Winter Solstice on the Homestead

I went out to the flock this morning and faced frozen water in the hen yard.  I had gotten out of the habit of pouring out their water at night because the temps had gone above freezing.  With my trusty screwdriver, I chipped at the ice which had frozen 1/2 inch thick in the middle and clear down to the bottom around the edges of the heavy roaster pan that I keep their water in.  I've never encountered such a freeze before--probably because, I don't usually leave the water in the pan on such a cold night.

When I came out, I greeted them with.  "Well, everyone, we made it to mid winter.  Within a week, you'll start to notice the days lengthening!"  It always makes my heart glad to see them scratching in their spacious yard under a thick cover of willow branches.

I've reinforced the cockerels' shelter, and their little space is heated by their warm feathered bodies and the composting pile below their perch.  They were eager to get out of their coop and I think when it warms up a bit, I'll turn them into the larger yard to scratch and forage.

It's a beautiful day with the sun shining through a clear blue sky.  Happy Solstice Day to one and all.

The Guys

The Guys at 15 weeks

Well, as it happens, of the five chicks that hatched out in August, only two of them are pullets.  That means I now have three cockerels.  Those three are beautiful.

I’m not a breeder and My flock all came by a Barred Rock rooster and a Sex Link hen, (who looks an awful lot like a Rhode Island Red).  The five chicks from that pairing were very dark Barred Rocks (four hens and a rooster).  The current batch is from the second generation rooster and three generations of hens.  Out of that batch, I got two cockerels that look like Black Star (black and red plumage) and one white and tan cockerel.  Also one entirely black pullet, with beautiful brown eyes, and one Barred Rock pullet.

As they approached 17 weeks of age, I decided it was time to separate the cockerels from the rest of the flock.  My current rooster maimed a young cockerel last year, and I didn’t want a repeat of that event.  Good thing I moved them when I did, because they started tootling like little toy trumpets a week later.

The Guys at 17 weeks

So it was back to the nursery with them.  The accommodations were somewhat akin to a "summer house", in a sheltered garden courtyard.  But in the cold of winter, I’ve had to make some modifications to the small shelter and coop that was adequate during warmer months for small chicks.  For one thing the leaves have fallen, and they are less sheltered.  For another thing, our weather weirding keeps tricking me.

I have lived on this property for over 15 years and I’m used to the weather coming from the west and less often from the north.  Rarely from the south, and never from the east.  But now we seem to have circular winds that are really coming from the Pacific Ocean west of us, but will swirl around and hit us from the east and the south.  Not warm like a south wind, but cold.  What this means is that the wind comes from all directions now.  I have been watching this happen for the last two years.

So late this afternoon when the wind began to come up, I went out to try and shelter the little summer coop with a patchwork of torn tarps, clothespins, and an assortment of other materials, such as an acrylic window pane.  I thought they would be sheltered by the close proximity to our house, but I watched the wind coming in from the east and blowing over our roof, and right through their little shelter, billowing the tarp out like a sail.  The way things stand, layers of shelter and wind breaks need to be placed on all sides these days.

Final Design Exercise

I spent the evening working on my final design exercise.  Even though I am going to monitor this class in 2018, I thought it would be a good idea to continue working on the design portion of this course.  I have until the end of February to finish it up and turn it in.  And if I don't get it finished for 2017, I've already enrolled in another year for a "do over".  That's reason number 1.  Reason number 2 is because, I need a design plan for the homestead, and I feel time pressing on me to get it finished.

It's funny this learning to think in a more logical way again.  I've been more right brain in my approach for the last several years and I can practically feel my thought processes reorganizing; laying down new neural pathways.

I wish I had found this design science 20 years ago.  Not only because it would be easier to learn with a younger brain, but because I would already have been engaged in making a difference in the world using this tool.

Catching Up

I finally feel caught up and am breathing a sigh of relief as I begin the design exercise of Geoff Lawton's online Permaculture Course.  It took me 11 months to get to this point.  I could easily watch every lesson twice more and wish I could turn the clock back a bit.  I've got one month only to "learn to think like a permaculture designer" and to finish my design exercise.

I am committed to adding my focus to become a part of the 10% that will create the tipping point in consciousness on planet Earth.

In sociology, a tipping point is a point in time when a group, or large number of group members, rapidly and dramatically changes its behavior by widely adopting a previously rare practice.

