Jim and I were just talking about how much we've learned about rural life in the past two years. That's how long we've been here on our farm, putting into practice what we've read and heard about. 

In past years there have been a few other opportunities for gardening and livestock in our life. Each little piece of land taught us something more.

Though we're settlers at heart, life has moved us from place to place.

On our last piece of acreage we had horses. Jim built a barn and a riding arena. We were just getting our garden and a few fruit trees in place when it was time to move to another state.

Years before that we were on another little farm where we had beef cattle and a big garden. Chickens were to be our next project, but guess what? We got a new assignment, and across the ocean we went.

In between, we lived in suburban and urban settings where we tried to grow a few veggies when possible and at least were able to prepare fresh homemade food in our kitchen. All the while, we kept learning and dreaming.

The beginning of our learning curve was way back in the 1970s, and I can remember exactly who was our greatest inspiration.   

Jim was working in the business world, and I was a young mom enjoying homemaking and doing a lot of things the old fashioned way. My parents and grandparents had modeled and taught me a life that included things homegrown and handmade. I was really in touch with that part of my gene pool.

One day my mom saw an interesting guest on a TV talk show. This young woman had put together a publication about living a lifestyle close to the land. Her publication couldn’t really be called a book, as it was an unbound bundle of mimeographed pages. She was offering copies of it for sale, and she promised to mail succeeding additions to the material to subscribers.

Mom told me about the interview and the publication for sale. But she went a step further and ordered a set for me. I received the most wonderful bunch of information in a 3-ring binder. I devoured it. And little by little, new chapters full of more information were added.

The title of that publication? An Old Fashioned Recipe Book by Carla Emery. You may recognize Carla’s name. As she added more material, the growing bundle of pages became much more than a recipe book. Eventually she combined it all into a book that was published with a new name: The Encyclopedia of Country Living.

Jim and I referred to that notebook often as we tried out new techniques in my home and garden. Carla’s granola became a staple in our pantry. I learned to make yogurt, peanut butter, mayonnaise, and many other concoctions. Jim and I also read her sections on livestock while deciding what to raise on our first acreage.

My tattered, food-stained, and fingerprinted original copies of Carla’s book are long gone, probably misplaced during one of our moves or accidentally discarded during a purging of clutter. But I have gifted two of my kids with the recently published bound version. 

Though Carla passed away several years ago, her legacy lives on in our family and many others--perhaps including yours!!

At our family website Rural Living Today, we've posted a list of other valuable references that have helped us along the way. Check them out here.  

Maybe you'll find a new favorite among them! 

I’ve always had a fascination and love for birds. I was just a young child when my dad began to teach me how to identify various birds native to our region. Throughout my life I’ve enjoyed watching birds and figuring out which ones I saw in the backyard or at parks and campgrounds.

The tiny little hummingbird has always been a favorite. Shortly after we bought our rural property, I was surprised but delighted to discover that our forested acreage was populated by three different varieties of hummers.

Our first forest hummingbird sighting took place several years ago when we camped while developing our property. One day I noticed something darting around one of the red reflector lights at the top of our trailer. Before long there were three hummingbirds investigating that odd-looking rectangular hard plastic “flower.”

A few years later, when we were to be here for most of the summer, I hung some hummingbird feeders around the trailer and picnic canopy. The fun began.

The social order around the feeders was interesting. Sometimes birds would fight over territory. Other times it looked like a tea party as several birds peacefully sat in a circle sipping their sweet beverage.

I have to confess I spent many hours watching those birds. With my trusty field guide at hand, I identified calliope, black-chinned, and rufous hummingbirds dining outside the kitchen window.

Attracting hummingbirds 

Hummingbirds will fly anywhere looking for food and will remain where food sources are found. Even better (and amazing): they will return year after year. As they move through their annual migration, hummingbirds pass through our area every year from spring through summer.

There are two ways to attract hummingbirds to your yard or garden. One is to provide nectar-producing flowers, bushes, and trees. The other is to hang hummingbird feeders full of nectar made from sugar and water.

