Grouse Hunting

I'm joining up to the Preparedness Challenge that Amy at Homestead Revival has been hosting on Saturdays for months now. I've joined up once or twice in the past, but really just haven't been doing much on a weekly basis to get better prepared. I've been meaning to, but just haven't made the time or money for it... Something I've been knowing I should remedy, but just haven't. Luckily our lifestyle makes us more prepared than a lot of people, but still no excuse to not be really really prepared!

This week grouse hunting season opened in our area, and since my husband is really into bird hunting we've been out multiple times, driving the backroads and jumping into creek beds at the slightest hint of grouse, hiking closed roads, trails, and promising ridgelines, and overall just spending a lot of time outside in the wilderness. Before we headed out the first morning, I went through the pack that currently has most of our go-bag-type items, made sure I knew what was in it, and shifted some things to the pack one of us would be carrying with us as we hunted. The main pack would stay in the vehicle, and have some of the larger items - crank operated radio, water purification tablets, a headlamp, energy bars, a big water bottle, etc. In the smaller hydration pack I put things that would be  important to keep us going while we were out hunting, or get us back to the vehicle if something happened - compass, whistle, knife, some extra food, another headlamp, small water bottle, Little M's sippy cup, that sort of thing. Whoever isn't carrying Little M on their back carries the hydration pack.

I felt pretty good about what we had with us, and definitely more prepared than in years past. But as I haven't yet gotten around to actually putting together designated go bags for each of us, let alone vehicle kits, I knew I didn't have everything we might need, although I wouldn't have predicted the item that we ended up needing!

Yes, both back tires were off the ground and spinning freely, the jeep was caught up on the back right bumper after we cut the corner of this whoopdedo (what the forest service around here uses to try to close roads off from the public) a bit tighter than we should have... Of course we were able to made do with what we had, which was a simple jack like you would use to change a tire, but having a high lift jack would have gotten the back end rotated around and us back on the road a lot quicker (in my husband's more knowledgeable opinion - I've never really gotten badly stuck in the woods before). We do have a high lift jack, and at times it has been in one of the trucks, but I've never seen it in the jeep that is our main grouse hunting rig, and with only one, I suspect it would always be in the vehicle that was sitting back in the driveway at home... I guess I'll have to put a high lift jack on the vehicle kit lists! There really isn't anything like actually being there & surviving to realize what you really need!

The other preparedness thing that we have been doing this past week is working on our hunting skills. The daily limit on grouse is 4 per person. Opening day I shot 2 grouse and my husband shot 1, and the second day we each shot 4. Not bad shooting I would say! In a survival situation, it is reasurring to know that we could provide meat for our family (providing we had something to shoot with and were in an area where wild game was present of course!).

Not only were we working on our shooting skills, we were working on our dogs skills - we have 2 wire haired pointing griffons - bird dogs - and we've been honing their bird scenting and retrieving skills. It doesn't do any good to be a great shot if you can't find any birds to begin with, or if the bird falls into a thicket when it falls and you can't find it - so our dogs have been doing really well for us!

Choosing chicken breeds

I thought I would give you all a little insight today into the laying chicken breeds we got last week and why we chose them. I haven't done all that much research on any of them, instead  figuring that if I picked ones that others around here had, and ones that seemed like they would meet our requirements, I would end up with a couple breeds that really worked well here with us. I'll go through each of the 8 breeds we now have, and for those of you who missed my anticipating chicks post & my excited post once they were here last week check those out for more pictures and details!

One of the main things I was looking for was the ability to withstand cold (down to -30) temperatures in the winter, and hot (up to 100) temperatures in the summer. Because of this, I chose not to get the flashier breeds. We were also looking for birds that were able to forage, were friendly, and were good layers, and weren't too flashy/pale colored to avoid attracting predators. I also tried to pick dual-purpose breeds so that if 16 turned out to be too many, we could eat the extras!


Of our order of 25 chicks, 9 were meat chicks which we will slaughter & freeze sometime this fall when they are big enough, and the remaining 16 were 2 each of the following 8 breeds:

• ameraucana
• ancona
• barred rock
• black australorp
• buff orpington
• rhode island red
• silver laced wyandotte
• speckled sussex

Ameraucana: These are supposed to be very hardy, and especially cold tolerant. They can be broody, and the are supposed to be fairly tame. The top photo shows my fluffy cheeked little gal, who is pretty curious and friendly. The second girl looks kind of sleepy and shy, but is fairly skittish. These two had me guessing, they look really similar to the two speckled sussex (who are identical to each other), but not as alike to each other.

