The Peculiar Case of the Rooster

October 22, 2021 Sarah

At the start of October my oldest came back in, after letting the birds out for the morning. He asked me “You didn’t tell me you took in a new bird!”.

Um…what?

I went down and there was a new bird just hanging out. On the edge of our middle coop.

He was very, very tiny. And a rooster. I asked a lady I know for ID help, and found out it was a Sebright breed, a Bantam variety. So a tiny bird type.

What we could only guess is he was dumped on the rural road we live along, and he plodded along till he heard hens and figured “Ladies I have the solution to the problem you didn’t know you had!”. My oldest has a habit of waiting till dark to shut the birds in, so the little rooster slipped into the run (gate was open, they free range all day) and hid in the lower coop. In the dark my son never saw him.

That morning he was very thirsty and hungry.

The hens have accepted him oddly enough. They almost mother him, I have to think it is his size. He is barely a quarter the size of most of them.

At night he happily sleeps in the coop with the ladies. And the other rooster, who is now barely a teen (he was one of the babies the hens had this summer). It shall be interesting to see what happens once that rooster matures. I keep waiting for the crowing to start up. Kirk can’t stand crowing. But he is needed, I need a rooster for the 3rd coop, who are not related, to have more babies to grow our flock.

At the time he showed up he was just a tiny bit smaller than the “babies” (the 3 birds our hens hatched) This little hen on the left is now 3 times his size!

He’s a pretty little bird though. He tried to crow once the 2nd day here, but sounded like his squeaker wasn’t working. Since then, he minds his business and just hangs out. So I let him be. It wasn’t his fault he got dumped. It’s pretty lame when people do that, and refuse to deal with their own farm issues. But as for his age, no idea. He’s healthy so there is that.

At least our homestead was there for him to find shelter in. And he sure loves sunflower time every day!

~Sarah

Prepping For Early Frosts

October 12, 2021 Sarah

Last night was chilly. All it takes is a clear sky at night in October and the temperature drops quickly. While the first frost usually isn’t harsh enough to kill off delicate plants like lettuce, it can, and does damage them, so it’s time to get them protected. And as a bonus, it will extend their growing life considerably.

All the rows planted for the fall and winter are covered in straw/hay.

Since I don’t have a lot of lettuce growing, and the lettuce is short still, I did a quick solution. The key is to make some hoops with whatever you have on hand. Save that cash.

Having refound a bunch of circular plant supports I had been given, I pushed one end into the ground on one side, and the other side on the far side of the bed. Each section I needed to protect I used 3 to 4 hoops.

Then I cut a piece of frost fabric to cover, and clamped it on, making sure I pinched the ends.

And done. Now I can sleep not worrying about early frosts in this area.

But….of course I needed to think about November and coming hard frosts/freezes/snow. It was time to put up my DIY Hoophouse. We made this years ago, when we did urban farming, but it still has a use in our rural homestead. It covers low growing crops quickly.

All set up and ready to be wrapped when needed down in the field.

It can be used in both Fall, and for early Spring.

I came across a copy of Gardening Under Cover: A Northwest Guide to Solar Greenhouses, Cold Frames, and Cloches, from 1989, through our library system and got sucked into it back when I built this in 2015 the first time – a guide for the PNW, written in an easy to read, but not necessarily deep, method. Pre-internet this was as good as one was going to find for low-tech methods.

The concept is easy, and so is the shopping list:

3 to 4 ½” PVC pipes (10 feet long)
1 1″ PVC pipe (10 feet long)
Cover of choice
Large Binder Clips

The PVC pipes can be found at hardware stores, are usually made int he USA. Look in plumbing. The first step is to measure and cut the 1″ inch PVC pipe into 10″ sections. For ease in cutting, my husband used a DeWalt Power Miter Saw with a 12-Inch Thin Kerf Crosscutting Miter Saw Blade. He cut a bevel at a 60 degree angle. This allows them to slip into the soil easily. Be careful when doing this type of cutting, as you are close to the blade. That I let Kirk do for me.