As I learned at our campsite several years ago, anything red will attract hummingbirds. For this reason, red blossoms and red feeder parts will catch their attention. However, hummers will find and drink nectar from blossoms of many colors and sip from feeders with no red on them.

Flowering plants

Following is a list of some plants favored by hummingbirds. Some are native plants that could be transplanted or introduced into your yard. Seeds and starter plants of other varieties can be purchased online and at local garden supply outlets.

It is thought that many hybrids no longer provide the same nectar that existed in the parent plants, so I focus on heirloom and local native varieties.

Aster, Azalea, Bee balm, Bleeding heart, Butterfly bush, Clarkia, Columbine, Coral bells, Cosmos, Crabapple, Dahlia, Delphinium, Fuschia, Annual Geranium (Pelargonium), Gladiola, Hollyhock, Honeysuckle, Impatiens, Iris, Lavender, Lupine, Marigold, Nasturtium, Penstemon, Petunia, Red-flowering currant, Sage, Salmonberry, Scabiosa, Scarlet runner bean, Snapdragon, Sweet William, Verbena, Weigela, Yarrow, Zinnia.

Feeders

There are many kinds of hummingbird feeders on the market, available at garden centers, discount stores, and even at art boutiques. Most commercial feeders have some red parts to attract the hummers. If there's not enough color on the feeder, a red plastic flower or ribbon can be attached to draw more attention.

If you have lots of hummingbirds, I recommend buying the largest feeders you can to avoid constant refilling during the summer. Some high-use days, our 2-cup feeders are empty by afternoon. Of course they don’t have to be refilled right away, but the sight of hungry hummers fruitlessly checking each and every hole in a feeder just tugs at my heartstrings.

The caveat of having a large feeder is that the sugar solution should be replaced every four days or so, whether or not the feeder is empty. If there isn’t enough traffic for a large feeder, a small one may be a better choice. Or, hang a large feeder only partly full of nectar during slow periods.

Some say that if you let your feeders go empty, the hummingbirds will leave and not return. I have not had that experience. Many times our feeders have gone dry for days, and when we filled them again, the hummers returned. I suspect they just go find some natural food sources while waiting for the cafe to reopen.

Tiny hummingbirds have delicate digestive systems and can be adversely affected by bacteria, molds, and fungi. Feeders should be cleaned frequently to avoid the growth of these organisms and to clear out ants and other debris. It’s a good idea to wash with dish soap and water each time the feeder is refilled, rinsing with white vinegar to sanitize.

Recipe for success 

There’s no need to purchase hummingbird nectar, as it’s simple and inexpensive to make at home with just water and granulated white sugar.  

There are three precautions to take.

• Use a 1:4 proportion of sugar to water to ensure the hummingbirds get the nutrients they need.
• Use only granulated white sugar—no brown sugar, honey, syrups, or artificial sweeteners.
• Do not add any food coloring or dye to the solution.

Thin or overly sweet nectar, other sweeteners, and food coloring all have the potential to cause illness or malnutrition in the birds.

To make a batch of hummingbird nectar, measure out 1 part granulated white sugar to 4 parts water. If you want 4 cups of nectar, use 1 cup of sugar and 4 cups of water. For 2 cups of nectar, use 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 cups of water.

Bring the water to a boil. Then stir in the sugar to dissolve it, and set the pot aside to cool. Fill feeders and hang where the hummers can find them.

Leftover nectar may be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for longer storage. I usually make enough to fill my feeders once and make at least one round of refills.

No matter how you feed them, enjoy those tiny little birds around your home and yard—and even in the barnyard and forest! 

My family and I are constantly learning new skills and tweaking old ones as we develop and work on our fairly new farm. You can read about more of our experiences, ideas, and lessons learned at our blog Rural Living Today. 

Hi all! My name is Callie. I'm a Maremma Sheepdog - one of the breeds called livestock guardian dogs.

This is me when I was a puppy. Everyone thought I looked like a little lamb. Wasn't I just adorable?

Last month my brother Augie was interviewed for our mom’s GRIT blog. Now it is my turn to talk!

Augie told everyone a lot about livestock guardian dogs, but what I really want to tell you is what we do all day.

