General updates

Forgive me if this post doesn't have a real flow. I've been lackadaisical in my blogging (I know, no one is surprised at all). It's just that blogging seems frivolous and unproductive. I know it's not. It chronicles what we've accomplished. It teaches others (hopefully). It's a good reminder if you need to go back and figure out what you did if it slips your mind. Where did I plant that plum tree??? Oh, yeah. Ok, so on to the updates...

Pecky Sue started laying eggs. She's the first of our hens we raised from a chick to start laying. We're getting two eggs most days. The rest of the hens should start laying any day, or at least that's what I keep telling them. Several of our hens had taking to staying up on the roosts in the coops instead of enjoying the great outdoors. It was all due to our overabundance of amorous roosters. I don't know how much you know about chicken romance, but there's no such thing. Roosters are raging hormones who will jump on a hen any time the mood strikes them. This in turn makes the mood strike any other rooster in earshot. You can picture the rest. So, we built a temporary pen outside that we put the hens in when they chickens are out in the pasture. Now, not all the hens are bothered, it's about 6 or 8. They are much happier now in their "No boys allowed" clubhouse. Hopefully that will get them laying soon.

I've been trying to hatch lots of mail order eggs. Right now, I have 9 chicks and two turkey poults that I've hatched out. I'm not going to tell you how many eggs that was out of. It's just depressing. Eggs weren't made to be mailed. One of the hatchlings is our first farm baby, MJ. He's a product of our Wheaten Marans hen, Marie, and our White Leghorn rooster, Jesse. He's white like Jesse with feathered legs like a Marans, even though Marie doesn't have it.

Our summer garden was a COMPLETE bust. It was all my fault (and a little bit the fault of the late planting due to all the spring rain). I just didn't have time with all of the other tasks of moving from a house in the city on 3/4 acre to a 6.5 acre farm an hour from work. To redeem my green thumb, I'm planting a fall garden. I plan on building a small hoop house or hoop rows at the least to stave off the cold weather. I'm going to be growing lots of root veggies (beets, turnips, carrots etc.) and lettuces and greens. I'm very excited. We want to provide most of the food for our family Thanksgiving. The Blue Slate turkeys, Blitzen and Basil, are growing nicely. They should, they chase everything away from the food bowl until they get their fill. Hopefully, one will be big enough for the family. If not, maybe we'll have a Thanksgiving guinea or duck. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

I guess that's the major updates since the last blog. Don't forget to buy local whenever you can and organic is even better. Hug a farmer!

We Have a Name

Welcome to our blog if you're just finding us. Thank you for making the trip if you were following us on the old blog. First, let me introduce us. We're Jeff and Chad. We're both 40-somethings living in the country. A while back, I gave in to that persistent suggestion in the back of my head that was tellimg me to move to the country....and I dragged Chad along with me. Well, towards the end he was mostly on board with the whole idea, but there was lots of yelling and ultimatums before that.

Now we're here. A beautiful farmhouse on 6.5 acres nestled in a valley, or hollow as they are called if you live in the country, or holler if you're waaay country. We couldn't be happier. If you want to read what has happened over the last couple months you can click here.

All caught up? Ok, we've been debating a name for the farm since before we moved in. A farm should have a name right? We've recieved many suggestions from friends and coworkers. I gues if you looked at the title of the blog, you figured out what we decided on. Let me explain why. Tilton comes from the original builders of the farm. We had to tilt our hats to them. We found out that the farm was surveyed in 1799! The neighbors across the road have the survey stone along their driveway. The farm was originally hundreds of acres, but like most farms, smaller parcels were carved off over the years as the family farm fights to stay off the path of the dinosaurs and the dodo.

Hollow came from, well, we live in a hollow. We included that because it's hard to describe that feeling of 'tucked-in' and cozy you get when you live at the bottom of a small valley.

Well, we have a farm and it has a name. It's time to get to farming. We have done quite a bit in the few months we've been here. We have quite the poultry flock. Beware the chicken math! Those of you who have chickens are chuckling. Those who don't are scratching your head. You start off with a few chickens. You go to TSC or peruse the farm/garden section of Craigslist and see a couple cute chicks for sale or even better, someone looking for a good home for them. What's 2 more? It's a slippery slope from having a few backyard chickens to being the focus of a special, two-hour edition of Animal Hoarders.

Well, if you're new and reading, I hope I've hooked you enough to check back. If you're already a follower, I promise to provide more regular updates. Talk to you all soon.

Jeff