Where Corn is Not King

That would be my garden.  The last time I planted corn was about nine years ago in a tiny little plot in our city backyard, and all it produced was corn smut (a nasty, bulbous fungus that grows on the stalks).  So now that I have a huge garden, I had high hopes for a nice non-GMO corn crop and lots of golden, frozen kernels for the winter.

Alas, my hopes have been dashed by either heat or bugs or improper row spacing - I'm not sure which is the culprit.  I have about six rows of corn, and most of the ears look something like this:

Kind of like a mouthful of missing teeth, ya know?

Besides sparsely formed kernels, many of the ears have kernels that are not fully formed at all, yet the silk (brownish tuft on the top of the ear) has dried, indicating it's ready to pick.  From what I've read, this can be due to poor pollination, which can be due to terribly hot weather (had lots this summer), or insects, or poor row spacing.  Basically, the tassels (stuff on tops of the stalks) pollinate the silk below, which run to the kernels.  And every kernel must be pollinated.  Though the poor development of my corn may be due to a number of factors, I'd love to be able to pinpoint the main one.

Next year, I plan to plant a different variety, plant more rows, and try to be more proactive in controlling the insects.  And lest I sound too morose, the rest of my garden fared better.  Report coming soon!

I'm linking up with Homestead Revival's Barn Hop; click below to visit!

Where I've Been This Summer

Recently I was looking back at the number of posts from last summer, and man, have I gotten slack!  But there's a good reason for it...actually, several good reasons.  And it's not because I don't love to write/blog and hear from you.  Simply put, life took over.

Many of you know that amongst all the farming and gardening activity, we've also been trying to renovate the house.  When we moved in last year, we found major termite damage and had to rip up both drywall and the floors in two rooms and the front hall.  Though we reinstalled floors and drywall this winter, this summer we've had much of the plumbing redone (hence more drywall to replace) and also closed off a doorway and reinstalled most of the trim we'd salvaged.  It may not sound like much, but it's time-consuming and meticulous work.  And we're not even close to being finished.

As the summer comes to a close and I need to start thinking about school and canning food for winter (and hopefully weeding the garden one last time), we're left with much yet to accomplish indoors.  Right now our number one priority is to organize and move our "stuff" to another room so that Byron can install the rest of the hardwood floors downstairs. 

Here's the hall now:

And the parlor (please excuse both the photo quality and the upholstery; these second-hand sofa and chairs will be getting a facelift this winter!):

These are still works in progress, but if you'd like to see what the parlor and hall looked like a year ago, click here.

And after much deliberation, we decided that the room that was previously the dining room would not, after all, become the study.  Because it doesn't get much natural light, we decided to make it our bedroom.  We've had to go old school with wardrobes, but it has a fireplace and loads of character, so it works well for us.

Thanks for sticking with me, everyone!  This has been a busy season.

The Good, the Bad, and the Cornish Cross Meat Chicken

Last week we processed (that's a nice word for "butchered") our Cornish Cross meat chickens.  Though it wasn't the first time we processed chickens, it was the first time we processed any animal we'd raised.  And I admit, despite their lack of personality and live-to-eat mentality, I almost got verklempt when the first fat boy went into the killing cone.

Yet I survived and am writing this post to report on our experience with the Cornish Cross.  There are many complaints about these chickens out there, but do the positives outweigh the negatives?  They do, for us, more or less, but we're curious to try some Freedom Rangers in the future, just for comparison.

The good: Our Cornish Cross took about 7 weeks to mature, but we ordered all males and they grow faster than females.  Next time, we'll probably order a straight run (males and females) because it's cheaper.  Most of the birds dressed out at over four pounds!

The bad: Cornish Cross are not, by any means, hardy chickens; nor are they sustainable.  We lost three to the extreme July heat and ran a fan out to their field pen every day for almost two weeks after that fateful afternoon.  We plan to order earlier next year.  In addition, Cornish Cross do not reproduce well, so we'd like to find a breed that's both edible and prolific.

