Little Houts on the Prairie

06/03/2024

Summertime in full swing. Trampoline, kiddie pool, and frozen corn for the ladies to cool them down.

05/23/2024

I have an Angry Orchard left from some I bought like a month ago, eight chickens in my yard, and a new plan for after I get off work.

02/16/2024

Guess what?

12/23/2023

I caught Pearl laying her first egg on camera! You can see the pretty green egg under her right after the video starts. I’ll post a photo of the egg in the comments.

12/22/2023

Yesterday morning versus this morning. And we just got a blue egg, so it’s more than full! Seven hens are laying, and it’s pretty much an egg a day from each of them. I haven’t bought eggs since Thanksgiving, even with a toddler who eats 2-3 eggs almost every morning.

12/17/2023

We got our first blue egg! Our two Easter eggers that have been laying for a while both lay cream/pinkish-brown eggs. We’ve been waiting for blue or green eggs for six months!

12/13/2023

We’re still here on our little backyard homestead! With my mom in the hospital for a little over a month now (first 70 miles away, now 90 miles away, and a while until she is able to move to a nursing home in our small town), the homesteading adventures have taken a bit of a rest. We’re not even cloth diapering at this point (that says a lot if you know us; we’ve used cloth on all six kids and even while traveling). Homesteading in this time looks like not much more than keeping the chickens fed and collecting eggs, though I am hoping to add bread baking back in soon because I’m missing it! I hope this Advent season is finding you all healthy and happy and excited to celebrate Christmas!

12/13/2023

Winter is for resting and preparing for spring🌷

Spring-Fall is always busy with gardening tasks and working on things around the property, so I like to take the winter months to focus on other things like crafting, baking, thrifting, sewing, reorganizing and just having more slow/ rest days.

I know the winter months can be so daunting for many people.

Here’s how I combat the winter scaries🥶👇

Vitamin D directly correlates with your mood and depression. It’s super important to get enough time outside, even in the winter. I have my animals to thank for making me go outside and care for them everyday. Because even when’s it’s cold, the chores don’t stop.

I spend at least 30 minutes outside a day to tend to all the animals and it definitely boosts my mood and productivity.

So even when it’s cold out and you’d rather do anything besides having to put on 4 layers to go outside, just do it! Your body will thank you. Even a quick walk will do wonders when you’re feeling down this winter.💛

What are your favorite winter activities?☃️

11/30/2023

I…may have gotten in a fight with a chicken. Let me explain. I often spend my lunch break in the yard with the chickens because even though I work from home, by midday I need a break from people. So I picked up Carole Baskin, the hen I’m holding. She’s one of my favorites as she’s very sweet and cuddly. As I put her down, Snowflake approached so I tried to pet her/see if she started squatting yet (she’s not laying). The little heifer pecked me hard enough to leave a spot. As I jumped back, I stepped on her foot, quite by mistake I assure you. Rather than understandably pecking at my shoe, she goes and takes her anger out on Ms. Carole Baskin. So I may have “pecked” her back by poking her on the top of the head and stomped at her to get her to get away from my sweet Carole. I’m not proud of my behavior, but I did find it funny. I am so glad we have a privacy fence because I don’t want to know what the neighbors would think otherwise!

11/30/2023

Love this quote💛👇

It can be so hard not to give in to the marketing schemes we see these days on why you need such and such product.

If you’re just starting out and wanting to learn some simple homesteading skills like sewing, cooking, baking, gardening, or chicken keeping, the truth is you don’t need any of the fancy stuff. You can get by with what you have for the most part or start out with thrifted items and as little products as possible until you get the hang of the skill you want to learn.

It is a great skill in itself to get by with less. You don’t need the bread proofing box, bread machine or even a Dutch oven to learn how to make bread. You can just use what you’ve got and get more products if you find it necessary.

We have sooo many products shoved in our faces all the time and it can be hard sometimes to realize that maybe, we have all we need after all.

11/30/2023

11/26/2023

Eggs from Sookie (who’s been laying for a couple weeks), Reba (who just started this week), and Geillis the EE (her second egg), and a store bought egg.

11/03/2023

When you have nine chickens and Walmart has carving pumpkins for $0.50, and holidays are approaching and pie pumpkins are $1, you fill the cart with six for the hens and four for pies ❤️

10/30/2023

1. Our first two egg day!
2. My wonderful husband had to add this chicken wire barrier to keep the chickens from getting on their coop. This was sparked by our SECOND chicken escape of the day. Pearl jumped the fence into our front yard and I had to Hansel and Gretel her to the backyard with literal bread crumbs (shout out to the neighbor’s cat who made her wary enough that she was watching the cat instead of me and let me grab her). The second, Stella, got on top of the coop and then flew to the yard behind ours. AFTER I had just finished clipping her wings. That’s what I get for naming her after the escaped chicken on that one episode of Gilmore Girls.

10/30/2023

Back in August I made a ground ivy tincture (on the left). Almost a month ago I made garlic fermented in honey. The tincture specifically is for pain, including migraines. I took a bit earlier tonight and got a few hours of marked pain improvement. It won’t be replacing my western medicine treatments for migraines, but it is definitely going to be worthwhile tool in my arsenal to handle them going forward. I’m grateful to have a yard where this plant is plentiful and for gaining the knowledge this year on how to utilize what nature has given us here at our home to help treat what ails us.

