We survived... (warning graphic photos)

Tabitha, myself and the kids butchered eighty seven chickens in two days.

I'll admit they were long days. It was difficult, tedious and left us raw. The whizbang chicken plucker purred most of the day. Feather clogs caused a little slippage a couple of times.

The kids were unbelievably helpful. Tristan and Kassi caught every bird for the killing station.

Anyone that has tried to catch chickens know what a feat catching eighty seven birds is. They both got scratches from chickens and chicken tractors climbing around arms full. Plus, that is not all,

Tristan cut, cleaned and peeled every gizzard while Kassi cleaned the hearts and livers. They also met the demands of their younger siblings. They made sandwiches, poured juice and milk and even cleaned urgent messes in the house. It was truly unbelievable they are just eight and six respectively. When it came time to do the final clean-up on the birds they both were right there picking pin feathers and doing a secondary inspection of the internals.

Tabitha loosened crops, cut feet and heads, killed, plucked and scalded. I eviscerated and cleaned the body cavity. I also leaped to where I was needed but mostly I was the bottle neck. We chilled the birds and did the final processing at the other station.
The kids really made a huge difference, at least thirty percent increase from their input.

On top of all that Tabitha is milking twice per day. Our refrigerator is full of milk products.

Milk, yogurt, fresh cheese, sour cream, and cream. Jocelyn in making over four gallons per day.

We are trying to find another fridge on freecycle--milk fridge.

I also finished work on the Houlahan's Photovoltaic system.


We have been busy and this weekend we have another thirty five birds to kill.

WHEW...

"Bring out your dead" *CLANK*

No one talks about the dark underbelly of cute little farmsteading. We have had some significant losses in our broiler chickens. Not quite industry standard losses yet but we are closing in on it. Why? Well is is the heat and all things associated with the hottest summer on record.


The chicks are at their most vulnerable state. They are five weeks old. At this stage their size gain is out racing their hearts ability to keep up. Normally they are fine but temperatures have not dipped below eighty at night and soar well into the triple digits everyday. This has been ongoing the entire month of August.

I don't have enough solar fans so that each tractor has a fan. We shuffle the two of them to the sunniest placed tractors. Additional shade *sheets* were added to our borrowed tractors. I thought I had things stabilized. Yesterday, while Ron was visiting one of my water fountains failed. The little lock-nut that locks the adjustment nuts together released. The water had only quit for an hour or so. But, it was during the heat of the day. We rescued several of them near death by dipping them into cool water--whew.

In the future I plan redundant water fountains in each tractor. This will afford a much needed security cushion.

Lessons to remember:

• Broiler chickens won't step from the shade even to get to the water when temperatures are above 100 degrees.
• Raise larger batches in the fall and spring. Keep the batch in the heat of the summer small because Missouri summers are too intense.

Since we feed our dogs on a raw diet they are happy for any early deaths. They are perfect guardians though. Even after getting fed whole birds with feathers they would never chase or kill any chickens.

I am alright now, knowing exactly what caused the deaths and how to mostly avoid them in the future. It is still upsetting since we have never had losses of this magnitude. We had an excellent visit with Ron. He saw me at a really vulnerable moment. He immediately got it when I yelled "bring out your dead"


On a better note. Our dehydrator is truly magic. We dehydrated all of the onions, some elderberries and a whole load of tomatoes.


It is amazing that five gallons of tomatoes could fit into two quart jars. We love our dehydrator.

I'm going to go check on the chickens for the umpteenth time today. *running with fingers crossed*

bucket fountain to water chickens

Here is an illustration of my low pressure water fountain supply using a five gallon bucket as the reservoir.

This diagram connects directly to the Little giant fountain.

This is the brand we started with and like it as long as we use a (sock) pre-filter. There are other fountains that have benefits and shortcomings. Mostly, this what we started with. The unit has a small screen in the threaded connection point but it gets clogged quickly. Using the sock pre-filter mostly solves this problem.

The bucket can hang from the bail or sit over a horizontal support with a hole in it. I use both methods. In my father-in-law's tractor it hangs from the bail. In my tractors I use a milk crate with a hole cut in the bottom zip-tied to the tractor for security. If I remove the fountain by the quick dis-connect the bucket can lift out of the milk crate for dumping or maintenance.

