Free is my favorite price!

The joys of moving into a new house are many and varied, but some of them are not so fun. We were in our new place for a grand total of two weeks when the bottle of gas that powered the stove ran out. "No problem," thinks I, "we will just exchange it for a new one."

The stove had been running on camper gas rather than the big propane tanks that I grew up with, so getting a nice big tank was already on my to do list.

Turns out not only are there no gas companies servicing this area, but the tank I exchanged for a full one had been "rigged" to fit and the new one didn't. Fit, that is. As if that wasn't vexing enough, Devin (eldest son) had managed, because of the jury-rigged nature of the coupling, to triple kink the copper pipe.

Needless to say, we are no longer cooking on gas!

The chicken/rabbit pen being constructed for the second time.  As I built it against the house I used scrounged bits of metal to make supports for the metal roof panels.  The rabbit cages hang not only inside but outside as well.   

So in addition to every other thing I am doing right now, I have also had to learn to produce meals for 4 using a crock pot, a microwave and a small charcoal powered grill.  The kids are THRILLED to be grilling - have to say, genuine lump wood charcoal imparts a lovely flavor to food, unlike the gas grill I used in the past - but grilling out in the rain and lightning is not as much fun for Mummy as eating the meat is for the kids.

Tonight, despite listening to my grandfathers ghost jumping up and down yelling "YOU ONLY ROAST DUCKS!!! I have a duck in the crock pot and potatoes in the microwave.  Heresy I know but the duck tastes really good!

My wonderful brother Clay has said he will come down and fit me a socket for an electric stove next month and have to admit, I am REALLY looking forward to it!  Eeeee by gum, it will be good to bake again.  (As we are of Brit extraction you will encounter many sayings, like cuppa, lift, this day week or blimey, as I forget which country I actually reside in!)

This is the finished pen, complete with chickens.  The one white one stands out a bit!  The big black round thing is their dust bath.  It has wood ashes, sulfur and Borax in it so the girls can get rid of any bird lice that might show up.

As one more step in getting out of the corporate food trap I have ordered a hand powered grain mill and will be ordering grain to grind in it next payday.  My very good friend Gladys has been using one for the last year or so and says she will never go back, its the only bread fit to eat.

It will mean learning to bake all over again but whey hey, what is one more challenge added to the rest?

Bring it, says I!

When I rebuilt the chicken/rabbit pen it left me with a spare panel.  What better use than to grow beans up it?  They will not only give us food but will also help shade the dining room from the direct evening sunshine.

Speaking of Gladys, she is the wonderful power behind the throne at our former 4H group. She is so funny and wonderful there are just not enough good words to use when talking about her! And just last week she had a problem I was MORE than happy to help her with.

Too many chickens!!!

Gladys had too many roosters and they were starting to attack the kids. She also had too many old hens that were not laying enough to pay for the feed it takes to keep them. As much of the club's feed is bought from egg sales, it was time for the old girls to go.

So after a lovely visit - much tea and a chat badly needed by both of us - we caught up the 19 birds that were coming my way and I brought them home.

The exchange? Several of them will return to my friend neatly cut up and frozen. She has no time or wish to learn to butcher and I don't have room to raise free-range chickens from chicks, so its win win for us both.

Roosters in their movable pen.  It looks really small but that is because I took the picture from its end.  Its 30 inches wide and 4 feet long with a perch at one end and the water at the other.  The piece of Styrofoam is to help block some of the wicked heat and to provide shade for the four roosters currently living in it.  

Chickens, by the way, are also know as Gateway Livestock for those just getting into the self-sufficient lifestyle!  (I know I said that in an earlier blog, but it's still funny!)
The 9 roosters went into 2 tractors so they can get all the grass and bugs they can reach as they are moved each day, in addition to a portion of lightly fermented grains (more about that new feeding item later) and the hens went into a 10 foot by 10 foot dog kennel with a metal roof and 5 rabbit cages hung up inside it.

First night the hens spent sleeping on the rabbit cages (despite a lovely perch provided for them) and pooping on the rabbits so first thing next morning, every cage got a wire extension on top.  I wrapped and attached 2x4 welded wire fencing round the top of each cage and then, because we give hay and treats on the top of the cages so the rabbits get exercise standing up and pulling them through the cage top, I cut small openings in each top part, big enough to fit a hand easily.  So far the hens haven't spotted the way in, the rabbits get their treats in a way they cant pee on and so far all is going well.

