homesteading prep...house work...

Today was general homestead work.  I cut up all the ripe tomatoes, filled a couple trays of tomatoes to dehydrate:

filled the crockpot with the rest to make tomato paste and both are cooking along now.  And I have a basket of green ones still that I will probably add to a stew.

Then I cut up apples, have a bucket going to make apple cider vinegar with the scraps and have the apples on the stove making a thick applesauce with green cardamom.  It smells amazing.  Other than that, I chased a rabbit around a bit and did cleaning of the kitchen and living room...it is all slow work but I am purging lots of stuff and rearranging and hopefully it will be all organized at some point soon...with less clutter.

And I took some pics of my free-ranging ducks and chickens.

Buffy

Lizzy

   

Lancelot

Gawen (Front) and Cynric (back)
 (They are Charlie's babies and the two boys I am keeping besides Lancelot)

Igraine

After the Storm

Everyone seems to be well, a few a bit bedraggled but doing well.  Thank the gods and landvaettir!

I spent a couple hours working on the meat bird pen and settling everyone.  The muscovies are still in with the hens until I can do more work on their pen and coop...most likely tomorrow after work since I am still fighting being sick...scratchy throat and all.

I got more of the 2nd layer of fencing up on the meat bird pen but ran out of the fencing so I put the two turkeys in and will put the goose back in later but the ducks will have to wait.  I have to wait until my next paycheck so sometime next week I should be able to get all the meat birds settled in one pen and that willl make it better for everyone...more room for the other birds and then I can get everyone set for the winter.

The two boys back in their pen enjoying some grain.







In the meantime...everyone is getting along and were happy muching away.

Lancelot (he is handsome and knows it!)with Cynric (he is an almost all white Muscovy)

Lancelot with some of the girls...the one in the back is Sabrina (the Momma of all the ducks I have now except the black and white ones)

Hens and Henry enjoying some grain and a bowl of oatmeal in whey...definitely need to demud everything but they are mostly good and dry and safe.

A little wet but runnin around like happy featherheads.  Arthur and Merlin are fast friends now.



Everyone munching together, still need to put the
trash cans and tarps back where they belong.



Mr. Buff (since he is staying I should give him a permanent name) and Big Tom enjoying the "fruits" of my labors yesterday, all the apple and tomato peels.

Babies!

My chicks finally arrived.  I ordered babies months ago (before I realized how poor I would be this time of year) but it was timed after the craziness of October was over.  I didn't do well with the baby hatching this year.  I tried to let everyone hatch their eggs naturally.  The turkeys never came to term...I finally had to toss them after 8 weeks of 3 hens setting!  My goose and duck eggs were stolen right from under the Mommas (I believe by a snake...only thing that could have gotten into the pen and taken the eggs with no shells or evidence).  My chickens hatched all of 1 egg they were brooding and the baby disappeared.  So, definitely incubating next year and no more free ranging babies either!

However, that doesn't help me have new hens for the Spring.  I also have a motley crew left and some hens are getting older.  I have decided the breeds I really like are Austrolorps and Buff Orpingtons (though I would love to get my hands on some Lavender Orps).  I have 1 Buff hen and 4 Australorp hens and Henry my Australorp roo.  So, I ordered mostly Buff babies....girls and 2 boys and then about half as many Astralorp girls.  I added two Americauna girls who will hopefully become friends with Merlin my Americauna roo. 

Both Orpingtons and Australorps are listed as "recovering" on the ALBC list.  The Orpingtons are supposed to be meat birds and the Australorps are bred from them to be egg layers.  I liked them both as egg layers and for their temperment.  I would like to raise more threatened heritage birds but for now...practical and sustainable is what I need.  My turkey and rabbit breeds are more threatened...the Jersey Buff turkey is "critical" so I feel good about raising them and they are local to the Mid-Atlantic.

http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html#chickens

Anyway, my plan is to have these girls grow up and be added to my laying hen stock.  I will have more eggs to sell and when I raise new babies from them, since I will have roos and hens from both breeds, to sell the babies too and, of course, keep some for myself in the spring.

Here is a pic of my Australorp roo, Henry.

To the right is Ms. Buffy, my Buff Orpington girl who is actually getting on in years.

And to the left is Henrietta, one of the Australorp girls.