Many of you do not know we are a certified backyard wildlife habitat. We are certified through the National Wildlife Federation. Several years ago I made the choice to go ahead and register the property.
One of the reasons I made the decision was because we are so close to town that I wanted wild animals to have a safe place to find food, water and shelter. I wanted to be able to grow plants that were beneficial to them. Weeds and brush piles are also important. I did not want to be told that I could not provide the much needed shelter for these wild animals.
In the never ending desire to have the neatest, nicest house on the block, people often forget about the needs of their wild friends. While grass cut short and hedges perfectly trimmed may look nice, these domesticated areas leave much to be desired for wild animals and birds.
Predators, even in the form of simple house cats, can easily spot a bird or bunny in a perfectly manicured area. There is no place for them to hide and soon they become lunch or worse, a play toy for the cat until the cat’s owner catches and scolds the cat. By then, it may be too late for the wild animal the cat caught.
I want to strongly encourage each and every one of you to allow one spot in your yard to go wild, even if this means planting an area of native plants that you do not worry about grooming. Choose bushes that do not need constant pruning or that have thorns that will deter cats. The birds can get through the thorns and remain safe.
Our wildlife habitat number is 77285. You can find out more about the getting your backyard certified as a wildlife habitat at http://www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife/certify.cfm
Filed under Miscellanous by on May 12th, 2010. 2 Comments. 
Friday night brought a terrible storm into our area. We lost several greenhouses, a roof, had numerous trees come down including some that hit Jerry, had windows broken and more. The yard looks like a tornado hit it. There were numerous people without power for several days. Luckily we were not one of them.
The severity of the storm was quite unexpected. I was preparing homemade noodles when it hit. I spent the majority of the next two days getting packages of food ready for the winter months. With gas prices soaring and rumors of higher electricity costs this winter every little bit of food that can be saved now will really make a big difference then.
I made four pounds of homemade noodles, which will not keep us long but it is a start. There is a good chance we will have the opportunity to glean a potato field later in the year. If so, I will can those potatoes to use throughout the winter.
With the roses being in full bloom and so fragrant I decided to try my hand at making rose petal jelly and rose petal honey. I had five half pints spill in the oven so I had to stop and clean it. However I did end up with six half pints of the jelly and three half pints of the honey, one of which we are going to eat now.
I then made packages of dry ingredients for breads and cookies. Later I will freeze the eggs I need for those packages so I know when the time comes to bake there will be eggs. So far I have four packages of honey wheat bread. Two of them will make two pound loaves and the other two will make pound and a half loaves. I also made five packages of dinner rolls, but we ate one already.
I cooked up the necks and backs of some of the chickens Jerry butchered as well so there would be some chicken broth to can. The recipe that I followed yielded a peppery tasting broth. I am going to mark those cans so I can dilute them later on with more broth. I set the broth in the fridge last night so today I could get the oil off easily and then we will can the broth.
I also made up some packages of cookie mix, dry ingredients only. So far I have a package of orange sugar cookies, four packages of peanut butter and oatmeal cookies with a variety of oatmeal flavors and a package of honey spice cookies.
I am keeping all of the packages of dry mixes in the freezer so there is not a bug problem later on.
I have plans to make up some more cookies, some cakes and brownies. This will make putting them together easier when the time comes and eliminate the chance we are out of one spice or the other. With the hints of upcoming shortages of flour, sugar and rice making this stuff ahead of time will guarantee we will have plenty.
An interesting observation was that our goats are in heat. This should not happen, I am told, until at least September. I do not want to breed now as the babies would be born during the winter and I for one am not thrilled about milking in fridgid weather. I spoke with a friend about it and she said this was quite unusual. She allows her buck to run free with her herd and said he was courting the does. I hope mine come into heat again when they are supposed to as I did not want to breed them until November.
Sheri
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
There is a lot in bloom already. Phlox, tulips – some looking taller than ever before, Magnolia, bleeding heart, jack-in-the-pulpit, azalea and other spring blooming beauties. The forsythia and narcissus have long faded. Some of the lilac are already blooming and some are just forming buds. The night air is fragrant and wildlife is stirring.
The farm animals seem to know spring is here too. The chickens are laying a ton of eggs and of course the roosters are constantly going after the hens. Last night we butchered four chickens with the help of a friend. They took two and we put two in our freezer. This time we chose to butcher four Rhode Island Reds. They seem the most agressive of all the breeds we have and also are harder to keep in the chicken area. They want to roam the entire yard which would be fine if they were not inclined to go across the street and eat or dig any flower that was emerging.
