Website still coming soon

I know I said by the end of the week, but I was overestimating my abilities a bit, hehe.  I purchased a template, and I'm making it look good, I only just need about 10 really good photos for the front page.  I can't really use my iPhone photos, they aren't large enough for most of them, and the coloration isn't quite right.  My wife has a good camera that I'm going to abscond with this afternoon, and take some shots.

I've had a long week off, and work starts again today, but I do feel like I've accomplished quite a bit.  My best work was moving the solar panels to a more permanent position, and cleaning them off.  It's a bright sunny day, and each of the 11 working panels is producing about 90% of maximum power, maybe a bit less.  I'm getting 900 watts at peak times, which is the most I've ever had.  I have one panel that was shattered, so it's not putting out much, and one more wasn't working at all, so really there are 10 good panels running.

It would be nice to start some more projects, but I don't have much more time.  I am certainly ahead of where I was last year though, and it will be nice to have a warmer house once I insulate the crawlspace a bit more, and seal up the holes in the fabric.  I am really, really looking forward to the day when my home has more than 4 inches of insulation...hopefully next summer, if all goes well!

Website coming soon!

So, I reported last week that I finally obtained www.sunset-meadows.com as the primary site for our farm.  I did a little work on it last night, made some email address and mucked around with some settings.  I will be creating a welcome page with MS Frontpage, probably tonite, and I will upload it so that there will actually be a placeholder.  I will be adding "Contact" "About" and hopefully soon "Podcast" links on the front page.  You can expect the look of the site to change over time, especially after I hire out some graphic design and PHP programming.  Once upon a time, I knew a little bit of HTML programming, but it would be like hiring a baby to paint your living room.  He's not very good, and he can only reach about three feet up!  Nonetheless, there will be a site by weeks end.  With pictures.

CAMPING!

I've been camping twice this summer, and both times were excellent.  The first time was waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere, a beautiful location in the cold, cold foothills of Alberta.  Yesterday, we got back from another great location, but this time it was HOT!  Despite having to replace the alternator in my wife's SUV (in the parking lot of Canadian Tire), we made it just a few hours later than planned, and enjoyed one of the hottest weekends this summer.  We got back yesterday, sweating in the vehicle which unfortunately has no functioning AC (booooo).  It was busy in town, mostly out of towners going home from camping.  

GARDEN

I'm pretty much calling it quits on the bigger garden, there are some things that will be harvestable, mainly carrots, but I made a fatal error when I failed to add enough manure and mulch.  The soil fertility is too low to produce much, but if I add mulch and manure right now, it will be ready for next year, or the year after if the house building project overtakes my time, which I suspect it will.  I has selected a place for my new-and-improved greenhouse, which will be constructed from the timbers of the old one.  This one will have double wall of plastic, and a plywood back wall, and will be attached to posts that will be buried in cement.  I may be a slow learner, but I eventually get there.

LIVESTOCK

The chickens managed nicely without me here for 24 hours, and they are getting bigger.  I can now tell which are hens, and which are roosters.  It's about 50/50, which means I'll have plenty of hens to pick from when I select some layers too keep over the winter!  There might be 1 rooster, only to try and build a small flock of babies in the springtime.  I've also decided to really expand the flock next year.  I'll need a better feeding and watering system, but that's not too challenging.  I will be building a pole barn soon, and other than a few calf stalls, the main bulk will be devoted to raising chickens and turkeys.  I plan to have a full 2000 birds next year, and I'm going to try and mix my own feed.  That way, I will be able to assure that there are no GMO's or other unwanted things, and hopefully save some money.  Feed is cheap, but I'll need about 18,000 pounds of it, so even a few cents per pound savings will magnify to thousands of dollars.  I will be adding some calves next year, maybe six or seven, and I will be running the birds on the same pasture as the cattle.  I have also toyed with the idea of adding goats, since they will enjoy eating the thistle and foxtail which have regrettably become entrenched in the pasture in some locations.  Instead of portable fencing, I will be using mainly permanent fencing, at least for now.  It will be over 6 feet high, with the bottom being strung with chicken wire, or plastic netting to keep the birds inside when they're smaller.  If I can keep a steady supply of water, and feed available, the birds will pretty much manage themselves!  They will have a vast area to forage in, and I will be able to concentrate on getting a house built.  If I need to separate any animals, putting temporary fencing inside the main fenceline is quite simple.  This is actually what I had planned from the beginning, pretty much.

