Rehoboth Homestead

Winter stayed on a long time, and it seems to have returned today and yesterday, but once the snow finally melted, field work has begun. I got these broccoli (left and right) and lettuce (center) plants in the field Saturday and Sunday afternoon, before the rains. The little vertical “sticks” at the top are onion plants. I also got some seeds planted - chard, carrots, beets, peas, etc. When we have the opportunity to get field work done, and especially when a stop to field work looms, we have to get it done. I missed the Champlain Valley Beekeepers Association meeting Saturday and the North Country Co-op Annual Meeting Sunday to get these planted before the rains. I ran out of Vermont Compost that I use for potting mix so had to stop potting tomato plants into larger pots, and couldn’t plant more seeds, until I got more potting mix. Mark Kimball (Essex Farms) had some he could spare so I spent this morning picking and rinsing two big 30-gallon bags of spinach from the hoophouse to take down for their CSA distribution, and spent a couple hours shoveling compost into feed bags in the back of my car. The stuff is heavy, I could back right up to it, and I decided it was easier to put the empty bag in the car and fill it there than to fill it on the ground and heft it in. It is really helpful to have friendly farmers around (they are 24 miles away though) to share, advise, commiserate, etc.

Now I have something to show folks so will start promoting the CSA in earnest. Here is a sample of what is started. Clockwise from lower left on the right bench: lettuce, pac choi, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, swiss chard, more lettuces, Chinese cabbage, broccoli and leeks. From the leeks going up the middle are spinach and more lettuces.

I weeded the carrots that are in the hoophouse today, and planted out some cold hardy flower plants. Started potting up some of the younger tomato plants that are slated for bedding plant sales. I need to get stuff planted out to make more bench space for younger plants. Things are growing very well.

The overwintered spinach is still tender and incredibly good. I have a small plot of young salad mix that is at perfect size, and the older stuff is much loved by the hens, ducks, goslings, and chicks. I have to anchor the plants down for the young ones so they can pull off pieces, but for the adults I dump the plants into the duck pool or on the ground. If I have a blue rubbermaid in my hands I get mobbed by expectant hens, whether it is empty or full. They are fun.

This is the week of babies. One of our Cuckoo Maran hens has been sitting on a clutch of eggs and most are hatched. We will get Americauna chicks Friday. And today our goslings arrived, from California no less.

I have been interested in geese because they appear to be a great sustainable meat source. After they are about a month old, they primarily eat green stuff. They don’t need lots of commercial feed. I can conceivably grow enough wheat (or buy Essex organic wheat) and soybeans, and roast the soybeans in the oven, for feed for goslings and overwintering. The only downside is that they take a couple of years to mature before they lay fertile eggs. We have started these early enough this year that maybe they will lay next year, but we can’t count on it.

We got two types of geese, both of which are on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s critical list: Pilgrim Geese and American Buff Geese. Both have nice dispositions (at least for geese), which was important since we have a neighbor who is afraid of geese. And they are both pretty quiet. Both breeds are American in origin, from the 1930s and 1940s.

The babes are soft, sweet, and make wonderful sounds. They devoured a couple good-sized chunks of dirt with grass and weeds today.

For those who wonder how we get chicks/ducklings/goslings shipped to us, fortunately both the biology and the logistics work well. First for the biology: Just before baby birds hatch they absorb the yolk and white into their bodies. They can live off this for several days. In nature, not only may it take a day for them to dry and get their legs enough to go out scratching for food, but the first to hatch have to wait a day or two for their nest mates to all hatch. So, the goslings hatched Sunday night/Monday morning and were taken to the USPS airport facility. They flew across country, then boarded post office trucks and arrived at the Peru Post Office about 5 a.m. Wednesday morning. We received a call at 7 a.m. telling us they were here, and Tony went over and got them. All are healthy. No one was starving or dying of thirst, though by midmorning they had all figured out what water and chick starter are. And when I took them some chunks of sod and dirt, and later some lettuce from the hoophouse, they instinctively new what to do.

Here is a size comparison of a fairly large breed chicken chick and a gosling, both hatched Sunday/Monday:

We had the field tile drained last fall, to the tune of about $5400 for 3 acres. I had dreamed of having it done, but didn’t think the contractor would bother with our little field. Well, last November a large dairy farm that leases land up the road had them in and, since they were so close and had extra tile (actually 4″ perforated plastic pipe laid about 4 feet deep), they came down and did it. It was the end of November, in between snows. Where they put the tile in there were relatively tall ridges left but it was too wet to do anything about them and I hoped they would settle over the winter. They didn’t. This year, once the snow melted, we could have worked the field within two days. Except for the northwest corner which has some surface water coming into it. In the past it would have taken weeks for the field to dry enough to work. We are fortunate to have someone about 4 miles away who has a large tractor, 5-bottom plow, and disks. Dairy farmers are too busy to do this stuff for others. They came Friday and worked it. It is not as level as I would like, but that will take a couple of years. Here is what it looked like before and after: It took them awhile because that surface runoff I mentioned goes down the border on the north. I warned about it but I guess it didn’t look bad from the tractor cab. Sometimes it just takes some extra “oomph” for a tractor to make it out, but ur old 40 HP tractor wasn’t enough so they had to go get their backhoe. I haven’t gotten the bill yet, but they were here probably 4 hours. I dread the bill, but they can do such a better job in so much less time with their larger equipment than we can with our little 2 bottom plow and 6 foot disk.

I realize how “different” my life is by what I get excited about or really REALLY appreciate. For instance, today we hooked the water up to the garage. Hmmmm???

We got an old stainless steel sink with drainboards a couple of years ago. Tony mounted it on the wall of the garage for me to rinse eggs in. Before that, I rinsed and dried them in the kitchen, had a scale on the countertop for sizing, egg cartons around, etc. With the new garage setup, all that moved out of the kitchen. WONDERFUL.

Clean eggs come in and get weighed and packed (cartons for various sizes to the left of the scale and sink). Rinsed eggs air dry on the drainboard to the right of the sink. Boxes of cartons, sorted by size/type are within reach below, and some are on shelves above also. In summer the shelves have cut flower supplies also. But, the water lines run along the outside wall, so when the temps start getting down into the teens, we shut the water off and drain the lines, and it is back to the kitchen. At least in the winter I only have about half as many hens and eggs as in the summer (currently running 10 dozen/day).

For years I have wanted an Allis Chalmers G tractor. Why? Mostly because the driver’s seat is relatively close to the ground and I feel safe. These tractors were designed for cultivating and are common in old vegetable producing regions. They are not common here, so I settled for the Farmall Cub. But not only am I up high on a bumpy side-hilly drive down to the field, but the Cub implements weigh a ton and are a real pain to change. Other benefits of the G are the engine is in the back so the driver has a clear view of what he is doing when cultivating, and most of the implements mount between the front wheels and the seat, again so the driver can see just what he is doing when cultivating to kill weeds.

The desire for a G increased exponentially a couple of years ago when I found out folks were converting the Gs to run on electric batteries - no fumes or noise (though I enjoy a nice putt-putt from old engines). After asking around (I know of one G around here), I finally found two in one week. I got a suggested price range for a working (sound engine) G from someone and put in a bid on Ebay, out of curiosity to see how high it would really go. It was in Lockport. I really wanted one without an engine and had asked on a couple of antique tractor sites if anyone had one. Someone near Buffalo replied they had one they would sell for $1000. I said I’d take it. The next day I won the Ebay G. So, from famine to feast. So, now I have one that works, with taller than normal tires which adds clearance so I can cultivate slightly taller plants, and one to convert to electric.

Tony drove out Thursday and picked them up. Borrowed a friend’s trailer for one, and put the other in the back of the pickup. Drove back without a rear window in the truck.

I don’t know what I’ll do long term with the one whose engine runs so well. Seems a shame to dismantle a really well running engine. Maybe I’ll find someone who has one without an engine, and just take off the front rack and trade the rear tires.

It is, but in weather like this I understand some of why livestock industries have gone to confinement housing. I did the last egg gathering and afternoon feeding at 3 p.m., latched the doors, and am done for the day. That may not sound earth-shattering, but it is a relief. In good weather, when everyone can be out, I can’t shut the doors until after dark. Some hens and the ducks like to stay out as long as they possibly can. It isn’t that big a chore, but it is something that nags in your mind that you have to do. To know that chores are over for the day is a really nice feeling.

In this weather the animals don’t mind staying in. The ducks came out a little yesterday morning, but stayed in all afternoon of their own accord. I left them closed in today, and with the sun shining through the plastic south wall, it was much warmer in there than outside. The hen house has a long south glass wall and heat from the shop, so they were toasty inside also. I took them some entertainment - soft sweet potatoes, hard tortillas, and other leftovers. When I filled the rabbit waterers (we have 3 Angora rabbits in the henhouse), I went ahead and put some water on their food, which sent them into ecstasy. You can’t let the food set and mold, but they do love to have their food wet. If the salad actually thaws tomorrow, I’ll thin it out and give them fresh greens. And it is supposed to get above freezing for about a week starting Saturday, so they will be out again getting their own greens. Tony snowblows paths for them and they love to dig the grass out and eat it. One nice thing about all this snow is that the grass underneath is in good eating condition for them.

