The Best Hound Around

I had always wanted a dog.  My dad did not want the extra four legs around, was working on our old farm house, and a dog just didn't make sense.  Now mind you I did have pets.  There was Fanny my goldfish.  She was a wonderful Kindergarten pet, and met a tragic ending when my little brother, about 3ish at the time, dumped the can of fish food in her bowl.  We found out that day that Goldfish eat, and eat, and eat.  Then there were the tadpoles we raised into frogs, and the turtle with three legs.  They were from the local pond, or "Pit" as everyone calls it.  We must not forget the mouse my mom saw me talking to as it perished in the trap that ended its life.  I just couldn't stay away I guess from animal pets, especially those that are the "underdog" as my mom says I magnetize to. 

So fast forward to my wedding, new life with my husband, and first house!  What does that call for.......a dog!  I could not wait to get to the humane society to check on what they had for us.  I visited shortly after we moved to Louisiana and were settled in our house.  There were many, many, puppies there all about the same age, 4 1/2 months old.  Most were Catahula puppies, spotted, and energetic.  Then I came upon this puppy, covered in reddish brown fur, looking up at my with those, yes......puppy dog eyes!  He was adorable!  It seemed like he wanted me!  You know you have heard this story before :)  So he became ours and we have LOVED him ever since.


Duncan, such a cutie! 

As a puppy, with a new born, he would rush down the hall when she was fussing, as if to say, "Mom, come on!  She needs us!"  He is so calm, even as a puppy.  He has rarely chewed what he wasn't supposed to, and grew up with our oldest child.  We just got him home, and found out we were pregnant with her :)  He is WONDERFUL with babies, kids, other dogs, adults - except new male service people who come to the house, or the mailman.  He really is a huge teddy bear!   I have had the papers for years that tell us he is a German Shepherd/Husky mix, but with his spotted tongue and legs crossed when he lays down, I am told he is probably part Chow also.  Whatever he is, we love him to the end of the Earth! 

Duncan

  I couldn't have asked for a better companion.  He truly is MY dog.  With my husband he plays and rough houses, but never bites.  He barks at my husband when I am getting too much attention from him, and he always come when I call.  He loves to lick feet(ewww), steal loaves of bread from the counter, like butter wrappers from the garbage, and waits under the table and high chairs for crumbs.  He is usually sprawled out or curled on my bed, snoring while he dreams.  Now that we are out here with open land he loves to explore, but always finds time to help herd the chickens back to the coop.  He even lets me know when they get out and are not supposed to!  What a good chicken dog :)

He lets the kids play all over him, and when he is tired of them, he just simply gets up and walks away.  He is a wonderful guard dog, and sounds very ferocious at the door when new comers deliver a package, or even cars drive down the lane at night.  When my husband is out of town for work, he senses it, and is more anxious and watching out the window for trouble.  Chasing squirrels are a favorite pastime, or sneaking away to see the neighbor's female dogs.  As our oldest human child turns 8, we also celebrate this wonderful dog's life and say he is about 9 years old.  One day soon we will go again to the shelter to look for a dog he can help us raise into a fine dog with good manners.  He is our first "born" baby, and gets to sleep on whatever couch he wants, or my bed till I get there :)  

I chose the name after a family doctor we had for years who was mild mannered, soft spoken, but very attentive and caring. 



We love you Duncan!



Mid-Winter playground

As we try to have our chickens free range in the yard daily, in the winter it can be challenging.  Rainy muddy weather, cold gusty wind, new adolescent chicks added to the coop and run.  Anything can delay an outing into the yard.  One nice day last week Isaac and I were out in the yard exploring and starting a small bon fire.  I had been thinking about how to spice up our ladies lives.  After finding some nice strong branches, this is what we came up with....

Excuse me, mind if I join you?

A nice sturdy large branch for those who like the heights!

Even the chicks got in on the action.

Never underestimate the power of a correctly placed branch.

Getting brave.

Walking the tightrope!

 

A corner to hide or perch. 

 

The funny this is, they LOVE these branches, and the few logs I added.  They get excited to explore, scratch around, dig for worms, and love anything new!    It is quite entertaining.  In the last picture the shadows are longer and the sun was going down fast.  Chickens get into a great habit.  Right about dusk they head into the coop, finding their sleeping place.  I swear they sleep in almost the same place every night.  Some like the high perches above the laying boxes.  Others line up in rows on the roosting bars.  The younger chicks seem to squeeze into a nesting box together, or nestle in the corners of the coop.  I never was a huge fan of birds, but now they are a riot to watch.  I have fun learning their different personalities.  As today was rainy and cold they chose to be indoors a lot.  Hopefully the sun will get them out and foraging again soon :)

New Arrivals!

