Lets talk about Homesteaders and Health.

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

So many of the “idea’s and dreams about homesteading says that we will have better health for it.. Working our bodies, working with our hands, growing our own food, harvesting 0 mile eggs/milk/meat. Hunting and Fishing, hiking and horseback riding..

It all leads to amazing health! Right..

Right?

I mean, google homesteading and you are going to find site after site selling you the idea, Gardening, the way to live to a 100 years old. Grow your own medical plants? Got the flu.. Elderberries are the key!

I am starting to lose track of the amount of “do this and you will get X or Y or Z”.. I get it, it’s the net, it’s a way to bring in the eyes.. I have read the “top ten ways to write this or that” to bring in the viewers and so a lot of the time, I work my way past the “click bait” and get to the meat of the posts and let tell you there are some truly amazing homesteaders out there that know what they are doing, they know what they are talking about and the walk the walk!

There are also some newer folks that are just amazing writers, amazing at their studies. they have knowledge to share.. some of its is outstanding, and some of is what I call book regurg.

It’s a running joke for those that come to my speaking events because I always talk about this.. someone wrote it in a book and its been read and it gets shared like the its the truth.. never mind that dozens of us or hundreds of us can’t make it happen in real life..

It still gets spit up in other books, on blogs and websites.. its one of those.. but I read it.. and Mr. KNOWIT said it.. it’s a direct quote and we all know he can’t be wrong.. he has books, video’s and travels all over speaking..

(careful there.. find out if they make more money talking about how to do it, then they do doing it.. its a very telling thing)

So with all the good stuff that gets talk about.. what does the stats show? Is shows that most of us that are homesteading, those of us that live in rural areas and those that live on the land point in fact have worst health rates overall then those that live in cities.

 

Some of it’s just common sense, we wear out our bodies faster than most city folks tend to, we worked longer hours, we work in all kinds of weather. (please note that I know there are city folks that work just as hard! I said.. on average) We work with large powerful animals and if we ride.. then we also hit the ground at times..

We tend to get broken and we do not have an easy time letting things heal.. I have watched this over and over.. a friend in town or city gets something damaged or broken and they take the time off work, they do have time at work and then they do their physio and hire private trainers to get them back up on their feet.

Farmers, homesteaders.. we are like.. How can I find a work around, because it does not stop.. the water still needs to be there.. the hay still needs to go out, the poop still needs to be cleaned and the harvest taken, we work by the weather and the critter/farm and gardens don’t give a rat behind if you are feeling well, sick with the flu or are broken.

We all start back sooner than we should and we will pay for it in our later years when those older bones start to show their war wounds more and more.

This one to me is a mixed bag.. Per the stats we do not look after our health in the same way, we put off getting that tooth fixed, we know we should go see our doctor but we stick it out, we are more prone to “try home fix it” rather than go access help..

IF you can access help.. which the stats show is harder and harder to come by in regards to us being able to get health care when you live rural.

See this one I have a little more issue with.. because I think a lot of folks that choose this lifestyle also choose to opt out of many main stream things including Vaccines and certain kinds of main stream medical.. more likely to do a home birth then a hospital one. More likely to consider and or use other forms of medical.

I would love if people focused on their health in regards to having living soil that feeds the plants that produces food that has better value that feeds your body so that it can work at its best! A gal can dream right 🙂

So even if we agree that the stats are off because of that factor.. how off are they? I think that in many cases it’s about time, distance and money.  All three of those do mean that it’s harder to get proper care.

Its something that hubby and I are looking at, as we age, we need to start taking better care of.. So lets use a few cases

We needed to get new glasses.. I phone to book us in.. just over 3 months to see our doctor..  THREE Months to get in to be seen..

We needed dental care.. some is covered and other things are not.. boy did we get an eye popping surprise when we figured out that something that hubby needs is not covered and would at a min start at 3 grand to get done..

We both are starting physio and I have been talking to my health care provider for a couple of years about my knees and I get the run around..  Hubby had his back give him an issue due to a heavy lift the wrong way..

We had to take the bull by the horns.. because it’s a choice.. do we go back and fight to get it written up and get part coverage or do we tighten up our belt a touch and pay it out-of-pocket.. we are paying out-of-pocket.

We are also driving to get to these places.. the closest is 20 minutes away one way and the longer is more like 40 or so.. for someone without wheels, or someone who had their gas budget done to within the penny.. these trips would be very hard indeed to make happen.

