Tuesday of Spring Break

Today was very busy again.  My two sons helped my finish building a goat pen and a chicken tractor.  We will use the goat pen for Sprinkles.  Eventually he will get old enough and then he will become frisky with DQ.  She will only get rest if we move him to another pen.  The tractor will be for the growing chicks.  It is still to cold at night to leave them outside.  We will move them in the morning to the tractor (a box with wire wrapped around it on wheels).  Then back to the bath tub.  We will work on a new coop later.  I dropped my oldest son at my sisters house for the remander of Spring Break.  We will pick him up on Sunday.  I stayed to visit with my parents.  Then I went home.  My husband meet me and we loaded up the water trailer to go get water.  We haul water on Tuesday and Saturday from our neighbors well.  We pay him on a monthly basis.  Eventually we plan on having a well dug.  We will have to save for that.

We get more animals

I read the craigslist add all the time and come across great deals.  I find eight chickens five dollars each. So we load up our dog kennel and head to Chandler to get them.  They are rhode island reds and Plymouth rocks.  All hens are laying age and producing an egg a day. This is helpful because we are now selling eggs.  Two dollars a dozen for both duck and chicken.  I don't discriminate.  I use them the same way.  This is where we begin to recoup some money spent. 

I find an add for ducks in Casa Grande.  The add listed Peking, but when I finally get a call back  they are only runners left.  It seems the owner was going on a cruz and needed to get ride of all her animals.  So we load up our trusty dog kennel and go get them.  They are handed over a backyard fence.

Our neighbor also has animals.  I have wanted his lone brown nubian since we meet them.  So one day we ask and he says sure.  What can we trade.  We have just purchased an old ford bronco for parts for our old bronco, windows, doors, lights, seats, etc.   We trade him our lovely DQ and some tire rims for that.  whooh!  It is not good to want something so bad, but I have wanted her for ever it seems.  When we first meet our neighbor needed help milking his goats so we assisted.  DQ would not cooperate.  She literally flopped on the ground and bellowed like she was being tortured.  This is when I was hooked.  We call her DQ for drama queen.

She had just kidded three months ago when we got her.  My husband says she needed a mate.  Well I look for some time on craigslist.  Everything is higher in price because of spring.  So we wait.  The neighbor calls and says he just bought some goats did we want to come look.  Of coarse,  after all who can pass up those goaty faces.  The neighbor all ready has his sires lined up for his does.  There is a buck if we want it but he is still young.  I figure DQ needed a rest anyway.  So we inspect the new prospect.  He is maybe a year old.  We buy him for sixty dollars.  This is good because bucks are going for one hundred and up.  My oldest so names him Sprinkles.   I believe the reason for this name is Choclolate. 

We bought chocolate from our neighbor because he is precious.  Also nubian and pure brown.  He has the longest ears.  When we first brought him home we housed him with all the does.  We thought he would be safer with the does then the bucks.  He was only three months old and the bucks do get pretty rough at times. 

Anyway, the puppy Bandit was also housed with the does.  She is a blue heeler.  Only three months old herself.  She tried to herd Chocolate away from the does.  When he wouldn't go Bandit pulled him by his long beautiful ears.  Bandit was moved to and outside house.

It is spring time and all our does start to have babies.

First Heidi has two doelings Suzy and Joanna.
Then Coco has one doeling Lucy.
And finally Abby has two, one doeling and one buck.  Hansel and Gretel.  Sadly Hansel passed away.

The were bred on Sept 25 the day we brought Ned home.  Their due date was Feb 14.  Heidi's came on time, Coco was one week past, and Abby was two weeks past.  They delivered alone while we were in town each time.  We made short trips.  All kids were healthy upon delivery and nursed right away.  Hansel passed away three days later. 

Having all these new babies makes me want kits (baby bunnies).  So I begin my search for replacement Californian / New Zealand breeding stock.  Unfortunately every rabbit I find is young.  I find three adds on craigslist and schedule appointments to view their rabbits.  The first home the rabbits were sick.  Eyes stuck shut, wheezing, coughing and some fur falling out.  I left, stopped at a McDonald's to wash my hands and then flagged that post on craigslist.  Then I proceeded to Gilbert to view a six week old litter.  This home is very clean all cages are clean.  Animals are plump and alert.  I pick two one black buck and one white doe.  Then I go to the third stop.  Mabbs Rabbitry.  Very nice.  Better than the second.  I choose one white with silver tipped buck and one tortoise doe.  I take these little guys home.  Both sets were born Jan 19.  I will have to wait until June to start breeding.  Of coarse I will breed the males and females to the other litters so I have no birth defects, in case you were wondering.  Meanwhile I have plenty of time to get to know these little guys and girls. 

I do research on ways to be more self sufficient. 

