North Country Homestead

Chicken pics

Ben — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:08:40 +0000

Here’s a pic of all of them minus the sick one before we split them:

Here’s the sick one. She seems to be improving. Let’s hope so. I’m hand feeding her every few hours.

Chickens!!

Ben — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:28:19 +0000

OK, so I’ve thought about it for a while. I finally went ahead and ordered some chickens. A coworker and I have split an order. He’s had chicken before. I’m taking 6 and he’s taking 19. We order Barred Rocks. I saw some at the fair this year and I thought they were quite pretty.

They are due in on the 8th so I’ve started getting my brooder ready. Pics when things are set up.

With some barnyard animals coming in, its feeling more like a homestead!

Oh we ordered from Ideal Poultry, so we’ll see how that goes.

*Edited for my horrible grammar!

Seed order

Ben — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:28:51 +0000

Just ordered some seeds, mostly organic:
Gourd Luffa
Corn Double Standard Organic
Organic Bean Provider
Tomato Cherokee Purple Organic
Tomato Cherry Sweetie Organic
Organic Catnip
Organic Dill Bouquet
Organic Sunflower Russian Mammoth

Quick Update

Ben — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:13:27 +0000

OK, so I’m going to make a page for a “Life List” of wildlife seen on the Homestead.

But for now here is a picture of the first birds I’ve seen. I’ve got a bunch of chickadees and some white breasted nuthatches coming to my kitchen window feeder.

Today as I’m watching the cats watch the birds I see a huge bird pecking away at the neighbor’s tree! Its a Pileated Woodpecker!! I’ve never seen one! I could only manage to get a quick (blurry and distant) shot before he spooked and flew off yelling at me. Hopefully he’ll be back.

Homemade Hand Lotion

Ben — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:34:34 +0000

Here is a picture of the home made hand lotion that I mentioned the other day.

Winter here to stay?

Ben — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Well, that November snow didn’t last 24hrs. But yesterday we got a good dusting and some more today. Judging by the forecast for tomorrow, Winter is here. Very late for this neck of the woods. Although, we got next to no summer with all the rain. Regardless where you stand on the Global Warming issue, you have to admit weather patterns are changing.

My supplies from Mountain Rose Herbs came today and I quickly whipped up a batch of this homemade hand lotion. I put it in 2 wide mouth half pint jars from Kerr that I was hoping to use for mushroom cultivation. They were hard to find! Hopefully, I’ll have enough left for mushrooms when I get around to that project.

The half pint is a good size seeing as how this stuff has a shelf life of at most 3 months. Its cooling now. I’ll post a pic later. I’ll see if anyone wants to try it at work tomorrow.

Snow Falls on the North Country Homestead

Ben — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:02:00 +0000

Well, the first dusting of snow has hit the Homestead. Here’s a view of part of the back yard:

Flickr mangles the colors after editing in Lightroom and I haven’t figured out how to avoid that!

Fireplace

Ben — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:24:00 +0000

One of the first fires in the fireplace. I love a nice fire!!

Update

Ben — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:01:00 +0000

Well, not much new going on at The Homestead. Still taking my time moving things. I do now have the bed in the bedroom!

I purchased a chainsaw and have begun cutting all the down wood that is piled around the property. That will be stacked and dried and used in the fireplace.

New replacement windows are coming. Twenty in all, which replace the single pane windows in most of the house. Only three larger windows not being replaced.

Raked some of the massive amount of leaves that fall on the property. Someone has been taking the full bags that I set beside the road. Oddly, enough someone came way up the driveway and took some that were beside the house!!

Researching raising some chickens. I’d like to get some Barred Rocks because I love their coloring. I’d like to find someone locally that has them. I only want about 6 hens, that should be a manageable number.

I’m having a hard time finding course vermiculite. I need at least 8 cubic feet for my first Square Foot Gardening box. I have everything else. Hopefully, in the Spring it will be more available.

One of the blogs I follow, A Sonoma Garden, has a recipe for making hand lotion. I ordered the stuff I didn’t have from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Well, I guess that’s it for now.

House

Ben — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Well, Odin (my yellow Labrador Retriever) and I have stayed in the house 2 nights now. Base camp is the living room where the TV is located! Bed is there now until I get other furniture. I haven’t been in the mood to move. Luckily, I can leave my stuff where it is for awhile.