Category: Homesteading

Duck Loss

We lost a duck yesterday — the first prolapse we’ve experienced. She didn’t lay a large egg, and the shell was not soft (we started giving them calcium a few weeks ago). She didn’t seem to be in distress, and we tried everything the Internet said to do to reduce the swelling and get all of the insides back on her inside to no avail. The other ducks were enjoying splashing in puddles of snow melt, but they would come over to the sick duck and give her ducky hugs — putting their neck across the top of her neck and draping their head down. Eventually, she put her head down, fell asleep, and passed away.

The five remaining ducks seemed pretty down today — they didn’t eat much and spent a lot of the day napping.

Ducks Growing Up

Today was a great day to be a duck again — warm-ish weather, the pond isn’t frozen over. So they’ve been enjoying splashing and swimming. But, this morning, I could only count five ducks in the pond. Checked around the yard, but I didn’t see the other duck. Then a ducky head popped up from underwater and … well, it looked like one duck was trying to drown another duck! Then something I read in a duck forum popped into my head — ducks mating can seem like the drake is trying to kill the female. Or it could look like the drake is trying to drown the female (which … IMO, seems a lot like “trying to kill”. So I’m not sure what exactly the person was trying to convey there!). Our ducks are about five months old and, evidently, have matured enough to start mating. Hopefully, we’ll be able to hatch some new ducks in the spring!

Home Automation and Gardening

Something like 20 years ago, I tried to grow a plumeria flower in my apartment. I had a broad-spectrum light, plenty of heat, and plenty of humidity. But getting the light turned on and off at the right times wasn’t easy (especially if I was at work all day!).

This seems like a really good use for home automation — our home automation system tracks the sunrise and sunset times for our zip code. It’s possible to essentially cron “stuff” off of these times — e.g. get the birds ten minutes before sunset. I could easily track sunrise and sunset in Honolulu then have my light turn on at sunrise (or first light) and off at sunset (or last light). Voila — “sunlight” that runs for the proper duration every day.

Foodsaver Expandable Bags — Usage Trick

I ordered the Foodsaver expandable bags to freeze our turkey. They’re serious about the extra space at the end of the bag so you can get the pleats back together; but, even following their instructions, this is almost a three person operation!

I came up with a trick — once you get a side pleated, use binder clips to hold the side together (I used two clips). Then get the other side tucked and use binder clips to hold it in place. Now that it’s all held together, slide the clips to ensure you have enough plastic to fit into the vacuum sealer. Seal it up. And again. I moved the plastic out a bit and double-sealed another line. And a third … because it would really suck to ruin a huge bag of food like this!

Shotgun Shopping

We want to get a semi-auto 12 gauge shotgun for hunting waterfowl (and maybe deer). I like the box mags, so there are a couple of options we’re considering:

TriStar KRX — cheap gun available at Cabelas. Fixed stock.

Panzer KMR — A little more expensive. Can replace stock, but not telescoping.

UTAS looks like they’ve got a gun with an adjustable stock in the 500 dollar range

Remington 870 DM looks great too

Spatchcock butchering method

We butchered our broilers and ducks for the year. In a larger household, a whole bird is probably a perfectly reasonable amount of food. But, for us? It’s too much food. Half a bird is a lot more reasonable.

In looking at techniques for grilling and smoking poultry, we came across spatchcocking — basically splitting the whole bird along the spine so it lays flat. It looked like a much quicker way to butcher — and, if we didn’t want to have a whole bird in the end anyway it isn’t like the approach would be counterproductive.

So we’ve been butchering by detaching the crop, airway, and throat. Placing the bird so the backbone is up and the neck facing you, cut along the spine. It’s a little tricky to cut at the hip joint — you’ve got to find the right spot to snip, but the oyster is always included with the leg using this method — and be careful not to pierce intestines. You can leave the spine with one half or cut down the other side of the spine. Cut around the vent, then clear out all of the innards — one entire mass is removed. Either finish spatchcocking to store a whole bird or use shears to cut along the breastbone and have two halves. I’ve found this approach to be a lot quicker than the normal technique — and, since the carcass is open, removing the innards is very easy.

2022 Seeds

We’ve saved seeds from the garden (and seeds from both ground cherries and hot peppers that we picked up at the farmers market) that will make up much of our garden this year. I purchased a bunch of flower seeds to expand the bee garden, and a few new vegetables. And I really hope to get asparagus established this year!

