Busy fall

We have been absent from the blogging a lot this fall. This is supposed to be our winding down time where we plan our garden for next spring. Not so. I started nursing school this past August and it has taken up most of my time, what time I have left is spent working and getting the farm ready for winter. Kelsi has also been very busy too, she took at full time position at her job a few months back which keeps her very busy. 

So I have a bunch of photos to show all that we have been up to

 We recently harvested 18 of our meat birds. We did 8 one day and 10 on another day. We have decided that we aren't going to raise meat to sell to other's. The line between profit and loss is very thin in the meat business. Plus I really don't like having to harvest the chickens. Taking another creatures life is not a very rewarding experience. In these pictures you can see the difference between a standard commercial variety(Cornish Cross, left side of photo), and the kind we raised(Right side of photo). Very different

 Redstar Rooster

 Cornish cross rooster

  Pierre has become very friendly these past few months, he follows me everywhere and lets me pick him up. 

 He's pretty silly

 He gives hugs

 We also recently adopted a cat that we named Henry. The mice have been terrible this summer. They ate all of our potatoes, some melons, and a few squash. We are hoping to fix this problem with Henry's help. He is pretty helpful around the house already.

 He keeps my seat warm when I get up

 He checks for leaks in the dishwasher

 He gives a thorough inspection

 He asks us for our opinion

 He checks the laundry to ensure they are dry throughout

 We have also been doing quite a bit of preserving. These are our tomatoes. 

 We had a lot of extras, so we decided to can them.

 Kelsi dellegently stirs the pot

 We gathered nearly 5 gallons of green and purple peppers from the garden

 They look so small here, but there is a lot there

 We also went to the farms market and bought more fruits and veggies. This 37 pound box of tomatoes only cost us 20 bucks! Sweet deal

 This is the extent of our canning so far. The table was nearly covered.

 Looks pretty good!

 Hot cinnamon apples: 6quarts

 Applesauce: 7quarts

 Peaches: 12quarts

 Pickles: 18quarts

Crushed tomatoes: 20quarts

Pickled green tomatoes: 7 quarts

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

Final Count

Kelsi and I just finished final count. We have 38 of the 40 meat chickens we began with! Pretty good success percentage! That's 95% of the total made it to finish day. Kelsi also whipped up this sweet label on the computer tonight so we can label our product. We have sold out too, which is even better. I have our friend and egg customer John, coming over to help. Also, a gal I used to work with is going to bring her kids to watch and learn how and where food comes from. We are keeping 3 Delaware hens and a rooster for rebreeding purposes. Which means we are processing 34 chickens tomorrow. It's going to be a long day. 

Thanks!

Guess what we have!!

Awesome day so far today! Kelsi and I went to the Spokane Farmer's Market this morning for a little bit. When we got home after only being gone for an hour, we heard a chirping noise. We weren't sure where the noise came from so we went to investigate. We discovered the source of the noise. The incubator.

We peered inside and this is what we found.

This is a baby chick from Jane's nest of 16 eggs that we posted about earlier. We found the nest in a field after she had been missing for weeks. This is the first egg we have ever hatched! Now we actually have genetic relationships on our farm! There are also a couple of eggs that appear to be cracking, which means that we will soon have more chicks! How cool is that?

Also today we had a couple named Jennifer and Jake come out to see our operation and to decide if they wanted to support our organic chicken business. They decided to purchase 20 chickens! We chatted and walked around for nearly an hour this morning, talking about everything from chickens to gardens and bees. It was a nice visit from some nice people. It is very refreshing to have intelligent conversations with people who share similar ideals as us. We keep meeting really cool people through our explorations into organic production. 

Thanks for reading!

Meat Chicken Update

After a short but exhausting search we found a better local organic feed source which is almost 5 dollars a bag cheaper! It was quite a journey, I was almost ready to buy a pallet of 45 bags to get the price we needed. That would have been a serious feed bill. We are so happy about this, feels like we have been paying an arm and a leg for feed. I posted a note on CL and received lots of helpful information and also made some new contacts, which will help later as we grow to a bigger as a family and a family farm.

On another meat chicken related note. Kelsi and I did a count tonight once all of the meat birds were in their coop safe and sound.We found out some pretty cool news. We started out with 40 baby chickens from the hatchery and we have 39 tonight! This is amazing success compared to the cornish cross breed we tried last time. The loss rate on the cornish cross was 20%! That cornish loss was only from them dying, no predation factors or anything like that. We have a 2.5% loss on the Delawares right now and we are pretty proud. I think this will be a good heritage breed for us to continue to raise. We also selected and marked some for breeding purposes. I should mention that the Delaware hen that we lost was the one Kelsi mention a couple posts ago. She passed away comfortably last night in a nice straw nest we made for her. 

