Oh yeah!  This is the middle of May!  MAY!  June, July, and August all have hotter temperatures in store!  They are all out to kick our butts!  Yet, you can see the current temperatures at the top for locations I have family in.  Mind you, this was taken at 9AM!

As the weather has been getting warmer here, there is less that anyone wants to do outside.  Ever since the horses and some of the chickens were taken up to Idaho at Spring Break we have had only the goats and the chickens and four kittens to look after outside.  It’s made it easy enough for one of the boys to do of a morning and after school. 

Meanwhile, up in Idaho, Grandma is getting the garden ready by fencing it off from the chickens, and planting some seeds.  I don’t think anybody is expecting a big harvest this year, but that’s okay!  We will have Bountiful Baskets to help out to start with, and then next year we will hopefully be planting more food than we can shake a stick at. 

First goals upon arrival is to pen the goats in someplace safe, and provide them with a shelter.  The chickens have a temporary place to live, and they should be fine there for as long as need be.  The horses are already there, and at the moment they are in a field full of cows that a man raises on lease terms.  The lease terms provide a cow for the family.  So, a second and third goal will likely be to stock up some food for the animals in winter, and get some milking animals; either a cow, or a goat, or both.

I can’t tell you enough how excited I am to get the move done!  Whenever we have sent chickens up to Idaho, they have been able to feed mostly off grass and bugs, which keeps feed prices to a minimum, and they look so healthy!  Of course, that could be because of the small numbers there at a time, and not fighting.  But that may also be because they are free ranging very naturally too.  That question will get an answer before the end of summer! 

The moving truck is booked for the day before our boys fly back to England on their summer holiday, and Missus and I will have their help to load it, then we will drop them off at the airport and drive right up to Idaho.  In the mean time, we have lots of packing and preparing to do to be sure that everything that is going will fit into a moving truck!  That’s both what we have been up to, and what we will be up to over the next few weeks!  I am looking forward to really launching this site after we get moved!  I think that Idaho will really provide the opportunity to do what I have intended for this site! 

This week’s forecast is as follows!

Those 98’s in the first week translated to just over 100 on our patio thermometer, which despite its age, seems to be quite accurate!  Once 100 is surpassed, we have to kick on the Air Conditioner, which is both a friend and an enemy.  The inside of the house gets uncomfortable at that point, and is usually about 90 or so with no place to escape the heat but a cold shower. 

Acclimation is important here since the better acclimated we are, the warmer we can keep the house, and the lower we can keep our power bills.  When the body warms up though, there comes a point when a person just does not feel like doing anything anymore!  We have started getting up earlier in the day so we can do work in the cool morning hours, and rest in the afternoon.  Then it is all followed by a late night.  Quality of life should not be sacrificed, and of course, neither should life itself!  For us, that means not trying to push our acclimation too far. 

By the end of a day over 100, when the temperature cools below body temperature again (98.6F), it feels cool enough to sit out on the front porch and take it the coolness and enjoy it. 

Of course, none of this is professional medical advice in any way, and you have to do what feels best for you, and always what is safest for you and your family.  I always watch the others to see how they are doing, and be sure they are feeling well and behaving normally.  If not, then it is past time to reconsider the value in trying to save energy and lower my monthly cooling bills. 

How ever you stay cool, enjoy your summer and stay safe! 

The barn and the garden spot always looked innocuous, but when you have to clean the barn out, it is a toxic hazard!  I did not take a before picture because I knew it would be too bad a memory!  Suffice it to say, we took two loads to the dump, and one to the scrap metals yard! 

It should give you an idea of how messy it was when you realize these two photos were taken AFTER the clean up!  Of course, anyone with a barn or shed would realize this already!  Me thinks there is a lot more work to do in this out building, especially if we are going to have animals such as cows or sheep or milking goats! 

Here’s a view of the house with me, my mom and grandmother, and my daughter posing for a four generation photo. 

The horses love the pasture!  It is a far cry better place for them than hot sandy desert in Nevada!  They have so much food they can roll around in it or poop in it without care!  Maybe the view of the trailers that are being disassembled just down the street is not so pleasant, but because of the big tree in front of the house, we don’t really notice it from there. 

More pictures will come when we finally settle in, but this should give an idea of why we want out of the sand and onto a place with grass and water and everything we need to raise animals and turn grass and dirt into food for our family. 

