No ‘big’ things on the homestead, but there have been plenty of ‘little’ things to keep us busy as of late. January isn’t much a month for ‘doing,’ but it is a great month for dreaming, planning and organizing. It might be the dead of winter, but kidding season has already started for those who breed their does early in the season. This would not be us; we have a solid 2 months before we have to even think about…
“But don’t they just fly away?” We field a lot of questions about homesteading, and this is one of the more common answers when people ask about the poultry. The answer is that they can, so we clip their wings to keep them in their pen. Most people understand what wing clipping entails, but others wince, not realizing that clipping a bird’s wings is no more painful than getting a haircut. And, if you want to keep your birds out…
We haven’t taken on many new projects as of late; as I wrote about recently our focus has shifted to doing fewer things well. We are continuing to milk the goats, tend the chickens and rabbits, and homeschool. We also homestead in other ‘little’ ways. We cook from scratch, we knit and sew, we cut our boys’ hair ourselves …. anything where you’re not hiring someone out or buying something pre-made is certainly homesteading. Rachel has been a rockstar in…
Things you don’t know until you have a homestead: it’s amazing what a relief it is to move young poultry out of the upstairs bathroom and into the barn. They’re not exactly smelly, but the odor from their food is kind of odd, they kick shavings around, and they take up space. And the bathroom is an awfully private room to have to share, even if they are just chicks. This is the fourth (ish?) time we’ve had young poultry…