Over the course of the past few years I have steadily grown more concerned with the future world my children will have to live in. Since November that concern has grown to an almost suffocating fear. My prayers at night focus on giving all of this worry to God and trusting that he has a plan and as long as I guide my children in his word they will be protected in his hands. However, I am also aware that Jesus did not just turn the other way when he witnessed the desicration of his fathers holy temple (Matt 21:12) therefore, I will make my voice known as well with the injustice of this world and more specifically this week in the USA. I may not be able to turn over tables and run the robbers out but I can raise my voice!
Four years ago during a time of war when funds should have been directed into means of keeping our men and women safe 40 million dollars was spent on President Bush's inaguration. The media was in an uproar stating that the money could have been spend on vaccinations for third world countries or for humvee's for our soldiers. Certainly I agree that we should not be spending any more money on media circus' and pomp and circumstance for anyone! Why is this absurb amount of cash being wasted on a less than 2 minute swearing in ceremony? Why? Because even though we fought against the British throne we are returning from wence we came!
Now, the 2009 inaguration is set to cost $160 million dollars and the only place on the interenet I could discover this information was from a British news source! The BRITISH are astounded at the cost our tax payers are forking over and they maintain royalty who are suppossed to be excessive!
Why do we not have simple swearing in ceremonies behind closed doors in kind to the Presidential Address, televised for the country. We are talking a savings of tens of millions here. Yes, there would be no huge inaguration balls but if those funds were never spent our national debt would not be SO FAR IN THE RED! McCain wanted to speak so much about pork barrell spending but is saying nothing about this media/celebrity circus taking place in his backyard every four years that costs our country millions of dollars.
How many homeless children right here in this country could have benefited from those funds, donated or otherwise? How many of them could have been given homes and food to eat for nearly the rest of their lives? How much fuel could have been donated to those who are unemployed and can not afford the gas to look for another! The choices are as immense as the bills for these needless ceremonies.
That said I am going to teach my children how to be productive members who can help to change this messed up world! May we someday return to the days of George Washington's inaguration!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Chicken Tips
I would like to share with you the mistakes I have made in the past two years of raising chickens and my tips that might just save you some of the grief we have taken upon our selves.
1. Books will tell you that if you wish to have tame your chicks that you should handle them and get them to eat our of your hands. Well, the handling is a great idea because it allows the chick to become comfortable with your picking it up as you may need to do if there is ever an issue you need to address. It is also a good idea to become aquainted with the chicks body condition as it progresses in it's growth. However I do NOT recommend feeding them by hand unless you are going to be showing them. We wanted our chicks to love us so be did as the books said and now we have full grown chickens who believe that our chubby little hands are a source of food. I can tell you that a peck from a hungry hen is not going to make you love your chicken.
2. Do your best not to buy chickens at a time when they will be old enough to lay in the middle of winter. We purchased our day old chicks at the end of June thinking we would have eggs by Thanksgiving and to this date we have none. The chickens needs 14 hours of light to lay an egg and even here in the south we do not have that much daylight. We started turning on a light in our coop from 6am-9pm a week ago and I will keep you updated on how that works out for us but it is quite possible we may not get any eggs until spring since we did not start this practice months ago. Live and learn.
3. If you really want your chickens to love you give them warm oatmeal when it is cold outside. It is also an added source of protein which is also nearly necessary during the winter if you wish to increase your winter egg production. Of course protein does not have to be in the form of warm oatmeal but it is pretty inexpensive and they love it a lot! Adding cayenne pepper is also well promoted as a sure fire way to get your flock to lay well, however I recommend growing your own cayenne peppers and then drying/grinding them yourself as then you can be sure of what is going in your chickens. Of course you could purchase organic cayenne but that would be quite costly as it is recommed to add an entire bottle to a bag of feed. Hot Peppers are one of the easiest plants to grow organically as they have few pests and drying them is easy as well. Cayenne is known to have stimulant, blood pressure-regulating, digestive and anti-flatulent properties so keeping it on hand for home use is an added bonus. The stimulant properties are probably the reason it works so well in helping hens to lay!
To dry hot peppers simply remove them from the plant once they have ripened sufficiently. We grew cayenne last year and harvested several pounds from one plant, as they turned red we would remove them and lay them to dry on an unused dresser top. In the summer it did not take very long at all for the peppers to dry but later in the fall it did take quite a while. Once the peppers are dry (they will be quite shrivled) you should be able to hear the seeds inside rattling around. From that point store the dried peppers in a tupperware container or in a ziploc bag. Once you have quite a handful you can begin to process. I simply place mine in the food processor but if you only want to grind a few you can use a coffee grinder (used only for spices/herbs). We have accquired quite a collection of glass jars so we have one labled for cayenne and simply add to it as needed. Keeping your spices in a cool dark cabinet will allow them to store for a longer period.
That is about it for now. I hope these tips help someone!
1. Books will tell you that if you wish to have tame your chicks that you should handle them and get them to eat our of your hands. Well, the handling is a great idea because it allows the chick to become comfortable with your picking it up as you may need to do if there is ever an issue you need to address. It is also a good idea to become aquainted with the chicks body condition as it progresses in it's growth. However I do NOT recommend feeding them by hand unless you are going to be showing them. We wanted our chicks to love us so be did as the books said and now we have full grown chickens who believe that our chubby little hands are a source of food. I can tell you that a peck from a hungry hen is not going to make you love your chicken.
