We woke up today with every intention of getting the douglas fir tree-lings and holly bushes planted. Well, me directing and Hubby and Kid planting.
As we got dressed and started to head to the door, an odd sound came from the baby monitor that we have connected to the workshop/barn. Sounded like static. Actually, was rain mixed with hail. A moment later, it hit the house. Sooo... we didn't get planting outside done. Or the chicken coops or chicken/goat pens done. We DO have a big pool of mud in the goat pen area tho.
What did we do? Gathered another quail egg and another green Henny Penny egg. Hubby hooked up the grow lights in the indoor garden room. Planted the european mesclun salad mix seedlings in the indoor "pool" (I'll try to take a pic tomorrow). Started two dif kinds of corn seeds in jiffy peat pellets. Started lots of different kinds of winter squash and pumpkins and gourds in jiffy peat pellets. Took a lamp out to the workshop/barn because the overhead doesn't give out much light, even at night. Had our furnace looked at (gotta replace... argh). Fed cracked corn to the Henny Penny for the first time ... loves it and oats and especially loves apples! Gave a little of her laying pellets to the quail to see if it will strengthen her shells. Talked with a neighbor about how they sell their eggs (word of mouth ... can't keep up with the demand).
Checked our mail and our quail eggs and incubator were there! Ah ha! I'll take a pic tomorrow.
By the time I finished directing what to do, and did some myself, it was late. Expecting close to 70 tomorrow with hopefully no rain. Maybe we can at least get the goat pen finished and possibly the chicken coop. Hope!
Showing posts with label Farm Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farm Marketing. Show all posts
Ideas for Income from homestead, and critter update
Our short-term financial goal is to to earn enough to put up a greenhouse or two by the end of Summer, and build a perimeter fence so we can let our goats and chickens free-range. Our long term goal is to provide enough income from our homestead to allow Hubby to quit job by end of 2011, and to pay off our new 30 year mortgage within 10 years. Been thinking hard about how to earn money from our little 2 acres ... well, what part the house isn't on.
Everything I've read says to NOT put all your eggs in one basket.... don't have only one way to earn money. Diversify. And I need to keep in mind that I have physical problems so it can't be labor, time or energy intensive. We don't have room for a bed and breakfast, petting zoo, christmas tree farm or corn maze. We could possibly have a pumpkin patch on the front 1-acre... among the fruit and nut trees.
Here's what we've come up with so far:
Ready in a week or two...
-flats of seedlings (esp greens)
-baggies of grown greens
-lavender eye pillows w/slipcover
-lavender drawer sachets
-rose drawer sachets
-regular and gluten-free doughnut-bites (do I need a license or inspection?)
-laminated preschool game boards
-booklets of my e-books
by mid summer.....
-quail eggs for eating
-garden produce (like habanero peppers, beans, tomatoes, zuke, etc)
-edible flowers
-herbs
by end of summer...
-glycerine scrub soaps
-salt body scrubs
-sugar body scrubs
-miniature and other-sized pumpkins
-chicken eggs for eating (blue, green, brown)
by winter...
-gourd candle holders
-gourds for crafting
-luffah scrub "sponges"
by next year...
-bayberry candles
-willow baskets
-fishing worms or worm castings
I guess we could do a farmers market but that involves driving (gas expense) and a day or two away from the property. OR we could post a note on a nearby community bulletin board. Driving around the "neighborhood" on Saturday, we looked for evidence of gardens. We saw a LOT of livestock and very few gardens or greenhouses. So maybe we should post that note/memo when we have fresh produce, thereby reducing our gas consumption... and theirs. We will have a lot of greens in about 2 weeks, and radishes the week after. Perhaps I could even sell the quail eggs, sachets and such from home ... in our garage?
Thoughts?
= = = =
Yucky topic but necessary for people interested in starting to raise chickens! 4 of our 10 chicks have pasty butt, and they are all easter eggers. PB is where the poo gets caked or "pasted" on the hind end and if not removed, can back-up the chick (constipation) and cause death. So far we've used paper towels, wetted with warm water, and lightly scrubbed the effected area. Then we put that chick alone and didn't let it join the others until it pooped (to make sure we got it all). Then did the next one.
Last night I fed them all a little goat yogurt mixed with feed but no one wanted to try it! Hmmm... is that a reflection on my cooking?!?! I'll try some cooked egg yolk later. Meanwhile, keep checking day and night ... and cleaning when PB is found!
On a different chick note, we still have them in boxes for now. We found some dowel rods in our workshop and poked them through holes in the box ... for roosts. One of the blackies (black australorp) found it pretty quickly and obviously felt quite at home. Good.
