Life in August

It's been a while since I last posted, kind of.  My last post got was very long with lots of info and pics and it got deleted because of some kind of Internet error.  That was frustrating.  Since then, my mom has had a stroke (last week) but has been blessed to make what appears to be a full recovery.  It was minor and she caught on to what was happening very quickly so she only had to stay in the hospital for four days while they tried out different blood pressure medicines to find a combination that works for her.  This all most likely could have been avoided if it weren't for some troubles she's had with her insurance and her doctor but then, it's always too easy to point fingers and play the blame game.  I just have to remember that God is fully in control.  It reminds me of something my mother told me several years ago, "If God wants to kill you in a tornado, there's no place you can hide to keep it from happening."  Now, strange as it may sound, for some reason that's actually very comforting to me.  I tend to be a worrier and try to control and prepare for every possible crisis and that just isn't always possible and everytime I start to worry, I remind myself of what she said because only God is fully in control and I would want it any other way.  It doesn't keep me from trying to prepare though...it's just in me to keep working without giving up until I'm exhausted.  I really enjoy the process most of the time too, it isn't just fear that motivates me...thankfully.

The chicks are growing like weeds and are no longer little fuzz balls and have a good start on their adult feathers.  They're outgrowing their tote too.

I plan to make caged outdoor area for them inside my garden fence.

I have unused space in there and it would be pretty easy to put some stakes and chicken wire in a section of it for them.

This will most likely become our new chicken coop this fall.  Our friend who loaned us his incubator has this on his land and doesn't use it for anything and wants to get rid of it.  I'd really love to make a cabana or fun little guest quarters out of it, but I don't know that that would be the financially responsible thing to do right now.  I think it's super cute!

The goats are finally pretty much fenced in.  Hubs put up an electric fence around an area in the back that's about an acre or so except it's only currently three sided.  The goats are finally afraid of the fence after running through it a few times but every now and then they manage to wonder off to the side that isn't fenced yet (they don't usually go over there) and then they're free.  They stay pretty close to the house though.  In fact, before they were fenced off, they would spend every night sleeping on the front steps leaning against the front door and just poop the night away.  I'm pretty sick of goat poop.

I made shampoo bars which are all natural but they turned out to leave a strange kind of heavy, waxy like residue in my hair that made it unmanageable.  The baking soda and vinegar didn't work either so I'm back to using my toxic shampoo until I can figure out something else that works.  I might try making a soap from just coconut oil and see if it leaves my hair cleaner.  This one will make a great body bar because it's very gentle and moisturizing...too moisturizing.  I do love homemade soaps.  They're the best.

I have a laundry basket full of green apples waiting to be turned into applesauce and apple butter.  Hopefully I'll be getting to that in just a little while.

Hatch day!

Late Wednesday evening, one of our chicks began the hatching process and by Thursday morning several others followed.  Thursday was day 20 in the process and today, day 21, we've had several more hatch.  So far we have ten and another chick that's working on hatching.  That's from the first clutch of fourteen eggs.  If you remember, I started originally with 25 eggs but I took out eleven eggs that I presumed to be duds only to find upon cracking them open to investigate that three of them were alive and well...if only for a short while longer.  The second clutch that I put in the incubator to replace those should be hatching this same time next week.  There are eleven of them.  I've thought about getting another twenty or so going as soon as the incubator is available again.  If I have a 60 percent hatch rate and half of them are roosters than I could end up with 13 or 14 new hens.  That's about what we need to be able to eat as many eggs as we would like to.  The most eggs we ever ate in one week was NINE dozen.  That's back when I was pregnant with number five and the only thing I could eat was eggs.  Still, we eat a dozen per meal and would like to have them for breakfast just about every morning.  I don't get tired of eggs.

Right now, we have ten "hens a laying" ♫♪ and five up and coming layers that should start laying in the next month or so.  They're free range range so other than the up front expenses of a coop and the supplies needed for the chicks, they are free.  The goats are always eating the hens feed so we haven't feed them any for a while and they seem to be doing fine.  We get six or eight eggs a day and, so far, that hasn't gone down.

