How We Got Started Homesteading and Catching Up

I started on this Homesteading adventure back in 2006. My life has really changed since then. Nothing absolutely nothing has worked according to my plan. I am not where I planned to be in stock, self sufficiency or breeding plans. 2006 was a learning year. We got a few goats, bought a few rabbits, ordered chickens, and started a garden. In 2007 my husband lost his job and we had to rely on those resources and so thankful we had them. This was the closest to self sufficiency we had gotten. Eggs for almost every meal some days. Rabbit when available and we even butchered our first goat that was given to us. Our garden did well thank God and the goats produced the only milk we had. Our extensive food pantry out in the storage building dwindled down. More money went to feed for the animals then grocery shopping. We eventually lost power for two weeks. We cooked on a grill for our meals. It was rough. But it got rougher.

In this time also my infant son was diagnosed with a metabolism condition and was very tiny. This was not from our lifestyle but was a genetic condition. My daughter who had joint pain was diagnosised with a couple joint degenerative conditions. And my other son they were suspecting he was autistic. My husband and I grew apart more and more with all of the stressors in our lives. Financial and the kid’s health being the worst. We ended up splitting up in 2008. I sold all the rabbits and some of the chickens. I found a ratty old trailer in a trailer park but it had a three acre pasture out back I could rent for the goats. I later moved the chickens and the goats out to the new place. I had someone build me a chicken pen and the place already had a shed for the goats. This is where my new beginning starts.

The ratty old trailer turned out rattier than I thought. The sewage leaked under the house. The flies and roaches were horrible. There were holes in the air ducting so bad it was freezing during winter. I wrote the manager a letter to repair the damages. She said the owner is not doing anything to the trailers. So I got the owners info and also found out she was purchasing the park owner finance and someone else was actually still the legal owner according to the state. So I sent registered letters to each person. Only one person read there’s. The legal owner. He called me telling me he wasn’t responsible. I told him he was. I let him know how bad things had become out here. He still refused to budge saying he was not the owner even though the state of Texas said otherwise. Then came the fire.

You see the owner hadn’t paid for dumpster rental so all the trash from the park they just stuck in a trailer and dumped over and over again into a huge pile in a nearby pasture (not mine). One day the acting maintenance guy decided to burn the whole pile. Everything including household trash, old propane tanks, wood, and who knows what else. The size of the fire quickly gathered attention of the county. It created a grass fire and trucks came from all around to douse the fire. Tickets were issued to the maintenance guy, the lady financing the place AND the legal owner of the property for illegal dumping and burning without a permit. Finally the legal owner got involved.

They showed up one day with letters to put on our doors saying they are the new owners and do not pay rent to anyone but them. They asked us to write a list of repairs needed to be made. The next few months were a whirl of contractors coming to fix the houses. It was unreal the changes that were being made.

I heard they were going to sell the houses that had land attached to them. That worried me since my animals were on one of those pieces of land. And soon enough the owner came knocking on my door asking me to remove them. I refused since I had a contract. They asked for a copy of my contract. I can’t remember if I gave them one or not but I blew them off but still watched as the renovations were happening to the house that belonged to “my pasture”. I knew it was only a matter of time before they tried to evict me so they could sell the land. I started to see potential buyers at the house and one such day I saw two men walking in my pasture. I jumped the fence and politely asked them if I c could help them. They said they were buying the place. I kind of laughed and asked them did the guys tell him the pasture was rented out for another 4 months. They didn’t. They also thought the big well on the property would be there’s. I said no that is a community well for the whole park. Well that was enough for them and they left. Yeah, I felt a little dirty but I did not lie and told facts.

The very next day the owner came to my house so mad he was spitting in my face as he talked. How dare I mess up his deal? I told him he was underhanded and I told the truth. He then said why don’t I buy the place. I couldn’t I don’t have the credit or money too. He left mad but I think he knew he was stuck, at least for 4 months anyway. And he didn’t want to wait. Soon after his wife came by the house and said they were owner financing for some other people and wanted to know if I was interested. I was but wanted more info. She went and got her husband out of the car and he said they could sign papers now if I had a down payment. I knew I was about to get my tax refund so I could do the downpayemnt but was still not sure to trust these people. I asked about titles and surveys. I’ll never forget the creepy smile he did and said “what you see is what you get” meaning no surveys or title changes. I said I will only do things if they are legal and then I walked in the house and left him fuming.

