Special Report: SNOW!

Living in Alabama, you rarely see snow, so having it snow provides a lot of excitement! This snow was even more special than usual, because it was the first time in our new house! Here are some pics! 

 

 Our house

 

 First time seeing chicken prints in the snow :) 

 Our very own winter wonderland!

 We haven't gone out to play, but the boys had their first taste of fresh snow this afternoon. Hopefully this will be the end of cold weather and help usher in the spring ;P. Stay warm Alabama! 

Our New Chicken Coop

A few days before the arrival of Gabriel, Joshua had one of the young men from our church come and help us build our all new chicken coop! There were never any pictures of the old coop (per Joshua's request), but you can take our word for it that the new coop is a mansion compared to the old one! It only took a day to build, and the chickens seem to like it a lot!

In the process 

A way to access the eggs from the outside!

All closed in with a little perch for the chickens to, well, perch! Rigged it so that their water could hang from it also. 

The outside! All that's left is to build the door and we have our wonderful new coop! Thanks to our friend Isaac for helping us build it!

The Newest Addition!

On February 15, 2015 we welcomed Gabriel James Dean into our family! He was born around 8:30 A.M. and weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces (a new record in the family). He has been doing very well and is a rather good sleeper. There were many different reactions to his arrival. The other boys (Sam and Will) haven't payed much attention to him, Joshua and Jennifer are in love all over again (even with Jennifer being a little tired), and Erin has grown used to having another baby in the house. All-in-all he fits right in to the Dean household! Here are some pictures of the new addition:

 

 That's all for this week! 

           Love, The Deans!

Chicks Galore!

This past Saturday, Josh returned home from a bee keeping conference (more on that to come) with 15 baby chicks! They're about two weeks old! We got them from someone in New Hampshire, and want to raise them for laying hens and to be selective about the ones that are roosters- choosing ones that aren't aggressive and who are fairly quiet. Here are some pictures of the cuteness!

R.I.P. Chicken # 8

Sad news! One of our eight chickens was killed two days ago! We believe that a hawk took the chicken Saturday morning. We are trying to set up the necessary security measures, whether that be a dog, geese, or even a rooster.

Before Pictures!

One of the main things our family wants to achieve with this blog is showing others our process on the farm. Since it has only been a month since we moved in, there obviously isn't going to be that much change. So we wanted to provide you with some before pictures of the farm. We hope that soon we can post some transformation pictures soon ;P.

The Girls

We bought our chickens from someone on Craigslist, who was raising them in a small pen while feeding them cheap feed.  They were obviously stressed- with most of them missing their tail feathers and fairly skittish around people and aggressive towards one another. 

We want our chickens healthy, and want to reverse this behavior.  

We "homed" them by keeping them in their coop for three consecutive days.  On the morning of the fourth day, we opened the coop door and let them venture out.  They were very hesitant to go far from the coop, and returned often.  That evening they all returned to the coop, signifying they understood that to be home.

I was admittedly late in building them their laying box, and so we found eggs in the yard and under privet bushes for the first week of them free-ranging.  We left the eggs they did lay in the nesting box(along with a golf ball for added prop value).  I guess that worked, because they have started to use the beating box more consistently, and we're finding less and less eggs in the tall grass and brush piles.

We want to work with the natural order of the plants and animals we cultivate.  So we want the chickens to act like chickens, and for them to have the ability to scratch around, fertilize as they go, and to seek out the food they know they need.  There is anecdotal evidence that suggests they will adjust their own diet to fulfill a nutritional need/deficiency they have.

So, every morning we open the coop door, throw out a couple handfuls of millet and sunflower seed where we want them to scratch and fertilize, and within an hour, they're wandering around our 2.5 acres- turning over leaves, eating grasses, and looking for bugs + worms.

We want to raise more chickens, but in seeking to learn as we go, we decided to just start with these 8 hens.  We are hoping to get rabbits soon.  And even want to raise a small group of geese.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Mulch, and Compost, and Sheet Mulching Oh My!

Hello everyone! This week we have received mulch to start our sheet mulching! We got it absolutely free from Davey's Tree Service via Craigslist. We advocate using things like Craigslist, Facebook, etc. to find great deals such as this. Sheet mulching (as it breaks down) will provide a really good topsoil without needing to till the ground. It will also be used in our raised bed gardening. Sheet mulching is basically lasagna gardening, which just means you make a really good soil by stacking different components on top of each other. We are going to make ours by using(from bottom to top) a layer of manure, then a layer of cardboard, a layer of manure, a layer of mulch, a layer of hay, and then a layer of compost. This provides a really good soil for gardening.

This is an example of sheet mulching. The picture comes from, http://www.cedarmill.org/news/410/gfx/sheet-mulch.gif

 

This is our gigantic pile of mulch! (Isn't it awesome!)Thanks again to Davey's Tree Service for the awesome pile of mulch. More updates to come! Love, The Deans

Let's Get Started!

Our first ever blog post! Yay! The property has been bought, the house is in the process of being fixed, and we are slowly developing a routine. Red Hollow Farm is well under way! There is still a lot of work to be done, but the foundation has been laid to start our new life. Starting the new year by moving into our new house makes 2015 all the more welcome. We've been moving furniture, unpacking boxes, and buying A LOT of paint samples. Our rather large family room has become the main headquarters for anything we do (the cozy fire place makes it even better). This week we have received eight chickens! They have provided us with six eggs already! We decided not to get a rooster (they're so obnoxious!) so we will probably get a farm dog to protect the chickens. We also ordered bees that are due to arrive the beginning of March. Just to provide you with an idea of what the property looks like, here are some pictures! 

 

 This is right behind the house. It's a little area with a pool that's been filled in. We have our chicken coop in there as well as that little shed you can see. 

 

 This is our side yard. We have a eight plum trees on that side of the house. 

This is back behind the "pool" area. It leads back behind the property. 

This is further back into the property. It is part of a fork in the path that comes back together shortly. 

This is the other part of the fork in the road. There is a whole other shed back there that you can see in the picture, with a little covered space on the other side. 

 We also have this little creek running along our property! I see muddy kids playing in this during the summers. 

 

 These are two GIANT chestnut trees in the front of the house.  

 

 And finally we have the front of the house. Thank you so much to all the people who have helped us move into our new home. Can't wait to see what the Lord has for us next week! 

                    Love,

                         The Deans