I store them in a large plant pot when not needed, out of the sun. Not one has cracked in the past 6 years.

(This is from the original post I did back then, in the end of 2015.)

I did a trial run on a back bed, that didn’t have plants in it, to get an idea how it would work. First, depending on the length of your bed, you will need 6 to 8 of the cut 1″ pieces (Each 10 foot section produces 12 sections, so in theory you can produce 2 beds from each one). The beveled edge pierces through even hard packed soil, using a Dead Blow Hammer, pound them in until it is about ¾ in the ground. Do all of them, spacing evenly.

To put in the hoops, push one of the 10 foot long ½” pipes into a holder, then gently bend over and pop into the other side. Just like tent poles really!

You’ll find on the first one you might be pulling out poles and redoing it, as they won’t be lined up evenly, or one holder is not as deep as the other side. By the time I got to the 4th bed, I found it going much quicker. And they don’t need to be perfect…..

On to covering the hoops: It needs to be 10 feet wide to cover side to side. The frost fabric lets through light and water, but keeps it 4 to 10* degrees warmer. It also doesn’t cause your plants to overheat in fall temperatures, where as the plastic covered ones can quickly, if not vented. As you can see, I let it hang loosely, and didn’t clip it back unless high winds are predicted, or heavy rain.

A couple of friends clued me in how to clip the fabric to the poles easily: Large Binder Clips. The 36 pack on Amazon is a deal compared to in store 12 packs. You will need at least 12 per bed. They work better than any other method I have seen online!

Once you have your cover in place, start at the top and put in a clip on each pole on top, then one at the bottom, and for best results, one in the middle of each pole, preferably on each side. If it isn’t windy, you can use less. For here, with 4 poles, I am using 20 clips.

For real cold snaps I used 4 mil thick plastic sheeting. You can find it hardware stores in 25 foot and 50 foot rolls, often in the paint department. If you want thicker, you could go up to 6 mil. 4 mil is quite durable though. I decided to make a door, and simply split the plastic with scissors (or a knife). I can roll it up and use a clip to hold it open. In high winds, you will want to seal it up tightly, and cross over the plastic, using clips to secure it. But otherwise, until winter, this will stay open on one side to keep the temperature even. My mini greenhouses can easily soar to 100* on a 70* day, so keep that in mind. You don’t want to scorch and kill your tender plants! As well, plastic doesn’t let water in, so remember to water on a regular basis, more than you might expect, as it will be warmer and evaporate.

Enjoy, get building, and protect your fall crops.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Prepping

5 Months To Prepare Your Garden

October 11, 2021 Sarah

October slips in. The temperature lowers, and quickly we lose daylight on both sides. Summer crops are done and it’s easy to go hibernate for the long winter. Or….maybe you don’t have a garden yet.

And I am here to tell you to not hibernate yet. It’s not time to go to sleep yet. Do the work now, while the ground is warm, but the air is cool. If you do it now, in October, come the first of March you will be ready to go.

The need to be self-sufficient grows by the day. You must not let your guard down. It doesn’t matter if you live in an apartment, or on acreage. You can, and MUST grow something. Even if it is a few pots. Below are topics to get you started on.

Your grow zone: It is the engine of gardening. By understanding it, you will know when the first and last frosts usually occur. What kind of weather to expect in summer. The highs and lows, which determine if you have a long enough season, or that plants will survive the winter. See here for the USDA maps to determine your zone.

How much daylight: That you receive all year. Learning what is in the shade during the day. Not only in summer, but all year. For example, one bed of ours, is in the sun only in the morning from September to April. This causes grow issues for fall crops.

16 hours a day at the Summer Solstice in Late June has plants primed to grow.

But in late December not much is growing without artificial lighting, though with greenhouses you can still have some things growing, but it depends on how North your land is.