Over the course of the next month they continued to remodel the new house and showed lots of people the house and the land. No one committed to it. I soon got a call saying if I had the downpayment they would survey and do everything legal. I said sure! Things were a whirlwind of excitement after that. I paid my down payment and signed papers at the bank. The owners carried the note but the title was in my name with them the lien holder. They gave me keys that day and I soon started moving in. My goats seemed confused as to why I wasn’t feeding them where they normally were fed (the other fence line) but quickly figured it out. I also eventually moved the chicken pen. That was an ordeal itself. I was so excited. 

My kids were having a hard time so I finally I agreed my estranged husband could stay here temporally but you all know how that ended up. Yep, we got back together. It wasn’t easy and still isn’t. But things are defiantly better than before. I give all glory to God on this cause who would have thought these change of events were possible!

We moved in the end of February and quickly went to work on the garden. We had it tilled up and then we planted. I also had the awesome benefit of a neighbor who also enjoyed fresh food so she did a lot of the weeding in the garden that spring and summer. She was priceless! We planted sweet corn, watermelons, canteloupes, zucchini and yellow squash, cucumbers, okra, yard long beans, sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, green beans, lettuce, carrots, beets, onions and a wide variety of tomatoes. The corn did amazing. The cantaloupes flourished. The watermelons did great. The okra and squash did so well we donated so much of it. The onions, beets and carrots did surprisingly well. The green beans did good until a couple ducks we bought started to eat the blossoms. It got so bad we gave them away in trade. I can’t even remember what I traded for but was glad to get rid of the ducks. The sweet potatoes got HUGE. Almost as big as a childs head. The tomatoes were looking very promising until we got 6 inches of rain in a little over 24 hours. It flooded the garden and we soon discovered the were in the low part. Our 78 tomato plants were soon dead. I replanted them but they just didn’t do as well. But overall was a good year.

The goats did well. About half and half does to bucks. We did pretty well on milk even though we didn’t always have money for alfalfa hay. We still had great grazing pasture (coastal) and milking ration (grain). We tried new recipes for ice cream. Our favorite was banana. I found one recipe which I that added gelatin to it that made it creamier than it made without. We also tried a soft farmers cheese. It is kinda like a mixture between cottage cheese and neuchattel. We flavored it with ranch dressing mix and once even crushed pineapple or just used it plain in recipes like ricotta. We did not butcher any goats this year.

Our chickens laid really well. We bought some new Dominequer chicks to add to our flock. We also ordered some purple guineas. We had a few left over from some babies I had carried with me in the move. I sold quite a few of the purple guineas and kept the rest. I really enjoy my guineas but it breaks my heart when they end up flying off or some coyote gets them. Which is what happened recently.

We also bought a bunch of Royal Palm turkey poults for only $6 a piece. About half made it. We raised them up to Thanksgiving and butchered the most dominant (and mean) male. We gave another Tom to a friend in return of a favor and kept the other Tom and three hens as breeders.

This past spring 2010 my husband got a job about 3 hours from home as an Ag teacher. He wasn’t home much and had his own apartment and came home on the weekends when he could. As a change this year we paid to have more soil brought in to raise the garden level a little and a trench going through the center so water could drain. We tried planting some onions, some lettuce and a few tomato plants but they did not do well since we didn’t have much rain and when we did it was too much at once. We just cut our losses and let the ground rest. We butchered a wether goat around Easter. Not a religious thing was just when my hubby had time to do it. Was a little tough since he was older than a year but still mostly good eating. We had cut it into quarters, a few steaks, the backstrap and the rest cut up into stew meat.

We did not milk this spring since my husband was not home to help me. We really missed the milk. We got plenty of eggs this spring, summer and fall. Not enough to sell but enough to share. Our turkeys and guineas laid well. I tried incubating them without much luck. I had two turkeys hatch but both had problems with their feet. I think I didn’t have the humidity just right or something. I hatched about 5 guinea keets and they did well until the hawks found them.

Summer was hard. Not enough rain and too much when it did come. We lost half our chicken flock. We even lost our tom turkey, Chief. We had shade fabric over half the chicken pen and a good chicken house but we lost them anyway. I plan on next year putting a metal cover on the top of the chicken pen and shade fabric on the sunny side of the pen. I did buy another tom turkey late this fall. He is a merrill turkey a rare heritage breed.

