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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

A House – Update XXV – External Siding – Update I

May 13, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

Well, after putting on the siding for the upper west side of the house, I decided to try to knock out the upper north side, given it was during Winter, which is from where most of the rains come, and that the water running off the main roof has a tendency to bounce back toward the house — something I hadn’t considered in the design. I guess the worst part is having to close the north and south upper windows if it rains, which is only a minor inconvenience.

First was the tar paper, which Sue and I are able to do:

And then the window trim. Once again, we’re using cedar fence slats for the siding, for aesthetics and durability:

And then the main courses for the siding. After climbing the ladder himself, here is foreman William, our cat, making sure I do a good job on things:

William Our Cat Supervising Putting on the Siding

And here is some of the siding complete:

Here’s supervisor William up on the roof again with me. He had tried to jump up to the main roof, but didn’t quite make it; so I set him up there, and he went and took a look around:

William Our Cat Supervising from the Upper Roof

And here is the upper north siding complete!

House Upper North Side Cedar Fence Slat Siding Complete

Another View of the Completed Siding of Upper North Side

So that’s two upper sides done now, both of which I’m starting to paint with wood preserver.

We are once again very grateful to the Lord for granting the provisions to continue on the house, and safety while we are up there.

— 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

Passover 2014

April 18, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

This past Tuesday, we celebrated the Passover as a group. Each year we observe this, mostly as a teaching tool for the children, although we pray for spiritual blessings and benefits from it as well, in greater worship of the Lord Christ.

Here are the tables prepared for the evening:

And we began the Passover seder. We use the Passover section from the book, “A Family Guide to Biblical Holidays“:

Part of the seder involves singing of Psalms 113-118, called “The Hallel”:

Here is the seder plate. The lamb represents Christ, the Lamb of God; the bitter herbs (horseradish here) represent the bitterness of bondage; the “matzah” is unleavened, representing how quickly the Israelites had to leave Egypt; the “karpas” (celery here) symbolizes the new life for the Jewish people and the hyssop used to sprinkle the blood on the door posts, and is dipped into salt water representing the tears of slavery; and the “haroset,” a mixture of apples, nuts, grape juice and cinnamon, represents the mortar the Israelites used to build the Egyptian cities, and the sweetness of a better world:

The seder continues:

And then we partake of the Passover meal, the meat even from one of the community members’ sheep they graciously offered for the seder:

With drinks and dessert, the wine and grape juice being for the various cups to be drunk or not during the seder:

And meal time. It was all very yummy!

And a final Psalm sung:

It was a very nice time of fellowshipping together in remembrance of God’s mighty works! We are thankful for the time, pray the Lord glorified Himself through the time, and we pray for His continued light and heat in our lives, and may we be a light to the world for His glory.

— David

Hogs, Hogs on the Range – Update I

April 9, 2014 / David & Susan Sifford / 10 Comments

I had originally made an extended area from the pig pen for our pigs to be able to roam more using a solar powered electric fence system. This worked well for a couple of years, but then started to not work, and the pigs would just go under the wire. I even tried stringing a ground wire between the two hot wires, but that didn’t work either. I have a feeling the ground became too dry to conduct well, but I’m not sure what the root cause really was. And so, between that and having to eventually and continually replace the battery on the solar charger, I figured I need to try to do something differently.

I went through several ideas in my head, like rock walls, or goat fencing, but time and costs are issues. Eventually, given we had a whole bunch of cinder blocks left over from the original plan for our root cellar/storm shelter, which didn’t work out, and discovering that 16-foot, 50-inch high cattle panels are only $20 a piece, I thought I could end up with about 30 feet of fairly solid fence line for not too much expense. Plus, I figured that if it didn’t work, we wouldn’t be out too much. And, I could build them in sections, so that I could slowly extend the pig free-range area as I had time and resources to build fence sections.

And here’s how it went…

I cut the cattle panel longways down the middle, and then into about half sections but where no panel horizontals were sticking out:

And then I set up the cinder blocks and set the cattle panel piece in place, leaving one section open, which will be an overlap section where I can wire two sections together, although one of the sections would need to not have overhang so it could butt up against the pig pen fencing:

Pig fence piece in place on cinder blocks

It just sort of worked about fairly nicely, except on the last cinder block, I needed one with a groove for the cinder blocks to position evenly:

Cattle panel placed in cinder block groove

Then I set the 3-foot t-posts in place and wire them to the panel. I really was hoping that I didn’t mess this part up because Foreman William was there inspecting!

And then it was time to pour in the concrete. I mixed in dirt so I’d use less, although I think I mixed in too much because the concrete above the top of the cinder blocks ended up a little crumbly. Being they were in the sun and it was quite warm that first afternoon, I needed to keep the concrete moist and had to hand-tamp any cracks:

Pig fence piece concreted in cinder blocks

Also, if I had left over concrete after a fence section was poured, I made small concrete piles that would fit in the hole of a cinder block that I could use for the next fence section:

Small concrete piles for next pig fence section

And here are the four sections complete:

I built them over by the barn so I was nearer equipment, but that meant I needed to get them over to the pig pen. And then I thought that I could place a board across our goat shed caddy and drag that using the truck. And here are the fence sections loaded. I loaded them by setting a board in place in the back, pulling the fence section over the back of the caddy and onto the board, and then sliding the board forward so I could repeat the process for the other sections:

And it worked! Here they are, delivered:

One of the things I wanted with the design was to be able to move the sections myself. Given the difficulty of getting them on the shed caddy, I wasn’t sure, but by tipping them over and pulling one side at a time, I was able to slide them into place. Here is the back side:

And in front. I’m still not sure if I’m just going to join the sections in front there or put up some kind of gate. Either way, if we need to back up an animal trailer to that front gate of the pig pen, I figure I can just un-wire the fence sections, and move the sections apart to leave enough room:

2 cattle panel pig fence sections in place

I plan to make at least another set of four sections, although I might need a couple more sections to be able to make a nice enclosed area; and then we should be able to give it a real test by having a small, but not too small, area completely enclosed. I think it’s going to work — hopefully by God’s graces it will, and we look forward to seeing the pigs being able to start to roam a little more, Lord willing!

— David

The Sifford Sojournal

Page 55 of 93

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Second Batch of 2014 Chicks

Garden – Spring 2014

A House – Update XXV – External Siding – Update I

Wheat 2014

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: First Chicks of 2014

Passover 2014

Hogs, Hogs on the Range – Update I

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