Ancona: These two girls are my favorite so far. They will end up being smaller than the others, and I don't know how hardy they will be. But they are really active, and should be good foragers and avoid predators. They are also the only breed I got that lays white eggs, which my husband requested. I figure on a day or so should do him, right? :) These are also one of the breeds that just really attracted me, I'm not sure why! I think I liked their foraging ability and their looks. We'll see how they do!

Barred Rock: These are supposed to be a very quiet bird, and so far, I really agree! My two girls are very docile and calm when I pick them up. And they also don't seem to care when I am moving around beside them in the coop, unlike some of the other breeds. They are supposed to be good foragers too, and from what I have seen of them going after little grasshoppers, I would agree with that too! We'll see how well they do in the heat & in the cold, but others in this area have them too, so my girls should do fine.

Black Australorp: These ladies have seemed pretty skittish for me so far. They are supposed to be cold hardy though, and good foragers, so hopefully they will do well here.

Buff Orpington: These are supposed to be a quiet bird, cold hardy, and they can be broody. My two girls seem pretty alert and not easily panicked. I know they can be hardy around here, but their light color has me a bit concerned about predators.

Rhode Island Red:
These have good egg-laying abilities and are considered hardy, and seem to do well in our area judging by other people around who have them. My two are rather skittish so far, but hopefully with more handling and exposure to me they will get better.

Silver Laced Wyandotte:  These should be cold tolerant and may be broody. I think the chicks are very pretty, and the adult pictures I have seen are also beautiful. My girls are fairly active, not staying still long, and not liking to be close to me.

Speckled Sussex: These are supposed to be calm and cold tolerant. My two don't seem very interested in getting close to me though! They are very pretty though, and they both look identical! I love the feathers that are coming in on their wings, they are going to be beautiful adults.






The consistent thing I looked for was hardiness. I'm just hoping that these birds will mostly be able to make it through our cold winters and hot dry summers. I would really like to end up with a couple breeds, or even one, that really work well for us. Longer term, if having layers works out and we enjoy having them, I think it would be really great to have just one or two breeds and have roosters also, so that we can incubate our own chicks, perhaps even to the point of selling chicks! We'll see though, it might be more work than we can handle!

I'm joining up to the Homestead Barn hop today, so hop on over to check out the goings-on on other homesteads all over the country!

Chicken update - they're here!

So yesterday morning I didn't think there was much chance of the chicks arriving, but when I was out with the dogs I figured it wouldn't hurt to go across to the coop and get the food in the feeder and put water in the waterer.  When I got back in, there was a missed call on my phone & a message from the post office saying my chicks were in!

I had talked with the lady at the post office Monday morning warning her that I had chicks coming in the next couple days, and then yesterday I went across (I work literally right across from the post office, so it's just across the crosswalk and there I am) and I checked in with her again to make sure they weren't waiting there for me. It was nice to get the call this morning though so I knew that I would be going in to work briefly then back home again for a bit to get them set up!

When I brought them in to my office, all were looking good apart from one dead meat chick & one other meat chick that was looking a little peaked. That one ended up dying during the day yesterday, and by evening there was one more looking like it wouldn't make it that died overnight. Not bad to loose 3 of 26 and have all 3 that didn't make it be the meat chickens that I'm less concerned about (they sent an extra meat chick, at least I'm assuming the solid light yellow ones are all broilers!).

The rest are all doing great, and they are so cute! At the moment I've got them set up in rubbermaid bins in the front hallway. I know, I had the coop all ready for them, but I just couldn't resist keeping them closer to me for the first couple days so that I can keep a closer eye on them, handle the layers a bit more often, and just listen to their cheerful chirping!

 

I have the littler ones separated from the larger gals. So that's the meat chicks, both anconas, and the smaller of the barred rocks in one container (the one with lots of yellow chicks), they are all smaller and seem a bit less active. The other barred rock, black australorps, buff orpintons, rhode island reds, silver laced wyandottes, ameraucanas, and speckled sussexs are in the other (with larger looking & darker chicks).

When I get better pictures of the little chicks, I'm hoping to put together a post on why I chose these 8 breeds, and I'll include pictures of each of them. Although already last night my husband asked what I was doing taking so many pictures, in a row, of the same thing... Guess I'll have to wait until he's at work on the weekend :)

Do you have any new additions to your household lately? Are you taking a ridiculous number of pictures of them too?

