Ranch Ketchup
3/10/08 - 2nd Day - After Dinner. Greetings y'all. Well it is time for a "ketchup" post about what has been going on here at the ranch. The weather has been variable (which in central Texas means that it swings from the 20's to the 80's effortlessly). It is finally warming back up and we have had quite a bit of rain in March. Our usual average for the whole month is about 1.9 inches and we are already over that by half an inch or so and it is only the 10th. Some of the prognosticators are saying that since we are still in an El Niño like we were a year ago, that we might expect another wet year with a cool summer, which would be very nice. Last night the rain moved in late in the evening, and we woke up to a nice rain this morning. Today the sun is out and is drying things out a bit.
I can see that a few of my peach and nectarine trees are blossoming. I am looking forward to maybe getting some fruit this year, since many of our trees are in their third year of growth. Our fig tree is putting forth leaves, and I definitely expect figs again this year. I bought some grape vines to plant, and I just ordered 3 blackberry bushes and 3 blueberry bushes to plant this spring. I am hopeful that in just a few years we will be producing quite a bit of fruits to preserve by canning and drying. I am convinced that fruit and nut trees ought to be a very, very important part of any off-grid living plans. I will be writing more on that in the Off-Grid Living series... It seems to me that two very critical food sources are often neglected by folks in this generation who are living (or intending to live) off-grid or homesteading lives: Root Crops and Tree/Bush Crops. We have been so colonized to believe in annual planting of regular vegetables and seed crops, that we have neglected what could very well be God's original intent for our maintenance and survival. Anyway, more on that coming up.
As I type this I can hear the chirping of new chicks. Here is the update on our chicken ranching. As many of you know, I used to be pretty heavy into chickens and eggs at our old farm in West Texas. In fact, I used to refer to myself as a Chicken Farmer. At some points in time we had well over 200 chickens for either meat or egg production. When we decided to move to Central Texas, we brought maybe 60 or so layers and roosters down with us, some which were newly hatched that year (2005). Well, here we are in 2008 and we basically still have the same birds, with a few additions from chicks that hatched out over the last couple of years. Mainly, though, our flock is very old - but still producing. Last we counted we had about 33 birds, and we are still getting 20 or so eggs a day right now. We decided to start getting more birds this year to replenish and restart our chicken business. This past weekend we drove up to Abilene and picked up 20 new pullet chicks. I think we got some banties of unknown breed (probably silkies of some type) and some Black Australorps and some other kind that I can't remember. I thought it would be fun to see what kinds we end up with. I also ordered another 90 chicks online (60 meat birds and 30 Rhode Island Reds), of which I will probably be selling about 20 of the meat birds to Mr. Sustaire. The meat birds (Cornish X Rocks) are bred to produce a large, meaty bird in just a few weeks. I think they are designed to weigh about 7 lbs. at 8 weeks of age, but we will probably butcher all of ours at 5 weeks in order to get them processed and preserved earlier in the summer. I will likely be buying another 200 or so birds this spring if the Lord wills, but I have to work on some more facilities before I can do that.
Handy-Dandy Chick Brooder
At our old farm we had a chicken barn which was designed for high-volume chicken production. We had grid electricity so we could get a couple of hundred birds in, keep them warm in a large brooder, then move them to the appropriate pens. Here, alas, we do not have the space, the facilities, or the electricity for such an operation. So with these first 20 chicks we have devised a handy-dandy brooder for keeping them warm for a week or two. We put the chicks into a large blue plastic bin like those you can buy at Stuff Mart for storing quilts or other stuff. We put long range grass down for bedding, a small feeder and waterer, and a kerosene lantern for heat. We took a board and wrapped it in foil and placed it over part of the top (crossing over the lantern) to reflect the heat and light back downwards on the chicks. The setup keeps the chicks at the perfect heat level, and it uses very little kerosene. I suspect that we could only brood about 20 chicks at a time like this, but by adding more bins with the same setup we could keep any number of chicks. This is a great option for those off-gridders out there who want to raise your own birds. We have a chicken coop ready for these birds, but we won't move them up there until the birds have their feathers and once the nighttime temps have warmed up a bit more. Now I have to build a few chicken tractors for the garden so that I can use the birds to keep the grasshoppers at bay this year.
Our final freeze date is officially the 15th of March which falls this coming Sabbath. The old-timers all say that there is usually one last light freeze on or about the pagan Ishtar festival, which falls about 8 days after the 15th, but I am betting we don't get a late freeze this year. Last year we got a freak snow on April 8th, but I really hope that doesn't happen this year. Right now, if the prognosticators are to be believed, we should be clear of that sort of thing into spring. So we are in full garden preparation and growing mode from here on into summer.
Ok, back to work on the Off-Grid Living series. Y'all be cool.
