The Piddler on the Roof

My work puts me in front of a computer a lot of the time, so once I get to a stopping point during the day, I like to get outside and get some sunshine and piddle around.  Today, I knew exactly what I needed to do.  The live oak trees are continually growing, their heavy branches sinking lower each day.  The branches form a canopy over the roof.  This can be a good thing as it provides an abundance of shade, hopefully helping out with our electricity bill.  The bad thing is when they start touching the roof.  Storms and winds like we're accustomed to can push the limbs into the shingles and damage the roof, and we don't want that.

Today's task between computer work was to lean an extension ladder on the roof, climb up just as high as I could and trim the low-hanging branches with a pole saw.  I bought this little electric extendable pole saw years ago for only $69.  It has paid for itself over and over and over.  I get so much use out of it, with little to no maintenance other than buying a new blade or two for it each year.

One can get himself into trouble on the roof.  I think of King David who, up on the roof of his palace, spotted the lovely Bathsheba.  One thing led to another and I bet he wishes he could have stayed off the roof that day.  He certainly paid a high cost for what he did.  Seeing her from his vantage point on the roof put things in to motion that he would live to regret.  King David got into trouble on that roof.  I got myself into trouble on the roof today.  Nope, I want to assure you that I was not on top of the roof lusting.  I was working.  

My mistake was that I was working without notifying Miss Tricia.  She gets all worried when I do things like this.  I was trying to be quiet, cutting away and had branches falling.  All was going well and I was getting a lot accomplished until one particularly large limb hit the roof with a thud.  Uh oh, I thought.  Moments later, Tricia came around the corner with a look of concern on her face.  "Kyle, you're supposed to tell me when you do this.  You could fall.  I can't believe.  You need someone holding the ladder..."  She's right.  I was far from OSHA compliant and there are risks to be up on a ladder on top of a roof.  I apologized and had her hold the ladder while I lopped one final branch.  Then I put up the ladder and saw, rolled up the extension cord and finished my piddling for the day.

But I wasn't done.  If I would've stopped there, I would have disappointed some animals out back.  I hauled the branches out to the cows and goats for an afternoon snack.  You can see Elsie in the foreground and Rosie in the background, enjoying eating the leaves off the limbs.  The bull and all the goats were eating on branches that I had already thrown in the back.

With that job out of the way, I'll stay off the roof for a while and go back in and sit in front of the computer and get some work done.

Can You Hear the Chirping?

Nope, I'm not talking about the smoke detector with the battery going out.  It's that time again.  We pulled out one of the last remaining gallon bags of cut up chicken and figured out that it's time to order Cornish Cross Meat Birds.  I priced around and ended up ordering from the hatchery that's nearest us - Ideal Poultry in Cameron, TX.

Let me tell ya, day old meat bird chicks are doggone expensive these days!  We ordered 50 of them.  When all the dust settled after the shipping, taxes and fees added in, they were $4.38 per bird.  You read that right.  I had a little sticker shock but put the order in.  They confirmed the shipment for September 16th.  This morning we got a call from our local post office: "You have a box of live birds.  Come and get them."  We did.  We could hear the chirping when we opened the post office door.  Well, my wife could.  I'm as deaf as a post.

"I'd like a box of chicken.  No sides."

After leaving the post office, we went to the feed store and bought some 28% protein game bird starter.  Once home, I went to the barn and pulled down from the storage in the loft some metal siding we use as a brooder and got it all set up in the chicken tractor, dangling a heat lamp over it and filling water containers with a water and apple cider vinegar mixture.  I was going to use the paper to put feed on, but Tricia convinced me to use our chicken feed troughs instead.

We pray no varmints eat our chickens before we do.

Let's see the success rate of mailing live birds through the US postal service.  I pulled off the top of the box.  They seemed to be mighty content.  Not a single one dead.  Now the first task is I take them out of the box, counting them.  I dip their little heads in water and make sure they drink.  Then I set them down in the brooder.  Rinse. Wash. Repeat.  We got 51 birds.  They usually will give you a little lagniappe in the even that some die in transit.

