Holding down the fort...
Well, my husband, Ken, was lifting weights…adjusted his grip and felt an excrucuating pain. Steroids, physical therapy and finally an MRI.
That was three months ago, he has been doing chores one handed. Until Monday, when he had rotator cuff surgery, ugh.
As he recovers (arm in a sling for 6 weeks) and 4 months of physical therapy. I’m holding down the fort!
Worse possible timing...
Last time I “held down the fort” Ken was in the hospital with Covid …for 10 days.
It was the end of December and you would think doing outdoor chores, by yourself, in winter, would be the worst!
But no, no my friends, lol! Spring and summer are a VERY, VERY busy time on the farm.
Then I thought, I bet most people have no idea what needs to be done on a daily basis, on a small farm!
Behind the scenes...
So as you take a look at our pretty view from the kitchen window…you will now know the REAL story.
Oh beautiful Spring! Green lush grass, a rain filled sky, with promises of a heavy harvest and lots of flowers.
No…nope. Not in Northern Illinois 2023, lol.
After this picture was taken in April…there has been hardly any rain at all for going on three months.
So here is the nitty, gritty details of doing the bare minimum chores…just to get by, until the weather breaks and Ken is back on his feet.
Ducks...
Chore one: The ducks are still in their brooder box in our attached garage, which is a blessing and a curse, lol.
Move the ducks from their box to a temporary playpen.
Now you would think…how hard can that be? Well, the ducks (at 8 weeks old, almost full grown) hate to be touched, picked up or held, lol.
They run back and forth, just out of my reach!
After weeks of this routine, you would think they would get used to it!
They actually scream and honk and cry! You can hear it all over the neighborhood, lol.
I can’t imagine what the neighbors think is going on over here.
As soon as they are all together in the playpen…they chatter, and waddle around with happiness. You would never know how they scratched and screamed just minutes ago, lol.
Each morning, after putting the ducks outside, I take out the nasty waterer and feeder and tray they sit on.
Ducks have two holes on the top of their beaks. After eating a few bites, they have to dip their beaks completely in the water, filling the holes. This helps them digest the food.
Then they shake their heads and dirty water and food go everywhere.
Ducks are VERY MESSY. Especially, when they’re still in the brooder. They are also losing their baby feathers too.
Pests and Poo...
To combat flys on poo, for all of the animals on the farm, we use an all natural product call “Diatomaceous earth”
Here’s your science lesson:
Diatomaceous earth is made from the fossilized remains of tiny aquatic organisms. This silica accumulates in the bottom of rivers, lakes, streams and oceans.
Deposits are mined from these areas. It is not poisonous, but insects will dry out and die when it crawls across the powder.
It is food grade and in lots of products for humans and animals (check it out…very interesting!)
I will refer this as “DE”
After rinsing off the tray, sprinkling the sleeping side of the brooder box with DE and dry pine chips, I put a fan on the food side of the brooder to dry up the spilled water.
Barn Cats...
Chore two: As I walk by the barn on my way to the chicken coop, I let the kitties out of the barn for the day.
They have dry food and clean water available at all times, and are feed canned cat food in the evening before being locked back in the barn at night.
Chickens...
Chore three: Before letting the chickens out of their coop, I get the feed and water situated.
We keep the open feed bags under a roof in a stainless steel garbage can, next to the coop.
I always dread seeing an almost empty bag, knowing I’ll be lugging 50 lbs of chicken feed from the barn to the coop the next morning, lol!
Using a large scoop, I estimate around a 1/4 lb of feed per hen and divide it into four feeding pans.
Currently, we have 30 grown hens and 9 young hens.
Water worries...
Chore four: Usually, we fill a 5 gallon pail with water from the rain barrels over at the goat barn, but because of the drought, the water barrels are almost empty.
So I put the chicken waterer in the golf cart, drive up to the house and fill it with the outside tap.
Even though I use the golf cart to haul the water, I still have to carry it from the cart to the chicken run.
Five gallons of water is heavy!
Handy...
Kind of off track here, but I thought I would show you where we store our cleaning and maintenance supplies.
The previous owners left this plastic cupboard…it is so handy and has held up great.
We keep extra egg baskets and cutting tools in the top.
Pine chips, DE, etc. in the bottom.
Back to daily coop care....
After opening the door from the coop to the run, I go out the run gate and shut it behind me, careful to shut all doors and gates.
Unfortunately, we’ve had trouble with predators this summer. We lost three hens in one week…
In order to let them free range while still being somewhat protected, we are using poultry netting to close off a large area for them.
Scoopin poo...
So I untie the netting from a post and close it behind me, going on to the coop to do the daily cleaning.
Chickens sleep on a roost at night. Under most of our roosts we had a sort of litter box.
Its’s filled with sand, barn lime and DE. Using a cat litter scoop, I clean out the trays and dump the poo in a five gallon bucket.
We’re using an old ladder as a roost that goes from one of the trays to the window ledge. There is no poop tray under the ladder because we need it to be movable.
We use pine chips to cover the poo daily and once a week we clean the floor and scrap the dry poo with a metal scrapper. It’s is loaded into a large wheel barrel and taken over to the compost pile.
Then we spread out barn lime, DE and clean pine chips on the floor.
The young'ins...
Chore five: Right now we have 9 young hens that aren’t big enough to be incorporated with the flock.
They have their own cozy area, under the trays and away from the bullying big girls.
