This past summer we had a bumper crop of birdhouse gourds. For whatever reason, they seem to grow really well in our garden.
We waited until just before the first frost and then picked them. In all, we had over 60 gourds. We tied a string to the neck of each gourd and hung them in the garage all fall and winter. They dried out completely and were ready for crafting. The kids joined a local 4-H group this spring and we decided to donate them to the group to be made into birdhouses to raise money for a lego robotics project the kids are doing this fall.
We sanded each of the gourds to make them smooth. Steel wool seemed to work the best.
Then Mike drilled a 2-inch opening in each one. Jackson and I are prepping them: untying them and sorting them by size. Some were too small, and some had lovely rattling seeds and we made those into shakers.
We invited other 4-H members over after the gourds had been drilled and cleaned. The kids had a blast painting them.
We found places for them all to dry.
I loved the way they looked on the rocks in the sun.
After they dried, we drill a 1/4-inch set of holes in the top for a string to hang them up and in the bottom for drainage. We touched up any paint that got chipped, sprayed them with a coat of clear acrylic to make them water-proof and hung them to dry. I have to admit, I really didn’t want to take them down. I would love for my porch to look like this all the time.
We brought them to our tent a a town tag-sale. They sold well. Jackson was an especially persuasive salesman. We still have a bunch more and I think I might have the kids paint up a set just for us to hang. I have more plants growing in the garden as well, so there will be more to do next year.
Last year we lost our ducks and geese to predators and a harsh winter. We decided we needed to replace them this year (sans the geese, which our older son has never really cared for — maybe we’ll get geese again some day). For now, it’s just ducks.
We got our baby ducks at Tractor Supply Company in late April. We were there to get feed with the kids and they talked us into getting them. The truth is that we did want to replace the ducks, so it was easy to win us over. We ended up getting 6 pekin, 4 rouen and 2 blue Swedish.
After bringing them home and having them in a fairly tiny indoor enclosure for a few days (ducks stink when confined), we moved them to an outside run.
We’d still bring them into the garage at night since it was still a bit chilly at night.
At the same time I started building the new duck house. It was a simple 2 x 4 building with an interesting choice for roofing. We had an old door we’d removed from our previous house when we’d moved. It had a dog door cut in it and our realtor had said it would be better to have a new door. So this old door has been sitting in our garage for almost 6 years, but we’re finally putting it to good use — a hinged roof for our duck house (all the easier for cleaning). The dog door opening would serve as a smaller door for feeding the ducks.
We put siding on and painted it to match our chicken coop.
The temporary run was a duck resort for a couple weeks.
The duck house itself was to sit out over the water on a new dock, which we built out of pressure treated lumber. It required getting wet.
The kids seemed to find it a good opportunity to get soaked.
Soon the dock was ready for the duck house.
We moved the duck house over to the pond on our trailer, slid it onto the dock and secured it.
We moved the ducks into their new home.
We’ll keep them in their run for a while longer until they learn how to get in and out of their new home. Ultimately, I’ll also put a ramp on the water side, so the ducks and come and go via without ever coming onto land. That should make things a bit harder for our predators to get these guys.
I came across this super simple rustic bench design from a magazine that my wife’s parents gave me. It’s called an “Aldo Leopold Bench”. Named after Aldo Leopold, a famous environmentalist.
From his Wikipedia article:
Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management.
It looked like something I wanted to build and quite simple, too.
There are various designs for the bench. Mine used 2×8 lumber and called for two boards per bench: one 8-foot board and one 10-foot board.
The seat and back were made from the 8-foot board. I cut that board into a 49½-inch piece and a 46½-inch piece. That’s a single cut and maximizes the usable wood. The seat is 3 inches shorter than the back because it sits inside the legs (each 1½ thick).
The legs consist of two identical longer leg sections (which also form the sides of the bench) and two identical shorter leg sections. In my bench, the longer legs were 36 inches long and the shorter legs were 17¼ inches long. With my speed square I marked out 22½-degree cuts on each end. It was a cinch.
