We are Growing The Old Five Notch Farm!

We are so excited to start working on the next step of our five year plan to expand and diversify our little farm.

First on the plan is to build a new chicken/guinea/turkey coop! 

We recently purchased 10 beautiful new Golden Laced Wyandotte pullets/hens to add to our flock and we need to add some coop space to accommodate them as well as give the new guineas we bought this Spring a little more room to roost too. 

A couple of the new ladies enjoying a treat of scratch grains, black oil sunflower seeds, fresh oregano, rosemary, lemon balm, and mind herbs, some pumpkin seeds, mealworms and marigold blossoms.

Meet Ms. Itty Bitty!  She is a little spitfire.  She is almost round in shape and smaller than the other hens, but don't let that fool you!

The new ladies have been in quarantine for the past four weeks and have not shown any issues or illnesses.  They can now be moved to the new coop and run....well, once we finish it!

First we had to deconstruct the turkey pavilion we had built.  When we built it, it was perfect for the turkeys! Open and airy in the hot summer with the addition of nice box fan and a misting system and during the colder months we would enclose it on three sides to block the wind and provide a warm, straw filled shelter for the turkeys.

We decided to raise the top of the pen back in April and in doing so the turkey pavilion was going to be hard to enclose for the winter months.  We added 10 new guinea keets and now 11 new hens, 10 from some sweet folks we met and one hen we hatched here on the farm, so we needed more coop space. So....time to build a new coop with accommodations for the big birds too!

We had to make a trip Lowe's for the lumber so we could start the rebuilding! So thankful for the 5% discount when you use your Lowe's card. The trick is paying it off when the bill comes due so you don't pay any interest. If you pay interest over several months you have just lost your 5% discount and possible even more.

Just part of the materials needed for the new coop!

Deconstruction....

I didn't get a photo before my farmer man had the roof off, the rafters are to the right of the photo, and floor had been removed.  He works fast!

 Bless his heart....he continued working even though he started with a bad sinus infection and upper respiratory mess on Friday evening. He took the week of Thanksgiving off so we worked half days because it was just so hard for him to even function.

My Sweet Farmer Man squaring up the floor under the supervision of "Rei"...one of rescued kittens.

We have the framework for the foundation!

Floor joists going in!

Front wall and first wall going up!

We were taking a break to go eat some lunch and our rescue turkey "Timmy", who is very shy, wasn't shy about checking out the new turkey house!

So what do you think "Timmy"?

Back wall with nest box holes going up!

Front wall, back wall and floor are in!

Our little supervisor, "Rei" telling us he is watching from above.

"Baby Girl" aka Inspector 12....checking out our work!

We had to take break and run to town and pick up some more lumber and another new addition to the farm....

Two hundred and twenty four little Murray Cypress Trees!

We picked up our order of Murray Cypress trees from the South Carolina Forestry Commision Taylors Nursery while we were out.  These little trees are another step in our five year plan.  We will be planting them in two, staggered rows across the front of our property, where we had cleared, to serve as a natural wind break, natural fence line and natural privacy fence. We encourage everyone to check out the South Carolina Forestry Taylors Nursery to see what trees are available.  They ship trees as well as allow pick up at the nursery.  If you do not live in South Carolina is encourage you to do a search for a nursery run by your state's forestry commission.  You can purchase beautiful, healthy trees for a great price!

These Murray Cypress are similar to the Leyland Cypress, but are more disease resistant, and grow even faster than the Leylands.  Given the right amount of fertilizer and adequate water, these little trees can grow four feet a year!

Once these little trees are about 8-12 feet tall we will be moving on to the next step in our five year plan....removing the old Virginia pines and cedars from the front of the property in preparation of the next step!  We want to wait until the trees provide a break before we take out anymore trees so we want them to grow as quickly as possible.  We will be installing an irrigation system to help us provide the needed water for these trees.

We continued to work on the coop this past week, taking a break on Saturday to enjoy a nice day with family celebrating the Thanksgiving Holiday and the many blessings we have.  We love sharing our little farm with our family and friends!