"Tweet, tweet."

They are cute little critters - right now.  However, they don't stay cute for very long.  Each week for the next 8 weeks - likely on Wednesday, we'll take you on a journey with us so you can see their growth - from cradle to grave.  Sounds harsh, I know, but we raise these chicks for food.  In eight weeks they should be 8 pounds and yield a 6 pound carcass.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Here are all 51 chicks in their new home.  They are all spread out and that lets you know that the heat lamp is positioned correctly.  If it was too hot, they'd be up against the wall.  If it was too cold, they'd be all piled up.  They'll stay in the brooder until they get feathers and then we'll remove the brooder and let them forage on grass in the backyard as we push the chicken tractor so they get fresh grass each day.  They'll fertilize the soil so that the white Dutch clover and the crimson clover comes up lush this spring.  The honeybees will love it!  Ah, the circle of life.  Everyone benefits, well, almost everyone.  I walked out tonight to check on them and heard a peck, peck, pecking sound.  As I got nearer, I saw that the heat lamp was attracting mosquitoes.  The chicks were eating the mosquitoes as they were attracted to the light.  Very opportunistic.  

We put a blue tarp on top of the chicken tractor to help keep them dry in case of rain, fastening the tarp down with zip ties but leaving the ends and bottom open to keep good air flow going.

Hopefully, we'll be bringing a sizable amount of these 51 birds to butcher some time around mid-November. 

Lost and Found

Ginger

I don't talk much about our cat, Ginger.  Most of the time, we talk about cows or goats or chickens or honeybees, so Ginger doesn't get a lot of attention on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm blog.  I'll take a moment tonight to introduce her to you.  She's an outside cat but one very well taken care of.  She's very finicky and likes her food "fresh."  We put her dry cat food in a bowl and she nibbles on it and won't eat any more because it's gone 'stale.'  I try to fool her by dumping the stale food back in the bucket, shaking it up and pouring some of the fresh/stale cat food in her bowl.  She doesn't appreciate this.  I don't appreciate her wastefulness.  To be honest, I can't be described as a 'cat person,' but she's our cat and I'll admit I like her.

Ginger supplements her cat food menu by hunting.  We find mice, rats, birds, squirrels and rabbits (or parts of their uneaten carcasses) on the back door welcome mat that she brings to prove to us that she is no domesticated animal but is a proud lioness feeding on wild prey.  You've got to really watch your step when you walk out the back door as her prey is not whole but in pieces.  Yuck!

In addition to hunting nocturnally, she primarily sleeps on top of our vehicles during the day.  We have to wake this lazy cat up when we want to drive off.  She'll stretch and slowly hop off of the car.  She does get affection from the whole family, although we seldom bring her into the house - maybe on very cold days.  She has very thick fur and sheds, and I don't want that foolishness inside the house.

She has been with us since 2017, and if my math is right, that makes her around 9 years old.  That makes her somewhat of a fixture around our place.  Tricia and I laughed at her sleeping on top of Tricia's car Friday afternoon.  She had her paw curled around the top of the hood enjoying a cat nap.  When I went out Saturday morning to feed her, oddly - no Ginger.  Tricia noticed and we began calling for her, walking around looking.  No Ginger.  Same thing that evening.  We saw hide nor hair of her.

Saturday morning came.  No Ginger.  Saturday night came and again, she didn't show her face.  Her absence is almost unprecedented.  One other time, years ago, she disappeared for a couple of days and returned all beat up.  She had been in a fight.  Maybe the same thing happened?  You might think this weird, but we prayed for Ginger.  Nothing is too small or inconsequential for God.  Sunday morning came and Ginger was still AWOL.  I saw an animal carcass on the road a bit down the road and cautiously went to inspect.  It was a possum!  Russ came over and patrolled in the woods behind the barn when we told her she was missing.  Still no Ginger.  She's not looking for a tom cat because she's fixed.  Although we retained hope, we were sad.  Things were different without Ginger around the house.

