homestead

Swim meet, birthday party!

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30 May 2026

Today started early. We were up around 0530 to get the big three ready for a swim meet. I took the kids and dropped them off. I went back home to help with the animal chores and take over for the littles. Meagan had finished up with the goats at that point, and left to go watch the events.

The kids did well and had fun. It was a good experience for them!

Meagan got some photos of them on the big camera. I will have to get those and process them later.

Arya and Evan wait for their events.

Meagan got a nice video of the boy goats.

Randal was helping out, but had a little trouble with the hose.

We got some rain overnight. The goats were not amused.

Here I’m moving the small chickens to a new spot.

After the animal chores, I had a couple kitchen/baking chores to attend to.

I had started some sourdough the night prior and had it in the fridge overnight, so I got it into the oven.

The near loves are the new recipe I’m testing. The far loves are my usual recipe, but with a different technique. I had adjusted the baking times on this trial, but they need to be adjusted again as well. These got a little more done than I like.

New loaf crumb. Needed some more fermentation time.

Usual recipe. Came out just about perfect!

I also processed the four trays of beef stew that I was freeze drying for camp. One of the trays unfortunately was not fully dry, so I ended up just reconstituting it and having it for lunch!

I packed up the freeze dried stew into individual mylar bags for upcoming camping trips. Next, I need to make a batch of spaghetti and meat sauce.

Shortly after I finished up with all that, Meagan and the big three got back from the swim meet. Then, it was time for me to take Randal and Garrett to a birthday party for a friend’s daughter. They had a large water slide there where the boys had a great time playing in and on it!

Randal playing in the pool.

Garrett comes down the slide!

Much fun was had by all!

Randal demonstrates the proper way to eat a birthday cupcake!

After the party, it was back home for our D&D evening and movie night with Grandma!

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#video #life #moments #chickens #homestead #pool #party #kids #bread #sourdough

Friday fun day!

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29 May 2026

Today started out like most other days, with the animal chores.

I took a video of the geese, ducks, and chickens being let out of their tractor this morning. They were very excited to be free!

Radnal of course was my helper.

Evan and Meagan were busy with the goats.

We then checked the mail, because that’s what you do.

After the animals were tended to it was off to the pool to check on it.

Clarity is improving, lots of particulates/dead algae in the water still. I added some more chlorine and some algicide and clarifier.

Tomorrow I will do another vacuum pass. I have some other things coming to assist with the pool, but it’s probably ‘good enough’ for the kids by Sunday.

One of our neighbors had some trees cut down. We arranged for them to drop off the branches. The goats really enjoy them. Then we grind up the branches with a chipper to add organic matter to the soil.

After that, it was off to the homeschool meet up for Meagan and the kids.

I was having a look at one of the trees that is having some issues. Looks like this one will be coming down sooner than later. Another fun project, yay! The one on the other side of the house has a similar issue, so maybe I will try to tackle them both together.

In the afternoon, we did a family DnD session with Jarek and our neighbor.

Then it was time to do evening animal chores. Zanzi, the white goat, prefers to have treehouse dining.

The goose was giving me the hairy eyeball when I went to check on them. They don’t really like being locked up for the evening, but better safe than sorry with the fox on the loose around us.

Saturday we will be up early as the big three kids have a swim meet starting at 7!

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#video #life #moments #geese #homestead #pool #homeschool #chickens

Pools, Toilets, School, and Geese!

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28 May 2026

Just another day around the house today. It started off in the morning for me moving the chickens to their new spots. Afterwards, it was off to the pool. I’ve been battling mustard algae in the pool for the last couple weeks, but I think I have it under control now, or perhaps, at least for the moment.

This picture was a few days ago. Since then, I’ve had the chlorine up high, around 20 ppm to kill off the algae.

Last night, I left the pump off to get what I could to settle out, and I vacuumed this morning. It’s less green now, but still hazy. I’ll get a better picture tomorrow of where its at. Hopefully the kids can get back in it in a few days.

After dealing with the pool, it was off to unclog a toilet that Randal had backed up. He’s still getting the hang of the proper amount of toilet paper, so its a thing. I’ve come to really appreciate toilet closet augers. Much better than plungers and more effective.

We sold a couple baby geese that we hatched. We still have these for which are up for finding a new home, or possibly becoming guard geese for the other chicken pen. Geese are pretty good at keeping things at bay.

After the morning chores and tasks were done, I worked with Evan on his school work.

The kids had a smoothie for breakfast, which helps with the teeth pain from the recent braces adjustment.

We had rain off and on all day netting about 2 inches of rain, which was good as we are short on water for the year so far.

Meagan, Randal, and I spent a while on the porch enjoying the storm while Randal blew bubbles.

After school work was done, the kids watched Back to the Future to help distract from the braces pain. Jarek, in particular, and Arya as well, have been in a fair amount of pain and unable to focus on their usual school work. Hopefully it settles down over the next few days.

After that, it was back to work on my bookkeeping. I have added a media project to my list – reorganizing the music cds. I am also now going through the piles of family photos we have and digitizing them and adding them to the photo repository. The negative scanner and flatbed both showed up today, so I’ve been having fun playing with both of those.

The kids went off to swim practice, and then dinner, and that was pretty much it for the day!

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#video #life #moments #geese #homestead #pool

Video: Randal helping me get the eggs today!

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Well, I have an idea of what happened, but this will fix the issue.

This is one of our Chickshaw chicken tractors. It does a pretty good job for the chickens. We have had it in use for about a year now and it is holding up well.

I’ve got some more videos and things to post, and I’ll get to those soon! Life has been busy, Jarek got his braces today, and we are getting ready to wrap up the <home> school year.

I’ve got another project to do, as part of our stuff reduction, scanning and processing family photos that we’ve inherited from various sides of the family, so that will be fun.

I continue to nerd out on the webserver and working to optimize it among other things. I’ve been able to get a few little projects done on it that make me happy, but mostly it’s me avoiding the bathroom remodel (it’s hot now!) and other, more boring projects that I really should be doing.

chickens #homestead #fresheggs #pasturedpoultry #video

Chicken Tractor #2 progress

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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!

#2026 #homestead #chickens #building #ducks #goose #geese