# Gardner’s California Homestead



## GardnerHomestead (Mar 14, 2020)

Hello! I am an avid reader on this site but don’t comment much. I would love to become more involved and figured a journal would be a good way to start.

My husband and I have known each other since we were children, raised in the same small town, went to the same school and have been together 18 years this year. We both have day jobs and have three children and bought our miniature homestead in May 2018. We own 2 1/2 acres of semi flat paradise. Before this we lived in “town” on a tiny lot but managed to raise chickens, Flemish giants, and a small container garden. We always wanted to become more self sufficient and this property was our dream. When we moved here the property had been neglected for quite a few years. The previous owners had built the house 60 years ago and in the last 10-15 years hadn’t been able to keep up with the maintenance. His brother and nephew still own the adjacent acreage and have given us a lot of cool history on the property.

Now to the most important part: the animals. When we got here the house came with two chickens. We quickly realized the coop wasn’t predator proof but not before raccoons took off with our inherited birds. 🤦‍♀️ When we got the coop reinforced I ordered 15 Lavender Orpingtons. We have a farm mastiff (English mastiff) and a 6 month old lab puppy. Three (slacker) barn cats.

After alot of research and fencing and preparation we got our first three Nigerian dwarf doelings. Quickly followed by three adult does who’s owners were moving and needed a new home. Eventually we added two bucklings, sadly last fall a mountain lion took one boy. We currently have had 4 babies born this spring. Bringing our current total to 11 Talk about a crash course in goat ownership.

We are also about 4 weeks into our first meat bird venture. They are growing like weeds and we are very excited to be able to provide our family with fresh meat.

Anyway this has gotten really long lol. Here’s some random pictures that give a little glimpse into our crazy life.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 14, 2020)

Apparently you can only post 10 Pictures at a time lol


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## Baymule (Mar 14, 2020)

Welcome to the forum from Texas! If you don't mind, would you add your general location to your avatar? It sure makes it easier when offering garden advice, what works in Texas won't work too well in Montanna or Maine or pretty much anywhere else. LOL LOL LOL 

Love the pictures and congrats on the beautiful dream farm. I love, love, love the brindles mastiff! I love big dogs anyway. We have 2 Great Pyrenees, 1 Anatolian and 1 big black Great Dane/ Labrador farm dog that thinks he's a LGD. We have Katahdin sheep, 4 horses, 2 feeder pigs and 50 Cornish Cross chicks, oh and 20-ish chickens. 

Welcome, you will like it here and we welcome more members that like to jump in and tell us all about their garden/farm!


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 14, 2020)

Welcome thats a beautiful dog and you take awesome pictures. The girls look thrilled to be bottle raising those babies. I know my kids love to.


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## Mike CHS (Mar 14, 2020)

The smiles on your girls faces is what it's all about.    I'm glad you decided to start posting and look forward to more.


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## B&B Happy goats (Mar 14, 2020)

welcome to the herd....great pictures,.... thanks


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 14, 2020)

Baymule said:


> Welcome to the forum from Texas! If you don't mind, would you add your general location to your avatar? It sure makes it easier when offering garden advice, what works in Texas won't work too well in Montanna or Maine or pretty much anywhere else. LOL LOL LOL
> 
> Love the pictures and congrats on the beautiful dream farm. I love, love, love the brindles mastiff! I love big dogs anyway. We have 2 Great Pyrenees, 1 Anatolian and 1 big black Great Dane/ Labrador farm dog that thinks he's a LGD. We have Katahdin sheep, 4 horses, 2 feeder pigs and 50 Cornish Cross chicks, oh and 20-ish chickens.
> 
> Welcome, you will like it here and we welcome more members that like to jump in and tell us all about their garden/farm!



Ok I think I did it, we are in Northern California. Our mastiff is named Titan, he’s about 7 and an old man, he loves all animals and people (besides other intact male dogs). I’ve heard so many good things about LGDs and with our mountain lion issues we have considered getting one when he passes. We have twenty Cornish cross. Due to butcher Easter weekend. Our neighbor is letting us borrow his plucker so I’m hoping that saves us a ton of time. Thank you for the warm welcome, love to be able to talk with like minded people.


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## thistlebloom (Mar 14, 2020)

Welcome! Love the pics!


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 14, 2020)

Jesusfreak101 said:


> Welcome thats a beautiful dog and you take awesome pictures. The girls look thrilled to be bottle raising those babies. I know my kids love to.



Hello! I’ve been following your journal for a little bit now and idk how you do all you do. I’ve been hand milking one of my goats for about 6 weeks now and I’m worn out lol. And thank you I love taking pictures of what we are doing. It’s nice to document our farm progression and I love sharing with other ppl. The kids love it, these are our first bottle babies and are the sweetest.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 14, 2020)

Mike CHS said:


> The smiles on your girls faces is what it's all about.    I'm glad you decided to start posting and look forward to more.



They enjoy it so much and so do I. They are about 6 weeks old now so our time is limited with them. I would like to think they are learning a lot along side us on this farm journey.


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 14, 2020)

Honestly i havent a clue how I get things done. The kids make thing challenging for sure lol.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 15, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> Welcome! Love the pics!



Thank you!


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 15, 2020)

Jesusfreak101 said:


> Honestly i havent a clue how I get things done. The kids make thing challenging for sure lol.



My kids are a bit older now, 11,9,7. So I’m out of the toddler/infant trenches. They are able to help so much. I’m really enjoying these ages before these kids are too cool for me. 😂


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 15, 2020)

It’s raining today and is supposed to continue to rain/snow for the next two weeks. California needs the rain so bad so no one is allowed to complain. My goats hate the rain, I’m not sure if that is all goats or because they are fair weather California goats but they will not set foot outside the barn if there is moisture in the air. So it’s going to be a long couple weeks for them.


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 15, 2020)

Lol nope not just yours mine are hiding like its a hurricane its just a light light mist i can barely call it that lol. Goats hate rain lol. My kids are well my oldest as of March 29 will be 7, then 4, 2, and 3 months lol. I am head deep in toddler stage and baby lol the older two are helpful but cause just as much trouble as the 2 yr old. Lol kids are fun.


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## animalmom (Mar 15, 2020)

All dear goaties are made out of spun sugar and therefore avoid rain at all costs... because they will melt and if they melt then there would be no joy in the world.  So told to me by my ancient herd queen.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 15, 2020)

animalmom said:


> All dear goaties are made out of spun sugar and therefore avoid rain at all costs... because they will melt and if they melt then there would be no joy in the world.  So told to me by my ancient herd queen.


 
Hahaha this makes sense. They run faster then I’ve ever seen if they are in the pasture and a sprinkle starts. Faster than feeding time even 😱 screaming the whole way


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 16, 2020)

Winter has arrived fashionably late, as usual. We almost always get a winter snow storm in March and sometimes April. It wreaks havoc on my blooming flowers and trees. The spring we moved in here we put a apricot, plum, and a peach tree in the front yard. I love to make jams/jellies and at our last house had a beautiful plum tree. It produced enough to keep us in jelly for the whole year. The apricot didn’t make it for reasons I couldn’t figure out so this year I put in a Fuji Apple. Of course everything bloomed and now snow is dumping on it. Sigh. We also have some Chinese Lily’s from my husbands great grandmothers garden, an English walnut tree that produced quite well last year, and many lavender bushes. I believe the lady who lived here before us, the original owner had quite the green thumb. And I’m learning everyday to care for all the different plants that are here.


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 16, 2020)

Wow i live the photes. Oh and I don't know about your area but the best time to plant trees is in the fall(according to Dh  grandmother) so that the roots can grow all fall that way its not spilling its energy between leafs/flowers/roots.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 16, 2020)

Jesusfreak101 said:


> Wow i live the photes. Oh and I don't know about your area but the best time to plant trees is in the fall(according to Dh  grandmother) so that the roots can grow all fall that way its not spilling its energy between leafs/flowers/roots.


I have not heard that but it makes sense. Fruit trees are so complicated it seems. Such a learning experience. I pruned for the first time this year and I’m pretty sure I butchered them lol. We have about a half acre of blackberries and I want a put a strawberry patch in this year. To be able to grow a lot of our own food is the goal. It’s a process that’s for sure.


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 16, 2020)

I agree. That's my goal as well. I very behind on my garden but late last year and early this year we were discussing moving so planting was out on the off chance we moved. Now we staying so i am playing catch up on the garden and probably will buy  some plants to get us started. I did learn that some trees need to be grafted to produce really well. From what I seen of that you take a clipping from another tree then you cut in to the tree your grafting then wrap it too the tree and let it heal/grow together. I been looking at doing it for apple tree some are apparently self pollinating and others need a different species to pollinate. Green apples self pollinate i can't remember if Fuji  apples are or not.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 16, 2020)

Jesusfreak101 said:


> I agree. That's my goal as well. I very behind on my garden but late last year and early this year we were discussing moving so planting was out on the off chance we moved. Now we staying so i am playing catch up on the garden and probably will buy  some plants to get us started. I did learn that some trees need to be grafted to produce really well. From what I seen of that you take a clipping from another tree then you cut in to the tree your grafting then wrap it too the tree and let it heal/grow together. I been looking at doing it for apple tree some are apparently self pollinating and others need a different species to pollinate. Green apples self pollinate i can't remember if Fuji  apples are or not.


I’ve seen grafting done in nursery’s and it’s amazing. Supposedly all the ones I bought were self pollinating. Where we live we put seeds in the ground for most things around Mother’s Day. So we still have some time. Only things I usually start inside are tomatoes and peppers. My dad’s starting our peppers and tomatoes inside this year since we have had to much going on. When do you put plants in the ground where you are?


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 18, 2020)

Went to whether my little buckling that is going to his new home next week, and I'm pretty sure he has a cryptorchid. 🤦‍♀️ I had to go to work so tonight i will go back down there to make sure and see if i can feel it in his stomach. If he is, do i just band the remaining testicle and inform the new owner of his condition in case they don't want him? What are the chances he is fertile still? He doesnt act bucky like his half brother, and hes just the sweetest. This is my first group of babies and of course this would happen lol.


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## Duckfarmerpa1 (Mar 18, 2020)

I would definitely inform the buyer!! And, how old is he?  Perhaps you can tell the new owner to bring him back in awhile , after the other drops, and you can band him then?  If they are far away, perhaps they know someone that can do it?  But, yes, he can still ...be fertile with one testicle.  I’ve heard of many people who accidentally only band one, and later, they have a doe who turns up pregnant.  I could be wrong the being fertile, but...that is what I was told by a different forum To watch out for.


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## frustratedearthmother (Mar 18, 2020)

If you band one testicle and one is retained in the abdomen he should not be fertile.  However, he could still act  buck-y and annoy the he// out of your does, lol!


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 18, 2020)

Duckfarmerpa1 said:


> I would definitely inform the buyer!! And, how old is he?  Perhaps you can tell the new owner to bring him back in awhile , after the other drops, and you can band him then?  If they are far away, perhaps they know someone that can do it?  But, yes, he can still ...be fertile with one testicle.  I’ve heard of many people who accidentally only band one, and later, they have a doe who turns up pregnant.  I could be wrong the being fertile, but...that is what I was told by a different forum To watch out for.


He is 8 weeks old, nigerian dwarf, the other buckling I have is a day older than him, both his balls are there. So I'm thinking if they were gonna drop they would of by now? But i could be wrong about that. That would be best case scenario if its just hanging out in the belly and will eventually fall. I let her know about it and I told her he could start acting bucky, shes gonna think about it but he will be living with two other whethers, no does. So i will go from there with what she decides. Thank you for your input!


