KSCC Draft Dogers

It's getting colder out! We've had the wood stove going for at least half of October, mostly because it's so much easier to keep it going then to re-start it. So I'll split up one log into lots of pieces and keep is going with just a little wood over the day. Then stuff it full come sun-down.

Was thinking of making something for the doors when I found this: http://www.ehow.com/how_17253_make-draft-dodger.html

LOVE IT! And so easy from an old tie, our doors are not very high so I won't need any thing larger either. You can knit them or sew them larger as well. We'll be using ones by the garage & outside doors we don't use, as well as down to the basement.

Greenhouse plans

When we first came to see the house and I spotted all the lovely old windows (that had been replaced on the house) still sitting in the barn, I got very excited. In fact we included them in the sales clause, that they were not allowed to get rid of them. This is why...

The plan is to make a recycled window greenhouse.

Making a green-house with plastic is a great utilitarian low-cost solution. Maybe it was growing up close to Allen Gardens, but I have always loved solariums, and greenhouses. So we're going to the second lowest cost solution, which is recycled windows.

You have to find old windows to do this, new windows have a UV ray protectant film on them, which is the opposite of what you want in a green house.

We're building ours on one side of the shop, for 2 reasons. The first being that the side that the shop is on provides very little light anyway. That side is mostly north (we're on an angle) so it's saving us putting windows where they wouldn't be much benefit anyway. The second is we have the option of heating the greenhouse with the shops woodstove.

I'm not sure when we are going to get the greenhouse built, I'll be very happy if we can get it done next year. It maybe another year before we actually consider heating it, but at least we have the option. I would love to be growing our own coffee, tea & bananas in the green house.

The "wall" closest to the camera is
smaller because we need a door
out of the green house

First things first, I'm going to need more windows.

This was a go-big or go-home sort of project. If you're doing a plastic green house you can get away with starting small & adding later, really easily actually. If we wanted to expand a glass greenhouse later we'd be taking down a whole wall. It's too small anyway, I laid out all our work-able windows on the grass (then stupidly left them alone for 20 minutes, the ducks/chickens/someone broken one) and measured out what we got.

8 x 7 and 2 walls 6 x 7.


Yeah, that isn't super small, and for lots of people that is definitely enough room; but I don't have space in the house to be starting plants. It's a problem every year! I take over an entire section of the house then we have cats pooing, dogs nosing, kids tipping dirt over and having mud-fights in the house. I want to be able to start an entire gardens worth of seeds (and I start most plants as seeds) in my little greenhouse, and eventually be able to over winter, or even raise tropical plants in there.

The site could me a little more ideal. It's right beside the barn too, so the greenhouse is going to miss the very last of the evening sun, but should get really strong early morning to early-evening in the summer.

So how big do we want it?

Well... as wide as the shop which is probably about 18' so it looks good, and about 10' wide. What we have is about 7' tall, which is perfect because you walk out a door from the shop down into the green house, and we need enough for head room (so we'll build up a little foundation then have the windows so the whole thing should be at least 8' high).

So, hubby has a mission! He's got to talk to some of this buddies in windows and see what we can get, otherwise the greenhouse is stalled indefinitely. Not only do we need several feet of more windows for the 3 sides, we need some for the roof as well! Really hoping to get my hands on some old sliding glass doors, that would be amazing!!

What happened to Billy!?!?

Well... I don't know.

What he looked like last night

The goats & Billy frequently duck under the back fence (naughty creatures!) to come run around and eat all the grass on the lawn. We just let it go because we're going to fix the fence next year anyway, they don't wander off anywhere (no where for them to go) and they come when you call. Plus, we don't have to cut the lawn...

I was in & out of the farm yesterday with the meat birds, and when I went out to put the goats/Billy away for the night, Harry & Diego were already in their stall but Billy was nowhere to be seen. So I called him, and hear him come baaing from out in the garden. So he comes trotting in, at which point I notice he's missing part of his face!!

This is what Billy normally looks like

So it looks like his left horn that normally points down has been ripped right off. I have NO Idea how this happened, or where it happened. He's also got a little cut on his forehead. The only guess I have is that he got wrapped up in the fence somewhere and pulled it off trying to get out, but that is only a guess. I never heard him bleat for help, or noticed he was missing until I called them in.

The Scene!

