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.