys, and getting a few questions answered on BackyardChickens.com. I think we'll have to wait until at least next year to get turkeys, which will bum out Mr. S. He was looking forward to having that scrumptiousness on the dinner table. But they can't roost with chickens and need a larger pen, and we need to get the chicken run expanded and the garden fenced.

I made mayo for the first time. It wasn't fluffy and it didn't get very thick. I used a whisk and will try the blender next time. Since I just needed it for making Ranch dressing, it was fine.

We've been trying to find ways to reclaim some of our water. We use a LOT of water. I am able to reclaim the overflow from the clothes washer, and yesterday I reclaimed about 5 gallons from sprout rinsing and running water to get it hot. It all goes outside. Last night it was cold and snowy, so I just dumped it in the yard. We have several garden areas and trees where we can dump the water. As soon as I find a natural dish detergent that actually works, I will put together some kind of reclamation system for the kitchen sink.

Last night we had sloppy joes, fried potatoes, and salad for dinner. I crave salad in January like nobody's business.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Had three kiddoes home sick today. A pretty basic cold. I'm thankful it's not the flu.

Photo Credit: thisreidwrites

Spent most of the day mourning the loss of our warm weather. It may snow tonight. Got clothes off the line, brought in a few days' worth of food from the freezer, some herbs and spices from the herb shed, and hooked the heated water bowl for the chickens back up.

Snows after it's been warm always worry me. They are usually wet and heavy. Broken trees, downed power lines, and all kinds of not so fun stuff.

The chickens have decided they don't like it when I don't bring them scraps from the house. I was feeding them their layer feed this afternoon and standing in there waiting for that one last rooster who didn't want to come in yet, and they started pecking at me.

Unless there is some miraculous wake up cure happening tomorrow, two of the kiddoes will be home again tomorrow. They feel fine and are running around like crazy, but the cough sounds horrible and neither of the littles have really mastered the whole "cover your mouth when you cough" thing. I know I get irate when other parents send sick kids to school to infect everyone else, so they will probably be home again.

Dinner tonight was pizza and salad. I did a quick shopping trip to get us through the next week with just the basics. The pizza was on sale, and it's good to indulge once in awhile.

I have to rinse sprouts and then I'm going to bed. I am wiped out. I have been super tired today. I know part of it is because I stayed up too late last night. I just hope I'm not getting sick. So much to get done!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

I feel like I should talk about our first year on our property, and how we got where we are. I need to write it down to let go of those first year missteps and frustrations.

Photo Credit: cwwycoff1

Mr. S. and I had talked about buying property and homesteading for years. Saving money was always an issue for us. We would get a little saved and the car would die, or there would be another hospital bill to pay, or something. It was always something. I had read Carla Emery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living from cover to cover a bazillion times, pointing things out to Mr. S. and we knew this was the life we wanted. We just couldn't get out to the land.

The property we are buying now pretty much fell into our hands. We were visiting friends and talking about our desire to move from our then current residence where we had a draconian landlord. They mentioned that the property next to them was empty, and had been sitting empty for a few years. We went over and peeked inside windows and walked around. There was a shed that needed a new roof, and a few outbuildings that had been used for chickens. We found out who the owner was, and Mr. S. actually knew him! Advantages of living in a small town.

So before we really knew what was happening, we were contracting to buy the property. Since the housing market was tanked, and land here is pretty cheap anyway, the price was something we could handle. The payments were no more than our rent had been. The house was, technically, too small for our family, but we planned to add on. We had big dreams.

It took us a month to move in. By the time we were done, we had blown another month's rent on the old place, and had spent money on a fridge, stove, washer, dryer, completely rebuilt the bathroom and substantially rebuilt the plumbing to make the house habitable. The rebuilds had lowered the cost of the house, so we knew there were going to be issues, but we didn't expect the financial outlay. We cooked on the grill, in a crockpot, and in an electric skillet for a month while we looked for a used propane stove so we wouldn't have to pay to have one converted over to propane.

By the time we got somewhat settled in, it was July. Outdoor temps were over 100 degrees. We tried to plant a basic garden with some tomatoes, carrots, and a few other things, but the summer heat just did us in. So we shelved our garden plans and hung out inside during the day, trying to stay cool under the ceiling fans. We would sit outside in the evenings, grateful to finally be able to get outside. If we were quiet enough, we could watch the deer go through the yard.

Photo Credit: NatalieMaynor

I did get a compost bin started the first summer. I can still see the remains of that first compost pile, with some stuff not even broken down yet, because I didn't know what I was doing.

We had some fantastic storms, and lightning struck in the yard one day. We got hit by a microburst while huddled in a closet in the boys bedroom. We lost power with every storm, and loved every minute of it. Well, except for that whole huddled in a closet thing. That kind of sucked.

Summer started winding down, and we had a new issue. Bears. Lots and lots of bears. We built a trash enclosure, and still they came. Oh! The compost bin! Yes. Bears, and deer, love compost bins.

