A perfect evening...

I know I said my last blog was the last one for the year, but tonight is such a huge part in my little life that I have to share.
Tonight was the graduation ceremony for my cultivating success class. We all met at Xinh's, an incredible restaurant in Shelton. There were about 20 of us...the people from class, the sponsors of the program, and several of the various guest speakers we had during our twelve weeks. I had quite the entourage supporting me in my endeavor. Mariah was there, and so were mom and super steve.
The food was incredible. We had oysters, mussels, deep fried geo duck...(pronounced gooey duck.) We had pork eggrolls, and rice with chicken curry and prawn linguine. It was all some of the best food I have had in a long time!
After we ate, it was time for presentations to start. We were supposed to present our "Farm Plan", and we were supposed to take 10 minutes. Well I've worked on mine for 4 days. Literally, 8 hours a day.
I did a folding display board of the property. Very detailed showing the pasture, forests, wetlands, shrubbery areas etc. I even made the folding flaps in front into barn doors with my farm name on the front! It looked marvelous! (In a 4th grade science fair kind of way).
My great plan was to go after the guy in our class who hums to himself and smells like cat pee. Surely if I went after him, my presentation would be stellar, and any nervousness would disapate after watching his presentation. Well...he didn't show. So I planned on going somewhere in the middle...but definitely not first.
Well right before one of the ladies went, Super Steve pulled me aside and asked me if I could go second because my mom wasn't feeling well... How could I deny that? So I volunteered to go second.
As soon as I got up and started my presentation, cameras started flashing like the damn paparazzi from my right. I stopped my speech and said, "As you've probably guessed, these are my parents." Everyone laughed and I continued with my presentation. When I opened my board to reveal my property diagram, everyone oohed and aahed....literally...it was kind of cool. About half way through, I noticed you could have heard a flea fart in the restaurant....Every one...at EVERY table was watching and listening....yikes. I did great! I was a little nervous...but I was talking about my farm! One of my favorite things in the world!
I felt a lot better when I was done....and then noticed mom and Sneaky super steve didn't leave....for another hour and a half. Way to go steve! I've got your number!
The other presentations were great... It was so nice to sit with a huge group of people and discuss fruit trees, compost and animals without having one person raise their eyebrow at me... Mariah actually didn't seem bored either!
SO I am an official graduate in cultivating success. I have an official certificate I am going to frame and hang in the barn!
I've met some incredible new friends and some wonderful contacts and resources. This 12 week class has been a wonderful and fun start for me.
I'M A REAL FARMER NOW!!!! Well...at least that's what the paper says...
So...what's next? New Year's Day I will post goals for next year for the farm. But for now...I think I'm going to go order some turkeys....
Thank you again to mom, Sneaky super steve, and my Mariah for supporting me in my dreams, regardless of how grand and elaborate they are. I love you all.
-Becky

Silent Night....NOT!

At Thanksgiving my sister sang me a wonderful Christmas carol...that I thought I would share with you all....
"Silent Night....NOT! Holy Night....NOT! All is calm....NOT! All is bright....NOT! Round young virgin....NOT!" It was at this point she stopped. It gave me the giggles, and I hope it did the same for you....
It's a week before Christmas, and outside the snow is falling again. I hope it doesn't stop.
It's been awhile since I have blogged, and there have been tons of changes here on the farm.
P has decided her farm girl boots are made for walking, and that her time out tree just isn't far enough away from here. So she is gone. I wish her fair weather, sunny pastures, and tons of butterflies to chase...
Fortunately, friends and family members have rallied around to help where needed. Especially mom, Mariah, (Jun) and of course Super Steve. The show must go on.
And then there was flooding....last weekend it rained and rained and rained, and I knew that damn natural spring would be flowing again. So I got up last Saturday and ran down to the coop. Sure enough the water was running over the sandbags I had placed, through the wall of the coop...and when I opened the coop door there was 4 inches of water in it...the poor girls trying to make their way through it. My mom was with me helping, and while she was trying to sweep water out of the barn, I shoveled through the shavings to allow a path for the water to flow out. The water drained out of the coop in a little tidal wave. I then went around to the run to throw apples to the girls that had fallen off grandma's tree. Well have you ever seen a chicken bob for an apple? It was that bad...and I felt defeated...there was nothing I could do for them. Fortunately they were smart enough to stay on high ground and their perches... Days later the coop was one huge mud hole...I didn't want to change out the shavings until I knew it would be awhile before we had a rain like that. I am still worried about their feet and foot rot. To prevent this next year, I have already thought up a plan. Fortunately that was one of the walls we hadn't replaced, so I will keep the flooding in mind when I rebuild it.
The property looks so incredible with a light snow all over...
I sold my 92nd dozen of eggs this past week! The girls are definitely paying their rent...and I've thought of hanging 26 little stockings on their coop. :)
I have one more farm class, and then I graduate the "Cultivating Success" Program! They are scheduling tons of workshops this summer and I look forward to taking those too! I have definitely learned a lot in the last 12 weeks...but my favorite part of the class has been learning the rules and regulations of the farm world. If I am going to do this, I want to do it right!!!
A quick note on why cowgirls and farm girls REALLY wear chaps. I have a favorite pair of jeans....who doesn't? Actually I have like 3 pairs of favorite jeans. They are all "sweethearts" from Old Navy. They are the only kind of jeans I'll wear....Well after awhile they get worn, or "well loved" as I'd like to say...considering I am typically in jeans 7 days a week. Well I've noticed all of my wonderful jeans are starting to wear on the inside of the thighs. (Shutup Jenny Craig!) I'm sure I am not the first farm girl this has happened to...and probably won't be the last. So how did farm girls and cowgirls of the west solve this problem? They invented chaps to prevent wearing holes in the thighs of their favorite jeans...I need to get some.
Merry Christmas to all.
Becky

