Not Dead Yet…

Posted on by June 28, 2011

Feeling a little under the weather, caught a little flu bug and it’s laid me out for a good two days! Finally, feeling better but of course, I’m all off track and up at midnight and sleeping all day! Thank goodness, the girls don’t seem to be afflicted… yet, and I hope not because it’s Jessy’s 21st birthday tomorrow! And I have a Brown Bag concert series gig at the downtown library in Toledo tomorrow… oh goodness! I think I will be fine. Fever left today around noon and I finally began to feel a little better as the afternoon dragged on.

I missed my chicken peeps terribly! Maggie was their sole keeper for most of Sunday, Monday and today. I just could not drag myself out there! I did finally this afternoon, just walked out with my juice cup and some treats for them and found a hay bale and sat and just visited with them. I love doing that, there is something so calming and restful about a summer day in a sweet smelling barn with fresh hay and a flock of hens picking and cooing about you. It renewed my spirit to just be there in the quiet, watching them all interact and all. I do believe they missed me. At least my treats… they all flocked around me and watched me, nibbling their stale potato chips and bread heels and a bit of coleslaw that was getting old. Little Nancy Ann always likes to nibble at my toes if I wear sandals out to the barn. It’s so funny, she is the only one. Bucka was very talkative me, as if to give me a real scoulding… “where have you BEEN?” I love that roo. He is so cool.

Well, after I had sat a spell, I went over to the turkey house to visit with the poults. Maggie had fixed their door on Sunday, there was just a little too big of a gap between the door and the floor and we didn’t want to take any risks. She did a great job, found a nice old board and screwed it down there. It actually looked like it was meant to be. That was very cool. She’s getting the hang of this farm crafting very quickly. I only have to ask and she figures something out and it’s usually just perfect. I love that my girls are so confident with power tools and projects. It’s delightful.

So I parked it on a hay bale in the the turkey coop, our choice for cheap seating at the farm… and sat a while in the sweet hay and sunshine to watch the little fellas. I am thinking that one might be a tom, he’s growing bigger than the other one. They are still a little skittish around us, and thus, me wanting to spend a little time with them. It’s such a nice big space… 12 foot by 10 foot, so there’s plenty of room for me and the two little guys. I hope that I can get another couple at the auction this weekend. I think they need some more siblings. I think I need some more, to try and make amends for loosing their siblings.

I love how they settle down after a few moments of silence. I didn’t try to catch them or bother them in any way. Just gave them a few nibbles of bread and sat back to let them relax and learn about me. After a bit, they started to practice their flying… going over to the sunny ledge by their window and waiting for a nice tail breeze and then flutter flutter flutter until they got a little air and flew across a foot or two of hay to then crash and pick themselves back up. They are getting better.

The little one came very close to me, watching me very closely with a weary eye. She took a bit of bread from near me, but would not take it from my hand. I don’t blame her, she’s just not sure. I hope she’ll get more comfortable as time goes on.

Funny thing, at one point I realized that Bucka was at the coop door, making his “come here hen” noises to me! haha… he was not pleased with me being in the coop and him not able to come and partake of my bread offerings. Pretty soon, his chick posse was there as well, all looking in at the turkey zoo and it’s new resident! I can not tell you how much these birds lighten my day with their antics. They are so very personable, so much more than I would have ever imagined of just chickens.

I left the coop to go and fill up the main barn water font and instead of normally walking back to the house and using the pump, I used the closer, but scary well house tap. It’s scary because there are way toooo many spiders and there is a mama starling with a nest in there and she does not like us being in the little dark, dank house. But what was funny was that the whole flock had run up to the house to the pump to wait for me! They love to play in the water when I pump them some! I filled up their waterer and called them and it was so funny to see them do a double take and then come running across the yard back to the well house!!! They are so silly. They love to get in the well house and eat spiders! Which, I do not mind at all… we have way toooo many in there.

Well, after that I was pretty bushed and came back to the house for another nap. Got to feel better, tomorrow will be a busy day! Got a concert at noon to play and then will spend the afternoon and evening with the girls and some friends, going out to eat and celebrating Jessy’s 21 years on this earth! I can’t hardly believe it… 21 years old… and me so youthful! Hahaha… ahem… well… night to all… pictures tomorrow!!!

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A wonderful welcome…

Posted on by June 26, 2011

It all started with a garage sale and a wooden spool.