Its one of the things that is touched on but far to often shoved to the side.. when you hear someone say they only make the trip to town once a month.. you have to give it the eye.. works great if you are healthy.. but boy can it add up in a brutal way if and WHEN extra care is needed.

I hope that as a homesteader, as a farmer, as a person who lives rural that you remember that only you are in charge of your health and that if you are not careful, you can slip though the cracks and become just one more stat being talked about by the government  and how much difference there is health wise between city/rural.

I am only going to very lightly touch on this one.. but our mental health needs looking after as well.. the suicide rates of farmers increases year after year.. we live by the land and the weather can make and break the year in many cases.. as farmers where told.. go big or go home.. they put more and more eggs in one basket and when that basket tips.. bad.. very bad things happen.

Often on the smaller farms/homesteads, lots of new folks think these pressures seen for the larger farms will not come into play.. but honestly they do.. and as the weather extreme’s start to hit home.. these pressures will get harder and deeper..

Make 2019 a year where you find the way to make sure you put your own health up there on par with your garden, your family and your critters..  you are important too!

Please do check out the other homesteaders posts in the challenge.. you can find a link on the side of the main website that will take you to a full page of everyone’s listings..

 

 

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, Health, homestead, homestead frugal pay yourself first | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Stop Under Valuing Your Garden Returns

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Just another day on the farm


I snapped this photo when we went to our local Farm Boy to see what they had in terms of better quality Citrus fruits.  It like so many other things in that store make me stop.. pause and go WOW!

Clearly I am massively under valuing my horseradish roots. Those roots above are grown out of country, shipped across goodness knows how many miles and trust me when I say I should have grabbed a photo of the root itself.  They were 3 years at least in age.. if not 4 years. I know how much of that root would not be useable. The way it was taken and for sale at least 30 to 35% would be lost in the clean up.

It would be fair to say that a locally produced Horseradish root that grown on land that has no spray etc for 15 years now with such a smaller eco-foot print should be worth the same or even a touch more.

Dandelion greens are 6.99 a small bunch,  Burdock roots are ten dollars a pound..  3 oz of dried elderberries are 11.99. I have not been able to find sunchokes yet but the last time I did, I found them at 12.99 a pound locally.

We under value what we produce on our land and I think the longer we grow, the worse we are with this.. we can have plants that yield to us in volumes that are so given so freely that we forget their value..

Rhubarb is a outstanding example of this.. its is such a easy plant to grow and tuck away in a corner and enjoy so much. However locally, its also running between 8 to 10 dollars a pound for a little bunch.

The one year my rhubarb patch grew and I harvested over 3,000 dollars worth.. to me, it was just.. o my gosh.. am I ever going to be done canning rhubarb, rhubarb fruit and making rhubarb this or that and freezing bags of it..

Did I think I have put up lots of rhubarb of course.. did I have a value to it.. sure..  was it even close, nope.. I was way! WAY off..

We tend to have other “producing” friends and so we get a bit of a feedback loop on what our produce is worth.. most of the time, its always under what it would be at the farmers market or at the local stores.

While its fine to bring our prices under if we are selling, its NOT ok to under value them when we are figuring out what we produced on our land and by our own hands. I hear so many folks talk about how one of the biggest reason’s they started gardens and raising their own animals or having dairy animals is that they can control their own food.

The thing is.. very soon we stop putting the same value that we had that first time.. Sure we love that first sun warm ripe tomato.. but by our 300th tomato.. we are like, just pick it and throw it to the chickens..

I am in the middle of that right now with eggs, I mean I am pretty much bringing in 7 to 8 dozen eggs weekly and I am not willing to cull my hens so.. in a household of 2 adults.. THERE is no way to eat that many eggs..

I am cooking eggs and feeding them to dogs, cats and the pig..  They are reducing feed costs in that way but it still “de-values” those eggs when I am cooking up a dozen at time into scramble just to move them on.. because I know tomorrow another dozen will be coming in.

I am going to say the same thing in regards to extra baby plants.. we forget their value as well.. if we had to buy them, suddenly our “extra’s that we are like.. hmm.. I can move 5 or 10 here and the rest can be pulled out and put in the compost pile.

I have never thrown babies in the compost pile.. it makes me shiver at the idea.. I love my plant groups.. I can honestly say that I have given away thousands of dollars worth of plants and I am not going to change that..  I do think a percent of the bounty our yards and gardens produce should be gifted freely.

