We finally made a much needed upgrade to the farm. We moved our outdoor kitchen that was up by our house to an area near the garden and animals which made it much more useable. I plumbed the sink drainage into a swale so now the grey water will water some future plants.

Seems simple enough, but why stop there? While making this upgrade I was thinking how awesome it would be to have an outdoor urinal for MEn. I noticed I had a piece of 4" sewer drain and thought, 'I have an idea!' Next thing you know we had installed a working men's urinal. Sorry/not sorry ladies!

Just finished making our homemade 'hopper/cocker popper' and 'hopper/cocker hanger' for dispatching rabbits and chickens and then hanging them for skinning & dressing the carcasses. Had a great neighbor help with the welding. The popper uses a method called cervical dislocation that is the most humane way of dispatching rabbits or chickens by dislocating/breaking the neck and spinal cord so that they feel no pain and have an instant death. Then they can be hung by their back feet in the hanger to skin and dress. We may provide video instruction/demonstration at some point to show that process. #growyourown #makeyourown #selfreliance #youcandoit

This is used to dislocate the cervix and break the spinal cord causing instant and painless death. This is by far one of the best dispatching methods. The left side is larger for rabbits and the left side is for chickens.

The hopper hanger allows you to place the back feet in the V's to lock in the rabbit so you can skin them and clean their carcass.

We have always loved the look of stacked firewood on the front porch especially since moving from AZ where you never needed firewood, however it can be difficult to move, I also do not like that wood is sitting directly on our wood deck knowing that it can harbor moisture which is an enemy to wood, dirt, and pests. So we needed something different!

This firewood cart design came loosely from an article on Pinterest that was for indoors. I saved that article because I plan on building it someday for inside. When I make it for inside I will mimic this one I built for consistency based on some of the modifications I made. I built this cart much more shorter (2') and wider (4') than the inside version so that if we have it on the edge of our porch facing the street we can still see over it if we are sitting on our rocking chair or bench. When I build it for inside it will be a 2' square & 6' tall.

It was simple to make, took about an hour or so to complete although that was interrupted by a plum sized hail storm as you can see in the picture and had to wait a day to chemically age the zinc coating on the wheels. The drawings and finished pictures are below, and the instructions are at the bottom.

The aging process for zinc or galvanized metal is simple, I brush on toilet bowl cleaner and let it sit for a day or more. While it is setting I sprinkle salt on it and the keep it moist with vinegar. These chemicals quickly take the shine off and will begin to rust in parts. I was too impatient to wait for the rust and figured since this is an outdoor piece rust will happen over time. I have done wheels like these before for our coffee table that is a converted old trunk and the caster rusted up perfect. It took 2-3 days. NOTE: Do not get the chemicals (cleaner, salt, or vinegar) in the bearings!

Refer to drawings and pictures above. If you have any questions leave them in the comments section below.

1. Prepare the caster wheels to age and remove 'new' look (see above), you can/should also add (4) of the Inside Corner Braces to the mix since they can/will be seen (I forgot to do those prior)
2. Cut 4"x4" x 8' post in half, creating (2) 48" pieces, these are the side rails
3. Cut 2"x4" x 8' into (3) sections 11" each (I wanted overall depth to be 18", I may recommend 16" if you plan on using shorter firewood. As a result three pieces need to be cut for the crossmembers. Their length is based on the overall depth (my case 18") minus 7" (4"x4" is 3.5" x 2 sides) equal 11")
4. Treat the wood with a sealer, paint, or leave normal to allow natural aging
5. Measure in 4" from the ends of the 4"x4" posts on the inside and scribe a line and then mark the center of the 48" post with a line as well, place the (3) 11" crossmembers on those lines and then mark, and drill 1/16" pilot holes for the Inside Corner Braces and then attach using the (72) #8 x 1" screws
6. Locate, mark, drill 1/8"pilot holes for the 3/4" steel pipe floor flange, and then attach the flange to the ends of 4"x4" posts on the top side using the #14 x 1-1/2" Wood Screws
7. Thread the 3/4" x 24" steel black pipe nipple into the floor flange and then thread on the caps
8. Flip the cart over onto the 24" nipples and then place the casters in the position that you want on the bottom of the 4"x4" posts and then mark and drill 1/8" pilot holes, use the 16 #14 x 1-1/2" Sheet Metal Screws to attach the casters (save the casters for last so that the project isn't rolling around on you while you are trying to work on it)
9. Flip over and load up with fire wood
10. Sit back and admire your stinkin' awesome work, your a MAN... or WOMAN and if not then show this to someone and they will believe you are!!!

