2018 Meat Birds - Baby Chicks Arrive!

Two weeks ago I did an inventory on our chickens in the deep freeze and I counted 28 birds in gallon sized Ziploc bags.  I told Tricia that it was time that we go ahead and order the 2018 birds.  I looked at the pricing and delivery schedule of three competing hatcheries and finally settled on Cackle Hatchery.  Cackle Hatchery is in Lebanon, Missouri.  Cackle had the second best price, but the best delivery schedule for Jumbo Cornish Cross meat birds - not sexed.  You can order all males, but they are a little more expensive, since they grow bigger, faster.  Not sexed means you get an assortment.  Ideally, 50% will be male and 50% female.  They would hatch on 2/28 and be shipped out the same day, arriving at our house on 3/2.  You can see the pricing below.  I ordered 60 chicks priced at $2.15 per bird and there was shipping and handling of $36.20 involved.

I received tracking information that told me that the chicks would be delivered on Saturday, March 1.  That would be good.  I would be home and be able to set up the brooder.  That was the plan.  The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, however.  I received two calls on Friday morning from our town's Post Office alerting me that we had a package that was making noise.  I called and let Russ and Tricia know.  They went to the post office and picked up the package.  They come shipped in boxes like this:

The shipping label on the bottom right of the box tells me that this box came from MCI (Kansas City Airport) into BTR (Baton Rouge Airport) and then trucked to Jennings.  These day old chicks have a lot of mileage on them!  Tricia and Russ got the brooder all set up with wood shavings, heat lamps, feed, and water.  For safety, they put a piece of a cattle panel on top to keep the cats from feasting on the baby chicks.

They ensured that each drank water and then set them in the brooder.  Cackle Hatchery has a guarantee on the birds.  If any of them are dead when you open the box, they will give you a dead chick credit.  All you have to do is call them.  It is strictly the honor system.  All our chicks were alive.  Usually they give you a few extra in the event some of the birds are dead on arrival.  We counted 61, so they gave us one extra - a 'Baker's Dozen,' if you will.

Unfortunately, the next day there were 3 dead and then the following day, there were 5 more dead.  Today, there were no more fatalities, thank goodness.  All I can figure is that some of them were stressed during shipment and although they were okay, they eventually died a day later.  They were promptly removed from the chick brooder and composted in the garden.  RIP baby chicks.  We barely knew you.  A 13% mortality rate right off the bat is not good.  The only good thing is if your birds are going to die, now's the time to die - before you've fed them a bunch of feed!

We will keep them fed and watered and keep the bedding dry and clean.  We'll also keep the heat lamp positioned to provide them enough heat, but not too much.  Each week, we'll follow their progress and show you the rapid progression these birds take from a cute fuzzball to a monster in 8 - 9 short weeks!

Got it Done! Spring Tomatoes and Peppers in the Ground

After incessant rain for weeks which made the garden and pasture a muddy, miry, mess, a few days of sunshine, wind and higher temperatures caused the ground to dry up quickly.  Saturday morning I awoke with a goal of getting all of our tomatoes and peppers planted.  I passed by the rain gauge thankful that I didn't have to dump any water out of it.

Hey, wait a minute!  There's no rain in the rain gauge, but there is a rain frog. I guess he's hoping for rain.  I'm not as I need to get some plants in the ground.  We'll empty the rain frog out of the rain gauge.  I don't want him to make it rain.

First things first.  The 'winter grass' has taken over the garden.  The soil is still too wet to till or work up, but that is okay.  Tomatoes and Peppers don't really need to be on rows.  I'm going to just drop them right in the ground.  First, however, I need to get the weed-eater out and get rid of the weeds.  I'll cut it as close as I can to the soil and this will help the soil to dry out.

Before

Amazingly, the weed eater started right up after only four pulls.  In no time at all, I had all the winter grass eradicated and the barren ground was exposed to the sun and wind, allowing it to dry out.

Since we're doing no till on the tomatoes and peppers, I used a post hole digger to dig holes where I'll plant them.  I filled the holes with homemade garden soil that we explained how to make HERE.  Then I got to work planting the tomatoes, adding more garden soil and then watering them in. 

By the end of the weekend, I had 60 tomato plants in the ground as well as twenty-something peppers.  We'll see how the weather holds out this week, and will begin planting corn and beans as soon as conditions allow. 

Weekend Plans for the Garden

This afternoon when I got home from work, I put some hay out for the cows and then walked into the garden.  I pulled a big, fat cabbage and brought it inside.  I think we'll make cole slaw with this one.  We made egg rolls with the last one and have been just cooking some cabbage down in a cast iron skillet.  We haven't made sauerkraut yet, but that may be in the works as well.