Having said that.. I stand by the fact that coming into year 15 here on the farm..

I will not under value what I produce.. I will not compare my produce to the “on sale” items in season in flyers.. we eat this amazing food year round..

Yes, we picked our Raspberries in the summer but if you had to buy them right now.. 5 oz for 3.99.. we are eating 12 to 16 dollars worth of raspberries when we have our little fruit bowl..

I will own it! I will start to understand that value.. the pantry value of our garden/farm returns!

This post is part of the Self Reliance Challenge 2019. To check out what the other bloggers are doing, there is a full time link on the side bar of the main website that will take you to a page with everyone’s listing, also check out my facebook page as I will be sharing them there and same on twitter..

 

Posted in Garden | Tagged | 21 Comments

Turning a Sock into a legging for “no chew”

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Miss Marie had a bump that became a growth.. at first it was so tiny, maybe the size of pinkie nail and then suddenly it got more rapid growth to the size of thumb nail and it made Marie start to worry on it and within a matter of 72 hours it changed size, shape with her working on it.. that was Friday that we really saw the change, she is booked in for surgery this coming week. I am hoping because it was caught fast and while it is still really quite small..

I am treating it, I have cut all her feathers around the area off so it can not stick, I have and will continue to treat it with wound spray and wrap it up.. but she was taking her wraps off and then chewing again..

I know, I know cone’s are made for a reason but cones are not easy to use at times.. and because of where it is on the leg, she was being able to take off her wrap if not watched..

So we had to make a pair of these..

She says if she has to wear one, she can use my foot as her pillow.. she has that sad look down pat.. poor girl..

if you pray and you are willing send a positive though that its minor and that its not that dreaded C word.. please.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 17 Comments

Dogwood Photography Week 1

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 1

This is the official Photo..

I had worked this scene out on paper, explained it to hubby and off to the forest we went, I had hoped for a more open wider road but what we got was a trail with two walkable tire spacings and the tree’s closed in on the road in a very different way.. I had my balance but it was not the openness I had thought to bring to it.. the tree’s closed in the top in a way that I was not expecting, I thought I would have more sky..

then was the fact that my what was to be a “pop” of hunter orange did not show up from the back, so suddenly I was the odd thing out in the colored photo.. this big black person in a sea of white/green and with red hair and red dog.. Thankfully I could see in my eye how I could take the bones I had gotten and with a little back-end magic in the coloring and sharing and with a tiny bit of cropping..

I got the photo.. a bit darker, a bit more intense than I had thought it would be..

My runner-up is very different from the well thought out and planned photo above.. it was more.. wow a grandfather tree.. lets throw a few shots at it and see what we get..  I can see that if I had backup up and planned it out more it could have been much better.. Still I will share it with you none the less 🙂

” Self portrait”  Find a way to express who you are without showing your face.

I had a few photos in “stock” that meet this challenge..

I love this photo so much because it was the first time that baby girl Dezbot was old enough, trained enough to go free without a leash in the bush with us..  I exciting day for all of us.. FREEDOM! and so what does she do.. spend most of it in heal position LOL

This photo certainly tells the story.. I went to mount up.. Brandy moved on, I didn’t get over in time and off I came, right into the wet, cold slushy mud..  Knocked the wind right out of me..

Posted in photography | Tagged | 4 Comments

Creamy Crab Pasta with Horseradish Greens

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Creamy sauce, Seafood and pasta is a mixed delight.. add in the wonderful flavours of Horseradish greens and bit of good parmesan cheese.. It just steps it up a notch!

This is a bit of a loose recipe in the fact that you can be quite flexible and it will still come out lovely. If you want more sauce, add more butter and cream.. if you want it a little more zing to it.. add a bit of chili flakes (but I think that would take away from the light sweet crab taste myself)

If you don’t have horseradish greens, spinach will work but it will not have the same flavour profile.. they are not the same greens and they DO not taste the same.

Make your pasta like normal

In a fry pan add

  • 1 tbsp. of butter
  • 1/4th cup of heavy cream
  • 1 small can of the best quality crab that you can afford
  • Salt, Fresh Cracked Black Pepper to taste, start with half a tsp of both and adjust upward if needed.

Melt your butter over low-med heat, add your cream to warm it and add in your canned crab..

