KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Month: January 2014 (page 2 of 3)

choosing a chicken: standards vs. bantams

i often wonder about different people’s motivations for choosing certain breeds of chickens. some choose chickens that lay many eggs, others choose chickens that are showy and beautiful to look at. still others choose chickens to be their friends or those that are friendly around adults and children. many choose chickens who are better at foraging and taking care of themselves.

i’ve mentioned before that we have both standard chickens and bantam chickens. i wanted to take some time to describe the differences (that we’ve experienced) between these birds of a feather, just in case you’re interested in how their traits may fit into your lifestyle as a chicken owner.

the standards that we have are barred rock (black and white speckled) and buff orpington (which look much like any regular chicken except they are golden/tan in color). our standard rooster, rex, is a barred rock and looks much like the bird on the rex goliath wine bottle.

our bantam chickens are all mutts. each of our females are primarily black, some with varying neck colors such as white speckled or golden banded. our bantam rooster, roosty, has a lovely, deep green tail and an orange-red body and neck.

feeding time: our bantum rooster, roosty, with standard and bantum hens

feeding time: our bantam rooster, roosty,
with standard and bantam hens

now, before i compare their observed personalities and traits, i think i should mention the nicknames that jason and i have given the different breeds. we got the buffs and the barred rocks a few weeks before the bantams and spent our first few weeks as chicken owners comparing these two breeds. i started calling the buffs the “pilgrims” and the barred rocks the “blackfeet,” partly on account of their gray legs (while the buffs have cream colored legs) and partly because of the blackfeet native american tribe. our joke was that when the pilgrims showed up in north america, they were less survival fit and “stupider” than the resident native americans. this reflected in our flock, where the barred rocks seems to be less ditsy and clueless about the basics of finding food and avoiding walking feet.

once the bantams arrived, we continued the nicknames, but quickly realized that the blackfeet couldn’t hold a candle to the survival skills of the smaller, speedier chickens.

after many months of observation and chicken chasing, i have a few thoughts about standard chickens vs. bantams. keep these in mind as you make choices about the makeup of your flock.

the standards (barred rocks and buff orpingtons):

  • slower and easier to catch if they escape. they are also much more reliant on their “homebase” than the bantams and if they happen to escape stay close to the others inside the fence rather than laying low and hiding in bushes.
  • pushier and less skiddish of humans. when it’s feeding time, they are always underfoot!
  • less busy finding their own food in the earth. don’t get me wrong, all chickens do the scratch-and-step-back but i find the standards spend much more time lazying around the yard than the smaller guys.
  • they tend to go into the house to roost later in the day than the bantams.
  • rex draws much more attention to himself than roosty does. he likes to show off and is quick to stand in defense of his ladies and put on a big show.
  • they move differently than the bantams, for sure. they are much more dinosaur-like, both in their walk and in their features. to me they are very t-rex like (and lean forward clunkily when they run).
  • the breeds we have are good layers, with each hen laying around 250 eggs per year.
  • rex is a good, loud crower!
  • they have average or medium sized eggs that range from tan to light brown in color.
rex, our barred rock rooster, spending some time with his lady friends

rex, our barred rock rooster, spending
some time with his lady friends

the bantams:

  • much faster runners and expert dodgers. on the occasions that they have escaped they have tried to roost in bushes and fallen trees and have waited a long while to come back out of hiding. jason is fast and not afraid to dive for a chicken and yet these skills have rarely earned him a feathery prize! i am constantly amazed at how fast those little buggers can move.
  • prefer to fly under the radar when feeding time comes. the standards pick on them a little but they stay at the fringe of their yard when any humans happen in. they are very aware of where we are at all times and will always stop eating to run away from us, unlike the standards.
  • almost always busy searching for little snacks or taking dirt baths. they never seem idle and are constantly on the lookout.
  • they tend to head into the house to roost at the first sign of dark.
  • roosty doesn’t have much “bark” but jason and i suspect he has a whole lot of “bite” when it comes down to taking care of his flock. his spurs are also 3 inches long and he is such a fast little mover that i am more wary of him than of rex, whose spurs are still coming in and only an inch long.
  • the bantams move like sure-footed little quails who seem to float over the ground when they run. they appear to be dainty and are more lady-like rather than their lumberjack-like roomates.
  • our bantam hens are not as prolific as the standards, and we only get a few eggs per week from the whole flock. this could be due in part to their age; my father had many of these hens for years before giving them to us and the standards have just now matured and started their adult cycle.
  • my father has also observed over the years that many of the hens are good mothers, even raising standard chicks if they hatched them. they are very protective and good at teaching their babies how to be chickens. this is a trait to look for in chickens, with not all breeds (or individuals) having the mothering instinct as strongly.
  • roosty is also a good, loud crower but he sounds as if he hasn’t yet gone through puberty. his crow is much higher pitched!
  • their eggs are smaller than standard eggs, but the yolk is about the same size with less egg white. their eggs are off-white in color.

overall, i would choose a similar situation if we had to make the choice about chickens all over again. the standards give us many eggs and the bantams are lovely to look at while also being great mothers for our future chickens. they both provide meat for our household and they are equally valuable, in different ways. the standards eat more, but also produce more.

we love having a mixed flock. or rather, two flocks living harmoniously together. the roosters do not fight–perhaps because they do not bother or claim each others’ hens and all chickens roost and eat together. it is one fun and complex extended family we have in our front yard, and it’s perfect for us.

we recommend raising both standards and bantams, and trying them out together (at least at first) to see if they can co-exist peacefully and productively!

.:.

Hugelkulture: Which Wood is Best?

What kind of wood should I use for my hugelkulture or wood-core bed? Whichever you have access to. With a few exceptions of course.

This question seems to come up all the time after someone discovers the benefits of rotting wood in a hugelkulture bed and permaculture garden. Is pine okay? Oak? Softwood vs. Hardwood, alleopathic woods, fresh or dead? The list goes on, and I’ll try and answer some of the most common ones today.

Maple Hugelkulture

Maple filled hugel bed by of Paul Wheaton at permies.com

First, a general rule.

Use whatever wood you have easy access to.

Now, an exception to that rule.

Don’t use alleopathic or rot resistant woods like cedar, black walnut, and black locust.

Okay, that makes it easy. Pine is okay for hugel beds, so is oak, maple, sweetgum, apple and most any other species of tree around.

That includes softwood species as well. These trees, like pine, will typically rot faster than hardwood trees in a hugelkulture mound. This can be good or bad depending on your garden design, and your wants and needs. Sepp Holzer, the father of Hugelkulture, uses primarily softwoods on Krameterhof in the Alps because those are the trees most readily available.

For example, a hugelkulture bed that is used to support and establish a perennial system of trees, shrubs, and bushes, can be made of quicker rotting wood. This is because once the wood is completely decomposed into rich hummus, the deep roots of the plants are so well established that the benefits of the hugel mound are less needed and appreciated by the system at large.

But what about acidity? Isn’t pine acidic?

Yes and no. Pine trees, especially in the Eastern United States, are often found in old fields and clearings as a pioneer species. Their needles are full of ascorbic acid (vitamin c) and can acidify soils. This is useful in some circumstances, around acid lovers like blueberries and azaleas, but can be detrimental in other areas if allowed to swing the pH too far to the acid side.

So, you should avoid pine trees in your hugelkulture raised bed, right? No, while pine needles are acidifying, the wood is not, and neither are the brown needles. Pine is fine, just don’t fill your bed with bales of green needles.

black walnut hugelkulture

Black walnut and hugelkulture do not mix
Photo courtesy of Jim Linwood

Okay, what about these alleopathic trees that should be avoided in the garden? These are plants that for one reason or another (usually to provide an ecological advantage) inhibit the growth of nearby plants with chemical warfare. The most famous of these is black walnut, which secretes juglone, a chemical only a select number of species can tolerate. Pecans also secrete juglone, though not as much as black walnut.