Fall came in a rush and we realized the house was nearly impossible to heat. We have a wood burning stove, but it simply doesn't do the job when it's 20 below 0. Or 20 above 0. At that point we began talking about demoing the house and putting a modular on, once the property is paid off.

We got dogs, a Golden Retriever named Rocky that some friends were desperate to re-home, and a mutt puppy named Bellatrix. Rocky sleeps through even the bears in the trash can, while Bella loses her mind when the deer walk through. Never a happy medium with those two.

We made it through the winter with no frozen pipes, although I slept in the living room with the woodstove and the kids. Mr. S. could sleep outside in a blizzard, so he slept in the bedroom.

When Spring made her glorious appearance, I was in a hurry to DO.ALL.THE.THINGS. Everything I'd ever read about, I wanted to get going right then and there. I got the herb garden tilled and the vegetable garden prepped and then? I decided it would be a good idea to start selling Scentsy. Note to self and other homesteaders: Do not attempt to start a business while you're also attempting your first few years at homesteading.

I got busy with the business, which is a good thing, but then, before I knew it, it was too late to plant anything. Then it got into summer and the kids were home and the business died a slow, painful death. Not only was I out of my mind to take on such a venture, I feel guilty for investing money into it. That money could have gone into our homestead, or bought groceries, or bought a truck.

Our first year was over and we had done...exactly nothing on our homestead. It was a combination of being overwhelmed, the whole Scentsy thing (I'm not talking bad about Scentsy, just about my decision to sell it) and wanting to do too much, too soon. I've always had a bit of a problem staying focused.

So I sat down, looked realistically at my business, and our homestead, and our priorities. I talked with Mr. S. I meditated. I prayed. And came to the realization that had led us here all along. The priority has to be the homestead. This land we've been blessed with, that is our responsibility to tend and bless, to make it grow and be.

Summer wound down, and we bought our first chickens. Fourteen noisy, chirpy, adorable little chicks nested for two weeks in my bedroom (the only place we could isolate them from the dogs and the cats that come inside). We did some repairs on the coop, then moved them in. They grew into adult chickens who still don't give us eggs yet. We have Easter Eggers, Australorps, and Barred Rocks. If I ever need to buy new stock, they will be Australorps. They are HUGE.

We gave one of the roosters to a neighbor who didn't have any, when we found the first fox in the yard. We all made it through the winter, and I was much warmer, and in the bedroom, because Mr. S. bought me an electric blanket for Christmas. The kids survived. The chickens survived. We were doing it.

So now, I'm looking at Spring again, her glorious appearance evident by the chinooks that are already blowing down the mountains and knocking out our hot water heater's pilot light. We've had some amazingly warm days, although today is a bit cooler and cloudy. I no longer plan to do ALL.THE.THINGS. At least not right now. We're pretty buried in stuff to do but not overwhelmed. If I can't get outside today because of the weather, so be it. I have plenty of stuff to do in the house.

Today I made Make Your Own "Bisquick" mix, and made waffles for breakfast, along with a batch for the freezer for breakfast on a weekday. I have to clarify some sausage fat and do more cleaning. Always cleaning. I'll be making more plants pots (which is vastly different than pot plants) and if I can get outside I'll move more leaves to the garden.

Dinner tonight will be a pasta casserole, herbed bread, and green beans.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Finally found the research articles we needed.

Photo Credit: jessicafm

We cannot both grow and butcher chickens in Colorado. Processing costs would not allow us to transport to a processor for butchering. So we will sell layers and baby chicks and eggs, and butcher for ourselves. We can sell up to 250 dozen eggs per month without needing a license.

So, goal number one is to put together a business plan. I will be working on this at the same time as goal number two, which is to expand the chicken pen and fence in the garden. The chicken pen will go straight to the garden, and will have a gate on the garden side, so that in the fall once we're done harvesting, I can let the chickens forage in there. The fence will keep them contained to the garden and keep the deer out.

Letting the chickens forage in the harvested garden serves multiple purposes. For one, they will be able to eat the leavings for a month. For two, their foraging will help clean up the garden. Harvest of everything but pumpkins and potatoes should be done by late September/early October. So I let them in for a month, then close it off for a few days to do the fall tilling of anything that's left, plus the chicken poo, which is really beneficial for building soil. This way, they are doing all of the compost work for me. I'll keep the garden open to them until February, when I will again till the soil to get it ready for planting.

Any kind of manure that you put into your garden has to age for at least 40 days before you expose it to your plants. For one, the heat of decomposition can burn plants. But the most important reason is that aging it kills any bacteria that may be present in the manure, so your vegetables aren't contaminated. By closing the garden off in February, I give the chicken poo plenty of time to age.By then I hope to have the regular pen expanded to a much larger space too, so that I can still give them a lot of room. Maybe I can grow winter wheat in that part of the pen when they are in the garden in winter to give the chickens something fresh to munch in the spring.

Dinner tonight was beans with onion and bacon, and cornbread. Seriously, this is the best cornbread recipe I have ever used.

Wednesday January 23, 2013

Lots of researching today.

