We had a problem this year. Mainly that neighbors dogs broke in and killed most of our chickens and peachicks. Suddenly we were down to 2 chickens, when it was decided 6 were needed to supply the family with enough eggs. What to do.
In comes the wonderful community we have around us. We were given 3 chickens. Happiness.
Then 4 egg laying ducks were given to us. Then a little call duck drake was given to my daughter. Suddenly we had geese. Then yet another egg laying duck was given to us.
There we were, completely without poultry and BAM, plenty of birds meandering the farm.
Now this has had an impact. The pond has been completely free of birds for the year. I had grasses and reeds growing. The pond was actually clear most days. The pigs were enjoying it and digging it out like crazy but otherwise, a healthy ecosystem.
The ducks didn’t make that big of an impact. The initial 4 were young and did not create that much of a mess. The geese, now they were a problem. I did not even consider how quickly and completely they could destroy all green matter around the pond. The grass, pretty much non-existent. All of the plants growing up around the pond, destroyed.
I was a little discouraged by all this. I was thinking about how tasty those geese would be. However, I think they can stay. They’ve started venturing out of the fenced pond area and onto the property as a whole. Our acreage can certainly withstand the appetites of two Sevastopol geese. In fact it was a beautiful morning, looking out the windows and watching our chickens, ducks, geese and peafowl wandering the property finding food.
Look at that fat pig!
Indeed I still haven’t fed anyone. I won’t until all the green on our property is gone. I will feed through the winter only. Even without feeding I have fat animals. Happy animals. Healthy animals. It has been a beautiful season with the animals.
Early spring we began losing chickens. Some of them were gone without a trace. Others were found partially eaten. We knew we had a problem, we just weren’t sure what form that problem was taking.
As we have a well fenced run area I felt confident crossing coyotes off the list. They have never made it over the fence before, it is unlikely they learned how now.
That leaves a few possibilities. Ok, tons of possibilities. raccoons, badgers, skunks and weasels to name a few. Raptors were not on our list. We have witnessed great horned owl carnage before and this was nothing like that. There were no holes dug anywhere under the fence so that pretty much crossed badger off the list. I did not think it was a weasel. We had seen a stoat about the property before but it was really small and seemed to be happy killing the ground squirrels we have plenty of. I didn’t think fox because what I understood about foxes is that they’d kill everything just for the pleasure of it. This led me down a raccoon path that was pretty much solidified by a neighbor confirming they had a raccoon family nearby.
So we started baiting a life trap, closing the gate on the barn itself and we bought and placed a trail cam to catch the culprit. The first night we caught a cat. I had wondered if it might have been a cat but I wasn’t confident this cat was our killer. So, after debating it we let the cat go and put the trap out again. The next night we caught…..something. It ripped the door off the trap so we had no real idea what it might have been.
Then we bought the pigs. We were worried, they were small when we purchased them. Still, pigs are ferocious when needed. The killing stopped for a time. I was hoping it had moved on, or the presence of the pigs in the barn was enough to discourage it. It wasn’t to last. Soon we lost a turkey. Our security doubled down. We were trying all different kinds of bait in the trap but never caught anything else. The trail cam never captured any useful photos either.
We went on vacation and I worried we’d come back to nothing. Thankfully everyone was still alive when we returned. We did have some ducks build nests outside of the run though. I had some hog panels I zip tied in a circle around the hens. Everything was going ok. The hens were set to hatch their eggs any day. Then I went out to find a wing and no other trace of the hen. The eggs were also gone. I was devastated but had hopes for the other hen. She was well hidden, it took me weeks to find her myself.
Around this time the peahens also went to brood. I saw them each day as they flew over to eat. Then, one morning, no peahens. My heart dropped and I went in search of them. I found feathers, so many feathers, and eaten eggs. No peahen. She obviously gave her attackers a struggle. We were hoping she was injured and in hiding. We searched everywhere. We’ve never found her. The other duck was also killed the same night. Her body was strewn about in several locations, her eggs eaten. At this point I called game and fish. I didn’t think a raccoon could take a peahen. I’ve seen those girls attack our dogs and win.
Game and fish came out and confirmed it was a coon. They’ve told us to stake it out and shoot it. The chance of trapping it is so slim shooting is our only option. So we have the game cam out, baited, trying to figure out which days and times the coons come around. So far we haven’t caught any pictures of them. We did get an entertaining coyote chase though. You can see the rabbit racing away in one shot and the coyote chasing it in the other.
We are nearly out of chickens at this point. We have a single turkey left. We also only have one peacock left. The male peacock went missing during the night a week ago. The ducks seem ok. Other than the ones who were nesting no ducks have been harmed. I’m guessing it’s their alert state at night that has kept them safe thus far.
I’ve been told a line of electric wire at the top and bottom of the fence may be enough to keep them out. That is our next step.
