Category: providence (Page 10 of 24)

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Chicken Hatchings of 2017 6th-8th

September 28, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

The Lord graciously granted another three chicken hatchings of 2017, the 6th, 7th and 8th!

Here’s group 6. I believe the hen hatched out 8:

In this group, there was one that had trouble with one of its legs, and would stick it out straight back — you can get a good look at it how it was in the video below. Well, in our experience, a good way to try to help with that is to put binders on its legs, where you use a thin piece of duct tape and wrap each end around each leg, which helps keep the legs together, with the idea that the good leg will help guide the bad one into what it’s supposed to do correctly (like us being yoked to Christ! Matt. 11:29 – “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.“).

At first, it was too small for the good leg to overpower the bad one, but as the good leg strengthened, I was able to attach the binder, and it did seem to help. You can see the binders on it in the video as well.

Today, she (which is what it appears it turned out to be) is still going, and able to get around fairly well, which we also show in the video.

And then, here is group 7. The mama was a hatchling from I believe a couple of years ago, and she originally hatched out 11. But…

I can’t remember exactly how this went, one day I did a count, and only saw 10, but thought perhaps I had just miscounted originally. Some time later, I walked in, and there was one dead, and only 7 alive, which means another 2 were missing. What was going on? I looked around in the summer kitchen pantry there, and sure enough, I found a snake in the corner, picked it up, and there was a chick-sized lump in its belly. Arg! And bummer. I don’t know how it got in there, as I had been purposefully keeping the main doors of the summer kitchen closed just because of this snake issue (we’ve had trouble like that before) — maybe it got in through a small hole in external OSB, but it seems it would have had to do that when it was smaller.

Anyway, after getting the snake out of there, the other 7 are still going strong!

And this is group 8. 6 or 7 hatched out, 1 or 2 died, but the other 5 are still also doing well!

And here is a video of all 3 groups:

Once again, we are very grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions, and for His mercy on the ones He allowed us to keep. They are all His chickens to do with as He pleases, and we are just thankful He has allowed us any. May they be used for His glory!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Tasha’s Turkey Chick of 2017

August 31, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 4 Comments

One thing we’ve discovered with our turkey hens is that they like to make nests out in the woods, and so when one doesn’t come back at night, we go looking for it where we have seen them about during the day, or try to find them the next day, and thanks to the Lord we have often been able to find them, usually with broken eggs around them, as the critters get to them if they’re left, most likely over night.

Well, our brown hen, Haddie, from last year’s hatching from Trina disappeared. We could not find her, and she didn’t show up at all again around the homestead, as they often do at least in the morning before going back to sit.

One day when going back into the woods to cut fire wood, I saw a bunch of what appeared to be turkey feathers, and tracked them along a path. Sadly, it appeared she was taken out by some critter, although she moved quite a bit before the feather trail stopped, so she gave it a go. And so, we lost Haddie, and we miss her.

However, we were able to find our other new hen from last year, Tasha, with maybe 8-10 eggs under her, so we grabbed her and them and put them in the summer kitchen.

And by God’s graciousness, she hatched out three new little live turklets! (That’s what I call them, like I might call a chicken chick a chicklet 🙂 ). Sadly here though, two of them died when fairly young, but we do have the one left, who at the time of this writing is about 2/3 the size of her mommy now! We believe she is a hen as well, she looks a lot like Tasha, and we’ve decided to call her Halia, in honor of Haddie — the “Ha” from the start of her name, and that “Halia” apparently means “Remembrance of a loved one” in Hawaiian.

Here the pair are back in June:

And here is a video of them in the summer kitchen, and then when we released them to be free:

Finally, turkeys do silly things, and here’s a video example, with Lil Hank from last year’s hatching tapping on the screen and saying hello through the house window…while perched on a sawhorse!

As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions, and the health and safety He did grant to any of them! It’s only of His will, graces and mercies we are supplied with anything, where we deserve nothing, and even to have them taken away for sin. And so, we are very grateful!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2017 Goat Kids

August 24, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 6 Comments

The results of breeding time 2016 are in and gone now, and so we thought we’d introduce you to 2017’s goat kids!

First, this is our buck Rocky. Even with a leg injury, he’s still able to get the job done!