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 18, 2020)

frustratedearthmother said:


> If you band one testicle and one is retained in the abdomen he should not be fertile.  However, he could still act  buck-y and annoy the he// out of your does, lol!


Thank you! I considered that as well, he will be with other whethers but idk if he will then just bug the heck out of them as well.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 20, 2020)

It’s wet, wet, wet. I tried to get the weed barrier installed in our new garden today after work but it’s just a mud pit out there so I’m not gonna mess with it til it dries out a bit. All our goat babies and one doe are going to their new homes this weekend. 🙁 so we will be down to 4 does and a buck. More manageable. But I will miss them. Cleaned the meat chickens pen. They are getting so big. Easter weekend is butcher day. Going to start some veggies inside Tommorow. Already have our flowers for our bee garden started. Very excited for that this year.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 23, 2020)

Saturday, my 4 kids (the goat variety) went to their new owners, including my bottle babies that we enjoyed so much. They went to great people so thats good but when i got home everything was so quiet. I cleaned out their old pen and started shampooing carpets inside the house. I hear someone yelling by the barn so i go out to the porch my BIL is standing by the barn telling me to come down. I ran down there to find our FF doe Fudge had given birth and was cleaning off a single buckling. She was due 3/26 but i can never seem to get the day right, ive been wrong on every single birth lol. I watched her carefully as we had a problem with our other doe rejecting her babies. Fudge did amazing, she is such a good mom, what a relief. Saw him eat and moved her to the bonding pen.

He seems to only be eating on one side so we put her on the milk stand yesterday to relieve the other side, it was so full and hard, poor mama. Shes more comfortable now, i guess ill monitor to make sure hes nursing from both teats or express that side as needed. This is the first single we have had so new territory. Heres Clove:


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Mar 23, 2020)

I am now following your journal!


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 23, 2020)

Okay I am late to this party lol but yes he can be fertile, and for gardening normally between january-march we don't normally get freezing weather.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 25, 2020)

A to not be outdone by Fudge, our registered doe Bubblegum gave us another single buckling on monday night. Hes a big boy and very active, climbing all over mama all the time. So excuse the slightly blurry pic, cant get him to stay 
still lol. Hes got his Daddys black socks.






Fudge was crying when i got home from work last night, i went down there to make sure she hadnt lost Clove under the hay feeder again  but she was standing in the barn right next to him. I thought maybe the one side of her udder was full so i got her on the milking stand and noticed her back end was shaking. It was maybe 35 degrees outside but not way out of the normal for evening temperatures. So i took care of all the other animals and brought Fudge and her baby inside the house to warm up. Im apart of this wonderful facebook group with so many knowledgeable goat people. I posted a video and they knew immediately it was hypocalcemia. I went to tractor supply, barely got there in time ( they are closing early now because of the quarantine) to get her some alfalfa pellets and calcium drench. I had no idea i wasnt giving them enough calcium now i feel horrible. Goat ownership has taught me something new everyday. They are probably the most complicated animal i have ever owned. I am so lucky to have the resources around me to help me with such things. And now i feel like im a slightly more experienced goat tender. Fudge is doing great and seems to be on the mend.


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 25, 2020)

They also the pickyist lol.


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 25, 2020)

Jesusfreak101 said:


> They also the pickyist lol.


lol, so true, i have a friend whos new to goats, she sends me a picture of a green yard and the goat standing in it, shes like "they wont eat my grass" lol oh they dont like grass or alot of things for that matter. i told her they will only eat the things you like, you know rose bushes, fruit trees, your pant leg.


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 25, 2020)

Lol yup however mine like our grass but its coastal so it's the same hay they get just fresher lol. They funny, I 'll go get branch's for them and hold them up high to make them stand on their back legs for them panda will even walk backwards for them. They are funny animals.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 14, 2020)

Its been awhile, the kids aren't in school anymore and I'm working from home most of the time now so trying to get used to the new normal has been interesting. Its been really nice being home with them and the animals, but teaching 1st, 4th and 5th grade have proven difficult for me. We are doing what we can, and I have been trying to include alot of life skills into my "homeschooling". We have been baking alot, made a sourdough starter and been trying out new recipes. Measuring out stuff is math right?  The common core kills me, and by the time they go back to school they will know the old way. Sorry teachers  Getting alot done around the property, repainting the chicken coop, getting my garden squared away.

We butchered our meat chickens this last weekend. Kids helped with plucking and did great for their first time. Ended up with 19 birds in the end. Ate our first one for Easter sunday, amazing!  there is nothing tastier than a homegrown chicken.

Kidding season is over as of last night my last doe had twin bucklings. Salt and Pepper.


 

My favorite doe Selena Goatmez gave us twin girls on the first of April. We will be keeping both. Sugar and Cinnamon.





I have 16 lavender orpington eggs in the incubator right now on a trial run (new incubator!) they should be hatching this Friday . If all goes well i will put in another 42 when those hatch. The demand for chicks is so high right now I ordered some leghorns and olive eggers about 6 weeks ago and they arent available til 5/12. Will be nice to add some color to my eggs.

In other news our farm cat has been really busy 




Daddy goat Oreo does alot of the babysitting around here. Its extremely cute lol.





I hope spring is treating everyone well. It is my favorite time of year.


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## thistlebloom (Apr 14, 2020)

I have two farm cats that are just as busy as yours! 😄
Love the kids, so cute,and _Selena Goatmez_ made me laugh, I love original names like that.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 14, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> I have two farm cats that are just as busy as yours! 😄
> Love the kids, so cute,and _Selena Goatmez_ made me laugh, I love original names like that.



He cant be bothered to be woken up to do anything, cant say i blame him, the sunshine has been much needed. My 9 year old named her that, makes me chuckle everytime lol. I hope its starting to warm up in your part of the world


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## thistlebloom (Apr 14, 2020)

GardnerHomestead said:


> He cant be bothered to be woken up to do anything, cant say i blame him, the sunshine has been much needed. My 9 year old named her that, makes me chuckle everytime lol. I hope its starting to warm up in your part of the world



It is getting warm_er,_ but not exactly _warm_ yet. Still have a fire in the woodstove in the evenings. 64 in the house doesn't work for me, even though it doesn't seem to bother my husband. Trees have not leafed out yet but the buds are swelling so there's still hope, haha.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 15, 2020)

I transplanted some of my bee garden starts this last weekend because i like to live life on the edge and assume it wont freeze anymore this year  all good until yesterday.... my husband was doing the spring inspection on our two bee hives, which of course really upsets them. I guess i forgot to mention the hives in the original post. A little background on that.

We are beekeeping newbies. Went in on two hives with my husbands cousin in March of 2019, we eventually moved our hive to our place in April. This was my husbands project so i mostly just help him when he need extra hands. There is a sharp learning curve for first time beekeepers, a lot of upfront cost and so far quite a bit of maintenance cost. We have made our fair share of mistakes, had to re-queen once. Eventually split our overflowing hive in September of 2019. They are amazing creatures. I've been trying to learn more about them so i can be more active in their care. Not a lot of beekeepers where we are so we have been learning a lot online and through the random beekeeper we are able to meet. It has been an experience, both frustrating and rewarding. I love seeing them buzzing around pollinating our gardens and flowers, here's some pictures of our little helpers.





This is the queen, with the pink dot. Her name is Cardi BEE. Shes the leader of our more aggressive hive.





To our delight both of our hives survived the winter, one in great condition and one unfortunately just hanging on. We are working on rectifying that now, and despite all our misteps are still trying to learn and do better.

So back to my flower start debacle. My husband was doing hive inspection, our 7 month old puppy: Honey


decided to scoot under the fence and go to the pasture with dad. Well the bees were all riled up and saw her and got very defensive of the hive, they were stinging her, she was running around trying to rub them off of her in the grass, and then in my flower beds with all my starts.  so most of those are dead. we got all the stingers out and naughty puppy hopefully learned something (probably not)


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## Baymule (Apr 15, 2020)

Beehives! That is so cool......until your dog gets too close and wrecks everything you just planted trying to rub the bees off. Poor puppy! LOL


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## thistlebloom (Apr 15, 2020)

Beautiful bee pictures! Sorry your pup was so unhelpful, poor thing. She's pretty cute though. Hope you can get new starts going this year.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 15, 2020)

Baymule said:


> Beehives! That is so cool......until your dog gets too close and wrecks everything you just planted trying to rub the bees off. Poor puppy! LOL


Lol I have lots of seeds so I will start again. She’s a little swelled up but she will be alright. She seems to find trouble naturally lol


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 15, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> Beautiful bee pictures! Sorry your pup was so unhelpful, poor thing. She's pretty cute though. Hope you can get new starts going this year.


We love her so much. First lab we have ever had. Great dogs, goofy as can be lol


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## BYH Project Manager (Apr 23, 2020)

GardnerHomestead said:


> Hello! I am an avid reader on this site but don’t comment much. I would love to become more involved and figured a journal would be a good way to start.
> 
> My husband and I have known each other since we were children, raised in the same small town, went to the same school and have been together 18 years this year. We both have day jobs and have three children and bought our miniature homestead in May 2018. We own 2 1/2 acres of semi flat paradise. Before this we lived in “town” on a tiny lot but managed to raise chickens, Flemish giants, and a small container garden. We always wanted to become more self sufficient and this property was our dream. When we moved here the property had been neglected for quite a few years. The previous owners had built the house 60 years ago and in the last 10-15 years hadn’t been able to keep up with the maintenance. His brother and nephew still own the adjacent acreage and have given us a lot of cool history on the property.
> 
> ...



@GardnerHomestead congrats, your homestead has been featured on our homepage! Keep up the brilliant work!


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## bethh (Apr 24, 2020)

GardnerHomestead said:


> Its been awhile, the kids aren't in school anymore and I'm working from home most of the time now so trying to get used to the new normal has been interesting. Its been really nice being home with them and the animals, but teaching 1st, 4th and 5th grade have proven difficult for me. We are doing what we can, and I have been trying to include alot of life skills into my "homeschooling". We have been baking alot, made a sourdough starter and been trying out new recipes. Measuring out stuff is math right?  The common core kills me, and by the time they go back to school they will know the old way. Sorry teachers  Getting alot done around the property, repainting the chicken coop, getting my garden squared away.
> 
> We butchered our meat chickens this last weekend. Kids helped with plucking and did great for their first time. Ended up with 19 birds in the end. Ate our first one for Easter sunday, amazing!  there is nothing tastier than a homegrown chicken.
> 
> ...


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## bethh (Apr 24, 2020)

Rather than working on my morning chores, I just sat here reading your journal.  I will enjoy following along.   The lessons nature teaches us is invaluable.   Recently we put up more fencing (eventually we will be experts), to keep the LGDs out of the garden beds around our patio.  Planted them with flowers and veggies and are loving the look.  Yesterday the chickens decided to come check it all out.  Chased them out with a hose.  Think they will be getting their wings clipped to discourage flying over the fence.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 24, 2020)

He does look very similar! What a handsome boy. Oreo has thrown a lot of color this year I’m very impressed with him. And he passed his blue eyes to all but one of his kids.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 24, 2020)

bethh said:


> Rather than working on my morning chores, I just sat here reading your journal.  I will enjoy following along.   The lessons nature teaches us is invaluable.   Recently we put up more fencing (eventually we will be experts), to keep the LGDs out of the garden beds around our patio.  Planted them with flowers and veggies and are loving the look.  Yesterday the chickens decided to come check it all out.  Chased them out with a hose.  Think they will be getting their wings clipped to discourage flying over the fence.