First, I have to tell you that my day is not like the day of every livestock guardian dog. That is because we all have different jobs, depending on where we live and who we live with.

Most LGDs (that’s short for livestock guardian dogs) have more animals than Augie and I have. They also have bigger animals than ours.

Sheep and goats are the most common friends of LGDs. Some LGDs have horses, cows, pigs, alpacas, or poultry. Usually the dogs live with the animals and stay in the pasture with them. Those that have several types of animals to watch over may make their rounds from pen to pen.

Some LGDs don’t even have any animals - they just have people to guard. Augie and I know a nice retired mama LGD who now has the job of watching the farm owners’ children. She goes with them wherever they are playing around their farm.

See, there are two main reasons people get LGDs to live at their farms. One is to live with livestock and guard them from predators - that’s what most LGDs do. The second reason is to guard the property and prevent intruders from entering it. Augie and I? We do both.

Our parents brought Augie and me home because coyotes, bears and cougars roam through their property. Our job is to make sure those wild animals don’t come in our four-acre fenced area. Dad and Mom wanted dogs with courage to relentlessly keep those big predators away, whether or not we had livestock at our farm.

So Augie and I came here to protect our property, the people that live and visit here, and whatever livestock is inside our fences.

Here's another picture of me ... how did they know I'd been snooping in the fire pit ashes? I thought I looked totally innocent!

Before we arrived our parents got some chickens so we would have some livestock to guard. But we also bonded quickly to our human mom and dad. Don’t tell them, but we consider them our sheep.

Mom and Dad have eight grownup kids and thirteen grandkids. We’ve bonded with all of them, and now they are our sheep too.

There are some friends who come here a lot and others that have come only once. But we always remember them, even if we haven’t seen them for a long time. And when they are here, we will take care of them.

Sometimes new chickens come, and sometimes the ones we had will leave us. A few weeks ago Augie and I got some pigs to guard too. We are still getting used to them.

When I was little, I found some cool places to rest.

Well, let me tell you about my day now! It’s hard to say when my day starts, because LGDs are really on duty 24/7. We dognap (I don’t know why someone named naps after the feline species) off and on but we are always ready to jump into action at a moment’s notice.

But let’s start with the morning. That's when Augie and I are usually the most tired. We have been very busy during the night, so we rest a lot in the morning. One or both of us gets up now and then to patrol our perimeters, peek in on our chickens and pigs, and say good morning to any of our people that are out and about.

We like to walk around with our dad and mom (always hoping for a pat on the head, a scratch behind the ears, or a belly rub). We bark at the free-range chickens that try to eat our kibble. We sniff the air if an aroma is drifting by, and we bark if we hear a strange car coming up the road.

Many times a day we do our patrol routine. We walk along the fence line and mark it, if you know what I mean. This lets other animals know that we are in charge here. We cross our fenced area through the orchard and around the garden.

When we came to our new home, Augie taught me how to patrol our fences. We both learned from our moms and other Maremmas, but Augie continued to teach me.

We circle around the pig paddock and the chicken pen and make sure everyone’s doing fine. If there’s a problem, we take care of it if we can. When a chicken is feeling under the weather, we will lie next to it till it feels better. Sometimes a chicken just doesn’t get better and we wait for a person to come and take it away.

Augie and I walk all around the utility barn where our parents live. No, they are not animals, but their house is inside the barn. We have never been inside our family’s house. Sometimes we look in the window to check on them. Once in a while if the door is open we will stick our heads inside and look around, but Augie and I always keep our feet outside on the porch.

We walk through the barn and check it out. If there’s a mouse we can catch, we will do it. If we can’t catch it, we will bark at it. A lot. Sometimes a pen of baby chicks is in the barn and we say hello to them. I know they feel safer knowing we are there.

In between patrols, we like to rest some more. We also eat our kibble when our dad brings it, and we drink lots and lots of water. But sometimes we’re just not hungry for dog food because we dined on rodents during our patrol walks.

Our work load is light during the day, because most of the threatening predators sleep during the day. Occasionally some deer or wild turkeys get close to our fences, but we bark at them. We also bark at the neighbors’ cows.