This morning I walked outside at 6 AM and... Ginger was in the garage!  She returned home.  We gave thanks to God for answering our prayer.  The prodigal had returned.  Now, she wouldn't let me get near her.  I checked her out from a distance.  She looked unscathed except for her right eye.  It was filled with water, maybe scratched by something.  I think she can still see out of it.  She was acting real reclusive and jumped on top of the freezer in the garage and hid behind the propane tanks.  To celebrate her return, we killed the fatted calf.  Well, sort of... Tricia fed her a can of 'real' cat food from a can, rather than the dry stuff, and she ate it.  We think she got into a fight with (maybe) a mink or another varmint and is scared, gun shy and prefers solitude while she convalesces.  Perhaps the family members of the raccoon and mink I killed last week are looking for revenge, taking out their vengeance on Ginger?  Who knows, but Ginger is back!  Meow, meow...

Putting Things Off 'Til the Last Minute

I'm talking about the fall tomato crop.  Last fall we had a tremendous fall harvest of tomatoes.  Tricia informed me today that she used the last of the frozen tomatoes in our lunch.  As I looked out on our back patio, I see the seed pots containing 56 tomato plants.  Actually, the photo below shows 32 plants because I transplanted 24 of them into the garden yesterday on a very hot afternoon.

See, that's the main reason for the procrastination - the hot, dry summer we're experiencing.  The month of August and so far, September have proven to be so hot and dry, everything is just baking out there.  It is a terrible time to plant anything in the garden, except a cactus, maybe.  I kept hoping we'd get a good soaking rain or a cool front, but none seems to be coming.  The tomatoes are getting so long and leggy.  It's time to get them in the ground.

So yesterday I got a post hole digger and 12 Cherokee Purple tomato plants and 12 Pink Brandywine tomato plants and headed out to the garden.  I picked a space between two garden rows I planted in the spring.  In this way, it's sort of like rotational planting in that you're not planting the same type plant in the same soil year after year.

I dug holes with the post hole digger and dug them deep.  You can plant tomatoes real deep and the stem sends out roots.  This eliminates the "leggy" problem.  Once I put the plant in the hole, I backfill the hole with soil and composted chicken litter.  I put mulch around the soil at the base of the plant to combat evaporation and then I watered each plant in real good.  Finally, I started the sprinkler going to really soak the soil to give the plants a good chance at making it.

A day later, I checked in on them.  Two don't look too good and one had all the leaves eaten off of it by some critter.  Hopefully, they'll make it, but we have 56 plants in total.  I always plan to lose some.  I'll plant the remainder maybe tomorrow or the next day.    

Copper for the Goats

Goats can be tough to manage.  Around this time of the year, you can notice their coat becomes dull instead of its normal shiny appearance.  It also has a coarse feel to it.  Then they get a "bottle jaw" look to them and diarrhea which indicates the presence of parasites.  They are quite prevalent in our locale.  In addition to treating with Ivermectin, Safeguard and Valbazen, we give them copper boluses.

When I say copper, I mean copper.  The heavy metal comes in the container and you make up capsules by measuring out prescribed amounts.  They feel heavy in your hands.

The trick is to get the goats to take the copper boluses.  I use a device that's normally used to worm cattle and horses.  I first coat the capsules of copper with peanut butter and put in in the wormer gun followed by a generous helping of peanut butter as the chaser.

We straddle the goat, pulling their heads back.  Then I gently insert the worming gun as far down her throat as I can get it and push in on the plunger.  This pushes the two copper capsules down their throats.  We hold their heads back until they've swallowed it all.  We did have cases in which two of the goats recognized something was up and spit it out.  We just do it again until they swallow it.

Copper has a life of 4 - 6 months.  Perhaps this will do the trick and will say farewell to the parasites.  We'll keep monitoring the goats daily.