My husband has put up so much fencing lol I’m pretty sure he is an expert. Freshly rolled dirt is like a chicken magnet. We have about an 8 foot fence around our garden. Mostly to keep deer out but the chickens will do almost as much damage. We regularly clip ours. I love LGDs. Our mastiff is pretty dog aggressive but when he passes I would love to get one (or two)


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 25, 2020)

Spring is my favorite time of year and very much the busiest. The area I live in is only green for a few months (if we are lucky) so it’s also IMO the prettiest time. The kids (4 legged and 2 legged alike) are growing like weeds. All the spring kids (only 4 legged) are sold for the year. We traded our last buckling for a GOS piglet. So once everyone is weaned we will be pig parents!! Very new and exciting territory for us.





We put our garden in, so far we have strawberries, pumpkins, jalapeños, carrots, squash, tomatoes, bell pepper, watermelon, And green beans. The Kids were a huge help
With the strawberries as that is what they want the most lol.







We obtained two guinea hens which are actually really cool. The baby goats are intrigued and follow them around and chase them often.





Got rid of our big mean rooster. It just wasn’t worth keeping him around and have to worry about getting attacked if you turn around. I’m sure he will make someone a lovely meal. Good riddance. The hens seem much more at ease and can now free range while we are out there working. I wanted to switch up the genes in my flock soon anyway.

The weather has been warm, burn season is going to be over soon so we will get that done this weekend. Have a HUGE pile to burn. We cleared all the metal fencing/scraps from the pile and recycled them. We have a huge thistle  problem this year. So I’ve been removing them from the main yard and around the coop by hand but there’s thousands of plants in the pasture that we are just doing to mow down before they seed. Hopefully it helps control it. The goats won’t eat it. Hope everyone has a great weekend!


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 27, 2020)

Finally completed our garden. I did everything in ground last year, battled a lot of gophers. Decided on raised boxes this year. What a huge job that was. My husband did most of the heavy work, built the boxes, moved all the soil, installed underground plumbing, weed guards and mulch. Very happy with the outcome. I’m going to put some zinnias in my chickens window box today and continue to battle the thistle. So appreciative of our life always giving us something to stay busy, never a dull moment.


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## B&B Happy goats (Apr 27, 2020)

I am in envy of your set up


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## CntryBoy777 (Apr 27, 2020)

Dig deep for tbe root on that thistle and if ya keep it from heading you'll eventually thin them down...those seed can blow-in from miles in the winds ya get out that way.....I have driven a big truck thru there is how I know....


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 27, 2020)

B&B Happy goats said:


> I am in envy of your set up


Thank you! I actually didn’t realize the volume of work involved. or I might have just battled gophers lol but I’m glad it’s done.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 27, 2020)

CntryBoy777 said:


> Dig deep for tbe root on that thistle and if ya keep it from heading you'll eventually thin them down...those seed can blow-in from miles in the winds ya get out that way.....I have driven a big truck thru there is how I know....


Yes the wind is not our friend. I’ve gotten pretty good at pulling the whole root out with the thistle using a little metal trowel. It’s quite an art. We had a goat head problem when we first moved in. Those are the worst! I was able to get them out before they spread. My father in law used to be a truck driver. He saw a lot of the country. He misses it sometimes.


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## thistlebloom (Apr 28, 2020)

Did you put some sort of wire down in the bottom of your raised beds to deter the gophers? They are so good at homing in on where plants are by the moist earth. We battled them at our old place too. We finally got a couple of cats that were excellent hunters and they were catching multiple gophers a day.  Not all cats are good at it and we have had our share of slackers. The two young ones we have now are great mousers, and I hope they catch the gophers who are making inroads on our plantings.

Nice setup BTW!


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 28, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> Did you put some sort of wire down in the bottom of your raised beds to deter the gophers? They are so good at homing in on where plants are by the moist earth. We battled them at our old place too. We finally got a couple of cats that were excellent hunters and they were catching multiple gophers a day.  Not all cats are good at it and we have had our share of slackers. The two young ones we have now are great mousers, and I hope they catch the gophers who are making inroads on our plantings.
> 
> Nice setup BTW!


We put 1/4 in hardware cloth. And yes I have two slackers and one who brings us something almost daily. She’s worth her weight in gold!


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## CntryBoy777 (Apr 28, 2020)

GardnerHomestead said:


> My father in law used to be a truck driver. He saw a lot of the country. He misses it sometimes.


I came thru Weed one nite and winds were blowing 70+ and they were calling for snow down to 700'....was sleeting as we were on Shasta.....I stopped and kissed the ground in Redding....heading to Fresno...


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## GardnerHomestead (May 26, 2020)

Its been a little while, still working from home most days and trying to juggle home schooling, work, and chores (albeit not always successfully). I was gifted an incubator for my birthday this year, its been incredibly disappointing, spiking temps in one part of the incubator while cooling off way to much in others. so my last hatch was a whopping 17 out of 42 eggs. I tracked the ones that hatched and it looks like only the upper corner of the incubator is actually heating to the right temp. So I put some more eggs in but only in the upper corner. i also happened to have a broody hen who is sitting on about 10. 

My order of chicks came in from the hatchery, during transit i lost all but one of my olive eggers and one americauna. they cannot replace them because they dont have extra. so i got a refund for them. When all was said and done i ended up with 3 americaunas, 2 leghorns, and 1 olive egger.  I also and keeping about 7 of my own lavender orpington eggs that will hatch, should add some nice color to my eggs 

Well we had a Guinea fowl tragedy occur this past week, Pepsi (female) and Cola (male) had been settling in really well she even had a little nest in the blackberries. We all loved watching them and their crazy antics. Woke up at about 530 in the morning to them alerting to something in the yard. I look out the window and see the neighbors dog had dug under our fence and had Pepsi in his mouth. . I grabbed the closest thing i could find which was the fire poker and went running out there yelling. He dropped her and took off running. Pepsi was to injured to survive, so my husband put her down and i went and talked to the dog owner. she was apologetic but she just lets her dogs run free. i was so upset. Cola was beside himself calling for her all day. It was sad. My husband was able to obtain another guinea hen from a guy next to his work. As soon as Cola heard Cherry chirping he came running, and they have been inseparable ever since i dont understand why people let their dogs run loose. That lady thinks im crazy im sure but she hasnt seen crazy, if that dog would have gotten to one of my goats then she would have.

We burned all our extra brush because temps are about to go way up, burn season will be over for the foreseeable future soon. Got some sprinklers to water a part of our pasture and our fruit trees. Got all grass mowed/weedeated. We had a late May hail storm that took down most of my flower starts, luckily my garden mostly came out unscathed. the hollyhock looks like it made it though. The last kids of the year will be traded here in a couple weeks. i love having all the babies but it will be less work to be down to 7 goats again. I am looking forward to summer, camping, swimming, all that fun stuff.


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## rachels.haven (May 26, 2020)

She doesn't need to see you crazy. She just maybe doesn't need to see her dog again. Free ranging dogs get hit by cars all the time after all, and one person's pet on the wrong property is a predator to another, just like flowers and weeds.
My parents used bear spray when they had a recurrent issue with a free ranging dog killing stock. It made the dog temporarily blind and painted it's face bright red. Odd thing, the owners magically kept their dog in after that.


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## GardnerHomestead (May 26, 2020)

rachels.haven said:


> She doesn't need to see you crazy. She just maybe doesn't need to see her dog again. Free ranging dogs get hit by cars all the time after all, and one person's pet on the wrong property is a predator to another, just like flowers and weeds.
> My parents used bear spray when they had a recurrent issue with a free ranging dog killing stock. It made the dog temporarily blind and painted it's face bright red. Odd thing, the owners magically kept their dog in after that.


You are right, and honestly the only thing that saved her dog was the fact that mine was still in sleeping. He doesnt like other animals coming in the yard and i told her that. If hes out there when he breaks in again, the dog wont come back out. I hope she gets it. I really do. But just yesterday i saw one of her dogs, not the guinea killer but she has 4, running down the road. Im not usually someone who calls animal control but it might come to that if i see it near my fence.


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## GardnerHomestead (May 28, 2020)

Some pictures i was going to add to my post and forgot:

Oreo and his son playing






Our hike out to a local dam.











Farm babies:





Orpingtons, leghorns, easter eggers




Baby Jalepeno


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 16, 2020)

Well somehow the gophers got into one of my raised beds. im wondering if there was a gap that we didnt nail down the mesh correctly, i will have to empty the bed and fix it, until then that horrid gopher got 2 tomato plants and seemed to damage my jalapenos but not completely eat them? i hope his mouth is on fire .

One of our hives swarmed,   we tried to retrieve them but no luck. Since it is swarm season no queens are available locally so we are watching them closely and adding extra brood as necessary while they make their own queen. Fingers crossed on that, our other hive is doing well. We have not pulled honey for the year as my husband wants to try one pull instead of two, so we are adding supers as they fill. Our waiting list is long and i hope we have a bottle left over to keep for ourselves lol.

Since i have been working from home and my kids are officially on summer vacation, its freed up alot of time to clean up the yard. there are so many weeds on this property from years of just letting everything grow wild. so we started on one patch and rototilled it under. planted clover on one side and marigolds. also rototilled, laid weed barrier and mulched an area in front of our house where my "little herb wall" is. ive got rosemary, dill, thyme, oregano, already planted there, added some parsley and  basil and some flowers. came out nice. hoping this will save me alot of time and effort weeding.







Parts of the Bee garden are coming in nicely, despite the bipolar weather, except my morning glories that are being eaten alive by pincher bugs. going to make a trap sometime this week to kill them. 






We were able to get away for the weekend which was really nice and went camping for the first time this year. All the campgrounds are still closed but luckily we dont like to stay in those anyway. everyone had a blast, our pup learned how to swim and our seven year old learned how to ride a bike without training wheels 









We sold off the last of our lavender orpington chicks, except one that looks like it has a neurological disorder and walks in circles most of the time, she will have a permanent home here. The hatchery chicks are getting big and got moved out of the brooder to a grow out pen. The last of our goat kids were sold last weekend.  AND! Introducing Kevin Bacon: TADA!  We have never had a pig before but so far he is alot of fun. fattening up on goats milk and eggs currently.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 17, 2020)

A few years back i found a couple black kittens at the park when i was there with my kids. They were friendly and very skinny, gave one to a friend and kept one. Shes developed into a killing machine, her name is Noodle. I put a bell on her certain times of the year to preserve the local bird population. When we install our swamp cooler during the summers there's a space in the window the cats jump through to get inside. Their own personal kitty door. Last night noodle jumped through with a gopher in her mouth, clearly proud of this gift she brought us. i told my husband it was his turn to get rid of it since i have gotten rid of the last like 5. He tosses it back out the window. i tell him shes just going to bring it back. sure enough she gives us the stink eye and goes and retrieves it, brings it back. So not learning the first time he throws it farther.  I stuff a pillow in the space as to not wake up to a dead gopher on my pillow. Sure enough about midnight i hear her under the bed (where i cant reach her) crunching on this gopher. Ugh! i cant sleep til shes done. So gross . So the next day i give him whats for, and he said he will close up the space the next day after work. Well before he can do that, that night she brings in a field mouse and drops it on the bed for me. Except its ALIVE, i jump up from the bed, shes staring at me like i should be grateful. the mouse takes off down the hall. Luckily the pup catches it and swallows it whole. There is now a piece of plywood firmly in the kitty door. Noodle now has to eat her prizes outdoors.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 19, 2020)

I had two guinea eggs in my incubator from the late pepsi, ( with whom we replaced with Cherry) i was sure they werent gonna hatch, being due 3 days ago, but lo and behold this morning i wake up to cheeping,  This is the first guinea i have ever hatched, so cute. And even cuter were the guinea fowl parents (Cherry + Cola) that were standing outside my window listening to the peeping. They have never come into our main yard before, so im guessing they heard their baby and came to investigate.  Now since there is only one i need to either pick up another chick for a companion or put this little guy under my broody hen. She didnt have a great run last year and lost all her chicks to various things. so im not sure if i wanna risk it


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 6, 2020)

Hive inspection was done yesterday, the swarmed hive has made a new queen and she is laying.   when the queen left that hive got very aggressive and we couldn't come within in 30 feet of it without being stung. They have calmed way down now and went through almost the whole inspection without being bumped. The other hive is not as laid back. I bought a couple leghorns to put with my single keet.