A family fun weekend with new arrivals at the homestead means little blogging for this busy mom.  But now that all are quietly watching a movie on this rainy day, I have some time to type. 

Though the weekend was mostly about our almost 8 year olds birthday party, we did have some farm fun too.  Alex maintained the coop with its weekly deep clean, and new bedding. And of course we had to use the tractor :)  He also surprised us with new chicks he found at the store.  As I mentioned before we are hatching our own, which hopefully will peek their little heads out this week, but he couldn't resist these beautiful fluff balls.  They are Ameraucanas and should hatch lighter colored eggs with a green or blue hue, and some more Rhode Island Reds.  I just can't get over the beautiful colorings on the Ameracanas. 

With these we were told they are straight run, and we might get some roosters.  90% hen, 10% roo.  We know how that has worked out in the past!  Some are darker brown with light markings, and others are lighter with darker markings. 

He also found the Rhode Island Reds, which are such a cute little red head to have around!



 

 

We had another new visitor here at Hopewell Acre Farms, Flat Asher!  It was so fun to be creative with this little guy our friends sent for a 2nd grade class project.  Here are a few things he explored at our house.


Took a ride on Duncan :)

 



Headed straight for the coop!

Mr. Roo checking out the intruder!



He found a lady ready to lay.

 

And found the bounty!

 

 Went to check out the tractor with Isaac.

 

Visited with Rockstar and practiced walking with him :)

 

 

Found some toys to play with.

 

Rode along to the movie Paddington with Morgan and her friends.

 

Wanted to get in on the present action.

 

And had a real adventure at the earing store! 

 

We are so excited to send him back with pictures after his adventure with us!

 One thing we love here is mail!  We were anxiously waiting for another package from Grandma and Grandpa in Iowa.  They said they had a surprise for mom and dad this time.  I could hardly wait until I had time today to get on Skype with them as I opened the box. 

 

We have been pondering what our label for the LLC would include.  We knew we wanted a Barred Rock rooster as this was what started out in our flock, and we feel is an important part of our homestead.  They made this for us to hang with our LLC name on the property!  I LOVE it!  So thoughtful and what an awesome personal touch!  I love my parents and how they support whatever wild idea we get into our heads!  We definitely will be finding a special place for this!

So if the weekend could not get any more full of fun activities or packages another one arrived from my husbands shopping trip with the chicks.......

This might be the start of a beautiful friendship!  I have been encourage for quite a while by mom, my friends, and my husband to try this activity that I haven't touched since middle school Home Economics.  I have many projects and repairs swimming around in my head, and on my Pinterest pages, so get ready for some fabric to fly!

 

Spend time with someone you love, and eat some eggs!  :)

That proud looking Roo

So our Rooster came to us as a surprise.  He was in a batch that could have been either hens or roosters and we were lucky.  We also chose 4 bantam chicks about the same time, they are the small sized chickens, about 1/3 the size of a regular chicken.  They tend to be fancier and ours has feathers on her feet.  Many, I have read, keep them for show chickens. 



Our roo next to the bantam hen, she is the size the other three roos were. 

With our bantam batch we found that 3 out of 4 were roos.  This did not follow the rule of 20% roo, 80% hen, when you get a straight run batch.  That means they are not sexed and are not called pullets, which would be all hen.  These roos were nasty!  They were very aggressive towards all the hens, and were fighting all the time, even though they were just about 6 months old.  We did what we had to do, and they became chicken noodle soup :(  But, good for us because who would have ever thought that I would be helping to butcher a chicken!  And they did make delicious soup.  More on that process later......






Onto our number one ROO! 
He is truly great!  Beautiful, cocky(I know its a pun), protective, aggressive, and LOUD!  It is a falsehood that roosters only crow in the morning.  It can be 3 pm, or even 11 pm, and he is crowing in the hen house. 

A #1 rule when around a rooster.....never turn your back on them, they will attack!  Also, never bend down to empty a bucket or pick up eggs because he is watching!  He is so good at protecting his hens, really, it is true.  Yesterday I was transferring our newest 18 Buff Orpingtons to the large hen house and run.  I didn't have a large box, and they are pretty big now for chicks, so I carried about 3 at a time in a bucket.  I had two buckets, so upon entering the run my hands were full.  I bent down to lift them out, and who was there pecking and spurring my hand.......The main man!  He was even protecting hens he hadn't met yet, very impressive!  He seems fine with everyone in the coop.  It is one of the black Essex that is the leader of the pecking order, who seems to put everyone in place. 

 

It is also untrue that you need a rooster to have eggs.  A hen has all the ovum she needs in her life when she is born, and will lay no matter if he is there or not.  You just won't always have a fertilized egg.

