Category: food (Page 20 of 35)

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Second Batch of 2014 Chicks

May 30, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

As I mentioned in our blog post about the first chicks that the Lord granted us in 2014 ¹, we had another hen go broody, an Australorp, which we showed in our mini chicken tractor, and by God graciousness, He granted that she hatch out a bunch o’ chicks! Out of 13 eggs, 11 hatched out, and all 11 are still rolling along just great, it appears!

Here are a few pictures:

More of the Second Hatching of Chicks in 2014

And their video:

As always, we are so very grateful to the Lord for His granting of these provisions. We’ve had to butcher some more roosters recently to get the rooster-hen ratio better, and it is humbling and joyful to be eating the food the Lord has directly provided! We are very thankful.

— David

¹ P.S. You’ll have to forgive me, as in the previous post I said one of our Australorps was the mother of those first hatchlings, and that wasn’t correct — I’ve corrected it since.

Garden – Spring 2014

May 22, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

At least for me, it’s always nice to start coming out of Winter into Spring time, with the warmth and the anticipation of planting the gardens! Since the last time we planted a garden, given we took last year off for our land sabbath, we had done some expansions, mostly based on the idea of mulch-bed/forest gardening, in our original garden area, and then adding a new garden area, and my first attempt at an hugelkultur bed.

Also, last July, I added a layer of manure we got from the local cattle sale barn:

Given the very often dry and hot conditions, I have concluded that our mulch beds are going to need to work for gardening out here to work — watering in raised beds without a really good layer of mulch is just going to take too much water. And so, prayerfully, we started to plant in the mulch-bed gardens.

As for what to plant, I decided to stick with what has worked around here in the past: zucchini/squash, beans and tomatoes, and hopefully okra later when it gets warmer. I also learned you need to plant deeper, making sure to get to where there is soil, or the seeds won’t really germinate (no…really?? 🙂 ). Our garden 1 is also in the shade, so I thought that might help with some of the more sensitive plants, especially the tomatoes. I also decided to move some of the goat-area compost I had put in garden 2 for the Winter turnips over to garden 1 to try to make sure there was some decent soil available.

I wasn’t sure how this was going to work, but we were very thankful when little sprouts started to show up! I did plant some broccoli, but nothing germinated with them at all. These are about a month ago:

The zucchini (I thought I had bought squash seeds, but didn’t realize I hadn’t until I went to plant — so it’s all zucchini this year). The PVC pipes are just markers as to where I planted:

Just to see what would happen, given the hopes of much more moisture in the mulch-beds, I thought I’d throw a little corn in the ground to see what happened; and it started to come up:

And here are the tomatoes in the hugelkultur bed:

And the green beans in garden 2:

And then just a few days ago…

The zucchini. I had planted just a few in some dried chicken manure to see what would happen, but none of that came up:

From this morning…beautiful, in a couple of different ways:

Corn:

Tomatoes — these aren’t doing too well, as I don’t think what I planted in was good enough soil — I think it’s still composting, and that I’ve found in the past doesn’t work either:

The Bunkers graciously gave us some tomato plants, and I thought I’d put a couple in the manured area; and these actually seem to be starting to do well:

And the beans:

One nice thing about the mulch/forest-bed gardens is that I haven’t had to water nearly as often so far as I would have in our normal beds, which has helped, given the low rainfall from this Spring time.

We are very thankful to the Lord for granting us the forest/mulch-bed gardening idea, and for Him allowing it to apparently work! We’re thankful for the water He has granted, and we pray for His continued provisions, both spiritual and temporal, in accordance with His will.

— David

Wheat 2014

May 6, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 5 Comments

After our land Sabbath last year, in Autumn, we decided to plant wheat again, using the wheat we harvested back in 2012, which has also been used to supplement the chicken scratch.

