Well, that was a cold and terrible winter! So much has happened and I have failed to update the blog. Last I left off, I had built a Greenhouse adaptation to the Bunny Barn to get them through the cold winter, and it was a huge help (until the days warmed up a bit too much!) We worked on finishing up remodeling our home, upgraded to a new (and powerful) Meat! grinder, sold some equipment to make room for starting seeds for spring and summer (with a focus on flowers this year), and finally some conflict with the town’s Department of Making You Sad…
A Cold Winter and a Hard Reset
For many, Winter is a time to slow down, take a rest and prepare for the uptick in activity that comes in Spring and doesn’t stop until the end of Fall. Often on a young homestead, that just means it’s time to focus on indoor projects.
This Winter felt longer and colder than any I can remember. I felt prepared going into it, having completed the Greenhouse Bunny Barn adaptation. The bunnies are typically fine, but last winter we had a lot of losses of the kits (babies) before they put fur on. Either mom didn’t cover them up, or they climbed out of the nest boxes. Either way, it was just too cold inside the Bunny Barn in years past.
The chickens do absolutely fine in the winter. I provided them a plastic-covered run, made from cattle panel arches and a wood frame. This provided a 10ft x 16ft space for them to have that was not covered with snow for most of the Winter. They have deep bedding in their coop, which provides some insulation as well as heat, and typically if they are cold, they bunch together out of the wind, allowing body heat to warm them up.
When planning for the coming Spring, God put it on my heart to “beautify” the property this year. I selected a lot of flowers, a mix of perennial and annuals, designed for beauty as well as aroma. We often spend a lot of money each spring, as soon as the flowers hit the garden centers, on making our deck look beautiful with potted plants. But this year, I wanted them all throughout the yard as well.
The Bunny Barn, A Hard Lesson in Responsibility
As I mentioned above, I had adapted our Bunny Barn to form a Greenhouse, to trap heat and keep the area warmer throughout the winter. In times past I have lost my automatic watering system when the temperatures were too low (and I didn’t keep enough water in the reservoir!) We also lost too many kits to mothers not covering them in the nest or them jumping out of the nest and not being able to get back in.
My typical practice it to fill up the waterer and the feeders first thing in the morning. This will get them through the day, and unless there are issues, I usually don’t need to check on them throughout the day. Last year I came out in the morning to see too many babies dead, and decided to modify the Barn to keep them warmer. I was determined to get these kits through the Winter.
And I had great success with this plan. I did have to bring an electric heater out to the barn when the kits were very young, just in case, but I got 2 separate litters through the winter without issue. Then it happened… I had an early delivery, and even though she had a box, she didn’t pull enough hair, and didn’t cover them. By the time I found them in the morning, there were 10 cold bodies in the nest. This was the beginning of sorrows for the rabbitry.
Not 2 weeks later, we had our first warm days of the new Spring. Unfortunately a little too warm. As it had been so cold recently, I had not looked ahead to the temperatures. I did not expect temps in the hight 70’s so soon, and therefore did not plan ahead for the bunnies I had remaining. I have an exhaust fan positioned at the top of the barn to release the heat that builds up, and it is set on a thermostat, but unfortunately, it was not enough.
The morning after that first warm day, I came out to find 6/7 of the oldest litter dead in their cages. By the time I got home, all but 2 of the second litter I got through the winter were dead, along with their mom, and another Buck. In the matter of 2 weeks I lost an entire litter to the cold, and the majority of the other 2 to the heat.
Let my experience be a warning. When you take on caring for livestock, it is a significant responsibility, and without proper forethought, you can make mistakes that lead to the suffering and death of those under your care. This is your reminder to plan ahead, look to the future, and make the adjustments your livestock need to both survive and thrive.
New Tools, Real Work, and Processing with a Purpose
Bringing in the Grinder
This Winter, we also upgraded our meat grinder to a Meat! Your Maker 1HP. This thing is massive! It is very heavy, and solid, made of stainless steel, and built like a tank. It has both forward and reverse functions (for when things get jammed up). We added on a foot peddle, which is totally worth it.)