Seeds for Honeybees

Autumn Beauty Sunflower Seeds – XL Packet

Ballerina California Poppy Seed Mix – XL Packet

 Calendula-Balls-Orange-Wildflower-Seeds

Ball’s Orange Calendula Seeds – XL Packet
Asclepias-tuberosa

Butterfly Weed Seeds – 1/4 Oz

California Giants Zinnia Seed Mix – 1/4 Lb

Globe Annual Candytuft Seeds – XL Packet

Fairy Bouquet Snapdragon Seed Mix – XL Packet

 Chrysanthemum-maximum-dwarf

Dwarf Shasta Daisy Seeds – XL Packet

Swiss Giants Pansy Seed Mix – 1/4 Oz
Single-Mixed-China-Aster-Wildflower-Seeds

Single China Aster Seed Mix – XL Packet

Painted Daisy Seeds – XL Packet

Money Plant Seeds – XL Packet

Ice Plant Seed Mix – 1 Oz

McKana Giants Columbine Seed Mix – XL Packet

 Gaillardia-pulchella

Indian Blanket Seeds – XL Packet

Imperial Rocket Larkspur Seed Mix – 1 Oz

Imperial Pincushion Flower Seed Mix – XL Packet

Iceland Poppy Seeds – 1 Oz

Sparky French Marigold Seed Mix – XL Packet

 Asclepias-syriaca-01

Common Milkweed Seeds – 1 Oz
Seeds for Food
Sugar-Beet-Beet-Seeds

Sugar Beet Seeds

 Anise-Herb-Seeds

Anise Seeds
Chioggia-Beet-01

Chioggia Beet Seeds

 Easter-Egg-Radish-01

Easter Egg Radish Seeds

 French-Breakfast-Radish-01

French Breakfast Radish

 
Sparkler-White-Tip-Radish-Seeds-01

Sparkler White Tip Radish

White-Icicle-Radish-01

White Icicle Radish Seeds

 

  

Hickory King Corn
Pencil Cob Corn
Triticale Winter Rye Dundale Pea
Hull-less Barley Burbank Hull-less Barley Stalks of oats stock image. Image of ripe, harvest ...

Oats
Wheat on farm field stock image. Image of agriculture ...

Wheat

German Extra Hardy Garlic

 Chesnok Garlic

Music Garlic

Dutch Red Shallot

Dutch Red Shallot

 

Costco

We’d talked about joining Costco for years — a new store was built not too far from my office, and they had a membership promo. It was rather far away from our house; and, without checking it out first, hard to tell if it was a good deal. Especially without storage space for, say, a gallon of lemon juice. As we’ve been producing more at home — vegetables, meats — we’ve also gotten a lot of storage space. Loads of canning jars, chest freezers, vacuum sealer, shelves. So the idea of buying twenty pounds of apples is now appealing — can a bunch of apple sauce and apple butter 🙂

So, on Friday, we went out to Costco and got a membership. They’ve got a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, we were there about an hour before closing (why in the world would a company have limited hours on the weekend?!) and didn’t get to check out everything. Lots of electronics — a big TV that Scott would have loved to get. A couple of mesh WiFi systems. Fridges (not the one I want to get, unfortunately). And the expected huge containers of foods. Stuff I have a hard time finding in the grocery store too — they never have thick cut pork chops, so I end up getting a whole loin and cutting my own. But there were really nice 1″+ chops sitting right in a cooler. A tasty looking kale pesto. And a huge bag of frozen mango chunks (also a similarly huge bag of blueberries that I hope to not need in a year or two once our bushes start producing!). The coolest thing was that they’re loaded up with organic options (that are generally cheaper than the non-organic variety at the grocery store).

We also learned something about pickup trucks. They are great for hauling home the materials to build a chicken pasture fence. They’re great for hauling chest freezers. They are not great for bringing home groceries … I get why people have those tarp things that pull over the bed. We loaded all of the heavy (and low wind resistance) things into the truck bed, but ended up piling a bunch of lighter / breakable things in the cab with Anya.

Overall, the place seems like a score. And very much in line with my mom’s parents’ approach to living out in the country on a mountain. They’d not plan on going anywhere from October through April — stock up on food, get supplies for any winter projects, and just do their thing for six months. An approach that seems far more reasonable now that I’ve got my own couple hundred foot driveway curving up a mountainside.