Some other plants to avoid are the cedars, and black locust which is highly rot resistant and composed of high levels of fungicidal components, not the best combo for a hugelkulture or woody bed. These woods are also generally higher value woods and have many other uses, such as firewood (black locust firewood may be the best firewood available), cooking and smoking, furniture making, wood carving, and fence posts.

So, what is best material for a hugelkulture bed? Whatever you have lying around–it will all rot–some just at a different pace than others. The most important thing is to not over analyze it and start digging, because regardless of the wood chosen, it takes time to start to decompose and harvest nitrogen before you can see the effects of the wood core in your garden or permaculture system.

What woods have you used in your hugel beds? Let us know in the comments if some worked better than others in certain applications.

old lady dog: a friend, a mess

today i came home from work to an interesting scene, one not very unlike other scenes jason and i have both experienced…

let me preface by saying that our sweet, older dog, bridey, is getting a little loopy as she gets older. she just turned 15 and i’ve had her since she was 7. so, needless to say, she’s been one of my very best pals over the years. she’s always been there for me, silently supporting me and/or speedily running from the vacuum (in her youth, anyway. now she loves the vacuum).

bridey, napping with bolt in july 2013

bridey, napping with bolt in july 2013

in the last 6 months jason and i have noticed a change in her. she has lost most of her hearing (this decline into deafness actually started about a year and a half ago) and her eyesight isn’t the greatest anymore. sometimes she misses the doorway and veers a bit towards the door-frame. concerning, but also comical.

i’ve discovered, actually, that most of what an old dog does is both concerning and comical. perhaps we find humor in the changes because there is nothing else we can do. we know that her time with us will end, but we hope it will end later rather than sooner. and we also want to be sure that she continues to have a good time in her last years.

perhaps bringing the ridiculous and pushy puppy, bolt, home wasn’t her favorite thing, but i think that having his youth and spunk around has made her feel a little younger herself. she seems to be annoyed by him most of the time, but when we separate them for her sake, she looks over the gate at bolt longingly (one of our jokes is that she’s simply forgotten that bolt is as annoying as he actually is).

her memory has also gone, for sure. she remembers us, but sometimes thinks it makes sense to bite at us or walk in circles. sometimes she goes the opposite way when she knows it’s time for a walk… perhaps she knows of a secret back door that jason and i are neglecting.

her new favorite bizarre activity is to bite the edge of the water bowl when the water has run out (and it does often because she trips over it and knocks it over a few times a week so we keep less water in it and refill more often). and when i say bite, i mean bite. you can hear her old lady teeth banging up against that thing from a mile away!

in addition to her failing memory and auditory and visual senses, she has also lost some control over her bowels and bladder, as can be expected. we tried a lot of different approaches to dealing with this since when we are gone for the day she gets too confused and forgets that she’s pooped on her bed and lays in it or steps in it and tracks it everywhere. we tried crating her (which we never did before because in her youth she would rather explode than use the bathroom in the house) and that only worked to a certain degree. it caused her to think that she should try to hold it longer, but if she had to go she would always end up laying in it. ahh!

we tried keeping her in the hallway while bolt was in the kitchen but the hallway is carpeted and a few times she somehow pooped in her own water dish. seriously. i had never seen anything like that before. our theory is that she got turned around and “stuck” in a corner and then let it fly.

the latest method has been the best; we’ve kept her in the kitchen with bolt. we decided that he’s old enough to leave her alone for most of the day and if she uses the bathroom the vinyl can certainly handle it. the last few months she’s been doing much better, and we’ve barely had any accidents.

and then today happened…

i came home to find pee drops and smears (where she had laid on the ground after laying in pee) all over the kitchen, poop on 2 of the rugs with other little bits of poop strewn all over the room.

the worst part, though, was this: bolt’s bed (which is made out of a synthetic material) had become a cauldron of poop soup. the middle of the bed was water tight enough to hold a lot of pee and within the pee i found some poop that had dissolved. so, poop soup.

poop soup.

the cleanup was unappealing, as you can imagine, but i have long since gotten used to strange concoctions that bridey accidentally prepares for us while we are at work. the thing that i was most grateful for was that neither dog had anything on them–i have no idea why–so neither needed a bath to rid us of dog-doused-in-poop-soup.

