We have been gearing up to process about 7 of our roosters next Saturday. I’m not too terribly fond of the word process; I realize that it’s probably less offensive than perhaps butchering, and definitely a lot better than saying killing. But, let’s face it, that’s what we’re going to be doing – killin’ chickens. This is where the “prayer” part of Wing and a Prayer comes in. We are both animal lovers, but we are also omnivores and if we’re going to be doing the full Permaculture lifestyle, a part of that is being self sufficient. We’re not raising these chickens simply as pets (we keep telling ourselves), but as part of our food supply. So here we go, praying that we make it through the whole adventure and come out with a great tasting product at the end. Continue reading
“Processing” – The Next Adventure
28 Saturday Jan 2017
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Hügelkulture – AKA “The Abyss”- Sue made huge strides this week in completing this project. She ordered yards and yards of mulch from the transfer station in Sierra Vista and had it delivered. The guys that delivered it also planted the bigger trees for us and moved the mulch around into the abyss and added the dirt etc. That saved us a great deal of work and they were done in two days with what probably would have taken us a week or so. The photo at left shows the progress th
at was made yesterday: the trees are placed and the mulch pile at the back is being distributed around the grounds. These other two photos are of the finished work from today. The guys covered our trees and and also mulched previously planted trees. It’s just so nice to have the trench filled in… now we’ll see how well the trees do as the mulch, manure, cardboard/paper, and wood breaks down over time. The way the trench was filled and the fact that it’s all on a downward slope should also help us with the watering, especially during the monsoon season. The yards will be looking so lovely, as long as we can keep the trees growing. Sue did make gopher proof planting baskets for the trees, so – hopefully – we won’t loose things to those little buggers. 
like she knew just what she was doing and when I shared that
thought, Mr. Jaxel winked at me and said, “Don’t worry, she’ll get better.” As he took over for a minute, prior to re-positioning the tractor, I could see that he had spent many hours behind the controls of a backhoe. He made it look so simple. I was still very proud of Sue for what she was able to accomplish and, with practice (there will be many opportunities for practice), I know she’ll be a pro in no time. Then I can learn! It just looks so darn fun. So, John S. and Candace C.~ still want to come and learn some tractoring? We’ve got lots of earth to move! Actually, that invitation is open to any of our friends or family. We’d love to have you visit and see what we’re doing first hand, maybe take a turn on the backhoe… at the owner’s discretion. Until then, as always,
When we first were looking at this property, even though we visited it a few times, I don’t think we really realized how drastic the weather was going to be. The temperatures do fluctuate some, but in general, it’s been pretty mild. What has really surprised us is the wind! (I think I’ve said that a couple of times in this blog.) We seem to be in a wind vortex here, and it can be rather severe. You see to the left what was left of our first Chicken Tractor that Sue made over the summer. This is what we used to house the littles when they were first big enough to be outside without a heat lamp. It’s not a light weight object… it took two of us to move it… but here you see where it landed 50 yards from where it was, INSIDE the chicken run. So, it was lifted off the ground, glanced across the top of my car (that could have been much worse), then lost some altitude and stopped this side of our fence. Whew! Our other little shade structure took flight during that same wind storm which happened before Christmas. So, wind is something we contend with each day.
Another weather issue that we’re working with are the torrential rains. This photo is from New Year’s Day. That is Sue, out in a downpour, directing rain runoff to the “pond” that we’re keeping for water catchment. The main thing we want to do with all the rain that comes our way, is to keep it on the property as long as possible. If we’re not capturing it in the cistern, or in the rain tank, we’re trying to keep it in 
instead of running down the street into the gutters. Sue placed an 1800 gallon rainwater tank by the house, that is set up to capture half of the roof runoff and the patio cover runoff. We’ve had two good downpours since she did that and it is already full! We’re already talking about adding something to the other side of the house and carport that will capture that water to be used as irrigation during the dry periods. The runoff that Sue is working with above, is actually the overflow from the rainwater tank…I tried to capture that in the photo to the right. You can see the rain gutter going into the tank, and, in the middle of the photo you see the water just pouring out of the overflow valve. It was amazing how quickly it filled up!