Not even kidding...

I know most of you who read my blog read some of this stuff and think, "She can't be serious," but tonight is a perfect example of what happens here on the farm...
It's been raining...pouring all day long...
When P and I got down to the coop after work to check on the girls and collect eggs, she mentioned to me from outside the coop that there was water everywhere...
I was in the coop gathering eggs and I noticed the floor was wet. Now for a second I saw the puddle outside of the chicken door, and I thought the little darlings were bringing the water in on their feet... We just cleaned the coop and put new shavings in it yesterday, and after further detective work, I noticed I was walking on a sponge...the whole F@&$#!* coop floor was soaked! I tried moving around the shavings to see where the water was coming in...and even looked up at the ceiling to make sure it wasn't leaking. I could hear P stomping around outside cursing to the Gods...(One day the sky is going to open up and someone with a crown of lightning bolts is going to lean down and pop her on the nose!!!) I saw along the bottom of the outside wall was soaked....the water was coming through the wall... :(
So I ran outside, and sure enough, there was a huge puddle...probably about 6 feet around...residing at the corner of the coop. In some places it is up to 3 inches deep! We both looked around at the sky, the roof of the coop, around at the landscape, and could not figure out for the life of us where the water was coming from. Then Patty noticed movement in the water, and we both bent over to look. "Did we hit a water line?" she asked. Well, I know enough that there is no water line where we were looking, and I've been in Washington long enought to recognize an underground spring when I see one. Sure enough....water was bubbling up out of the bank, and wasn't slowing down. Patty stabbed at it with a shovel, and the hole she made quickly filled with water. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! OUT OF ALL PLACES FOR A SPRING ONE ERUPTS OUTSIDE OF THE DAMN COOP?!!! I AM TRYING TO BE FREAKING GREEN BY INSTALLING RAIN BARRELS TO CONSERVE WATER, AND OLD FAITHFUL MOVES IN NEXT TO THE FREAKIN COOP?! REALLY?!?!?! Knowing we couldn't do anything, and because I had an egg delivery to make to town, we walked to the car. I couldn't help but look up to look for a crown of lightning bolts.
I made my egg delivery, and couldn't help but call my mom, to see if Super Steve was home. I honestly don't know what I expected to hear..... Perhaps, "Hey Beck! Oh sure, they sell natural spring plugs on aisle 7 at Ace!" Well, Steevareeno wasn't home, so I told my mom what was going on. Besides agreeing that I should get some sand bags at Ace, you know what she told me? "YOU ARE A FARM GIRL!!! YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!!!" (Thanks for the vote of confidence mom! :D So I ran to Ace, and without even thinking, bought 10 sixty pound bags of sand, and had them loaded into the back of Patty's subaru. Yep...600 pounds in the back of her car. The back left tire complained...and I knew it wouldn't make it. So I ran over to the 76 station to fill it up. Well in the wonderful world of debit, I had no change. I was about to go charge a dollar on my card, when the kid came out and said he would turn it on for me....(THANKS 76 STATION KID!) I filled the tire, and headed the 15 minutes home, realizing that I had both sets of keys with me, and if I had a blow out, I wouldn't have a phone signal and would have to walk. I hoped the crown of lightning bolts realized it was always P who cursed him, and I was just guilty by association...
I called P, (yes while I was driving) to tell her of my plan. She protested it was dark, and there was nothing we could do...but I knew if I didn't do SOMETHING, I wouldn't be able to focus at work tomorrow...I couldn't just let the coop flood and do nothing.
I fortunately made it home, and slowed at the house long enough to pick up my farm girl in crime...
We drove down, and I plugged our super duper work light in. We checked our spring and sure enough...it was still flowing. So what did the love of my life do? She started to dig at it...pulling rocks and weeds up. I told her, "I swear if that erupts into a geyser, you are in so much trouble!!!" She then put her finger in it and said she felt the hole....So technically she was plugging the dyke. Hehehe...
ANYWAY, we started grabbing sand bags, now in the dark...and piling them against the barn. P cut open two of them, and spread the sand in front of the chicken door to control some of the damage. I know we didn't stop it, but I really think we slowed it down...
We headed back to the car looking forward to the bean and hamhock soup we had in the crockpot...only to get up to the house and find that the new crockpot didn't work so great...no soup....and it's only Monday...

