Hey, There!

Miss me?  I miss you, too.  It’s a bit of a rainy day, and there are something close to a thousand other things I could be doing (like killing that fly that’s dive-bombing my head) but I’d rather say hello to you.

We got our second flock of chickens in the mail this week.  Our first birds are New Hampshire Reds, and they’re wonderful birds – curious, friendly, and pretty good at laying eggs most of the time – but when there are too many roosters and they must be killed and cleaned and plucked and tucked into the freezer, well, it’s not so wonderful to go through all that work and trauma and come out with a two pound bird, bones included.  These new birds are called Black Jersey Giants and fully grown, they’ll weigh between 11 and 13 pounds, which should net us a pretty sizable roaster.  These new chicks here are actually not for eating, though.  They are the parent flock, who will grow up to lay eggs that will hatch into chicks that will grow up themselves and most likely be killed and cleaned and plucked and put into the freezer.  This growing food business is always a long term project.

I’ve ordered an incubator, too.  We don’t see any indication that any of our hens intends to set upon and hatch a clutch of replacement chicks for us, so we must take matters into our own hands.  I also have it in mind to sell hens that are close to or at laying age, thereby relieving the purchaser of the burdens and vagaries of raising them up from chicks.  I’ve thought up a design for a small backyard hen house to go with them, too.  Somebody told me recently that you can’t make a living on a farm unless you inherit one; starting from scratch is just too expensive and you can never make it pay.  I fully intend to prove that person wrong. Because I’m ornery like that.

The other day, I went over to the feed store for some grain for the cows.  He’d just made a pick up and his truck and large trailer, still loaded, were blocking half the drive, and a customer’s vehicle was blocking the other half, making the circular driveway not-so-circular.  Well, I had the trailer with me, and I don’t know how to back up the trailer, so I went inside and asked the other fellow if he wouldn’t mind moving for me.  Which earned me some good-natured ribbing from all the men present.  Well, don’t you know, I took that trailer home and practiced and backed it up…twice.  And I only took out one tail light. I told you I was ornery like that.

And, just so you know, in case you go around randomly building structures in your yard, too:  It is less expensive and less time consuming to have the cement truck deliver even very small loads of concrete than it is to mix it up and lay it yourself.  Even with the substantial “small load fee”.  Davey got the main supports for our new chicken house up last week, and the floor was just poured today.  A few walls and windows, a door and a roof, and our little guys should be able to move out there just as they start hopping all over our living room.  Perfect timing.

And that’s all the generic-type sharing I’ve got today.  All the personal stuff?  Well, that would just make somebody else mad.  We have enough angst around here with adding fuel to the fire.