National Egg Day 2014

Today is National Egg Day! So what does that mean? Oh, I don't know exactly, except that we seem to have a day for everything in the declaration of some group somewhere! But as I thought over the course of the day about what I could post- a photo of a colorful egg basket, some of our different sizes of eggs, or double yolk-ers, etc, I came across the following meme on Facebook:

Honestly, they have a point. 

For some reason, we want the commodities to remain the same, while we are willing to pay more for luxury goods and convenience items, giving less importance to how things are raised or produced.

You often see me say things like "Vote with your dollars." This merely means that by the choices you make in your shopping, you are voting for specific ways of raising animals and growing food.

This applies to gmos, pesticides, hothouse foods, seasonal foods, and the feed used with livestock. It looks at buying local, and noticing how animals are raised and treated, as well as demanding the feed to be in accordance with your values. If you are looking for organic, non gmo veggies, are you looking for non-gmo feed for the livestock? 

Or maybe that doesn't matter, but when you look at the cost of eggs over time, and the inflation against the cost of other commodities across time, and consider how many of those commodities have extra things added now to keep the prices artificially low, we must think hard about whether we like those prices more than the original product, and whether the cost of those prices in terms of long term health care costs are worth it.

Also, when choosing to pay more for an item, like pastured eggs, or organic or cage free, understand the meaning of the term. While there are many folks who provide local fresh eggs to the markets, there are a few different price points, and also some are kept in different environments or fed different feeds. Then decide for yourself what is right for you and your family. Not sure what they are? Check out the meanings in this blog post here:

http://ourpatriotsdream.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-about-our-flock-management.html

And, for your reference, here is a commodity retail price sheet. Have fun, and I welcome your comments and thoughts!

Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890–2011

Prices below are in dollars or cents.

Year	Flour (5 lbs)	Bread (lb)	Round steak (lb)	Bacon (lb)	Butter (lb)	Eggs (doz.)	Milk (1/2 gal.)	Oranges (doz.)	Potatoes (10 lbs)	Coffee (lb)	Sugar (5 lbs)
2011	$2.75	$1.48	$4.69	$4.82	$3.67	$1.95	$1.86	$6.00	$7.35	$5.65	$3.51
2010	$2.36	$1.41	$4.41	$4.77	$3.63	$1.47	$1.66	$6.00	$5.79	$4.16	$3.11
1970	58.9¢	24.3¢	$1.30	94.9¢	86.6¢	61.4¢	65.9¢	86.4¢	89.7¢	91.1¢	64.8¢
1965	58.1	20.9	$1.08	81.3	75.4	52.7	52.6	77.8	93.7	83.3	59.0
1960	55.4	20.3	$1.05	65.5	74.9	57.3	52.0	74.8	71.8	75.3	58.2
1955	53.8	17.7	90.3	65.9	70.9	60.6	46.2	52.8	56.4	93.0	52.1
1950	49.1	14.3	93.6	63.7	72.9	60.4	41.2	49.3	46.1	79.4	48.7
1945	32.1	8.8	40.6	41.1	50.7	58.1	31.2	48.5	49.3	30.5	33.4
1940	21.5	8.0	36.4	27.3	36.0	33.1	25.6	29.1	23.9	21.2	26.0
1935	25.3	8.3	36.0	41.3	36.0	37.6	23.4	22.0	19.1	25.7	28.2
1930	23.0	8.6	42.6	42.5	46.4	44.5	28.2	57.1	36.0	39.5	30.5
1925	30.5	9.3	36.2	47.1	55.2	55.4	27.8	57.1	36.0	50.4	35.0
1920	40.5	11.5	39.5	52.3	70.1	68.1	33.4	63.2	63.0	47.0	97.0
1915	21.0	7.0	23.0	26.9	35.8	34.1	17.6	n.a.	15.0	30.0	33.0
1910	18.0	n.a.	17.4	25.5	35.9	33.7	16.8	n.a.	17.0	n.a.	30.0
1905	16.0	n.a.	14.0	18.1	29.0	27.2	14.4	n.a.	17.0	n.a.	30.0
1900	12.5	n.a.	13.2	14.3	26.1	20.7	13.6	n.a.	14.0	n.a.	30.5
1895	12.0	n.a.	12.3	13.0	24.9	20.6	13.6	n.a.	14.0	n.a.	26.5
1890	14.5	n.a.	12.3	12.5	25.5	20.8	13.6	n.a.	16.0	n.a.	34.5

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2., Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011

Read more: Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890–2011 | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0873707.html#ixzz33dzDqbxO

Romance Over the Nest

The Dating Life of geese...

