Today the wind is blowing like crazy and it was 50 degrees when I checked on the chickens, fed the barn cat and filled bird feeders about 6:30 a.m. It was still barely getting light, but dark clouds filled the sky. Late last night we had a thunderstorm - briefly; and this morning, with the wind, everything was dry. The sun is out, with clouds coming and going. It will be in the 60s for the next few days. What a relief! From May through most of September the temperature was over 100 degrees EVERY DAY! It barely cooled down at night. The drought in Texas is monumental. Since we seem to be in for La Nina again, the outlook for a rainy winter does not look good.
Some of my friends had lost chickens to the heat, or they had stopped laying altogether. My young pullets were not ready to lay until about the end of August. We have a fan in the hen house and a mist system strung across the outside of the house along the overhang. Shade cloth and a tarp help keep some of the heat down. The girls started laying at the end of August. Their eggs are getting larger. The shells are firm. I have a little digital scale in the kitchen so that I can weigh the eggs. 1.75 oz. is medium, 2.0 oz. is large, 2.5 oz is extra large. We are beginning to get more large eggs and we will be selling the excess now that there is more uniform weight. The hens and rooster also like this cooler weather. The layers are lined up to get into the nests without panting like crazy.
We put off planting the fall crops because none of us could stay out in the heat for more than a few minutes at a time. There are still some veggies we can plant, and if we put in onion sets and garlic now in one bin, they will winter over, grow and be ready by next summer. So - time to get into the soil.
This little 4 acre farmlet will be called "Annabear Farm," for our two cherished pets, both of which we lost a few months ago. Right now we are researching livestock. We're looking into dairy or meat goats, alpacas or rabbits. Soon we will have the entire perimeter of the property fenced in. It's a good thing, too. Last night was the first time, and probably it won't be the last, that we had feral hogs cross the property. They are all over the place. We had been lucky so far to have had nothing more destructive than raccoons. The hogs can be lethal and need to be kept away from our animals and garden. Deer sometimes come through, as well, and need to be managed.
My energy is up with the cooler weather. I need to get out of doors and get physical! Thanksgiving will soon be here. However, I'm not up to shootin' wild turkeys, so the grocery store will have to supply the feast. I have a serious blog coming up. First I need to do some more research on the subject to make sure I have what I need.
And one last note: I saw this online at a website for people looking into goat farming. It's sure the Texas way of describing the weather. "Boy it's hot! It's so dry the Baptists are sprinkling, the Methodists are spitting and the Catholics are giving rain checks. It's so dry the catfish are carrying canteens. It's so dry the birds are building their nests out of barbed wire."
That's all y'all.
10/18/11
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