A better look at the hens and their so far unmodified nest box.  Thunder (buck rabbit) was VERY interested in the camera but then again, he is interested in EVERYTHING that is going on, he is a very friendly bunny indeed!

Will post the making of the trap nest when I get around to actually making it. And it will be soon as using it will show me which among the 13 hens are still laying. Four eggs yesterday, three today, so a few of the ladies are still producing, but any one that isn't gets a one way trip to chicken and dumplings. Can one cook dumplings in the crock pot? We shall find out.
(Dumpling update, it turns out that not only can one make dumplings in a crock pot, one can make GREAT dumplings in a crock pot!)

This is the remains of a dresser (or something) that I picked up on trash day several years ago.  It will become the trap nest soon so that I will be able to tell who, in the 13 hens, is actually laying.

One thing I have learned over the last few years, if a cage or pen is in the wrong place, break it down and move it to where it works better.  The entire chicken/rabbit pen in its first location was just totally wrong due to getting waaaay too much direct sun and then, when I moved it to the back of the house, turns out it was two feet to the right from where it actually needed to be.

So day one not only had me blocking off the tops of the rabbit cages but I also had to take the metal roof off the entire pen and drag the blasted thing two feet closer to the front of the house.  I needed the faucet to be OUTSIDE of the pen but I had set it up first with it inside to make watering the rabbits easier.  But turns out it leaks (like a tap mwahahahaaaa) so was making it mucky inside.

In the background you can see the big blue barrel that gives the pigs unlimited (and un-tip-able) water.  It was thrown away on trash day several months ago so we scooped it up in a flash, even though we had no need of it then.  I can use this someday is not only the mantra of a hoarder!

The tap now has a large container under it to catch the leak so the dogs always have fresh water.  Mosquito fish will have to be added as it already has mosquito larva in the water so if I don't add fish or keep it tipped out, it will be more problem than solution.  Its a constant battle to have water available for animals but to not breed our very own mosquito population in the South.

In fact, I did a spot of trespass in the yard of the derelict house next door to tip over every container over there that could hold water. About a zillion little vampires can breed in a simple cupful of rain water so it took a while to clear the place of breeding spots. The tires were a bother as one simply can't empty one properly. I propped all five of them against the house and filled them with sand and leaves instead. It seems to have done the trick as the population has dropped to a bearable level even with all the rain we have had this month.
No complaints about the rain though, it has made the veg and bananas come on a treat!

Gardening in the Deep South can be much un-fun.  Of the two varieties of watermelons I chose to grow this year, one is suffering from a weird blight and going all yellow and something is eating the cucumber plants.  Again!   

TIP: Free chickens - usually roosters - are often available on Craigslist, as are free Pot Belly pigs and other livestock. You just have to keep a close eye on the free section as well as searching the word FREE in the Livestock section. You'll have to be quick, because free is a GREAT price!

The bananas have more than doubled in size since going in the ground, just 7 weeks ago which kind of makes up for the consistent cucumber failure which happens no mater what variety I try.  And we so love cucumbers.  *sigh*

I have to say sorry about posting the wrong link in my last blog, I MEANT to do two links to information from the Weston A Price Foundation and instead linked to information on the Devils Own Drink, RoundUp.

Still, information we all need so no loss.  Here are the actual links  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJS4yKhJcu4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvGZzRPU9KU  and on the second half of the talk, when she finishes, don't turn it off, there is more tacked onto the end.

Last but not least, I have decided to keep track of every bite of food the yard produces for us and so far, for the month of July, the yard has provided (with no soy of any kind, no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides) with quite a bit of hard work and fun;

40 eggs
3 four pound roosters
1 10 pound turkey
2 three pound ducks
2 pound of mixed greens (Mostly Okinawa Spinach, Bidens Alba and Sweet Potato Leaves)
3 gallons of Bone Broth
1.5 pounds of necks and giblets (everyone was VERY upset that I ate them all by myself mwahahaaa)

The meat is in dressed out poundage, just like one would buy from a Super Market so, for the first month, the yard hasn't don't all that bad.