The stump wasn't bleeding when I first saw him, but my efforts to "clean it up" lead to him spurting all over the back deck. All the while nosing around looking for grain... So I applied pressure until it stopped, then ran in & grabbed the corn starch and it did stop. Then it was iodine to cover the whole thing. At this point I had to wait until hubby got home to hold him (thankfully he was already close!). Hubs held billy, I placed an old towel over his eye & applied the liquid bandage. So now he's sparkley...

I kept him in Meg's stall over night so the goats wouldn't bump him, but let them out in the back-section of the barn so they could see each other. (Horses were outside).

He's outside running around with the crew today, in fact I just caught him on the wrong side of the fence! Looks like it might have been bleeding a little bit, but over-all looks okay...

What a day!

We were just going to leave things alone with the fence, but I'm going to investigate if we have some more tape-clips for the t-posts (and I'm pretty sure we do) and we'll run another string this weekend so they can't duck under the fence any more. There is a chance he did it somewhere else on the farm too, I'm just hoping this never happens again!

Chickens

First Arrived in July

Outside for the first time

Enjoying the paddock

Enjoying the maggots

Coming in for dinner.

Their last day here

Crates from the processor ready to go

 

Off go the first group of 15

And then they came back.
Very impressed with the processor!

Got my weigh station all set up, had to work quick
to get them all into the freezer

Out biggest chicken!!
We had a 2.5Kg for dinner tonight
and put half away as leftovers...

Handsome looking group!

A freezer full of goodness!

I don't relish the death of the meat chickens, but I most certainly celebrate the life they lived. I celebrate that the meal my family shared tonight, we know where it came from, we know it was cared for, we know it ran with the grass between his feet (*sniff, sniff*).

Also it was flippin' delicious!! A little more texture then we're used to, but a downright yummy bird! The dark meat, something I normally hate because of the greasy taste, was just beautiful.

Half way through the meal hubs has to ask "You do realize this thing was running around on the farm yesterday right?" to which my reply was "You do realize it was flapping and squawking this morning, right?".

They arrived as those tiny fuzz balls and 3 months later they ended as these behemoths on our dinner table. It was a wonderful experience (if not, a lot of work) and like our 3 year old, I can't wait for the arrival of more chicks early spring.

I think I'm going to like thing country living thing... The food is definitely better.

Update

Why the blog post today is so late.

Some days...

Bio Security

Now, I've made it no secret to anyone I've talked to in the last 4 months how ridiculous and unfair the quota rules are. Before I start on another rant about that, here is something the OMFARA is getting really right.

You can get a biosecurity booklet with all their info at: www.agbiosecurity.ca or www.healthybirds.ca.

I tried printing & posting my own sign from
the site, it lasted one rainstorm despite
the protective sleeve

Most of the information is already available on heathybirds.ca (which is really worth checking out of general bird health information, even if you don't live in Ontario). The booklet is a nice reference, although I'm not sure how long the "weatherproof" sign is going to last. 

Biosecurity is really important to the backyard flock owner for a few reasons, not the least of which are

• Even though BigAg productions pose a far greater threat of producing and spreading big scary anti-biotic resistant diseases, we don't want to be passing around avian flu or west nile either, and those are ones small flock keepers are good at spreading around.
• You don't want to your birds getting sick & loosing your time and money investment into them
• It's the law. As I mentioned before, it's illegal to free-range in Ontario because you need to limit access of wild birds (and other animals) to your flock. (Of course there are ways to limit wild birds when your birds are ranging)

Most of the bio-security stuff you're probably already adhering to because it's common sense. Other things are as simple as having a hand-sanitizer bottle in your chicken coop (you can pick up a pretty big bottle at the dollar store). The log book is just in case there is an outbreak, so they can track back who has come to visit, and you only need people who have chickens (or who have recently been around chickens) to sign it.

Keeping your coop, waterers, feeders, and bedding clean will keep your birds healthy and make your job a whole lot more enjoyable. I also really believe in the principal of making the inspectors (should they ever show up) happy by showing we're making the effort and they are going to leave us alone. 

Come Tweet with us!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/smallbusiness/story/2011/10/14/f-twitter-farmers-agriculture-social-media.html

I've used twitter before, and honestly didn't have much use for it. Now that I have something that I'm really passionate about, I've found it's an amazing way to connect to tons of people with the same passions.

It's really neat to read other farmers talking about the yields they got off their fields, or passing around the latest article from the globe. I'm still new to the twitter-verse but I'm hoping to find more & more local people I can bother with silly questions when I need help.

And as Robert A. Heinlein said "I never learned from a man who agreed with me"

#OntAg will get you started!