Now you can added up to a cup of very finely shredded fresh horse-radish greens or you can add 2 big tbsp. of dried crumbled horseradish greens. Add them to the sauce but if dried beware they can thicken it, and if fresh, they will thin it just a touch!

Pour this over your strained noodles and touch it well together, It made 4 side servings or 2 big bowl servings and was topped with a bit more freshly cracked pepper and good parmesan cheese.

Rich, creamy with hints of green in winter.. and that sweet bite of crab with the seafood saltyness..

SO GOOD

 

Posted in food, Food Storage | 1 Comment

Friday Rambles around the table.. Vanilla Beans

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Well, hello.. Come in.. knock that snow off your boots and grab a pair of slippers from the basket or did you remember to bring a pair..  I have the water on for a nice big pot of tea and I have made a my favorite lemon loaf.  Would you like a fresh slice of lemon in your tea.. now is one of the few times of the year you will get that on the farm.

Its citrus season and I have been busy making all kinds of marmalade and syrups and dried fruit for future use. As well as lemon cleaner with the scraps

Sorry we missed our chat last week but with the holiday’s it just made sense to spend that extra time with family.  It’s a new year and everyone is all..  I am making all these lists and going to learn this and that.

Me.. o no.. not me.. no extra’s this year.. nope this is a “depth” year for me.. I am going to be working my current skills, increasing my depth on subjects that I already use.  While you can make the point that working those skills in-depth will create new, I can see that.. but it’s not the same as saying..

I am learning a new language or a brand new skill like knitting..  instead, I am saying.. I already shear my own sheep, this year I want to work on being a better Shearer and I want to make sure that every single thing from that shearing is used in the most productive way possible.

I don’t want more stuff or more toys for 2019… no indeed, what I want is to focus on doing things better and exploring idea’s on getting better returns on what I already have.. I think it will be a grand adventure..

2019 is my year of “adding depth” to me and my skills 🙂

Speaking of doing things at home, I had a shock this week, I got caught on something that quite surprised me sort of.. you see I am down to my last Vanilla beans. I have just started my last pint of homemade vanilla.

I could tell you that I didn’t KNOW I was low on whole vanilla beans but that would not be true, I knew that I was getting low and I had been looking for good quality beans at a reasonable price.

And I just got my hand slapped..

I should have gotten those replacement beans when I KNEW I was low.. but instead I went, I have lots and I don’t use that much vanilla in different things, and I can wait it out. and I kept using my beans, making my vanilla and watching and waiting to re-stock

Now look where I am.. down to making my last pint with the beans I have and giving the eye to the future.. wondering if and when the price will come down to the point that I can afford more..

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vanilla-bean-shortage-madagascar-drives-up-us-prices/

Seventy-nine percent of the world’s vanilla fields are in Madagascar. A shortage there has helped drive up the cost of vanilla beans from about $11 per pound in 2011 to $193 by the end of 2016.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/06/16/527576487/our-love-of-all-natural-is-causing-a-vanilla-shortage

See I had been tracking this issue since 2017 and been keeping an eye on it.. yes I have. I  have watched those little tiny bottles of real vanilla go from 6 to 10 dollars in the store go up.. last shopping trip that tiny bottle was 63 dollars..

I can honestly say that my homemade is way.. way.. cheaper than buying it in store..

But it’s not looking any better in 2018..

2018 has seen a considerable decline in the availability of high quality vanilla beans. This is mostly due to the fact that the natural home of the vanilla bean for generations, Madagascar, the island in the Indian Ocean just off the African coastline, has suffered a succession of natural disasters since 2015.

This, in turn, has seen their production and largest export drop considerably. Formerly Madagascar exported 12,000 tonnes and 80% of the total world trade in vanilla, but with this current shortage, the bean has now rocketed to around U.S. $ 600 per kg from a normal price of U.S. $ 100-150/ kg

https://www.fft.ie/the-2018-vanilla-bean-shortage/22481

and I am Leary on what we will be getting in 2019.. because lets face it, the weather has not gotten more stable since 2016! It takes three years for the newly planted plants to start produce and its going to take a whole lot of successful crops before you are going to see the price coming down.. maybe there will be lower prices by 2021.. maybe..

I will not be paying the current prices.. it’s just not going to happen.. At the age of 46, I am honestly looking at those whole vanilla beans in my jar of good vodka and it crossing my mind that this might be last “real” vanilla that I make or will use.

