Brrrr! It’s cold here today! There is a storm warning, and the sheen of white on the ground isn’t frost, it’s ice! Of course, it’s winter and all to be expected. But winter brings more trouble to a farm than just a low thermometer. Bedding for animals becomes necessary. Rabbits live on wire floors which become… Read More The troubles with winter
The dream was to raise Angora rabbits, pluck their wool, spin it into yarn, and sell it. And rake in the money. After all, Angora fur sells for $6 – $8 per ounce! I stumbled across a purebred French Angora doe for $30. She quickly produced an equally purebred litter of eight kits. I fought… Read More Even best laid plans must have room to change
In high school a friend and I had a saying to help us remember something in English Literature class. It was “We be tillers of the soil, we be diggers of the earth. We be dirt farmers!” What it was intended to help us remember I have no idea – the phrase is stuck in… Read More I am a dirt farmer
Compost is wonderful. I can think of almost no other tool I’d rather have around my homestead. It beats wheelbarrows, hammers, even my favorite cooking pot. If I did not have compost, I would have a more expensive garbage bill. If I did not have compost, I would have a more expensive chicken feed bill.… Read More The power of compost
The price of rabbit and chicken feed is rising. A LOT. The drought conditions that affected the MidWest’s corn crop in the summer of 2012 have been trickling through the rest of the feed supply. If there is less corn, then what there is costs more than it did previously. And those who purchase corn… Read More I might as well feed them dollar bills
A friend of mine recently said that reading my blog makes her tired because of all the things I do. So today, I think I’ll give her a good reason to go to bed early! Here is what today is like in my life… When I got up this morning, my dear husband had already… Read More A day in my life
It feels soooo good to be home. I really enjoyed the Philippines, and expect to go back at some point. But home is home. We left Manila at 9:30 am on Tuesday, and landed at San Francisco at 9:30 am on Tuesday. Weird. Had a 4 hour layover, so one of my husband’s relatives who lives… Read More We’re home! Update on animals, sunburn, sea snakes, and more
I went to water the garden today and saw that the wild rabbits (or something similar) had eaten into my cabbages. They aren’t as large as I’d like yet, but I picked the one remaining intact one so I could have one that wasn’t already nibbled on. 🙂 Here’s a pic of it in my… Read More The first harvest!
All the meat chickens are in the fridge/freezer, and I have done up my numbers (cost, poundage, etc) to share. (Sorry for the formatting stuff, it looks fine in the edit screen, but obviously not so fine when it’s live.) In March we purchased 4 Rhode Island Red day-olds and 2 Americauna day-olds. So the… Read More Meat chickens are in the freezer – cost analysis
Have I mentioned recently that I’m still getting the hang of this homesteading thing? This weekend was the worst. I am cut and bruised and swollen all over, from multiple things. Ready for the list? First of all is a bunch of scratches on my left arm and stomach. They are from the mother rabbit… Read More Homestead injuries