We'll soon be building a larger coop to house all these hens at night out of a metal grain bin that our incubator friend is giving us for free.  It's fourteen feet in diameter so it ought to be big enough for a good number of chickens.  I'd also like to start raising our own meat birds soon and in the name of keeping it simple, I imagine we'll house them all together.  We'll see though, hubs may get other ideas.

Now, I haven't read this recommendation anywhere, but I figure if I didn't interfere and let nature run it's course, these little chicks would be outside 24/7, so, we took them outside for a little while this morning when it was already in the nineties to meet the other animals and what did they do?  They all huddled up under oldest daughter who was squatting on the ground next to them.  Momma.  heh.

Here's what was going on this morning...chicks, chickens, goats, cats, kittens, dogs and kids (human variety.)  A few of the hens were curious about the chicks (a.k.a. THEIR children) and they acted afraid of them when we'd try to show a chick to them up close.  Silly chickens.

We just checked the incubator and we have two chicks hatched and another one just starting (and it's the BIG one ☺.)  That will make twelve.  Woohoo!

Oh, and just a note...There is at least one egg that I now know for sure from regular candling that's a dud and it's from the first clutch of eggs so it's been in the incubator for 21 days now and up to a week in a bowl on the kitchen counter prior to that and it has not exploded.  Myth?  I don't intend to keep it or any other duds longer than 25 days in the incubator so we'll see what happens.  It makes me think of when Templeton the rat took the gooses rotten egg off her hands, I mean wings, for her in Charlotte's Web.  P.U.

Cardiopulminary Resuscitation aka CPR

Yesterday, hubs and our 5 year old son went to Lowe's to look at weed eaters and when they left the store they heard a woman in the parking lot screaming, "He's gone!  He's gone!"  She was in the car next to them so hubs ran over to help her.  There were already a couple of employees standing around her car calling 911.  Her husband was in the drivers seat of the parked car unconscious.  He wasn't breathing and hubs couldn't find a pulse so he said, "We need to lay him on the ground and start CPR."  The employees were just looking on and one replied, "I'd do it, but my certificate just expired."  Fortunately (I guess) hubs knew CPR and had been a volunteer and part time fighter fighter for a couple towns we've lived in and while his certification was also "expired" he didn't let that stop him from preforming CPR.  The man would occasionally gasp for air even while he had no pulse they could find.  Hubs thinks he was dead before anyone ever got to him and as awful as this sounds, he's had a lot of experience with the death of animals via hunting and butchering our own animals as well as his experiences as a fire fighter and had seen similar gasping behavior after they were clearly dead.  None the less, he continued CPR, taking turns with a woman who volunteered to jump in after a few minutes in case hubs was tired.  When the ambulance arrived, hubs and son went back into the store to wash up and give me a call to tell me what had just happened.  When they went back out to the truck, the ambulance and fire fighters were still there and the man was on a gurney and it looked as if they had used the defibrillator on him but they didn't appear to be in a hurry to get him to the hospital.  At some point, hubs talked to his wife and found out that he was 54 and had already had some open heart surgery and when hubs suggested that she call her family she said, "I can't, they're all mad at me."  The women was heartbroken and kept crying to her husband, "Don't leave me." while hubs was previously doing CPR.  So sad.

We don't know what happened or if he lived, it was quite an experience for hubs though.  Life is short and fragile, don't waste it.