Here is one of the sacks of wheat:

And then in the grain drill:

Here’s the prepared field:

And then me out there planting the wheat seed:

Planting Wheat Using the Tractor and Grain Drill

We did it shortly after a good rain, so it sprouted pretty quickly; and here it is growing well about 10 days after planting:

The Winter weather had some pretty good cold snaps this year, and not a lot of moisture, and we weren’t sure anything was even going to grow. I also didn’t do a very good job of making the ground even when I plowed it, so there are quite a few bare spots. Here it is near the end of March,:

But here it is again almost a week ago, and thankfully there is some wheat growing:

Also back in 2012, I planted turnips next to the wheat using the grain drill, and those actually worked out fairly well. With our mulch garden beds though, I thought I’d try planting turnips in there. Here are the rows ready for planting, dug out using a rake:

Mulch Garden Bed Rows Ready for Turnip Seed

I had noticed that, the hay, pee and poop from the goat sheds, and the area around them, after time, rain and being trampled, turned into what looked like really nice compost, so I thought I would add that to the mulch-bed rows. Here it is:

And then in the rows:

Goat Area Compost Placed in Mulch Garden Bed Rows

I planted the turnip seeds in the rows, and thought I’d try just scattering some on the non-row area left in the mulch-bed garden, but it appeared that with the cold snaps, the turnips, even though some germinated, just couldn’t get going. I have a feeling I waited too late in the year to get them planted. And so, the rows basically looked like that after Winter. Bummer.

Still, we’re thankful to the Lord for granting the wheat He appears to be granting, and we look forward to perhaps being able to harvest it in due time, according to His will.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: First Chicks of 2014

April 27, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

A couple to a few months ago, one of our hens went broody, we put some eggs under her, and the Lord graciously granted our first chicks of 2014! I’ve been lagging in getting this blog post done and out, as you can see, since they are about half way to being full grown. But, we wanted to acknowledge and thank God in His provisions of granting additions to the flock!

The broody hen hatched out three, and the three have made it very well, and here they are, with their mama. It looks like they are all hens too, and all Australorps as well, which is a nice bonus gift, since the Australorps are also great brooders:

And here is a little video of them:

Also, we’ve had another couple of hens go broody just a few days ago. Here’s one in the mini chicken tractor:

And the other in the piano room, although she started in a garbage can in the barn 🙂 :

As always, we are so very thankful to the Lord for granting any chicks and continuance of food provisions; and we are grateful for Him showing His graces and mercies in these ways.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Manolito”

March 31, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

I believe it was the same day Adelina and new heifer calf Graciana walked up to us during feeding time that our cow, Rosa, showed up with her new little bull calf! When they walked up, it was still quite wet; and so we figured it couldn’t have been more than a few hours old.

A cold front was just coming in too at the time. After dropping some range cubes, I was walking around trying to get a good look at Rosa’s calf, and it started to wander off, slowly, toward the pond. I thought, please don’t keep going or you’re going to…..and yes, fall in. I ran up, in case it was in trouble, but it bounced out with no problem, although now its whole front end was really soaked. And with a cold front coming in.

But the Lord graciously brought the little guy through, and here he is! We decided to call him Manolito, because he’s got so much of the grullo color his sire, Manolete, has. Manolito also means “God is with us” in Spanish:

And here’s his video with Rosa (which was taken about the same time as the video of Graciana as well, I believe):

We are again grateful to God for the provision of this new bull calf, Him bringing him through the cold front, the Longhorns’ continued health, and the fields the Lord has granted us to be able to graze them on.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Graciana”

March 13, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

The third calf we discovered in this year’s round of breeding was one from a heifer we’ve had for several years but hadn’t given birth before. But now, that heifer is a cow, as she did indeed give birth to her own little heifer, which we’re going to call Graciana, which means “pleasing, agreeable” in Spanish.

And here she is with her mama, Adelina!

And a little video of the two of them:

Again, we are very grateful to the Lord for granting this new little provision, and for granting an especially safe first delivery, a delivery at all, and good motherly instincts to Adelina.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Domingo”

February 21, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

With the new Longhorn calves starting to be born now, the next one I saw was a little brown one walking up with our cow, Holga. After further examination, we discovered he was a bull calf as well; and so, please allow us to introduce you to our next pure Longhorn bull calf, Domingo, which means “belongs to the Lord” in Spanish.

Here he is, with his dam, Holga. You might recognize him from Donato’s video in the last blog post:

And here’s his video:

Again, we are very grateful to the Lord for granting the safe delivery for both mama-cow and calf, and us this new little provision!

— David

Category: food (Page 20 of 35)

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Second Batch of 2014 Chicks

Garden – Spring 2014

Wheat 2014

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: First Chicks of 2014

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Manolito”

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Graciana”

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Domingo”

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