Performance Review
We haven’t processed any beef or deer with it yet, but we had an excess of rabbit in the freezer and the dog and cats needed some food. We feed them both a raw food diet, and couldn’t be happier with it. It is the main reason we got a meat grinder in the first place.
I quartered out the rabbit (2 legs, 2 arms) and was left with just the torso, flaps, and spine from neck to hips. I fed the forearms in, and it ate them no problem. I followed those up with the hind legs, and it chewed them up like they were nothing, leaving only the torso remaining. The opening for the feed section is so large, i was able to place the whole thing in, and it grabbed ahold of it and pulled it through like it was nothing. In a matter of brief minutes, I had 4 rabbits processed into thick ground, bone and all. Honestly, it took me longer to set it up and clean it then it did for me to run the bunny through it.
So far, it gets a 5 star rating from me.
Planning Ahead, Seeds, and the Work That Starts Early
Seed Starting This Year
This year I really started using the Seedtime App for planning out the gardens. Most of what we eat is warm season vegetables, but this app is great for planning out succession plantings, as well as just getting an organized to-do list based a week at a time. Once you fill in the plant you want for the year, it gives you an organized planting schedule for you to follow with reminders (for me to catch up on during the weekends!)
This year, God put it on my heart to plant a lot of flowers. I used ChatGPT to help identify some of the best perennial and aromatic plants for my location and planting zone. I then ordered many of those seeds from RareSeeds.com. I wanted to do this to upgrade the appearance of primarily our front yard, and also to reduce the cost of filling our deck with all the flowers that make it such a beautiful place to relax during the summer. I also wanted to add to the medicinal flowers and plants I grow on the property.
Some of the flowers I have added are Agastache, Alyssum, Anise Hyssop, Bachelors Buttons, Celosia, Coleus, Amaranth, Elecampane, Malva Sylvestris, Pansies, Stock, Butterfly Pea, Phlox, Primula, Zinnia, Sweet William, and Mullein.
In addition to the flowers, I plan to grow, and have started some already, Basil, Cilantro, Cucumber, Ping Tung Eggplant, Tejen Giant Melon, Kajari Melon, Sugar Snap Pea, Sugar Rush Peach pepper, Ajvarski Pepper, Etiuda Pepper, Mini-Bell Peppers, a variety of Jalepano called Megatron (I mean, I had to!), Tromboncino Squash, Purple Tomatillo, Apricot Zebra tomato, Alice’s Dream Tomato, Luffa Gourd, and Bird House Gourd.
Why Planning Matters
Many of these vegetables have long growth seasons (gourds, Tromboncino squash, peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. Without planning ahead, and starting seeds in climate controlled areas (in your home or a greenhouse) you will get a greatly reduced harvest, if any, later then you could be getting the fruits.
Using a tool like Seedtime.us is just a great and easy way to plan ahead. You don’t have to use this app, or anything like it (I do not get affiliate pay for promoting it, I just found it very helpful). Do your research on what you want to grow, and when you can start them inside, and when you can put them out. This will typically give your plants a jump start and get them going early in the season. They will produce earlier for you, and if you have plants like indeterminate tomatoes, they will keep giving you a harvest until they die in the Fall.
Flowers play an important part in the garden too, beyond just their beauty. Having something in bloom from early spring to late fall is part of the pest management system on our homestead. Always having something in nectar provides additional food sources for predatory insects (who attack your pest insects.) It also provides a source of food for your pollinators so they don’t leave your property. That way, all season long, while you have fruiting flowers blooming, there will be pollinators available to service your trees and bushes. This is all part of the design science I have been following to build my homestead: Permaculture.
Chickens and The Department of Making You Sad
The Situation
For about 5 years now, I have had chickens contained in my front yard. I have used them to destroy the moss in my yard, make compost, and turn all our food waste into delicious eggs.