As for our son, he's fine.  He sat in our truck next to them and could only see his daddy pulling the man out of the car.  Hubs did talk with him about it on the way home and so did I and he seems fine.  We've never sheltered our children from death with the exception of Hollywood's versions of it which only desensitize us so this wasn't his first experience, although it's never been quite so up close and graphic before.  That makes it sound like if our son hasn't been desensitized by Hollywood than he should have a very strong reaction to what he witnessed, but again, that's Hollywood's interpretation of what our response should be.  His attitude is what it is.  For me, I'm saddened for the wife and family left behind and hate to think of him suffering alone in the car while his wife, unaware of what was happening, was doing a little shopping in the store.  That's very sad.  I do have the hope of Christ and we teach our children that as well.  Hopefully this teaches our children that we MUST help care for everyone we possibly can, even strangers.  We must cherish every life, particularly human life and recognize that God is the giver and taker of life.  We also try to pass these lessons along to our children through our animals and the sacrifice they some of them have to make in order to feed us.  Even though we're raising animals for food, we still must take great care of them while they're alive because all life is precious and if an animals life is precious, how much more is a humans life whether we personally get something from them or not?

My husband was "fine" while it was going on and a bit shook up afterwards when he called me, but overall, it's a valuable life experience that I'm sure he wouldn't erase for himself if he could.

I hope the man lived.

Tough lessons

It's been a rough few days.  I mentioned before that we "threw out" the dud eggs from our incubator, or at least what we thought were duds and when my daughter and I cracked them open to learn about them, we found that three of them had living chicken fetus kicking around in them.  It was very sad and my poor daughter put them down so they didn't have to suffer anymore.  Well two days later, our two oldest girls were outside playing with our kittens in the grass (they're around 4 weeks old) when our nine year old tripped and landed on one of them.  It was very severely injured and very obviously going to die so my oldest came and got me and asked me to put it down for her.  When I got out to the yard, Petunia was licking her injured baby.  It was heartbreaking!  I did what I had to do and hope I never have to do that ever again, then I buried it.  I wouldn't allow the kids to be anywhere near while I did all this.  It was too much.  On the other hand though, the way my oldest came running and screaming into the house, I thought that one of my own children had to be dead which just about scared the poop out of me.  So, it could have been something far worse.

"Tiger"

Hubs is clearing the fence line around the back of the property and plans to take down some of the already existing 4 foot fence to use around the goat pen that never seems to be penning any goats.  They are more curious than cats and almost as destructive as children.  That's quite a combination.

We're thinking about leasing the land behind us that's about 60 wooded acres, to raise goats on.  It could be what gets us through the coming depression.  Even if we're wrong about the depression, I'd still like to get into goat farming.  While beef is my meat of choice, goats just make sense for us and the land around us.  They're also in higher demand than what's available, so I hope it's a win win situation.

The kids and I harvested and shelled our cowpeas today and we've all learned that we love raw ochre.  I have avoided planting ochre because I hate the mess of preparing fried ochre from scratch even though that's one of hubs all time favorite foods and he practically begged me to plant some.  While at the store back in June, I found ochre plants for just a couple of dollars for a pot containing ten plants, so I thought, why not.  Now we're starting to harvest some and when they're about finger length (3 inches) they are super delicious.  I love the way the seeds taste and I even like that weird, somewhat slimy, texture they have.  I also passed on planting any cucumbers, although I did buy seeds, because they aren't one of my favorite veggies since they instantly give me the worst indigestion ever in the history of indigestion.  Some friends, however, gave us a few of they're cucumbers and I made refrigerator pickles out of them and they are AWESOME!  They're a lot like bread and butter pickles with more crunch.  They make a good side dish as well as a sandwich topper or snack.

So, I'm learning what I need to plant in the future and I'm learning a lot of other lessons that might come in handy if times really get hard.  For example, I think I'll put peas near the bottom of the list for a while because they just don't seem to be very prolific or hardy.  I definitely need to start my garden sooner for things like my beets.  Mid summer harvested beets = yucky beets.  I need to plant a LOT of beans.  LOTS. 
And, I need to learn about squashes.  Last year was my first year gardening and I didn't have any trouble with most of the things I planted, especially the squashes.  This year my squash plants are dropping like flies!  They aren't producing much either.  I have two measly spaghetti squashes out of 4 or 5 plants, two pumpkins out of 3 or 4 seeds and one of them is almost dead from bugs.  Zero butternut and acorn squashes...plants all died and while the watermelon and cantaloupe plants are alive, zero melons developing.  I don't want to use any chemicals and I'm pretty ignorant still about gardening, so I have a lot left to learn.  Trial and error teach me better than anything but I think I need to put more effort into the books if I'm ever going to get the hang of clean gardening.