The young chickens from the hatchery are getting big. I ended up with 1 olive egger, 3 easter eggers, 2 leghorns, Our pup got ahold of the "special" chicken. She was injured and inside for a few days for cleanings, and to keep her away from the flies (the flies are so bad) but seems to be on the mend.





Kevin got moved to his new pen. Hes 70 lbs now, gaining 30 lbs in a two week period loves getting hosed off and stealing flip flops if you get to close.










Summertime is in full swing, was able to pick 47 lbs of cherry plums from my husbands grandmas tree and canned 43 jars of jelly. Aphids got to our young plum tree this year. We do have some peaches though. The apple is to small to do much yet. Hoping next year we will be able jelly from our own trees, but im so thankful for people who dont want their fruit. They always appreciate some of the finished product though lol.







The doelings that we retained this year are so sweet, enjoying them while they are this little. Mama is still letting them nurse, they are nearly as big as her lol.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 6, 2020)

And of course just some pretty things growing around here. This quarantine has made me realize how much i love being home. Everything i could ever want is here and i think sometimes that gets forgotten when we get so busy. Trying to wrap my head around supplying more veggies next year, when the garden is going we dont buy any vegetables, so maybe 2-3 months out of the year. i would like to plan better to can the extras so we can extend that. Planning on a fall garden this year as well. I have added to the existing herb garden this year to include, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, dill, rosemary and mint.


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## B&B Happy goats (Jul 6, 2020)

Love the pictures   ..we got a good laugh at the pig being carried, love the goat pictures and your jelly looks really yummy...thanks for bringing the sunshine in on a rainy day, you made us smile 
As I was posting this you put up more   ...you really take nice pictures  ! Thanks again !


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 6, 2020)

B&B Happy goats said:


> Love the pictures   ..we got a good laugh at the pig being carried, love the goat pictures and your jelly looks really yummy...thanks for bringing the sunshine in on a rainy day, you made us smile


Kevin doesnt go where he doesnt wanna go lol. We wont be able to do that any longer. Hes staying right where hes at til "the end".


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## B&B Happy goats (Jul 6, 2020)

GardnerHomestead said:


> Kevin doesnt go where he doesnt wanna go lol. We wont be able to do that any longer. Hes staying right where hes at til "the end".


At least you can get close to "Kevin"  our two " pork chops" are still keeping a safe distance from us at the moment, but they still have some time to "warm up" to us ...till they go to freezer camp...


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 6, 2020)

B&B Happy goats said:


> At least you can get close to "Kevin"  our two " pork chops" are still keeping a safe distance from us at the moment, but they still have some time to "warm up" to us ...till they go to freezer camp...


Those pork chops are smart lol. Kevin is very food motivated, i think thats the only reason he isnt super scared of us.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 9, 2020)

The gravel fairy paid us a visit yesterday, my husband and youngest daughter were out checking the mail and i hear this big boom, start walking outside to investigate and my youngest comes running in saying a truck crashed. i run out there and my husband is talking to the truck driver who had just lost half his load into our yard. He had gone to far over and went into the culvert. 






Kevin survived the catastrophe by about 15 feet, the fence was bent a bit but nothing that cant be repaired. and they said we could have the gravel if we wanted it. Its probably about 10 yards. We have been needing to regravel our driveway anyway, to bad they couldnt have tipped over there lol. So all in all it worked out, no one got hurt.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 28, 2020)

Summer is creeping along, been over 100 for the past week with no end in sight. Extracted honey for the summer last weekend. 115lbs this year from two hives. Puts us about 70 lbs higher than last year.   The nectar flow is slowing and bees are mainly after star thistle now. The honey is much darker this year and our blackberry "crop" has at least quadrupled from years past. My husband took honey to the neighbors for being so accommodating with our bees. They all put out water barrels for them in their gardens  we are lucky to have some great neighbors mostly.

I picked up a few lavender guinea chicks in exchange for a bottle of honey, they are beautiful. I will have to get pictures. Our guinea hen is sitting way down in our blackberries on about 15 eggs, been two weeks, two more to go.  

Garden is producing well even in the heat and ive started preparing for my fall garden, first time for that so it will be an experiment this year. The kids are basically living off of ripe blackberries and strawberries lol. Going to make them some smoothies for dinner so i dont have to cook.

The goats ate back alot of the blackberries next to the creek this year and we found two pear trees and a cherry plum hidden in there. So exciting.  Ive never canned pears before but will have to learn how. Peaches will be picked soon. We are in fruit heaven over here.


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## CntryBoy777 (Jul 28, 2020)

Pear preserves are wonderful!!.........just sayin'....


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 28, 2020)

CntryBoy777 said:


> Pear preserves are wonderful!!.........just sayin'....


I will have to look this up. Ive done peach preserves. A friend gave us some pear sauce that i want to try too


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## GardnerHomestead (Sep 28, 2020)

Wow its been a long time since i posted. Summer garden is winding down and im clearing out the stuff the gopher wasnt able to get to, the animals are loving all the extras. My tomato cages werent big enough and so that whole box is a huge mess. Whatever tomatoes get missed in the tomato jungle are given to Kevin (who is now over 200lbs) , which he loves. Ive used up all my cherry tomatoes making sauce, yum! The watermelons have come out amazing, kids favorite. Tried out a zuchinni relish recipe with all the excess zuchinni, 

















Tractor supply lured me in with .50 cent cornish cross birds around the middle of august, already almost two weeks old   so even though we were done with meat birds for the year 10 more fell into my cart. Butchered them yesterday. 40 lbs of meat. Great deal. They are resting in the fridge and will be put into the freezer tomorrow. One ended up being an imposter, not a meat bird after all, so she got put in with my other laying birds. I think she is a white rock. My spring chicks arent laying yet but their combs are reddening considerably so hopefully soon. I had two orpington hens go broody, both hatched about the same time so they are coparenting 6 little fuzzballs. So cute! Daddy Russell Crowe is very good with them too.







For the first time this year im trying a small fall garden, kids help me plant peas, a second batch of carrots, beets, broccoli, potatoes, and spinach. I also have garlic on the way which im very excited about. I could put garlic on just about everything. We are feeding the bees now in anticipation for winter. Temps are still lower 90s here but food sources are limited this time of year for them. We have been stacking wood for a couple weeks now, the kids least favorite chore lol. Fall is on its way. Trying to soak up the last bit of summer.


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## thistlebloom (Sep 28, 2020)

Everything looks great! 



GardnerHomestead said:


> Daddy Russell Crowe is very good with them too.


That's funny! I had a Russel Crowe rooster too. A big handsome Barred Rock. 
I wonder how many roosters are named after him? 🤣


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## GardnerHomestead (Sep 28, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> Everything looks great!
> 
> 
> That's funny! I had a Russel Crowe rooster too. A big handsome Barred Rock.
> I wonder how many roosters are named after him? 🤣



Lol  My rooster before this was Wyatt Chirp, horrible attitude on that one. Russel is kinder so far. Barred rocks are beautiful roosters.


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## Finnie (Sep 28, 2020)

I named my Swedish Flower Hen rooster that because he was a russet-like color. I didn’t want to name him that, but it fit too well.


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## Finnie (Sep 28, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> Everything looks great!
> 
> 
> That's funny! I had a Russel Crowe rooster too. A big handsome Barred Rock.
> I wonder how many roosters are named after him? 🤣



(I botched getting the quote in the same message as what I wrote. Oh well. )


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## GardnerHomestead (Nov 10, 2020)

Fall has arrived. Temps in the low 20s the last week or so and some early snow this past weekend. My experimental fall garden is doing pretty good considering the weather. The potatoes called it quits after they got pummeled with hail and snow, pulled those up and got a pretty good haul considering when i planted. I mulched around my broccoli so i hope it hangs in there. although i might have planted it to late. Chickens got loose and pecked out all my spinach starts pretty early on so i put garlic in instead. Carrots and beets still going strong. Peas took a beating also. We will see how they do. All summer veggies have been pulled up and disposed of, canned salsa with all my green tomatoes. Emptying the raised boxes and switching out the chicken wire that we used in a few of the boxes (which did nothing for the gopher issue) for hardware cloth has been tedious. Two more boxes to go.

Gophers  my mortal enemy. I've tried trapping them.. smoking them out... I have a killer cat.... baited with bubblegum... nothing has worked. I actually think I just made them more angry lol. I extended my fence to my garden and am tripling the size next year. The raised boxes are very costly so I think im going to try a straw bale garden next year with hardware cloth underneath to prevent pests. Has anyone tried one?

I took my bucks apron off for breeding late August with the intention of March kids this year. 3 of my does went into heat over the last 6 weeks ive had it off. 3 did not, i thought maybe i had missed the signs, it happens. Well now they are forming udders so they are already pregnant and have been for a while. It seems my buck has figured out how to get around the apron. Winter babies it is... I really hate not having a date though. Found a new home for by buck since I had kept some of his daughters from this spring. I was sad to see him go, he was a good boy, but one less goat on the feed bill this winter will be nice. The girls dont seem to miss him lol.

All my orpington hens are molting, so im only getting eggs from my young leghorns. Nothing from the easter eggers yet.... all about 6 months old. Sold all my chicks that my broodies hatched out to a nice older couple that have bought from me many times. 

My husband and his cousin butchered Kevin a couple weeks ago. He was almost 300 lbs. The whole experience was kind of a circus starting with us not being able to get him into the trailer, chasing a 300lb uncooperative pig around after he decided he wasnt going into the trailer was fun. He was strooooong. Eventually between the two of us and our 11 year old (keeping the pen door open) we pulled him in by his back legs. i wanted the process to go smoothly as to not upset him but it was a long day. Its all said and done, we have all the meat back and it was worth it. Great flavor. This being our first pig we learned alot. Our freezers are completely full, with the help of all the meat chickens we did this year.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Nov 11, 2020)

Good to hear from you again, Miss @GardnerHomestead!

I cannot help you with how to take care of the gophers -- others on the forum will know, though.  I am glad you caught your pig and no one got hurt in the process.  Do you expect to get another one?

Temperatures in the low 20's already?  Wow!  Refresh my senile memory -- at what elevation are you?

