George and Gracie Quackers - Teen Ducks Rebel

L to R - George, Gracie

Remember when... it seemed just like yesterday that I held them in the palm of my hand.  The little fuzzballs w/ the sweet peepin' as the kids and I stared in awe.   It is amazing how fast these little ducks are growing.  I must confess, they got a little wild and spent their first night out last night.  It was so beautiful out, I couldn't pass it up.  I had them in an extra large dog crate for protection...then I got to thinking tonight, about raccoons and weasels, and every other kind of predator that may be sitting at our wood line licking their chops. So I went out at 9:45pm and brought them back in the house.

Ducks are like pubescent boys after football practice - HOLY SMOKES THEY STINK!  Ducks are just not supposed to be in the house.  But, we don't have a barn so here they are - in the laundry room.  I clean out their litter daily, but even that just isn't enough.  So - they have been spending a lot of time outside lately.  Don't look at me like that.  They are practically of drinking age!  Look - they're even getting their grown up feathers!!

You can see they are already getting little lovey w/ each other.  Clearly teenage ducks.  At this stage, they are probably at 4.5 weeks old.  We need to wait until they are fully feathered before letting them out into the pond.  They sit there and look at it longingly.  Visiting with other ducks that are more fly by night and learning how to find their inner quack.  It's all a coming of age thing.  You parents know what I'm talking about.

Gives new meaning to "A Bucket of Chicken"

The Girls are here!  Eight Red Rock pullets have joined our little family here at the Barn.  Not sure how long I've wanted chickens, I know it's been at least five years.  Jan at the post office called at 8am to let us know that they had arrived.  She said they had been talking to her and were a lot more quiet than the chicks that come through.  Jan let me know the box was big - so not to bring the mini.  I love Small Town, U.S.A.

Simple pleasures I suppose.  I walked in to the Post Office and there is a box - 2 x 4 feet and in it are my girls.  My first thought was: "Well, this is like Kentucky Fried Chicken... but different".  I got them out to the car - and drove home the goofiest smile on my face.

Crowded in the box

The Girls in their new home

Call me crazy - but putting these chickens in their new home was one of the neatest things I have experienced in a long time.
 
Note to self: When doing ANYthing w/ chickens - be sure to breathe through the nose.  Having an open mouth around any foul can be just that.  I had a near mouth experience that could have been gut wrenching.  literally.

Calvin said he wanted to name one "Jack" and another one "Aleia".  

CHEZ POULET

getting started

I have never built anything in my life. So I called in for backup...my dad. We pulled out all the power tools we could cram into the pickup and got started on Chez Poulet. The chicken coop. I ordered the chickens to be delivered (pullets - laying hens about 4 months old) on 4/11 not taking into consideration dad's work schedule...needless to say - in three days we managed to get everything ready for the gurlz. Not only was it awesome to work with my dad as a real live grown-up, but I knew that I was learning a lot about power tools so I could get things moving on my own DIY projects. I'm fairly intimated by the circular saw. I have had visions of what going thumbless would really mean to me.


So - he did the cutting and I did manage to master the nail gun. There are two things that have always piqued my fancy - powertools and tractors. (oh, and men in uniform - but that doesn't really apply here). So we got to work. We are not quite done yet - but the girls have a safe place to stay until the outside is completed.

Learning how to use the saw was the best part - and hearing my dad say, "You know, T - I think you're ready to build things yourself."  Not bad comin' from ole' Dad.

We had to get it to where the girls would have a nice comfy place to stay.  I didn't have what I needed to build a roost, so I put a nice big branch in there that they could huddle around.  Hung the feed/water from the ceiling and put in two nexting boxes w/ those fake ceramic eggs that you can get online...

My 9 year old was ecstatic to let me know that we had THREE eggs the day that they arrived... well, those were the ceramic ones - kind of sad having to break that news to him.

the door and shiplap w/ the window

Opposite the door, to the right there will be a storage box and to the left is the chicken door. 

The next day, he came up to me and said, "I found something in the coop!" and handed me this little egg.  I thought it was one of the fake ones and he assured me it wasn't.  Can you believe it???  Two days after they arrived, we have one that is laying already.  I didn't get any eggs yesterday (probably due to the nail gun and the saw - but we got a second egg today.  The yolks are about the size of a penny, but nice and firm.  AND they taste GREAT!!

OY, my ACHIN' back!

(i.e.) shovel dirt, shovel sand, shovel peat, sigh and say, "this will all be worth it", repeat.

I never knew that putting in an orchard would be such painstaking work. Did you know that nearly everything revolving around planting an orchard involves a shovel of some sort? AND... I bet you didn't know that it also meant bending over, kneeling down and begging your children to help you.  Found out they'd rather climb trees.  I'D rather climb trees than plant them at this point.

