Thursday, May 10, 2012

This much is true- I am a terribly infrequent blogger. Not for lack of want, I have big aspirations to be an awesome blogger with dozens of sweet crafty tutorials and all that, but the bottom line is tutorials are time consuming, and I usually don't think of making one until I'm done with the project that I think would be cool to do a tutorial on. It's also not for lack of time, as I waste plenty of time on facebook and whatnot, though the opportunity to sit and write uninterrupted for an extended period of time does not happen all too frequently.  It is what it is.  Perhaps I should just lower my expectations, and maybe I'd be more prone to blog the little things more often?  Maybe I'll give that a try. In the meantime, a springtime catch-up:

Things are moving and shaking in the Hefner household as of late.  We had a mercifully mild winter, and as a result we've had a mercifully early spring (or at least we've been able to dig in the dirt earlier than normal, which is as good a sign as any of spring for us).  Wyatt turned 4 in April, which is nuts, and the BIG news is we're expecting another little Hefner come November! (And the first ultrasound seems to indicate little Hefner is a girl (!), though we'll hopefully officially confirm or deny that with the next ultrasound in about two months.) With Wyatt, I was pregnant throughout the colder months, so I'm actually excited to enjoy a summer barefoot and pregnant (and yes, I know that term has negative connotations, but not to me, I love the image it conjures).

Not only are we adding to our human flock, we've also added quite significantly to our avian flock this spring.  We've been brooding and raising a total of 51 chicks the past four weeks, though 6 have already left us for their new home with friends, and another 25 or so will go on to other homes as well once they're a bit bigger.  The remaining birds will be ours, though we'll probably only add a maximum of four to our laying flock. The rest are destined for the freezer (both ours and others), which we're really excited about (in what hopefully doesn't come across as a creepy way).  I could say a LOT about factory poultry farming practices (as frankly, I think those chickens have it the worst of any factory raised livestock), but I won't, cause we still buy conventional chicken at the grocery store, and can't afford to buy locally raised meat, though I'm very happy to be able to reduce the amount of conventional meat we have to buy.  Anyways- We started out with 25 Buff Orpingtons (same breed as our laying flock), and 26 Black Australorps, which is also a heritage breed that was bred in Australia from Orpington stock, so in all a very similar bird though potentially a bit smaller, and of course black, not buff.  The Australorp chicks were super cool looking, a mix of black and whitish yellow, with interesting markings especially on the face, and once they're full grown they'll be all black with an almost greenish iridescence.  The Buffs are a week older than the Australorps, and already we can tell we've got one confirmed rooster among the Buffs.  We'll hopefully be able to tell soon if any of the Australorps are roosters as well (even though the chicks were sexed before we got them, there is about a 10% chance of getting a rooster, so if we only end up with one out of 50, I'll be somewhat surprised).  We'll see how it is raising roosters, but if we do end up with an Australorp rooster (and he's not an ass), we might add him to our permanent flock just for fun.  (And the four hens that we'll add to our flock will be Australorps, so we have some variety, and also so we can tell who's who as far as age in our flock)

As if 59 hens and chicks wasn't enough, we're hopefully going to be getting some pigs this summer as well.  Whether we build a new pen for them, or wait till the chicks are all off to their perspective homes (be them coops or freezers), is yet to be seen, but we're hoping to raise two pigs for meat.  And if we do it right, by selling quarters or halves, we'll get the weaners (weaned piglets) and also hopefully some of the feed at no cost to us (This is also how we've done the chicks).  We've switched our regular feed store, and are much happier with the new one, as they are much friendlier and more helpful and don't give you dirty looks if you dare ask a question that indicates you weren't born and raised on a ranch or farm and should know this stuff you city slicker idiot... (I digress...)  Anyway, the new feed store has excellent connections for affordable weaner pigs (which has been our problem for over a year now, we wanted pigs last summer but couldn't find affordable weaners), and the owner's parents own a well established rabbitry, should we decide to also do rabbits (which we've also been thinking about for a long time).  So it is pretty cool that we're able to raise all this livestock on little over a half an acre.  Too bad we also can't raise all their food too ;)  But at the very least, we're able to ensure they live a happy and healthy life, and that's the best part.

And yes, of course we're getting the garden going too.  We've already got a bunch of kale, swiss chard, spinach, collard greens, chives, and a plethora of onions coming up from last year (maybe this time we'll be able to enjoy all those greens before the deer do)(plus strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and asparagus, which is finally on its third year, which is the first year you can harvest from, so we're anxious to see what we get).  We've got lettuces coming up both in and out of the greenhouse, and have been working on a new bed for the herb garden.  We've decided not to do potatoes this year, as they take up a huge amount of garden space and are so cheap at the store anyways, but we've been struggling to figure out what to fill their old beds with!  Also, we're not doing tomatoes in the greenhouse, instead we're making a new greenhouse out of an old A-frame metal swingset that we got for free from our neighbor, and that will be for the tomatoes, and we're going to try our luck at summer squash and maybe even melon in the greenhouse.  The cherry trees are blooming right now, and we're going to redo the bed along the front of the house, and will plant calendula all along it, as it did amazingly last year, bloomed sheer into November, and it's a wonderful medicinal herb (we're making calendula oil with last year's flowers).  Still to come to the garden- garlic, comfrey, more chives, lemon thyme, oregano, beans and peas, and who knows what else!

Ok, now that we're marginally caught up on the springtime goings on, I'll call it good and we'll just have to wait and see how long it takes me to make another post... ;)

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