Planning Stages...

I've been busy researching, figuring, re-figuring, and getting all the orders ready for the upcoming growing season for both the garden and the chickens.  I admit, it has been pretty enjoyable for me.  I've always been one to enjoy the planning process, making different scenarios to compare ideas and options.  I find it rewarding, it probably seems borderline obsessive to most people just HOW much thought I put into these decisions, but that is ok. I hope that the extra planning time will help us make less mistakes, I always figure the more thoroughly I can plan something out and figure for mishaps or hopefully avoid some then we will be that much better off.:)  Then maybe I will be able to share some of that with others as well.  It is a special time of year when I can spend time browsing through all the garden catalogs.  There is quite a pile of them!

While I do all the planning for the season the boys are enjoying more free time than they normally have available and they've kept themselves busy with various projects.

Gopher hunting.  A lesson in patience and optimism. HaHa

Here they are working on a tree fort.

 It is really coming along and taking shape.  They are building it themselves and paying for all the materials as well.  I can't wait to show you the latest progress from today on the tree fort, but it is dark right now so you will have to wait until at least tomorrow to see them!

Anyway, back to the planning process.  Some of the things I considered where the batch sizes for the meat chickens to raise and whether or not to go with all cockerels for the broilers or straight run.  The cockerels (males) gain faster and we'd be able to shorten our production time frame by 2 to 3 weeks for the season and possibly save a little $ on feed because if they gain faster we'd be able to butcher a week earlier.  In the end we decided to go with straight run (equal male and female birds) it seems simpler to stick with what we know worked well last year at this point.  I might want to test it out next year but we figured we might as well gain some more accurate data this year doing it the way we did last year and then we will have more stats to compare it to if we change something in the future.

We also plan to order laying hens for this spring as well.  We will order some for ourselves as well as some for other locals who would like to add to the order.  We plan to order 6 white leghorns, 6 Ameraucanas, and 13 Golden Sex Link (or Golden Comets) for our own flock.  We really enjoy the Golden Comet hens, they are medium sized so they eat efficiently and lay extremely well.  The leghorns are egg laying machines but less enjoyable and more flighty but since they lay so well and eat so little they are a nice addition to the flock.  We added the Ameracaunas for some color to the egg carton, but if they end up being less prolific layers than we'd like we will sell them because we do try to keep the feed conversion to egg laying rates as economical as possible just to try to be good stewards of our resources.

We like to keep a flock of about 9-12 hens but we plan to expand just a little to offer eggs to our neighbors that have asked if we have eggs available.  At this time we decided to not have a delivery route or expand beyond just supplying close neighbors with eggs.  Our goal is usually to sell just enough to help pay for feed costs.  It will be fun to have some little layer chicks in the coop again, we don't have any layers right now as they were getting too old to lay efficiently over winter so we simplified the chores some, but I seriously regret that decision right now.  I forgot what store bought eggs were like and I miss the homegrown beauties.  I will be placing the chick orders in the next week or so for a mid March arrival.

We got the seed orders figured out and ended up ordering from 3 places and I have a list of items to purchase locally once the seeds go on a 50% discount as well.

I plan to plant about a dozen varieties of tomatoes and five varieties of peppers from seed this year.  I am going to be offering some of the extras for sale the same as last year.  It really helps to sell a few extra plants to reduce the costs of the seeds to get the garden started.   I am pretty excited about all the things we will be growing!

We also threw in a few types of flower seeds for some garden beauty and a splash of color.  I like to edge the different blocks of the garden areas with flowers to help define the main pathways and give us some fresh cut flowers all summer long.  We selected zinnias, marigolds, straw flowers, snapdragons, sunflowers, and cosmos.

We also have a fall decoration garden planned.  This is Sunshine's project, she likes to grow gourds to sell for decor in the fall.  It was a big hit last year!  So this year she has colorful Indian corn planned, as well as some fun gourds and we will also grow a large patch of pumpkins.  We can sell both the dried Indian corn as well as bundles of corn stalks for decor.  It will be a fun way to end the garden season and it will be nice to have a nice collection of fall items to decorate with here too.