I started using them with a “Victory Garden” approach. I would park them in one spot (they have a mobile coop) and place a truckload of arborist wood chips where they are. They would be contained by electric poultry netting from Permier1.com. We would feed all our food scraps to them, whatever we and the dog didn’t eat ended up out there. After a year, we would move them to a new spot. Where they had been for the last year was mostly broken down into compost. I would build new vegetable gardens or plant fruit trees in the space where they were.
I made sure that the chicks were contained, and not a physical bother to the neighbors. No one wants chicken poo on their blacktop! For years, I never had issues with predators due to the electric fence. When a hawk took notice of them, I built them a place to hide and be protected. I had very few losses over the 5 years they have been on open display in the front yard. And my direct neighbors have never complained about them (or the eggs they get from time to time).
Last year I also added meat chickens to my property. I raised them in small batches in a “chicken tractor” moved daily in the rows of my orchard. They would clean up any weeds along the way and leave their fertilizer bombs in the mulch to break down and feed the young growing trees. This worked out very well for our family to provide wholesome meat without all the antibiotics and chemicals that comes with commercial birds.
The reality of Lookie-Loo Karens
Unfortunately, very recently, someone either driving by or walking their dog past my house took notice and reported the fact that I had chickens in my front yard to our Code enforcement office. This caused them to write me a violation, because in my town only houses with 0.5 acres are allowed to have chickens.
I am not sure who reported us, and the township protects the identity of those who report code violations. That said, I cannot understand what goes through the mind of people to just walk around and report violations like this. I do not know who I was hurting by raising chickens the way I have. They have been a big benefit to our mental health, our physical health, the health of the environment (nutrient cycling and compost building) I can’t figure why someone would go through the effort of filing a formal complaint, when they are not being hurt by the chickens.
What This Means
Thankfully, despite some difficulties, I was able to get approval to move the chickens to our back yard, where they will have to be completely penned in. No longer can they “free range” in the orchard or in the beds. They have a confined space where they are only allowed to be (according to the township).
It also means that we are not free to raise appropriate food for our family on our property. I will not be able to raise the turkeys I did last year for Thanksgiving. I will not be able to raise the meat chickens, the way I did last year. It means I will have to haul wood chips to the back yard for the birds and haul compost from the back to the front, instead of having that all done in place.
More than anything else, it means I don’t have the freedom to make the best choices I can for my family.
Therefore, we have decided to vote with our feet.
Looking Ahead, A Move and a New Direction
It has been our desire to move to one of the southern US States for many years. We have always questioned when would be the best time to actually do it. We were going to while my twin boys were in High School, but decided it was best for them if they were able to finish all 4 years in the same school. We were then planning on going when they graduated, but my wife developed breast cancer, and that tied us here for a while. We had thought about staying until she reached the 5-year post-cancer point, or when we were finally out of debt, or or or…
We now feel like this roadblock, and more of what it represents, is a sign for us that it is time. We have been praying to the Lord about our future home, and where it would be. I feel called more to raising animals then to the medical field any longer. I have been a part of the system long enough, and I believe it is about time to start moving away from Corporate health care, and start doing more meaningful work.
We are currently looking for the land God has been preparing for us. Our search currently is in Eastern Tennessee. Once everything falls into place, we will be on our way. For now, most of our time is being invested in fixing up the yard, the house, and organizing our belongings for our eventual move.
God has blessed us in so many ways, and a large part of me will miss this property, and the future I see for what it could be. Hopefully, we will find a like-minded person to continue the work I started here, but either way, we know it is time for us to start anew on another property.
Hopefully you will find encouragement in our actions. Especially if you are on the fence about voting with your feet. I will post more about our experiences over the next few months, the things we are learning, the things we are doing, and how everything is getting along.
Your prayers would be appreciated as we take on this new path. God bless.