 I will post another update as we continue to work the coop and pen.  We are hoping to finish it up by this weekend so we can move the new girls into the new coop and pen for a soft introduction to the rest of the flock.

Stay tuned as we check off our list on our five year plan!

"Plans, Dreams, New Additions and New Adventures!"

We are so excited!  We have decided to diversify the farm and in doing so we have made a 5 year plan.  We are looking forward to sharing each step of the adventure with each of you!

Some of you may remember from posts on Facebook, that we had two rows of the old Christmas trees taken down across the front of our property.

Removed two rows of old Christmas trees

The other side of the driveway....two rows removed here too

The plan was to take down two rows, remove or compost the stumps and plant some murray cypress trees as a break from the road.

Well, we have moved on to the second step and had the stumps removed and the area graded and raked in preparation of planting the murray cypress trees!

We were blessed to have a neighbor who was having some landscape work done on her property.  Were we able to talk with Ricky Miller, who was doing the bulldozer and backhoe work, about removing our stumps while he was in the area. He quoted us a price and it was a bit over our budget, but he assured us that was the worse case scenario.  We took a leap of faith and told him go ahead, since we knew he would be honest and do a great job.  We were not disappointed! God is Good!  The final cost was right in our budget!!

The equipment that pulled those stumps right up out of the ground!

Left hand side of the driveway...all neat and ready for trees!

 We are researching and planning for when we will purchase and plant the murray cypress.  How many, what spacing, when to plant, etc.  We will keep you posted as we move forward on this adventure.

We were also blessed to add ten new chickens to our flock!  We met a wonderful man, Ira Whitaker, and his wife, Linda, who had raised some beautiful Golden Laced Wyandottes and were selling them.  We purchased three one and a half year old laying hens and 7 five month old pullets that should start laying soon.

The girls are all in quarantine for at least 30 days just to be sure they don't break with any illnesses due to the stress of being moved.  They are all settling in well and I can't wait to introduce them to the rest of the flock.

Special mixture for the new residents!  Scratch grains, fresh oregano, fresh lemon verbena, black oil sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, marigold blossoms, rosemary and mealworms.

"Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without"

This catchy phrase was one of my grandmother's favorite phrases. Now as a grown woman, mom, wife and farm manager this phrase if repeated almost everyday in one form or another.

I am all about making a dollar stretch and my farmer often gets tickled about how I won't throw this away, or how I reuse that, but one of his and my favorite "freebies" is "Refrigerator Soup".

Yesterday, my son and his girlfriend came over to help us take down and clean up two trees in our neighbors yard.  We were just about finished cleaning up when the fire department tones dropped and my farmer man, aka the fire chief, had to leave to go help a poor soul who had rolled their vehicle.  Thankfully, we learned when he returned home after dark, that the driver was a young man and was fortunately not injured....can't say the same for his vehicle.  Anyhow, when he left we finished up cleaning up the limbs and logs, visited with our neighbor a bit and loaded up the chainsaw, oil and such in the bucket of the tractor and headed home.

I had gotten chicken out to make some awesome paprika chicken, but upon returning home I realized supper would after 8:30 p.m. if I started that paprika chicken. So we improvised!  I cut the chicken up, a skill a lot of people really need to learn, you can watch a video here to learn how to cut up a whole chicken and we fried that chicken.  My farmer man came home while I was cooking and I was able to provide a nice, healthy meal of fried chicken, green beans, spinach and homemade applesauce for my working crew.

In cutting that chicken apart, I removed the back, as shown in the video link above, and some of the skin from the breast. Now, going back to grandma's favorite phrase, you don't just throw that out! No ma'am!  You fill the crock pot with water and place the chicken back and skin in the crock pot.  Allow it to cook overnight to make some scrumptious, healthy bone broth. This morning I fished out all the bones and the skin and added about 3 cups of water to make about 6 cups of broth.  I also added two chicken bouillon cubes for some added flavor.

Yes, that is a crescent wrench in front of my crock pot. Remember grandma's saying....This is "make it do" ;-)  The crock pot is in great shape, but the knob had gotten cracked. No worries!  Every homemaker has a good tool drawer in the kitchen!