Not ready to quit our day jobs...

We have officially sold our 50th dozen of eggs! Thats 600 eggs! It's not enough to quit our jobs, but the chickens are paying for their own food, shavings, and contributing to their own vet bills! ;)
Over Columbus day weekend we rented a billboard in town to advertise our eggs. It cost 15 bucks for 3 days. So to break even, we would have needed to sell about 4 dozen eggs. I was surprised that I only got one call during the 3 days, but the woman who called wanted 7 dozen a week for her prayer group!
So our first attempt at advertising more than paid for itself!!!

Re-wiring, a new compost bin and Fuglyanna

On Sundays, (our only day off) we've been working on the barn. A week or two ago, our county finally lifted the burn ban we had all summer, and the primitive urge in P once again rose to the surface. She started burning in the firepit, and I started ripping all of the old wiring down in the barn. In several areas it had been chewed through, and in others it was crumbling. The wiring couldn't have been more than 30 years old, but its a good plan to start new. Every now and then I peaked my head out of the barn, and P was dragging dead branches around, and gathering some of our smaller lumber scraps. She looked very happy. :)
When all of the wiring on the ground floor was ripped out, I started laying the new wiring back in. Being an electrician at the shipyard, I am sure my wireways are above and beyond what is normally expected, but I am pretty happy with them so far!

At work, I am lucky to be around people who enjoy talking about composting, farming, gardens etc. Most of them buy eggs from me on a regular basis, and they always ask me how my classes are going, etc. A few weeks ago, we were talking about the joys of composting, and one of the guys, John, told me he had just finished building a compost bin for his wife. I have been looking at plans for quite awhile, and haven't found one that was just right...but when he showed me the plan he found, I knew it would be perfect for us! Here is the link: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM683.pdf
So I showed it to P, and she thought it was great! The article shows it made of pressure treated wood, but since we didn't want that leeching into our dirt, we made ours from cedar. It is roughly 3 feet by 9 feet, and has 3 separate "bins". The back, sides and bottom are screened, and the front is 1x6 cedar slats that slide up and down so you can take them out. Next time we clean the pine shavings and chicken poop out of the coop, we will have the perfect place for it!

One of the black australorps we have, (may be the surprise addition) has lost all of the feathers on her neck and down along the top of her butt. She is obviously one of Jun's favorite's, but she looks absolutely ridiculous. Patty has named her Fuglyanna. Maybe I should make her a little scarf since winter is coming...

Cultivating Success

On October 14th, P and I started taking a Farming and Ranching course called "Cultivating Success". It is for 3 hours every Thursday night, and the topics are:
Module 1: Starting with Whole Farm Sustainability in Mind
 Understanding “sustainability” and “whole farm” concepts
 Applications of sustainability and whole farm concepts on the farm

Module 2: Successful Whole Farm Planning
 Applying the “Whole Farm” concepts to develop a farm plan
 Whole farm planning tools
 Assessing personal (and family) interests, skills, and values
 Developing your whole farm goals

Module 3: Evaluating Your Whole Farm Resources
 Introduction to the whole farm plan layout
 Resource inventory and assessment
 Mapping the farm property

Module 4: Enterprise Assessment
 Enterprise ideas for small acreage farms/ranches
 Production requirements and feasibility of enterprise

Module 5: Direct Marketing Strategies
 Exploring methods to market direct to consumers

