Spoiled Dogs and Garden Woes

Oh will it EVER stop raining??? If it doesn't stop soon, the Hooters will be buying produce rather than growing it. My hopes for a Holy Cow Garden are quickly going down the drain, and now I'm hoping simply for any kind of garden at all. Heck, I may have to plop plants down in five gallon buckets.

And even more distressing, I saw my dream garden in the most recent issue of Mother Earth News. Not just a garden I thought might look nice, but the EXACT garden I'd always imagined I would have someday! Totally fenced in, attractive raised beds, with mulched paths in between, and soaker hoses going to the beds. *sigh*...I can see that garden right in my garden spot, but unfortunately time and funds are not in my favor this year. I did, however, earmark the page, and I've been looking at it frequently. I can't QUIT looking at it. Well, I suppose you can't have everything in year #1 at a new place...

So our idea for raised garden beds was to use readily available cedar posts that the old homeowner left us. Unfortunately, the idea was better in our heads than in practice. What we've gotten so far look like really bad attempts at tiny log cabins, which look even worse in reality than the imagination can conjure. I'm not posting a picture because I'm too embarassed. And even worse than looking bad, I'm afraid they will not be functional. So, here we are deep into planting season and back to square one! I would just break down and plant in the ground like a normal person if we hadn't had this load of dirt brought in...or should I say, big load of MUD.

And here I thought I'd left my stress back with the park system!

Oh well...enough garden woes. At any rate, it will not be the end of the world if this season passes us by with only minimal produce. I just figured not having a job per say, I would easily get everything done. Ehhh...not so...

So the other day I was in and out of the house pretty frequently, and I guess Sally snuck her way inside. This is how I found her:

Either Sally is trying to hide the fact that she's on Marden's chair, or she's doing a pretty good impression of the Virgin Mary.

In other critter news, all is well with the others, including the chickens and pigs. I had some inquiries on my last post as to the identity of the pictured pig. That would be "Freckles", who actually belongs to our friends Brian and Sarah. Freckles is the most social of the piggies, and is the most entertaining to watch. Freckles and Lucy have stuck up quite a friendship. Here they are chatting about something interesting I'm sure.

Chickens are doing well and have moved permanently out of the barn...THANK GOODNESS!!! They're much easier to take care of in the coop, and a lot of fun to watch. Tonight they are weathering their first storm...of course it's raining...again...

Oink.

The Coop De Gras

May I proudly present the Coop De Gras, The Hen Hilton, The Clucker Caboose on it's maiden voyage today. Otherwise known as - my chicken coop, which has been a work in progress and a thorn in my side for what has felt like months, but has actually only been about one month. Actually, I owe all completion to my dad, who came down and helped for a few days. Helped, as in did all the really hard stuff and took it off the track of being a worthless piece of junk to something I don't mind having the neighbors see. :)

The Hen Hilton comes with every fathomable feature I could think of, including extra nest boxes, plenty of access ports, and roosts of differing heights. Hey, nothing's too good for my girls. At least, I'm ASSUMING at this point that they are girls...as of yet none show signs of being a rooster. They spent most of the day today in it, but they haven't yet mustered the nerve to go up to the second story. For at least another week they'll be spending their nights back in the garage, but as they get bigger, they'll have access to an electrified yard to get their feetsies on the grass, and to eat up some yummy bugs and grass, therefore producing yummy eggs for us.

Yay SPRING!!!

After what has seemed like a HORRENDOUSLY long winter, in which my creative juices as related to blogging have been pretty much frozen, it's looking like it's finally time for a thaw now that it's OFFICIALLY spring! As previously stated, winter really doesn't usually bother me. But this winter I had the worst case of cabin fever in the history of myself. As a result, it seems almost as though this is my first spring ever, and I find myself noticing every new sprig of grass, every bird coming back, every goose saying adios and heading back north, and so forth. The spring peepers are now joined by a heavy chorus of tree frogs, and soon the crickets will join back in. Speaking of bugs, I'm even welcoming them back. Though give me a month, when I'm loudly cussing my first batch of chiggers, peppered with tick bites.

Unfortunately I ushered in the first official day of spring with the worst cold I've had in several years. Mr. Hooter had one too, though he complained a lot more. Men. I think we're on the mend, and I look to resume work on the Hen Hilton, or as some people may call it - the chicken coop.

