TheBar1 Homestead- From a sword to a plowshare

This will be the wrap up post from my leave I think We did not get much more done with the piggies this trip, they did not go through their area as I thought they would so we are holding off sending them to a new paddock until next trip in July.  They are growing fast and have even the more skittish of them (Chew Bacon) will now come up for a back scratch.  Here is an updated picture, Ham Solo is the one with the large white strip on his front and Chew Bacon (Chewie) is the one mostly brown. So in addiation to the animal front we also did a lot on the equipment front, on a cold rainy day we went to an Auction for a hobby farmer who was moving back to town due to health reasons.  While there we bought a 130-gallon water tank on a trailer with a PTO powered pump that can be pulled behind a tractor, we also picked up what is probably a 5 foot deck mover also to be pulled behind a tractor, I also picked up a nice 12 gauge Iver Johnson special trap shotgun (I did not ...

OK at this point we needed to switch gears, so far we had lost 3 of our 50 chickens from what I understand that is not a terrible amount considering they were mail order, what we quickly evident is that the small starter brooder we made was not going to last long they were growing so fast, as we did not have coop yet and meant another intermediate brooder.  Part of the scrap wood that was left with the house when we bought it was 2 boards about 10 feet long and roughly 18 inches or so high.  The chicks very much seems to like all the extra space, and they seemed to thank us by increasing their rate of growth!  It was very quickly evident that we would need to come up with a normal coop very quickly. Out intermediate brooder when we first moved them! about 23 March The previous owners did have a small coup but it would not fit our needs at all, they only had a couple chickens (4-5) compared to our 50 (well 47 now).  Their coup also had an overabundance of nes...

Well this will be first of a series of posts about what happened the last couple weeks while I was on leave! Part 1 I am sorry this update has taken so long, a lot has happened since the last update.  About the 19 th or so I got back to Mn from DC with a Uhaul full of stuff that was in storage in DC, it was about ½ of what we had in storage, a 15-foot truck full.  I was able to convince the movers who was unloading it in DC just to put it into the uhaul rather than unpacking it in the house and making me repack it.  Truthfully, I probably would have only fit about 2/3s of what they did in there! The first day or two back was mostly unpacking the trucks before Saturday when the bees finally arrived.  I think we made about every mistake possible unpacking those bees plus we had the bad luck of one queen dying in transit.  At the end of the day we ended up with one small have rather than 2 stronger ones.  Right after hiving them we ended up with ...

Well as usual I am a little behind the power curb as far as getting the blog out before we are too far behind!  We got back to the states on the 4 th by flying into Chicago where Terri’s mom and aunt was there to pick up us and the dogs, from there we basically drove through the night in order to get to the homestead as soon as possible.  Once we got there were really have not stopped!  Since we were scheduled to get the pigs in the next week or so and I only had a few days before I needed to sign in to Washington DC one of the top priorities for me was to get the electric fencing up and do some fence repairs for the “training area” for the pigs.  A training area is where you teach the pigs to the electric wire, it is a relatively small area with electric wire run around two or three of the sides with a hard fence to back up the electric wire so that the pigs relate the wire with both an unpleasant shock and a physical barrier to the point where they do not challen...

Another month down and one month closer to getting the homestead started!  We still do not know when we are leaving Jordan yet, still waiting on orders, and a definite location for that matter!  Still thinking I will be somewhere in the DC area but not sure exactly where!  We have started to lock a couple things down for the homestead. We ordered the bee hives and they have arrived at the house!  Two Warre hives is what we decided on.  I have not locked in the bees yet which is starting to concern me the later it gets but I cannot do that without knowing exactly when I will be back home to receive them and get them settled in!  Hopefully we get orders this week and I can contact my gaining unit to get some things locked in so I can order the bees.  We have also locked in our two feeder pigs for this year.   We are purchasing them from the Haffner Family Farms in Eagle Bend Mn.  They are running a farm similar to what I would possibl...

Well quite a bit going on since the last posting!  Looks like we will be heading back to the states a little earlier than planned.  It was planned Terri would go back in May anyway to start setting up the household, not it looks like I will be heading back to Washington DC in May as well to finish up my time in the Army, I need to get a little medical work done and none better then Walter Reed!  The other benefit with being in Washington DC is it make the possibly of long weekend trips to the farm possible.  That along with Alexis volunteering to work on the farm this summer in exchange for a little cash it means there is a few projects we will be able to start this year rather than waiting until next! Turns out we will likely be able to get the bees going this year after all. However, that is still possibly on hold depending on what day I need to be DC.  Just all depends on how the scheduling works out.  The company we are looking at for bees have two...

Well not too much has went on since the last posting other then lots of reading and studying for the homestead.  The house in Colorado is still pending a sale, should close in the next couple weeks with any luck!  We are currently planning the next trip back to the states in May.  I will be there for about a month but Terri is most likely going to stay.  We will plan on bringing the dogs back during that trip, it is best to travel with them before it gets too hot.  Will be lonely here with out Terri, Soju and China but it will only be about 4 months before my next scheduled trip back in October (for a wedding and hunting season!).   It will be a busy time for those thirty days or so, hoping to get the chickens started, will order them to come in within the first few days after getting back, they will be day olds.  I will try to get them as soon as possible so I will be there for most of the work getting them started before handing them off to Terri. ...