I stepped out on the patio to check and see if the tomatoes in the cold frame needed some water.  A few days ago, I mixed up some fish emulsion with water and gave them a good foliar feeding as well as drenching the potting soil.  The tomatoes have responded favorably!  These indeterminate, heirloom tomatoes are growing like mad.

In fact, I need to get them in the garden this weekend so they don't get root-bound.  I looked at pictures of previous years and these tomatoes are the biggest at this stage than we've ever had.

I checked the 5 day forecast and believe it or not, it looks like the chances of rain are lower than they've been in the past weeks.  Perhaps the garden will dry out and allow me to get these planted.  It has been about 3 months since I planted these by seed.  It is high time to get them transplanted into the garden and begin planting all of the spring crops.  So far the onions and potatoes are planted.  I can't wait to get started!

The Axe At The Root of The Tree

Sadly, we just finished off the last of our citrus.  The satsumas, grapefruit, navel oranges, and tangerines where fantastic this year.  The weather has been warming up into the 80's and that has sparked a lot of new green growth in the vegetation.  Russ took out his pruning shears and began to tidy up around the blueberry bushes, landscaping and citrus.

While he was at it, I asked him to come take a look at a citrus tree in the side yard.  It has really grown from when we planted it.  Why, it must be 10 feet tall.  There's only one problem.  It has NEVER produced fruit.  Last year I vowed that if it didn't make fruit, I would chop it down.  Russ pointed out its thorns - some of them 2 inches long.  I've gotten snagged by some of these while mowing around the tree.  Not fun!  The tree had grown out from beneath the graft.  This means that the tree was "wild" and growing from the root stock and therefore would never yield fruit.

Look at those thorns!

Time to make good on my vow.  Russ worked with his pruning shears and I worked with a pruning saw to tame this wild tree.  Later I got an axe and chopped it down to ground level so that we could mow over it.

The Citrus Stump (that soon got chopped down to ground level)

We chopped it up into little pieces and stacked it in the wagon and carted it into the backyard.  It was amazing that a fine looking tree was laid to waste in no time at all.  You see, that is the tragedy.  I love shade trees.  Shade trees are valued because of their beauty and the nice shade they provide on sunny days.  Fruit trees, on the other hand, are valued for their fruit.  If you are a fruit tree, by golly, you had better bear fruit - or else.

Note the new spring growth on the doomed tree.  

The tree that was putting on new spring growth suddenly found itself chopped down and thrown into a fire that we built in our fire pit.  Before the day was done, the tree would be converted into ashes.

Thrown into the Fire

A westerly wind arose, heightening the flames as they consumed the tree.  Branches, thorns and green growth fell victim to the insatiable appetite of the flames.

As I watched the fire, I thought about this verse in the Bible and the clear illustration it gave:

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.  Luke 3:9

John the Baptist was calling on the Jews to turn from their sins and repent.  That same call of repentance echoes to us today.  Believe, turn to Him, bear good fruit!  If we don't change our ways, discipline and judgment is coming.   

Every Year The Carrot Crop Has Gotten Better and Better...

This year will prove to be the exception.  The crop was miserable.  Let me correct that - the weather was miserable and that translated into a poor harvest.  We had lower than normal temperatures that stayed below freezing for days and days.  Once it finally warmed up a little, the rains started.  And they didn't stop!  The ground has been muddy and saturated for weeks with no drying in sight.

I remembered the carrots and decided I would go and dig them up, if there were any left.  The first thing I noticed was there was no carrot greens.  Usually the carrot tops are lush and healthy and green.  The extended time that we were well under freezing temperatures killed off all of the greens.  That is okay, though.  The ground will preserve the carrots - if the ground is not wet and muddy.

Russ and Benjamin and I were joined by a neighbor kid and we began digging.  A carrot crop that looked so promising two months ago, sure disappointed.

Digging up the carrot rows

The carrots that were not rotten in the ground were small and stunted.  I would assume that without any carrot tops left, their growing days are over.  We just dug them all up, no matter how small.  Maybe I'll call them "fingerling carrots."

I threw them in a 5 gallon bucket filled with rainwater to wash them off.  Swirling the water around and swishing the carrots around in the bucket removes all the mud from the carrot roots.  I'll pour the water back in the garden as I don't want to remove any topsoil at all from the garden. 

I planted Danvers Carrots (normal orange), Cosmic Purple carrots, and Atomic Red carrots.  They all taste the same to me, but the colors are interesting.  The colors fade once cooked, but they look nice raw.

And this was it!  The entire 2017 carrot crop.  Sad isn't it?  I guess it could have been worse.  We could have harvested none.