Egg update:  As best I can tell of the eggs I can actually see through the shell, they're all developing (of the new bunch (clutch?) that is.)  My first group of eggs should start hatching by Friday if not sooner.  Hopefully not too soon though.  The thermometer reads 99 most of the time but occasionally gets up to 100.  I don't want to mess with the temp anymore though because I'm afraid I'll really mess things up for sure.

Rainbow and blue skies after a big storm this past week.

Homemade soap and toiletries

I'm making hot process soap today which is a lot of fun.  Ten or twelve years ago, I had a very short lived soap making business that I quit when I got pregnant with number two.  We rendered fat for tallow to use in our soaps and the smell was revolting to me.  So were all the smells of the fragrances.  I hated the smells so bad, in fact, that that's why I didn't make another batch of soap or lotion up until a couple of months ago.  The smells were still nauseating to me.  To this day, I can't stand the smell of Tommy Hilfiger cologne.  It's what hubs wore before I got pregnant with number one and it's the one thing I still haven't gotten over.  I loved it before that so it's kind of funny to me.  Anyway, I have a bunch of supplies that are still good so I've had some fun with it here recently.  I used to make cold process soap which seemed like such a huge chore looking back because the information I got all came from books which really stressed the exact timing and temperature of every single stinking step.  Now, after revisiting soap making and the wonderful Internet, I know the process isn't such exact science and there's room for errors.  I like the hot process better only because I can use the soap right away.  It does get a little harder and gentler with age, say at least another 4 weeks of cure time, but even using the soap within the first 24 hours it isn't bad soap.  I've made several recipes including cold process which is just now ready to use...finally, and I've used soapcalc.com to make them up myself.  We just finished up the first batch of hot process soap that I made roughly 2 months ago (one pound.)

I also have a fresh batch of homemade lotion.  I feel a lot better about using it over commercial products because I know exactly what's in it and that it safe.  Our skin is our biggest organ and it's very porous and absorbent.  All the toxic crap that gets absorbed goes right into our bloodstream, so I've read.  That has lead me to try using baking soda in my hair rather than shampoo.  Today was my first time using it and I was pretty impressed.  My scalp is EXTREMELY oily and needs to be washed daily to keep from looking like a total grease ball.  It's usually oily looking by the end of the day too.  It supposedly takes a couple of weeks for the scalp to adjust to the new routine and once it has, it should look just as clean and healthy as regularly shampooed hair.  Or, even better according to people who've actually tried it.  This being the first time, I was surprised at how clean it looked.  It wasn't perfect because I could see a little bit of oiliness in my hair, but it looked more like it was working its way down my hair and not so much on my scalp, which looked fine.  I pulled it into a ponytail, so you'd never know I did anything different.

Okay, I've also made and have used for years, homemade toothpaste and within the last couple of months, we've also started using homemade deodorant.  It works way, WAY better than any, ANY commercial deodorant I have ever used in my ENTIRE life!  It's safe and aluminum free too!  The key ingredient is baking soda which you have to dilute greatly or it's to harsh on the skin.  I mixed mine as 1 part baking soda and 4 parts cornstarch and it probably could still stand to be weakened further.  I also mixed it into a lotion bar formula and scented it with sweet orange essential oil.  That way I could pour it into an old deodorant bottle and apply it like usual.  Well, almost as usual.  I literally just lightly touch it to my underarm and then rub it in with my finger.  It's almost like nothings there at all but I guarantee it's there and it's working overtime on me.  I sweat way more than my husband and have always required stronger deodorant than him which needed to be reapplied every single day.  This stuff works with just one very light application for at least 48 hours...that's the longest I've gone without a shower and therefore reapplying.  It's awesome!  Hubs likes it too.

