Tag Archives: homesteading

Stormy Weather, More Stormy Weather, and A New Swing Week 20 2017

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Thankfully yesterday’s storms didn’t pan out as predicted and we just got a lot of heavy rain. Today is another stormy day… will this weather ever settle down?

There is a high risk weather alert out in our area today for possibilities of tornadoes, large hail and wind. So, we’re battening the hatches and doing what we can to be as prepared as possible.

It’s that sleepless time of the year when spring storms and weather alerts keep us up at night.

Yep… what the title says, it was a busy and windy day!

It was an offish kind of day.. not necessarily a bad one… just a little off.

It was a fun afternoon spending time together making a new tree swing.

Processing Chickens, A Bunny Play Pen, and More! Week 19 2017

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Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Yep… I did, I went for a ride on one of our goats! We got a few things done outside, then it started to rain. So it turned out being one of those tea making, cookie baking kind of days.

The day started out with pouring rain so we weren’t able to get out and do the work we had planned. It turned out beautiful later on so we show you what all we’ve done in the garden so far.

Just an update on hatching turkeys, whether our experiment on making the turkeys less aggressive worked, and we moved the chicks. Oh, and I so wanted to cry over the milk I spilt…

Miley wants to keep one of our bunnies as a pet in her room. So today the kids make a little play pen that’s easy to maintain.

Today we’re processing our meat birds and one turkey. We’ve had problems with our turkeys being aggressive so we’re trying a way suggested by one of our viewers to establish dominance over them in hopes they will learn to be less aggressive.

Not much going on… just enjoying a beautiful, peaceful evening on the homestead…. our favorite part of living in the country.

Cedar Apple Rust, Bad Luck with Bunnies, New Goat Kids and More! Week 18 2017

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We’ve always dealt with cedar apple rust but this year it will be worse than usual because of the wet weather we’ve been having. I find it annoying, but at the same time, it’s very interesting. I did a little research on it and show you what it looks like. I also give an update on the injured bunny and show you how our alfalfa patch is doing.

We’re just not having good luck with the bunnies, it’s just one thing after another! On a positive note, we finally found time to get more work done in the garden.

Well, the turkey eggs didn’t hatch, but I plan to do research and try again. We put our calf in the pen outside and he was a little spooked by the change of routine so Brooke took him for a walk to get him used to being outside.

It was a rainy dreary weekend but that didn’t stop it from being beautiful, fun and exciting!

A New Calf On the Homestead, Guinea Is Sitting On Turkey Eggs and More! Week 17 2017

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Today is lock down for our turkey eggs! I’m showing you the steps that need to be done to prepare them for hatching.

Just a little update on what I have planted so far and how the garden is doing.

Our guinea hen has been sitting on her nest, the one that I put turkey eggs in! We’re excited about that and are hoping that the turkeys will hatch. Other than that we’re just trying to get a new chore routine established and are giving an update on Brooke’s beta fish.

We reached a new goal by getting this animal for our homestead! It’s a goal we didn’t really expect to happen so soon. Things are about to get real busy around here, but we hope all the hard work will pay off later on.

Moved chicks to the chicken tractor, trimmed all the goats’ hooves, milked an extra goat we don’t normally milk… wrestled pigs to get them tagged… it’s a busy morning on the homestead!

DIY Chicken Tractor, Planting the Garden, Cute Bunnies and More! Week 16 2017

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We finally got a chicken tractor built! It’s a little late, but better late than never! At least now we have it made and ready to go for future use. We’re wanting to make one more, but we’ll use this one for a while and see if there’s anything we’d like to change.

It’s a super rainy day today! Seems like we didn’t get much accomplished because our plans kept getting changed.

So much to do… so little time, it’s just another busy but great day on the homestead.

We found a nest of guinea eggs and we’re pretty sure the guineas will be laying on them soon. Since guinea and turkey eggs hatch in around 25 days, we decided to put a turkey egg in the guinea nest and see if they would hatch it.

We’re getting the garden planted and new goat kids arrive!

The bunnies are growing fast; their eyes are opened and they’re hopping around now!

New Kids Born, Things Are Blooming, Garden Planting Started & More! Week 15 2017

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Just getting the evening chores done and took a little stroll around the yard to show ya what’s blooming at the moment.

We’re milking Nutmeg for the first time this year!

If it’s not one thing… it’s another…

It was a fun day with a sad ending. First me got a project done we’ve been wanting to get done for a while and that is to turn a big wooden box into a raised bed garden. Next, Nutmeg finally had her babies! Good news is she had a cute little doeling…. sad news is she had another one that didn’t make it.

It’s time to repot our tomato seedlings so we can start to harden them off and get them ready to go out in the garden.

Finally! We have a chance to clean up some of the limbs, so we’re taking advantage of it. While we’re out supervising the fire, we pass the time being entertained by the pigs. Never a dull moment on the homestead!

We’re planting potatoes… and the goat stall in the barn needs to be cleaned out… so why not take care of both at the same time?

New Baby Bunnies, A Living Stone and More! Week 14 2017

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Our bunnies sure are growing! It’s a beautiful day and would be a perfect day to get a lot done outside but we have to go out of town for an appointment. Oh well, it was still a great day!

I’m discussing the different ways that we will try to hatch the turkeys. After doing some research it seems like it may be more difficult than I was thinking…

A Closer look at the bunnies and an update on our seedlings….

The bunnies have finally arrived and they’re so cute! We’ve finally collected enough turkey eggs to put in the incubator… hopefully we’ll have some turkey poults soon!

There was a little living stone plant at Brooke’s work. It got knocked over and over looked so she felt sorry for it and brought it home. She re-potted it, did some research and shares some interesting facts about it.

We got a new pen built for the turkeys… got them moved out there… and they are settling in quite nicely. Should have done this a long time ago!

Preparing For Baby Bunnies, New Animals On the Homestead and More! Week 13 2017

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It’s fun day Friday so We’re going skating! After that, play ends and work starts… there’s so much to do! We got supplies to make the turkey run and while we were in town, we ended up picking up our pigs. Turkey run… preparing the pig pen… and, the rabbit is building her nest… so much going on, where do we start?

Nothing better after doing a lot of work than to play with cute goats!

We were mistaken on the number of days a rabbit’s gestation period is. We were expecting them on day 28 when it’s really day 31. So since we still have several days yet we freshened up the nesting box and added some straw.

Time for chores… it’s cold, it’s late, no time for dilly dally!

Got off to a late start and the day just went down hill from there. It was just one of those days where we didn’t get anything accomplished. On the brighter side, we have another turkey eggs so we talked about how you should store eggs before incubating and why.

Only several more days until our bunny is due so we decided we better get a nesting box put in her cage for her. We let our chickens out to free range today. Will they go back to the coop at the end of the day? Watch to find out…

I’m planning to start free ranging the chickens again so that way we can start planting the garden soon.

Chicks Are Hatching, We’re Starting Seeds and More! Week 11 2017

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Oh dear… there was a whole lot of gobbling going on so we went to check it out. We discovered a flock of wild turkeys had come to visit and the next thing we know, the toms are mating with our turkey hens. Good or bad? We don’t know, what do you think?

It’s one of the funnest times of the year… seed planting time!

Just looking through our flock of chicks and trying to figure out the different breeds we have. We also show how we clean a chick with pasty butt.

The hatching has begun… so far the number has been disappointing but not surprising.

Today is the 18th day the eggs have been in the incubator so it’s time for lock down so the chicks have time to get into position to hatch. It’s also Dylan’s birthday so we spend the day celebrating.