Book Give-a-way

I'm so excited.... She finally did it! Leigh over at 5 Acres and a Dream 5acresandadream.com has finished her book just in time for Christmas!

I have followed her Blog for a long time and she is the best! For 5 years her and Dan (her better half?) have been Homesteading and this is her story.
And she is having a "Book Give-a-way" Go to her Blog to see how you can enter. I did and I also plan to purchase a copy after Christmas (I'm sure I will get an Amazon gift card for Christmas, I always do!!). But if I get lucky, may be I will win one too! If that happens, I hope she sign it for me!
Tom

The Drought is over!

But I'm Not talking about the rain. Even tho we have been getting rain for the past few days and it has been very cold.
The Drought that I'm referring too is THE EGG DROUGHT! I got my last Egg on August 29 (the total of Eggs at this point was 1711 for the year!) as the Chickens went into molt and started loosing feathers. And I have to tell you that they got to looking so bad, I though that I might be loosing them. I mean they lost the tail feathers, They lost the butt feathers and the feathers on necks and backs! Each day there would be more feathers on the floor of the Hen House and less on the Girls!
To tell you that I was concerned would be an understatement! As this is my first flock of Layers and I had done a lot of research before I got my first half dozen, I knew that they were going to stop laying at some point and I was just going to have to wait it out. And continue to feed and water them each day.
I love my Girls, But with no Eggs and the cost of feed what it is, They sure were not doing their job! I had to buy my first store Eggs and was not happy about how they looked and tasted.
And then on November 13 as I opened the Hen House, I found an Egg! Just one! But I did a HAPPY DANCE! Was this the first of more to come?
BOY HOWDY was it!
Nov. 14... One Egg
Nov. 17...3 Eggs
Nov 19... 3 eggs
And I DANCED and DANCED and DANCED!
And as of today... A total of 93 EGGS! I think my girls are back into production and the Drought is OVER! As of today. 1804 for the year and still 22 days left of this year, could they reach 1900! We will see! I have fresh Eggs in the fridge and I can start selling Eggs again.
Will I be adding more Chicks to the flock this spring? You bet and I will finally get them moved into the new digs as soon as I get fence put around it!
I will also be looking for a Rooster for the first time and see if They will hatch out any babies on their own. And I will be looking into an incubator to see if I can help them out some!
But I have to tell you I am so tired from all the DANCING!
Tom

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone,
Just a quick post to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.
It has been cold and wet the past few days and work has been long hours away from the homestead! Yesterday I got a call to report to work at 1700. I normally work from 2130 until 0700. the reason was I had to go to Pitt County Hospital with an Inmate that had been hit in the head with a padlock and needed surgery to remove a blood clot that was putting pressure on his brain. I spent 16 hours at the hospital and got home at 0930.
Needless to say, I went to bed for a few hours, But today was our Thanksgiving and I got up at 1500 to help Terri get things ready. We finally had dinner at 1900 and after we played cards.
Now it's time to get to bed.
So I hope that you all have a great day, with plenty of food and Family!
Tom

Dead Computer

OK, I know, I said I would start to post again (Way back on Sept 24th!). And fully intented to get to it.....BUT.....The Computer had other ideas. IT CRASHED two days later and it has taken for ever to get it back up! And its still not right! I need a new one. That's not going to happen any time soon.

So I will try to get this post out tonight.
The weather has been crazy and it has confused the plants and trees to no end! We had our first heavy frost a couple week ago and it killed the two volunteer  plants I had. The one near the chicken yard, I though was a summer squash plant, But it turned out to be a pumpkin plant instead. I got one good size pumpkin after the plant died back.

Yep, It's Yellow!

And the Tomato plant got hit too! But I was able to harvest over 100 grape tomato's before the frost killed it.

My heat pump has been down all summer and now that the temps are on the down side, the house is cold. Got home from work the other morning and the thermostat read 44 degrees and both dogs were shivering. I have a space heater in the bed room and that's where we spend all our time when in the house.
 It was 68 degrees today and after I got some sleep, I got some work done out side. Months ago I picked some old picket fencing that some one had dismantled and set out for the trash man. It has been laying out back for quite some time and I though today was the day to do some thing with it!

The new compost bin! There are two compartments.

And as you can see, I have started to fill it with grass clippings, Chicken bedding and house scraps. Not bad for a freebie!

Speaking of Freebies. I have been doing a lot of research on what can be done with old pallets. I have picked up a few here and there and want to do something with them. Well I have gotten some good ideas and now I have to find some place that will let me have them for free! Living out side a small town, there are not to many places I can get them here. And I have to drive about 60 miles to get near any place that might have them. Have to start looking this week!