We're still working up plans for the chicken coops. The hang-up is that we want the easter eggers to have their own space because we want them to breed true. We'll need an EE rooster for them at some point (if we have all pullets - girls). The black australorps are gonna have a blackie rooster too because we want THEM to breed true.
And we want one hen of this and one of that.... we are having so much fun observing the difference in the breeds. We'd like to experience some of the others! Not for 4H because the Kid doesn't want to but just for the fun (well, and eggs!).
Thinking:
Coop/Pen #1: easter eggers only (hens and rooster)
Coop/Pen #2: blackies (hens and rooster) plus the other kinds (hens only)
A plan might have possibly emerged last night ... with my researching and price comparisons and measuring and such. Need to get the goat pen made first, and then we'll see.
= = = =
Our goaties love us! Ha! Not so much when we ran errands during the day (yesterday), and it started to hail and snow 10 minutes before we arrived back. Hubby slammed the car to a stop at our house, and while he and I ran to the back outside pen to gather up the poor goaties, the Kid opened up the barn door and got the indoor pen ready. Hawkey didn't mind so much about the snow; he was chomping down on the hay. Honey on the other hand was huddled against the fence, but for some reason was not under the tarp! They did both appreciate being in the warmish barn, and immediately dove into their feed. I gave them extra hay and a good back scratch. They were so happy to be indoors that they didn't even bleat as we closed up and ran to the house.
Today is supposed to be kinda ok. I think I'll try out our new nail gun to make the raised beds. We have only 2-3 days before cold weather comes back.... and because it still freezes, we decided to wait a little while before putting the potatoes in their boxes in the garden. Don't want the seed taters to freeze because I got a little anxious!
Have a great day, all.
Everything I've read says to NOT put all your eggs in one basket.... don't have only one way to earn money. Diversify. And I need to keep in mind that I have physical problems so it can't be labor, time or energy intensive. We don't have room for a bed and breakfast, petting zoo, christmas tree farm or corn maze. We could possibly have a pumpkin patch on the front 1-acre... among the fruit and nut trees.
Here's what we've come up with so far:
Ready in a week or two...
-flats of seedlings (esp greens)
-baggies of grown greens
-lavender eye pillows w/slipcover
-lavender drawer sachets
-rose drawer sachets
-regular and gluten-free doughnut-bites (do I need a license or inspection?)
-laminated preschool game boards
-booklets of my e-books
by mid summer.....
-quail eggs for eating
-garden produce (like habanero peppers, beans, tomatoes, zuke, etc)
-edible flowers
-herbs
by end of summer...
-glycerine scrub soaps
-salt body scrubs
-sugar body scrubs
-miniature and other-sized pumpkins
-chicken eggs for eating (blue, green, brown)
by winter...
-gourd candle holders
-gourds for crafting
-luffah scrub "sponges"
by next year...
-bayberry candles
-willow baskets
-fishing worms or worm castings
I guess we could do a farmers market but that involves driving (gas expense) and a day or two away from the property. OR we could post a note on a nearby community bulletin board. Driving around the "neighborhood" on Saturday, we looked for evidence of gardens. We saw a LOT of livestock and very few gardens or greenhouses. So maybe we should post that note/memo when we have fresh produce, thereby reducing our gas consumption... and theirs. We will have a lot of greens in about 2 weeks, and radishes the week after. Perhaps I could even sell the quail eggs, sachets and such from home ... in our garage?
Thoughts?
= = = =
Yucky topic but necessary for people interested in starting to raise chickens! 4 of our 10 chicks have pasty butt, and they are all easter eggers. PB is where the poo gets caked or "pasted" on the hind end and if not removed, can back-up the chick (constipation) and cause death. So far we've used paper towels, wetted with warm water, and lightly scrubbed the effected area. Then we put that chick alone and didn't let it join the others until it pooped (to make sure we got it all). Then did the next one.
Last night I fed them all a little goat yogurt mixed with feed but no one wanted to try it! Hmmm... is that a reflection on my cooking?!?! I'll try some cooked egg yolk later. Meanwhile, keep checking day and night ... and cleaning when PB is found!
On a different chick note, we still have them in boxes for now. We found some dowel rods in our workshop and poked them through holes in the box ... for roosts. One of the blackies (black australorp) found it pretty quickly and obviously felt quite at home. Good.
We're still working up plans for the chicken coops. The hang-up is that we want the easter eggers to have their own space because we want them to breed true. We'll need an EE rooster for them at some point (if we have all pullets - girls). The black australorps are gonna have a blackie rooster too because we want THEM to breed true.