Two or three times each day, the gander walks from his favorite areas of the property, over where he talks tot he bucks and hte show birds, stops by the Buckeye pen and the Brahma pen, gives them his superiority act, then starts talking. His honks and honks and waddles past the Big pen and the wood pile, around the trees with the birdhouses, and into the backyard. He calls the whole way, then stands, flapping his wings and honking, by the slide. Mother Goose gets up from her nest then, and walks to him.

Then they chatter together, and he walks her back around the way he came.  When they get around by the Big pen, they flap their wings and fly low across the yard, he in front, her following close behind, over to their house and feed area.

They chatter, he makes sure she eats,they play in the water together, and then they walk back together, chattering and waddling back to her nest. She doesn't allow him all the way to the nest, as though it is a hiding spot. Once she sits down and gets her eggs all adjusted, he waddles off to sentry duty to make sure nothing messes with them, or goes off to do his thing around the property.

But for that little time, ten minutes or so, a few times each day, they focus on each each other and their time together. So cute!

Baby Gosling Watch

Mother Goose was off to go eat a couple days ago, when I peeked in and saw that she is up to ten eggs! Wow!!! She has been pulling out her downy feathers and making her nest nice and soft, but we have red flag wind warnings this week, so the nest has been work for her to maintain.

She doesn't like me near, nor does the gander, but she does seem to be doing okay. I would have loved to have her in her regular house, but this is where she selected so I am worried that moving her would be quite disruptive.

Gander likes to tell the other animals what to do, and protect mother Goose fiercely.

Still, he continues with his quality control behavior, here inspecting the job Wyatt and I did with our pens cleaning on Monday and putting fresh DE down.

Mother Goose has been fluffing and fussing and preening her nest, so I sure hope she gets some babies from the hatch. Do any of you have any experience with free range geese nesting in odd spots? Because we don't want her long term home to be so close to the swing set and the greenhouse, I am concerned about moving her other partial fence over there.

I will have to do something, though, since we will be dividing farm duties in rotation during county fair and we won't have as much time to help her around the time they hatch. I suppose I will do some more research today, though if you all have tried it, I would love to hear your experiences!

Always a Project to Keep Me Busy

This weekend was Charlie's Birthday. We packed up two cakes, and he picked up pizza, and we enjoyed the Arizona game with his Mom, Dad, Grandma and Uncle. Wyatt and Bunky were so funny about the scores up and down, of course we were rooting for our home team, my alma mater, but it was not to be. So we enjoyed sunshine cake and the family time and a good game anyway!

I got working on the garden Saturday afternoon. I have been wrapped up in pen building, seedlings, sprouting, baby chickens and baby goats and haven't gotten much done. Not to mention work and home schooling, right?  So I wet down a corner of the garden by the asparagus which just won't give up, got to pulling weeds (yes, it was the easier corner) and got the new blueberry and grape plants in.

The asparagus is just left of center. It always fights through a little on its own, but once I get things on track again it will come back I believe. Notice the hose? Cannot get the sprinklers o turn on, but we will work on that and until then I can get it done with a hose.

That is the little ten by four or so patch I got weeded. About one twelfth of the garden. Baby steps, right?

I really have my work cut out for me, though on Sunday, Charlie went in and burned a lot of the tall weeds so I can get to raking, pulling, and tilling faster.

The garden as a whole. Yup, lots to do. But it will get there!

The gander is being so very protective of his goose, who is sitting on seven eggs. They are an adorable couple. When he gets bored, he goes in and chases Shadow for fun, though, at this moment I had just changed out the feed and water in their regular enclosure, so he walked all the way back to where she decided to nest by the swing set, hollering for her all the way, and made her come back to eat.

I rather believe she just got up then to get him to pipe down and be quiet, though she does love the water when it is freshly changed each afternoon.

Shadow Paws is absolutely in love with the baby goats. She wants to be the babysitter, but we then babysit all of them, as this is her first time with baby goats. This little one had a hard time getting the suction going on mama, so we were syringe feeding for the first four days, trying a bottle but not getting anywhere. The other one only took a day, and this one had to go with us on Sunday so we could keep food in it. After a bath Sunday night, he took a bottle for me! Not much of it, mind you, but when his brother went out, and mama took him, and then this guy went out, his mama was climbing the pen gate to get to him, and he LATCHED ON! Thanks goodness!

