Lobstah for Lunch
Just in case you didn’t listen to last week’s Cultivate Simple, we’re on a 2 week break. We have visitors here this week and there’s something else going on next weekend as well. As you can imagine, with visitors from out of state lobster must be consumed. Around here, nothing goes to waste. That’s the beauty of having chickens, pigs, and dogs around. When we were done feasting, the dog, chickens and pigs feasted as well.
Having animals is like having instant composters, they turn extra garden produce and kitchen scraps into eggs, bacon, or protection in the case of dogs. We also love that feeding these kinds of food to the animals makes them happy, you can really see a deep happiness when you bring out lobster scraps!
Do your animals have a favorite scrap?
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Will Mow For Food
One of the things that’s great about having chickens, pigs and ducks, is that it turns ordinary garden chores into money saving tasks. Weeding and mowing are actually food producing tasks.
Yesterday I mowed enough to get four bagfuls of clippings. One went to the pigs, one to the main chicken flock, another to the guinea keets, and the last one to the broiler chickens. Everyone LOVED the fresh clippings.
Grass clippings are always a valuable commodity around here, they are also saved and used as mulch and to smother grass and weeds around shrub and the woodland edge. In fact there are never quite enough grass clippings to go around.
I’ve been trying to mow a smaller section of the lawn more frequently just so I can feed clippings to all the animals. If I mow four bagfuls every day, that should about get me around the entire lawn. It’s nice knowing that I’m saving myself some money and providing them with healthy food as well.
What are some things you use grass clippings for?
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Growing Like Weeds
If you remember, the first week of July was a busy week with ducklings and keets hatching out within a few days of each other. The ducklings are being taken care of my Mama Duck and she’s doing a GREAT job. Having a good mother is such a time saver when it comes to baby animals.
The keets on the other hand are being mothered by me, not my favorite job. It’s just so much work to cart them in and out. If I wanted to keep them inside or in a brooder all the time it wouldn’t be so bad. But I want them to be able to peck in the grass and stretch their wings. They’ve learned to fly out of their enclosure, so we’re trying to figure out what to do with them to keep them safe from the predators we have around here (namely foxes, but also eagles and ravens).
One thing I like about summer is that it’s baby season. There are fawns, wild ducklings, little birdies in their nests and wild turkey poults and I’m pretty sure fox kids as well. There are babies everywhere you look!
Have you been noticing little animals out in nature?
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Garage Queen
I must say, the Sweets is loving her new digs here at Chiot’s Run Maine. Back in Ohio she had a tiny two car garage with a large attached workshop. She had to settle for sleeping on an old rug we had in the back room, or up in the rafters. Here in Maine, she has a HUGE garage complete with a large second story.
On that second floor there are two old comfy couches for her to choose from. I often find her sleeping happily on the one right at the top of the stairs. Some feral cat!
She truly has become the queen of the garage, spending her days lounging contentedly. Pretty soon she’ll be demanding I feed her in a crystal bowl. Life is certainly good if you’re a cat here at Chiot’s Run! She must be doing her job, we haven’t spotted a mouse since she moved in.
Do you have any pampered pets at your place?
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Garden Helpers
I’ve mentioned before that we got our pigs partly to do some garden work. They’re workhorses when it comes to moving soil and clearing sod. On Thursday I put them in the chicken run to break up the compost. Ever since we moved here I’ve been adding weeds and grass clippings to the chicken run. I also add any bedding from the chicken or duck house. The chickens have a blast scratching through it and eventually it all composts down into a beautiful soil amendment.
I was contemplating how to dig it all out earlier in the week, then I remember we had our piggies. Into the chicken run they went and they happily softened up all the wonderful compost for me. Now I just need to bring in my shovel and wheelbarrow. I’ll most likely compost this a little further since it will have a small amount of fresh chicken manure in it.
I was wondering how the pigs would do with the chickens, I’ve heard that some pigs eat chickens. Most of the chickens were allowed to roam free, then the pigs were let in. Our guineas and one chicken wouldn’t leave, so I watched closely to see what would happen. The pigs completely ignored them and went happily about rooting.
Next year I’m hoping to add a special chicken composting area. It will be a small coop connected to a big composting area. All the yard/garden waste will be added to the composting area and the resident composter chickens will turn the pile for me. I love using animals to my benefit, not only does it make them happy and healthy, it saves me having to do a lot of extra work! I’m also thinking in the future of training a dog to pull a garden cart for me, how convenient would that be?
Do you have any animals that work for you?