And we want one hen of this and one of that.... we are having so much fun observing the difference in the breeds. We'd like to experience some of the others! Not for 4H because the Kid doesn't want to but just for the fun (well, and eggs!).
Thinking:
Coop/Pen #1: easter eggers only (hens and rooster)
Coop/Pen #2: blackies (hens and rooster) plus the other kinds (hens only)
A plan might have possibly emerged last night ... with my researching and price comparisons and measuring and such. Need to get the goat pen made first, and then we'll see.
= = = =
Our goaties love us! Ha! Not so much when we ran errands during the day (yesterday), and it started to hail and snow 10 minutes before we arrived back. Hubby slammed the car to a stop at our house, and while he and I ran to the back outside pen to gather up the poor goaties, the Kid opened up the barn door and got the indoor pen ready. Hawkey didn't mind so much about the snow; he was chomping down on the hay. Honey on the other hand was huddled against the fence, but for some reason was not under the tarp! They did both appreciate being in the warmish barn, and immediately dove into their feed. I gave them extra hay and a good back scratch. They were so happy to be indoors that they didn't even bleat as we closed up and ran to the house.
Today is supposed to be kinda ok. I think I'll try out our new nail gun to make the raised beds. We have only 2-3 days before cold weather comes back.... and because it still freezes, we decided to wait a little while before putting the potatoes in their boxes in the garden. Don't want the seed taters to freeze because I got a little anxious!
Have a great day, all.
Quail Question and the two-dollar garden challenge
I found the following question in my YouTube in-box and thought I'd answer it here:
From MrDreaC: I saw a video a wile back on quail. I was hoping you could answer a few questions i had. the reason i ask is because im thinking of raising some quail. i wanted to know if you had any pointers for me. such as how many birds id need (just me and my girl would be eating).# and size of cages. the best species to buy, where to buy and the like. also my wife has told me that she doesn't want the house to be full of bird squawking all the time. are the birds loud? how may meal birds can be produced by 1 breeding pair? thanks in advance. (sic - above is exactly as it was in my in-box!)
My Response: I'm not an expert by any means. You can check my blog at http://vikkisverandah.blogspot.com and search for "quail". They do make noise but it's not constant and certainly a lot less than most birds. Keep one boy and one girl together because they get jealous and will peck another of the same sex. We just moved ours into rabbit hutches with easy-to-clean pans underneath. Do NOT let a pet-store employee talk you into using a regular bird cage... they don't work for quail. Quail do not fly a lot. They jump up and often hit their heads. They don't need tall cages, just wide. Good luck.
= = = =
My goat-neighbor-son called yesterday and said he'd be over today to help construct the goat pen. Would have come over yesterday except he got his chicks in. All 400 of them! He's going to do something called "Pastured Poultry Profit" from a book by Joel Salatin. Interesting. Never heard of it. But will have to pick his brain about it. I think they have 2-3 acres, but the info I found talked about doing it with 20 acres. The reviews I saw for the book on Amazon.com brought up concerns about the lack of info on how to market the meat/eggs in today's society. Didn't discuss the internet, from what I can tell.
QUESTION: what is the best way for a small "hobby farmer" to market the meat, eggs, milk, cheese, produce, etc.?
We'll probably use most of our eggs, but would like to sell our extra quail and quail eggs. Plus we plan to sell our produce. That's why I'm asking the above question.
I got a LOT of work done on repotting my seedlings yesterday but still have lots more to do. My plants are growing so fast and we haven't even begun making the raised-bed frames for them. I have a lot of cold-crops ready to go so we need to get it done soon!
Plus I broke down the other day and bought 3 strawberry plants and a small 9-flat of lettuce plants. I just couldn't wait any longer! I want fresh greens! The lettuce got planted yesterday in a windowsill planter... plenty of space because we'll keep them "clipped". The strawberries will get planted in another windowsill planter and should begin bearing within a month.
It's so much to get done for the first year on a new property. We'll do as much as possible, but I'm thinking the strawberry pyramid will have to wait until next year. That's why the windowsill planter for this year.
= = = = = =
Last night I took 3 peat pellets, un-shrank them (rehydrated), and placed an organic green lentil in each.
Assuming they sprout, I'm gonna do a lot more and plant them all along a fence. I've never grown lentils so know nothing about them. I'll harvest, save to eat and to seed. Since they didn't have a name, I'll call them VC Green Lentils!
