The Homesteading Thread

The deer are getting a little too comfy eating old apples, so it’s a good thing we planned on pressing cider on Sunday. We’ll have a bottle or three to freeze for sure:

 

In addition to our apples and those my Dad grew, we got some apples from a nearby orchard that had been closed a couple years. ( Beautiful place too, and was doing a great business until New York’s fucking laws and regs caused the owners to throw their hands in the air and move. I guess they’re selling it now. )

We got about 15 gallons or so of cider on Sunday:







This was a family affair, including our sons’ girlfriends helping for the first time. I was laughing as I pulled in at my parents house and everyone was sitting in front of the barn. I got out of my truck humming “The Walton’s” theme song and asked if today was “Mary Ellen’s quilting party too.

When we were done we divided it up and everyone got what they wanted. Ours is in the freezer for later this winter.

 

Can't believe I only started doing tallow rendering this summer. It's become a daily task now. People loooove tallow products for leave on skin care products. It makes great soap, too, but I get more buck for my bang making whipped tallow body butters and the like.

The almost clear batch is beef tallow, and I probably have one more wash before I use it for products. The darker pan has bison tallow. It's just now starting to become deodorized but I probably have another 6 washes to go before I can use it. Bison tallow had a really interesting smell to it, somewhere between lamb and beef. I plan to make a face cream with the bison tallow along with aloe juice, rose hydrosol, and shea butter.

 

It’s also amazing for cooking. Makes for an especially tasty brisket when you soak it in tallow while wrapping it.

 

Yes! For cooking, I wouldn't clean it so much though. It's a quality ingredient.

 

I’m lucky enough that my butcher sells it in 2lbs blocks for crazy cheap. So much easier than rendering your own.

 

A few times a year I do a short road trip to a few small rural butchers that have amazing goods.

I’ll buy boxes of home made sausages, jars of super hot horseradish, honey, etc, all made by amazing @bewildered types that you just can’t find in local stores.

 

I’m not surprised.

 

I'm in an ag area and a lot of people either raise their own meat or buy wholes and halves annually. I just have to keep asking around and talking to people and put my feelers out there. All sorts of suet is available and it's a waste product. People love helping me out and lessening their waste. No one wants to raise an animal for food and waste a huge part of it if they can help it.

I get beef trimmings from a cafe regularly. I got the bison suet from a coworker whose family was slaughtering. I'm getting a batch of beef leaf fat from a friend whose dad was having his cow processed. The guys at the site I interact with daily have their ears open for me, since their families slaughter, and the one guy is actually a hunting guide. I'm really really hoping to get some sort of game suet like bear or elk, but many game animals are lean so we will see when that turns up for me.

 

Today I decided that in the middle of a winter weather event is the perfect time to decide it’s time to do an early clean out of the chicken coop. They’ve been showing signs of a scaly leg mite infestation and with chicks coming I want to get ahead of any issues.

So first I drove to town to get a net, then stopped at the liquor store on my way to Tractor Supply because I was out of gin and we were low on wine. At TSC I got some fly spray for horses that had permethrin in it, which quick research said should be safe for egg layers. I also got some diatomaceous earth which is said to be good for killing parasites.

When I got home I rounded them all up and put them in a crate while I did a good cleaning of the coop. Then I put the DE down everywhere, including the nest boxes, and sprayed the fly spray on the perches real good before putting fresh shavings down.

I decided I don’t like DE. It’s too fine and dusty, and I don’t think the surgical mask I wore was enough. But still I was careful to not get a lung full. I think I’ll get an N95 mask to keep over there.

And lest you think I was done, then I had to treat each of the hens individually. All it entailed was rubbing Vaseline on their legs to smother the mites. But from the noise some of them made, you’d have thought I was torturing them.

 

@walt

I did a coop clean out several days ago. Best decision ever. It's the perfect time to use all that poopy straw to mulch my beds. The ducks were SO happy with their thick layer of new straw. Happy noises at 11.

I also completed the installation of an automated door yesterday as well as doing other door modifications against predators. The door is a little smaller than I was expecting but they should fit. I clipped a floor light inside the coop and the plan it to have it on from 6pm-7:30pm to lure them inside the coop. I've read they will go towards a light source at night. I need to make a proper fold up ramp, especially for the new babies coming. I also need to paint, but otherwise, this is a job done. It's a long time coming.

Next up, predator proof automatic feeder.

 

Very cool. Let me know how you like that automatic door.

 

You spelled "AI driven automated sentry" wrong.

 

You could train it to detect chickens or not chickens, and only fire at not chickens.

 

It was pretty inexpensive on Amazon. My parents give me $100 for Christmas and tell me to go shopping. I got new muck boots, a market cart for my soap stuff, and an auto coop door.

I hope they can be trained to use it.

 

How does straw hold up with ducks and their messy nature vs. wood shavings? It just seems like a recipe for a complete mess.

 

I've always used straw. I only use pine shavings for the babies. I find it to work just fine. I do a deep litter technique with straw and powdered PDZ. That shit is magic. It absorbs moisture and reduces ammonia in the air. It's totally natural for use around the ducks and vegetable garden. I didn't use PDZ this time because I forgot to buy more, but usually I do a nice layer of PDZ once I've cleaned out a built up layer of old straw. Every day or two or three I scatter fresh new straw on top. It compacts down. If it's noticably wet I'll turn it because the lower layers will be dry. I only empty the coop a couple times a year and it's a huge load when I pull it all out. I can basically cover all my garden beds, and I have a lot of them. I keep PDZ on hand and if I notice odors I'll sprinkle a layer of it and then top it with straw.