Yep, Jessy and were coming back from a town run and we just happened to notice that a neighbor just a quarter mile or so east of us was having a garage sale! And well, it’s very hard for us to pass up a garage sale! But we almost did, because it was late in the afternoon and well, we thought, they might finished up for the day. But they weren’t!

Well, right there in the yard is a bunch of wooden wire spools! Yeah! Hillbilly garden tables! I really wanted something for in the garden, so that you can set your drink on, or your garden tools, basket for produce, you know, stuff that you need to do in the garden! And a little spool would be PERFECT!!!

So we started to look around a bit, found a cute little table too, that would work so nicely in our little front parlor foyer or somewhere… and a neat little wooden ship for Maggie, whom we have left home… but there was something about the folks running the sale and their house and homestead. They had a neat covered run and coop with a bunch of chickens! And a great old barn with livestock corrals… and just a lovely garden in an old foundation by the house… and you know that niggly little feeling that you’re standing there in a the presence of a like minded person and you just have to start being less the in and out garage sale shopper and more the conversation starting, maybe meet someone cool, sort of human being and just jump in and say howdee!

Well, it was that moment. And I was so excited to find that they were ready to respond in kind with conversation and smiles! Oh my gosh! We have met our first neighbors that are like us! Fairly new residents to the little village… and right away, I just had that feeling that we were certainly on the same path for sure!

We talked about growing pigs… they have done a few red durock piggies and said the experience was great… and we talked chickens… and then we visited with their very pregnant goat and her goat hubby, and got to see the old barn with it’s big lofts and tall hand hewn timbers… oh my… and then we got to talking and all, it was an awesome visit!

Our new friends are Clift and Julia and they have some teenage sons as well as some grown children and grandchildren!!! (One of the boys is learning guitar and wants to start a band! I wonder if I can gently condition him to try a little bluegrass… hahha… you know bluegrass is addictive fun!) Julia cut us some wonderful fresh lettuce from her garden and that was SO welcome as of course, we don’t have any yet ready to eat! And we talked about how earlier in the year, one of their goats escaped and ended up here at Windhaven, in our screen porch under a desk in a bunch of junk that was here before we bought the place!!! So they knew how crazy overgrown and wild the place was before and thought we were sure doing a lot there in short while!

Well, the mention of our crazy mowing schedule came up and how we are saving for a riding mower and all, and well, Clint offered to come over some time and help us a bit with his mowing machine! Oh, wow… well, seeing how beautiful their yard is, I thought, that is sure a nice offer and maybe some day, might happen. We chatted a bit more but I was concerned that Maggie would think we had dropped off the face of the earth, so we begged farewell and got home.

We hadn’t hardly been home at all, when Jessy says, “hey, someones here” and we look and it’s Clift and Julia with the mower!!!! OH MY GOSH… he said might as well come down and see the place and getter done… I was so surprised! He mowed for what seemed hours and just made the place so beautiful! He’s a master with his mowing, I must admit, carefully done, beautiful patterns and a neat and beautiful cut. It looked just like a golf course when he was done!!!


What was a delight is that I got to spend the time chatting and visiting with Julia and her son Jeremy, who had come down later on. We got to give them a tour of the place and visit with the chickens and just visit and learn a bit about each other! Very cool.

One of the things that they don’t talk a lot about, with small towns, is that it’s hard to really get to know people. Some say it takes months, even years to get past the “strangers” in town monikers and mystic. I have to say, it’s kind of true, but at the same time, we’ve meet a few people that have been warm and friendly, like Julia and Clift.

The lady at the post office, Deb, she’s been super nice and helpful. She has gone the extra mile for certain to welcome us and our business and really has been nice. Our neighbors right across the street, Bill and Rod, they were friendly and we certainly owe them a visit in return. But we just were so thankful for the gift cutting… it gave us a break in our monotous mowing pattern!! In fact, almost a week off!!!! It’s been a little dry and thankfully, Clift cut it good and short so we don’t have to dash back to it. (We’ve got to get back to the front and side yard tomorrow, but still, it has been WONDERFUL to have a little break for sure!!!)

But my gosh… it didn’t stop there!!! A few days later, they were back, with a big old rototiller to help us with our gardens!!!!


