Pioneer Living Survival

It has been hot this summer here at the Mini Farm. So hot in fact, in spite of doing everything we could we still suffered some causalities. Four of our heavy breed Cochin chickens and one buck rabbit. I hate to loose any animal but with temperatures well over 100 degrees we could not run enough fans or deliver enough ice blocks to make a difference. With these losses in the back of our  minds the plan for next summer is to try and develop cool shaded areas with misters plus the fans.

  The heat was not the only thing this summer adding to the losses. I guess I opened a Walmart for snakes out here. So far we have killed twelve chicken snakes and no telling how many got away unnoticed. They ended up getting twelve quail, four mini Serama chickens the wife hatched out herself, six regular chicks and at least two dozen hatching eggs. We tried everything you could think of to keep them out. There is no telling how much money was spent on moth balls, sulfur, chili powder and about four other things people told us to do for them. We ended up taking all the chicks into the house and putting them in the bathtub to keep them safe. The snakes even followed them in the house. I kid you not, I do not know where they got in at or how, but I came home one evening and went to go shower. I looked over into the tub and there was a snake in the box. Needless to say, the chicks went back outside.

  We even looked at buying several geese but since the snake problem was wide spread in this area, the goose prices skyrocketed to over $50.00 a pair, just for chicks. Not being one to bring a knife to a gun fight, we passed on buying baby geese.

  If it wasn’t the heat or the snakes it was the great horned owls. I was sitting out back late one evening at dusk enjoying the nice summer night when a huge owl flew over head. What a sight it was, I was so impressed with it’s six foot wing span and the grace it had as it floated by. I had yet to close the door to the chicken coop because I was not ready to go in just yet when this owl flew by and landed in the chicken coop. In a blink of an eye, he ran into the coop, grabbed a chicken with his long talons, drug the chicken out the door, beheaded it and was gone. It was so fast I could not even get out of the chair in time. I just stood there with my mouth open. The past couple of weeks we have found three chickens with  missing heads when we went to close the coop door at night. I set out several live traps in different locations and baited them with sardines, salmon and tuna. I was determined to catch the skunk or raccoon that was feeding off my chickens. I was getting so mad that I could not catch these varmints I spent several nights sitting up waiting for their return. It was an owl! Well, now I know. I can't make this stuff up, something had to be done, this was getting old.                      

  Since my last post the Mini Farm has expanded. As I was at my wits end with all the losses, I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time to get one heck of a deal on some animals. I ended up getting nine pigmy goats, three miniature horses, a trained Great Pyrenees dog and a goose, all for free. Everything I  needed to protect and expand the mini farm was handed to me. This was the break I needed. The lady who had them was getting in bad health and not able to care for them as well as she wanted to. She did not want to sell them, but wanted them to go to a good home. Since the new arrivals five weeks ago, I have not seen any snakes or owls (knock on wood).

Over a month has passed since the animals came to the mini farm and in that time we had to do some weeding out. The nine pygmy’s were made up of five nannies and four bucks ranging in all ages. There was no telling who’s was who’s and inbreeding was evident. We gave the four bucks away to other people needing new bucks and plan introduce a new blood line into the small herd. The problem is, they are all pregnant by the old bucks so we might not be able to keep the babies if they are to inbreed. This round will be the last of that blood line and my new buck will be arriving next week to start over.

The mini horses are a dad, mom and baby boy trio. The baby boy is not so much a baby anymore and was trying to top the mare, so he went to a good home as well. The good thing is, she was already with foal.

  Things are plugging along and the Mini Farm is growing. The cool weather is right around the corner so more projects will be started and others completed. Here are some of the "What's happening"  and projects that are in progress or have recently been completed .

You would not believe what happens here on a day to day basis.

You can follow the Mini Farm at http://moderndayredneck.blogspot.com and you can also visit the new Redneck website at www.moderndayredneck.com   

Rain Water harvesting systems for the house and the mini barn.

Solar oven that has now been completed and new pictures will be on the modern day redneck blog.

Horse shelter made from old trampoline frames.                 A number of ongoing construction projects.

Many gardening ideas and don't do's .                                                      And other farm friendly animals.