We want to grow our own food.  We prepared the garden.  The first year ground squirrels eat all our lovely new plants. The second year we place metal fencing under and around the garden.  The rabbits climb the fence, bowing it and eat all the sprouting plants.  The third year the birds swoop down and remove anything green.  The fourth year we cover the top of the garden with lattice.  I get sick and do not have enough energy to haul buckets of water to the garden.  everything dies.  I give up. 

We want to raise rabbits for meat.  I read about all the benefits of rabbit meat.  It is lower in cholesterol.  The produce well like rabbits.  It is easier to harvest a rabbit then a chicken.    I find some wire cage material in the desert and create a hutch with two separate cages. Knowing that I want at least one buck and three does I need more hutches. I look and look on craigslist for rabbits and hutches.  I find rabbits in laveen and an unfinished hutch in chandler.  So we go for a drive and purchase two bucks and two does.  They were breeding pairs.  My husband didn't want to break them up.  We place them in two separate cages, bought at the humane society for under five dollars, one for bucks one for does.  Get them home and try to breed them.  Using the tree methods I researched, leaving them together,  together then separate then together, next to then together.  We tried for over six months.  No kidding.  Then three of the rabbits died.  We think something got into their feed.  We still had one doe.

Then our female goats stop giving milk.  Just when I was getting the hang of making soap.  We need a buck.  So back to craigslist.  I find a Montessori school who needed to downsize their herd.  We go to phoenix for Ned a nigerian dwarf buck six months old.  But wait there are two other bucks for sale.  Oh no we can't separate them.  So we bring home Ned (six month old) Lucky and Dusty (three month olds),  they are named after the three amigos.  Ned mates with the does right away.  I am so proud of him. 

Our hens stop laying in the hot or in the cold so I start looking into ducks.  My husband and I actually took a chicken processing class and they only had ducks to cull.  Back to craigslist.  Two free Peking ducks we get our trusty dog kennel and head to phoenix.  The neighborhood that we get them from was pretty scary. Graffiti, smashed up cars, and thugs loitering everywhere.  We knock on the door and are escorted to the back yard.  Picking a drake and a hen.  We carried them thru the house.  Yes I said thru the house.  And for a bonus he gave us their kiddy pool.  Thank goodness because where was I going to find a pool in the winter.  We name them Romeo and Juliet.  When we picked the hen up and moved her she was hysterical until the drake was brought into the dog kennel.  They wrapped their necks around each other.  Just like the fairy tale.  Romeo Romeo where art thou?

Present Day

I have decided to post what we do on daily basis as well as how this all started. 

This week is spring break.  My yougest son is staying with us all week.  Keeping up with trying to stay busy.  We all know that when children have nothing to do they just get in trouble.  Mine fight.  So today we salvaged some fence from a desert pile.  We started to build a chicken tractor to house the nine chicks.  They are living in my bathtub now, but growing fast.  They will soon be big enough to go outside.  I can not wait to see their eggs.  We have three Americanas (green/ blue eggs), four welsummers (chocolate brown eggs), and two rhode island reds (brown eggs).

My oldest son is 17 and now has an interset in looking for a job.  He saw a poster at the walmart mcdonalds that had open interviews on Monday from three to four.  So we drive to town.  The manager that does these interviews is not there.  They ask him to come back next Monday.  We meet my husband at Carls Jr. for lunch and drop off the titles to the vehicles he wants to scrap.  Let me explain.  Just before thanksgiving my husband finds two vehicles he wants to purchase and rebuild.  Using some parts from each to transform an earlier purchase (last year) into his dream truck/car.  We bought this truck. His dream truck.  Just before he was layed off.  He was told he was going to be transfered to an eighteeen month job.  This meant plenty off money.  He buys new tools just for this.  Then he was laid off.  Anyway, back to today.  He needs to get these titles transfered into his name so he can scrap them.  He has removed all the parts and pieces for his project.  Then my oldest gets applications for Taco Bell, Game Stop, Ace, Big 5, Big Lots, and The Dollar Store.  He fills them out and we go home.Please keep your fingers crossed for him.  Just before we get home my husband calls and says meet him at the neighbors.  He was helping out there.  We have a BBQ and sit around talking for a while with the neighbor and some visitors.  Then we load up and engine and some poles that he previously bartered for.  Work for stuff, hardly ever heard of any more.  I am excited because I needed just two more poles to finish another goat pen.  We should finish these projects tommorow.   

Our first animals

While my husband looked for a job I looked for a dairy goat. I searched craigslist and found Abby. A mini lamancha . She was our first of many. Of coarse I had no pen for her. We found some wooden pallets bought some tie wire and built her a little pen while she was leashed on a dog lead to a pole. Silly me I never thought that goats were so clever. She was able to wiggle the pole loose at night. I cried when we couldn’t find her. My worst fears, a coyote got her. But no there she was miles away on the edge of the canal. So we finish the pen and put her in. She was able to jump/ climb out of there too. I cried some more. Nothing was working out. Enter clever husband. Lets use chain link. She has yet to escape this pen.

