The handsome rooster and the black hen in this photo are no longer with us. One of the brown hens actually left us a couple of months ago, having died of illness, but RR (Road Runner or Red Rooster) and the black hen were killed just a few days ago by a mink. While we have made peace with the tiny ermine shown previously, the mink were kept away primarily by the ease of finding other tasty critters. When there is any opening in the pond at all, they are there eating crayfish. They've not bothered to venture nearer. This past week, however, following the only really significant snowfall we've had (it snows steadily, but no big dumps this year until now), apparently access to crayfish or other food became scarce. S/he invaded the shop where these three, RR and one brown and one black hen, along with the Old Clucker and Baby Bird (who were loose in the shop, not with these three) lived. S/he killed the black hen, and mortally wounded RR. From what Aaron saw, RR probably attacked the mink, not the other way around, after s/he attacked and killed the poor hen. Sachairi went after the mink, got a bite on the nose but it seemed to have escaped (I heard this at the side of the house, then heard it after their tussle). We brought RR and the three hens into the house, keeping them in dog crates. We tried to keep hope for RR. But the next night he died. I feel I should have put him out of his misery sooner, but we were so hopeful. I suppose if I had killed him I'd then have wondered if he might have made it if I let him try. There are times you know, but there are times you don't. I try not to get too attached to the chickens. We don't name most of them and mostly the names they get are sort of default. Lots of "brownies" and "blackies." Most of the males are called "supper." Some are special, though, but even their names are descriptive. Clucky got "named" because she's broody and she's lived so long, broody chickens are called "cluckers" or "cluckies." Baby Bird got named because she's going to be Clucky's last to raise, and she's a big baby. Actually, she's pretty small, but she's still a baby, remaining with Clucky. When we breed her to the Dorking rooster this year, she'll not stay with the flock but return to Clucky for as long as Clucky lives. Clucky's ten this year....so it may not be for long. RR got named because when young he was plain and brown and looked a lot like a roadrunner. He also ran a lot as we had another, bigger rooster at the time. He then grew into Red Rooster. He was gorgeous and personable, a well mannered rooster who treated his flock well. And gave his life trying to defend it. He's Baby Bird's daddy, which hen was her egg mommy we don't know, but the Clucker is her hatch mommy....but due to various circumstances, we never got any other chicks out of the flock. I had hoped to this year, both with this last two hens and some of the Dorking hens. I really liked this rooster, it breaks my heart. I have his genes in Baby Bird, but ..... I realized that the remaining brown hen was with him until the mink attack. I checked and a hen can remain fertile for about 10 days after being breed. I'm hoping. She's older now, not laying every day and she skipped the first couple after the trauma. In fact, we're surprised she started laying so soon again, but she has. We got an incubator. We're hoping. True, due to her age and the fact we don't know when the last time they might have mated was, this may not work out. Due to our inexperience incubating, it may not work out. But we're going to try. Just in case. Because, like making the choice not to kill him, to not do so will be to constantly wonder if it might have worked if we tried. Life and death are a constant part of this path. Sometimes you get to choose when those things happen, but not always. Not often. And so we hope. We hope that following this unplanned death we shall have planned life. But hope is all we have.