Choose your location: If you have land to grow food on, be it raised or in ground beds, there are considerations. If you live in town, and in an HOA, you will most likely need to grow in the backyard. The less eyes that see your garden, the better. One can hide edible plants in front yards (blueberries are a great example). If you live more rural, you will need to consider fencing to keep out deer, elk, rabbits and so on. The second is figuring out the sunniest areas in your yard, if in town. Fences can help extend warm weather crops, as they reflect heat back. If you have ample land you will want your garden area(s) to be well drained, away from acidic trees (evergreen trees) and to receive ample sun.

Being near a water source: One issue when we started over at our homestead here is we had a lack of water. We were farming down low, and there was no water hydrants at all down there. The nearest water was over 2 acres away, at the house. We had 800 feet of rubber hose I had to move around daily. 2 years ago we got water hydrants installed all over the land – and it is a huge difference I can tell you. It freed up my days.

Planning the Garden: This is figuring out do you want raised beds? In ground beds? Pots? It also is determining how much square footage you need.

How much to grow: We recently wrote a piece on how much to grow per person in your garden. This will help you figure out how many seeds and plants you need to acquire.

What to grow: It’s this simple – grow what you like to eat. If you hate kale and you don’t have animals to feed it to, don’t grow it! But also, grow things that cost the most. For example, dual season red raspberries is a great investment, as raspberries are always expensive in stores. Where as potatoes are not (though they are worth growing for the taste, but you get my point). Those with less space will need to really think it out.

Harvesting: Learn to know what is ready. You don’t want to grow food, and then have it rot on the vine.

Preserving: Learn to can and dehydrate food. Read up on how to cure garlic and onions for long term storage. See here for all the posts.

Buying Supplies: Growing a garden isn’t as simple as running a tiller over land, though that does make life easier. Having basic tools on hand now will make it much easier. A shovel, a hoe, a good garden rake. Gloves. Tarps to kill off weeds and grass naturally (yes, you can buy high end farming silage tarps, or you can buy cheap ones from Harbor Freight as well). If you have the back for it, you can do everything by hand. We use our BCS tractor to only break new land open, to kick up the rocks. After that, and the rows are shaped, we don’t use the tractor anymore. Our land, being on an island is hard often, filled with rocks. Once opened up, the land can be made better.

The Prep:

Once you have it all in your mind and plotted out, it is time to get to work.

Mark out where you want to do it, be it on paper, or better, on the ground.

If you are doing raised beds you will want to lay down a very thick layer of cardboard (remove all tape) to kill the grass/weeds so they don’t grow up. Be sure to do 4 layers or more thick. Plain is best versus colored. After that, assemble your raised beds however you are doing it, and get them filled with soil. Then you are done! If concerned about weeds starting from blown seeds, you can cover each bed with a tarp over the winter. This will also keep the beds drier from winter rains. (See here for articles on all the raised beds we have built over the years)

If you are doing in ground, mow the land if needed (or weed whack), then till the land now, pull out rocks you bring up. After you till, let the land sit for a week or so, so seeds can germinate, then cover with a tarp to kill the seeds. You will want to weight it down heavily on the edges (bricks, sand bags and such). Black or dark colors is best. You will leave the tarps on over the winter and pull back as the light returns in March so you can shape the land into beds.

In late winter/early spring we shape the beds in ground, with a walk way between each bed. Then we put an inch of well-aged compost on each row. For weed suppression, we do a thick layer of wood chips down the walk ways.

Pull any weeds that it through the winter.

And then…it’s time to plant. And it is Spring, and 5 months have slipped by.

Seed Prep:

By January you will want your seeds in front of you. It won’t be time to grow yet, but don’t wait. Seeds for the most part can last many years if stored in a dry/cool environment. You might lose some germination, but overall seeds want to grow, and will. But keep track of what you have and order what you don’t. And don’t think of just spring crops – think about what you will plant multiple times, and what you might plant in late summer for fall.

Find out if there will be a seed swap nearby, and join in. You might get seeds you didn’t know existed!

