This will be an ongoing topic for a potpourri of things pertaining to rural living in general. It could be sharing your new adventures with chickens, what you've been up to on the homestead, or perhaps asking a question. Pretty much anything goes here.

I'll start.

We have about a dozen and a half laying hens who favor the top tier of a 6 sectioned nesting box. This causes them to bunch up in there as well as break eggs. They somehow managed to break the perch to get into the lower portion a long time ago so they simply didn't use it.

Recently I was watching a Joel Salatin video and it occurred to me that maybe, in addition to the perch missing, the bottom tier was simply too low for their liking. So the other day I raised the whole unit up a foot or two. I also built a new perch, attached to the floor, so they can get in. I'm not showing you a pic because my tools are scattered all over and I was working with what I could find. Let's just say it won't win any carpentry awards.

But it works. I threw a couple wooden "dummy eggs" in and rght away they started using the bottom tier. A simple fix.

In case anyone is interested:

I originally planned to go and buy some birds but with everything else going on, that plan is on hold at least until next year.

last warm day we had ended up pulling out the pear tree that up and died, planted another plum tree, a peach tree and 5 more pawpaw trees. waiting for the milkweed to sprout to transplant somehoping enough blossoms held back to get some fruit this year

Every spring the goats end up with mites and one of them in particular gets them bad. This year the bugs pretty persistent. I've given them Ivermectin shots x 3 ( at a higher dose than normal ) now as well as sprayed the one with lime-sulphur. I've also sprinkled their bedding area with Pythom dust for good measure. It looks like I'm gonna have to get even more aggressive and get a tube of Nu-stock, which is lime sulphur in pine tar.

Problem is, they see me with gloves and/or anything in their hands, they take off running. So I'll have to catch the one who needs it the worst and then have someone glove me up so I can administer it. It's a messy solution but it should do the trick.

2 hours ago, Chris said:

Every spring the goats end up with mites and one of them in particular gets them bad. This year the bugs pretty persistent. I've given them Ivermectin shots x 3 ( at a higher dose than normal ) now as well as sprayed the one with lime-sulphur. I've also sprinkled their bedding area with Pythom dust for good measure. It looks like I'm gonna have to get even more aggressive and get a tube of Nu-stock, which is lime sulphur in pine tar.

Problem is, they see me with gloves and/or anything in their hands, they take off running. So I'll have to catch the one who needs it the worst and then have someone glove me up so I can administer it. It's a messy solution but it should do the trick.

Do they make mite collars for goats like tick collars?

16 minutes ago, Ann said:

Do they make mite collars for goats like tick collars?

No.

God, I’ve gotta stop watching those Joel Salatin videos. They get my gears turning too much.

One half hour video and I’m thinking about breeding Black Copper Marans to sell the chicks in addition to eggs. Which of course reminds me that I do miss having the Narragansett Turkeys and maybe some day we’ll get a small flock of those as well.

Good grief…😆

The struggle is real !!

1 hour ago, Hal said:

The struggle is real !!

Yeah and it didn't help that I spent the ride to Himrod and back this morning listening to Joel in a new interview with Glenn Beck.

If it aint one thing, it's another...

I got a new battery for the four wheeler yesterday, since the previous one had died. The previous one had threaded holes in the battery post. Screw the wires down on to it and Bob's your uncle.

Not this one.

The new one requires you to slide a little square nut inside the battery post then screw everything down on to that. Easy, right? No.

The long screws are too long and the shorter ones are too short. You can't get the bolt into the nut to thead and tighten down. And even if you do, how do you hold the nut? I called down to Glider City and Chad, who was very patient, explained to me the process. It sounded a lot like what I was already doing, but after a couple more trys, I decided to take the battery down and have him make sure I had the right parts or show me what he was talking about. I figured looking stupid and bruising my pride was the lesser of two evils.

He showed me, using the longer bolts. Okay, turns out that the little nut, once inside the battery post, won't turn and will feed up the bolt. I felt stupid, but I expected that. But how to get it to work with the shorter bolts, which were what I had to use?

