So much time has raced by since I last blogged that I hardly know where to start. We've been busy, busy, busy around Pecan Bluff ~ everyone is healthy, praise the Lord, and we have lots of fun projects keeping us hard at work and out of mischief. My camera died a few months ago and I have yet to replace it, so I'm limping along on phone pictures and an old camera. It will take me a few days, but I'll get you all caught up. I will start with the main thing that's been keeping us hopping.
Right after Christmas the four kids started a new business ~ Pecan Bluff Farm Fresh Eggs. They assigned roles in the company, analyzed the market, created their own business plan, developed a Powerpoint presentation, applied for a loan, drew up building plans, and bought 100 baby chicks.
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| S was in love with the baby chicks, but only wanted to touch them with one finger. |
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| It was a cold day in December when we brought them home from the post office in a big cardboard box. |
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| The plastic swimming pool worked great as a brooder for the first few days, then we expanded their quarters into the larger water trough with heat lamps and tarps to keep the temperature balmy for the babies. |
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| Boy, was there a lot of daily cleaning to do at this stage! Chicks are so messy. |
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| It wasn't long before they were ready for some supervised exploring in the grass. |
After the chicks graduated from the warm brooder, we spent the next few months managing them in some very awkward and unsightly temporary housing while working like crazy to get the real hen house completed.
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| HA and HW with the first stack of lumber. |
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| Forms laid out ready for concrete. |
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| The young ladies supervising one cold day. |
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| All the kids' handprints went in the wet cement. |
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| HW and HA were ready to run errands, bring tools, paint, and whatever else Dad needed. |
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| R thought these were the longest walls ever. The painting took days and days, with most of us pitching in. |
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One day when the big kids needed peace and quiet
so they could work on business plans and strategize,
S got to go to Dairy Queen with Mom and Dad! |
Through the weeks our devoted young business owners experienced some painful losses due to several problems that are common with baby chicks ~ cannibalism (yuck), general stomping of each other (yuck again), and a wily bobcat that enjoyed climbing fences to eat chicks for lunch (of all the nerve!) To add insult to injury, six of the "hens" they had been nurturing and feeding for months started crowing. Loudly. There certainly wouldn't be any eggs coming from those roosters, so Mike taught the kids a lesson in butchering, and I got to add some fresh chicken to my freezer stash.
After months of hard work (Mike and R and HA and HW spent many days from daylight to dark working!), loads of help from family members, and wonderful expertise from Uncle Brent and Cousin Travis, the coop was finally finished. It is truly awesome, complete with plenty of roost space, roll out nest boxes, and a feed room that is so airy and pleasant that it makes me want to bring a lawn chair in and just sit in there. I love it. The hens like their new digs, too.
Remember that bobcat I mentioned? Well, throughout the spring as our beautiful hens free-ranged in their pasture, we had many more bobcat visits that whittled the poultry numbers down even further. We set out to stop that cat, but had so many failed attempts we felt a little like Wile E. Coyote at times. There was great celebration when we finally nabbed that chicken thief, but we know that there are more hungry predators where she came from. To level the playing field, we brought home two Great Pyrenees puppies to begin training as our livestock guardian dogs. The Pyrenees puppies are working dogs here on the farm, protecting their charges day and night from any and all threats. Gabby and Angel are smart pups, already have good instincts, and are absolutely beautiful. With some elaborate fencing Mike created a great place for them to learn how to guard their hens, and they are learning quickly. While they are pups they need to be monitored and corrected if they try to play with the hens. But once they are about 18 months old we'll be able to trust the dogs completely as guardians, and we won't have predators snatching hens from right under our noses any more. Yippee!
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| Grandpa loving on the pups. |
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| Aunt Marla getting some puppy snuggles. |
To add to our zoo, we got back into the goat business with three eating machines. They are hard at work cleaning up the brush that has grown up in the orchard where the hens free-range. Although they are high maintenance right now, once we get all the fruit trees fenced off we can let them have the run of the orchard and really keep things neat and tidy there. Everything grows well around here, including weeds and briars and poison ivy. The goats eat it all like it's candy, and it is so fun to watch them mow it down. I'm so thankful God thought of everything we would need when he created our earth, even building a sturdy animal that can live off of things that seem inedible.
When we helped the children begin this business venture we hoped to build family unity, help them develop lots of skills, strengthen their work ethic, and have fun together. It's been an amazing learning experience, and we've seen lots of growth in each child. Even Mike and I are learning to work harder with less complaining as well! This week our young entrepreneurs
finally reaped the first fruits of their labors with their first bulk egg sales. It was so fun to see them hold some hard-earned cash in their hands ~ after so many months of patient work and investment. We are proud they made it this far, and we can't wait to see where this experience takes them.