Ramblings about homesteading, preparedness, localvorism and related topics from the personal view of two Gaelic Heathen novice homesteaders. Chickens, horses, dogs, goats, wildlife, the land that owns us and why we're here. Also our journey into alternative energy, as slow as it is. Sometimes will have random thoughts on Gaelic Heathenry, Celtic Reconstruction and such from a non-homesteadig-specific pov.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Springtime circle of life, we hope
The handsome rooster and the black hen in this photo are no longer with us. One of the brown hens actually left us a couple of months ago, having died of illness, but RR (Road Runner or Red Rooster) and the black hen were killed just a few days ago by a mink. While we have made peace with the tiny ermine shown previously, the mink were kept away primarily by the ease of finding other tasty critters. When there is any opening in the pond at all, they are there eating crayfish. They've not bothered to venture nearer. This past week, however, following the only really significant snowfall we've had (it snows steadily, but no big dumps this year until now), apparently access to crayfish or other food became scarce. S/he invaded the shop where these three, RR and one brown and one black hen, along with the Old Clucker and Baby Bird (who were loose in the shop, not with these three) lived. S/he killed the black hen, and mortally wounded RR. From what Aaron saw, RR probably attacked the mink, not the other way around, after s/he attacked and killed the poor hen. Sachairi went after the mink, got a bite on the nose but it seemed to have escaped (I heard this at the side of the house, then heard it after their tussle). We brought RR and the three hens into the house, keeping them in dog crates. We tried to keep hope for RR. But the next night he died. I feel I should have put him out of his misery sooner, but we were so hopeful. I suppose if I had killed him I'd then have wondered if he might have made it if I let him try. There are times you know, but there are times you don't. I try not to get too attached to the chickens. We don't name most of them and mostly the names they get are sort of default. Lots of "brownies" and "blackies." Most of the males are called "supper." Some are special, though, but even their names are descriptive. Clucky got "named" because she's broody and she's lived so long, broody chickens are called "cluckers" or "cluckies." Baby Bird got named because she's going to be Clucky's last to raise, and she's a big baby. Actually, she's pretty small, but she's still a baby, remaining with Clucky. When we breed her to the Dorking rooster this year, she'll not stay with the flock but return to Clucky for as long as Clucky lives. Clucky's ten this year....so it may not be for long. RR got named because when young he was plain and brown and looked a lot like a roadrunner. He also ran a lot as we had another, bigger rooster at the time. He then grew into Red Rooster. He was gorgeous and personable, a well mannered rooster who treated his flock well. And gave his life trying to defend it. He's Baby Bird's daddy, which hen was her egg mommy we don't know, but the Clucker is her hatch mommy....but due to various circumstances, we never got any other chicks out of the flock. I had hoped to this year, both with this last two hens and some of the Dorking hens. I really liked this rooster, it breaks my heart. I have his genes in Baby Bird, but ..... I realized that the remaining brown hen was with him until the mink attack. I checked and a hen can remain fertile for about 10 days after being breed. I'm hoping. She's older now, not laying every day and she skipped the first couple after the trauma. In fact, we're surprised she started laying so soon again, but she has. We got an incubator. We're hoping. True, due to her age and the fact we don't know when the last time they might have mated was, this may not work out. Due to our inexperience incubating, it may not work out. But we're going to try. Just in case. Because, like making the choice not to kill him, to not do so will be to constantly wonder if it might have worked if we tried. Life and death are a constant part of this path. Sometimes you get to choose when those things happen, but not always. Not often. And so we hope. We hope that following this unplanned death we shall have planned life. But hope is all we have.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Pratical Issues - Imbolg
The goats helping with the wood pile, this is early before we got real snow
While much of what gets discussed in the Pagan communities about the holidays are debates on ritual design, what day to celebrate, what the holiday means on some cosmic level, I've long been big on the idea that these were truly practical celebrations for our ancestors. They were neither about one day, although the celebration might be important, nor did the average person debate much about exactly what it meant to the Gods beyond "I hope what we do will let them help us through the season." Therefore, I doubt things changed a great deal very quickly from pre-Christian to Christian times. No matter your beliefs, the seasons happen, they must be dealt with.
We don't seem to have a whole lot of information on Imbolg, this is a common lament. It's probably because it was much more a local, household based celebration with no great gatherings as there seems to have been for Bealtuinne, Lùnasdal and Samhuinn, so customs may have varied. The few things that most agree on aside from practices honoring Brighid, of course, is that the stores were counted, things were washed and your equipment for your spring jobs examined, cleaned and repaired if needed. These were undoubtedly practical necessities, meaning life or death even, for our ancestors, but for many today it's merely a theoretical acknowledgment.
For us, however, as well as other Gaelic Polytheistic preppers and homesteaders, these things actually begin to take on a new light. Because while right now if we run out of something we can, indeed, run to the store to supplement our supplies, but, well, even if we can now and even if we always can in our lifetimes, the plan is that we should have to. And so, we open our cupboards.
No matter what stage one is at in this sort of project, this is a good season to take stock and consider how well our efforts are doing. We knew we'd not be totally prepared with vegetation this year, and that's held true. On the other hand, we're looking at a lot of meat. We are doing well there, having bought twice as much pig as last year because Aaron was convinced we might not get half a cow again (the previous year we had a deal but it fell through when they never sold the other half and decided to not kill the cow). But we got half a cow. And some lamb, which, btw, part of will be our feast. We certainly hope to have more chickens next year, the live ones are doing well although one keeps doing poorly and then perking up so we're watching her.
