I Played Hookie Again, Setting Up My Seed Starting And Bees

Yes, I missed yesterday. In my defense, the husband came home from work not feeling so good. So while he slept, I worked hard on finishing a mount in World of Warcraft to cheer him up. Today I didn't do much either because we spent most of the day working on things in the games that will allow us to unlock some new races.

But I did get this done today.

Those are toilet paper rolls in disposable aluminum roasting pans. Cheap easy way to start my seeds. I put slits in the bottom of the toilet paper rolls (you can also cut paper towel rolls into sections and do the same) and folded the bits in to close the bottom.

Like this:

You fold over the slitted sections over like you would the top of a box. I can do a step by step if anybody needs a better explanation.

Each pan holds 34 toilet paper rolls and I've got 4 pans. These pans were in sets of 2 for a little over $2. Way cheap way to go. And, of course, the toilet paper rolls are free. Unless you've got a weird family member that tries to charge you for them or something. But anyway. This is most of what I collected for the year. So not sure what I'm going to do when I start my next batch of seeds. But we'll see.

Tomorrow I'll put in a mixture of coconut coir seed starting mix and rabbit manure. I also need to hang a light over this area. Then my seeds will be good to go. I'll be starting several of my herbs in these along with my peppers and eggplants. Any seeds that I'm not sure about their viability, will be started in paper towels and baggies. I'll be sure to take pictures for anybody that doesn't know how to do the baggie method. Might have to order a packet of lemongrass seeds if I can't find any at the local big box stores. Checked one and they didn't have them. I'll check the other store tomorrow.

Speaking of lemon, lemongrass oil is a good thing to use in bee traps to attract swarms. The lemon scent smells similar to the smell they have when they're happy. Like when they find a new home and they want the rest of the swarm to come where they are. Wish I had some lemongrass oil now. With the warm spring, bees are going to start working on expanding their numbers and putting off swarms. I'd like to catch some of those swarms seeing as my bees have died for two years in a row. But I'm also still new at beekeeping so that might have something to do with it. Newbie mistakes and all. One of these days I'll show you guys my hives.

 Anyway, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Take care.

Latches Done, Wire Done, Seeds Sorted

Got the electric wire done for the boy sheeps area. Also got latches done on both gates. Love these a lot more than using a chain or something. Just lift the bar, walk through, lower the bar. Can be done with one hand. Which is good when my other hand is busy with something like hay or feed. Simple but effective.

Next, I put some rabbit manure around my fruit trees. Several of them are starting to bud out. Not sure if that's the proper term for it. But it's what I call it when the flowers or leaves emerge from their little dormant buds. I didn't think to get a picture of them. Maybe tomorrow.

After that, it started raining too much for me to do anything much more outside. So I went inside and worked out which seeds I was going to plant when. I'd sorted through them earlier and decided WHAT I wanted to plant. Next I needed to know WHEN to plant. Hopefully I'll get it done this week. But I need to start getting things started. It's still getting in the 30's and such at night. So can't put anything out yet. But I can get stuff started indoors and set them outside during the day.

The first ones I'll be planting are some herbs. These are ones that I'm going to start indoors and then plant out. Possibly into my hanging baskets. Depends on how much room I have left after these next ones.

These will be direct sown into my hanging baskets.

These are going to get pretty big so I'll be starting them indoors and then planting them out into the garden.

A couple of nice flowers to go into the hanging baskets too, for some color. Think I'll pick up a packet of nasturtiums too. The pansies, you can eat the flowers. The marigolds you can make tea with. And the nasturtiums, you can eat the flowers and leaves.

These are some moringa seeds that I bought a couple of years ago. I have a couple of moringa plants that I've been nursing through the winter in small containers indoors. But I'd like to grow a lot more this year and then dry the leaves for powder. Not sure if I'll be able to get many of these to sprout since they're older seeds. But if I can get them to a decent size, that'll be great. If I can get them to go to seed so I can have fresh seeds for next year, that will be awesome.

These are some kale seeds that I saved from my plants from the last couple years. Most just from one year from a couple plants. One is definitely red russian kale because I labeled it. The other I'm not sure since I forgot to label it. It could be red russian kale or curly kale. Only one way to find out.

The next groups will all be started about the same time since they're all warmer season plants. Here we have a couple of types of squash and zucchini, a cantalope type melon and a peanut pumpkin that is really weird looking on the outside but supposed to have a nice flesh for making pumpkin pies.

