Profit+Production=Happy Redneck

The title of this post sums it up. This weekend has been all about profit and production.
This weekend was the best one this year at the Mini Farm so far. I should hope for many more just like it. My Dad and I were sitting out back a few minutes ago and I told him if I could do as good as I did today everyday, then I would not have to have a real job. The one problem with that is, he pointed out, I would need a lot more acreage and ten times more the animals. Then the feed bill would be so high I would have to get a job just to support the effort.

Production:

Yesterdays tree planting was unscheduled so it threw everything on today. I was really wanting to get some much needed NASCAR in but was only able to sneak in a few minutes of my favorite sport before I had to remind myself that this was not getting it done.


The girls all rallied down at the barn putting the outside chicken runs together while I worked on the buck pen.
That is as far as they got on those due to the absence of materials and some minor mishaps and injuries and oh yea, prom dress shopping. When prom dresses are on sell, the world could come to an end and it would still not matter just as long as they are there trying on dresses.

We also got all the odds and ends that were on the books to do this weekend completed.
One of the things I checked off the list was building a gate so the geese could get out and free range without going through the garden area first. I took an old futon bed and cut down one of the frame pieces and used it for the gate. It worked perfect and the best part is, it was free. I called it a "Instagate"

We also got the garden completely full. All the Tomatoes, three kinds of Peppers, some Squash, and last week we planted the Sweet Potatoes. The lettuce is going great and the onions are just the right size to be pulled and dipped in ranch dressing. We just added more layers of hay and sand to the "potatoes in the tires" so I know they are doing good and growing as well. So two thumbs up on the garden so far this year.

During the week the wife posted some adds on Craig's list and everyone showed up all at once today. It was hectic. Luckily I have enough kids to take care of the customers as they came in. I even had to stop my building to entertain until the wife or one of the girls could come over and relieve me.
We had all the baby chicks in a tub on the kitchen table and the girls would rotate people from there and take them on a Mini Farm tour while another girl would rotate their customer in to look at the chicks.  It was one heck of a system they had going.
We ended up selling completely out of chicks and hatching eggs. We even sold some goats and could have sold more animals if we had them to sell. It is hard not to go ahead and sell your breeding stock when someone is standing there with cash in hand.

About 120 eggs are hatching on the 11th of this month and the wife is loading more incubators as we speak.  

Oh here's one for ya. Never put in a fan conversion kit on your incubator in the middle of a hatch. The settings are not the same with a fan and we cooked 90 eggs this week at 120 degrees for a few hours before we caught it. Just a FYI....  

Even the Fancy Geese are doing their part. They are setting on about 40 eggs between the both them.

       

Yall have a good week now ya hear.