When we processed our chickens we found one that had a bad heart. After doing research we found out he had ascites, which is congestive heart failure. We weren’t sure if we should eat the meat or not, so I did a little research and we found out that it is safe to eat.
One of our turkeys got injured so we treated him. Giving a turkey a pill is a little more difficult than it seems. It was election day so we went to town, had lunch together and voted. Discovered the beans revived themselves and produced a whole new crop… looks like there will be one more round of canning to do before the growing season is over.
Cutting up chicken is a lot more work than freezing it whole. It pays off in the long run though, because it makes it more convenient to use. This time we cut more up than we left whole. It’s a great feeling to have that chore done for this year.
Processing day… it’s a day that we both dread and look forward to. It’s always hard to part with animals that you’ve spent time with and taken care of, but at the same time it’s nice to get them done and have the freezer stocked for winter. One of our chickens had fluid around it’s heart. It’s the first time we’ve ran into something like this so we’re having to do a little research to fine out if the meat will be safe to eat. While the processing was going on, Dylan and Miley got the porch painted and Dylan’s pickup cleaned up. We’re now reaching the end of having most of the food we’ve grown put up for winter.
Oh dear, I got days mixed up and it affected the whole week. So here it is Friday and we’re doing all the stuff we planned on doing Thursday. I guess we’ll have to skip Friday so that we get back on track.
We started out the day with our usual chores. Got a batch of apple butter started and chicken canned. The turkeys keep following Miley around and she’s a little weirded out by it because she’s not sure of their intentions.
One day over the weekend the kids were gone and it was just my husband and I home. So we had us a little date scooping poop, cleaning things up and doing some much needed fixing up to a few things. Now that everything is all switched up we have a whole new morning chore routine.
We also picked beans and the kids have been keeping busy with a few projects they came up with on their own. Who needs toys when you have sticks, paint, string and a bog box to play with?
It’s a busy time right now. We’ve had lots of stuff going on and we’ve been away from home a lot so I’m having to try to get caught up on a lot of stuff. Then on top of that, I have jury duty this week and have to prepare for the possibility of being gone for 5 days. The sunflowers are ready to harvest plus more tomatoes are also ready. No time to make sauce or roast sunflower seeds now so I’m freezing the tomatoes to make sauce out of another time and we’re picking the sunflowers so Miley can take the seeds off and have them ready to roast when we have the time.
So much to do, so little time… it’s just another day on the homestead.
We had a fun surprise in the barn when we went out to do chores. The nest of guinea eggs that our hen has been faithfully sitting on for the last several weeks finally started hatching. We ended up with 5 baby keets. Since they hatched, we had to move the the meat chicks into the coop so that we could use the tote for the keets. We didn’t plan for it to take all that long but it kept us busy for most of the afternoon.
Had a fun labor day weekend but it was so windy out that we weren’t able to do much outside. We got our fall meat birds and now the guinea keets are hatching, so we’re having to figure out where to put them all.
Humble Little Homestead 