Everything is then laid out and screwed together. Once the cuts are made, it’s almost impossible to put it together wrong. Just make sure the legs mirror each other.
Love the way it looks.
Ended up making two of them. These are destined to live at the pond near where I’m going to put a new duck house I’m building (more on that later!). We liked them so much, I think I’ll make another one for the garden and a couple for the fire pit area as soon as I get a chance.
Shopping List
- One 2×8×8 cedar, redwood or treated lumber (seat and backrest)
- One 2×8×10 cedar, redwood or treated lumber (front and rear legs)
- 2½-inch galvanized deck screws
Steps
- Mark one end of the 2×8×10 at a 22½-degree angle with a speed square. Then cut with a circular saw. Make a mark 36 inches away and repeat the cut at the same angle. Cut the remaining front leg and two back legs from the same piece (two 36-inch pieces and two 17¼-inch pieces). Cut the seat and backrest from the 2×8×8 (one 49½-inch piece and one 46½-inch piece).
- Fasten the legs together. Stack the seat and backrest as guides and then align the legs against them. Fasten legs together with three 2½-inch screws.
- Attach the seat and backrest. Stand the two ends up and screw the seat in place. Lay the bench down and attach the backrest with screws.
Sources
This morning at the pond I first spotted a pair of Canadian Geese. Then I noticed the Great Blue Heron, standing quite still and slender. We’ve seen Canadian Geese quite a bit, but have only seen a Heron at our pond once or twice before this (once was right after I put fish in the pond, and I never really saw the fish again, so I wonder if the Heron ate them).
I got as close as I could with my 300mm lens, snapped a few and then it took off. Simply amazing! Too bad I’m using a mirrorless with poor follow-focus. Nevertheless, a few turned out pretty good.
Then I stalked closer to grab some pictures of the Geese.
We used to have our own domesticated ducks and geese on the pond but we suffered predator loss and a hard winter. I imagine not having them around has encouraged the wildlife.
Winter has been pretty long this year. It’s been something like the coldest or second coldest average temps since recording began, including 6 degrees below average thus far in March. Luckily, our snow is almost all gone, and our animals are starting to get out and about more to munch on grasses they turned their noses up at last fall. It also means it’s easier to check on things and do our periodic animal care. For the adult sheep, that means hoof trimming and deworming. For the lambs, it means vaccinations, tail docking and wethering the baby ram we won’t be keeping for breeding stock.
Francis’s ram has horns and we’re keeping him for breeding stock — just a tail docking for him today.
First the lambs. We caught each of them in turn and gave them their procedures. For the girls, that was just the tail docking and vaccination. For the boys, it was tail docking, vaccination and, for the ram we’re not keeping intact, wethering. The vaccine we use is Covexin-8, which protects our lambs against some of the natural harms that may befall them in the early spring (it provides protection against eight types of clostridial bacteria). We actually had a lamb die of this very issue, so we’re pretty good about giving the vaccinations these days.
Tail docking
Wethering our other baby ram
5ml Covexin-8, administered subcutaneously
This winter has been hard on our sheeps’ hooves. They were overgrown in most cases and in several were definitely smelly. It’s a rotten smell, which is a precursor to infected hooves as organic matter gets stuck in the hoof and slowly rots. It’s best to keep their nails trimmed and we’ll want to followup on them in a couple weeks.
Hoof trimming
Clementine’s feet were pretty bad, we’ll definitely need to work more on them in a couple weeks
Jamie has the hard job!
Our baby rams after their procedures
PS Looks like snow isn’t out of the picture, they’re calling for possible “BINGO!” accumulations for Tuesday night into Wednesday. Let’s hope the storm tracks further east (sorry Rhode Island and the Cape).
It is hard to have a conversation with anyone these days that doesn’t involve the weather. It has been a brutal winter. Frigidly cold and very snowy. Spring is just two days away and yet we still have snow on the ground in many places and the pond is still frozen. At this point in the year we would usually be prepping the garden and starting to plant. At this rate we will be lucky to get seeds in by the middle of April.