2. Do your best not to buy chickens at a time when they will be old enough to lay in the middle of winter. We purchased our day old chicks at the end of June thinking we would have eggs by Thanksgiving and to this date we have none. The chickens needs 14 hours of light to lay an egg and even here in the south we do not have that much daylight. We started turning on a light in our coop from 6am-9pm a week ago and I will keep you updated on how that works out for us but it is quite possible we may not get any eggs until spring since we did not start this practice months ago. Live and learn.
3. If you really want your chickens to love you give them warm oatmeal when it is cold outside. It is also an added source of protein which is also nearly necessary during the winter if you wish to increase your winter egg production. Of course protein does not have to be in the form of warm oatmeal but it is pretty inexpensive and they love it a lot! Adding cayenne pepper is also well promoted as a sure fire way to get your flock to lay well, however I recommend growing your own cayenne peppers and then drying/grinding them yourself as then you can be sure of what is going in your chickens. Of course you could purchase organic cayenne but that would be quite costly as it is recommed to add an entire bottle to a bag of feed. Hot Peppers are one of the easiest plants to grow organically as they have few pests and drying them is easy as well. Cayenne is known to have stimulant, blood pressure-regulating, digestive and anti-flatulent properties so keeping it on hand for home use is an added bonus. The stimulant properties are probably the reason it works so well in helping hens to lay!
To dry hot peppers simply remove them from the plant once they have ripened sufficiently. We grew cayenne last year and harvested several pounds from one plant, as they turned red we would remove them and lay them to dry on an unused dresser top. In the summer it did not take very long at all for the peppers to dry but later in the fall it did take quite a while. Once the peppers are dry (they will be quite shrivled) you should be able to hear the seeds inside rattling around. From that point store the dried peppers in a tupperware container or in a ziploc bag. Once you have quite a handful you can begin to process. I simply place mine in the food processor but if you only want to grind a few you can use a coffee grinder (used only for spices/herbs). We have accquired quite a collection of glass jars so we have one labled for cayenne and simply add to it as needed. Keeping your spices in a cool dark cabinet will allow them to store for a longer period.
That is about it for now. I hope these tips help someone!
Is she even bred?
In October our farm added a new herd of Registered Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. Our herd is quite small with only two does and one buck but as we purchased one of the does bred we knew it would be getting larger quite quickly.
The bred doe is Scarlett and she was bred to a beautiful triple registered buck owned by the breeder we purchased her from. We are quite excited about this paring as Scarlett is a beautifully conformed doe and the buck is a polled darling with a wonderful lineage. However, Scarlett is not "filling out" as we expected a bred doe to do. She is due in less than a week and we are wondering if indeed she was bred. Hopefully she is bred and possibly just carrying one kid, although one kid usually means a difficult birth as they are generally much larger. Being as Scarlett is a first time mother does not increase the chances of the birth going any smoother either. Thankfully we have contacted an experience vet in case I can not help her. To say that I am scared to death of the impending birth is an understatement. I am scared spit less! As a mother of three you would imagine that assisting in the birth of any kind would not worry me as I have accomplished the feat myself, however you would be wrong. I may have birthed my own babies but from what I have read goats can have some very trying births especially the first time. As a child I had dreamed of being a vet and followed that dream until I elected to become a stay at home mom my sophomore year in college so I am hoping all of my knowledge with animal care will help out in a real life situation.
For the last few days I have noticed that Scarletts udder is filling out so we are now pretty confident she is bred but as she is still so small the chances of a single birth also seem pretty for sure as well. I will of course hand this worry over to the good Lord who will take care of the worrying for me. As long as I leave things in his capable hands I am sure things will progress as they are meant to. Time to feed the two legged kids around here so more later.....
The bred doe is Scarlett and she was bred to a beautiful triple registered buck owned by the breeder we purchased her from. We are quite excited about this paring as Scarlett is a beautifully conformed doe and the buck is a polled darling with a wonderful lineage. However, Scarlett is not "filling out" as we expected a bred doe to do. She is due in less than a week and we are wondering if indeed she was bred. Hopefully she is bred and possibly just carrying one kid, although one kid usually means a difficult birth as they are generally much larger. Being as Scarlett is a first time mother does not increase the chances of the birth going any smoother either. Thankfully we have contacted an experience vet in case I can not help her. To say that I am scared to death of the impending birth is an understatement. I am scared spit less! As a mother of three you would imagine that assisting in the birth of any kind would not worry me as I have accomplished the feat myself, however you would be wrong. I may have birthed my own babies but from what I have read goats can have some very trying births especially the first time. As a child I had dreamed of being a vet and followed that dream until I elected to become a stay at home mom my sophomore year in college so I am hoping all of my knowledge with animal care will help out in a real life situation.
For the last few days I have noticed that Scarletts udder is filling out so we are now pretty confident she is bred but as she is still so small the chances of a single birth also seem pretty for sure as well. I will of course hand this worry over to the good Lord who will take care of the worrying for me. As long as I leave things in his capable hands I am sure things will progress as they are meant to. Time to feed the two legged kids around here so more later.....
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