Down and Dirty Chick Starting

I was at my local Tractor Supply Company the other day picking up some duck food and I was so surprised by the overwhelming number of poultry products.

It's That Time Again... Garden Joy!

Oh yeah!
Time for starting some seeds!

This is all way simpler than you might think.

I'm gonna show you how I set up my seed starting operation.... and you've still got time to get the stuff you need and start your own!!!

The Family That Slays Together...

Here's a little glimpse into our world this past Saturday.

It started out with Noah's buck...

Chicken Fest: Homesteading At Its Best

Here's sweet Graci.  "Say Hello to my little friend."

A Garden's End... Tomato Wars!

My glorious gardening experience has come to an end... at least for this year.

Lots of workers bringing in the harvest before the first frost.

This is what homeschoolers do on lunch break.  : )

Half Way There... Raising "Meaters"

Just in case you were curious...here's an update on our very high-speed chicken raising operation.

We call these chickens "meaters" to help us distinguish them from the "layers" when we're assigning chores.  I guess they could be called "fryers" or "roasters" or "crock-potters"... but that gets a little confusing.  What they should be called is "eaters," since that's all they really ever do!

Be advised, you may never eat chicken again after seeing this.  But these guys are actually pretty happy chickens, believe it or not.

So, here's our epic temporary pen... Noah and I built it out of an old dog kennel.  We've got 48 birds in there.  Heat lamps and an old dog house keeps them nice and cozy at night.  Thankfully, we don't have any neighbors, because this thing is a real eye sore.  This is the third year that we've raised our own meat chickens... and having them outside is definitely much cleaner and more humane.

They're always freaking out over the feeder.  You'd think we were starving them!

A Fall Garden

Welcome to my office...

It's time for a few Fall plants to go in where the Summer crops are finishing up.  It looks a lot more complicated than it actually is.  And next year I'm sure I'll have a better handle on it.  Hopefully!

So, here's what I'm doing...