Day 1: Twelve Days of 2023

Sooooo many things have happened around here this year, some of which I'd forgotten about until I started going through my pictures. I decided to recap by doing a post a day, one for each month. So this is some of the highlights (and lows!) of  January 2023. Above, some first eggs from new Black Copper Marans pullets.

I had several beds of greens thriving under row cover

Early in the month there was a lot of rain and some snow with high winds, causing a lot of damage to tarps and garden covers. At Christmas I had 3 doelings born to two mammas and they were doing well.

And then Esmarelda had her twin boys the morning it was 25 degrees outside.

I started lots of seeds. Over 500 seedlings

Lots of rain and snow

My Posie goat was so sick and I really didn't know what I didn't know. I lost her and it broke my heart. Now I know that she was extremly deficient in copper and carrying triplets she went down with pregnancy toxemia. I did everything I could think of for the toxemia but at that point I didn't know anything about copper deficiency. 

Esmarelda rejected her twins so they became bottle babies. 

But she has been an awesome milker and once I got her milking she settled down just fine and in all this time has rarely danced around or kicked the bucket while milking.

A Busy Weekend

Farmer Girl was commissioned to make a sign for the Superior Farmers Market. I think it turned out awesome. 

The backside. 

Saturday afternoon the kids got disbudded. I think I was more traumatized than they were. This is where you press a hot iron onto their horn buds so they won’t grow. They were fine once they got back to mom but we are all now wearing Blue-Kote   

Sunday morning I worked on the milk stand. 

Moved Caramel back up on the hill. She’s getting a baby belly. We have no idea when she was bred so don’t know when she’s due. I’m guessing probably about the end of May. 

I worked on pulling out the bolting arugula from the middle of this bed. The goats and chickens enjoyed it. 

I mixed up some potting soil and potted up some overgrown tomato plants. It’s not quite warm enough at night to put them in the ground yet. 

The milking stand works although I may have to make the head gate taller for Caramel, her legs are a lot longer than Posies. 

What to name the baby goats???  I’m thinking on that one. 

#appreciation

Today I’m appreciating spring and the turn of the seasons. Seeds sprouting, flowers blooming, babies popping out everywhere. Life is good. 

It’s a MIRACLE!

I told you about this Black Copper Marans cockerel the other day.  I brought him in because he was having seizures. He has spent about a week just standing or sitting in one spot. If I held water or mushy food to his beak he would eat and drink but he wouldn’t  move to reach food or water. A couple days ago he did start reacting to noise and motion near him. Then it looked like he might have had another seizure. I was afraid I would have to cull him. 

Then this morning he jumped out of his box and was walking around pecking at things!  When I put his food and water dishes on the floor in front of him he ate normally. When I left the front door open he went outside to explore.  I put in back in his pen with his hatchmates and he seems perfectly fine!  I can only think that he was stung by or ate a scorpion. I can only imagine that if I hadn’t caught things when I did he probably would have died. 

#100daysofappreciation

Today I appreciate the timing of the Universe. My day has unfolded beautifully with perfect timing 

Farmer Friday 1/3/2020

Contemplating this area as a place for a storage shed.  Mmmmm. Lots of junk to move.....

Grrr.  More rodent issues. They’ve taken out the kale, the radishes, the celery and now they are starting on the arugula and mustard! I did get enough to fill orders today but this is beyond aggravating. 

On the plus side egg production is picking up a bit. 

I turned compost and pulled foxtail grass out of a garden space. Need to get it all out before it goes to seed. 

Delivered eggs and produce to Superior. Picked up feed and bedding. Was planning to do some kitchen stuff but I was too cold and tired. Time for tea, a fire and bed. 

#100daysofappreciation

Really appreciated the warm sunshine today. I’m also appreciating all the new eggs colors I’m getting. 

Farmer Friday

cucumbers and melons

This has been a hard sad week with the sudden and unexpected death of my little brother last Friday. So I have spent a lot of time staring off into space, forgetting what I was going to do next and sometimes just crying. That said the garden grows and life goes on.  The chickens and garden gave me something to focus on this week. There were squash,  cucumbers and cantaloupe. 

Tomatoes and squash

There were even four big tomatoes. 

Spaghetti squash, almost ready

There will be an abundance of spaghetti squash. 

Black Copper Marans eggs

One of my oldest Black Copper Marans hens is laying again so all of her eggs are going in the incubator for now. For what it's worth the egg on the right is about the right color; the other two are washed out in the pic.

eclipse picture

I watched the eclipse like everyone else although I couldn't really see anything. 

Red Kuri winter squash

There are some Red Kuri squash finally. This is a new one for me and taking its time to put on fruits. 

bean stem

empty bed, all done

I cut down the old bean plants and stripped off the few good pods. Some of the stems were really thick. I left the roots, hopefully covered with nitrogen fixing bacteria, to rot in place. Later this week I'll pull up the drip lines, tidy the edges with the rake and pile on some more compost. I think I'll have time for some salad turnips and baby mustard greens before it's time to plant garlic. 

The cucumber and melon arches in the creek side garden are made of scrap fencing and are not up to the weight this year. I will have to use cattle panels next time since these are collapsing. 