Starting plants in pots is a good start. Tip: While I buy my 4″ pots often on Amazon, if you have a Dollar Tree nearby, look in late Winter and they often sell them in 10 packs for a $1. They last multiple years if you are gentle on them and store them inside when not in use.

Wondering when to plant? See here for when to plant seeds in grow zone 8b.

Have a potting area that is dedicated. It can be out or inside. I keep mine outside, because space but also mess control. Mine sits in the orchard. I store our pots nearby for ease in it.

Greenhouses:

We use popup/portable greenhouses often (though we have a dedicated real greenhouse as well). This allows us to grow a LOT of starts in the early months. Enough to protect at night, and to keep animals out – and out chickens I might add. I take the covers off and store so they don’t get UV damage until needed. The key is you must weight them down (see the heavy paver stones?) and we attach them with zip ties to the fence behind. Keep them zipped tightly if wind is predicted and they last. But always weigh the frame down!

Until Spring…stay busy and get those dreams going.

~Sarah

Homesteading

September On The Homestead

October 4, 2021 Sarah

September was a good month on the homestead overall. We had the typical where it rains once, after a long dry streak of summer, then summer weather came back. At the last week, it cooled off and rain returned. Which is…pretty normal weather!

During the summer we had two hens go broody. One hatched 1 baby, which was hers (she was sleeping in her own coop then), these two chicks were hatched by the other mother. Another one tried to hatch but didn’t make it out. A fourth one hatched two days after these, and she rejected it. Another lady I know came and got it, her broody hen accepted it and it has grown well…into a rooster.

At least Goldie was willing to teach the two chicks how to be a chicken. We figured out that our Saphire Gem hen is the mom of the grey one. As it has grown, it is very obvious. Goldie was an egg hoarder!

Little honeybee visiting the Cosmos.

The “teens” as we call them, enjoying summer squash treats from the garden.

Pumpkins hiding.

The start of the Evergreen Huckleberry flow.

Tomatoes everywhere.

Green where there is irrigation, dry everywhere else.

The second crop of berries were just starting.

The ducks enjoying fresh cabbage I grew for them.

Sweet corn.

I loved the color of the stalks and of the corn husks. The corn was so very sweet and good this year.

Thai peppers.

Every sunflower was grown for the chickens, who happily stripped them.

When we harvested this Waltham Butternut it weighed over 6 pounds.

In September I end up making salsa or pasta sauce for canning a couple times a week to keep up.

Full moon at dawn, over the Olympic Mountains.

Acorn squashes.

Late summer into fall strawberry crop.

Golden Raspberries.

Clancy potatoes. I grew these from seed (not potatoes). I will use them for seed potatoes next year to continue it on.

Grapes off the vines.

That’s a big squash.

And how quickly we lose light. September 7th.

More fall strawberries.

The final push of summer into fall.

We took in 5 more hens from people we know. For now it’s a fostering thing, as they decide if they want to move.

Growing cabbage for the chickens and ducks.

More grapes.

The harvested garlic, long cured, gets pulled out. We sold quite a bit of it, for others to use as seed garlic.

Broken up and ready to plan.

Planted in summer, the fall potatoes are flowering.

Of the three chicks we raised, the single one hatched is showing he is a rooster. Which is OK, we are rooster free currently. He looks a lot like his father, Raven. Raven went to another chicken group to produce babies.

This was for September the 29th. We went from over 13 hours daylight to well under 12 hours. Light slips fast after the Autumnal Equinox in September.

In the final week we have the garlic, onion sets, shallots and more in the ground. Spinach and other fall crops are growing happily next to it all. Today on the last day of September, the rains dump, but October is promising to be sunny for the first week.

~Sarah

Homesteading · Prepping

It’s Up To You To Protect What You Love

September 30, 2021 Sarah

September is National Preparedness Month, and a time to think about choices and options – before you don’t have them.

I hope this post will open your mind. If firearms, and the Second Amendment and the right to carry bother you, you are on the wrong homestead.

