Month: July 2021

I built a duck house for my Muscovy ducks

Ducks grow fast…

I ordered a dozen Muscovy duck eggs and hoped I would get at least a 50% hatch rate. Sadly, they were delayed in the mail as, all of my live orders have been since covid, and we had only 2 live hatches. One died a few days later. I had one lonely duckling and so we turned to Craigslist and found someone who had hatched some Muscovies a few days before us.

Suddenly, we had 10 ducklings and they filled their brooder quickly. It began to get difficult for them to move around without bumping in to one another. We took them outside on hot sunny days to give them a little more space until bedtime.

Ducks enjoy a Picnic!

But this would not do for the long-term.

I gathered some leftover lumber, some cattle panels meant for the garden, bought a heavy-duty tarp from Tractor Supply, and repurposed some other odds and ends. Now my 10 little ducklings have a roughly 8×8′ duck pen to call home. I am sure it will evolve over time, but it is in a hard fenced area and will be adequate for the summer.

Success!

Pig House v.3

Pig House number one was merely an extra-large dog crate covered in an old blanket for insulation and a tarp for water shedding. Pig House number two was 2 pallets screwed together as an A-frame with a few boards nailed across the bottom for bracing and some plastic stapled to the top. The pigs have outgrown both, though somehow they still cram themselves into the dog crate together to cuddle.

It was time for a thorough upgrade:

Labrador thinks it’s awesome!

I used some pallets, some extra sheets of plywood, and a 2×4 and made a large shelter for my pigs. It should be nice and airy through the summer and easy to amend for winterization. We added a thin coat of white paint to help the water shed from the wood. Come winter, I’ll close the ends and probably 2/3 of the front.

Canning Season Has Begun

Canning season officially starts today (for me). Today, starting with the first two straw bales of beets. Hard to tell from the photo, but there is just over 8 pounds of beets here. Will be a little less after cooking and trimming, so probably around six or seven pint jars. We shall see! We got more from our first two bales than we got last year. And there are four more bales full of beets ready for me to deal with after this. I’ll try to add some more photos as I go so that you can suffer through the cooking, peeling, canning process with me. Misery loves company! Ha!! 😃 (Seriously, I enjoy this shit.) ~ James