Then while going to the feed store I bought 8-day-old Rhode Island Red chicks. These were the first of many animals who started in our bathtub. You see I personally have never stepped foot in the beautiful garden tub. Which was a top selling point in our manufactured home. We haul water; this would be such a waste of resources if I filled a whole tub to take a relaxing bubble bath. We all take quick showers to conserve water. Of coarse we had no coop built. The desert is a wonderful place at times. People dump all kinds of things. We found billboard signs and old fencing and built a coop. The chickens needed to feather out anyway. Now we need nest boxes. The gas station in town was throwing away crates. My sister was throwing away an old shelving unit. Thanks to my husband’s previous employer we had pallets of block. Walla, red neck nesting boxes. After thought. The chickens now lay all their eggs under the shelving unit.

We were also gifted ten white leghorns from a friend at my work. She no longer wanted them as her children grew up and moved out. To many eggs. I think you can never have to many eggs. These hens came at just the right time. Chickens do not lay until they are about five months old. We drove over forty-five minutes to get them. I took my oldest with me that day. He was so brave. My friend’s husband grabbed the chickens and handed them to him three for each hand. He put them in our trusty dog kennel. They started laying within that week.

So now we have a goat for milk and cheese and we have chickens for meat and eggs. Abby the goat only gives one cup per milking. So I continue to look for dairy goats. We find Heidi on craigslist. She is a Niegerian Dwarf.  She is with her daughter on a farm. They are both for sale. I only plan on purchasing Heidi. My husband says we can’t separate them. So we load up both does. When we moved Abby we were not prepared. She rode in the back of the cab of the truck on towels. This time my husband was clever and took the bladder of our IBC water tank out and flipped it over. Instant goat cage. We drove for over an hour and thirty minutes to get them.

My husband has looked and looked for a job.  He has submitted applications to every masonry company in four states.  The only response he gets is "We are trying to keep our own guys working, there's just no jobs available".  So one day I am looking in the local newspaper and come across a carpet technician job.  He cleaned carpets for two years when we were first married.  So he responds and they take a chance on a man who has been out of the field for more than sixteen years. He starts working again in May of 2010.

We are so grateful.  Unfortunately we are very behind on all our bills.  Isn't it ironic that most companies will not assist in any way until you are over three months behind on payment.  Then thats when the want to foreclose, or shut off services.  We pull through by the skin of our teeth. 

At this point I have decided I will never be without again. 

It Started

It really all started in 2006. We needed to move for financial reasons.  My husband takes me to his property in Casa Grande.  We drove for over an hour until we get to the desert.  Literally.  There was no road, no water, and no electricity.  I cried all the way home.  My husband says it will be ok, things will work out.  The contracting company moves the house (manufactured) and installed on the lot. But, there is always a but.  The money ran out. Still no road, water or electricity.  I cried again.  We borrowed the money that the contractors said we needed.  So We borrowed money from family to run electric lines.  Still no road and no water.  We buy water tanks and haul water from a nearby city, 45 minutes away.  Still no road.  I cried.  So here we are.  In the Desert.  Hauling water, 4 wheel driving.  Time to enroll the children in school.  I go to the district office.  Guess what?  Our property doesn't belong to any school we have to create a pocket that your address will belong to.  WHAT!  Our children have to ride a bus for over an hour to travel around a mountain, on a freeway just to go to a sub par school .  This school was so bad our oldest son chooses to move in with my parents, his grandparents, to return to my hometown school.  My youngest son gets bullied so badly  he eventually retaliates and gets expelled.  We home schooled him until high school.  He now lives at my sisters house where he attends the local high school there.  I cried some more.  Throughout all these years I think I will never get the dust out of my house.   NOW...... on to 2009.  My husband was a mason (brick layer) by trade for over sixteen years.  When the housing market dropped so did the construction market.  First he lost benefits, then pay, then finally he was laid off.  Times were hard. Thankfully I had a job.  So remember, here we are in the desert; no roads, no water, but we have land.  Lots of land.  I am always thinking about whats next.   Our oldest son came home and our youngest son was home on the weekends.  We couldn't keep food in the house.  So we have land and can haul water.  Lightbulb popping.  I can raise animals for meat and dairy.  I can grow a garden for produce.

Hello

Hello. I am starting this blog to share my daily life.  My Husband and I are working on a life with hobbies we enjoy. He with rebuilding/ recreating vehicles he likes. Me with being more self sufficient.   I am sure it will mostly be about what I am up to.  Not because  that is all I care about, but because it is his thing.   We started about a year ago. I have wanted  to start a blog but was unsure how. Anyway here goes.           We started  about one year ago.   ..............I will add more later.