Here we are, a couple of sentries patrolling our perimeter.

When evening comes, Augie and I are well-rested and ready for a busy night. This is when we really shine. Nights can be exhausting, but they’re very exhilarating.

First of all, we pick up our patrol schedule during the night. We make more frequent perimeter walks, and we stop and bark at any smell or sound outside.

Almost every night, a pack of coyotes walks across our property down below our fenced area. We are always vigilant, visible and audible so they know we are the bosses. They keep on going but sometimes they pause to test us. Not for long though - they get the message real quickly. No free chicken dinners at this farm!

Though the coyotes still cross our property, our family has not seen any sign of bears or cougars close to our fenced area since Augie and I have been here. That’s because we do our job so well!

After a long night of patrolling and barking, Augie and I are ready for a break. That’s when our morning begins - and the daily routine starts all over again.

LGDs that live with sheep and goats have a similar routine, but they do some other things that are really cool. Some of them get to help when babies are born! They will stay near the mamas and keep other animals away to give her privacy. An LGD will help keep the first baby warm and dry while the mama is delivering a second one. When the babies get older, the LGDs watch out for the little ones and even let them climb all over them. So they get to be midwives and nannies.

Here I am all grown up, a fine example of a livestock guardian dog.

If you’d like to know more about livestock guardians, you can read about us at our family’s blog Rural Living Today. Here is a post on Livestock Guardian Animals (LGDs, donkeys, and llamas). And this one is about the fine, intelligent, hard-working, brave, beautiful, wonderful, charming, dynamic, modest dogs like me: Livestock Guardian Dogs.

Thanks for stopping by! I have to go congratulate that hen that is singing her egg song. Why do they always want to tell the world that they laid an egg? Chickens!

Last week I showed you some new plant life around our farm. Today we’ll put some cute critters on display.

Though our goal with livestock is mostly to produce food for our extended family, we do enjoy the animals while they’re here. We give them a good life and appreciate their contribution to our tables.

Our grandkids know what the livestock is for, but they still like to give the critters names. Some, like the docile chickens, are cuddled, held, and carried about day after day. Others, such as the squirmy piglets, are admired from a distance.

Life on the farm has taught the grandkids a lot about the cycle of life—the wonder of eggs hatching, the sadness of loss, the enjoyment of animal personalities. And the grandkids all relish the eggs and meat they help produce.

Prior to moving here, our livestock experience was limited to beef cattle and horses. Two years ago we started out with hatchery chicks, raising up laying hens and meat birds. Now that we have the chicken raising down pat, we’re adding pork production to the farm.

ONE LITTLE, TWO LITTLE PIGGIES
 

Last month we brought home these two adorable little piglets; next week we’ll pick up four more. We promptly named them Bacon and Sausage so we won’t be distracted by their cuteness and forget their purpose.

We decided to start them out in a brushy area and see if they really are “pigatillers” as some call them. They’ve already made noticeable progress! We have them in portable electric netting, which is great for rotational grazing of any type of livestock. When they’ve chomped up all the plants in this area, we’ll just move them on to the next section.

The vegetation is really just snack food for the piggies--they eat lots of hog feed too. But we’re told that consumption of plants makes the meat taste better. The fresh grass and weeds will increase its nutritional value as well.

Piglets grow quickly—these two are rounder and taller than when they arrived. For shelter we started them out in a chicken tractor that’s just 24” tall, but they’ll need some new digs soon. For the first week or so they were hiding out in the tractor or in tall brush most of the time. But lately they’ve been brave enough to come up and watch us from behind the fence.
 

HERE A CHICK, THERE A CHICK, EVERYWHERE A CHICK CHICK

We really don't have any chicks yet, but three of our mamas are giving us hope! Last year we had our first “farm births” when we hatched chicks in an incubator and a couple of hens did it the old-fashioned way. This year we’re trying both methods again.

