More Chickens!!!

Meet the newest members of our little Homestead

That is Mr. Hurley in the front with Lady (the lavender) and DeeDee (the Blue) they are Orpington Chickens. I got them from some friends that are moving and can't take them with. I was hoping to get some chicks from them because the Orpington are supposed to be very cold hardy and friendly. I have to say though that I would not consider Mr. Hurley to be especially friendly. I have to lock him out of the coop to collect eggs as he wants to go after me. If he keeps up this behavior he will be invited to dinner.

So the chicken count is now up to 5 mature layers, 8 pullets (although i am almost sure on of those is actually a rooster) and one grumpy rooster.

They put the funny in the farm

I though now would be a good time to introduce the animals of our little homestead.

The Dogs

Casey

(pretty but not real bright)

Rosa

(she was pissed it was raining)

The Cat

Blaze

(WHAT?)

Chickens

The seasoned Crew

(no we are not coming out, it is RAINING!!!)

The Greenhorns

Yes the newby's live in a dog kennel for now. They are still pretty little.

Well there you have it, that is the non human ocupants of our little homestead.

Homestead Barn Hop #67

Fresh Milk and Butter Making

We did it, we took the the plunge. We bought a share in a cow. What does that really mean you say? Well it means we own a little bit of a cow so that we can have fresh raw milk. We have been talking the idea around for sometime. Me longer than BW. BW has in the last year developed a disturbing intolerance to milk. Anything with much milk in it send him straight to the outhouse, and for someone who LOVES milk this is a very disheartening turn of events. I was listening to a podcast last fall about raw milk and one of the things they said was that a lot of people who have issues digesting milk have no problems with raw milk. Well when we were giving the opportunity to try this we jumped on it. Low and behold he has no problems digesting this stuff.

Now he is all excited about the possibilities. So last night he got to thinking... Can we make our own butter out of this. Well I said, give it a whirl. So he sucked the cream off the top of the jar with a turkey baster and put it in a smaller jar and shook it. And shook it, and shook it. After about 15 Min's we opened the jar and this is what there was

So we pulled the lump of butter out of the jar

And proceeded to make toast and have butter and toast at midnight because we couldn't wait to test it out. Now BW wants to know if we can get just cream also to start make our own butter all the time.

Barn Hop #66

What a difference a couple months make

I am sorry it has taken me this long to get back to the blog. Life got in the way and got very hectic. I am hoping things are mellow enough now that I can get back to the things I enjoy.

What a difference a couple of months make

this was taken just this evening. Look no snow!!!!!

A few updated on the homestead.
Skiffbaby got a clean bill of health for a while so that is off my mind now.
Probably not going to be doing any major renovations/ additions to the cabin this year. Boo :(
Had a brown bear get into my chicken coop this spring and kill 2 of my chickens and tear the door off the coop.

This is all that is left of my flock

My three poor hens were not producing enough eggs for our little family so we decided to get a "few" more hens...

This is what we ended up with

Eight little 10 week old "barnyard mix" hens. We really have not much of a clue of their actual breeding but they are supposed to be good layers. We are pretty sure at least one is a rooster but he will make great chicken and dumplings when the time comes. I have no interest in having a rooster again.

And a little update on my garden

I have those three planter boxes and the little pop up greenhouse. I love my planter boxes, BW made them for me out of some T&G cedar that we had for another project. They are beautiful and smell GREAT. The boxes have lettuce mixes, Swiss Chard and kale in them and the greenhouse have nine plum and slicer tomato plants. I will also be adding basil to the greenhouse.