The Buckeye is a breed of chicken originating in the U.S. state of Ohio. Created in the late 19th century, Buckeyes are the only breed of American chicken known to have been created by a woman, and the only one to have a small "pea" comb.
As of 2008, Buckeyes are extremely rare, and breed conservation
organizations have recognized them as critically endangered. The breed's
name is derived from Ohio's nickname of "Buckeye state", and their
mahogany color is said ideally to resemble the seeds of the Ohio Buckeye plant (Aesculus glabra).
They are a dual-purpose chicken that have a decent laying ability and
strong meat production characteristics. Buckeyes are yellow skinned
chickens who lay brown eggs. ~wikipedia.org~
We are quite excited to raise Buckeye chickens on the farm so I thought Id further my adventure of learning about them by blogging about them.
They originated right here in Ohio making them a breed that has adapted to this specific climate and habitat. I bet this has something to do with many accounts I am reading where farmers report very low instances of pests and disease.
Chickens provide many things to a farm and its bio diversity model to detour disease and maintain farm health. They east pests! This is a wonderful thing for other animals as well as crops. Their poop is a good source of nutrients for composts and other applications. They are food! These chickens lay brown eggs and also are very good meat producing chickens!
Providing for ourselves is the name of the game and I'm really excited to work with this wonderful looking breed of Bird! Cheers to Buckeye Chickens!
I have decided to post this music video because he is singing words that explain just how I feel and exactly why I have not chosen the easy path. Why I continue to challenge myself and the human race to be better and work in a balance of peace, love, and harmony. All of us who have or chose to experience this, understand this is not a myth. It is not a far off utopia. It is a reality all of us have a responsibility too.
The farm, the idea of taking care of ones self and sourcing as much product as one can on their own and recycling the by-products in such a way it become a product that will help in the production of something else. The ideas of reducing the need for nation wide buying and selling on a myth that this is the only way to feed the world. Growth for the sake of growth. Environmental deterioration? With an end goal to what? Leave this earth and do it again?
This is a mentality I chose to exit not on a personal ground, but on a necessary ground for us all. The concept of taking care of ones self with a local love and barter creates this option. Wars, famen, overgrown government, insane technology, multiple military industrial complexes existing in the bounds of single countries all threaten a free and independent way of life which I believe is guaranteed when one considers "The Rights of Man".
This Blog and this farm is all about the big idea, the big reality, there is another way.
all my life I've been waiting for
I've been praying for
for the people to say
that we don't wanna fight no more
there'll be no more wars
and our children will play
Headline:"Sorry Locavores, Sustainable Meat Is a Myth"
This article could not be more incorrect, It highlights the small minded perspective of the careless.
WRONG!!! IRRESPONSIBLE WRONG!!!
I chose to blog on this article today because it represents every reason why I believe the revolution dose not exist in the hearts and minds of "presidential" voters. It lies in the hearts and minds of the vote that really determines this countries direction, your dollar bills. 1$ = 1vote.
This article goes on to highlight the higher carbon and the amount of land it would take to raise the nations beef at the current rate of consumption and considering one only option, further growth.
Are we not as a society already well aware we need to change course to have a better balanced neighbor to neighbor situation. Weather examining within the confines of a single country, or talking countries working together on a global scale, this is very apparent.
In the US we over consume on a mass scale and waste is through the roof! We also pay the smallest price for out food due to government intervention or subsidies. Mr. McDonald decided every American needed a cheese burger for a buck and could care less what the impact to the farmer, the market, or the consumer subject to all kinds of things as a result. Fats, over portion diet, greases, preservatives, fillers, and so on can all be blamed as contributing to society deterioration.
Now imagine this author actually opened his mind and was not writing this article for a pat on the head from Purdue, Tyson, Monsanto, and all the other big farm-a gangsters. Imagine he put down a real perspective of hey, it seems people really want to react to their conscious and do whats right for the animal and for themselves. For those who don't care? Well they have to pay directly to a local farmer the real cost of food. If they don't care they will probably just pull into McDonald's and leave plenty of the good food for us who do care I suppose.
How ever you look at it I believe this is a very one track mind author and this exposes the propaganda factor we face as a farming nation with aims and ethos outside of the lunatic mad scientist who have hijacked the most important elements of life.. Food, Water, Shelter, Sun or Light. We are the many and we can change this situation.
Visit your local farms and VOTE VOTE VOTE. 1$ = 1vote. Encourage any opportunity to invest or finance to encourage this as well weather you buy the food or FUND THE FARM! Seek out the like minded atmosphere which is one of health, consciousness, good hearts, sustainable minds, and recycling attitudes.
This is only the beginning folks. I am farming to change my world, which can change the world! STAY TUNED! Permaculter a billion strong here we come!
Update from Columbus, OH --> Last night was a cold one! We dipped down to freezing temperatures but no visible frost this morning at 5am when I was taking down the trash. I did cover up the set of freshly planted seeds I showed you in the last blog. I am growing 24 hops seeds and loads of veggies. So there survival is a high priority of mine!
The rest of this week shows 60's and 70's with no threat of freezing temperatures at night. It is April and we are known to get a frost as late as end of May. I'm playing a bit of roulette but I always have a garage and heat source to retreat too if needed.
Like water I hope to become anything I am placed into. Like water I hope to go where I am suppose to go! Happy Trails everyone!