Today also saw me sort out some personal financial business, and balance the bank books.  Oh, and I took out all the rubbish from all of the bins around the house. 

Okay, this has been one of the least sedate days I have had since last summer, and it felt good to get busy and to have lots to do.  With the whole family planning to move up to Idaho though, and this house to prepare for renting, we have finally got lots to do!  This is better suited to those who have a life out here in the desert, and wish to keep it.  As for us, we are better off in Idaho!  The moving process should occur for the most part over the next few months, and the main move happen, if all goes to plan, at the start of summer, before the kids head off to England, I think!  More to follow on this topic for sure! 

Today we were out to the hardware store and Mrs. Bacon bought herself a pair of white mice.  She thought they were great from the moment she saw them.  They are both white feeder mice.  As fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, they are a bit of an inside joke to us. 

We are getting things together for the trip up to Idaho in a few weeks.  We got some tires sorted out on the truck today so that we would have a spare in the normal place, and a dismounted tire to take along with, so that if the spare comes into play, we can have the extra mounted on and have a new spare at the ready after finding someone with a tire shop.  I don’t want to find a tire shop that conveniently has no used tires.  The only thing left to sort out is an oil change, and some lights on the trailer.  The horses up will be the first part of the move to Idaho for us, where we will be better situated for growing our own food and canning it. 

Last night I stepped in the pheasant cage for a bit to visit with the one remaining male we had.  He was a part of four that we started out with, but they all got out when our youngest boy casually fed them one day and left the cage door open.  He said his mind was not on what he was doing.  “You’re kidding.”  We caught the male and one of the females soon after, and returned them to the cage, none of the others to be seen again after.  I would guess that a single male locked in a cage with a single female is too much for the poor female, and he soon killed her.  He has too much male hormone, and it was obvious by that, and by how determined he seemed to be to try to escape after. 

He marched back and forth at the netting on the cage last night the whole time I was in with him, and when I asked myself if I should give him away, sell him at a garage sale, or let him go, I think he made his answer clear.  If I sold him, he could end up dead or in another cage.  In nature he has as much a fighting chance as any other animal, and he seemed to really want that, so I opened the door and chased him out!  He flew to the other side of the yard and began marching back and forth inside the fence just as he had done in the cage.  I let him to it, and he was spotted as late as this morning in the yard. 

Maybe we will see him around again, and maybe he will find his way away.

Today we took a drive up north on the same highway I have been considering for a route to Idaho with the horses at the last of the month.  It seems like it might be a nice alternative to the freeway because I can keep the speed down, and because it would give us a chance to rest the horses roadside and to maybe make a nice camping trip of it if we decide to make a two day trip out of it.  There are pro’s and con’s to I-15 and to the Great Basin Highway!  There are a lot of things to consider!  I think I would really love to take the back route and see  America the proper way!  I also have to give consideration to the state the tires are in on the truck! 

The only part I did not use scrap for was the door, since I really don’t want to be replacing the door very soon. 

Inside I have our newest feeder that I bought through Amazon.com which is designed to hold some 30 pounds of feed for the hens!  This feeder really helps with the other sky bound predators that taunt our chickens, which are the local doves! 

As you can see in this picture, the new feeder is pretty large.  It is also inside the netting of the coop, which prevents the doves from getting to it, making our feed supplies last a great deal  longer than they were when the feed was outside!  Given a 50 pound bag of feed costs $20 at out local feed supply store, this is proving a tremendous saving for us!  The feed had one problem that I was worried about though, which is to do with the metering adjustment pictured below.

The wire bit just pushed through the hole at the desired level, and nothing was there to stop it popping back out.  Given the kids we have bringing large feed bags out to feed the chickens, I was not about to leave that design as is, and have the bottom literally fall out on 30#’s of food and let it fall to the floor.  So I put it in, and got a pair of pliers and put some welly behind it until the hook was bent enough that it was difficult to push through the hole, making it impossible to accidentally get knocked loose.  With some effort I can still adjust the metering, however I just don’t see the need to! 

The old watering fount has been put into the shed as well, and elevated out of the hay so the water doesn’t get easily contaminated with so much hay that it is impossible for the birds to get to it! 

The coop is built in an area in the yard between the old horse washing station, and the old swimming pool that the goats now inhabit.  This provides the coop with easy access to water for the fount, and electricity for the lighting. 

The lamp hanging from the ceiling provides enough light to keep the chickens active for the advised 17 hours a day right through winter, although we have to work it manually until there is enough money to get a timer with a photosensitive eye built into it. 

