Homestead One Day

Start of garden area

On November 11, 2022

This is where I’m going to plant some blocks of edible plants and see what grows well. Hopefully the weather cooperates for. Winter garden. First step was to bring over a dozen tractor scoops of pond muck and sand that has been sitting for over a year.

I use the tractor bucket teeth to scrape and smooth the area. The first day the dogs ran right over it leaving paw holes in my fluffy dirt!

So the next step was fencing. I pounded in t posts and used zip ties (cable ties) to secure cattle panels all the way around. Next time I’ll measure my area out in 16 foot blocks because I had to bend some panels around so they wouldn’t stick out.

Tada! Ready for planting!

Pretty purple flowers on fuzzy leafed plant

By nsmar4211

On November 1, 2022

In Garden and growing

Aren’t they pretty? And they smell like cotton candy :).

I bought the plant because I liked the fuzzy leaves…and the flowers appeared a few months later! Hurricane Ian did a number on the plant and it’s struggling, but I’m hoping it’ll recover and I can enjoy more flowers next blooming time :).

Marigolds rule-Pretty flowers and more!

By nsmar4211

On October 29, 2022

In Garden and growing

Marigolds are one of my all time favorite flowers. The smell is sometimes a little “eh”, but the colors can’t be beat! This was one of the first plants I ever tried to grow in a little sandy patch next to a neighbor’s shed (kids will try anything) and the only one that flourished. They die in the winter here but are easy to keep going with saved seeds. And they add a pop of color even when everything is brown during the high heat.

They also are supposed to keep pests out of the garden, although I haven’t done enough experimentation to see if that works on the pests I have. And, they are the flower of choice for Day of the Dead celebrations, which is coming soon.

Marigolds rule!

Very slow hatching duck…will it make it?

By nsmar4211

On October 27, 2022

In Animal Health, Ducks, egg hatching

I somehow missed this post back then the ducks were hatching! Better late than never 🙂

I had one duck in an egg that just took his sweeet little time hatching. Problem was, the moms were stomping his egg and he wasn’t ready (note the bright red membranes). So I brought him in to keep an eye on him, using the heat from the brooder heat on him.

First coming in after I cleaned off the broken shell pieces:

A better look at him (no, I didn’t peel anything extra, this was the damage from the moms stomping him). I used some liquid coconut oil to moisten the edges of the shell where the membrances were to stop him from getting “shrinkwrapped” (membranes dry and trap the baby). Then I placed him in a small 1 quart cup with damp paper towels underneath and put him in the brooder directly under the light.

He stayed like this for 24 hours!

Caveat…always give them enough time to come out on their own. 24 hours seemed forever for this guy to just be sitting in the shell, but that’s how long it took before the veins in the shell membrane were gone! Had I tried to get him out too early, he would have probably died from blood loss. Make the conditions as good as you can and then wait…

Then…I looked over and he decided he’d had enough and gave a HUGE kick and tada!!! Freedom! I didn’t even have time to get a picture…

However, he wasn’t done yet since the umbilical cord area had not closed up (barely visible here).

I changed the paper towels and removed all the shell/membrane pieces and gave him some freshly dampened paper towels to lay on. I also placed a small amount of triple antibiotic ointment on the open naval area.

He stayed in the cup for another 12 hours until he was dry and the navel dried. The puppy pads were about to be changed in this picture…ducks are messy!

Once dry, a final inspection (including a sniff from Rudy, who never cared about baby birds oddly) and he was added to the group.

A few hours later…Can you tell which one he is? He ended up blending right in and had no issues!

Spiderrrr! Look away! Not for the squeamish…

By nsmar4211

On October 25, 2022

In Funny, Wildlife

I pride myself on my secret to having face skin. What’s my secret?

Spiderweb facials!

EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

And I don’t mean the single strand ones (although if they get on the lips, they count).

I mean the full face, full web, IS THERE A SPIDER ON ME types.

For instance, from this guy hanging out next to the male pig pen:

One of the few times when the resident of the web didn’t scurry away to evaluate the destruction of all their hard work (sorry guys…that’s my FACE).

Stay tuned for more beauty tips!

How to mow in extreme heat , hint #687

By nsmar4211

On October 22, 2022

In Garden and growing

Just take one beach umbrella…stick it between the seat foam and the plastic frame…and tada! Now you can mow in a little more comfort!

