Just another day in the life here on the homestead. It was a cloudy rainy day, which is much appreciated as it has been very dry lately. I went out this evening to tend to the chickens and collect eggs and discovered a lost chicken in our yard.
To answer the question of why the chicken crossed the road, the answer is snacks. I managed to lure her back about half way to where the chickens are set up, then I was able to pressure her the rest of the way.
I had some goat pellets from Meagan that had gotten wet. They had a lot of grubs in them, which the girls appreciated. Check out the video below – the girls wasted no time.
Not a bad haul today.
I had some help putting the eggs away when I got back.
Then it was off to the back yard to check on the geese and little birds. I cleaned out the wading pool for the geese and the goose was all about a fresh bath!
Presently working on building chicken tractor # 2 with my little helpers.
A few stops and starts and a couple extra trips to the store, but progress has been made. Another trip to the store tomorrow. The hinges I ordered haven’t come in yet, so off to get some off the shelf. I made the initial parts order via online for pick up, but apparently I picked something that wasn’t available.
Randal helps me by holding the roosting bars up so I can secure the brace for the nesting boxes.
Another day or two, and it will be ready for prime time! Which will be great as the little chicks are growing up fast!
Our geese defenders did a good job today, scaring off a hawk that tried to grab a chicken! Fortunately, the hawk was not successful and our guard goose was on duty to scare him off.
You can see the hawk drop the chicken on the way out (dark shape). The kids said that the goose hit the hawk when it came into the pen.
# 2. Add our repository to your list of repositories: echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' |\ sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
# 3. Update your package database and install Signal: sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop
Our 2024-2025 school year picked up on the road, continuing our travels around the country in Yellowstone National Park. From there, we traveled to many other sites on our way back to Florida, to include:
Grand Tetons NP Little Big Horn National Monument Fort Union Trading Post Theodore Roosevelt National Park Knife River Historic Site Devils Tower Wind Cave National Park Mt. Rushmore Jewel Cave National Monument Homestake Gold Mine Minuteman Missile NHS Badlands National Park Agate fossil Beds NM Scotts Bluff NM Fort Laramie & Guernsey Wagon Ruts Homestead NHP Brown V. Board of Education NHS Fort Larned NHS Tallgrass Prairie NP Strataca – Kansas underground salt museum / salt mine Chickamauga & Chattanooga NMP Russel Cave NM Little River Canyon Nat. Preserve
Arriving back in Florida, we took a break for Thanksgiving and started to get back into the book work.
I logged their work on a blog post (pdf file) from December to January. After January, we switched to homeschool sheets where they documented what they did for that day.
From November to March we were living in the RV, conducting home school in the RV or outside on the patio. After April on we moved back into our house. Due to the efforts required with the move, we stopped most book work activities in April and through the summer.
Over the summer the three attended several summer camps with the Scouts. Jarek earned over 14 merit badges this summer in a variety of subjects and activities. Jarek worked on Saxon math 7/8 and the more advanced writing program which introduced outlines in preparation for writing papers. He has done very well with his reading, reading numerous book. He also took violin lessons and scored well on his Theory exam. I’ve looked for his results for his recorded performance, but I appear to not have them.
The former Homestake Gold Mine, now a physics research facility.
Minuteman NM.
Badlands N.P.
Needles Hwy & Scenic Drive
Agate Fossil Beds NM
Fort Laramie
Guernsey / Oregon Trail wagon ruts.
Register Cliff
Scotts Bluff NM
The Northern Lights as seen by the naked eye while we were in Nebraska.
The same image as seen by the phone in night mode.
Homestead NHP
Brown v. Board of Education NHP
Strataca Salt Mine & Museum, 600′ under Kansas
Tallgrass Prairie Nat. Preserve
Comet Atlas photo taken at a park in Kansas.
Fort Scott NHS
Pea Ridge NMP and Trail of Tears
Fort Smith NHS
Little Rock Central High School
November 2024
Visiting a Nasa STEM Science Fair in Huntsville, AL.
The view from Point Park at Chickamauga-Chattanooga battlefield.
Garrett explores a touch table at Russell Cave National Monument
Russell Cave NM
Visiting the Little River Canyon NM.
Exploring the cave at Raccoon Mountain.
Visiting Fort Pulaski.
Back in Florida!
Jan 2025
Jarek got a metal detector for Yule. He began exploring the yard for lost treasures with his little helper.
Evan and Arya work the Climbing tower
Jarek takes a turn on the climbing tower.
Placing wreathes on Veterans’ graves.
Cold weather camping near Mariana, FL.
Jarek visited the Florida state caverns near Mariana with his Scout Troop.
Everyone went to the Cub Scout Bike Rodeo to learn about bike safety.
Evan assembles his table for a Cub Scout activity.
Jarek helps assemble a goat milking stand.
The kids took turns helping sand and finish the goat stand.
Goat stand complete, Alan and Jarek work on the goat shelter.
Our first batch of baby chicks. The kids build a popsicle stick play structure for the chicks.
Jarek and Evan help move compost for the raised bed gardens.
Jarek attended a Scout leadership training. Each of the Scouts in the group was given a different disability (can’t see, can’t talk, can’t use arms, can’t walk) and they had to complete an obstacle course.
Jarek works on a bat house for a Scout conservation requirement.
March 2025
Two of our dairy goats. The kids learned how to milk them and help take care of them.
The kids help pull furniture and other items out of storage as we move back into the house.
April 2025
Jarek attends the Sun N Fun airshow with the Scout Troop.
Evan drills with his soccer team.
Evan milks one of our goats, Chali.
June 2025
Jarek helps make nesting boxes for the chicken tractor that Alan built.
Evan inspects the inside of the chicken tractor.
Camp Woodruff Summer Camp with his Troop.
Jarek attends a week at Camp Shands Scout Summer camp by himself!
Today we processed some apples into homemade apple cider. We combined the event with a Cub Scout requirement for the Bear Den. The kids had a lot of fun sorting the apples and removing the bad apples from the bunch. This was a smaller batch than what we did last year, due to the upcoming move. Last year I made 15 gallons of cider which I fermented into hard cider, on top of some additional regular cider.
Once the apples were washed and sorted, then it was time to grind them up. I don’ have a picture of them using the grinder, but you can see it on the ground in the pictures below.
The grinder, known as the “maximizer” grinds the apples into chunks which increases the juice yield.
Our friend and fellow Cub Scout, B, pressing his apples.
Garrett enjoyed some frozen blueberries for a snack before his nap.
Evan took a turn cranking down the press, followed by big brother.
Out of the three bags of apples, we got about 4 gallons of juice. The bags of seconds were $8 each, so not a bad yield. The kids asked what we were going to do with the rest of the apples. I said we were going to convert them to eggs! The chickens were quite thrilled to get the pile to pick through.