Whilst camping in the foothills, it hailed.  We had just set up our tents and trailers in a new location.  The kids loved the hail, while the adults weren't quite so enthusiastic.

The chickens running out to pasture after sleeping in the shed overnight.  This is so entertaining, that I will have to make a video and upload to youtube.

Monkey boy on his monkey throne.  My son's first camping trip, and he enjoyed it!  He patiently sat in his seat, or would climb around on the blanket.  Both kids were well behaved and put up with the cool morning admirably, especially my daughter.  I'd like to take her hunting in a few years, when she's ready.  We'll be bringing a trailer, mainly for my comfort.

It can't be almost over!!!

    It's August 18th, and most of the fun summer stuff has come and gone.  My birthday, my 10th Anniversary, my first camping trip, and we just have one more camping trip left.  Here are some updates...

GARDEN

Not much to report, except that the garden took a back seat this year to the chickens.  We got a good bit of peas, and I expect some carrots, but not enough to store for us, never mind sell at market...  I have a pretty good idea why the garden didn't do much.  I tilled up some virgin prairie soil, but I never added much for manure or organic material.  This fall I will be piling up some manure from my neighbor on the rows, and then mulching over that with some old hay that I bought earlier for some reason.  There were some areas that were noticably more productive, and all of these areas had manure on them last year.  I guess I could have added some amendments, but I only had so much time!  Gardening is difficult in this area, even with very fertile soil.
I will be rebuilding my greenhouse, and also making another one, I've just been scouting out a good spot to put them both.  I need to continue building my wind fence, winter is coming, and I don't need a repeat of last years snow drifting and wind beating on the house!

CHICKENS

The chickens have thus far been my most successful project of all time!  Since I last posted, we lost two more birds to a couple of storms, which blew the door shut on the coop.  No other casualties, and we have lost 24 birds to date.  The chickens are over six weeks old at this point, about halfway to maturity.  They are foraging extensively, sometimes going up to 120 feet from the shed that they still sleep in overnight.  I don't see any real reason that they couldn't stay in the shed for the rest of their lives, since we let them out every day anyhow.  It's tremendously amusing to watch the mass exodus of chickens in the morning when we open the door.  They do have continuous access to a smallish patch of grassy pasture, but they much prefer to range wherever they want!  They are eating a large amount of feed, but I am pretty certain that they eat a great deal of live plants as well.  They are constantly picking at anything and everything, wandering through the tall grass and weeds.

FUTURE PLANS

I've already starting making plans for livestock next year.  I will be keeping several hens over the winter, hopefully in a larger barn that I plan to build, and I've been scouting a location for that as well.  We also need to fix our house up so we can sell it, and decide what we're doing for a new home.  I have a plan that I proposed to my wife, building a smaller 1.5 story home with a cement pad floor that we could at some point add to and then convert into a garage.  It could be quite quick to build, and wouldn't cost very much.  The house would have a small main floor, and a loft which could have another bedroom.  I'm negotiating this idea with the co-emperor, my lovely wife.
As for the barn that I mentioned, I can build it in three days with cement posts and a dirt floor, just like my smaller shed.  This one will be somewhat taller, and a lot wider/longer, but use much the same engineering.  Three rows of posts, cemented into the ground, connected at the top, middle and bottom with some dimensional lumber.  A simple set of rafters, made from 2x6 boards, topped with plywood or OSB.  The framing would be cheap, but I would like to put some siding on it, and a tin roof would make it look nice.  I would add stalls for some bottle calves that I'm planning to add next year, and there would be room for many more chickens.  I would like to have up to 1500 birds next year, and maybe an additional 200 turkeys.  I can have up to 2000 chickens and 300 turkeys without having to get "licensed" by our communist overlords.  Add some cattle, berries, fruit trees and whatnot, and you've got the potential for some decent profit, enough to replace my current income!