Alaska 2011: Ketchikan to Juneau on a 42' Grand Banks

I wrote a paragraph or two every day we were on vacation, so that I would be able to remember places we stopped and things we saw and did, but I'm not going to go into that much detail here. Instead I'll share mostly pictures of where we went and what we did, so I apologize in advance because this will be a bit picture heavy.

 

This is my husbands Dad & Stepmom's boat. A 42 foot Grand Banks.When we flew into Ketchikan we took the water taxi across to where they were docked. We got some groceries at the nearest grocery store, and slept our first night on the boat! We stayed in Ketchikan that night because it was rather late in the day by the time we were done shopping and getting all oriented with the boat stuff.

This is my husband's stepmom (grandma), our daughter Little M, and my husband's dad (grandpa).

Little M had a lot of fun walking around the deck in her life jacket. I was a bit worried that she would hate being in it, but she quickly realized that putting it on meant going outside, which she has always loved.

We went into Misty Fjord, see the signs of glaciation on the rocks? It was so pretty in there!

My husband loves to fish so we went to many little creeks and kayaked up to fly fish and spin. Little M and I enjoyed hanging out by the water while he fished.

We went to Wrangell and then Petersburg, then headed out towards Juneau. We saw several glaciers when we were up there; this was the first. It was gorgeous!

Sometimes the creeks were fairly flat and the flats were very grassy. Its not hard to imagine sneaking up on a bear by accident in this sort of habitat! We were pretty careful and called out to the bears "hey bear, hi bear, how are you bear" to let them know we were coming :)

We saw lots of beautiful wildflowers. Here is a lupine on a sandy shore. My husband saw a beaver further up this stream, and there were moose tracks nearby. We didn't catch any fish here though.

 Not only did I see my first icebergs on this trip, I also got to touch icebergs, kayak amongst them, and we even saw & heard a glacier calving to create more icebergs! The day we spent in Tracy Arm with the icebergs & glaciers was so amazing!

Whenever we could (especially on the second half of the trip), we got off of the boat and kayaked to shore to get Little M walking around and seeing different things than the boat. We saw bears and dolphins in Fords Terror, not to mention cool water plants!

Little M thoroughly enjoyed herself on the boat and off. She got rather wet playing in streams, that's for sure!

We hiked in to some spectacular wetlands and lakes, and got to see some rare plants while we were at it.

We saw killer whales many times, and humpback whales too. And we had dolphins jumping off the bow of the boat! It was pretty great :)

We saw several black bears (one a mama with 2 cubs), as well as some grizzly bears. We got quite close to some of the bears, both in the boat, and the mama black bear with cubs my husband unintentionally got close to while fishing. We got really close so numerous seals, even some mama seals still on icebergs with their babies!

One of the great things of the trip was that got to see so many new-to-us bird species! This marbled murrelet (thanks to my good friend Kyle for helping me ID the murrelets) was just one of the great birds we saw. I was very glad we had taken our Sibley guide, without it I would have been so frustrated - nothing like a great field guide :) For new birds, we had pacific loon, red throated loon, common murre, pigeon guillemonts, arctic tern, surf scoter, white-sided scoter, and greater scaup. We also got some great pictures of other birds that we had already seen in other places, like spotted sandpipers (including shots of a baby!), bald eagles, winter wren, barrow's goldeneye, and harlequin ducks.

Needless to say, the trip was pretty amazing. I'm sure hoping we'll be back someday soon!

Petersburg Hello

We've been having an amazing time on our boat trip in Alaska so far! We've got a ways further to go, but have made it to Petersburg. It is a really nice little town, with amazing scenery. I saw my first iceberg (very small, more a bergy-bit) yesterday, which was quite exciting, but everyone we talk to here says we will see lots more as we move on past Petersburg. Hopefully we will see lots more whales in the next while as well. So far we have seen a pod of Killer whales and several small groups of Humpbacks, as well as some dolphins or porpoises. There have been lots of new bird species, too many to list at the moment, but I am getting good pictures and will share when we get back! Here are a couple nice shots to tide you over until then. I don't want to spend too much time sitting in this wireless spot, as it is finally sunny outside!!

Feeding wet hummingbirds

Where I live we have 3 species of hummingbirds: Black-chinned, Calliope, and Rufous. We also have A LOT of them! One cold rainy morning last week I happened to be out on the sunporch feeding the dogs and noticed just how many there were visiting our main feeder.

The feeder has flowers for 6 birds. And there were up to 10 hummingbirds drinking or waiting their turn to drink! I even saw a couple birds sharing a flower.