Works great for keeping rain off too! The only caveat is if the wind starts getting gusty, take it down or you might mess up your umbrella. Then again, if it’s windy, you probably do not need the umbrella.

My reply to TX user about starting a homestead

By nsmar4211

On October 18, 2022

In Homesteading

Congrats! Welcome to the new life!

You will be fighting the battle of wanting to do ALL THE THINGS at once. It’s part of the fun!

Best to start with? What’s your housing like? Get that comfortable first. You don’t want to be outside working in heat and not have a way to rinse off!

After that, in order:

Gate across any and ALL entrances. You might have ATV trails people are used to and have to deal with cutting off access.

No Trespassing signs. Everywhere. Minimum every 500 ft , I prefer 100 ft apart so no excuses. And paint every post or tree you can reach with a purple area (easy on the trees though). Texas has the purple post law.

Fence. Fence. Did I mention fence? Even if it’s 3 strands of plain wire on T posts. Get something up. Otherwise you’re going to have trouble with hunters etc (probably).

Do NOT build permanent buildings yet. You need to go through at least one full cycle of seasons (a year), preferably two. Otherwise that perfect barn spot may turn out to be a retention pond during rainy season. So next up…temporary animal buildings. Get a bunch of mobile home anchors and strap them down against the winds. I use carport canopies and overlay an extra tarp to protect animals a lot.

Get an area around the house (whatever living area you have) that’s fenced etc for family/dog/etc use. I like 2×4 no climb fence because then the area can also handle anything but chicks and ducklings if needed.

Gardening-If you’re not used to Texas, start a garden in pots. You’ll need time to learn the weather. Hold off on big gardens at least a year if possible to learn shade/weather.

Plant fruit/nut trees since they take years to establish. Look around and see what has survived locally and start there.

Pretty stuff. Put something up that’s “pretty” and makes it feel like home. Otherwise you’ll be there for years and realize it looks like what you bought still lol. Seriously..bird bath, flowers, wind chimes, something. Helps on the hard days.

Get your water supply run-even if it’s just hoses. Carrying buckets of water sucks the enjoyment out of animals and plants.

After that…keep planning! LOL. I’ve changed my plans a dozen times in the last year alone after finding things out. Like oh….the entire back half of property I can do a swimming pool by digging down a foot sooo can’t put fruit trees anywhere back there. Or oh…the electrical line for the house is probably right where I was thinking of a garden so need to move that . Etc!

One HUGE tip: DO NOT bring home any animal that you do not already have a pen or cage set up for! Trying to throw together a pen while you’ve got 4 auction goats tied to a tree will end in issues for you and the goats. Oh, avoid auctions if you don’t know animals 100% and don’t have a quarantine area.

Low effort to also do:

Join local Facebook groups, nextdoor groups, etc and lay low and watch.

If of that mind, look around for a church and start going so you can find one you like.

Read through local Craigslist listings before buying stuff, you might find someone selling it cheaper.

I made a dream list of animals when I first started and now have almost all the animals on my list (in 2 short years). I don’t recommend this unless you already know how to take care of them…otherwise you’ll be redoing the pig pen while chasing the goats out of the rabbit barn. Oh wait…you might be doing that anyway (haha). One new (to you) animal species per year is what I’d go with. And keep in mind things like cornish x meat chickens may not represent the rest of the species in terms of care. For instance, Pekin ducks are huge and messy and loud…but buff, rouen and runners are half the trouble.

Since it always comes up, I have: Rabbits (show and meat), Chickens (eggs, I hate plucking), Ducks (eggs and meat), Geese(lawnmower and future goslings), Goats (fun and future milk/kid sales), Pigs (future breeding for meat, small breed), and other pet species. Only thing I’m missing is fish but that’s a much later thing (I have to build net cages for them after discovering the softshell/snapper turtles love my pond). Another hint is decide on the purpose of the animal before even building a pen.

Gate latches and a creative post

By nsmar4211

On October 15, 2022

In Homesteading, Livestock

One of the hardest things for me to make is gates. Buying them costs a fortune for what you get and the store bought ones still need more to make them animal resistant. So do it yourself is the theme for most of the gates we have!

