Fodder Day 7

It's getting tall on the end that has the drain holes. Now I drain it pretty good and then sit it flat so that the back end can catch up :) Feels funny like astro turf. It's still awesome. Even the kids are noticing the growth every day. My third tray I soaked too long in water and it's not sprouting very quickly. I can't wait to feed this to the bunnies and chickens. They will demolish it in minutes :)

Very busy! We have a softball game this evening so I'm trying to get all my stuff done and dinner made before the game.

Lady (my goat) is due in 23 days. I can't wait!!!

Enjoy the day ya'll!

Fodder Day 5

Wow! I'm super impressed with todays growth! Unfortunately it's only this wonderful on half the tray :/ The half that has the drain holes and WAS growing mold. I am keeping the trays flat today and hoping the other half will catch up, but isn't this cool :)

My little one had her first softball game last night. The weather was horrible I hid behind an umbrella trying to block the wind, it didn't help much but they won! This was the start of the season tournament play so once I got home and looked at the brackets I realized holy shiz they will be playing all day Saturday :/ Kudos, thanks, and much gratitude to my husband ♥ I am NOT a sports mom. I am a homesteader with a gazillion things to do. One of them is clean out the shed I told you guys about so I can empty my shed and make it into super coop. So today the hubs took the little one to all three of her games while I finished cleaning out the shed. The shed is ready to be moved, my Suburban is packed to the gills with keep sakes and other b.s., and my little ones team got 2nd in the tournament. I hate that I missed the games. My little one is the BEST player on her team and I'm not saying this because she's mine. The winning team even told her how great she was. I guess you can pick the team you want to play on which I think it would be crappy not to play with the girls you go to school with but the hubs thinks the winning team will try to get my child by next year. They are 8, lol!

After the shed was clean I came home and felt like I was gonna lose it. We have been so busy these last few days I haven't went to the store, cooked dinner, taken care of my critters the way I like, or cleaned house. I've actually ate McDonalds the last two days and normally I don't eat that crap twice a year. Anyways, even though I'm losing it tonight I'm going to get it together by tomorrow and get to the ding dang store and make cooking for my family a priority. We have games every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for the next several weeks. I regret signing her up but she loves it. I just need to get it together, provide meals for my family and make it to the games. Okay rant over! Have a great weekend ya'll

Fodder Day 4

I forgot to take a pic yesterday, but here's today's growth. I'm also growing mold :/ After some research I realized my house is too hot so today I'm going to put a little fan on the pans and turn the heater down to 69* Hopefully the mold will stop. I only have three pans going since I haven't went to the Dollar Tree again. I also need a new rack it's still not very organized.

Fodder Day 2

No picture it looks pretty much the same with a teeny tiny little sprout coming off the end. Started second tray and I still need more trays.

Getting my bee suit today and I might actually take a picture of myself looking like an astronaut stay tuned :)

Okay Sweetland farm I added a picture just for you :) You can barely see the teeniest tiniest little white sprouts coming out of the end. I'm glad you asked for this picture upon further inspection of this tray I noticed my drainage holes kind of suck and I had water standing in one end which was causing mold to already grow :/ I will make sure it gets drained good after each watering from now on and once this tray is harvested I will add more drain holes :)

Fodder Day 1

I finally got some barley seed, soaked it over night, drained it this morning and put it in a dollar store tray that I had drilled 1/8" holes in one side of. Put another tray under this one to catch the water run off and propped the end with no drain holes up with a flip flop :) My plan is to have eight trays going over the next eight days. I need five more trays from the dollar store and a couple of buckets for easier soaking and draining. Also need something to prop up the one side besides a flip flop. To have gotten this far is exciting. I will keep you posted. Hopefully I get it a little more organized by the end of the week :)

