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This past weekend we took a huge step in moving forward toward our dream of being more self sufficient. We purchased a family cow! We purchased a Dexter Heifer named Violet from Clover Bell Farms in Vanleer Tennessee. Linda Reeve, the owner of the farm had made the process so far so easy that we are breezing right through what we had imagined to be a very stressful purchase! Violet is not yet a year old so she will be staying at the farm until she can be bred near the end of July. She will then be put in with a handsome bull named Roshambo and after a few weeks we hope things will progress nicely. So, if all goes well Violet will be seen by a vet in October and if she is pregnant then we will be bringing her home! We are hoping to have all the necessary purchases made before she arrives but right now we do not have the funds to do all that we would like to do. The cow purchase took all of our savings so we are trying to sell a truck we had planned to keep for the kids use someday so that we can purchase fence, hay, troughs and the necessary supplies for milking. It is hard not to worry but I know that God knows our needs and he will supply a way somehow. Some of the things we think are necessary really are not but are more to make life easier so if they do not get purchased then at least we will have a bred cow! Right now we are reading the Little House series and I know that a lot can be done with very little! They kept their family cow and her calves on picket lines (no fence) and milked her right out there in the field (no stachion) so I know that it can be done with what we already have. We have also moved forward with our poultry plans. 25 various chicks were delivered on June 23rd and all are doing well. We have still not figured out who is who with a lot of them but we do have know a good majority of them since they were primarily Delawares, Buff Orpingtons and New Hampshire Reds. We have several cockerls in the bunch and once they grow out we will chose one Delaware Rooster for our planned breeding and two other roosters for eye candy. We have two Cockoo Maran that we had to purchase as striaght run and one is looking like a rooster so we will probably have to add him to the Delaware broilers or try to sell him. He is pretty friendly and turning out to be larger than all the rest so I may end up keeping him even though that will mean we will have six roosters in the yard! Two are Old English BB reds that are the girls pets so they are not very loud and then we will have one Delaware, one Silver Polish (DH's pet) one Speckled Sussex and then the Cockoo Maran. I also added two Mille Fleur which also were straight run but thankfully they are both looking like pullets. So by this time next year we should have all the eggs we could possibly need and hopefully will have enough to sell as well. We will also have our Dexter and her calf who may just end up in the freezer and in that case we will be set for food next year as long as I learn to milk and the garden goes well again. This year with all the high prices for everything it has been such a struggle to purchase healthy food for all of us. I have had to stop purchasing organic and it has been so hard to live with that. God has a plan though and he is working things out for us so that we will have a more healthy life in the future so I know that this too shall pass. Things are looking good!
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Over the past two years my husband and I have done a lot of reading on self sufficient living. We have chosen to farm simply to be more self sufficient and not to try to garner an income, however in one instance we do hope to at least sell enough of our excess to cover our own costs. Therefore, we have chosen to go with dual purpose breeds on our homestead. Some of the breeds we have chosen are also in danger of becoming extinct which has also become a driving force in our breed choices. We hope to not only feed our family but also keep some of our rare breeds going for future generations. For poultry we have chosen two breeds that have the hardiness we require here in the South plus the temperment, egg size, color and production we require. Our first choice is the Delaware (listed as Critical) our second choice is the New Hampshire Red. Both of these breeds are heat & cold tolerant, very good layers of large brown eggs, broody (necessary for breeding without incubation) and have a nice growth rate for broilers. We have chosen those the Delaware to breed for our broilers that we will raise on pasture and we are going to try with the New Hampshire Reds as well but will probably end up with just the Delaware. For our laying hens we are also chosing a few other breeds that are also more cold hardy so that we will have eggs all year long but we will not breed these. We are going to get a few Polish too but they are mostly for eye candy and for the kids since they are so easy going. For our beef and dairy we have chosen to go with the Irish Dexter. My husbands family is mostly Scotch Irish so that had a little to do with our choice of this breed but after a lot of research we have found that even without the sentiment we would have chosen this breed. The Dexter breed is a miniature breed and therefore easily added to a small acerage like ours. They are also very hardy so they will not require a great deal of shelter. This dual purpose breed good both for meat and milk is perfect for our family. With a family of five we hope the higher fat content of this breeds milk with garner us enough to have enough milk and cream to provide skimmed milk, butter and possibly cheese for our needs. The only trouble we are having with this breed is finding one we can afford! We also plan to add Nigerian Dwarf goats to our homestead in the future as well if the Dexter does not meet our needs for milk production. This miniature dairy breed should produce just enough to make up any gaps and being miniature easier to handle as well. They are simply adorable and that does not hurt either. As for pork, we are still on the fence about having any at all but I am leaning toward adding them as well since they are fairly easy to care for. So if we do choose to add them we will either go with the Tamworth or Berkshire. The Berkshire is a very very lean pork and the Tamworth is very tasty. Fortunatly both would be fairly easy to obtain in our area as well. So for us these dual purpose breeds are just the ticket to helping us along the way to becoming self sufficient. They may lay a little slower and grow out a little slower, but they are breeds that should not be overlooked. The world needs more than Rhode Island Reds, Cornish Rocks and Angus Cattle. Take care! Hope |
