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Author Archives: lee
And then there were 26
Our new chickens were 10 weeks old on Sunday. After raising them this far without incident, today we had the first loss. Robin went out to feed the chickens in the “victims pen” and found one of her two favorite … Continue reading
Posted in Livestock
14 Comments
Windows are overrated
For the last two days our house has looked like this: Don’t worry. We aren’t going to leave it like that! This front wall had foam insulation and new sheathing applied to the outside (because the front door position precludes … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation
9 Comments
Rebuilding a BCS two-wheel tractor
We decided to buy a tiller this year in the hopes that we can spend less time preparing garden beds by hand and more time working on the house. Yes, this goes against my enthusiasm for digging hoes, but time … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening
17 Comments
That time of year
It’s that time of year when Oregon weather is playing dice with our fruit trees. We’ll have a few 40°F nights, and then a few 34°F nights. One night it dropped to 33°F just to keep us guessing. One of … Continue reading
Posted in Forages, Gardening, Nature
13 Comments
Complete Costs of Raising Pigs
This post is the long-promised summary of the costs and yield of raising two pigs for meat. I collected as much data as possible throughout the whole process with the hope of compiling a more complete picture than is often … Continue reading
Posted in Livestock
44 Comments
At last!
We’ve been looking for the perfect egg basket for almost 2 years now. Most of them are either too large (6-dozen egg capacity), or too expensive ($20 for welded wire … I think not!). We finally found this perfectly sized … Continue reading
Posted in Livestock
13 Comments
Our pigs were 8% bacon
We’re still crunching numbers to put together the final breakdown post, but I thought I’d share a few observations in no particular order. All numbers are based on hanging weight (our butcher leaves the head on compared to the normal … Continue reading
Posted in Livestock
11 Comments
Pig roundup: Lessons learned
When you tell people you are going to raise pigs, it seems that everyone has an opinion. “Did you know pigs can eat people?” “They’ll tunnel under your fence and escape.” “You need a barn for pigs.” “Pigs wreck the … Continue reading
Posted in Livestock
17 Comments
Dogage disposal system
Since the pigs are gone, there’s a serious risk that vegetable scraps could start piling up in the kitchen. Thankfully, we have a pair of highly efficient biological garbage disposal units. To activate disposal, drop a scrap of vegetable on … Continue reading
Posted in Pets
13 Comments
A new theme for a new year
Robin and I have been working on a new website theme for the last two weeks, and it’s finally online tonight. We hope the new theme will make the site easier to read and more interactive. Some of the key … Continue reading
Posted in General
17 Comments