That is about all for now.  Things are really coming along well and I feel really positive about the coming production season.  I hope you have some fun spring projects planned that you are excited about too!

Bathroom Remodel Progress...

Here are a few of the BEFORE pictures.  Everything was very worn, pretty grungy, and dated.  There were holes in the sheetrock from the door knob, many holes from old towel bars no longer there, an old mouse hole in the corner,  mildew in 2 small areas inside the wall, and outdated lighting.

Sunshine has been working on refinishing the antique washstand to use as the new vanity.  We wanted something unique and interesting to use as the vanity and not just a stock vanity from the local Home Depot.  It has a curved front and some fun details that help add some character.  I let Sunshine take the initiative on refinishing it.  She is learning a lot and I think she has caught the "upcycling" bug after working on this project.  She has gotten the old finish stripped off, sanded it down, and painted it a nice barn red color.  She is really good at painting things like this, she has the patience and attention to the little things to deal with all the details on this piece.  We distressed some of the high wear areas and added stain over the top of the paint.  It added the rustic look we were shooting for.  

Here are some pictures from the progress on the remodel of the bathroom.

We still have to pick out the hardware and figure out the countertop choices for the vanity.  We are actually leaning towards a unique penny countertop.  Here is a picture of it laid out on a portion of the top to get an idea of how it might look.  We'd cover the pennies with an epoxy finish so it would be smooth and easy to clean.  It is growing on me.

Here is the enthusiastic demo crew.  Actually they LOVE to do demolition.  Here Spud Man is wishing I'd quit taking pictures and hop out of the way so he could get this piece out the door and Tobers is in the background.  It was only the 100th picture of the day, I am not sure why he was getting annoyed. haha

Until the next update!

Bee Update...

We have really enjoyed having the honeybees on our property this year.  Even more so when we came home one day to a box of honey sitting on our front porch!  We ended up with a gallon and a half of honey.  The kids have been enjoying honey, in moderation, on many things ever since.  It was funny, shortly after we got the honey, the kids all commented how they just don't think they could go back to store bought honey, we are spoiled now.  They said store honey tastes artificial somehow and that our honey tastes richer.  Interesting observation.

The honey we got likely wasn't from only our bees on the property, it was probably a combination of many hives from the local area but still it has to be better at least being this local than what you can get in the stores.

We had very few negative interactions with the bees the entire time they were here May-October.  We respected their space and they left us alone for the most part.   I really enjoyed seeing them on all kinds of blossoms in the garden, in fact that is probably why we had such great yields of a lot of the crops.

Someday I'd like to learn to keep bees, but this arrangement worked out perfectly for us!  Free honey, and the education in watching them tend to the bees.   I'd like to learn more, for instance, where do they store them over winter?  How often do they collect honey and how do they know how much to leave the bees to get through winter?

I haven't heard if they plan to bring more back next spring.  I sure hope they do, we look forward to more tasty honey!

Nature's Beauty...

The longer we live here the more blessed I feel.  I love that God blesses us with His creation on a daily basis, sometimes I overlook it or take it for granted, some days I sit in awe of it.

This photo was taken by Sunshine, it's just over our back fence in the CRP field bordering our property.  Every afternoon we have a resident herd of mule deer that cross our fence and head to nearby pine trees to hang out.  I grumble and complain about these guys tearing up my fruits trees, but then they show me their awesome display of competition.  I can't hold a grudge too long...but I can build better fences and tree protection to make sure they don't ruin the trees again!