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Today, I just wanted to share some of the things we have learned along the way during our first year raising poultry. First let me begin by saying that if you would have asked me two years ago how I would like to raise poultry I first would have wondered about your sanity and next I would have probably started to laugh because it was a simply ridiculous thought at the time. We lived in a very HOA ruled subdivision in Florida with family who were quite opposed to animals of any kind much less the barnyard variety. So, however much I liked the thought I would never have believed we would ever get to own much more than a dog! Well God has a way of changing things so when by necessity my husband and I took a leap of faith and moved the kids to the rural land of milk and honey of Southern Middle Tennessee we were about as prepared for the rural life as say Mr. Douglas! We started reading every self-sufficient, homesteading, hobby farm book and or magazine we could get our hands on and started to make plans. We had already been planning for about six months before we moved so we knew that our ultimate goal was to get as much acerage as we could afford and then get the animals. We were very fortunate to find a very nice home on a very nice and flat piece of land not too far from where my husband was going to work. It did not have fence or a barn but it did have a nice mini barn with a run-in and a small chicken coop. There was a little fenced in area next to the mini barn where the previous owners kept a dog so we decided to get the kids a couple dogs first since I already had experience with them. That did not turn out to be such a wise choice but that is another story. We also already had the chicken coop so I spent about a week planning and then started to clean it out. It was quite messy and a real introduction to farm life for this city girl! However, I did get all the feeders sanitized with diluted bleach and also used a similar solution on the interior and exterior of the hen's house. The floor was already a nice deep litter that we read was a good thing so we left that alone and just added another thick layer of fresh litter. We were not sure what was best so we purchased some rather expensive organic litter from the local TSC. We later started to use the ever ready supply of dried lawn clippings we had in excess after mowing and mowing and mowing five acres! So, what to get? Chicks or already laying hens? Well, I wanted to go with the chicks since we could choose the breed ( I liked a lot of "ornamental" layers back then) but my husband was dead set against it since we would have to get at least 25. So after some research I found a very nice lady about an hours drive away in Alabama who was willing to sell me some of her free range Red Star's that were only a year old. Knowing that a chicken will lay well for two years I thought that was perfect. She chose four for me and had them ready for us when we arrived to pick them up. A few looked rather tired but she said they were just molting. Well, after getting them home we all anxiously awaited those eggs but no such luck. We waited for three weeks! Then we finally got a rather huge egg. It was actually the largest egg besides an ostrich egg that I have ever seen. Now I know that the older a hen gets the larger the egg and the less frequently she lays so that was my first indicator that the hens were quite a bit older than a year. We got about one egg a day for about two weeks and then the girls all started laying eggs with no shell. We had been giving them oyster shell and grit plus feeding them organic layer ration so I was very confused. Then they started sneezing and one poor old girl got so sick my poor husband had to learn how to cull just so we could put her out of her misery. One down three to go. Well after a starving pit bull found out about the chickens two more bit the dust. Now we were down to only one. She is now buried in the backyard after finding her dead one morning from the same malady as the first poor girl. None of this was easy on the kids or my husband and I but we learned a lot. Mostly not to buy full grown birds and to watch out for starving pit bulls! We got three more Araucana chicks from our local Flea Market and started again. Two turned out to be roosters but they were so cute! I say were because the starving dog or possibly a hawk got them both right after they finally started to crow. We were down to one again. Well, we learned that if we wanted to keep them alive we had better not let them out of their coop and run. So since we were determined to get eggs we went back to the flea market and got some older pullets. We got four of various mixed breeds. They stayed in the coop unless we were going to be in the yard working and then we let them out. My two girls got in there enclosure so much that they were all extremely tame, so much so that most of them would crouch down and let you pick them up. One bit toes so she was my favorite since she had some character! Unfortunatly I forgot to put them all up one afternoon and by the time I remembered, my favorite and one other were gone. We still have the one Araucana, one who is a mixed bantam and a medium sized Black Sex Link. They stay inside there coop most of the time and I have learned never to forget to put them up. My oldest daughter is so scared they will get eaten that she makes sure I never forget. She and my youngest take care of the hens and they do a terrific job. We have found that you need to clean the nests out once a week and that sand paper works very well to get off any dirt that might be on the eggs. Our hens got used to sleeping inside the nesting box area over the winter so we have had