FAMILY

My son is walking now!  He just started on August 17th, and I was the first one to see it : )  I always knew that he could walk, but the mental barrier was there, and he kept getting back down to crawl.  Now that he's up and walking, he's going to be practicing all the time!
My daughter is waiting for me to come play some Lego with her, so I'll end with that.  As you can probably tell, I have so many things I still want to do this year!

What we have here is a failure to communicate!

Now Hiring:  Pied Piper for chickens.
Must be able to hypnotize and herd poultry with magic flute.

Any takers?

Well, I guess another solution is in order then.  Tonite was supposed to be the night I moved the chickens from their comfortable shed, out into the wild free range pasture I had prepared for them.  I completed a reasonable and portable shelter, moved the food and water, surrounded a large area with electronet, and opened the shed door.  Result?  At this second, every chicken is still inside the shed, and it's closed away.  It turns out, you can't just move their food and water, and expect them to find it and move in.  They kind of liked where they were living, and aren't quite ready to leave!

I suspect the solution to this is quite simple:  Build a tunnel between the shed, and the new home, and allow them to range between the two.  I might be able to get them all out of the shed, then quickly close up the opening, and kind of shuffle them into the ranging area.  I will do that at the crack of dawn tommorow.  I'll let you know how that works out...

GARDEN

Well, my garden is terribly neglected, yet is still doing decently well in some areas, not so well in others.  The whole plan to seed alfalfa, quinoa, amaranth, and clover failed to take root.  Literally.  None of the seeds survived, probably pecked away by birds or something else.  As usual, I'm pretty sure I know what I can do to fix that.  Seedballs!  Throw equal parts compost, and dry powdered clay into a mixer, in this case, my cement mixer, put my seed mix in there, and add water.  The mixture will form small clumps, the size of which will vary by how much clay vs water there is, how long it turns etc.  These seedballs can be tossed on the ground, and birds are much less likely to eat them, and they are much more like to to form a viable seedling!  Some people like to form these by hand, but I have a cement mixer and 160 acres, so "by hand" isn't gonna happen!

Time to move!

Today,. my chickens are 1 month old, and weigh more than a pound by my estimation.  They've been enjoying the protection of the shed for that long, and have been allowed outside for almost two weeks, but on the same patch of ground, which they have quickly purged of pretty much all the stuff they like to eat.  There is a bit of grass left, but they don't seem to interested in that.

I have been collecting a lot of extra weeds from my garden, some of them quite bit although I don't know what kind of weeds they are.  My daughter and I have been tossing these over the electric fence for a few days now, and the chickens DEVOUR these!  I've made a few notes about what they like to eat for plants.

 - They love broadleaf plants like dandelion.  I've got plenty of that to go around!
 - They will only eat what they can reach
 - They don't eat the stems and roots
 - They will eat thistle, if it's lying on the ground!  They picked clean about 5 large Canada Thistles yesterday, cautiously but they did eat it.
 - Grass that has a seed head does not seem to be that interesting.  I wonder if they would eat the seed head if they could reach it (ie, cut down)
I will be moving them to a new spot close by, with a huge number of broadleaf weeds and plants.  I have a second fence that I will be joining to the first, to give them more room.

A couple days ago, my wife called me, worriedly telling me that a whole bunch of them had gotten out of the shed when the door was accidently open.  I came home and found about 50 of them ranging all over the yard!  I kept an eye on it, and we kept the cats inside, just in case, but by nightfall, all of them were back inside the shed on their own.  Unfortunately, some of them are still able to slip through the fence netting, but they always go back.
There have been no deaths (that I know about) in 2 weeks.  If one or two have been grabbed by a hawk or something, I won't know until I take them to market, there isn't any effective way to count them all.  If some are gone, there's not much I can do, but I very much doubt that more than one or two will be eaten by flying predators.  There are a few hawks and owls in the area, but they stay well away from houses, and there is plenty of easier prey, like mice and gophers to eat.  I've also seen a few rabbits in the area, but nothing near us.

You can see how bit they are getting, the one at the bottom of this picture is a particularly big guy.

Here is a picture of the chickens eating the weeds, and you can see that they love the fresh green leaves.  I don't know how many calories or protein is in these plants, but there are plenty of minerals and other goodies, so my birds should be quite healthy!  They are eating quite a bit of regular feed, so I know that they aren't foraging for everything, but every little bit helps.