The Lord has graciously granted some more hatchings this 2026, a single from a mama in the barn loft with one added later, a 10-pack in the mini-chicken tractor, and our first batch of turkey chicks that have been able to stay alive, very possibly because we put the mommy in with them.
I was walking along one of our roads, and saw that turkey hen sitting down just kind of in the middle of an area….it didn’t look right, but when I started toward her, she got up and had 4 little ones in tow! I shuttled some animals around in the summer kitchen, got Sue, and we gathered them up, chased mommy into the barn, got her, and then put them into the summer kitchen. Sue thought she had heard another out there, so she went back, and then I joined her, and sure enough, number 5 was out there, and God graciously granted we find it and get it, and it’s in there with mommy now too! Yea!
We have had some previous turkey chicks hatch out, but they haven’t made it, some sadly because I put them in with the chicken mommy and her young from last time, 🙁 and maybe some because they didn’t have a turkey mommy or even a chicken one with them. 🙁
Another time one was hatched out, and we put it alone (we had nowhere else to put it), but we felt badly for it, so Sue picked up a 4-pack of chicken chicks from Tractor Supply, with also the idea of bringing in some outside blood. Sadly though, that turklet didn’t make it, and one of the 4 also died. But the 3 new “adoptees” are still going.
And here’s the video of all 4 groups:
Again, we are grateful to the Lord for His gracious continued provisions!
With the drought times we’ve had here in recent years, the orchard trees have taken a pretty big hit. And I believe it’s not really feasible to keep them in water, which I have to do by hauling water container by wheelbarrow, especially larger trees, trying to get water down to their roots.
I lament a little in the blog post on the recent song I wrote, which included some special verses my wonderful wife sent me to encourage and exhort me with, which again were:
Habakkuk 3:17-19:
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Not only did she encourage me spiritually though, she also has tried physically, in sending me something she found online about an underground gravel watering system for each tree, with pipe down to it to get the water down there, where water is always available directly to the roots:
Nice! So, I thought I’d try it with the planting of some new fruit trees…
Here’s where a tree was previously planted, which I was going to replace, since the rebar pieces that allow me to tie the tree in place were already there, along with the chicken wire to keep chickens out:
First, the “fun” part…getting the dirt out of the hole 🙂 . The image said 3+ feet, but I just wasn’t going to do that for these fruit trees, so I went probably 2 1/4-ish feet down:
Then, 2 bags of 0.5 cubit feet drainage gravel:
Then 3-inch PVC pipe, filled with gravel:
And then another bag of gravel in the hole to cover the bottom of the pipe so it hopefully doesn’t get clogged with dirt at its bottom:
Then, some dirt in the hole to the proper tree placement (always easier dirt going that direction vs. coming out of the hole 🙂 ), the tree in place, more dirt back into the hole around the tree:
Then, off to the compost pile in our garden….
…for a 5-gallon bucket of compost:
And then into the hole around the tree:
And then some hay from the hay field for a mulch-type covering to try to help keep moisture in:
Then the chicken wire around:
And finally, tying the tree to the 3 rebar posts to try to keep it from moving around in winds:
And here it is:
I’m still planning on watering on top while the roots get established, but I’m hoping long term the underground gravel watering system keeps them going.
We thank the Lord for the idea and provisions to put this together and for the trees, and we hope they’ll be fruitful, as we always pray God brings forth fruit from our lives:
John 15:4-8:
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
We have continued to pare down the number of animals, and the video below is just before we started getting the last round of young ones to their new homes.
Sadly, over the past year since the update, we lost the last two of our remaining original Longhorns that we all started with way back in 2006. 🙁 Both were 20+ years old.
This is Rosa, who was ours from the beginning, along with her last calf, Rosalita from 2021, who is now the red cow in the video:
And this is Holga, who became ours over time, with her calf Natilla, from 2015, who is the cream-colored cow in the video:
We are thankful to God for all of the offspring He granted from them over the years!
And now, here’s the update video:
Again, we are grateful to the Lord for His providences in the Longhorn cattle!
The Lord granted 3 more turkey chicks to be hatched out this 2025, I believe from different hens, but we had no room for a turkey mommy in the summer kitchen. And then, we were hoping a chicken mommy would hatch some out, and that we could blend the turklets in with her, hoping she wouldn’t notice.
But until then, we had a little scissor-beak chicken in a cage in there, so that little one ended up being surrogate mommy/cousin to the turklets. Sadly, one didn’t make it, but “Beaky” (as I called it) ended up turklet-sitting for a while.
But then, a chicken hen did hatch out some, so we moved her and her 3 chicks and her eggs into the summer kitchen. And then I tried putting the turklets in with her, and it looked great at first, but then I saw her pecking at one, so it was back to Beaky.
Time continued, and she hatched out 6 more, although sadly again, one of them didn’t make it.
So today, we still have the 2 turklets and 8 chicken chicks running around in there!
On a sad note, Beaky also didn’t make it. 🙁 Not sure what happened.
But now, here’s the video of it all over time:
On a final note: Some might have culled Beaky immediately because of its beak, and I understand that because it would always need a special situation to survive and probably wouldn’t normally be considered “productive.” Still, to me there’s always hope. 🙂 And sometimes things do end up not like they are perceived at first, and Beaky, despite it all, ended up serving a valuable purpose in its short little time alive. And we are thankful for God using it to contribute to our little homestead. (Gives me hope for myself, maybe someday…)
Thank you Beaky!
As always, we thank God for His continued provisions!
There was a chicken mommy in the barn sitting and sitting and sitting, and never hatched out anything. 🙁
But, other hens did, and so to reward the first mommy for her efforts, we put her in the summer kitchen with all the new chicks that followed, which did occur over time. 🙂
And that included another turkey chick too! We didn’t have any place to put it with its mom, so we put it in with the chicken hen.
And first hen raised them, and did a fine job!
Here’s their video, a little later in the process, where, since the young were all different sizes, we eventually moved the larger ones into the main turkey run to give them more room (apologies for the blurriness of the first part — can’t really go and re-do it now 🙂 ):
We are grateful again to the Lord for His continued provisions this 2025!
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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