These two banties are team brooding—snuggled together and jointly covering five eggs. They are hoping to hear some peeping from their nest before long. Hedwig (a white Silkie) and Pigwidgeon (a Dark Brahma) have both sat on eggs independently before, but this is the first time I’ve seen a pair brood together like this! Hedwig hatched one chick last year; Piggy has tried unsuccessfully three times.

The pair started out in the coop nesting box, which is 36” above the floor. That’s fine for setting, but once baby chicks start moving around it could be dangerous. It would be a long fall for a little chick that can’t fly. So as their “due date” approached I moved the hens into a little nest box of their own that sits on the floor of the coop.

We use dog crates of three sizes for chickens—for giving mamas privacy, brooding hatchery chicks, isolating ill or injured birds, and hauling broilers to the processing area. This medium size crate is just right for two mamas “attached at the wing.”

 

This trio totally surprised me on a recent visit to the chicken coop.  

 

April, the colored broiler hen in the middle, is broody, sitting on a clutch of eggs. Her two Buff Orpington friends, Yolk and Kelly, were just stopping by for their daily visit. The three of them just barely fit in the nest box. After Yolk and Kelly left, April the broody scooped their eggs under her tummy.

Unlike the “team broodies” who were in a nest box used by only a few other hens, April was in a well-frequented community nest. From the start I marked the eggs April is brooding so I can remove the other eggs. Every time I checked she was sitting on a clutch of eggs but some were off to the side. More than once, one or two of her original eggs was in with the newly laid eggs.

April is just one year old, and this is her first brooding experience. I think she was confused about how to handle her eggs when it’s so tempting to add the other hens’ eggs. I thought she’d do better in a private nest so no one else will lay eggs nearby.

So April moved to a dog crate tucked inside a small chicken tractor in one of the outdoor runs. She will have a private nursery when the chicks hatch. For now she can go stretch her legs in the run on her daily break. The other hens are excluded from this run to give April privacy, but they can visit through the fences.

Here you can see the maternity suite as Mama takes her daily stroll. 

 

So this summer we will be raising both chickens and pigs. Next year? Hopefully some beef cows will grace our pastures. We keep learning and trying new things. It’s good exercise for our minds and our bodies.

And did I mention that we love this rural life? At our family's blog Rural Living Today we encourage others who want to give it a try. 

Spring is a time for fresh beginnings and new life. We have a few little sprouts around our homestead. 

We really enjoy gardening, growing flowers, veggies, and fruit. This is the third summer since we moved here full time. The first year we concentrated on finishing our house while we lived in a trailer. Last summer we planted some fruit trees, built a large raised planting bed, and put in a small garden. 

This year, we're expanding...just a bit. 

 

The tomato plants we started in a storage closet are looking great! Well, maybe we got a little carried away with varieties. We like to have all sizes and types of tomatoes: some for sauce and paste, some big slicers for hamburgers and sandwiches, and some medium salad-size. And of course we love the teeny ones, so we have currant and cherry tomatoes. A friend suggested using purple tomatoes to deepen the color of sauce and paste, so we have a couple of those too.

Sweet and hot peppers and some other assorted plants are smaller but getting a good start. It will be a few more weeks before we can safely plant them outdoors without shelter. If you’re thinking about starting some seeds for summer planting, here are descriptions of how our daughter made her similar simple and inexpensive system: the shelf and light setup and the heat mats made of Christmas lights and rope lights.  It's a big improvement over last year's windowsill operation.

Our orchard is taking shape! Unfortunately, due to deer, gophers, frolicking dogs, and some planting errors, we lost several of the fruit trees we put in last year. We replaced some of the trees this month and are watching some other weak ones that are—amazingly--sprouting new buds. Some of them I was sure were lost for good…but they have heart! This little guy is giving it all he has.The damaged trees that recover will just be a few years behind the others when it’s time to bear fruit.

We took a country drive to a local vineyard to buy grape, raspberry, and blackberry plants. Here are the raspberries and blackberries; several types of table and wine grapes are planted next to them. We’ll also plant blueberries and gooseberries. Strawberries are growing in a raised bed in the garden area. Is there anything like a juicy berry, warmed just right by the sun? Mmm!

 

What’s sprouting at your place?