I hope I am wrong.. but at what price point does that whole vanilla bean need to come down to before I am willing to spend my hard-earned money on a pound of it to stock up into the pantry..

And what am I going to use to replace it with.. I do not want “fake” in the house.. so where does that leave me..

How about you? Got a stock pile.. going to just buy in little bottles because “you” can afford 63 dollars for 3 oz of the real stuff..  or got a stock pile in your pantry and got your eye on it.. or are you waiting for it to come down.. and if so to what to stock pile a pound or a kilo of it..

How many more of these will be coming.. o we have been so spoiled with our global trading.. we have forgotten that spices and flavourings had such value that they were kept under lock and key.

I think I am going to find this happening more and more in 2019 to be honest, I am watching my pantry stock ups and watching prices on other things in the stores and I am not sure if all of them will be restocked or I will need to find a work around.

hmm, what could be used as a work around?

Well, for chocolate items or spice cakes that vanilla is not a taste but a depth to the item, it can be replaced 1 to 1 with maple syrup.

But what about when you want that vanilla scent and flavour? Thank goodness for sweet woodruff, while it’s not the same.. its close enough and going to be my work around for the near future and its off-market because its grown here on the farm.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/sweet-woodruff-herb-garden-zmaz84zloeck

Be that as it may, this charming little herb can be a vanilla substitute in various sauces and beverages.

Marilyn Hampstead, whose Fox Hill Farm is one source of Asperula plants, reports that sweet woodruff can be steeped in milk — overnight or for several days — to make a refreshing drink that’s especially enjoyed by children … or, to impart a vanilla taste, soaked in whatever liquid is required in a given recipe … or, to make a delicious glaze for tarts and turnovers, steeped in currant juice and strained out before the juice is thickened by cooking with sugar.

I have this plant on the farm and I will need to increase the amount grown and learn to work with it in the coming year, figuring out the challenge of how much to grow and how much to put up for storage.

Ah, climate change, you are going to take that which we think is common in many ways and turn it on its head! Not always because something is truly gone but because it will just be out of the reach of the common person.

We will need to look back to history before global trade became the norm and we will need to adapt or go without.

I never would have guessed that vanilla would be my first “out priced” item due to climate issues..

So be it.. so be it…

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Farmgal’s Photography 2019 Jan 3rd

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

With my new camera I am trying to both learn it and stretch myself this year.. I am not going to open up a new blog for photography. I will put up more photos on Twitter and on the facebook page on a more daily base if you want to see more of them.

However for the blog, I am limiting myself to two days a week for extra posts that are photography related.

Monday’s will have a quick post with a bit of a write up related to the Dogwood 52 photo challenge for 2019.  We get a “ask” each week that over the year pushes us in different ways to explore beyond our normal..  As each week ends on the Saturday and a new one starts on Sunday, I am making Monday the day I post that single chosen photo.

I might add in a couple of others at times to talk about what went right, what went wrong and or the runner-up..

However I am both looking forward and just trying to make sure I get out there and take more photos, it’s a good thing to get outside more, walk more, move more..  and while there are times I can work the photos into different posts.

There are many more times I can’t.. So Thursday’s are going to become the “farmgal’s photo share day.. the odds are good that most time it will be a double post day, with a second post more homestead related.

If there is any interest, I am thinking of opening one of those shops site that would allow me to upload a favorite photo and have my readers order things with it one it?

or perhaps the readers can vote at the end of the month on their favorite photo and I will put together a Farmgal Calender that can be ordered as a gift.

We will see..

On with the show 🙂

Faith Kitty, she is not as perfect as a split face as her momma was.. but she is sure fluffy in her winter coat.

Dezbot is coming three and she is finally starting to fill out that long lean body of hers, we had fresh snow overnight creating these perfect clean backgrounds, its was lightly snowing, I had to have the camera in a baggy which really messed some shots up.. its hard to see but I love the sugar snow dusting on her face.

Marie came running up on a recall and did this smiling pose of me..  love the depth of color in her blacks with the mix of her white/snow white..

While this one was taken over the Christmas holiday’s I am still including it in this first weeks round-up.. it’s also taken just after a fresh snowfall and while I like a number of things about it, I do love the bird but I loved the gentle arc of the branch as her perch 🙂

Last but not least is my Dalmatian fish, I know that it seems like a simple photo but between trying to take a good photo of something that moves all the time, with a sheet of glass between us.. trust me when I say, there were a lot of photos taken to get this one.. still it was a interesting challenge for me.