We don't let crop failure get us down.  We will keep trying.  We will plant them again next year.  Sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate, but most of the time it does.  Come to think of it, I may even plant some this spring. 

I think we still have a couple of quarts of cut up carrots in the freezer from last year's crop.  Next year's crop will be better.

"Never let success go to your head.  Never let failure go to your heart."  - Anonymous

An Experiment in Killing/Controlling Fire Ants

I despise fire ants.  Their mounds pop up everywhere.  When it rains, they seek high ground and float to new locations.  They decide to make their home in a round bale of hay and when you attempt to move it, they suddenly are all over you, biting/stinging or whatever it is they do.  I'm constantly searching for ways to kill them.  I've used gasoline as well as boiling water and innumerable chemicals on their mounds and take delight in seeing their dead carcasses atop the mound.

There are times, however, that you can't pull out the big guns to kill them.  The crafty buggers decide to move into the garden.  I don't want to use chemicals in the garden as they will end up in my family's food supply.  Boiling water would kill the plants in the garden.  We tried grits.  It didn't work.  We tried coffee grounds.  It works, but only causes them to MOVE and not die.  What else can I do?

Well, I found out that there is a recipe for fire ant killer that uses citrus oil.  I read that d-limonene is a substance that is in the citrus oil that resides in citrus rinds.  Here's something that we can try!  We had tons of citrus, so we didn't throw any of the rinds away.  We froze them, so we can use them as we need them.  Let's make a batch.  We half-way filled a 2 gallon bucket with citrus rinds.

Then we filled the bucket with water.

I added a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid.

Then we put the bucket aside for a week and let things happen.  After a week it is kind of nasty...  I'm assuming it is ready.

I strain out the rinds and here is our super-dooper, orange rind infused, fire ant citrus cocktail.

I walked out to the garden and just as I suspected, a colony of fire ants has taken up residence underneath the canopy of our Irish potatoes. 

They think they are being sneaky, but I have found them.  I kick the top of the mound off to make them good and mad.  It is time.

I poured the entire concoction on top of the mound of enraged ants.  Then I pour the orange rinds on for good measure.  "Orange" you sad you moved into the Irish Potato row, fire ants?

The next day I wanted to check in on the ants.  I moved the orange rinds out of the way to inspect the fire ant mound beneath them.  The tunnels are empty.  There is not a single ant in site.  Nothing is moving. 

So does this mean it worked?  I'm going to be honest.  I'm not sure.  The thing that concerns me is that I don't see any dead ants.  I wanted to see a bunch of dead ants underneath the orange peels.  Maybe they just moved?  The positive thing is that they are not there any more.  I am thawing out another bag of orange peels to make another batch.  I'm pleased the ants are gone, but I need the results of another experiment before I am ready to say it works. 

Mount Jeff Davis

“You’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting,

So… get on your way!”

― Dr. Seuss

On the drive home yesterday, I looked off to the north and grabbed my phone so that I wouldn't miss it.  I wanted to capture the grandeur of the majestic peaks of Mount Jeff Davis, the highest elevation in Jefferson Davis Parish.  It has warmed up in the past few days, so the snow-capped peaks have melted.  Admittedly Mount Jeff Davis may not be granite nor as tall as those mountains you'd find in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Mount Jeff Davis is a recent geological phenomenon and can't compare with the age of the Great Smoky Mountains.  We love our mountain, though, don't we folks?

Our mountain is actually the Jeff Davis Parish landfill.  If you drive closer, you can see heavy machinery working, digging, covering all day long.  You can also see flocks of seagulls scavenging food from the tons of garbage delivered each day.  Sometimes I wonder how we are able to manage all of the garbage we as a society create.  Do you ever think about that?  We live in a rural area.  Our town's population is 12,000 yet we create mountains of trash, literally.

We're living in a disposable age.  If it doesn't work, throw it away and buy another.  It is cheaper to buy a new gadget than fix it.  I can remember being a kid and going with my Dad to the dump.  There was always a guy at the dump who kind of supervised.  He had an "office" that was surrounded by treasures he'd discovered amidst the rubble - things that people had thrown out that still had some use.  I guess folks like that still exist, but with a Dollar Store on every corner, it is often cheaper and easier to just buy a new widget and use it until it breaks and then let its plastic, Made in China parts become a component of Mt. Jeff Davis.

In the past, things were built to last.  There was quality construction and people passed along things to the next generation.  Things weren't quite as disposable back then.  Hand-me-downs were more common.  I consider myself a conservationist and try to reduce, reuse and recycle as best as I can.  We are, after all, called to be stewards of God's creation.  We can't control the litter that people throw out of their car windows, but we can sure do our part in keeping "our neck of the woods" clean.

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