These are some other types of leafy greens I'll be growing. A couple types of malabar spinach, some red romaine seeds that I saved myself but I'm not sure if I did it right, and some actual red romaine seeds in case mine don't sprout.

These are long strand cotton seeds. Most cotton that you get is from a short strand. Meaning if you pull the boles apart for each type, these would have a longer strand then your average cotton. Ever head of egyptian cotton? That's what these are like. The longer strand makes them softer. Normally if you buy cotton seeds to grow, they're just the regular short strand. I had to order these from a conservancy kind of place. They're also resistant to bole weavels. But I did get these a couple of years ago so hopefully these seeds are still viable. Like the moringas, if I can get some fresh seeds from them, I'll be ecstatic.

Here are my tomatoes and peppers. But this won't be quite all of them. I need to get another packet of homestead tomatoes because that packet is empty and I was so busy trying to keep up with them last year that I never stopped to save any seeds. Then again, I still have a pantry full of canned tomatoes. So I think I might skip those this year. But I'll still grow the cherokee purple (a good slicing tomato) and the romas which normally are used for sauces by my family likes to use them for snacking. Then there's the bell peppers and I need to get a packet of banana peppers.

Last but not least are my lemon cucumbers, kohlrabi, eggplant and rattlesnake green beans. I've done well with all but the eggplants. Don't think I've grown them yet. But I love growing the rattlesnake green beans. They produce like crazy and they have purple stripes on the pods and the beans themselves. But when you cook them, the purple disappears. And they taste great.

But I think that's it for my garden for this year. I may end up adding some things later if something catches my fancy. We shall see.

And I did almost all the dishes today. Yay!

Anyway, it's late. I need to get some sleep before taking the oldest to work. Later peoples and take care.

I Was Lazy Today

I spent part of my day playing World of Warcraft with my husband and part of my day watching netflix and crocheting. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any farm stuff accomplished. So I shall instead leave you with a cute picture of one of our dogs.

Doors Are Hung!

 I got both of the doors hung for the sheep areas. I think it looks alright. I don't know why I was hesitant. They function and they're a lot easier and more secure then just hanging the wire on the hooks on the posts.

Here is a picture of the girls being curious (nosy) while I put up their door.

I was going to do the rest of the electric wire for the boys area. But honestly, there's no rush on it. I got the top wire done which will keep them from rubbing on the fence. The bottom wire is just to keep them from trying to push on the bottom trying to get that ONE BLADE of grass on the other side. It shouldn't take me long to get that done tomorrow and then I'll be able to move on to other projects.

Like planting seeds! I need to go through my seed stash and start deciding what I want to grow and what I need to start now. We seem to have an early spring here in central NC. But I'm still wary because our last frost isn't supposed to be until mid April. Yet we're having 60 and 70 degree days. Consistently. But it's got me wanting to plant. But to be safe I'm going to plant into toilet paper rolls which I can have in a tray and bring them in on any nights that have a danger of being frosty. This time last year we had snow. Go figure.

K, gonna go feed the livestock animals and then go have dinner ourselves. See ya later and take care.

Doors For The Sheeps

So I built the doors for the sheep areas today. Pretty basic stuff. 4ft tall and 3 feet wide. Pretty good sized door but will give me plenty of room to get through with hay bales or anything else I need. 3 inch screws for good secure connections. Some extra wire from the fence to cover them. Used nails to hold down the wire. The nails actually came with the plastic wire holder thingies. But I used screws to install those so I used the nails for this. Hammered them in and then bent over the ends to sort of act like a makeshift staple. Might eventually put an extra piece of wood across the middle for a little more bracing. But we'll see how this works for now.

I didn't get the doors hung today though. When I went to get the wood, I forgot to pick up some darn hinges! I didn't get back into town until later in the day and by the time I got home, I wouldn't have had much light left. So it's been held off until tomorrow.

I didn't get anymore of the electric wire strung up for the boys either. I wanted to get the doors done because part of the wire will be sort of going across the door. So I've got to get the doors in place first before I can figure out where the wire needs to go. You might ask why I'm putting wire across the door. But I'll have to show you that later when it's actually done. It's a visual thing. Best way to explain it is to show you.

So after I built the doors, I spent the rest of the day watching movies and crocheting. Played a little World of Warcraft. Part of the advantage of being your own boss is that I can work or relax whenever I want. Disadvantage is that you don't always have money incoming. So far I haven't made any money from homesteading. Hopefully that will change once the pigs and sheep start having babies and I can sell any I don't want to keep or butcher. Next year I also want to start hatching chicks and selling those.