Their area is a real pain to get to, lol! We used bungee cords, chicken wire and old baby gates to make it with.
It’s like a Jenga game, touch one strap and the whole thing falls apart, lol!
When we want to add chips, water or feed, we lock the other chickens out in the run until we get done.
It will be so nice in late summer when we can build another roost and put them all together.
Goats...
Chore six: Then I head over to the hay barn. We bought this the second year we moved here and it has held up through, storms, wind and snow.
It’s starting to show some wear this year though, and will need some TLC.
Ken usually buys hay in the late fall and early spring and stores it on pallets in this shelter.
We call it the hay barn, it’s around 10 feet x 17 feet.
Hay Barn...
Hauling Hay...
So over to the goat barn with a load of hay, I can hear the goats talking and moving around in the barn.
It is like a juggling trick to pick up the hay in one arm (up high where the goats can’t grab it before I get it in the feeder), twist the door handle with the other hand, quickly step in the barn and over to the feeder, lol!
They happily stick their heads in the slats and start munching away.
While they’re busy, I start sweeping the poo off their bunk beds.
Goat poo is very strange, it doesn’t really have a smell. It looks like rabbit pellets and is easy to sweep up.
I sweep it off the beds and dump it in a 5 gallon bucket.
There is a wall hung feeder with powdered vitamins and minerals that goats require.
The minerals, barn lime, DE, and other things are stored in the rafter ledge of the barn…I can barely reach it, lol!
We put the DE in an old coffee can with holes punched in the top and sprinkle it over the floor and bunks.
Many times they pee on the bunk beds…I use barn lime to dry it up.
Usually they go in one spot on the floor (which is hard packed dirt) I pour barn lime, DE and clean chips on the spot.
Once every two weeks, we rake all the used hay, poo, and old chips from the floor and put it in the wheel barrel to be dumped on the compost pile.
They have water in two places, one 2 gallon bucket hangs on the wall in the barn.
The other five gallon bucket is outside by the water barrels. It’s so nice to be able to open the spigot and have water so close by
The Pond...
Chore eight: Our pond is a pain in the neck! Oh, it’s pretty alright…but don’t let that fool you.
It has more maintenance than our big pool at our old house ever did.
The water level has around a one inch difference between flooding over and being too low for the pump to work.
But my husband loves that thing…so I feed the fish on my way back into the house and try to keep an eye on the water level.
Not done yet...
Chore nine: I come in the house to our two dogs, barking and running circles.
It’s breakfast time. The storage cupboard we keep the food in was left here by the previous owners.
It holds the container with 40 lbs of dog food in the bottom and pet medical supplies, treats, toys, leashes etc. in the top cupboard.
So I feed the dogs….Scarlett is a pretty little girl as she patiently waits for her breakfast, lol!
Coffee time...
I’m really not a coffee drinker…but I fix myself a Chia Tea Latte, every morning.
After I come in from morning chores, I sit in my recliner thinking about my day…should I mow or water the pumpkin field first?
Should I tie up my cucumber vines or pick the over ripening raspberries…
I really need to throw in a load of laundry and run the vacuum cleaner.
Wait a minute, I’m supposed to be retired, lol! I feel like I’ve worked all day already!
Let’s not even talk about the evening chores…all of the above (backwards)
I’ll just sit here a while and be thankful for the sweet little farm I have, thankful for my husbands continued healing, thankful that I am still able to do a hard days work at almost 68 years old.
Hard work never hurt anybody…it’s good for the soul.
See you next time.
Fondly, Sandy
Sandy, how long does this take you?
Hi Mary.
When I do all the morning chores alone, it takes around an hour and a half. If doing weekly cleaning of the goat barn and chicken coop, add another hour.
Usually Ken does the goats, cats and dogs and chickens! I do the ducks, garden, and pumpkin field. ….man I can’t wait until he’s back at it!
You’ve got it down to a science! Bravo girl!!
Hi Judith! You know ALL about farm chores, lol!
We just have a pretend farm compared to you!
Thanks for the encouragement…hopefully I will be able to have a good attitude for a couple more months.
S.
I loved reading about your story! It mirrors ours. We ditched the suburbs (Frankfort, IL) after raising our kids and, in our 60s, bought a 5.5 acre farm further southeast in Peotone. We knew nothing about farming but soon started filling up our beautiful, big, red barn. We currently have 40 animals (sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, barn cats, a goose and duck) and could not be happier! Our grandkids love visiting, which was the main reason we moved here. ❤️ We learn something new everyday. Thank you for sharing!
Hello Tamara! Lovely to meet you!!!
Our stories are almost identical!
Let’s try to keep in touch.
My fb name is Sandy Dossey Brewer, if you would like to send me a friend request 🙂
This dry weather has about worn me out!
I expanded my garden to an area were the pumpkin field was last year, it is so full of weeds, thistle, bind weed and grass, I don’t know if I can get it under control, lol!
So fun to hear your story and we’re almost neighbors. We’re on the Stateline of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Thanks for leaving your story!
Fondly, S.
I wanted to tell you “don’t get ducks” so badly. We had them one year…messiness, stinkiest farm animal ever. I’m sure you’ll love them anyway!
Oh Penny…you are so right, lol!
Lucy begged us for two years! Of course now that we have them…is Lucy taking care of them?
No, lol!
She says she wants to show them at the Boone County Fair…we’ll see haha
Your friend always, S.
love reading your posts
Thank you so much! I appreciate your encouragement ❤️
Fondly, Sandy