Michael
I can see that a few of my peach and nectarine trees are blossoming. I am looking forward to maybe getting some fruit this year, since many of our trees are in their third year of growth. Our fig tree is putting forth leaves, and I definitely expect figs again this year. I bought some grape vines to plant, and I just ordered 3 blackberry bushes and 3 blueberry bushes to plant this spring. I am hopeful that in just a few years we will be producing quite a bit of fruits to preserve by canning and drying. I am convinced that fruit and nut trees ought to be a very, very important part of any off-grid living plans. I will be writing more on that in the Off-Grid Living series... It seems to me that two very critical food sources are often neglected by folks in this generation who are living (or intending to live) off-grid or homesteading lives: Root Crops and Tree/Bush Crops. We have been so colonized to believe in annual planting of regular vegetables and seed crops, that we have neglected what could very well be God's original intent for our maintenance and survival. Anyway, more on that coming up.
As I type this I can hear the chirping of new chicks. Here is the update on our chicken ranching. As many of you know, I used to be pretty heavy into chickens and eggs at our old farm in West Texas. In fact, I used to refer to myself as a Chicken Farmer. At some points in time we had well over 200 chickens for either meat or egg production. When we decided to move to Central Texas, we brought maybe 60 or so layers and roosters down with us, some which were newly hatched that year (2005). Well, here we are in 2008 and we basically still have the same birds, with a few additions from chicks that hatched out over the last couple of years. Mainly, though, our flock is very old - but still producing. Last we counted we had about 33 birds, and we are still getting 20 or so eggs a day right now. We decided to start getting more birds this year to replenish and restart our chicken business. This past weekend we drove up to Abilene and picked up 20 new pullet chicks. I think we got some banties of unknown breed (probably silkies of some type) and some Black Australorps and some other kind that I can't remember. I thought it would be fun to see what kinds we end up with. I also ordered another 90 chicks online (60 meat birds and 30 Rhode Island Reds), of which I will probably be selling about 20 of the meat birds to Mr. Sustaire. The meat birds (Cornish X Rocks) are bred to produce a large, meaty bird in just a few weeks. I think they are designed to weigh about 7 lbs. at 8 weeks of age, but we will probably butcher all of ours at 5 weeks in order to get them processed and preserved earlier in the summer. I will likely be buying another 200 or so birds this spring if the Lord wills, but I have to work on some more facilities before I can do that.
Handy-Dandy Chick Brooder
At our old farm we had a chicken barn which was designed for high-volume chicken production. We had grid electricity so we could get a couple of hundred birds in, keep them warm in a large brooder, then move them to the appropriate pens. Here, alas, we do not have the space, the facilities, or the electricity for such an operation. So with these first 20 chicks we have devised a handy-dandy brooder for keeping them warm for a week or two. We put the chicks into a large blue plastic bin like those you can buy at Stuff Mart for storing quilts or other stuff. We put long range grass down for bedding, a small feeder and waterer, and a kerosene lantern for heat. We took a board and wrapped it in foil and placed it over part of the top (crossing over the lantern) to reflect the heat and light back downwards on the chicks. The setup keeps the chicks at the perfect heat level, and it uses very little kerosene. I suspect that we could only brood about 20 chicks at a time like this, but by adding more bins with the same setup we could keep any number of chicks. This is a great option for those off-gridders out there who want to raise your own birds. We have a chicken coop ready for these birds, but we won't move them up there until the birds have their feathers and once the nighttime temps have warmed up a bit more. Now I have to build a few chicken tractors for the garden so that I can use the birds to keep the grasshoppers at bay this year.
Our final freeze date is officially the 15th of March which falls this coming Sabbath. The old-timers all say that there is usually one last light freeze on or about the pagan Ishtar festival, which falls about 8 days after the 15th, but I am betting we don't get a late freeze this year. Last year we got a freak snow on April 8th, but I really hope that doesn't happen this year. Right now, if the prognosticators are to be believed, we should be clear of that sort of thing into spring. So we are in full garden preparation and growing mode from here on into summer.
Ok, back to work on the Off-Grid Living series. Y'all be cool.
Michael
posted by Michael Bunker at 3/10/2008 11:26:00 AM
2 Comments:
"I am convinced that fruit and nut trees ought to be a very, very important part of any off-grid living plans. I will be writing more on that in the Off-Grid Living series... It seems to me that two very critical food sources are often neglected by folks in this generation who are living (or intending to live) off-grid or homesteading lives: Root Crops and Tree/Bush Crops."
Michael, I think that is very wise, could not agree more. I've been a regular nut consumer (2-3 times a week) over the years because I learned how good they were for the body (the good fats) in so many ways, and of course fruits are very nutricious also.
Looking forward to the next installment of the series..
Bill
P.S.
Many people avoid nuts because they're so high in fat, but actually, consumed sparingly to moderately, they stoke the fat burning part of the metabolism.
Bill
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