Ok, it's past my bedtime and I better get some sleep. Have a good night. Take care.

Chickies!

My itty bitties came today! There are 10 buff orpingtons, 10 silver laced wyandottes, 6 mixed color silkies, 3 OEG bantams and one extra chick which I think is another buff orpington. At first I put them in this one storage container, mostly to get acclimated. But then I noticed some competition with the food already. So I put the orpingtons and the wyandottes in another container. I wanted to make sure the itty bantams were able to get enough food.

I also put the waterers on top of the lids of some 18 count egg cartons. (Not the whole egg carton. Just the lid.) Normally the chicks constantly kick wood shavings into the waterer's tray and I'm constantly having to clean them out so the chicks can actually drink the water. But the egg carton tops are doing a really good job of keeping the waterer away from the wood shavings enough so they don't get in the waterer's tray.

Haven't really done much else today. Some running around in town. Some watching of netflix. Not nearly enough crocheting considering I also spent a good portion of the day sitting on my tuchas. I seem to be sore in some places that I hadn't realized that I'd overworked during this sheep fence/shelter project. But I did get more plastic wire holder thingies from the store so I can get that done tomorrow.

Then the last thing will just be to do the doors. For some reason I'm not looking forward to this part of the project. Maybe that's why I'm sort of procrastinating on it. I normally love to build things. But for some reason I'm not real good at doors. But it's got to be done and nobody else is going to do it. So it's up to me.

But since it's now dark outside, I'm going to go watch some more netflix and do some crocheting. I really need to get this pockets done so I can get the rest of this yarn put up neatly and not scattered everywhere. See you guys tomorrow and take care.

Electric Fence In The Boys Area

Almost have the fencing done for the boys area. Still need to get a couple more of the plastic wire holder thingies. But's it's connected and Kyle got a bit of a zap when I plugged it in. I would have tried to warn him but he wouldn't have listened to me anyway. Even if he could understand me.

Spent most of the morning doing that. Now I'm watching some netflix and trying to decided what I want to do for lunch. Later I'm probably going to go get more wire holders and finish that. Then tomorrow I'll get some 2x4s and make the doors. Then I'll be done! It's coming along slowly but it's coming along.

My chicks should be shipped today. Although I got an email last night that they were shipped but with today's date. Whatever. They could be here as soon as tomorrow. I'm almost prepared for them. I just need to get a couple plastic storage containers to raise them in until they get enough feathers to go outside. I also still need to do some changes to the chicken tractor. But I've got at least a couple weeks before they'll need that.

Maybe a salad with some home grown chicken mixed in and honey mustard dressing. Hmm, should have boiled some eggs to go in it too. Maybe I'll still do that and then have the salad for dinner. Or maybe I'll just watch netflix and wait for hubby to come home and see what he wants to do. Need to go into town anyway to get those plastic hangers.

Whatever! Laters! Take care.

A Day of Rest

I took today off. Even though there was still stuff to be done, I knew that I needed a break. I caught up on some youtube videos. I watched some movies. I did go into town and got some hay, chicken scratch and sheep food. But that was it. Other than my regular chores of feeding the animals, of course.

I'm also starting some more pockets to store my yarn in. I've got too much yarn laying around and cluttering up my computer area. Maybe one of these posts I'll show you some of the stuff I've crocheted. After all, I can't have homestead updates every day. And I'd like to post every day.

I'd also like to post some black and white pictures on days that I don't have anything else to post. I did a thirty day challenge thing on instagram of black and white pictures with no explanation on them and no people in them. I really enjoyed that a lot more than I realized I would and I'd like to continue that once in a while.

This is a huge rooster that has recently become more 'mature'. I think he's a jersey giant and I think he's from some random selection chicks I got from a hatchery last year. Not sure what I'm going to do with him though because I don't have any jersey giant hens. I did order some chicks this year but none of them were jersey giants. I might just let him be the king of my mixed flock.

I have two other roosters and that's three too many for the amount of hens I have. One of the other roosters I hatched out and he's always been a nice rooster so I'll probably keep him. But the third rooster is smaller than the other two and doesn't fit my desire for meatier birds. So I might give him away or I might just eat him. Won't have much meat on him but he'll still taste good.

Tomorrow I'll probably string the electric wire for the boy sheeps' area. I still also need to make proper doors for the girls and boys areas. Right now I'm just hooking the wire onto the u-posts but that's not the most secure thing in the world. I'll feel much better when I've got proper doors. The boys seem to be enjoying their area though and Kyle keeps standing all manly like when the girls come over to the fence. He's so cute.

