Where to start? A lot has changed! Some really exciting, some really sad, and some bittersweet news.
Physically, I think we are handling the quarantine on the homestead about like we handle almost every other year at this time. We. Are. Busy.
The animals need food and water. It’s spring, plant are sprouting and babies are hatching— we have over 75 fowl in the upstairs loft in brooders and about 100 eggs rotating around the incubators. We are managing 28 rabbits and one litter on the way, two geese running amok, the quail about to starting laying, and the pigs are rotating through pasture with a small small group of chickens is following them on our rotational grazing system.
The garden beds have perennials popping up, and we are adding rabbit droppings and straw into all the beds to add some natural fertilizer before spring and summer planting (yep, spring plants just got planted, I will get the why of that later). The house is full of not just chickens but plants too. We have over 1,500 seedlings sitting in windows under lights.
The Meat Man has been busy working on building a new chicken run, a greenhouse, a new garden entrance arbor, enlarging the raised bed garden area and fixing up rabbit hutches. The boys are helping wherever we need them and I am so grateful for all my men around here.
Emotionally? It’s been rough. I have been traveling back and forth across the state to be with my grandparents in Las Cruces, NM. We had to make one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made in my life, we put my grandmother in Hospital Hospice. We are not able to see her and knowing that any day chould be her last and no one is there to hold her hand is devastating. Even more difficult is leaving my grandpa alone because I just can’t leave Starson alone with the homestead and his absolutely crazy full-time job.
I am sure many of you have read in the news, meat plants are shutting down while simultaneously, meat shortages are occurring right and left in retail locations. Starson’s company, Shamrock Foods Inc., was really smart and pivoted to fill the retail gap since restaurants are closed, but now with shortages and restaurants starting to reopen- they have a problem. We are praying for both our food system and the producers and workers putting their lives on the line to keep food on our table. This is not an easy position for anyone to be in.
I have been using what little downtime I have to help local ranchers. They, along with not being able to move their cattle through the markets, are seeing about a $300 less per cow when they sell. To combat this issue, New Mexico State Representative Rebecca Dow has been working tirelessly to connect consumers and producers together while also working through a long time problem of New Mexico not having enough meat processors. I am happy to be helping her collect consumer and producer information as well as facilitate deals between the two. I wish it wasn’t planting season so I could dedicate more time, these people need our help and beleicve is our duty to keep our local food system intact. We are also working together to get local meat into our state’s food banks and, so far, over 40,000 pounds of local meat have been accessed.
What’s new on the homestead?
Some of ya’ll watched my Plant/Garden Tour yesterday we released on YouTube and you can tell, a lot is changing. Since postponing classes (and will continue to do so through May at least), we have been working on the property. We are bringing in huge loads of mulch to create pathways (because no one likes to do chores in the mud) and fill dirt to make the water flow off of our house property correctly. Starson also made me a greenhouse, I think because he is tired of the 1,500 seedlings, shelves, and lights we have in the house.
How are the animals? As many of you know we added rabbits to the homestead and we are enjoying them so much. We have a registered pair of Rex rabbits, one purebred New Zealand buck, and the rest are a mix we will use for meat rabbit program. In total, for adults, we have 6 does (females) and 2 bucks (males). We also have two litters of kits (baby rabbits) one litter is 8 weeks old and weaned, the other is 3 weeks old, and lastly we have a litter due today from our unproven buck Alps (the white Rex). We were planning on putting our weaned kits in rabbit tractors (similar to chicken tractors) and putting them on pasture to help fertilize the ground. BUT BAD NEWS. A disease called RHDV2 has hit both domestic and wild rabbits in our area. One, that until recently, had only been in Washington state. It is spreading across the southwest like wildfire and the mortality rate is really high, so we have upped our bio security measures big time. We are no longer going to have our rabbits on pasture in tractors and we are so sad. We don’t like having animals in cages or small enclosures. We really try to mimic nature as much as possible so this is pretty devastating to our homestead.
We also sold almost 20 adult birds, all our bantam flock, two weeks ago. I was planning on keeping them and breeding them through the summer but we are afraid two things are going to happen: 1) people who get into chickens now are going to see how much work chickens are and will flood the market at the end of summer bringing down the value of chickens all together, and/or 2) people are going to only be looking for laying and meat chickens. It was a hard decision to make, I really miss seeing our silkies and our game chickens, but this homestead is also a business.
How are we making money on the homestead? Well, sigh…. What a turn of events. I know God had me start the classes and change direction for a reason, so am I stressing about my classes being canceled? No. We are so blessed Starson is still working. He did take a pay cut but we are making it. We recently paid off a car so that lack of payment makes up the gap. I am selling eggs, and hatching out chicks. Runa is due with puppies in June and that will also help keep us afloat. We are fermenting chicken feed which cuts down our feed bill by almost 30%. We are doing a plant sale and my mom helped me to grow many of my plants for the garden this year. I am also doing consulting work on the side. I have done virtual landscape consulting, plant photo consulting and will also be building some gardens and teaching private homesteading lessons when the quarantine is over.
What does this mean for the rest of 2020? We aren’t sure what the future holds, and, like many people, are in a holding pattern. But we are sure of one thing, God is in control and our job is take it day by day. For now, our classes and events are postponed or canceled. We really value the health of our community members and, with my fibromyalgia, think its important to keep my health in perspective as well.
We are thinking about offering private farm tours followed by an intimate farm-to-table dinner under our outdoor pergola, as well as small one-on-one homestead lessons or consulting. This will keep the number of people limited and space between us and others at an optimal level.
We hope you all are save and well. We pray all of you are all in a position to overcome and are taking this time to build beautiful relationships and projects. May God bring you peace and prosperity.