this story illustrates, once again, how bridey is aging and getting a little loopy. and while i used to complain and get downright angry about these kinds of things, in recent months i simply just feel lucky to know her. lucky to know her after all these years.

she’s been my best friend for a long time, and always held up her end of the bargain–loving me and looking out for “bad guys” as best she can. i hope she continues to have fun on the farm and share with us her old lady dog “scents of humor.”

i’ve done a little emotional preparation for the time when she’ll leave us, and dr. pitcairn’s complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats has an excellent chapter about loss and letting go of pets when the time is right.

but for now, bridey continues to make our days better, albeit somewhat messier. but, isn’t that all that life is anyway? different sorts of messes and learning to love and appreciate through them all? bridey is one hell of a mess, but also one hell of a friend.

and i am grateful everyday to see her face.

.:.

–to bridey, my first life partner

Front Yard Garden Madness: Sean Law and the $130,000 Messy Lawn Fine

They are at it again. Code enforcers, city council, and neighbors with nothing to do and less sense.

Sean Law of Longwood, FL is on the hook for $130,000 because his front yard has been deemed messy, unsightly, and different.

Ridiculous.

It is a sad day when growing food without toxic pesticides, reducing irrigation and runoff problems, and not conforming to the aesthetics of a 1950’s sitcom lead to legal action and steep fines.

Sean Law's messy lawn and front yard garden

Sean Law’s “messy” front yard garden in Longwood, FL

Whats worse, is that it appears that Sean Law’s “natural method of gardening,” which is modeled off of the wisdom of the great Masanobu Fukuoka, follows (actually excels at) all of the guidelines recommended by the State of Florida’s Florida Friendly Landscaping program. The program calls for reducing irrigation by mulching, recycling yard clippings on site, and choosing the right plant for the right place.

Sean’s strategy of sowing many varieties of seed via clay seed balls and seeing what grows best where is the epitome of “right plant, right place.” When he mows down his lawn of weeds and tall grasses and applies them around his vegetables, he protects the soil from the intense FL sun, and locks in moisture to reduce irrigation.

Yet these are the very acts he is being fined for.

Some might argue that his front yard garden is messy, and to some it is, but America needs to learn that you can’t shove your ideals down everyone else’s throats just because you have a brief moment of power. Not only is it morally and ethically wrong, but it sets the precedent for the next batch of tyrants bureaucrats to enforce whatever farcical whims of their own upon society, and the result is a slow, yet constant erosion of liberty.

The rights of those we disagree with are the ones most necessary to protect. Hopefully the citizens of Longwood believe this, and will support this man’s liberty and pursuit of happiness in his own front yard.

Winter Homestead Chores: Splitting Wood, One Cord at a Time

In my last post on Winter Homestead Chores I talked about using the shortened days of winter to hibernate, contemplate, and observe nature and your land. For some, especially those of us in colder climes, the best hibernation and contemplation is accomplished while enjoying the warm heat of a wood stove on a cold winter night. But wood stoves, while saving money and energy, require an investment of energy (or money) before they pay toasty dividends.

Basically, you can’t burn without wood. Dry wood. And split wood dries faster, and is easier to carry and load into a hot wood stove.

Split Wood, Chestnut Oak

A little more than a cord of firewood.

So today I grabbed my wood splitting tools, and made a nice dent in our stacked pile of chestnut oak rounds. I’ve heard different names for different tools, but today I grabbed a metal splitting maul, or “go-devil,” and a light single-sided ax. Emma’s father made and gave us a wooden maul for splitting wood this Christmas, but I haven’t used it yet. It’s sheer size should help with some of the knottier and hard to split wood we come across, though.

After cleaning out a section of our corn crib turned woodshed, i got into a groove and split about a cord of firewood. One important thing to note when splitting wood is to take some breaks (preferably with sweet potato ginger soup), and to stop when you’re tired. Splitting wood when tired is dangerous and a good way to end up observing the inside of hospital room, or worse.

