Death, Downsizing, and More

If you read the last blog post, you will know that one of the lambs had bottle jaw last month.  Unfortunately, that lamb did die a few days later.  

We have since decided to get out of raising sheep, so we are working on selling the five remaining sheep we have, not including the two ram/lambs we are raising for meat.  

We have struggled for a while with a hen laying bad eggs and we just can't figure out which one it is.  This is very frustrating and has made me extremely "egg shy".  Yes, we know we can candle them and do the float test - but these bad eggs actually pass both tests!  Then, when I proceed to crack them - you get the picture.  There have been a few occasions where I run out the laundry room door with a bad egg and toss it over the deck rail.  No, it is not pleasant.  

This has got me to thinking that perhaps I want to find a breed that lays lighter or white eggs in order to have an easier time candling eggs and seeing problems within the shell.  If this happens, we will get rid of all the chickens we have, and proceed to start fresh next year.  Last year, we were screwed over by some dishonest farmer selling "black Australorp" chicks for cheap (no pun intended).  These birds are quite obviously not that breed.  In fact, aside from the color splashes, and varying types of combs/wattles, there are a few that lay blue eggs which is an "Easter egger" trait.  

We have also decided that we either will not raise chickens for meat any longer, or we will get a breed of laying hen that is large enough to provide a decent size bird should we want to incubate and process birds in the future.  At this point, it hasn't been decided.  

Our turkeys are getting fairly large and we do plan to process a few come November.  Obviously we do not want to feed several turkeys through winter!  We will keep Stonewall, our Tom, as well as any females we might have.  

So far, I can't tell if we have any pregnant goats.  I had planned to have ultrasounds done on the "bred" does at the end of August, but Al lost his job last month and the appointment had to be cancelled.  So, we are left waiting and watching and hoping.  The does we are watching include Yelana, Mocha, Kitkat, Snickers, and Almond Joy.  The current does would kid in November IF they are pregnant.  We don't plan to breed does again until November, which would give us babies in warmer months, rather than the dead of winter.   The does to be bred in November include Maizie, Juniper, Serenade, Sally, and possibly Jersey.  The only remaining goats are either too young, too small, or males.  Photo above is of young does who have not been bred.  

Lilly, our zebu cow, has not calved yet and doesn't look like she is close.  They are pregnant nine months and I will guess she was bred in March, but it is really hard to know for sure since we never saw it take place.  

Fall planting is just around the corner.  I have starts in the milk room which will need to come out and be hardened off this next week.  Before I transplant them, I will need to put down some Sluggo.  The pill bugs are horrible, as are the grubs and worms.  My chard, which I planted in spring and transplanted a week ago, is being chewed up by something.  It is highly aggravating.  

The weather cooled for a bit so tomatoes and peppers slowed down in growing, but this week has been warm and will remain warm for a bit more. So, I am hopeful things will grow well until the temperatures finally drop.  The rain we got, 7 inches, sure brightened up the tomatoes and peppers.  They are looking great!

I did some garden clean up this past week.  This included pulling out tomato plants that I either didn't want, or weren't looking so hot.   I meant to leave one really healthy cherry tomato vine on the trellis, and when I was done trimming, I realized that somehow, I cut the plant from the roots.  I was so upset!  But, I had one cherry tomato plant left, not the greatest looking, and trimmed it up with hope that it would make it. 

Strawberry plants were moved from the perennial garden to a raised bed with the other plants. 

Sweet potatoes were harvested, but the harvest was the lamest harvest EVER!  I probably got a return of exactly what I bought for seed.  I won't grow those potatoes again.  The greens were lush, but the tubers were non-existent.  I guess I will be buying local sweet potatoes this fall. 

I didn't end up with any potatoes either, but the small experiment bed is finally coming up.  I am not sure if I mentioned it a while back, but I planted several small grape sized potatoes to see what happened.  And on a similar note, I guess several potatoes of similar size were left in the ground and I have volunteer potatoes coming up everywhere!  So, I guess all isn't lost.  However, potatoes will definitely need to be purchased from the store this fall/winter.  

I did plant another round of carrots but discovered something dug up a portion of the bed. At first I thought cats until I saw there was no evidence of it.  I think it was a squirrel.  At any rate, I don't have many more weeks to grow carrots unless I can find some that are short grow cycle.  

Finally, the peppers have been prolific and I have found myself stressing over what to do with all the hot peppers!  The problem is, there isn't a large amount at one time, so I have a mixture of peppers, mostly spicy hot.  This morning, I decided to just throw it all together and make a fermented hot sauce.  So I washed what I had and put them in jars with onion and garlic.  I have two half gallon jars sitting on the counter, beginning the fermentation process.  The previous jar I did turned out really good, but it had tomatoes in it.  I hope to get some more tomatoes from the garden soon because I would love to ferment a few jars worth and mix them into the peppers when I am ready to make the hot sauce.  

It's hard to believe fall is upon us!  In just over a week, we will begin celebrating the Fall Feasts: Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.  The kids are so excited about Sukkot!  We are already discussing what we will do this year.  There were a few crafts we did not do last year, so we will work those this year instead.  The kids want to tie dye shirts again, so I will look into that.  Of course, they can't wait for smores either, so I have already purchased the graham crackers, chocolate, and kosher marshmallows.  We still have a lot of clean up to do out back before then, but the pool has to come down first.  The rain we got created a green swamp from all the garbage falling from the trees.  So, since we don't have many warm days left, we decided to pack it up for the year.  Why?  Because Al wants to level the area better.  It is on a concrete slab, but it isn't as level as we thought it was.  

We have been taking "unemployment" one day at a time, ever thankful for Al's pension.  Al has been selling hay for a little extra money, but obviously it isn't much.  Meanwhile, he is looking for work, and getting projects done around the home.  I created a spreadsheet with the costs of grocery items and which place is cheaper.  It shocked us quite a bit to find that milk is pretty cheap right here at the local gas station!  I also learned that half and half (without chemicals) is cheapest at the local Dollar General Market.  I am thankful for this little market because it has given us a place to go in a pinch.  We can find pretty much anything we might need, from a bag of apples or potatoes, to some cheese or bread.  

Well, Shabbat is almost here.  Time to get the final things done.  I have leftovers in the oven.  Meals for tomorrow are made.  Breakfast is french toast and turkey bacon.  Lunch is just a bunch of snacks like cheese, crackers, hummus, veggies, etc.  Which reminds me, I didn't make cheese slices.  Dinner tomorrow is pasta with Chicken Italian Sausage.  

I have rambled on long enough.  Have a great one!