Purple Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum (LAMIACEAE), is an early spring wild plant that can be foraged for its medicinal and edible properties. Some variations of the plant name include “Purple Deadnettle”, “Purple Dead Nettle”, “Purple Deadhead… More
Keeping Chickens Alive During Cold Weather
Chickens are pretty easy creatures to raise. That is, until the cold season comes. Jordan Walker, the lead content curator of Coops and Cages, shares tips to improve the survivability of chickens during winter.
Chicken owners who live in mild climate regions are a bit luckier than most. Those who live in harsh weather conditions have to keep their chickens closely monitored especially during winter season. Find out how to prepare for such circumstance beforehand to avoid any untoward incidens when the time comes. Continue reading “Keeping Chickens Alive During Cold Weather”
8 Things to Know Before Owning a Buck Goat
What are the options for owning a male goat? First, let’s clarify some goat terminology. A buck is an intact male goat over one year old. You may have heard them referred to in laymen’s terms as a billy goat. A buckling is an intact young male goat less than a year old. And a wether is a castrated male goat.
Owning a Male Goat For Breeding
If you want your does in milk, first they need to have baby goats. Does must be bred first to have baby goats. A buck sire is needed to breed. Sounds simple, right? The options to impregnate a doe are artificial insemination, rent or borrow a buck, or own a buck to use for breeding.
Before buying a buck goat there are a few things you should know.
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Mint to Repel Insects and Rodents Around the Chicken Coop
Mint is one of my favorite scents and plants. It has such a crisp, clean, fresh aroma. We have a nice mint patch growing at our old house. Mint self propagates rapidly. This is a blessing as it is so easy to grow. However, you do want to give considerable thought to where you plant mint as it will spread and could become a nuisance if planted in the wrong location. Two months ago I dug up several of our spearmint and orange mint plants at the old house and put them in temporary pots. Those mint plants set for two months before I finally got around to transplanting them at our new home.
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Pallet Chicken Coop | DIY Chicken Coop
Our first chicken coop was functional, but left a lot to be desired. We learned a lot from our first little coop, and we put what we learned into our second, bigger pallet chicken coop. Things we learned from the first coop, make a coop big enough to walk in, roosters are big, need a bigger door, and always plan you coop to get even more chickens. Chickens are addictive, and you will always want more. With these things in mind, we worked on designing our next chicken coop.
The first step was to acquire some wooden pallets. Wood is getting more and more expensive. We wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible, as we are cheap. I got a truck load of free wooden pallets for our chicken coop by asking around. Continue reading “Pallet Chicken Coop | DIY Chicken Coop”
Easy Double Crochet Adult Beanie
Since my first crochet scarf, there has been a lull in my crocheting. Summer and fall are so full and busy with gardening, harvesting, canning, and so forth that I just didn’t get back to it. As the weather turned cold and I began to hibernate I started pondering my next crochet project. I decided to go with a double crochet beanie that I found on ravelry to match my new scarf.
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| My First Crochet Beanie |
Winter Chores: Preparing The Garden Soil
After last year, our first year having a garden, we determined to do things much better this year. We kind of threw our garden together at the last minute last year. On the bright side we did learn a lot out of our failures. Not everything was a failure. We did get a better harvest than we expected from the haphazard way we threw our garden together. But this year is going to be different, we hope.
We have done a lot of things to fix our pH, which we believe to have been a major problem with our garden last year. In the fall, we burned a large pile of brush we had collected and spread the ash over the garden. We also tilled in a bag of lime. At last check, our pH was between 6.0 and 6.5. A huge improvement over the 5.0 we had in the fall.
Next, we decided that we needed more organic matter. Lots of compost. We built a compost bin last summer and have done a good job of throwing in our waste in the bin. Unfortunately, we had a lot more grass clippings and not enough leaves and vegetable waste to make a good balance for composting. It also did not get turned as regularly as it should have, and the biggest problem I think was that it was not wet enough most of the year. So, due to those factors, we have not gotten very much home made compost to add to the garden.