When it comes to the latches on the door, I think two on the outside will prevent any unwanted intrusions by a fortunate animal who accidentally happens to get one undone.  Only one latch is inside since one of us will be in the coop any time that latch is being used.  They are cheap, easy to maintain, and look the part on such a homemade coop. 

The diagonal piece is to hold the hanging side of the door level with the hinged side, especially as the door ages.  Yes, there should be two of them on this door, however I have been building on a tight budget, and as of yet I do not have more than handsaws (no power saws at all!) to do my cutting with.  Hand saws are just not as accurate in my hand as a good miter saw could be, so I will save the construction on that second diagonal until I have the ability to really cut it accurately!  The door won’t hold a bull in, but then, it doesn’t have to.  If you think about it, it won’t even have to hold the wind in as it is covered in chicken wire so we can see who we are going to run into when we open it.  I have again opted for the step in door as it makes it that much more difficult for the chickens to escape while the door is open for one of us to pass through.

The Old Coop

The older coop is now serving as a home for a couple of Pheasants, and our flock of Rhode Island Reds.  We are hoping to get some breeding done in there before the hens get put back in with the other hens.  So far, all of the chicks we have hatched have been Production Reds that were brooded on by one of our white Ameraucana hens. 

We did try to put some Production Reds into the new coop with the main flock the other day, and I do not recommend doing this!  I think that in order to successfully accomplish integration, we need to put a cage for them close to the netting on the chicken coop so the birds can all see each other for a couple of days or even weeks first, and then integrate them at night so maybe the birds won’t notice the absence of the netting dividing them.  Putting them straight in resulted in one of the Production Reds being pecked so badly that her left leg no longer works!  She is now being cleaned and nursed to see what happens with the leg, but quite frankly, I think her head is going to have to come off as we had a Turkey with a leg injury not too long ago, and that bird just up and died one night.  It is not like they have three more legs to compensate for the gimp leg.  Once one leg is badly injured, they are pretty well doomed, and the other chickens will peck them to death.  If you are seriously considering a flock of chickens, beware that you will come to the point when you will have to differentiate between pets and food, and the chickens are food.  If you can manage a way of keeping such a injured bird, then well done on you for keeping your conscious clear.  I would like to keep mine pretty clear too, but I have got a pragmatic situation to consider, which is the flock over the individual birds. 

Our goal is to keep a large enough flock to provide eggs for ourselves, for us to sell, and to eventually provide meat for our family.  In the long run we want to be able to say we truly eat almost everything off our own land.  We want to have our own chickens, beef, milk, and vegetables and some fruit from off our own land.  We aim to achieve self sufficiency as soon as the end of 2013.  I think that will be possible so long as we can get 2012 past us with all goals accomplished!  Fingers crossed and I will keep you up to date as these goals are achieved!  The biggest step is getting grass under hoof to provide for most of the animals! 

Mr. Kelsey J Bacon

The chickens have been doing nicely here, and are now producing more eggs than we could possibly need.  Recently we had a couple of the birds vanish, and we have spotted an owl in a tree on the west side of the house, so we built a new coop to keep the hens in in order to keep them safe.  This also means we know just where the eggs are being laid, which makes collection time easier and more profitable.  The birds are not free ranging anymore, but they are also not sharing their food with the doves anymore either, making the cost of feed more reasonable as well!  You’d think the feed would be more costly since the birds rely on it alone now, rather than foraging, however, I just don’t think there is that much to sustain them here in the desert.  If, and when we move house, which we would like very much to do, then hopefully they will forage for more, and we can keep a proper hen house for them which will not be inviting to the local small birds. 

The horses are fine, and providing the needed escape and entertainment for our oldest son!  We were so sad at the beginning of November to have to let our male go, as he had to be put down because of his cancer.  He was a horse that my grandparents had owned for a little more than the time I had been in England, and if he was not, then he was at least similar to a Gypsy Vanner.  He was a beautiful horse! 

I have long considered if I wanted to really reveal too much personal information on this site, or just go by the nom de plume, “The Prospering Peasant.”  I’d like to come out of hiding as a part of the New Year!  My name is Kelsey Bacon, probably one of the last men in the world to wear the name Kelsey.  My wife is Katrina, and our sons are Jordan and Dylan, also likely the last man children to wear their names!  Our three year old is Kirynie.  We are mixed as a family, me being American, my wife and step-sons are British, and Kiry is dual. 