We also gave away a horse we got in exchange for tearing down a barn. We kept her for a year and used the wood salvaged to build a chicken house. We couldn’t afford to feed her anymore since the pasture grass didn’t grow well this year with the drought. We also acquired a show hog for my daughter. A Chester white gilt. This was our first time raising a hog. She didn’t make weight for the show so we will have her butchered on the Jan 20^th once we fatten her up some.

Rain!!! May 31, 2012

You know we don’t get enough rain when I blog about it and take pics! Here is a picture of it moving in before the storm. We got just under an inch in town but less here at our house. Lot of lightening. Its just one squall line. Hopefully more will come after.

We Have Visitors!

This morning I was drinking coffee when I spotted out the back window two ducks beside our duck pen. Whoa! First thought was some ducklings got out, they are rather large now, but then I noticed the bright orange bill. I called the kids to.come look. My camera phone doesn’t have zoom and tends to make pics look further away than they really are so I sent my daughter out to sneak as close as she could to get pics to identify them. The first picture is from the house back window. Its a bad picture but at least you can see where they were in comparison to other pens. Then a nice pic my daughter took at the backyard fence.

First she came around corner of house. They saw her but didn’t spook. Even came closer by walking halfway to turkey pen! Eventually she stood up and still they didn’t spook! Either they are.tame or don’t know to be afraid. A few minutes passed and a few more ducks flew over and off this pair flew!  So cool!

We believe them to be black bellied whistling ducks. Here is a link to learn more about them http://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-id/black-bellied-whistling-duck 

Pond Drying Up

Well we have not had much rain this year. My pond is drying up quickly with the heat. I really had hoped this year would be different. We stocked pond with $30 worth of fish in Feb. (some flathead minnows, bream, some small perch and a couple crappie).

As you can see from the photos it has been reduced to a rather large puddle than a pond. It really needs to be redug deeper because of all the erosion. That chair blew in their earlier this spring. We thought we lost it in a storm since it was submerged for so long. But there it is clearly visible now. No one has been brave enough to wade out to get it because we currently have an infestation of watersnakes in the pond.

Nonvenomous ones blotched watersnakes and Yellowbellied watersnakes. The blotched are very aggresive! I’m trying to figure out a solution to controlling them. If anyone has an idea how to take care of them let me know.

Painting Chicken House

Work has finally started on upgrading the large chicken pen. Today I painted three sides of the chicken house. I thought for sure I’d have all three chicken houses painted today since the other two are smaller. Well three sides of this larger house took a gallon of paint. The old ceder plank wood just was so dry it soaked up the latex paint.

I used a cheap paint called Homestead by Valspar that was only 12.99 a gallon at Tractor Supply. Cracked me up because I didn’t read the name of the paint “Homestead” till later. You get what you pay for but it will do for now.

I have a perplexing problem. I need to paint the backside of the house but the wire is in the way and not much gap. I would pull chicken wire back but the bottom half is tacked to a cattle panel. I can’t move house, not an option. Anyone have any ideas without painting the wire?

Musical Pens

Today we moved the larger of the chicks I traded for the two turkeys to the medium size pen the two juvenile buffs are in. There is no top on it yet so gonna pray no hawk comes aling and makes them lunch.

We left the younger and quite smaller chicks in the brooder pen to grow a little more and get as much feed and water as they want and not get pushed out of the way by the big guys. I bleached their feeders and waterers and will clean their pen tonight after dinner.

We also moved the ducklings to what we call the “creep pen”. We use this pen when creep feeding baby goats. We covered entrance with a wire grate. By the way a few of the ducks are starting to quack. So cool how they do that overnight. They ought to be able to stay in this pen until they are big enough to release to free range.

I tried to sex ducks but they all seem to be getting the two tone chest feathers. Really hope all 14 are not female. That would be crazy if they were. I really hope thats not the case.

Update: Added pic a week later. They are huge!

Yard Sale Leftovers

The first rule of homesteading is being resourceful with what you have. I used to love to go yard saling.i even carried a cheat sheet of things we needed and measurements for doors or curtains, etc. Well we can’t afford to go yard saling anymore, well until hubby gets a job, and instead this brought on a new hobby for me that fits right in with homesteading, picking up yard sale leftovers.

Here is my process. I am on a few “freecycle type” sites. I post there and a couple local for sale sites saying I pick up yard sale leftovers. I don’t charge to haul stuff away and so far have been blessed not to get much junk. Also word spreads to others now that I’ve been doing it a while.