a couple dirty eggs now that they have started to lay again. We are going to be putting a stop to the roosting in the nests as soon as we can get them a new roosting area that is more sheltered. We did have one of the last pullets that taught us quite a lot about chicken health issues as well. Her name was Thelma Lou and she was a feather footed Cochin bantam mix. One day we noticed that she was having trouble keeping up with the other chickens while they made their way around the yard. I decided to examine her and found that one of her feathers on her foot was curved in and was growing so that it was poking her. I cleaned her foot and then removed the feather and started to give her Vet RX in case she had an infection. She did not get much better and even got so that she could hardly walk at all. She was still eating and drinking and even laid an egg but she still looked drunk! It was pitiful so I had to do something else for her. We got an old dog crate and made that her temporary isolation area and I found a product called Nutri-drench for Poultry at my local TSC and started to administer that directly into her mouth every morning. In about a week she was much improved and we put her back with the others. She started to walk perfectly soon after and started to lay nearly every day until the dog got to her. I was very upset because I had worked to hard to pull her through whatever it was she had and then a dog got her! I did learn a lot from Thelma Lou so even though she is gone she will always be the chicken who I remember because she was my first success! Now a year later we have three hens that give us three eggs most every day and they are pretty easy to care for now too. We clean out there waterers every time we refill them (we use SOS steel wool pads that we keep outside by our outdoor sink to clean them because they have a pretty low toxicity) and we clean out the nests and add litter to the run every week. It all takes less time than the dogs care does and they give us something we can eat and they are fun to watch as well. The chickens have been the only animals besides the crazy dogs that we have gotten over the past year but they were the best place for us to start and we are very glad we did even though some of it was quite trying at times. We now feel like we are truly living the country life and doing a pretty good job of it too. Over this past weekend we got started on preparing a new pastured poultry pen for the girls to have their own batch of chicks to care for and we started converting the run-in attached to our mini-barn for housing the new chicks we are getting from a hatchery next month. Tomorrow I am going to share more about that and our plans for the Spring, plus some tips on organic gardening! Blessings,Hope |
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Well, the temperature is finally rising around here after three inches of snow fell on Saturday! That was a surprise for us since everyone has told us it hardly ever snows in our area. The kids were thrilled to say the least. They had never seen or experienced snow before we moved here last year and it was very exciting for them. Florida weather is pretty much the same every day unless there is a Hurricane coming or one of the numerous Tropical Storms so snow and cold have been a welcome change for them. I personally liked the cold for the first two months but about the end of February I had had enough. I was totally missing some sunshine! We have it now thank the Lord and the kids are liking Spring just as much as winter so it's all good for us. So, I have started on my spring chores, getting the garden ready being the top priority right now. I started some seeds inside a few weeks ago and they seem to be doing OK. I tried it last year and killed everything except two okra plants and one bell pepper. So this year I have just planted some more cold hardy plants in the hopes that they may make it through to planting. We don't have a green house or any fancy seedling mats so I may not be so lucky but I figured I would try one more time and see if I can get a few more this year. I also planted some peas a few weeks ago in the raised beds that were here when we moved in along with some spinach and lettuce since I have read that spinach and lettuce do well with Peas. However, the cat (also here when we moved in) has decided that the freshly loosened soil makes the perfect litter box! I was not thrilled but I removed her "deposits" and tried again last weekend. I also took chicken wire we found in the shed and placed that on top of the bed in the hopes that would discourage her as well. It worked until she found a small opening the chicken wire did not cover and left us another "gift" yesterday. My husband says the problem can only be solved with a shot gun and some rock salt. He is kidding I hope so I am trying to think of something so that I will atleast get enough peas to make some stir fry this year. I have seen some powder stuff at Home Depot that claims to keep cats and dogs out but in the past I have found that powders don't do much so it would probably be a waste of money. Wasting money is just not something we can do around our little homestead so I am going to search the internet for ideas today that may save me some money and the cat! We have also been trying to figure out how we are going to ever manage to get a dairy animal of some kind to supply our family. We simply can't afford to buy organic milk anymore and it bothers me to no end that we have to drink what we can buy from Piggly Wiggly. I did get a phone call from a gentleman in another part of Tennessee last week letting us know he had a miniature jersey heifer for sale but unfortunatly when we had contacted him earlier in the year we actually had some savings in the bank. That has now gone to pay unexpected bills so we were not able to buy her. Of course I am actually glad he did not have her earlier because then we would not have been able to pay the bills we had and I would not have been able to go back to Florida to visit my Mom who ended up having to have a liver transplant a few months ago. We still did not have the money for those trips and are still paying the price but we know that somehow God will provide since not seeing