Wednesday Weekend

So I may have mentioned that our family has had some chaotic shifts in schedule and routine the last few months. Actually, from about the end of April, all summer long, we’ve been in a survival mode. I’m whipping things back into shape as we’ve begun our homeschooling year and summer is coming to a close.

But with all the changes, it’s put our “weekend” on Wednesdays when my husband is off work. Let me tell ya, he got more accomplished today than I have in a good 2 weeks.

The kids and I have found some interesting mushrooms, as it is mushroom season!! Most of them I’m still not super confident in identifying for edible or medicinal use, but I’m learning!

My oldest daughter harvested turkey tails with me, and the boys found some lactarius indigo in the side woods, along the property line! What a treat that was to find a blue (my favorite 💙) edible mushroom. Unfortunately, they squished it because they were amused at the blue “blood” or sticky sap that oozes from the crushed gills. So I didn’t get to cook any. BUT- now I know where to look for them in the future.

We’ve decided to brood 15 chicks (2 roos, 13 hens) to rebuild our flock after all the attacks. And we’re building a hoop coop for them since we can’t seem to predator-proof the current coop and run. Poultry netting is an option, if there were any available- shortages in homestead staples is real. So it’s a matter of make due and survive. Anyway, the chicks arrived 2 weeks ago, all looking healthy and happy.

We are brooding them differently than we have in the past and hopefully the changes we are making in habitat for them will result in happier, healthier, non-stressed, non-attacked chickens.

My husband is also building a hoop coop in order to hopefully deter predators as well as increase efficiency of the homestead, having all our animals on one side of the property. This means we don’t have to make multiple stops in the garage or trek from one side of 5 acres to the other. Time saved is sanity saved is productivity gained.

He has since attached the back, affixed the door, and all that remains is the tarp on top and the smaller hardware cloth along the bottom.

We have accumulated the appropriate number of rabbit feeders so that we can make full use of our cage segments, each bunny having it’s own space. Previously, the adults had their own areas, but the baby buns were sharing a cage.

And I’ve got a neat providential kitchen sink update, which I don’t have the time to share now, but suffice it to say, the centerpiece of the new kitchen should– and this is an objective, not a definitive– should be in place within the next weekend, God willing.

Lots of farm errands to run, and mending to be done around the farm, so until the next free moment, we’re just gonna keep plugging away.