This article is focusing mainly on latches with a bit about posts thrown in. I’ll detail some of the latches on gates around my animal areas and where they came from/ how they were made.

Some of my latches are as simple as a piece of wire with a snap clip on the end. Below I used two pieces of wire, bent the ends and put them through each other to make a latch between the gate and the fence post (which is an old cut down branch.

Detail of the post. The bottom 2 feet is in the ground, and the wire fencing is wrapped around the branch and secured to itself. This piece of fence does not have a lot of tension on it, I would go further in the ground if it did.

This gate is the spring portion of a crib that a neighbor was throwing out. I used the “piece of wire and clips” method for a latch here as well.

And the third “wire and clips” latch is on another gate that leads into a duck area.

For this latch, it’s an actual gate latch. I screwed the part that flips down and holds the arm onto the wood post. I then had the arm welded onto a piece of cattle panel for me, and tada! Gate!

A caveat on this style gate…I don’t recommend leaving the wire ends sticking out like this. I caught myself on them a few times until I got used to it. When you cut the panel, measure and cut so you can end at a flush vertical bar. I was trying to use what I have around. I plan on gluing wood beads to the ends of the bars soon .

Gator vs goose :( Very sad situation for all involved.

By nsmar4211

On October 13, 2022

In Animal Health, Geese, Livestock, Pond, Wildlife

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC PICTURES AT BOTTOM!!!!!

A good sized (6 foot plus) gator managed to get into the pond without me noticing. Had I know it was there, I would not have let the geese in the yard-but they were free ranging on the property that day.

The gator snuck up on and grabbed one of my geese! Someone was outside and got me after noticing the goose flapping frantically across the pond…and then noticed the gator following it.

I ran outside and grabbed the goose out of the weeds at the pond’s edge, less than six feet away from the gator who was still coming for its dinner! Too late though…the gator had already torn large chunks of skin off my poor baby. Luckily for me, the gator stayed in the water.

After getting the rest of the flock to go into the fenced area (not an easy task while holding one of them), I took her inside to try and treat her. I sprayed her wounds with Vetericyn Wound Spray and put gauze pads dampened with the same spray over the open areas. She ended up with 2 large areas and several smaller areas down to the muscle

I then wrapped her with vet wrap to hold the gauze in place and put her in a plastic carrier with puppy pads in it (bedding would stick to the wounds). She was in the shower enclosure and I closed the door so she’d stay warm, leaving the light on for her and checking her every 20 min. I offered her a bowl of warm water with a little molasses in it, she drank about half of it during the rest of the day.

A couple hours later on one of my checks I noticed she was breathing heavily. My heart sank as I somehow knew this was the end. I picked her up and held her and comforted her the best I could, tell her what a good girl she is. She laid her head on my shoulder and calmed down…and then shortly passed away.

RIP girl…you were loved.

I hate this part of having animals.

(and no, no animal is allowed to free range any more until I figure out how to keep alligators out of a pond)

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For those who may be trying to figure out what got their animal, I’m including her injury pictures. Please do not share without permission.

Pond muck icky … bacteria good

By nsmar4211

On October 11, 2022

In Pond

In an attempt to help clear the foot…maybe two…of muck at the bottom of my pond , I’ve been using pond bacteria. It’s been over 8 months now and I think it’s helping. I say “think” because I haven’t gone in the pond in a while… but when I first started using this huge clumps of stuff would come up to the surface off the bottom. You also used to be able to sit and watch bubble going blurp blurp and then clumps of decayed stuff would float around.

After a few months of using the pond bacteria and aeration, only rarely do I get the floating clumps of ew and there are no more bottom bubbles coming up. I tried not doing the bacteria and ended up with a scummy film on top of the water….so back to the bacteria I went.

I ended up going with the one I could find on amazon because it was cheaper than anything else for the sizes that I needed. When I spoke to a couple of pond companies, they indicated that it was a good one to use (after telling them I can’t afford theirs!).

The bacteria (HERE) comes in a gallon jug. I just poke the seal (never had a leak in shipping either!) and walk along the bank squirting it in. Other types are in pellet form and you throw them in, and I’ve read about powders but haven’t found any for sale. So if your pond is gross, try out one of the bacteria offerings for a couple of months! Hopefully they keep the pricing down though…some of them are a bit high.