10/28/2023

Poor Sookie is back in the nest box and has an audience to see if she lays another egg today. 🥰

10/27/2023

Cooking the tiniest egg, and on the right next to a store bought egg. As they continue laying their eggs will catch up in size to the commercial counterparts.

10/27/2023

Sunday I told our 9 pullets (19 weeks old) if I didn’t have an egg within two weeks we were having chicken nuggets for dinner because they were going to provide food one way or another. I guess Sookie got the message because she left me the most perfect little fairy egg. No chicken nuggets for us!

10/05/2023

Two quarts of fire cider is put up to help prepare for cold/flu season. Each jar has fresh rosemary, thyme, a head of garlic, an onion, two oranges, two cinnamon sticks, three habanero peppers, whole cloves, whole peppercorn, a k**b of ginger cut up, and a boatload of tumeric powder. They were covered with organic apple cider vinegar with the mother. These will sit in the cupboard about a month before we strain them, and then you take a shot of it (with raw, unfiltered honey if desired for the Mary Poppins effect) when you start feeling under the weather. Or daily if you want to as an all around immune booster/preventative.

09/26/2023

I’m on a bit of a social media break. But yesterday I was breaking down two whole chickens from the grocery store because they were on sale for $0.99/lb. I sent the 15 year old outside with the giblets for our dogs. Our barred rock hen grabbed the heart and ran off with it before swallowing it whole. Dot is now called Dahmer. Along with dog (chicken?) treats, and two bags of meat in the freezer, I was also able to can 1 gallon and 1 pint of chicken stock. And tonight I got the first coat of tung oil on the last two dining chairs. Tomorrow morning they’ll get a second coat and then tomorrow night we’ll actually have a full dining set! We’re still on egg watch, nothing yet from the cannibal freeloaders, but any day now!

09/20/2023

Jack-o-lantern update. The recent rain has caused some of the pumpkin to mold inside so this will be composted tonight, but the girls are still going after every piece of non-moldy pumpkin rind and peel they can get their beaks on! I’ll probably grab them a couple more of the smaller pie pumpkins for treats and maybe some to store in the basement where it’s cooler to keep for treats into the winter when they aren’t able to forage as much as they do now.

09/15/2023

The chickens got her carved! 🎃

09/14/2023

Sookie showing off the progress on the chicken pumpkin carving experiment.

09/09/2023

Lesson of the day: when pouring homemade chili powder from habanero and Carolina reaper peppers from the grinder into a jar…wear a mask. Allergies are kicking my butt this week but my sinuses are all good for tonight!

09/09/2023

Two days ago, someone posted on our town’s buy nothing page that they received a duplicate bag from the food pantry and had a dozen eggs, a bag of peaches, bag of grapes, a bag of walnuts, and a can of chickpeas. I quickly grabbed them up because we go through 6-12 eggs a day at this point, I knew the kids would eat the peaches, and I love walnuts as a snack. But the grapes were purple. And none of the kids really eat them. So today I heated two quart jars, added a 1/2 cup of sugar to each, then filled with grapes and boiling water before canning for 10 minutes. I pressure canned them because I don’t have a water bath canner big enough for quarts, but grapes can be water bath canned safely.

Let them store for about 2 weeks and we’ll have homemade grape juice!

09/08/2023

Drying some PEPPAS to make my own chili powder to have on hand for fall because I know my family will request to eat chili no fewer than 15 times a week.

09/08/2023

Homesteading has taken a back burner place in this season of life. Our kids started their new schools, one of their grandpa’s cancer came back and he passed away this week, and my own dad is in the hospital with a mild infection (these are the times being four hours away is difficult). Next week we’re traveling back for the funeral.

But today I found a great deal to get 20lbs of peaches locally for $1/lb to make pie filling, peach butter, peach syrup, and some peach habanero bbq sauce. Speaking of peppers, I have some dehydrating to make our own chili powder. And I found someone selling bushels of apples for $1.35/lb which I’ll use to make pie filling, apple butter, and applesauce. Considering we can’t even plant our dwarf fruit tree orchard until next year, I feel blessed to still be able to get locally grown fruit to preserve food for our family.

And don’t worry Xander…as soon as I get the ingredients on sale, I have chicken taco chili at the top of my list of things to can.

08/27/2023

Sandwich bread is rising, and as soon as a short break is done I’ll start on the hamburger buns for tonight’s supper and some sub rolls, and tortillas for the rest of the week. I bake our bread without a stand mixer or bread machine.

I recently realized I could use a large silicone baking mat to keep my counters clean(er) while kneading. These adjustable measuring spoons and cup from Pampered Chef have been my most used thrift store finds in town, and I just got the break whisk a few weeks ago. It makes mixing my dough a lot easier since I had been using just a large spoon before.

08/26/2023

This is Pearl. She’s one of our Americana hens, meaning her eggs will be somewhere in the blue to green color range. She’s got the big puffy cheek feathers and beard feathers common to this type of chicken, and is grey with these beautiful gold colored tips on the end across her back and chest. Now, all of our chickens are adorable but I really think she is the prettiest one we have (Carole Baskin is a close second, but the grey and gold coloring is striking in person). I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of cuddles in with her this morning.

08/24/2023

The feels like temp got up to 108 today. At one point we turned the AC in the garage on and let the ladies go in there to cool down, and this is probably the third bag of frozen mixes veggies we’ve tossed out for them to eat. They’re certainly handling it better than I am, but I’ll be happy for us all when the heat breaks later this week!