November 2023

I’ve decided to downsize the chickens for the winter. This was a challenging decision to make but I know that it is the right step. We are saying goodbye to 14 of our birds. 9 of those chickens are our ISA Browns. Which, if you haven’t heard of them, are pretty amazing birds. They lay 360+ days per year, minus molting times, and they are excellent foragers. Chickens will pretty much eat anything and everything that will fit in their beaks with few exceptions. I have seen my ladies eat bugs, mice, voles, worms, small snakes, grain and even their own eggs. They’ll decimate a patch of grass in no time at all. They truly are dinosaur descendants.

As much as I hate to say it much of our decision to downsize is related to cost. Farms are not cheap to run and feed has gotten beyond expensive. We aren’t getting in enough eggs to offset the cost of feed, bedding and water and it just isn’t sustainable like this.

This isn’t to say though that we are going without any chickens. I do still have a small flock that should be able to provide us eggs with a few left over to hatch or sell in small batches. Having animals is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor and I will always evaluate ours and their quality of care and life and make adjustments accordingly.

I’ve officially repotted all my indoor plants into perlite for a hydroponics set up. Life has gotten so busy that I just don’t have time to constantly check all my plants. With even a well draining soil I was finding it hard to not over water and to keep the plants from getting root rot. The nice part about perlite is that it allows for fast drainage and it allows for oxygen to get to the roots. The cause of root rot is not the water, it’s the lack of oxygen to the roots. When there is too much water added to soil that water pushes the oxygen out and then the roots suffocate, causing rot. I was also finding that when I top down water, the weight of the water was compacting the soil further adding to the lack of oxygen. An easy solution for that is to set the pot in another larger pot or container that has water added to it for about an hour. That allows the soil to soak up the water from the bottom and keeps the soil light and fluffy and not compact. Soil will naturally compact over time so that is a consideration and why I personally swapped to hydroponics.

It’s definitely been a bit of a challenge to get things done around the house and down in the garden. Getting ready for the upcoming holiday and keeping up on the house, farm and baby are all a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I love every moment of it but I also miss my crafting time and my outdoor gardening time. I miss the creativity that comes with drawing and painting and I miss the steadiness that comes with crocheting. My goal this week is to finish one of my mop towels so I can use it in the kitchen over this upcoming week and make any adjustments to the design as needed.