It had been colder than normal the night before, and it was really wet out. Some of the birds looked just miserable, like this one sitting on the empty bird seed feeder that I still haven't taken down from the winter.

I love seeing the hummingbirds, they are so pretty! Ours are going through so much sugar water right now that I'm having to refill our 3 feeders every other day, totaling about 4-5 cups of sugar water! Here is my method for making sugar water. This is quick & easy, and I don't have to wait for it to cool before putting it out for the birds (don't want to burn their little tongues!).

Sugar Water:
4 parts warm tap water
1 part sugar

I typically use a 4 cup measuring glass and put in 4 cups of warm water and then add a cup of sugar.

In the fall, when the birds are preparing to migrate south, I often up the sugar content to more like 2 parts sugar for every 4 parts water (so 4 cups warm water & 2 cups sugar). This helps them get extra energy stores for their long migration.

Redesigning our old coop

I'm joining in on the homestead barn hop today to share the plans we've been working on for our chicken coop. The last week has been mostly warm and sunny during the day, although we did get about 4-6" of new fluffy snow that melted quickly from the south facing slopes. I've written about the coop before, here, so I won't go into detail about its history with us, but I will share what we have planned for its future!

One sunny afternoon last week my husband cut down the 2 dead willows that were standing beside the coop, and cut the nicely dried trunk up for firewood. When I got home from work one day to find Little M supervising from the porch as my husband cleaned up the last of the trunk, I was motivated to grab my tape measure and head on over to the coop.

He still has some work to do out there once the snow melts to clean up all the dead branches and sticks, but in the meantime the dogs have been enjoying chasing each other around and playing with the sticks. Remi (ever the bird dog) loved keeping an eye on what I was doing in the coop.

That was the first of several trips back and forth this past week from the house to the coop. Since my husband really enjoyed having the pheasants for the past 2 years, we decided this fall to split the coop into 2 areas - one for chickens, and one for pheasants. Initially I was worried that the coop wasn't big enough for both, but after my first measurements put the coop at just over 50 square feet, I wasn't worried any more. To make my life easier, I decided to have a little entry area as well so I didn't have to worry about the birds getting out when I went to water or feed them, and so there was a space for storing their food and other associated items. The coop is filthy and really needs some TLC; my husband still needs to clean it out from the past 2 summers of pheasants before I will start doing any building in there, and there are several wall roosts that he constructed for pigeons when he had some of them housed in there last spring that will have to come down.

I've got my chick order ready, but we still haven't decided whether we want them soon or after our late spring family vacation (so that we don't have to have a house-sitter while we are gone). I have a list of several breeds, totaling 25 chicks so that they don't get too cold en route.  I know I won't be keeping 25 laying chickens, and in fact several of the breeds I will order as straight run, even though we aren't interested in any roosters (my late-shift-working husband said he doesn't want to be woken up at dawn, thanks very much!). We plan to use some of the chickens as meat chickens, which is why I am mostly ordering breeds that are good for meat and laying.

What I've read suggests that chickens need about 1 square foot each, so if I managed to have a chicken area that was about 20-25 sf there would be enough room for the 25 meat & laying chickens during the summertime when they will be able to go outdoors, and plenty of room in the wintertime when I will drop down to about a dozen laying hens. I expect in the summer the birds will spend a lot of their time outside in their fully enclosed run (more details to come on the outdoor space!).

I won't bore you with all the measurements and lumber amounts, but here is a pic I took of the finalized plan I worked out this past weekend in my trusty notebook to give you an idea of what things are shaping up like. I've got separate sheets with the new wall dimensions worked out as well so I know how much wood & chicken wire mesh I need, but I still have to work out the laying boxes and exit door & ramp for the chickens.

Our old chicken coop

When we bought our house & property back in 2009, it came complete with several outbuildings, including a dilapidated chicken coop. This coop had obviously been used in the past as a bird coop, but had also obviously been used as a kids fort. We decided that although it was old and rough looking, it would be just great for raising birds in. I wished for a mix of laying hens for eggs year round and meat chickens for delicious winter suppers, and spent time talking to co-workers who had chickens, planning for the day that I would have time to order and raise some hardy heirloom breeds.

pheasant chicks & our mystery bird

My husband apparently had other plans. That first summer, my husband bought 10 or so ring-necked pheasant chicks from the local feed store, which was alright with me, as being pregnant, I really had no interest in doing anything with the dusty coop that year. The chicks did quite well, apart from their propensity for escaping... The last remaining 2 nearly full grown pheasants escaped when we had an early and very wet and heavy snowfall in October that fall. The snow that knocked down the mesh deer fencing that was enclosing their outdoor enclosure. We never saw any of those birds again.

