Before I get started I just want to thank each of our veterans for their service to our great nation.
We've been quite busy around here. There's a whole lot of stuff to get done before actual cold weather moves in, and before kidding season begins (which is only 3 weeks away!).
Have I mentioned how much I love our Livestock Guardian dogs? We have 3 Anatolian Shepherds and I can not recommend them highly enough! They are not just for livestock!
One of the big projects that must be done before winter, is re-doing the henhouse and brooder house. Both are on the verge of collapse. Of course we built them 11 years ago, using scrap and repurposed materials...so I think they've held up fairly well. This week we started on the main henhouse.
After a series of storms the roof is no longer tacked down. The roost has fallen apart, and the floor of the nestboxes has sagged. You can imagine how uncomfortable it would be in there if it rains at night!
So we pulled out all of the rotten wood and replaced it with new, repaired the roof and secured the tin..
repaired the nestboxes...
...and added new roosts.
The brooder house is next....but that's next week...
The aquaponics system in the greehouse is doing great. We have harvested a lot of lettuce and mint so far, but have broccoli, cabbage, celery, fennel, peas, and strawberries all coming up.
I need to plant some more peas. I only started 3 pots, because I wasn't sure how they would do....
And I'll be moving the strawberry bed into the house soon.
This has also been pumpkin week at our house. Pumpkins usually get marked down to $1 each during the first week or so of November, and I try to buy at least a dozen or so of them.
They are a natural wormer and I will feed them to the goats throughout their pregnancies to help keep the wormload down...
And for the turkeys, I collect all of the older eggs and hard boil them. Once boiled we use a stick to smash the eggs shell and all.....cut a pumpkin in half to use as a serving bowl....and each turkey pen gets a tasty snack.
The 6 turkeys that live in the hoop house will be ready by Thanksgiving. The 9 remaining birds will be rotated through the hoop house until they are big enough for the freezer. The hoop house birds get moved to fresh grass twice a day, it's amazing how much faster they've grown just with the addition of grass!
We have raised them as corn-free as possible. Feeding them whole grains and fresh grass will make a huge difference in the taste and texture of the meat.
Speaking of meat....remember MoonPie's little buckling,
Cabrito? He's nearly as big as his mom!
He's headed to freezer camp in the next week or so, along with Mikey and Percy from TUH.
I'm looking forward to our new kidding season, Faith is due first....and she seems to be having some strange pregnancy cravings..