After having held back on this work a bit for a few years and sort of starting over, I think we're doing well with what we expected to be doing at this time. But there is much work to get to where we need to be for next year.
This is what Imbolg means for us. Yes, there will be a celebration, at some point when we actually see some signs of spring. There will be a Brighid's cross, She'll be welcomed in and put to bed and we'll feast.
And there will be lamb, as we have no mutton. There is much debate among modern Polytheists and scholars about whether or not sheep lambed at this time and if they folk etymology truly did refer to "ewe's milk" (the actual etymology apparently refers to "washing" ...from conversations with Alexei Kondtratiev and others in the IMBAS mailing list several years ago). However, again looking at it from a homesteading perspective, if sheep are not manipulated to breed late, they do normally start lambing in January, so I think that despite those who claim that all lambs are born in March (many, but not all are now, but it takes work to do that), there is a connection.
Eventually, perhaps we'll actually be going by the lambing of our sheep, if we decide to venture that route. Until then, we wait for some sign. This might take awhile.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Living with the Nature Spirits
This one is known as the Chthulu Spawn. S/he eats the mice which we also live with, which would otherwise be overrunning the house. Mice which will not, simply not go near a trap, live or kill. But CS gets them.Yes, it might be a bit disconcerting to have a wild animal living inside the house, but then again the mice are wild animals too. And cause a lot more issue with contaminating our living space. This critter, a Short-tailed or Least Weasel, aka a Stoat, currently in Ermine guise, stays in the walls or under the sink where s/he can pose for the camera. Also s/he or another is busy catching mice outside, as well. So far *knockwood* they've left the chickens alone and as long as they do they are welcome here. We have an agreement. And there are plenty of mice, which are more of a size for the taking. To get a chicken the weasel must get it while it sleeps, the hope that the others do not wake and stomp her/him to death while s/he eats what s/he can.
And they can kill chickens. In fact, I remember being told as a child by some of the "old timers" that weasels were "vampires" for they only drained the blood of chickens, didn't eat the flesh. Um, you know, even as a kid I realized that something this size wasn't going to be able to cart off a chicken 20 times bigger than it was. The best one can do is drag it a ways from the others, in hopes the others don't wake up and stomp her/him to death, eat what s/he can and then hope to come back for more. But, alas, the farmer has removed the "vampirized" chicken and a new one must be killed.
But mice are easier, they can carry off mice. And the mice are plentiful. So are voles, chipmunks and squirrels.
Should Chthulu Spawn dare enter the actual house, however, there are dogs. Four of them now, btw, as we've adopted another Border Collie/Aussie mix, named Sachairi, to help Gleann out and to balance things out with our Greyhounds, Òrlaith and Cù Mór. All three would be lethal to the little spawn of the netherworld.
However, they do not concern themselves with mice or voles, except for Sachairi, who only seems interested in them when they are outside minding their own business. And he prefers watching the squirrels. Outside, minding their own business. The Chthulu Spawn takes care of them in the walls where they cause trouble for us.
All in all, we are cozied down for the winter. New wood furnace, everyone winterized more or less (the goats did take out part of a plastic window, however, you know, where in the goat pic spam post you see Elína standing in it in warmer times. They apparently are displeased with having their favorite entrance/exit taken from them, although we've had some nights where they should be appreciating it. And we have plenty of meat in our freezer, with some smoked good still to come.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Goat picspam
For anyone new finding this, I thought that over the next few days I might just post a few photos of those we live with here:
The brown goat with the ears is Randvér, a wether, now about a year and half old. The black LaMancha cross is Elína, a doe of the same age. Both are mostly pets, which may be trained for packing. The were acquired when a long time homesteader who has raised almost every other type of livestock found that they were a bit too personable even for her to raise for meet. We decided the two Mini horses we inherited from my father (there were four, but two followed him) needed companions in case something happens to one of them, as they are elderly. But they also like hanging out with chickens and our young mare.
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The brown goat with the ears is Randvér, a wether, now about a year and half old. The black LaMancha cross is Elína, a doe of the same age. Both are mostly pets, which may be trained for packing. The were acquired when a long time homesteader who has raised almost every other type of livestock found that they were a bit too personable even for her to raise for meet. We decided the two Mini horses we inherited from my father (there were four, but two followed him) needed companions in case something happens to one of them, as they are elderly. But they also like hanging out with chickens and our young mare.