So which one of the five is your favorite and why? Honorable mention?

Posted in photography | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

How to make Salt Cured Lemons

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Putting up a few Jar’s of Salt Cured Lemon’s is very easy to do.  I will show you step by step in three photos!

Wash your lemon to remove any wax, rinse them well with cool water, trim the ends off and slice them into 6, remove the seeds.

Cover the sliced lemon with salt, I used freshly grated pink salt but you can use canning salt or any of your preferred kosher salts.. Cover them well, stir and coat again, all the parts of the slices should be well covered in salt.

Put your salted lemons into a jar, pushing them down as you go.. a pint jar will take 3 large lemons, if needed add a little extra lemon juice after a hour to make sure that they are covered but still leave half inch head space between lemon juice and lid.

Allow to sit at room temp 4 to 7 days, the rind will change color becoming clearish like it would in a marmalade, after a week put your jars into the fridge where they will keep for months if you do not use them all up before that!

When people talk about their pantry’s, they talk about canning, or drying food but for some reason, they forget about salt!

Salted herbs, Salted fruits, Salted veggies,  Salted Meats..

So many ways to use salt to cure.. it should be part of your pantry staples!

If you want to see what the other members of the challenge is up to.. there is a link in the side bar of the main page on the website.   Head on over to see the other bloggers that will be working on this challenge. I will also be sharing their posts each week on my facebook page and twitter!

 

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, frugal | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Chick Care 101

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

 

Ideally, if you already have chickens you are going to let your broody hen do all this work for you.  You can help pick the eggs she is sitting on but its just so much easier to let the hen do the work if you are only wanting a smaller amount of chicks to add to your flock in the year.

However if you are wanting to bring in chicks for meat or for same aged layers ( I really recommend a mixed aged flock) then you are most likely going to be ordering from a hatchery or you are going to be buying new chicks from a local who is hatching to sell.

Both can be good sources, research both, join your local facebook chicken group and read some posts, ask who is local to you and watch for those that post chicks for sale.

Do NOT expect any more help from the person who hatched the chicks then from the Hatchery.. they are not your new best friend in this.. they did their job..

If you got healthy chicks on pickup.. the rest is on you!

Now, I highly recommend Storey’s guide to raising chickens, or Barnyard in your Backyard as two good solid basic books on your average chicken care, coop requirements, feed etc.

Some of these checks will have been done already if you bought from a local chicken breeder.. but I am going to assume you ordered in from a hatchery or that you picked up chicks from the local feed store.

So you have picked up your chicks and get to have your first look at them, they should all look bight eyed and perky, they will be hungry and thirsty, so do your best to pick them up right when they are dropped off at your local feed store, and get them home as soon as possable, if its cool or damp, remember to cover their box with a light blanket to get them from the store to your vehicle and same to get them into the house..

Yup, you read that right, into the house if possable for the first 72 hours for sure and a week is even better, now I have used both the heat lamps that is recommended or I have used my old fashioned hanging wool strips, or I have used in floor heating, or if life is really good, I can slip some chicks under a broody hen.

The current chicks are in their homemade brooder, with 3/4 on their in floor heating and 1/4 off it, the chicks are not huddled, and are moving around eating and drinking and the sound is soft coming from the brooder so I know they are doing good, if huddled, they are cold, if all apart they are to hot, they do like to sleep in chick piles but they should not be piled on each other.

So once you get them in the house, take each one out and look it over, have a bottle of food coloring handy with a q-tip, and if any chick seems smaller or weaker, put a tiny bit of color on their back or top of head, it won’t hurt them, but it will make them stand out, into the brooder they go, lots of soft pine shavings underfoot, no slippery newspaper, you can use old towels, or in a pinch straw but honestly the best is shavings, they are easy to remove any that are damp around the water dish and you will need to clean and add a bit more a couple times a day for the first days. As you put each chick in, gently dip their beaks into the water, and make sure they all get their first drink.

So put in their chick feed, now I buy mine at the same feed store I get the chicks from, I am not going to get into the debate on if it should be medicated or not, that is up to you and what you know about your area and the way they will be raised, but if its in your buildings or your soil and you don’t treat for it, you will feel the effect in dead or sick chicks.