We have been feeling increasingly like being outside despite the cold. We are so thankful for our large fire pit. A few weeks ago, Mike and the kids had an evening campfire on the snow. Tonight, we had our first campfire dinner of the year. It was delicious. Good thing we can combat the frigid temps with warm fire!!
Sometimes we make lovely, colorful things out of fabric and wool. Other times our tasks are a bit more . . .gooey? We have had nine rabbit pelts sitting in the freezer for almost a year. This week, we brined them and then spent an hour yesterday fleshing them. We followed the instructions here. We did this same thing about four years ago and turned the pelts into a quilt and some hats Fleshing is a kind of gross but oddly satisfying task. You pull off one layer of skin to get to the layer that will eventually turn into leather. If you are the kind of person who likes peeling glue from your fingers, this might be a task you would like. The pelts don’t really smell but are just kind of wet and rubbery.
Now that the layer of flesh has been removed, they will go back in the brine bucket for another week before they get tanned. Then we will have to figure out what to make from them. Three were from adult rabbits that we needed to cull so their pelts are large and the leather should be really thick.
You can see the steps we followed below.
Frozen pelts that have been thawing for a few days.
Brine with 1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup ammonium alum and 2 gallons water.
Pelts all stretched out.
Rinsing out the pelts.
Pelts in the brine. This was put in the basement for a few days and stirred daily.
Rinsing the pelts after brining.
Squelching the water out.
Elsa was pretty curious.
Pulling of the outer fleshy layer of skin.
Fleshy bits.
A nice, white, fleshed skin. The small holes were from the nipples.
A half-fleshed pelt. The white area has been fleshed. The flesh needs to be removed to tan it properly.
The last pelt and a bowl full of skin bits.
I feel like January and February are some of the most creative months for us. The garden and livestock are all in hibernation mode (mostly, the exception being the new lambs). The weather is cold and gray and sometimes white. And so, we turn to making and creating and adding vibrant color to our lives.
Miss C got a sewing machine from Santa last Christmas. She has been working on perfecting her seams and if anyone needs a pincushion or coffee coaster, let me know. She sells them for a hug each 
She and I have also been working on a project each day. We made a few pillows for her room and then have been making monsters. Each one was completely designed by C and then stitched by me. It is harder than it might seem to turn her drawings into three dimensional stuffed toys. Today we made the blue turtle monster and she was SO happy. I might try to make another tomorrow and give it a different head-to-body ratio (bigger head, smaller body). C has also been making drawings, frames, and pot holder looms. And, about eleventy bazillion loom bracelets. She also took a felt bunting we made last year and turned it into a mobile for her room. I love the way it looks, like bubbles in the ocean.
Morgan also got in on the action. He has been really into stories about zombies lately, so this is a zombie monster with three eyes and blood. Fun times
Apparently making weird looking things is a ‘thing’ for us. Here is a set of zombie princesses vs. cavemen we made in the fall.
I hope you find some time to make something or enjoy something lovely that was made with the amazing artistic eye of a child.
This morning, for the first time ever, I got to see a lamb get born. I actually got to catch one lamb (it was going to drop into the snow) and see another! It was pretty exciting. We knew that two of our ewes were very close, so we were ready. Usually they lamb in the very early morning, but this time, it was around 8:30am. I got to the barn to see Frances on the ground pushing. I sent Jackson back to get Mike and the camera, quickly fed the other sheep and cows and got to her right as she stood up to drop the lamb.
I caught it and then quickly held it to her nose and walked her into the barn. I closed the gate and a few minutes later Mike and Jackson got there. She cleaned her lamb and we assembled a hay stall for her. This worked well for us last year. The hay insulates the sheep and keeps the draft off the babies. They will stay in there for a few days until they are stronger. Then they will get free reign of the barn for a week until they can be out with the flock.