He said an old mechanic taught him a trick and he showed me. You cut a plastic zip tie, fold it in half, and feed that into the post with the nut resting on top. That will hold the nut in place so you can catch the threads. I thanked him and returned home, slightly injured pride, but otherwise okay.

Once I got everything in place, found the missing nut that I lost pulling the battery out for the 10th time to place the wires correctly ( Yamaha does not leave you much to work with in this part of the machine ) it worked like a charm.

Maybe today I'll actually get that new water tank and sprayer on the machine.

One of my chickens is showing signs of wanting to set. She’s not pecking at me when I reach under her to gather eggs but she’s putting up a fuss.

So tonight I started pulling the darkest brown eggs from the basket. Those are from my Black CopperMarans ( BCM ) hens, which are well known for their “chocolate” eggs.



When I got this new flock I had the foresight to buy one BCM rooster for just this moment. Since he’s the only male and their eggs are easily identifiable from the other brown egg layers, I know that those hatched will be full blooded, albeit not show quality, BCM’s.

I’ll see how she’s acting and in the next day or two will try to put her on those eggs in her own nest, away from where the others lay.

Whatever hatches, I’ll keep the hens and sell the roosters, maybe keeping one as a backup.

"Announcing your plans is the surest way to hear God laugh."

I don't think she's broody.

Oh well, omelets for dinner I guess.

Man, I picked the wrong time of day to be digging down into the old, compacted manure in the goat barn, but it's mostly done. I lost count of how many wheelbarrow loads I took out of there. I started hitting rock, which told me I was close to original ground. My shoulder started telling me I was close to done as well. By the time I got that far, I decided I was done. I'll go back and scrape the remaining stuff up another time.

As much as I love them, I'm never getting large animals again.

On 6/16/2026 at 9:10 AM, Chris said:

"Announcing your plans is the surest way to hear God laugh."

I don't think she's broody.

Oh well, omelets for dinner I guess.

she is as of last week

10 hours ago, ADAM said:

she is as of last week

No, she’s not really serious about it. She’ll jump off the nest if there’s corn involved and doesn’t fight me too much when I take her out of the nest box.

I hate to let her set in an elevated nest, but I may just throw some eggs under her and let the gates decide what happens when they hatch.

We made our first attempt at pickles this evening:

Dill pickles????

16 hours ago, KarenK said:

Dill pickles????

Yeah. These are "refrigerator pickles" so they're not meant for long term storage. We want to find the right recipe before going all in on them.

Kinda easing into canning a little at a time. You can only freeze so much.

Dill pickles are the best!

9 minutes ago, Ann said:

Dill pickles are the best!

I literally eat dill pickles and string cheese every single day

I found the blueberry farm in Marsh Rd. on Facebook and saw they put fresh berries out. I bought them out:

Counting what I bought from them on Friday, we’re now set for winter, at least for blueberries.

I’d like to find out what variety they have planted. The berries are the perfect combo of tart and sweet. And they’re good sized too.

We tried the pickles tonight and DAMN they are good!

Gonna have to get more jars and cucumbers ( mine aren’t doing so swell ) and can some for longer term.

On 8/4/2026 at 8:50 PM, Chris said:

We tried the pickles tonight and DAMN they are good!

Gonna have to get more jars and cucumbers ( mine aren’t doing so swell ) and can some for longer term.

Don’t buy any quart jars until you talk to my friend Fred Sanford… he has all you can use ( quart size ) most still in the cases .

16 hours ago, Hal said:

Don’t buy any quart jars until you talk to my friend Fred Sanford… he has all you can use ( quart size ) most still in the cases .

Okay thanks. I did go and buy another 12 pack of pint jars. That seems to be a good size for small batches of pickles.

I need to look and see if one of the local farmstands has good pickling cukes, I want to get some more made and stocked downstairs asap.

I'd also like to try and make some bread and butter pickles, though I may be the only one in the house who likes them.