He did get to visit the Sunday School classes at church, along with seven baby chicks, as they kick off the Easter units, and was a huge hit!  He did beautifully, and eventually we decided he on his name. But he evening, Bailey had both of their names.

So, introducing Patriot's Dream Freedom's Prayer on the left, and Patriot's Dream Let Your Light Shine on the right .

I also baked a large batch of egg shells. Did you know you can bake them at 350 degrees to kill any bacteria, then grind them up to add calcium to the hens' diet? Well, here is one batch!

Well, here we go, off to start another wild week as we get ready for county fair and the heat to set in. Hope things are beautiful where you are, and you are feeling all of the wonder of Spring!

An Eggciting Friday!

Yup, I know, bad pun. Bet we were so excited yesterday. The kids and I unloaded feed and got to our chores, checked on the pregnant goat, and I began rotating back and forth between livestock and watering. That's when I found them...

Proof our geese lay eggs!

Some geese lay only for a short time in the Spring, and that is it for the year. Last year, the geese came to live with us in late Spring, and we had never seen them lay. It always takes time for a female to settle in to new surroundings and may not lay for a while. I really didn't care if the geese ever did lay eggs, as they came as protectors, and we have not had a single hawk or owl attack since they arrived. There is some fairly consistent pranking between the geese, Shadow and a couple other animals, but that is pretty normal around here.

So imagine my surprise, when I was watering the planters and looked down to find this little nest of great big eggs!. The four eggs are right where the kids had been chasing baby chicks just the other day, so we know they are all new in the last few days.  

So far, the geese are trying hard to pretend that the nest is not there, but are defending the nest heartily, telling me when and where to water, and taking over Shadow's play pool in that end of the yard.  The eggs are HEAVY and large. I had a photo on the phone with a chicken egg in it, I will have to share that separately, since I am really slow on the smart phone!

 The gander, front right, is tremendously protective. And the bigger prankster of the two, but very much the gentleman looking out for his goose. They think they own the entire property, and I find myself having interesting conversations with them!

The mild tempered goose has quite the skills, I really wonder if she has hatched goslings before. They were adults when I brought them here.

I wish I could upload the cute photo Bailey got of Huey. He just turned 11, and has us all worried, as he is aging and not getting around like he used to. Powerstroke (below) makes sure he gets up to eat, and he likes to go out for an evening walk each afternoon. Yesterday, we all watched him go for a walk without a leash, and he made a beeline for the feed shed and tried to knock over feed barrels looking for treats. (Plenty of hay in the feeder in the pen as usual.) 

Powerstroke stood in the door of the pen to watch his buddy, and Huey enjoyed running around being silly, demanding treats and having fun as a buck on the loose. He ate sunflower seeds, and then went back to his pen to have fun.

Well, on to the next fun!  Time to get a little work done on the pen projects. Have a great day!

Poultry Available

The chickens around here are used to being spoiled, or in the words of chief poultry man, Wyatt, "well-cared-for".  We often have chickens available, from day-old to adult, in a variety of breeds. We do our best to keep this page up to date, but if you are inquiring about certain ages, breeds or birds, please feel welcome to email or call us.

This is Trooper, a blue ribbon partridge Silkie hen. She is still a wonderful mama hen, who keeps things in line around the Silkie area. When a couple young roosters moved in recently, they thought they would tell everyone who is in charge.  Trooper used the back of her head and backed the two young roosters up to the edge of the coop, then gave them quite a talking to. Their behavior changed radically, and there has been peace in the coop since, with the hens settling back in and eventually returning to sharing nests and setting on eggs as a team.

This is a group of younger chickens in the grow out pen. The Buckeye in the foreground is a blue ribbon, best of breed rooster now, and we only have one young Buckeye available at present.  The light Brahma behind him is among the blue ribbon hens (one of whom has recorded best of breed) that is the mama hen to the current grouping of young Light Brahmas. We have these available from day-old up to adults. These have been champion heritage meat birds, as well as breed winners in their own right.

Some of the Brahmas we hatched last year. We no longer breed the Buff Brahmas, but do have a few left from last year's hatch. They have such a wonderful disposition!

This Buff Brahma was determined to hatch little ones from her favorite rooster! Funny thing about the Brahma roosters, the ladies prefer them so much, they stand and talk to them at the fence, with their own roosters getting rather frustrated!

