our ochre way | a homesteading blog about gardening, farming, and permaculture in north carolina

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The First Signs of Spring… Seed Catalogs!

January 12, 2015 / jason / Comments Off

As Christmas and New Year’s pass and the days start to get longer as we get further and further away from the winter solstice, slowly, Spring is coming.

One of the things that particularly reminds me of this is the sudden, and almost incessant arrival of seed, plant, and gardening supply catalogs.Starting around Mid December, seed companies large and small start to send out their beautiful and eloquent descriptions of cultivars and varieties.

Some of our favorite places to find new seeds

From vegetables to fruit trees, the catalogs pour in with old heirloom favorites like Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, to newly rediscovered varieties from across the ocean like anchote. Anchote, or Coccinia abyssinica, caught my eye the other day as I perused J.l. Hudson’s new availability. Its an ancient tuber crop from Ethiopia related to cucumbers. Pretty cool, and supposedly tasty too.

These catalogs are full of interesting varieties like that, and make for great winter reading by the fire as we contemplate Spring, a new Year, and the taste of those first vegetables from the garden. There’s a lot that still needs to be done before then, but for me at least, these catalogs are the first sign that Spring is coming.

Chicken Nipple Waterer for Chicks with a Soda Bottle

January 8, 2015 / jason / Comments Off

Our chicks are growing fast, and as they get more and more energetic and active they end up messing up their water more frequently. They kick up their pine shavings and poop in their mason jar waterers which necessitates constant dumping, cleaning and changing on our part to ensure that they have access to clean water.

Chicken nipples (get your head out of the gutter!), use gravity and simple mechanics to keep their water clean and their bedding dry. We eventually want to transition our entire chicken operation to nipple waterers, but we decided to start first with the chicks.

Installing chicken nipples is simple. We got a pack of 25 that screws into a pre-drilled hole in your container. Easy.

We hope to use 5 gallon buckets outside, but decided to first try a 2 liter soda bottle or the chicks. 1 hole with a 5/16 bit in the cap, a quick tightening with a pair of pliers, and a few loops on a piece of rope and our soda bottle nipple Waterer was ready for action.

The nipples are red, which apparently attracts the eye of chickens, and within seconds of adjusting the Waterer to eye level the first few brave chicks were pecking at the nipple and drinking water. Success!

One quick note, it’s important to make sure that you avoid creating a vacuum inside of the waterer. With a bucket, just leave the lid a little bit cracked to break the vaccuum. Our solution with the soda bottles is to just poke a tiny hole in the base by where it hangs. This is enough to break the vacuum and ensure that the water flows freely out of the nipple when the birds peck it.

Right now we have just the one nipple Waterer, in addition to the two mason jar waterers but I want to build at least two more. It seems that most people use 1 nipple for anywhere from 5-10 birds, so 2 or 3 should be fine for us.

I’ve seen some creative designs using pvc, barrels, and hoses, and I’m sure we’ll set up something pretty cool for our Banty tractor, the standards, and any other fowl we add next spring!

Wind Proofing the Chicken Houses

January 7, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

Tonight it is supposed to get down to 10 degrees (without the wind chill) and we decided that we really needed to set up the chickens with extra windbreaks and warmth.

Here’s what we did:

Moved the mobile over beside the standard pen, creating a two-sided windblock for the geese to hide behind.
Covered the top of the mobile with 3 sheets and a tarp to keep in the warmth and to keep out the wind.

The bantam mobile gets some extra warmth!

Attached an unfolded cardboard box to the front door of the standard’s house. This is attached with small bungee cords and c-clamps. Their front door is facing the direction of the arctic wind and is only a frame covered in hardware cloth, so we knew that this was a place that they really needed some extra windblock!

A cardboard door!

Using our bungees… Thanks Grandma!

Adding straw to the area between the standard house and the bantam house…

Creating a space for the geese to sleep!

And even though the geese have this great new, less-windy spot, they didn’t think it was worth their time to go near it. Clearly they didn’t even need the wind block! They even had the audacity to take baths right out in the cold wind as the water was starting to freeze over! Ha, ha!

Taking a freezing bath!

.:.