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Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Gettting this started ---preparing for the winter
I'd been thinking of doing a blog to record some of our activities as we try to get a bit of a restart on our homesteading. We didn't get as much done this past summer as we hoped. We have a wood furnace coming in, but it looks like we won't get our solar panels up until next spring. We never did agree on a tractor to buy, so a lot of work we need it for didn't get done.
But we have gotten back into chickens and we've made steps to get our animal products that we can't raise ourselves locally. We've been buying milk and eggs, while waiting for our new girls to grow up, from Baum Farm. We have a freezer pig coming from a co-worker of mine, as well as half a steer from another local farmer. Our half a lamb isn't all that local, coming from our friend, Jenn, who will be butchering it herself in a class out a couple of hours or so from here in Vermont.
The same friend and her husband came out here on October 9th for our chicken sacrifice. After one of our 25 or so Dorking chicks had died on us and a couple of others got caught by a fox who visited while we were away (and who I caught snoozing on the porch next to the pen, with the chickens right up near that part of the fence also snoozing, one of my first days home), we were left with 12 cockerels and 10 pullets. This is along with the four hens and one rooster we've had for awhile, and the one pullet chick one of those hens, our 9 year old clucker, hatched. Of course, a farm, and hens, can only handle so many roosters, so our plans was to keep one Dorking boy. Another one is going to go to our friends.
This year we had killing cones and an automatic defeatherer, courtesy of a local farm group. The cones were helpful but I have to say that I NEVER want to do this again without the defeatherer. Seriously, what a difference! Because the plucking was always the most time consuming...the time when we felt all our grandmothers looking from The Other Side laughing at us.
Aaron gathered up 10 of the cockerels, leaving the two who were actually hanging more with the pullets than the others. Both the ones left are good looking birds, good size, feathering, five toes (actually they all had the five toes Dorkings are supposed to have, which is a first for us) and, apparently, more courtly and friendly with the girls. Which is important, we don't want a rooster who the hens don't like. Choosing the actual sacrifice, the bird for the Gods was still difficult, as they were really all fine and healthy. Just two were a bit undersized and "chased" looking...the lowest on the pecking order.
As always, I'd been stressed over the killing before we started. It's not a fun thing, it shouldn't be, as far as I'm concerned. It should be hard. But it's also very spiritual for me. I did the sacrifice first, which also allowed me to connect fully with the Goddess I serve, and the four of us took his body up to the temple area.
With 9 left we did three, then took them to be scalded (to loosen the feathers) and put in the defeatherer. Um, didn't really dunk them long enough so it took a bit longer and we had to hand pluck those quite a bit. BTW, while it's a wonderful thing, it's kinda gruesome to watch. I fully beheaded the chickens (we kill by cutting the throat) first, which made it less gruesome than some of the videos of these things we watched the night before (as we hadn't used one before we wanted to see one at work first) where the chickens still had heads. They were clearly dead, but not so obviously so which made it look worse.
The next ones we dunked longer and it worked better. After doing the next three, while our friends continued to clean them, Aaron and I killed the last three. This made the process much faster. Working with others is a big plus compared to just us, so I'm thinking we might consider that next year, when they have their first mixed hatch (they got pullets this year), maybe we can spend a day helping them and they can spend a day helping us.
After a bit of haggling, we sent them home with two of the processed chickens. They wanted to only take one, but agreed to take the second on the grounds that she'll cook it for us sometime when we visit. Damn it! I should have made them take THREE and have her cook two for us. ~;p (She's an excellent cook, a professional foodie, even, The Leftover Queen) One of the two remaining boys is theirs, but they wanted to wait until they got things set up a bit more rather than just "throw him to the girls" with the way things are set up. So they'll get him when we get our lamb from her. Works out well.
Um, as long as the fox doesn't come around and one of the boys throws himself at it.
The other will be a second rooster here...we'll be breeding some pure Dorking, but also some hybrids with our red rooster with the Dorking hens and with this guy and the hybrid hens to give us some bigger eggs.
I just finished eating some of the chicken soup that we made from the remains of the first chicken we ate. Our pullets are becoming hens and we're getting eggs now, although still supplementing from Baum Farm for the moment. I'm starting to feel like we really are getting back into this. There's no reason why we should be buying any more meat from far away sources again, or any at all for another year.
So next year as well as doing this again (well, not buying chicks but breeding our own) we intend to get moving on our vegetable consumption. We did get local veggies all summer, but didn't do so well in getting in a garden or with getting into preservation so we're a bit stuck as we're going into winter. We're still getting some local carrots and lettuce, though. But next year, we'll do better on that.