My chicks are all doing well, and this coming Monday will be a month old. They are still in the brooders, which have now been changed to very large cardboard boxes, and they've been moved into the barn. It's more acceptable to have your barn smelling like a barn rather than your spare room/house. Here is a pic of one of the Eggers on their last day in the house...this Barred Plymouth Rock was determined to sleep on the food jar, despite the fact that she was just too big.

Here is a current pic of the Eggers in their barn brooder, quite a bit bigger and definately more feathered out. Hopefully in another week or two they'll be able to go out in the regular coop, and maybe they'll at least start getting inspired to lay some eggs. Likely, though, we still have months before we can expect out first eggs...the waiting is tough. I can only imagine how excited and proud I'll be when I find that first pullet egg!

The Meaties have been spending a few nice days out in their movable coop. They seem to enjoy being out, though they don't seem to be very interested in foraging...mostly they just sit around and get fat and look tasty.

And speaking of tasty, we now have pigs! There are actually five pigs in the pen, but we're only keeping three temporarily for a friend. Our two are "Whitey" and "Petunia", and bless their hearts, they are about the ugliest pigs you've ever seen. They came from a pretty horrible, muddy, rocky environment, and had been allowed to go half wild. They got to our pen and, pardon the pun, were in hog heaven with the grass, dry ground, and sunshine.

I've been asked by quite a few people I know how on earth I can be such an animal lover, yet be raising chickens and pigs for meat. So, I guess I need to explain myself with a little rant. First, I think we're WAY to dependent on The Industry to get our food for us. This globalization isn't a good thing...I don't really like the fact that my apples come from Argentina, all covered in wax and preservatives and pesticides. The mega food industry really bothers me...such as chickens and pigs. Take the chicken industry - these poor chickens are debeaked at a very young age, stuffed in a tiny cage, and live their short lives being stuffed full of antibiotics and who knows what else, never once seeing the sun shine or getting to even set their feet on grass. Then, when it comes to butchering time, they are stuck on a conveyer belt-ish machine, where they may or may not be killed instantly, and are further machine processed like any other mass-produced product. And with pigs...most commercially raised pigs are forced to live in little pens, on concrete leading to all sorts of painful leg and foot problems, shot up with who knows what medications, then face the same conveyer-belt style processing as the chickens.

The reality that most people don't want to face is this - if I want to eat chicken or pork, or whatever, an animal has to die. At least I know exactly what my animals are eating, they have lots of room to just "be chickens" and "be pigs", and when the time comes to go to the big coop or hog waller in the sky, they will have had a good life, and the end will be swift. And at least I will know that my family is not contributing to what I consider very unethical industry practices.

It just all comes down to us being way to dependent on others to take care of us. Now, before anyone gets the idea that Mr. Hooter and I are forming our own militia, we're not quite THAT extreme. But it does bother me that in just a couple generations, we've forgotten knowledge that for thousands of years people have just KNOWN how to do. I recently heard a story about a young woman who actually cried when she was informed that the electric company would be turning off the neighborhood's electricity for a couple hours for routine maintenance. It made me realize just how dependant we are on what really is a fragile system. Maybe I'm nuts, but I just don't feel like following the herd anymore.

And maybe after I clean my first chicken, I'll decide to go back to following the herd. :)

That's my rant and rave for today, which has been enhanced by a Nyquil induced stupor...I hope everyone is out enjoying this weather!

Also, stay tuned for an UPDATE TO MULLETHUNT '08!!! This winter has produced some VERY FINE specimins, and I'm hoping the warmer weather will coax more out of their winter hibernation. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

My Peeps

Nothing much going on at the Hooter Homestead lately (besides waiting VERY impatiently for spring), which should explain my absence of blogs these past couple of months. I hope you all can be patient! In the meantime, I'm finding that keeping baby chicks in the spare room is a pain, but also pretty entertaining. Their wing feathers are really coming out, and yesterday they started sprouting tailfeathers, which are now about 1/4" long. The "meaties" have voracious appetites...seen here doing what they do best. Pretty much all they do is eat and sleep grow. Already they are twice as big as the "eggers"!

Here's a pic of Team Egger after a hard day of...eating, drinking, pooping, and peeping. I like the Buff Orpington and Rhode Island Red who collapsed in the food dish. The two Auracanas caused a switch in food dispersal shortly after I took this pic, as they have the strong urge to scratch. The two had been standing in the food doing a "scratch boogie", flinging feed to all points of the brooder and beyond making an unholy mess...so I've now switched them to the mason jar-type feeders. Few more days and accomodations will be moved to the barn.

Work on the Chicken Hilton continues...hope I can get it done by the time these guys/girls are ready!