But if you pay attention to basic safety, splitting wood is a great way to spend a winter afternoon on the homestead. Not only is there a great feeling of accomplishment as each log succumbs, but the addition to the family’s energy independence and reduced fuel costs–as well as the exercise–make wood splitting a great winter homestead chore.

our garden: just the beginning

since we moved to our new, 16 acre land in march of 2013, we’ve added the first portion of our backyard garden. it took time and effort, but all of the work has been rewarding and all the fruits of our labor (vegetables, really) have been delicious!

the picture below shows what our yard looked like before we started digging…

backyard before garden

a picture of the backyard of our home a few months before we purchased it in march of 2013

and here is the first step we undertook in building the beds:

hugelkultur experiment

digging the first, and most downhill bed

since we wanted raised beds, first we dug down about 8 inches and scooped the soil out. as you can see from both pictures, we decided to line a portion of this bed with small, felled trees and dead brush. this was jason’s hugelkulture project and he wanted to experiment with how much the slow rotting and decomposition of the wood would benefit the roots of the plants growing above. the portion of the bed that is unfilled was later filled with leaf mold from the woods. this was my project: i wanted to see how the decomposing leaf mold would benefit the plants in much the same way as the decomposing wood. after filling the ditch with these materials, we layered all of the dirt on top and dug out an adjacent path (also about 8 inches deep) and placed that dirt on top too.

making a hugelkultur raised bed

the base of the bed–half filled with small trees

the reason for the half-and-half bed liner was simple: i wanted to do it one way and jason wanted to do it another way. so, we compromised and split the bed in two. this way, he could have it his way, and i could have it my way!

later in the season we planted tomatoes, peppers, basil, amaranth, chia, squash, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and various other crops. considering that we started everything much later than desired, the garden made quite a bit for us this year (much more on this later).

you can see our small dwarf apple tree in the foreground of the the picture below, and the tomato cages; we use woven wire bound in cylinders and pinned to the ground with bent electrical piping (my father’s tried and true method).

the first season's planting in our garden

the first season’s planting in our garden

our sweet potato vines really took over and yielded around 120 pounds of “wild man candy bars,” as my father calls them. you can see the lush vines in the second nearest bed.

raised beds with sweet potatoes, chia, peppers and tomatoes

the first season’s planting in our garden. you can see our barn in the background.

all in all, it was a great year for our first garden together. we learned something about compromise and also what you do when groundhogs threaten to eat all of your sweet potato vines…

i also documented each of the planting and harvest dates for our crops and whether or not each crop was deemed a success or a dud.

i will be posting the calendar that we followed this year and the outcome of our different plantings soon. this way, perhaps we can start a dialogue about planting and harvesting in our region!

.:.

Cold Wind Blowing

Brrrrrr…. Last night it got down to 3 degrees. Fahrenheit. With  a windchill of -11 degrees. That’s cold. So cold in fact, that it pushed us to the limit of our USDA Hardiness Zone. This kind of weather adds a few more things to the ordinary lists of winter homestead chores.

For instance, we took extra precautions with our remaining yaupon holly bush because its already on the hardiness border for our zone. We covered it with a layer of clear plastic, and a double layer of bed sheets just to be safe.

Emma thought up a few ways to protect the chickens from the icy wind and seal off drafts in their mobile coop.  That seemed to work well, and the chickens seemed extra joyous about both their new plot of pasture, and the warming rays of the sun. So far the chickens seem more than capable of handling the cold in their solid, yet uninsulated mobile coop.

Frozen chicken waterer and cold chickens

Ice Cold Water

Yet it only got up to 23 F today, so I did have to break the ice a few times on top of our new chicken waterer today to let them to drink. No frozen eggs to report of yet ;)

We also covered our well pump with a couple of sheets, just to be safe. That’s not a problem I feel like dealing with any time soon, and thoughts of building a more substantial well house came to my mind again last night.

Our faucet protectors did their job, and the pipes in the basement didn’t even flinch in the face of the cold, more than I can say for myself last night on our 1 am dog walk. The front treated me to a great swallow of arctic air that widened my eyes and stole my breath for a moment.  Did I mention the windchill? -11 F?