In a study done at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, scientists found that when 10% of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of society.  Computational and analytical methods were used to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion.            --Wikipedia  Tipping point (sociology)

If you've been wanting to make a difference in the world and you're interested in learning more about the Permaculture Design Certification, you can check it out at this link.  https://zaytunafarm.com/product/ticket-pdc-jan-2018-permaculture-design-certificate-20180101-20180112/

Record Temps

It's the day before Thanksgiving.  Before I even went out to the hen yard today, I knew something unusual was happening.  Today's high temperatures surpassed the old record high for November of 58 degrees set in 1954, according to the news.  Today's high temperature in WA state was 71 degrees.

Here where I live it was reportedly 64 degrees F.  It's 9 pm and the temperature hasn't dropped much.  The forecast overnight temp is for 55 degrees, but it's still 60 right now.

We have a flood warning due to snow melt mixed with heavy rainfall.  And a landslide advisory for the area.

It's worth observing that the rules are changing, both socially and in the natural world.

Chicken Roundup

My little escape artists, dug their way out of the hen yard and made it into the wide open spaces of the garden.

I wasn't quite ready for them to do that yet, since there is still food out there.  But the peepers were delighted to be back in their old nursery, scratching and tossing the multicolored carpet of fallen dogwood leaves.  I kinda hated to remove them, they were having such a grand time.

Here are 3 of the peepers safely back in the hen yard.

Breakfast With the Flock

Good Morning. Here's a little video of the flock having breakfast at Neverland Homestead.

Still Storming

Rocky the Rooster wandered into the kitchen one day.  I kind of miss that crazy ol' bird, and no hard feelings...

This morning it had stopped raining when I went out to the hen yard and it seemed relatively calm, though quite cold to me.  I made sure to check the "pond site" and found there was some standing water.  Not much, but to have any at all is encouraging to me.  

I spent the afternoon away from home and when I got back it was nearly dark.  I went out to check on the flock and found their door had blown shut and snapped the stout stick I use as a barrier to keep the door wedged open.  Unfortunately this meant none of the flock made it into their house.  And there I was trying to find my entire flock in the fading light.  Only 6 had taken shelter in the metal shed, which is where they like to lay eggs, but never spend the night in.  The other 8 had roosted in trees.  I was able to reach 7 of them, and brought everyone to safety eventually.  I considered leaving them, but the wind was coming up again, and I could see many of the hens quite plainly in the bare branches of the willow, lit up by the neighbor's pole light.  I've had owls in the yard at night, and didn't want to take that gamble.  Listening to the wind roaring outside right now and the rain pelting down, I'm glad I spent the extra hour rounding them up and getting them into shelter.  

Though I'm still pulling twigs out of my hair.  ;)

Wind and Water

This photo was taken during the eclipse on August 21, 2017, but it shows the place where the pond is forming.

In the last two years we've had record rainfalls.  It drives me crazy that I don't have a water harvesting system in place.  I've been pricing metal cisterns, and looking at plans to build water storage of all different kinds from metal culverts, to brand new concrete septic tanks, to primitive ferrocrete tanks... And I've looked into roofing materials to see which ones not to use, though I still haven't settled on which ones to use.

Since early early morning we've been entertaining a storm.  The wind has been slamming into the house, and the water is pooling everywhere.  In the hen yard, the chickens have dug out a sort of a pond near the willow tree, and it even has an island on it.  They've manured it and broken down lots of organic material in that spot.  I am wondering if they have done naturally, what I had been hoping to do in that very spot...To create a small pond.  I was going to try digging a small pond and then apply gleying to the interior so it would hold water.  If that failed, I thought of using concrete or something similar.  Then the little darlings went and constructed it all for me.  I am eager to see what will happen when it stops raining.

I am used to magic happening all the time, so I guess this is just another example of it.

There is an old wives tale which encourages people who keep hens to "tell your hens" or keep them in the communication loop.  It's considered bad luck to keep them in the dark, news wise.  I chatter to my hens always, so I suppose it's possible I told them of my plans to put a pond in that spot.  

Or did they tell me to do it?

Welcome

Neverland is a small homestead based in rural Olympia WA.  We employ Permaculture Design methods and values.  This is the story of our journey.