Module 6: Sustainable Crop Production
 Implementing farming practices that promote sustainability
 Growing organic

Module 7: Ecological Soil Management
 Soil characteristics important to plant growth
 Building healthy Soils
 Soil testing

Module 8: Integrated Pest and Weed Management
 Basics of Integrated Pest Mangement
 Ecological weed management


Module 9: Sustainable Livestock/Poultry Systems
 Sustainable animal production
 Grazing management on small acreages

Module 10: Sustainable Grazing Management
 Grazing management methods for small acreage farms
 Principles of rotational grazing.
 Setting up paddocks and pastures for rotational grazing
 Manage for multi species grazing

Module 11: Facilities and Equipment
 Selecting Appropriate Equipment
 Irrigation Systems for small acreage farming
 Meeting the building and fencing requirements

Module 12: Assessing the Potential for Profit
 The basics of farm economics and record keeping
 Enterprise budgets as decision making tools

Module 13: Enhancing Success of Your Whole Farm Plan
 Tools for tracking success
 Assessing Sustainability
We've been to our first two classes, and besides getting home at ten o'clock at night and the classes being an hour away, we love it! It's a good group of about 12 people who want to start their farms at various levels.
Through the extension agency for our county, we are getting a "farm planner" who is going to come out to our property (for free). He is going to look at our land, and assets, and tell us the best way to use the land. He is going to help us work around our seasonal creek and wetlands and help us do soil testing.
The county extension office also has grants for fencing and other materials!!!

Mighty Sparrow

***caution***Don't read this if you just ate a grilled cheese on sourdough with fries....or if you ate anything else good for that matter..
So the next day we checked on Wynonna. We let her walk around the room to see if she was still limping... I've never seen so much poop come out of something so small! And it STUNK SO DAMN BAD!!! She was waddling around the room and shooting like she had a rocket launcher attached to her ass! By the time I caught her, there were 3 green piles in our room. Patty was swearing to the Gods, "WHY THE HELL IS IT ALWAYS IN OUR ROOM?!" I cleaned up the mess, and P removed the little cast from Wynonna's toe. We soaked her feet in Epsom salts again, and Patty tried to slightly squeeze. More pus came out of the toe. She tried again and Wynonna sqwaked. We put on more hydrogen peroxide and neosporin and re-wrapped her toe.
After another day or two of this, it was obvious we were only healing the top of the wound, and that the infection was still thriving inside her toe. I told Patty we needed to cut it open to get the infection out. After consulting with a couple other chicken lovers, we agreed we should attempt it.
This time I held Wynonna and P tried to open her wound. I was cooing to Wynonna that she would be ok, and P yelled, "Stop saying that! She's not ok!!!" I explained to her that I was trying to soothe Wynonna, not tell her lies. The surgery was unsuccessful...all we managed to do was make her toe bleed. So we wrapped her back up.
The next day I called the local vet and made her an appointment. We agreed on the way in on a monetary amount we were willing to spend for Wynonna. We took her in and explained everything to the Dr. He said he would see if he could clean it out, but amputation of the toe would cost between $600 and a thousand! I blurted out if that was the case, I would just amputate it myself. He looked at me like I was crazy, and P assured him I was kidding... (But we all know better.)
After waiting over an hour, the Dr. came out and said, "We have a problem". The first thing that crossed my mind was, "If you killed my chicken you mother $&@!*#, you'll be next!" Good thing for private thoughts.
He took us into a back room and told us Wynonna's infection went down between the knuckles. His guess was it originally was a small scratch or thorn, and the other chickens may have pecked at it if it bled, and the dirt got into it and it got infected. He told us they were able to clean it out, but since she was a "Commercial chicken", meaning we sell her eggs, he was limited to the medication and topical ointment he could give her. As an egg consumer that was nice to hear. She could not receive any internal medication, and only a topical to clean and heal her toe. I felt better for taking her to the vet. P and I would have never been able to clean her toe out down to the knuckle!!!
The total damage came to $150. I took it all from the egg money jar.
I know most people would have made Wynonna soup several days prior, but we couldn't. I wouldn't kill one of my kids because they had a toe infection, and I can't help but feel the same way about our chickens. :( Not a true farmer...I know.
Anyway, Wynonna was under distress when we left. I bought her some meal worms and she ate them right up when we got home. I sang to her, and she seemed to calm down a bit.
Wynonna is suppose to be separated from the flock until her toe heals. Could be up to a month!
At least she doesn't snore....