When I was young(er), I became enamored with hiking due to the columns written by Seattle author Karen Sykes. At the time, in my mid twenties I was living on an Island and pretty naive to the world in my rural life. I had a young child and was a single mother. Every week I looked forward to her Thursday Hike Of The Week, of which I often ran out to do on Friday mornings before the weekend crowd showed up. One week the paper published a large insert, and in it was an article about female safety while hiking. Her article scared me good. It was about a very uncomfortable encounter with armed drunk men that they had to hide from. Years later, when I met Karen in person and she later mentored me in my own writing, I told her how much that article had woken me.

And I’d need that lesson soon enough, I just didn’t know it then.

It was the Spring of 2002. I was following the snow line melting as the weeks passed and winter was shrugging off. I woke my oldest son up early on a weekday, as I had the day off from work. He was 4 that year. We hiked 2 to 3 days a week then. We caught the ferry off the island to the Olympic Peninsula. I had a couple goals of where to go. I am sure I didn’t tell anyone really where I’d be, outside of the Eastern Olympic area. As we passed through the tiny town of Quilcene, Wa and went by the turn off to Walker Mountain, I decided to turn into the Falls View Campground area, off of Hwy 101. It had just had the gates opened for the season to do the Fallsview Canyon Trail. The parking lot was empty and we parked. I was driving a Ford Explorer I had bought the summer before – the boy and I would camp in the back to be safe, and I felt safer on rough forest service roads in it.

Backpacks on, we headed down the hillside, down to the river bottom along the Big Quilcene River. The sun was out, and it was quite pretty at the bottom, along the river. The trail wanders through the mostly level open forest.

And then I felt it. As long as I can remember I have had an internal voice that has told me to be aware. Too often women are told to not listen to it – as humans we should all possess this. This is what has kept us alive from predators since humans became humans. Wether or not you chose to listen to it, it’s up to you. If you choose to not, but a friend or loved one does – listen to them. I have often wondered if the reason I hear it so loudly is I have a higher rate of DNA markers for Neanderthal traits (Yes, DNA testing is fun!).

I saw a man far across the forest floor, coming down the hillside. And then he made a direct line to catch up to us. It was just very, very odd. Midweek in a remote area. My truck wasn’t visible from the highway. The man was dressed in leather loafers, a leather jacket suited for business wear, slacks and a button up shirt. He was drinking a can of pop, smoking, and had no hiking gear. I got a severely cold feeling from him. I was wearing sunglasses as I often did when hiking, and he couldn’t see my eyes. His eyes were cold and did not match the smile on his face. I have an odd habit of when I meet people I see an animal in them. I am quite often right about what I sense. I saw a predator in him, something like a weasel.

I casually (as well as I could, fighting down fear is hard) and started off down the trail. He had decided I was to be his tour guide it seemed and he stayed right on my heels. I worked my way back to the hillside as casual as I could. I leaned down to Ford, and pretended to be adjusting gear on him. Ford was still mostly mute then (he is on the Autistic Spectrum), but he loved challenges. I whispered to him “Can you beat me to the top?”.

Ford took off like lighting, up that hill. I looked at the man and screamed “Where is he going!” and took off after him. I ran as if my life depended on it. And it probably did that day. I got my keys out of my pack’s hipbelt pocket as we were nearing the top of the hill. Came over the top, and I was so damn glad I had a newer rig, with remote locks. I yelled at Ford to get in. He jumped in, I slammed the door. Jumped in, pack on. Locked the doors, threw my pack off while starting the truck. No seatbelts on. As I was backing up, the man came up over the hill, looking very sour and very angry, he was not happy. I tore out of the lot, and pulled over on the edge of 101 to get Ford’s seat belt on. I drove as fast as was safe, just to get away. I ended up pulling over miles away, letting my heart rate settle down. I tried to go hiking still, after that, in a different place. I couldn’t shake the man’s look on his face when he crested the hill.