The goats escaped the fence the other day and trashed several of my trees. Darn goats! Jerry has to try again to fix the fence so it will hold them. I am hoping the trees survive. At this rate I am never going to have mature plants!
Beauty the horse is much calmer this year. I still cannot get to her tail to brush it but when the vet comes out I am going to ask her to sedate Beauty so I can get those cockerburls out. She is letting me brush her butt some – but only briefly.
Having a cashmere goat is a bit different. Tulip is still quite shy and has to be lifted onto the milking stand. She does not like being brushed but tolerates it. I trimmed all of their hooves this week. Darla was the real pain. First she jumped on the milk stand, then jumped off behind it, tipped a shelf over and finally ended back up in her stall. I did get her hooves trimmed but made her wait until last. She didn’t like watching the other goats get ginger snap cookies when they were done so after I finished all of them I called Darla and she jumped right up on the milk stand!
The vegetable garden is growing too. I have tiny plants of carrots, kale, sugar snap peas, spinach, turnips, brussels sprouts, sugar beets, cabbage and we are already harvesting radish and lettuce. Some of the lettuce we planted the year before has sprouted on its own. I will be digging and moving those plants once we get ready to till that area. Adding the compost has done wonders for the ground! There are still many plants to get into the ground that are in the greenhouse as well as more corn and green beans to plant.
I am debating growing flax this year for fiber. I already have small cotton plants growing.
The bunnies have not had babies and I am wondering if maybe one of them cannot breed. They have been together for several months now but my female has not shown a single sign of being pregnant.
If you are in the area I invite you to come spend some time at our farm and wildlife habitat. Please email or phone ahead for reservations.
Sheri
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
Our granddaughter Trinity came for her first visit yesterday. Of course, no visit to a farm is complete without seeing the animals.
Sarah, my daughter and her mother, had not been home in some time, so her first question was, where’s Beauty? I told her we would go out to the barn in a moment. It was raining so hard today that all of the animals were in the barn. The ground in the pasture gets so soft that Beauty often falls if we let her out after a hard rain, so it is best to keep her in. Goats get pneumonia pretty easily so we keep them in when it is raining as well so they stay dry.
Trinity got lots of hugs and kisses from grandma first, while mom took lots of photos of the first visit. Then we began the journey to the barn. Getting to the barn meant going through the greenhouse. The Thanksgiving cactus was in full bloom and those fuschia colored blooms attracted Trinity’s attention immediately. Being curious, as all babies are, I held her up so she could touch the flowers. Hmmm, I do wonder if we have a budding botantist on our hands?
Then we proceeded on to the barn. Sarah, of course, went to visit Beauty first. She was amazed at how much weight Beauty has gained since the last time she saw her. I took this photo with my smart phone three days ago when Beauty was in the pasture. She has a fairly thick winter coat on as you can see.
I took Trinity in to see the goats first. The baby goats were curious about Trinity. They cautiously came forward, sniffing her. Faith, the baby goat above, looked at her mama Darla as if to say “I have never seen a tiny person like this before. Is it ok mama?” LOL!
Darla, being a cautious mama goat, stretched out her long neck to check Trinity out before gently naying to her babies that they could go up to her and get pets.
The other mama goats, Sugar, Spice and Tulip were not so interested in Trinity. They preferred to stand back and take the situation in as if they did not know what to make of it. Nutmeg, the ever curious baby goat, who loves to nibble on everyone was quite interested in Trinity. While he was checking her out, he reached up to her face and gave her a quick kiss. It was so cute.
The next stop was the sheep stall. Johnny and Pearl did not know what to think. Their fleece this time of year is full of lanolin and Trinity did not seem as interested in them as she did the goats. As you can see, Johnny above, wanted to stand back and look at her while Trinity wanted to look for her mommy.
The last stop in the barn was a visit to Leonardo, our angora buck. He had been jumping up on the side of his stall the entire time looking to see what was going on. We did not go inside the stall this time because he is in rut this time of year. Trinity was interested in him and he allowed her to give him a pet. He is such a gentle boy most of the time, but can get pushy this time of year so being on the outside of the stall was in everyone’s best interest.
From there we came back inside so momma could clean Trinity up. She spent some time playing with Blueberry Muffin, a doll my Grandma King crocheted many years ago when I was a child. It is nice to know that hand made toys, made with love and care, can last three generations of children and still be in great shape.
