Homesteading
Recipes
Soap Making – Basic Recipe
I’ve been making soap for years now. I’m not too fancy about it. I usually make this basic recipe with the addition of essential oils and/or oatmeal. I do not claim to be a soap making expert, but I’ve made this recipe many times and it’s never failed to produce good quality soap. This recipe […]
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More Hatching.
Lots of progress in the hatching department here at Happy Texas Farm. Chick on the way Our first chick finally made its way out of the shell with a little help from me. I know there are many sources that say you should never “help” a chick to hatch. However, after 10 hours the little […]
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Hatching
FINALLY. It appears that one of the eggs in the incubator has started to hatch. I noticed it this afternoon when I was turning some of the “younger” eggs. I heard peeping. I stopped and listened; I thought it might have been a bird singing outside, but no….it was in the incubator. So I looked […]
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Memorial Day Weekend
Happy Texas Farm is located in an area that used to be a small settlement. Like so many of its kind, the little community has faded and the businesses are long gone. Not far down the road in either direction are some old structures covered in vegetation on their way to being swallowed up by time. Grey wood farmhouses and buildings that were once the […]
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Fence Up!
This is cause for celebrating on HTF! The fence is finally up. Hooray- Hooray! I still need to paint everything- including the artwork on the gate (which I am looking forward to)- but the wire stringing is done and no more t-post driving. How did we do it? I’ve assisted on fencing projects and so I had knowledge to […]
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Farm News
Here is the latest goings on at HTF. CHICKENS We experienced a loss- (see this post). One of our roosters bit the dust. New life is also springing forth. Huey (the recently deceased) may soon be a father. We have had a Buff Orpington hen sitting for about 3 weeks. One of our “wild” girls is […]
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RIP Huey
Huey – 04/2008 thru 05/2009 Our Light Brahma Rooster, Huey passed away on 5/12/09. He literally dropped dead. Weird, but then having animals often does expose you to these sort of tragedies. Dave was taking some pictures of Huey and he was posturing toward Dave (as he always did) and suddenly he got a funny […]
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Building a Sturdy Garden Gate
Dave has been designing and building the gate for our garden fence project. HE is happy to report that this endeavor is nearing its conclusion. Dave doing some maintenance on the welder cord so we don’t get zapped! The gate is going to be large. We wanted plenty of room for the wheel barrows of garden […]
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Homemade Laundry Detergent Review
Two loads of Sandra & Dave laundry have now been washed using the Homemade detergent. I am happy to report that it works. Laundry is clean. Mine smells a bit like Ivory soap….I dry on a line outside….so that may air out some of the scent. I have read that other people have added essential oils […]
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Homemade Laundry Detergent
Ingredients and supplies I made my own laundry detergent today. We finally got to the bottom of the giant sized thing of detergent we bought about 8 months ago. Instead of buying another one….I wanted to have a go at this. Here is the recipe I used: 1 bar of Ivory Soap 1/2 cup of […]
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Future Farm Projects
Completion of the Fence is the priority right now. We might have been much farther along on that project, but mother nature has been an intervention. Too much wind….now rain. But- only a bit more welding to do. Dave has a gate to make and I have four more 2′ holes to dig. Not a big deal…won’t […]
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Late Start Garden
Some seedlings on the porch. Due to the recent move, we are getting a late start on garden projects. Even so….I’m just going to try to deal. We shall see what happens. Planted these about 2 weeks ago. Tomato cold frame Those plants got their start in this swing-set frame that came with the property. We wrapped […]
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Fencing: Farm Sport
We are putting a fence around our garden spot. It was never a question of whether we’d need the fence. Only when and how. Not only do we have free-ranging chickens, but the deer out number the people around here by a great deal. While some of our new neighbors claim no issues with deer […]
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