= = = = = =
I'm thinking that I'll put off my $2 Garden Challenge for a year. I just don't have the time, energy and strength to do more than what we had already planned. Even scaling back still won't give me that extra time. Sorry to disappoint but ... I'm sure you understand.
= = = = =
Hubby, the Kid and me did get some pallets and other things moved around in the workshop/barn last night. We also moved the chicken coop in place but I'm not happy with the puddle of oil soaked into the dirt underneath. Gonna have to figure out something.
And ... Hubby tried to work on a co-worker's laptop here at home yesterday and it tried to reconfigure our modem. It's basically shot. I had to piggy-back off a neighbor's to post this morning. I'm really ticked, especially since Hubby does all of this work for free. That free job's gonna cost us a new modem. And Hubby got a promotion about a year ago but have they given him the title and new pay yet? Nope!
Ok, I'm not in the best of moods today. Maybe I should go back to bed for a little while.
From MrDreaC: I saw a video a wile back on quail. I was hoping you could answer a few questions i had. the reason i ask is because im thinking of raising some quail. i wanted to know if you had any pointers for me. such as how many birds id need (just me and my girl would be eating).# and size of cages. the best species to buy, where to buy and the like. also my wife has told me that she doesn't want the house to be full of bird squawking all the time. are the birds loud? how may meal birds can be produced by 1 breeding pair? thanks in advance. (sic - above is exactly as it was in my in-box!)
My Response: I'm not an expert by any means. You can check my blog at http://vikkisverandah.blogspot.com and search for "quail". They do make noise but it's not constant and certainly a lot less than most birds. Keep one boy and one girl together because they get jealous and will peck another of the same sex. We just moved ours into rabbit hutches with easy-to-clean pans underneath. Do NOT let a pet-store employee talk you into using a regular bird cage... they don't work for quail. Quail do not fly a lot. They jump up and often hit their heads. They don't need tall cages, just wide. Good luck.
= = = =
My goat-neighbor-son called yesterday and said he'd be over today to help construct the goat pen. Would have come over yesterday except he got his chicks in. All 400 of them! He's going to do something called "Pastured Poultry Profit" from a book by Joel Salatin. Interesting. Never heard of it. But will have to pick his brain about it. I think they have 2-3 acres, but the info I found talked about doing it with 20 acres. The reviews I saw for the book on Amazon.com brought up concerns about the lack of info on how to market the meat/eggs in today's society. Didn't discuss the internet, from what I can tell.
QUESTION: what is the best way for a small "hobby farmer" to market the meat, eggs, milk, cheese, produce, etc.?
We'll probably use most of our eggs, but would like to sell our extra quail and quail eggs. Plus we plan to sell our produce. That's why I'm asking the above question.
I got a LOT of work done on repotting my seedlings yesterday but still have lots more to do. My plants are growing so fast and we haven't even begun making the raised-bed frames for them. I have a lot of cold-crops ready to go so we need to get it done soon!
Plus I broke down the other day and bought 3 strawberry plants and a small 9-flat of lettuce plants. I just couldn't wait any longer! I want fresh greens! The lettuce got planted yesterday in a windowsill planter... plenty of space because we'll keep them "clipped". The strawberries will get planted in another windowsill planter and should begin bearing within a month.
It's so much to get done for the first year on a new property. We'll do as much as possible, but I'm thinking the strawberry pyramid will have to wait until next year. That's why the windowsill planter for this year.
= = = = = =
Last night I took 3 peat pellets, un-shrank them (rehydrated), and placed an organic green lentil in each.
Assuming they sprout, I'm gonna do a lot more and plant them all along a fence. I've never grown lentils so know nothing about them. I'll harvest, save to eat and to seed. Since they didn't have a name, I'll call them VC Green Lentils!
= = = = = =
I'm thinking that I'll put off my $2 Garden Challenge for a year. I just don't have the time, energy and strength to do more than what we had already planned. Even scaling back still won't give me that extra time. Sorry to disappoint but ... I'm sure you understand.
= = = = =
Hubby, the Kid and me did get some pallets and other things moved around in the workshop/barn last night. We also moved the chicken coop in place but I'm not happy with the puddle of oil soaked into the dirt underneath. Gonna have to figure out something.
And ... Hubby tried to work on a co-worker's laptop here at home yesterday and it tried to reconfigure our modem. It's basically shot. I had to piggy-back off a neighbor's to post this morning. I'm really ticked, especially since Hubby does all of this work for free. That free job's gonna cost us a new modem. And Hubby got a promotion about a year ago but have they given him the title and new pay yet? Nope!
Ok, I'm not in the best of moods today. Maybe I should go back to bed for a little while.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)