Actually, lots of researching the whole week.

We plan to get goats. We have also planned for a few cows and a pig or two a year. We're also looking at buying the two acres behind our farm to expand our space. So I was researching whether goats and cows can pasture together when I found a site called Keeping a Family Cow.  If you're ever looking for information on cows, that place is the place to go.

I got to reading there about sprouting for feed. Of course, they are sprouting for cows, but then I went to Backyard Chickens to see if anyone was sprouting for the chickens. Yes. Also, if you're ever looking for information on chickens, that place is the place to go.

But I digress.

I tend to do that.

In reading the almost 100 pages of posts on sprouting at KFC, I learned that cows are not easy creatures to manage. Their digestive systems are pesky little things, and certain percentages of nutrients must be maintained. Cows are apparently hard to feed.

I don't want hard.

Homesteading is hard enough. The never ending fence building and repairing. Building soil for a decent garden to feed the family. Escapee chickens who still aren't laying yet. Our dogs. The neighbor's dogs. The last thing I need to worry about is calculating the proper percentage of green food to grain or whatever I need to calculate for a cow's sensitive stomach.

I sound like I'm whining. Yes, I'm whining. I asked for this life. I made sacrifices for this life. I love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. But it's hard.

So I'm saying we're not getting a cow. We'll have goats for milk and cheese. I will trade or sell chickens for beef and pork. Yeah, no pig either. They are apparently master escape artists, and I've got enough of those on my hands.

So what to do with the farm? No cows means we won't be completely self sufficient, because we'll need more meat protein sources than chicken. But I can, can years worth of beef and pork, so I'm not overly concerned there. We can use the chickens to barter for other sources of meat. I have neighbors fairly close by that run 1000 or more head of cattle. I bet we can make some kind of deal.

So therein lies the plan. To add goats, turkeys, and, over time, expand the number of chickens we have. Our acreage can easily support 200 chickens, free ranging (but fenced out of the garden). Not that we'll have 200 chickens tomorrow, but we will let our flock grow as our completed fence line grows. We'll butcher the roosters at 8 weeks and maybe let some of the pullets go longer to get some eggs out of them. We can do two cycles per summer, if the land can support it.

Maybe.

We're in the process of researching whether we can legally butcher the chickens. I'm getting conflicting information buried in legalese. If we have to transport them to a certified butcher, then they will become cost prohibitive. There seems to be an exemption if you would do less than 1000 per year, but again, that is questionable. So we'll see.

Certainly it's nothing that will happen this year. If any of the hens go broody this year, their chicks will mostly go to the freezer.

Our focus this year is fence and the garden. If we're going to free range the chickens, that means 6 ft fence, all the way around 3 acres. Or 5. And another acreish fenced in for the garden. Sure...

On a lighter note, went to go get straw for the chicken coop and paid almost half what I paid in the fall. I am hoping the prices will be the same when we get the tax refund. I'm going to get 20 bales if so. That will last me a year at my current rate of use, although I will need more for growing potatoes. I got a bale of the straw down in the chicken coop, and a good amount in the nesting boxes. They always get so excited when I put new straw down. They all had to come in and scratch around. On the plus side, the hens are digging out nest type areas, so I'm hoping we'll have eggs soon.

I got the plastic off the coop windows, and they seemed confused by the brighter coop. The plastic wasn't completely covering the windows but it's been warm enough I still took it down. I can always put it back up if it gets cold again.

I worked with Bellatrix the puppy for about an hour on the leash. She's still pulling a lot, but there were no wild jumps and attempts to take off today, so it's a step in the right direction. I've never had a dog so hard to train!

Dinner tonight was goulash, corn, garlic bread and cottage cheese. The chickens will enjoy the leftovers.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Photo credit: InAweofGod'sCreation

It was a lovely warm day in the backwoods today, in the high 50s. I was able to hang most of the laundry, but the rope we use as a clothesline needs to be tightened. Thankfully Mr. S. will be home this week so he can get it fixed for me, so I can keep taking advantage of the weather.

We came home from N's basketball game last night to find a chicken in the yard. We tried to get her back into the pen for an hour, but finally lost her in the dark. She was in the pen this morning. Next time I won't bother chasing her. I need to get something done about the fence in the pen. I raised it quite a bit with a redneck chicken wire addition but apparently it's still not high enough.

Starting some birdseed sprouts for them tonight, using the jar method. Hopefully they will work, so they can get some greens. Over the summer I will get oats and some black hulled sunflower seeds to sprout over next winter. The sprouts have a high protein content and I've read of egg production being increased by as much as 100% with the addition of sprouts. Plus it will cut down on their feed costs.

We got an offer to buy our old van that's been sitting for awhile. I'm going to have Mr. S. call the guy tonight and let him know everything that's wrong with it.

I was hoping to get the leaves raked up in piles to put into the garden but it's almost 3:00 pm and I still have a lot to do in the house and it's been cooling off pretty early. Maybe tomorrow.

Dinner tonight is Marinated Baked Pork Chops, rice, and corn on the cob.