When trying to photograph any sunset I am always reminded of how with many things in life I tend to take for granted or put off...now is the time to cherish the moments in our lives that deserve our focus.  As with a sunset the moments come and go so quickly and if I don't stop and intentionally capture it either with a camera like trying to capture the sunset or with our hearts like with in a family memory the moment is lost.  So many times I end up of putting it off for in a minute or taking for granted there will be a next time.  As I try to capture a sunset picture and realize the small window of time there is to grab the camera, find the right vantage point, and capture the moment it has already faded from it's original glorious state that caught my attention in the first place.

Slowly I am learning to stop quicker, and pay attention to the moment when it comes along.  Gradually, life seems much richer and more fulfilling somehow.

Oceans and sunsets make me feel closer to the Lord on challenging days.

Pastured Poultry Production Improvement Ideas...

I reviewed all the notes from 2013's pastured poultry project as well as the receipts and sales and came up with some tips for next year to make it easier, more of a positive experience, and or more efficient.

Our happy and healthy pastured chickens.

* Add wheels to the portable pens!  We meant to do this last year and never got around to it.  It is pretty awkward to pull them around by dragging them across the ground using rope handles and I am afraid someone is going to hurt their back if we don't make sure to get some wheels on it. It will save us time and energy having an easier way to move the portable pens which will make for happier helpers and more positive thoughts overall about raising meat chickens.

This pen is 8' x 10' and is a little heavy to be dragging on the ground, 

it's doable but wheels would make it much easier!

* Design a more effective brooder.  A brooder is where we house the little chicks before they are ready to go onto pasture.   The size of our brooder facility meets the general recommendations for the amount of chicks we raise in each batch, but I honestly want them to have more room, especially as they grow that 2nd and 3rd week of life.  I want the option to keep them in the brooder another week or so just in case the weather is really bad and we need to delay their move to the pasture pens.  I also would like to add more windows for natural light and ventilation.  I haven't decided if I want to just remodel the current coop we use, or build a portable pen we can sit right on the ground.  I am leaning towards building a new structure simply because the coop we have been using really is meant to be used for our laying hens and I wouldn't mind keeping that just for the layers and not having to move the hens to a different pen.  I'd also like to build an additional small structure within the brooder facility to hold the heat lamps for more even heat and less heat loss than with a standard hanging heat lamp.  I read about it as neat DIY project on Morning Joy Farm Blog, you can visit that post here.

* We need to try to buy feed in larger bulk quantities.  I think we can save at least 10% by purchasing the feed by the ton.  We don't currently have a pickup or trailer suited for this type of hauling, let alone machinery to move 1 ton of feed at a time if it were in a large bulk bag and not in 50# sacks that we could move individually. Finding somewhere that the feed will stay dry, cool, and rodent-proof will be a challenge, but surely we can figure out a solution.  We have also found a source for organic feed, I hope to try this out this year and hopefully our growth rates won't change too much with this food rather than the non-medicated feed we used last year.  I was really happy with the results using the feed we did last year so if the organic source doesn't work out I would be happy to do that again this year as well.  Also, with that feed I can get 10% by buying one ton of the 50# bags at a time, and I can save an additional 10% buy purchasing on a Tuesday discount day.  I do want to offer our customers the non-GMO organically fed chickens, because we did have a few customers ask about that last year.  There has to be a balance between being able to offer a reasonably priced product and a modest return for our extra hassle and expense in obtaining organic feeds (we have to drive 2+ hours one way to get the feed).  Ideally I'd like to raise equal amounts of each type of bird both non-medicated traditionally fed and the organic, non-GMO, no-corn, and no-soy fed.  Our family would be happy with the non-medicated traditionally fed birds honestly.  I think our birds raised on pasture are far and away superior to anything you can get from the store that is grown commercially and it is enough of an improvement for us personally.  However, we want to offer the organic option to those that feel that is important as well.

Chicks in the brooder with fresh shavings and heat lamp.