Our intent is to make this a site about living with modern technologies and learning the older crafts and skills, the lost techniques that have helped our species survive for thousands of years, and become what we are today.  For Jordan, that involves his horsemanship, for Katrina there is the art of sewing and crochet as well as about a billion other things that she involves herself with!  Dylan is an avid reader, and I love the Chickens, the goats, and the horses, and want to build this group on their skills and knowledge, and what we learn from others into a business, hobby, and even a useful reference for anyone else looking to self sustain.  I am not Apocalyptic in my thinking.  But at the same time, I do believe that there are just causes for learning to care for ourselves in a society that is in constant peril of rising costs, or wars, or oil volatility, or whatever may prevent a person from being able to get the goods needed to keep their family healthy and safe.  I am an advocate for taking life slow and simple, and stopping not only to smell the roses, but to grow them as well.  From this standpoint we start out a new year. 

One of our goals this year is to get away from the desert to a place where grass grows under hoof for the horses, so we can get a cow for milk or beef or both, and where we have a viable garden in rich soil.  From there we plan to build our lives, and make the earth work for us.  The goal is southern Idaho. 

Join us along the way!

Yesterday was such a food oriented day, it has to go noticed on The Prospering Peasant’s Blog!  We started off the day with our usual Saturday morning activities, volunteering at our local Bountiful Baskets site, which I love to get involved in because the work gets a little something extra in our basket, and because apart from us there are a few others who show up, but not as many as I would like to see in order to make the work easy, and get it done on time.  Our coordinator is a wonderful lady, who more than deserves to have all the help she can get anyway! 

This week being the last order before Thanksgiving, we ordered larger than usual.  Normally we get a basket or two between our family, but this week we took three baskets and a Hostess Pack, which got us the better part of another basket in different varieties of food. 

We brought home the food, and my lovely wife got busy canning a load of the fruit into jams, jellies, and marmalades.  I think we have enough of all to last us the coming year!  While she was doing that, I was outside with a friend of our oldest son, learning a bit about how to butcher a turkey.

Turkey butchering I could describe in more detail than the canning done yesterday, but for those with weak constitutions, I will save both the description and the photos for myself! 

The point is, that we had two turkeys butchered yesterday, one for ourselves for Thanksgiving, and one for my son’s friend as a service fee.  Doing it was a lot less ‘bad’ than I thought it would be.  We recently had to put down our largest horse, one of the causes of the above mentioned stresses, and that was really horrible because it was like executing an old friend.  But lopping the head off a turkey and plucking it was more like dealing with food.  In fact, our oldest and I both got hungry while doing it, which I think speaks volumes to how it affected our psyche while working at it. 

So, we have a turkey in the freezer, and jams, jellies, and marmalades in the cupboard, and I even remembered to feed my new sourdough starter this weekend, so it will be ready to try a sourdough bread for Thanksgiving! 

I think Wednesday should be bread and pastry day in preparation for the big day.  But for now, I am going to enjoy a day or two working on other things around the house, and basking the the excitement that inevitably comes of the anticipation of one of my favorite holidays of the year! 

Finally, I want to update the animal situation here.  We are obviously down one horse, our wonderful ‘Patches.’  We never really bothered much with what his breeding was, but have recently been made aware of a breed that very closely resembled him.  The Gypsy Vanner breed originated in England and includes Clydesdale in its bloodline.  They have more long hair around the hooves than Patches did, and a bit longer manes and tails, but otherwise are very similar.  It would not be difficult to convince oneself that he is a descent off this breed. 

One of our turkeys was beat up pretty badly by some chickens after it got locked in a pen with several while it had pre-existing injuries to its back.  It died of its injuries, and was buried in the back yard.

Two more turkeys were killed yesterday, but this was on purpose, and they are in the the freezer! 

While I was in Idaho a few weeks ago I went into an auction in Utah and picked up two meat goats.  These guys are Nubians that we affectionately call Dean and Craig, after my wife’s two brothers, that way, though Dean and Craig are still in England, they are always close by!  We are using Dean and Craig as weed eaters at the moment! 

My wife reports to me that while I was out yesterday, a hawk landed among three of our chickens.  Unfortunately for the hawk, three of them were roosters.  It is unlikely that that hawk will be returning soon! 

Enjoy your preparations for Thanksgiving!