On our way home from church today, Steve looked at me and said that he was considering processing ALL of our ducks. I was pretty surprised, since our original plan had been to eat 20 and keep 10 for egg laying. We were making a stop at the feed store on our way home, and I think the dollar signs were getting to him, specifically the $35 signs that it’s been costing us to feed these ducks. I was really not so…
We were recently watching something on television when the word ‘precision’ hit me. It really resonated in the moment that we were watching, because for a long time now we’ve been starting to feel the growing pains of, well, growing. We’ve got things better figured out now, and we’re starting to realize that the way we set things up on our little homestead aren’t quite right. They’re not conducive to day-to-day tasks, to proper use of space, or to just…
The ducks have officially started molting, the period of time in which they replace their feathers. There are feathers EVERYWHERE. It looks like a down comforter was ripped to bits out there. The ducks themselves are looking pretty haggard. What feathers they do have are misshapen and sticking out at odd angles. I’m looking forward to this being over. This also means that they have temporarily ceased laying… the protein and the energy that it takes to grow new feathers…
This weather has been terrible for our garden! We’ve had rain (and lots of it) virtually every day, which has precluded planting, tilling, digging, etc. Fortunately, this weather IS good for another kind of cultivation: pomology. The blueberry bushes are bursting at the seams with little green berries that will be ready come July. Excessive spring rains are great for all sorts of fruiting plants. If I’d had any way of predicting what the weather would have been like this…
For just a minute, I’m going to step outside of what we normally talk about to post about this blog itself. See, we had that first post, but we didn’t establish much. Although you may have been able to guess what our aim is by posting online, we have yet to define one big thing. The premise. Ok, yes, it’s about homesteading. It’s about producing our own food. It’s about walking out when it’s 2º Fahrenheit and sloshing water down your…