Now that the ducks are laying again, we’ve decided to try and use them for what their original purpose was: hatching eggs. For those of you who may have remembered, last year Gabe found himself with $50 to spend, which he wanted to use to buy a drake (male duck) to breed with our duck hens. His idea was to hatch the eggs and sell ducklings at a profit. After all, Silver Appleyards are considered a rare heritage breed, and…
We had a different post all written. A nice, spring-y post. One about warm weather, impending goat kids, and poultry resuming their laying. Then of course, ‘something’ happened. That ‘something’ was a snowstorm. One of the biggest of the year, following on the heels of the beautiful balmy weather I’d written about. If I’m honest, we had been hoping for some snow around here. Steve and the boys wanted to go out skiing again (the 50 degree weather from last…
Whenever I tell people that we boil off our own sap to make maple syrup, the response is almost always: “That is SO cool!” I don’t say it, but my thought is usually “Yes, yes it is very cool. And very BORING!” Having the excuse to sit still in front of a hot fire and relish the chance to do very little is quite enjoyable for the first two hours or so. After that it’s just a bit tedious. Not…
It seems that whenever we’re waiting for nature to take its course it always chooses to do so at the most inconvenient time. Goat goes into labor just a few hours before Good Friday mass? Yup. Pepper goes into heat the day before Thanksgiving and needs to be bred ASAP amongst pie baking and other things? Yup. Starting a garden when the summer decides to be the monsoon season to end all monsoon seasons? Hoo yeah. So of course, the…
We talk a lot about homesteading and homeschooling, but don’t usually say much about the eponymous Dollhouse. Lately, with winter limiting our outdoor activities we’ve been spending more time indoors. Which has been a constant reminder of why we’ve nicknamed it a “dollhouse.” Five people in 950 square feet can get a bit…cozy. But we’ve recently made some changes that have had us all feeling a little better about our space! We started by switching the bedrooms. The boys have…