Senile Texas Aggie


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## GardnerHomestead (Nov 13, 2020)

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> Good to hear from you again, Miss @GardnerHomestead!
> 
> I cannot help you with how to take care of the gophers -- others on the forum will know, though.  I am glad you caught your pig and no one got hurt in the process.  Do you expect to get another one?
> 
> ...



Hey STA

I think we will get another pig next year. tweak some things in our processes, better watering system, a more sturdy trough for feeding. We raised a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig this year because a friend had a litter and wanted some of my baby goats. The meat is , but fatty, great for flavor but there's quite a bit of waste. So i think we will go with more of a traditional meat pig this time.

We are only at about 4000 feet, this is a pretty early cold for us, prompted us to start our woodstove a bit earlier than last year.


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## Baymule (Nov 14, 2020)

Just got caught up on your journal. Love all the things you have been doing. I have a much easier way for you to load pigs, my secret weapon--BOILED EGGS! I have even loaded a 820 pound boar using boiled eggs. Don't feed them for a day or two, back up trailer, open gate, blocking off any escape holes with cow panel sections and toss boiled eggs in the trailer. I squeeze them to break them open and release all that delicious smell. Have someone stationed at the trailer gate to slam it shut, but not until the pig is ALL the way in the trailer. You are not going to push a hog in the trailer with the gate if his back feet are still on the ground. Boiled eggs work every time, they have never failed me, except for that one time the neighbor slammed the gate on Wilbur's butt, the 820 pound boar. That only scared him and we didn't get him loaded until the next morning. We sure had our fingers crossed!






We went through several batches of feeder pigs before I got the hang of it and built The Pig Palace. I love my Pig Palace. I had one batch of pigs that were creepy, like get behind me to bite, creepy. I never went in the pen without a piece of pipe and someone on the outside. Having the Pig Palace takes care of upturned water tubs, getting swarmed when carrying feed and it just makes things soooooo much easier. Here is a link to my Pig Palace, back up a few pages to see how I scrapped it all together. 






						Baymule’s Pigs 2018 HEREFORDS!
					

I keep cans of wasp spray. I don't mind them so much, but not in the places I/we frequent.



					www.backyardherds.com
				




When this year's pigs went to slaughter, we put a steer in there, it is working well!


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## GardnerHomestead (Nov 17, 2020)

Baymule said:


> Just got caught up on your journal. Love all the things you have been doing. I have a much easier way for you to load pigs, my secret weapon--BOILED EGGS! I have even loaded a 820 pound boar using boiled eggs. Don't feed them for a day or two, back up trailer, open gate, blocking off any escape holes with cow panel sections and toss boiled eggs in the trailer. I squeeze them to break them open and release all that delicious smell. Have someone stationed at the trailer gate to slam it shut, but not until the pig is ALL the way in the trailer. You are not going to push a hog in the trailer with the gate if his back feet are still on the ground. Boiled eggs work every time, they have never failed me, except for that one time the neighbor slammed the gate on Wilbur's butt, the 820 pound boar. That only scared him and we didn't get him loaded until the next morning. We sure had our fingers crossed!
> 
> View attachment 78960
> 
> ...



Thank you Baymule, that looks so much easier. We didnt have the greatest set up this time, will improve next time for sure. i will check out your pig palace! This guy was only 300lbs and strong as an ox.


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## GardnerHomestead (Dec 2, 2020)

The garden is done, goats broke in and ate the tops of my carrots down to the dirt, and my broccoli. Grrr. Good thing they are cute. The strawberries have gone dormant. My peas are the only things chugging along and the frost has them looking pretty bad. Carrots were small but tasty and i love the colors. This is my second round of carrots this year so the fact that they are miniature isnt so bad.





The pork continues to be delicious. Since we split the pig we ended up with a little over 100 lbs. Im not sure how long it will last, we are a family of 5 but it will be good to know for future pig endeavors.

Our Thanksgiving Ham:







 




Two of my sneaky goats gave birth, twins each, one boy and one girl in each set. My doe that had a single last year isnt taking to twin motherhood well, shes not feeding her doeling so i have had to step in and force her to nurse her. at this point im giving her the benefit of the doubt but she wasnt the best mother last year either. At least she was feeding her baby last year though.. I will most likely be retaining both doelings. Still waiting on my last super prego doe to pop, then we should be done for a while.







I've presold both boys so at 8 weeks they will go to new homes. This year I've had multiple requests for bottle babies, not sure why that's a thing all of a sudden but personally i feel like its more natural for the babies to stay with mama, barring some emergency or downright unwillingness by the doe. I've had to turn many ppl away. In our area, and maybe everywhere, this past year has brought out a whole lot of ppl who are wanting to "homestead" maybe that's why the demand for bottle babies?  I pointed them in the direction of dairies because i know its common practice there.

Our lab went into her second heat middle of October, despite my husbands attempts one of the kids cousins let her outside and she rendezvoused with our big dog.  So we are looking at Christmas puppies. Hoping all goes well considering the size difference.  Cute pictures of the doggies for fun.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Dec 2, 2020)

Very cute goats!  Thanks for the pictures.


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## GardnerHomestead (Dec 11, 2020)

Our last heavily pregnant doe gave us two bucklings last weekend. The kids are in baby goat heaven. All these babies already have homes in 8 weeks besides the two girls im retaining.







Also got my Bakers Creek seed catalog so its been a busy week lol. i saved alot of my own seeds this year but want to get a few specialty items from them. Have to block off the new extension of our garden from the deer and plan on what im putting in. Our school shut down again so we are back to distance learning. Christmas break cant come soon enough. Had a breaker go out in our ancient breaker box so had to hunt down a breaker that would fit it. add updating our breaker box to the list of things that will need to be done.

Need to clean the goat pens this weekend before the rain comes, straw has been hard to come by up here for a few weeks so we were just able to get some. My LO chickens are hideous molting right now. My new layers from May, out of 4 leghorns and 4 easter eggers only 2 leghorns are laying, not sure whats up with that but ive been getting eggs from my dad. 

My difficult doe still hasnt accepted her baby and im still holding her to nurse every 4-5 hours now. Shes a pretty doe, registered, great udder. But the lack of mothering instincts is a huge negative for me. Have to figure out what i will do about that, maybe i will just plan on pulling her kids every year for bottle babies, or maybe i will just sell her. All other does are doing great with their kids. This is all of their second freshenings. In the spring i will have two FF. 

Ive been seeing so many KuneKunes for sale, i think its like a sign lol, or maybe im perusing craigslist looking for Kunes, either way ive been researching them and would like to plan on a couple. Anyone raise/breed them for meat? they arent as big but look manageable for our acreage size. and they are just really cute. possibly just a dream because idk if i want the commitment of keeping pigs year round.

Anyway thats enough rambling lol. Happy Friday everyone


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## Baymule (Dec 15, 2020)

We buy feeder pigs every year. One for us, one for sale. We have a couple that buys a pig from us every year, it pays for ours. So basically we eat for free, not counting my labor. I would say to buy a feeder pig to raise before buying breeding stock.


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## GardnerHomestead (Dec 16, 2020)

Baymule said:


> We buy feeder pigs every year. One for us, one for sale. We have a couple that buys a pig from us every year, it pays for ours. So basically we eat for free, not counting my labor. I would say to buy a feeder pig to raise before buying breeding stock.


We raised a pig this last summer but i came to my senses about the kunes lol. Im definitely going to put my pig dreams on hold. Ive got alot on my plate right now, and with the days being so short it makes it hard to get it all done after work. The kids are also starting their 4H turkeys in February so my husband pointed out that we have alot going on right now, and hes right. I like the idea of doing two pigs at a time though, we raised kevin solo and he seemed lonely.


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## GardnerHomestead (Dec 30, 2020)

We had wonderful, crazy busy christmas. Christmas eve our pregnant dog started acting funny, restless, clearly uncomfortable. Me and her were up all night and she gave us 7 healthy puppies. 6 boys, 1 girl. She is young, only about 18 months old so i was concerned about how she would take to motherhood. but she has done so well, minimal intervention from me was needed. They are the cutest, i love watching her with them it is so sweet.










I have deposits on 3 and 1 I promised to a friend, hoping they all go quickly so im not tempted to keep them 

Not to be topped by the dog, Two of our "young (if 7 months is still considered young )" pullets gave us an olive and greenish egg on Christmas morning.





Both of our immediate families came over to celebrate, i made chili Verde from our homegrown pork it was amazing. I have so much to be grateful for this year, and its a conflicted feeling because i know alot of ppl have lost so much. But i am proud about how far we have come and our ability to maneuver around the obstacles that were thrown at us. Heres to 2021!


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## Baymule (Dec 30, 2020)

It looks like you had an extraordinary wonderful Christmas! Kids, Grand kids (LOL) puppies and eggs!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Dec 31, 2020)

_Happy New Year, Miss @GardnerHomestead!_


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## GardnerHomestead (Dec 31, 2020)

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> _Happy New Year, Miss @GardnerHomestead!_


Happy new year @Senile_Texas_Aggie


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## GardnerHomestead (Jan 22, 2021)

The bucklings have been sold off, mama goat is missing them terribly. Been milking her a little each day to help with the full bag. Dont have alot of interest in her as a milk goat as her teats are so small and hard to milk, so just need to get her to dry up. The two doelings I'm retaining are growing out nicely. Goats are enjoying the unseasonably nice weather. Storms coming in today for the next week so they will hate that (spoiled California goats). Have three more pregnant does (including my favorite) due to kid between February 1st and March 1st. Everyone has had their hooves trimmed, selenium and copper given. I also got put on the list for a buckling from a local breeder in late spring.   

The pups are getting really big. Its been chaotic to say the least. Mama dog got Mastitis a couple weeks back. Poor thing was in so much pain. I had her on penicillin but needed to get some pain relief for her so we took her to the vet. The infection really wiped her out and she spend 5-6 days just laying on the couch, I would bring the babies to her every few hours. She desperately wanted to care for them and would try and get to the box but was just so sick. After several failed attempts to empty the infected teat it abscessed and popped. She instantly felt better and the wound is healing up nicely. In the meantime I became mother dog and started supplementing puppies with formula and wet puppy food, cleaning them and their box, and my favorite part - snuggling them. They are thriving and she is now back to being a great mother. All pups are claimed and going to their new homes on Valentines day.









Chicken news.... not much, getting about 7-9 eggs a day, one easter egger egg (i have 3 birds ), one olive egger egg, many leghorn eggs (these birds are champions) and a couple of my lavenders are starting to lay again. Lifelong dream realized when i bought my first Brinsea incubator this week  Im super impatient so i put 25 eggs in that i had sitting around. Will end up with pure lavender chicks, orpington x leghorn, orpington x olive egger, and orpington x easter egger. Will be cool to see what they look like.

Did a feeding and a "winter" bee hive inspection. We lost our weaker hive, its upsetting and we arent sure what we did wrong. Learning from our mistakes and trying to do better. All garden boxes are repaired and ready for spring, picked up some seeds from the store. Need to put up some fencing on one side to keep the deer out before planting. 

My husband took our son on his first duck hunt last weekend, he got his first duck! he was so excited, they are going again this weekend.🦆 Its all he can talk about.


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## Baymule (Jan 22, 2021)

I'm glad that your mamma dog is better. Adorable puppies, love puppy breath! And you got an incubator! Congratulations on that, that is fantastic. Hope you hatch lots of chicks. The excess roos make good fried chicken. Watching the chicks hatch out is so much fun. 