Oh my gosh! It looks so beautiful!!! And it has prevented my children from revolting and declaring anarchy against my feeble attempts to get a big garden in! No more hoeing the hard mud that my garden had become after the flood!!! We are almost done planting everything… and it is just so wonderful!!!


And then, he even had some time to get the garden behind the barn tilled for me! I thought that was going to have to wait for next year, but now, we might even get a crop of short season sweet corn in!!! You just never know! We have some 60 and 65 day sweet corn seeds and boy, we’re going to give it a good shot. I think we’ll make it…


Any of you that have been reading this blog for a few years now, know that I am so missing my lovely raised beds of the Moby right now… they were so beautiful and ready to just go nuts this year! And now, I’m back to square one! Of course, this is good, for all we have gained, I am so thankful. But now??? Oh my gosh, I am so delighted!!! I just can’t believe how sweet this is and so helpful and I just don’t know what to do to return two such generous displays of good neighborly friendship! It’s so nice.

We have had a crazy little few days and I haven’t gotten everything planted but tomorrow, it’s going to be all done… all the big garden, the new barrel beds AND the corn field!!! It’s going DOWN… haha… and I just can’t wait! I hope tomorrow is going to be a nice day, since today was simply beautiful. I had a gig at a wonderful church picnic in a nearby town and it was so nice, good food and great people! And well, we had to make the turkeys new house safe for them. Life! But tomorrow will mark a special day in our Windhaven history… the final planting of the last seed of the 2011 gardens!!!

And we have a little garage sale and a hillbilly garden table to thank for that…

And of course, the kindness of some wonderful new neighbor friends!!!

Thank You Both!!!!!



Bucka Roo approves of the fantastic corn field tilling. He’s inspected the soil and has given it his chicken scratch of approval…

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Turkey Safe House…

Posted on by June 25, 2011



Once we were ready to take on the day, we had a plan here and got our tools and determination and got started.

On Windhaven, we have 7 buildings other than the house. We are really only using two of them, the garage (which we call the workshop) and the barn. The others are in various stages of repair, all standing, but all needing a little attention for sure. One of them is the building we call the Little Coop.

Now, mind you, the Little Coop is 12 foot by 10 foot in size, and it’s actually larger than my bedroom! Haha… but still, compared to the steel barn where the flock lives now and the even larger poultry barn, the Little Coop, is the smallest of the buildings.

It was really rough and had about a foot of old old compacted manure and straw probably leftover from goats. It didn’t smell… toooo badly. It’s probably been that way at least a year or more.




We were pleasantly surprised to find a decent concrete floor underneath. Everything on this little farm of ours was carefully built, years ago. This little building was built in 1973, so says the lettering on the concrete slab. The inside is nicely paneled in good sturdy wood. Outside, well, it needs a little help. Next week, we’ll be pulling off the rotted paneling and adding something new. Not totally sure what yet, but we’ll find something good.

It only took us FOREVER to get all that beautiful black gold out of there. Underneath the hard manure was a nice layer of composted dirt. We are going to layer this gold into our garden later on!




When I went into town earlier to get some chicken wire for the windows in the coop, I stopped at the surplus place and got two more barrels for our raised bed collection. We’ll be filling them up with a good layer of this coop compost later on! However, we ended up with several tarp loads of the stuff and it is REALLY heavy… So we tried a few ways to get it over by the big barn and out of our way…



I wouldn’t recommend trying to pull a tarp load of ancient manure with a car, say, like a blue station wagon. I’m not sure it will work very well. In fact, I suspect it won’t work at all and will probably tear the corners off your tarp.

Not that I would know anything about that.

Ahem.

Probably a yellow yard cart making a zillion trips will work better.




Luna was our feline supervisor for the project. Here on the farm, we always need at least ONE feline supervisor for any project. She doesn’t like to go near the big chickens and the barn very much. I think she’s afraid of Bucka Roo.
So she had a nice time hanging out at the little coop because all the chickens were not to eager to be outside after the attack of yesterday. Normally they are very excited to come out in the late morning when I let them out. But today, they were not interested at all and stayed in the barn until late in the afternoon and then only to come and watch us at the little coop.


Just about when we got all the manure out, Steve, the girls’ dad showed up to visit a while before work. He wanted to help us make our little safe house for the turkeys. He was unhappy to hear that the others had been killed and wanted to help make a safe place for the pair left. He’s a good guy and likes to help his daughters.