The other issue we’re learning to work with, and watch out for, is SNOW! Well, and freezing night temperatures. Sometimes the temperature fluctuation from day to night is 30° or more. Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning, we had incredibly frigid temperatures from a weather system that dusted us with snow. Didn’t seem to bother the Biggies much, but the Littles would not come out of the coop. However, by mid day we were back up into the high 50’s, all the snow had melted from our property and things just continued to warm up throughout the week. We’ve taken to watching the weather quite closely so that we know when to cover the citrus trees, and the few winter veggies that I planted. So far they’ve all come through OK. We even have a few limes on the tree still, and some very small green lemons. We’ve continued to harvest the Kale, and are watching our Cabbage and Broccoli grow bigger and bigger (see today’s Facebook Post for photos); the Spinach took a breather, but held on through the coldest months and now I’m waiting for a growth spurt! One of the real champions this winter was the Coriander (Cilantro) plant; I’ve cut it several times and it just continues to put out new growth. The Basil also overwintered, but I’m not sure it’s going to be much by spring… we’ll see.
These are the chickens we refer to as “The Biggies”, even though they are actually smaller than those we refer to as “The Littles”. We’ve recently tried calling them the Big Littles and the Little Bigs, but that gets a mite confusing. Anyway~ the roster that you see to the left of the photo is Dodo (he started out as Dolores, but then he turned into a Rooster, so I changed his name); he guards the hens very carefully, warning them when something flying over looks predatory, and is quite solicitous with them in general. He keeps the other rooster, Ahmen – not pictured – from pestering them and us… he always calls his girls over when he finds a plump insect or some nice scratch. He’s a feisty little Bantam and we really like him. Back to the photo: it shows them enjoying a dirt bath together today in the late afternoon. They are so happy because yesterday they were shut in all day to get them used to their new digs. What am I talking about? Well, as the title suggests, introductions are in order, and what I am refering to is, the process of introducing the Biggies into the permanent chicken coop with the Littles. We have fixed up the smaller brooding section of the coop into a temporary home for the Biggies, so they can interact with the Littles with a chicken wire separation between. This way, in a week or so, when we orchestrate another night move and everyone wakes up together, they will already be somewhat familiar with each other. The shock won’t be so great! Already, our littlest Biggie – Maeve – has taken quite a shine to some of our more shy Buff Orpingtons, especially the one we call “Little Buff.” The Buffs are, in general, quite a calm and gentle breed of chicken. They are often recommended as pets for children. It’s cute that our smallest chicken has grown attached to the gentle giants. When the Littles were truly little, Maeve often hung out by their chicken tractor and clucked at them. We think she’ll make a great brood hen one day.
Now that they were in there, we needed to put the finishing
touches on their new home. Sue was sure that they needed to have some type of curtains over the nesting boxes, so she went all festive and purchased Christmas Dish Towels at the Dollar General and stapled them up! Very cute for a short term solution! In the photo below, the curious have gathered to check out their Christmas hangings.
Sue then decided that they needed a roost and ladder to better access the boxes. So she went about putting that all together. It was installed the same day as the “curtains”, and again the littles gathered to watch the installation and kibitz amongst themselves at the wonder of it all. I think they were probably saying “Oh my. Would you look at that!” and “Whatever will they think of next?” Come on, say it like a chicken would~ you know you want to!
This was all completed by December 20th, which is a very good thing because the evening of the 24th and morning of the 25th, it snowed! Our littles were safe and cozy warm in their hay filled coop. On Christmas morning, Sue was slated to play and sing at the 7:30 am service, so I stayed and did the morning chores. The littles refused to come out and be in that cold white stuff. They decided they were snowed in for the day. But the biggies were not deterred at all. They came out and were scratching around as though they were old pros at this snow stuff. It didn’t last that long anyway, it was mostly gone by the time we came home at noon. Everyone survived and stayed safe. 
Wing and a Prayer 