For the first feeding, I put the feed out in their little silver chick feeders and water ones, but if you only have a few chicks, you don’t need to spend on that, just use a low dish and put a couple nickels in the bottom and the shine will get the chicks all interested. sprinkle their food lightly over the shavings and then have a full small dish for them where the regular feedings will go.

If you have ever watched a momma hen with chicks, she shows them how its done, and she has a sound that says come here, grub is ready, try and do the same with your chicks, make whatever sound you want, I cluck for the chicks and we whistle for the turkeys, they learn and figure it out very quickly and it will be very helpful as they become adults and you want to move them around.

So the main four things chicks need are

  • Heat- most folks use heat bulbs to make this happen, red seems to be the color of choose on this , but I can honestly say that the infloor heating works well for when they are in their brooder box’s and the wool hanging strips* work very well for when they are bigger and moved into their first out of the house pen if you don’t have power there.

* This tip came from a old homesteading book, find a worn wool coat of blanket and cut it up into stripes at least a foot long, hang them off wooden dowls in at least three to eight rows, about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch off the ground, and the chicks will move into the wool stripes and it will retain their body warmth, I have done this a number of times and if I ever had to go to raising chicks without a mom or power or the warmth of a wood stove to put the box by, this would be the ideal choice for me.

  • Food- I buy chick starter but soon enough I will be adding in extra’s, bits of fresh greens, as these are fall chicks, the greens will be soon hard to come by outside, no worries there, I have lots and lots of seed saved that will be used for sprouting, and these chicks will get fresh sprouted greens a couple times a week to make sure they grow big and strong. They will also get a feeding at least once a week of finely mashed up shelled hardboiled egg, and a couple times a month, I will raid my worm box’s and they will get some nice small fresh red wigglers to fight over.
  • Water-Right now the chicks are on filtered water, once they are at least a week old and well started, I will move them over to straight well water, when it comes to water, room temp is best, but in time, they will get luke warm water a couple times a day as will the laying hens, with just a touch of apple cider vinager added to the water during the winter. The key to water is that its cleaned often, and that the dish is washed inbetween.
  • Shelter/Bedding- It is very important to have a clean shelter and if you have had bird in it before its very important that it was cleaned between, it should be both draft free and at the same time have a good exchange of fresh air, the bedding was touched on above, it needs to be non-slipper or you will often end up with leg issues on the chicks, you need to keep a couple inchs of bedding , remove the damp or dirty bedding, you can use a cat litter scoop or on a bigger floor once they are bigger, you can use the stall bedding forks an then put down fresh bedding. Straw compacts and smells alot more then the cidar chips do.

Extra’s little perches or items to jump up and off, just for playing really, and soon a tiny bowl of grit will be need to be available to them.

Now once they are started, you need to listen to them, you will quickly hear be able to figure out a few different sounds, the most basic are

  • I’m content -This is the sound you want
  • Excited about food/water or you coming to visit
  • Wrong- Regardless of what is wrong, the sound is the same.
  • Fighting-Someone got peeked or a leg got grabbed, even at this young of age, they are figuring out who is boss chick, vs who is lower ranked.

Now, each time you check on them, and watch them for at least a min or two, take the time after just watching them, to check on your food colored chicks, gentle cup them and give them a check over, are they bright eyed, are they clean eyed and clean beaked, is they bottom clean and dry? Do they feel full in body? If you need to, pick up a unmarked chick and compare how they feel to you in weight, hopefully close yes? If the above is all good, then back into the bunch they go, but if any of the above are showing, time to move them to a clean empty fish tank set up, with a heating lamp on it, half screen, half light, and they get the same treatment as above till they are well and growing just great and then can be moved back into the baby flock, its not a good idea to keep a “off” chick or chicken with the main group.

Now if you ordered in a 100 chicks, you might want them out in a pen with multi lamps, but you still need to spend those times with them and listen.. pull the babies that need it and bring them in the house for care till they are ready for the bigger pen/larger group.

Move a chick or two over to the now well baby for a few hours and then do a fresh feeding for the whole gang and move the two or three back at the same time.. this is the easiest way to re-introduce your chick back to the group.

I think I have covered my chick raising basics, got any questions? or comments? please feel free to ask..

This re-work of my chick care 101 is part of the 31 day Self-Reliance Challenge. There is a link on the sidebar on the main website page to take you to a list of all the other bloggers that are part of this challenge. Don’t forget to check them out and see what they are doing!