An up date on the Chickens:
I am down to 10 layers now. The two RIR's were killed by the new dog. Izzy is a real sweet hart, but she hates Chickens! It did not help the the two lady's could not seem to be able to stay in the Chicken yard and when they would get out, They headed right to Izzy. And she thinks that they made excellent chew toys!
But the 10 I still have went into molt and I got my last egg back on Aug. 28th. At that time the total number was 1710. And I got my first egg just the other day! 76 days with no eggs! I had to buy eggs at the store for the first time in over a year! In the past week I have gotten 6 and that take the total up to 1716! I  hope to add more layers next spring and I really want a rooster so they can add to the flock on their own

Well, I guess that's it for now. Again I hope this get's published and you all get it! I will be back
Tom

Almost done

I have had the past 3 days off from work and I got working on the back 40! As can be seen fro the pictures on the last post, A lot of weeds and grass needed to be knocked down. Well I put the new Bush Hog through it's paces and it took a day and a-half to get it done!

This is the area behind Terri's house.

And this mine. As you can see, there are a few trees the came up in the spring of 2012.. Mostly Maples and one Pine tree. It made for some tricky maneuver's with the Bush Hog!

Starting next Sunday, I will have another 3 days off and this is what I will be working on then. In that mess of grass and weeds is a stack of wood I have to get out of there and eather clean up and get undercover or burn.

This one is several bags of leaves that will get turned into the garden area.

More wood and an old brush cutter in this one!

And lastly, There is a few logs in there that need to be cut up for fire wood and stacked somewhere.

 So tonight it's back to work and sleeping during the day until Sunday.

I wanted to tell you about the new recipe that I found on line. As I'm single and do have too eat and I want a slice of cake every once in awhile, This works for me!

What you need is:  One box of Angle Food cake mix and One box of any other flavor cake mix you want.
Combine both mixes in an air tight container  mix well and when you want a slice of cake, place 3 Tablespoons cake mix and two Tablespoons of water in a microwave safe cup or bowl. mix well and microwave on high for 1 min. Check to make sure it's done (It may need another 30 sec or so) and top anyway you like. For my first batch I mix Angel food and Dutch Chocolate.

Tom

It's been awhile

Hey,
I know it's been awhile and I have no excuse. But after the death of my Brother, I have not felt like doing anything! His death hit me pretty hard and it was all I could do to drag myself to work each day and come home to bed! I mean I did nothing at home, Not even read any posts from you-all. But that is going to change as of today!
I was so lazy that I even stopped feeding the worms and now the worm beds are empty. Ether they moved out or died and I will have to set up new beds and order a new bunch of worms. Maybe I should change the name of the Blog?

So, the chickens are down to 10 hens and all of them are in Molt right now. So no Eggs for the past few weeks. The total of Eggs is up to 1711 for the year and I hope that they start laying again real soon!

Daisy and Izzy are doing well, but are having a problem with fleas. It seems as tho I have to give each of them a bath every other day just to stay ahead of the Dam things! And the topical oil does not seem to have any effect on them!

I did get a new Bush Hog Brush cutter and spent the day yesterday cutting down the weeds and grass in what I call the back 40. It's the back side of Terri's place and the back of mine, Maybe 2 1/2 to 3 acres total. I got half of it done yesterday and was going to work on the rest today, But we got rain last night and it was to wet to get back to it. I hope to get it done tomorrow.

I put up a new recipe of Bread and Butter pickles a while back and they came out pretty good. I took pictures of the finished pickles and how I did the whole thing. they will follow at the bottom of the post.

The garden never recovered from the heavy rain we got in early spring and the only things that produced any thing were the cantaloupes and the crows got them! But I did get a few volunteers and I have pictures of them too!

Here are the ingredients for the pickles. One pound of carrots, cut into sticks, a large onion, cut into wedges, two green peppers, cut into strips, a yellow pepper, a red pepper and a orange pepper, cut into strips and one hot pepper ( for a bite) also cut into strips.

And 3 quarts of Bread and Butter pickles. Because the garden did not produce anything this year, all are store bought.

In a gallon size jar, place a layer of the pickles, then a layer of carrots, onions and then the peppers. Cover this with a layer of sugar.

Continue to layer the ingredients and finish with a layer of sugar. the sugar reacts with the moisture of the vegetables and makes a brine. For a week set the jar on a counter and each day rotate the jar so that one day it is upside down and the next day it is right side up! Then after the week is up, place the jar in the refrigerator for  and few weeks before trying. NO COOKING!

Here is the mess I have to get taken care of this week end.

And the one volunteer cantaloupe that the crows have not found yet! I need to place a flower pot over it to keep them out of that bed!

And a tomato plant that has come up neer where we store trash bags util I can get them gone. I have harvested several grape tomatoes from this plant

See the ripe ones? They are great in salads!

And the squash plant plant that has come up neer the chicken yard!

It has two fruits coming on.

And I hope it has enough time to mature before the cold weather hits!

More of the mess I have to take of.

And the new Bush Hog that I will use to get it done

And because of last night rain, This opened up this morning! There are more buds on the two plants and I hope to see more open over the next few days

Well there you have it! Again I'm sorry for the time have not been here and I hope to get back into the swing of things from here on out!
Talk to you later!
Tom

No e-mail

A long with every thing that has been going on here, now I can not get into my e-mail account! Just set up an alternate e-mail account at G-mail. woodnut222@g-mail.com, If your interested.
Also can't seem to be able to reply to comments either. So for Spider and Susan (if you read this), Thanks for the kind words about my Brother!
Tom