The Buzz

I've wanted to keep bee's for going on five years now. I always have an excuse/reason why I can't do it. This last week destiny had other plans. In one day the ball was rolling for this new adventure :) My woodworking neighbor is excited (almost too excited) about building me two hives. The same day I talked to him about doing that I found a free tour of a bee farm not far from my house. The guy that has this farm was Oklahoma's best beekeeper last year. Went on the tour yesterday he was a super cool dude and I learned a lot. I dreamt about bee's all night. Today the hubs is going to make me two swarm traps. This evening I will discuss in further detail the hive plans with the neighbor. At some point this week I'm going to get a suit, smoker, and some more frames. My hope is to be a beekeeper soon, I'm so excited :)

I still have a gazillion things to do on the homestead. Five roosters still need to make it into the freezer. I did get the barn mucked and aired out and ready for kidding (1 month left). I have my first two meat rabbits that need to be processed. I need to finish cleaning out a shed so I can move the crap out of my shed into the new shed and turn my old shed into a giant coop. I have 25 baby chicks and 15 more in the incubator add that to the thirty something bigs and that's a lot of chickens!!!! This week I must get some barley to start my fodder system. The chickens have been penned up for two weeks with no green stuff to eat so their egg yolks will start getting pale and that makes me sad. I've been gardening a little but need to do more. Can I get a clone of myself please. One that isn't sick with allergies :/

Happy Sunday ya'll! I will post pics of my swarm traps soon :)

Why I stay home.......

So I run into Wal-Mart neighborhood market to grab some paper towels, vitamin E for the goat, and the oh so important coffee creamer. The cashier is telling the customer ahead of me how her daughter works at Whole Foods (Whole Foods is a very expensive health food store) Anyway she is telling the customer how her daughter got into an argument at WF with a customer who was wanting grass fed chicken. My cashier was like "how stupid chickens don't eat grass". So even though I'm ease dropping and not in the conversation I say "trust me they do" I get a look like who asked you and you don't know what your talking about. Then she tells the customer ahead of me. She should have asked for cage free chicken it's cows that are grass fed! Here I say again "chickens do eat grass". I don't think she cared to know the truth since she ignored me and then the customer ahead of me that mamma smarty pants was talking to looked at me and said "As much as they charge for the chicken, I hope they do eat grass" lol! What I got from that conversation is there is a young woman working at Whole Foods that is willing to argue with customers about something she has no clue about, I think she got her manners and brains from her mamma,  I'm glad I don't shop there and I should probably keep my mouth shut while ease dropping :)

The reason..........

why I froze my butt off this Winter while covering these plants. They actually made it! Standing in the snow covering them up I felt like a crazy lady but tonight I will eat the fruits of my labor :)
Enjoy the weekend ya'll!!!

I did it!!!

First an update on the dog drama. Monday morning me and the little one were running late for school and at the corner of our street we met our neighbor coming back home. He waved and I honestly didn't see it. I was concentrating on getting the tardy wee one to school but I asked my daughter did he wave (we do that around here) and she said yes. I was glad I missed it and didn't return the wave. I wanted him to know I'm not happy. Five o'clock comes and we are finally getting back from Wal-Mart (hate that place) and he pulls in the drive. He was very apologetic and sorry. I explained to him that we had a postitive id that it was his dog and that all of this really stressed and bummed me out. He asked if he could replace my birds, I said no. I'm just going to keep them penned up. He asked if we would like a free jump rental sometime and I said okay that works. So although I'm sad we lost our birds, one day in the future my kids are going to have a fun day on a big inflatable something for free :) I'm also relieved and shocked that my other neighbor who had lost chickens to the dog (the one that didn't give me the heads up) never even told him and he talks to her almost every day. I had only assumed he knew his demon dog was doing that and hadn't done anything about it. Glad I was wrong. He also told me we have mountain lions around here. I said I know I saw one, he said no like cougars, I said I know I saw one. I still don't think he believed me, lol!

So the chickens have been penned up since Friday afternoon. I have mentioned before I have way too many roosters and being all penned up the girls don't have a chance. So last night I gathered up three big ugly boys and put them in a cage and this morning.........drumroll please..................I butchered them from start to finish all by myself!!!!! I was nervous as hell, I cried a little, and I shook a lot but I got through the first one fine, the second one fine, and then the third one. He must have known what was up because he bit me right away. The first two deaths were humane, quick, and drama free. The third one would have to be in it's own category of CRAZY!!! But it's done they are in the fridge and I'm super proud of myself :) I still need to butcher about three more but I will wait until next week.