 When people are taking tours of our farm we typically start out in the garage because that's where the quail and chicken chicks are and people seem like those for some reason ;). People always ask what is this huge shelving system that has 7 shelves with just enough height on each shelve to have a 6" tall under bed tote AND why does it look like grass is growing in them?!? My response is because that IS grass growing in them. But whaaa???!?

As the video below explains, barley seed is soaked for 12-24 hours then placed in the trays and then watered for one minute every 12 hours. After seven days it is ready for harvest and turns into a carpet of grass that can be chopped up and fed to our animals. And yes, the picture below and on the video was taken of our fodder.

Growing barley in a fodder system like this is quite remarkable for several reasons:

1. Uses extremely less water than the amount of water to grow in the soil and 100% of the water is collected and reused in other parts of the garden.
2. This system has very minimal labor compared to the labor intense of growing fields of grass or carrying large bales of hay.
3. Fodder is approximately 80% digestible compared to about 30%-40% with grain.
4. Fodder increases protein amounts to about 20%
5. The weight of the seed is increased 6x, so one pound of grain turns into 6 pounds of feed for the animals.
6. It can be fed to all our animals usually around 75% of their diet.

If you have cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, rabbits, or quail then I highly encourage you to look into fodder. Systems can be built to feed just your single chicken Penelope** or chicken on your counter or in a shipping container to feed dozens of cattle and horses. There are DIY systems like ours as well as commercial units that you would have to take a loan out on. There are a lot more videos online as well as great books out there on fodder. Good luck. Please leave any comments or questions below.

**If you ever get a chance to read our newest eBook on raising quail, 'High-Production Quail Raising Primer',  which is available HERE for a limited time and then will move to Kindle, Nook, and iBook you will see the joke behind the chicken named Penelope.

This is momma Belle and her kid Ellie (1yr old) head butting and pushing each other around. If you listen carefully you can hear their heads cracking together. I don't get how this doesn't hurt incredibly bad. It was much louder in person and would make me cringe.

We are excited to be setting up our Straw Bale Garden this year. Unfortunately it is about a month or two later then we were hoping to have it ready. I had some big health issues for the first couple of months this year with a huge bout of pneumonia as well as a few other things including dealing with vertigo for about 6-8 weeks. This put all the house and farm projects back a couple of months. We have been playing catch up ever since.

You can see in the gallery below all of the steps that took place starting from where we left off in a previous post about creating a lot of mulch from last year's Straw Bale Garden, you can read about that and watch the video HERE.  Also,  you can hover over the pictures for captions.

The steps are simple:

1. Clear all grass and weeds from the area. I weed eat first and then burn what is remaining with a landscaping torch.
2. Layout 2-3 layers of cardboard to prevent weeds.
3. Layout the straw bales and put down a bunch of straw over the cardboard and place stakes around the bales.
4. Being prepping and conditioning the bales for planting, this usually takes around 2 weeks.

I also wanted to let you know in case you missed it on one of our previous videos, I am a certified Straw Bale Garden Instructor, you can visit my listing page on the Straw Bale Garden website HERE. If you have any questions on how to create a Straw Bale Garden, the conditioning process, or better yet, invite me out to consult with you on how and where to put it then contact me here are through the official SBG website.

​Stay posted for updates on the garden and the rest of the farm.