Anyway, take care peoples and I'll see you in tomorrow's post. Take care.

I'm Done!... Almost

Got the girls half of the shelter done today and the rest of the electric wire fencing restrung where I want it to go. The only thing left is to get the boys in their area, get the feed trough moved and the electric wire strung up for them. I let the welded wire fence loose that's just to the left. That way the girls were able to walk through at their own leisure. After that, I closed it back up.

I don't think the girls quite understand what's going on. This is the third time they've been moved since they got here. This will be the last time for a while though since fencing is expensive and it's going to take me a long while to get anymore welded wire. I've already spent way more than I wanted to get this done.

Finally, a picture of Boris with Pippy and Annie. He's the smaller one in the back. He is smaller than the girls but that will change pretty quickly. He'll soon be bigger than them. In this picture, I swear he's sticking his tongue out at me. He was probably just licking his mouth. But his expression says he's just being a stinker.

Time to go move the boy sheeps. Wish us luck.

New Piggie and More Fencing

I forgot to get a picture of him today so this is a picture the seller took. (He's the one on the right.) But today we went and got our new boar and we've named him Boris. Yes, pun intended. He's about 8 months old. We had a heck of a time getting him out of the crate once we got home. But he quickly settled in and is already trying to do his 'job'. The girls don't seem too impressed with him yet. There was a little squealing and angry grunting going on. But they'll all settle down and get along better in the days to come.

The reason I forgot to take a picture of him is because I was moving around the electrical wire today. Started this morning, went to get Boris, then went right back to the wire. I'm about 75% of the way done. Just need to string maybe one more time around the girls area, then I should be done. I'll have lots of extra length to roll back up since I don't need to take the electric wire ALL the way around since a good section of their boundary is the welded wire for the boys area. Then tomorrow I can finally get the girls half of the shelter up and move them over to their area. Still also need to do the door for the boys area.

But I've had a full day and I'm wooped so I'm going to go to bed early. Have a good day peoples.

The Fencing Saga Continues

Got all the posts in today and got the wire held up with almost all of the 1x4s. I miscalculated how many 1x4s I would need. But I just need to get a couple more. I also started undoing the electric wire for the girls area in preparation for restringing it.

Doing that will probably take a good chunk of my day tomorrow. I decided that is my next step to do because the electric wire is going across the spot where the girl's shelter will be. So the wire definitely has to be moved first before I can do that part. After the girls shelter is done, I should be able to move them into their area and move the boys into theirs. I already bought the plastic clips for the wire so I can do that fairly easily after I get the boys moved. But everything is moving along fairly well and hopefully I should have this done in a couple of days.

Tomorrow I also will go see and possibly purchase that boar. I've decided that when I get a boar, I'm going to name him Boris. Just because I think it's funny.

The dishes are an ongoing struggle.

Continuing The Fence Install

I got most of the u-posts in today and the fence attached to most of them. As you can see, the girls are currently inside it. This area is intended for the boys and should be plenty of space for just the two of them.

You can see pieces of wood on the other side of the area. (Not counting the trees.) I cut an 8ft long 1x4 in half and then pull the wire as tight as I can and sandwich the wire between the post and the 1x4. (My daughter helped me with that part.)

Tomorrow I need to get the rest of the u-posts that I need and some more 1x4s. I also need to build a door (right now I have to detach the fence end from the post, you can see it there to the right) and also build the girls the sides for their half of the sheep shelter.

The final step will be to attach plastic clips to hold a couple strands of electrical wire away from the welded wire fencing. This will keep the boys off of the fence and help the fence last longer. After that the boys should be ready to go into their new area.

But wait, I'm not done yet. Most of the sheep and pig area is fenced just with electrical wire. Serves well for the ewes and pigs. The boys can be a bit more determined when they want to get to the girls and will try to go through just electrical. Hence the need for stronger fencing for them.

But after I get the boys area done, I need to rearrange the electrical fencing for the girls so that it goes around the boys area better. I'm probably going to have to roll up almost all of the electrical wire and then restring everything the way I need it. I should have more wire to work with after I get everything restrung so I might just make the girls area even bigger. But that's going to be a lot of wire to rearrange. Not looking forward to that. That will also require some mowing to clear a path for the wire. Luckily this should be the last time I have to change it until I have the perimeter of our property fenced. (That will probably be done like the boys area.) Then I can just use the electrical for cross fencing for the girls, pigs and their babies.

