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Showing posts from 2013

Why Did The Cornish Giant Cross the Road

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To get to the tractor!  Scratch for delectables, feel grass between their toes,  build up those drum sticks, fertilize the field - lot's of reasons really.  And they are all important to building a plump, chemical free, juicy, tasty freezer filling chicken. Need I say more? Here's the Chicken Motor Home.  They quite liked the ride down the road, over the gate, and into the pasture. The Chicken Tractor: the pile of wood is just waiting for the wood storage balcony to be built. Always great to sit around and admire our handiwork after the project is done! Last night we stood on the balcony transfixed with the light show surrounding us. Spectacular against a backdrop of dark purple. Great streaks of energy criss crossing in mesh patterns.  Walls of light.  The darkness punctuated by sizzling bolts seemingly giving Joseph's mountain some primordial shock therapy. Acupuncture by lightning.  A blood red glow low to the Southwest,  not the latest fire but an illusion

Turkeys

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Just finished the summer version of the Turkey Palace.  It's set in about a quarter of an acre behind a stucko wire fence. They sure seem to like it.  Next year were considering a Turkey Tractor, a mobile big enough to cart over our pastures. While Jo was in Britain some erstwhile volunteers and I whacked about 60 chickens.  Most of them Cornish Giant meat birds that we grew in a Chicken Tractor, ala, Salatin.  Thing I've learned: Lots of help is required Water temperature = 147 and it's critical A prewash speeds the process First time I've tried that on such a scale.  Went so well were about to do it again with another fifty.  Astonishing birds.  I have never seen anything grow so fast.  They are delicious also.  We had our first one three meals ago.  A nine pounder.  We let them grow a little large.  This was a load of hay, 100 bales that Brother Tom and I pulled into the yard.  It's waiting for the hay elevator to get a motor and some barn mods

I'm Back!

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Haven't been posting anything for a while.  A combination of moving to different technology - tablets and hand helds  and having my Laptop getting a keyboard replaced.  All nice and spiffy now. But the spell check is not working in Blogger so that should make it interesting. Been wondering about the whole farming thing.  Attending a lot of of courses and reading the farmers messiah, Joel Salatin.  He's been an amazing inspiration.  Here's our new chicken tractor based on his design.  This one has adjustable trailer wheels cuz I was too lazy to build his simple lift and puller.  I will do that when I build some more tractors.  This one comes with a built in spilt feed cleaner!     As you might be able to tell.  This lot's about ready for some processing.  I am getting an urge for baked chicken!  Had a couple of roosters fall prey to what I think was a fox.  Last night all the dogs and I slept out on the veranda to keep a watch.  Well, I tried to sleep.  The Doggies

Penned In

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Back from a trip down south.  While I was away one of our Sows decided it was time to bring forth some new piggies into the midst.  So Jo-Ann, with the help of some friendly neighbours got to handle the event. Fortunately, we've kept track of all the breeding dates of the five sows we currently have and can figure out when they should farrow.  Job last before I left was to get Peg the Pig into a farrowing stall we had built.  In a hurry we just screwed a pallet across the back of a stall to make a safe area for the little piglets.  Complete with heat lamp it makes a pretty comfy place with no danger of the Mom laying on the piglets. We lost five of the litter of eight.  A pretty tough blow.  The cause seems to be that the piglets got away from the mom and got too cold.  The culprit is suspected to be too much hay. Picking up from that tragedy we have been building new stalls with farrowing rails.  We're waiting for the next four sows to give birth and as their du

Snow Storm

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It's April 6th and I am sitting at our kitchen table at 8:30 in the morning.  It's a struggle  to see the trees at the Southern edge of our front property due to a blinding blizzard.  This has been going on for two days now.  A couple of days ago we were congratulating ourselves over getting through another winter and planning on putting away the long johns, and how it looked like the balmy days were here again.  Plus 10 temperatures.  Mother Nature may have taken slight at being taken for granted. The three bird feeders off the front balcony are filled with Juncos, their feathers all fluffed up against the driving Eastern snow.  It's only -5c but it seems a lot colder.  It's certainly long john season again.  For a while anyway. The snow will put a bit of a damper on the pig feeder project.  I was hoping to get that done before my trip to the coast. It was mud season a couple of days ago so I built a couple of pallet walks to the green house and barn. I

Bolting

The spinach, that is.  I've become resigned to the fact that I am unable to grow spinach in the green house.  Even in the winter time it gets too warm.  I planted spinach several weeks ago and when I checked yesterday it was six inches high and starting to bolt.  As I have suspected for a while now, I can grow tomatoes or lettuce in the same green house during the winter months but not both.. We've just had over a foot of snow fall in mid March.  And it looks like it's not over yet.  It's time to start putting plastic covers on the tire garden and melting the snow.  As soon as I can work the soil, perhaps in as little as a week, I can start planting spinach and lettuce outside. I haven't been doing much on this blog as of late.  We have decided to become an actual, farm and so have been setting up our business.  Our Website is www.savoryfarm.ca.  We also have a Facebook page.  I have been astonished at the business it has brought in.  Hopefully we'll be able

King of The Hill

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The doggies love that game.  All the hillocks around the yard, remnants of the winter's snow plowing operations, have little doggy platforms at the top.  Great places to hang out and survey the fields.  We're over wintering two boars and five sows.  Hoping for lots of weaners come spring.  They do love to prance around the one acre field the renovated barn is in.  I installed a motion sensor yard light and was surprised last night to see it cycling on and off.  I had forgotten to close the door to their barn bedding and they were out galavanting under the stars.  The girls like to go over to the blue shed where Polka Dot, our full grown boar, resides to chat him up.  We're pretty sure we have three sows bred now.  As they come into heat we bring them over to the Boar's compound and let them spend a night or so together.  Actually, there's no need to bring them there as they will already be smooching him through the fence.  The blue spots on the sow bel