The piece of hose allows the fountain bowl to hang level and makes swirling the fouled water out quickly and easily with one hand.

I also use this style fountain in my rain water collection system for the laying hens. I had to employ a different pre-filter than a sock.

Dayglo'melay

Last year we only planted one German-stripe plant. I saved seeds from several tomatoes from it because I loved how they taste. We planted a whole row of them this year. Most plants were true to type but we had one lucky variation. A whole plant of the most fabulous tomatoes I have ever tasted.

They taste like peaches and vibrate with day-glow iridescent pink and yellow. We have dubbed the tomato Dayglo'melay. We will plant an entire row of them next year. I will save seeds from the best of those and possibly offer seeds for sale. Yeah they'll be cheap, mostly to cover the shipping.

I have eaten so many of them this year. I would normally have a mouth full of canker sores. I usually eat cherokee purple to excess and they have a much higher acid content. Not these babies.


Tabitha has also discovered the perfect canning tomato. We occasionally watch *Lidia's Italy* on the cooking channel on PBS. She is always raving about San Marzano tomatoes. We grew some of them and are extremely impressed. They are not a good salsa tomato nor taste good sliced but add a little heat and they are amazing. They cook down very quickly and make thick rich tomato paste. We also grew an organic version but they failed almost immediately. *shakes fist into the air* They suffered from the blight the earliest and worst. Even the copper spray didn't stop the death. So we are on the hybrid band wagon for the time being. I might try and save some seeds from them anyway. What is the worst that can happen? Poor/no germination or never set fruit might happen. But, I might get lucky and have my own seed. The book gardening when it counts states that most of the newer *heirloom* varieties came from hybrids from the fifties.


My parents sent Kassi a bunch of Iris rhizomes. They are labeled and organized for Kassi to grow them for sale. Four varieties will be ready next year and dozens will be ready in a couple of years.

We planted half of them in the raised beds by the peach tree. The other box of longer term plants are still in my closet. We need to get beds ready for them and it is too hot out to do that kind of work.

Bob is loaning us four fencing panels for a dog pen for Astrid. I know, that doesn't sound like me. It appears that she will go into heat before the boys are ready. Plus we'd like her to not get bred her first heat. So we'll put her up during her heat until the boys are ready and she has had a few heats.


Tucked under the fence panels are four twelve foot long telephone pole sections. They are going to be a play tower for the kids. It will overlook the garden and paddocks. It will be like a guard tower. I'm thinking a zip-line careening into the forest.


The broiler chicks are growing like crazy.

This is my new door design. It requires a pipe bender to make but it is really elegant and simple.

I also put an improved handle on this tractor.

It is inspired from mikes tractors that I am borrowing. We are very pleased with his tractors. They turn on a dime and squeak next to fences more easily than mine.

I also had an epiphany regarding the water fountain for this new tractor. The pipe connects to the bottom of the bucket with a homemade bulkhead fitting and a sock as pre-filter.

It goes straight down to the water fountain using a bit of old hose so it will hang correctly in an incline situation. The whole thing clicks apart and removes from the tractor quickly and easily for dumping, cleaning or repair.

Having the water fountain connected to a flexible hose has the added benefit of easy dumping of the bowl when it gets fouled.

I also added the new style doors to the old tractors.

We zip tied billboard-vinyl-tarp to the doors. So far we are very pleased.

These birds are looking so healthy.


We also turned the sheep loose in the paddocks. They promptly used the dog pass through and went to the upper field. They like being where the dogs are. The dogs love them, respect them and genuinely seem to enjoy protecting them.

On grass

There is something so thrilling putting the chickens onto the grass. At first they are timid and school around like fish. Then a brave chicken will tentatively investigate and perhaps chase a bug. Within a few hours they are all very comfortable running around stretching their wings.

Their brooder was so small. It makes my soul feel good watching them be chickens. Although they are confined, they are not suited to roam the fields free.

I didn't get my chicken tractor finished in time for them to go into it. Outside temperatures have been like a blow-furnace. I worked as much as I could. Alas, I couldn't get it done. We decided to divide the remaining birds among the four coops that I had prepared.