Raising Cornish Cross Meat Chickens: A Cost Analysis
Note that this does not include the cost of building the field pen, which we will re-use year after year; nor does it take into account labor.
Number of chicks: 52 (we ordered 50 and were sent 52)
Cost of chicks: $120.50 (includes shipping)
Losses: 5 (3 to the heat, 1 mysterious early death, 1 developed leg problems)
Number of Chickens Processed: 47
Cost of feed: $175.88 (non-GMO)
Cost of processing: $30 (we bought the propane)
Total cost: $326.38
Cost per bird: $7
Cost of locally raised chicken: We can't find pastured poultry here; we were paying approximately $12/bird where we lived previously.
Cost savings: $235
Taste: AMAZING!  The most tender chicken I've ever had!

To find out more about the butchering process, click here.  We don't have the equipment at our place yet but would like to someday.

As a side note, it seems that whenever we process chickens, we come away with more than we bargained for.  Byron fell for this guy on the way to the killing cones, and Jeff, seeing the look in his eyes, told us to take him home:


Meet our new rooster, a Partridge Rock Bantam (I think).  The old Barred Rock ladies have taken to him quite nicely.

I'm linking up with Homestead Revival's Barn hop again!  Click below to read some great blogs:




Manifold Rain Barrel System, Part III

I thought maybe it was about time to finish up my series on the manifold rain barrel system!  Apologies that this topic slid over to the back burner, but we have been tackling so many projects this summer that I've honestly become overwhelmed.  Anyway, before you continue, please read the following posts:

Progress Photos (contains info on levelling the ground and Youtube video links)

Manifold Rain Barrel System Part I

Manifold Rain Barrel System Part II

When we last left off, I showed you how I set up the barrels themselves.  Connecting them to the gutter was simple; I unscrewed the downspout and put it aside to re-connect in the winter, and used a flexible downspout extender instead (that ribbed green thing in the photo). 

The green downspout extender attaches to the downspout.

Using a saw, I cut a hole in the black lid of the first barrel. I then cut a bigger section of screen, which I screwed down with the top. The screen serves as a barrier to keep debris and mosquitoes out, something important to consider when setting up rain barrels, Finally, I inserted the flexible downspout into the hole in the lid.

Top view of the downspout extender in position.  You can also see how I very informally screwed down a round section of screen with the lid.

As I mentioned before, I should have installed the overflow pipe initially.  Here's what I came up with:

Overflow pipe

The pipe is made of a 4" PVC elbow and fitting; the fitting was inserted through the inside of the barrel.  I also put a piece of screen in the opening.  I am happy to report that it works wonderfully!

Some of the problems I ran into have not quite been solved yet.  I dismantled the whole system to try a different sealant on the bottoms of the barrels, but am still having leaks.  Though frustrating at first, these leaks are extremely slow and have not resulted in any noticeable water loss.  The fact that the barrels are not perfectly flat on the bottom may be the main issue, but I also think that I just can't find a sealant that bonds properly to the material the barrels are made of. 

After another nice little rainstorm, the first barrel again tilted back toward the house, but not nearly as drastically as the first time.  This I attribute to not making the sand below it compact enough.  We've solved this for the moment by shimming under the bottom of that barrel.

After taking the barrels down to repair the leaks, I did manage to prop them up higher by adding a couple bricks to the tops of the concrete blocks, which made the five gallon bucket fit under the spout and gave me the added benefit of better water pressure in the garden.  I've found that water pressure is directly related to both the amount of water in the barrels (weight) and height difference.

By the way, I am contemplating doing away with Weekend Updates.  Since we are juggling so much right now, I'd rather just wait and blog about what I think all of you will find to be most interesting and beneficial, instead of just giving short blurbs about what we've been doing.

Stayin' Alive: Raising Cornish Cross Broilers in a Heat Wave

Yesterday we lost three of our Cornish Cross broilers due to the 100+ degree temperatures, a sad fate for our fat boys and a frustrating bump in the road for us.  Today we tried several different strategies to help make the chickens more comfortable.

This I actually tried a couple days ago.  Harnessing my inner MacGyver - sort of - I ran a hose from the rain barrels and into a milk jug that I hung from the roof of the field pen.  The bottom of the jug has tiny holes in it, allowing slow drips of water.  I also use jugs like this to water plants.  I'm not sure if it made the chickens grow, but I hope it cooled them off since they ran away when I tried to (gently) spray them.  A friend's mom also suggested spraying down the pen itself so they'll benefit from the cooling effect of evaporation.  I may try to spray the pen and ground tomorrow. 