We also have a customer coming out tomorrow to tour and make a deposit if they think we are as cool as we think we are. She said they were interested in 20 chickens! Sweet! Sounded like pretty good people too.

These are the chickens a couple weeks ago.

Delaware male

Red Star Male

A bunch of Delaware females

The field view tonight. All of the white dots are meat chickens out for their nightly stroll

Another smaller group down the field pasturing 

The garden is in full swing. So is Kels too!

Thanks for reading!

Organic Chicken feed?

Kelsi and I have been buying organic chicken feed for several months now, and are very happy about that decision. However, I am adding up the feed costs for the meat birds to determine what they should sell for and I am more than disappointed.

So far our FREE RANGE organic chickens have eaten $6.80 worth of food a piece and they aren't even full grown yet. Add the cost of the chick from the hatchery, cost of our labor, and the processing and it seems that we are coming out even. How the heck are we to compete with the big boys. I am so discouraged right now! I want to be fair, but a fair price to us seems so much. How much would you pay for a whole organic chicken?

Another thought, I was thinking of buying whole grains and making our own mixture of chicken feed. Anyone do this currently? Any thoughts? Really struggling on this one.


Thanks for reading

Mike

A long post before we tie the knot and go on vacation!

Hello All! Sorry for the long time without any posts. Last most of you heard Lois was missing, we believe she was eaten by a coyote. We found a lot of feathers but no carcass. RIP Lois, you were a good chicken and thanks for providing us with wholesome and healthy eggs. you will be missed.

As most of you guys know, Kelsi and I are getting married on July 11th. We have been very busy. We have both been putting in lots of extra hours at work to help cover for us taking 3 weeks off together. It has been hard keeping up with all the wedding stuff, the farm, and work. This will be our last post until we get back from our honeymoon in Jamaica. So for that we are sorry. Thanks!

How about some pics?

We have had some naughty layers going where they shouldn't. The top nest is Dori's(She is broody right now and we are letting her sit on some fertile eggs) she was laying behind an above ground pond we have for the waterfowl. The bottom nest belongs to one of our pullets who just reached maturity. She was and still is laying under a utility trailer in the weeds.

Now to the garden....

Kelsi and I have a great lettuce crop this year, which is great because it's our first time growing lettuce.

Holy lettuce patch!

First ever harvest of garlic! Kelsi made a nice braid and hung it in the kitchen to dry.

The greenhouse is doing so well. There is a lot of growing happening in there right now.

First cucumber, as long as my hand

Pickler cucumber plant covered in blooms.

Another cuc, nearly ready to eat

Long season crops that don't do so well in our short growing season are thriving in the greenhouse.

For the wedding Kelsi and I are using mason jars with strawberry plants in them. They are growing so well. Even fruiting!

This Box is bursting with strawberry goodness!

Yumm!

In the end of the greenhouse we built a raised bed for tomatoes and they are doing very well. If you click the picture you can see how tall they are. For reference I am 6'0. 

Our ten tomato plants outside. Not nearly as tall. But they are coming along.

Corn patch. Knee high by the forth of July right? They look pretty darn good!

Our sugar snap peas are just coming into season.

She selects the best pea.

Tasty.

Such amazing growth, all without the use of fertilizers and pesticides! 

Broad beans(Fava Beans) that we got from the USDA

Sun setting on another day in the garden

Pole beans.

How about some Birds? 

Sophie and Willis in for a swim before bed.

The waterfowl have finally let Pierre into their group.

Sophie has become quite the mother for him. She will guide him to her when he is crying with her loud honking noises that she makes

The webbed foot gang, clearly on a mission

Sophie!

Pierre!

We recently acquired a baby wild turkey. Kelsi's sister crystal found him all alone and cold so she called Kelsi and we gladly accepted, Kelsi's sister named him gravy. We may or may not eat him, it hasn't been decided yet. He is pretty darn cute though!

He is very shy.

This was not a fun time for him. He doesn't like being held.

The meaters are growing so fast. We started with 41 and still have 41 as of tonight when we put them to bed. We had lost 20% of our cornish cross in the first two weeks we had them, so these results are welcomed!

Dinner time.

Kelsi and her dinner.

Well, thanks for reading. It was a long one. We will be married in 8 days and then are off to Jamaica for a week. Lots of out of town family coming into town, so we will be very busy. 

Thanks for reading!