Fall Harvesting and some farm pics

I want to start out this month’s blog by thanking all those who have reached out to me about the blog. I am amazed at the number of people who I grew up with or served with who have reached out to me and told me I was going to be living their dream, I had no idea I shared this dream with so many of my friends. I encourage as many as possible to follow their homesteader dreams, even if it is just a couple chickens in the back yard to get started, the reward will be worth it.

October on the homestead became the month to reap what we sowed, harvest time! I was able to make a quick weekend trip back to the homestead for the Columbus Day weekend and I am happy I did, there was just so much to do on the farm and sitting at home in DC would have just killed me. About the first week in October the Chickens (hens) decided to start laying their eggs and once they started they really started. The first couple of days when they first start laying, the eggs are so small, especially when you are used to getting the extra-large ones in the store! After a few days however, the eggs gradually grow larger and now the eggs are about the same size as we would get in the store. The catch with free ranging chickens however is that every day turns into an Easter egg hunt! The first few days it was not a big deal because you know the eggs are not that old, now we are at the point when we find a clutch (Sometimes as much as a dozen or more eggs!) we have to throw them out and feed them to the pigs as we do not know how long they have been there. As close as we can tell we are averaging about 14-15 eggs a day from our 22 hens, which is a pretty good number. With barred rocks you can kind of figure two eggs every three days per chicken. So far, we have ensured the chickens get about 12-14 hours of light a day, that will keep them laying eggs through the winter, we may gradually shut out the light however as it is only Terri at home now and soon she would be over loaded with eggs (we are giving most away already!). On a side note today, I went grocery shopping today in DC and it damn near killed me to have to buy eggs knowing how many were back at home!!

You can see the size difference from the first time egg layer! This was from one day this week

Speaking of Chickens, this trip we also finished processing (butchering) the excess rosters. This trip we sent 12 of them to freezer camp, keeping 5 rosters and 22 hens for the winter. We wanted to get them done now as to not waste any of the scraps from them. As we were going to send the pigs for processing (see next paragraph!) before I made it back for hunting in November it was best done now. It did go a little smoother this time then last but we still have some improvements to make. We did not have the cones yet but we did do the deed outside this time with sharper knives. Terri has gotten pretty good with the feather plucking but we also decided we will be getting an automatic chicken plucker (google wiz-bang chicken plucker) soon!

Here I am stuck doing the deed, slicing their throats as they hand upside down

I will be in the dog house for this one, Terri Plucking the feathers

They really do look like rubber chickens when plucked

The fruits of our labor! This is 10 of the 12 chickens, the other two was already being used for stock for gumbo!

Today was also a bitter sweet day in that Terri dropped off Ham Solo and Chewbacon at the butcher for processing. Rough guess from my un-trained eye is they were about 225-250 lbs each, nice long bodies but not as fat as I would have liked. Since we are using an offsite processer rather than doing it ourselves we were kind of stuck working on their schedule. They book up pretty solid during deer season when almost all of the processers will be switching to wild game, so if we wanted to get them in before the freezing weather got there, this was the time. One of the greatest challenges to homesteading and selling meat from your animals you raise is finding a state or USDA inspected butcher (which is required if you are selling cut meat) for processing. I will write more on that in another posting however. We should get the meat back in a couple weeks, after the hams and bacon have been cured, about the same time I go back for hunting.

Chewy and Ham a couple days before their trip to "Camp"

We also harvested the beets and the pumpkins this trip and cut down all the pumpkin vines before the winter, wanted to get it done soon as the weeds were getting large within the pumpkin patch and I did not want the weeds going to seed. All total we probably harvested about 200 pumpkins and only a wheel barrow or so of beets. The pumpkins and the beets will give the chickens something to snack on throughout the winter however. The dogs also love them, supposingly pumpkins are also excellent wormers for most animals so that is just a bonus for us!

In addition, this trip I also secured a used 25K PTO driven generator that should help if we have a power failure, the farmer who was getting rid of it was upgrading to a 45K as he was a dairy farmer and needed something powerful enough to run all the dairy equipment as he grew. This trip I also was able to clear up a little more fence line from brush and put straw bales around the bee hives in order to provide a wind break. From the feedback I received from the online bee groups, it looks like this next trip I will have to put the bales actually touching the hives and then they will provide insulation as well. Well that is it for this update! Will hopefully talk to you all more in a few weeks when I make the next trip back!