This weeks preps check-in

[bill harrell]

A dude , one day next spring when it that's, plan some work for me and you, I'm gonna come help you. You have all winter to contemplate. ( My grandpa's used to say, " you show me a farmer that's caught up, and I'll show you a lazy S.O.B.) but , many hands make work light.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

Hope you got a Post hole attachment for that demand.
I almost always say yes unless it’s where I know it’s shallow bedrock.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

A dude , one day next spring when it that's, plan some work for me and you, I'm gonna come help you. You have all winter to contemplate. ( My grandpa's used to say, " you show me a farmer that's caught up, and I'll show you a lazy S.O.B.) but , many hands make work light.

Bill I like you dude I love the red neck take. It’s usually my go to attitude
Farmers and Rancher are a different breed. I loved going to my families different farms, helping my buddy on his milking. But it was a farm.
Ranching is totally different. You let things go natural and intervene when they need food.
My friends back east may call me a farmer I say rancher. And I know the difference

 

[Arcticdude]

Hope you got a Post hole attachment for that demand.
I almost always say yes unless it’s where I know it’s shallow bedrock.

I have a post hole auger for the tractor, but this time of year the ground is too dry. Most holes I end up digging by hand anyway. The ground is either too rocky or it's inaccessible to the tractor.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

I have a post hole auger for the tractor, but this time of year the ground is too dry. Most holes I end up digging by hand anyway. The ground is either too rocky or it's inaccessible to the tractor.

Sometimes I predrill with a 6 inch hand held power auger before I bring out the 12 incher. The 3pt post hole digger is the one attachment that scares me on the tractor. Too many things that could go wrong.

 

[DirtDiva]

Killed 4 old hens that had quit laying and canned chicken and broth. Should make great chicken soup and gumbo this winter. Paper plates spread across the dining table with seeds drying of butternut squash, zucchini, okra and plum tomatoes. Enough seeds to plant acres if necessary so should last for several years. Vacuum sealed in jars dehydrated figs, okra and sweet potato leather. Also put dehydrated okra in mylar. Canned 2 cookings of butternut soup (14 quarts). Walnuts picked up and washed with all hulls removed. I will let them dry for a bit then start cracking. Also made a couple quarts of hickory syrup with cracked hickory nuts. Mr. DD uses it to make his BBQ sauce.

 

[GaRp58]

I will let them dry for a bit then start cracking.

Don't know if it helps, but not everybody likes to crack nuts...I use my adjustable vise-grips to crack walnuts. You can open them to about the right size, crack the nut without crushing it all-together. Turn it around and crack from all sides...works for me.

 

[DirtDiva]

Don't know if it helps, but not everybody likes to crack nuts...I use my adjustable vise-grips to crack walnuts. You can open them to about the right size, crack the nut without crushing it all-together. Turn it around and crack from all sides...works for me.

We actually have a heavy duty nut cracker designed to crack walnuts and such. Bought it many decades ago and has been a good one.

 

[DrHenley]

Don't know if it helps, but not everybody likes to crack nuts...I use my adjustable vise-grips to crack walnuts. You can open them to about the right size, crack the nut without crushing it all-together. Turn it around and crack from all sides...works for me.

Same here. I crack off both ends first with the Vise Grips, then start cracking around the shell until pieces fall off.

 

[GaRp58]

Same here. I crack off both ends first with the Vise Grips,

Must be universal knowledge, just floating around the world.......

 

[Cindyd]

Killed 4 old hens that had quit laying and canned chicken and broth. Should make great chicken soup and gumbo this winter. Paper plates spread across the dining table with seeds drying of butternut squash, zucchini, okra and plum tomatoes. Enough seeds to plant acres if necessary so should last for several years. Vacuum sealed in jars dehydrated figs, okra and sweet potato leather. Also put dehydrated okra in mylar. Canned 2 cookings of butternut soup (14 quarts). Walnuts picked up and washed with all hulls removed. I will let them dry for a bit then start cracking. Also made a couple quarts of hickory syrup with cracked hickory nuts. Mr. DD uses it to make his BBQ sauce.

I'm debating on whether to kill some of my old hens that have quit laying....can't bring myself to do it yet. For some reason the newer ones I got few months ago are not laying either and I think they should be by now. I'm getting 1 egg here and there in a day and have 18 hens in that one area! 13 4+ years old and 1 is actually 8 years old! The 4 newer ones are 5 months old (not laying!) Yet.

I got 12 -new, now 12 weeks old in a separate area...hopefully in couple/few months they will be laying! We go through a lot of eggs...I'm very ticked off having to buy eggs right now!

 

[GaRp58]

I'm getting 1 egg here and there in a day and have 18 hens in that one area!

Sorry for your egg dilemma. My BIL was here yesterday and was surprised that we get 3 eggs daily...and only have 3 chickens!!!! He has 8 hens and a rooster, but gets only 4-5 eggs --each week---.
Don't know what it is that we are doing right, but we ARE NOT GONNA CHANGE anything for the moment.

 

[Cindyd]

They've always been good layers but I think they are just aged out and the 4 younger ones I'm hoping just aren't quite there yet to start laying regularly. Nothing else has changed in their environment. If the other new dozen younger ones I got couple wks ago don't start laying in 2-3 months I'll really be worried something is up.

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

Agree that those hens are just aged out. Unfortunately, now is not the time to waste precious feed to prolong their lives. Reality sucks sometimes.

 

[DirtDiva]

The hens that I have laying at the moment are 3+ years old. I am not running a geriatric chicken home. Once they reach that third year they become canned chicken for soups, stews, gumbos and broths. I call them stewing hens and is what my mama always used for making soup and gumbo. Tough as an old boot but pressure cooked or pressure canned or cooked for a long period of time in a soup or gumbo and they are great and do not fall to pieces in your soup or become stringy. Make phenomenal chicken and dumplings!

Different breeds lay for different amounts of time and it also varies with the day length and light. I like the breed Buff Orphington. They are a large, mild mannered, light skinned bird good for both meat and eggs. They lay large brown eggs and start laying for me around 6 months. Every 3 years I buy new chicks from the hatchery. My spring chicks are now 5 months old. So it is time to cull out the older ones and can. Buffs will also hatch their own eggs which is also a plus.

Some people put lights on their chickens in the winter to keep them laying all winter. I do not. I have 4 duck hens that lay all winter so I just eat duck eggs when the chickens fall down on their job. Ducks lay year round or my Khaki Campbells do.

 

[DirtDiva]

 

[Cindyd]

That sounds good DD, you likely convinced me!

BTW! I have an update to report as of this morning, when Larry got up I was already working and he asked me if I saw the eggs he left out, which I did not. He took care of the hens yesterday since I worked late. We got 4 eggs yesterday! Gotta be the newer ones that are right at 5-6 months old! I was expecting the newer ones to start laying by 4 months. I just have no patience. Yes, I love the Buff orphington's, I have had those as well as Olga my black orphington, she is the one that is 8 years old and still a beauty! But I ain't eating her, she's too old to mess with.

 

[DirtDiva]

 

[Proud Prepper]

View attachment 17661

Nice looking old retired hens.

 

[GaRp58]

Can we do the same to RETIRED AND OLD POLITICIANS?????????
Just have to find the right person-circle to FEED THEM TO.....