* Shavings/Bedding for the brooder phase.  We need to buy by the truckload instead of in the smaller bales from feed store at $7/bale.  An entire load cost us about $25, and we still have some left.  We'd have to lay it out to dry some before we used it each time because the pile is a little damp but that would be a posssible way to be able to save money.  We typically went through at least 3 bales per batch of 100 chicks, and we are planning to run 4 batches of chicks this year.  So we'd be saving roughly  $55+ on that part alone, plus we'd have extra to use in the horse and hog shelters as well.

*  Grit for the chickens digestion.  We've bought chick grit several times and it is quite expensive and heavy to transport in a bag.  We plan to gather a couple buckets full from a creek to feed the chicks.  We believe this will likely be healthier for the chicks rather than the over-processed stripped down chick grit available in feed stores.  This will save us $30+ from each year's production costs.

*  Ice for the processing stage.  Ice is the largest expense and hassle of the processing day (we usually don't have room for 12 bags of ice in the freezer at any one time so we have to go buy 6 bags in the morning and 6 more bags in the afternoon).  We buy roughly 12 bags of ice for each 100 chickens processed.  We don't want to take any changes of not getting the chickens chilled down quickly for the absolute safest food possible.  We don't skimp on ice in the least.  12 bags of ice costs roughly $25.  We need to start making ice in earnest and bagging it in the freezer as we have space to store it leading up to our processing date so that we can reduce the amount of purchased ice.  This will take some diligence and time but the savings will hopefully help us keep the cost of raising the chickens reasonable so we can extend that to our customers.  We hope to save 50% by trying to stockpile ice.  First, we need to fix the ice maker or get some serious amounts of ice trays to use!  We've looked into a commercial ice machine but since our ice needs are so inconsistent (one month we need very little, one day we need 20 bags) this would likely not help us save any money for a very long time due to the initial cost of the ice machine.

*  Shrink bags for once the chickens are processed.  We want a nice looking finished product that will store well in the freezer and maintain freshness as long as possible.  Shrink bags are a really easy way to accomplish this.  The bags cost us roughly 40 cents each.  We could reduce this cost if we were to buy them by the 1000 at 25 cents per bag and sell smaller packages of 25 or 50 at  40 cents per bag.  By doing this we can reduce our costs to possibly only 10 cents per bag or even less if we sell roughly 50% of the 1000 bags.  It would take extra time to list the extra bags for sale and to package and ship them off once they do sell, but it would be a valid way we can reduce the production costs and not have to cut corners on quality.

*  Order and schedule all the chicks at the beginning of the season.  The hatchery will know how many chicks to incubate for our needs and when to ship them and I won't have to worry about availability as much as when I waited to order until closer to when I needed them shipped.  Sometimes our shipments got delayed and our production season went longer than we'd have preferred.  One time we had 3 batches at a time instead of only 2 and we needed extra waterers and feeders and heat lamps and we are never doing that again!  If I could schedule all the shipments and make sure we had the chicks we needed available it would greatly reduce stress and possibly give us a quantity discount we wouldn't have qualified for when ordering smaller batches at different times.

*  Larger/Longer feeders for each pen.  The pen with the longest feeder last year produced larger birds, even though there were more birds overall in the pen.  We will give each pen one additional feeder to help give each bird more feeder space in case that helps them have equal access to feed.

*  That we don't want to go too long into summer with raising chickens for both our sake and the chickens'.  They don't handle heat well when it gets around 100 degrees and we want to have the summer more free for camping and fun anyway.  We like to be done by mid July at the latest.