 

Our first baby, Rockstar. 

We are very thankful to have this gent in our brood.  He is quite the ladies man.  We have had about an 80% fertilization rate every time we add eggs to the incubator.  Our first two chicks will be some sort of black and white like their papa.  I did not enjoy watching him go after a hen. I thought, wow that is almost like a scene from 50 shades of grey, especially when you have raised the ladies since they were baby chicks.  Now I get it of course, and we thank him for his attention to all the ladies, he is not particular :)  The girls have noticed that he jumps on the hens, but haven't asked anything in detail.......yet......

 





The farm girl holding a Rhode Island Red
 

I include this picture of our middle girly, simply to show when we let the kids help with chicken chores.  She loves to help, but with Mr. Roo around we have to watch closely.  Now that order has been established, he is mostly afraid of me, but the kids......not so much.  Since they are predator size he follows them from inside the fence when they are around,  circling till someone comes in.  Monday when the group was out for their daily foraging in the yard, he was on guard of course.  T-girl came out to help and he chased her across the property, and all the way into the coop near me.  I never thought he would dislike children so much!  They are so cute!  :)  We always supervise, and have Duncan, our dog, out when the kids are playing in the yard.  Wait for a post honoring him, the best dog we could have ever asked for. 

 



Beautiful Brown Eggs

The eggs......

    So we LOVE our multi-shades of brown eggs.  We do not have any hens that lay blue or green but hopefully one day we will!  Along with the deep red-brown eggs from a certain chicken Alex has his eye on, the Maran.  We are not sizing eggs right now, but I feel like we get from medium to XL eggs.  A handful of times we have had XXL eggs with double yolks.  Those are always fun to crack open for a surprise! 

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We have been using our egg dishes more that we received as a wedding gift :)

 

     Alex custom built the coop with 15 laying boxes, plenty for them to choose from. They really have their favorites though, and sometimes there will be a stray egg in the middle of the floor or in the yard.  Many times I find 4 or 5 eggs in one box.  These must be the most cozy, or smell right for egg laying.   

 

    Here is a comparison.  One of our regular eggs next to an egg from our bantam hen.  They are the cutest tiniest eggs.  We use 2 or 3 in a recipe to equal one regular or large sized egg.  The bantam has been on strike for the past month and a half since she was broody(wanting to hatch eggs).  We let her have a couple but in the end due to leaving the nest and coming back to the wrong box we lost the developing chicks.  She seems to be out of her funk now but has not laid an egg yet.  I have been reading that most breads now have had the broodiness bread out of them.  Bantams are still a broody hen and can be good hatchers.  We will give her another chance I am sure soon.   

 

   My daily chores now have a routine.  I get up, make sure the human chickadees are fed/watching a movie, then complete the first turn for the eggs in the incubator, check on the almost 3 week old home hatched chicks, then head downstairs.  I check on the adolescent 18 that are about to enter the coop/run with the other ladies and gentlemen, then I head out to the coop.  I always try to fill water and food first, and lay out scraps, before I open the door.  They are very very eager to be out and exploring.  They sometimes fly out the door!   Then I enter the coop to do morning cleaning.  I scrape out nesting boxes and floor messes. 

 

   Then the hunt begins!  EGGS!  I remember when they started laying, it was so darn exciting!  You were never sure how many new hens would lay each day.  Now we get maximum about 18 eggs a day.  There were a few nice warm days in the fall we had 20. Most days I check minimum of 3 times.  The hens and rooster out there make quite a mess of their food and water so keeping that full and as clean as possible is very necessary or they won't lay.  I just love collecting all day to see this beautiful brown bounty! 

 

 

 

Welcome

Welcome!
We are so happy to have you visit!

We are new to homestead life, but LOVE it!  We are trying our best to slow down, make it or fix it ourselves, raise what we eat, and share it with others.  We have just under 4 acres of partially wooded property in Missouri, right outside St. Louis.  After living various places in the Mid-West and South, we have settled on country land for our children, pets, and animals.  We love new adventures, and researching as we learn.  Come chuckle with us in daily life surprises, and find blessings in everything from the color of homemade baby food, to brown eggs from the hen house. 

We will try out best to document our DIY projects, recipes, goals, and dreams; while sharing funny happenings around the homestead.  On our site you may find plans for DIY, recipes from scratch, tricks we have learned from experience, and some hen humor from the ladies outside. Thanks for enjoying the journey with us!

Room to Run!

 

Lots of room to run!  A favorite tree to climb on, mud and rock piles, bon fires enjoyed, and a cozy house to keep warm in.....we LOVE it here!

 

Hey little chicken!  
Mucking boots are a must!

Cute feet!