I planted some veggies yesterday and got my seed potatoes. It felt good to be in the dirt again. I will take pictures as soon as I get that area cleaned up. My chickens have scratched all the straw, dirt, leaves, and rocks everywhere. It's a disaster....

It's a beautiful day, 85* I'm headed back outside :)))))

180

The stress Thursday and Friday of the chicken eating dog, the loss of my chickens, and the cold rainy weather really got me down. I should have known Saturday when I sat for hours watching Alaska The Last Frontier on Netflix, didn't cook dinner, and jumped on everyone about letting me be lazy for once that something was up. Last night I waited until the last of the daylight to do my chores and when I looked in on the bunnies and baby chicks it was the first time I smiled in days. Love those baby critters ♥

Today is better. I didn't have murderous nightmares so I woke up happy. I've kept my chickens penned up the last two days and they are all still alive and my anxiety is gone. Got all my girls to school, a little late, daylight savings had them dragging their feet this morning but all were happy and not grouchy for once. Have taken down all the wind breaks in the chicken/bunny yard to air out coops and hutches. I'm wearing a t-shirt and shorts while working today. My spirit needed this weather, my skin needed to feel the warmth of the sun, and my body needed this extra physical activity :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day and the ones that are lucky enough to have nice weather, ENJOY IT!!!!! 

Feathers everywhere!!!!!

Two days ago I watched a dog walk 10 feet from my back porch with one of my hens in it's mouth. I got outside and penned up as many chickens as I could before I had to leave and pick up my daughter. We came back and 45 minutes later got the rest of the pea brains penned up. While we were in the process of doing that a lady came down the hill with her black dog and stopped exactly where my chicken had been. I had a chat with her about how I think her dog is killing my chickens, she didn't think so, and I wasn't 100% sure but I was bitchy towards her and was certain it was her dog until we left again to go to the store. There was another black dog near the road. Next day I'm ready for the dog. I'm outside all ding dong day until 1:30 I go inside with a bad feeling take a shower and by 2:00 I hear my hen scream look out the window and see the feathers :( The damn dog got her while I was showering!!!! I throw on some clothes walk around my yard saying numerous choice words and trying to pen up the pea brains AGAIN! They won't go in and I need to pick my little one up. What can happen in the 10 minutes I'm gone? I know more park at the school and my MIL calls freaking out. She pulled into the drive saw the dog with my bird in it's mouth. She peeled out and started honking the dog dropped the bird and it ran off. I hurry back home to find one chicken under the porch and feathers EVERYWHERE!!!! I find another rooster off in the neighbors yard, it was the one the dog dropped. Me, my little one, and MIL eventually get all the chickens put up. We see the dog up the hill and I asked my MIL if that was the dog, she said nope. What?!? I just chewed out it's owner yesterday, oops. The hubs stops by on the way to the shop. He finds the dog at the corner grabs it by it's throat asks his mom if that was the dog. Yep! He asks the people on the corner if it's their dog. They say no it's the people behind them. The hubs goes over there, the parents weren't home but he explained the situation to the oldest child and told her they were welcome to come look at our yard since it's covered in feathers. I texted my other neighbor to see if she had lost any chickens lately. She said yes and it's so and so's dog. WHAT! A little heads up would have been nice Geesh!!!! The owners of the dog (pastors at a church) haven't called, came down, said sorry, nothing. I'm seriously upset with their lack of giving a crap! I had a really hard time sleeping last night. It sounds stupid but I woke up several times from nightmares of dogs killing chickens. I also woke up mad as hell. I'm so sick of people not taking responsibility. So I'm going to deal with their dog. It likes to kill my chickens around 2 everyday. I don't know if it will be by today since they are penned up and it's raining but I'm going to be waiting for it. It's not going to kill another thing on this street!