Hello world! I am Kimberly Creamer. PJ, who has been running this blog this far is my husband. I will be blogging on here as well as I am of course apart of the farm =) I will use this to relay my ideas, inspirations, and creativity in helping this farm develop and seed opportunities for us to be artistic and tasteful in our approach to bringing a new style to this world. This farm is full of potential I wish to embrace and relay to you here! Above is a wine bottle tree! Very neat and very make-able!
So in the previous blog I showed how I built my worm bin. This is what was left at the bottom of my 5 gallon bucket after dumping my worm ball in my bin. I did not put a drainage hole in this bucket due to the short period of time I was to have the worms in there.
I took the small bit of liquid waste and the nice fine layer of "worm paste" Ill call it, I added a little water just to add some substance and that is what your looking at.
I then took my hose and squirt water into this bucket at a high rate. My hopes are that I am adding oxygen to the worm juice, compost tea water.
Next I took this mixture and evenly applied it to this years sprouting crop for my garden. I then sprayed them down with the hose. I do not want this mixture to be too concentrated. You can always add more but you cant take any away if too much and burning out a plant. The other mess of things you see next to the crop on the ground are my soon to be planted Red Cannis bulbs and one giant of a Elephant Ear bulb.
And for the finally, my garden plot tilled and mulched with grass clippings. Ready for this frost and cold nights to end and all my little ones to sprout! Have a wonderful day everyone!~
Hey there! PJ's shadow here! I had an exallent day Monday! No blog due to loads of fun out door work. I did ALOT of planting. Traditionally we still get frost this time of year in Ohio (all the way to the end of May). I am hoping I can keep all the little ones safe with tarps and such as it has been on MILD winter in Ohio. As a matter of fact I think it missed us all together. Ill detail more later on the planting project.
For now I wanted to show you my other project that took quite some time and energy. Well spent of course! My worm box is up and fully operational! I took quite a few pics so I could share with all of you what I did!
Here is the worm bin I built. It consists of a simple plastic storage bin with lid that I had around from storing cloths. An old cleaning bucket you can barley see. Its under the contraption and meant to collect worm juice and compost tea. I bought a handful of something smaller than a 2"x4". But bigger than a 1"x2". Ahh the mystery wood! I then cut it down into this simple rack that allows for an incline when the box is placed in the rack and also allows for room to collect juice below.
This is the next step: Drill holes in bottom of container. I used a 1/2 inch bit for this. I wanted plenty of room for worm juice and compost tea to flow. However, not enough room for worms or droppings to leak out.
Now I moved this near it final resting place. Once you add all the ingredients this thing is HEAVY! Be advised, build your rack well or you will end up with quite the mess.
I now add the first layer which is shredded news paper to act as a "worm bed" and also keep contents in the bin and out of drain holes.
Pictured above is two shots in my bin showing the paper first shredded paper layer but a nifty idea I came up with I have not seen out on the net in the instructions Ive reviewed. Ive taken some simple stones I found while tilling my garden and placed them over the drain. This will keep the soil and worms in and provide a nice flow area hopefully to maximize my worm juice and compost tea harvest.
Next I added some good soil from my well established compost pile I have been keeping now for four years. All sorts of good things for worms to thrive on there!
I then gathered some hay which was used last Halloween/Harvest season to sit on at the fire and now lays next to the fence unused and breaking down a bit. This will provide a good layer to retain moisture and break down as well. Ive seen many use leaves and twigs on this layer as well. I just wanted to get rid of this Hay!
Next I added some undesirables. I've got a combination of weeds, old rotten mushrooms, dog waste, vegetable trimmings and other rotatable organic goodies.The worms do not like citrus or acidic waste so a small amount of attention is required.
On top of the waste I shredded some more news paper. This time I wet
it down with two full watering jars (the one you see pictured, which is
about 2 cups).
Next comes another layer of my composted dirt and spent hay. This should provide for an overall good environment to establish a worm box.
Now its time to play with some WORMS! Red Wigglers I have been prepping for about two weeks now to be exact. I put the basic mixture into this 5 gallon bucket that I did in the big bin we built above. I filled it too the top. I put my finger in here to show that it is now down to a little over half I started with.
This tells me they like my strategy as to what I'm putting in their environment. They are also a very active colony and survived shipping! This is a pouch of 2000 worms I ordered online for 20$ through Amazon.com. Check em out they have quite a few options.
What you see above is the ball that rolled out of my bucket when dumped into my worm bin to introduce the worms. Nice and solid and the worms have eaten most everything!
Oh yes there is a video! Way to be creative, eh? These are my worms and the Bin. I wanted to show the drip drain and how the rocks I added in the bin at the beginning are working as expected! Success!
I did not break up the worms much. Just enough to show the camera. I read not to break them up but rather to just place a piece of wet news paper on top of them and allow them to disperse naturally over a period of two days. Better for the colony? They have the experience. So for now Ill listen to them!
For the final step to finish off my bin I added a simple layer of news paper and it took about one of my containers or two cups of water to wet the surface and I closed it up with the lid. Boy was this heavy! Moving it back under the roof was a challenge but my stand held up! I am officially worm farming folks!
Thanks for reading! I hope you have enjoyed. I will be updating every Friday on what the current status with my worm box is. I will include good pictures, possibly a video, and we will dig and get dirty together while finding out what is going on with these worms!
If you have any suggestions, ideas, or questions please submit them below as comments. Id be happy to respond and can use all the help I can get.
