Welcome to our first Friday Harvest! So just what is Friday's Harvest, anyways? Reflections on the seven days that passed and farm-worthy info we harvested throughout the week, including lessons learned along the way.
So what were we up to this week? Well, we started the week off with a snow & ice storm over the weekend, and are finishing up with a 56 degree day today. We bid a final farewell to the maple syrup season (did you see how many gallons of sap we collected?) and celebrated the last batch by making maple butter. I learned a lot this year, and already looking forward to next season, and taking notes on how to make next season more successful. Thanks to all who purchased our syrup, we sold out in just a few hours!
We have 9 chicks and 48 eggs in the incubator that are expected to hatch in just a few days. (And two ducklings whose eggs we threw in just for fun!) This is all part of our grand, sustainable plan to breed and harvest our own chickens for eggs and meat on a regular basis. Our goal is to provide our family with 100% of the chicken we consume. And I'm grateful for how things are working out, because a family member scored us almost 100 pallets last week, including several wooden storage boxes that will make the perfect brooder boxes. So, my plans to park in the garage one day just got bumped, and we will be turning part of it into our incubating and brooding operation.
In preparation for the massive amounts of chickens that we will soon be feeding, I made this new chicken feeder that holds 40 pounds of feed, but can easily hold more if you add more pipes to it. If you are looking for ideas on how to build your own feeders for your chickens, make sure to check out the video. It contains three easy DIY feeders for flocks of all sizes.
This past week, I was busy with prepping the greenhouse for the seedlings we started indoors, (due to all that awesome, freezing cold Michigan weather). I added cardboard and mulch to the greenhouse floor, and jumped the gun a bit last night and moved some tomatoes out too soon. Temps got down to about 25 degrees last night. So, I'll be adding a heater to the greenhouse until the nights warm up a bit. I've got a little wood burner I really need to get installed in the greenhouse, but, never enough time......or wood!
'Til next time, have a good one!
"Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field." Matthew 9:37-38