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Cold Weather Emergency Preparedness
The first weeks of this year have created a range of cold weather issues. There are a number of steps that can be taken by a family looking to become prepared for problems with extremes of cold weather seen from parts of the Deep South to the most northerly regions of the U.S. over recent months.
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Siberian Fir Essential Oil (Abies sibirica)
The Siberian fir tree is a tall, light in color, conifer tree native to Russia and Canada. It has a refreshing, woody scent that is known for its calming and relaxing properties. Siberian Fir has a unique chemical composition that is predominately bornyl acetate, which provides a majority of the easing benefits of this essential oil. Siberian Fir can be very soothing to the skin, making it an ideal essential oil to add to a comforting massage. When diffused, Siberian Fir can help promote feelings of easy breathing, while calming the emotions and providing a grounding effect.
PRIMARY BENEFITS
- Helps balance emotions and soothe anxious feelings
- Diffuse for a relaxing aroma
- Provides a soothing effect when used in massage
- Soothe minor skin irritations by applying Siberian Fir
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Shelter for Baby Goats | Goat Kid Care
Part of a baby goat’s happiness and health involves giving them a proper space to live in. Baby goats need a space that is both warm and dry. They can get sick if they are too cold or damp. Provide plenty of warm bedding, such as hay or pine chips and change as needed to keep it fresh and dry.
Nigerian Dwarf Goat Kidding Has Started | Goat Labor and Birthing
The goat kidding season has begun. We were not expecting any of our goats to kid for at least 3 or 4 more days, but Brownie got a head start. This is only our second year of experience with goat kidding. There are several signs to look for like the udder freshening and looking hard or glossy, pelvic ligaments loosening at the tail head, a mucous discharge, swollen vulva, doe is very vocal, doe’s loss of appetite, pawing, sunken sides and sagging of stomach, unusual behavior, restlessness, or seeking solitude. Because we are still learning how to identify when a doe is going into labor, we were a little surprised. Brownie had bagged up, but the udders did not appear hard or glossy. Brownie has always been a little less social than the other does so seeing her by herself isn’t a huge alarm. But once we noticed her by herself for a prolonged period of time way out in the back part of the pasture, we thought we better go check on her.
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How to Make an Egg Gathering Apron from a Pillowcase
When we were living on the 40 acre homestead before we downsized, we had over 50 laying hens. There were lots of eggs to collect each day. The egg basket that I was using wouldn’t hold them all so I switched to a 5 gallon bucket. I quickly realized that a large bucket was a quick way to break eggs and carrying eggs in my T-shirt wasn’t cutting it either. I needed a solution to this problem without spending much money (“much” to this mama is about $10)…I finally decided that I would make an egg gathering apron out of an extra pillowcase and a little bit of ribbon. The apron was made in under 15 minutes and there has been no issue gathering eggs since!
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Essential Oil Wool Dryer Balls | Dryer Sheet Substitute
Using wool dryer balls in the dryer are a great natural alternative to chemically laden dryer sheets. Dryer sheets may contain a plethora of chemicals to decrease static, soften laundry, and smell good. The worst of these chemicals are Benzyl acetate and Dichlorobenzene. Many of the other synthetics are generally considered not as harmful in small amounts, but to someone with breathing or skin sensitivities they can still be a concern.
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9 Inches for Our First Snow of 2017
Snow in NC tends to be anything from a dusting, icy mix, stealth snow, and sometimes we actually get some descent accumulation. We our starting the new year with our first snow of 2017 and we ended up with about 9 inches after our last measurement.
How to Tan a Deer Hide
I have always had an interest in primitive survival techniques, and I enjoy teaching myself the lost arts of our ancestors. These days I normally kill three or four deer per year to fill our freezer, and I do what I can to use every part of the animal. However, I noticed that our deer camp throws out seven to ten deer hides every year.
I made the decision to find a way to use these hides. The more I thought about it, the more I settled in on an idea. Every winter I complete a survival challenge during which I spend three or four days in freezing temperatures to hone my winter survival skills. However, I can never seem to find a warm and comfortable buffer between myself and the ground. Continue reading “How to Tan a Deer Hide”