Using Hardwood Bark As Mulch

January 5, 2015 / jason / Comments Off

What do you do with all of that bark, wood chips, and woody debri that accumulate when you split wood? While all of this material could be burned in you fireplace or woodstove, I find that after I sort out the smaller pieces of wood for kindling, I’m left with chunks and larger pieces of bark. For me, this bark doesn’t burn as well as dried wood. I think it holds more moisture, is less dense, and isn’t great kindling.

a fresh layer of bark under a Methley Plum tree in our food forest

So I prefer to use it as mulch. Now these pieces of bark are pretty big, anywhere from 2 – 12 inches long, so I don’t put them on our vegetable gardens. Instead, I dump these larger pieces of leftover bark in our backyard food forest at the base of fruit trees. Here they can break down slowly and won’t get in the way of any planting or harvesting.

Mulch helps to conserve water, block weeds, and protect the soil

This also mimics a forest environment where dead and dying trees litter the forest floor and aid in the nutrient cycle feeding all sorts of microorganisms in the soil. Right now, in the middle of winter, most of the leaves have fallen off of the trees, and by adding a fresh layer of mulch over top of them, we create the perfect environment for decomposition and lock all of the new fertility in place with a protective layer of bark.

Naming More Bantams

January 2, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

Since the hawk attacks a few days ago, we’ve recounted and realized that another bantam was taken, Perry, the pretty little one who looked like a hawk herself. This realization was another blow… Especially one that made me feel guilty. Why hadn’t I noticed that she was gone? And how long had she been missing from the flock before I noticed? These questions were bothering me, so I decided to take a very careful tally of everyone who is left to be sure that I have my numbers right in the future if an issue ever arises again.

Related to this, the four black bantams that are still living with the standard chickens had never been named. Early on, there was 6 of them that all looked the same without any major markings to distinguish them. Now that there are 4, I decided that it was high time for me to spend some time observing them (like I did with the new bantam flock) so I could give them names. When they have names, it is much easier for me to remember how many there are and to watch out for them accordingly.

So as an overview for myself more than anything else, there are 12 bantams that are living in the bantam mobile. They are:

From the new flock: Elvis, Presley, Red Wing, Robin, Ringo, Poka, Oro, and Churo (8). The 2 from the new flock that hawks took were: Teeny and Perry.
From the original flock: Vanna, Q, Bren, and Cleo (4). The rooster from the original flock that the hawks took was Roosty.

There are 4 bantams living in the standard pen, they are:

Sola: She has the smallest comb of all and it is very gray. She has no head tuft.
Media: She has medium-sized comb that is pink. She has a medium-sized head tuft.
Caper: She has a large comb that is gray. She has a large head tuft.
Hattie: She has a large comb that is red. She has a large head tuft.

There are 16 standards living in their pen with the 4 black bantams. They are:

Rex the rooster
8 Barred Rock hens
7 Buff Orpington hens

So now we at least know how many we have of each (since I always tend to forget). Let’s hope we have better luck in the coming year with keeping an eye on our poultry!

.:.

two hawk attacks in one week

December 31, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

this post brings you some sad news on the homestead.

we’ve had two chickens die this week, carried away by hawks (or maybe the same one), never to be seen again. the first victim was our bantam rooster, roosty, who we’ve had since early on in our homestead life. we didn’t see him get attacked and we didn’t even realize that he was missing until he next day. the hawk must have swooped down during the day when all of the chickens were out ranging around the yard and carried him off. we never heard a sound during the day and when the chickens went in their bantam mobile at night, we never counted to see if they were all there (we never do this, since they are always so crowded together and it’s hard to count them in the dark).

the second hawk attack was today. as far as I can tell, we lost one bantam. i’ve looked through my list of all my bantams and their names and descriptions and it looks like teeny was the one taken. i heard a noise and went outside to see all of the chickens hiding under bushes or in their houses. i walked around a bit and didn’t see any hawks, and then I went back inside. a few minutes later i heard a similar noise and went back out again, just in time to see a bantam being carried off by a medium-sized hawk. i was in shock at first, because the hawk looked like one of our standard barred rocks, and i thought that perhaps two chickens were simply fighting. by the time I realized what was actually happening, the hawk was flying over our field of pine trees with the bantam firmly in its grasp.

r.i.p. roosty. We will miss you.

i still need to recount all of the chickens when i go back outside this afternoon, and get the one bantam that is running free back in her house. then i should be able to double check our losses and make sure that we lost just one today (still one too many!).

all in all, a sad day. and an interesting ending to 2014.

one of our resolutions for 2015: be more careful about when we let the chickens out to range free!!!

.:.

chased by chickens and geese: a hungry flock!