The weather is actually quite gorgeous. The sky is usually really clear when it is really cold. Today’s high was 6 degrees F. For about half the morning there was a line of grey, but pretty, clouds over the lake, that obscured the sun. By 10 it was bright. The hoophouse did not thaw until afternoon, and the row cover was starting to freeze at 3 when I recovered the salad. The neighbor across the road had their white pines harvested this fall, but nicely left a few along the road. Those are to the west so OK. Unfortunately, they did not harvest the trees to our southwest, so the hoophouse is shaded by 2 p.m. at this time of year.

We’ve had snow on the ground for over a week now. Only two hens have ventured out of the shed to walk around, and they both appreciated being let in the people door on the east so they didn’t have to walk back around to their hen door on the south. Since the whole south wall of the shed is glass, and the floor is deep sand with leaves and woodshavings, they are comfortable inside. They do like to eat snow, and peck it off my boots when I am out collecting eggs or feeding. They take turns at the hen door, eating the snow just outside.

The ducks also tend to stay in their hoophouse, unless we put water in their pool. When it gets up in the high twenties or warmer, we fill the pool for them. Otherwise they have to get by with water in round horse waterers, about 16″ diameter and 4″ deep. They will climb in and take a bath in the little horse waterer pan.

How many ducks can fit in an eight foot pool? So far the most we’ve seen in at once is nine. They swim around in a circle like fast merry-go-round. It is really funny to watch them dive under one another in water that is only six inches deep. We fill the pool about 8″ deep, but they quickly splash about half of it out. They are messy with water.

The two tannish ones outside on the left are Golden Cascades. The white one in the back left of the pool with the bright yellowish bill is a White Campbell. The others are Welsh Harlequins.

It is time to move the hens up to their winter housing - a wonderful 14 foot deep by 24 foot long solar shed on the south side of Tony’s shop they enjoyed last winter also.

Moving chickens can be a real challenge. They imprint on a spot with their manure smell. You can “herd” them (no, they don’t herd well at all) to a new location, but they will try to go back to their old spot.

In previous years, the hens have summered in movable hoophouse shelters that did not have floors. We have about 1000 feet of electric net fencing that the houses are in. We move the shelters to a new area to help distribute their eating and scratching, and manure deposition. We can move the shelters, and the hens will go back to where the shelter was and sit on the ground at night rather than roost in the shelter in the new location. It helps to move them first thing in the morning so they have the whole day to acclimate, but it is not foolproof.

We were blessed with a second, larger camper this summer, so we used the two campers (see Portable Hen Housing) all summer instead of the hoophouses. This makes it much easier to move the hens to a new location. There are a few recalcitrants, but since most of the manure is inside the camper, most hens readily go to bed in the camper that night.

The real bonus came today when we moved the hens back up the hill to the winter shed. By back up the hill, I mean about 700 feet uphill. No herding attempts needed. No need to catch hens and toss them in the back of the pickup and then try to get them all in through the shed door. We just locked them up at night, moved the campers up hill by the shed, fenced in the camper and the shed entrance, and let the hens out. We’ll give them a few days to explore and adjust, then close up the campers for the winter and keep the hens in the shed. This is SOOOOOOO much easier.

Maybe only folks who have moved 250 hens around can appreciate our grins and appreciation of this wonderful improvement in hen moving. It also illustrates just how different our lives are that we can feel such appreciation and glee at such a thing.

It is a sad day for Tony. Roy Boy died. We probably should have put him down a couple of months ago - his legs were really bothering him, but Tony couldn’t do it to his pet rooster. Roy was seven years old. We hatched him from our own eggs, the son of our first great rooster, Rocky (a white rock). Roy was a white rock/barred rock cross (real name, Silverado). I called him “Rado”, Tony called him “Roy Boy”. He imprinted on us, and would run to us for protection when the roosters were sparring for supremacy.

The first time he came running and jumped up on my back was quite a surprise. It got so we could hold our arm out and call him and he would come and jump up and let us walk around with him. He would go for rides in the pickup with Tony, and entertained the folks at Keeseville Country Gardens more than once. Tony enjoyed the double takes other drivers would do when they saw a rooster looking out the window.

He had not looked chipper the last few days, and we found him dead this morning. My camera is broken, so just take my word for it - he has a monumental headstone. We paid good money to have boulders cleared off this land, but Tony took the tractor down and slid the front bucket under a big boulder. Bigger than he realized. He had dug a hole between the roots of the nice ash tree, within the brooder house fence, and buried Roy Boy there. This meant had to drop the boulder over the 5 foot fence. Then we had to lever it into place. This is a ridiculously big, heavy boulder. My camera is broken, or I would take a photo to prove it.

Strut is proving to be a good rooster, but I doubt we will have another Roy Boy.