My First Black Cayuga Duck Egg! I’ve been waiting, rather impatiently, for our Black Cayuga duck hen to lay her first egg. Today I was pleasantly surprised by this beauty. 🙂 I was expecting a darker-colored shell, but it is still a rather interesting shade. I think the dark color…
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How to Farm Sit for Fun and Profit
How to Farm Sit & Make Some Cash If you’ve never lived on a farm, this term may sound weird. But for those of us with livestock, having a reliable farm sitter can help preserve our sanity. Homesteaders wouldn’t be able to vacation and keep animals if no one can…
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My 25 Pound Turkey
Butchering a 25 Pound Turkey I’m almost done butchering the 10 Broad Breasted White turkeys I ordered this spring and raised on our homestead. There’s one left to butcher when I get a nice cool day, but the rest are in the freezer or I pressure canned the meat for…
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Using Summer’s Harvest
What Are You Harvesting? I love having an abundance of fresh veggies in the summer. There is such a sense of satisfaction when your entire meal is home raised! I hope you are harvesting lots of fresh food from your homestead too! My beans have mostly been munched to the…
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The Importance of Keeping Blades Sharp On The Homestead
Sharp Blades Make Work Easier Homesteaders are often whittling, chopping wood, cooking from scratch, processing meat, and preparing food to preserve it. These jobs require knives and other tools with blades and can be rather time consuming. To make the work easier, quicker, and less dangerous, make sure you’re working with sharp…
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Canning & Freezing My Home Raised Turkeys
Preserving Our Turkeys for Winter I raised 10 Broad Breasted White turkeys this year and all of them survived to butcher size. Seven of the turkeys are processed so far, with 5 whole turkeys resting comfortably in our freezer. I double-bagged them to help prevent freezer burn and we will use them…
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Processing My First Turkey of the Season
Butchering Broad-Breasted Turkeys This spring I ordered 10 Broad Breasted White turkeys from Dale (The Chicken Guy) in Wisconsin. Actually, I think I ordered 6, but Dale always orders extra and somehow a few of them end up in my basket. I picked them up on March 13th. They were…
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Redneck RV Rebuild
An Interesting Visit My parents decided to take a trip in their RV to Alaska this summer to visit my sister. They’ve done this before and had a pretty good idea of what to expect…except that this time their RV succumbed to water damage. They didn’t know that water had…
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Keeping Ducks on the Homestead
Homestead Ducks Ducks are a great addition to the small homestead. They provide eggs and meat, and pest control too! Their meat is delicious and the eggs are great for baking and fresh eating. Ducks are less prone to disease than chickens and they lay eggs well during the winter.…
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Eat Your Weedies
Eating Weeds I like to supplement my garden goodies with weeds foraged from the countryside. This year I decided not to forage for milkweed, since the Monarch butterflies are in danger. I do believe that you can harvest milkweed if it is in abundance in your area, but please check…
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Saving Salsify Seed
Salsify or Vegetable Oyster Salsify, also known as vegetable oyster, is a little-known root vegetable. I remember my grandparents growing it in their garden when I was a kid. I’ve raised it several times and I enjoy the flavor, although it does have a tendency to cause some flatulence, so don’t…
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Can You Avoid Avian Flu Losses by Raising Ducks?
Are Ducks the Answer to Avian Flu? With continuing outbreaks of avian flu wiping out massive numbers of chickens and turkeys in the United States, many poultry enthusiasts are worried… ‘Will I lose my entire flock of laying hens?’ or ‘Is my turkey flock at risk?’ Small farmers suffer a setback when losing their…
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Saving Milkweed for the Monarchs
Leaving Milkweed for Monarch Butterflies I decided to start saving milkweed for the Monarchs. I like foraging for wild edibles, but I also like Monarch butterflies. And these beautiful creatures are in trouble. Habitat destruction and herbicide use are destroying the milkweed plants that Monarchs must lay their eggs on…
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Avian Flu, The Price of Eggs, & Raising Your Own Hens
Will Avian Flu Lead to the End of Cheap Eggs? I stopped looking at the price of eggs at the grocery store after I brought home my first laying hens. Frankly, I found it rather depressing to see eggs for sale at less than a dollar a dozen. My homegrown,…
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Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Chickens?
Do You Have Too Many Chickens? Almost anyone who keeps chickens will tell you that they can be addicting. You start off with a half dozen hens for fresh eggs and before you know it, you’ve got 50+ chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea fowl roaming your backyard. Do you have…
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The Case of the Mystery Ducks
Wait a Minute…These Aren’t Khaki Campbells! I ordered 5 Khaki Campbell ducklings through our local farm supply store and they arrived in early March. Well, at least four of them did…one was missing and could not be located. One died shortly after I picked them up. Things were not going…