Monthly Archives: May 2017

Heading into Summer

20 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Backyard Chickens, My Life, This Week on the Homestead

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We just passed the halfway point of May, and we’re heading into summer at a terrifying speed.

Both Will and I are doing Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan this summer, which means are work schedules are INSANE.  We’ve been trying to prep for crazy times ahead by making large meals and freezing the leftovers, so we won’t survive on take-out and frozen pizza for the month of June.  How do you theatre parents out there do it?  Do you just have to say no to working at the same time?  I’m not sure what I was thinking when I said yes to this summer.  I was thinking I really want to act.  I wasn’t thinking about what this would do to our lives.  We will survive, I hope.  Thankfully, we have a lot of help.  Will’s mom is coming to stay with us a number of weeks this summer, and my parents will be on nanny duty for those times that daycare can’t cover, and our friend, Angela, has agreed to nanny for the weekends we work.  It takes a village.

Now for the homestead update:

Pigs

Petunia had her babies.  She did great – she needed no human help, and she has turned out to be a great mommy.  She had eight piglets, but unfortunately, we lost two of them.  One was stillborn, and one drowned in the water trough.  Newbie mistake – we should have put a rock in the trough for them to climb out if they fell in.  All fixed now, but it was a sad day.  Fun fact:  we screwed up our courage to castrate the male piglets (I had a shot a whiskey), and as we separated the piglets into males and females, it turned out that we had all females.  I couldn’t believe.  We really lucked out.  The piglets are currently being weaned, and we’ve sold three of them to our friend, Sheldon, who is probably coming to get them within the next week.  I’ll be sad to see them go, but I know that Sheldon will give them a very good life.

Chickens

I have officially lost all self-control when it comes to chickens.  I now have 39 chickens, nine of which I think are roosters.  It’s still too early to tell with some of the littles.  I love them.  I just love chickens.  If I could make my living working with chickens, I think I would be deeply satisfied.  Laying hens or meat chickens – it doesn’t matter.  I like ’em all.

Geese

Mama goose hatched out two goslings.  Another rookie mistake – we let her sit on the first clutch of eggs she laid.  I doubt half of them were fertile.  She sat on ten eggs, and hatched two.  Also, if we had take the first clutch, there’s a chance she would’ve laid a second clutch. Fun fact:  not sure this is even biologically possible, but we have two ganders and a goose, and it appears that the goslings have two different daddies.

Turkeys

We bought a batch of hatching eggs from an online auction, but turned out the fertility rate of the batch was very low – only ONE hatched.  Thankfully, he hatched with two chickens so he wasn’t all alone in the brooder.  We bought three more poults to raise so that brings the turkey total to four.  Thanksgiving is going to be very tasty this year.

Barn

The barn.  Oh the barn.  I love this barn, but man, it’s a big job taking care of it.  We are getting ready to paint it this year, and replace the windows, since four of the six windows are broken and covered with plywood at the moment.  I rented a power washer to wash it down and get rid of some of the peeling paint, hopefully reducing the amount of scraping that needs to be done.  What a mess!  There are paint chips all over the yard.  The power washer scared the devil out of the chickens, but the pigs didn’t seem to mind.  We were hoping to hire a couple of people to help us, but no one responded to our want ad, so we’ll go at it alone.  Next Saturday.  If you stop by, be prepared to paint 🙂

The kiddos

Liam is his ever-energetic self.  I can barely keep up with this kid.  His energy is astounding.  He’s so imaginative and creative – he plays well by himself and with others.  And he loves baby Fred.  It’s going to be hard on him when Freddie goes home.  Even now, when Fred goes for a visit, he gets upset and cries, “My baby back!”  This parenting thing is rough – how do I explain Fred’s return home to a grieving two-year old?  I can’t even comprehend it myself some days.  Foster care is a complicated thing.

Freddie is just a super sweet, smiley baby.  He eats well, sleeps well, barely ever cries and smiles all the time.  We sure are going to miss him.  We thought he might be home by the end of the month, but looks like it’ll take a bit longer.  That’s okay with me – I’ll spend as much time with him as I can.

Me

I cut my hair.  I just couldn’t handle the long hair anymore.  It so wasn’t me.  I just looked tired all the time, and it made me feel tired all the time.  If I wanted it out of my face, then I had to put a ponytail in, which really hurts after awhile!  I don’t know how you long-haired gals do it.  I like my hair short.  As I approach 40, I think I can officially stop trying to grow it out long.  It’s just not me.

That’s about all that’s happening on our little plot of land right now.  Hope you’re enjoying the lovely spring weather.  Get out and plant something!  Soak up the sunshine! Enjoy the rain!  Until next time . . .