my Mom would have been unbearable! Anyway, I also saw a Dexter heifer (what we really wanted anyway as it is dual purpose) that was already bred online but she costs $1600 and is quite far away as well. We really don't have the funds to buy anything so I don't know why I was looking but for some reason I feel like unless I keep the dream alive it will slip away. God knows what is in our heart so we know that somehow it will work out even if it is not in our time. He likes to remind me to be patient quite often since I have such a problem with that. So, this weekend we hope to use the resources we have found around the property left by the previous owners and finish up our renovated chicken coop and even fix up a mini-coop for the girls to get some bantams when we order or hens next month. If all goes as planned (which it normally does not!) we should have everything completed this week. If not well, we will get it done sooner or later! Life is all about the surprises isn't it? It would be so boring if all things worked out like we plan anyway! Good day all! Hope |
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My first blog.... now if only I could muster up the positive attitude I need to not whine and ruin it! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... Whew, that was not easy but I am pretty sure I can now Inspiration has hit and I think maybe I should forget talking about garden stuff for today since I can't seem to talk about it without whining about the weather. So I will give ya'll some back ground info on our family and our hope's for our little Faith Farm. We are a homeschooling family of five livin' in Southern Middle Tennessee near the border of Alabama and Tennessee. We moved he nearly a year ago and have patiently been planning our homesteading adventure since then. So far we have managed only to do a few things but with the year we had it pretty much is a miracle we got anything done! Thankfully all is going better now and the future is so bright we are trying on the shades as we speak! God has blessed us in so many ways even through the struggles of this past year and his hand print is obvious all over our lives. The children have blossomed into such different people since moving here that if that is all we accomplish from moving here then it was worth it in spades! Our children are 11, 9 and 6 and the two girls and even our son have found a true calling in taking care of farm animals, at least the ones we have so far...... Our plans before moving here were pretty lofty and we are still planning on doing most of them, just a little slower than we had planned. The good Lord has a way of teaching us patience when he sees we think we are in the drivers seat! I have totally figured out that I am firmly seated back in the back with the kids in the minivan that is our life! My hubby is right back there with us too thank goodness because I don't think I could take the noise back there without him Ok that is about it for today, my fingers are so cold I can't type much more anyway. I do however have to be thankful that I am able to type at all cold or not! Take care all! Be thankful! Blessings, Hope |
! It is such a beautiful day outside today in the land of milk and honey I just sincerely wish it were not still so darn cold out! I think I can officially call myself a Florida girl because I can not seem to get warm and haven't been able to since November! I am so looking forward to my second try at a garden this year and I have planted a few things but after looking at seed catalogs and planning all winter I am sure itching to get myself outside and dig in the ground with the sun beating on my skin! I will never complain about the heat again so help me! Oops I was supposed to not be whining wasn't I? Ok I may have to ask for a higher powers help on this one today since evidently the choo-choo train just ain't cuttin it for me!
! Anyway, our plans for Faith Farm include raising our own free range poultry for both eggs and meat ( possibly with some to sell for a profit if we can), raising our own nigerian or nubian dairy goats for our families dairy needs, raising our own dual purpose cows for both milk and meat for our own family and for cheese production to sell if we get any good at it! We also plan and have already started our organic vegetable production and plan to even have some for the kids to sell this year. Last year we pretty much only got okra and some peppers and tons of sweet potatos but this year we have learned a lot more about planting and the soil so we are pretty sure that we will have a better harvest this time around (oops I think I may be trying to climb over into that drivers seat again!). Learning has been both fun and frustrating but my husband keeps telling me that I can't expect to know how to do everything right away so I have put the books away and hope to finally get to use what I have learned pretty soon. Now if only it were not so darn cold in here!! I think maybe I should start charging myself a nickle every time I start to whine. Maybe that would work ya think? Probably not since I don't think I even have a nickle to spare after paying the bills over the weekend! Anyway, we still have a lot of work to do around here to get the goats and the cows since have no fences yet to keep anything in but we have managed to keep three laying hens for nearly a year (we started with 8 plus 2 roosters) and we are in the midst of fixing up a new hen house and large yard for about 25 more laying hens and a couple roosters. We have been very lucky to find most of what we needed for this project for free since we are converting a run-in previously used as a dog kennel by the previous owners into the chicken coop and most of the fencing materials were already here as well. We are hoping we can keep the costs minimal from here as well since we don't have much if any extra cash to spare. If God has it in the works for us we think we can get it done in the next month and ready for the new chicks we plan to order in April. Then we can start saving and planning for the goats we hope to get next. That would be huge for us since we use so much milk around here and knowing exactly where the milk is coming from would be a load off my worrying momma mind!