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I’ve been raising chickens since about 2002. I grew up with chickens when I was really little, and it took me about 30 years to be able to get back to it. But with the exception of the year we moved from Colorado to Washington, I’ve kept chickens for the last 14 years. This was BEFORE the proliferation of back yard chicken raising blogs, websites and books. I bought a copy of Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, my husband built a coup (which was also a dog house/pen – they shared a dividing wall – which helped keep the chickens safe from predators but also safe from the dogs at night). I talked a bit about all of this here.
It’s really only been in the last few years that I’ve raised chickens with more of an eye to getting them to pay for themselves by selling the eggs. Here is a brain dump of factoids I’ve learned about raising chickens over the last 14 years, all in one place.
Read the rest of this entry »I love the space between Christmas and New Years. Time to organize. Time to relax. Time to assess the old year and plan for the new. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2015.
May you see the beauty in the small things.
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This is my produce washing sink, that sits under an apple tree in our side yard. I take some variation of this picture every fall. I’m always struck by the contrast of the fall leaves against that white (well, whiter than anything else out there) sink.
An old friend used to say, “Put a fork in me, I’m done”. Well, yesterday was my last farmers market of the season. We started in May doing one market a week, and come June, we were doing three. We went back down to one in October. But it was a total of 60 markets in the last 6 months. I think I skipped a total of 5. I say “we” because my husband helps me set up and tear down on Saturdays. But mostly its me. It’s been a GREAT year (more on that in another post) but for now, I’m really happy to take a bit of a break. I AM however, filling 3 wholesale soap orders and prepping for a holiday market in early December. So, I’m not done yet. Read the rest of this entry »
Man, has it really been over a month since my last post? Shame on me. That’s a first in over three years of writing this blog. August and September are just crazy, right?! So…what’s been happening. Well, let’s see.
We butchered 16 rabbits. A new post on what I’ve learned about rabbits since I started out a few years ago coming soon.
Post “one bad day”. I’m giving pelt tanning a try this fall.
Gosh its hot. We’ve had a weird heat spell that has been in the high 90’s to over 100 degrees for the last week or so. Trying to keep everything watered and reasonably cool has been a serious challenge. We have a mister we’ve put into the quonset hut where the rabbits are. Rabbits can handle cold. The heat, not so much. So every day I put frozen water bottles in their cages and make sure the mister and fan is on. I did lose one young one to heat exhaustion, when the chickens or turkeys landed on the handle of the frost free hydrant and turned off the water. A nice 5+ lb 12 week old rabbit. It had only been dead a short time, so I did what I do in these situations, when I know the cause and the approximate time of death. I cleaned it, and we had rabbit and salsa verde tacos for dinner. Does that make me a bad person? Or just practical? Read the rest of this entry »
June is kind the last hurrah for our yard. We inherited someone elses’ landscaping, and most of the plants bloom in April and May. We have a ton of daffodils and bleeding hearts and other early beauties, but by July, our yard looks kind of overcooked and sad. So we’ve been slowly editing the landscape, taking out plants here and there and adding in new ones. It’s definitely a work in progress. But my husband in particular is pretty darned good at putting great combinations together. And then, of course, there is the random volunteer that steals the show as well. In June, things look pretty darned good.
Golden Marguerite (a tender perennial that also reseeds prolifically and attracts beneficial insects to your garden) and yarrow.
I’m a fan of relatively simple shrub roses that smell fantastic, as opposed to the fussy hybrid tea roses that take all kinds of attention and often don’t smell that good. I’d have to dig to find the name for this one, purchased from Fedco Trees a few years ago, but it definitely fits the bill. Hardy, beautiful, smells fantastic, and you can use the rose hips too!
If you’ve been following along for some time now, and have a good memory, you may recall that one of my many other job incarnations, back 15 years ago now, was bird field research. This went on for several years, but it started in the mountains of Arizona, about an hour out of Flagstaff. I (along with about 20 other people) was tasked with “nest searching”. This meant watching birds, figuring out where their nests were, and keeping track of said nest to document success or failure. One of the 26 birds nests we were searching for was the House Wren. I came to love this little bird over the course of the season. Tiny. Boisterous. Nesting opportunistically wherever they could find space. Males and females impossible to tell apart. Read the rest of this entry »
Soaps and toiletries side. First market of the year in May.
Well, June is turning out to be a busy month. I started with the Downtown Walla Walla Farmers market on Saturdays in May. Then on the 4th of June I added the Milton-Freewater afternoon market on Wednesdays and the twilight market on 2nd Street in Walla Walla on Thursdays. Sales have been great. But doing three markets a week is a lot harder than doing two. Especially when my booth at the Walla Walla Thursday market was on the sunny side of the street, on heated black asphalt until the sun dips behind the buildings at about 6:00 pm. Read the rest of this entry »
This week, it’s all about the babies, or toddlers, really, in most cases.
Our last lamb was born on May 5th. Our first lamb was born on December 28th. That’s a pretty good spread for 13 ewes. We weren’t sure this one was EVER going to deliver. It’s really hard to tell if they are pregnant when they are only carrying one. But its a beautiful long legged little ewe, and we’re very happy to be done with the season. Note that mama looks so scruffy because she’s starting to shed her hair. We run American Blackbelly “hair” sheep, which don’t require shearing.
Grass growing enough to need cutting (which means, if you are keeping track, that you can stop feeding hay).
The dandelions blooming (which means food for bees, and a lot of work for you, if you are thinking of making dandelion wine or dandelion jelly – both of which I’ve done in the past). Read the rest of this entry »
MilesAwayFarm
Miles Away Farm Blog 