Did you cook the duck your son got, for supper?


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## GardnerHomestead (Jan 22, 2021)

Baymule said:


> I'm glad that your mamma dog is better. Adorable puppies, love puppy breath! And you got an incubator! Congratulations on that, that is fantastic. Hope you hatch lots of chicks. The excess roos make good fried chicken. Watching the chicks hatch out is so much fun.
> 
> Did you cook the duck your son got, for supper?


Me too, she is the best dog and we were really worried about her. Ive had quite a few incubators, but only the inexpensive styrofoam ones. ive been drooling over this one for years. The hatching chicks never get old!  As far as the duck goes my husband is going to have it stuffed since its his first. Beautiful bird. Hopefully they get more this weekend to eat!


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## GardnerHomestead (Feb 5, 2021)

Winter is here!














The kids had a good few days of sledding and school closures/delays before it rained and washed it all away. The sun is back but its cold. Chickens stopped laying a couple days after the snow. all of them 19 eggs still in the incubator, 6 of the eggs weren't fertilized so i removed them. They were all from my California whites, which is a leghorn hybrid. They are small birds and im wondering if my rooster is to big for them to be property fertilized.

Preparing puppies to go to their new homes, shots were given, stopped wetting their food so they are on hard kibble now. Honey is still feeding them in the morning and at night but in progressively shorter spurts. They are sweet puppies and im going to miss them but so.much.work.





I scored a free dehydrator from someone on facebook, we made banana chips and some jerky so far. Cant wait to make great use of it this summer. I have been baking alot of bread and rolls since our yeast shortage seems to be over for now. 





I have already bought all the seeds i need for the garden, learned my lesson on waiting til march last year i want to get a greenhouse in this spring but not sure thats going to happen. My daffodil and tulips are coming up despite the snow. Tough little flowers. A woman near me was giving away rose campion plants so i got a few and planted them around. Supposed to be deer resistant, we will see if they are goat resistant. The gopher at all my larkspur so i will have to get more and put them into gopher baskets this spring. Speaking of that  gopher, I ordered a new gopher trap on amazon, set it up and had that gopher in less than a half hour!! Now im not delusional enough to think theres only one causing this mass destruction, but catching him was probably the best day of 2021 so far, revenge is mine. I will await fresh holes and set the trap again.


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## thistlebloom (Feb 5, 2021)

What sort of trap did you use? I've always done pretty good with Macabees, but now we have two male barn cats that are hunting machines and we had no gophers last year. Yay! Gophers are absurdly frustrating to get control of.


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## GardnerHomestead (Feb 11, 2021)

thistlebloom said:


> What sort of trap did you use? I've always done pretty good with Macabees, but now we have two male barn cats that are hunting machines and we had no gophers last year. Yay! Gophers are absurdly frustrating to get control of.


i have one pretty good hunting cat but i dont think she can keep up. Its called the gopher hawk, got it off amazon, was reading a review about it on a facebook group im on and they swore by it. they werent wrong, best $25 ive ever spent. no fresh holes but the weather hasnt been great, they seem to be more active when its not raining.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch (Feb 11, 2021)

GardnerHomestead said:


> i have one pretty good hunting cat but i dont think she can keep up. Its called the gopher hawk, got it off amazon, was reading a review about it on a facebook group im on and they swore by it. they werent wrong, best $25 ive ever spent. no fresh holes but the weather hasnt been great, they seem to be more active when its not raining.


Do you think it will work on voles too? I have some that are invading the garden. I don't have outdoor cats at my house; the voles are at my mom's too, I wonder if I transported some in the plant pots when I brought them home?? She has an outdoor cat and active dog, the dog was very excited to catch a squeaky toy a few weeks ago. It didn't squeak very long.


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## GardnerHomestead (Feb 11, 2021)

Larsen Poultry Ranch said:


> Do you think it will work on voles too? I have some that are invading the garden. I don't have outdoor cats at my house; the voles are at my mom's too, I wonder if I transported some in the plant pots when I brought them home?? She has an outdoor cat and active dog, the dog was very excited to catch a squeaky toy a few weeks ago. It didn't squeak very long.


i looked the reviews online and it said its effective with voles and moles.. you should give it a shot. ive been fighting these guys since we moved in. This has been the only thing that has caught any of them


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## GardnerHomestead (Feb 23, 2021)

I forgot to mention a super exciting addition to our homestead, for Christmas this year my husband built us a walk in pantry.  I took some progression pics. I have put it to so much use already. Dont know how we ever lived without one


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 30, 2021)

Spring has sprung! Its always such a crazy time of year for our family, but especially me since I take the lions share of the garden work. I had four buck kids born at the end of February. they are all over a month old now and bouncy! What a buck year this has been. 9 bucklings, 2 doelings.











We are all finished with kidding for the year. Boys are disbudded and have homes lined up for end of April. Im thinking of selling a couple does too but havent made a final decision on that. Currently I have 8 does, I would prefer to have closer to 5. 

The chickens have been laying up a storm, fertile eggs and chicks have been flying out of the door as of recently. I have another hatch due today with some coveted Black over Lavender Orpington chicks I bought from a breeder upstate. I will be keeping all of those to improve my current orpingtons.  Heres some pics of my previous hatches and eggs 









I started about 200 seedlings a week ago, better late than never right  I have a raspberry and grape vine to plant that I got for my birthday. Fruit trees are flowering. My peach has done pretty well every year but this plum tree is going to be the death of me. If i dont get a single plum from this tree i swear..... last year aphids completely destroyed it before i knew what was happening, the year before it was to young to bear anything. I've treated it with dormant oil this year. Hoping I killed the little buggers.







This weekend ill have to get the compost worked into the soil, planter boxes filled back up, rototill the area the corn patch will go. Potatoes, onions, garlic and carrots are already in the ground. Along with the  strawberry patch from last year. My husband is trying to get the greenhouse up this weekend as well, but so many other projects need to be done too. So its not on the top of the list. He just finished replacing our roof, weedeating, and building our new pig pen. Ill share pictures of that next time. Happy Spring time everyone!


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 7, 2021)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, we stayed home this year and did eggs with the kids. My parents came over and we did ham sandwiches and a bunch of sides. My chicks hatched earlier this week, ended up with 3 black orpingtons (carrying the lavender gene) and 3 lavender orpingtons. They are beautiful and should add some nice genetics to my flock. I also ended up with 12 mixed chicks from my own birds which i sold to a friend for cheap, and 2 lavender orpingtons from my birds that i sold to a lady that lives near me. 

My husband and I took a much needed break a couple weekends ago to tahoe. We live fairly close but had never been. We have been missing travel a whole lot this past year, it was a little challenging with the masking requirement but we still had a great time.






We had been back home no longer than 30 minutes when i looked out the window and saw a jersey cow standing in the road in front of our house.   people drive fairly fast on the road in front of our house so went out to try and move her out of danger. As soon as i got out there i realized there were 3 total and they all took off running down the road, stopping traffic. I attempted to get them with a bucket of grain but they werent interested. My husband went up the road to find their owners. Eventually CHP came by with their cattle herding skills and sirens and got them into the field across from our house. the kids and I were able to keep them in the field til the owners got there. She turned out to be an elderly lady with a cane, and no working trailer. My husband offered to walk them back with halters but the woman lived almost 2 miles straight up the hill. So a little ingenuity on her part and we got the girls back home. She was really nice and brought some cracked corn for the chickens by the next day as a thank you.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 13, 2021)

52 viable eggs in the incubator, due in 11 days. 6 chicks in the brooder. Like 100 tomato seedlings to repot, potatoes in the ground, carrots starting to sprout, bucklings going to new homes next week. Busy busy busy. My wonderful husband found time in between all the craziness to build us a new pig pen. Hickory and Maple joined the farm about a month ago. They are already growing fast.









These girls are KuneKune X IPP cross, about 12 weeks old now. Spotted one is Hickory and she is friendlier, Maple is more reserved. 

We split our bee hive, they were showing signs of wanting to swarm so we hope freeing up room will change their mind. Here they are this past winter. All snuggled in their hive.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 9, 2021)

Wow its been a while. SPRING amiright? Im out working from the time i get home til the time it gets dark. Now its basically summer. Everything is so dry here already. Its been a particularly rain free year. Filling animal waters and keeping the plants watered is practically a full time job. 

The flowers have really been putting on a show, my hollyhock has bloomed for the first time. I put in a lot of biennial plants last year and they are flowering this year. My lilac never disappoints. 








The chicks I purchased from the breeder are getting really big and feathering out nicely. Early guesses would be 4 roosters and 2 hens.  Although I hope I’m wrong about that. I sold three laying hens awhile ago, so I’m down to 11 laying hens and 1 mean rooster. Cluck Norris has to go but I haven’t decided what to do with him yet. I have some chicks I’m growing out to sell as pullets so I’m thinking of taking all my roosters (when I know who they are) down to the auction at once. In the meantime I have like 50 birds lol. A friend of a friend ended up with 6 meat chickens by accident so she is going to bring them by this weekend for us to take. They are already 4 weeks old so she already put quite a bit of food into them. Thanks for screwing up tractor supply.




The garden is thriving in this heat. We have green beans, corn, tomatoes (4 different varieties), pumpkins (3 kinds), squash (which isn’t doing well, I may have overwatered), potatoes, carrots, the strawberry bed from last year that has exploded, onions, jalepenos, chili, bell peppers, and watermelons. I also added nasturtiums, gladiolus, hollyhock, snapdragons, and rose campion to the garden for some color. The gophers have already started their attack. As you can see by the hole near the watermelon.  Ive trapped a couple and a mole so far but almost everything else (besides corn and melons) I have in raised boxes, containers, and pots. I grew everything from seed this year, which im super proud  of. My goal is to get 100 jars canned this fall. Of anything! Fruits, veggies anything. I got 35 done last year but mostly jellies, fruits.







All the bucklings went to their new homes, I also sold a yearling doe with her buckling. I currently have 6 does, with two I want to sell when they kid next spring. Currently have 7 does. I was on the list for a buckling from a lady nearby. She messaged me end of April about a buckling she had born but wanted to sell as a bottle baby. I didn’t want a bottle baby (been there done that) but I couldn’t resist this face.  So Duncan is our new buck for next year.







Our hives are really struggling. Both lost their queen at the same time so we put an order in to get replacements. Took longer than we had hoped. Both queens were installed and we are waiting to check on their progress til they both (hopefully) gets established. Not looking good for honey this year but the main thing is that they pull through. 🐝


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## Baymule (Jun 12, 2021)

That’s a pretty chick, your garden is doing great, and what an adorable buck!


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 14, 2021)

Baymule said:


> That’s a pretty chick, your garden is doing great, and what an adorable buck!


Thanks @Baymule ! He thinks he belongs on the porch with the dogs. We use hog paneling for parts of our goat fence so anything younger than a few months just squeezes through. Need to fix it but its at the bottom of the ever expanding to do list.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 14, 2021)

🐝 update: Did a hive check to see if the queens were accepted. Both hives accepted them! We noticed larva and eggs. Excellent news but only a small step in their recovery. Because both hives were queenless for so long (estimated 3 weeks) its going to be a struggle to keep up the numbers needed. Couple that with the drought and all the other odds stacked against bees . We will feed throughout the summer and not pull any honey this year.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch (Jun 14, 2021)

Can you plant more flowers or plants they can get pollen from? I hope they do ok!