December 29, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

today was wetter and rainier than days past, and even though all of the birds got 4+ hours of daylight to range freely and eat any bugs or other delicious tidbits they could find, all of the birds still acted as though they were starving when bolt and i came outside.

picture this: bolt, who loves to chase chickens (and if he caught one he might try to eat it), coming outside with me to see a horde of poultry coming towards him like flesh eating zombies! of course he was interested, and since the chickens got way too close to him (how could they be so foolish?! oh yeah, they’re chickens!) his interest was definitely peaked! after being corrected a few times, he did a good job of ignoring their creepy, feathery advances and we were able to complete our walk as usual.

once bolt was safely inside, i came back out with a camera to film the horde of chickens chasing me around. i didn’t have any food at the time, but since it was past their usual dinner time, they expected me to have something and thought to follow me around (some of them totally underfoot) hoping i would feed them right then!

i’ve noticed that all of the birds (bantams, standards, geese) have been hungrier lately… perhaps they’re trying to fatten up for the cold winter ahead.

.:.

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2014 / our ochre way / Comments Off

We want to miss you a very Merry Christmas, today.

We hope you had a lovely one with family, friends, and loved ones.

May the rest of your holiday time shine with love and happiness. We wish you all this, and more!

.:.

christmas eve cooking!

December 24, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

almond, vanilla, coconut, and walnut biscotti in the works!

today is a great day for cooking and enjoying family time!

you can find us in the kitchen making cranberry fruit leathers, biscotti, and banana bread or delivering our home-baked gifts to loved ones!

biscotti stage 2

pecan, vanilla, chocolate banana bread!

cranberry sauce, waiting to be spread out on our dehydrator’s drying racks.

cranberry sauce about to be transformed into fruit leathers!

have an early merry christmas!

.:.

4 Items in our Herbal Health and First Aid Kit

December 23, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

What do we turn to when dealing with minor, everyday cuts, scratches, injuries and ailments? Our herbal first aid kit!

We don’t really have a “kit”, but we do have collection of things in our bathroom that are tried and true when it comes to homestead first aid. I’m not talking about wild plants like plantain or comfrey, which are a huge art of of our life, but rather packaged and shelf stable items that can be stored and relied upon at a moments notice.

1. Tea Tree Oil

Tea Tree Oil is probably our catchall for cuts, scratches and anything involving open wounds. We try to harness tea tree oil’s anti microbial powers to prevent infections whenever we find ourselves bleeding, which happens a lot. Whether its from a loose piece of fence, a rooster’s spurs, or an insect bite, if we see blood, it gets a dab of tea tree oil.

When tick season comes around, every tick removal “surgery” is finished up with a bit of tea tree oil, just in case.

2. Vitamin C Powder

Vitamin C is antioxidant essential to a healthy life. Our bodies don’t store it, so we constantly need to get more of it as we live our lives. While I prefer real nutrient dense foods vs. supplements, vitamin c powder is just too easy, and too effective not to have on hand.

We add powdered vitamin c to our water almost everyday during the winter to strengthen our immune systems. It’s also nice to know that vitamin c can help with mild allergic reactions and swellings as it acts as both an anti histimine and anti inflammatory. You can take some before and after particulalry strenous activities to make sure your bodies repairitvie and restorative functions are opperating at there best. I’ve even heard of old, arthritic dogs getting some relief from a sprinkling of vitamin c on their food.

There are a ton of other uses and benefits for vitamin c, and it is a well used item in our lives.

3. Aloe

Aloe vera, a succulent plant with a long history of medicinal uses is another essential herbal remedy.

Whether you have a plant growing in a sunny window or a container of gel in the bathroom, if you work outside in the sun, you need some aloe. As a pain reliever and burn soother, nothing can compete. Fromm sunburns from hours of garden work, or real burns from cooking, a nice glob of aloe gel is the first thing I think of to in any situation where I want a “cooling” effect.

4. Raw Honey

Raw honey is not only an anti-microbial powerhouse, but it tastes good too. Raw Honey, as opposed to the heat pasteurized “dead” honey often found on shelves has a whole host of enzymes, antioxidants and minerals. Something in it helps to heal wounds and prevent infections, but make sure it’s raw or it won’t do the job.

It can also be used to soothe sore throats and as a natural cough syrup. It makes a great sweetener for tea too, how fitting. I’m sure there are more reasons to love raw honey (like making mead from it) but these few are enough to ensure it’s place in our pantry.

KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013