When we get the call we set up a time, usually its short notice. We take seats out of the van to make lots of room. We then head to their house. Most the time they have packed stuff for us. If not we help pack, bringing box of trashbags just in case they don’t have enough boxes.

We load van at tightly as we can and head home. We have a large covered porch so its a great place to sort. We unload van and then I get to sorting right away. I start a pile of all things our family can use and then box up or bag up like items and like sizes of clothes.

I keep a mental list from friends of what they need. Vicky needs baby blankets, bumbo seat and big baskets. Dorothy needs a walker. Christina needs curtains. I set it aside as I locate things they have asked for. Everything thats left I post on Freecycle or other give away sites.

I choose to not sell stuff because I think people expect that I don’t since they know I post on Freecycle so much. Also I think of this as a ministry in a small way. Getting clothes or household items into the hands of people that need and appreciate them.

Everything not picked up within a few days gets picked up by.a lady who takes everything and splits it up between two resale shops that benefit charity. I forgot to mention I toss all trashy items like worn out shoes, used toiletries and etc. So when she picks them up they are ready to be distributed.

Its a lot of fun. We get a lot of great things for family and nothing goes to waste. But remember if you do this do not hoard items, only take what you need. Creating clutter doesn’t help anyone. And why keep three grills if there is someone wishing they just had one.

Chicken Pen Cover Contest

I am running a contest. If you are local you win some homebaked goodies. If you win and not local you win some awesome bragging rights. Haha!

I am trying to brainstorm a cover for the chicken pen that is light weight, durable, not unsightly, provide shade, doesnt have to hold out water, protects from hawks and owls and is cheap or even better free.

Ideas I have bounced around are using pallets for top but thats too heavy. I tried using shade fabric but it would need a lot more support because it whips in our heavy winds, also its expensive to buy enough for rest of pen. Lattice will not work because it will take around 8 sheets. At $20 something a piece plus framing. Too high.

I also thought of putting cattle panels up top and interlacing something through like bamboo or chair webbing. But no source for bamboo and chair webbing is high for the amount I’d need and no idea how long it’d last in our very hot sun. I am very jealous of areas that have palm fronds. How simple would that be?!

So if you have any ideas, comment on this post. Thanks!

Turkey Barn Happenings

Heard a lot of hen “whistling” in the barn. I peek and see my hubby watering Trey and whistling to one of the turkey hens calling back and forth to one another. He has gotten really good at it. I couldn’t tell the difference. That’s Trey our mini alpine buck looking for treats.

The turkey hens are nesting in each corner of their side of barn. Two share a nest on the right. I was peeking to see how many eggs they have now. One got up and let me see. The other has been broody a little longer. I lifted her up gently and this is what I saw. She’s bald! Even her vent she plucked clean. I covered it with my hand to keep her modest Lol. I’ve heard of chickens doing it but haven’t seen them do it before.

I also heard this evening the turkey eggs I traded for the ducks are hatching right now. So far 12 out. Grandturkeys! Yeah I said that to my daughter she rolled her eyes. Haha!

Repurposing: Rabbit Hutch Edition

Repurposing is a total different frame of mind. I love to hear of new ideas to reuse unused or cast away items for a new life and new purpose. Ya know for example wood pallets. Millions of uses for them. Sometimes the vision is easy, like taking down an old farmhouse/barn to reuse the lumber. That’s what we built our chicken house and some of the goat barn with. I’m not quite as creative as others with coming up with things and I am impressed with others ideas.

If you are a regular reader you might remember the rabbit hutch we bought over a year ago for $10.  We ended up losing our rabbits to the very hot summer and since I’m not sure if the drought will come again this year, I’m not in a hurry to get more rabbits. Kid’s did a very kid type sunflower yellow paint job to the hutch last year and through the winter the hutch sat on its back where the kids left it after trying to paint the bottom.

Hubby moved hutch for the first time in 6 months and mowed the high grass all around it. So glad he did. I got to where I has scared a snake was hiding in the foot high grass everytime I walked by. Looked so much better mowed.

I had been fussing in my head about finishing second chicken pen. Needs a chicken house but no money to buy lumber to build the one I want. The Chick-n-hutch is in their now and just isn’t working for large birds. Maybe two birds but not 12-15 that will eventually be in there.

As I looked at the rabbit hutch the idea hit me. Rabbit hutch can be a great chicken house! I will build a ladder type ramp they will climb to get in and they can use it to roost on too. The nest box on the back is very generous and it has a back door on each nest box so I don’t have to go in to collect eggs!!! Now just to get hubby to move hutch into pasture and set it into place.