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 14, 2021)

Larsen Poultry Ranch said:


> Can you plant more flowers or plants they can get pollen from? I hope they do ok!


We have a bee garden, a regular garden, lots of blackberry and fruit trees. we are also in the process of trying to put clover everywhere we can. All of which helps. They still usually rely on alot of wild pollen. They will fly up to 3 miles to get it. We have an apple orchard close. So while feeding them isnt the most natural thing (sugar water) its what we will have to do. and thank you! I hope they do too. They are amazing animals.


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## Baymule (Jun 14, 2021)

We have lots of white ball clover, bees adore it.
Glad your queens were accepted and the hives are back on track. Never kept bees, I admire y’all for doing so.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 16, 2021)

Baymule said:


> We have lots of white ball clover, bees adore it.
> Glad your queens were accepted and the hives are back on track. Never kept bees, I admire y’all for doing so.


I love the clover. Irrigation is our problem. Its so dry here so it would need water 8 months out of the year. The areas we already water.. our garden areas, fruit tree area is where we have tried to get it established. we have about two acres of pasture and would like to grow stuff in it but havent figured out the logistics of it yet. Right now its riddled with thistle (which the goats refuse to eat) and a ton of weeds.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 16, 2021)

Looking at temps above 106 for the next four days. Hoping the power stays on because the swamp cooler is going to be working overtime. Need to clean the pig pen, chicken coop and grow out pen. Preferably during the nighttime hours when it wont be so hot. The grow put pen my husband built i hoping to put some wheels on so i can use it as a tractor. There are 6 meat chickens in there now. The pig watering system (old air tank my husband was able to find, with a pig nipple attached) is working great and only needs to be filled once a week. Kids are home for the summer so they refill the animals with cold water a couple times a day.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch (Jun 16, 2021)

Star thistle? My parents house is on 4 acres and when they moved in the pasture was riddled with it. Mom mowed and pulled it often and early to try to beat the seeds. Eventually there was almost no star thistle but it's started to come back in recent years as we had irrigation issues and she couldn't now as often. Goats are supposed to eat it before it seeds, but I think they are slackers.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jun 16, 2021)

Larsen Poultry Ranch said:


> Star thistle? My parents house is on 4 acres and when they moved in the pasture was riddled with it. Mom mowed and pulled it often and early to try to beat the seeds. Eventually there was almost no star thistle but it's started to come back in recent years as we had irrigation issues and she couldn't now as often. Goats are supposed to eat it before it seeds, but I think they are slackers.


my goats actually like the star thistle, its the Italian thistle, milk thistle and bull thistle they avoid. This property had been neglected and left to its own devices for a long time before we bought it. when we moved in there was thistle taller than us covering the field. between mowing and me pulling we have lessened it but it will take years. Its tough stuff as your mom im sure can attest to lol.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch (Jun 16, 2021)

GardnerHomestead said:


> my goats actually like the star thistle, its the Italian thistle, milk thistle and bull thistle they avoid. This property had been neglected and left to its own devices for a long time before we bought it. when we moved in there was thistle taller than us covering the field. between mowing and me pulling we have lessened it but it will take years. Its tough stuff as your mom im sure can attest to lol.


Ours was primarily star thistle, but I think we got other types of thistle in the garden. The place used to have horses before we moved in. If we had decent fencing around it we could run sheep or goats to mow instead of the riding mower. At least the star thistle doesn't have deep roots, but bending over to pick it before it gets big is a pain. I think the highest it ever was is waist high, usually it's about knee high now.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 2, 2021)

The kids 4H turkeys went to their new homes (plates?) this week. We kept one extra tom back for ourselves for Thanksgiving, when the meat chickens are ready we will process him too. Have to gather up all my extra roosters (including Cluck Norris) and take them to auction on monday. I probably have close to 10. It will free up space and food costs. Corn prices have jumped considerably here, but what hasnt. Chicken food is up over $2 more a bag. We are in the mountains so everything costs us more than in the valley. Might be worth it to travel down the hill once a month for feed.

Harvested almost 50lbs of potatoes a couple weeks ago. We planted reds and yukon golds. The reds did soooo much better than the golds. I'm not sure why. Been busy in my spare time (ha) making and freezing hashbrowns. Going to dehydrate some for scalloped potatoes this weekend. We have enjoyed so many baked potatoes, potato salads, and hashbrowns.  My tomatoes are coming along, been able to collect some cherry tomatoes so far. Pulled up all our onions and they are currently drying. Have russet seed potatoes to put in this weekend also. Pepper plants are flowering like crazy, Corn is above my waist now and i have 3 baby watermelons growing. I dont think im made the pole beans trellis tall enough, they are already up it and flopping over the other side of my makeshift trellis. Will have to correct that next year. I'm attempting to grow my mini pumpkins up a hog panel this year also. I have two baby squash so far. The kids and I are picking about 2lbs of strawberries every couple days. 

Pigs are growing well. Too smart for their own good, figured out how to open our gate so they have been kept in their pig pen. Which is pretty good sized but they enjoyed roaming the yard with the goats and foraging.

We had borrowed a buck from a friend in early May. I believe 3 of my does are pregnant, due in october. The other 3 will be bred by Duncan in the Fall when hes old enough to reach lol. Duncan is officially 9 weeks and off the bottle. Hes not happy about it but is adjusting okay. 🐐 The flies have been horrendous this year but i think we have gotten a hold of the situation.

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone 🇺🇸


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 21, 2021)

Deer broke into our garden while we were away for the weekend. I wanted to cry they ate all the tops off my tomatoes, every single leaf/pepper off my peppers, destroyed my green beans, ate a bunch of my strawberries and my best squash plant. Left my watermelon, pumpkins, corn, potatoes, carrots and tomatillos alone. The fence has been reinforced and every time the intruder has come back I have let the dog out on him/her. Which has been several times. Its disheartening to say the least but I'm hoping my tomatoes can make a comeback, I have little hope for the other two.


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## animalmom (Jul 21, 2021)

Don't give up on your peppers.  They are incredibly hearty and should come back.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 21, 2021)

animalmom said:


> Don't give up on your peppers.  They are incredibly hearty and should come back.


thank you! this is the first year they have even grown to a decent size and had so many beautiful peppers on them already. i will not give up yet!


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## farmerjan (Jul 22, 2021)

I have just started following your thread....reminds me of when I was younger with all the canning and gardening.   It is a great life you are giving your children.  
The deer needs to be venison.....
One thing you might want to do is add a couple strands of fishing line along the top of the fence....the shiny reflection of the fishing line is often a good deterrent as they don't like to try to jump something that "shimmers"   it is also a good deterrent over top of chicken pens if you have problems with hawks and such....  Not saying it will stop it, but might help.  And it is a cheap way to try to discourage them.  You can put up some extensions on the posts... don't need to be fancy, but something you can just attach the fishing line to...

We don't have gophers here.... we have ground hogs that get quite big....called woodchucks up in the new england area....and they can decimate a garden.  Probably 5-15 lbs full sized... and catch them in live traps and shoot and dispose....they love cantaloupe and watermelon.....raccoons and possums will work on things, especially corn.....

I am not a goat person, but yours have some real pretty colors.  
The Gloucester old spot do have a fair amount of fat, and it makes real good lard... but they are less fatty if killed sooner too.  You get over 2-225 and they start to just put on alot of fat....some are leaner, but that is a good tipping point for laying on fat.  I am partial to hampshires, berkshires, and durocs(for dispositions).


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 22, 2021)

farmerjan said:


> I have just started following your thread....reminds me of when I was younger with all the canning and gardening.   It is a great life you are giving your children.
> The deer needs to be venison.....
> One thing you might want to do is add a couple strands of fishing line along the top of the fence....the shiny reflection of the fishing line is often a good deterrent as they don't like to try to jump something that "shimmers"   it is also a good deterrent over top of chicken pens if you have problems with hawks and such....  Not saying it will stop it, but might help.  And it is a cheap way to try to discourage them.  You can put up some extensions on the posts... don't need to be fancy, but something you can just attach the fishing line to...
> 
> ...


I agree about the venison. Would be easy to get him, the deer here are either desensitized to humans or super hungry and thirsty, or maybe a bit of both. I've been with 5 feet of several this year. I'm going to extend the tops of my fences with the fishing line that's a wonderful idea, thank you! The hawks are prolific up here as well, i dont freerange much because of them. Wow thats a huge rodent lol, idk which is worse, the pocket gophers are so small but can still do alot of damage. Our dogs seem to keep the raccoons/possums away for now.

Thank you about the goats, they are the sweetest animals. Mischievous as all get out lol. 

The GOS was a fatty pig, i got so. much. lard. More than i will need for the year im sure, but its beautiful and so tasty! We will butcher our IPP crosses in a couple months. We ran out of Kevin a couple months ago, with meat prices the way they are it cant come soon enough. They are close to 200 lbs each.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch (Jul 22, 2021)

Try hanging some Irish spring soap around the perimeter of the fence. They don't like the smell of it. Definitely see if you can hang additional stuff on the fence to make it look taller. 

The deer that got into my garden ignored the tomatoes and tomatillos but chomped on the strawberries, peppers, kiwis, fruit trees, and squash. One of the strawberries doesn't look like it's going to come back. All the rest look a little shocked but are slowly coming back.


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## rachels.haven (Jul 22, 2021)

Lol, you ran out of Kevin. I love it.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 22, 2021)

Larsen Poultry Ranch said:


> Try hanging some Irish spring soap around the perimeter of the fence. They don't like the smell of it. Definitely see if you can hang additional stuff on the fence to make it look taller.
> 
> The deer that got into my garden ignored the tomatoes and tomatillos but chomped on the strawberries, peppers, kiwis, fruit trees, and squash. One of the strawberries doesn't look like it's going to come back. All the rest look a little shocked but are slowly coming back.


i will try this. i was so sad about the tomatoes i wish they would have left mine alone.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 22, 2021)

rachels.haven said:


> Lol, you ran out of Kevin. I love it.


Kevin Burgers was a family favorite lol


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## Baymule (Jul 22, 2021)

We name our meat too! LOL

you can also tie surveyor tape to flutter in the wind on the fishing line.


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## farmerjan (Jul 22, 2021)

Have a friend that hangs old computer discs/cd's on fishing line to they move in the wind....


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## Finnie (Jul 23, 2021)

I’ve been researching how to bait electric fences lately, and what keeps coming up is people trying to fence out deer. They put peanut butter on foil pieces and attach those to electric wire. Then I got to thinking, someone on BYH (maybe @Beekissed ?) said that deer don’t like to jump into small spaces, so double fencing will often keep them out. (Far enough apart that they can’t just jump over both, and close enough together that they have a hard time gathering themselves up for the second jump.) 

Of course, fencing is expensive, but strands of wire held up by step-in posts are not so expensive. You could make the top wire hot, and bait it with peanut butter. You could make lower wires hot, too, to keep out raccoons. But I don’t think you could put hot wire low enough to keep out gophers or ground squirrels. My lowest hot wire on my step in posts doesn’t even keep out rabbits. They go right under it without flinching.


