It happens every year. Winter comes; we and the chickens are beginning to make preparations around the farm for cold weather.

Some of the chickens and ducks have been molting the last few weeks or so. They are making sure that their winter down is coming in before it gets too cold. Sue has begun winter coop preparations too. Today all of the old litter was removed from the main side of the coop (the brooder side of the coop was already done). Sue moved it with five gallon buckets and put it all into the compost bin. She didn’t count the number of buckets – but it was enough to completely fill the compost bin. Sue had me compacting it and watering it as we she filled it up, so there is a lot of stuff in there!

While she cleaned out the coop, I replaced the covering on top of the nesting boxes, it was pretty yucky. Then replaced the privacy curtains over these boxes. They really like the curtains so its good to changed them every now and then.

Sue finished emptying out the coop and then filled it with two bales of compressed straw. It’s the really soft stuff that they truly like to nest around in. It looks, and smells, so fresh and clean. Here are the remaining photos from the day.

So this last photo is of a little nesting shelter that Sue put together for the ducks. It’s been sitting under the nesting boxes for a year and half and they didn’t really end up using it. Today we moved it out into the coop area for them to use as a protected shade shelter, or dirt bath house… something. It attracted a great many looky-loos this morning. So we’ll see how they use it.

This is only the beginning of the “winterizing” that we’ll be working on. I’ll try to be better at keeping you up to day. Until then, as always~
Thank you for reading.

We haven’t really talked about everyone lately, and we’ve had an addition and some losses to the farm recently. I thought we could do an overall animal roundup today. I also thought it might give me a chance to use this Chicken Scrum photo I’ve been holding on to. This is what it looks like around 2:30 each afternoon when we’re getting ready to pick up eggs – the chickens know that they get a yummy scratch treat and they begin to line up waiting for it at around 2:15… or any time we walk out the door after 12:30!

We do a great deal of tasks, projects, chores, etc. on our own, but sometimes we just need a bit of help. We’re happy to accept help of all types and we’re even more happy when we’re able to help others. Time for some Thank You stories.

Thank you to our neighbors, Lance and Elise, who let us invade their space and pool while they were traveling. It was wonderful to use the pool and pick the vegetables. Really cool. It was great that you asked us. We already need to thank you for so much other help that you’ve given us every since you’ve moved in, and the offers of future assistance, and your general support in so many ways – thank you.

We also thank all of our clients for their continued patronage. You’ve stuck by us through the vagarities of our silly chickens, and when they totally stop laying, you come back to us in the spring. We thank you and we enjoy it when you thank us back! We received this thank you today which made me laugh out loud! This is from Ali, she went out of state for a while to visit family and we kept her husband supplied with eggs. She said that every time she talked to him – he was either eating eggs or hamburger or beans! So happy to have them as part of our Wing Family.

We want to thank our friends who are willing to help out when they can. And then come to help when we change dates on them. Friends like Nicole who, when asked at the last minute to help on processing day, and tried like crazy to find someone who would be able to watch her son so she could. Also family who, when asked, comes up with solutions – Sue’s son, Dustin came up with a processing plan for tomorrow since I’m not at my best for butchering. Thank you all!

We cannot do this work without the support of all of you. We appreciate you so, so much and we want you know this. We have been here four years now and I believe we have accomplished much, have aided those we are able to and have improved the land on which we are living. Sue is feeling a bit discouraged lately, due to some unexpected issues, like – not as much rain during monsoon, way more wind than we ever imagined, some health issues, this year, on my part which kept me from being very helpful this summer (case in point – this processing weekend). But I believe we are making huge strides and, over time, we will continue to do so.

I’ll let you know how things turn out this weekend. Until then, as always~
Thank you for reading.

My mom and I speak on the phone every week. Lately, she’s been keeping me informed about all her garden successes. I’m just a little bit jealous. They’ve had so much more rain than normal this spring – it’s made mom’s plants all just take off. We’re more than a little bit behind on the garden front. Continue reading →