Sometimes there are no words. Pictures are all that I have. There is so much I have not accomplished. So many things yet to be done. In these times of chaos it waters my soul to settle for a minute and photograph what has been done. The beauty that surrounds me but that I don’t notice in my busyness.
Cherry Blossoms
Plum Blossoms
Medlar Blossoms
Radishes
Sparta confused about what I’m doing.
Chicken Adventures
Ducks, Ducks, Ducks! The reason we never have clean water anywhere.
Turkey poults tasting some grass for the first time.
Piggie pics
Jiki found some fresh coyote poop near the barn to roll in. Yay…
Sparta running to catch up to us. Me thinks he’s gotten fat.
Pretty as a peacock.
Sparta peeking around the corner at the bacon bits.
I’ve been wanting to make and can my own broth. Unfortunately I have too many projects and too little time. However, I do cook dinner every day. Some of the dinner prep parts are wasted. Some main parts of dinner are wasted on certain household members as well.
I love making soup with our old hens, or mean roosters. They make some delicious soup. My husband has never been much a fan of soup broth and usually a lot of it is wasted. It’s broth though. Healthy broth as I make my soup with mushrooms and vegetables. So I canned it. Well I put it in jars and froze it, but I’m still considering it canning.
Oh, I filtered it before putting it in the jars.
I also made chicken enchiladas. You boil the chicken and then shred it, throwing out the broth. Well usually I do but not this time. The freezer is loaded with frozen broth that would normally get trashed.
Tastes great in meals so far. Better than store bought for sure!
Not a lot gets wasted at our house. We have the big dogs and the birds and now the pigs. Chocolate is officially our only food waste product. Yay!
I’m so excited to have found this piece in an antique store recently. It is going to look amazing on the new island, or the table. I have options. I’ve started the herb seeds in it today. I’m interested to see how good I am at growing them indoors. I’m usually a pretty big failure at it. Anyway, take a look and keep an eye out for this amazing piece. Would make a great organizational tray, drink caddy, etc, etc.
Lemongrass is such a wonderful plant. It can be used in cooking, to deter bugs, to make tea and medicinally. WebMD even has a page on it:
Lemongrass is a plant. The leaves and the oil are used to make medicine.
Lemongrass is used for treating digestive tract spasms, stomachache, high blood pressure, convulsions, pain, vomiting, cough, achy joints (rheumatism), fever, the common cold, and exhaustion. It is also used to kill germs and as a mild astringent.
In food and beverages, lemongrass is used as a flavoring. For example, lemongrass leaves are commonly used as “lemon” flavoring in herbal teas.
In manufacturing, lemongrass is used as a fragrance in soaps and cosmetics. Lemongrass is also used in making vitamin A and natural citral.
How does it work?
Lemongrass might help prevent the growth of some bacteria and yeast. Lemongrass also contains substances that are thought to relieve pain, reduce fever, stimulate the uterus and menstrual flow, and have antioxidant properties.
I wanted to grow lemongrass for a different reason, the oil attracts bees. As you know we built our own beehives. I do not want to buy a package of bees, I’d rather attract a swarm. To do that I needed lemongrass essential oil. Husband has been wanting to try his hand at making essential oil, so I just needed the lemongrass. I went to our local oriental market and bought all the lemongrass they had. I put them in a jar of water until they’d sprouted roots, then I planted them out to the kitchen herb garden. They have really taken off. I’ve harvested some for lemongrass chicken and loved it.
Lemongrass
Thai Basil
Here is Daughter helping me prep the lemongrass. Ok, she’s just chewing on it. She informed me she didn’t like eating grass.
Such a cute face!
Stripped of stalk.
All I did to prep the lemongrass was strip off the base leaves, cut the white base of the stalk off, wash it and chop it up to be added to dinner. The recipe I gathered inspiration from is this one. As usual, I didn’t follow the directions and modified as I saw fit. I used bean noodles, sliced chicken breasts, carrots, and green onions. I did not use fish sauce, cuz yuck! O let me just tell you my recipe:
Lemongrass Chicken with Bean Noodles
Ingredients
1 serving bean noodles
Olive Oil- enough to coat bottom of pan
2 large lemongrass stalks or 5 small ones.
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried ginger
10 leaves fresh thai basil
1 carrot sliced thinly
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 TB brown sugar
Directions
Cook bean noodles as directed on the package.
Add lemongrass, ginger, oil and garlic to a medium skillet and sauté until fragrant. Add the sliced chicken and cook through. Add lemon juice, basil and brown sugar and coat chicken. Next add the noodles and warm through. Remove and serve in a bowl with carrot curls and green onions.
Add spice, to taste with sriracha or red pepper flakes. My children do not like spice and so we kept it optional.
I think bean sprouts would be great in this dish but I didn’t have any when I first made it and it was still great.
There we were, completely without poultry and BAM, plenty of birds meandering the farm.
Look at that fat pig!
