What’s in a Name?

There are hundreds of books on human baby names, so many that we even list spelling variations of the more popular ones.

But in all my travels, I’ve yet to find a book titled “Bovine Sobriquets: It’s High Steaks” written by Harold B. Hereford. As a result, ranchers are forced to spend large amounts of their thousand yard stare time thinking of new and exciting handles for their charges.

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A Shire Spring

Favorite book series, hands down, LotR. Always has been, and to prove it, my horse is 20 years old and named for a horse of Rohan. So when I tell you it’s a Shire type of Spring, I am confident in my proclamation.

Winter was mild, sure. But since March the weather has been perfect with amazing amounts of rain at the right times. All the cows are fat and sassy, the horse of Rohan is in zero shape for cross country marches (but totally down for snack runs), and the garden is growing like it’s had help from the elves.

Bee swarms from all around.
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Canning Chaos

The biggest issue I’ve had with making tomato sauces is the time it takes to cook down to a useable mixture. We grow mainly San Marzano or Romas for canning and yet despite being paste tomatoes there is still what seems like gallons of excess water in each 7 quart batch. Few culinary mishaps are more heartbreaking than to spend all day canning and come back to a fully separated , half water filled jar the next morning.

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We’re off to Camp!!

Freezer camp, but camp nonetheless. A busy seven weeks are drawing to a close. Over a week of the melodious chirping of Cornish cross chicks invading the den, convincing the toddler she shouldn’t pick them up on her own, and the daily fresh shavings. Followed by 6 weeks of multiple trips to the coop per day to check (me), feed (me), water (me), and pet (not me) the chick chicks. Credit where it’s due, the little one is all about ‘helping.’ It should be fun when she learns to count.

This year, we decided on two new strategies:

1. Go big or go home. We purchased 50 birds this year and the most we’ve ever done that I recall is 30 😱 Freezer Camp bus leaves in the morning and final count is 46.

2. Two separate coops for the layers and the meat birds. The layers were always picking on the babies no matter how they were outnumbered and then the layers have to put up with how messy and voracious the meat birds are in their older weeks.

The coop has worked absolutely beautifully and was relatively easy to set up.

We started with the same brand of 9×19 metal coop as the layers have but went with an A-frame style this time (link). Bonus, we had just enough chain link from a dog run that needed to come down and it was the final motivator to remove it!! (The dog run came with the house, Toby would faint straight away if you suggested he sleep outside.

The chainlink acts as a skirt around the metal coop frame and gets tied to the bottom bars with rebar ties. So far, so good!

We use gravel to level and build even more of a protective layer from diggers, then mulch over top inside and out to make it all pretty. Just…. No one tell the minks and raccoons they could probably pull the chicken wire apart if they wanted to.

For shelter, we added a heavy duty tarp over 2/3 of the run with bungee straps. And I must say the bungee straps seem to be effective, the tarp is in perfect condition.

I was initially worried it would be too cold and about snakes once they were too big for the house but not big enough to be outside. So in my brilliance, I acquired an old tent and set it up inside the run. The run to protect from big critters and the tent to protect from slithery ones. It worked great, for a couple days. But it was HOT in there. Even under the tarp in respectable shade canopy, it got hot. So scrapped that plan (but I insist it would work!) and set them free inside the new run. They lived!!

Stay tuned tomorrow for weigh ins. They are monsters!!

Chick Chicks on the Mayberry

Or was that the Mayflower?

I was done with chickens. Really I was. Then there was the cutest chicken coop on Marketplace and, well, here we are. Added to the long list of things I don’t get to be in charge of any more is picking out chicken coops and deciding to buy them in the summer.

The coop itself is a Leonard Mayberry that someone purchased with a building and subsequently discovered a pack of coyotes in the back yard. Yay discounts for me on a brand new coop. Except. It was July and it was HOT. But, eventually, we got it on the trailer.

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