Be Ye Separate

Just Homesteading:)

Blessings!

   Over the last few days I've been down with a PPS flareup, lowgrade fevers and headaches. Our Miss Sarah has had a sore throat, fever and headaches. This has left Papa and Miss Mary-Ann as our caretakers. They stand up to the challeng so valiantly! And for this we are truly blessed:)

   Papa started building our new henhouse! We are so excited about this. The hens, though they pretty much stick around, do tend to get in to things they don't belong in and worse...they are laying in the barn! It's no easy task to gather eggs around here for certain:P It begins with the lower areas. Those must be found and gathered before we can venture up higher where the most adventuresome hens decided to stash their treasures!

   The barn has some mounted feeders inside the inside mangers. These were orginally used for grain for horses. Anyway, there are some that will lay in those. Then in the second manger some have taken to laying in the lowest corner (making it quite an athletic feat to get to). AFter securing those we turn around to face Mt. Haymore! At the base of this Mt. is a bale that has another bale that fell across it at an angle so it made a nice little cubby. There are at least 3 hens who find this a nest of choice. On up above that is a stack of old hay (garden/compost hay) that is stacked 4 high. We climb up to that to find another 3-6 eggs. If that wasn't enough we turn to the right where we have a foothold to get to the top of 7 bales where the rest of the hens feel the need to make deposits! Ugh!

   Now, if the hens aren't bad enough, there's the ducks! Okay, some of them lay in the henpen. It's very thoughtful of them because the only thing required is to watch where you put your feet. Ducks bury their eggs so you always find them half in the mud and filthy. Often mistaken for a stone one might be inclined to ignore it and step square into it:s Ick!

   After looking around the pen for all that can be found, we trek out to the horse pen where we find a few more hidden in the bushes right where the chickens have taken up dust bathing. I'm afraid to wander down to the river because I'm almost certain that we'll find more eggs down there and have no idea how old they are!

   No matter what we always float the eggs because you just never know when you might have missed an egg now and then.

   On the bright side, we have some steady customers already through Papa's work! He has three standing orders now. One of them wants 2 dozen a week ALWAYS, one purchases 3 dozen every two weeks and another gets them when she runs out but she says she eats 4-6 eggs every day so she's thinking of ordering two dozen a week like the first fella. Now if only we could get a few more steady customers then our egg issue won't be a problem through summer:)

   The hard part is finding folks who want duck eggs. There is one woman who wants to try them as she has never done that before. We will give her the first dozen to try and see how she likes them. After that we charge. It's our policy:) Oh and our neighbor wants our eggs too. They are going organic with nearly all their foods and will be getting eggs from us as needed.

   The duck eggs are great for baking! Although we do eat them like any other egg, they are very rich. Our Miss Mary-Ann likes them better than the chicken eggs but they are too rich and her poor tummy can't handle them. They DO make sauces much richer and baked goods much more moist and rich. Frostings, cakes, everything! Yum!

   We should have our henhouse done tomorrow. We have been taking pictures of the progress so as soon as it's done I'll post them for you:) Next will be the duckhouse. It will look the same only much much shorter:P It's exciting as things are coming together here.

   The sewing shed is coming right along as well. Tomorrow with the good weather I hope to be able to get out there and do more. I think Miss Sarah and I will be well enough and this will leave Miss Mary-Ann to help Papa to finish the henhouse.

   We manage to get several boxes a day, unpacked here but it's not fast enough for me:s We thought about having a huge sale come spring and make a little money on the things we are getting rid of. Now we are thinking that, except for some big stuff, we'll just send it all to the mission. I am so ready to be rid of it all:P

   Here we thought we had downsized enough and now that we have moved into a house with less square footage we realize we STILL have too much! God has helped us through these last 4 years of moving to slowly get rid of things. I am ever grateful for this. It is our desire to have nothing more than we absolutely need. Even though what we have has a use, we simply don't need it! Perhaps someone else has a need and it will be of use to them:)

   Well, that's the update on things here. Well, some of it anyway:P I'll share more another time. I wanted to do a bit more on our Homeskilling that we do here but with all that has been going on, it's been difficult keeping up.

   Oh, my arm is much better now. It is still weak and gives me a pain now and then but with the brace I am able to do a bit more. I will be seeing the doctor soon to take another xray and see if the brace can be taken off permanently. Right now I take it off to bathe, but I still can't grasp a pen very well without the brace and I can't write WITH it:P Sooooooooooo, typing it is:) It does get tired but I'm careful and make sure I'm still sleeping with it and wearing it most times to be sure I don't accidentally use it wrong. I already made that mistake once and wow:s Hopefully it won't be much longer:)

   Okay, I'm really done this time:P I'll write again soon. May you have a very blessed and prayerful Sabbath!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

Untitled Comment

{ 17:29, Sunday, March 9, 2008 } { Posted by HomesteadingCarnival }

Wow, thanks for sharing all about your homestead! : )

Blessings!
Jocelyn, THC Staff

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