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## GardnerHomestead (Jul 23, 2021)

Finnie said:


> I’ve been researching how to bait electric fences lately, and what keeps coming up is people trying to fence out deer. They put peanut butter on foil pieces and attach those to electric wire. Then I got to thinking, someone on BYH (maybe @Beekissed ?) said that deer don’t like to jump into small spaces, so double fencing will often keep them out. (Far enough apart that they can’t just jump over both, and close enough together that they have a hard time gathering themselves up for the second jump.)
> 
> Of course, fencing is expensive, but strands of wire held up by step-in posts are not so expensive. You could make the top wire hot, and bait it with peanut butter. You could make lower wires hot, too, to keep out raccoons. But I don’t think you could put hot wire low enough to keep out gophers or ground squirrels. My lowest hot wire on my step in posts doesn’t even keep out rabbits. They go right under it without flinching.


yes! we somewhat have the double fencing, i think that is what has kept them out this long, we have an electric fence for our goats (its short, only 4 feet) and then inside of that we have the deer fence. Part of the problem too, that we werent aware of was our electric fence got grounded out sometime in the last few weeks as well. The goats (and us) didnt realize it but the deer must have because they were touching it. Its back up and running now and i saw a deer shock itself the other day in the lower field. It was like the perfect storm of deer invasions. We luckily dont have alot of wild rabbits up here. Jack rabbits tend to be in the lower elevations. Those little buggers seem persistent.


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## Beekissed (Jul 23, 2021)

Finnie said:


> (maybe @Beekissed ?) said that deer don’t like to jump into small spaces, so double fencing will often keep them out. (Far enough apart that they can’t just jump over both, and close enough together that they have a hard time gathering themselves up for the second jump.)


Wasn't me!  We've always used a single strand of hotwire about knee high to the average man, no baiting of the wire necessary.  Never had a deer cross it and we are in deer country central.  Used that kind of fencing for over 40 yrs successfully....now we have a fenced garden surrounded by dogs, so no need for the hotwire any longer.  Deer are curious and they usually explore that with their nose or accidentally bump against it, as the single strand is not real visible.   That one bite they get seems to do the trick. 

It's cheap, easy to put up, 100% effective.  One caveat:  Keep it hot always.  If the deer learn it's not always hot, they no longer respect it and will hop it like it's not there....that's the most common mistake people make with this type of deer fencing~ go into the garden to work, forget to turn the fence back on when they leave~ then they bound and declare it doesn't work where they live.


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## GardnerHomestead (Aug 24, 2021)

Garden is coming back pretty well, the heat has been pretty intense so alot of my green beans arent setting but i put in a second crop of them a couple weeks ago so they will come into fruit during the cooler weather we hopefully have in store. Watermelons, carrots and corn has been harvested, watermelon was a success! corn was really hit and miss this year. I may have planted to close together? got about 40 (edible) ears from 100 plants. The goats thoroughly enjoyed the corn stalks. Deer have stayed away, barring the occasional one that walks by and peers in. A guy was giving away an entire garden on facebook, the raised boxes ended up being rotted but we were able to get all the posts, gate, fencing and three brand new wine barrels. they also didnt want their plants but most didnt transfer over well so a couple peppers and quash are all i ended up with. now that the corn and melons are out i plan on putting spinach and beets in its place in the next week or so. Been pulling tomatoes, tomatillos, squash and strawberries daily.












Flowers are doing well and i have been busy collecting seeds from all my favorites for next year.











Blackberry harvest wasnt good this year, berries were small and the deer and goats got most of them. was able to make a couple batches of blackberry turn overs.




We butchered our chickens and Tom, he ended up being 20lbs after gutting. Since the chickens were given to me half grown they ended up costing us about .40 a pound. I stalked tractor supply for a week or so and snatched up their 18 meat birds for .25 each. they are a few weeks old now and growing quickly. Im experimenting with supplementing their high protein feed with the abundance of eggs we have. Not much of it, maybe 10-20% of it.





The pigs are getting huge, about 200lbs each. about 6 weeks till butcher. Or sooner if the weather cools down quicker. Looks like four of my does took so babies are due in about 4 weeks. Took our lab to a stud mid july so we will have puppies due about the same time. Kids are back in school. Things have been crazy busy. I have way more chickens then i need and should go through them and sell some. Haven't really had the time or energy.


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## farmerjan (Aug 24, 2021)

Some REALLY NICE pictures.... sounds like you are doing pretty good overall....


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## GardnerHomestead (Dec 17, 2021)

Its been a little while... did some necessary scaling back this last couple months. im trying to find the sweet spot between enjoying everything and being completely overwhelmed. I feel like it comes in waves, especially when the days become shorter and i leave for work in the dark and get home in the dark.  When the weather is bad it just compounds the difficulty of taking care of everything in the short 3 hours im home and awake. We have been doing some home renovations (new flooring, painting) and some long awaited repairs so all of our weekends have been consumed with that.

Our goats gave birth end of September, two singles, two sets of twins, and one set of triplets. All healthy and born to fantastic mothers (ive weeded out all the bad mothers, i just simply dont have time for that). One baby is still awaiting her new home, the rest have sold. I also sold 2 older does so im down to 4 does and one buck. the buck is out on lease right now and set to come back this weekend to service my does. These will be my first babies from him so cant wait til late spring 

The same weekend our dog gave birth to five puppies. One male and four females. So much fun but also sooooo time consuming. Pups went to their new homes around thanksgiving.

In the beginning of September we hit temps above 110.. I lost 6 of my .25 cent chickens. We butchered the rest the next weekend as the temps werent letting up. They were almost fully grown and it was a horrible loss. I took all my excess roosters to auction. so im down to 14 hens and one rooster. some of which im going to sell in the spring as new layers. Traded one of my hens for a trio of muscovy ducks, one ended up being a female and two males. Racoon got the extra male. Now Fred and Ethel are in with the chickens cooped up nice and safe at night. Excited for babies in the spring.

Hickory and Maple, our IPPX pigs were butchered last month. Ended up with 300lbs of meat. Still have sausage to grind but so far its been great. Its been nice to not have the extra work honestly. They were sweet creatures but i needed them off my plate (or on, depending on how you look at it lol)

The garden wouldnt quit, with the extreme temps in the summer it just didnt take well until fall, after about 8 months of seed starting/gardening i was done. I put all the garden beds "to bed" , canned or froze everything i had left. We have a greenhouse we will get set up early next year to start again.

We got our first snow recently, got all animals houses prepped with extra hay and food. with no rain for months and then record breaking rain everything is a sopping mess. The ducks are having the time of their lives 

Merry Christmas everyone!


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 3, 2022)

Spring is well on its way. Got our greenhouse up, temps have been so wild most days its not even needed, but then will come back with a random 17 degree overnight temp. Started my tomatoes and peppers, no sprouts yet  I have 3 does due in the next week from my moonspotted buck. these will be his first kids on the ground very excited about that. Alot of the bulbs i put in, in the fall have come up and hopefully the predicted snow this weekend doesnt kill them all. Same with my peach tree that is starting to bloom. Bought some raspberry bushes, ones starting to leaf, the other two arent doing much. Also put in a grape vine but for some reason i have never had luck with those, not sure what im doing wrong. maybe my soil isnt made for grapes Hope everyone is doing well!


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## Baymule (Mar 5, 2022)

You have been busy! I love moon spots! Got a picture of your buck?


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 7, 2022)

Baymule said:


> You have been busy! I love moon spots! Got a picture of your buck?


I'll have to get a picture of him, his first kids were born early this morning from my only FF this year. A girl and a boy. will post some pictures later  Mama did it all on her own, i found them when i woke up at 430 for work. Its been chilly here since the snow on saturday and was in the low 20s last night. The little girl had gotten chilled so i brought her inside for a bit, dried her off all the way and warmed her up. Put her back out with mama and brother before i left for work and saw her eat on her own.


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## Baymule (Mar 7, 2022)

And now you have newborn kid pictures to take too!


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## GardnerHomestead (Mar 9, 2022)

Here is my buck Duncan, older pic of him, i need to get an updated one, his beard is pretty epic now lol.







The two kids that were born to my smallest goat, they are very little. The boy is quite a bit larger than the girl and is only 2 lbs. Boy is black and white with brown eyes, super friendly already and wanting to gnaw on everyone. Girl is black and white, blue eyed with some visible moonspots and some odd coloring that could possibly turn into spots? Im new to the moonspot world but i know they can change colors. We are enjoying all the baby goat cuddles  











In other news greenhouse is up and i have about 100 starts sprouting. Seems to be doing its job keeping it above 50 even in the snow. Have to figure out how to piece some shelving together. Making do with scraps of lumber i have for now. 









I started a experimental worm farm with some worms my kids dug out of the yard, been keeping it going for about 6 months now, in some old coffee cans, saw this morning that we have babies! or what will be worm babies. super cool. would like to expand this but just havent found the time to do it yet. Right now ive just been using the worm "pee" on my indoor plants.


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 15, 2022)

6 babies from my does total, 3 sets of boy/girl twins, i have a fourth doe that didnt settle when the others did but is getting a small udder so maybe in a couple months. My oldest doe decided to reject her doeling after disbudding, i didnt notice for a couple days, which i feel horrible about, she got really thin. Got her on the bottle and pulled a boy from another mother to be her friend. Sold both as bottle babies at about two weeks old and they are doing really well! We moved the electrical netting to the lower part of our property to keep the goats down there for a while to eat everything down. They havent been super happy because they no longer have access to the barn, which they were spending the majority of the day in, bums. The "barn" is really close to our house, not actually a barn but a really big three sided garage type of thing. The previous owner kept chickens in about a third of it so we have made that into the goats nighttime area. In spending alot of time in there they poop alot in there and we had a huge fly issue last year that i want to avoid this year. So out to the field they go. 

Weather has been wild, my starts are all struggling, 85 degrees then freezing 3 days later.  Potatoes and carrot seeds are in and i have appreciated the bit of rain we have been getting so i dont have to start watering yet. Flowers were all coming up and beautiful til the freeze hit them, tulips have bounced back but daffodils and crocus are done for. My fruit trees are yet to be determined they all flowered but the freeze hit when the blooms were still open. The greenhouse is going to need some tweaks for sure to get the temp down in super hot temps and up in super cold temps.

Hatched out an unknown number of chicks, havent had the chance to count yet, black and lavender orpingtons, and a mixture of my meatbird and orpington roo as an experiment. 3 of my meat crosses hatched going to raise them up and see how they do as a sustainable meat source.


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## Baymule (Apr 16, 2022)

I just got electronetting, haven’t had a chance to put it up yet. Going to let the sheep graze the yard. 

Congratulations on the kids! 

You crossed an Orpington with Cornish Cross hens? Interesting, post updates!


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## GardnerHomestead (Apr 18, 2022)

Baymule said:


> I just got electronetting, haven’t had a chance to put it up yet. Going to let the sheep graze the yard.
> 
> Congratulations on the kids!
> 
> You crossed an Orpington with Cornish Cross hens? Interesting, post updates!


I love the netting, best thing we have ever bought for our property makes things so much easier. Yes i held back a big old meat bird hen from our last butcher, put her on a layers diet and have been getting some eggs from her. she has to weigh 10 lbs at least but gets around just fine. My orpington rooster is a huge guy as well. Shes laying about 2/3 times a weeks so im collecting the eggs and have had about a 30% hatchrate with them so far.  As a test run im going to see how quickly they grow, and then decide from there if its worth it. i know cornish cross are a hybrid so they dont breed true, results may vary lol.


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## Baymule (Apr 18, 2022)

Please post pictures of your results and how they grow out.


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