Sunshine, Daisies and Little Black Silkies

Today's forecast, wet, droopy daisies and no sunshine but we'll take it, we're desperate for rain. Our part of the state is in a moderate drought.  Seeing these waterlogged flowers got me thinking about sunshine and daisies. Of course it would be great if life were always sunshine and daisies but that's not how it works.

In Farming and Homesteading (just like in life) there are great days and awful days but most are somewhere in the middle, a daisy of a different color perhaps or a partly sunny day. When you're dealing with lots of living things; pets, farm animals, vegetable plants, fruit trees and bushes there are so many things that can go wrong. This year our vegetable gardens are mostly doing great. That is despite the fact that we were without running water for 16 days and it barely rained for weeks and weeks. A few young crops died but most parts of our gardens thrived. The lack of rain seems to have affected some fruit bushes the most and we haven't had a great blueberry crop this year. The fruit trees though have had a pretty good season so far in regards to weather anyway although one dwarf fruit tree that we've had for several years just up and died.

Dead Plum Tree with its own kind of "daisies".

The weather affects our plants and animals but there are other factors too, another things that affects our plants and animals is wildlife. Something, most likely deer or moose, ate the top of a small apple tree and most of the not yet ripe fruit on that tree. That apple tree probably wasn't a great choice for us since it's a very short tree. We bought it on sale only to realise a couple years later that it's a columnar apple tree meant to stay short and skinny, best for urban areas where it's hard to have a fruit tree. Oopsy Daisy! Probably we'll have to move that little tree close to the house... if it survives being partially eaten!

Top eaten right off apple tree

I've also noticed some greens being eaten down in the lower garden, I don't know yet if they're insect or four legged critter eaten. At least whatever is doing the eating is sticking to a few select areas in the garden.

As for the animals we've had times of no issues and smooth sunshine and daisies days and weeks and even months but just lately we've had a few issues in a row. A bear tore out a window screen in the chicken coop but thankfully got no birds, we've reinforced the window and added more electric fencing. We've had not one but two hens who became egg bound. First an Easter Egger hen for whom I was able to quickly resolve the stuck egg issue. She just needed an epsom salt bath and the egg soon came along. A couple weeks later a NH Red hen was more egg bound and the epsom salt bath and some massage didn't help the egg move along. I had the hen in the bathtub while running back and forth to my laptop to look up what to do next. Crushed up Tums, (she liked the yellow ones best), vaseline around and into the vent, (ummm good thing I have a pack of those clear disposable gloves!), Rest in a quiet, dark area (Put a cage in the bathroom with the light off and set her up there). It took a few hours but eventually I heard the egg laying song and Miss New Hampshire was able to be returned to the coop for bedtime.

Sometimes the animals bring on their own problems. We have at times been able to let our rabbits have limited free range in the large fenced farm yard. That is until they learned how to dig great deep holes into the adjoining dogs large fenced yard. That was a trying 24 hours trying to catch them and return them to their own area. They had created an entire underground tunnel system overnight and I had to eventually let the dogs out into their own yard for a potty break, the dogs scared the rabbits enough to flush them out and back into their own area otherwise I might never have found them. If they dug past one more fence they would have had freedom...and one of our vegetable gardens!

Sometimes the problems are easy to solve and sometime not. This past spring we had a Crested Cream Legbar hen break her neck or spine and she had to be put down. She was a real flighty one and came down hard from high in a tree. More recently our only White Leghorn hen died for reasons unknown, she had only just laid her first egg in the days before. Then there are the little black silkies that were supposed to be Marans Pullets. Well one of those silkies is almost certainly a boy and the other has a hurt leg/foot. The little limping silkie has to be in the house to rest and heal for the most part though I return her/him to the pile of buddies each night since little silkie likes her little group of friends. The Little Black Silkies are endearing but they're not the Marans females we ordered, one is a little rooster and one is extra work.

Silkie Soakin' Sore Leg.

These are the issues involving plants and animals that I can recall from the past 6 months or so, it seems like a lot but we have a lot of vegetable plants, fruit trees and bushes and animals thus we have to expect times that aren't sunshine and daisies. When people say that they would love to get into this lifestyle I try pretty hard to not make it all sound sunshine and daisies because realistic expectations are better. If you don't think you can give a chicken a bath, put awkward netting over vulnerable plants, deal with losses, make time for sick or sore little (or big) animals, pick caterpillars off your vegetables, muck out coops and cages, set up, fix, move or upgrade fences and always know there will be a next thing to deal with then you probably won't be happy farming or homesteading.

Baby chicks are fun, fresh tomatoes are tasty, new animals are interesting, The first fruit of the season off your own tree is delectable and new infrastructure exciting but they come hand in hand with many issues and situations that will not be as fun and delicious.

Some days you get sunshine, some days you get daisies, some days you get neither and some days you get sunshine, daisies and little black silkies.