If you build it they will come

   Transplant Wild Life ... 

We have made our land wildlife-friendly well .... we have some transplant animals we can not claim but we love having a new addition to the homestead welcome  Daisy and Daniel ... DUCK * they are making a nest and we could have a duck family in the pond very soon. 

Orchard Planted

Apple, Pear, Plum, Peach, Apricot, Cherry, Walnut, Almond, Paw Paw, and Crab Apple

  Since we brought our property we have planted fruit-bearing trees on our way to be self-sufficient in our fruit production. The first year we planted Three discount apple trees, Two have lived. We found on the land two crab apple trees we harvest from one and leave the other for the animals. Last year we planted two apples, two pears, two plum, a peach, and a walnut. One of those plums died but the rest are doing amazing and lived through almost being covered to the top in snow. This year we wanted to go back to the native plants and planted two native plums, two Paw Paw, an apricot, a cherry, and an almond tree. We will be moving around some maples into our maple grove but other than that I think we are done with our orchard lots of help from the Little O's in planting and watering in all the trees into our orchards.

 

New Chicks for our flock

                     Silver and Gold ... Silver and Gold ... Silver and Gold .... Silver 

                    On Thursday we added  7 new Wyandotte chicks to our flock , we were adding 6 at a time on a two year cycle from laying to meat to feed our family. We pick dual purpose , cold hardy , and friendly chickens. We had 6 ISA browns in the spring of 2020 and we get constant wonderful eggs from them. We had a hawk attack and lost one to it. To loose one in a year I am ok with she got out of the garden and did not hide like her sisters. One of the new 7 will go with the 5 we have left next spring to make way for 6 more chicks and keep up our cycle of food. 

            The Wyandotte is an American breed of chicken developed in the 1870s. It was named for the indigenous Wyandot people of North America. The Wyandotte is a dual-purpose breed, kept for its brown eggs and its yellow-skinned meat. They will start to lay at 9 months and will lay for 3 years.

            The ISA Brown is a crossbreed of chicken, with sex-linked coloration. It is thought to have been the result of a complex series of crosses including but not limited to Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites, and contains genes from a wide range of breeds. They lay brown eggs daily for the first 3 years of life.

            Now we are novices to chickens we have never owned them, never cared for them, never knew how many flipping eggs 6 chickens would give you. We started a cost sheet where we take the cost of feed, bedding ( we have started collecting our own and will start growing food for the animals ) and all things chicken with the number of eggs they give us in a given month we are up a lot. In lean times the chickens have proven to be great for our family in both our pocketbooks and our tummies.  I will post more on how we saved money by building the coop from scraps left around and the whole year with the ISA's but nowhere are the chicks. We brought them from a local farm supply store and they are hens as we are not allowed roosters.
This is our broader where we keep the chicks safe and warm in it we have food ( medicated ), grit, water, a heat lamp, and a thermometer. The thermometer is important because baby chicks can not regulate their own temps. We put the chicks in our sun porch last year we had them in the basement and it was harder to keep their temps up.

                                        Lots of thoughts into this and trial and error from last year 

                                                    Babies rocks in the water so they do not drown 

                                                    Night time is colder but they still are able to stay warm enough

                                                

Maple Tree start

Welcome to the Mom farm fashion this outfit is best for going into streams and collecting Maple Sap
Last year we got this brilliant idea to tap our trees but we were too late in the season. We have been monitoring the other farms around here and Sat we were set to tap. To tap a tree you want snow on the ground and the daytime temps above 40* for more than 3 days. The season only lasts till the nighttime temps at overnight get above freezing.

We have a big tree with 8, 18 inches around shoots we can tap at the moment we have 4 taps in ( we brought a kit on amazon with tubes and taps ) The instructions that came with it were so easy. Dad drilled and the girls set the taps in.

 We check the taps twice a day and usually get a gallon or 2 a day. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Springtime is really big chores in the O house and everyone does the chores because everyone eats.
                                             The kit we ordered Tap Kit