After she cleaned off the first lamb, I again picked it up and held it to her nose and walked her into the hay stall. We closed it up and within a few minutes, the other lamb dropped. She cleaned it and within twenty minutes, both lambs were on their feet trying to nurse. She has one ram and one ewe! It is our first ewe lamb from her which is exciting because she is the best ewe ever and I would like to have a lamb from her. It is very cold this week which is unfortunate, but the lambs are really only at risk for hypothermia in the first hour after birth and only when wet. These guys are dry and warm and so hopefully will be just fine.
Not only did we get to see the birth, but Mike got to film the second one. You can see it on the video below. Just a word of caution, it is a lamb being born, so their are some gooey bits in the video. You can also see more pictures on Flickr.
Happy 2014! We hope you are having a wonderful new year. The holidays were a bit of a blur for us as we were traveling. Now we are back and settled. We have had it in our minds for a while that 2014 would be the year we would get a new dog. Our youngest child is almost four and not such a baby any more. Our vizsla Zsaka is almost 11 and we wanted him to be young enough to help us train the new dog. For those who have ever met him, he is the sweetest, calmest dog imaginable. He is the best family dog. However, he isn’t a *great* farm dog. He doesn’t like to be outside without us and never barks or really marks his territory. We have had many conversations with people over the past year about what breed might be right for us and a few kept coming up that would meet our dual needs (farm and family). Great Pyrenees, Australian Shepard, Standard Poodle, etc. We really wanted to adopt a dog and were given the name of Big Fluffy Dog Rescue. We got what seemed like the perfect dog or us in late November. He was active and smart and great with all of the people. He was supposedly a Pyr-Dalamation cross. Unfortunately, he hated Zsaka, the cats, and had a super high prey drive so having him around our free ranging poultry was a no-go. He ended up going to a lovely home with a female dog and two caring humans and a few horses. The last we heard he was doing great. Having that experience made us really evaluate what we thought we needed. We had wanted an active adult male. In truth what we needed was entirely different.
When we got back from our travels, we got word of a pair of Pyr-Aussie pups were headed up north from Tennessee. We were asked if we would like to foster these girls to see if they might work for us. We thought this would be a great idea. Our needs on the farm are so specific that starting with a puppy and raising it ourselves might be the only way to ensure that the animal works well as a working dog. Having a few puppies to compare meant that we could look at temperament. When we picked up the two lovely fluff balls we were told we had a week to decide. We couldn’t possibly imagine how we could decide in that short a time. In truth, we knew in the first 30 minutes of having the pair. Our Elsa (she came to us as Evie, the one picture below with the white band around her nose) was calm, submissive, sweet, dainty, and smart. Her sister Emma (who was Echo) was brave, boisterous, alert, and VERY smart. Smart is good, but too smart can be trouble We knew pretty immediately that Elsa would be our girl and as the week progressed we became certain. The best possible news was learning that very close friends of ours (more like family) who had happened to be visiting the day we picked the pups up, fell in love with Emma and ended up adopting her. The sisters got to have a play date last night and it was so amazing to see them romp and play. We look forward to many years with both girls and many play times. Elsa is already showing herding and patrolling instincts and is quick to learn commands. We think she will be the perfect farm-family dog.
The goodbye part of our story is very sad. This week our cat Marty died unexpectedly. He was somewhere between 8-10 years old. For the past week he had been keeping to himself more, but we thought it was due to the puppies. I found him downstairs one morning last week looking very rough and thin. We brought him upstairs and gave him water and put him in a clean crate so we could keep an eye on him. He was purring and alert and drinking but not eating. In the morning he had passed. We don’t know exactly what happened but many things point to feline leukemia. He was vaccinated, but he also went outside a lot so he may have picked up something. He was an amazing farm cat and he will be sincerely missed. Ironically, we got him five years ago when our rescue greyhound Izzy died suddenly from cancer. Izzy, Marty, and Elsa all have similar coloring; white coats with large spots. We wonder if they all have some of the same spirit.
We will post updates and pictures of Elsa as she grows. Happy winter to everyone!