*  Customer pick up schedules.  I need to find ways to make it simple for customers to come get their product.  It is hard to know exactly when the chickens will be ready  for pickup due to many variables on processing day (how long it takes to catch and haul the birds to where we are processing, to if the chicken plucker is working correctly, or if we are waiting for large pots of water to come to proper temperature to be able to dunk them for scalding before plucking etc).  There are so many variables and we have yet to perfect it.  Yet once we are done with the first 50 chickens we really need customers to pick up quickly so we can continue processing and get the remaining 50 done for the day.  We only have 2 very large coolers to store finished birds in.  If we had a way to store more chickens easily without having to buy a ton of ice to keep them cool it would help.  We have an extra frig we normally use, but it isn't big enough to be able to store more than about 40 chickens in at any one time and it is a pain to transport 40 chickens from processing area to the inside frig.  There have even been times where we have to store birds for a day to wait for a customer to come get them.  We aren't sure if we will need to set up a minimum order amount, deposits when taking orders, or more strict pick up times if we can provide that at some point or a person dedicated to the customer to be able to contact them and take care of the customers on processing day. because trying to focus on processing chickens AND customers coming at all times can be really hard.  I feel torn, I want to get to know our customers and visit and take time to give a tour or spend time with them, but we also have more chickens we need to get chilled and ready to go for the next customer too.   So ideas to help in this area are an additional person on customer details (make calls/texts with updates on how processing is coming along and when to pick up and to take money and make change).  Buying an additional extra frig to store processed chickens in until customers come to pick up (we could leave it unplugged except before and during processing days).  We could buy or borrow extra coolers and deal with the extra expense of ice to keep them chilled.  We have options we just need to put some thought into it.

* We need more buckets, water nipples, and food scoops.  Buckets are very useful!  We need back up buckets for us to install waterer nipples into in case the current waterer spigots get clogged or the bucket gets broken and buckets to haul feed and supplies.  Buckets are used for anything and everything.  Also feed scoops are so handy but oh so mysterious in how they seem to disappear around here!

Things we really like about how last year went production wise.

* We LOVE the DIY chicken plucker our brother-in-law built for us!  It makes processing day such a breeze compared to hand plucking!  Whew.

* We really like the movable pasture pens and that the chickens get to have fresh areas to roam and eat fresh greens each day, and sometimes several times per day.  We feel great about how our chickens live, that breezes and fresh air are all around them, that they have shade from hot sun, shelter from strong winds, and that they seem to thrive in this type of setting.

* We love producing a product that not many have time or space to grow yet many people want and or need.  I've always had a hard time feeling ok with selling anything I've made or grown.  Even though I honestly believe we have a great product that has value I feel uncomfortable "trying" to sell anything.  It needs to be able to sell itself or I feel really uncomfortable.  That might make me a not very good business person but it's just how I feel when it comes down to it.  I am not a salesperson in the least.

* We like how seasonal this project is.  We love the flurry of production and activity, for a time.  We couldn't do this all year....it would be WAY too overwhelming and too much work to sustain long term for us.  We like that winter can be a time of planning, figuring and resting.  Spring is a busy time of planting, growing chickens, piglets and baby chicks, and farm improvement projects.  Summer is a time of maintaining the farm and garden and eventually harvesting the bounty of things as well as the chicken operation wrapping up, the irrigation season for the hay field comes into full swing, hay harvests are coming along, and food preservation is keeping us all busy.  Fall means pumpkin patches, hunting seasons, lots of harvests, canning and freezing, battening down the farm for winter, and the hope of a slower season of rest coming.   I love each season and how different the tasks are each season.

I hope you learned something from our tips and review of how the 2013 chicken production went.

Fall Happenings...

Time for a little fall season catch up session!  

Buck season went well, as you can see.  Sunshine and Mr Wonderful tagged out, Spud Man enjoyed his first year buck hunting, but wasn't able to bag a buck this year.

Sunshine grew lots of gourds this summer and she managed to sell close to $100 worth!  They made great fall decor and were a big seller on our local classifieds page.

Beautiful shapes and colors!

We've been enjoying some of our pastured meat chickens.  We rub them down with olive oil and add rosemary, sage and other seasonings...then we smoke them for a couple hours and roast them in the roaster.  Oh my goodness they smell and taste amazing.  Really need to keep more for ourselves next year.  Mmmm mmm.

I enjoyed all the fall colors before the winds picked up and blew every leaf away.  No raking leaves here!

The kids and I spotted this buck during elk season and managed to snap a quick picture of him before he took off.