I called it a day and went home. At work the next day the local deputy came in to get a latte and we got talking. The lecture I got from him was worse than I might have gotten from my own father. I went to Walmart after work and bought pepper spray, that was always in my backpack’s hip pocket after that. He screamed at me to get my CPL and start carrying. I hadn’t ever owned a gun personally before that, though I grew up shooting rifles. It’d be a bit. Meeting Kirk changed my views more and we took classes together in our first months of dating.

That same year the espresso shop I ran was nearly robbed in the early morning, as I opened. My awareness of people prevented it. The man ran out, having lost his nerve. But it scared me, because had I not been paying attention, it would have been easy for him. (That there was a plains cloth officer having coffee in the shop also emboldened me…he was disappointed the guy didn’t go for it…lol)

That Sarah wasn’t the Sarah now.

Snowshoeing in the winter, winter of 2003.

If you are a long time reader, you may well know my feelings on the US Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and that we teach it to our boys. Within a year of this event I was actively carrying on hikes. I didn’t on all hikes then, usually when it was in a remote area. That changed with a further event that was also highly odd, but ended OK as well.

I was hiking in an urban setting. As we entered the wetland area, which was a loop on boardwalk, I noticed a young man standing there by the entrance. It was odd. He was smoking, acting casual. As we walked the loop, and were about 2/3rd done I heard loud shouting across (there was woods in the center), then a couple shots fired – from a handgun. I wanted off that trail. I could see the parking area and we went cross country quietly to get there, popped out by the truck and got in. The same man was still there, but this time he was looking down the trail with a hard look. My only guess is it was a drug deal that didn’t go well. We got out of there quickly.

Another hike we came out of the backcountry and about half a mile from the trailhead there were two men standing on each side of the trail. One was young, and looked like a typical urban hoodlum, the other looked like an old Vegas rat. He was dressed in business clothing and loafers. On a trail far from the city. Just standing across the trail from each other, staring across. My hackles went up, but the other 2 women with me didn’t notice anything. They were chatting though. Just odd things and encounters where something doesn’t match up.

Sitting in camp in 2004.

I carried openly at first. But I found that drew attention in ways I didn’t like. Men would ask me questions. It was very odd. They would start walking with me. Was suddenly I their protection?

I didn’t want to lose my love of hiking. Of hiking alone. Or with my children. I didn’t want to be reliant on safety in numbers, or to always need a dominant male with me. My motto became “It’s Up To You”.

But I was also worried about my firearm – that it would get wet or muddy, or both, and I would wreck it.

I got my CPL in our state. Our state allows concealed carrying in most places. I took training with Kirk.

Women are often pushed to use conceal purses, which in my opinion (and take it for what it is….) is that isn’t a good idea. It’s heavy on your shoulder, it’s awkward, and to draw easily, you must practice. A lot. It also puts you at risk of your purse being stolen…and well, that is awkward.

I had one at first until I realized how bad it was.

I then went using padded cases, such as the Safepacker. I often wore it on my hipbelt while backpacking and hiking.

Then there was a period in my life after having the younger boys where I simply quit carrying. There were many reasons. We lived in an area I felt safe in, I had 2 young children and I rarely went anywhere without Kirk.

But then life changed. For me it was before the pandemic. I didn’t feel safe anymore. Where we live is safe enough, but a few miles away the area is in decay. Petty crime abounds. State laws changed, and the police have had their hands tied by the legislation. If a crime occurs, you might see the police, but there is little they can do now. It is horrible in the state of Washington. But as the pandemic heated up in 2020, I became a daily carrier. I wear a Hill People Gear Kit Bag, of which I wrote a review on our outdoor site.

When you carry daily, it becomes a habit. You don’t notice it anymore. It keeps you aware of people around you, when in public. Not walking though life with your nose in your phone. Looking people in the eyes.

And that is it – It’s up to you. To prepare, to plan, to stay awake. To protect what is important to you, and those you love. Get training, be comfortable with it, know the laws, and do it.

~Sarah