Lesson of the week: try new things.
Sometimes it is easy to let fear of failure become paralyzing instead of trying something new. The fear of the unknown is overwhelming.
Something that was always said to me that I always think about is: what is the worst that could happen? Usually the answer is you fail and then you learn something and try again.
As long as failing isn’t going to lead to extreme detriment, but maybe a slight blow to the ego, it should be worth trying.
Sometimes the Solution is Right Under Your Nose.
Water is the biggest struggle… I would bet on most farms.
If you do not have a water source near your animals, there needs to be a solution to make it available.
Then you factor in the whole winter thing and it creates a much larger set of problems.
For us, having children and ducks has made our water availability all too easy. You see, ducks and children LOVE the water. We have kiddie pools available for the kids to play in and for the ducks to swim in. This also creates a viable drinking source in large scale for the other animals – much larger than a 5 gallon bucket, and it has no need to be carried.
Our sheep free-range the yard and even if their buckets are low they will drink from the kiddie pool, because that is always full. 😂
The chickens will often drink from the pool as well, or they will drink the runoff when it is being filled.
In fact, our duck, Little Ricky, thinks she is a chicken and has never swam in her life. She has always been housed with chickens and if she is placed in water, she flips out! But the stream of water runoff from filling the pool provides a muddy access to bugs and she goes crazy eating. Can’t fake instincts.
Cross Your Fingers and Pray.
As you may remember, we hatched chicks a few weeks ago and I would like one of them to be housed with Footless Phoebe. Chickens enjoy company as they are a flocking animal. Phoebe has essentially been alone for over six months.
When the chicks were a day old I put them in with Phoebe and they took to her as a mom and climbed on her but because she was not broody, she pecked at them when they got into her space. She was not malicious and seeking out pecking them, but if they climbed on her or hid under her wing, she let them know she was not momma hen. 😂
Fast forward to the chicks being about two weeks old and I tried again. I placed the chicks in with Phoebe and kind of made a safe space for them and put extra food and water in for them. The heat lamp was placed above them and then the hard part: watch and pray Phoebe can accept the chicks because they don’t feel the need to ‘need’ her and they can live together in peace.
The chicks stayed on their end of the stock tank and Phoebe stayed on her end. When they crossed paths it was amicable. After a few hours I decided to let this living situation live-on.
So, here they are: cohabiting and hopefully they can grow up together.
Attempted to find a more effective housing option for the small birds and it could have been pretty scary but it was a risk I felt confident taking.
One chicken will hopefully live permanently with Phoebes and the other three will eventually move outside.
I have SUCH a good name for the chick that lives with Phoebe permanently – points to whomever can guess the name I have in mind!
Anything is Fixed with Chocolate and Peanut Butter.
I am forever changing my granola bar recipe to tailor it to our family’s needs. If I can squeak a healthy ingredient into the recipe and not alter the flavor but increase the nutritional value, then why the heck not?!
I am going to go through and update the recipes on the blog and organize the structure. During this time I will update and re-share the recipes on Facebook.
The recipe I am currently using is the bones of my original granola bar recipe with the addition of chia seeds, flax seeds, coconut, sunflower seeds and peanut butter.
This provides healthy fats, protein and fiber needed for a healthy diet.
The kids eat these nearly every morning for breakfast and it takes 10 minutes to make 24ish of these. They last about two weeks in our household.
Adding variety and your own personal spin to recipes is technically trying something new. Maybe taking small risks is a good step into trying new things.
If any of you have made the granola bar recipe I shared – let me know what you add to your bars, I would LOVE your ideas!
Sometimes the Cheapest Route Wins.
The Sheep Shed 2.0 has some walls y’all!
Hubby sided the shed with decking from his parent’s house. They ripped up their cedar deck and replaced it with low-maintenance decking. Hubs ran all of the boards through a planer and routered the boards to assemble as siding.
The peaks are still TBD.
We have tossed back and forth doing vertical siding or shakes. What will win is the cheapest option.
So far, the ram and whether have adopted their new home over using their shack. Even they know their new digs are upgraded.
The cooler weather we are having makes working outside much easier and a lot more motivating.
Not only are we feeling the crispness in the air that silently screams FALL MEANS WINTER IS COMING! but the cooler weather is more pleasant to work in.
Next up on the shed are the peaks, and trim/soffits.
Another day, another closer to a finished shed!
Turn Turn Turn.
Lately hubs has been testing out the lathe.
Parenthood has made it difficult to take time to enjoy and push ourselves in our own skills. The kids are fully into toddlerhood and keeping them occupied has thankfully been a whole lot easier.
A few blocks of wood and maybe a few tools and they’re good for awhile.
This has given us more time to work on building up our creatives.
Recently we had a special guest on the farm – my brother! He is on leave after being deployed with The Air Force. We have not seen each other in over two years.
During his visit with us, besides mass amounts of catching up and reconnecting, we shared some of our lives with him. He is a creative spirit and enjoys working with his hands. Hubs was teaching him some skills on the lathe, which he enjoyed.
The video is of my brother turning a fresh wood log. The wood was wet and way too fresh to turn accurately, but it was good to practice on. Maybe after he is home for good they can get into some real wood turning.
Trying new things means different things to different people, but it is beneficial to push ourselves to learn and try new things. That is how we grow.
Learning to live just outside our comfort zone can aid us in being a more well-rounded human.
I challenge you to try something new this week.
If you ever have any questions, or ideas for future blogs, comment below or shoot me an email!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
From the farm,
Alyssa
thesheepshedmn@yahoo.com