Trinity seemed to love being here today. Could this be the start of another generation of women homesteaders in our family?
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Nov 18th, 2009. 2 Comments.
Welcome to the Experimental Homesteader site! I am so excited about this site finally going live! For the past five years, my husband Jerry and I have lived on a small farm which we named Exotic Gardening Farm & Wildlife Habitat. We have an acre and a half of land. The photo above was of the house when we bought it five years ago.
When we first moved here I was excited that the house was equipped with wood heat. Sometimes that is wonderful and sometimes it can be a real pain! Getting up several times at night to put logs on the fire is not fun, nor is waking up to a cool house in the morning. We are getting used to it however.
Cooking with cast iron on the wood stove is a real blast! Since the wood stove is in my office it makes cooking and working at the same time much easier. We love roasts in the cast iron Dutch oven. I have cooked breads, bacon, chicken, vegetables and potatoes on the wood stove. Learning how to regulate the heat and keep it steady by adding small pieces of wood is the trick.
We moved here in August and the following spring decided to get chickens and ducks. I had raised them before but Jerry was new to having animals. He was taken by how cute the ducks were. Cute and messy, let me assure you.
That summer the chickens and ducks settled in, began laying eggs and of course, produced an abundance. I was selling eggs as fast as I could fill egg cartons at $1.50 a dozen.
When winter came, the chickens and ducks quit laying. It was work going out in the snow to give them food and water. The coop became quit messy. I guess that is what happens when they stay in a confined area.
The next year we decided to get a goat. It was a mistake to get just one goat. Darla did not like being the only goat. We had to get a companion.
That was where Mr. Buck came in. When we brought Mr. Buck home, life was great, that is until he decided to use his horns in an attempt to tear the stall down!
We got a second goat, Sugar. Mr. Buck and Darla decided to gang up on her. After a while she began to fit in, but really, why was I keeping Mr. Buck when he continued to destroy things? So, we put him up for sale.
Before we could sell him, we got a third doe, Spice. She was Sugar’s sister and a great milker. When we introduced her, the other goats ganged up on her. The three does all came from the same breeder and knew each other, but that Mr. Buck was a gang leader if ever there was one! He had to go! So, I gave him away.
Things were going pretty good with the goats. I was getting lots of milk, learning to make cheese, butter, ice cream and a slew of other dairy products.
Then along came Beauty. She was an abused horse that was starving. She was given to us. The story went that a lady had strapped her head to a saddle and was beating her into submission. She was also not feeding her. Beauty broke the straps and stomped the woman. The woman ended up almost dying. The hay man took Beauty and passed her on to another person. She would not eat with his horses, so he asked me if I wanted her. I said yes. She was unnamed, but her beauty showed, even in the condition she was in, so her name became Beauty.
Since I was getting into spinning, I decided I wanted some angora rabbits. That was the next quest. Rabbits are fun indeed, but hand picking the angora can be time consuming. We now have four rabbits.
We also acquired a cashmere doe we named Tulip because of the white Tulip on her forehead.
In between time we have had turkeys, peacocks, pheasants and guinea. We still have the pheasant. Having guineas as close to town as we are was not working well.
Finding someone to breed our goats was a problem. After a year of them not being bred, we decided to do something about it and get a buck. Now, I did not want just any old buck, I wanted an angora. We searched high and low for one when a friend called with a phone number of a lady a county away that raised them. I called her and went to pick up our buck. We named him Leonardo, or Leo for short.
Last August, for my birthday, we added a pair of Leicester Longwool sheep – Johnny and Pearl. I wanted them for the fiber but more importantly I wanted to help preserve an endangered breed. They are the sweetest of all the animals, very obedient, very loving and very shy.
In early summer we were blessed with seven baby goats – two does, Faith and Victoria.
Five boys whom we wethered – Rembrant – a cashgora, Cyrus, Raphael, Nutmeg and Cinnamon.
We raise most of our own food – fruits, vegetables and herbs. We butcher the extra roosters when necessary. We are working to learn to live off of our own land. I have a greenhouse that allows me to grow tropical plants year round and start seedlings in the spring. We garden outdoors year round with the help of cold frames. We can, dehydrate, ferment and the list goes on.
I hope you will come with us on our journey to self-sufficiency. Hopefully you will pick up some survival skills along the way!
Filed under About Us by on Oct 27th, 2009. Comment.
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