Waiting on Fall to Get Here

As I was out walking yesterday evening, I was doing some thinking.  I don't know if it's like it where you live, but this summer has been long, hot, and dry.  Summer is always like that, you might say, but this one seems worse.  Is it that I'm getting older?  I don't know.  I like to have lots of projects to work on, but the hot humid weather just saps all the strength out of me.  

I am looking forward to Fall!  I can't wait until we're not sitting at 80 degrees at 8 in the morning, with temperatures in the mid-90's and the doggone heat index saying "feels like 105."  When that first cool front comes in, we will be so very happy!  Perhaps the cooler temps will give me some energy to get some things done.

1. Get the tomatoes transplanted into the garden.

2. Plant all the cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, etc.)

3. Our fall crop of meat bird chicks (50 of them) get mailed to us on Sept 16th.  I need to get the chicken tractor checked out and brooder ready to go.

4. Betsy is getting bigger.  Time to put a breaking halter on her so she'll walk with a rope.

5. Insulation in the attic.  The old fiberglass batt insulation is 26 years old.  It's fallen down and there is no remaining insulation upstairs.  Need to install new batts.  This is DEFINITELY a job for cooler weather!

6. Cooler weather will get LuLu out of heat stress and enable us to begin milking her again.

Hopefully, a reprieve from the heat is on its way.  So tired of the dog days of summer!  

Soil Cover - An Important Consideration in Soil Health

Covering the soil is one of the most basic things you can do in soil conservation.  If you walk in the woods, you always see the ground covered with decomposing logs, leaves and understory.  Small trees thrive under the canopy followed by grasses.  Bugs and worms thrive beneath the rotting organic matter as rich moist topsoil is being formed.

The photo below just west of our barn was taken five years ago.  There is one tiny patch of grass seen on the bottom right.  What Happened?!  This entire area was once covered with bahia grass and bermuda grass and now this...  It's all dirt.  In the summer, the sun heats up the dirt and dries it out.  When rains come, the soil is washed away.  When winds blow, the dust (our topsoil) is blown away.

In trying to figure the genesis of this problem out, I think it all started with bonfires.  When winds would blow limbs out of the trees, I would stack up a big burn pile.  The pile would continue to grow, and when it got HUGE, especially in the winter, I would light it up and we'd sit around it and enjoy its warmth.  The fires were so big, one time the neighbors called the fire department thinking that our barn was on fire!

I love sitting around a fire, staring into the coals, but the fires killed the grass, exposing the dirt.  The chickens scratched holes in the exposed dirt to take their dust baths.  When tiny grasses started to grow, they dried up quickly in the heat and chickens plucked out the grasses to eat.  The situation went from bad to worse.  I had to change this!

A barren wasteland

We have cows, goats and chickens all grazing on 3 acres.  Soil health aside, this barren wasteland needs to have grass growing on it to feed all the hungry barnyard critters.  I stopped burning the big bonfires and then planted sprigs of bermuda grass in the dirt taken from cuttings.  Our chicken population, due to the minks, was cut in half, taking pressure off of the barren area and allowing the grass to take root and grow.  Moreover, and I can't quite explain it, but for some reason the spring after a very hard freeze, the grass started coming back - first gradually and then quickly.

I took a photo of the same area yesterday.  Although there is still work to be done in bringing this area back to its former glory, a good start has been made.  Grass almost completely covers the old desert-like area.  The animals and the humans are happy with the progress.  Imagine how it would look if we hadn't been in a drought!

A return of our grass pasture

The grassland now gives additional grazing capacity to our animals.  The roots hold the soil together, reducing erosion.  The grass keeps the soil cooler, and gives bugs and worms a place to hide and do their work.  As organic matter decomposes, the soil and its microorganisms thrive, doing their job.  We'll continue to do our part to rehabilitate the area that I negatively affected by unwise choices.  More work to do, but I like before/after photos that show evidence of good stewardship of the land.