Saturday, April 14, 2018

A Very Rewarding Spring Saturday

A couple of videos which may interest you from the YouTube channel....posted Saturday.  The story of the 15 new arrivals.....and a recounting of our many Saturday projects


Michael opted to stay home rather than drive the hour to Anchorage. He planned to get a head start on the projects he had planned. At this point I wasn't 100% sure what they all were. I knew I was going to get a compost "spot" staked out and begin collecting "stuff" .....there had been talk of getting the greenhouse up.... Alex was in bed when Nolan, Stacia and I left for Anchorage. Nolan drove and I shot video clips.

Stacia kept the chicks on the seat beside her for the trip back to the Valley. 

We introduced these 15 to our 3 and made sure they were safe. I neglected photos - but check out the video if you want to see their introduction to our home.  Below is our Yuuki alarm. She is a beagle, a bird dog. I tried to show her a chick and appeal to her maternal instinct. She tried to eat it. She then spent the day pointing below their box. Michael built the brooder with screws to attach the top and bottom. It's secure, we don't think she can get in - but she may try before we get her trained to leave them alone. If she tries - the cow bell will make noise. 


With the chicks safely home, it is time for us to begin some projects. First, a picture of these two....Arielle and Cory.

Benny is 5 months old!

I didn't know this was on the docket for the day - burning a stump out. We have several that need to go. Izaak brought out a 10# can of bacon grease and THAT finally got it going. 

Michael ended up building a compost bin. He wasn't satisfied with letting me simply stake it out. He used pallets we got last week, wafer board the previous owners left, and hardware cloth leftover from the brooder.  There are video clips of it at the link above.... and now I got to put the pitchfork to use. I moved old grass clippings and food scraps which had been collecting over the winter.

We have three horse pastures that have several FEET of horse poop covering them. Izaak and Alex helped me break some from the frozen ground and we added a wheelbarrow full to the compost. I also collected the piles of moose poop for the compost.  I'm hoping for a "hot pile" that will produce some usable compost by the fall. 

Meanwhile, Stacia played with chickens.....


...and watched the canning for me, so I could work outside. I put up 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce. 

We all kept coming in to sneak peeks of these darlings. 




Thus begins our family pastime of chicken watching. 

We got a lot done today. It felt good to be outside and accomplishing things we've discussed. As one of the boys said, "It's rewarding." 

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