April 2012 in Review

Another month went by at the speed of light. Whew! I hope you all had as productive an April as I did.

Hubby Dear and I spent a lot of time out in the garden. We are finally making great strides on our homestead and it feels awesome. Namely, we have an orchard in the ground instead of just dreams of one.

Mint and Sage blossoms in the herb garden

The first radishes of the year were ready to be eaten.

"Purple Plum" radish

This is just a tiny percentage of the radishes we have eaten and of what is still growing in the garden.

Noodles the Silver Lakenvelder somehow made it into the garden.
She's kind of a spazz.  

The occasional chicken escapee didn't harm anything.

Garden on April 29

Raindrops on "Sugar Sprint" Pod Pea blossoms

We've already enjoyed salads from both the "Encore" salad mix and "Corvair" spinach

I'm excited to report that our Swiss Chard is actually growing!
It is growing slowly, but a marked improvement over last year. 

"Chester" blackberries in full bloom. 

One of our new "Heritage" raspberry canes

We're doing our best to keep the weeds back from our new raspberry plantings. It's hard to keep up on this, but it's really important. When the new sprouts emerge and grow tall, we'll be able to mulch, but until then, we've got to do it by hand. If the weeds get ahead, they will choke out the baby raspberries. I found that out last year!

Apple trees 

Our newly planted apple trees have leafed out and look great.

"Bluecrop", "Blueray", and "Earliblue" blueberry bushes

One of the big tasks we completed this month was to plant our blueberries. A longer post about the blueberries will be coming soon, I hope. I'm spending so much time outdoors that I don't get the computer time I used to.

We mulched and mulched and mulched everything we can get our hands on. That's another post I haven't gotten around to.

How I spent my prepping budget this month:

I know there are people who raise chickens on a budget, but I am not one of those people. I keep learning about things that would make my life easier or more convenient. Then I buy them and use up all  my prepping budget. It is going to take a looooong time before we break even on all our chicken expenses.

Storage for chicken feed

We are storing our chicken feed in metal trash cans. They are supposedly water-tight, but I found that after a heavy rain that the feed inside was damp in places. Not good! I shopped around and found this Rubbermaid storage shed that fits both of my feed cans with room for a few extras.

One can is for feed, the other for bags of scratch,
DE, grit, etc. 

I have been fighting a losing battle trying to keep pine shavings out of the chickens' food, water, and grit. It is better now that they spend most of their days outside, but I think the money I spent on an easy maintenance feeder, waterer, and grit dispenser is worth it.

New feeder, grit dispenser, and waterer

I also got a rake for maintaining the litter in the coop. We are using the deep litter method of manure management. All I have to do is keep adding litter and turn it occasionally to make sure it doesn't get moist or compacted in areas. Believe it or not, my coop doesn't smell at all and I'll only have to clean it out a couple times a year.

My last chicken-related prepping purchase was to make a dust bath. That's another post for the future. (Man, I am behind, aren't I?)

After all that, I didn't have much budget left. I did buy a can of freeze dried chicken and a Katadyn Hiker Water Microfilteras part of our bug out bag upgrade.


Gratuitous Chicken Pics

I can't have a post that summarizes April without including photos of our backyard inhabitants. The chickens have learned a lot this month. They now wait eagerly for the automatic chicken door to open in the morning. They've learned the layout of the chicken moat and most of them can figure out how to navigate back to the coop without getting lost. Most importantly, they now put themselves to bed as night falls. It was getting old crawling army-style through chicken poop to try and catch those little buggers under the coop every evening.

I love having a mixed flock. Aren't they pretty?

Exploring the moat

Our rooster, Doofenshmirtz

And that's our April! What did you accomplish this month? 

Yet Another Deal Alert

The new year has brought some great bargains on preparedness products. Hopefully the deals will just keep coming! The next one is from Honeyville Grain. As per the email I received yesterday:

"OUR BIGGEST SALE EVER!  SAVE 20% ON YOUR ENTIRE ORDER* from Thursday 1/12/2012 through Tuesday 1/17/2012.  Stock up and save on all of your favorites, and try some of our great new items.  Simply enter coupon code 2012 during checkout.  ORDER NOW!  SALE ENDS ON TUESDAY the 17th of January."

I have bought many products from Honeyville, from 50 lb sacks of hard white wheat to freeze dried fruits and vegetables. I can vouch for their quick shipping and fine customer service. I think I'll take advantage of this sale and add a few cans of freeze dried meat to my food storage. 20% off makes a big difference on such a pricey product!

Have you seen this?

Freeze-dried herbs! I haven't seen any of the food storage companies carrying anything like this, have you?

I've used freeze-dried basil for some time. It's the next best thing to fresh, much closer than traditionally dried basil.

When I was perusing the spice section in our little podunk grocery store, I noticed that they now carry other freeze-dried products: dill, oregano, red onion, chives, parsley, and, most excitingly, cilantro. I know cilantro is one of those things that you either love or you hate, but we adore it. I do grow cilantro in my herb garden, but it tends to bolt and go to seed quickly. Now I can have some shelf-stable cilantro on hand to add to all those black beans I'm storing.

Here's a source for freeze-dried herbs.  They come in a glass bottle and are definitely not vacuum or nitrogen packed, which is less than ideal for long term storage. Still, I think they are definitely a worthwhile addition to our food storage.