He and Maggie worked on the outside to staple some good chicken wire to the two windows and Jessy and I worked to make their accommodations lovely inside. We took a pair of nice flat concrete block halves to put their food and water up a bit. We moved a bale of hay over and spread half around for them to play in and left half the bale in a corner for them to jump and climb on. Steve found a nice branch for them to roost on if they wanted too. It was looking very nice in there and sunshine and sweet hay make the place very comfy.


We caught them from the feed room where we had locked them in to be safe, and brought them over to their new hangout. At first they peeped and wandered out, pecking at the greenery that poked through and checking out the feed and their water station. But then they settled into a sunny little shallow in the hay and began sunning themselves like they had lived there all their little lives! I think they will be fine in there. Jessy cut an armful of clover and grass for them and Maggie got them a little cracked corn for a treat. They are going to be spoiled little turkeys in no time!




Of course, Bucka had to bring his chick posse down to check on the progress. They really like visiting the new turkey zoo. I think that next weekend I’ll go back to the auction and see if I can’t get another group of poults. If I don’t I’m fairly certain we will be having these turkeys as pets after this hard lesson learned! I really thank everyone that wrote and emailed about the little fellas, it really helped a lot. I totally understand that poultry and loss goes hand in hand. There are SO many things that are waiting in line to feast on our little feathered friends. But I’m trying hard to make it tougher on them to be successful in their survival. We are working on fencing the back pasture this week and also to get a secure run for the little turkeys as well. I want them to have the chance to forage for bugs and eat greens and go on turkey adventures. Just want to make sure it’s safer for them. The little coop has a nice sized yard, with cemented fence posts, it’s just missing a good deal of it’s fencing. We’ve got some to get up, and we want to clean the yard of all the weeds and debris first before we let them out. Maggie has accepted the task at hand and I’m sure she will have it all clean and ready in no time! I’m going to look into getting one of those soft overhead nets so that we won’t have any hawk issues at all.


We’ll go into Hillsdale to this really cool place that has tons of recycled home and farm stuff and see if they have anything clever we can use as siding on the coop. I think it would be cool to find tin sheets or roofing sheets, something like that. Two side of the coop need to be replaced. The other two are sheltered and in good condition. We might just paint those sides to match whatever we do to the other two sides. That’s the fun part of doing things on the “green” side… you just never know how the end product will be.


Bucka and the ladies approve of the work. Of course, they really would rather just get inside and eat the turkey food, but still, it is nice that they came to visit. I think this will be our little fowl nursery for the most part… everyone that is too small to be in the big flock, will be out here in the Little Coop… chicks we hatch after they feather, and anyone we get that isn’t laying yet, they will be out there. We want to do some broiler birds this summer, but I think we are going to make a chicken tractor for them, once they feather out for the last couple weeks of their lives. We’re setting up a safe chick nursery in our mudroom for the wee babies that hopefully we will see hatched in about ten days!

And I will be spending ever MORE time on the backyardchicken.com forums and homesteading forums so that hopefully our learning curve will never dip so low again! One of the readers commented that it might have been a feral cat, and I know we have two on the property. I have a friend with a live trap and I might consider borrowing it and see if we can’t convince them to move on. I really don’t think it was Jack, as he doesn’t have front claws and has a hard time catching anything. And he walks among the birds like he’s their protector. He’s totally intimidated by Bucka. Of course, I certainly would not want him to have free access to little chicks, and I suppose it’s “possible” that he might have killed the poults, but I really don’t think so.

Luna is a good hunter of little mice and voles, but that seems to be her only talent or at least speciality. She’s terrified of the big chickens, and won’t go near the big barn unless you drag her there. I doubt that she would be the one to do such a thing. And of course Topaz is like 2 pounds wringing wet… I doubt that she could take out a poult. I’m pretty sure, if it was not a hawk and instead a cat, it would have to be either Orange Kitty, or that new white and grey tiger I’ve seen. Both big cats. Jessy thinks if we trap them, and spook them with the process that maybe they will move on. I’m not sure, but it’s worth a shot. I know they are cleaning Jack’s clock too often and he’s coming home with boo boos and I don’t want him getting hurt badly in a fight. I suppose the only other alternative is to have them put down if they are too feral and can’t be touched or approached. I really would not like that. Well, will cross that bridge if we come to it, I suppose. Right now, I’m just feeling better that the pair are safer, at least for now.


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