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, Chickens | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to use the Baggy Method to Start Seeds

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

The Baggy Seed Starting Method is very easy to do and its very worth it!

All home harvested seeds and older seeds should be given a germination test using this method NOW! in seed ordering season.

I can not stress this enough, its worth taking a little time and figuring your seed germination rates. If you look on bought seed packages, it will give a germination rate on it, normally it will show over 80 or 90 percent. Smaller seed houses often do not list this and I find that can be because germination rates “can” be lower or just because they do not want the extra print costs for changing this per type of seed.

None the less, we are the gardeners and there is NOTHING worse than saving seed and planting out whole rows of seed that barely comes up. In years past, I have had this happen and just went.. hmm and gave them a bit more time.

In today’s climate change and with the higher need for our gardens (not matter their size) to produce, I changed this over years ago and went to the baggy method. There have been a number of springs that I have a very short window of cool seed starting before the soil jumps to warm starting seed timing.  three years in the past ten, we have had very short spring windows before summer heat came crashing in.

I no longer have time to “see” what happens and plant again.. I want that edge, that leg up and I am betting that you would like the same leg up!

Test out at least ten random saved seeds from home saved. However for those fresh rare seeds, test them a bit later, so that you can pot them up.. No wasting those genes when they are limited to begin with!

Now I know that this method is not “green” in the sense that I am using a plastic bag and paper towel.. sorry I will give this a think.. and maybe play around with it to see if I can do this kind of testing without using them and still get steady return rates

I used Brussel Sprouts which need a huge lead time in my garden zone, I start them in Feb to get a outstanding harvest late season.

You will need paper towel (not tissue or bathroom, they are to fine and will rip far to easy for this process, but tissue is just fine for homemade seed tape..  A plastic baggy and seeds.

Now I put a goodly amount of seed on the paper, you can do it in more tidy lines if you want, or you can do as I did, the key is that it must be on one side so that you can fold the paper over it.

This amount of seed was to start my plants, you can use a lot less if you are just testing your germination rates.. these rates should go into your garden tracking book.

Fold it in half and then using water off your fingers or a spray bottle, wet the top sheet till its nicely damp but not to wet or dripping..  the paper should be wet enough that after about 60 second or so, you can see all the seeds clearly though the top layer but the very outer edges are still soaking up the water.. hope you can see what I mean in the above photo.

Fold it gently in half and slide it into the plastic baggy and then open it back up.. it should take up most of the space on the bottom of the bag. if you want to do larger amounts of seeds you can scale up to the point of a full sheet of paper towel and the largest baggy.

Then seal the bag most of the way and then blow in some air into the bag so it puff’s up some and then mostly seal it closed. Place your baggy in a warm spot, dark is fine.. top of fridge or spot by the heater (not on the heater) and watch them go..

now we can move it over to the next step if you are using your started seeds.

Now you pick and choose the seedlings. As you can see the germ rate on these Brussel sprouts seeds was outstanding.. I left them in the baggy till they were turning into true wee sprouts, then I moved them carefully and planted them up into their pots..

A mear 24 hours after being planted.. they are up and looking fab! They are now set up with a greenhouse topper, under the grow lights, once they get big enough that they move from the starter shelf to the grow shelves they will remove the top.

In total I planted out 30 strong seedlings, and feed 11 of the didn’t make it to the chickens bucket.

Compared to dropping two or three seeds per pot, I used a lot fewer seeds, so if you are seed frugal, this is a very useful tool. (you often hear about this type of seed saving in square foot gardening books)

Now, I say that one of the perks is that you don’t get to just select your seedlings based on the true starting leaves but also on the root as well. Now is time to start your cull process.
Anything that does not have even proper true leaf was removed.. Anything with very short or with reduced root structure or the few that had very long and thin roots was culled out.. at this stage, being part of the pack is just what I am looking for.

41 one seedlings, and I culled 11 or 26 percent of them.. we will see if all the once planted out make the grade.. I am game for all 30 but I really want 24 plants, and I am hedging my bets by doing a few extra.

I took a training course on growing plants with seed saving and plant breeding improvements and it was outstanding,  I have never looked at gardening quite the same way. I used to garden for what was in front of me right now.. Now I garden both in the here and now but also with an eye to the future of the plant genes and what could be

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Posted in frugal, Garden, seed saving | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments