Saving it For Later

Canning.  Pickling.  Freezing.  Lacto-Fermentation.  Dehydrating.  Some of the ways that we preserve the harvest when we can't eat it all at once.  It's a good thing there are all these methods of preserving for us.  As it turns out, some things will save for later when it comes to the four-legged animals on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm - like hay.

October is historically a dry month, but this year so was July, August, and September.  The grass has died.  It crackles underfoot.  Normally, the grass is still growing, even if it has gone to seed.  The cows and goats rummage around out on the pasture and try to find something to eat, but there's nothing to be had.  Normally, there's grass out there for them until the first frost in late November.

Two months ago we picked up 75 square bales of hay that we put up in the barn loft.  The loft is like a pantry or a root cellar for the cows.  The hay sits up there until the cold fronts blow through.  The creaky sounds of the weathervane spinning up on the roof of the barn signals the arrival of fall or winter.  And then, at the urging of the gentle moo-ing of the cows, square bales are lowered from the loft into the stalls and rationed out over the winter.

We also purchase round bales, 10 per year to be precise.  We cover them with tarps to keep them dry as they sit right outside the pasture.  Actually, it's not really a tarp.  It's a used vinyl billboard that gets recycled when it fades and comes down off the big poles on the side of the interstate, and it works perfectly.  We just turn the tarp to the other side so the ad for the ambulance chasing lawyer is facing downward.

Normally, we don't roll out bales of hay until December or maybe even January, but this year?  Well, I've already rolled some out for the hungry cows and goats that can't get nourishment from a drought stricken pasture.  From the 10 bales we bought last year, there's four left.  I have called Mr. Broussard and reserved 10 more round bales for delivery in November or December.  The cows hear the creaky gate open and watch from afar as I roll a bale into the pasture.  Then they run as quickly as they can to the spot under the pecan trees where we feed hay.

I like to watch the cows with a new bale of hay.  When a fresh bale is out, they circle it, and then start rubbing against it with their necks.  Finally, they'll start eating from the very center of the bale.  I figure that to a cow, the center of the hay bale is like the center of a cinnamon roll for humans.  Yum!

There's an outside chance that we could get a rain shower or two that might perk up the grass and get some growing, but in the next 10 days, the forecast only shows 5% chance of precipitation.  It looks like from here on out, it will be round bales of hay, square bales of hay and the occasional trough of sweet feed.  Almost forgot, we'll be harvesting sweet potatoes soon and we'll feed them all of the sweet potato vines.  Cows absolutely love that!  I'm also going to be planting a large patch of turnips.  Once January comes, the cows will enjoy the turnip roots and greens.

Fall Family Fun Day

I normally post Sunday night, Monday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night.  Last Thursday night, I was 'radio silent.'  We had a big project going on that occupied my time and by the time I settled behind the computer, my eyes were heavy, and I headed to bed.  I'll tell you about what we had going on that required a lot of organization and planning tonight.

We attend a small country church outside of Jennings.  On any given Sunday, we'll have between 25-30 people - hardly a mega-church, more like a family of different people drawn together!  The demographics of our church represent a common issue across our nation in that we're aging.  We aren't being replaced by a large populations of active, involved young people willing to pick up the torch and serve.  To serve our community with good, wholesome family fun, we decided to put on Fall Family Fun Day on Saturday with all welcome and everything free.

We began praying that God would send us families that we could love on and minister to.  We launched a social media campaign to advertise the event and made up banners that we put up around town like at the Feed Store and community bulletin boards.  Of course we invited family, friends and neighbors.  We also made up signs, copying the Burma Shave roadside advertising done in the 20's, beckoning travelers with "Fun Jumps," "Free Sno-Cones," "Free Pony Rides," "Free Hot Dogs," and the last one a big arrow with the word HERE on it near the entrance of the church.  We erected the signs on the main road both north and south of the church.

The day finally arrived!  The event was scheduled from 10AM - 2PM, so we got there at 7AM to begin setting everything up.  It was a beautiful, blue-sky day with highs only in the 70's.  We were so busy, the following photos were mostly taken before the crowd showed up, because there was no time for photo taking with all that needed to be done.  We had a registration table and passed out tickets as we had door prizes that congregants made/bought to be given away including homemade pie, $25 gift cards, homemade gifts, local honey, toys, crafts, etc.  We offered prayer and information about the church and passed out tracts.  Popcorn was popping, sno-cones were being made along with hot dogs and drinks.

The wind was gusting at 20 mpg, so we were a little worried about the fun jumps.  Fortunately, they were anchored down securely with stakes and kids bounced with reckless abandon inside the bounce houses.  Games were scattered around and smiles and laughter were in no short supply!

Since our church is small and elderly, neighboring churches like East Ridge Baptist Church in Lake Charles (who sent their youth group), Immanuel Baptist Church in Lake Charles (who brought horses for pony rides), and Bethany Baptist in LeBleu Settlement who all arrived to help out.  It was a blessing to see the family of God helping out one another.  Kids got a kick out of the pony rides, being led around the church property in a slow walk.  You should have seen their faces, some riding time after time.

We had a sound system set up playing music and every hour we'd call the kids and adults to a central area for the door prize giveaways.  Each hour we had fun sermon illustrations where the Gospel was shared and we prayed with our guests.

We had over a hundred people in attendance, not counting the volunteers and church members.  When it was done, we gave thanks that we were able to pull this off.  We hope we were able to be a blessing to kids and adults in our community.  We give thanks to God and all the glory goes to Him!

Years ago, I followed a blog by Herrick Kimball called "The Deliberate Agrarian."  In THIS POST, Mr. Kimball laid out his Agrarian-Style Economic Self Defense Plan.  In this beautifully written essay, he laid out his plan.  The #7 item in his plan (the last but not the least in his list) stated the following:

Find community and get involved. Get yourself into a small rural church where folks care about and will help each other. Country people look out for and help each other. That’s always been the case. It’s not going to change when times get bad. But they won't be paying your mortgage for you.

And that's what we found at our little church (Cornerstone).  People love one another and pray for one another.  They bring food when you are sick.  Fresh vegetables are grown and brought to services and given away on our way out.  The Word is taught and a strong spirit of Christian charity is practiced.  Herrick was right!  I hope you can find the same!

2026 Meat Birds - Week Four

We're halfway there.  Cornish Cross Chickens take 8 weeks to mature for slaughter.  They go from being a chick weighing an ounce or so to a full grown behemoth weighing 8 pounds - all in 56 days.  I feed them three times a day, putting 18% protein chick grower in the two gutters you see below.  At night, I take the feed away and leave them only water and the occasional bug that flies in attracted by the heat lamp.  We still push them to fresh grass everyday.  By the time we move them the next morning, they've completed clipped the grass down to the dirt.

This evening I walked out to the chicken tractor as is our custom on weigh-in Wednesday, and picked out an average sized bird out of the 50 in there.  I took him to the garage.  He was heavy and hot to the touch.  

Let's put him up on the scale to see if they are putting on weight.  So far, week by week, here are the weights we observed:

At the end of week one:        8 ounces

At the end of week two:        20 ounces

At the end of week three:       33 ounces

And at the end of week 4:    49 ounces    (3 lbs. 1 oz.)

Last year at the end of the fourth week, they weighed 44 ounces, so we are a full 5 ounces ahead.

In four weeks we'll be butchering to put up our chicken in the freezer for a year's supply.  Hopefully, we'll get them there.  Today a neighbor told me that this week a mink wiped out his neighbor's entire flock of laying hens except for one.  I have the chicken tractor lined with chicken wire, but mink are cunning and vicious.  We learned about mink the hard way with our laying hens, you might remember.  I think I'll walk out and go check on our meat birds right now.

The Invisible Sign

One morning last month, Tricia and I were walking at the park.  We normally walk three laps and that gives us around 4,000 steps.  We talk, watch people fishing, and dodge the ducks that walk about by the lake waiting for people to come feed them.  They make a big mess on the walking trail and we get extra steps in as we maneuver around duck droppings.

I glanced up at the entrance ramp to I-10 westbound and noticed a pink Cadillac gliding toward the merging lanes.  "You know what that is?" I asked my wife.  "Yep, Mary Kay.  They award excellent salespeople with a pink Cadillac upon reaching a certain level in the company."  For the record, I don't purchase cosmetics.  I know nothing about cosmetics.  Somewhere in the past, I studied the founder, Mary Kay Ash.  Aside from running a very successful company, she has a quote that I like that shows so much wisdom:

"No matter how busy you are, you must take time to make the other person feel important. Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, "Make me feel important.  Not only will you succeed in sales.  You will succeed in life! Never forget this message when working with people.  "  Mary Kay Ash

 

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In so many books about people, namely "How to Win Friends and Influence People," by Dale Carnegie, this same principle is taught.  People want to feel special, noticed.  You see it in your daily life.  In the rat race where you are a number, another cog in the wheel, people like to hear their name.  They value when people listen to them and take the time to get to know them.

I remember being a kid that my Mom & Dad told me that if there was one thing I learned it was to be considerate of other people.  Be kind.  Be gracious.  Be polite and genuinely interested in other people.  In a dog eat dog world, many people are concerned only with themselves.  That's why if you ask them questions about themselves and get to know them, you set yourself apart from the pack.

Now motive is important.  If you do this with bad intentions and ulterior motives, people can sniff that out in an instant.  That's what's called manipulation.  Jesus, on the other hand, taught, "So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do unto you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."  Matthew 7:12

How true.  Don't we all want to be treated with dignity and respect?  Don't we all want to feel important and noticed?  Of course we do.  Remember the invisible sign around people's necks.  Making people we come into contact with in our daily lives feel important may not win us a pink Cadillac (maybe it will), but it makes the world a better place and each of us better people.  It's also a testimony of the God we serve and He gets all the glory.

Let your light so shine before others, that they might see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven.  Matthew 5:16

Time For Another Go-Round

Betsy 

Over the past several months, due to the excessive heat and lack of rainfall, LuLu was suffering with heat exhaustion.  We stopped milking her to attempt to give her a break and allowed little Betsy to consume all the milk.  We doctored on LuLu, giving her drenches of molasses, apple cider vinegar and magnesium and sprayed her down with water to cool her body temperature.  During the break, Betsy has grown!  But we've been without milk.  A milk cow producing no milk for the family is not good.

Fortunately, over the past week, the temperatures have moderated with lows in the morning in the 60's and highs only reaching 90.  LuLu, although not back to normal, has rebounded somewhat.  We decided to begin separating the momma and baby at night and will be milking LuLu tomorrow morning.  It was quite a rodeo to get Betsy in the barn where we closed her up behind the gate.  LuLu will be making milk for us all night.

Betsy is not a happy camper!  She is used to nursing whenever she wants.  After watching "True Grit" tonight, I stepped outside to walk.  As I walked around the property, I could hear Betsy moo-ing in the barn.  Her bellowing echoed around the neighborhood.  I'm hoping the neighbors will be understanding.  Tomorrow morning we'll walk out and milk LuLu.  I'm sure her production will be down, but milking a cow is supply and demand.  We'll work and get her production back up.

It's not just us.  I read tonight on the Internet that Feliciana's Best Milk stopped delivering milk as did Southside Produce.  The explanation given is that the cows were hot and milk supply went way down.  They say with temperatures dropping, the supply of milk should return to normal soon.  We'll see.  The grass is pretty much finished and there's no rain in the forecast.  I've called and reserved 10 round bales to be delivered in December.  We still have 5 round bales left over from last year after rolling out one to the bull and one to the cows.  

Jersey cows just don't fare well in our hot, humid climate.  Better weather is on the way girls.  Hold tight.  Fresh milk tomorrow morning!

Mosquitoes - The Pesky Plague

 Ouch!  Slap, slap, slap...

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As summertime winds down slowly in South Louisiana, the heat and humidity is gradually getting bearable with morning temperatures in the upper 60's and highs only getting to around 90 degrees.  We welcome that!  One of the problems we still have is mosquitoes.  With the lack of rainfall we've had around here, you would think the population would drop off, since they need water to lay eggs but surprisingly they haven't.

There are several reasons for this, in my estimation.  We are surrounded by rice fields and crawfish ponds that are kept flooded by deep water wells.  The mosquitoes, despite the drought, still have plenty of places to lay their eggs.  Another reason is our water catchment project.  On the back side of the house for aesthetic reason, we have water barrels situated underneath the drip line of the roof and especially underneath the eaves.  With a minimal rainfall we can harvest hundreds of gallons of rainwater that we use to keep the animal's water troughs full.  Some of this is used to irrigate the garden and fruit trees and some of it the honeybees locate and line the barrels to drink water and bring it back to the hives.  They use a form of evaporative cooling to keep the temperature regulated in the hives.

In our parish, part of our property taxes go to fund the mosquito abatement project.  It is a two-phased approach to keeping the mosquito population in check.  First, they have mosquito trucks with a fogger on the back that drive on every road and back up down people's driveways and spray the chemical fog across the landscape.  They are supposed to do this only after nightfall.  Since honeybees don't fly at night, the thinking is that they are all in the hive and safe from the chemicals.  The problem is, the mosquito truck drivers want to get back home early, so many of them start fogging BEFORE its dark.  We've had to chase them off the property several times.  For that reason, we've gone to their offices and put our address on a NO SPRAY list.  Good in theory, but the drivers, covering miles every night aren't always diligent in checking addresses.  As you would assume, we don't want our honeybees killed by the chemicals and we don't want it getting into our honey either!

The second phase of this project is mosquito planes that fly overhead at night spraying over hundreds of acres with chemicals to kill the pesky pests.  They always fly at night and there is no real way to stop them from spraying overhead.  The mosquitoes are still really bad and one wonders how many there would be if they weren't spraying.  I often think about how difficult it was for the early settlers in Louisiana and how they dealt with the mosquitoes.  I guess they just slapped a lot as the pesky insects sucked their blood.  Screened in porches were a necessity.

People always say, "I can't wait for the cold weather to come in and kill these mosquitoes!"  I'm sure there is some truth to this, but I've been to Alaska and remember being in Anchorage and was surprised at how bad the mosquitoes were up there.  Cold weather must slow them down, but it doesn't stop them.  People sometimes say that hurricanes will blow all the mosquitoes away, but we've learned firsthand that this is simply not true.  Some of the worst times for mosquitoes are after hurricanes.  You're trying to clean up debris in your yard and those pesky critters just don't give you a break.

I'll be thankful for mosquito season to be over when it will be peaceful and relaxing to sit outside or work in the garden.

2026 Meat Birds - Week Three

It's weigh-in Wednesday!  Let's talk about our Cornish Cross meat birds.  There have been lots of changes going on since last week.  First, I removed the brooder to give them more room.  They are growing exponentially and the protective brooder while ideal for chicks, didn't leave them with enough elbow room once they start putting on weight.  I rolled it up and stored it back in the barn and now the birds have plenty of space to move around and eat grass and bugs inside the chicken tractor.

They bunched up at first, unfamiliar with their new-found freedom, but soon moved around liking the new surroundings and space.  They'll clip down the grass in the tractor with the quickness, so I'll roll the tractor to fresh grass each day.

You can see the second and third changes in the photo below.  First, I moved out the three small feeders that are designed for baby chicks.  While perfect at first, there is no longer room for them to gather around at the supper table at the little chick feeders.  To replace the small feeders, I moved in a 12 foot span of PVC gutters.  The gutter will be the new feeder and you can scroll up to the top photo to see the chicks breaking bread around the gutter.  There's now room, but I'll move in a second gutter in the upcoming weeks to give them even more room.

The third change is the waterers.  Up to now I have had two 1 gallon waterers in with the chicks, but these chickens drink a lot of water and I find myself filling the 1 gallon containers several times a day.  I installed a bell waterer to alleviate this.  You can see it hanging from the top of the tractor.  You can see a cascade of water flowing down from the top.

The water flows into the bell waterer from a plastic tube feeding off of a 5 gallon bucket filled with water.  I have the 5 gallon bucket full of water sitting atop 2 buckets to use gravity to flow the water through the tube and down into the bell waterer.  This year I have the buckets in a wagon so that when I roll the tractor, I'll just roll the water in the wagon as well.  This keeps me from having to enter the tractor to fill water.  I simply fill the yellow bucket with fresh water from outside.

Time to weigh!  Each Wednesday I grab one bird out of the flock - an average bird, not the biggest, not the smallest.  I think this gives us a good idea of their overall growth.  I carry it into the garage and place it on the kitchen scale.  It's not a little cute chick anymore.  It's a monster.  Big feet.  Ugly.  Sorry, but it's true.  Around Easter time, people give kids cute baby chicks.  You wouldn't want to give something that looks like this to a child.  It just looks mean.

Here is the bird looking at me warily standing on top of the scale.  The glare blocks the weight so scroll down to the next photo to see this week's weight.

At the end of week three, our bird weighs 2 pounds 1 ounce or 33 ounces.  That is a weight gain of 13 ounces over last week - almost a pound weight gain.

At the end of week three of last year, the bird weighed 29 ounces, so we're 4 ounces ahead of where we were same time last year.

We're right on track!  We still have 50 healthy birds 38% toward their projected slaughter date.  Everything is progressing nicely.  Tune in next Wednesday for the next weigh-in.