I probably sound like a crunchy granola, but if you ever ran into me in person, you'd never guess I was into such things just by looking at me.  It's nice that it all saves money, but I only do this for our health.  It's nice to know that there are so many alternatives to the chemical laden commercial products that work just as well and often better that only cost pennies to make.  And yes, I also make my own laundry detergent.  I'm happy with how well it seems to work although I have noticed a slight buildup starting to show inside my washing machine that looks like soap scum.  It may be building up in my clothes too, but I really can't tell a difference if it is.  They appear just as clean as they would with commercial brand detergents. 

Egg trouble

Two evenings ago, I candled the eggs again and set out all the eggs that didn't appear to be developing according to the information I found on the Internet including pictures.  The next morning my oldest took them outside to crack them open to see what they looked like on the inside.  Out of eleven of the eggs there were live, well developing chicks in three of them.  They had even survived a night out on the kitchen counter.  I can't tell you how upsetting this was!  Daughter was heartbroken to see the little bitty chicks (week old) now dieing in their broken shells.  It was sad for me too and frustrating.  I suppose I should count it up as a learning experience. 

What went wrong?  I made my judgements based on info and pictures from several sources on the Internet which made it clear to me that exact temperature is of utmost importance...life or death importance, and it took me about 36 hours to finally get the temp to a steady 99 degrees.  It had jumped up and down between 96 and 103 degrees (at least.)  The thermometer is on the top shelf and is actually cooler that the bottom shelf while the heat is on (it has a thermostat to kick the heat on and off as necessary) so the bottom shelf of eggs actually got even warmer than that.  So that was, in my mind, problem number one.  Then when I candled them, comparing to pictures of good and bad eggs on the Internet, I separated what I thought were good and bad eggs.  The pictures are not totally accurate.  In some of the eggs that clearly have a developing chick kicking around inside, a few of them also appear to have a blood ring around in them too which is supposed to be a sign of bacteria and the death of the chick in early development.  Another suggestion made on one or two of these sites also stated that a bad egg (rotten) would explode if you left it in the incubator, so it's important to get rid of them asap.  In my mind, I know my eggs are fresh from the chicken and they can and do keep very well on the kitchen counter for two or three weeks so why shouldn't I just leave them in the incubator for three weeks?  It's not like we have exploding eggs in nature when a mother hen is sitting on the eggs herself, is it?  Oh, and most of the eggs I removed were from the bottom shelf.  The eggs on the top shelf were very easy to candle and I hung onto a few I wasn't sure about and glad I did.  They are probably just fine too.

Another thing I think I've learned is that these little eggs are a lot tougher than what I had read.  The temperature and humidity don't have to be exactly perfect at all times.  I also haven't washed my hands before handling them most of the time.  I do wash my hands throughout the day before and after cooking, dishes, bathroom, diapers etc but I usually have forgotten to wash them before turning and candling them.  There's a big learning curve in all this homesteading business.  Especially when you don't have someone along side you helping who has experience.  It's almost a lost art and I fear Americans are really going to suffer because of it.

Back to the eggs.  I could, in the future, just put eggs in the incubator and skip candling them altogether as long as I'm turning them, but I enjoy seeing the little critters in there kicking around, it's pretty amazing.  I did decide to add eleven fresh eggs to the incubator so I will have two hatch dates.  They'll only be a week apart so I know (from experience) that won't be a problem when we put them together in the brooder and I don't see why having the different aged eggs in the incubator at the same time will be a problem either.  You're supposed to stop turning them on day eighteen so the chicks can get their bearings before they hatch and you're also supposed to increase the humidity.  Maybe for some reason that's optimal, but I don't know how a mother hen would increase the humidity for her eggs so I'm not going to worry about it.  Our friend (who owns the incubator) never checked the humidity level at all.  He kept an eye on the temp, turned them and kept a tub of water in the bottom and he's never had any problems.

I've got less than two weeks before my first clutch (is that the right word???) begins hatching so I'm pretty excited.

Ron Paul: What if the People Wake Up?