Today we put a beach umbrella over the exposed roof area, and re-positioned it as the sun moved.

My brother and his wife let us borrow this fan when we refinished our floors, and since we still had it, we ran a cord out to the pen and let it run all day.  All in all, I think this pleased the chickens the most.

Initially, we had wanted to hinge the back panels to allow for cross-ventilation.  It didn't work out as well as we'd hoped, but we still had chicken wire underneath one of them.  So Byron unscrewed the bottom and sides and propped it open.

We are praying that we don't lose any more chickens to the heat (or anything else).  How are you and your animals beating the heat?

Putting Chicks Out on Pasture: Green Acres Weekend Update

Last week I blogged about moving the Cornish Cross broilers to their field pen.  Click here to read more about their adventure!  This week, in the midst of having the entire plumbing system replaced, a computer crashing, a two-day family getaway, fence building (Byron put in eight posts by hand one day last week!), picking wild blackberries, and waging continued warfare on squash bugs and their evil spawn, we also moved the Rhode Island Red chicks out on pasture!  They're four weeks old, and most of their adult feathers are in, which is apparently a sign that they're ready to explore the big world out there.



The hen house Byron built on an old trailer has been doubling as a brooder (he'll build a real brooder next year).  He hooked it up to the tractor...

 

...after a bit of rigging, due to shot hydraulics.  Better than spending hundreds on getting the hydraulics fixed...great job, Byron!
 

When he opened the door to the hen house this morning, they eyed the ramp suspiciously...

...so they got a little help flying the coop.

Exploring the big, green world...

...and looking more like chickens and less like little birds every day.

Breakfast buffet, with a bug or two on the side.  By the way, we're having to let the older hens, the Barred Rocks, free range so the little hens can have the protection of the electric fence.  We really hope the old girls don't fall prey to marauding animals, but until the Rhode Island Reds are bigger, we can't house them together since they could be injured by the bigger chickens.

And here are our Fat Boys (Cornish Cross) at their dinner buffet.  These boys are serious about their food; Byron's finger has almost fallen prey to their voracious appetites!  They are absolutely HUGE compared to the Rhode Island Reds, and this feed is non-GMO and free of hormones!

I'm linking again to Homestead Revival's Barn Hop.  Click below to join in!

Broiler Pens, Polyface-Style: Green Acres Weekend Update

You know how you start a project and convince yourself it will be done in an afternoon, and two days later you're still at it?  That's how our Polyface-style broiler pen project fared.  But it's done, and if we ever make another one, it probably will just take an afternoon!  Our pen was inspired by Joel Salatin's book, Pastured Poultry Profits, and images/instructions we found here on Flickr.  They are simple to make, pretty inexpensive (especially if you can score some extra metal roofing for free, which - darn it - we found out later we could have), and our Cornish-Cross meat birds are the fattest and happiest birds on the block.

The pen is 10'x12'x2' and can hold up to 100 broilers.  The people who posted the Flickr instructions used 1x4s for most of the frame, but we ripped 1x6s in half for the vertical and horizontal pieces, and in thirds for the diagonal braces, as Salatin recommends.  The bottom, horizontal board in the front and back is a 10' 2x4 ripped in half.

Framing done!

We salvaged the height-adjustable wheels from a spent lawn mower to help move the pen.  Salatin uses a special dolly.

We had to rig them a bit, but they work.

Finished!

Moving the broilers.  Salatin recommends doing this early in the day so they have time to acclimate before evening.  Our are almost three weeks old in this photo.

Pastured poultry!

We found four of these aluminum feeders, along with the old wooden poultry cage pictured above, in an antique shop.  They were reasonably priced, so we grabbed them.

We move the pen daily to new pasture, which provides fresh greens and bugs, and keeps conditions sanitary.

Here's our hallway...we're finally having our faulty plumbing replaced, so renovations are beginning again.

Happy Independence Day!