So, to recap from previous postings, I'm not exactly the most 'with-it' 4-H mom. I try, I really do. I just have a lot on my plate, and I keep losing the stupid planner books that EVERYONE keeps buying for me. I get the hint. I just can't follow through. And before anyone suggests that I have ADHD, I don't. What I have is There-is-just-too-many-fun-things-to-do-and-not-enough-time-to-do-them-all-itis. Biiig difference. I try to handle it gracefully. I see on Facebook all of these perfect moms, and I'm just not one of them. Whether it be only reading half a message when it comes to a schedule change (as in, I knew the meeting had been moved to 3pm, just didn't notice that it had also moved the day as well), or realizing too late that 90 percent of the pictures I was posting had my son photo-bombing them while picking his nose or having his fly down, I'm just not the parent that focuses that closely on the minutiae of life.
Somehow in conversation with a friend, I had found out that our last 4-H group that kicked us out a month before the year was up when we told them we wouldn't be renewing the next year neglected to inform us that everyone who was doing eggs for the Ham-Bacon-Egg purchased their chicks in September. Why September? Because, and don't feel bad, I didn't know this either, chickens need at least 16-18 weeks to grow before they'll lay their first egg. So, if you take the End-of-March or thereabouts, which is when the Ham-Bacon-Egg sale is, subtract 16-18 weeks, you land first week in November. That's not a big deal, right? WRONG. Because apparently, hatcheries don't sell chicks in November. Too hard to keep them alive, I guess. They pretty much stop selling chicks at the end of September.
What do you mean, end of September!?? It was already October when we were asking these questions! Frantically, I searched on hatchery websites. Every single one of them were advertising that their next hatch date was going to be in January, at the earliest. In bright red letters under the next three months were 'Not Available'. We had already agreed to letting the kids do chickens. Someone, somewhere had to be hatching these things out! We finally found some chicks all the way in California, and quickly ordered twenty White Leghorns. If calculations hold true, they should be laying by the beginning of March... should.
Levi also managed to round up a dozen Blue Lace Red Wyandottes. One lays white. The other lays Brown. One chicken is white. The other is all crazy colors. There should be no arguing in the chicken coop over who's chicken did what. That's my theory, anyway.
And the chicken coop. What about a chicken coop? Well, a great little coop built in the earlier part of 1900's sat on a hill side up from the house which was built in 1921. Grandpa, who was awesome, always made sure that if it was a building, it had the roof maintained. Why were roofs so important? Well, if rain could get in, then the building would rot, and eventually fall down. So tin roofs were maintained, repaired, painted on a regular basis. As a result, the chicken coop on the hillside was practically new inside, even though it hadn't held chickens in more than fifty years. The white wash interior was peeling a little, but it was still remarkably bright inside when we opened the door. The kids shoveled out dust which I'm sure was at one time chicken poop, and Kevin and Steve set to working on the new nest boxes.
Roosting poles were needed. The original ones were gone. Levi grabbed a handsaw and went out to cut roosting poles with help from Uncle Mo. Tiffany, his sister... um... she's supervising. Yeah. That's it!
He needed three so they could be staggered. The first one, Uncle Mo helped. The second one, I helped. The third one, he was on his own. About five minutes into sawing, he breathlessly said to me, "Lizbet, it's true what they say." I asked him what he meant, and he responded, "The last one is always the hardest." He was exhausted by the time he finished limbing them, and removing the thorns from the trunk (Hawthorne).
Helping us was Danny the Lamb. He loved running in the door and out the clean-out of the coop. As you can see in the picture, the interior was still whitewashed. It really was a brilliant solution to the darkness before there was electricity for light. Common during the early 20th century, buildings were whitewashed inside to make it brighter with the little bits of light that came in. With an outhouse, for example, you didn't want a lot of windows, for obvious reasons. With a chicken coop, you didn't want a ton of drafts, so you had like one screened window that would be shut up during winter time, leaving only the light from the door and the cracks between the boards to illuminate the inside. White was brighter, and the white wash also helped to sanitize the walls.
See, in the 1930's, while more than 90 percent of people who lived in cities had electricity, there were fewer than 10 percent in the farming and rural areas that had it. Those that did, had it in their homes, not their outbuildings. The electric companies argued that it was simply too expensive to string wire out to the farms, so they charged a mint for it. Only the wealthiest farmers could afford the exorbitant fees, and back then, there weren't as many wealthy farmers as there are today. So... enter the government.
Now, I'm not anti-government. I am anti-government-involvement-in-private-enterprise. Eventually, electric companies would have caved to their greed, installed electric when it got cheaper to run poles and wires, and gathered up several new electricity contracts, because as it turns out, the rural contracts actually spent more on electricity (production, duh) than urban contracts. But, FDR wasn't going to wait for that to happen. Instead, in 1935 the Rural Electric Administration was formed to bring electricity to the farming (and voting) public. Just like today, everyone freaked out about the president meddling with private enterprise. They felt it was one step closer to socialism. And, just like today, the government didn't give a rat's patootie what the public felt about it, and did it anyway.
In more than 25 percent of homes by 1939, the farms were electrified.
Ok, ok... more like:
Anyway, on most farms, they were still doing the tried and true whitewash method in their barns and outbuildings, and continued well into the '60's. It was at that point when most farms and outbuildings were outfitted with both electricity and telephones. Written on the walls of the lambing shed are 113 with a mark through it, and beneath it 411 next to a telephone jack.
So, best as I can figure, our farm had phones and electric as early as 1940. Anywho, it'll be two months before the baby chicks can go in the coop, and until then, they'll be occupying someone's kitchen.
In other farm-related news, Porkchop came into season again. That was a disappointment, as we had hoped that she would have taken with Diesel babies for a January litter. Regretfully the infection and fever were too much, and like Dr. Farnum had suggested, she missed. Frantically, we searched the countryside (A lot of frantic searching goes on when you're farming, I'm discovering.) for a quality boar to breed her to. After a wonderful effort from some friends making phone calls, we located a very nice boar just across the road... from our house. Go figure. *sigh* He was bargain basement priced, and I felt like the farming equivalent of going to Filene's! I almost decked a farmer to get the boar. It was not my finest moment. By the end of the day, Schnicklefritz as he would become known, was at our farm, and had already serviced Porkchop.
So, we'll have February Porkchop babies. We're going to keep him for a little while and breed back to him in April for our summer litters, before we decide what to do with him. He's a doll baby, and such a snuggle bug. Lucy was ultrasounded at 21 days and toned (got piglets). We'll ultrasound again at 35 days to make sure she hasn't reabsorbed (which can happen apparently with first parity). Cross your fingers that we'll have January Herefords.
Whew, and that's pretty much it for our update. Will try not to let it go so far in between next time!
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