Now...to make it refrigerator soup, go to the refrigerator and pull out any leftover veggies you may have.  I had some peas and carrots and green beans left over so they went into the pot.  I like celery in my soups so I save the celery leaves especially for soup....those got thrown in.  I added a few more carrots just to give it a little more volume. Seasoned with a teaspoon of poultry seasoning, some parsley and some garlic. I may or may not add some noodle closer to suppertime!  If you have some left over rice that would be great too!  Add whatever veggies you have in the fridge....the sky is the limit! I personally LOVE cheese dumplings floating on top of refrigerator soup. ;-)

Just needs some noodles, rice, potatoes or dumplings!  What ever you have on hand or leftover.

This is essentially a "free" meal and let me tell you....the house smells heavenly!  The homemakers of the past always found ways to reuse, repurpose or recycle the items they had in their homes.  They were green before green was a thing!

I would like to encourage you to take a look at what you have, how you use it, how else you could use it or turn it into a totally new item! Learn a new skill and use it.  I would love to hear from others who are thrifty and reuse, repurpose and recycle.  Send me your ideas and we just might be posting a story about how we tried it.

An Update on The Bonanza Bunch and...There is a NEW gang in town!

Well, about two months ago, we moved The Bonanza Bunch out into the woods into a soft release pen.  That means the pen that they were safe and secure in on the back porch has now been relocated to the woods where will continue to feed and care for them for a few weeks until they get used to their new surroundings.

Two week passed and the squirrels were adjusting to their new surroundings.  I had planned on opening the small door that weekend, but the weather man was calling for a lot of rain so we were going to postpone until the next weekend when the weather was more friendly.

"Little Joe" Enjoying a cherry <3

 Monday morning I went down to feed them and opened the big door only to have Ms. Cartwright bolt out of the door!  Well, I guess they decided it was time to go.  I opened the little door and the other two also came out.  I put their food on top of the pen and they ate a little and started exploring.  I watched them for the longest time.  They were so happy and run up and down the trees, out onto branches and were soon hopping from tree to tree.

I called My Farmer Man in tears.  Bless his heart, he says, honey, you want them to be free.  This is what all your hard work was for. It was still really hard knowing I couldn't keep them safe any longer.

We continued to put out seeds, nuts and fruit daily for over a month.  I saw at least two of them most days and on occasion, I would see all three of them.  One morning, as I was putting their food on top of the pen, one of the squirrels was already sitting up there eating.  I dumped the seeds and nuts and then went to dump the fruit. The little cuss bit me! I knew then they were truly back to being wild creatures and it made my heart happy to know they were where they should be.

"Ms Cartwright" aka Baby Girl Squirrel

"Hoss"

"Little Joe"

 A week or two later I went to feed and Hoss came down to eat.  Bless his heart, he had been in a fight and his nose had been bitten as well as a huge scratch on the inside of his leg.  It had already started to heal, so I was glad to see he was doing well.

"Hoss" and his nose injury :-(

As the days went on, I saw them less and less. Often only seeing one every couple of days.  We started feeding every other day to allow them to learn to forage for their own food.  A few days ago I went to the screened porch to take care of the keets and Rudy and noticed a squirrel hanging on the screen.  I walked to the door and he hopped down, but did not run away....it was Hoss!

"Hoss" having a snack having found his way back to the stairs that lead to the screened porch.

The Big Man had found his way out of the woods, across the field, up the driveway and back to the screen porch!  We got him some pecans and some seeds and he stayed right there on the steps and ate.  I went back inside and got a little more and his favorite, apples, and took them out to find him at the bottom of stairs.  We started putting some out by the bottom of the big oak tree just off the stairs and now it looks like Hoss has a friend!  It isn't one of the others of The Bonanza Bunch because it scampers up the tree just as soon as she sees us.

It is so satisfying to see them doing so well.  We continue to take food out to the top of the release pen every other day and will slowly decrease the frequency until we are putting food in a squirrel feeder once a week.  We will continue to feed them through this Winter just to be sure they will have a good chance.

The Bonanza Bunch has moved on, BUT there is a new gang in town!

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Meet "The Boat Shop Babies"!