But we have gotten back into chickens and we've made steps to get our animal products that we can't raise ourselves locally. We've been buying milk and eggs, while waiting for our new girls to grow up, from Baum Farm. We have a freezer pig coming from a co-worker of mine, as well as half a steer from another local farmer. Our half a lamb isn't all that local, coming from our friend, Jenn, who will be butchering it herself in a class out a couple of hours or so from here in Vermont.
The same friend and her husband came out here on October 9th for our chicken sacrifice. After one of our 25 or so Dorking chicks had died on us and a couple of others got caught by a fox who visited while we were away (and who I caught snoozing on the porch next to the pen, with the chickens right up near that part of the fence also snoozing, one of my first days home), we were left with 12 cockerels and 10 pullets. This is along with the four hens and one rooster we've had for awhile, and the one pullet chick one of those hens, our 9 year old clucker, hatched. Of course, a farm, and hens, can only handle so many roosters, so our plans was to keep one Dorking boy. Another one is going to go to our friends.
This year we had killing cones and an automatic defeatherer, courtesy of a local farm group. The cones were helpful but I have to say that I NEVER want to do this again without the defeatherer. Seriously, what a difference! Because the plucking was always the most time consuming...the time when we felt all our grandmothers looking from The Other Side laughing at us.
Aaron gathered up 10 of the cockerels, leaving the two who were actually hanging more with the pullets than the others. Both the ones left are good looking birds, good size, feathering, five toes (actually they all had the five toes Dorkings are supposed to have, which is a first for us) and, apparently, more courtly and friendly with the girls. Which is important, we don't want a rooster who the hens don't like. Choosing the actual sacrifice, the bird for the Gods was still difficult, as they were really all fine and healthy. Just two were a bit undersized and "chased" looking...the lowest on the pecking order.
As always, I'd been stressed over the killing before we started. It's not a fun thing, it shouldn't be, as far as I'm concerned. It should be hard. But it's also very spiritual for me. I did the sacrifice first, which also allowed me to connect fully with the Goddess I serve, and the four of us took his body up to the temple area.
With 9 left we did three, then took them to be scalded (to loosen the feathers) and put in the defeatherer. Um, didn't really dunk them long enough so it took a bit longer and we had to hand pluck those quite a bit. BTW, while it's a wonderful thing, it's kinda gruesome to watch. I fully beheaded the chickens (we kill by cutting the throat) first, which made it less gruesome than some of the videos of these things we watched the night before (as we hadn't used one before we wanted to see one at work first) where the chickens still had heads. They were clearly dead, but not so obviously so which made it look worse.
The next ones we dunked longer and it worked better. After doing the next three, while our friends continued to clean them, Aaron and I killed the last three. This made the process much faster. Working with others is a big plus compared to just us, so I'm thinking we might consider that next year, when they have their first mixed hatch (they got pullets this year), maybe we can spend a day helping them and they can spend a day helping us.
After a bit of haggling, we sent them home with two of the processed chickens. They wanted to only take one, but agreed to take the second on the grounds that she'll cook it for us sometime when we visit. Damn it! I should have made them take THREE and have her cook two for us. ~;p (She's an excellent cook, a professional foodie, even, The Leftover Queen) One of the two remaining boys is theirs, but they wanted to wait until they got things set up a bit more rather than just "throw him to the girls" with the way things are set up. So they'll get him when we get our lamb from her. Works out well.
Um, as long as the fox doesn't come around and one of the boys throws himself at it.
The other will be a second rooster here...we'll be breeding some pure Dorking, but also some hybrids with our red rooster with the Dorking hens and with this guy and the hybrid hens to give us some bigger eggs.
I just finished eating some of the chicken soup that we made from the remains of the first chicken we ate. Our pullets are becoming hens and we're getting eggs now, although still supplementing from Baum Farm for the moment. I'm starting to feel like we really are getting back into this. There's no reason why we should be buying any more meat from far away sources again, or any at all for another year.
So next year as well as doing this again (well, not buying chicks but breeding our own) we intend to get moving on our vegetable consumption. We did get local veggies all summer, but didn't do so well in getting in a garden or with getting into preservation so we're a bit stuck as we're going into winter. We're still getting some local carrots and lettuce, though. But next year, we'll do better on that.
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