More of last year's Light Brahmas in the grow out area.  We have one trio of these available right now, who are about 2.5 to 3 months of age. The standard bred heritage day old chicks are $5 up until the age of one month, then $8, then after two months $10, and up from there to cover the cost of the soy-free, corn-free organic feed we use. We have calculated that by the time they reach four months of age, they cost us on average $15, with $20 by 5 months and $25-$30 by point of lay.

These are the babies in the brooder as of the middle of March. Two more little light Brahmas were hatched last night, and are not in the photos below. The little barnyard mixes we also have are a mix of Ameraucana, Phoenix, Brahma and Buckeye. They should be fun! As these are not purebred, they are available for $2 each as young chicks.

The little ones in the brooder get along so well, and even young roosters care for the younger ones as they come along.

Still the young chicks can also be found cuddling up to stuffed animals for a nap when the others are playing.

Present Availability:

day old chicks:

2 Light Brahmas

one week and up:

4 Light Brahmas

2 Partridge Silkies

7 Barnyard Mixes

2.5 months and up:

3 Light Brahmas

1 Buckeye

1 Partridge Silkie

Point of Lay (7 months to 8 months):

not available until after county fair at the end of April

2 Light Brahmas

6 Partridge Cochins

While there are still several eggs in the incubator, after these hatch, we will not set any more until after County Fair, and those will be very limited. Discounts are available to 4-H youth.  Custom hatches are available, with a deposit to set the eggs.

Please feel free to call, email and message with any questions you have!

All the News that's Fit to Print?

There is always something going on around here! Had to share this photo- the green egg on the left came from one of the Ameraucanas in the big pen. Wyatt is saving it for his Papa, who says the double yolkers come from brown eggs. (Wyatt has read the info, he is trying to prove it to his Papa that it can happen to any hen, more likely as they age.)

Tuesday was my last day at the Marana Farmers Market. The market, until now run by the food bank, will move to a farm stand down the road, for a weekly farmers coop outside of the farms store.  While I plan to call them soon, I really don't know anything about it as of yet.

I took a moment leaving the market and heading off to teach to enjoy and take a few photos of the sunset. What a beautiful evening! 

I love the glow behind the telephone poles here.

My friend Mai traded me some of these baskets that she and some of the other girls are using for sprouting. For some reason, after being sick, and scrubbing and restarting my sprouting things, something in the equation had changed and they were not sprouting except very sparsely, so it was time for a change!

The baskets are a little big in weave on the bottom, so some folks use paper towels on the bottom, which can stick to the base of the seed bed, but Charlene has been using plastic needlepoint canvas successfully as a liner, so as long as I was redesigning, I thought I would try to do it right. 

After cleaning the baskets, I pulled out some of the extra large needlepoint canvas and began trimming to fit the bottom of the basket. The sides still have holes too, so some are using this system and putting the seeds closer to the center, or recognizing that they will have to water the trays and recover some of the seeds until the seed bed begins to root.

I trimmed two sheets down until they would fit in the baskets.

I traced the second onto a third canvas for the next round of seeds, but didn't cut it yet in case I decide I need to change it a little over the first couple days of watering.

This is how it looked before I added the barley.

The seeds in the basket/ tray.

The bottom tray all covered up.

The first two trays stacked. I will add to the bottom of the stack as I go and add to the trays in the system.

These were the old ones, they have been empties into the compost and are going to be switched to plant start duty I believe...

Wyatt has been sick, and Shadow Paws is a little stir crazy as well as really protective of her favorite human.  Wyatt is in the process of redesigning his room and bed, and had a box of tissues next to his bed with a box for garbage. 

While Wyatt was in the shower, Shadow decided to remove as many tissues as she could from the box. Gotta love our four footed friends!

Oh, I almost forgot- Mai also brought me a bamboo plant. While we are working on a big project, I cannot seem to decide where it will go, so it is being watered by the back porch so I don't forget about it =).

Last night we were out working on this special project again. Got a bit to go on it, and we need to get it primed and hopefully painted before rain comes in. So, how do you get the rain to finally come to the desert? Start an outdoor wood project at our house, and/ or plan an outdoor activity for the home school teens!

The geese felt the need to supervise our work and occasionally bicker in the middle of it.

We got hte wooden panel standing up, and were affixing it to the fence frames here.  The sunset through the doors was rather funny!

We got it attached on one side, still working on the other this morning, hopefully a little roofing done, too, we shall see!

There is always something to keep us on our toes and working around here, but we learn while we work and have fun together! Here's to hoping we get more done today, and knowing htat life will take us where it will. Have a wonderful Thursday!

Love to all.