Spud Man wrapped up a successful year of growing hogs.  He raised 7 in all, 2 of his own that he paid for.  We pay for the feed for his hog in exchange for him caring for the rest of the hogs we bought for our own supply and to sell.  It was a good arrangement and he is pretty excited about having money to give, save, and spend!

That is a small sampling of everything going on these past couple months.  Life is very good at Summerfield Acres!  We are finally getting some much needed family time, rest, and even a few projects worked on.  

Winter Projects...

We are excited to have Mr Wonderful home more these days.  Which in turn means more family quality time and more project time!  We have a few projects we hope to complete this winter.

First of all we are working on a bathroom remodel.  I so wisely decided that a few weeks before hunting season was a good time to demo the kids bathroom.  Someone should have reminded me of this little sign before I went and let the kids rip out the bathroom.


I've been thinking seriously about buying this sign off Etsy for our fall decor!  Check it out here .

Anyway, on with the story.  So the bathroom was demolished, down to the studs, wires and plumbing.  To ease the eye sore we put the shower curtain up along the bathroom wall to hide the mess.  I have to give myself some credit here, we did leave the toilet functional until this last week when we needed to get some demo done behind it.   There it sat a disaster.....the tub was still partially full of yet to be hauled away sheetrock pieces for a couple months.  Hmmm, well my patience got a work out as we progressed through 4 hunting seasons, weddings, hog butchering process, more hunting (you get the idea)!  Then finally, slowly but surely, progress has started in the right direction on the bathroom remodel.

So that is the #1 goal for this immediate time, get back to 2 fully functioning bathrooms...because Sunday mornings are interesting with 6 people sharing 1 bathroom!

#2 Goal~ Finish all the trim work in the kitchen.  We still have a custom range hood to design and install, lots of crown molding on the tops of cabinets, window trim, base cabinet end caps and snack bar trim work to complete.  It won't take long once we get all the wood stained and ready and a free weekend to get it completed.

#3 Start work on the shop project, even if it is just getting the plans figured out and footings dug!  We NEED a more enclosed shop.  I am afraid our investment in tools is going down the drain as they get weathered each month that passes.  Having them under a roof is good, but walls around them would be much better, especially on those wind/rain/snow days!  We need a secure place to keep our tools and supplies and it is beyond time to have a place to keep the extra freezers and frig.  Having 2 large freezers and an extra frig in the house is proving to be a little noisy at night and not very aesthetically pleasing to look at.  What is supposed to be the dining or breakfast nook in our house is full of appliances instead!  This project might have to be something we do in stages to be able to afford getting it done.  Slab first, walls/windows/doors second, wiring third etc.

#4 Fencing projects.  We need to get a few fences more fortified around here.  The back property line fence needs some serious work, the deer have really torn it up and broken every hot wire we've try to put up.  So we need something stronger, taller, and more imposing to discourage the pesky deer from using the orchard trees to remove the velvet from their horns next fall!  grrrr  We'd like to work on some more defined corrals and possibly shelters for the horses, add a couple more pens to be able to board more horses for additional income or for our own horse one day.

#5 Find my go get'em energy and motivation to do a lot of it with the kids so Mr. Wonderful won't have all the burden of trying to work on projects.

That should bring us into spring projects and I can't even think about those yet, so we will focus on getting these few things done first, heck even getting started on some of these winter projects would be good!

Power to the Chicken Coop...

The chicken coop needed power to it.  Coiling up an extension cord every time we needed to mow was a real pain.  So we decided to dig a ditch to run electricity to the coop.  We offered the boys a per linear foot price to dig the ditch for us and Tobers took us up on the offer.  He diligently dug that ditch and got it done for us.  

It will be so nice to be able to plug in the heat lamps for the chicks and keep the water defrosted with the poultry water heater.  Spud Man also dug a ditch to the main pasture gate where we have the electric fence charger.  Having those power outlets available outside will be so nice for years to come!