Here is one of Mikes tractors that I borrowed for this round of birds.

It is heavier than the ones that I make but have the benefit of bicycle cantilevered wheels. They employ a mechanical advantage and compensate for the added weight remarkably well. I like the "A" house shape.

The birds seem to really like it.


Astrid is happy to do her job and guard these little guys.


Jack and Ianto are almost as big as Astrid already. They will be substantially larger dogs in the end.


The pigs get a shower a few times per day.

They got all the off-fall from Mike and our corn processing. It will be mashed into rich beautiful soil within a few months. We love pigs.

We never did catch up on some of our garden after the visit to Michigan. Weeds just seemed to take over. We just fenced the sheep in that area. They should get things back into a more manageable state in short order.


This wagon really gets a workout around here. I used it to haul full feed barrels 350# each to distant areas of the farm. Here it is on trash duty.

The kids can load it heaping full with wood and bring it to the porch. Tristan pulling while Kassi and Toly pushing. One of the better farm investments I have made.

Speaking of investments, we we most graciously gifted a new dehydrator. The Dehydrator of dreams is now full of onions I am anxiously waiting to see how long they will take. I loaded four times as many onions in the thing. Very exciting, thank you thank you Annette. I can't wait to try dehydrated tomatoes, yum.

Rome had his second birthday.

He is such a smart boy. Being recently two he has been testing his boundaries. Oh that boy...

Our chickens are almost ready to get on the grass.

We believe two weeks is the soonest broiler chickens should leave their brooder.

I am working on a new chicken tractor. It will incorporate all of my latest improvements. The new door style, new feeders, and an electric hot-wire around the top. This tractor will also incorporate a D.C. fan that will plug into my solar panel.

Very high-tech. This little cross pipe will support the milk crate that holds a five gallon bucket for their water.

I also am going to borrow two of my Father-in-laws chicken tractors. He has a different style tractor we are excited to try them.

I have to go to the feed mill tomorrow. These are the barrels that we use to store and transport the feed.

It saves on the bagging charge.

We have always fed our meat chickens custom mixed grain. Tabitha found this link that makes us feel good about five year old choice.

Arsenic found in children traced back to commercial chicken feed.

gratuitous kitten photo.

Harnessing untapped sources of energy

Tabitha has been employing Tristan to do the glasses for a few weeks. He does a great job and gets to earn a privilege.

He cleans them better than the dishwasher does and makes stacked dish art.


Tristan earned two privileges today. The first one was because he picked up a wheel barrow load of cow patties from the upper paddock. We compost all of our cows manure and it is a huge help for him to clean up the paddock like that. Furthermore, the cow won't eat the grass in about a one foot radius form one of her old cow patties for many months. If we left all of them in the field there wouldn't a blade of grass left to eat within a few months.

Sure the fields don't get all that fertilizer from the cow but that is why we raise chickens in tractors. There are no diseases that transmit easily between species (from the chickens to the cow). It is a perfect symbiosis. The cow doesn't mind eating after the chickens move through a field.

We received our latest order of broiler chicks. The post office had a little debacle and left them in a hot warehouse. We have already lost a few. I hope they thrive.

I made a brooder out of stacked bales of straw. It seems to be working really well. Now I just need to build three more chicken tractors. It was too hot today for me to work outside on them so I worked on my portable solar fan system. We use them to circulate air in the chicken tractors when they must be in the direct sun.

My system will utilize one large solar panel and two recycled attic fans. I attached wheels to the solar panel to make it easy to move.

Then I attached the D.C. leads to a regular house outlet.

This way I can use standard extension cords to run power from the panel to the separate tractor fans. Sure there is the potential for confusion with regular A.C. stuff but this will be nowhere near A.C. stuff.

Plus I know better. One tip if you plan something similar. Cover the panel with complete shade(I flip mine over) when plugging and unplugging. A direct current spark will ruin standard outlets and plugs.

This just wheels around like a wheel barrow--easy.


On other news the kitten factory is in peak production. In true Ozarks fashion the matriarch grandmother is raising her grand children and her own children at the same time.

Two of her grandchildren haven't survived but this is the best we can hope for.