And our new buck Shakespeare…first round with our does for him. He’s shown dragging a stick so he doesn’t jump the fences. Also, we had him dehorned because they appeared to be growing over themselves and causing him grief, although the dehorning operation was quite some experience, where after numbing the area, the vet used a cord saw to saw through, Shakespeare screaming the whole time…arg…and just wow. Because the sinus cavity extents into the horn, he then sutchered head skin over one hole, but didn’t have much for the other one; and so, we’ve been keeping it wrapped or covered with antiseptic and triple antibiotic gel when necessary. Thankfully, it’s slowly healing:

Here are some pictures from some of them earlier in the year:

And then let’s go around the horn, introducing each doe & her kids…

This is Pammy, with her kids Toro and Pablo. We thought Toro looked like a tiny Longhorn bull, and then kept the Spanish naming idea for his brother:

And here is Adeline, with her kids Leah, because she looks like her mommy, and we took the “L” from her name; and Arielle, because her coloring was black/grey/black and reminded me of an Oreo cookie, and so we used the “A” from her mom’s name as well:

And then this is Annie with her kids Paula and Linus. Paula, because she looks like Pablo, and Linus because he looks like Adeline and we just used the “L” from her name:

This is Gracie with her doeling Dottie, because she has a dot on her nose. Gracie had a buckling too, but he sadly died in less than a day. Gracie started having rumen problems at the time she gave birth, so Sue faithfully bottle-fed Dottie in a partial manner to help supplement:

This is Hannah with her kids Cicely and Bison. Where the black comes from, we have no idea, since Shakespeare was the daddy. The buckling looked like a Bison to us, so we started there, and then went with Cicely to kind of match. Bison was interestingly born three hours after Cicely, and Hannah ended up basically rejecting him, not letting him suckle, so Sue picked up this job too:

Next is Lucy with DeForest, William and Leonard. Lucy was first to go this year:

Lucy & New Kids DeForest, William & Leonard

And this is Nellie with her kids Ricky and Nelson. We started with Nelson because he looked like his mama, and then added the Ricky. Sadly, Nellie had a still-born, but these two were just fine:

Here is Marie with her kids Maxine, Laverne and Patty. Little Laverne next to her was quite spunky. Sue started to supplement bottle-feed her too the last few weeks, just because she was so small. If you look, where did Patty, the white one in front, come from since Marie’s mate each year is Rocky? We weren’t sure Rocky was getting the job done, so for a very short period of time, we put Shakespeare in with her. Well, it appears both bucks got to her! 🙂 :

Marie & New Kids Maxine, Laverne & Patty

And finally, her highness Winnie with her kids Shelly, Shelton, and Della. The two “Sh” names because they look like Shakespeare, and Della for the “D” in Adeline, whom she looks like:

Winnie & New Kids Shelly, Shelton & Della

And here is their video for the year, including the goodbye as they went to their new owner, and a few snippets after that — look for Annie at the end showing off fine goat behavior!

We are always very thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions of the goat kids, and our buyer friend to come get them each year. And we are thankful for the milk from them, which we are able now to use, along with eggs, exclusively to feed our pig. And thanks to Sue for your faithful milk collecting!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 4th & 5th Chick Hatchings of 2017

June 26, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

The Lord recently graciously granted another two hatchings for 2017, the 4th and 5th!

This first group is a little interesting: there were a couple of mama hens sitting on eggs in the barn, and one day I walked in, and heard little chick sounds, and behind the dog kennel there were two chicks and the two mothers walking around. Oh boy…gotta round them up before William our cat sees them! So, I caught the two chicks and picked one of the moms and put them in the summer kitchen. And then if I remember correctly, I think something was wrong with that mom — she was being hurtful or something to the chicks and so I went and got the other mom and swapped them out. And things worked better with her.

Then, the first mama went back to sitting on eggs and a couple of days later, there was a chick sound under her! But, I didn’t want to set her aside with just one chick if possible, so I took this third one and put it with the first two, hoping the mama wouldn’t reject it, and she didn’t, and so here are the three she’s been taking care of:

And then, I put the other mama and the rest of the eggs she was sitting on in the barn in the mini chicken tractor, and then she hatched out two more!

And here is a video of both groups:

As always, we are very thankful to God for providing these offspring and provisions!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2017’s First Three Chick Hatchings

May 23, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

Spring time generally means new life time, and the Lord has graciously granted our first three hatchings of chickens this year!

This is group #1, 9 hatched and 9 still going!

And this is group #2 in the mini chicken tractor, 7 hatched here and all still healthy!