All in all, we weathered the cold just fine.  The house, furnace, chickens, and even Bridey. One thing to thank the cold front for was the sky last night. One of the clearest nights we’ve had yet, and worth bearing every extra second of the cold that set its stage.

where have all the cowboys, er, EGG CARTONS gone?

this post was originally posted on our older blog shortly before the end of 2013 but i thought i would re-post these thoughts since our chickens and their eggs are constantly on my mind.

also, a new thought: since winter is coming (and will be officially be arriving tonight when it gets down to 3 degrees), i am wondering how the chickens will fare. i’ve tried to seal/insulate their house a little better and i hope they won’t get too chilly. since it isn’t supposed to get above 22 tomorrow, i wonder if any of the eggs will freeze once they lay them? i guess we’ll find out soon!

 

originally posted on DECEMBER 30, 2013:

“we have 29 chickens. we started with 30 but one of our barred rock females died… no signs of a sickness or an attack so we aren’t sure how she died.

we have 2 roosters… one bantam rooster named roosty and a barred rock rooster named rex.

our hens are: 7 parts buff orpington, 8 parts barred rock, and 12 parts bantum (27 in all). we will post some images of our chicken tractor and fence set-up shortly, but in the meantime i would like to talk about one of the great gifts of the chicken: eggs!

the bantums, as a whole, lay only 1 or 2 eggs a day; they are older hens that my father has had for many years, and perhaps their egg-laying has been somewhat hindered by having to live with a bunch of slightly less-than-genius dinosaur-bullies (the standard hens).

for the first few months of our standard hens’ laying cycle we were only getting a few eggs a day. we were not concerned at first but after receiving feedback from others, we realized that maybe we were not feeding them enough food. so, we doubled their food and now supplement them with extra sources of calcium and also cooked meat. largely due to this change, we’ve been getting between 10 and 13 eggs a day for the last 2 months. which means… we need egg cartons to hold all of these ovular treats!

and yet… it has been difficult finding egg cartons at the store we frequent most. we have checked 2 store locations and were told that neither has had them in stock for the last 4 months! shocking! one theory of the staff there is that they are usually in demand in spring more than in winter and so their stores have not been shipped any new ones.

as i write this, jason is stopping at another store to pick up some cartons… finally! after much calling and question-asking, i was able to find at least one store in our 40-mile radius which carries them!

i’ve asked him to get at least 10 cartons to give us the chance to store the eggs that we currently have laying around or overflowing from little baskets in the fridge. soon, perhaps tonight, we are going to look into prices for egg cartons if purchased in bulk online. we are thinking this might be a cheaper bet. the cartons he is buying today run at 39 cents each, and we think that with a little more research we can find a more reliable source for carting our eggs!!!

we would love to hear any suggestions from fellow chicken owners and egg eaters. leave us a comment if you have any insights about places or websites to order cheap (and reliably in-stock) egg cartons!

as for me, i’m counting the minutes until he gets home with the egg cartons that i’ve been fantasizing about (no, literally!!!) for weeks!”

.:.

raindrops keep falling on my head… and the chickens’ heads… and the wood…

because i grew up in a large north carolina city, summer rain often meant running outside to play, the smell of wet asphalt that so many city folks think of when they think of rain (i still love that smell!!!), and sitting on the porch watching the sheets drops down like buckets poured from the sky.

country rain has come to mean different things to me: different work but also different joy.

in any season in the city, the most that rain really meant to me was: “go roll up your car windows!” or perhaps close your home windows so the rain doesn’t come pushing in sideways through the screen and ruin your window sill.

in the country, rain means even more than that. not just an increased appreciation for the garden getting a drink (in the city i had a garden too and was even then excited about the rain for my plants’ sake), but also more tasks to be completed before the rain arrives, if time allows.

now i check the weather almost religiously and we hope to get home before the rain starts or prepare the night before.

these new tasks that are forever on my mind when i think of winter rain are:

  • cover up the firewood. some of our woodpiles are in the middle stages of being processed; they are either stacked in large pieces and ready to be split or they are already split but have not yet been toted to the corn crib to spend a few months drying out of the rain. we cover these piles with sheets of weighted down plastic, but we also uncover them when the forecast calls for sunny skies for a time, to help them dry out quicker. rain coming means hoping to get the piles covered back up before the drying wood gets ruined in an instant!
  • uncover the crops. i should be doing more of this, i know. we have a large cold-frame set up over our peas, bok choi, and kale (it turns out its value as a deer deterrent is just as helpful as its value as an insulator). each time when the rain comes we decide whether or not we should uncover the crops for a time.
IMG_1101

chickens taking shelter during feeding time

  • open the eaves of the chicken house. our chicken house/tractor is made of an old truck camper and has windows on both sides that can be propped open to vent in the summer or to act as an extra dry space during a rain. this is especially great during cold, winter rains. the chickens also have dry spaces inside or under their house, but most often one of their feed pans hangs out near/under one of the eaves. often, i forget to open the eaves for them, and when i do i always feel guilty! there is something miserable (but also humorous) about the sight of a wet, soggy chicken!
  • put the chicken feed pans either under a dry space or inside their house. this chore is related to the previous, but sometimes i remember one and forget the other (how silly of me!). when their food gets wet it is quickly forgotten by them and ends up being a big waste.
  • take our sweet, old dog out to pee before the rain starts. sometimes it rains all day, of course, but in the moments we can feel the rain coming we try to take bridey (our 15-year-old, long-haired shepherd mix) out to pee so she can avoid getting soaked in cold winter rain. our other dog, sirius bolt (a 9-month-old lab/boxer mix) likes to act as though we are torturing him when we take him out during the rain, but he is young and short-haired and his fur dries quicker than you can say “you wet and stinky dog, you!”

sometimes we just can’t get everything done before the rain comes in, but sometimes we can. sometimes we forget or even get a little lazy, but that is the way of things, i guess. you do the best you can for yourself and your animals until you feel those rain drops falling on your head. sometimes you stay out in it a little while (since even cold winter rain can be wonderful to feel if you’re wearing the right garb), and sometimes we come racing back inside and immediately start the hot tea kettle.

whether you live in an apartment or on a homestead, some activities are always completed which herald the rain coming. these activities are the rituals of our lives, and though they can be viewed only as chores, i think it would be better to view them as small traditions and memories in the making.

i still have distinct memories about the rain from my childhood… playing in it with friends… watching the rain on the porch with my dad…

and now i have some new distinct memories to add to that list or perhaps the list of my future children… covering the wood… taking the dog out… opening up the chickens’ windows…

what will our children say was on their list of rainy memories…?

.:.

Winter Homestead Chores: Where to Start?

The leaves have changed, fluttered from the sky, and now coat the forest and garden floor with a thick layer of organic mulch. Winter is here. For many, this means little more than bundling up, celebrating the holidays, and mulling over seed catalogs picking out new experiments for next year’s spring garden. But while these are wonderful things, there are many winter chores and homestead activities that can still be accomplished. From splitting wood for the wood burning stove to winter gardening pursuits, inspiration and opportunity abounds in the winter landscape.

Winter Homestead Chores

Photo courtesy Chad Cooper

Yet while there are many winter chores to be done, remember to take the time and enjoy the season with friends and family. The great thing about winter chores is that they are not usually too pressing, and can be easily budgeted into our schedules.

It isn’t wise to try and tackle winter activities around the homestead like you would your summer gardening chores. Especially around the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, daylight is at a premium and winter is traditionally the time of resting. Instead of compiling long to do lists of winter home maintenance or DIY projects in the cold, plan for plenty of time to contemplate both your life, and your land.

Winter is an excellent time to follow one of permaculture’s most useful tools. Observation.

Observe the rising and setting locations of the low winter sun, watch the long shadows, and maybe plan the perfect location for your new winter garden beds. The forests are easier to enter and navigate in winter, and are great places to look for patterns and enjoy nature.

Winter homesteading offers both challenges and opportunities, but remember that this is the time of year to recharge and relax to get ready for the ramping up of spring soon to come, and to reflect on the seasons that have passed.

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