This past summer we were very busy with the baby, and decided that we would focus our outdoor energies on the garden and fixing up the place - a seemingly never ending list of mowing the grass (weeds really), removing some trees, cleaning up downed brush, and general tidying up the property. However in the fall, my husband used some birthday money to purchase a group of adult pheasants which he slowly released on the property (at least one of which is still hanging around and can be seen eating at my bird feeders under the fruit trees quite regularly). These pheasants were housed temporarily in the coop, which made me realize that several modifications would be need before I attempted to keep chickens in there.

At the moment, the coop has 3 methods of entry/exit. There is a poorly hung door, a difficult-to-securely-close glass window, and a low side opening that can be closed from the inside only. Each of these openings needs to be dealt before we can securely keep birds in there. The door will likely be an easy fix, however as that will be the main way that we get in to feed and water the birds, we need a secondary area inside the door, an inside foyer if you will, that will let us get in without the birds getting out. I envision having a small area immediately inside the door that is caged off from the rest of the coop.

I hope to be able to make 2 areas beyond that foyer, one to keep the chickens in, and one to house pheasants (or other random birds) for my husband. Over the next several months I'm hoping to use reclaimed wood from the renovations we are currently doing on our sunporch to beef up the interior of the coop and create the frame of these 2 new areas. Then I'll be able to cage these areas off with chicken wire. After that, I'll plan out where the outside chicken scratch area will be and start figuring out where I will get the fence posts and fencing for that area from. This area will be adjacent to the new closer-to-the-house garden area I am hoping to till and fence in the spring - their closeness will be great for giving the chickens garden extras, and including chicken compost into the garden in the fall.

Our fruit trees

When we purchased our current home in the summer of 2009, there was an existing home orchard near the house containing 8 older fruit trees and 2 regrowth areas where there had obviously been a fruit tree that had died back. These fruit trees had been neglected for at least several years, and due to the timing of when we got possession, although all or nearly all had flowers and then fruit when we first visited the property, only the apple trees and the pear tree still had small hard fruit by harvest time. We had other priorities that first summer (making the house interior livable and starting a small vegetable garden) thus we didn't take time to water the trees, although it is likely that by the time (mid July) that we got possession, the fruit for that summer was already doomed. We were able to tell what most of the trees were that first summer though, and 2010 allowed us to get a more complete tally of what we had:

 2 apple trees, one greenish, one reddish.
1 pear (likely a bosc type)
1 pie cherry
1 apricot
1 plum
2 unknown at this time
2 unknown regrowth at this time

The reason there are still two full grown trees that we aren't completely positive what they are is that in spring 2010 we had a late hard frost that killed some of the blossoms, and the cold temperatures around that hard frost likely kept pollinators away from what we later realized was a very important pollination time for our trees. This late frost meant we had fruit on only 4 of our 8 trees - the plum and pie cherry had plenty of fruit, and both apples had some fruit.

However, after being neglected for so long, the pie cherries had a cherry fruit fly infestation so I had to remove and freeze all of the fruit in an attempt to stop their reproductive cycle (I will do the same next year although as there was no fruit in 2009 we may be ok - they can survive up to 2 years in the ground). Apart from becoming a bit over-ripe before I got the plums picked (with Little M gardening was often a challenge in 2010!), they were quite tasty, and a lady I work with made plum jam with what we picked. Although we watered every other day, I don't think the apples got quite enough water, as they never really got good, even after some light frosts. I'll have to do a better job of watering next summer!

In our small orchard there are now 2 rows of old trees, and also one row of new young trees. We planted these in 2010, some in the spring, and some in the fall. There is a Bing Cherry, a Polly Peach,  an Early 8-ball Peach, a D'Anjou Pear, and a Rubymac Apple. You may also have noticed that there is a grassy section (new this fall) at the end of my garden that is now incorporated within the garden fence, that has 2 more fruit trees - both apples - a Cortland and a Jonagold.

some of our 'unusual birds'!

This coming spring we plan to trim the trees, as we didn't get a chance with all that was going on this spring. In the meantime, though, all the overgrown branches are serving another purpose this winter. I have 2 bird seed feeders and one suet feeder hanging on one of the apples which is closest to the house. We keep an eye out for unusual birds, and have been very happy with the enhanced cover the overgrown trees provide!