, Author at Summers Acres

Bourbon Red Turkeys

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Saturday, I was at a friends house for Bible study and as we were wrapping up, I saw these two lovely turkeys walking across their backyard. This was actually my first experience being near live turkeys. Crazy, right? I began asking her husband about their experience with raising turkeys and this particular breed. He said these two turkeys were Bourbon Reds. They were named “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” with the original intent of butchering them for the holidays. However, as they matured, they realized they probably had a tom and hen and thought it better to keep them to try and breed.

Bourbon Red Turkeys

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DIY: Building a Bigger Better Chicken Run

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We are just weeks (maybe a month) away from our move to our “new to us” farmhouse. We have been quite busy and we have failed miserably at keeping the progress updates flowing. We took a week off from work after Christmas with plans to get a lot accomplished at the new house. Although, we did stay very busy, the excessive rain we received delayed much of our moving and work outside. Although it was still wet Friday, it had dried up enough that we Jon was finally able to make some progress on the outside tasks. A big part of our move is of course moving our chickens which requires constructing a new chicken run.

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Our 1940 Farmhouse

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We have pretty much been nonexistent on here lately, but we have some very exciting news! We just closed last week on our new/old 1940 farmhouse!

Our original plans were to eventually build our little farm house on the land we purchased a couple of years ago. But sometimes God just knows better than we do what is best. We happened across the darling little 1940’s farm house with acreage that was for sale in Ann’s hometown where much of our family live and just a few short miles from the other land we had purchased. It is even on the same road Ann grew up on! Don’t you just love old farm houses?!? We were not even looking to buy, and had began the process of looking through house plans and even had an appointment scheduled with a builder to discuss when we found this place.
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Animal Husbandry homestead Skills That Transfer To Survival Skills

Homestead Skills That Transfer Over To Survival Skills

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If you are lucky enough to live on a homestead, there’s no doubt you’ve probably learned some very impressive skills. Homestead life can be tough, it can be challenging, but it can also be highly rewarding, especially when the skills that you’ve learned can be put to good use elsewhere.

It’s interesting to note that there are a lot of homestead skills that can be transferred over to survival skills. This means that if you fancy becoming a bit of a prepper, you should already have a lot of skills and knowledge that will help you to get through a survival situation.
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Reliance Peach Tree Production Two Years After Planting

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In March of 2013 we planted five fruit trees at the house. Of those trees two were semi-dwarf peach trees, one was a majestic peach and the other a reliance peach. The first year we planted them they both had tons of little baby peaches, but we had to force ourselves to thin them down to just a few. That year we got one cute little peach that the bugs decided to share with us. Then last year we had lots of blossoms and we still thinned them, but the bugs and fungus were horrible and we got nothing.

This year we had a late frost. We tried covering our fruit trees with sheets, but they are about to get too big to effectively do that. Our majestic peach tree blooms early and did not fair too well because of the frost. However, the reliance peach tree blooms later and is a beautiful sight this year. Just look at all of those peaches!

First Production of Young Semi-Dwarf Reliance Peach Tree

First Real Production of Our Young Semi-Dwarf Reliance Peach Tree

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Whiteside Mountain, Highlands NC

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After our fun at Dry Falls and Bridal Veil Falls we headed on up to Whiteside Mountain near Highlands, NC. The hike to the summit of Whiteside Mountain is a moderate 2.5 mile loop. After an initial steep start we reached the point where the loop splits to the left and the right. The left is less of an incline, but will take longer to get to the top. We chose to take the right which is steeper and includes some steps as well. I find the older I get the steep inclines and steps are actually harder on the ole knees coming down (just another reason to go right). The first small opening along the path is a beautiful tease of what is to come.

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Dry Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, Highlands NC

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With Jon’s new job and all of the animals it is hard for us to take a long vacation right now. Over our 3 day Fourth of July weekend we took a trip about 4 hours away to the mountains in Franklin, NC. We had a short stay which included a fair amount of rain and not a lot of time to do everything in the area, but we still had a great time. The first thing we did after arriving and settling in was drive a short distance to see Dry Falls and Bridal Veil Falls in Highlands, NC.

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Easter Egger Mama Hen With New Baby Chicks 1 Day Old

Bertha Our Broody Hen with Her New Baby Chicks

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There has been so much going on that we have been giving many updates these days. Things are all good, but there has jut not been any time to “blog” about what we have been up to. Even this post is a little late, but better late than never. Since we started keeping chickens we had longed for the day that one of our hens would go broody and hatch out her own baby chicks. Several times we even left some eggs to encourage this to take place. It seemed our girls refused to brood just to spite us. So we’ve tried our hand at incubating a few times as well as continuing to buy baby chicks. But alas, Bertha, one of our Easter Egger hens, decided to brood. Continue reading “Bertha Our Broody Hen with Her New Baby Chicks” →

Clarifying Chicken and Egg Labels and Terms

Understanding Egg Terminology

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Organic, All Natural, Free Range, Cageless….What do all of these egg labels mean?

It can be confusing. Most of the confusion is by design. The big companies want you to believe their product is better than it really is. Sorting through all this misinformation can be daunting, but we are here to pass on what we have found in our research about what all of these things mean. Continue reading “Understanding Egg Terminology” →

Mollys Knob Vista Trail Hungry Mother State Park Marion VA

Molly’s Knob Hungry Mother State Park, Marion VA

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We generally try to go on a little weekend getaway for our anniversary each year. However, there was just too much going on this year around our anniversary with Jon’s new job, church events, Sarah’s soccer, Sarah’s birthday, and Ryan’s high school graduation. We were going up to Morgantown, WV for Ryan’s graduation and needed to get Jon’s Mom along the way. So our trip to graduation was going to be about 10 hours of driving in one day. Yeehaw! After the graduation, we stayed the night with Jon’s Mom in WV. We had planned on trying to hit a hike somewhere along our way home to NC the next day. A couple of years ago, we had visited Coopers Rock State Park, Babcock State Park, and Valley Falls State Park nearby so we wanted to try some place we had not already been. We settled in on Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, VA. It was just a short drive out of our way as we headed back south.
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