But I figure I've got at least 4 more days of work. Doing the rest of the posts and 1x4s will take most of the day tomorrow. Not counting time I spend with my family. Then the next day I can build the door. But we're going to be looking at and probably purchasing a boar that day also and that's a 1 1/2 hour drive one way. So the door might be the only thing I manage that day. Stringing the couple of strands of electrical in the boys area won't be hard but it'll take a little while to attach all those plastic clips to the posts.

Or I might leave the electrical wire until after I do the girls half of the sheep shelter. The welded wire will still keep the boys in. The electrical is just an added measure so it can wait until last. Rearranging the girls electrical fence might go before that too. Where it is right now will block their access to the sheep shelter.

So day 1, more posts and 1x4s. Day two, door. Day 3, girls half of the sheep shelter. Day 4, move the electrical wire for the girls area. Day 5, move everybody and their feeders to the respective areas. Yeah, I think that'll work.

Still working on the dishes. Doesn't help that the kids keep putting more dirty dishes in the sink.

What I Did Today and Livestock Roll Call

Today I started the fencing for the boy sheeps' own area. Right now they're living with the chickens. But like any chicken pen, their's doesn't have any grass. Chickens are assholes that way. Also Triplet, the wether (means he's neutered), keeps getting into the chicken coop and tries to eat all the chickens' food. The chicken door isn't that big but somehow he squeezes his butt in there. There are some boards that kind of create an A frame cover over the door and I've put a bar across it to try and keep him out. But now he's learned to push the cover away from the chicken door. So I'm going to have to screw that in place too. The sooner I can get the out of the chicken pen, the better.

I also did manage to get pictures of everybody. I'll post those in the order of who has been here the longest.

First we got chickens.

None of these are the original chickens we got because a weasel or something got into our chicken coop and killed about 16 chickens. In one night. And didn't even eat them. Just killed them all for the joy of killing. Little fucker. That's when I built a better chicken coop. Now nothing gets in. (Except for Triplet apparently.) But these are most of the chickens, ducks and guinea fowl we have now. I say most because they wouldn't stand together for a group photo. But I got most of them in it.

We have 3 muscovy ducks, two cayuga ducks, 5 guinea fowl and a random amount of chickens since I always loose count. We also have a little old english game bantam rooster named Heihei. I've ordered 10 buff orpingtons, 10 silver laced wyandottes, 6 silkies and 3 OEG bantams due to arrive next week. The silkies and other bantams I'm hoping to use to hatch quail eggs since quail don't usually set. I had quail last year but I don't think my setup was right so I'm going to try something different. Probably next year.

The next year we got rabbits. Right now they're in cages but I plan on switching them to a colony setup this summer.

This is Jenny.

This is Hermione.

This is Severus. He's Jenny's son.

The next year, we added pigs. These are American Guinea hogs.

These are our girls. Pippi and Annie. They're named that because their mother died after they were born so the lady I got them from raised them by hand. Pippi is the slightly bigger one. I'm hoping to get a boar for them this year.

This year we got 5 sheep from my husband's work. He's not a farmer or anything. But they have solar panels that power part of their facility and they had the sheep to keep the grass down. But this year they decided it wasn't much more expensive to just have it mowed. So some of them went to auction and the friendliest ones went to employees. We paid much less than what they usually go for on like craigslist and such.


This is Kyle. He's our ram.

This is Triplet. The little shit that's causing all the problems in the chicken coop. He's also never really been handled when he was a baby so he's the shyest of the 5. Except when there's food involved.

This is Pepper. She seems to be our herd queen and the friendliest of the girls.

This is Mint. She's the second friendliest and the fuzziest. Those dreadlocks are just part of her winter coat and should fall off some time during the spring/summer. If not, I'll need to do some shearing. But probably not. These are 'hair' sheep and shed their winter coats every year. Most people think of wool sheep that are always fuzzy and have to be sheared every year.

And last but not least is Roni, our shyest of the girls. I believe she's also the youngest of our girls and probably hasn't had any babies yet. The other two girls are about 5 years old. I think Roni was born last year.

But that's it for the livestock roll call. We also have 3 dogs and 3 cats but those are strickly pets, of course. We also have an indoor lionhead bunny who is also a pet. Technically (except for the chickens) all of our livestock are also pets because they're our breeders. We do have our livestock animals for meat, but that will be once they have offspring and those offspring are butchering size. As for the chickens, extra or aggressive roos get invited to dinner along with any hens that are too old to lay. I just simply don't have the money to feed animals unless they are giving us something back.

I still haven't gotten all of the dishes done.