Farmer Friday

Red Mizuna Mustard

Getting ready for the Superior Farmer's Market tomorrow. I pulled all the red Mizuna Mustard greens, cleaned up the bed and planted cilantro in it's place. In a couple of weeks the Giant Red Mustard will be ready to start pulling.

Ants warming up in the sunshine

It is still about freezing at night, then warm and sunny during the day. I noticed the ants sitting on a rock by their nest enjoying the sunshine.

Rainbow carrots & Radishes

I pulled some Rainbow carrots and a few radishes. There are not a lot of carrots left, but it's almost time to plant more.

Marans egg is #6 on the shade card

The days are a bit longer now and some of the hens are picking up their egg laying! I love the extra dark Marans eggs. This one was a #6 on the shade card (which happens to be upside down in the pic) I'll start collecting eggs to hatch starting this Sunday.

The back garden 2-3-2017

Today was a really pretty sunny day and I enjoyed my time in the garden. Took off row covers and discovered some beds needed a drink of water and most had a few weeds. So I enjoyed the sunshine while I watered, weeded and harvested. The chickens all enjoyed the weeds and bugs I tossed to them.

Compost, Eggs and More Digging

compost heating up

Well compost pile #2 is heating up pretty well, just need to get it to kick on up to 131 degrees F or higher to make sure that all pathogens are killed. But 120 is a good start!

This pile is taking a little longer to get built than the first one, so that might be the problem. Hopefully I'll get it finished off in the next couple of days.

burn pile buried in the garden

Remember that bed of beans I'm digging up? Well I got down to the area where none of them lived and what do I find? There was a burn pile buried in there. Pure ashes along with broken glass, rusty metal and a lot of rocks. No wonder those bean plants croaked!

about done

This was several days hard labor, a lot of pick and shovel work. Fortunately the weather has cooled off a tad. I piled up a lot of sand and gravel from the bed into the path. But after about 8 inches of build up it was started to slide into the next bed. So I started throwing it over the fence into the driveway. Harder work, but faster than using a bucket.

dirt and rocks in the driveway

adding and wetting organic matter

Now for a special trick to really make this bed super abundant. Adding chicken litter mixed with wood shavings and old horse manure to the bottom of it. This organic matter will act as a giant sponge and help catch and retain water for the plants. The material is really dry and so is the ground so I'm wetting it down as I go.

actually not wet yet!

Even though there is water puddling in the bottom of the trench, the chicken litter is not really wet yet. I have to stir it up and keep wetting it until it is all saturated.


Then toss a few shovel fulls of the top soil onto it and add some more litter. This will take a few days to complete. Then I will add some fresh compost to the top soil, set up the new drip irrigation lines and start planting.

Purebred Blue Ameraucana

The last chicks hatched in June are getting big now.

purebred Black Ameraucana

BCM pullet eggs with egg color chart

My oldest Black Copper Marans pullet began laying this week. But her egg color so far is disappointing.  Both of her parents hatched from a #7 egg (that would be the lower right side of the color chart). So far she's just laying about a #4 which is the lightest that Marans should ever be. My fingers are crossed they darken up some as she gets going.

Part of My Mornings

chicks in the house

Well this is a little bit of my morning around here; after a bit of tea and getting dressed, feed and water the newest babies in the house, these were hatched about a week ago.

Silkie babies from August hatch

Then outside to feed birds, A couple of pens of Silkies including  these babies that hatched in January. I still can't tell for sure which are boys or girls.

2-3 week olds

Then out to the small hoop coop by the house, feed the 2-4 week olds, mostly easter eggers and olive eggs, a couple of Buff Orpingtons in there.

4 week olds, OE/ EE and Buff Orpingtons

feed wagon

Then I load the buckets of feed and Giotto's breakfast on the wagon and head for the main coops

6-8 weeks

My bigger hoop coops are divided into 3 sections; first up the 6-8 week olds; some sexlinked crosses (you can tell males from color at hatch), along with more easter eggers and olive eggers and a few pure bred Ameraucana.

Silkie with foster chicks

The next section is a pair of Silkies with easter egger foster chicks. As soon as I finish a coop for the Silkies to go into, I'll open the door and integrate these chicks in with the others.There are a couple of Buff Orpington pullets in the last section but I didn't get a pic of them this morning.

Black Copper Marans and Buff Orpington

After feeding a pair of Ameracauna, feed the babies next door These hatched in January

Buff Orpington pullets

These two Buff Orpingtons are in one of the breeding pens, I'll be hatching just a few from these girls for myself. ;-)

Next the Plymouth Rocks, Buff and White

Muscovy Duck eggs

Next up the Muscovy ducks, building a nest; 7 eggs now.

The layers, looking for breakfast!

Then open the door to the layer house and be charged, everyone is hungry! I found a roll of fabric set out for the trash awhile back and used it to make nest box curtains and to cover the windows  where the afternoon sun is too strong.

Curtains in the hen house!

cat & bunny

After hauling the empty buckets back to the house, I go feed some ducks in the front yard. Here also is my last remaining rabbit, a doe over 5 who hasn't been bred in a couple of years. She escaped her cage and just hangs around with the ducks. None of my cats bother her or any of my grown chickens because they were raised with them since they were little kittens. I don't, however, trust them with baby chicks.

So that is part of my morning. Inside the layer house there are several pens with individual birds, mostly breeding males that have to be separate so the don't fight, and there are a few more chicks and Silkies around.