One year my husband brought home some bales of oat hay. We stored it in a location that was, in retrospect, way too close to the garden! For the next two years, I had oat grass coming up everywhere, except for in the pasture where it would have been welcomed. Between the oat grass and the weed seeds that normally come into the garden via the irrigation and wind, I found that I was spending a lot of time weeding. Not that I mind a little weeding, it can be very therapeutic, but I was overwhelmed with the task. It was becoming not so much a task anymore as a burden! I incorporated a few simple tools into my gardening that have helped me to spend more time enjoying my garden, not just pulling weeds.
My favorite waffles, up until last week, were the ones you get from the continental breakfast buffet at a hotel. Their waffles are light and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. With all the pancake/waffle recipes and pre-mixed flours that I have tried, I have never been able to duplicate the deliciousness of a continental breakfast waffle! Until last week….
I mentioned in a previous post that a few weeks ago my neighbor introduced me to making my own sourdough starter, (see previous post: Sourdough – Worth the Effort). So far, my experiences with sourdough have been positive. I absolutely love the recipe I found for a sourdough sandwich bread and last week I found a recipe for delightful sourdough waffles. I have given away some bread and had others sample the waffles and all of my feedback has been “two thumbs up”!
I am a firm believer in variety! I know that a chicken’s sense of taste is nowhere near as refined as a person’s, but it seems apparent, if you watch your chickens eat, that they seem to prefer some foods over others. In my flock for example, fresh raspberries are devoured a lot quicker than tomatoes, and they prefer spaghetti noodles over rice. It is also a fact that different foods contain different vitamins and minerals and in different amounts. I think that as long as your chickens are getting a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, greens and herbs, in addition to their formulated feed, they will enjoy their diet and live long, healthy, productive lives.
One of the things that I like to feed my chickens is sprouts. Sprouts are easy to prepare, inexpensive, nutritious and my chickens enjoy them! They are especially good in the winter months when there is not a lot of grasses or garden produce available.
Herbs are a good addition to a chicken’s diet. There are many health benefits associated with herbs such as aiding in the recovery from an illness, strengthening immune systems to prevent illness, and discouraging insects, pests and parasites. Different herbs have different aromatic and medicinal properties. I choose to use a more homeopathic approach in caring for my chickens, believing that prevention is the key to a healthy flock. For that reason I like to grow a variety of herbs, providing my birds with a balance of natural substances that promote overall good health.
My neighbor was going through some of his wife’s old cookbooks. He came across some recipes using a sourdough starter, tried them, and was bragging to me about how good his pancakes were. I didn’t really know too much about sourdough, so I asked him for some of his starter. I had always thought that sourdough starter was some magical family heirloom that was passed down through generations, and if your family didn’t have any, you had to get it from a willing neighbor or friend. But, instead of giving me some of his sourdough starter, he gave me a recipe and told me to go make my own. And so, my sourdough education began. I found a couple of awesome websites that explained sourdough from A to Z and provided recipes and instructions. I gleaned a lot of information, and as much as I love sourdough bread, the more I read, the more I began to think that it was just too labor intensive for me! I decided to give it a try anyway, just for the experience. Here are some things that I learned: 1) sourdough starter is NOT always a sacred family heirloom and you CAN make a good starter from scratch, 2) you can NOT stick your starter in the back of your fridge and forget about it for months and then pull it out and use it, you DO have to tend to it regularly, 3) although a good loaf of sourdough bread DOES take some forethought, it’s really NOT that bad…and, dare I say, absolutely worth it!
Trimming a chicken’s beak, toenails or spurs can be intimidating. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if they could tell us when something hurts, but since they can’t, we tend to be a little reluctant to do the trimming for fear we might cause some pain or discomfort. A chicken’s beak, and toe nails, and a rooster’s spurs are all made out of keratin, a fibrous protein structure. That is the same thing that our hair and fingernails are made of and we know that cutting our nails doesn’t hurt, unless we get too close! And just as our hair and nails continue to grow, so does a chicken’s. Hopefully, through most of a chicken’s daily activities, they wear their nails and beak down naturally and don’t require any intervention. A chicken’s scratching in the dirt, looking for bugs and seeds, help to wear down their nails. You might have noticed a chicken wiping their beak on the ground as if to clean some dirt off. This act will file down a beak and keep it in check. A rooster’s spurs on the other hand grow out the side of the leg and are sharp, pointed and often used in disputes with other roosters. They do not touch the ground and so it is harder to keep them filed down. Spurs can grow to be quite long and get to the point where they interfere with walking, or injure a hen when mating. That’s when it’s time to intervene.
Not all animals were created equally. Many species have digestion systems that are unique and fitted for the environment they lived in, in the wild. We have domesticated these animals over the years and changed their eating habits. In an effort to make sure our animals are getting the nutrients they need, it’s a good idea, no matter how uninteresting it may seem, to understand their inner workings. Our goal is to raise healthy, beautiful, productive animals.
Our goal is to raise healthy, beautiful, productive birds.Read full post
The old myth that goats will eat just about everything, isn’t totally true; but if it were, it certainly doesn’t mean that they should! Animals are fairly smart creatures. Left to their own devices, they are pretty good about figuring out what’s good for them to eat and what’s not, and what their bodies need and what they don’t. Goats are ruminant herbivores. Their digestive systems are built for things like grasses, weeds, leaves, small branches and bark. As animal owners, it is our responsibility to take care of our animals and ensure that they are fed a healthy diet. We should feed our goats a good quality hay, not try to pawn off on them the sun-bleached or moldy horse hay. They should enjoy pasture time to browse if available. They should get a quality goat feed or grain mix, and limited treats are a bonus.
The majority of a goat’s diet should be a quality hay, or pasture forage.Read Full post
Have you ever wondered why roosters crow? Is it just to annoy the neighbors? Are they really nature’s alarm clock? Have you watched a mama hen patiently cluck at her young as she points out bugs, seeds or grain? Have you noticed that low growl you get from a broody hen as you attempt to remove the egg she just laid? All those cackles, chortles, squawks, purrs, growls and crows have meaning. It’s our chicken’s way of communicating with the world around them.
Chatting with me as I take her picture. Maybe she’s telling which side is her best!Read full post
Goats are a fun addition to any farm. Not only do they make great pets, but they can also be a productive, useful animal to have around. There are basically three types of goats: meat goats, dairy goats and goats that are used primarily for their wool. Before adding to your menagerie of farm animals, it’s a good idea to think about your purpose for raising goats. Knowing your purpose and goals for keeping goats will help you in determining what breed of goat is best for your farm. After all, there are in excess of 200 different goat breeds, and a goat can live upwards of 15 years or more, so it is a long term commitment.