And this is group #3. This was a more interesting one, in that, the first mommy sat a whole brooding cycle and nothing hatched out. And so, we put under her another dozen eggs. She made it two weeks (out of the three-week cycle), became unbroody, and chicken-scratched her eggs all over. Well, we got her out of there and put on the eggs another broody hen we had, and she’s the one that finished them out. She hatched out 4 in total, but sadly the 4th little tiny one I think got stepped on as it looked like its little belly was opened up. Even more sadly for me was when I got out to bury it, after me closing its eyes, it opened them — oh no! It was still alive, gasping ever so slightly for air. But I figured it was too far injured and gone, so I decided I should give it the coup de gras (act of grace). It’s still always difficult for me to take the life of a gift from God that we try very hard to take care of. It’s apparently part of animal husbandry though at times.

But, the other 3 are still doing well!

And here is a video of all 3 groups:

As always, we are thankful to God that He grants the chicken flock to continue in this perpetuating manner. May they be used for His glory and the benefit of His Church!

— David

Providence’s Perennial Provisions: Re-Id: Curly Dock to Prickly Lettuce

April 26, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 6 Comments

Well, since our blog post on curly dock, a humanly-edible weed, we’ve discovered that it appears what I thought was curly dock is actually prickly lettuce, a species of wild lettuce. So, it was actually more “lettuce” than I thought. 🙂 I originally went with curly dock because when I did an internet search for weeds that look like lettuce, that came up and wild lettuce didn’t that I saw; and also because in the Texas weed book we have, curly dock was the closest match. Thankfully it ends up being an edible too. :O

At any rate, to me they do look similar, but the lettuce we have growing fits closer to the prickly lettuce description. Here is the Texas Foraging site on prickly lettuce. It has vitamin A & B, and minerals, and apparently doesn’t have the oxalic acid problem, although it says if you eat too much it can upset your stomach.

From what I’ve experienced, their taste varies — sometimes a little bitter, sometimes not at all. But it all goes well in a salad!

Here are some more pictures, that look much more like this type of wild lettuce:

As I’m eating them raw, to get rid of the little pricklies, I just run my finger down the leaf spine, and that pretty much takes them out.

As before, we are grateful to the Lord for granting this provision directly off the land!

— David

Providence’s Perennial Provisions: Curly Dock

April 13, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

Please see our update regarding re-identifying these plants as prickly lettuce. While curly dock is close, it appears what we are showing below is much closer to being prickly lettuce.

Since we desire to live more under God’s direct provision for food, it’s important to us to see if there are any things growing here on the land natively that are humanly edible.

Well, at the beginning of Spring, I was in the garden and noticed something that to me looked an awful lot like lettuce. With land perennials on the mind, I thought that I should really try to discover if this was something we could eat.

After going through our Texas weed book and not finding anything obvious, I started searching the internet looking for perennial lettuces or something like that, and then looked at images in the search. Eventually I came across a web page from Foraging Texas that had a picture that looked very much like our plants — curly dock!

And with some further study, I’ve come to believe that indeed what we have is curly dock or some other very close relative of it!

How wonderfully great is that?! Free, native lettuce growing!

Apparently it has vitamins A & C, and the roots can be medicinal too! And the seeds can be eaten! The only thing is the leaves are apparently much like spinach with oxalic acid, which is especially of concern to those who get kidney stones.

Here are some pictures of the plants:

Another Perennial Prickly Lettuce of 2017

And just how much is growing in our gardens:

And these are a couple of other links to some information about docks, eating them, and their nutrition:
http://eattheinvaders.org/blue-plate-special-curly-dock/.
http://returntonature.us/stalking-the-curly-dock-rumex-crispus/

How exciting! At least to me. 🙂 They don’t taste too badly raw, but go very nicely in a salad! We plan to see if we can lacto-ferment some as well, for longer-term storage.

We are very grateful to the Lord in His mercies and graces for granting this perennial provision, and we pray He might continue to show us other things available on the land that He has graciously provided!

— David

Category: providence (Page 10 of 24)

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Chicken Hatchings of 2017 6th-8th

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Tasha’s Turkey Chick of 2017

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2017 Goat Kids

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 4th & 5th Chick Hatchings of 2017

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2017’s First Three Chick Hatchings

Providence’s Perennial Provisions: Re-Id: Curly Dock to Prickly Lettuce

Providence’s Perennial Provisions: Curly Dock

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