Duckling Care

The ducklings have more than doubled in size since we got them. Seriously they are monsters. Thankfully we got them at two weeks old and its been a very warm spring so no lights were needed. First week we had them we kept them in our 3×3 brooder cage. They quickly.were outgrowing it and we had a horrible time keeping it clean. Ducklings are very nasty creatures. Well ducks are too if they are confined. Thank God when they are adults they won’t be.

I got tired of the stench on our front porch and the flies are horrible this time of year. Once a day dumping bedding didn’t seem to help much. First we tried shavings for bedding. Got soggy immediately and could easily have been a breeding ground for the flies to lay eggs. So we tried no bedding and we will just spray out everynight. Made a nasty mess. I think I posted a pic of that day we tried this. Horrible idea. That and the ducklings freaked everytime we moved them. Some would get out and ducklings run a lot faster than you think. Finally we tried wood mulch. Was a tad better result than the shavings but now their poop or spilled food would matt up in places. And not even 24 hrs!!

I had enough. I was tired of the smell and the flies it attracted. These cute but stinky guys were getting off my porch! So I took the top off the brooder cage and rounded up the ducklings and set their pen out in the grass. I was quite pleased with myself until I saw the neighbors dog eyeballing them so I grabbed some tent stakes and staked it down. Haha!

The ducklings were happy. Had their first taste of grass. They were probably tired of all of the moving around and cleaning their bedding daily too. We did this arrangement for a few days, moving their bottomless cage when they soiled the grass too much.

Quickly it came time for a bigger living arrangement. I swear you can watch them grow. This past thurs my daughter took our broken down Chick-n-pen and put it together as best she could with baling wire and finishing nails. The open part that had attached to hutch at one time she tacked on the spring frame to an old baby bed. I knew I saved that for something! She then covered with chicken wire. Cool deal it worked! We carefully carried the southern engineered pen out to the pasture then set the ducklings up in it.

The goats and geese all came to investigate. The goats got discouraged they couldn’t get at the ducks feed so they got bored and went back to grazing. The geese however do not wander far from the ducklings cage. I guess Gray, who had thought for a while he was a goat, now remembers he is a goose. I know why their fasination with the ducklings is, its because the used to try to breed Mama duck when we had her torturing the poor girl and about drowning her in the water trough. Those evil ganders better get that out of their mind or they are gone. Hubby and son can just get over it. These geese need mates!

Here are pics of us moving the duckling cage today. Their patch of grass was horribly soiled. I took a few pics so you could see the before and after. No need to remove ducklings. Just remove waterers, food pans and tent stakes holding it down so a bored goat doesn’t flip it. Then have someone at each end and slowly walk pen only barely off the ground. The ducklings will walk with you and not be stressed about it at all. Then just clean all feeders and waterers and back in the pen. Reapply tent stakes and put back on sheet metal we added for shade.

Please note this is very important for those new to ducklings. Ducklings who are not raised by their parents are not waterproof. Yes they can swim and yes they will float at first but soon become soggy and start to sink because they are not protected by their parents waterproof oil that they apply on the babies while preening. Ducklings start to produce their own oil from a gland on their tail at about a month old. I’ve had young ducklings drown in half an inch of water. But as big as these guys are I still wouldn’t put more than two inches in their splash pan.

They go through a lot of water. They are messy drinkers making a kinda smacking sound. To groom themselves they need a splash pan being very careful with how much water to put in. I use a metal hog pan. I once heard as soon as a ducks tail hits water they poop. I don’t doubt it. Even with a few ducklings you develop a thick sludge in the splash pan quickly.

Never let them run out of water in their waterers especially in hot weather. You will also notice they won’t eat as much if they run out of water. Eating means growth. So always keep them full. And feed them a nonmedicated starter or grower. Ours are older babies so they are on a grower. Do not be tempted to give them lay ration early. It does not carry enough protein for their growing bodies.

Samuel’s ducklings will start to change their feathers soon. Right now they all look alike except for the Crested Rouen but soon we will be able to tell females from males. This second month is gonna be great. Hopefully we have a good ratio of males and females. Just have to wait and see.

I’m sorry I’m not able to caption photos like I was able to when we had a computer. My only internet is my smart phone right now. It works but I wish I could polish it up a bit.