They were rescued by our nephew, Gideon, from the boat shop where he works.

They arrived at The Old Five Notch Farm June 20th

"Johnson" aka "John-John"

 

"Tige" aka "Ms. Fussy Britches"

"Evinrude" aka "Little E"

"Reinell" aka "Ray-Ray"

We will be post their story and more information in the next blog post!  Stay tuned for The Next Adventure at The Old Five Notch Farm!!

Spring at The Old Five Notch Farm

It is once again Spring time at The Old Five Notch Farm!  This is my favorite time of the year.  New life with hatching keets and chicks, new life with the buds on the trees and flowers and new growth in the garden. I may not be up and about, but there is still plenty happening on the farm!

The other things growing on the farm are our recent rescues, "The Bonanza Bunch"......

"Little Joe" <3

"Ms. Cartwright" aka "Baby Girl Squirrel" SERIOUS squirrelitude already!

"Hoss"  The big guy of the bunch...and the hardest to get a photo of him!

These little ones are doing great and growing well.  My farmer man will be making them a nest box to sleep in now that everyone's eye are open and they are climbing around the cage.  If the weather continues to be so nice, their cage will be moved out to the screened porch so they can start getting used to the changes in temperatures and all the outside noises.  Our babies are growing up!  We estimate their ages to be approx 6 weeks old now.


Here are some photos of Spring time on The Old Five Notch Farm...I hope you enjoy.

The Chicken Inn II run....My Farmer Man working away clearing the muscadine vines

The muscadine vines all trimmed and trained along the fence

Getting all ready for Spring

"Rudy" back down at the coop

One of our Golden Laced Wyandottes

"Baby Girl" and one of the male guineas getting a snack

"Little W" He is hiding in the coop today.  He is being bullied by the the other males. Breeding season...sigh.

<3 Fluffy Butts <3

"Chip" our Chocolate Guinea <3

LOL "Roo" and a hen peeking out from behind....made me look twice!!

Two Golden Laced Wyandotte eggs and one guinea egg

Some of the geese rehabbed at Izzie's Pond that were release here last year at The Old Five Notch Farm

A couple of wild Mallard that had been rehabbed at Izzie's Pond and released here at The Old Five Notch Farm

"Cedar" <3 One of the rescued and rehabbed ducks from Izzie's Pond released last year here at The Old Five Notch Farm.  "Cedar" has a mate who also comes up to feed although not as close as "Cedar".

A nice trio of rescued and rehabbed Wild Mallards from Izzie's Pond that were released last year at The Old Five Notch Farm

What's up? Duckie Butt!!

Our Fruit Orchard with many trees in bloom!

Peach Blossom with one of our honeybees hard at work

All kinds of pollinators are at work at The Old Five Notch Farm and we do our best to protect them using organic and natural gardening techniques.

Another pollinator on the plum trees

A Bumblebee pollinating the plum trees

Happy Pollinators = More fruit = A Happy Farmer Man!

Beautiful pollinators helping here at The Old Five Notch Farm

Beautiful swallowtail on the Plum tree....another great pollinator

Peach Blossoms

A little butterfly....every pollinator helps!

Small, but so very important.

Some people would call these weeds...here we call them medicine!  Dandelions <3

The Old Five Notch Farm's "You Have Just Exceeded Your Maximum" aka "Max" Now venturing outside.

Our bees are working hard already.  Collecting pollen and bringing nectar back to the hive to make honey.

Collards from the Fall Garden...notice little chunks taken out on the center plant....the guineas helped themselves!

Kale....one of the BEST Fall or Spring crops for the garden. So hardy and so good for you.

Broccoli Raab....given to us by Ann Barklow at the Greenwood City Greenhouse. It's doing great!

Rainbow Swiss Chard...one of my favorite Fall or Spring plants. So pretty and so good too!

Blueberry blossoms...promises of blueberries this summer!

Our replacement blueberry bush...My Farmer Man broke off the other last year.   This one is doing a great job!

More Swiss Chard <3

Onions!

My Favorite Photo for this Post.  One of our Peach trees and our our neighbors old barns. I love living in the country <3