So far we have 15 trees in. Trees is kind of overstating things a bit - they're more like twigs. I walk down to the "Orchard" w/ a sense of pride and accomplishment. I know that every piece of fruit that feeds my great grandchildren will be because of the work that the boys and I have done. Then I see the seven holes yet to be filled w/ a tree and swear silently to myself.  I'm sure the generations to come will love climbing in the branches of the orchard, picking apples, peaches, cherries, pears and plums like I did when I was growing up next to Harry and Pauline.  Maybe they will even get to walk into a house that smells like fresh baked apple pie.  I hope I'm around to see it - hell, I hope I'm making that pie.

Below is the near finished first round of the orchard.  I don't want to spend any more money before I figure out if I killed them while transplanting them.  I do have three Asian Pears that are waiting for me at the nursery.  I suppose I can plant a couple more.  Sigh.

So the thing that just gets me in the picture below is that the trees are SO DARN SMALL - you can't even see them.  Thank God for the tags on the trees or it would just look like an empty field.  HA!

You can't see it, but there are 17 trees planted.  I swear it.  If you squint you can see them.  

2'x2' holes were dug then I got to do the rest.  Thank you Johnny!  :)

Meet George and Gracie (Mr. & Mrs. Quackers)

So - Our ducks arrived....and they are growing so fast! This is so fun. I can't believe that we just moved in a month ago. I'll be posting more on the projects. Now George and Gracie move outside during the day (weather permitting, of course) and get to guzzle in the sunshine and start to get acclimated to the outdoors!

HOLY HOMESTEAD, BATMAN

-Well. We didn't get that little farmhouse at auction. I cried for a day then we loaded up the car w/ a cooler and the kids and headed out to find the next best thing. And find it, we did. Several months, a robbery in the rental, another stolen GPS out of Joe's truck and the top getting sliced off of my mini cooper for our third and final GPS system. All told, probably 100K worth of loss over the last year give or take a grand....and we are now in our little piece of heaven.

We drove up the driveway, Joe said "STOP! It has no trespassing signs everywhere!" - I looked at him and said "Well we have to turn around now don't we?" - the owner was in the driveway. He greeted us redfaced and with calloused hands. We quickly hit it off, did a FSBO on both sides and over the last few months, he and his wife have turned out to be two of the nicest, most amazing people we have ever met. Ironically, their last name is Greathouse. Which is what they built out of the old barn they bought 12 years ago.

I never thought that I would find someplace where both Joe and I could be so happy. It satisfies both of our want list down to a perfect T. We are in a little town in Northwestern PA. There is a little store about .25 miles down from us that has everything from eyebolts to homemade macaroni salad and onion sets. We often hear the horse shoes from the amish buggies driving by the house. The best part it - the kids are sleeping better than they ever have. I think it's all the oxygen out here. They run so hard all day - then crash. Which is nice for their father and I at the end of a long day. It is truly amazing.

I kept saying, "But you're the Department of Agriculture."

Going to auction on October 29th on this place. Fingers crossed. It is pretty much in the middle of Nowhere, PA in fact - if I didn't know better, I might be convinced that this house is right off of the road Robert Frost was referring to.

I've been reading and re-reading all of my books by Joel Salatin. I'm working on getting all the financing put together to make sure that IF (I hope I hope I hope I hope) we get this place that all the financing will run smoothly. No apple trees, or grapes, which is a bit of a bummer. But it does have rhubarb that is about five feet tall, 100 year old peonies and six blueberry bushes that look to be about 20 years old. There's a peach tree in the back yard. There is quite a bit of acreage, more than we were looking for initially - but that means PO-TEN-TIAL to do all sorts of pastured farming down the road. I'm thinking pastured beef followed by pastured poultry & eggs. Maybe a little.... well - that will come in time I guess.

It is REALLY hard not to get excited. We've been out to the farm about three times and finally saw the inside of the house today. It is everything you'd expect from a 100 year old farmhouse...perks and quirks galore. Two weeks until the auction. If we don't get it - I'm sure something else will come along so I'm not going to sit in the corner and hurumph my way through the winter. ...Well, actually I will.

Found out something really interesting today though - The USDA has a loan service called USDA Loan Service and it (according to the website) provides loans for Rural Development that don't require any money down, in fact - they will even roll the closing costs into the loan! USDA...Loan... Department of Agriculture... Rural Development Loan. One would think that this is a loan for Small Farmers, right? For agricultural land development of a small farm? I was shocked to find that is not the case at all. The USDA Loan is for people to get when they are specifically NOT going to generate any revenue from agriculture. According to the man on the phone, the loan is actually to pay people NOT to farm!! You would use this loan if you want to buy land and build more houses on it... NOT be a farmer. Even the guy on the phone was laughing about this...until I asked who I should talk to about agricultural mortgages. That was when he transferred me into a general mailbox where I couldn't even leave a message at the sound of the tone. Pretty sad if you ask me. I kept saying, "But you're the Department of Agriculture." He would say, "I know".